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kevdog45
September 8th, 2016, 15:32
I came up with a clerical domain for the campaign world I am developing. The players handbook simply does not have enough of a variety with the current domains in my view so I made this one up for Chaos.

Chaos Domain

The chaos domain is the domain of choice for gods that embrace all forms of anarchy and mayhem. Anything that disrupts order and the law, natural or man made law, are aspects of this domain.

Chaos Domain Spells

Cleric Level - Spell
Spell 1st - Dissonant Whisper
Spell 1st - Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Spell 3rd - Crown of Madness
Spell 3rd - Shatter
Spell 5th - Hypnotic Pattern
Spell 5th - Spirit Guardians
Spell 7th - Confusion
Spell 7th - Evard's Black Tentacles
Spell 9th - Animate Object
Spell 9th - Insect Plague

Features
Touch of Madness
Beginning when you take this domain at first level you can use your action to touch a living creature causing that creature to be thrown into a chaotic state of mind; making it far more difficult to act decisively. All wisdom saving throws taken by someone touched with this power are taken at -2. The affect lasts one hour or until a Wisdom saving throw is successfully made by the character at the beginning of their turn in initiative order.

Channel Divinity: Foul Disruption
Starting at second level a cleric of chaos can point to a single creature and cause an internal bodily disruption to occur within that creature. The disruption causes 2d10 damage to the afflicted character unless a save vs. constitution is made, in which case damage is halved. There is a secondary affect to this feature. Regardless of whether the save is successful or not the creature cannot act on his or her action in this round if the power was used before his or her action in the initiative order. If his or her action has already been taken this secondary affect does not carry over to the next round.

Channel Divinity: Swirling Perceptions
At sixth level the cleric gains the ability to inflict sickening dizziness upon up to three creatures. This dizziness causes up to a -5 modifier to all saving throws for one round of combat. The negative modifier can be inflicted on a single victim or split between the three creatures in any way the cleric sees fit. For example, the cleric could cause two creatures to take a -2 save and one a -1 or he could cause a single creature to absorb the entire modifier.

Divine Strike (as listed in the PHB)

Triumphant Transformation
At 17th level the cleric has achieved a harmony with the elements of chaos that few will ever attain. He or she can reach into an extradimensional realm of chaotic power and transform themselves into a creature of pure chaos.

The cleric takes the form of a giant gelatinous blob covered with living wild eyes and sprouting eight tentacles oozing acidic green puss that reach out to strike the cleric's enemies. If the tentacles succeed in a melee attack, using the cleric's proficiency and wisdom bonuses, they do 2d10 acid damage to their victim. The tentacles have a 10 foot reach and can each strike once per round. Additionally merely seeing the transformation of the cleric into the beast forces a wisdom saving throw with the spell DC of the cleric as the target. If the save is failed the victim is struck with fear and suffers the frightened effect until a wisdom save is made. The saves are attempted at the beginning of the player's turn. The cleric is forced to revert back to their original form 10 minutes after the original transformation but if desired can make the attempt at any time.

Once the cleric has given themselves over to chaos in this way they can only revert back to their original form if they make a wisdom saving throw at a DC of 15. If they fail they forever remain in the shape of the blob and are sucked into the chaos dimension permanently unless a wish is used to bring them back.

kevdog45
September 8th, 2016, 18:55
I forgot to mention that I am looking for help on balance with this. Is the domain to powerful or not powerful enough? Are there things I am missing that I should clarify or add?

kevdog45
September 13th, 2016, 18:15
Still looking for some advice on tweaking this. Is the domain to powerful for a standard D&D 5e campaign? If more clarification is needed what do you need to comment? :)



I came up with a clerical domain for the campaign world I am developing. The players handbook simply does not have enough of a variety with the current domains in my view so I made this one up for Chaos.

Chaos Domain

The chaos domain is the domain of choice for gods that embrace all forms of anarchy and mayhem. Anything that disrupts order and the law, natural or man made law, are aspects of this domain.

Chaos Domain Spells

Cleric Level - Spell
Spell 1st - Dissonant Whisper
Spell 1st - Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Spell 3rd - Crown of Madness
Spell 3rd - Shatter
Spell 5th - Hypnotic Pattern
Spell 5th - Spirit Guardians
Spell 7th - Confusion
Spell 7th - Evard's Black Tentacles
Spell 9th - Animate Object
Spell 9th - Insect Plague

Features
Touch of Madness
Beginning when you take this domain at first level you can use your action to touch a living creature causing that creature to be thrown into a chaotic state of mind; making it far more difficult to act decisively. All wisdom saving throws taken by someone touched with this power are taken at -2. The affect lasts one hour or until a Wisdom saving throw is successfully made by the character at the beginning of their turn in initiative order.

Channel Divinity: Foul Disruption
Starting at second level a cleric of chaos can point to a single creature and cause an internal bodily disruption to occur within that creature. The disruption causes 2d10 damage to the afflicted character unless a save vs. constitution is made, in which case damage is halved. There is a secondary affect to this feature. Regardless of whether the save is successful or not the creature cannot act on his or her action in this round if the power was used before his or her action in the initiative order. If his or her action has already been taken this secondary affect does not carry over to the next round.

Channel Divinity: Swirling Perceptions
At sixth level the cleric gains the ability to inflict sickening dizziness upon up to three creatures. This dizziness causes up to a -5 modifier to all saving throws for one round of combat. The negative modifier can be inflicted on a single victim or split between the three creatures in any way the cleric sees fit. For example, the cleric could cause two creatures to take a -2 save and one a -1 or he could cause a single creature to absorb the entire modifier.

Divine Strike (as listed in the PHB)

Triumphant Transformation
At 17th level the cleric has achieved a harmony with the elements of chaos that few will ever attain. He or she can reach into an extradimensional realm of chaotic power and transform themselves into a creature of pure chaos.

The cleric takes the form of a giant gelatinous blob covered with living wild eyes and sprouting eight tentacles oozing acidic green puss that reach out to strike the cleric's enemies. If the tentacles succeed in a melee attack, using the cleric's proficiency and wisdom bonuses, they do 2d10 acid damage to their victim. The tentacles have a 10 foot reach and can each strike once per round. Additionally merely seeing the transformation of the cleric into the beast forces a wisdom saving throw with the spell DC of the cleric as the target. If the save is failed the victim is struck with fear and suffers the frightened effect until a wisdom save is made. The saves are attempted at the beginning of the player's turn. The cleric is forced to revert back to their original form 10 minutes after the original transformation but if desired can make the attempt at any time.

Once the cleric has given themselves over to chaos in this way they can only revert back to their original form if they make a wisdom saving throw at a DC of 15. If they fail they forever remain in the shape of the blob and are sucked into the chaos dimension permanently unless a wish is used to bring them back.

LordEntrails
September 13th, 2016, 20:18
I'm not very experienced with character balance, but here are some thing to consider:

- I assume all the domain spells are presented at the "regular" level for the spell listed?
- Touch of Madness, no initial saving throw? Also, I don't think your wording on the save matches similar effects, but that said, it is clear to me the target gets a save every round.
- Foul Disruption, should this be necrotic? I don't like this part about the initiative order. To me, once combat begins and a round has past, I don't think initiative order should be important. Also, this seems pretty powerful, maybe they lose their action but not their move or bonus action? (Again, I don't know balance well and have not compared this to other cleric domains)
- Swirling perceptions, range? and distance between targets? Or should this be a radius effect?
-Triumphant Transformation, need to clarify any changes in attributes, creature type, spellcasting ability, feat retention, etc.

kevdog45
September 13th, 2016, 20:35
Thanks for taking the time to look at it LordEntrails. Your advice will be helpful in adjusting things. I didn't think about some of what you suggested at the time and now I will for this and future domains I make. At first I tried to use the official domains as a guide to power levels and damage and the like but there wasn't anything I could find that matched some of what I wanted to do.


I'm not very experienced with character balance, but here are some thing to consider:

- I assume all the domain spells are presented at the "regular" level for the spell listed?
- Touch of Madness, no initial saving throw? Also, I don't think your wording on the save matches similar effects, but that said, it is clear to me the target gets a save every round.
- Foul Disruption, should this be necrotic? I don't like this part about the initiative order. To me, once combat begins and a round has past, I don't think initiative order should be important. Also, this seems pretty powerful, maybe they lose their action but not their move or bonus action? (Again, I don't know balance well and have not compared this to other cleric domains)
- Swirling perceptions, range? and distance between targets? Or should this be a radius effect?
-Triumphant Transformation, need to clarify any changes in attributes, creature type, spellcasting ability, feat retention, etc.

kevdog45
September 13th, 2016, 20:36
Sorry accidentally hit the post reply twice.

LordEntrails
September 13th, 2016, 20:40
You can also post this on ENWorld, as homebrew options and such are pretty often discussed there. But you never know, you might invoke a firestorm there as people there tend to be a little less... restrained :)

kevdog45
September 13th, 2016, 20:44
I posted it on enworld. I got one response so far. Hopefully more advice will come although I'm starting to see the things I need to fix now.