The Advantage the Universe Has Over Him (GLOG Class: Mystic)

    You are a mystic, whose psionic techniques circumvent the need for magic and arcane tradition.

    You have a pool of psions used to fuel your powers (fun fact: the term "psion" originally referred to the theoretic basic particle of ESP fields), equal to your HP modified by INT instead of CON. You regenerate one point per hour of undisturbed meditation; you also gain the normal benefits of sleep and rest while meditating.

    You also have a Limit, which is equal to the number of levels you have in all mystic classes. This determines the maximum number of psions which you can spend in a single round under normal conditions.

    Additionally, you have focus, which is your ability to maintain powerful ongoing psionic effects. You can change your focus with a combat round of intense concentration. When you take damage, check INT or lose your focus. Lost focus is regained with [limit] hours of undisturbed meditation—as a mystic attains ever more elevated and esoteric states, the mental effort required to enter them grows as well.

    Your powers are divided into talents and disciplines, and disciplines are divided into generic and class-specific lists. All mystics begin with a single talent and a single discipline from the generic list. They develop a new one, from either their class' list or the generic list, each time they gain a level. Masters of various traditions can also teach you new disciplines; some traditions are more closely-guarded than others.

    I know this sounds like a lot, but you'll get the hang of it. Basically, you use your cool magic powers to do cool magic tricks.

    As a mystic, you are proficient with spears, hunting bows, clubs, knives, and any weapons in your starting equipment. You can wear only light armor, but you know how to use shields. You can ride a camel into combat. Warhorses don't like the looks of you and will attempt to bite. Any mystic may spend six seconds to send a sentence (up to 10 words) telepathically to a creature they can see, and receive a sentence in response if that creature wishes.

Source: 1949 illustration by Callé for the story The Impossible, written by Ray Bradbury

Nomad

    Among the uncommon mystics, the most common breed is the wandering nomad. They travel from oasis to oasis plying their trade for the benefit of the peasants of the Obol Desert. Nomads are rarely seen in the coastal cities, but never unwelcome when they do appear. Most are simple adventurers and philanthropists, with no deeper understanding of the primal force they wield — though a few have developed their abilities to the point of being able to walk across the world, or (it's said) even into others.

Starting Equipment: Durable traveling clothes (as unarmored, appropriate clothing for the desert), engraved shikarsword (medium), sturdy waterskin (holds 3 liters), book of quotations (Desert Code), 100' of boiled manila rope, 10 silver obols
Skills: 1. Camel management 2. Surgery 3. Gardening

• A Wanderer, +1 extra Nomad Discipline
• B Footprints in Sand, +1 to-hit
• C Far-Reaching, +1 HP
• D Effortless Journey, +1 to-hit

Wanderer
    The nomads always seem to be one step ahead, knowing just what they need to know for every situation. Each morning, when you wake, choose two of any skills, languages, or weapon proficiencies. You're an expert until next you sleep.

Footprints
    Space and time are memories, and you remember everywhere you've been. Once per dawn, when you would be hurt, you retroactively hadn't moved from where you last stood six seconds ago. This causes attacks to miss (the attackers must have been confused, and swinging at air) and most environmental hazards to not harm you.

Far-Reaching
    Your study of the Nomad Disciplines is rewarded. When you use a Nomad Discipline to teleport, you teleport twice as far.

Effortless Journey
    Once per round, you may forgo walking to teleport to some position you can see and could have walked to in one round. Among other things, this means that you can travel at a normal pace, ignoring rough terrain, while in full meditation.

Immortal

    The Immortals do not represent a single philosophy, but rather a single goal: survival. They earned their name half in awe, half as a curse. Even when all your friends are dead, you, an immortal, have a good chance of crawling back to civilization. The bedouin tribes of the Obol Desert, devoted to the Green as they are, see you at best as a coward and a quisling, and at worst as a traitor to the Great Work of the human race. There's little they can do about it.

Starting Equipment: Dreary traveling clothes (as unarmored, appropriate clothing for the desert), hunting bow (medium), quiver with sheaf of arrows, waterskin (3 liters), sharp shovel (medium, must be wielded in two hands), 10 silver obols
Skills: 1. Cookery 2. Camel management 3. Alchemy

• A Tough as Leather, +1 extra Immortal Discipline
• B Not Luck, +2 SAVE
• C Shed Skin, +2 HRTS
• D Still Not Luck, +2 INIT

Tough as Leather
    You may add your level to your max hitpoints (this doesn't increase your psion pool, sorry). You may add your DEX bonus to your AC, if positive. In your bare skin, you may add your CON bonus to your AC, if positive. 

Not Luck
    At the beginning of each round, you gain two temporary hitpoints.

Shed Skin
    When you would take damage from any source, you may break your own focus to halve that damage.

Still Not Luck
    When you would be reduced to 0 hitpoints or below for any reason, you may spend 5 psions. You heal to [level + CON mod] hitpoints.

Overlord

    While the primal forces can be applied to material reality, they are more effective when leveraged to influence the minds of others. Overlords take advantage of this to sit atop hierarchies of servants for their own benefit. You can whip up frenzies like cattle, call down sorrows like witch-women call storms, inspire loyalty like beautiful women inspire love-poems, all without lifting a finger of your own. The only thing you need to take care of is this: most communities in the Obol Desert (quite reasonably) see thrallmaking as no different from a slave raid, while others see it as tantamount to murder. The common punishment for captured slavers is to be branded as a slave. You, they'll simply hang.

Starting Equipment: Fine clothing (+1 to reactions), foreign longsword (medium, attractive gilt), shield, high-quality foreign hauberk (medium armor.), a good camel, 50 silver obols. 
Skills: 1. Poetry 2. Household management 3. Andonan history

• A Charm School, +1 extra Overlord Discipline
• B Domination, Extra attack
• C Font of Health
• D Icon of Battle

Charm School
    You received the finest education that money and connections can obtain. You can wear medium armor and ride a warhorse. People of importance have a [level]-in-6 chance of knowing who you are (the rising chance representing your rising value as a possible friend).

Domination
    When you and an NPC are off-screen together for more than an hour, you can declare that they have become your thrall. Thralls behave normally, except they treat your opinions as their opinions, and your suggestions as brilliant ideas. You can maintain up to [limit] HD of thralls; going over your limit frees earlier thralls immediately, which is painful and confusing for both of you. You can free thralls at-will, and they do not recall the experience as being out of the ordinary and will be offended by suggestions otherwise. Your thralls are not released when you die.

Font of Health
    Your soothing touch enhances both natural and supernatural healing. Allies in your presence gain an additional [limit] HP from anything that restores their hitpoints, including rest. 

Icon of Battle
    You're an inspiration to your soldiers, whether they recognize you as their leader or still believe in their independence. Allies in your presence add your [limit] to their INIT rolls at the beginning of combat, and to their attack rolls when targeting creatures who are personally threatening you.

Jeddak

    Called "jedi" by uneducated foreigners, the Jeddak are the oldest traditions of mystic, even predating the so-called Ancients. When the world was young and green and filled with all manner of strange things, brave Jeddak warred against the forces of evil and walked the horizon to guard against intrusion from other planes. Today, the few who remain in the Obol Desert are but a tiny fraction of the old order. Other survivors may exist, out in the stars of other planes...

Starting Equipment: Ragged traveling clothes (as unarmored, appropriate clothing for the desert), your horizon blade fetish (see your A template), begging bowl, 10 copper obols
Skills: 1. Religion 2. Extreme sports 3. Calligraphy

• A Horizon Blade, +1 to-hit
• B Honed Edge, Extra attack
• C Soul Thief, +2 HP
• D Soul Cutter, +1 to-hit

Horizon Blade
    In your possession is a sacred relic of the Jeddak order; the fetishes which allow you to summon your horizon blade. These fetishes are just small pieces of silver, carved with strange runes and set with many symbolically-important gemstones, and their weight is negligible. You may pay one psion to ignite your horizon blade, and can dismiss it with a thought. The "blade" is a portal to the Astral Plane, one inch wide, two feet long (one end touching the fetish), and infinitesimally thin when viewed from the side. The inner and outer edge of the portal cuts like an angle-grinder. This "blade" deals 1d8 damage plus your highest stat modifier (you use it powerfully if you're strong, cunningly if wise, hotly if charismatic, &c). If held in two hands, the damage increases to 1d10. You know how to use it to parry attacks, reducing incoming melee weapon damage by your to-hit modifier.
    Replacing this fetish costs 10 gold obols, and you cannot multiclass as a Jeddak unless you own a fetish. Horizon blades are absolutely terrifying to NPCs, and igniting yours may prompt morale checks from everyone present, even your own hirelings. Sometimes eyes are visible through the portal.

Honed Blade
    When you ignite your blade, you may pay an extra psion to increase its size by a foot, granting you +1 to-hit and damage. If you pay two extra psion its size is increased by two feet, granting you +2 to-hit and damage, and bumping the damage dice up one level. If you pay 4 psions (in total), the horizon blade is eight feet long, and deals 2d6 damage in one hand or 2d8 in two, with +4 to-hit and damage in addition to your stat modifier. At this size, there is a 2-in-6 chance that something escapes the portal.

Soul Thief
    You've learned how to tax a little part of passing souls. When your horizon blade kills a living creature, you regenerate [target's HD] psions.

Soul Cutter
    Your horizon blade can strike at a creature's essence directly, ignoring petty material concerns such as "armor" and "whether they dodged you or not" If you make one attack in a turn instead of two, that attack hits 10 AC.

Ancient

    The supreme power in the world, once. In ancient times, the Ancients drew new coastlines, raised new mountains, laid new roads. They could produce food and water from nothing, send messages instantly across thousands of miles, travel through the air in flying ships, and even create new life from common flora and fauna. That was then. So many millennia have passed that even the foundations of their cities are gone from the earth; the only traces of that mighty civilization are patches of colored sand which can be found here and there in the Obol Desert, where their moldering bones once lay, so long ago, in great stinking heaps. Once upon a time you wandered deep, deep into the desert, to where the mountains rise as sheer and unbroken walls of stone, and looted the ancient holdfasts preserved there. You found forgotten treasure. You learned forbidden knowledge. Perhaps you are like them, now: the ones who killed the world.

Starting Equipment: Somber traveling clothes (as unarmored, appropriate clothing for the desert), augmented limb (see your A template), damask saber (masterwork medium), raygun (deals 1d8 fire damage at 30', requires charge to attack, holds 3 charges, regains 1 a day), waterskin (holds 3 liters), 20 silver obols
Skills: 1. Ancient history 2. Genetics 3. Engineering

• A Augmented Limbs, +1 extra Ancient Discipline
• B Elemental Investigation
• C Dabbler
• D Psionic Specter

Augmented Limbs
    You know some of the secrets of the ancients, allowing you to replace or improve the physical bodies of human beings. An augmented limb requires 10 gold obols of materials to make, though you can save 1 obol if the creature still has a functioning limb to build on top of. Augmented arms grant +1 MOVE (improved strength) or SKLL (improved delicacy), and +1 to-hit either way. Augmented legs grant +1 MOVE (improved strength) or INIT (improved speed), and +1 AC either way. These limbs are so much better than the originals that it almost makes you forget that they require one psion per day to function; if they don't get their psion, they are entirely nonfunctional.

Elemental Investigation
    Your affinity for the past allows you to perceive the world as it was. If you concentrate on an object for ten minutes, you gain a mental impression of its perspective over the previous 24 hours. If you know the exact time you're looking for, you can view that in real time; searching for something takes you 1 minute to scrub through 1 hour of "footage" from the object's memory. Objects only perceived what they could have perceived (e.g. a coin in a pocket doesn't see very much), and you can only receive impressions of sight, sound, and touch (objects don't have noses or tongues).

Dabbler
    When you acquire this template you gain a pair of spell slots in your brain, allowing you to store spells. It may be possible to find these in the wild, or buy them at the bazaar. You can break your own focus to cast a spell with [limit] MD, suffering mishaps as an Orthodox Wizard. You don't need to worry about Dooms. The Ancients have been doomed enough already. 

Psionic Specter
    Once per dawn, you can transmogrify yourself into a translucent, ghostly version of your normal self. In this form you take half damage from all sources, move at at only 10' a round, and can pass through solid objects in your way (so long as they aren't thicker than 10'). This ends after 10 minutes or with a thought.

Source: Illustration by Alexander L. Brown for the French band Barús

Talents

1. Project bright light 20' out of your eyes for one round.
2. Fasten a weapon to your hand such that it cannot be taken from your grip, or release the same.
3. Render a single creature unable to see you for one round. If you use this on the same creature over several consecutive rounds, they notice flickering afterimages and may become alarmed.
4. Cause a creature to experience an auditory or visual hallucination for one minute. Visual hallucinations are only visual (no other sense), do not produce or reflect or block light, occupy a 5' cube at most, and disappear if the creature touches them.
5. Enhance your movement psychokinetically, shoving against gravity sharply to double jump height and length.
   
6. Enhance your movement psychokinetically. pushing against gravity slowly to run 30' along a wall or over a pool of liquid.
   
7. Touch one willing intelligent creature and meld your minds for one minute. you can communicate telepathically, and either of you may spend the minute transmitting a memory (60 second snippet, full sensory recall)
8. Cause creature within 60' to check CON or be brain-tased and fall prone.
9. Beguile a living creature as you speak with them. They react to your words with 3d6, keeping the two highest dice. Hostile results indicate they realize you're pulling a mind-trick.
   
10. Move an object weighing less than 10 pounds and within 30' of you with your mind, as if you were manipulating it with your hands for one round. You can shift it up to 30', if you wish. This lacks the motive force to shove creatures around, or remove objects from their grasp, though perhaps if they weren't expecting it you could joggle the aim of a pistol as it fires or something like that.
11. Pay one psion and throw a bolt of crackling purple energy 60' as an attack, striking for 1d6+[INT mod] psychic damage. 
12. Pay one psion to set a flammable object within 60' on fire with your mind powers. Flammable objects worn by a creature get a save to resist this.
    

Generic Disciplines

Aura Sight

     A basic discipline that allows you to see perceive the qualities and movements of the souls of living things. You can focus to sense hostility from living creatures, and while doing this you can't be surprised by a camouflaged foe. 

• Assess (1 psion): You learn the HP, HD, to-hit and Limit of a creature you can see.
• Read Mood (1 psion): You gain a two-word summary of the emotional state of a creature you can see.
• View Aura (2 psion, focus): For the duration, you gain two-word summaries of the emotional states of any creatures you can see, and a sense of how your words or actions will alter those emotions before you say/do anything.
• See Unseen (3 psion, focus): For the duration, you can see living things within 120' feet clearly, even through walls and concealment, even if they are supernaturally hidden. This functions like the infravision of certain subterranean predators: you do not need a light source to attack living creatures, and if they lack infravision their attacks against you are made with disadvantage.

Mental Citadel

     A basic discipline of psionic combat, this one dedicated to defense. You can focus to gain resistance to psychic damage.

• Total Defense (1 psion, focus): A crackling shield of psionic energy surrounds you. You have a +2 bonus to AC and any roll to avoid damage.
• Psionic Parry (2 psions): You direct your will against a creature in melee as it strikes you, reducing incoming weapon damage by 2d6. If your roll exceeds theirs, excess is dealt to them as psychic damage.
• Psionic Redoubt (3 psions, focus): Until you shift your focus, you and up to six creatures you can see gain the benefits of Total Defense and resistance to psychic damage.

Awe

     A basic discipline for subtly bending the wills of others, and convincing them you are trustworthy and charming. You can focus to gain a +2 bonus to reaction.

• Presence (1–4 psions): Creatures within 30' of you are charmed by you, with no save, considering you a admirable member of their society. This affects 2HD of creatures per psion spent, starting from the lowest-HD. This lasts for 10 minutes, or until you or one of your allies start a fight.
• Center of Attention (2 psions, focus): You charm the heart of one creature you can see. They save. If they fail, all other creatures are invisible to them until you shift your focus.
• Slave Will (4 psions, focus). You cast aside subtlety and directly seize the minds of others. Up to 6HD of creatures you can see save. If they fail, they are charmed to perceive you as their direct superior, and will follow your verbal commands to the best of their abilities. Each time you order them to do something against their nature, they get another save before obeying. Most creatures become murderously angry upon being freed from this effect. 

Precognition

     A basic discipline that allows you to piece together clues and details from your environment. From the outside, it looks like you can see the future. You can focus to gain advantage on INIT rolls.

• Hunch (1 psion, focus): You allow instinct to guide you. Add your [limit] to all checks.
• All-Around Sight (2 psions): After an attack hits you, force the attacker to reroll the attack.
• Danger Sense (3 psions, focus): You construct a mental model of reality, with an offset of a few seconds. You cannot be surprised. You have a +10 bonus to INIT. No circumstances or other rules can give attackers advantage against you.
• Premeditated Victory (4 psions): When INIT is rolled, grant yourself and up to 6 creatures a +10 bonus.

Assault Mind

     A basic discipline of psionic combat, this one dedicated to offense. You can focus to deal 2 extra points of damage any time you deal psychic damage.

• Brain Blast (1–4 psions): A creature you can see takes 1d8 points of psychic damage per psion, or half of that on a successful INT check.
• Superego Whip (2 psions): You inflict crippling self-doubt and fear. A creature you can see takes 1d8 points of psychic damage, and checks INT or loses their turn in combat.
• Id Whip (3 psions): You inflict sudden panic and fury. A creature you can see takes 2d8 points of psychic damage, and checks INT or must attack the nearest creature on their turn.
• Mind Crush (4 psions): Choose a 60' cube that you can see. All creatures whose heads are inside the cube take 4d6 points of psychic damage, or half on a successful INT check.

Haunt Mind

     A basic discipline of psionic combat, this one dedicated to spreading madness and confusion. You can focus to impose a -2 penalty to enemy morale rolls.

• Figment (1 psion): A creature you can see believes it is being hunted by some fearful thing they cannot see. They whirl around in place, trying not to turn their back on imaginary threats. Real threats have advantage on attacks against them. At the end of each of the target's turns, or whenever it takes damage, it check INT to break free from the delusion.
• Invisible Fiend (2 psions, focus): A creature you can see vividly hallucinates a fearful monster, exactly what would most scare them, charging their position. They take 1d6 psychic damage each turn as it tears out their flesh and sucks the juice out of their eyeballs. Real threats have advantage on attacks against them. At the end of each of their turns, the target may check INT to break free from the delusion. If the damage kills them they die with their bodies unmarked yet their faces contorted in masks of extreme agony and wild terror.
• Phantom Traitor (3 psions, focus): A creature you can see is charmed into an episode of delusional paranoia. They believe all other creatures, even their friends and allies, have betrayed them; perceiving themselves to be surrounded by enemies, they marshal all their courage and abilities to escape. They may check INT to break free from this delusion at the end of each of their turns.
• Phantom Riches (4 psions, focus): A creature you can see is charmed into perceiving the thing they desire most hovering just a little out of reach. People who try to prevent them from running off after it are perceived as jealous thieves and dealt with accordingly. The target gets one INT check before doing something really really stupid, otherwise they're along for the ride, and will pursue the mirage anywhere without a thought for their own safety.

Telepathy

     A basic discipline for communicating your will to others. You can focus to include up to 6 other creatures in your telepathic messages; every connected creature hears the sentence and may respond with a sentence of their own.

• Inquire (1 psions): A creature you can see, and which is capable of communicating with you telepathically, checks INT or is charmed to answer one telepathically-posed question truthfully. If they pass the check, they are immune to this ability for 24 hours. Targets will attempt to rationalize their behavior.
• Occlude (1 psions): A creature you can see, and which is capable of communicating with you telepathically, checks INT or is charmed to believe a (ten word) sentence you transmit to them. If they pass the check, they are immune to this ability for 24 hours. Targets will attempt to rationalize their behavior, and will be confused and distressed by proof the sentence was a lie.
• Break (3 psions): A creature you can see, and which is capable of communicating with you telepathically, checks INT or is charmed such that you decide how they move and act for the next 6 seconds. If they pass the check, they are immune to this ability for 24 hours. Targets will attempt to rationalize their behavior.
• Grip (3 psions, focus): A creature you can see, and which is capable of communicating with you telepathically, checks INT or is charmed to hold perfectly still. If they pass the check, &c &c &c. When they receive damage, they are freed.
• Dominate (4 psions, focus): As Break, except it lasts indefinitely. Behavior that is extremely out of character gives the target another opportunity to free themselves. Even if they do so, they will attempt to rationalize their behavior.

Nomad Disciplines

Vagabond Arrow

     This discipline grants projectiles a certain life of their own, allowing them to seek out their own marks. You can focus to double the range of your ranged attacks

• Speeding Dart (1–4 psions). As your attack, a number of bolts of energy, equal to the psi spent on this ability, fly from your hand to strike a creature within 30'. Each dart has +2 to-hit, rolls its attack separately, and deals 1d4 force damage. 
• Seeking Missile (1 psion): When a projectile you can see misses, you can give it another chance. It flies back around for a second attack against the same target.
• Faithful Archer (3 psions, focus): You grant a weapon limited sentience. A bow, held in your offhand, will fire at a target of your choice once per round. An axe or javelin will fly from your hand to strike a target, then return, once per round. You could apply this to a sword, technically, but it would only attack things within melee range of your arm.

Desert Chameleon

     This discipline, developed for survival out in the Obol Deserts, is devoted to methods of layering shadow and haze to conceal and camouflage the mystic who uses it. You can focus to grant yourself advantage on sneak checks to avoid being seen.

• Chameleon (1 psion): Close your eyes and check sneak. If you succeed, you disappear, even if you were standing in the middle of a brightly-lit ballroom. You remain hidden until you open your eyes, move, or are bumped into.
• Step from Sight (2 psions, focus): You cloak yourself from sight, becoming invisible until you shift your focus or attack another creature. If you spend an extra psion (for a total of three), you may grant a friend the same invisibility.
• Enduring Invisibility (4 psions, focus): You become invisible until you shift your focus.

Wandering Mind

     This is one of the nomads' fundamental disciplines, as it allows their minds to journey far through the noosphere in their waking lives. You can focus to grant yourself any single common skill or spoken language.

• Find Creature (1 psions, focus): You cast your mind out along the ancient, dead leylines of the Obol Desert. While you maintain your focus, you know in which direction a specific creature whose name and likeness you know, or who you have personally seen before, can be found.
• Artifact Lore (2 psions, focus): You can carefully study an item for an hour to recall information that others have known about it in the past, allowing you to identify its functions (and its name and great deeds if it's a magic sword or something).
• Psychic Speech (3 psions): You draw in knowledge of languages old and young. For an hour, you understand any spoken, non-coded language you hear, and your spoken words are understood by any creatures who can understand language.
• Errant Eye (3 psions, focus): You detach your vision from your body and attach it to a psionic sensor. The sensor floats in air, invisibly. If you meditate on it intensely, you can cause it to float along at about walking speed. It can't pass through solid objects, but can get into any space an eyeball could roll through. There is no limit to how far the sensor can move. Your body is blind until your focus shifts; if your focus breaks and vision snaps back suddenly, you are disoriented and effectively blind for a minute.
• Alternate Eye (4 psions, focus): As above, except it passes through physical objects.

Nomadic Step

     This is the other fundamental nomad discipline, focused on teleportation of the physical body. You can focus to maintain awareness of your position. You'll immediately notice if you've been teleported, or if you're walking down some deceptive sloped pathway, and you know where north is even underground.

• Ten Paces (1–4 psions): Teleport to a place you can see within 20' per psion.
• Nomadic Anchor (1 psion): You can designate a point in 3d space that you can see and memorize the location precisely. For the next 24 hours, any ability that lets you teleport to a point you can see can instead teleport you to your anchor, so long as it is within range.
• Defensive Step (2 psions): When you would be hit by an attack, you give yourself a +4 bonus to AC. If this causes the attack to miss you can also teleport up to 10' away to a point you can see.
• There and Back Again (2 psions): At the beginning of your turn you can teleport 20' away to a point you can see, then move and act normally. At the end of your turn, you may snap back to the position you started from, so long as it is not occupied.
• Baleful Transposition (3 psions): A creature you can see within 120' of you trades places with you. If they're another mystic, they get to check INT: otherwise it happens automatically.
• Caravan (3 psions): You and up to six other willing creatures teleport to a location you can see within 1 mile. Unwilling creatures may check INT to avoid this.

Third Eye

    This discipline opens your third eye chakra, allowing you to perceive more than most. You can focus to give yourself G24-style gloomvision.

• Tremorsense (1 psion, focus): You have tremorsense in 30', allowing you to precisely locate any movement in contact with the same surface as you
• Piercing Sight (2 psions, focus): You can see through solid surfaces within 30'
• Truesight (3 psions, focus): You gain truesight within 30', allowing you to see as normal regardless of light level or invisibility, and detect illusions.

Immortal Disciplines

Fortitude

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body to be more suitable for the punishing and extreme environments of the Obol Desert. You can focus to meet your body's daily requirements of food, water, air and sleep with one psion. While doing this, you cannot heal with rest, nor can you meditate to generate more psions.

• Environmental Adaptation (1 psion): Yourself or a creature you touch ignores the miseries (see G24) associated with extremely hot or cold weather for 8 hours.
• Reactive Adaptive Shield (1 psion): When you would take poison, cold, fire or lightning damage from any source, you can ignore half that damage.
• Total Adaptive Shield (2 psions, focus): Yourself or a creature you touch takes half damage from poison, cold, fire or lightning until you shift your focus.
• Elemental Immunity (3 psions, focus): As Total Adaptive Shield, except you ignore the damage entirely.

Protean

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body to imitate the strengths of the wild beasts. You can focus to present as a predator; wild animals check morale when they see you or attempt to flee the situation.

• Evolution (variable): You shed your skin and reemerge in a new and better form. Design this new form with the eidolon rules, spending psions instead of evolution points. For the purposes of buying new traits, you are a biped-shaped creature, with legs, arms, human size, and a head with eyes. This transformation lasts for one hour, after which you shed your skin and return as your "normal" self. The evolved form has its own HP total (6 per your level). It is not a mystic and cannot use any of your disciplines or talents, or maintain focus.

Potence

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body and grant you inhuman strength. You may focus for advantage on checks to bend bars and lift gates.

• Brutal Blow (1–4 psions): When you hit something with a melee attack, you may deal an extra 1d6, 1d8, 1d10 or 1d12 damage from the terrible impact.
• Knock Back (1–4 psions): When you hit something with a melee attack, you may launch them 10' backwards for each psion spent. If they collide with something as they fly, they take damage as if they had fallen the remaining distance.
• Impossible Leap (1–4 psions): When you attempt to leap a gap on your turn, you can jump an extra 20' per psion spent.

Celerity

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body and grant you inhuman speed. You may focus to significantly increase your walking speed (if playing with a battle map, someone who normally moves 30 feet per round moves 40 now), allowing you to easily escape pursuers on foot, or easily run down those who flee from you.

• Rapid Step (1–4 psions): On your turn, take an extra turn's worth of movement for every psion spent.
• Agility (1 psion): Dodge an incoming attack and force the attacker to roll with disadvantage.
• Blur of Motion (1 psion): For one turn, you move with such spiderlike rapidity that you are effectively invisible while moving. You can slip past watching guards or underneath falling gates leaving nothing more than a vague impression that a shadow has passed this way.
• Surge of Activity (4 psions): Take a turn, now.

Tiny Creature

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body, making you small and hard to notice. While focusing, you leave no tracks, and your weight won't break rickety structures or bend slender branches.

• Miniature Form (2 psions, focus): You become the size of a cat until your focus shifts. You maintain all of your physical capabilities (though your armor probably doesn't fit any more), but can squeeze through a 6" gap, or sneak through a house full of people by scurrying under furniture. Shrinking or growing takes a full round.
• Topple (1 psion): You rapidly shrink and then rubber-band back to normal size (or vice-versa, if you're in Miniature Form). This is terrifying, inexplicable, and has enough force to knock over a human unless they pass a strength check.
• Animalculous Form (4 psions, focus): You become the size of mouse until your focus shifts. You gain an effective +5 bonus to your AC (which is good, because your armor definitely doesn't fit you any more), and can squeeze through gaps one inch wide. You are as strong as you normally are, but you have almost no range of motion, so can't use weapons or most tools.

Terrible Monster

     This discipline focuses your psionic energy to warp your body, making you stupendously large and girthy. While focusing, your arms lengthen down past your knees. You have reach like a spear with normal melee weapons.

• Exaggerated Form (2 psions, focus): Your body swells until you are 8' tall. You gain 6 temporary hitpoints at the start of every turn, gain a +[limit] bonus to damage and to-hit with melee weapons, and can wield heavy weapons in one hand or hurl medium weapons like a javelin. You have reach like a spear with normal melee weapons.
• Hyperbolic Form (4 psions, focus): Your body swells until you are 18' tall. You gain 12 temporary hitpoints at the start of every turn, gain a +[limit*2] bonus to damage and to-hit with melee weapons, and can wield massive weapons in one hand or hurl heavy weapons like a javelin. You have reach like a pike with normal melee weapons.

Thaumaturgy

     This discipline infuses bodies with psionic energy, repairing and revitalizing them. While focused on this discipline you never fail rolls to remove fatal wounds in others.

• Mend (1 psions): You or a creature you touch heals [limit] HP. 
• Rejuvenate (2 psions): You or a creature you touch remove [limit] miseries, slots of exhaustion, or points of stat damage.
• Restore (3 psions): You or a creature you touch regrow a missing eye, heal a deafened ear, re-knit a broken spine, or cure a conventional disease.
• Return (4 psions): You touch a creature that has died within the last minute and bring it back to life. This does not grant them extra years if they'd died of old age, replace missing body parts if they'd died of dismemberment, or let them breathe in water if they drowned. It also doesn't work on piles of giblets or ash or glass statues caught in poses of panicked defense; there needs to be most of a functioning body left. 

Source: Locheil

Overlord Disciplines

     The so-called overlords are paranoid, controlling, and never ready to share their secrets for free. Their abilities are not widely understood. Those who have encountered them can tell you that overlords enslave souls, inspire insane passions, warp perceptions, empower armies, and exercise supreme control over the minds of their fellow human beings. A full list of their disciplines is available to someone who plays one in one of my campaigns (for those few of you who might want to run this class on your own, just make some shit up, steal the Avatar disciplines from the 5e Mystic. They're a really boring 4e Leader, and will require a lot of fiddling to be made appropriate for the GLOG).

Ancient Disciplines

     The Ancients are dead. Those who follow in their footsteps, and imitate their legendary abilities, are rare in the Obol Desert and almost unheard-of elsewhere. Those who have encountered them can tell you that Ancients command the very elements of the natural world, reshape earth, drive storms, topple fortresses, and slaughter nations. A full list of their disciplines is available to someone who plays one in one of my campaigns (for those few of you &c &c, steal the Wu Jen disciplines from the 5e Mystic. They're a really boring 4e Controller, and will require &c &c). 

Rock, No Water, and the Sandy Road (GLOG Classes: 5e Ranger Conversion)

    Crouched in the broken shadow with the sun at his back and holding the trap at eyelevel against the morning sky he looked to be truing some older, some subtler instrument. Astrolabe or sextant. Like a man bent at fixing himself someway in the world. Bent on trying by arc or chord the space between his being and the world that was. If there be such space. If it be knowable.

    I do not like the design philosophy of 5e rangers. I do not like it. All the problems I have with fighters I have twice over with rangers. In plain words: what is a ranger, conceptually? This is not a rhetorical question, I have asked rhetorical questions about them before, but this one is a real question that I want you to think about the answer to. 

    Meanwhile, I hate 5e and I hate 5e designers and I hate the 5e Ranger and I hate everything they have written and I hate how they fear good ideas, how they hunt them down, how when they accidentally write something good (and how could they not sometimes, by pure chance, write something good? With all the shit they put out) they run in fear, and I hate how everything they do is tinged with high-effort bullshit. It's like: they know what "good" looks like, but they are convinced that that's what "evil" looks like, so they go to great lengths to destroy it. Imagine someone who truly loathes the Mona Lisa and so steals it from the museum and painstakingly cuts it into very very very fine shreds to use to line the nest of a Hampter (here take it) because they believe that that's where beauty and art are best utilized. Imagine someone who is convinced that what the world needs most is a tabletop roleplaying game about Corn (the Cereal Crop) and so spends 20 years of their life writing a 1600-page tabletop roleplaying game about Corn. That's what 5e is, I think. It's impossible to hate someone without also pitying them. I pity the 5e designers. They aren't the ones sobbing into a fistful of money, that's whoever owns Hasbro. That guy's got all the money. 5e designers are basically Luciferists or hardcore pro-Laissez Faire free market vegan restaurateurs. They're just cripplingly misled and stupid, and they'd be better off if someone beat them very badly with a piece of pipe, but it's not because they deserve punishment and pain, it's because they write shit like the 5e ranger and genuinely think (unless they know they're lying to themselves?) that it's good work. They're more in need of a hearty spanking than they are of a day in the stocks, if you're picking up what I'm laying down. If you're digging... what I'm burying...




    And now I will explain what a Ranger is to me, and convert all these 5e guys.

Ranger

    A Ranger is, in a single sentence, one who protects civilization from the wilderness. There are many similarities between Rangers and Druids, but in this regard at least the two are in perfect opposition. Rangers are guides, guardians and shepherds for their parties in the wild and dangerous parts of the world. They are the ones who recognize the worm-sign, see the storm brewing, and know how to soothe the restless velociraptor with an oustretched Jedi Force Trick Hand.

    A Ranger is also a fighting-man, with all that that entails. In many ways, at least in the D&D-adjacent design-space, Rangers really step on the Fighter's toes. I'll try to keep that in mind while writing this post, but since I'm converting 5e there's not a lot of wiggle room here. Primarily we're just going to avoid giving them a 2nd attack, and hope for the best.

    Rather than a different style for every biome, all rangers are wide-ranging. At your first template, choose two of the following adjectives: barren, populous, abandoned, forested, frigid, windswept, arid, damp, craggy, dark, coastal, spooky. While in an area described by that adjective, you can build a concealed camp, find enough food for one person, predict weather a day out, follow tracks a day old, and may protect one person from the effects of exposure and rough terrain while traveling. Every time you gain another ranger template you may select another adjective. Effects stack. Adjectives may be selected multiple times.

    Rangers can wield any conventional weapon, and can use shields and may wear any armor. At first level they choose a fighting style from the list at the bottom of this post. 

    Furthermore, every ranger has left the safety of hearth and home. Did you choose this? Why?

Hunter

    In a coat of rainproofed canvas, on soft leather boots, nocking a black-fletched arrow, goes the Hunter. Whether seeking a challenge (or just a reliable income) you have left the city behind to become civilization's agent in the wilderness. Hunters go from town to town, destroying the feral boar, the maneating tiger, the poisonous wyvern, because someone has to. It's difficult work, but if you do it well you can achieve a measure of real glory —and a bag of real coins.

Skills: 1. Poisons and antidotes 2. Mechanical engineering 3. Legendarium
Starting Equipment: Enormous 200' warbow (massive, 90' range increment, requires 15 strength) or oversized hunting bow (large, 60' range increment), quiver with 20' arrows (1 slot), hunting knife (light), grapnel (1 slot) and 100' of rope (1 slot), three steel carabiners, folding saw (light), flask of brandy, three torches (⅓rd slot each, burn for an hour), outdoorsman clothing (as leather) with a ghillie cape (as a cloak of invisibility, but only while lying motionless in a natural environment)

• A Hunter's Prey, +1 to-hit
  
• B Defensive Tactics, +1 HP
  
• C Claw/Claw/Bite, +1 AC
  
• D Scout's Honor, +1 HP
  

Hunter's Prey
    The Hunters have three traditions, which call themselves Colossus Slayers, the Giant Killers, and the Horde Breakers. These are the main schools of thought among Hunters, and every Hunter you will meet has a strong opinion on which is best (it's Colossus Slayer, Colossus Slayer is the best). Choose one of the following neat tricks:

• Your weapons seem to always seek out the bruises and cuts in the flesh, the chips and cracks in the armor. When you strike a target which is already below its maximum HP, your attack deals an extra 1d6 damage.
• You are always prepared to punish the grasping fingers, talons and tentacles of lumbering predators. Once per round, when a creature larger than a man attacks you, you may make an immediate counterattack on its own turn.
• Your wheeling blows and ripostes keep the swarm at bay. Once per round, when you strike a target, you may make another attack against a second target if it is adjacent to the first.

Defensive Tactics
    Your study of monster-slaying has made you far more difficult to kill. Choose one of the following neat tricks:

• Every wild swing from an enraged predator or whirling dervish only serves to discover their vulnerable points. For each attack a creature makes against you in combat, you gain a +4 bonus to-hit against them specifically. This bonus resets when you land a hit. 
• Your will is steel. You have advantage on saves against fear and pain.
• Facing a crowd, you excel at bobbing and weaving between their attacks, causing your opponents to foul each other. For each attack made against you in a round, you gain a +4 bonus to AC for the rest of the round.

Claw/Claw/Bite
    Your study of monster-slaying has given you a set of advantages to overwhelm the most dangerous targets. Choose one of the following neat tricks:

• You can seize every opportunity for a critical hit, kind-of. When you make a weapon attack against a creature, you may choose to ignore lesser opportunities and only take the perfect shot. Roll your attack with disadvantage. If you hit, it's a critical.
• You can shoot a whole quiver of arrows at once, poorly. Choose a circular area of radius 10' within 200'. Spend a full turn aiming a fully-loaded string of 12 arrows, then on the second turn, shoot. Roll an attack against all creatures in the area. Roll two attacks against creatures larger than a man.
• You can fend off an army, frantically. Instead of your normal attack, you may spin in a circle and strike at all creatures within reach of your melee weapon. Roll a separate attack for each.

Scout's Honor
    Your study of the traditions of monster-slaying have reached their zenith, at least among the existing traditions of Hunters. Perhaps you will develop new techniques, and pass them on to your disciples? In the meantime, choose one of the following neat tricks:

• When a save would allow you to take half damage from some spell or explosion or the like, you instead take half damage on a failed save and no damage on a successful one.
• Once per combat round, you may choose to take half damage from an attack.
• Once per combat round, when an enemy misses you with an attack, you may force them to make an attack against some other target within their reach.

Beastmaster

    Many rangers are more at home in the wild than in civilization, and consider animals more their kin than man. Some take this so far as to make pact with the wilderness, and by use of ancient druidic rites permanently ally themselves with the Green. Is this a conflict of interest? Are the Beastmasters sometimes tempted to lay down their humanity and walk, animals once more, in the shade of the trees, in the cool of the evening? Wouldn't you be?

Skills: 1. Veterinary medicine 2. Psychedelic drugs 3. Revenge
Starting Equipment: Longbow (medium), quiver with 20 arrows (1 slot), saber (medium), salt lick, three bouquets (of your choice), outdoorsman clothing (as leather) with a ghillie cape (as a cloak of invisibility, but only while lying motionless in a natural environment) 

• A The Green, Primal Companion, +1 MD
• B Exceptional Animal, +2 HRTS
  
• C Bestial Fury +1 MD
• D Share Spells, +2 HRTS
  

The Green
    You have a sympathy with the earth and the things that grow from it and crawl across it. This sympathy allows you to use a few simple spells with a handful of MD. These spells are druidic; they are not recorded in "books" with disgusting "letters", but contained in totems. For you, they occupy bouquets of dried herbs and flowers, at 3 bouquets to a slot. Casting the spell consumes the bouquet, and they are very vulnerable to fire and water.
    You can easily prepare a bouquet over a day of travel, and thrice that if you spend a full day gathering plants, but each spell you know requires an additional specific flower (referenced in the spell's name) which may not be available wild in all areas. Consider visiting apothecaries when possible.
Primal Companion
    You may summon a spirit of nature, which assumes the form of a common animal appropriate to your local, either land-bound or flying. The land creatures have the same HD and HP that you do; the flying creatures have 1 HD and [level] HP. On a Plain this is a Cat (30' horizontal leap) or an Eagle (powerful eyesight), on an Island this is a serpent (swimming, crawling) or a Parrot (human speech), in a Swamp this is a Great Toad (poison bite) or a Bat (nightvision), on a Mountain this is a Goat (powerful shove) or a Pterosaur (fireproof), and in a Forest this is a Wolf (skilled hunter) or Dragonfly (inconspicuous).
    If the creature dies (or if you want a new one), you may resummon it at dawn. It defends itself in combat, and on your turn you may direct it to prioritize a certain target. The creature can understand your language and is intelligent enough to comprehend ambushes, stealth, simple requests to fetch an item, &c.

Exceptional Animal
    The embodied spirit you summon now deals magical damage with its fangs/claws/&c, and has basic first-aid training and the ability to sprint (???).

Bestial Fury
    The embodied spirit gets an extra attack.

Share Spells
    When you cast one of your spells, your primal companion counts as you — spells that target yourself may target it, spells with a range can originate from the primal companion, &c.

Green Spells:

1. Rose's Sleep
   R: self, T: self, D: [sum] hours.
   You appear to be dead. If you invest one [die], you are cool to the touch and won't fog a mirror. If you invest two, you smell terrible and have any wounds you wish. If you manage to invest three, you are in as many pieces as you wish over a five-foot square.
2. Yarrow's Pollen
   R: [dice] miles, T: a spherical area 50 feet in diameter, D: n/a.
   You restore [sum]/2 HP to all plants, animals and people within the target that you choose.
3. Aconite's Whispers
   R: self, T: self, D: [sum] hours.
   You hear the howling of wolves when someone with hostile intentions is within [dice] miles. You hear as many wolves as there are hostile people. Using it near an army might be deafening, assuming the army is marching for you.
4. Buttercup's Lies
   R: eye contact, T: a human, D: [sum] minutes.
   The target is becomes intensely naive and distractable. They will believe anything told to them on a [dice]-in-six chance, or else loudly reject it and accuse you of pulling their leg. Targets will ignore input from leg-pullers for the duration of the spell. After the spell ends, they will not fully understand that they have been ensorceled unless someone points it out to them. Creatures immune to Charm are immune to this spell.
5. Iris' Chance
   R: touch, T: a person, D: [dice] minutes.
   All damage taken by the target is deferred until the end of this spell, when they take all of it at once. If the damage taken would be less than [sum], they take no damage at all.
6. Eremurus' Armor
   R: self, T: self, D: [dice] minutes.
   For the duration, you take half damage from all sources except fire and iron. Most weapons are made out of iron.
7. Sunflower's Gilding
   R: touch, T: any solid object D: [dice] days
   The object you lay this glamor on seems to be worth [sum] gold more than it really should. This is not an illusion, but a powerful enchantment; people will invent whatever justifications they need in order to believe that the object is worth what they think it's worth. They will be angry when the spell ends.
8. Sloe's Venom
   R: touch, T: one person, D: [dice] years.
   In addition to all normal checks, the target has a 1-in-6 chance of failure at everything. This applies to attack rolls and to saves, but also to projects on their farm, merchant ventures, marriage proposals — everything. The effect ends early if you die, deliberately end it, or upon being exorcised by a cleric with at least [dice] HD.

Drakewarden

    It's hard to raise a young dragon on the mean streets of the big city, and that's what drove you out into the countryside. As a Drakewarden, you are part of a loose-knit group who, for a variety of reasons, have been chosen to serve and be served by a draconic spirit. If you'd like, you can roll on the table for what exactly led to this:

1. You studied a dragon's scale or claw, or a trinket from a dragon's hoard, creating your bond through that token's lingering draconic magic.
2. A secret order of rangers who collect and guard draconic lore taught you their ways.
3. A dragon gave you a geode or gemstone to care for. To your surprise, the drake hatched from that stone.
4. You ingested a few drops of dragon blood, forever infusing your nature magic with draconic power.
5. An ancient Draconic inscription on a standing stone empowered you when you read it aloud.
6. You had a vivid dream of a mysterious figure accompanied by seven yellow canaries, who warned you of impending doom. When you awoke, your drake was there, watching you.

Skills: 1. Positive Parenting Techniques 2. Theater 3. Coastal raiding
Starting Equipment: Greatsword (heavy), brass lantern (1 slot), flask with 24 hours of kerosene (1 slot), 10x magnifying monocle, forge-blackened scale armor (medium)

• A Draconic Gift, +2 MOVE
  
• B Bond of Fang and Scale, +1 HP
  
• C Dragon's Breath, +2 MOVE
• D Perfect Bond, +1 HP

Draconic Gift
    Your association with a draconic spirit gives you the ability to light small fires with your mind within 30', fluency in the Draconic language, and the ability to summon a baby dragon ghost which is loyal to your commands. Choose a color of dragon now, if you're in a setting with colored dragons.
    This ghost appears within 10' of you in a space large enough for a big dog to occupy. It has 14+[template] AC, [templates]*5 + 5 HP, [templates] HD, +3 to STR rolls, +1 to DEX, +2 to CON, -1 to INT, +2 to WIS and -1 to XHA, 40' of movement on its turn in combat, 60' of darkvision, immunity to a damage type determined by its scale color, and the ability to speak the Draconic language. No I will not say psych. If you ever forget any of these numbers or say "uhhh, what's my dragon's strength bonus?" the DM is allowed to shoot you in the head. You better write all that down.
    If your dragon dies or you dismiss it (which you can do with a thought), you cannot resummon it until the next dawn. It can bite as a medium weapon, but unless you verbally command it to fight then it spends its turn in combat attempting to hide or protect itself.

Bond of Fang and Scale
    Your companion grows to become a juvenile dragon the size of a horse. It can fly, and you can ride it, but not both at the same time. Its bite deals an additional 1d6 of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage, depending on its scale color. You gain resistance to the damage associated with your dragon.

Dragon's Breath
    Once per dawn, either you or (at your command) your dragon gets a fuckoff massive breath attack. It deals 4d6 damage in a 30' cone, save for half, of the appropriate damage type.

Perfect Bond
    Your dragon ghost is an adult now, and you can ride around on it while it flies. Hell Yes. Heeeellll Yes. It is very good at fighting now; double all its stat bonuses and invert its maluses. Its bite is a massive weapon and its armor is as plate.

Fey Wanderer

    Were you born a changeling, or blessed by a blue fairy? Did you steal an apple from an enchanted tree, or a kiss from a fairy-prince? Whatever happened, it made you a Fey Wanderer. Your responsibility now is to the mortal and to the fey realms. As you wander, your laughter will brighten the hearts of the downtrodden, just as your martial prowess strikes terror in your foes, for great is the mirth of the fey, and dreadful is their fury.

Skills: 1. Exotic dance 2.  Circus performance 3. Folk tales
Starting Equipment: Two swords (any type), flapping black cloak with feathers (mostly useless), musical instrument of your choice, bundle of dynamite (1 slot, deals 3d6 damage within 30', save for half), outrageous outfit (-1 to reaction with squares, +2 with freaks)

• A Dreadful Touch, Glamor, +2 SAVE
  
• B Beguiling Twist, +2 INIT
  
• C Fey Reinforcements, +2 SAVE
  
• D Misty Wanderer, +2 INIT

Dreadful Touch
    Once per turn, you may infuse an attack with the misery and gloom of the farther, darker regions of Fairyland. This causes it to deal an extra 1d6 damage directly to the mind of the one struck by the attack. Such damage bypasses conventional resistances, though obviously is ineffective against mindless foes.
Glamor
    You're very good at lying, cajoling and pretending. When you tell someone a reasonable lie (i.e. not "the sky is blurple" or "you didn't see me stab your friend just now"), they must save to disbelieve you. If no one's around to snap them out of it, they'll take at least 5 minutes to reconsider your words; that's more than enough time for almost any scheme if you're quick.

Beguiling Twist
    You have advantage against being charmed or frightened. Once per turn, when you see someone succeed on a save against such an effect, you can force another creature you can see to make a save. If they fail, they are charmed by or frightened of you for one minute.

Fey Reinforcements.
    The royal courts of the Feywild have blessed you with the assistance of fey beings. You can summon a fairy from your patron's court. This fairy is the size of a child, supernaturally lovable by dimwitted NPCs, makes two attacks a turn with its magical shortsword, and can teleport 30' instead of walking. It sticks around for one minute. The fairy is friendly to you, but is neither loyal nor cooperative, and will likely choose whichever path of action causes the most trouble rather than what would be actually helpful.

Misty Wanderer
    With a xharisma check, you and anyone holding your hands can step briefly into and out of Fairyland. If you succeed, you silently reappear in some visible, unoccupied space within 60' of your departure point. If you fail, you still get to where you wanted to go, but you cannot use this ability again until the next dawn and at the DM's whim you may have brought along a passenger or suffered some fey mischief.

Example Fey Mischief:

1. Left and right hands swapped. Visit Fairyland again to get them put back on correctly.
2. Hair dyed bright blue.
3. 1d4 teeth replaced with those of a large dog.
   
4. You reappear with uproarious bigband fanfare. 
5. All the iron components or parts of your equipment have been mysteriously transmuted into silver.
6. You glow in the dark for 24 hours.
   

Gloom Stalker

    In the darkest places — deep under the earth, in narrow alleyways, in primeval forests, wherever the light dims — evil conspires against the world. There it labors. There it plans its cruelties. There it is least-prepared for the whirlwind you will sow. Where others fear to tread, there the Gloom Stalker is most needed.

Skills: 1. The Great Generals 2. Alcoholism 3. Extreme sports
Starting Equipment: Sawed-off blunderbuss (2d8 damage, 10' range increment, takes 10 rounds to reload, 2 slots), two hatchets (light), bottle of thallium tablets (10 doses, odorless and tasteless, victims make a CON check every 8 hours or take 1d6 stat damage to DEX, CON and WIS, symptoms include vomiting, ataxia and hair loss), vial of thallium antidote (1 dose), bad case of cyanochromhidrosis, dark nondescript clothing (as unarmored)

• A Dread Ambusher, Umbral Stalker, +2 INIT
  
• B Iron Mind, +1 to-hit
  
• C Stalker's Flurry, +2 INIT
  
• D Shadowy Dodge, +1 AC
  

Dread Ambusher
     The best defense is a crushing assault. If you win initiative, take two turns in the first round of combat.
Umbral Stalker
    Your enemies expect to be masters of the darkness; they are weakest when they believe they are strong. You have 60' of black-and-white darkvision. While in strong shadows, you are invisible.

Iron Mind
    Your thoughts are full of the clashing of shield and sword. You have advantage on saves against mind-altering effects, and when rolling initiative.

Stalker's Flurry
    Press every advantage! Once per round, after you miss an attack, immediately make another.

Shadowy Dodge
    The wicked think darkness is their ally, but they are interlopers in your domain. Impose disadvantage on the first attack against you every round.

Mage Slayer

    Civilization tames its magicians, and makes them weak and toothless. Only on the fringes can you find the most dangerous game. No, not humans, you dingbat. Humans are some of the least dangerous game available. I mean evil wizards.

Skills: 1. Arcana 2. History 3. Finance
Starting Equipment: Magic wand with a silencer attached, enemies in every major city, a mask of Barack Obama's face (+1 to reaction with members of the Clown's Guild), somber clothing (as unarmored)

• A Slaying Sense, +1 to-hit
  
• B Superb Defense, +1 HP
  
• C Magician's Nemesis, +1 AC
  
• D Slaying Counter, +1 HP

Slaying Sense
    The sorcerers you hunt have all manner of magical servants, machines and enchantments, and you need to be able to work around them if you want to destroy their master. You can identify a creature's immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities with a minute of observation, unless they are sufficiently reinforced against scrying. Once per day, you can also supernaturally mark a creature you can see. When you strike any marked creature, you deal an extra 1d6 damage. Marks reset when you sleep.

Superb Defense
    Constant training has made you superhumanly difficult to hinder. You have +4 to all saves, and to rolls to resist being grappled.

Magician's Nemesis
    A touch of sorcery makes you the lord of sorcerers Once per dawn, counter a spell or supernatural effect with a warcry.

Slaying Counter

    If some damn fool makes you roll a save, immediately attack them twice.

Swarmkeeper

    Rangers with a deeper spiritual side may become both the master of, and a home for, lesser spirits of nature, those responsible for painting autumn leaves, crafting snowflakes, and ushering the souls of mice and beetles to their final resting places. Most such Swarmkeepers are outcasts or hermits. They generally prefer to keep to the company of their attendant swarms. Still, their duties often bring them into contact with the world again.

Skills: 1. Shrine architecture 2. Weaving 3. Theology
Starting Equipment: Silver scimitar (medium), set of ten tiny black candles (1 slot), black powder pistol (2d6, 10' range increment, takes 10 rounds to reload in combat, 1 slot), powder horn decorated with dryads (1 slot), wicker mask with deer antlers (-1 reaction with mortals, +2 with the fay), ultraviolet robes (as unarmored, soothes insects)

• A Gathering, +2 HRTS
  
• B Mighty Swarm, +1 HP
• C Writhing Tide, +2 MOVE
• D Dispersal, +1 HP

Gathering

    Your body contains a magical swarm of tiny creatures, such as bees or pigeons or pixies. Once per turn, you can direct them to perform one of the following actions:

• Swarm a creature within 30'. The target saves or takes 1d6 magical damage
• Swarm a creature within 30'. The target makes a MOVE check or is shoved 15'
• Swarm you, to triple your jump distance and height, or allow you to move twice as far on your turn.

Mighty Swarm

    You can have your swarm carry you or another person slowly through the air 10' per turn in any direction. Unwilling targets may make a move check to resist. If the swarm is hit by anything (AC as chain), they drop what they're carrying.

Writhing Tide

    Your swarm gets thicker and meaner. Their damage option is increased to 1d12, their grappling option also knocks the target prone, and when they assist your movement they also impose disadvantage on attacks against you.

Dispersal

    The swarm is more your body than your own arms and legs. Once per turn, you can disappear into your swarm, and reappear from a cloud of it somewhere else within 60'.

Fighting Styles:

1. Archery.
   You gain +2 to-hit with ranged weapons.
2. Blind Fighting.
   You have 10' of blindsight. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see invisible creatures within that range, unless the creature is fully concealed from you.
3. Defense.
   You gain a +2 bonus to AC.
4. Dueling.
   When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand with an empty offhand, you gain a +2 bonus to damage.
5. Massive Weapon Fighting.
   When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll that damage die.
6. Interception.
   You can parry like a sword-shepherd.
   
7. Mariner.
   While wearing medium armor or less and while not carrying a shield, you can swim and climb as fast as you can run, and you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
8. Simple Sorcery
   You know how to do two of the following hedge-mage tricks with a few seconds of mumbling and finger-waggling:
   
   1. Light a flammable object at a touch,
   2. Bless a fist-sized stone, that it can be thrown with the range of an arrow for 1d6 damage.
      
   3. Bless a club or staff, that its base damage dice bump up one size.
      
   4. Produce a terrifying thunderclap with a snap of your fingers.
   5. Produce a fistful of maddened, stinging, biting insects.
      
   6. Freeze up to a liter of water.
   7. Project your voice through a fire that you can see.
   8. Bind a subdued or non-resisting person with tight vines.
      
9. Superior Technique.
   You learn one maneuver of your choice from among those available to the Wizard archetype of Fighter.
10. Thrown Weapon Fighting.
    You can draw and throw a light weapon, even if it is concealed, with one motion. You gain a +2 bonus to damage with thrown weapons.
11. Two-Weapon Fighting.
    When holding two weapons, you gain a +1 bonus to melee damage and +1 to AC.
12. Unarmed Fighting.
    Your hands are light weapons.
    You can automatically bite, strangle and tear a creature you have grappled for 1d6 damage once per turn without using an attack.

Call Me What You Will (GLOG Classes: 5e Fighters Conversion)

    Woof. This is my fourth post for 5e classes and subclasses converted to GLOG. I've done my favorite guys already: the almighty Rogue, so perhaps it's time to tackle one of my least favorite: the venerable Fighter.

Source: Hans Holbein

    Why do I dislike 5e's Fighter so much? Do I need a reason? Must they occupy the prized-place at the beginning of my story, as well as the end? I suppose, in a sentence; I don't like that they aren't the best at fighting. Barbarians are pretty good at fighting. Rogues are pretty good at fighting. Paladins are great at fighting. Rangers fight well. Did you know that 5e Bards are proficient in all martial weapons? I'm a little surprised every time I hear that. Monks are good at fighting. Clerics are effective in a fight. Most Druids are pretty reliable in a melee. You see what I'm getting at here? Most of the classes are pretty good at fighting! That's the majority, a strong majority! Fighters don't deal the most damage, and don't take the most beating, and aren't the scariest, and aren't the physically strongest, and aren't the most skilled with weapons, and aren't any good in a barfight or an ambush. Fighter isn't the "Good at Fighting" class, they're the "Capable of Fighting" class.

    "5e has a problem with focus, and being a martial sucks" isn't an original complaint, but when it comes to complaints I don't feel the need to be original. G. K. Chesterton said something along the lines of, it's good to be innocent, and it's a shame when you becomes so old and jaded that you can see evil without being immediately horrified and disgusted. Ladies and gentlemen: I just reread a bunch of 5e and it still gets tree-sap stuck in my armhairs.

    Anyway, here's the thesis: being a Fighter should rule, and you should be the best at Fighting. You should be so good at fighting that it basically occupies the whole Fighting tippy tip of the Fighting-Cunning-Spelling triangle, and anyone else who gets to be good at fighting has to carefully navigate around you and your toes in the design space.

Source: Rich Longmore

Fighting-Man

    You are a Fighter, with all that that entails.

    All Fighting-Men can parry like a sword-shepherd (subtract their to-hit bonus from the damage of an incoming melee attack once per turn), get an extra attack at 1st level, and never fumble with any conventional weapon (no promises about zapguns or razor-whip-swords). Additionally, they choose a fighting style from the list at the bottom.

Arcane Archer

    Arcane Archery began as an elfish tradition of weaving magic into arrowheads to achieve supernatural results. Arcane Archers are some of the most revered warriors among the elfs. These elite craftsmen can spend weeks or months on a single piece of ammunition, painstakingly carving the shaft, selecting the feathers, and shaping the arrowhead from rare materials. The arrows they produce are not merely weapons, but works of art, things of beauty. They can slay demons and dragons, or inspire a bard's epic. With them, the artificer can change the course of a battle or the hard heart of a king. Their arrows carry the light of the sun, their personal history, their hope for the future.
    Seeing you shoot a bomb arrow up a goblin's bunghole would probably break their hearts.

Skills: 1. Arcana 2. Bowyer 3. Bardic performance.
Starting Equipment: Heavy longbow, kidskin quiver with 20 arrows, Lincoln-green Robin Hood costume (as leather).

• A Arcane Shot
• B Magic Arrow
• C Curving Shot
• D Everready Arrow

Arcane Shot
    With an hour of preparation, you may enchant an arrow with an arcane effect you know. You may maintain two such arrows at once. Choose two arcane arrows now from the list below.

Magic Arrow
    When you fire a normal arrow, you may choose to have it count as magic for the purpose of overcoming resistances. Choose an additional arcane arrow, and replace one you already know if you wish.

Curving Shot
    Once per turn, an arcane arrow that would miss its target turns mid-air to attack a different target. Choose an additional arcane arrow, and replace one you already know if you wish.

Everready Arrow
    If initiative is rolled and you don't have any arcane arrows prepared, you may draw one from your quiver anyway. Choose an additional arcane arrow now, and replace one you already know if you wish.

Arcane Arrows:

1. Banishing Arrow.
   Struck target saves or is banished back to their plane of origin. If this is their plane of origin, they are thrust into the ethereal momentarily, and reappear after a turn in the position they were when they left. If that position is now occupied they are shunted to unoccupied space and take 1d8 force damage.
2. Beguiling Arrow.
   Struck target saves or is convinced that you are its friend. The big stonking arrow sticking out of it may be evidence otherwise, but if you talk fast you might be able to profit somehow before anyone objects.
3. Bursting Arrow.
   Immediately after the arrow strikes a target, it explodes for 2d6 damage in a 10' radius.
4. Enfeebling Arrow.
   Necromantic magics weaved into the arrow weaken and sicken the struck target, causing them to deal half-damage with melee weapons until the curse is lifted.
5. Grasping Arrow.
   This arrow conjures grasping, poisonous brambles which wrap around the struck target. Targets must pass a strength check to remove the brambles. Each time they fail, and each turn they move without removing the brambles, they take 1d6 poison damage.
6. Piercing Arrow.
   The arrow partially phases out of this reality and into the ethereal, and moves in a straight line 1' wide and 30' long before fading entirely. Struck targets in its path must save or take normal damage from the arrow. This attack can hit through walls, armor, and most protective spells.
7. Seeking Arrow.
   The arrow seeks out a target you have seen within the past minute unerringly, navigating around corners and through all but complete cover. Target must pass a save; if they fail they take normal damage from the arrow and you are alerted to their exact position. If they succeed, they take half damage and you are not alerted.
8. Shadow Arrow.
   This semi-illusory arrow cannot be seen as it flies or as it strikes. Struck targets are blinded for a minute, perceiving a world of darkness and great moving shapes.

Wizard

    You may not have heard this, but "wizard" is the rank above "master" in swordsmanship. Perhaps you are a master, and perhaps not — by tradition that title is only given to those 30 years of age, and most wizards die before then. But long after you die, old men will enchant their grandchildren with tales of watching you fight. There will never be another quite exactly like you.

Skills: 1. Colosseum performance 2. Alcoholism 3. Seamanship.
Starting Equipment: medium rapier, traveling clothes (as leather), jeroboam of cheap Spanish red (3 doses).

• A Student of War
• B Know Your Enemy
• C Improved Superiority
• D Relentless Blade

Student of War
    You have studied for many long hours, and at this level may choose two maneuvers from the list below. Unless specified otherwise, these maneuvers can only be used once per combat against intelligent enemies (mindless undead and wild animals probably aren't smart enough to catch on to your tricks). You develop another maneuver with each [template] in this class, and may be able to learn others or invent new ones through play.

Know Your Enemy
    With a minute of study, you can learn one of a target's Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, AC, HD, or number of Fighting-Man templates (if any). You can study them for another minute to learn more things.

Combat Superiority
    You may teach up to [level] of your companions a single maneuver of their choice. This requires constant training to maintain, and they lose the maneuver quickly if separated from you.

Relentless Blade
    You always have advantage when attacking with a sword.

Combat Maneuvers:

1. Caizo's Stratagem.
   You may forgo one of your own attacks to give it to your ally.
2. Kreussler's Disarmament.
   When you strike a target, you may forcibly disarm them. Fighters get a save against this.
3. Marozzo's Distracting Blow.
   All attacks against struck target have advantage until the start of your next turn.
4. Evasive Footwork after the Style of Matthaus.
   Dodge a single melee attack with a quick backstep.
5. Giganti's Feint.
   After a missed attack, immediately make another with advantage.
6. de Jarnac's Goad.
   Struck target has disadvantage on attacks against targets other than you until your next turn.
7. Liancour's Flying Lunge.
   You may make an attack against a target you otherwise could not reach, for reasons of footing, distance, or the presence of bodyguards.
8. Skirmisour's Menacing Onslaught.
   Target immediately makes a morale check. If they fail, they flee on their turn for at least one round. If the creature wouldn't normally be scared of you, it gets another morale check after that round.
9. Vom Tag.
   Struck target is shoved away up to 15'.
10. The Capo Ferro.
    When a creature misses an attack against you, immediately make an attack against them.
11. Miracolo's Sweep.
    If an attack's result beats the AC of a creature adjacent to struck target, hit them for normal damage.
12. Trip de Joie.
    Struck target saves or falls prone.

Champion

    And David said to Saul: "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and when there came a lion or a bear that took a lamb out of the midst of the flock, I pursued after them, and delivered the lamb from their mouth; and if they turned on me, I caught them by the throat, and I strangled and killed them. Thy servant has killed the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be also as one of them". And Saul said: "Cool."

Skills: 1. Hunting 2. Bardic performance 3. Military history.
Starting Equipment: Monstrous bronze sword (massive), medium shepherd's sling and pouch for stones, sandals and loincloth (as unarmored), thick sheepskin cloak.

• A Improved Critical,
• B Remarkable Athlete
• C Superior
• D Survivor

Improved Critical
    You score a critical hit on an attack roll of 19 or 20. If your system doesn't have critical hits, too bad for the DM, because you deal double damage on a 19 or 20 still. Show them this rules text and chide them for not reading more carefully before they approve a class.

Remarkable Athlete
    Add your [level] to any rolls you can argue are based on strength, dexterity or constitution. Gaps a human could leap with a movement check can be leapt by you without one. Surfaces a human could climb with equipment and preparation you can climb with your fingers and toes.

Superior
    You score a critical hit on an attack roll of 18. Add another fighting style.

Survivor
    If you are below half your maximum hitpoints when a fight is initiated, heal to half your maximum hitpoints. Do not round.

Echo Knight

    Legends tell of the first Echo Knights and how they gained their powers, but you don't care. If you cared about anything besides yourself, anything at all, then you wouldn't be an Echo Knight.

Skills: 1. Hunting 2. Classical art 3. Pasta science.
Starting Equipment: Broadsword (medium), scale armor (as chain), kite shield, high-quality hand mirror, tin of pomade, switchblade comb.

• A Manifest Echo
• B Echo Avatar
• C Reclaim Attention
• D Legion of One

Manifest Echo
    You have an Echo you can summon with about six seconds of concentration. She is a double of you, your stats and your equipment, except she has 1HP and is a ghastly, wan thing. On your turn she may make an attack in your stead, move 30', or swap places with you with a thought. If your Echo is ever more than 30' from you, she and all her copies of your equipment will vanish with a pop. If she ever takes damage, ditto. Twice per day at this [level], and once more for every additional, your Echo may take her own turn in combat

Echo Avatar
    You may transfer your mind into your Echo, seeing through her eyes, hearing through her ears &c. While you are doing this your real body is dead to the world. She may move 1,000' away from you while this is happening.

Reclaim Attention
    As one of her turns, your Echo can throw herself in front of an attack that occurs within 30' of you. The attack is made against her AC instead. Additionally, you can choose to pop your Echo and spend one of her turns to grant yourself 4 temporary HP

Legion of One
    You may control two Echos at once. If initiative is rolled and your Echos don't have additional turns, they get one.

Eldritch Knight

    Not everyone has the patience for real wizardry, for arcana and drafty towers and studying ancient manuscripts by the light of a candle. Some mousers turn to petty theft to keep the wolf from the door, and some turn their sights to higher things — like combat, conquest, and the crown.

Skills: 1. Arcana 2. Smithing 3. Ancient history.
Starting Equipment: Longsword (medium), lamellar with black cloak and hood (as chain), thieves' lantern, empty spellbook (dog-eared pages, scuffed bronze head- and corner-caps).

• A Careless Study
• B Eldritch Strike
• C Arcane Charge
• D War Wizard

Careless Study
    Your wizardry is irregular, and mostly consists of a few sorcerous tricks which still give you a significant advantage over mundane combatants. You have a spell slot (though you don't start with any spells). You can parry spells and arrows. You may conjure a bolt of fire, frost or lightning, and throw it like a knife. Finally, you may bond with up to two weapons. Bonded weapons cannot be torn from your grasp, and you may summon them to your hand with a thought if you are on the same plane of existence.

Eldritch Strike
    When you deal damage to a creature, you may mark it. A creature marked in this way is automatically struck by the next spell cast on it, without a save or an attack being rolled.

Arcane Charge
    Once per minute, you may blink 30' to a location you could have reached by hovering in a straight line.

War Wizard
   You gain an MD in a color of your choice.

Source: the cover of Nine Princes in Amber, painted by Tim White

Psi Knight

    The Soul Knife is so secret he isn't even visible in the rogue post. Damn, that's secrecy! Like him, you're a secret psychic hitman in the cloak-and-dagger interplanar war between the bigfeet and the lizardmen. Unlike him, you're a well-designed class who is fun to play and does something and has mechanics. Good for you.

Skills: 1. Advanced planar calculus 2. Psychiatry 3. Psychology (this one is different).
Starting Equipment: Weird metal totem thing, black kung-fu robes (as unarmored),

• A Psionic Power, +1 Mind Die
• B Telekinetic Adept, +1 MD
• C Guarded Mind, +1 MD
• D Telekinetic Master, +1 MD

Psionic Power
    You have a pool of Mind Dice. They operate exactly like Magic Dice but aren't those. You can roll them to reduce the damage of an attack you can see by [sum], extend a 3' flaming blade from your weird metal totem thing, or manifest a circular, horizontal plane of force, 3' in diameter and 1" thick. The flaming blade lasts for [dice] rounds and deals [best] damage on a hit. It can be used to burn holes through material, about 1' a round for wood or earth, half that for stone or metal. The plane moves in any direction you choose at a slow walking speed, and dissipates after [dice] minutes or immediately upon bearing more than 100kg of mass. If used as a crushing tool the plane can deal [sum] damage before popping.

Telekinetic Adept
    You can roll your MD to leap [sum]*5', or force a [dice] HD creature to save or fly back 15' and fall prone.

Guarded Mind
    You are immune to Charm and Fear effects, and may roll MD to give a creature a reroll with a +[sum] bonus against such an effects.

Telekinetic Master
    You may roll MD to levitate up to [sum] slots of objects, in any arrangement, from their current position to a spot or spots you can see. If you use this to bean a mountain of rocks and large frogs in a general direction, it deals [sum] damage, save for half.

Banneret

Fierce, stern, haughty, and bold,
were the lords of the realm in days of old.
None had a sharper sword in fight
to vanquish the wrong, and strike for the right;
none had higher and wilder blood,
to spur them from evil, and guide them to good.
Brave, proud, reckless, and bold,
fit to be one of the barons of old!

Skills: 1. Ancient history 2. Gardening 3. Tax extraction/evasion.
Starting equipment: Decent horse, lance (massive), longsword (medium), jousting armor (as plate), pale and feeble squire, great shield with your family's design upon it.

• A Rallying Cry
• B Restriction on Knighthood
• C Bulwark
• D Inspiring Figure

Rallying Cry
    Once per day, you can deliver a rallying speech and give allies who can hear you [level] points of temporary HP. If you charge into a fight while screaming your battle-cry (take the opportunity to come up with a good one now), you may add your [level] to you and your allies' initiative rolls.

Restriction on Knighthood
    You may make an oath to another character, swearing on your own name. You are bound to such oaths to the death and everyone knows it.

Bulwark
    You may mark a single enemy. If the marked enemy attacks someone other than you while in your reach, you may immediately make an attack against them.

Inspiring Figure
    Allies in your presence have advantage on all saves.

Rune Knight

    Rune Knights employ an ancient supernatural practice that originated among the giants. Whether you learned second-hand from a giant's abandoned scribbling on a cave wall, or third-hand from a scholar who studied such things, or first-hand at a gigantic artisan's knee, you can apply these runes and use their power.

Skills: 1. Smithing 2. Ancient history 3. Outdoor survival
Starting Equipment: Warhammer (medium), heavy winter clothing (as leather), great clomping boots, sonorous and fruity voice.

• A Rune Carver
• B Runic Shield
• C Great Stature
• D Master of Runes

Rune Carver
    You can speak and read the language of Gigantes. You know two runes from the list below. During a ritual at dawn you may place a rune that you know on a piece of equipment. You may only apply each rune once, and you may only apply one rune to a piece of equipment. Additionally, once per dawn you can choose to make you and your equipment gigantic for 60 seconds, increasing the damage dice of all weapons by one step and granting you an effective Strength of 24.

Runic Shield
    When a visible ally wearing one of your runes is struck, you can undo that rune to force the attacker to reroll. Choose an additional rune now, and replace one you already know if you wish.

Great Stature
    You permanently grow 3d4 inches taller. While gigantic, your damage dice are upped twice. Choose an additional rune now, and replace one you already know if you wish

Master of Runes
    You may apply each rune you know twice, and may put more than one rune on a single piece of equipment. Choose an additional rune now, and replace one you already know if you wish.

Giant Runes:

1. Cloud Rune.
   This rune means "Cloud Giant", and also "Cunning". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune may add +1 to all cipher rolls (enabling normal folk to make cipher checks). They may also choose to undo the rune to choose a new target for any attack they see made within 30' of them. The chosen target is struck by the attack if the original roll beats their AC.
   
2. Fire Rune.
   This rune means "Fire Giant", and also "Skill". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune may add 1 to all d20 rolls. They may also choose to undo the rune upon hitting a creature with an attack. If they do, fiery chains burst from the ground and seize struck target. They may make a save at the beginning of every round to wrench free; otherwise, they take 1d6 fire damage and cannot move from their position.
   
3. Frost Rune.
   This rune means "Frost Giant", and also "Survival". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune inflicts a -1 penalty to enemy morale checks, and grants a +1 bonus to friendly morale checks. They may also choose to undo the rune to grant a +10 bonus to a strength- or constitution-related check.
   
4. Hill Rune.
   This rune means "Hill Giant", and also "Reliability". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune has advantage on saves vs. poison and takes half damage from sources of poison. They may also choose to undo the rune to negate up to 12 points of weapon damage from a single source.
   
5. Stone Rune.
   This rune means "Stone Giant", and also "Judgement". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune can see up to 120' in grainy black-and-red infravision. They may also choose to undo the rune to charm a target they can see into a dreamy and pliant stupor. Save negates.
   
6. Storm Rune.
   This rune means "Storm Giant", and also "Possible Future". The wearer or wielder of an item inscribed with this rune cannot be surprised. They may also choose to undo the rune to gain a brief glimpse of the near future, which applies advantage or disadvantage to any related check.
   

Brass Man

    Where do Brass Men come from? Wizards' workshops? Nightmare-forges of the deep elfs? Space? Space? Is it space? When they're underwater, do they get wet? Or does water get them? And why do they hide their eyes beneath frosted-glass face-shields?

Skills: 1. Modern history 2. Small unit tactics 3. Arcana
Starting Equipment: Heavy arbalest, exosuit with attached air supply (as plate, with 8 hours of oxygen) which you may not remove, 200' of extremely durable wire, can opener.

• A Fighting Spirit, +2 Steam
• B Elegant Courtier, +1 Steam
• C Rapid Strike, +1 Steam
• D Strength Before Death, +1 Steam
  

Fighting Spirit
    You have a pool a tank of Steam. On your turn in combat, you may spend a point of Steam to gain advantage on your next attack and 4 temporary hitpoints. You regain 1 point of Steam when you eat a ration and snooze for an hour — if you eat your supper before you go to sleep for the night you regain as many points of Steam as you ate rations.

Elegant Courtier
     You have advantage on initiative rolls. If a fight initiates and you have no Steam, regain 1.

Rapid Strike
    When you would have advantage on an attack, you may attack twice instead.

Strength Before Death
    You may spend Steam in response to gaining a fatal wound or otherwise falling unconscious. You remain conscious and active for one round per point of Steam spent this way.

Fighting Styles:

1. Archery.
   You gain +2 to-hit with ranged weapons.
2. Blind Fighting.
   You have 10' of blindsight. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see invisible creatures within that range, unless the creature is fully concealed from you.
3. Defense.
   You gain a +2 bonus to AC.
4. Dueling.
   When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand with an empty offhand, you gain a +2 bonus to damage.
5. Massive Weapon Fighting.
   When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll that damage die.
6. Interception.
   You have a +1 bonus to parries, and can use your parry on attacks against adjacent allies.
   
7. Mariner.
   While wearing medium armor or less and while not carrying a shield, you can swim and climb as fast as you can run, and you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
8. Simple Sorcery
   You know how to do two of the following hedge-mage tricks with a few seconds of mumbling and finger-waggling:
   
   1. Light a flammable object at a touch
   2. Bless a fist-sized stone, that it can be thrown with the range of an arrow for 1d6 damage.
      
   3. Bless a club or staff, that its base damage dice bump up one size.
      
   4. Produce a terrifying thunderclap with a snap of your fingers
   5. Produce a fistful of maddened, stinging, biting insects
      
   6. Freeze up to a liter of water
   7. Project your voice through a fire that you can see
   8. Bind a subdued or non-resisting person with tight vines
      
9. Superior Technique.
   You learn one maneuver of your choice from among those available to the Wizard archetype.
10. Thrown Weapon Fighting.
    You can draw and throw a light weapon, even if hidden, with one motion. You gain a +2 bonus to damage with thrown weapons.
11. Two-Weapon Fighting.
    When holding two weapons, you gain a +1 bonus to melee damage and +1 to AC.
12. Unarmed Fighting.
    Your hands are medium weapons, which you can "wield" one-handed or two-handed.
    You can automatically bite, strangle and tear a creature you have grappled for 1d6 damage once per turn without using an attack.

(if you were expecting that Brass Man to be a samurai, well, 5e already made a pretty decent samurai. He's at the top of the Barbarian post under the name of "Ancestral Guardian")