The following homebrew adds a modern option to the Warlock class in 5E TTRPGs. All of the core Warlock class abilities can stay rules as written; see the official 5E System Reference Document (SRD v5) for details. Note: This subclass has not yet gone through playtesting.
Warlock Patron: The Hive Mind
Your patron is not a single being but a collective, a vast consciousness that spans countless hosts. It may be a telepathic alien colony, a mycelial network deep beneath the earth, a psychic machine built to connect humanity, or even the sum total of uploaded human minds. Its whispers fill your sleep, and you feel other presences brushing the edges of your thoughts, sometimes comforting, sometimes maddening. You occasionally experience memories that aren’t your own. You are never truly alone.
Expanded Spell List
The Hive Mind lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a Warlock spell:
1st: Command, Dissonant Whispers
2nd: Detect Thoughts, Hold Person
3rd: Clairvoyance, Enemies Abound
4th: Dominate Beast, Greater Invisibility
5th: Dominate Person, Synaptic Static
Your spells express psychic connection, control, and the ability to perceive through the network.
Ideas for Pact Gifts and Flavors
* Pact of the Blade: A biotech weapon, psychic stinger, or mental construct formed from condensed neural energy.
* Pact of the Chain: A symbiotic drone, neural parasite, or tiny psionic creature acting as a relay node.
* Pact of the Tome: A fleshy neural codex or encrypted data crystal containing the memories of thousands
* Pact of the Talisman: A living implant, biotech organ, or chip behind your ear that glows faintly when your hive speaks.
3rd Level: Shared Consciousness
You are linked to your patron’s collective mind. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet. You don’t need to share a language, but the creature must understand at least one.
You can establish a mental link with a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). These creatures must remain within 1 mile of you. While linked, you can communicate bidirectionally as long as both of you are conscious.
Once per long rest, you can make an Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check with advantage by drawing on their senses.
You always know the general direction of linked creatures within range.
6th Level: Network Surge
Your mind amplifies when threatened. When you or a linked creature takes damage, you can use your reaction to channel psychic feedback. The attacker must make an Intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC.
* On a failure, it takes 2d10 psychic damage and has disadvantage on its next attack roll.
* On a success, it takes half damage and suffers no penalty.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), regaining all uses after a long rest.
10th Level: The Many Are One
You can temporarily merge your body and mind with the collective. As an action, you can enter Hive Communion for 1 minute. While in this state:
* You gain resistance to psychic damage.
* You can cast spells that target one creature to also affect up to two of your linked creatures (within 30 feet of each other).
* When you deal psychic damage, add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll per turn.
* You can perceive through the senses of any linked creature without using an action.
Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before using it again.
14th Level: Assimilation Protocol
You can force others into the collective. As an action, you project a wave of psionic code in a 30-foot radius. Each creature of your choice in the area must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC.
* On a failed save, the creature is Charmed by you for 1 minute and becomes linked to your Hive Mind. While linked, you know its location, can communicate telepathically with it, and it cannot attack you directly unless another creature harms it first.
* On a successful save, the creature takes 4d8 psychic damage but resists the link.
You can maintain up to three assimilated creatures at once; linking another ends the oldest connection.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.