Eldritch Expert

There are some sages and scholars that spend their entire academic careers, if not their existence, inventing eccentric spells, or studying some obscure bit of history, or searching for rare herbs and plants, or collecting religious artifacts and studying forgotten gods. But there are those rare and dark few who are haunted by the forbidden lore they consumed that likewise consumes their sanity. They are those who have dived headfirst into research on the various obscene aberrations and eccentric planes of the Far Realm. Their fascination with such eldritch knowledge may spawn from the discovery of some forbidden lore from a tome, or trauma that robbed their innocence and humanity one fateful day, or perhaps they were simply born a bit more twisted than the average person which has slowly consumed their sanity. Regardless, these "eldritch experts" are at the forefront of their field and one would be remiss to not involve them or their research if one pursues threats from beyond the dark spaces between the stars.

Features

Feat: Aberrant Contact

Prior to becoming the adventurer you are today, as a sage or scholar you encountered some sort of aberrant influence or made some sort of contact with the Far Realm. Since then your mind has been permanently altered, for better or for worse, into the twisted being or vengeful protector you are. Choose from the table or roll a d8 to decide your form of Aberrant Contact.

d8	Aberrant Contact
1	Your peers were abducted by Mindflayers, and you barely got away as you witnessed their gruesome experiments and tadpole implantations.
2	You and your peers witnessed the birth of a Beholderkin of some sort and its later destruction of all your life and your work.
3	You escaped after Chuuls dragged you and your peers into the depths of an underwater or subterranean cave and encountered an Aboleth.
4	Your peer was replaced by a shapeshifting Slaad and you didn't know until it was too late, you are the sole survivor of the purging that followed.
5	You and your peers somehow caught up in a Starspawn cult, you escaped physically unscathed but what you witnessed torments you.
6	You and your peers were raided by Neogi and you all were enslaved by them, you escaped alone but at the cost of your mind being broken.
7	You and your peers tampered with ancient magicks, they were physically twisted into Nothics while you were more mentally twisted.
8	You found an ancient black tome bound in flesh and sinew full of arcane secrets and forbidden knowledge, its words are forever seared in your mind.

Feat: Fetid Mind

After being exposed to an Aberrant Contact, your mind has been twisted and altered at its core. As a result, your mood may range from mildly disturbed to extremely volatile at any moment, however, your obsession with eldritch knowledge has allowed you to have an edge on a variety of aberrations. When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of eldritch knowledge you may roll with advantage. If you do not know that information or cannot remember it, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a forbidden library, a sealed ruin of some sort, or from some other demented person or creature. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place in the Far Plane still.

Suggested Characteristics

Use the tables for the sage, cloistered scholar, or haunted one backgrounds as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as an eldritch expert. Your bond is almost certainly associated either with the place where you grew up or with the source of the eldritch knowledge you possess. Your ideal is no doubt related to how you view your eldritch knowledge and how you use it for good or evil. Finally, the flaw describes your worst fears or attributes related to the eldritch knowledge that you are obsessed with.