Ancestral Blade (5e Class)

Ancestral Blade

Creating an Ancestral Blade

Quick Build

You can make an Ancestral Blade quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom or Constitution. Second, choose the Soldier or Folk Hero background. Third, take leather armor and pick your Ancestral weapon from your subclass

Class Features

As a Ancestral Blade you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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

Proficiencies

Armor: Light Armor
Weapons: simple weapons, bladed Martial Weapons
Tools: 1 instrument and either Calligrapher's Supplies, Painter's Supplies, or Woodcarver's Tools
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Wisdom
Skills: Choose 2 from Perception, History, Acrobatics, Medicine or Stealth

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• Your Ancestral Blade
• A dagger
• Leather armor
• (a) an explorer's pack or (b) a traveler's pack

Table: The Ancestral Blade

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Blade Tricks	Blade Disciplines	Focus Points	Focus Limit
1st	+2	Discipline, Blade Art	1	1	4	3
2nd	+2	—	1	1	4	3
3rd	+2	Burst of Movement, Blade Art Feature	2	2	6	5
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	2	2	6	5
5th	+3	Blade Art Feature	2	3	14	6
6th	+3	—	2	3	14	6
7th	+3	Burst of Movement	2	4	17	6
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement, Clean Cut	3	4	17	6
9th	+4	Blade Art Feature	3	5	27	7
10th	+4	—	3	5	27	7
11th	+4	Deeper Wounds	3	5	32	7
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	3	6	32	7
13th	+5	Burst of Movement	3	6	38	8
14th	+5	—	3	6	38	8
15th	+5	Blade Art Feature	3	7	44	8
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	4	7	44	8
17th	+6	Masterful Focus	4	7	44	8
18th	+6	—	4	8	44	8
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	4	8	44	8
20th	+6	Blade and Self as One	4	8	44	8

Discipline

At first level, you gain the ability to focus on your bladework and draw on several disciplines. Using your focus points, you are able to gain passive arts or utilise offensive arts by drawing from your known Disciplines. Every time you level up, you can replace one of your Disciplines with another.

Blade Tricks

A Blade Trick is a technique that requires next to no focus to execute due to your training. As part of an attack, you can use one Blade Trick you know to modify it.

Focus Points

Your focus points denote how much mental focus you can bring to bear in total. You regain half your expended focus points on a short rest and all on a long rest.

Focus Limit

While focus points denote how much mental focus you can bring to bear before needing to rest, your focus limit denotes your ability to focus at a single point in time. As such, you can't use more focus point at any one point in time than your focus limit.

Blade Disciplines

Blade Disciplines are a collection of techniques and stances you have learned. You can use Passive and Offensive Arts from any Discipline you know.

Passive Arts

Passive Arts are techniques, stances and similar abilities which are active as long as you focus on them. While they do not expend Focus Points to use, they do require you to have a certain amount of Focus Points to use them and count against your Focus Limit. You can change your active passive arts on your turn using a bonus action.

Offensive Arts

Offensive Arts, in contrast to passive arts, are techniques which are mentally exhausting to perform and as such expend focus points. To use them, you both require enough focus points and free Focus Limit.

Blade Art

At 1st level, you chose a Blade Art to devote yourself to. Choose between Art of the Lightning Draw, Art of the Bloody Demon, Art of the Flowing Dancer and Art of the Hidden Strike. All of them are detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 1st level and again at 3rd, 5th, 9th and 15th level.

Burst of Movement

At 3rd level, you learn how to step in such a way as to cross a distance before your enemy can react. At 3rd level, you can cross up to 10 feet in this way during your movement. The strain of this technique reduces your remaining movement by 5 more feet. However, during this movement, you do not take opportunity attacks. You can only use this feature once on each of your turns.

At 7th level, you can cross up to 20 feet this way and can use this feature twice on your turn. Your base movement speed also increases by 10 feet.

At 13th level, your proficency with this technique increases to the point you skip the space between those points, ignoring difficult terrain and gaining the ability to move through occupied spaces. You can now cross up to 25 feet like this and your base movement speed increases by another 10 feet.

Ability Score Improvement

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

Clean Cut

At 8th level, your bladework becomes refined even further, your strikes biting into a foe easier than before. When using a bladed weapon, you reduce an enemies resistances or immunities against your attacks by one step (immunity -> resistance, resistance -> normal). Enemies who take normal damage from your blows do not gain a weakness to them however.

Deep Wounds

At 11th level, your strikes with a bladed weapon gain a metaphysical weight to them, adding 1d4 to their normal damage and dealing an additional 1d4 psychic damage.

Masterful Focus

At 17th level, you can use an action to you can gain 8 special Focus Points points. As part of the same action, you make an attack with an Offensive Art. You ignore your focus limit for this offensive art, but can only use those special Focus points for it. Any remaining special focus points vanish. You can use this feature once per long rest. Your passive arts are still in effect for this.

Blade and Self as One

At 20th level, your aging slows to a crawl as your mastery of the blade and your body creates a resonance between them. You age 1 year for every 10 years that pass. You also gain advantage on all attack rolls and rolls you are proficent in. If you have disadvantage on any roll, roll as normal. Once you die (by any means), you can choose to embrace your Ancestral weapon and become one with it. You become a sentient weapon with the same stats as your Ancestral Weapon. If anyone touches you, you can make a contesting Wisdom roll against them. On a successful roll, they take your weapon damage. If they survive this, you expel their soul from their body and claim it for yourself, gaining their physical abilities. You will regain your old abilities over the course of a year.

Art of the Lightning Draw

Devoting yourself to mastering the Art of the Lightning Draw, you begin to focus on unsheathing your blade, striking, and resheathing your blade in one action.

To Draw and Strike in a single motion

At first level you learn the Swift Draw discipline and gain free focus on the Unsheath and Resheath passive art.

Ancestral Blade: Lightning Draw

At first level you gain a special katana accompanied by a matching sheath. It has the finesse and special properties and deals 1d8 slashing damage. If you attack with this weapon directly after drawing it, your attack roll has doubled proficency and you deal your proficency as bonus damage. You cannot lose this weapon. If stolen, you find it 1d4 days later somewhere random and can reclaim it freely. If broken, you must pay a blacksmith 1d4x4+4 gp to repair it.

Reactive Draw

At third level, when an enemy you can see within your range makes an attack and your weapon is sheathed, you can use your reaction to attack them. If you hit, their attack roll is reduced by half your Ancestral Blade level (rounded down) +1. You resheath your weapon after this.

Pale Flash

At fifth level, you learn to attack during your Burst of Movement. If you pass within 5 feet of at least one creature, you can use this feature. You can use your action to attack up to your proficency bonus creatures that you pass within 5 feet of when you use this feature, gaining +2 to your damage for those attacks, but a cumulative -1 to hit for every creature beyond the first you attack.

Forceful Draw

At ninth level, your mastery of quick draw techniques increases, boosting Offensive Arts from a Blade Discipline of this Blade Art, increasing their damage by the used Focus Points x2. Your personal growth also gives you proficency in Constitution.

One Mind

At 15th level, you learn to use One Mind. At any point during your turn, you can use your action and bonus action to target a single creature within your range and expend as many focus points as permitted to attack them with rapid quickdraw attacks that flash through any defense. You hit them with as many melee attacks as you use Focus Points. All attacks have a damage penalty of 2 however.

Art of the Bloody Demon

<!-Introduce this subclass here->

Sublass feature 1

At first level,

Sublass feature 2

At third level,

Sublass feature 3

At fifth level

Sublass feature 4

At ninth level,

Sublass feature 5

At 15th level,

Art of the Flowing Dancer

<!-Introduce this subclass here->

Sublass feature 1

At first level,

Sublass feature 2

At third level,

Sublass feature 3

At fifth level

Sublass feature 4

At ninth level,

Sublass feature 5

At 15th level,

Art of the Hidden Strike

<!-Introduce this subclass here->

Sublass feature 1

At first level,

Sublass feature 2

At third level,

Sublass feature 3

At fifth level

Sublass feature 4

At ninth level,

Sublass feature 5

At 15th level,

Blade Disciplines

Swift Draw

Focus your mind. Draw. Strike. Resheath. Let the motion lend you focus and strength

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the <!-class name-> class, you must meet these prerequisites:

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the <!-class name-> class, you gain the following proficiencies:

0.00

(0 votes)

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Classes