Path of the Morrigan

"Ravens gnaw the necks of men. Blood flows. Battle is fought ... Hail to the men of Ulster! Woe to the Érainn! Woe to the men of Ulster! Hail to the Érainn!"

–The Táin Bó Cúalnge

The Path of the Morrigan is walked more often than is admitted by the people from whom these curse-warriors hail. It is a path of bloodshed and prophecy, which embraces the nature of war not as the self-willed actions of men, but as an inevitability of the world, in which kings and soldiers alike are but moving cogs. The sight of blood pleases the gods, and the glory and deaths of the bravest warriors is a spectacle not only for the divine, but for all mortals who follow after, drinking their legends like honey.

Though the Morrigan is wise in the ways of fate, she is no sage or magician; her first skill is in the fray. On the eve of battle, she reads omens to the general, and promises good fortune. On the morn, she dives into the press, spear thrusting left and right, reaping men like wheat. Each of her victim is an offering to the gods, and to herself. Her rage is no fury, but a laughing battle-lust, for she knows her place in the order of fate. The rest is for the crows to scavenge.

A Blade of Ill Fortune

When you join this path at 3rd level, you learn three blessings, which are curses to those who can already see their death. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack while raging, the creature takes an extra 1d8 damage for each of the following criteria which is met:

The creature is below its hit point maximum.

The creature is below half of its hit point maximum.

The creature is under the effects of bane or bestow curse.

You may only inflict this extra damage once per turn.

A Harbinger of Grim News

Also at 3rd level, you attract to you a creature of grim omens. This is a spirit with the fey type, which takes the form and game statistics of a raven. It always obeys your commands, and you can communicate with it telepathically while it is within 100 feet of you.

In combat, you roll initiative for the raven and control how it acts. It cannot use the Attack action. As a bonus action, you may order it to reveal the extent of an enemy's wounds, revealing their hit points maximum and their current hit points total. If the raven is slain by a creature, that creature is considered to fulfill the "under the effects of bane or bestow curse" clause of A Blade of Ill Fortune for the next 24 hours.

The raven vanishes when it dies, when you die, or if the two of you are separated by more than 5 miles. At the end of a short or long rest, you can call the raven back to you—no matter where it is or whether it died—and it reappears within 5 feet of you.

Credit: LeValeur@DeviantArt

A Presage of Bloodshed

Starting at 6rd level, your presence in battle is an omen that instills fear in your enemies and courage in your allies. In truth, you promise death and glory to both sides. When you are raging, your raven is alive, and a willing ally within 30 feet of your raven an attack against a creature that is below its maximum hit points, you may use your reaction to grant that ally the benefits and drawbacks of your Reckless Attack feature.

An Eye to the Fates

Also at 6th level, your familiar spirit can warn you of an impending doom or urge you to glory. Your raven spirit gains the augury spell, which it can cast once without requiring a spell slot or material components. Once it has done so, you must finish a short or long rest before it does so again.

A Shadow in the Night

Beginning at 10th level, you are becoming an embodiment of the inevitability of war and death, and blend into the fabric of fate, as cryptic as any good prophecy. You and your familiar are permanently under the effects of the nondetection spell, and no magic can read your thoughts.