The influence of the plane Amrou has enhanced the effectiveness of mundane items in fending off the supernatural. What once were mere superstitions now can have meaningful effect, such as using a line of salt to block the advance of a ghost, or ringing a bell to drive back a demon. 

Nonmagical items that possess the ability to avert evil influences are collectively called apotropaics, and they are particularly common in Crisillyir, where such threats are most famous. 

Below are common apotropaics, some of which are duplicated from the normal equipment list in the core rulebook.

Holy Symbol. A holy symbol is a representation of a god or pantheon. A brandished holy symbol can briefly hold back fiends and undead.

Holy Water (flask). As an action, you can splash the contents of this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. In either case, make a ranged attack against a target creature, treating the holy water as an improvised weapon. If the target is a fiend or undead, it takes 2d6 radiant damage.

Jade (pendant). A small pendant of green stone. Jade repels and can injure aberrations. If jade touches an aberration, it deals 2d6 radiant damage, and then the object shatters.

Jade-Accented Weapon. A weapon accented with jade (such as on its blade or a striking head) deals an extra 2d6 radiant damage to an aberration, but after one strike the jade is expended. The cost listed is in addition to the weapon’s normal price.

Jade, Powdered (bag). Collected dust from a workshop that polishes and sets jade. As an action, you can pour out the powder to draw a line across three adjacent squares. 

Alternately, you can spend an action to throw a handful at a creature within 5 feet of you. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the dust as an improvised weapon. On a hit, if the target is an aberration it takes 2d6 radiant damage.

The bag has sufficient dust for ten uses – ten thrown handfuls, 150-ft. worth of lines, or some combination.

Oil (pint flask). Oil usually comes in a clay flask that holds 1 pint. As an action, you can splash the oil in this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the oil as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target is covered in oil. 

If the target takes any fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an additional 5 fire damage from the burning oil. You can also pour a flask of oil on the ground to cover a 5-foot-square area, or to draw a thin ring 10 feet in diameter, provided that the surface is level. If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 5 fire damage to any creature that enters the area or ends its turn in the area. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.

Burning oil lines and rings can block the movement of celestials. A celestial that is covered in burning oil is entangled.

Portable Chiming Clock. A dense and durable clock in a wooden frame designed to be held with relative ease. Built as an adventurer’s tool to keep fey away, its chimes are as loud as a grandfather clock’s. You can flick a switch as a bonus action so that it begins to chime, which lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, fey within 30 feet are repelled. Afterward, it must be wound before it can be used again, which requires an action.

(Chimes that aren’t part of actual clocks do not repel fey, but might annoy them.)

Portable Tolling Bell. Four feet tall, with wheels to help move it, this adventurer’s tool resembles a wooden saw horse with an iron bell hung from the middle. As an action, you can pull a lever to toll the bell, which repels fiends within 30 feet. This lasts until the end of your next turn.

Salt (bag). Normally used with food. As an action, you can pour out the powder to draw a line across three adjacent squares. Salt repels fiends and undead.

Alternately, you can spend an action to throw a handful at a creature within 5 feet of you. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the salt as an improvised weapon. On a hit, if the target is undead or a fiend it takes 2d6 radiant damage.

The bag has sufficient dust for ten uses – ten thrown handfuls, 150-ft. worth of lines, or some combination.

Apotropaics

Item	Price	Weight
Holy symbol	-	-
Holy water (flask)	25 gp	1 lb
Jade (pendant or ammunition)	5 gp	-
Jade-accented weapon	100 gp	-
Jade, powdered (bag)	100 gp	5 lb
Oil, pint (flask)	1 sp	1 lb
Portable chiming clock	100 gp	20 lb
Portable tolling bell	20 gp	40 lb
Salt (bag)	1 sp	5 lb

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Apotropaic Mechanics

Various items are anathema to different types of creatures, and can repel and in some cases even harm those creatures. However, whenever a creature is attacked, it can ignore any repelling effect until the end of the encounter in order to approach and attack the creature or group that antagonized it.

Apotropaics function in coexistent planes, bleeding from Waking to Dreaming and to the Bleak Gate, and from any world into the Ethereal Plane, which can keep ethereal creatures like ghosts from bypassing them. 

Harm. A harmful item has an effect similar to holy water on undead and fiends, dealing 2d6 radiant damage on impact. Each such strike uses up roughly a handful of the substance, or causes larger objects to crack after one use. 

Using excessive amounts of the material might cause ongoing damage (such as by burying a fiend in a mound of gold), but not more than 2d6 per round.

Repel. Creatures cannot willingly touch materials that repel them, nor even use tools to manipulate such items. They can, however, create circumstances to move the repellant item. For instance, a ghost might telekinetically shatter a window so a breeze from outside disperses salt.

If a material repels a creature, a line of that material prevents a creature from crossing. For the purpose of blocking flying creatures, the effect of a repulsive line extends as far vertically as the line is long, and if the material is in a ring, it functions as a dome of the ring’s radius.

A character can spend an action to brandish a repellant item, which prevents the repelled creature from approaching within five feet and from making melee attacks against it for one minute. When you use this action, you can make an opposed Charisma check against the creature, and if it fails it must move out of your path if you come within 10 feet of it.

A creature can attempt to overcome this repellent effect, such as by trying to cross a barrier or attack a creature brandishing the item. If it succeeds a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw , it can ignore the repulsion from that particular item – and anything similar within 30 feet – for one hour. If they fail, their turn ends and they cannot try again in that area for a day.

However, if a creature is attacked in any way by a creature protected by a repellant item, it can freely ignore the repellant effect as if it had succeeded its saving throw.

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Aberrations

Aberrations are hurt and repelled by jade. 

Celestials

Celestials are repelled by burning oil.

Fey

Fey are repelled by the sound of chiming clocks for as long as the chimes ring. This was always the case, even before Amrou appeared in the night sky, but the plane’s influence has strengthened the effect. 

The ticking of a small pocketwatch will bother but not actually repel anyone. A grandfather clock chime affects a 30 foot radius, and something the size of a clocktower toll affects hundreds of feet. Experts on the Dreaming suspect that this is because that plane has an unsteady flow of time, and the presence of a clock forces time into a specific pace.

Whirring gears often repel fey in Risur, though many fey in other parts of the world have no problem with gears, nor any sort of non-timepiece technology, suggesting that the reaction is based either on what the fey believe, or what the people in those lands think the fey believe.

In addition to these more concrete defenses, fey still respond to the same favors they always did. Leaving out offerings of food or milk can earn small boons, or simply attract cats.

Fiends

Fiends are repelled by salt and by brandished holy symbols. They also are repelled by ringing bells the same way fey are repelled by chiming clocks, with larger bells affecting a wider area.

Holy water still hurts fiends, but that is due to its own magical properties, not because of Amrou.

Gold hurts fiends, but only if it is a pound or more (worth at least 50gp). If a fiend is damaged this way, it cannot teleport for one round. However, after a strike damages a fiend, the gold turns to lead.

Undead

Undead are repelled by salt, and can be repelled by brandished holy symbols the same as fiends.

Holy water still hurts undead, but that is due to its own magical properties, not because of Amrou.

 

Most armories will include pistols, carbines, shotguns, and muskets, with each nation’s manufactories producing subtle differences. Those who can afford costlier investments carry superior rifled firearms. Additional innovations such as metal cartridge ammunition are known to exist, but they are the domain of specialized gunsmiths, and as yet are only produced in limited quantities, almost never for sale.

Usually only soldiers bother to carry grenades. Most countries have restrictions on civilian use.

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Compatibility with the Core Rules

For the specific period of firearm development of ZEITGEIST, we are not using the example firearm mechanics presented in the core rules. These firearms are slightly prone to occasional misfiring, and few people use them as a primary weapon.

For the sake of weapon proficiencies, everyone is proficient with grenades. Any character proficient with a hand crossbow is proficient with a pistol. Likewise a light crossbow is equivalent to a carbine and shotgun, and a heavy crossbow is equivalent to a musket. Effects such as feats that work with crossbows should function the same with firearms, with the exception of Crossbow Expert.

Similarly, if you’re using a starter kit for a character’s equipment, you can swap firearms for their comparable crossbows.

(Note that every class except druids is proficient at least with light crossbows, so everyone but druids are able to use carbines and shotguns.)

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Muzzle Loading a Firearm

Reloading involves drawing and tearing open a paper cartridge, which contains firedust and a bullet. The gunner pours firedust down the barrel, then packs in the bullet with a ramrod. The gunner aims and pulls a trigger, which releases the firing hammer. The hammer strikes a firegem set at the back of the barrel, which acts as a percussion cap, producing a spark inside the barrel. The firedust ignites, and the expansion of gases propel the bullet at lethal speed. 

A typical firegem percussion cap must be replaced every few dozen shots or else there is a risk the gem will crack and misfire, but the cost is negligible.

Once a firearm is fired, a character must spend an action or bonus action to reload it. Thus you can only ever fire a single shot in a turn, regardless of how many attacks you can normally take with a single action. You might then holster your gun and use other attacks in melee, or perhaps if you don’t mind looking threatening you could carry multiple pistols.

The intention is that a firearm is a great weapon to open up an engagement with, such as by shooting and then moving into melee, but in the heat of battle you might not always have time to reload it.

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Common Firearms

These weapons can be acquired easily in almost any small town.

Weapon	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Pistol	75 gp	1d10 piercing	3 lb	Ammunition (range 20/60), muzzle-loading
Carbine	75 gp	1d12 piercing	5 lb	Ammunition (range 50/150), muzzle-loading, two-handed
Musket	90 gp	2d8 piercing	10 lb	Ammunition (range 60/180), heavy, muzzle-loading, two-handed
Shotgun	75 gp	1d10 piercing	6 lb	Ammunition (range 30/90), muzzle-loading, two-handed, scatter

 

Advanced Firearms

These weapons are more expensive, and so are usually only available in cities. While a well-heeled gunner will likely want to arm themselves with one, common criminals and soldiers are unlikely to possess these firearms. Arcane fusils – sometimes called lantern blasters – are rare outside of Danor, and are illegal everywhere except Elfaivar.

Weapon	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Arcane Fusil, Fire	300 gp	1 fire	3 lb	Trigger charge (range 20/60), burn
Arcane Fusil, Lightning	300 gp	1d8 lightning	3 lb	Trigger charge (range 20/60), shock
Grenade	50 gp	1d4 bludgeoning*	1 lb	Thrown (range 20/60)
Target pistol	300 gp	1d10 piercing	3 lb	Ammunition (range 40/160), muzzle-loading, rifled
Rifled carbine	300 gp	1d12 piercing	5 lb	Ammunition (range 80/320), muzzle-loading, two-handed, rifled
Rifled musket	315 gp	2d8 piercing	10 lb	Ammunition (range 100/420), heavy, muzzle-loading, two-handed, rifled

* Grenades do not add your ability score modifier to damage.

 

Simple Melee Weapons

Weapon	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Short bayonet	5 gp	1d4 piercing	2 lb	Finesse, light
Standard bayonet	10 gp	1d6 piercing	3 lb	Versatile (1d8)
Long bayonet	15 gp	1d8 piercing	4 lb	Heavy, reach, two-handed

 

Ammunition and Explosives

Item	Price	Weight
Ammunition, bullets and firedust (20 shots)	1 gp	2 lb
Firedust, cask	20 gp	20 lb

 

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Weapon Descriptions

Arcane Fusils. A few gunsmiths have learned to integrate planarite into their weapon designs, though these weapons are forbidden by international treaty. They resemble normal pistols, but the inside of their barrels are lined with planarite, and most are exquisitely decorated along their handles.

Bayonets. These weapons are affixed to a firearm. Short bayonets affix to pistols, standard affix to carbines or shotguns, and long affix to muskets. These hybrid weapons function as two distinct weapons, and each would need to be enchanted separately. Their main benefit is to allow a wielder to switch between ranged and melee attacks without having to draw a new weapon.

Some firearms integrate a bladed weapon into their designs, such as a dagger with a pistol that fires along the crosspiece. This sort of weapon is treated the same as a firearm with an affixed bayonet, except the blade cannot be removed. The Narrator can decide whether other combinations are feasible. A shotgun/axe that does 1d8 slashing damage could theoretically work, but a whip/musket is ridiculous. (Some groups might like ridiculous, though.)

Carbine. Like a pistol, but with a stock and barrel, with a total length of three to four feet.

Grenade. This heavy metal hand-thrown explosive resembles a somewhat rounded dodecahedron. Small firegem percussion caps at its vertices ignite the firedust inside when they are struck with sufficient force, which sends shards of metal in all directions. Sometimes these caps do not ignite at first impact, so grenades hold the risk of bouncing and exploding somewhere other than their intended target. Grenades are destroyed after use.

When you throw a grenade, make a ranged attack roll against an unoccupied 5-foot space (AC 10) or a creature. (If the creature occupies more than one 5-foot space, choose one of the squares it occupies.) If the attack misses by 5 or more the grenade veers off course, missing by 5 feet in a random direction, or 10 feet if the target area was at long range. Each creature in a 5-foot radius of where the grenade lands makes a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or takes 3d6 bludgeoning damage. If you targeted a creature and the attack roll is a critical hit, the creature receives no saving throw and takes double damage. Other creatures in the area are affected normally. 

Musket. The extended barrel of this firearm, bringing it to a total length of over five and a half feet, is an attempt to grant long range accuracy. 

Pistol. A muzzle-loaded one-handed firearm with a firegem percussion cap. Pistols fire lead ball ammunition.

Rifled Carbine. This weapon is a carbine which has had the last few inches of the barrel rifled. These weapons use different ammunition—the Latimer bullet, which is more conical. The bullet’s hollow flared tail expands from the force of the ignited firegems, forcing the edges of the bullet against the spiral grooves of the inside of the barrel, imparting a spin that stabilizes the bullet and enhances accuracy at range.

Rifled Musket. This design is similar to the modern conception of a rifle, with a total length of three and a half to four feet, and a barrel that is fully rifled.

Shotgun. This smoothbore weapon fires pellets that spread out, striking a roughly 5-foot radius at a range of 90 feet. It is not particularly effective at distance, but can be devastating point-blank.

Target Pistol. A pistol with a rifled barrel.

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New Weapon Traits

Burn. The fire fusil only deals 1 fire damage but the target also catches aflame, taking 1d10 ongoing fire damage until an action is used to extinguish the flames.

Muzzle-Loading. After each shot, it takes an action or bonus action to reload the weapon.

Sometimes irregular packing of a barrel causes the weapon not to function properly. Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with a firearm, the gun misfires – nothing happens, and the gun remains loaded. Clearing the barrel requires an action, and makes the gun safe to use. You can continue using the misfired gun without clearing the barrel, but attacks with the weapon have disadvantage , and if you roll a second natural 1, the weapon has a mishap and explodes. It is destroyed and deals its base damage die to you (e.g., 2d8 with a musket).

Magical guns never misfire or have mishaps.

Rifled. Rifling extends the range a firearm can accurately hit a target. You can spend an action to aim down the weapon’s sight, and choose a creature you can see. Until you stop aiming, quadruple the weapon’s short and long ranges for the purpose of attacking that target.

Each turn thereafter you can spend an action or bonus action to continue aiming at the same target or switch to another target you can see. If you move or take damage, your aim is ruined and you have to start over again.

Scatter. If you are wielding a shotgun and have advantage on an attack roll and both rolls hit the target, the weapon deals an extra 1d10 damage. If you have disadvantage, if one attack roll hits but the other misses, the target takes 1d4 damage. This graze damage is not increased by anything else (not ability modifiers, feats, sneak attack, etc.), though resistances and vulnerabilities still apply.

Shock. When you attack a creature wearing metal armor with a lightning fusil, you have advantage on the attack roll.

Trigger Charge. An arcane fusil requires no ammunition, but you cannot simply shoot it by pulling the trigger. The planarite takes a moment to gather the necessary energy. To charge the fusil, you spend a bonus action and pull back a firing hammer. At the start of your next turn, the fusil is charged, and can be used for a single attack. 

The shot of an arcane fusil is either a pellet of flame that engulfs a target hit, or a shaft of crackling lightning that coruscates over a target it hits.

Once you have fired an arcane fusil, you cannot charge it again on the same turn; it can only be fired every other turn.

If you charge a fusil but do not fire it on your next turn, the weapon suffers a misfire. Similar to a muzzle-loading weapon, you can clear the barrel by spending an action, but until you do the weapon has disadvantage on attacks. If you suffer a second misfire without clearing the barrel, the fusil explodes and deals its base damage die to you.

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Firearm Enhancements

Gunsmiths can craft these items. Such custom work is in high demand, however, and finding a gunsmith capable of crafting these is as difficult as locating an uncommon or rare magic item. The price can be similarly exorbitant.

Alchemical launchers, sniper scopes, and suppressors can be retrofitted onto existing weapons. Ammunition cartridges and reinforced barrels can only be added when a weapon is crafted, not retrofitted.

Alchemical Launcher. As an action, you can load one grenade or similar item such as alchemist fire or holy water into this underslung launcher. You can use the item as if it were in your hand. If the item normally requires a ranged attack, it uses your gun’s attack bonus and range.

Ammunition Cartridge. For a pistol, a revolver cylinder lets you fire six shots before you need to reload. For a carbine, musket, or shotgun, a stripper clip instead holds five rounds. Replacing a cartridge requires an action or bonus action.

Reinforced Barrel. You’ve modified your barrel to fire heavier rounds. If your Narrator uses the alternate rules of attacks hitting cover, if you hit cover you deal half the weapon’s damage to its target, unless the attack fails to damage the cover.

You can also attack a creature with total cover ; you take a -5 penalty to your attack roll (and probably have disadvantage since you likely cannot see it), and if you hit you deal half damage.

These rounds usually only work through less than a foot of wood or dirt, a few inches of stone, or a half-inch of metal.

Cover-piercing ammunition costs twice as much as normal ammunition.

Sniper Scope. This enhancement is only effective on rifled weapons. You can aim down this finely-tuned telescopic sight without needing to spend an action. However, you are considered blind except against creatures in a direct line from you to your target. The blindness lasts until your next turn.

Suppressor. Your shots are relatively quiet. If you are hidden when you attack, you remain hidden from creatures more than 50 feet from you. A creature struck does, however, know the direction the shot came from.

Item	Price	Weight
Alchemical launcher	1,000 gp	5 lb
Ammunition cartridge	1,000 gp	1 lb
Reinforced barrel	500 gp	1 lb
Sniper scope	1,000 gp	2 lb
Suppressor	500 gp	1 lb

 

Early firearms used smoky black gunpowder as propellant for its ammunition, but alchemical advances produced ruby-red firedust. This powdered variant of alchemist’s fire produces no smoke when used in firearms, has a lower risk of fouling or corroding the weapon’s internals, and is hydrophobic, allowing it to burn even after immersion in water. 

Many other firearm accelerants exist, including magmite (a granular black substance rendered in alchemical furnaces) and phlogistite (transluscent red vapor slime that floats in globules if exposed to open air), but firedust is by far the most widely used. Steam engines use a variant, firegems, which burn slower but longer

While it is the source of a firearm’s deadly power, firedust is relatively harmless as a weapon in its own right, since it burns too fast to cause serious wounds like traditional alchemist fire. If someone ignites a cask full of firedust, though, the resulting explosion could seriously hurt those nearby. National militaries field grenadiers who use hand-held explosives, particularly in Drakr, but city-dwellers – even criminals – find little use for such indiscriminate destruction.

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Example Explosion

A twenty pound cask of firedust, roughly a foot across, explodes in a 10-ft. radius, dealing 7d6 damage (Dexterity save DC 12 for half damage). A one-ton pallet that explodes deals 7d6 damage in a 30-ft. radius, while those within 10 ft. instead take 15d6 damage (Dexterity save DC 12 for half damage). Any attack that dealt at least 5 fire damage to a space containing the cask or pallet would be sufficient to cause an explosion; simply shooting firedust with a bullet won’t cause it to explode.

 

Fey Pepper. This rare plant only grows near paths to the Dreaming, and after the fall of the Elfaivaran empire five hundred years ago it became a black market item in most of Lanjyr.  When chewed or smoked, the pepper makes the user giddy and upbeat. With a sufficient dosage, the user begins to hallucinate, though many claim these visions are actually glimpses into the Dreaming.

Gentleman’s Outfit. This fine outfit includes tailcoat, vest, cane, tophat, and more. In Elfaivar, this might take the form of an ornate embroidered sherwani over a kurta, with an accentuating stole. Gentlemen do not wear goggles.

Goggles. Designed for working in factories or laboratories with searing chemicals or embers, these goggles are atrocious for peripheral vision. They’re also handy for airship crew. While wearing them, you have advantage on saving throws to resist effects that would blind you. However, you have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that involve sight.

Lady’s Outfit. This ornate dress has an excess of weight composed of frills, whalebone corseting, multiple layers of fabric, and possibly a small hat with a lace veil. Elfaivaran fashion is less weighty, consisting of a sari or anarkali dress with luxurious mixed patterns, possibly with veils of silk scarves. Still no goggles. Definitely no cogs either.

Leaf of Nicodemus. Monks cultivate this herb, which grows best on the islands of the Yerasol Archipelago. When crumbled, rolled, and smoked as a cigarette, the monk’s leaf soothes nerves and sharpens perception slightly. It can be addictive if used extensively, but has no social stigma, unlike fey pepper.

Photochemical Camera. This tripod mounted device has an aperture to keep out light until a picture is ready to be recorded. A treated photochemical plate is slid into the camera and the aperture is opened for about a minute, or longer in dimmer conditions. Exposure to light in the presence of a certain gas causes the image to set on the plate, and a quick saline rinse ensures the image will not develop further if exposed to more light. These photographs are popular among the lower classes, who cannot afford proper portrait paintings.

Pocket Watch. In addition to telling time, a pocket watch deters the attention of minor fey. Watches will occasionally stop, skip, or run backward in the presence of powerful fey creatures.

Surgeon’s Kit. This tool kit includes a bone saw, debriding curette, ether, forceps, morphium, probes, retractors, scalpels, scissors, sutures, and syringe. Whenever you treat an injured ally during a short or long rest, make a DC 10 Medicine check. On a success, the first Hit Die that ally spends restores an additional 5 hit points, or on a failure by 5 or more that first Hit Die is wasted and restores no hit points. At the Narrator’s discretion this item might also aid the treatment of long-term afflictions.

The Martial Studies feat lets a character of any class make limited use of the Savant class’s tricks. Herein is a selection of renowned martial theses from around the world, and the tricks they let you acquire. A Savant or character with the Martial Studies feat that has a copy of one of these theses can spend a long rest to swap one of the tricks they know for the trick the thesis details.

As a reminder, there are two main categories of savant tricks – aegis and flourish.

An aegis is a technique that can turn the momentum of a fight by not only avoiding an attack, but also putting your opponent in a bad position. 

A flourish is a technique that you can add to an attack that meets a certain condition. 

Every graduate of a martial academy must defend their thesis from a group of challengers, and has been taught that scientific breakthroughs are born of both careful study and wild experimentation, so most graduates will have these Committee Defense and Experimental Flourish. However, amateurs or people who received private tutelage may start with other tricks known. Some examples follow.

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Ber

Beran soldiers are often trained with a no-frills text called How Not to Get Shot, by Kenna Vigilante. This teaches the Serpentine Rush Aegis trick.

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Crisillyir

Before becoming Prime Cardinal of the Clergy in the 3rd century, Glorius Willis was a famed instructor at the College of Divine Trials in Sid Minos, where he penned Liturgical Lessons: Applications of Psalms in a Battlefield Context. This teaches the Saving Advice trick.

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Danor

The late Lya Jierre, a scion of the prominent tiefling Jierre family, published her thesis Field Study of Melee Effectiveness and Foe Debilitation through Focused Limb Severance Techniques Contrasted with Mainstream Opportunistic Techniques. This teaches the Freelinking: Node title svant does not exist trick.

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Drakr

A respected artillerism student at the Boehno Texhnyeconn made a splash with her text, Suppressing Dissent and Incentivizing Disengagement through the Fervent Deployment of Loud Weapons. This teaches the Frightful Suppression trick.

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Dreaming

Though the fey do not have any organized academies of martial science, some powerful warriors of the Dreaming take it upon themselves to write up their often-nonsensical tactics as if they were war veterans. From among sheafs of pointless blathering, a handful of intelligible texts emerge, which give some insight into the way these beings think about battle.

A Record of the Applause at a Production of ‘The Burning Heart of a Warrior’ was composed by a fey lord named Karrest, who wished to record how well an audience received his autobiographical play. Excessive attention is paid to just how the actor was meant to appear to fall in battle in order to best persuade the onlookers that their hero had perished, suggesting that for this fey, at least, the story of the battle was at least as important as the threat to life and limb.

A derivative and simplified version of this technique was presented in the far less compelling thesis Unexpected Tactics of Fey Swordsmen.

Either version teaches the Sweeping Stride trick.

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Elfaivar

The oldest and deadliest Elfaivaran warriors were known as dreadnoughts, who fought implacably, using tactics to awe their enemies into submission, often capable of facing hordes of common soldiers and winning the day. One survivor of such an engagement published Lessons from a Battlefield Engagement between an Elfaivaran Dreadnought and Seven Riflemen. This teaches the Tangled Dance Aegis trick.

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Malice Lands

The monster hunter Xavier Sangria mastered hunting malice beasts, and he learned to use the chaotic magic that once suffused the Malice Lands as a defensive shield. By training himself to intensely feel the emotion of malice at will, he could briefly create a sympathetic link to the region’s wild magic, and so cause magic that would harm him to instead suffer a mishap. However, holding a reservoir of such latent evil will was perilous. 

He recorded his insights in his thesis, Intentional Emotions as Sympathetic Invocation of Malice Mishaps, but mastering this technique requires practicing it in a place of wild magic. Older martial scientists might have visited the Malice Lands, but modern scholars can only find suitable conditions in the dead city of Methia, or in a few scattered pockets of wild magic around the region. This teaches a rare trick that is not normally available to Savants.

Malicious Deflection (Aegis)

As you prepare this trick, you build up a reservoir of seething malice and then tamp it down. While this trick is prepared, you have disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws.

When you succeed a saving throw against a spell or other magical effect, as a reaction you can use this technique to release your pent up malice, which causes a sudden wave of wild magic to disrupt that spell or effect. The magic does not affect you, but instead you choose a new target within 30 feet, which must save as if it were the original target.

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Miscellaneous

A treatise often edited and amended, the original author of Methods of Extricating Warriors from a Variety of Tentacled and Tendriled Monsters is unclear. It is kept in collections in academies around the world, and many students have heard the humorous rumor that the first copy was dictated by a ghost who died facing horrors from other worlds. This teaches a rare trick that is not normally available to Savants.

Tentacle Technique (Aegis)

When you or an ally you’re aware of is grappled by a creature, you can use this trick to let the grappled creature use its reaction to make a melee attack against the attacker that is grappling it. If this attack hits, the grapple ends in addition to the attack’s normal effect.

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Risur

District Mayor Dale, tasked with protecting the city of Flint from the dark forces atop the infamous mountain Cauldron Hill, wrote Meditation, Coffee, and Cherry Pie: Unorthodox Salves Against the Supernatural. This teaches the trick Mindful Reason Aegis, and has tips on where to get excellent food in the city of Flint.

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Vagabonds

Strangers from beyond this world possess many fascinating fighting techniques. A sailor from the Yerasol Archipelago was inspired to enroll in the Jierre Sciens d’Arms after he witnessed an aged monk from Caeloon dodge a jaguar’s lunge and fling the cat thirty feet, an event he later recorded in Artistic Paper Folding and Humanoid Anatomy: Theories on Implicit Extradimensionality. This teaches a rare trick that is not normally available to Savants.

Stance of the Paper Wind (Aegis)

When a creature you have not attacked since the start of your previous turn targets you with a melee attack, you can use this trick to fold your body away from the attack’s full force, then unfold and use your enemy’s momentum against them to hurl them away. You gain resistance to that attack’s damage, and after the attack, you throw the attacker in a direction of your choice up to a distance equal to 5 feet × your proficiency bonus. The attacker can make a Dexterity saving throw to avoid being moved.

Supernatural gift, rare

Requirements: The requirements are up to the Narrator, but at minimum godhand investiture is only granted to members of the Clergy religion who are proficient with Culture and Religion, have some sort of ability to fight unarmed, and are at least 6th level.

Your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. You can ignore incorporeal creatures’ immunity to being grappled or restrained if you grab with an unarmed strike. While you are grabbing a creature (incorporeal or otherwise), it cannot teleport or travel to other planes, such as through a succubus’s Etherealness ability. 

Additionally, you gain one Godhand Halo of your choice. Each halo grants a special power which you can use when you use a reaction. The halo’s effect is in addition to the normal effect of whatever reaction you used.

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Annulus of Heaven’s Succour

This decorated metallic ring spins slowly and soothingly. The halo has three charges, which recharge daily at dawn.

Whenever you use a reaction, you can expend a charge to heal. Either you or an ally within 60 feet regain hit points equal to 1d6 × your proficiency bonus .

Alternately, when you would interact with an object you can expend a charge to teleport an object to your hand or that of an ally within 60 feet. The object must be either one you own that is within three miles of you, or an unattended object you can see.

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Corona of Burning Judgment

When you are angry, this halo flickers with fire as bright as candle light. The halo has three charges, which recharge daily at dawn.

Whenever you use a reaction, you can expend a charge to have the halo sear an enemy within 60 feet of you. That creature takes radiant damage equal to 1d6 × your proficiency bonus . When you do, the halo glows as bright as a torch for one round. For the next hour you have advantage to Insight and Intimidation checks against that creature.

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Halo of Rarefied Enlightenment

With but a thought, you can cause this halo to glow with clear light as bright as a torch, as dim as a candle, or not at all. The halo has three charges, which recharge daily at dawn.

Whenever you use a reaction, you can expend a charge to have the halo flash with blinding light. Choose a creature within 60 feet. That creature must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom or Charisma modifier) or be blinded until the end of the next turn of whichever creature triggered your reaction. When you use this ability, the halo sheds a sphere of bright light for 60 feet, and 60 feet of dim light beyond it, lasting for one round.

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Nimbus of Gathered Courage

This halo is slightly translucent, like a cloud. The halo has three charges, which recharge daily at dawn.

Whenever you use a reaction, you can expend a charge to share your courage with an ally. Choose an ally within 60 feet to gain an inspiration die, a d6. This functions like a bardic inspiration die. While that ally is inspired, your halo expands to frame your entire physical body, and an identical halo frames your inspired ally.

 

Creating a Savant

Consider why your character relies on wits instead of warcraft or wizardry. Were they physically feeble and had to think their way out of challenges? Did they receive a refined education and learn from history and literature how to deal with all manner of unlikely scenarios? Have they just picked up these talents on the job, perhaps working a trade or serving as a guard?

Quick Build

Your highest ability score should be Intelligence, followed by Dexterity. Get proficiency in Deception, Investigation, and Perception, plus disguise kits. Choose the Vanguard archetype, and choose proficiency with Culture, light armor, blowguns, pistols, scimitars, and whips. Learn the tricks Antagonizing Flourish, Improved Bastion Aegis, and Unbalancing Intervention. Learn the clever scheme Impromptu Persona.

Level	Features	Tricks Known	Schemes Known
1	Adroit Defense, Archetype, Clever Schemes, Savant Tricks	3	1
2	Archetype Feature, Combat Poise	4	1
3	Analyzed Need, Skill Focus	4	2
4	Ability Score Improvement, Signature Move	5	2
5	Developed Poise	6	3
6	Archetype Feature	7	3
7	Intelligent Caution, Skill Focus, Quick Wits	7	4
8	Ability Score Improvement	8	4
9	Focused Defense	9	5
10	More Tricks	10	5
11	Archetype Feature, Skill Focus	10	6
12	Ability Score Improvement	11	6
13	Exceptional Poise	12	7
14	Archetype Feature	13	7
15	Clockwork Mind, Skill Focus	13	8
16	Ability Score Improvement	14	8
17	Archetype Feature	15	9
18	Nothing That Can’t Be Solved	16	9
19	Ability Score Improvement, Skill Focus	16	10
20	Ultimate Schema	17	10

Multiclassing Prerequisite: Intelligence 13

Proficiencies Gained: Improvised weapons and one type of tools

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Class Features

As a savant, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per savant level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per savant level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None

Weapons: Simple weapons, improvised weapons

Tools: Choose any one

Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence

Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Culture, Deception, Engineering, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, and Sleight of Hand

Equipment

You begin the game with 125 gold (plus the 30 each Zeitgeist character gets, for a total of 155) which you can spend on your character’s starting weapons, armor, and adventuring gear. You can select your own gear or choose one of the following equipment packages.

• Bravo's Set (cost 137 gp): Scimitar, 2 daggers, blowgun, pistol, whip, 20 shots (bullets and firedust), explorer’s pack, leather armor, disguise kit.
• Tinkerer's Set (cost 146 gp): Mace (a cane), 2 daggers, carbine, 20 shots (bullets and firedust), burglar’s pack, leather armor, thieves’ tools.

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Adroit Defense

You constantly analyze combat situations to improve your defensive posture, proactively interfering to guide attacks away from yourself. While you are wearing no armor, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier. You cannot use a shield and still gain this benefit.

The savant is not proficient in armor by default, but might gain those proficiencies through archetypes, feats, or multiclassing. When you are wearing armor you’re proficient in, you can use your Intelligence in place of your Dexterity to determine your AC.

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Archetype

Your Savant archetype defines what your greatest aptitude is. The steward is expert at protecting and healing allies. The vanguard joins the thick of the fight, looking for tactical opportunities others miss. The vox deeply understands how words can manipulate people.

Your archetype gives you unique features at 1st level and again at 2nd, 6th, 11th, 14th, and 17th level.

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Clever Schemes

You learn one clever scheme of your choice. These schemes are detailed at the end of the class description. The Schemes Known column of the Savant table shows when you learn more clever schemes.

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Savant Tricks

You have developed a small number of clever gambits, deft maneuvers, and canny guards which help you prevail in battle by using your wits. The number of tricks you know is listed on the Savant table, and you can choose from the list below and from the list of tricks your archetype makes available.

To use a trick, you must first prepare it by spending a bonus action. You cannot prepare a trick outside of an encounter, but once a trick is prepared, it remains prepared until you use it, until the encounter ends, or until you spend a bonus action to replace it with a different trick. You can only have one trick prepared at time.

Different tricks can be used at different times. Some require your action, bonus action, or reaction. Others might be used when making attacks.

Some of your tricks require your target to make a saving throw to resist its effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Trick save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can choose to replace a trick you know with a different trick.

Types of Tricks

Some tricks are called Aegises, which let you use your reaction to defend against some sort of attack. Other tricks are called Flourishes, which you can use when you hit with a melee weapon attack .

If a trick offers a saving throw , after you use it against a particular creature, that creature has advantage on saving throws against other uses of that same trick until the end of combat. If the trick doesn’t permit a saving throw, after you use it against a particular creature, you cannot use the same trick against that creature for the rest of the combat.

Aegises

• Attention Diverting Aegis. When a creature within 30 feet that can sense you makes an attack that isn’t targeting you, you can use this trick to try to distract the attacker. If it fails a Wisdom saving throw , until your next turn it has disadvantage on all attack rolls it makes that aren’t against you.
• Canny Dodge Aegis. When an attack would hit you, you can use this trick to gain an expertise die to your AC against that attack. Alternatively, when you fail a Dexterity saving throw , you can use this trick to gain an expertise die. In either case, you know how much the roll succeeded or failed by before deciding whether to use this aegis.
• Committee Defense Aegis. When a creature attacks you, if it is not the first creature to attack you since the start of your last turn, you find an avenue of opportunity amid the massed assault. You can use this trick to impose disadvantage on that creature’s attack. Then, you gain advantage on the next attack roll you make before the end of your next turn that targets a creature that attacked you this round.
• Improvised Bastion Aegis. When you are damaged by a creature you can use this trick to devise a momentary defense (using a chair as a shield, predicting a safe spot in an explosion, diluting a spray of acid with a solvent, and so on) reducing the damage you take by half. 
• Mindful Reason Aegis. When you fail an Intelligence or Wisdom saving throw , you can use this trick to gain an expertise die on the saving throw. You know how much the roll failed by before deciding whether to use this aegis.
• Serpentine Rush Aegis. When you are targeted by a ranged attack , you can use this trick to move your speed. Until the end of your next turn, ranged attacks against you have disadvantage . Additionally, your movement might get you to a location where cover makes you hard or impossible to hit. Reduce your speed on your next turn by the distance that you move when using this trick.
• Tangled Dance Aegis. When you would be hit with an attack and a creature other than the attacker is adjacent to you, you can use this trick to try to dodge so the attack hits that creature. If the attacker fails an Intelligence saving throw , change the attack’s target to another creature within 5 feet, and the attacker uses the same result of its attack roll.
• Undermining Taunt Aegis. When a creature misses with an attack or when a foe succeeds on a saving throw against an effect it created, you can use this trick to capitalize on their failure, warning the creature why another possible course of action will also turn out badly. If that creature can understand you, choose an action, such as Attack or Cast a Spell. The target must make a Charisma saving throw. If it fails, until the end of its next turn it cannot take that action.

Flourishes

• Antagonizing Flourish. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can try to draw its ire. If it fails an Intelligence saving throw , it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you until the start of your next turn.
• Disarming Flourish. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to disarm it. If it fails a Strength saving throw , its grip is loosened, and the creature cannot make use of the item until it spends a bonus action or attack on its turn to regain a solid hold. If the creature has disadvantage on the save and fails both rolls, it drops the item.
• Experimental Flourish. Whenever you miss with an attack, you improvise a follow-up that doesn’t directly attack a foe, such as slicing a rope to pin an enemy with a chandelier or smashing a pipe to spray blinding steam on an enemy. Circumstances will dictate what the effect is, but some examples include shoving or imposing the blinded , deafened , grappled , or prone condition, and may also deal damage equal to your Intelligence modifier. Any conditions imposed should seldom last more than one round. Creatures affected can make an Intelligence saving throw to anticipate your trick and avoid the effect.
• Guiding Flourish. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can try to trick it into moving. If it fails a Dexterity saving throw , it moves up to 10 feet in a direction of your choice. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks . If this movement would cause it to take damage (such as by falling or entering fire), the creature has advantage on this saving throw.
• Menacing Flourish. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can spend a bonus action to activate this trick and deliver a terrifying threat. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw . If it fails, for the next minute it is frightened of you. A frightened creature repeats the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
• Surgical Flourish. When you have advantage on a melee attack and both dice results are high enough to hit, choose one of the creature’s limbs or eyes to debilitate. If the creature succeeds a Constitution saving throw , you debilitate that body part only until the end of your next turn. If it fails the saving throw, the body part is debilitated until it can take a short rest.
  A creature cannot use a debilitated limb to attack, and cannot hold any items or effectively wear a shield with a debilitated limb. A creature with a debilitated leg has its speed reduced by half, it falls prone after using the Dash action, and it has disadvantage on Dexterity checks to balance. A creature with a debilitated eye has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight and on ranged attack rolls.

Other Tricks

• Assess Vulnerability. When you attack a creature, you can use your Intelligence bonus in place of another ability score bonus for the attack roll and damage roll . This applies to all attacks you make against it before the start of your next turn, but not to attacks you make against other creatures.
• Choreographed Disappearance. On your turn, you say something to turn a foe’s attention away from you or an ally. You or an ally of your choice who can understand you can move up to their speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from one creature of your choice that can understand you. If they end up having obscurement or cover relative to the distracted foe, they can Hide without spending an action.
• Direct Ally. You identify an opening an ally can take advantage of. You can spend an action and choose an ally that can understand you, then choose a target. If that ally hits that target with an attack before the start of your next turn, their attack deals an extra 1d8 damage. The bonus dice increase to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and 4d8 at 17th level. After you use this trick, you can choose the same ally again, but cannot choose the same target for the rest of the encounter.
• Frightful Suppression. When you make an attack that causes loud noises—a firearm or grenade, or also items and spells that deal thunder damage—you can use this trick to force the attack’s target (or creatures in the attack’s area) to make a Wisdom saving throw to gauge when it is safe to move, and thus avoid being pinned down. A creature that fails cannot move until the start of your next turn unless it spends an action.
• Rallying Word. You know just what to say you inspire an ally’s flagging stamina. You can spend a bonus action to let an ally within 30 feet who can understand you spend a Hit Die. If it does, it rolls that Hit Die (adding its Constitution bonus) plus 1d8 and heals hit points equal to the total. The bonus dice increase to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and 4d8 at 17th level. After you use this ability, the same ally cannot benefit from it again until you complete a short rest .
• Saving Advice. Spend a bonus action to advise an ally who can understand you. Choose a saving throw . One time before the end of this encounter, that ally can gain an expertise die on one saving throw of that type, used at the time of their choice. An expertise die is 1d4 they roll and add.
• Sweeping Stride. When you move at least 10 feet and enter a space adjacent to a creature no more than one size larger than you, you can try to trip it. If the creature fails a Dexterity saving throw , it falls prone . If it succeeds, instead your movement ends in the space you entered to use this ability.
• Timely Tool. Spend a bonus action to use an item that normally can be used as an action. This cannot cause damage or require an attack roll. Examples include administering an antitoxin, potion, or other easy-to-swallow item to a willing creature within reach; lighting a torch; tossing out caltrops, or barring a door.
• Unbalancing Intervention. When a creature within your reach makes a Strength or Dexterity ability check or saving throw , you can use your reaction to perform a series of pulls, shoves, and strikes that put a creature off-balance. The creature has disadvantage on its ability check or saving throw.

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Combat Poise

Some savants are prepared to bloody their knuckles in a fight, while others make a point of staying out of the scrum. At 2nd level, you choose one of the following poises.

A Step Ahead

You have a deft ability to predict your opponents’ responses and interfere with them. Whenever a creature within your reach that you are aware of attempts to take a reaction, you can expend your reaction for the round to try to disrupt them. That creature must make an Intelligence saving throw against your trick DC. If they fail, their reaction is wasted.

Combat Maneuvers

These combat maneuvers are detailed in the full Level Up rules.

You gain the ability to use combat maneuvers. You gain an exertion point pool equal to your proficiency bonus.

Choose two martial traditions. (Most savants learn maneuvers of the traditions Biting Zephyr, Mist and Shade, Rapid Current, or Sanguine Knot.) Whenever you gain a savant trick, you can instead choose a maneuver from any of your chosen martial traditions.

You can initially learn maneuvers of the 1st degree. At 6th level you gain access to 2nd degree maneuvers, at 10th level you can access 3rd degree maneuvers, at 14th level you can access 4th degree maneuvers, and finally at 18th level you can access 5th degree maneuvers.

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Archetype Feature

At 2nd level you gain a new archetype feature.

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Analyzed Need

You can adapt your mind for whatever challenges you expect. Starting at 3rd level, when you complete a short or long rest you can choose a skill. Until you complete another rest, whenever you make an ability check using that skill, you use Intelligence instead of the ability score it normally uses.

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Skill Focus

At 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th, choose a skill you are proficient with. You gain an expertise die on checks with that skill. An expertise die is 1d4 you roll and add.

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Ability Score Improvements

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

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Signature Move

At 4th level, choose one savant trick you know. You are considered to always have that trick prepared, and it does not count against the limit of the number of tricks you can have prepared. When you use that trick, it does not stop being prepared. Whenever you gain a level, you can change your signature move.

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Developed Poise

At 5th level, you refine your combat poise. Choose one of the following, or one of the combat poise options available at 2nd level.

Extra Attack

When you use the Attack action on your turn, you can make two attacks.

Rational Maneuvers

You can use your Intelligence bonus to calculate the DCs of your combat maneuvers.

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Archetype Feature

At 6th level you gain a new archetype feature.

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Intelligent Caution

At 7th level, whenever you complete a long rest , you may choose one ability score and gain proficiency in saving throws of that type until you use this ability again.

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Quick Wits

Also at 7th level, on your turn you can prepare a trick without spending an action. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. Thereafter, preparing tricks requires the usual bonus action until you complete a short or long rest .

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Focused Defense

At 9th level, you can use the confusion of a large battle to protect you. If there are at least two enemies within 30 feet, you can use a bonus action to choose one of them. Until the end of your next turn, that creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against you.

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More Tricks

At 10th level, you can hold two tricks in reserve, in addition to your signature trick. You still require a bonus action to prepare a trick.

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Archetype Feature

At 11th level you gain a new archetype feature.

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Exceptional Poise

At 13th level, your combat poise can achieve remarkable things. Choose one of the following, or one of the combat poise options available at 2nd or 5th level.

Confounding Defense

The first time each round that you use an aegis, you can immediately prepare another aegis trick.

The Opportune Moment

On your turn, you can take one additional action. You cannot use this feature on the first round of combat, and after using it you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest .

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Archetype Feature

At 14th level you gain a new archetype feature.

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Clockwork Mind

At 15th level, your mental capabilities transcend the normal limitations mortal minds face. You gain an expertise die on all Intelligence checks and saving throws.

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Archetype Feature

At 17th level you gain a new archetype feature.

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Nothing That Can’t Be Solved

At 18th level, you can overcome obstacles with ease. When a creature that can understand you starts its turn you can grant it the ability to ignore all sources of disadvantage until the start of its next turn. After you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest .

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Ultimate Schema

At 20th level, you’re clever enough to accomplish anything. Whenever you complete a long rest, choose an effect that could be accomplished by a spell of level 8 or lower. You can have that effect occur immediately, or keep it in reserve for the day, and cause it to occur at any point by spending an action. This can be because you acquired a magic item or spellcaster willing to perform the magic, or have a device or hirelings capable of matching the feat.

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Savant Clever Schemes

You can choose from among the following clever schemes.

Apothecary Basics

Whenever you take a short or long rest , you can use your medical knowledge to treat one creature. That creature can heal as if it had one extra 1d4 Hit Die during this rest, or it can ignore one level of fatigue for the next four hours.

Deductive Tracker

After observing a creature, however briefly, you make a deduction that gives you an edge when pursuing it. After you spend at least 1 minute observing a creature, you gain an expertise die on checks made to track that specific creature.

Hostilia Naturae

Following the path trod by Drakran naturalist Karl Evol, author of A Theory of Noetic Field Adaptation Toward Terrifyingness Among Malice Ecologies, you have studied the many perils of wild flora and fauna. You gain an expertise die on checks to avoid, locate, or understand the abilities of aberrations, beasts, and monstrosities.

Impromptu Persona

You do not need preparation to come up with a convincing fake persona, background, and excuse to cover anything suspicious you are doing. You can gain advantage on Deception checks to pretend to be someone else. However, the ruse won’t hold up to prolonged scrutiny. If you spend more than a few minutes in someone’s presence, you must make a new Deception check with disadvantage to maintain the ruse.

Just What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into?

When you are ambushed, you gain an expertise die on your initiative check. When you trigger a trap, you gain an expertise die on the first saving throw you need to make, or to your AC against the first attack the trap makes against you. After you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest .

Kleptology

When a creature makes a melee attack against you or otherwise touches you, you can use your reaction to make a Sleight of Hand check against it. 

Additionally, when you spend at least a minute interacting with a creature while within arm’s reach, you gain an expertise die on Sleight of Hand checks against it until the interaction ends.

Local Informants

You quickly can locate people willing to share information. If you spend an hour reaching out to local residents or simply perusing a recent periodical or newspaper, for the next day you gain an expertise die on Culture and Investigation checks related to the area.

Meeting of Minds

You gain an expertise die on Charisma checks with Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion when trying to interact with someone who is trained in the same skill.

Motto of the Tropezaros

You make sure you’re always prepared. Once per short rest you can produce a non-magical item that you could have purchased or prepared at some point, small enough to fit in whatever storage you have available. This could range from a forged passport in your pocket to a glider stowed in the hold of a ship you’re traveling on. Pay the appropriate price for it. Limits of causality apply.

Physical Education

Once per hour, when you succeed on an Acrobatics or Athletics check to climb, swim, or jump you can offer advice and encouragement to your allies. For the next minute, each ally who attempts a check to traverse the same area gains an expertise die .

Read You Like a Spellbook

You can spend an action to make an Arcana check against the save DC of a creature’s spell. If you succeed, you deduce from their demeanor, fashion, and accoutrements what cantrips they know and the last non-cantrip spell it cast, if any.

Reinforce Apotropaics

Apotropaics are specific items that can repel or harm certain creatures, like bells driving away fiends. You can spend an action to reinforce an apotropaic you are touching for one day.

If you brandish a reinforced apotropaic to repel a creature, add an expertise die to your opposed Charisma check. If a creature tries to bypass the repellent effect of a reinforced apotropaic barrier (like an undead crossing a line of salt), add an expertise die to the flat DC the creature must overcome. If a reinforced item is used to harm a creature (like jade dust against an aberration), you can also make an opposed Charisma check to repel that creature without needing to spend a separate action (and you gain an expertise die to the check).

Reserved Seating

You have forethought of when and where you might need to be places. If you knew you would be in a given area, once per day you can call upon this forethought to have a vehicle or mount waiting for you and your companions, or to have a reservation available at a venue. You pay any appropriate costs. For exceptional requests, you may need to make a Persuasion check or owe someone a favor.

Run Silent Run Deep

Once per hour, when you succeed on a Stealth check you can discreetly direct your allies. For the next minute, each ally who attempts a check to traverse the same area gains an expertise die .

When moving through an area you’re familiar with or have had time to study maps of, you gain an expertise die on Stealth checks.

Student of Technology

You instead gain an expertise die on Engineering checks and when using tools to build, repair, or understand a technological device.

Unstable Poison

You gain an expertise die on checks made with the poisoner’s kit. You learn the recipe for creating basic poison . During a short or long rest , you can brew one poison for which you have the recipe without spending gold or using ingredients. This version of the poison lasts until your next short or long rest.
 

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Chapter 1: A World on its Axis

• Heritages || Deva | Gnoll | Goblin | Kobold | Lizardfolk | Minotaur
• Cultures ||  Bloodmarked | De Guerra | Dialectician | Elfaivaran | Harimau | Pedresco | Steelmarked
• Backgrounds || Archaeologist |  Faction Agent | Investigator |  Riven Mind
• Feats || Arctech Tinkerer  | Brook No Delay  | Display of Heroism  | Docker's Jank  | Expression of Belief  | Go to Ground  | Hand of Retribution  | Martial Studies  | Moderately Outfitted  | Skyseer Vision  | Strength through Authority  | The Man with Two Guns is God  | Unfinished Business

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Chapter 2: The Science of Adventure

• Classes ||  Savant
• Savant Archetypes ||  Steward | Vanguard | Vox
• Other Archetypes || Durala Carao (adept) | Queen Bee (berserker) | Vagabond (bard) | Aspirant (cleric) | Axis Slayer (druid) | Gadgeteer (fighter) | Executore (herald) | Titanist (ranger) | Occult Blade (rogue) | Annihilator (sorcerer) | Urbanist (warlock) | Last Raven (wizard) | Enclavist (wizard)

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Chapter 3: An Exposition of Inventions

• Civilized Gear | Explosive Alchemicals | Firearms of ZEITGEIST | Apotropaics

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Chapter 6: A Parade of Curiosities

• Magic Items | Godhand Investiture | Martial Scientist Theses
• Prestige Classes || Applied Astronomist | Logos | Mad Shootist | Monument of War | Notorious Celebrity | Polyhistor | Steamsuit Pilot | Urban Empath | Vekeshi Excoriant | Wayfarer Cirquelist

On a large island south of Ber lives a group of gnolls who belong to the Cult of the Steel Lord, and who have remained devoted to the dragon tyrant Gradiax even after he was slain over two centuries ago. These steelmarked gnolls have a somewhat paradoxical religion that commands them to avoid touching metal with bare flesh, yet to understand and master technology, for which their lord will reward them with bodies as strong as steel, free from weakness and hunger. As such, they adhere to fastidious sanitary standards and avoid blooding ceremonies, with adulthood instead being achieved by proving one’s understanding of some technology and devotion to the cult.

Their taboo only prohibits bare skin contact to metal, and as such they are fond of ornate kerchiefs and fine leather gloves. Forge workers have popularized garments with heavy padding over forearms and lower legs, and such accessories are common even among those who don’t regularly work metal. Priests of the cult wear somewhat formless robes, but prefer ostentatious designs of vivid colors to catch the eye, especially when traveling among mainlanders. 

Despite their exceptional grasp of modern technology, the steelmarked still hold many traditional violent customs. The cult has repeatedly raided the mainland, killing gnolls who speak out against them, and abducting children to convert to their faith. Steelmarked gnolls unnerve outsiders, as they seem to watch the world around them with more detachment, move less, even breathe less than they should. 

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Blessed Industry. You gain proficiency in Engineering , as well as in the tool or vehicle of your choice.

Metal Taboo. You believe only your draconic lord and those who have earned his blessing are worthy of the strength of metal. You try not to touch metal with your body directly. Gloves or kerchiefs are acceptable to insulate one from metal, and there is no shame in being wounded by someone else’s metal.

Breaking Touch. Your people have developed the ability to break devices with a mere touch, even through a glove or other garment, which they see as a blessing and as proof of their lord’s enduring guidance. 

As a bonus action, you can touch an object with some mechanical complexity, such as a door, a lock, clock, ship rigging, steam engine, or animated construct.

If it is an unattended inanimate object, it breaks in a non-hazardous way. A door has to be shoved forcefully open, a lock falls apart, a timebomb stops ticking down, a ship loses its propulsion. If it’s larger than 5 feet across, you only break a section of it, but repairs take at least an hour.

If the object is being worn or carried by a creature, or if you’re trying to touch a creature, the creature can make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) to avoid your touch. 

A mechanical creature touched this way takes 2d6 force damage and its speed is reduced by half until the start of your next turn. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level.

A firearm affected by breaking touch will automatically miss the next time it is fired, as if a natural 1 were rolled (which is a misfire with a nonmagical gun).

After you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest .

Steel Endures. If you have obeyed the metal taboo for the past day, you have advantage on saving throws to resist poison and disease, and have resistance against poison damage. Additionally, double the amount of time you can go without food, water, and air. 

Languages. You know Common, Gnoll, and one Beran language such as Draconic, Goblin, Minotaur, or Orc.

 

Pedresco orcs are by far the most common, and their features a bit closer to humans, with smaller tusks and gentler brows. Other Berans, as well as de Guerra orcs, used to use the slur ‘half-orc’ to insult the Pedresco orcs, and indeed the term might have some truth to it, as these lowland orcs were more likely to integrate with humans and perhaps even some elves. But after the founder of Ber, Vairday Bruse, hailed from among the Pedresco, the label has taken on a complicated role in orcish culture, co-opted to imply that the ‘other half’ is Beran, a national identity rather than a racial one. 

Today Berans of all heritages are drawn to the example of their nation’s founder: confident and powerful civility, with a humility that respects that others might have wisdom you lack, and an unrelenting refusal to give in to tyranny.

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Cultural Studies. You are proficient in Culture.

Relentless Willpower. When you fail a saving throw , you can reroll it. You gain an expertise die on this reroll and you must use the new roll. Once you have used this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest .

Wisdom of the Panoply. When an ally uses the Help action to aid you, you can reroll one of the dice you roll and use the new result. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest .

Languages. You know Common, Orc, and one Beran language such as Draconic, Gnoll, Goblin, or Minotaur.