Baleful Scion 5e
Published on October 3, 2023
Embrace the dark cosmic forces and channel the power of the chaotic Outer Planes to wreak havoc upon your foes.
Jake Murray - Wizards of the Coast - Devastating Mastery
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Learn more.What Is Baleful Scion 5e?
The Baleful Scion feat allows you to tap into the sinister energies of the evil Outer Planes, granting you enhanced abilities and a dark grasp that saps the life force of your enemies. This feat not only provides an increase to an ability score of your choice but also grants you the power to deal necrotic damage to foes you harm, healing yourself in the process. With the Grasp of Avarice, you become a formidable force on the battlefield, capable of turning the tide of battle in your favor.
How Does Baleful Scion Work?
When you take this feat, you get to increase any ability score you wish by 1, you also gain the Grasp of Avarice feature. When you damage a creature within 60 feet, you can use this ability to inflict an extra 1d6 + your prof. bonus necrotic damage. You then regain a number of hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. This ability can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Prerequisite
This feat is a 4th-level feat and requires the Scion of Outer Planes (Evil Outer Plane) feat before you can pick it up. Luckily, you can get Scion of the Outer Planes for free at 1st-level by choosing the Planar Philosopher or Gate Warden background at character creation.
Is Baleful Scion Good?
In our 5e Feats Tier List, Baleful Scion was given a B Tier rating, making it a niche feat that can improve some builds in D&D 5e.
This is a simple, yet incredibly strong ability. Being able to output buffed damage and heal in the same attack is a very efficient use of action economy. Plus, this ability can trigger off of any damage you produce, which makes it useful for melee, ranged, and spellcaster builds.
While the 1d6 + prof. bonus damage isn’t anything to write home about, the healing it provides you is better than a healing word. This is an excellent ability that will keep you in the fight longer, while also not taking up your healer’s spell slots or action economy.
Baleful Scion 5e Interactions
If My Attack Dealt Necrotic Damage, Do I Heal For That Much Plus What Baleful Scion Produced?
No. Baleful Scion specifies “you regain a number of hit points equal to this necrotic damage dealt.” By specifying “this” necrotic damage, the healing can’t apply to other necrotic damage dealt that turn.
Healing More Than Once Per Round
Seeing as the language of this feat says “Once per turn,” you can activate this multiple times in a single round off of a variety of effects. One easy way to activate this would be through an opportunity attack. But, you could also get a trigger off of something like a creature entering your spirit guardians or moon beam area of effect.
Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Baleful Scion?
The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Baleful Scion 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.
- Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
- Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
- Green is a good option
- Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
- Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized
Buffing your damage and healing with the same attack is useful for any build. Seeing as this ability can be activated off of anything that deals damage and the ASI can be used on any ability, the feat is pretty universally applicable to any build.
Artificer: Regardless of your artificer's playstyle, being able to deal damage and heal with the same attack will always be beneficial.
Barbarian: Self healing on a barbarian is an incredibly useful ability and because the barbarian's Rage gives them resistance to common damage types, the healing provided by this feat will go twice as long as normal.
Bard: While healing when you output damage is a useful ability, bard's already have access to solid healing spells and are quite often going to spend their turn buffing or debuffing, not outputting damage.
Cleric: This is a solid way to keep your cleric healed up so they can use their healing resources elsewhere. Plus, it works amazingly well with spirit guardians because you can damage creatures when it's not your turn and activate the healing ability more than once per round.
Druid: This is a solid way to keep your druid healed up so they can use their healing resources elsewhere.
Fighter: Fighters will always appreciate a bit more self-healing, especially when it can be activated in the same action as their attacks.
Monk: Monks will always appreciate a bit more self-healing, especially when it can be activated in the same action as their attacks.
Paladin: This is a solid way to keep your paladin healed up so they can use their healing resources elsewhere.
Ranger: Regardless of your ranger's playstyle, being able to deal damage and heal with the same attack will always be beneficial.
Rogue: This is a helpful way to output some more damage and keep your rogue's squishy hit points a bit more topped up.
Sorcerer: While sorcerers have access to wither and bloom, which produces a similar effect, being able to tack this extra damage and healing onto their other spells is a solid amount of value for a half-feat.
Warlock: This a very "warlock" effect and is an excellent accompaniment to their other damage/healing abilities.
Wizard: While wizards have access to wither and bloom, which produces a similar effect, being able to tack this extra damage and healing onto their other spells is a solid amount of value for a half-feat.
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