Striker

To a striker, only one thing matters: rhythm. Combat is a delicate dance for these daredevils, weaving in and out of skirmishes. To a striker, combat isn’t worth it without risk, as they thrive on taking risks and living to tell the tale. While other warriors may boast of their ability to hold others at bay, a striker delights in risking life and limb in the pursuit of the combat high which drives them, willing to do anything to reach that state of excitement, even at the cost of their lives.

Quick Build

You can make a striker quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, depending upon whether you want to focus on melee weapons or ranged combat (or finesse weapons). Your next-highest score should be Constitution. Second, choose the Urchin background, with Roof Runner (Wis), Street Tough (Cha), or Thrower (Int) as your martial tradition. The martial tradition you choose determines what should be your third-highest ability score.

Class Features

Table: Striker
Level Proficiency Bonus Features Martial Talents Maximum Tension
1st +2 Martial Training, Tension, Tension Techniques 0 2
2nd +2 Tension Boost 1 2
3rd +2 Striker Art 1 3
4th +2 Ability Score Improvement 2 3
5th +3 Extra Attack 2 4
6th +3 Greater Tension Techniques 3 4
7th +3 Striker Art Feature 3 5
8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 4 5
9th +4 Easy Tension 4 5
10th +4 Striker Art Feature 5 6
11th +4 Tension Boost 5 6
12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 6 6
13th +5 Deadly Tension 6 7
14th +5 Striker Art Feature 7 7
15th +5 Greater Strikes 7 7
16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 8 8
17th +6 Tension Boost 8 8
18th +6 Striker Art Feature 9 9
19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 9 9
20th +6 Ultimate Tension 10 10
Striker.png

As a striker, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per striker level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per striker level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: none.
Saving Throws: Strength and Dexterity.
Skills: Choose any two.

Equipment

You start with equipment granted by your background, and either the following equipment or the equipment granted by your martial tradition; You must be proficient with the chosen class equipment to select it as part of your starting equipment:

  • (a) a burglar’s pack, (b) a dungeoneer’s pack, or (c) an explorer’s pack
  • (a) one type of artisan’s tools, (b) one musical instrument, or (c) thieves’ tools
  • A martial or simple weapon

Tradition

If this is your first level in any class, you may select a martial tradition

Martial Training

You gain a martial talent at 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, according to Table: Striker.

Tension

A striker is at home in battle, thriving on the raw energy of combat to fuel her attacks.

Your tension is a pool of points that go up or down throughout the day, with its maximum listed on Table: Striker. As you perform specific actions in combat, you gain tension points which can be spent on tension techniques:

  • Offensive Pressure: Whenever you successfully damage a creature with an attack made by a weapon, improvised weapon, or unarmed strike, or successfully perform a shove or a grapple, you gain 1 tension.
  • Defensive Determination: Whenever a hostile creature successfully attacks you or uses a magical effect on you that deals damage, you gain 1 tension.

You cannot gain tension except against serious enemies in a serious fight; sparring with allies or attacking harmless creatures cannot grant you tension. You lose all of your tension if you are knocked unconscious or if you have not attacked or been attacked by a hostile creature for 1 minute.

Tension Techniques

During your turn, you can spend tension to accomplish incredible feats. Each tension technique can only be used once per round unless it says it is repeatable. Repeatable techniques have cumulative benefits and may be used an additional time per round at 5th level (twice), 11th (thrice), and 17th level (four times).

1 Tension

  • Expert Guard: You gain a +1 bonus on all saves until the beginning of your next turn. This is repeatable.
  • Fiery Offense: You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls until the beginning of your next turn. This is repeatable.
  • Light Step: You gain a 5 feet bonus to your speed this turn. This is repeatable.
  • Timely Dodge: You gain a +1 bonus to armor class until the beginning of your next turn. This is repeatable.

2 Tension

  • Powerful Charge: You may take the dash action as a bonus action.
  • Rapid Pummel: Make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.
  • Swift Disengage: You may take the disengage action as a bonus action.

Tension Boost

At 2nd level, if you ever start your turn with 0 tension, you gain 1 tension. At 11th level, you instead gain 2 tension if you start your turn with 0 tension, and 1 tension if you start your turn with 1 or more tension. At 17th level, you instead gain 2 tension per turn, whether or not you are at 0 tension.

Striker Art

At 3rd level, choose a striker art to determine the type of striker you will be. These striker arts grant you special benefits at 3rd, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th, 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 usual, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Greater Tension Techniques

At 6th level, you gain the ability to use the following 3-cost tension techniques:

3 Tension

  • Rapid Strike: Make a weapon attack as a bonus action.
  • Resilience: Use your reaction to reduce the damage from one attack by an amount equal to your level.
  • Second Chance: Use your reaction to reroll a saving throw you just failed. If the check was made with advantage or disadvantage, reroll only one die.
  • Swift Focus: Regain your martial focus.

Easy Tension

At 9th level, you gain the following new ways to gain tension.

  • Deceptive Taunt: You gain 1 tension whenever you use the Help action, such as feinting with the Fencing sphere.
  • Maneuvering Movement: If you successfully tumble through an enemy’s space, or if you use the dash or disengage actions, you gain 1 tension.
  • Victorious Defense: If you make a successful saving throw against a non-harmless effect, you gain 1 tension.

Deadly Tension

At 13th level, you gain the following new ways to gain tension. None of these grant tension if used against a helpless or unaware creature:

  • Critical Offense: If you score a critical hit, you gain 1 tension.
  • Deadly Offense: If you reduce a creature’s hit points to 0, you gain 1 tension.

Greater Strikes

At 15th level, when you use the Rapid Pummel or Rapid Strike tension techniques, you may make two attacks as a bonus action instead of one.

Ultimate Tension

At 20th level, reduce the cost of all tension techniques by 1 to a minimum of 1.

Striker Art

Boxer

Boxers are powerful fighters who specialize in the art of unarmed combat, bearing down on their opponents and trading blows until one falls and the other is crowned the victor.

Boxing

Starting at 3rd level, you gain the Unarmed Training and Unarmored Training talents from the Equipment sphere. If you already possess one or both of these talents, you may select your bonus talents from any sphere instead of only the Equipment sphere.

Evasion

At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw and only half damage if you fail.

Potent Fists

At 10th level, the damage you deal with unarmed strikes increases by one step (1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12).

Diamond Soul

Beginning at 14th level, you gain proficiency in all saving throws.

Guts

Beginning at 18th level, when you are reduced to 0 hp, you may spend 5 tension as a reaction to instead be reduced to 1 hp.

Bloodriser

Bloodrisers, like sorcerers, possess some form of magic in their blood. However, it is the thrill and adrenaline of combat, rather than arcane invocations, that brings that power to the surface.

Bloodcasting

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to spend tension to cast certain spells, known as bloodspells. You use the spell’s casting time and other rules, but you don’t need to provide material components. Bloodspells are not considered a spell list and cannot be added to by anything that adds spells to a spell list. Whenever you gain a new bloodspell, you may exchange one you already know for a different one up to the maximum level you can cast.

You use your key ability whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your key ability modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your key ability modifier

Magician's Tension

Successfully dealing damage to one or more hostile targets with a spell gives you 1 tension.

Beginning Bloodcasting

At 3rd level, you gain 2 cantrips of your choice. Using cantrips is not a tension technique and can be done normally. You also gain one 1st level bloodspell. As a tension technique, you may spend 3 tension to cast a 1st level bloodspell.

Greater Bloodcasting

At 7th level, choose an additional cantrip and a new bloodspell of up to 2nd level. You may cast a 2nd level spell, or a 1st level spell heightened to 2nd level, by spending 5 tension.

Quick Casting

At 10th level, you gain 2 new bloodspells of up to 2nd level. As a tension technique, you can use a cantrip as a bonus action by spending 3 tension, or you may spend 5 tension to cast a 1st level bloodspell with a casting time of an action as a bonus action.

Masterful Bloodcasting

At 14th level, gain a cantrip and a new bloodspell of up to 3rd level. You may cast a 3rd level bloodspell or a 1st or 2nd bloodspell heightened to 3rd level by spending 7 tension.

Instant Bloodcasting

At 18th level, you gain a bloodspell of up to 4th level. You may cast a 4th level bloodspell or a lower-level bloodspell heightened to 4th level by spending 9 tension. You may also use Quick Casting with a 2nd or 3rd level bloodspell or lower- level bloodspells heightened to 2nd or 3rd level by spending 7 and 9 tension, respectively.

Bloodspells

Cantrips (0 Level)

Acid Splash
Chill Touch
Dancing Lights
Fire Bolt
Light
Mage Hand
Mending
Message
Minor Illusion
Poison Spray
Prestidigitation
Ray of Frost
Shocking Grasp
True Strike		 1st Level

Burning Hands
Color Spray
Expeditious Retreat
False Life (self only)
Feather Fall (self only)
Fog Cloud
Jump (self only)
Magic Missile
Sleep
Thunderwave		 2nd Level

Alter Self
Blindness/Deafness
Blur
Darkness
Enhance Ability (self only)
Enlarge/Reduce
Gust of Wind
Hold Person
Invisibility (self only)
Mirror Image
Misty Step
Scorching Ray
See Invisibility
Shatter
Spider Climb (self only)
Web		 3rd Level

Blink
Daylight
Dispel Magic
Fear
Fireball
Fly (self only)
Gaseous Form (self only)
Haste (self only)
Hypnotic Pattern
Lightning Bolt
Protection from Energy (self only)
Sleet Storm
Slow
Stinking Cloud		 4th Level

Blight
Confusion
Dimension Door
Greater Invisibility
Ice Storm
Polymorph
Stoneskin
Wall of Fire

Bloodriser (Spheres of Power Variant)

Bloodrisers, like sorcerers, possess some form of magic in their blood. However, it is the thrill and adrenaline of combat, rather than arcane invocations, that brings that power to the surface.

Spherecasting

At 3rd level, you can combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. You gain a spell pool, magic talents, and a casting tradition.

Spell Pool

At 3rd level, you gain access to a reservoir of energy you can call on to create truly wondrous effects, called a spell pool. However, this pool does not contain any spell points unless you gain them from another source, such as a casting tradition or feats.

Magic Talents

You gain a bonus magic talent of your choice at 3rd, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels.

Casting Tradition

If you do not already have a casting tradition, you gain one at 3rd level. If your casting tradition uses a different key ability modifier than your martial tradition, you must choose which one of the two key ability modifiers to use.

Bloodcasting

Beginning at 3rd level, you can spend tension to power your magic sphere talents or abilities instead of spell points. As a tension technique, you may spend 3 tension in place of 1 spell point, 6 tension in place of 2 spell points, and 9 tension in place of 3 spell points when using magical sphere effects.

However, you can only spend these spell points to power effects from the Alteration (self only), Destruction, Enhancement (self only), Mind, and Nature spheres. Additionally, any effects with a duration created through tension end when you are knocked unconscious or if you have not attacked or been attacked by a hostile creature for 1 minute.

Magician's Tension

Successfully dealing damage to one or more hostile targets with a magic sphere effect gives you 1 tension.

Skirmishing Scout

Blackmon_Vauntgaurd.jpg

Skirmishing Scouts use fast movements and the terrain around them to their advantage so they can hide, observe their enemies, and launch deadly attacks.

Scouting Tension

At 3rd level, you gain the Scout sphere. Successfully using scout on a target grants you 1 tension, even if combat has not started yet, though it is still lost after 1 minute if combat does not begin.

Skirmishing

At 7th level, you may use the Dash action as a bonus action. You may spend 2 tension to add 1d8 to a damage roll you are making. If you started your turn hidden from the target or you otherwise surprised them, this only costs 1 tension. At 14th level, this increases to 2d8.

Hide in Plain Sight

Starting at 10th level, you can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for yourself. You must have access to fresh mud, dirt, plants, soot, and other naturally occurring materials with which to create your camouflage.

Once you are camouflaged in this way, you can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as you are. You gain a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as you remain there without moving or taking actions. Once you move or take an action or a reaction, you must camouflage yourself again to gain this benefit.

Vanish

Starting at 14th level, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means unless you choose to leave a trail.

Feral Senses

At 18th level, you gain preternatural senses that help you fight creatures you can’t see. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it.

You are also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from you and you aren’t blinded or deafened.

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