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Subclasses: The Dread Traditions

At 3rd level, a Reaper gains the Dread Tradition feature. The following paths are available:

Path of the Dread Avatar

Reapers who follow the Path of the Dread Avatar learn to let death itself take shape over their bodies. Their silhouettes loom larger in the mist, their voices echo like many whispers at once, and their lanterns cast a cold light that heralds the end of all things.

Death Manifestation

Starting at 3rd level, you can assume a spectral form that makes you a partial embodiment of death.

Once per turn, when you hit a hostile creature with an unarmed strike or a reaper weapon, you can spend 1 Soul Fragment to enter your Death Manifestation without using an action. You can also enter this manifestation as a bonus action by spending 1 Soul Fragment.

This manifestation lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you end it without using an action. Any temporary hit points gained from this feature disappear when the manifestation ends.

While your Death Manifestation is active, you gain the following benefits:

  • You gain temporary hit points equal to your Reaper level + your Charisma modifier.
  • Once on each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or a reaper weapon, you can deal extra necrotic damage to it equal to one roll of your Dread Arts die.
  • You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against creatures that can see you.

If you enter your Death Manifestation after hitting a creature with an attack, you can apply this feature’s extra necrotic damage to that same attack.

Death Knell Aura

Starting at 6th level, your Death Manifestation radiates the chilling certainty of the end.

While your Death Manifestation is active, you can use your Death Knell Aura when you enter your Death Manifestation or when you teleport with Reaper’s Wake.

When you use this aura, choose one creature you can see within 3 meters of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Reaper feature save DC or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

You can use this aura only once per turn.

A creature that succeeds on its saving throw against your Death Knell Aura is immune to this feature until the end of your next turn.

In addition, while your Death Manifestation is active, you can see invisible creatures within 3 meters of you, provided they are not behind total cover. They appear to you as pale, wavering silhouettes.

Death Incarnate

Starting at 11th level, your Death Manifestation becomes more complete. Your lantern burns with a funereal light, your movements seem to drift between the material world and the Veil, and your scythe leaves trails of torn souls in its wake.

Your Death Manifestation gains the following improvements:

  • Its extra necrotic damage increases to two rolls of your Dread Arts die instead of one.
  • During your turn, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed. At the end of your turn, if you are still airborne and nothing is keeping you aloft, you gently descend to the nearest unoccupied space on the ground without taking falling damage.
  • When you roll initiative and have no Soul Fragments in your lantern, you can enter your Death Manifestation without spending a Soul Fragment at the start of your first turn. Once you use this option, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Funereal Apotheosis

Starting at 17th level, you can briefly become a true embodiment of death.

When you enter your Death Manifestation, you can choose to turn it into a Funereal Apotheosis. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.

You can use this feature again before finishing a long rest by spending 5 Soul Fragments when you enter your Death Manifestation.

Your Funereal Apotheosis lasts as long as your Death Manifestation and ends at the same time.

While your Funereal Apotheosis is active, you gain the following benefits:

  • The extra necrotic damage of your Death Manifestation increases to three rolls of your Dread Arts die instead of two.
  • You gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed and can hover.
  • The range of your Death Knell Aura increases to 9 meters. When a creature fails its saving throw against your Death Knell Aura, it is frightened of you for 1 minute. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

In addition, once during each Funereal Apotheosis, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or a reaper weapon, you can pronounce a Last Breath Sentence upon it. The target takes an extra 10d10 necrotic damage.

If this attack reduces the target to 0 hit points, you regain 3 Soul Fragments.

Path of the Sepulchral Bulwark

Reapers of the Path of the Sepulchral Bulwark stand between death and those whose time has not yet come. Their lanterns become bastions of protective spirits, cold barriers against enemy blows, spells, and claws. On the battlefield, these Reapers advance like living tombs. Their chains drag opponents from the rear ranks, their scythes mark dangerous souls, and the whispers trapped in their lanterns form a bulwark around threatened allies.

Bulwark Seal

Starting at 3rd level, your strikes place a funerary mark on enemies who threaten your allies.

Once on each of your turns, when you hit a hostile creature with an unarmed strike or a reaper weapon, you can mark it until the start of your next turn.

While a creature you have marked is within 9 meters of you, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you.

You can mark only one creature at a time with this feature. If you mark another creature, the previous mark ends.

Sepulchral Debt

Also at 3rd level, your lantern can absorb some of the wounds meant for your allies, but every wound it holds eventually finds its way back to you.

You have a Sepulchral Debt, which starts at 0.

When you or an allied creature you can see within 3 meters of you takes damage, you can use your reaction and spend 1 Soul Fragment to reduce that damage by one roll of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier + your Reaper level.

You cannot reduce the damage by more than the amount the protected creature would actually take. Add the amount of damage prevented this way to your Sepulchral Debt.

At the start of each of your turns, if your Sepulchral Debt is greater than 0, you take necrotic damage equal to half your Sepulchral Debt, rounded up. Your Sepulchral Debt then decreases by the same amount.

This necrotic damage ignores your resistance and immunity to necrotic damage and cannot be reduced, transferred, or deferred in any way.

If initiative ends while your Sepulchral Debt is greater than 0, you immediately take necrotic damage equal to your remaining Sepulchral Debt, which then drops to 0.

Bulwark Chains

Starting at 6th level, your damned chains do more than draw enemies close: they force them to face you.

You can now have up to two creatures marked by your Bulwark Seal at the same time. If you mark a creature beyond this limit, you choose which of your previous marks ends.

When a creature fails its saving throw against your Damned Chain, you can mark it with your Bulwark Seal until the start of your next turn.

In addition, when you use Damned Chain as a bonus action by spending 1 Soul Fragment, you can target up to two different creatures within its range instead of one. Each target makes its own saving throw.

Sepulchral Bastion

Starting at 11th level, the souls in your lantern form a true funerary bastion around you, and your body learns to endure the wounds held in your Sepulchral Debt.

Your Sepulchral Debt gains the following improvements:

  • The damage reduction becomes two rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier + your Reaper level.
  • Its range increases to 9 meters.
  • When you take necrotic damage from your Sepulchral Debt, the resistance to necrotic damage granted by Sepulchral Vitality now applies to that damage. Your Sepulchral Debt still decreases by the amount determined before applying this resistance.
  • When you use Sepulchral Debt to reduce the damage taken by an allied creature, you can teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 1.50 meters of that creature. This teleportation does not provoke opportunity attacks.

You can teleport this way only if the protected creature is within the range of your Reaper’s Wake.

Last Bulwark

Starting at 17th level, you can stand between an allied soul and a wound that should have broken it.

When an allied creature you can see within 9 meters of you is about to take damage, you can use your reaction and spend 3 Soul Fragments to interpose your lantern between it and the source of the wound.

The allied creature takes none of the triggering damage. Instead, you take that damage in its place. This feature transfers only the damage, not any other effects of the attack, spell, or feature.

When you take this damage, you can absorb some of it into your Sepulchral Debt. Reduce the damage you take immediately by three rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier + your Reaper level. You cannot reduce it by more than the amount transferred. Add the amount prevented this way to your Sepulchral Debt.

Once a creature benefits from your Last Bulwark, it cannot benefit from it again until it finishes a long rest.

You can use this feature again on a creature that has already benefited from it before that creature finishes its next long rest, but you must spend 5 Soul Fragments instead of 3.

Path of the Funerary Anima

Reapers of the Path of the Funerary Anima see their lanterns as living sanctuaries. As they gather, purify, and redistribute Soul Fragments, a small spectral entity awakens within the lantern: an Anima. This floating being, often the size of a fairy or firefly, is not a single soul but a visible manifestation of the fragments held within the lantern. The Funerary Anima accompanies its Reaper as a messenger of the last breath. It carries vitality stolen from enemies to wounded allies, closes wounds with a cold light, and softly assures the dying that their time has not yet come.

Funerary Anima

Starting at 3rd level, your lantern awakens in the form of a small spectral entity called a Funerary Anima. It represents the Soul Fragments held within your lantern and takes an appearance of your choice: a pale firefly, a funereal fairy, a butterfly of souls, a small veiled specter, or a similar form. It can also take a humanoid or animal form and have a personality of its own. Its size is Tiny.

Your Anima floats in your space. It is not a creature, cannot be targeted, cannot attack, does not block movement, cannot speak, and cannot take actions.

Whenever you use a feature that spends one or more Soul Fragments for an allied creature’s benefit, your Anima can serve as the visible manifestation of that feature. It darts out of your lantern, carries vitality or spiritual energy to the creature, and immediately returns to your space.

This manifestation is primarily narrative and visual unless a feature of this tradition states otherwise.

Chalice of Vitality

Also at 3rd level, you learn to pour the vitality held in your lantern into other creatures.

When you use Vitality Harvest, you can choose an allied creature you can see within 9 meters of you. Instead of regaining the hit points restored by Vitality Harvest yourself, you can have that creature regain them.

You can also divide the hit points restored between yourself and that creature however you wish.

Calculate the total hit points restored normally, following the rules for Vitality Harvest.

In addition, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill. If you are already proficient in it, you add double your proficiency bonus to ability checks you make with that skill.

Anima’s Gift

6th-level feature

Starting at 6th level, your Funerary Anima leaves a veil of spectral vitality behind when it heals your companions.

When you use your Chalice of Vitality to restore hit points to one or more creatures other than yourself, choose one of those creatures. It gains temporary hit points equal to one roll of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier.

You can also spend 1 additional Soul Fragment to end one of the following conditions affecting that creature: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

Funerary Surge

Starting at 11th level, your Funerary Anima can carry stolen vitality through several dying bodies.

Your Chalice of Vitality improves as follows:

  • Its range increases to 18 meters.
  • When you use Vitality Harvest with your Chalice of Vitality, you can consume up to 5 Soul Fragments instead of 3. You can also divide the hit points restored between yourself and up to two allied creatures you can see within your Chalice of Vitality’s range.

Anima of the Last Breath

Starting at 17th level, your Funerary Anima becomes a guardian of the last breath, able to hold wavering souls close to you.

While you have at least 1 Soul Fragment, you and allied creatures within 3 meters of you have resistance to necrotic damage and advantage on death saving throws.

In addition, when an allied creature you can see within 18 meters of you is reduced to 0 hit points without being killed outright, you can use your reaction and spend 3 Soul Fragments to send your Funerary Anima rushing to it. The creature regains hit points equal to three rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier, then can immediately stand up without spending movement.

Once a creature regains hit points through your Anima of the Last Breath, it cannot benefit from this feature again until it finishes a long rest.

Path of Bwonsamdi’s Executioner

Reapers who become Bwonsamdi’s Executioners condemn souls with a deep laugh from beyond the grave. Each Soul Fragment spent becomes a funerary signature, an invisible mark telling the victim that their name has been spoken before the Baron of Death. To the living, these Reapers are executioners. They strike, mark, and wait for fear and wounds to open the way, then deliver their sentence at the precise moment the soul falters. When an Executioner of Bwonsamdi laughs on the battlefield, the dead already know who is coming for them.

Executioner’s Mark

Starting at 3rd level, you can place a dread mark on your enemies, called an Executioner’s Mark.

Once on each of your turns, when you hit a hostile creature with an unarmed strike or a reaper weapon, you can spend 1 Soul Fragment to mark that creature without using an action. If you gain a Soul Fragment from Severing Strike on this attack, you can immediately spend that fragment to apply this mark.

You can also apply an Executioner’s Mark at no additional cost when a hostile creature is directly affected by a Reaper feature for which you spent at least 1 Soul Fragment, such as Lethargic Strike or Damned Chain. If the feature affects several hostile creatures, choose only one of them to mark.

An Executioner’s Mark lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you apply a new mark while already at your maximum number of active marks.

At 3rd level, you can have only one creature marked by your Executioner’s Mark at a time.

Sentence Ranks

A marked creature has sentence ranks. A mark starts with 1 rank.

When a marked creature takes damage from you or an allied creature, its mark can gain 1 sentence rank, up to a maximum of 3 ranks.

A given mark can gain only one sentence rank between the start of one of your turns and the start of your next turn.

The damage that applies the mark does not increase its rank. Damage dealt by the Executioner’s Mark itself never increases its rank.

Triggering the Sentence

When a marked creature you can see within 18 meters of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to snap your fingers and trigger its Executioner’s Mark.

If that damage increases the mark’s sentence rank, apply the increase first, then trigger the mark.

The mark ends, and the target takes necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Dread Arts die per sentence rank of the mark + your Charisma modifier.

If the mark had 3 or more sentence ranks, it also explodes. Each other hostile creature of your choice within 1.50 meters of the target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your Reaper feature save DC or take necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier. On a successful save, it takes no damage.

Executioner’s Chains

Starting at 6th level, your marks resonate with your damned chains, and your sentences adapt to your blade’s resonance.

You can now have up to two creatures marked by your Executioner’s Mark at the same time. If you apply a new mark beyond this limit, you choose which of your previous marks ends.

In addition, when you choose the resonance of your Resonant Blade, you can have the damage dealt by your Executioner’s Mark and its explosions use that same damage type instead of necrotic damage. This choice lasts until you change your resonance again.

Finally, when you use Damned Chain against a marked creature, you can choose another marked creature you can see within your Damned Chain’s range. Instead of pulling the first target toward you, you can pull a marked creature that failed its saving throw in a straight line toward the other marked creature.

A creature pulled this way moves as far as possible toward the other marked creature, up to a maximum distance equal to your Damned Chain’s range. If it ends this movement within 1.50 meters of the other marked creature, both marks gain 1 sentence rank, without exceeding their maximum.

A given mark can gain only one rank per turn from this feature.

Resonant Sentence

Starting at 11th level, your marks become true sentences of death, gathering wounds before bursting in a funereal laugh.

Your Executioner’s Mark improves as follows:

  • You can now have up to three marked creatures at the same time.
  • A mark’s maximum number of sentence ranks increases to 5.
  • A given mark can now gain up to two sentence ranks between the start of one of your turns and the start of your next turn, but never more than one rank from the same attack, spell, or feature.
  • When you trigger an Executioner’s Mark, the damage dealt to the target increases by one additional roll of your Dread Arts die.
  • When a mark with at least 3 ranks explodes, the explosion’s range depends on the mark’s sentence ranks: 3 meters at 3 ranks, 4.50 meters at 4 ranks, and 6 meters at 5 ranks.
  • The explosion’s damage becomes two rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier.

Example

At 11th level, your Dread Arts die is a d8.

If you trigger an Executioner’s Mark with 4 ranks, it normally deals:

4d8 + your Charisma modifier

With Resonant Sentence, you add one more roll of your Dread Arts die. The mark therefore deals:

5d8 + your Charisma modifier

Since it has 4 ranks, its explosion affects other hostile creatures of your choice within 4.50 meters of the target.

Bwonsamdi’s Sentence

Starting at 17th level, you can call on Bwonsamdi’s laughter to unleash all your sentences at once.

As an action, you can spend 3 Soul Fragments to pronounce Bwonsamdi’s Sentence. Choose any number of creatures marked by your Executioner’s Mark that you can see within 18 meters of you.

Each chosen mark immediately reaches 5 sentence ranks, then triggers. Each target takes damage of the type dealt by your Executioner’s Mark equal to six rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier.

Then each mark explodes. Each other hostile creature of your choice within 6 meters of at least one marked target must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Reaper feature save DC. On a failed save, it takes damage of the same type equal to three rolls of your Dread Arts die + your Charisma modifier. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.

A creature can take the explosion damage from this feature only once per use, even if it is within the area of several explosions.

All marks triggered by this feature then end.

If at least one hostile creature is reduced to 0 hit points by your Bwonsamdi’s Sentence, you regain 2 Soul Fragments.

Once you use Bwonsamdi’s Sentence, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again. You can use it again before finishing a long rest by spending 6 Soul Fragments instead of 3.

Path of the Litanies of the Veil

Reapers of the Path of the Litanies of the Veil listen to the words souls whisper between life and death. These ancient utterances, called Litanies of the Veil, are neither prayers nor spells in the traditional sense. They are funerary formulas, ritual gestures, and truths wrested from the threshold of death. As these Reapers recite them, their hands begin to change. Their skin may blacken, turn translucent, develop purple or greenish veins, or reveal pale bones beneath the flesh. These marks are no curse: they are proof that the Reaper has touched the Veil, and the Veil has answered.

Litanies of the Veil

Starting at 3rd level, you learn to recite Litanies of the Veil, occult techniques fueled by the Soul Fragments in your lantern.

You learn two litanies of your choice from the Litanies of the Veil list in the relevant section. You learn one additional litany at 6th, 11th, and 17th levels.

When you gain a Reaper level, you can replace one litany you know with another for which you meet the prerequisites.

If a litany requires a saving throw, it uses your Reaper feature save DC.

A litany is a magical feature, but it is not a spell unless its description states otherwise.

In addition, you learn one cantrip of your choice from the following: Chill Touch, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Thaumaturgy, Fire Bolt, or Minor Illusion. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip.

Dread Incantation

Starting at 6th level, you learn to weave the whispers of the Veil into your martial attacks.

When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can cast a cantrip you know through this tradition as your bonus action instead of making the unarmed strike granted by Dread Arsenal.

To be cast this way, the cantrip must have a casting time of 1 action, must target only one creature, and must not include an attack with a weapon.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use it again before finishing a short or long rest by spending 1 Soul Fragment.

Occult Resonance

Also at 6th level, your litanies attune themselves to the resonance of your essence.

When you choose the damage type of your Resonant Blade, the damage dealt by your litanies can use that same type instead of its normal type.

In addition, once per turn, when a creature takes damage from one of your litanies or a cantrip cast through your Dread Incantation, you can apply the effect corresponding to the damage type chosen with Resonant Blade:

  • Cold. The target’s speed is reduced by 3 meters until the start of your next turn.
  • Fire. The target takes extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
  • Radiant. The target cannot benefit from invisibility until the start of your next turn.
  • Necrotic. The target cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
  • Weapon’s normal damage type. You can move the target 1.50 meters horizontally to an unoccupied space, provided it is Large or smaller.

A given creature can be affected by only one effect of your Occult Resonance per turn.

Casting Through the Veil

Starting at 11th level, you can channel your litanies through the tears left in your wake.

When you cast a cantrip you know through this tradition or use a Litany of the Veil, you can determine its range and line of effect from your space or from one of your rifts created by Reaper’s Wake or Lingering Rifts.

You must still be able to see the target or targeted point, and it must be within the normal range of the cantrip or litany, measured from the chosen rift.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use it again before finishing a short or long rest by spending 1 Soul Fragment.

Grand Litany of the Veil

Starting at 17th level, you can recite a grand litany, a formula so ancient that it makes the boundaries between worlds tremble.

As a bonus action, you can enter a Grand Litany for 1 minute. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.

You can use this feature again before finishing a long rest by spending 5 Soul Fragments.

While your Grand Litany is active, you gain the following benefits:

  • Once on each of your turns, when you use a Litany of the Veil that costs 1 Soul Fragment, you can use it without spending that fragment.
  • When you use Dread Incantation, you do not need to spend a Soul Fragment to use it again before your next short or long rest.
  • When you use Casting Through the Veil, you do not need to spend a Soul Fragment to use it again before your next short or long rest.
  • When a creature is affected by your Occult Resonance, you can choose another creature within 3 meters of the first. This second creature is also affected by your Occult Resonance, without taking additional damage.