ENTROPIST — WIZARD SUBCLASS / ARCANE TRADITION
Salorras Paragon: Entropist · Path: Mage (Wizard) · Thread: the Pale Thread of the Fabric · Subclass type: Wizard Arcane Tradition, chosen at 3rd level
The entropists are perhaps the only spellcasters who can wield the mighty spells of necromancy — the magic of the Pale Thread — without their being wild and uncontrollable, as that magic has been ever since the prehistoric severing of the Negative Energy Plane from the Plane of Mirrors (the eolmes’ derailing of the Pale Thread). Little is known of these rare mages; they gather in small castes and live apart from the rest of Salorras. Legend holds the first entropist in history was Ymenos Talak’Er, who received the ancient secret of the art as a gift from Kaith’otl, god of forbidden knowledge, for his unshakable faith.
Entropists handle the powers of negative energy with uncanny ease and have embraced death and its unknown roads as part of their own being. Their mastery is staggering — they can unravel even the highest necromantic spells — which unsettles even the most powerful “common” mages. The one known sect of entropists, Arcanawrath, sits in the city-state of Naerys in southern Asmeda and forms the core of the ancient Congress of Mysticism, guarding forbidden spells and the dread tome Shadows on Ice.
Initiation (roleplay, not a mechanical prerequisite)
You choose this tradition at 3rd level with no in-game prerequisites. In the fiction one becomes an entropist only by being shown the secrets of the Pale Thread by another entropist over months of study, while poring over a copy of Shadows on Ice.
Note. Per Salorras canon there are no schools of magic — the entropist masters the Pale Thread. In 5e terms its spells are necromancy and its energy is necrotic; only the framing differs.
Entropist Features
| Wizard Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3 | Pale Thread Adept, Grim Harvest |
| 6 | Negative Conduit, Undead Thralls |
| 10 | Inured to Entropy, Entropic Reclamation |
| 14 | High Necromancy, Phylactery |
Level 3 — Pale Thread Adept
You alone hold the wild Pale Thread steady. The gold and time you must spend to copy a necromancy spell into your spellbook is halved. Your necromancy spells are never disrupted or twisted by entropic surges, and whenever you roll necrotic damage for a spell you can reroll any 1s on the dice (keeping the new rolls). You also have Advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks concerning death, undeath, and entropy.
Level 3 — Grim Harvest
You reap the life force of those your magic unmakes. Once on each of your turns, when you kill a creature that isn’t a Construct or Undead with a spell of level 1 or higher, you regain Hit Points equal to twice the spell’s level, or three times its level if the spell belongs to the school of necromancy.
Level 6 — Negative Conduit
You become a living conduit of the negative energies beyond. You gain resistance to necrotic damage and your Hit Point maximum can’t be reduced. Once per Long Rest, as a Magic action, you can make a melee spell attack that channels raw negative energy: on a hit the target takes necrotic damage equal to 1d8 × half your Wizard level (rounded down), with no saving throw. You can instead pour this energy into yourself or an Undead creature you touch, healing that amount.
Level 6 — Undead Thralls
You learn the binding of the dead. You always have Animate Dead prepared (it doesn’t count against your prepared spells, and if it isn’t in your spellbook you can add it for free). When you cast Animate Dead, you can target one additional corpse or pile of bones. Undead you create gain bonus Hit Points equal to your Wizard level and add your Proficiency Bonus to their damage rolls.
Level 10 — Inured to Entropy
The Pale Thread has remade you in its image. You are immune to having your Hit Point maximum reduced, you no longer age and can’t be aged by any means, and you have Advantage on saving throws against being Frightened by Undead and against death effects (such as a Power Word Kill-style instant death where a save applies).
Level 10 — Entropic Reclamation
You turn the wild Pale Thread to your purpose. A number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum once) per Long Rest, when you cast a necromancy spell of level 1 or higher, you can choose one benefit:
- the spell’s slot isn’t expended; or
- the spell deals maximum damage instead of rolling.
Level 14 — High Necromancy
Your command of the Pale Thread runs so deep that you draw more from less. Once on each of your turns, you can cast a necromancy spell using a spell slot one level lower than the spell’s level (minimum a slot of the spell’s true level minus 1; a 1st-level spell gains no benefit). The spell’s power is unchanged. You can also learn and cast the rarest high-necromantic spells of the Era of Myths, at your DM’s discretion (prepared in your highest spell slots).
Level 14 — Phylactery
You bind a fragment of your soul into a phylactery, after the manner of the liches. You are immune to aging, and if you die while your phylactery remains intact, your soul flees into it; within 1d10 days it seeks out and inhabits a suitable corpse, returning you to unlife at the height of your power — a rebirth into lichdom, subject to your DM’s adjudication.
Flavor — from Shadows on Ice
“The Keeper of Myths is no god who takes your hand or feeds you by the spoon as the Bright Sun does… The spell, being perilous to mortal existence, I knew would cost the archmage his soul — a soul chewed by the shadowed teeth of Erebus, tormented in the dark eternal vortex made of chaos and misery.” — Ymenos Talak’Er
Ability Note
The Entropist is an Intelligence Wizard like any mage; its art simply draws on the Pale Thread rather than any school.