Welcome back to D&D Saturday.  Here at Icygeek we don’t get to do as much celebrating on Christmas as we would like: no room for a tree, no money for gifts, few people to give gifts too.  But we do love the music and we do love the idea of gifting.  Consider that the two big figures involving the holiday involve giving: Saint Nicholas giving presents to good boys and girls, and Jesus eventually giving his life for man’s sins.  It is in that spirit that we present another new warlock pact for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons: the Santa Pact.  No, not a Santa Clause, but a Pact, heavily inspired by the book The Autobiography of Santa Claus.

The Santa Pact

Most warlocks develop pacts with mysterious and often dark patrons.  Yours, however, may be slightly mysterious but is definitely not dark.  Your patron is Santa, or your campaign world’s equivalent.  You are designated as a helper for Santa, being his replacement in certain designated areas.  Santa can not make every house in the world over the course of one day, but with surrogates posing as Santa, he can.  You are one of those surrogates.  While most surrogates spend their time with Santa building toys for the annual gift giving, you are out in the field, judging who has been naughty and who’s been nice.

Expanded Spell List

Like other warlock pacts, you have an expanded spell list, which aids in the abilities to spreading good cheer to your fellow man, especially children.

1st  Animal Friendship, Disguise Self

2nd  Detect Thoughts, Knock

3rd  Nondetection, Sleet Storm

4th  Fabricate, Freedom of Movement

5th  Passwall, Telekinesis

Tireless March

In order to help spread joy, a Santa Waarlock must be able to get from place to place quickly.  At 1st level the Santa Warlock and his companions may walk at full speed, regardless of the terrain or how long they have walked, for a period of half a day, after which a long rest is required to do this again.  They can not be ambushed by malevolent forces.  However, this power does not function in a region currently in a state of war.

Pact Boon

Like other pacts, you gain your choice of a pact boon at 3rd level.  If you choose Pact of the Chain, your familiar will usually be a wolf or reindeer, upon which you can activate a Light cantrip spell on its nose, even if you do not know that cantrip.  If you choose Pact of the Blade, your weapon will usually be less martial oriented, due to the pacifistic nature of your patron: lassos, nets, mancatchers, saps, and especially staves.  If you choose Pact of the Tome your tome will usually look bright red and cheery..

Home Again

Good help is hard to find, and Santa rewards faithful service.  Starting at 6th level, you no longer age, as long as you partake in the annual mass gift giving celebration.  Failure to do so will negate the ability, unless there was no possible way you could have, and you will have to gain an additional level to be able to have this ability again.

Yuletide Magic

It takes a lot of magic to accomplish all the gift giving Santa needs to.  At 10th level you may treat all your Warlock spells as cantrips, as long as you are in active gift giving mode.  You may use your spells to defend yourself from enemies, but actively attacking foes who posed no threat to you cause the spells to no longer be cantrips.

Christmas Truce

The spread of charity and goodwill are paramount.  At 14th level you can cause X times 10 HD of creatures (where X equals your character level) to no longer engage in battle, but instead join their foes in fellowship.  Like a sleep spell, this always works on the lower HD creatures first.  Attacks by you and your allies will cancel this affect, and Santa will definitely put you on the naughty list if you abuse this pacifying technique.