The Dota Project - Abaddon
So I realized today that accomplishing what I’ve set out to do will take a very long time. I won’t be covering every hero here, but my goal is to create a majority of them for our Patreon. With that in mind, let’s dive right into our first Dota hero, Abaddon. While not all heroes have the potential to be both creature and playable characters, Abaddon is one that we can convert into both. Don’t worry, I’ll still work on magic items, but we’ll have a long road to travel to get through all the heroes, so we should get started.
Abaddon Subclass - Paladin, Oath of Death
Also known as Death Knights, you may think that these paladins are the edgiest of evil edgelords that slaughter creatures in the name of their god. I understand how you may feel that way based on their appearance, but you’d be wrong. The energy that fuels their abilities are both radiant and necrotic, so if you’re on the paladin’s friends list, you may receive some of that beautiful, radiant healing. If you’re on their shit list, prepared to feel the burn of necrotic energy as they can channel it to give you an owie.
The gods they serve are usually of neutral alignment, with most having either lawful or evil tendencies. They include Kelemvor, lord of the dead, Jergal, Shar, and the Raven Queen, all deities associated with death in some fashion. An Oath of Death paladin understands that death plays no favorites and comes for everyone, no matter how powerful you may be. What happens after you have left this mortal coil depends on whether a good or naughty boy or a girl, but that’s of no concern to these gods, and in turn, the Oath of Death paladins.
Night Rider
When you choose this archetype at the 3rd level, you receive a pitch-black riding horse from your higher power and are bound to it. I know many of you were hoping the Death Knight would get a Nightmare as their mount, but Abaddon's horse isn’t anything special, so neither is yours. That doesn't mean your horse doesn't come with a couple of features. You have an advantage on saving throws if some mean creature tries to knock you off your mount. And since we don't want the horse to die, for every level after 3rd, your horse gains an additional hit dice.
Channel Divinity
I wish channel divinity were a more integral part of the paladin class, especially since you cannot turn undead like the previous editions. I know that smiting bad guys (or double smite if you want to use a spell slot to cast a smite spell as a bonus action) is a powerful ability. Still, I miss making the cleric green with envy when you turn a legion of skeletons when they fail miserably to do so. When you take this oath at the 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Death Coil
You can use your Channel Divinity to channel necrotic energy and release a coil of mist that can damage an enemy. As an action, you can force a creature you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes necrotic damage equal to 2d8 + your charisma modifier. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.
Healing Coil
You heal an ally using the radiant energy inside of you with a beam of radiant light. As an action, you can restore hit points to a creature of your choice within 30 feet of you that you can see. For every 3 points of healing you provide them, you take 1 point of necrotic damage rounded up, which can't be reduced in any way. You may not reduce your total number below 1 hit point.
Oath Spells
The oath spells you have access to are a balance between damage-causing ones and those that heal. They include such spells as bane, blight, death ward, dawn, and negative energy flood.
Aura of Energy Protection
At the 13th level, you can summon dark energies around yourself, creating a shield that absorbs damage from your foes. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, and at 18th level, the range is extended to 30 feet. Abaddon's shield protects from all harm and explodes when it reaches its damage threshold, but an aura shouldn't explode. Protection from all damage is way too much for a 7th level ability, but since you have control over radiant and necrotic energy, it makes sense that you could protect yourself from it.
Smite of the Death Knight
At the 15th level, your smites have a devastating effect on your foes, causing damage and slowing them on a successful strike. Abaddon's comparable ability is Curse of Avernus. When Abaddon strikes an enemy, he slows the target's movement speed. When you smite your target and they take their normal smite damage, you also reduce their speed by half. After Abaddon hits a target 4 times, all attacks against them gain an attack speed boost. The probability of hitting the same target 4 times isn't very high, so we replace it by having the target make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target is stunned until the end of its next turn. If you've ever been under the stunned condition, you know how not-fun it is.
Power over Death
Abaddon's final ability is Borrowed Time. When activated, it results in all damage dealt healing him instead of harming him. Most negative buffs will also be removed. It automatically activates if his health falls below 400. Newbies will keep hitting Abaddon while the rest of the party is screaming at them to stop doing that, usually using bad words as they do it.
If you live long enough to reach the 20th level, you can transform the damage of your foes into healing properties for yourself. When activated, all damage dealt to you will instead heal you for the same amount, up to your maximum number of hit points. If you reach your maximum number of hit points before the end of 1 minute, the effect ends.
Better yet, when you are reduced to 0 hit points, Power Over Death automatically begins if you have not already used this ability. Say goodbye to many of those annoying condition effects, and any effect reducing the target's hit point maximum is removed. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest, as it matches up nicely with the fact that the cooldown for Abaddon's ability starts at 60 seconds, which is a lifetime in a Dota game.
Next up is the angry ogre with a bomb-throwing gnome on its back, Alchemist.
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