Planeswalker Spark (5e Feat)

This mechanic is intended to act as the centerpiece of a planeswalker-focused Magic the Gathering based campaign in D&D 5e. The feat is not balanced to be within the normal power range of standard PCs in 5th edition. Rather, it is designed to represent mechanically, as best as I can manage, how a planeswalker spark actually works in the MtG comics and novels. All of them. Pre-revisionist and all. (If you've read the books, you will understand why that would be difficult, and why such a thing cannot be balanced to core.) It is a feat because it doesn't make sense as anything else. It can't be a race, because any species can be a planeswalker. (Nicol Bolas is a dragon, for example.) It can't be a background or class, at least not exclusively, since as far as the literature is concerned, only one plansewalker ever intentionally trained to become one. (And he was only ever mentioned in the comics.) Also, although cross-classing into planeswalker (like if it was a prestige class with very low or very high barrier to entry) would represent a sudden switch, it doesn't account for the sudden massive increase in inate magical power, (Unless you break completely from class design philosophy in 5e, in which case, why make a class at all?) nor does it account for the fact that being a planeswalker doesn't seem to interefere with the development of any other skills, talents, or powers. Also, classes have very rigid, static progression, while the source material indicates no such progressive development, nor does it indicate such a degree of consistency from one planeswalker to the next. As a feat, it stacks an arbitrary amount of additional mechanical power on an otherwise ordinary creature- exactly what the activation of a planeswalker spark does in the source material. As such, it is NOT RECOMMENDED to use this feat in combination with pretty much ANY other homebrew that has not been carefully playtested with it first, or designed to work with it from the start. The planeswalker spell list is composed of spell effects which, (in my opinion) most closely imitate the fundamental actions planeswalkers (Both the players and cards) are capable of in the card game, (at least thematically, anyways) and in the source material. Although there is high variety in the exact powers from one planeswalker to the next, there are some universal themes to the powers. To represent this controlled variety, PCs who take this feat are allowed only a limited number of powers. Actual character power is still limited somewhat by character level, as that is the controlling factor as to whether a known spell can even be cast, and how frequently. As such, taking the feat multiple times only grants greater variety, increasing option power within your castable range of spells without increasing your ability to actually cast those spells. (For example, a character who chooses all level 9 and 8 spells when taking this feat at 4th level will not be able to cast any of those spells for another 4-5 levels.) The main mechanical contrast between this feat and the core rules, is that it cuts the necessary caster level for a planeswalker spell in half and simultaneously gives 1 extra spell slot or slot level to spellcaster planeswalkers every other level. This is intentional. In the source material, some of the planeswalkers were decidedly pathetic wimps prior to the activation of their spark, and aside from their planeswalker abilities, aren't actually all that impressive anyways. They are, essentially, low-level characters with access to some very specific high-level features. As such, this feat only works in one of 3 situations: a) All the players are given this feat from the start, and the campaign focuses on the adventures of a group of planeswalkers. b) None of the players may access this feat, and it is instead used to represent planeswalkers as NPCs by modifying NPC statblocks in an internally consistent way. c) The group agrees to a game where not all players are expected to be planeswalkers, and the DM is OK with putting in the extra work necessary to keep the game relevant to the non-planeswalker PCs. In all cases, I wouldn't recommend using this feat outside of the multiverse campaign setting as represented by the Plane Shift PDF files and Planeswalker's Guide articles released by Wizards of the Coast, (Mainly because it doesn't mesh nicely with the core D&D settings' conflicting cosmologies) nor would I blend it with any other homebrew not made for such a campaign by the DM, or at least heavily testplayed. Oh, if you crunch the numbers, you'll find the spell list heavily favors black mana. Not my choice. I tried to fit the colors to magic schools as closely as I could, there's just some inappropriate mechanical overlap between the schools as they were built to begin with, at least in my opinion. In any case, the most spells a standard character can get from this is 30, and there's more than 40 spells for each color. Also, the most important spells inherent to all planeswalkers are colorless.

Planeswalker Spark

Prerequisites: None
Turns a PC into a planeswalker, intended as a basis for an MtG Multiverse and Planeswalkers based campaign.

You may take this feat repeatedly, limited only by the total number of spells available to be learned and the total number of feats your character has the opportunity to take.

A planeswalker's spark is a latent power inborn into a very small number of sentient creatures across the Multiverse, which if activated permanently turns the bearer into a planeswalker. A planeswalker is granted the ability to travel between the planes of the Multiverse. Taking this feat represents the activation of such a dormant spark in your character.

Planeswalkers use one of the forms raw magical energy can take, called mana, to cast their innate spells. You draw mana from the world by connecting your soul to a land, which simply requires you to spend one long rest in that location. Each time you take a short or long rest you may draw 1 mana from one of your bound lands of your choice. A land you have drawn mana from is drained, or "tapped" of its mana until you spend that mana to cast a spell, which means you can only carry 1 mana per land at a time. (For example: If you have 5 lands, you cna carry a total of 5 mana, one from each land separately)

Mana comes in 5 different colors, and the color of the mana you draw from a land depends on its terrain.

Red comes from Mountains, volcanos, plateaus, volcanic wastelands, permanently burning locations, etc.

Blue comes from Islands, rivers, brooks, streams, lakes, ponds, lochs, oceans, seas, bays, coasts, shores, banks, dams, bridges, reefs, etc.

Green comes from Forests, jungles, woods, brambles, gardens, parks, etc.

White comes from Deserts, fields, rolling hills, plains, flats, etc.

Black comes from Swamps, marshes, graveyards, murder sites, haunted locations, ruins, etc.

Colorless comes from Cities, roads, towers, walls, buildings, large vehicles, artificial places, etc.

Mana of a given color corresponds to certain schools of magic.

Abjuration = White / Green

Conjuration = Colorless

Divination = White / Black

Enchantment = Blue / White

Evocation = Red / Black

Illusion = Blue / Green

Necromancy = Black / Blue

Transmutation = Green / Red

You can use your action to cast ANY spell you know or have prepared using mana of the appropriate color. 1 mana is equal to 1 spell level for a planeswalker spell, or half a level for any other spell. So, for instance, if you wanted to cast Magic Missile as a 5th level spell, you would need to spend 10 mana, while conjure elemental would cost you 5. You can not mix mana and spell slots to cast a spell; a stack of mana being spent on a single spell counts as 1 spell slot of a specific level.

Any other color of mana can be used to replace colorless mana for spell cost, but colorless mana cannot replace any other color. For example, you can technically spend any color of mana to case a conjuration spell, but if you are bound to an artificial land, like a king's castle or something, you can ONLY spend that mana on conjuration spells. It is essentially the AB+ of blood types; it can recieve from anyone, but give only to its own kind.

Each time you take this feat, you may choose any 5 spells from the following planeswalker spell list to add to your list of known spells. Planeswalker spells do not require any components in order to be cast. Keep in mind that once you have chosen your spells for a given instance of a feat, they cannot be forgotten or changed out, even if you take this feat again.

Planeswalker Spell List

1st Level

• Animal Friendship
• Detect Evil & Good
• Detect Magic
• Find Familiar
• Speak With Animals
• Unseen Servant

2nd Level

• Detect Thoughts
• Find Steed
• Misty Step
• Rope Trick

3rd Level

• Animate Dead
• Blink
• Clairvoyance
• Conjure Animals
• Phantom Steed
• Revivify
• Sending
• Speak With Dead
• Speak With Plants
• Spirit Guardians

4th Level

• Banishment
• Conjure Minor Elementals
• Conjure Woodland Beings
• Dimension Door
• Divination
• Dominate Beast
• Evard's Black Tentacles
• Guardian of Faith
• Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound

5th Level

• Animate Objects
• Banishing Smite
• Bigby's Hand
• Commune
• Commune With Nature
• Conjure Elemental
• Contact Other Plane
• Dominate Person
• Planar Binding
• Raise Dead
• Reincarnate
• Teleportation Circle

6th Level

• Arcane Gate
• Conjure Fey
• Contingency
• Drawmij's Instant Summons
• Planar Ally
• Word of Recall

7th Level

• Conjure Celestial
• Etherealness
• Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion
• Plane Shift
• Resurrection
• Sequester
• Teleport

8th Level

• Clone
• Demiplane
• Dominate Monster
• Maze
• Telepathy

9th Level

• Astral Projection
• Gate
• Time Stop
• True Resurrection

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