SOURCE: Eberron – Rising from the Last War

Rating the Benefits of Aberrant Dragonmark

Benefit #1 – 

Boost Con by +1, to a max of 20 

Constitution is a stat that every character in 5e wants to boost unless they’re dumping it for thematic purposes. A boost to Con is always good, especially when it’s paired with strong magical abilities…

Benefit #2 – 

Learn a cantrip from the Sorcerer spell list

The Sorcerer spell list has a decent list of cantrips, which include both combat and utility choices. This is decent. 

Benefit #3 – 

Learn a 1st level spell from the Sorcerer spell list. The spell can be cast once, with the use refreshing on a short or long rest

The Sorcerer’s spell list is surprisingly extensive, with a lot of decent damage, defensive, and utility spells, many of which are useful for a variety of builds. 

What looks like the standard “learn a 1st level spell. Cast it once per day” at first glance is a little better than many other feat options because this comes back on a short rest, which is near-unique. 

Benefit #4 – 

When casting your 1st-level spell, you may spend and roll a hit die. On an even number, gain that amount of temp HP. On an odd, a random creature within 30 feet takes that amount of force damage.  

Randomness in 5e has a particular flavor. Some players love not knowing what’s going to happen next, fully embracing the chaos that comes with beseeching the dice gods. These people play Wild Magic Sorcerers, then beg their GM to roll on every table going. Their sessions tend to end in utmost glory, or hilariously catastrophic failure, with laughter all the way. Those players will love this feature. 

For other players, an ability that can potentially upset the balance of a combat encounter by stripping HP from the party, all for the price of casting a level 1 spell, just isn’t worthwhile.

Luckily, this ability is phrased as a can, instead of a must, meaning the choice of whether to use it and indulge fate is always up to you.  

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

Aberrant Dragonmark is a relatively simple feat that follows the same line as other spellcasting feats, with a little bit of randomness and flair on the side. 

Choosing Spells: The Sorcerer Spell List

The Sorcerer spell list is a good one, containing a wide range of both cantrips and spells, only really beaten in both variety and flexibility by the Wizard. 

Whether you’re looking for a way to deal damage, something to buff allies or debuff enemies, or a little bit of out-of-combat ability, there’s something here for almost every character. 

As the Sorcerer’s spell list is extensive, the list below is non-exhaustive, containing only the top picks for each role. 

Sorcerer Cantrips

• Firebolt – The premier ranged attacking cantrip. Great range, high damage, and is reliable. 
• Frostbite – Low damage, but disadvantage on an attack is an incredibly powerful ability for a cantrip to have, even if it targets Con saves. 
• Mind Sliver – Tiny damage, but directly reduces the enemy’s next saving throw. If your party goes hard on disabling effects, this cantrip can be monstrously powerful. 
• Booming Blade – Essential for melee spellcasters. Scales into the game, and mathematically equivalent to the Extra Attack feature. A great choice. 
• Prestidigitation – A fun, flexible list of things to play with. Never overpowered, always useful. 
• Minor Illusion – Can be used for so many things, in so many situations. Almost more useful than many leveled spells. 
• Shape Water – Versatile and flexible, with a surprisingly large list of effects. At some point, we’re going to have to write a full guide on how good this cantrip actually is. 

Sorcerer 1st Level Spells

• Absorb Elements – Resistance to elemental damage as a reaction can and will save a character’s life. A boost to damage on the next attack a character makes just sweetens the deal. 
• Chromatic Orb – Reasonable damage with a variable type, chosen when the spell is cast, is a solid little opener for low level combats. 
• False Life – It’s not particularly exciting, but another hit die worth of temporary HP is pretty decent for a 1st level spell. 
• Shield – +5 AC will turn many attacks into misses. It’s also common to forget that this spell lasts until your next turn, so it’s great for characters who want to be in the thick of the melee, targeted by multiple enemies. 
• Silvery Barbs – Disadvantage on an enemy roll. Advantage on an ally’s roll. All as a reaction so it has very little opportunity cost. Incredibly powerful. 

Tempting Fate: Aberrant Dragonmark and the Random Number God

The last part of Aberrant Dragonmark’s feature list is a strange one. Having to spend a hit die, a slowly renewing resource that is used to keep a character alive, on an ability that has two separate points of randomness, is one that will draw askew glances from many players. 

The problem with this feature is summed up easily: You can’t guarantee what this does, which makes it incredibly unreliable, and prone to making things worse when you need it most. 

50% of the time, this gives your character a minor amount of temp HP. Averaging between rolls and hit die sizes, expect 4-6 temp HP, at all levels of the game. That’s not a lot early, and barely worth considering past mid-game. 

50% of the time, this deals the same amount of damage to a random creature within 30ft. That random targeting includes your allies. The ability can’t target you unless you’re the only viable target for it. 

So, in a standard encounter with 3-4 enemies, half the time the damage is being dealt to a member of the party. That is, overall, a 25% chance to deal damage to a random party member as a cost for casting your feat-granted spell. And that’s… not great. 

Worse is that the damage is low. Low enough that, past level 3, it’s not going to make a meaningful difference in any combat encounter with appropriate CR enemies. After all, if your party needs this tiny, random stab of damage to win an encounter, you may have bigger problems.  But conversely, stripping a chunk of HP from an ally, especially by mistake, is always going to feel relevant.

In our opinion, possibly the best way of using this is as a potential boost when casting defensive spells out of combat. A character casting Mage Armor, Comprehend Languages, or Disguise Self on themselves can mitigate any damage taken, especially when they’re not in any real danger. At that point, the temporary HP is a nice bonus if you get them, and if you roll damage, it is what it is. 

Aberrant Flaws

One of the recommended effects of the Aberrant Dragonmark feat is to roll on a short list of flaws. 

Each one of these adds a negative effect to the use of the spell granted by this feat. However, every single effect is purely fluff, only adding some flavorful RP benefits about how the twisted magic of the mark affects your character. 

Honestly, while it’s fun to play around with, and might give a good GM something to play with regarding your choice of feats, this feels purely optional. 

Greater Aberrant Powers

Tucked away at the end of the Aberrant Dragonmark feat is a small section on Greater Aberrant Powers. 

Put simply, this is a significant, but random, boost to power that characters with this feat might gain, from level 10 and upwards. 

Because this is both a) random, b) complicated, and c) completely optional (and should probably stay that way) we’ve left the full explanation to its own guide. 

Key Stats

The Aberrant Dragonmark feat boosts your Constitution score as part of its benefits package. The spell also uses your Con bonus for any save DCs it requires. 

This isn’t a bad thing, as every character in 5e requires Con. Mages will appreciate the boost to a stat that increases their HP and Concentration saving throws, and everyone loves dying less. 

Ideal Characters for Aberrant Dragonmark

Top Classes

Fighter – No innate magical ability paired with a class that wants as high a Con as possible spells a good user of the Aberrant Dragonmark feat. 

The Sorcerer magic list has some exceptional defensive options in Shield and Absorb Elements, both of which can make a Fighter much harder to kill. There’s also play in interesting out-of-combat spells like Detect Magic or Disguise Self. 

Cantrips are another benefit that has a wide variety of uses, and if there’s a class that can risk taking the incidental force damage from the feat’s random buff chance when casting its spells, it’s this one.

Barbarian – Con is a great stat for everyone’s favorite frothing berserker, and so are spells that build from it. Utility cantrips and spells should be the bread and butter of a build using this feat, but there’s a surprising amount of play around picking the same defensive spells as the Fighter even though a Barbarian can’t cast while raging.

As an example, Shield might be used to boost AC in the first round of combat before the Barbarian gets to act, or when triggering a trap. The character might even intentionally put themselves in harm’s way, just to trigger their magic, which is awesome both mechanically, as well as as a character trait.  

Sorcerer – It might sound strange, considering the Aberrant Dragonmark already picks from the Sorcerer spell list, but this is an excellent choice for the class itself. 

This is because the class is incredibly limited in its cantrip and spell slots, so often just doesn’t have the space to pick up things that are only going to be cast once or twice per day. A boost to Constitution only sweetens the deal. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Variant Human – Grab this feat from level 1, where it’s probably most useful. 

Tiefling – Additional spellcasting, damage resistances, and Darkvision. All are good features, all stack nicely with the feat. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Gift of the X Dragon – Pairing interesting thematic parallels with some serious power, all three of the Draconic Gift feat lines are great for most characters, especially martial fighter types. 

Ritual Caster – Gain even more spell power by adding a list of magical rituals to use outside of combat situations to a build. 

Spells that Synergize

The Aberrant Dragonmark feat allows a character to choose spells and tends to be best on characters who don’t already have their own magical power.  

Strategies for Maximizing Aberrant Dragonmark Effectiveness

Casting With Muscle

A big draw for the Aberrant Dragonmark is the fact that its stat requirements are all based on your Constitution. 

This opens the feat up for characters who wouldn’t normally have the stats for spellcasting. Suddenly, the Fighter who has spent his whole career swinging swords instead of opening books can cast a spell with a solid save DC, which has a good chance of actually working. 

That’s the major advantage of this feat. Taken as a strict list of benefits, Aberrant Dragonmark offers less magical power than any equivalent magical feat option.  

But that doesn’t matter when you’re choosing this to slot into a build for a character that can’t use other magical feats as they don’t have the stats for them. While everyone can use this feat, guys and gals who smash things as a hobby are by far the best users.

Final Thoughts on Aberrant Dragonmark

Aberrant Dragonmark is … strange. This is a magical feat that seems to be designed to work best with non-magical characters. 

The feat has a pair of built-in downsides, but both of them are completely optional, and one is utterly random, and might even result in a positive instead. 

This feat also has a ridiculous, even more random power boost, only available to higher level characters, with a significant chance that it 1. Never happens, and 2. Breaks game balance over its knee. 

But with all that said, the base Aberrant Dragonmark feat is great. It boosts possibly the most generally useful stat, and offers spell choices from one of the best lists of spells in 5e, while still being versatile enough to work with nearly any build and character type. Yeah, that’s a win.