So earlier into last week, Todd Kenrick of Dungeon Life declared that to the world that he wanted an Aberrant Sorcerer origin. I thought about it and recalled a series of feats during 3rd Edition about aberrant heritage from Lords of Madness. But I didn’t stop there, I even remembered the illithid heritage feats from Complete Psionics and the Flayerspawn Psychic prestige class. Essentially, through a series of feats or prestige class, a character could undergo monstrous transformations from their tainted bloodline. The Sorcerer class is a great fit for such pedigree infused flavor, so on top of developing something to pay homage to aboleths and slaadi, I wanted to touch on as many cornerstones of aberrations from D&D’s history. Many of the class features were inspired by either the Flayerspawn Psychic or the various heritage feats.

Well Todd, you get your wish.

Aberrant Bloodline – Sorcerer Origin

A sorcerer that embraces their aberrant bloodline, Image by Wizards of the Coast

Tainted Visage. Somewhere in your bloodline, your ancestors were tainted by an aberration. Whether as subjects to experiments from mind flayers (illithids), slaves to dreadful aboleths or beholders, or misshapen slaadi who failed to completely transform. As a result, the taint manifests on your physical appearance noticeably, like claws, webbed feet, an extra eye, or slimy skin.

The magic in your veins makes you resilient to toxins and alien substances. Starting at 1st level, you gain resistance to poison damage and have advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.

You gain proficiency with the Intimidation skill. Additionally, whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with aberrations, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check.

Dark Whisperer. Many creatures of your heritage seldom orally communicate, relying on greater mental powers to touch the minds of similar or lesser beings. At 1st level, you can communicate telepathically with a creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don’t need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. Additionally, you learn the vicious mockery cantrip.

Mindfire. Starting at 6th level, you add detect thoughts, dissonant whispers, and suggestion as spells known if you do not already know them.

Additionally, you learn to channel your sorcerous energies to emit a potent psychic energy in a 30-foot cone. You can spend a number of sorcery points up to half your Sorcerer level. Each creature in the area must succeed an Intelligence saving throw with DC equal to your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes psychic damage equal to 1d4 per sorcery point spent plus your Charisma modifier and are stunned for 1 round. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and is not stunned.

Aberrant Form. Starting 14th level, you learn to embrace your tainted heritage and can channel your magic to embody a powerful aberration. As an action, you can spend 6 sorcery points to transform yourself as if you had cast the polymorph spell. You choose aberrations to transform instead of beasts. You follow the normal rules of the spells except you do not gain the benefits of the shapechanger subtype or feature. Whenever you revert back to your true form (whether intentional or not), you must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, you are dealt 4d8 psychic damage and afflicted with a short-term madness (DMG, pg. 259). This psychic damage cannot be prevented from immunities or resistances.

Xenomorphic Apotheosis. At 18th level, your physical form has become twisted by the taint of your ancestors, allowing your psionic capabilities to reach their full potential. You gain immunity to psychic damage. Whenever you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw, as a reaction by expending 2 sorcery points, you can treat it as a Charisma saving throw instead. Additionally, whenever you cast a spell at 1st-level or higher that deals psychic damage, you add your Charisma modifier to it.

Hope you enjoyed this little homebrew idea. Let me know what you think with your comments below.

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