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Baleful Scion 5e

October 23, 2023

Baleful Scion 5e

Prerequisites: 4th Level, Scion of the Outer Planes (Evil Outer Plane) feat

You can channel cosmic forces of evil to gain these benefits: 

Ability Score Increase. Increase an ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20. 

Grasp of Avarice. Once per turn, when you damage a creature you can see within 60 feet of yourself, you can also deal necrotic damage to it. The necrotic damage equals 1d6+ your proficiency bonus, and you regain a number of hit points equal to this necrotic damage dealt. You can use this benefit a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

The draining vampiric fantasy proved to be challenging to develop, as Vampiric Touch showcases from the PHB. Baleful Scion is another attempt at it, but in the mode of a three to six-use “smite” like feature. 

In a vacuum, it's a neat concept, but I have a hard time finding a lot of reason to invest two feats into it. If you think of it as a feat for 4d6+16 bonus damage and healing per long rest, I’m not thrilled with it, but that is a reasonable chunk of extra damage and healing. It's not coming anywhere close to Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, or Great Weapon Master. If I’m not looking for any of those, though, and want something else to stack onto an attack, this can be reasonable. 

You can’t fully “nova” with this, either, as it's limited to once per turn. It specifies that you deal it extra damage, not your weapon, meaning this doesn’t critically hit like Divine Smite does, which is an important note. 

I’d expect to only see this on melee-ranged characters, and specifically options that don’t have intensive feats needed to bring their builds together so they can afford this. 

If you want an evil draining ability, this seems serviceable to me, but still probably not worth investing in if you need a competitive damage build to scale into the late game. 

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