Gnomes2169
2023-01-28, 09:59 AM
The Frostheart
“Gaze into the flames and head my words well. Fire is light. Fire is heat. Fire is life. Fire is a luxury. You will learn to live without it, to hold yourself within and embrace the cold. With your oaths you will be hardened, empowered, preserved. You will rely on no fire for comfort, need no shelter in the land you call your home. You will transcend your need for heat by bonding the heart of winter. Now rise and prepare yourselves for your journey. The comfort of this hall will be the last you feel until your training is complete.”
-Excerpt from the Yarl's halls.
The coldest of places are harsh, unforgiving lands that do not give life an easy time. It requires life to become hard. Hard enough to live in a land where the ground freezes and turns away plow blades for months. Hard enough to wander through storms of blinding sleet and air that freezes the lungs. Hard enough to survive with only a dwindling campfire to warm the bones... or to survive without one when the fuel freezes or runs out. To be born in such a land is a harsh life, to choose to live there when you were born in warmer climates must surely be madness.
So the people who not only choose to live in this frigid land, but venture into its heart to claim its power, must be stark, raving lunatics... but sometimes, they actually get something to show for it.
Born from Cold Regardless of if they were born to the land or they chose to venture to it, frosthearts found some kind of calling in the frigid reaches of the world. Despite how much their home tried to kill them, these adventurous souls still fell in love with the lands and their icy beauty and refused to settle in the comforts that a normal society would offer them. Be it in the company of wandering knights, raiders, traveling scholars and poets or monastic bands, those who become a frostheart joined an order for the opportunity to explore the world around them. It was during one of their journeys where they found a being, a text, or some form of enlightenment that opened the doors of adventure far further than they could possibly imagine.
Winter's Bond The key to what sets a frostheart apart from another adventurer is that they have formed a bond with a semi-divine being that is bound to winter. Be it an undying soul frozen and trapped within their tomb, a spirit living at the heart of a polar vortex, or the soul of the land itself, there exists a resonance between them and this being that can be called upon to perform remarkable, almost divine, acts. This bond is not some pact, nor a fragment of stolen power, study into the mysteries of the universe or worship of the being that was discovered.
The bond is an understanding, a partnership that both the frostheart and their companion benefit from, the frostheart in the form of power and a fragment of their ally that they can call upon, while the being they have bonded typically is allowed to see the world and experience all of the wonders and mysteries within it through the frostheart's eyes. Since often these beings are trapped within a prison, or some natural cycle that they cannot deviate from, the opportunity for a form of freedom granted by a frostheart is wholeheartedly embraced. Given the immensity of these beings, they are each able to form bonds with multiple frosthearts and the mortals that bond with them often band together in small informal communities known as Orders.
Frosthearts in the World While some orders of frostheart coordinate with one another, often these wandering heroes act as individuals and colleagues rather than cohesive, driven units. They are companions, not soldiers, for the beings that they have bonded, after all, and so they are not often expected to wage battle in that being's name or interest. Sometimes members of an order will band together in order to accomplish a goal, but this is typically in service of mortal matters such as the invasion of their homeland, or in order to bring down a dark cult or tyrant, rather than at the behest of their patron.
Often, a frostheart will be seen as cold or aloof by their adventuring companions because of their bond, the intimacy of which can overshadow friendships and even love forged with other mortals. This does not mean that they cannot form such relationships, but their bond with their patron being is so deep that little else can match it, and it can be awkward and painful for others to know that they will never be the most important being in their loved one's world. For this reason, they often purposefully hold others at arm's length and do not go seeking deep or lasting connections with other mortals, though there are, of course, always exceptions to this norm.
Within societies, the frostheart can fulfill any number of roles. From wise advisors and guards to rulers, soldiers that protect their motherland from invasion, or wandering adventurers that bring wisdom and tidings of the world to the distant, often forgotten reaches of the frozen world. Their diverse skillsets are a boon for almost any situation they could find themselves in.
LevelProficiencyFeatureManifestation SummonsResonant Frost
1+2Rime Order Feature, Winter's Bond2--
2+2Channel Divinity (1/ rest), Resonant Frost21d4
3+2Expertise, Frost Ward21d4
4+2Ability Score Increase21d4
5+3Rime Order Feature22d4
6+3Channel Divinity (2/ rest), Resonant Shielding22d4
7+3Warding Grace32d4
8+3Ability Score Increase32d4
9+4Tundra Adaptation32d4
10+4Expertise, Rime Order Feature32d4
11+4Greater Manifestation33d4
12+4Ability Score Increase33d4
13+5Channel Divinity (3/ rest)33d4
14+5Cold Inoculation43d4
15+5Rime Order Feature43d4
16+5Ability Score Increase43d4
17+6Empowered Manifestation44d4
18+6Channel Divinity (4/ rest), Rime Order Feature44d4
19+6Ability Score Increase44d4
20+6Undying ManifestationUnlimited4d4
Building a Frostheart
Frosthearts are explorers and adventurers who carry a fragment of another creature's soul within them. While they are not meant to be soldiers, many of them are still experienced in martial combat simply because their lives put them into dangerous situations in which violence becomes inevitable. Still, most would rather serve as guides or treasure hunters and have skills that relate to that.
As a Frostheart, you have a companion spirit that is partially aware of everything you do or encounter, and the presence of that spirit can sometimes make you seem distant or give you weird insight into the nature of things. This could impact your personality in a variety of ways; It might make you quiet and contemplative as you and your bonded spirit commune on what you encounter. It might make you spontaneous in ways that are difficult to follow, as you jump to conclusions that you need to explain to your traveling companions. It might make you extremely curious about the world around you or might make you say utter nonsense because your bonded spirit keeps telling you things that haven't been relevant for centuries. It might manifest in a different way entirely. Regardless, how you play being a frostheart should make you seem a bit odd in the eyes of a normal person.
Quick build
Frosthearts are an experienced group of survivors and explorers, adept at combat and sage advice. First, make either Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom and thirdly Constitution. Finally, choose from among the Acolyte, Hermit or Outlander backgrounds.
Class features
As a Frostheart you gain the following class features.
Hit points
Hit dice: 1d8 per Frostheart level.
Hit Points at 1st level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at higher levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Frostheart level after 1st
Proficiency
Armor: Light armor, Medium armor
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Wisdom
Skills: Choose any three from Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, 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 light crossbow and 20 bolts
(a) A one-handed simple weapon and shield or (b) A two-handed simple weapon and 5 daggers
(a) An explorer's pack or (b) a scholar's pack
A set of mountaineer's leathers (or other cold-weather clothing)
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 Frostheart, you must have a minimum of 13 Strength or Dexterity, and you must have a minimum of 13 Wisdom.
Winter's Bond
Starting at level 1 you form a bond with a spirit companion known as a Bond Manifestation. When you bond with this manifestation, you may use an action to summon it within an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.
The manifestation is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Bond Manifestation stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. This spirit's appearance is determined by the order you have sworn yourself to, but it is typically crafted from mist and ice.
In combat, the manifestation 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 manifestation can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
The manifestation remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the manifestation again, or until you die. Anything the manifestation was wearing or carrying is left behind when the manifestation vanishes.
At the end of each long rest, your manifestation regains all of its lost hit points and all of its expended hit dice and it may be summoned if it was not summoned already. If your manifestation is reduced to 0 hit points, you may summon it again as an action a number of times equal to the number shown on the Manifestation Summons column on the Frostheart table. You regain all of your expended summons at the end of a long rest.
Bond Manifestation
Medium Construct, true neutral
Armor class 13 + PB (natural armor)
Hit pints 4 + 4 times your Frostheart level (the servant has a number of hit dice [d8's] equal to your frostheart level)
Speed 10 feet
StrDexConIntWisCha
14 (+2)10 (+0)16 (+3)10 (+0)16 (+3)10 (+0)
Saving Throws Con +(3 plus PB), Wis +(3 plus PB)
Damage immunities Cold, Poison
Condition immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60ft., passive perception 13
Languages All languages that you know
Challenge -- Proficiency bonus: Equals your bonus
Creeping Frost The manifestation may use a bonus action to magically teleport to a location within 30 feet. This area must be visible to the manifestation. This bonus action cannot be used while the manifestation is being ridden.
Actions
Frigid slam +2 plus PB to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + PB bludgeoning damage. On hit, a creature cannot take the Dash or Disengage actions during their next turn.
Rime Order
Also at level 1 you select the Order that you serve, denoting your motivations and specialization. You can choose from any of the orders denoted at the end of this class. You gain additional features at levels 5, 10, 15 and 18.
Channel Divinity
Starting at level 2, you are able to channel the divine spark of your bonded spirit to create magical effects. You start with two such effects: Biting Wind and an effect determined by your sworn order. Some sworn orders grant you additional effects as you advance in Frostheart levels, as noted in the order description.
When you use your channel divinity, you choose which effect you create. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Channel Divinity again.
Some Channel Divinity effects require saving throws. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier.
Beginning at level 6, you can use your channel divinity twice between rests, at level 13 you may use it three times between rests, and at level 18 you may use it four times between rests. When you complete a short or long rest, you regain all expended uses.
Channel Divinity: Biting Wind
As an action, you invoke the power of your bond and gesture in front of you. A biting wind and shards of ice swirl around you, forcing creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes magical Cold and Piercing damage (for resistances, half of this damage is cold and half of it is magical piercing, odd values are rounded up as piercing) equal to 2d10 + 1/2 your Frostheart level on a failed saving throw, and half as much damage on a successful one.
Resonant Frost
Also at level 2, when you deal damage with a weapon, spell or channel divinity to a creature that is within the reach of your Bond Manifestation, you increase that damage roll by 1d4. For a spell that makes multiple attacks (such as Scorching Ray or Eldritch Blast (phb)), resonant frost applies only to one of that spell's attacks each time it is cast. If applied to a creature that succeeded on a saving throw against the effect that caused them damage, that creature only suffers 1/2 of the resonant frost damage rolled. This damage increases as you level up, as shown on the Resonant Frost column of the Frostheart table.
Expertise
Starting at level 3, choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
At level 10, you choose two more of your proficiencies to gain this benefit.
Frost Ward
Also at level 3 you gain a number of Frost Ward tokens equal to your Wisdom modifier. You may use these tokens in the following ways:
When you are attacked, you may use your reaction and expend one token to add your proficiency bonus to your armor class until the start of your next turn. You must choose to use this reaction before knowing if that attack hits or misses.
You may use your reaction and expend one token when you take damage to reduce that damage by 1d10 + your Frostheart level (to a minimum of 0).
You regain all of your expended frost ward tokens at the end of a long rest.
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.
Resonant Shielding
Starting at level 6, your bond provides you and the being you have conjured more protection. Whenever you begin your turn within 30 feet of your bond manifestation, you and your manifestation gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.
Warding Grace
Starting at level 7, you are able to take disperse your frost ward into a misty aura in order to give yourself room to maneuver. When you use your Frost Ward, you do not provoke opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn.
Tundra Adaptations
Starting at level 9, you have become adept at shielding yourself from the harsh conditions of a wintery land. You gain proficiency in Constitution saving throws and have advantage on all saving throws and ability checks made to survive and forage within tundra, arctic and other wintery or frozen environments.
Greater Manifestation
Starting at level 11, your bond manifestation is able to call upon a bit of the strength from your pact and becomes more powerful in the following ways:
You may summon your manifestation as a bonus action.
The manifestation's attack rolls are increased by 2, their damage rolls are increased by 1d6 and their weapon attacks are treated as magical.
Your manifestation may use their Creeping Frost feature even when being ridden, and your special bond with your manifestation allows you to use it as a mount even if you are the same size as the creature.
Cold Inoculation
Starting at level 14, your connection to the heart of winter grants you even further protections. You become immune to Cold damage and no longer suffer ill effects from cold temperatures or arctic environments. Additionally, whenever you roll for initiative while you have no Frost Ward tokens remaining, you regain 1d4 tokens.
Empowered Manifestation
Starting at level 17, your bond manifestation gains even greater power and strength from your bond.
Their frigid slam gains a further +2 bonus to its attack rolls and increases its damage rolls by 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
Their armor class increases by 2.
When you summon your manifestation, and as a 1-minute ritual while it is summoned, you may choose to make it a large, medium or small construct. Changing your manifestation's size does not change its combat characteristics.
When your manifestation uses its Creeping Frost feature, it may teleport up to 90 feet as part of that action.
Undying Servant
At level 20, you may call upon the source of your power without end. You may summon your bond manifestation as many times each day as you desire.
"The flame brings life, the flame brings light, the flame burns eternal. These truths are imparted by the phoenix, these truths we know. Yet you thought to turn your eyes from this truth, and found that which you were warned to never seek. You followed the voice to the darkest of places, the coldest of frozen wastes, and you found the Fallen Eternal. That which we stand against. In your oaths to this perversion have you damned yourself, and you shall never know the joys of heat, not the warmth of spring or the caress of hearth fire. No longer are you worthy to stand within our halls, fallen servant. No longer shall you know our company or our guidance. Return to the frozen wastes, and never share our hold again."
-Judgement of the Heretic
The phoenix is often seen as a symbol of eternal life and rebirth, a flame that never goes out, and in many of the coldest places within the world, where primal forces rather than gods are icons of faith, it is worshipped as a herald of spring. But there is a secret that these cults and holy orders attempt to keep... the first phoenix, the eldest of the eternal elementals, no longer flows through cycles of death and rebirth. Perfectly preserved and immortal, its flickering white flames are no longer hot, nor does it blaze as a beacon through the sky but is instead trapped in a rune-bound prison that baffles even the knowledge of the divine. No one is quite sure how its transformation happened. Perhaps over long aeons, it gave more and more of its flames to make its children and became cold itself. Perhaps it is simply so old that the white flames of its body no longer function as they should, and it would devour all heat in the world. Regardless, its flames now consume heat rather than creating it, and this paradox grants those that bond with it a strange power. The members of this heretical phoenix order still obtain boons associated with the great blazing birds, but the flames that they have been gifted chill instead of comforting, and the immortality grasped by their greatest members is one of their patron's eternal life rather than unending rebirth.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of an ice sculpture in the shape of a rising bird of prey, its feathers curled and waving as if they were made of fire instead of frost.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Frost Phoenix Flames
2Channel Divinity: Frostburn
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Eternal Shield
15Bitterflame Ward
18Eternal Rebirth
Bonus Proficiencies
Starting at level 1, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and one tool of your choice. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a suit of Chain mail as part of your starting equipment instead of other armor and have possession of the tool you gain proficiency in this way.
Frost Phoenix Flames
Also at level 1, your bond manifestation gains the ability to launch bolts of heat-devouring flames. This attack uses the same statistics as your manifestation's frigid slam, except it is a ranged spell attack with a range of 90 feet and it deals cold damage instead of bludgeoning. When your manifestation hits an enemy with this attack, you may treat that creature like they were in your manifestation's reach for your frost resonance feature until the end of your next turn.
Channel Divinity: Frostburn
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to afflict a creature with an all-consuming, heat stealing flame. You may use this channel divinity whenever you or your bond manifestation hits a creature with an attack. The creature hit becomes afflicted with Frostburn and you begin concentrating on this effect like you were concentrating on a spell. At the start of each of the creature's turns, they suffer 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier cold damage. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points while afflicted with Frostburn their body becomes completely frozen and shatters when interacted with. This channel divinity ends after 1 minute or when you lose your concentration.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Eternal Shield
Starting at level 10, you may use your channel divinity to infuse a small ward of cold among yourself and a handful of your allies. You may use this channel divinity as an action to distribute a number of Eternal tokens equal to 1/2 of your proficiency modifier between creatures within 30 feet of you. Each creature may only have 1 token at a time. When a creature with an Eternal token is reduced to 0 hit points by any source, their token is expended, and they remain at 1 hit point instead. Eternal tokens distributed by you expire 1 hour after you distribute them.
Bitterflame Ward
Starting at level 15, your frost ward's lingering energy ignite your body with cold flames. Whenever you use a frost ward token, you become surrounded by a shield of frosted flame. For 1 minute, whenever a creature hits you with a melee attack, that creature suffers 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier cold damage.
Eternal Rebirth
Starting at level 18, your connection to the phoenix grants you eternal life and access to a small part of that being's immortality. You no longer age naturally and cannot be aged magically. Additionally, if you are reduced to 0 hit points while your bond manifestation is summoned, you may use your reaction and reduce your manifestation to 0 hit points in order to regain half of your maximum hit points. You must complete a long rest before using this part of this ability again.
"My home is cold and broken, as I tread across the icy coast.
My footsteps tread from shore to shore, over mountains, valleys and hills.
My journey trod through frozen ground, with no halls there to host.
My feet rest in this lonely land, but journey must I still.
The people here have called me friend, though scattered they may be.
The people live in tents of hide, with no stones to ward snow from their heads.
The people have wandered far, and know the land's soul much better than me.
The people would have welcomed me, yet here I wander alone instead.
The land's soul stretches here, from coast to mighty coast.
The land one day I will make my mark, when I cross its last hill.
The land shall hold my simple hall, where my jarls come to boast.
The land I know does not know me yet, but some day it will."
-My Home Knows Me Not, Luffi the Wanderer
The cold, frozen land itself, often seen as lifeless or barren, has a soul and voice, for anyone who knows how to listen. This soul is lonely, the extremity of its environment making life that can comprehend it, let alone commune with it, rare, and so it treasures what few mortals can make that connection. The Order of the Land listens to the land's soul, walking in partnership with it as stewards over the peoples that it sees as its children. Their relationship with the land is as of a child to their mother or father, and the bond connects not just them, but the lines of their mortal families both ancestral and offspring to the land itself. For this reason, this order is the one most likely to work together with one another, become involved in the politics of civilizations, and otherwise act directly on the wishes of their patron, as the spirit of the land views all of this as simply an extension of the family it has forged with them.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of a bear or wolf of petrified wood, stone and permafrost-tinted earth.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Beast Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Glacial Shield
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Jaws of the Earth
15Permafrost's Endurance
18Weight of the Earth
Bonus Proficiencies
Starting at level 1, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and martial weapons. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a suit of Chain mail as part of your starting equipment instead of other armor and may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon choices.
Beast Manifestation
Also at level 1, you and your bond manifestation both increase your maximum hit points by 1 for each level of Frostheart you possess.
Channel Divinity: Glacial Shield
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to form a protective shell around yourself. As an action, you form a mobile layer of ice and earth around yourself. You gain 1d10 + 2 times the number of Frostheart level you possess temporary hit points. You lose any remaining temporary hit points after 10 minutes.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Jaws of the Earth
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to send a pulse of power into the earth to create clamping, grasping jaws of stone. As an action, you create a 10-foot radius sphere within 60 feet of you. All creatures of your choice standing on the ground or another solid surface within this sphere must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature is dealt 3d6 magical bludgeoning damage and 3d6 cold damage and becomes restrained on a failed save, or half as much damage and is not restrained on a success. A creature restrained this way may use an action make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your Channel Divinity save DC, ending this condition on a success.
Permafrost's Endurance
Starting at level 15, any ward you possess is hardened by your bond with your patron. As long as you have temporary hit points from any source, you increase your armor class and any saving throw rolls you make by 1.
Weight of the Earth
Starting at level 18, whenever you or your bond manifestation hit a creature that is up to one size category larger than the attacker with a weapon attack, that creature is either shoved 10 feet in a direction of your choice or is knocked prone. If this would cause a creature to fall (either because they were flying or because they are knocked off of a high object), they have vulnerability to the falling damage they suffer.
"Ah, you are finally awake. No, child, rise not too quickly, you fell far when the glacier cracked and swallowed you. Slowly, now, slowly. Yes. Your eyes do not lie, there is light here, even in the core of the ice. You stand before my throne, in the heart of my shattered kingdom, and the souls of my fallen worshipers illuminate this forgotten realm. Do not worry, I know the paths of this frozen place, and I can lead you back home, but know I do not offer this out of misplaced generosity. For too long have I lain here and rotted, trapped, with no knowledge of how my lands have changed since the days of frost and wasting. I would see that world once more. No, no, you need not worry about chipping me from my frozen throne, there is a different way that you may accommodate my request..."
-Vel Carsus the Eternal to the First Preserved
The dead who still walk and retain their consciousness despite their conditions have a many varied ways of coming into being, be it accidental, involuntary, an act purely of willpower or a dark ritual to unnaturally extend their own lives. Many of them are destroyed, often by adventurers, but sometimes they are trapped instead. The deathly patron of the Order of the Preserved is one such undead, imprisoned within the throne of an empire that was wiped out in a cataclysmic ice age, still bound and preserved upon their throne. This eternal emperor and their greatest advisors lay forgotten for an age before some unlucky adventurers slipped into the glaciers that had swallowed their palace. While the undead are unable to escape their prison, their bodies utterly ruined even if they could be removed from the ice safely, they are happy to bond with the mortals who come to them, and extend their knowledge, skills and connections to ice and death to mortal hosts in exchange for the chance to once more explore and impact the world.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of a wiry humanoid crafted from pale blue ice, typically in the form of a skeleton, though a gaunt, ghost-like figure is also common.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Wraith Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Preserved Knowledge
5Glacial Reeve
10Channel Divinity: Twin Ray
15Rejuvenating Demise
18Guardian Resonance
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level, you gain proficiency in one skill and one tool of your choice. You gain possession of the tool you gained proficiency in this way. Additionally, you learn the Chill Touch and Ray of Frost cantrips. Your casting attribute for these cantrips is Wisdom.
Wraith Manifestation
Also at 1st level, your bond manifestation gains some of the traits of an ethereal undead creature, though they remain a construct. Their movement speed increases to 25 feet and they ignore the effects of difficult terrain. Whenever your manifestation hits a creature with an attack, they may expend and roll one of their unspent hit dice to regain hit points equal to the number rolled + their constitution bonus.
Channel Divinity: Preserved Knowledge
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to tap into your patron's vast pool of knowledge and enhance your own skills. When you make an ability check with a skill or a tool, you may use this channel divinity to change the d20 roll to 15 if it was less than 15. You must choose to use this channel divinity after you have rolled, but before you know the results of this roll.
Glacial Reeve
Starting at 5th level, you may add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of your weapon attacks and your cantrips. Additionally, whenever you hit a creature with a weapon or spell attack, your Bond Manifestation may add your resonant frost damage to any attack that deals damage to that target.
Channel Divinity: Twin Ray
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to split your magic at multiple targets. When you cast a spell that has an attack roll, you may expend one use of your channel divinity in order to make an attack against a different creature in range with that same spell. If your spell has multiple projectiles (such as an eldritch blast or scorching ray), this only adds 1 additional projectile to that spell.
Rejuvenating Demise
Starting at level 15, whenever an attack made by you or your bond manifestation reduces another creature to 0 hit points, you and your manifestation each regain up to 2d8 + your Wisdom modifier hit points. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
Guardian Resonance
Starting at level 18, your bond manifestation gains advantage on attack rolls against any creature within 30 feet of you, and whenever it hits one of these creatures it reduces that creature's movement speed to 5 feet until the start of your next turn.
"All know that in the north, storms rage and bluster with snow in slurry
What surprised me and my hapless crew, was the lightning that also rained in fury
Trapped in winter'y vortex were we left, when storm's crack broke our sail,
Left to the pity of the seas and all those words entail
But in the center of that storm a soul of grace did find my crew and I
Surrounded by the swirling clouds, a hole was torn into the sky
Through which I saw the stars above glittering as the grandest jewels
Shining down to mock our pride, as the hubris of fools
In those starts was cast a face, of a spirit old and weary, and he spoke to us that night
Vast he was and radiant in power, his aged face crinkled in sympathy to our plight
The soul of the wind, trapped now in snow, who longed to feel the warmth of day
We offered him passage with our crew, if his shelter he extended on our way
And so he held us in his eye, from whence we'd come and gone
And in our crew he lives even now, to old man winter do we belong."
-Anonymous
As the blizzard rages, so too does the Order of the Storm. A passionate and free-thinking people, the members of this order have found and bound themselves to the spirits of wind that reside at the heart of the polar vortexes. Often the spirits were once from a warmer climate who flittered into a storm that carried them too far for them to return to the currents that they knew, and they became trapped within the darkness and cold. This isn't actually a problem for them, as spirits are much more accommodating of natural cycles than mortals, but they still hold nostalgia for their former lives of long, warm days, and are happy to bond with mortals who travel to all the places of the world that the wind used to flow. The mortals of this order have the soul of the arctic tempest within them, changing their temperament to one of emotions that build slowly, over weeks or months, until they explode in passion and fury.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of white in the shape of a bolt of lightning that is literally frozen where it touched the ground, with tendrils sparking from its core.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Storm Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: System Shock
5Frost Storm Strikes
10Channel Divinity: Vortex
15Carrying Winds
18Eye of the Storm
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain proficiency in martial weapons and one tool of your choice. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon options and have possession of the tool you gain proficiency in this way.
Storm Manifestation
Also at level 1, your bond manifestation gains the ability to discharge bolts of static at your foes. This attack uses the same statistics as your manifestation's frigid slam, except it is a ranged spell attack with a range of 90 feet and it deals lightning damage instead of bludgeoning. When your manifestation hits an enemy with this attack, you may treat that creature like they were in your manifestation's reach for your frost resonance feature until the end of your next turn.
Channel Divinity: System Shock
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to both shock and freeze the nerves of those you strike. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you may use this channel divinity to increase that attack's damage roll by your Frostheart level and to force that creature to make a Constitution saving throw. The creature suffers the Paralyzed condition until the end of your next turn on a failed saving throw.
Frost Storm Strikes
Starting at 5th level, the first time that you hit with a weapon attack each turn, you add 1d6 cold and 1d6 lightning damage to that attack's damage roll. This increases to 2d6 cold and 2d6 lightning damage at level 11.
Channel Divinity: Vortex
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to create a sustained storm of swirling frost and electricity. As an action, you may expend a use of your channel divinity to create this vortex in an area within 90 feet of you that you can see and begin concentrating on it like it is a spell. The vortex is a sphere with a 15-foot radius and is difficult terrain for all creatures in it except for you and creatures with cold resistance or immunity. Whenever a creature begins their turn inside or enters this vortex for the first time on their turn, you may choose to cause that creature to suffer 1d8 cold and 1d8 lightning damage. This channel divinity ends after 1 minute or when you lose your concentration.
Carrying Winds
Starting at level 15, your mastery of the storm spirit's energies allows you to be carried by the winds, granting you a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You hover with this form of flight, so if you are knocked prone while flying you do not fall.
Eye of the Storm
Starting at level 18, you are the herald of the storm itself. Whenever you use your channel divinity, you may also use your Vortex channel divinity without expending additional uses. If you were using the Vortex channel divinity, you may create two vortexes and concentrate on both of them at the same time, though the area of effect of these vortexes must not be overlapping. If you have multiple vortexes, creatures suffer damage from each vortex separately.
"... At once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead,
In a full-hearted evensong of joy illimited.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small, with blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through his happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew, and I was unaware."
-Excerpt from The Darkling Thrush, Thomas Hardy
Winter is often seen as a time of death and waiting, a cover that holds back the new year and waits until a rebirth can begin. This mortal perception gave rise to spirits of birth and life, embodiments of spring that would transition into summer, fade to fall, and then vanish within winter snows to await being reborn once more. Some of those spirits of spring, who fell into their wintery beds in the climactic times of gods and empires that have physically re-shaped the world, have waited a long, long time to reawaken. Trapped now in dormancy in the cold places of the world, they have gathered power for their natural cycle over the long centuries only to have it go to waste... until mortals stumbled upon them. Scattered as they are in the wilderness, in unmarked hills and mountain cairns, this discovery took time to occur, but the founding members of the Order of the Thaw eventually found their resting places. Through bonds with these mortals, these trapped spirits can once more perform their purpose, tinted by frost though they might be, and bring spring, life and rebirth through the world, one mortal footstep at a time.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of an elk woven from brambles and twigs, with ice and snow decorating much of its body, but also the green of newly sprouted leaves peaking from between the wintery bits.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Sacrificial Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Spring's Tranquility
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Shattering Thaw
15Life From Death
18Herald of Summer
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain proficiency in martial weapons and learn the cantrip Spare the Dying. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon options.
Sacrificial Manifestation
Also starting at 1st level, whenever your bond manifestation loses 1 or more hit points from an attack, they may use their reaction to expend and roll one of their hit dice and choose a creature other than themselves within 30 feet. That creature regains hit points equal to the number rolled on the hit die + your proficiency bonus.
Channel Divinity: Spring's Tranquility
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to unleash a healing wind that cleanses some of the maladies that your allies are suffering. As an action, you make a gesture and release a brisk breeze that fills the air within 30 feet of you. Creatures of your choice within this area regain 1d8 + 1/2 of your Frostheart level hit points, and any of these creatures suffering the Frightened or Poisoned conditions have those conditions ended.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Shattering Thaw
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to detonate your bond manifestation in a healing and destructive blast. As an action you force your manifestation to expend any number of their hit dice and be reduced to 0 hit points, then you create a 15-foot radius sphere around your manifestation. All creatures of your choice within this area make a Dexterity saving throw, suffering Cold damage equal to the number rolled on the dice on a failure, and half as much on a success. Any creatures you did not choose to make a saving throw (other than your manifestation) that are in this area instead regain hit points equal to half of the number rolled on the dice.
Life from Death
Starting at level 15, whenever you or your bond manifestation deals damage to a creature, you may have any other creature within 60 feet of you regain 2d8 + your wisdom modifier hit points. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses on a rest.
Herald of Summer
Starting at level 18, you are able to balance the fire and cold that exist within you and draw power from both. You and your bond manifestation become immune to fire damage, and any time you or your manifestation would deal cold damage, you may decide to change that damage to fire instead.
“Gaze into the flames and head my words well. Fire is light. Fire is heat. Fire is life. Fire is a luxury. You will learn to live without it, to hold yourself within and embrace the cold. With your oaths you will be hardened, empowered, preserved. You will rely on no fire for comfort, need no shelter in the land you call your home. You will transcend your need for heat by bonding the heart of winter. Now rise and prepare yourselves for your journey. The comfort of this hall will be the last you feel until your training is complete.”
-Excerpt from the Yarl's halls.
The coldest of places are harsh, unforgiving lands that do not give life an easy time. It requires life to become hard. Hard enough to live in a land where the ground freezes and turns away plow blades for months. Hard enough to wander through storms of blinding sleet and air that freezes the lungs. Hard enough to survive with only a dwindling campfire to warm the bones... or to survive without one when the fuel freezes or runs out. To be born in such a land is a harsh life, to choose to live there when you were born in warmer climates must surely be madness.
So the people who not only choose to live in this frigid land, but venture into its heart to claim its power, must be stark, raving lunatics... but sometimes, they actually get something to show for it.
Born from Cold Regardless of if they were born to the land or they chose to venture to it, frosthearts found some kind of calling in the frigid reaches of the world. Despite how much their home tried to kill them, these adventurous souls still fell in love with the lands and their icy beauty and refused to settle in the comforts that a normal society would offer them. Be it in the company of wandering knights, raiders, traveling scholars and poets or monastic bands, those who become a frostheart joined an order for the opportunity to explore the world around them. It was during one of their journeys where they found a being, a text, or some form of enlightenment that opened the doors of adventure far further than they could possibly imagine.
Winter's Bond The key to what sets a frostheart apart from another adventurer is that they have formed a bond with a semi-divine being that is bound to winter. Be it an undying soul frozen and trapped within their tomb, a spirit living at the heart of a polar vortex, or the soul of the land itself, there exists a resonance between them and this being that can be called upon to perform remarkable, almost divine, acts. This bond is not some pact, nor a fragment of stolen power, study into the mysteries of the universe or worship of the being that was discovered.
The bond is an understanding, a partnership that both the frostheart and their companion benefit from, the frostheart in the form of power and a fragment of their ally that they can call upon, while the being they have bonded typically is allowed to see the world and experience all of the wonders and mysteries within it through the frostheart's eyes. Since often these beings are trapped within a prison, or some natural cycle that they cannot deviate from, the opportunity for a form of freedom granted by a frostheart is wholeheartedly embraced. Given the immensity of these beings, they are each able to form bonds with multiple frosthearts and the mortals that bond with them often band together in small informal communities known as Orders.
Frosthearts in the World While some orders of frostheart coordinate with one another, often these wandering heroes act as individuals and colleagues rather than cohesive, driven units. They are companions, not soldiers, for the beings that they have bonded, after all, and so they are not often expected to wage battle in that being's name or interest. Sometimes members of an order will band together in order to accomplish a goal, but this is typically in service of mortal matters such as the invasion of their homeland, or in order to bring down a dark cult or tyrant, rather than at the behest of their patron.
Often, a frostheart will be seen as cold or aloof by their adventuring companions because of their bond, the intimacy of which can overshadow friendships and even love forged with other mortals. This does not mean that they cannot form such relationships, but their bond with their patron being is so deep that little else can match it, and it can be awkward and painful for others to know that they will never be the most important being in their loved one's world. For this reason, they often purposefully hold others at arm's length and do not go seeking deep or lasting connections with other mortals, though there are, of course, always exceptions to this norm.
Within societies, the frostheart can fulfill any number of roles. From wise advisors and guards to rulers, soldiers that protect their motherland from invasion, or wandering adventurers that bring wisdom and tidings of the world to the distant, often forgotten reaches of the frozen world. Their diverse skillsets are a boon for almost any situation they could find themselves in.
LevelProficiencyFeatureManifestation SummonsResonant Frost
1+2Rime Order Feature, Winter's Bond2--
2+2Channel Divinity (1/ rest), Resonant Frost21d4
3+2Expertise, Frost Ward21d4
4+2Ability Score Increase21d4
5+3Rime Order Feature22d4
6+3Channel Divinity (2/ rest), Resonant Shielding22d4
7+3Warding Grace32d4
8+3Ability Score Increase32d4
9+4Tundra Adaptation32d4
10+4Expertise, Rime Order Feature32d4
11+4Greater Manifestation33d4
12+4Ability Score Increase33d4
13+5Channel Divinity (3/ rest)33d4
14+5Cold Inoculation43d4
15+5Rime Order Feature43d4
16+5Ability Score Increase43d4
17+6Empowered Manifestation44d4
18+6Channel Divinity (4/ rest), Rime Order Feature44d4
19+6Ability Score Increase44d4
20+6Undying ManifestationUnlimited4d4
Building a Frostheart
Frosthearts are explorers and adventurers who carry a fragment of another creature's soul within them. While they are not meant to be soldiers, many of them are still experienced in martial combat simply because their lives put them into dangerous situations in which violence becomes inevitable. Still, most would rather serve as guides or treasure hunters and have skills that relate to that.
As a Frostheart, you have a companion spirit that is partially aware of everything you do or encounter, and the presence of that spirit can sometimes make you seem distant or give you weird insight into the nature of things. This could impact your personality in a variety of ways; It might make you quiet and contemplative as you and your bonded spirit commune on what you encounter. It might make you spontaneous in ways that are difficult to follow, as you jump to conclusions that you need to explain to your traveling companions. It might make you extremely curious about the world around you or might make you say utter nonsense because your bonded spirit keeps telling you things that haven't been relevant for centuries. It might manifest in a different way entirely. Regardless, how you play being a frostheart should make you seem a bit odd in the eyes of a normal person.
Quick build
Frosthearts are an experienced group of survivors and explorers, adept at combat and sage advice. First, make either Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom and thirdly Constitution. Finally, choose from among the Acolyte, Hermit or Outlander backgrounds.
Class features
As a Frostheart you gain the following class features.
Hit points
Hit dice: 1d8 per Frostheart level.
Hit Points at 1st level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at higher levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Frostheart level after 1st
Proficiency
Armor: Light armor, Medium armor
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Wisdom
Skills: Choose any three from Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, 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 light crossbow and 20 bolts
(a) A one-handed simple weapon and shield or (b) A two-handed simple weapon and 5 daggers
(a) An explorer's pack or (b) a scholar's pack
A set of mountaineer's leathers (or other cold-weather clothing)
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 Frostheart, you must have a minimum of 13 Strength or Dexterity, and you must have a minimum of 13 Wisdom.
Winter's Bond
Starting at level 1 you form a bond with a spirit companion known as a Bond Manifestation. When you bond with this manifestation, you may use an action to summon it within an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.
The manifestation is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Bond Manifestation stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus (PB) in several places. This spirit's appearance is determined by the order you have sworn yourself to, but it is typically crafted from mist and ice.
In combat, the manifestation 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 manifestation can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
The manifestation remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the manifestation again, or until you die. Anything the manifestation was wearing or carrying is left behind when the manifestation vanishes.
At the end of each long rest, your manifestation regains all of its lost hit points and all of its expended hit dice and it may be summoned if it was not summoned already. If your manifestation is reduced to 0 hit points, you may summon it again as an action a number of times equal to the number shown on the Manifestation Summons column on the Frostheart table. You regain all of your expended summons at the end of a long rest.
Bond Manifestation
Medium Construct, true neutral
Armor class 13 + PB (natural armor)
Hit pints 4 + 4 times your Frostheart level (the servant has a number of hit dice [d8's] equal to your frostheart level)
Speed 10 feet
StrDexConIntWisCha
14 (+2)10 (+0)16 (+3)10 (+0)16 (+3)10 (+0)
Saving Throws Con +(3 plus PB), Wis +(3 plus PB)
Damage immunities Cold, Poison
Condition immunities Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60ft., passive perception 13
Languages All languages that you know
Challenge -- Proficiency bonus: Equals your bonus
Creeping Frost The manifestation may use a bonus action to magically teleport to a location within 30 feet. This area must be visible to the manifestation. This bonus action cannot be used while the manifestation is being ridden.
Actions
Frigid slam +2 plus PB to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + PB bludgeoning damage. On hit, a creature cannot take the Dash or Disengage actions during their next turn.
Rime Order
Also at level 1 you select the Order that you serve, denoting your motivations and specialization. You can choose from any of the orders denoted at the end of this class. You gain additional features at levels 5, 10, 15 and 18.
Channel Divinity
Starting at level 2, you are able to channel the divine spark of your bonded spirit to create magical effects. You start with two such effects: Biting Wind and an effect determined by your sworn order. Some sworn orders grant you additional effects as you advance in Frostheart levels, as noted in the order description.
When you use your channel divinity, you choose which effect you create. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Channel Divinity again.
Some Channel Divinity effects require saving throws. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier.
Beginning at level 6, you can use your channel divinity twice between rests, at level 13 you may use it three times between rests, and at level 18 you may use it four times between rests. When you complete a short or long rest, you regain all expended uses.
Channel Divinity: Biting Wind
As an action, you invoke the power of your bond and gesture in front of you. A biting wind and shards of ice swirl around you, forcing creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes magical Cold and Piercing damage (for resistances, half of this damage is cold and half of it is magical piercing, odd values are rounded up as piercing) equal to 2d10 + 1/2 your Frostheart level on a failed saving throw, and half as much damage on a successful one.
Resonant Frost
Also at level 2, when you deal damage with a weapon, spell or channel divinity to a creature that is within the reach of your Bond Manifestation, you increase that damage roll by 1d4. For a spell that makes multiple attacks (such as Scorching Ray or Eldritch Blast (phb)), resonant frost applies only to one of that spell's attacks each time it is cast. If applied to a creature that succeeded on a saving throw against the effect that caused them damage, that creature only suffers 1/2 of the resonant frost damage rolled. This damage increases as you level up, as shown on the Resonant Frost column of the Frostheart table.
Expertise
Starting at level 3, choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
At level 10, you choose two more of your proficiencies to gain this benefit.
Frost Ward
Also at level 3 you gain a number of Frost Ward tokens equal to your Wisdom modifier. You may use these tokens in the following ways:
When you are attacked, you may use your reaction and expend one token to add your proficiency bonus to your armor class until the start of your next turn. You must choose to use this reaction before knowing if that attack hits or misses.
You may use your reaction and expend one token when you take damage to reduce that damage by 1d10 + your Frostheart level (to a minimum of 0).
You regain all of your expended frost ward tokens at the end of a long rest.
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.
Resonant Shielding
Starting at level 6, your bond provides you and the being you have conjured more protection. Whenever you begin your turn within 30 feet of your bond manifestation, you and your manifestation gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.
Warding Grace
Starting at level 7, you are able to take disperse your frost ward into a misty aura in order to give yourself room to maneuver. When you use your Frost Ward, you do not provoke opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn.
Tundra Adaptations
Starting at level 9, you have become adept at shielding yourself from the harsh conditions of a wintery land. You gain proficiency in Constitution saving throws and have advantage on all saving throws and ability checks made to survive and forage within tundra, arctic and other wintery or frozen environments.
Greater Manifestation
Starting at level 11, your bond manifestation is able to call upon a bit of the strength from your pact and becomes more powerful in the following ways:
You may summon your manifestation as a bonus action.
The manifestation's attack rolls are increased by 2, their damage rolls are increased by 1d6 and their weapon attacks are treated as magical.
Your manifestation may use their Creeping Frost feature even when being ridden, and your special bond with your manifestation allows you to use it as a mount even if you are the same size as the creature.
Cold Inoculation
Starting at level 14, your connection to the heart of winter grants you even further protections. You become immune to Cold damage and no longer suffer ill effects from cold temperatures or arctic environments. Additionally, whenever you roll for initiative while you have no Frost Ward tokens remaining, you regain 1d4 tokens.
Empowered Manifestation
Starting at level 17, your bond manifestation gains even greater power and strength from your bond.
Their frigid slam gains a further +2 bonus to its attack rolls and increases its damage rolls by 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
Their armor class increases by 2.
When you summon your manifestation, and as a 1-minute ritual while it is summoned, you may choose to make it a large, medium or small construct. Changing your manifestation's size does not change its combat characteristics.
When your manifestation uses its Creeping Frost feature, it may teleport up to 90 feet as part of that action.
Undying Servant
At level 20, you may call upon the source of your power without end. You may summon your bond manifestation as many times each day as you desire.
"The flame brings life, the flame brings light, the flame burns eternal. These truths are imparted by the phoenix, these truths we know. Yet you thought to turn your eyes from this truth, and found that which you were warned to never seek. You followed the voice to the darkest of places, the coldest of frozen wastes, and you found the Fallen Eternal. That which we stand against. In your oaths to this perversion have you damned yourself, and you shall never know the joys of heat, not the warmth of spring or the caress of hearth fire. No longer are you worthy to stand within our halls, fallen servant. No longer shall you know our company or our guidance. Return to the frozen wastes, and never share our hold again."
-Judgement of the Heretic
The phoenix is often seen as a symbol of eternal life and rebirth, a flame that never goes out, and in many of the coldest places within the world, where primal forces rather than gods are icons of faith, it is worshipped as a herald of spring. But there is a secret that these cults and holy orders attempt to keep... the first phoenix, the eldest of the eternal elementals, no longer flows through cycles of death and rebirth. Perfectly preserved and immortal, its flickering white flames are no longer hot, nor does it blaze as a beacon through the sky but is instead trapped in a rune-bound prison that baffles even the knowledge of the divine. No one is quite sure how its transformation happened. Perhaps over long aeons, it gave more and more of its flames to make its children and became cold itself. Perhaps it is simply so old that the white flames of its body no longer function as they should, and it would devour all heat in the world. Regardless, its flames now consume heat rather than creating it, and this paradox grants those that bond with it a strange power. The members of this heretical phoenix order still obtain boons associated with the great blazing birds, but the flames that they have been gifted chill instead of comforting, and the immortality grasped by their greatest members is one of their patron's eternal life rather than unending rebirth.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of an ice sculpture in the shape of a rising bird of prey, its feathers curled and waving as if they were made of fire instead of frost.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Frost Phoenix Flames
2Channel Divinity: Frostburn
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Eternal Shield
15Bitterflame Ward
18Eternal Rebirth
Bonus Proficiencies
Starting at level 1, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and one tool of your choice. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a suit of Chain mail as part of your starting equipment instead of other armor and have possession of the tool you gain proficiency in this way.
Frost Phoenix Flames
Also at level 1, your bond manifestation gains the ability to launch bolts of heat-devouring flames. This attack uses the same statistics as your manifestation's frigid slam, except it is a ranged spell attack with a range of 90 feet and it deals cold damage instead of bludgeoning. When your manifestation hits an enemy with this attack, you may treat that creature like they were in your manifestation's reach for your frost resonance feature until the end of your next turn.
Channel Divinity: Frostburn
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to afflict a creature with an all-consuming, heat stealing flame. You may use this channel divinity whenever you or your bond manifestation hits a creature with an attack. The creature hit becomes afflicted with Frostburn and you begin concentrating on this effect like you were concentrating on a spell. At the start of each of the creature's turns, they suffer 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier cold damage. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points while afflicted with Frostburn their body becomes completely frozen and shatters when interacted with. This channel divinity ends after 1 minute or when you lose your concentration.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Eternal Shield
Starting at level 10, you may use your channel divinity to infuse a small ward of cold among yourself and a handful of your allies. You may use this channel divinity as an action to distribute a number of Eternal tokens equal to 1/2 of your proficiency modifier between creatures within 30 feet of you. Each creature may only have 1 token at a time. When a creature with an Eternal token is reduced to 0 hit points by any source, their token is expended, and they remain at 1 hit point instead. Eternal tokens distributed by you expire 1 hour after you distribute them.
Bitterflame Ward
Starting at level 15, your frost ward's lingering energy ignite your body with cold flames. Whenever you use a frost ward token, you become surrounded by a shield of frosted flame. For 1 minute, whenever a creature hits you with a melee attack, that creature suffers 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier cold damage.
Eternal Rebirth
Starting at level 18, your connection to the phoenix grants you eternal life and access to a small part of that being's immortality. You no longer age naturally and cannot be aged magically. Additionally, if you are reduced to 0 hit points while your bond manifestation is summoned, you may use your reaction and reduce your manifestation to 0 hit points in order to regain half of your maximum hit points. You must complete a long rest before using this part of this ability again.
"My home is cold and broken, as I tread across the icy coast.
My footsteps tread from shore to shore, over mountains, valleys and hills.
My journey trod through frozen ground, with no halls there to host.
My feet rest in this lonely land, but journey must I still.
The people here have called me friend, though scattered they may be.
The people live in tents of hide, with no stones to ward snow from their heads.
The people have wandered far, and know the land's soul much better than me.
The people would have welcomed me, yet here I wander alone instead.
The land's soul stretches here, from coast to mighty coast.
The land one day I will make my mark, when I cross its last hill.
The land shall hold my simple hall, where my jarls come to boast.
The land I know does not know me yet, but some day it will."
-My Home Knows Me Not, Luffi the Wanderer
The cold, frozen land itself, often seen as lifeless or barren, has a soul and voice, for anyone who knows how to listen. This soul is lonely, the extremity of its environment making life that can comprehend it, let alone commune with it, rare, and so it treasures what few mortals can make that connection. The Order of the Land listens to the land's soul, walking in partnership with it as stewards over the peoples that it sees as its children. Their relationship with the land is as of a child to their mother or father, and the bond connects not just them, but the lines of their mortal families both ancestral and offspring to the land itself. For this reason, this order is the one most likely to work together with one another, become involved in the politics of civilizations, and otherwise act directly on the wishes of their patron, as the spirit of the land views all of this as simply an extension of the family it has forged with them.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of a bear or wolf of petrified wood, stone and permafrost-tinted earth.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Beast Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Glacial Shield
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Jaws of the Earth
15Permafrost's Endurance
18Weight of the Earth
Bonus Proficiencies
Starting at level 1, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and martial weapons. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a suit of Chain mail as part of your starting equipment instead of other armor and may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon choices.
Beast Manifestation
Also at level 1, you and your bond manifestation both increase your maximum hit points by 1 for each level of Frostheart you possess.
Channel Divinity: Glacial Shield
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to form a protective shell around yourself. As an action, you form a mobile layer of ice and earth around yourself. You gain 1d10 + 2 times the number of Frostheart level you possess temporary hit points. You lose any remaining temporary hit points after 10 minutes.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Jaws of the Earth
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to send a pulse of power into the earth to create clamping, grasping jaws of stone. As an action, you create a 10-foot radius sphere within 60 feet of you. All creatures of your choice standing on the ground or another solid surface within this sphere must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature is dealt 3d6 magical bludgeoning damage and 3d6 cold damage and becomes restrained on a failed save, or half as much damage and is not restrained on a success. A creature restrained this way may use an action make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your Channel Divinity save DC, ending this condition on a success.
Permafrost's Endurance
Starting at level 15, any ward you possess is hardened by your bond with your patron. As long as you have temporary hit points from any source, you increase your armor class and any saving throw rolls you make by 1.
Weight of the Earth
Starting at level 18, whenever you or your bond manifestation hit a creature that is up to one size category larger than the attacker with a weapon attack, that creature is either shoved 10 feet in a direction of your choice or is knocked prone. If this would cause a creature to fall (either because they were flying or because they are knocked off of a high object), they have vulnerability to the falling damage they suffer.
"Ah, you are finally awake. No, child, rise not too quickly, you fell far when the glacier cracked and swallowed you. Slowly, now, slowly. Yes. Your eyes do not lie, there is light here, even in the core of the ice. You stand before my throne, in the heart of my shattered kingdom, and the souls of my fallen worshipers illuminate this forgotten realm. Do not worry, I know the paths of this frozen place, and I can lead you back home, but know I do not offer this out of misplaced generosity. For too long have I lain here and rotted, trapped, with no knowledge of how my lands have changed since the days of frost and wasting. I would see that world once more. No, no, you need not worry about chipping me from my frozen throne, there is a different way that you may accommodate my request..."
-Vel Carsus the Eternal to the First Preserved
The dead who still walk and retain their consciousness despite their conditions have a many varied ways of coming into being, be it accidental, involuntary, an act purely of willpower or a dark ritual to unnaturally extend their own lives. Many of them are destroyed, often by adventurers, but sometimes they are trapped instead. The deathly patron of the Order of the Preserved is one such undead, imprisoned within the throne of an empire that was wiped out in a cataclysmic ice age, still bound and preserved upon their throne. This eternal emperor and their greatest advisors lay forgotten for an age before some unlucky adventurers slipped into the glaciers that had swallowed their palace. While the undead are unable to escape their prison, their bodies utterly ruined even if they could be removed from the ice safely, they are happy to bond with the mortals who come to them, and extend their knowledge, skills and connections to ice and death to mortal hosts in exchange for the chance to once more explore and impact the world.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of a wiry humanoid crafted from pale blue ice, typically in the form of a skeleton, though a gaunt, ghost-like figure is also common.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Wraith Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Preserved Knowledge
5Glacial Reeve
10Channel Divinity: Twin Ray
15Rejuvenating Demise
18Guardian Resonance
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level, you gain proficiency in one skill and one tool of your choice. You gain possession of the tool you gained proficiency in this way. Additionally, you learn the Chill Touch and Ray of Frost cantrips. Your casting attribute for these cantrips is Wisdom.
Wraith Manifestation
Also at 1st level, your bond manifestation gains some of the traits of an ethereal undead creature, though they remain a construct. Their movement speed increases to 25 feet and they ignore the effects of difficult terrain. Whenever your manifestation hits a creature with an attack, they may expend and roll one of their unspent hit dice to regain hit points equal to the number rolled + their constitution bonus.
Channel Divinity: Preserved Knowledge
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to tap into your patron's vast pool of knowledge and enhance your own skills. When you make an ability check with a skill or a tool, you may use this channel divinity to change the d20 roll to 15 if it was less than 15. You must choose to use this channel divinity after you have rolled, but before you know the results of this roll.
Glacial Reeve
Starting at 5th level, you may add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of your weapon attacks and your cantrips. Additionally, whenever you hit a creature with a weapon or spell attack, your Bond Manifestation may add your resonant frost damage to any attack that deals damage to that target.
Channel Divinity: Twin Ray
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to split your magic at multiple targets. When you cast a spell that has an attack roll, you may expend one use of your channel divinity in order to make an attack against a different creature in range with that same spell. If your spell has multiple projectiles (such as an eldritch blast or scorching ray), this only adds 1 additional projectile to that spell.
Rejuvenating Demise
Starting at level 15, whenever an attack made by you or your bond manifestation reduces another creature to 0 hit points, you and your manifestation each regain up to 2d8 + your Wisdom modifier hit points. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
Guardian Resonance
Starting at level 18, your bond manifestation gains advantage on attack rolls against any creature within 30 feet of you, and whenever it hits one of these creatures it reduces that creature's movement speed to 5 feet until the start of your next turn.
"All know that in the north, storms rage and bluster with snow in slurry
What surprised me and my hapless crew, was the lightning that also rained in fury
Trapped in winter'y vortex were we left, when storm's crack broke our sail,
Left to the pity of the seas and all those words entail
But in the center of that storm a soul of grace did find my crew and I
Surrounded by the swirling clouds, a hole was torn into the sky
Through which I saw the stars above glittering as the grandest jewels
Shining down to mock our pride, as the hubris of fools
In those starts was cast a face, of a spirit old and weary, and he spoke to us that night
Vast he was and radiant in power, his aged face crinkled in sympathy to our plight
The soul of the wind, trapped now in snow, who longed to feel the warmth of day
We offered him passage with our crew, if his shelter he extended on our way
And so he held us in his eye, from whence we'd come and gone
And in our crew he lives even now, to old man winter do we belong."
-Anonymous
As the blizzard rages, so too does the Order of the Storm. A passionate and free-thinking people, the members of this order have found and bound themselves to the spirits of wind that reside at the heart of the polar vortexes. Often the spirits were once from a warmer climate who flittered into a storm that carried them too far for them to return to the currents that they knew, and they became trapped within the darkness and cold. This isn't actually a problem for them, as spirits are much more accommodating of natural cycles than mortals, but they still hold nostalgia for their former lives of long, warm days, and are happy to bond with mortals who travel to all the places of the world that the wind used to flow. The mortals of this order have the soul of the arctic tempest within them, changing their temperament to one of emotions that build slowly, over weeks or months, until they explode in passion and fury.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of white in the shape of a bolt of lightning that is literally frozen where it touched the ground, with tendrils sparking from its core.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Storm Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: System Shock
5Frost Storm Strikes
10Channel Divinity: Vortex
15Carrying Winds
18Eye of the Storm
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain proficiency in martial weapons and one tool of your choice. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon options and have possession of the tool you gain proficiency in this way.
Storm Manifestation
Also at level 1, your bond manifestation gains the ability to discharge bolts of static at your foes. This attack uses the same statistics as your manifestation's frigid slam, except it is a ranged spell attack with a range of 90 feet and it deals lightning damage instead of bludgeoning. When your manifestation hits an enemy with this attack, you may treat that creature like they were in your manifestation's reach for your frost resonance feature until the end of your next turn.
Channel Divinity: System Shock
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to both shock and freeze the nerves of those you strike. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you may use this channel divinity to increase that attack's damage roll by your Frostheart level and to force that creature to make a Constitution saving throw. The creature suffers the Paralyzed condition until the end of your next turn on a failed saving throw.
Frost Storm Strikes
Starting at 5th level, the first time that you hit with a weapon attack each turn, you add 1d6 cold and 1d6 lightning damage to that attack's damage roll. This increases to 2d6 cold and 2d6 lightning damage at level 11.
Channel Divinity: Vortex
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to create a sustained storm of swirling frost and electricity. As an action, you may expend a use of your channel divinity to create this vortex in an area within 90 feet of you that you can see and begin concentrating on it like it is a spell. The vortex is a sphere with a 15-foot radius and is difficult terrain for all creatures in it except for you and creatures with cold resistance or immunity. Whenever a creature begins their turn inside or enters this vortex for the first time on their turn, you may choose to cause that creature to suffer 1d8 cold and 1d8 lightning damage. This channel divinity ends after 1 minute or when you lose your concentration.
Carrying Winds
Starting at level 15, your mastery of the storm spirit's energies allows you to be carried by the winds, granting you a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You hover with this form of flight, so if you are knocked prone while flying you do not fall.
Eye of the Storm
Starting at level 18, you are the herald of the storm itself. Whenever you use your channel divinity, you may also use your Vortex channel divinity without expending additional uses. If you were using the Vortex channel divinity, you may create two vortexes and concentrate on both of them at the same time, though the area of effect of these vortexes must not be overlapping. If you have multiple vortexes, creatures suffer damage from each vortex separately.
"... At once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead,
In a full-hearted evensong of joy illimited.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small, with blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through his happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew, and I was unaware."
-Excerpt from The Darkling Thrush, Thomas Hardy
Winter is often seen as a time of death and waiting, a cover that holds back the new year and waits until a rebirth can begin. This mortal perception gave rise to spirits of birth and life, embodiments of spring that would transition into summer, fade to fall, and then vanish within winter snows to await being reborn once more. Some of those spirits of spring, who fell into their wintery beds in the climactic times of gods and empires that have physically re-shaped the world, have waited a long, long time to reawaken. Trapped now in dormancy in the cold places of the world, they have gathered power for their natural cycle over the long centuries only to have it go to waste... until mortals stumbled upon them. Scattered as they are in the wilderness, in unmarked hills and mountain cairns, this discovery took time to occur, but the founding members of the Order of the Thaw eventually found their resting places. Through bonds with these mortals, these trapped spirits can once more perform their purpose, tinted by frost though they might be, and bring spring, life and rebirth through the world, one mortal footstep at a time.
Your bond manifestation takes the form of an elk woven from brambles and twigs, with ice and snow decorating much of its body, but also the green of newly sprouted leaves peaking from between the wintery bits.
LevelFeature
1Bonus Proficiencies, Sacrificial Manifestation
2Channel Divinity: Spring's Tranquility
5Extra Attack
10Channel Divinity: Shattering Thaw
15Life From Death
18Herald of Summer
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain proficiency in martial weapons and learn the cantrip Spare the Dying. If you start at level 1 with this class, you may choose to have a martial weapon in addition to your other weapon options.
Sacrificial Manifestation
Also starting at 1st level, whenever your bond manifestation loses 1 or more hit points from an attack, they may use their reaction to expend and roll one of their hit dice and choose a creature other than themselves within 30 feet. That creature regains hit points equal to the number rolled on the hit die + your proficiency bonus.
Channel Divinity: Spring's Tranquility
Starting at level 2, you can use your channel divinity to unleash a healing wind that cleanses some of the maladies that your allies are suffering. As an action, you make a gesture and release a brisk breeze that fills the air within 30 feet of you. Creatures of your choice within this area regain 1d8 + 1/2 of your Frostheart level hit points, and any of these creatures suffering the Frightened or Poisoned conditions have those conditions ended.
Extra attack
Beginning at level 5, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Channel Divinity: Shattering Thaw
Starting at level 10, you can use your channel divinity to detonate your bond manifestation in a healing and destructive blast. As an action you force your manifestation to expend any number of their hit dice and be reduced to 0 hit points, then you create a 15-foot radius sphere around your manifestation. All creatures of your choice within this area make a Dexterity saving throw, suffering Cold damage equal to the number rolled on the dice on a failure, and half as much on a success. Any creatures you did not choose to make a saving throw (other than your manifestation) that are in this area instead regain hit points equal to half of the number rolled on the dice.
Life from Death
Starting at level 15, whenever you or your bond manifestation deals damage to a creature, you may have any other creature within 60 feet of you regain 2d8 + your wisdom modifier hit points. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses on a rest.
Herald of Summer
Starting at level 18, you are able to balance the fire and cold that exist within you and draw power from both. You and your bond manifestation become immune to fire damage, and any time you or your manifestation would deal cold damage, you may decide to change that damage to fire instead.