Gnomes2169
2022-12-30, 10:54 AM
Look I don't know how many people are using the original, and while I love the theming and fluff of the original/ 2.0 version, the mechanics are... a mess. So instead of completely redoing the old thread once again, I think I'll leave the 2.0 thread as it currently stands and just make a new thread here.
Also, this thread will be the version used for the current class creation competition going on! As it would feel kinda iffy to just submit a class that was already done, expect this rework to be substantially different in its mechanics. No weird bone blades, no fighting styles in the base class, etc. Now there's going to be much more emphasis on actively communing with the souls of Legionnaires past, enhancing armor, and subclass flavor. There will also be two additional subclasses: The Envoy and the Nightstalker.
The Legionnaire
“Survivors do not mourn together. They each mourn alone, even when in the same place. Grief is the most solitary of all feelings. Grief isolates, and every ritual, every gesture, every embrace, is a hopeless effort to break through that isolation.
None of it works. The forms crumble and dissolve.
To face death is to stand alone.”
-Toll the Hounds, Malazan Book of the Fallen
Not all beings are afraid of Death. For the broken, it is the final comfort, an end to all loss and pain. For others, it is a price to pay for glory and honor, a necessary sacrifice to make their mark on history, and a chance for immortality. But then there are those for whom Death and its heralds are masters, and they know the hollow promises of peace and immortality are but the dreams of a fool.
These are the individuals who form the ranks of the endless Legions, a collection of warriors, priests, mages and assassins that has served the natural order since time's dawning. While gods have come and gone, the Legion has endured, their soldiers serving to bring the ultimate balance to life's rampant growth by trimming it wherever it grows wild. Their loyalty belongs first and foremost to their cause, the gods of death that deign to lead them, and that greatest evil of all; Necessity. And oh, but has that banner soaked the earth in blood, time and time again.
Children of Grief The call of the Legionnaire is one that most will thankfully never hear, for it is a cry of desperation and utmost loss. Only those who are desperate for meaning, companionship or purpose would dare heed it's mournful call, and yet for those broken souls this final position remains. The chance to serve Death, to be at the beck and call of the most terrible and necessary force of nature, is an offer for the forsaken. For some, this service is a final chance for redemption. For others, it is the last chance to make a mark on the world that will hopefully matter. Regardless of the reason, the soldiers of the Legion find new purpose, and a new cause to dedicate the rest of their lives to.
Sworn to Death To join the ranks of the Legion is to swear an oath to Death itself. Whether it be at the behest and guidance of a patron deity, or a wordless offer from the indifferent universe itself, a Legionnaire must become beholden to the realms of the forgotten and its denizens. While this grants power, it is also a heavy cross to bear. No one should have to dream of the endless deaths of the companions who came before them or know that the armor they don is forged from the bones of the fallen Legionnaires who came before. Only the strongest of minds can withstand this constant barrage, and the foolish swiftly fall to unyielding madness. But for the clever? Oh, for them every nightmare is a chance to learn, every success and failure a look into the weaknesses of their enemy, to train the focus required to land blows with perfect precision in the heart of combat and to actually discover the secrets of the world around them.
Because of this, it is known that to be a Legionnaire is to be counted among the cleverest and most learned people. A stupid Legionnaire is one that will prove their helplessness and die far, far sooner than their companions.
Reaper of the Legion As part of the pact made with the powers beyond the veil, a Legionnaire agrees to gather to them fragments of the souls of those that they kill. For gods and other lieutenants of death, this gives a tally to tell them how useful their tool was in life, and thus allows them to grant an appropriate award once the Legionnaire's time in the world is done. However, for the Legionnaire this holds a far more somber and, sometimes, humbling meaning. Every soul demands that it be complete when it crosses into the next world, and when their reaper dies, these souls gather for one last judgement of their slayer.
For every innocent slain and every unjust act shall the Legionnaire be held personally accountable, every act of valor and mercy shall they be lauded, and every mistake and failure made known. The dead who bestow this judgement shall hold nothing back. Why should they? They are already dead, what reward could be delivered that is greater than one final swell of joy, what greater punishment than a blow of utmost regret and sorrow? The dead have no reason to lie, not to themselves or to any other, and so heroism will be rewarded by the villains, while villainy is damned by the heroes. Such is the irony of life and death.
Not every Legionnaire knows that this is their fate once they pass beyond the gates of the dead, and not all of them care. While many strive to be heroes, to serve the will of their gods and to do what is right, there are just as many, if not more, who are driven mad with their authority, and so think that they are beyond the judgement of those that they slay. To these individuals, this judgement is one final retribution, for the universe does not care what they or their gods might say, those who serve the Legion must suffer the consequences of their actions and face justice one last time.
In the end, one can only hope that they do not fill the abyss with their list of crimes.
LevelProficiencyFeatureBone ArmorArmor modificationsGuidance Points
1+2Bone Armor (2/day), Armor Modification+22--
2+2Soul Guides+224+Int
3+2Graven Tutors, Sworn Legion Feature+224+Int
4+2Ability Score Increase+224+Int
5+3Bone Armor (3/day), Extra Attack+226+Int
6+3Sworn Legion Feature+226+Int
7+3Armor Modification, Mantle of the Fallen+236+Int
8+3Ability Score Increase+236+Int
9+4Bone Armor (4/day), Graven Tutors+238+Int
10+4Sworn Legion Feature+338+Int
11+4Reaper’s Implement (Int)+338+Int
12+4Ability Score Increase+338+Int
13+5Bone armor (5/day), Sworn Legion feature+3310+Int
14+5Armor modification, Endless Death+3410+Int
15+5Sworn Legion Feature+3410+Int
16+5Ability Score Increase+3410+Int
17+6Bone Armor (6/day), Reaper’s Implement (Intx2)+4412+Int
18+6Sworn Legion Feature+4412+Int
19+6Ability Score Increase+4412+Int
20+6Bone Armor (Unlimited), Reaper’s Gale+4412+Int
Building a Legionnaire
Legionnaires are the soldiers of Death itself, and as such they are often a humorless, broken or otherwise less-than-mortal bunch when compared to their adventuring companions. Despite this they still are living beings, and while even their mere presence can be unsettling to normal mortals, they do still feel, have motivations and goals, and quite possibly have dreams beyond the duty and powers to which they have sworn themselves.
Think about what kinds of quirks having sworn yourself to the service of a God of Death (or to the phenomena of Death itself) could have on your character. Perhaps you are a fatalist, always expecting the next fight to be your last. Perhaps your laughter is hollow, joyless, the mirth never lighting up your eyes. Perhaps you never take prisoners, your duty to reap a terrible toll having killed mercy in your heart long ago. Or on the other hand, the knowledge of life's worth brings you to tears whenever you are finally forced to shed blood. Whatever you come up with, keep it in mind while you role-play your character.
Quick build
Legionnaires are powerful and talented warriors who's talents harden their bodies and minds. First, make either Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Intelligence and thirdly Constitution. Finally, choose the Soldier background.
Class features
As a Legionnaire you gain the following class features.
Hit points
Hit dice: 1d10 per Legionnaire level.
Hit Points at 1st level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at higher levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per Legionnaire level after 1st
Proficiency
Armor: Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor and shields
Weapons: Simple and martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence
Skills: Choose any three from Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, History, Medicine, Perception, Religion, Stealth, Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment provided by your background:
(a) Scale mail or (b) leather armor and a longbow and 20 arrows (c) Chain mail
(a) A one-handed martial melee weapon and shield or (b) A two-handed martial melee weapon and 5 javelins
(a) A Dungeoneer's pack or (b) an Explorer's pack
4 daggers and a set of dice (knucklebones)
Alternately, you may start the game with 5d4x10 gold, in addition to the equipment provided by your background.
Multi-classing
To multi-class as a Legionnaire, you must have a minimum of 13 Strength or Dexterity, and you must have a minimum of 13 Intelligence.
Bone Armor
Starting at level 1, you are able to manifest fragments of the souls of fallen legionnaires around your body as semi-solid white bone. This makes a form-fitting layer of chitin above your more mundane armor, providing you with a flexible layer of protection. You may manifest this carapace as a bonus action, and it lasts for 10 minutes. While your bone armor is manifest you gain a +2 bonus to your armor class. The bonus increases as you level up, to +3 at level 10 and +4 at level 17.
You may use this ability twice, gaining an additional use of this ability at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 and then 20 (where it becomes unlimited uses). You regain all expended uses after completing a long rest.
Armor modification
Beginning at level 1, you also begin to modify your bone armor every time you manifest it. Choose two options from the Armor Modifications list that you qualify for. Every time you manifest your bone armor, you additionally gain the chosen armor modification. When you level up, you may choose to exchange one of your armor modifications for another modification that you qualify for.
At level 7 and again at level 14 you choose 1 additional armor modification from the same list. All of your armor modifications are applied whenever you manifest your bone armor.
Empowered Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is active, you may add your proficiency bonus to one weapon damage roll each turn.
Flexible Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you increase your movement speed by 10 feet and have advantage on Strength (athletics) and Dexterity (acrobatics) checks you make.
Grasping Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, whenever you take the Attack action you may first attempt to make a Grapple or Shove action against a creature within 5 feet of you. You must have an open hand to make a grapple in this manner.
Haunted Sight
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you gain advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) and Wisdom (Perception) rolls you make, and you gain a special form of Darkvision out to 60 feet. Within the range of this Darkvision, you may see in magical darkness.
Imbued Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, any time you are targeted by or in the area of effect of a spell or magical ability (such as a dragon's breath, a beholder's eye beam, a mindflayer's psionic blast, etc), you may use your reaction to gain advantage on your saving throw against that effect.
Intellect Fortress Minimum level 14
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you may add your Intelligence bonus to all of your saving throws. (Note: This adds your Intelligence bonus to your Intelligence saving throws twice)
Mobile Bone
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you may choose to either gain a Climbing or a Swimming speed equal to your walking speed until the current manifestation ends. If you choose a Climbing speed, then you also gain resistance to falling damage. If you choose a Swimming speed, then you may breathe safely underwater, inside of noxious gasses, or even in the vacuum of space, and only start holding your breath once the manifestation ends.
Reinforced Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you reduce any Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage you take by your Proficiency bonus, to a minimum of 1. This reduction is applied before any Resistance you possess (if any).
Vital Bone Minimum level 7
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 2d8 + your Legionnaire levels. You lose any remaining temporary hit points from this modification when your current manifestation of Bone Armor ends.
Warding Bone Minimum level 7
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you may choose two of the following damage types: Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Radiant or Thunder. You gain resistance to the chosen damage type until your current manifestation of Bone Armor ends.
Soul Guides
Starting at level 2, you begin tapping into the knowledge and experience of all the fallen Legionnaires that came before you. You gain a number of Guidance points equal 4 + your Intelligence modifier and may spend these points on various actions and abilities that this class will give you. You gain more Guidance points as you level up as shown on the Legionnaire class table. You regain all expended points at the end of a long or short rest.
While some ways to spend these Guidance points will be provided by your Sworn Legion, all Legionnaires may spend their Guidance points in the following ways:
Temporary Knowledge: When you make a roll using a skill or tool that you do not have proficiency in, you may expend 1 Guidance point in order to add your proficiency bonus to that roll. You may use this part of the feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
War Trance: As a bonus action you may spend 2 Guidance points to enter a state of absolute focus, momentarily allowing you to land your strikes with uncanny accuracy. You gain advantage on melee attack rolls until the start of your next turn.
Graven Tutors
Starting at level 3, the spirits that you have reaped and bound to yourself begin to grant you insights into the nature of the world. You gain proficiency in one skill and one language of your choice. Given the source of this knowledge, you may learn dead languages using this feature. You may choose to change any of the languages you have learned due to this feature when you complete a long rest.
You gain proficiency in one additional skill and one additional language at level 9.
Sworn Legion
Also at level 3 you select the Legion that you belong to, denoting your motivations and specialization. You can choose from any of the legions denoted here. You gain additional features at levels 6, 10, 15 and 18.
"Name none of the fallen, for they stand in our place, and stand there still in each moment of our lives. Let my death hold no glory, and let me die forgotten and unknown. Let it not be said that I was one among the dead to accuse the living."
-Deadhouse Gates, Malazan Book of the Fallen
The Bonehunters are a group of voluntary legionnaires. They are professional warriors who have sworn themselves to the deathly powers to serve as protectors, hunting down the immortal, the twisted and the depraved in order to maintain the balance. Resilient to necromantic energies and inescapable when they mark a creature for death, this Legion calls to any who would cleanse the world of the unnatural and undead, giving them a home and allies for as long as they serve. The Bonehunters train their own in how to harness every aspect of their armor, creating true masters of that defensive implement, and as a professional legion they ensure that each of their members knows how to use their weapons to their full effect.
LevelFeature
3Fighting Style, Mark for Death
6Opportunist
10Armor Modification
15Withstand Death
18An End to Eternity
Fighting Style
Starting at level 3 you gain access to a fighting style. Choose one of the fighting styles to learn from the options below. Once made this choice cannot be changed, and an option already taken cannot be selected again even if another source gives you access to the same fighting style:
Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding in two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Mark for Death
Also starting at level 3, you may use your spirit guides to mark your enemies. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you may spend 1 Guidance point to make that creature Marked for Death. Until you or the marked creature dies or the end of your next long or short rest, they cannot use the Disengage action and you increase the damage of opportunity attacks you make against them by 1d8. This extra damage increases to 2d8 at level 11.
Opportunist
Starting at level 6, whenever an enemy that is within your weapon's reach attacks a creature other than you or casts a spell, you may use your Reaction and expend 1 Guidance point to make an opportunity attack against that creature. If this attack hits, then the creature's attack roll suffers disadvantage if they were making an attack, or their targets gain advantage on their saving throw if the creature was casting a spell without an attack roll.
Armor Modification
At level 10 you gain an additional Armor Modification.
Withstand Death
Starting at level 15, your chosen profession and exposure to necrotic energies have given you unparalleled resilience to the attacks of your quarry. You gain immunity to Necrotic and Poison damage, and you are immune to the Poisoned condition and all diseases.
An End to Eternity
Starting at level 18, your strikes disrupt the lives of even immortal creatures. Melee weapon and unarmed attacks you make ignore all damage resistances and immunities a creature might have, deal 1d8 more damage to creatures you have Marked for Death, and any creature you damage with a melee weapon attack cannot be healed by any means until the start of your next turn.
If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you entrap a large fragment of their soul within yourself. Until you are slain, or you relinquish this fragment, the creature cannot be resurrected by any means other than Wish or natural reincarnation. Creatures such as a Vampire or Lich that resurrect themselves after being slain still reform as normal but cannot use legendary actions until you relinquish the fragment you stole from them. Upon your death, all fragments gathered to you by this ability are relinquished.
Gods and other beings of their level cannot have any part of their soul entrapped but are still affected by the rest of this ability.
“I stood upon a distant shore, and watched the stars all die.
From heaven fell the light and dreams, to oceans cold and cruel.
I stood upon a distant shore, and heard the gods all weep.
Their worship stained sands red as rust, with none left for them to rule.
I stood upon a distant shore, and tasted the ash of love.
A petal floating on the waves, left lost in graves of fools.
I stood upon a distant shore, and dreamed of empty skies.”
-Unknown
A somewhat esoteric and peculiar division of the Legion, the envoys serve as a diplomatic branch of the death sworn. Having made a pact with whatever force represents Death upon their world, the envoy's soul was partially hollowed out and fused with a spirit that they can call upon to aid them in their tasks. The process also modifies how they think and they tend to style themselves as soldier-philosophers, granting them unique ways of viewing morality and their place in the cosmos. While this can make them oddly persuasive when they are negotiating, or terrifying when they wish to intimidate, it leaves them with a strange, almost poetic prose to the way that they start their letters and conversations, and often leads to people thinking they're just a bit stuck up. Still, with their grim companion and their minor magical talents, the addition of an envoy to a party is often worth the annoyance.
LevelFeature
3Grim Companion, Envoy's Training
6Guided Grim
10Envoy's Abeyance
15Grim Ferocity
18Death's Voice
Grim Companion
Starting at level 3 the powers of the deathly courts assign you an undead hound called a grim that serves as your guard. When you are assigned this grim, you may use an action to summon it within an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.
The grim is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Grim Companion stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. When your grim first appears, and every time you summon it after, you may choose whether it is Ethereal, Rotten or Skeletal. Your choice changes your Grim's appearance and the actions and abilities it possesses.
In combat, the grim shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to telepathically command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or another action that it is capable of. If you are incapacitated, the grim can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
The grim remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the grim again, or until you die. Anything the grim was wearing or carrying is left behind when the Grim vanishes.
Once you summon the grim, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend 3 Guidance points to summon it.
Grim Companion
Medium Undead, true neutral
Armor class 16 (natural armor)
Hit pints 3 + 3 times your Legionnaire level (Ethereal) or 4 times your Legionnaire level (Rotten and Skeletal) (The grim has a number of Hit Dice [d8s] equal to your Legionnaire level)
Speed 40ft
StrDexConIntWisCha
16 (+3)10 (+0)16 (+3)12 (+0)14 (+2)8 (-1)
Saving Throws Int +(1 plus PB), Wis +(2 plus PB)
Damage resistances Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical weapons (Ethereal only)
Damage immunities Poison
Condition immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60ft., passive perception 12
Languages All languages that you know
Challenge -- Proficiency bonus: Equals your bonus
Consume Rot (rotten only) The grim may use a bonus action to consume a fraction of a fresh corpse within their Bite weapon's reach and incorporate that flesh into their body. When they do, they heal 1d8 + PB hit points. The grim may use consume rot a number of times equal to its PB and regains all uses at the end of a long rest.
Ghost Form (ethereal only) The grim may ignore difficult terrain and may walk on water.
Actions
Bite +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 plus PB piercing damage.
Flensing slam (skeletal only) +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 plus PB bludgeoning damage. On hit, a medium or smaller target must make a Strength save of DC 11 + PB. On a failed save, the target is knocked prone and the grim may make an attack with their bite against them.
Reactions
Bone splinters (skeletal only) When another creature attacks the grim, it may use its reaction to add its PB to its armor class against that attack. If the attack hits regardless, the grim may select up to one creature within 5ft of it and fling bone splinters into that creature, dealing PB piercing damage to that creature.
Envoy's Training
Also at level 3 you gain proficiency in one Charisma skill of your choice. When you make a Charisma roll that you are proficient in, you may expend 1 Guidance point to add your Intelligence modifier to that roll.
Guided Grim
Starting at level 6 your bond with your grim allows it to tap into the power and knowledge of the legions that came before you. Your grim companion's bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage is considered magical. Additionally, whenever you use your bonus action to command your grim, you may spend 3 Guidance points in order to grant both yourself and the grim the benefits of your War Trance feature.
Envoy's Abeyance
Starting at level 10 you gain a ward against unnatural influence. You and your grim companion are permanently under the effects of the Protection from Evil and Good spell. (Player's Handbook)
Grim ferocity
Starting at level 15 your grim companion gains the following improvements:
Its armor class increases by 2.
It gains a +2 bonus on its melee attack and damage rolls
It becomes large, and the reach of its Bite attack becomes 10ft. If it is skeletal, it may knock large or smaller creatures prone with its Flensing Slam attack.
Death's Voice (Guidance point ultimate)
Starting at level 18 you are able to channel the aspect of death that you represent into whispered word. You may use your action and expend 6 guidance points to cast the spell Divine Word (Player's Handbook). The save DC for this spell when cast this way is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier. If a creature that fails their saving throw has more than 50 hit points, they suffer 6d10 points of necrotic damage.
If your grim companion is on the same plane as you, you may expend 2 additional Guidance points to cast a copy of this spell centered on that companion. A creature within 30 feet of both you and your companion cannot be affected by both castings of this spell.
"Now, now, what do we have here, creeping through the muck and deepest shadows? A lost mouse, slipping through my lair, hoping to not be seen. What horrors have you witnessed, mouse? Such twisted reflections of your home live within this place, so familiar and yet wrong. It must have been quite the ordeal to survive for as long as you have, from your stumble into this realm, all the way here, to my domain. A shame that you should find me."
-The Lady of Silver Nights, Talon of the Legion
Death is a universal phenomenon, present within all planes and all times, but there are fewer places where it is stronger than the Shadowfell and other planes of that variety. These mirror realms of the Prime are twisted places, filled with denizens that are inherently hostile to normal life. This makes them the perfect training and recruitment grounds for the legion's assassins, the Nightstalkers. Mortals who stumble into one of these realms typically die, consumed by its monstrous inhabitants, but some lucky few are found by the Legion and given the opportunity to serve as the hand of Death in exchange for a way back home. Other members of the Legion actively volunteer for the duty and undertake the trek into the shadowed realms of their own volition. Regardless of how it happened, the Nightblade's time within the mirror realm augments their natural Legionnaire powers and talents, partially untethering them from any plane they walk within and connecting them to the ethereal plane and the shadows around them.
LevelFeature
3Shadowborn, Veil Strike
6Death Stride, Veil Sense
10Combat Anticipation
15Ethereal Jaunt
18Strike and Fade
Shadowborn
Starting at level 3 you absorb a fragment of the shadow realm's energy, allowing you to dance through the darkness as if it were your home. You gain a special kind of Darkvision out to 60. Within the range of this Darkvision, you may see in magical darkness. Additionally, while in shadowy light or darkness, your movement speed increases by 10 feet.
Veil Strike
Also at level 3 you begin to weaponize the veil between life and death, turning it into a lashing arc on your blades. Whenever you make an attack with a melee weapon, you may spend 1 Guidance point to increase the reach of that attack to 30 feet. (Note, this is still a melee attack.) If this attack hits, it deals an additional 1d12 necrotic damage.
Death Stride
Starting at level 6 whenever a creature within 120 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you may use your reaction and expend 1 Guidance point in order to teleport to any space that creature was occupying. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks, and you do not need to be able to see the creature that was reduced to 0 hit points in order to move in this way.
Veil Sense
Also starting at level 6, you have a supernatural connection to death and the ethereal plane. You may sense the presence of all undead, creatures on the ethereal plane and creatures who died or who are making death saving throws within 120 feet of you. This sense does not allow you to pinpoint the exact location of these creatures, but it does let you know the direction they are from you and their numbers.
Combat Anticipation
Starting at level 10 your time within the shadow realm has trained to anticipate unexpected attacks, allowing you to respond to combat faster than your peers. You may add your Intelligence bonus to your initiative rolls.
Ethereal Jaunt
Starting at level 15 you become able to slip in and out of the ethereal plane. You may use a bonus action and expend 3 Guidance points to be treated as if you were under the effects of the spell Etherealness until the beginning of your next turn.
Strike and Fade
Starting at level 18 you are able to steal life force from creatures you hurt, using that power to bend the veil around you as an obscuring shroud. At the end of any turn which you damaged at least one other creature, you may use your reaction and expend 3 Guidance points to become invisible until the end of your next turn. While you are invisible in this way, you gain resistance to all damage except for Radiant.
"Mercy? You, who have murdered and twisted and perverted the natural order? You, who have desecrated the sanctity of life and bent the very foundations of reality to your whims, headless of the costs? You would beg me for mercy that you have never shown, and most certainly do not deserve? You have the gall?! Hmmm... well, there is one thing that you may bargain with. However, you really are not going to like it."
-The Judge
In their last, dying moments, some murderers, necromancers and their ilk are given an offer to atone, to divert their rightful punishment for faithful service. These are the souls assigned to the Punitive legion. A desperate, often unwilling, soldier corps, the members of the Punitive legion struggle like one with a sword of Damocles above their neck, refusing to fail and refusing to break. After all, dying before their task is accomplished is a failure of their vows, and the punishment awaiting them will not be abstained a second time. With such motivation, and no escape from their service possible, the Deathly Powers often abuse their authority over these poor souls, knowing that no matter what, their pawn must at least attempt the task, even if it proves impossible.
LevelFeature
3Arisen, Risen Resilience
6Unyielding
10Requiem
15Desperate Resolve
18Ultimate Expendable
Arisen
Starting at level 3, your brush with death has given you reflexive resilience to being put down for any amount of time. You only need to spend 5 feet of movement to stand up from being prone. Additionally, if you have a hostile creature within your reach, you may use a bonus action to expend 1 Guidance point in order to regain 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier hit points.
Risen Resilience
Dying once has inured you to the whole experience. Also starting at level 3, whenever you regain hit points for any reason, you regain a number of additional hit points equal to half of your proficiency bonus (rounded down).
Unyielding
Starting at level 6, the pressure of your penance gives you resilience to effects that would sway your mind. You gain immunity to the Frightened and Charmed conditions.
Requiem
Starting at level 10, you are able to take on the appearance of one who is already dead. As a 10 minute ritual, you re-open the mortal wound that caused you to make the pact with death in the first place, and you become still and seemingly lifeless. You may remain in this state for up to a month. You are conscious the entire time, aware of the area 60 feet around you but are blind and deaf beyond that, do not need to eat, sleep or breathe, and do not take damage if your body comes to harm from any source short of disintegration. If you are disintegrated, you are slain immediately. After concentrating for a minute, you can repair all damage that was dealt to your body, regaining all lost limbs and flesh, reverting all rot and awakening at full hit points.
You must finish a long rest after awakening from this state before you can use Requiem again.
Desperate Resolve
Starting at level 15, your desperate drive to accomplish your goal hardens you to your mounting injuries and allows you to deliver retribution to those who would strike you down. Whenever you use your Endless Death feature, you may spend up to 3 guidance points to roll one of your unspent hit dice for each guidance point spent, add your constitution modifier for each hit die rolled, and regain hit points equal to the amount rolled. The creature that caused you to use Endless Death also suffers damage equal to the amount of hit points regained this way. Each hit die rolled this way is expended.
Ultimate Expendable
Starting at level 18 your role as a throw-away shock trooper finally changes into a hard-won respect from the beings who command your fate, making them view you as the... least expendable of their expendable troopers. As an action you may call upon their power to replenish yourself, immediately granting you the benefits of completing a short rest and restoring 6 of your previously expended hit dice. Until the end of your next turn, or the end of your first turn in the next combat if you are not in combat currently, all of your attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws have advantage.
After you use this ability, you must complete a long rest in order to use it again.
"But on the battlefield? On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second day I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I... I wish it wasn't over. I wish... I wish..."
-The Heroes, Joe Abercrombie
The legion of the Tallyman has one goal, and one goal alone; To reap the souls of the living. Whether they serve a good and just cause, or merely serve the Deathly Powers for the joy of the slaughter, a Tallyman has sworn their service in exchange for power, and the price for that power is the lives of others. Ultimately, the concept of mercy has been forgotten by the Tallyman, making them one of the most brutal and cold of all of the legions. Is it any wonder that this legion calls to so many madmen?
LevelFeature
3Increasing Tally, War's Tempo
6Unsettling Grin
10Path of Slaughter
15Aspect of the Reaper
18War's Climax
Increasing Tally
Starting at level 3 you learn how to make the most of the soul fragments you steal from striking down your foes. Whenever you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack and do not have any Guidance points, you regain a number of Guidance points equal to 1/2 your Proficiency bonus (rounded down).
War's Tempo
Also starting at level 3 your call to war makes you a more deadly implement. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee attack you may expend 1 Guidance point to gain one of the following benefits:
You add 1d6 to the attack's damage roll. This damage increases to 1d8 at level 5, 1d10 at level 11 and 1d12 at level 17.
You may gain temporary hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Unsettling Grin
Starting at level 6, your facial expression gives warning to the dangerous beast that lays just behind your eyes. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill and may add your Intelligence modifier to Charisma (intimidation) skill rolls you make. If you already had proficiency in Intimidation, then you may choose a different skill to gain proficiency in.
Path of Slaughter
Starting at level 10, spilling the blood of your enemies invigorates you, and allows you to advance to your next field of slaughter that much faster. Whenever you reduce a creature's hit points to 0 with a melee weapon attack, you may immediately move up to 30 feet. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. You may only move in this manner once each turn.
Aspect of the Reaper
Starting at level 15, you exude an aura of supernatural horror that allows you to prey upon the weak who fall victim to it. When an enemy starts their turn or move into a space within 30 feet of you for the first time on their turn, you may use your reaction to force that creature to make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier), becoming Frightened of you for 10 minutes on a failed saving throw. A creature Frightened in this way that ends their turn without you in their line of sight may attempt to reroll this saving throw, ending the condition on a success. A creature that succeeds on their saving throw becomes immune to this ability for 24 hours.
War's Climax
Starting at level 18 you are driven to the greatest heights of slaughter. As long as you have at least one creature in your reach when you take the Attack action, you may expend 2 Guidance points in order to make one additional attack with one of your melee weapons. If you have at least three enemies in your reach when you take the Attack action, you may instead spend 3 Guidance points in order to make two additional attacks with one of your melee weapons.
Ability Score increase
When you reach level 4, and then again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can choose one ability score to increase by 2, or two ability scores to increase by 1. This feature may not increase an ability score above 20.
Extra Attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Mantle of the Fallen
Starting at level 7, you may channel the fragments of the souls that you have collected into a cloak that enhances your mobility and warns you about threats. You may use a bonus action and expend 2 Guidance points in order to activate your Mantle. While this mantle is active, you increase your walking speed by 15 feet, you may walk up and down walls and other vertical surfaces as if they were flat ground, and you ignore falling damage and damage from dangerous terrain. If you end your turn on a vertical surface, you may have your mantle anchor you in place so that you do not fall, or you may choose to fall.
Alternately, if you are surprised, then you may spend 3 Guidance points to activate your mantle and you are not afflicted with this condition in addition to its other benefits. If you do so, your reaction is expended until the start of your next turn.
You must spend 1 Guidance point at the start of each of your turns while your mantle is active. If you do not, then the mantle ends.
Reaper’s Implement
Beginning at level 11, your aura begins to carry the essence of the veil, making the weapons you wield even more deadly to your foes. You may change the weapon damage of any melee attack you make into necrotic or radiant instead of its normal damage type (chosen with each attack), and you also increase any damage your melee attacks deal by your Intelligence modifier (minimum +1).
At level 17 you add double your Intelligence modifier to your melee damage rolls instead.
Endless Death
Starting at level 14, whenever you have your Bone Armor manifested and a source would reduce you to 0 hit points or kill you, you may choose to end your armor's current manifestation in order to remain at 1 hit point instead. If the source that reduced you to 0 hit points would normally kill you (such as a Disintegrate or Power Word: Kill spell (Player's Handbook) or a Vorpal blade's decapitating strike), it does not do so and you do not suffer the physical effects of its normal kill clause (you are not turned to dust, decapitated, etc).
Reaper’s Gale
Upon reaching level 20, you become a walking monument to death itself. Whenever one of your attacks reduces a creature to 0 hit points, you may make an additional attack with any of your equipped weapons and may choose to regain up to 2 previously expended Guidance points. You may gain any number of attacks during your turn from this ability.
Also, this thread will be the version used for the current class creation competition going on! As it would feel kinda iffy to just submit a class that was already done, expect this rework to be substantially different in its mechanics. No weird bone blades, no fighting styles in the base class, etc. Now there's going to be much more emphasis on actively communing with the souls of Legionnaires past, enhancing armor, and subclass flavor. There will also be two additional subclasses: The Envoy and the Nightstalker.
The Legionnaire
“Survivors do not mourn together. They each mourn alone, even when in the same place. Grief is the most solitary of all feelings. Grief isolates, and every ritual, every gesture, every embrace, is a hopeless effort to break through that isolation.
None of it works. The forms crumble and dissolve.
To face death is to stand alone.”
-Toll the Hounds, Malazan Book of the Fallen
Not all beings are afraid of Death. For the broken, it is the final comfort, an end to all loss and pain. For others, it is a price to pay for glory and honor, a necessary sacrifice to make their mark on history, and a chance for immortality. But then there are those for whom Death and its heralds are masters, and they know the hollow promises of peace and immortality are but the dreams of a fool.
These are the individuals who form the ranks of the endless Legions, a collection of warriors, priests, mages and assassins that has served the natural order since time's dawning. While gods have come and gone, the Legion has endured, their soldiers serving to bring the ultimate balance to life's rampant growth by trimming it wherever it grows wild. Their loyalty belongs first and foremost to their cause, the gods of death that deign to lead them, and that greatest evil of all; Necessity. And oh, but has that banner soaked the earth in blood, time and time again.
Children of Grief The call of the Legionnaire is one that most will thankfully never hear, for it is a cry of desperation and utmost loss. Only those who are desperate for meaning, companionship or purpose would dare heed it's mournful call, and yet for those broken souls this final position remains. The chance to serve Death, to be at the beck and call of the most terrible and necessary force of nature, is an offer for the forsaken. For some, this service is a final chance for redemption. For others, it is the last chance to make a mark on the world that will hopefully matter. Regardless of the reason, the soldiers of the Legion find new purpose, and a new cause to dedicate the rest of their lives to.
Sworn to Death To join the ranks of the Legion is to swear an oath to Death itself. Whether it be at the behest and guidance of a patron deity, or a wordless offer from the indifferent universe itself, a Legionnaire must become beholden to the realms of the forgotten and its denizens. While this grants power, it is also a heavy cross to bear. No one should have to dream of the endless deaths of the companions who came before them or know that the armor they don is forged from the bones of the fallen Legionnaires who came before. Only the strongest of minds can withstand this constant barrage, and the foolish swiftly fall to unyielding madness. But for the clever? Oh, for them every nightmare is a chance to learn, every success and failure a look into the weaknesses of their enemy, to train the focus required to land blows with perfect precision in the heart of combat and to actually discover the secrets of the world around them.
Because of this, it is known that to be a Legionnaire is to be counted among the cleverest and most learned people. A stupid Legionnaire is one that will prove their helplessness and die far, far sooner than their companions.
Reaper of the Legion As part of the pact made with the powers beyond the veil, a Legionnaire agrees to gather to them fragments of the souls of those that they kill. For gods and other lieutenants of death, this gives a tally to tell them how useful their tool was in life, and thus allows them to grant an appropriate award once the Legionnaire's time in the world is done. However, for the Legionnaire this holds a far more somber and, sometimes, humbling meaning. Every soul demands that it be complete when it crosses into the next world, and when their reaper dies, these souls gather for one last judgement of their slayer.
For every innocent slain and every unjust act shall the Legionnaire be held personally accountable, every act of valor and mercy shall they be lauded, and every mistake and failure made known. The dead who bestow this judgement shall hold nothing back. Why should they? They are already dead, what reward could be delivered that is greater than one final swell of joy, what greater punishment than a blow of utmost regret and sorrow? The dead have no reason to lie, not to themselves or to any other, and so heroism will be rewarded by the villains, while villainy is damned by the heroes. Such is the irony of life and death.
Not every Legionnaire knows that this is their fate once they pass beyond the gates of the dead, and not all of them care. While many strive to be heroes, to serve the will of their gods and to do what is right, there are just as many, if not more, who are driven mad with their authority, and so think that they are beyond the judgement of those that they slay. To these individuals, this judgement is one final retribution, for the universe does not care what they or their gods might say, those who serve the Legion must suffer the consequences of their actions and face justice one last time.
In the end, one can only hope that they do not fill the abyss with their list of crimes.
LevelProficiencyFeatureBone ArmorArmor modificationsGuidance Points
1+2Bone Armor (2/day), Armor Modification+22--
2+2Soul Guides+224+Int
3+2Graven Tutors, Sworn Legion Feature+224+Int
4+2Ability Score Increase+224+Int
5+3Bone Armor (3/day), Extra Attack+226+Int
6+3Sworn Legion Feature+226+Int
7+3Armor Modification, Mantle of the Fallen+236+Int
8+3Ability Score Increase+236+Int
9+4Bone Armor (4/day), Graven Tutors+238+Int
10+4Sworn Legion Feature+338+Int
11+4Reaper’s Implement (Int)+338+Int
12+4Ability Score Increase+338+Int
13+5Bone armor (5/day), Sworn Legion feature+3310+Int
14+5Armor modification, Endless Death+3410+Int
15+5Sworn Legion Feature+3410+Int
16+5Ability Score Increase+3410+Int
17+6Bone Armor (6/day), Reaper’s Implement (Intx2)+4412+Int
18+6Sworn Legion Feature+4412+Int
19+6Ability Score Increase+4412+Int
20+6Bone Armor (Unlimited), Reaper’s Gale+4412+Int
Building a Legionnaire
Legionnaires are the soldiers of Death itself, and as such they are often a humorless, broken or otherwise less-than-mortal bunch when compared to their adventuring companions. Despite this they still are living beings, and while even their mere presence can be unsettling to normal mortals, they do still feel, have motivations and goals, and quite possibly have dreams beyond the duty and powers to which they have sworn themselves.
Think about what kinds of quirks having sworn yourself to the service of a God of Death (or to the phenomena of Death itself) could have on your character. Perhaps you are a fatalist, always expecting the next fight to be your last. Perhaps your laughter is hollow, joyless, the mirth never lighting up your eyes. Perhaps you never take prisoners, your duty to reap a terrible toll having killed mercy in your heart long ago. Or on the other hand, the knowledge of life's worth brings you to tears whenever you are finally forced to shed blood. Whatever you come up with, keep it in mind while you role-play your character.
Quick build
Legionnaires are powerful and talented warriors who's talents harden their bodies and minds. First, make either Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Intelligence and thirdly Constitution. Finally, choose the Soldier background.
Class features
As a Legionnaire you gain the following class features.
Hit points
Hit dice: 1d10 per Legionnaire level.
Hit Points at 1st level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at higher levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per Legionnaire level after 1st
Proficiency
Armor: Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor and shields
Weapons: Simple and martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence
Skills: Choose any three from Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, History, Medicine, Perception, Religion, Stealth, Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment provided by your background:
(a) Scale mail or (b) leather armor and a longbow and 20 arrows (c) Chain mail
(a) A one-handed martial melee weapon and shield or (b) A two-handed martial melee weapon and 5 javelins
(a) A Dungeoneer's pack or (b) an Explorer's pack
4 daggers and a set of dice (knucklebones)
Alternately, you may start the game with 5d4x10 gold, in addition to the equipment provided by your background.
Multi-classing
To multi-class as a Legionnaire, you must have a minimum of 13 Strength or Dexterity, and you must have a minimum of 13 Intelligence.
Bone Armor
Starting at level 1, you are able to manifest fragments of the souls of fallen legionnaires around your body as semi-solid white bone. This makes a form-fitting layer of chitin above your more mundane armor, providing you with a flexible layer of protection. You may manifest this carapace as a bonus action, and it lasts for 10 minutes. While your bone armor is manifest you gain a +2 bonus to your armor class. The bonus increases as you level up, to +3 at level 10 and +4 at level 17.
You may use this ability twice, gaining an additional use of this ability at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 and then 20 (where it becomes unlimited uses). You regain all expended uses after completing a long rest.
Armor modification
Beginning at level 1, you also begin to modify your bone armor every time you manifest it. Choose two options from the Armor Modifications list that you qualify for. Every time you manifest your bone armor, you additionally gain the chosen armor modification. When you level up, you may choose to exchange one of your armor modifications for another modification that you qualify for.
At level 7 and again at level 14 you choose 1 additional armor modification from the same list. All of your armor modifications are applied whenever you manifest your bone armor.
Empowered Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is active, you may add your proficiency bonus to one weapon damage roll each turn.
Flexible Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you increase your movement speed by 10 feet and have advantage on Strength (athletics) and Dexterity (acrobatics) checks you make.
Grasping Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, whenever you take the Attack action you may first attempt to make a Grapple or Shove action against a creature within 5 feet of you. You must have an open hand to make a grapple in this manner.
Haunted Sight
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you gain advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) and Wisdom (Perception) rolls you make, and you gain a special form of Darkvision out to 60 feet. Within the range of this Darkvision, you may see in magical darkness.
Imbued Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, any time you are targeted by or in the area of effect of a spell or magical ability (such as a dragon's breath, a beholder's eye beam, a mindflayer's psionic blast, etc), you may use your reaction to gain advantage on your saving throw against that effect.
Intellect Fortress Minimum level 14
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you may add your Intelligence bonus to all of your saving throws. (Note: This adds your Intelligence bonus to your Intelligence saving throws twice)
Mobile Bone
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you may choose to either gain a Climbing or a Swimming speed equal to your walking speed until the current manifestation ends. If you choose a Climbing speed, then you also gain resistance to falling damage. If you choose a Swimming speed, then you may breathe safely underwater, inside of noxious gasses, or even in the vacuum of space, and only start holding your breath once the manifestation ends.
Reinforced Bone
As long as your Bone Armor is manifest, you reduce any Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage you take by your Proficiency bonus, to a minimum of 1. This reduction is applied before any Resistance you possess (if any).
Vital Bone Minimum level 7
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 2d8 + your Legionnaire levels. You lose any remaining temporary hit points from this modification when your current manifestation of Bone Armor ends.
Warding Bone Minimum level 7
Each time you manifest your Bone Armor, you may choose two of the following damage types: Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Radiant or Thunder. You gain resistance to the chosen damage type until your current manifestation of Bone Armor ends.
Soul Guides
Starting at level 2, you begin tapping into the knowledge and experience of all the fallen Legionnaires that came before you. You gain a number of Guidance points equal 4 + your Intelligence modifier and may spend these points on various actions and abilities that this class will give you. You gain more Guidance points as you level up as shown on the Legionnaire class table. You regain all expended points at the end of a long or short rest.
While some ways to spend these Guidance points will be provided by your Sworn Legion, all Legionnaires may spend their Guidance points in the following ways:
Temporary Knowledge: When you make a roll using a skill or tool that you do not have proficiency in, you may expend 1 Guidance point in order to add your proficiency bonus to that roll. You may use this part of the feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
War Trance: As a bonus action you may spend 2 Guidance points to enter a state of absolute focus, momentarily allowing you to land your strikes with uncanny accuracy. You gain advantage on melee attack rolls until the start of your next turn.
Graven Tutors
Starting at level 3, the spirits that you have reaped and bound to yourself begin to grant you insights into the nature of the world. You gain proficiency in one skill and one language of your choice. Given the source of this knowledge, you may learn dead languages using this feature. You may choose to change any of the languages you have learned due to this feature when you complete a long rest.
You gain proficiency in one additional skill and one additional language at level 9.
Sworn Legion
Also at level 3 you select the Legion that you belong to, denoting your motivations and specialization. You can choose from any of the legions denoted here. You gain additional features at levels 6, 10, 15 and 18.
"Name none of the fallen, for they stand in our place, and stand there still in each moment of our lives. Let my death hold no glory, and let me die forgotten and unknown. Let it not be said that I was one among the dead to accuse the living."
-Deadhouse Gates, Malazan Book of the Fallen
The Bonehunters are a group of voluntary legionnaires. They are professional warriors who have sworn themselves to the deathly powers to serve as protectors, hunting down the immortal, the twisted and the depraved in order to maintain the balance. Resilient to necromantic energies and inescapable when they mark a creature for death, this Legion calls to any who would cleanse the world of the unnatural and undead, giving them a home and allies for as long as they serve. The Bonehunters train their own in how to harness every aspect of their armor, creating true masters of that defensive implement, and as a professional legion they ensure that each of their members knows how to use their weapons to their full effect.
LevelFeature
3Fighting Style, Mark for Death
6Opportunist
10Armor Modification
15Withstand Death
18An End to Eternity
Fighting Style
Starting at level 3 you gain access to a fighting style. Choose one of the fighting styles to learn from the options below. Once made this choice cannot be changed, and an option already taken cannot be selected again even if another source gives you access to the same fighting style:
Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding in two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Mark for Death
Also starting at level 3, you may use your spirit guides to mark your enemies. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you may spend 1 Guidance point to make that creature Marked for Death. Until you or the marked creature dies or the end of your next long or short rest, they cannot use the Disengage action and you increase the damage of opportunity attacks you make against them by 1d8. This extra damage increases to 2d8 at level 11.
Opportunist
Starting at level 6, whenever an enemy that is within your weapon's reach attacks a creature other than you or casts a spell, you may use your Reaction and expend 1 Guidance point to make an opportunity attack against that creature. If this attack hits, then the creature's attack roll suffers disadvantage if they were making an attack, or their targets gain advantage on their saving throw if the creature was casting a spell without an attack roll.
Armor Modification
At level 10 you gain an additional Armor Modification.
Withstand Death
Starting at level 15, your chosen profession and exposure to necrotic energies have given you unparalleled resilience to the attacks of your quarry. You gain immunity to Necrotic and Poison damage, and you are immune to the Poisoned condition and all diseases.
An End to Eternity
Starting at level 18, your strikes disrupt the lives of even immortal creatures. Melee weapon and unarmed attacks you make ignore all damage resistances and immunities a creature might have, deal 1d8 more damage to creatures you have Marked for Death, and any creature you damage with a melee weapon attack cannot be healed by any means until the start of your next turn.
If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you entrap a large fragment of their soul within yourself. Until you are slain, or you relinquish this fragment, the creature cannot be resurrected by any means other than Wish or natural reincarnation. Creatures such as a Vampire or Lich that resurrect themselves after being slain still reform as normal but cannot use legendary actions until you relinquish the fragment you stole from them. Upon your death, all fragments gathered to you by this ability are relinquished.
Gods and other beings of their level cannot have any part of their soul entrapped but are still affected by the rest of this ability.
“I stood upon a distant shore, and watched the stars all die.
From heaven fell the light and dreams, to oceans cold and cruel.
I stood upon a distant shore, and heard the gods all weep.
Their worship stained sands red as rust, with none left for them to rule.
I stood upon a distant shore, and tasted the ash of love.
A petal floating on the waves, left lost in graves of fools.
I stood upon a distant shore, and dreamed of empty skies.”
-Unknown
A somewhat esoteric and peculiar division of the Legion, the envoys serve as a diplomatic branch of the death sworn. Having made a pact with whatever force represents Death upon their world, the envoy's soul was partially hollowed out and fused with a spirit that they can call upon to aid them in their tasks. The process also modifies how they think and they tend to style themselves as soldier-philosophers, granting them unique ways of viewing morality and their place in the cosmos. While this can make them oddly persuasive when they are negotiating, or terrifying when they wish to intimidate, it leaves them with a strange, almost poetic prose to the way that they start their letters and conversations, and often leads to people thinking they're just a bit stuck up. Still, with their grim companion and their minor magical talents, the addition of an envoy to a party is often worth the annoyance.
LevelFeature
3Grim Companion, Envoy's Training
6Guided Grim
10Envoy's Abeyance
15Grim Ferocity
18Death's Voice
Grim Companion
Starting at level 3 the powers of the deathly courts assign you an undead hound called a grim that serves as your guard. When you are assigned this grim, you may use an action to summon it within an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.
The grim is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Grim Companion stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. When your grim first appears, and every time you summon it after, you may choose whether it is Ethereal, Rotten or Skeletal. Your choice changes your Grim's appearance and the actions and abilities it possesses.
In combat, the grim shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to telepathically command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or another action that it is capable of. If you are incapacitated, the grim can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
The grim remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the grim again, or until you die. Anything the grim was wearing or carrying is left behind when the Grim vanishes.
Once you summon the grim, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend 3 Guidance points to summon it.
Grim Companion
Medium Undead, true neutral
Armor class 16 (natural armor)
Hit pints 3 + 3 times your Legionnaire level (Ethereal) or 4 times your Legionnaire level (Rotten and Skeletal) (The grim has a number of Hit Dice [d8s] equal to your Legionnaire level)
Speed 40ft
StrDexConIntWisCha
16 (+3)10 (+0)16 (+3)12 (+0)14 (+2)8 (-1)
Saving Throws Int +(1 plus PB), Wis +(2 plus PB)
Damage resistances Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical weapons (Ethereal only)
Damage immunities Poison
Condition immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60ft., passive perception 12
Languages All languages that you know
Challenge -- Proficiency bonus: Equals your bonus
Consume Rot (rotten only) The grim may use a bonus action to consume a fraction of a fresh corpse within their Bite weapon's reach and incorporate that flesh into their body. When they do, they heal 1d8 + PB hit points. The grim may use consume rot a number of times equal to its PB and regains all uses at the end of a long rest.
Ghost Form (ethereal only) The grim may ignore difficult terrain and may walk on water.
Actions
Bite +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 plus PB piercing damage.
Flensing slam (skeletal only) +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 plus PB bludgeoning damage. On hit, a medium or smaller target must make a Strength save of DC 11 + PB. On a failed save, the target is knocked prone and the grim may make an attack with their bite against them.
Reactions
Bone splinters (skeletal only) When another creature attacks the grim, it may use its reaction to add its PB to its armor class against that attack. If the attack hits regardless, the grim may select up to one creature within 5ft of it and fling bone splinters into that creature, dealing PB piercing damage to that creature.
Envoy's Training
Also at level 3 you gain proficiency in one Charisma skill of your choice. When you make a Charisma roll that you are proficient in, you may expend 1 Guidance point to add your Intelligence modifier to that roll.
Guided Grim
Starting at level 6 your bond with your grim allows it to tap into the power and knowledge of the legions that came before you. Your grim companion's bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage is considered magical. Additionally, whenever you use your bonus action to command your grim, you may spend 3 Guidance points in order to grant both yourself and the grim the benefits of your War Trance feature.
Envoy's Abeyance
Starting at level 10 you gain a ward against unnatural influence. You and your grim companion are permanently under the effects of the Protection from Evil and Good spell. (Player's Handbook)
Grim ferocity
Starting at level 15 your grim companion gains the following improvements:
Its armor class increases by 2.
It gains a +2 bonus on its melee attack and damage rolls
It becomes large, and the reach of its Bite attack becomes 10ft. If it is skeletal, it may knock large or smaller creatures prone with its Flensing Slam attack.
Death's Voice (Guidance point ultimate)
Starting at level 18 you are able to channel the aspect of death that you represent into whispered word. You may use your action and expend 6 guidance points to cast the spell Divine Word (Player's Handbook). The save DC for this spell when cast this way is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier. If a creature that fails their saving throw has more than 50 hit points, they suffer 6d10 points of necrotic damage.
If your grim companion is on the same plane as you, you may expend 2 additional Guidance points to cast a copy of this spell centered on that companion. A creature within 30 feet of both you and your companion cannot be affected by both castings of this spell.
"Now, now, what do we have here, creeping through the muck and deepest shadows? A lost mouse, slipping through my lair, hoping to not be seen. What horrors have you witnessed, mouse? Such twisted reflections of your home live within this place, so familiar and yet wrong. It must have been quite the ordeal to survive for as long as you have, from your stumble into this realm, all the way here, to my domain. A shame that you should find me."
-The Lady of Silver Nights, Talon of the Legion
Death is a universal phenomenon, present within all planes and all times, but there are fewer places where it is stronger than the Shadowfell and other planes of that variety. These mirror realms of the Prime are twisted places, filled with denizens that are inherently hostile to normal life. This makes them the perfect training and recruitment grounds for the legion's assassins, the Nightstalkers. Mortals who stumble into one of these realms typically die, consumed by its monstrous inhabitants, but some lucky few are found by the Legion and given the opportunity to serve as the hand of Death in exchange for a way back home. Other members of the Legion actively volunteer for the duty and undertake the trek into the shadowed realms of their own volition. Regardless of how it happened, the Nightblade's time within the mirror realm augments their natural Legionnaire powers and talents, partially untethering them from any plane they walk within and connecting them to the ethereal plane and the shadows around them.
LevelFeature
3Shadowborn, Veil Strike
6Death Stride, Veil Sense
10Combat Anticipation
15Ethereal Jaunt
18Strike and Fade
Shadowborn
Starting at level 3 you absorb a fragment of the shadow realm's energy, allowing you to dance through the darkness as if it were your home. You gain a special kind of Darkvision out to 60. Within the range of this Darkvision, you may see in magical darkness. Additionally, while in shadowy light or darkness, your movement speed increases by 10 feet.
Veil Strike
Also at level 3 you begin to weaponize the veil between life and death, turning it into a lashing arc on your blades. Whenever you make an attack with a melee weapon, you may spend 1 Guidance point to increase the reach of that attack to 30 feet. (Note, this is still a melee attack.) If this attack hits, it deals an additional 1d12 necrotic damage.
Death Stride
Starting at level 6 whenever a creature within 120 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you may use your reaction and expend 1 Guidance point in order to teleport to any space that creature was occupying. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks, and you do not need to be able to see the creature that was reduced to 0 hit points in order to move in this way.
Veil Sense
Also starting at level 6, you have a supernatural connection to death and the ethereal plane. You may sense the presence of all undead, creatures on the ethereal plane and creatures who died or who are making death saving throws within 120 feet of you. This sense does not allow you to pinpoint the exact location of these creatures, but it does let you know the direction they are from you and their numbers.
Combat Anticipation
Starting at level 10 your time within the shadow realm has trained to anticipate unexpected attacks, allowing you to respond to combat faster than your peers. You may add your Intelligence bonus to your initiative rolls.
Ethereal Jaunt
Starting at level 15 you become able to slip in and out of the ethereal plane. You may use a bonus action and expend 3 Guidance points to be treated as if you were under the effects of the spell Etherealness until the beginning of your next turn.
Strike and Fade
Starting at level 18 you are able to steal life force from creatures you hurt, using that power to bend the veil around you as an obscuring shroud. At the end of any turn which you damaged at least one other creature, you may use your reaction and expend 3 Guidance points to become invisible until the end of your next turn. While you are invisible in this way, you gain resistance to all damage except for Radiant.
"Mercy? You, who have murdered and twisted and perverted the natural order? You, who have desecrated the sanctity of life and bent the very foundations of reality to your whims, headless of the costs? You would beg me for mercy that you have never shown, and most certainly do not deserve? You have the gall?! Hmmm... well, there is one thing that you may bargain with. However, you really are not going to like it."
-The Judge
In their last, dying moments, some murderers, necromancers and their ilk are given an offer to atone, to divert their rightful punishment for faithful service. These are the souls assigned to the Punitive legion. A desperate, often unwilling, soldier corps, the members of the Punitive legion struggle like one with a sword of Damocles above their neck, refusing to fail and refusing to break. After all, dying before their task is accomplished is a failure of their vows, and the punishment awaiting them will not be abstained a second time. With such motivation, and no escape from their service possible, the Deathly Powers often abuse their authority over these poor souls, knowing that no matter what, their pawn must at least attempt the task, even if it proves impossible.
LevelFeature
3Arisen, Risen Resilience
6Unyielding
10Requiem
15Desperate Resolve
18Ultimate Expendable
Arisen
Starting at level 3, your brush with death has given you reflexive resilience to being put down for any amount of time. You only need to spend 5 feet of movement to stand up from being prone. Additionally, if you have a hostile creature within your reach, you may use a bonus action to expend 1 Guidance point in order to regain 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier hit points.
Risen Resilience
Dying once has inured you to the whole experience. Also starting at level 3, whenever you regain hit points for any reason, you regain a number of additional hit points equal to half of your proficiency bonus (rounded down).
Unyielding
Starting at level 6, the pressure of your penance gives you resilience to effects that would sway your mind. You gain immunity to the Frightened and Charmed conditions.
Requiem
Starting at level 10, you are able to take on the appearance of one who is already dead. As a 10 minute ritual, you re-open the mortal wound that caused you to make the pact with death in the first place, and you become still and seemingly lifeless. You may remain in this state for up to a month. You are conscious the entire time, aware of the area 60 feet around you but are blind and deaf beyond that, do not need to eat, sleep or breathe, and do not take damage if your body comes to harm from any source short of disintegration. If you are disintegrated, you are slain immediately. After concentrating for a minute, you can repair all damage that was dealt to your body, regaining all lost limbs and flesh, reverting all rot and awakening at full hit points.
You must finish a long rest after awakening from this state before you can use Requiem again.
Desperate Resolve
Starting at level 15, your desperate drive to accomplish your goal hardens you to your mounting injuries and allows you to deliver retribution to those who would strike you down. Whenever you use your Endless Death feature, you may spend up to 3 guidance points to roll one of your unspent hit dice for each guidance point spent, add your constitution modifier for each hit die rolled, and regain hit points equal to the amount rolled. The creature that caused you to use Endless Death also suffers damage equal to the amount of hit points regained this way. Each hit die rolled this way is expended.
Ultimate Expendable
Starting at level 18 your role as a throw-away shock trooper finally changes into a hard-won respect from the beings who command your fate, making them view you as the... least expendable of their expendable troopers. As an action you may call upon their power to replenish yourself, immediately granting you the benefits of completing a short rest and restoring 6 of your previously expended hit dice. Until the end of your next turn, or the end of your first turn in the next combat if you are not in combat currently, all of your attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws have advantage.
After you use this ability, you must complete a long rest in order to use it again.
"But on the battlefield? On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second day I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I... I wish it wasn't over. I wish... I wish..."
-The Heroes, Joe Abercrombie
The legion of the Tallyman has one goal, and one goal alone; To reap the souls of the living. Whether they serve a good and just cause, or merely serve the Deathly Powers for the joy of the slaughter, a Tallyman has sworn their service in exchange for power, and the price for that power is the lives of others. Ultimately, the concept of mercy has been forgotten by the Tallyman, making them one of the most brutal and cold of all of the legions. Is it any wonder that this legion calls to so many madmen?
LevelFeature
3Increasing Tally, War's Tempo
6Unsettling Grin
10Path of Slaughter
15Aspect of the Reaper
18War's Climax
Increasing Tally
Starting at level 3 you learn how to make the most of the soul fragments you steal from striking down your foes. Whenever you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack and do not have any Guidance points, you regain a number of Guidance points equal to 1/2 your Proficiency bonus (rounded down).
War's Tempo
Also starting at level 3 your call to war makes you a more deadly implement. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee attack you may expend 1 Guidance point to gain one of the following benefits:
You add 1d6 to the attack's damage roll. This damage increases to 1d8 at level 5, 1d10 at level 11 and 1d12 at level 17.
You may gain temporary hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Unsettling Grin
Starting at level 6, your facial expression gives warning to the dangerous beast that lays just behind your eyes. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill and may add your Intelligence modifier to Charisma (intimidation) skill rolls you make. If you already had proficiency in Intimidation, then you may choose a different skill to gain proficiency in.
Path of Slaughter
Starting at level 10, spilling the blood of your enemies invigorates you, and allows you to advance to your next field of slaughter that much faster. Whenever you reduce a creature's hit points to 0 with a melee weapon attack, you may immediately move up to 30 feet. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. You may only move in this manner once each turn.
Aspect of the Reaper
Starting at level 15, you exude an aura of supernatural horror that allows you to prey upon the weak who fall victim to it. When an enemy starts their turn or move into a space within 30 feet of you for the first time on their turn, you may use your reaction to force that creature to make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier), becoming Frightened of you for 10 minutes on a failed saving throw. A creature Frightened in this way that ends their turn without you in their line of sight may attempt to reroll this saving throw, ending the condition on a success. A creature that succeeds on their saving throw becomes immune to this ability for 24 hours.
War's Climax
Starting at level 18 you are driven to the greatest heights of slaughter. As long as you have at least one creature in your reach when you take the Attack action, you may expend 2 Guidance points in order to make one additional attack with one of your melee weapons. If you have at least three enemies in your reach when you take the Attack action, you may instead spend 3 Guidance points in order to make two additional attacks with one of your melee weapons.
Ability Score increase
When you reach level 4, and then again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can choose one ability score to increase by 2, or two ability scores to increase by 1. This feature may not increase an ability score above 20.
Extra Attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Mantle of the Fallen
Starting at level 7, you may channel the fragments of the souls that you have collected into a cloak that enhances your mobility and warns you about threats. You may use a bonus action and expend 2 Guidance points in order to activate your Mantle. While this mantle is active, you increase your walking speed by 15 feet, you may walk up and down walls and other vertical surfaces as if they were flat ground, and you ignore falling damage and damage from dangerous terrain. If you end your turn on a vertical surface, you may have your mantle anchor you in place so that you do not fall, or you may choose to fall.
Alternately, if you are surprised, then you may spend 3 Guidance points to activate your mantle and you are not afflicted with this condition in addition to its other benefits. If you do so, your reaction is expended until the start of your next turn.
You must spend 1 Guidance point at the start of each of your turns while your mantle is active. If you do not, then the mantle ends.
Reaper’s Implement
Beginning at level 11, your aura begins to carry the essence of the veil, making the weapons you wield even more deadly to your foes. You may change the weapon damage of any melee attack you make into necrotic or radiant instead of its normal damage type (chosen with each attack), and you also increase any damage your melee attacks deal by your Intelligence modifier (minimum +1).
At level 17 you add double your Intelligence modifier to your melee damage rolls instead.
Endless Death
Starting at level 14, whenever you have your Bone Armor manifested and a source would reduce you to 0 hit points or kill you, you may choose to end your armor's current manifestation in order to remain at 1 hit point instead. If the source that reduced you to 0 hit points would normally kill you (such as a Disintegrate or Power Word: Kill spell (Player's Handbook) or a Vorpal blade's decapitating strike), it does not do so and you do not suffer the physical effects of its normal kill clause (you are not turned to dust, decapitated, etc).
Reaper’s Gale
Upon reaching level 20, you become a walking monument to death itself. Whenever one of your attacks reduces a creature to 0 hit points, you may make an additional attack with any of your equipped weapons and may choose to regain up to 2 previously expended Guidance points. You may gain any number of attacks during your turn from this ability.