Variant Rule: Alternate Spellcasters

Rules
Comments from the Pinky: For those times when you really wanted to be a Wizard, but your parents sent you to Cleric school, we got you.

Alternate Spellcasters

Many times, a character concept will come to mind that fits the features and traits of a class, but not the ability scores central to that class. A Bard whose inspirations stem from study and learning rather than music or charm. A Paladin whose fervor and zeal are tempered by a lifetime in service to their cause. Such characters might favor abilities contrary to those primary to their spellcasting ability score, and can use the following optional rule to retrofit their mechanical elements to meet their narrative needs.

The Imaginary Friend

Otherworldly Patron
Comments from the Pinky: I have an otherworldly patron, it's a four hundred foot tall purple platypus-bear with pink horns and silver wings! Why won’t anyone believe me?

The Imaginary Friend

You've attracted the attention of something unseen and unknown, a being whose power defies imagination but is invisible to the naked eye. Perhaps this seemingly benign being came to you in a dark moment, shielded you from some danger, or even kept you company as a child. Only you can see this being, whose form can shift at a thought and whose motives are as mysterious as its origins. Whatever this creature's purpose, it has gifted you some measure of its imperceptible power.

Dance Domain

Divine Domain
Notes from the Nails: the dance cleric boogies to and fro, hither and yon. Whence comes she? No man knows. Whither strikes she next? All men live in fear of her and her moxie.

Dance Domain

In the Feywild, lords, ladies and worthy notables of all kinds are famously obsessed with dancing. The ability to express beauty through graceful movement is highly prized and the blessings of the elven goddess of dance highly sought-after. Naturally, her clerics are welcomed wherever they tread, for they always seek to foster joy and the spirit of togetherness through their rhythmic rituals.

Prestige Levels

Rules

Comments from the Pinky: Prestige classes have traditionally be really hard to implement in 5e, because there's no balance expectation or precedent to work from. However, we realized that if they were simply one level dips, we could tightly control the balance. If these are received well, we may write a lot more! Let us know what you'd like to see in new prestige levels.

Prestige Levels

Many of the most iconic character concepts trace their origins to prestige classes, specific classes from older editions designed exclusively for multiclassing. However, this prestige class format doesn’t translate well to 5th edition, where characters have customization choices built into their subclasses and features in a modular way. This adaptation of prestige classes reduces these classes to single levels, maximizing flexibility and player choice, while minimizing harmful balance changes to the overall system.

Prestige levels represent a character’s expertise and training outside their main class, and should be tied to their choices or events within the narrative. For example, if a fighter spends his downtime in a large city acting as an enforcer for a thieves’ guild, they might take the Scoundrel prestige level when they next level up. Or if a character’s mind is invaded by an aboleth or they glimpse the hideous Great Old Ones, they might take the Madman prestige level.

Witch Redux

Witch
Comments from the Finger: We're back to our regularly scheduled programming. Expect more posts on the regular!

Witch

Three old crones stoop over a boiling cauldron filled with all manner of bizarre filth, churning and bubbling with a noxious fume. In the smoke and vapor above the pot, the trio can make out shapes and figures of great import, and one cackles loudly at what she sees.
A young girl sits underneath a tree, far from where the other children play. She glances about to make sure noone is watching, and snaps her fingers once to the empty air. After a moment of silence, a black cat appears around the tree’s bend and locks eyes with the girl, staring with a strange intelligence for a long moment. She gestures at one of the playing children, a heavy-set boy with a permanently affixed scowl; the cat understands. It wanders close to the boy, stretches its claws, and gets very low, ready to pounce for the boy’s eyes.
A young elf intently mutters something underneath his breath each time he exhales. Visible only to him, a string of the foulest magic winds out from him and seizes a charging orc, which drops to its knees in agony.
Witches are stricken by magic so dark it imprints a lasting shadow upon their essence. Through force of personality alone, they can spin this darkness outward, hexing creatures, casting manipulative spells, and even commanding a familiar with their thoughts.

Wrothian Vampire

Monster
Comments from the Finger: Consider this very much a double-post, since this beastie is included in the Encyclopedia Multiplanaria, but I thought it was worth a second post here. 

Wrothian Vampire

Wrothian exiles usually die within a decade of leaving their colony, for without the psionic nourishment of their stygian ships, their bodies simply deteriorate. However, a few wrothians have circumvented this grim fate by embracing an even darker alternative: vampirism. A wrothian vampire can extract psionic energy from a living creature, and subsist on that alone. They are undead predators of the night, given to cold-blooded hunting and bloodthirsty attacks. Like other vampires, wrothians shun sunlight and can be dispatched with a stake to the heart, but can’t transform into a bat or disappear into a cloud of mist. Instead, they wield a unique suite of terrible psionic powers, derived from their unique biology and the warped curse of vampirism that afflicts them.

Art contributed by: Matt Pegoraro (@mattpegoraro)