Astral Wanderer (5e Subclass)
Astral Wanderer
Sorcerer Subclass
You have been altered by a powerful being of the Astral Plane. Your essence has been augmented by an ancient who travels the Astral Plane in search of knowledge and holds secrets that were forgotten before the mortal races were born. Its motives are often inscrutable, and its knowledge so immeasurable and ancient that no mortal catalogue could compare to the vast mysteries it holds. Your change may have been purposeful by the entity, or inadvertent potentially from it being dimensionally close during your birth. You may be a random soul from the nether reborn, a servant of that entity that has been reborn in mortal form, or a new soul who was simply imbued with planar energy that allows you to experience the smallest glimmer of the Astral Sea itself and its connection to everything throughout the multiverse. This power is also seen frequently in plane touched beings like Githyanki, Tieflings, or Aasimar. You are destined to wander existence seeking new knowledge and planar locations becoming a new Astral Wanderer.
The entity that was the genesis of your power could be any dedicated to exploration or knowledge of forgotten lore or other deities like The Far Wanderer, The Opener of the Ways, The Gray Voyager, The Lord of Knowledge, The Sovereign of Law and Lore, or The Gate of Souls. Being connected to such power can cause changes in your behavior and beliefs making you experience wanderlust and a desire to explore both through travel and knowledge seeking, as well as manifest physical changes as your body is suffused and permeated with planar energy giving you an ethereal presence. At your option, you can pick from or roll on the Astral Manifestations table to create identifiers for your character.
| d6 | Astral Manifestations |
|---|---|
| 1 | When you look at others, they get the distinct sense you are looking through them somewhere beyond. |
| 2 | Your skin manifests a luminescent bright blue tattoo of shimmering flowing filigree. |
| 3 | Your alternate giving off a slight radiance or dark gloom in time with waxing & waning positive/negative planes. |
| 4 | When injured, your blood seeps extremely slowly even when gravely injured & looks like mercury-like platinum astral ether. |
| 5 | Your hair grows a streak of silver that naturally braids like a mithril cord. |
| 6 | Your shadow is slightly displaced from your physical being. |
Astral Wanderers gird themselves with magical power blended with martial fighting prowess, and guard the prime material plane against threats that originate from other planes or that seek to pillage the mortal realm with alien arcana. They discover and guard portals between planar worlds or stand vigilant against threats from them, including traveling the Astral Sea as needed to prevent harm. These Sorcerers are defenders of the remnants of the heavenly lattice and seek to preserve the order of the world above.
Astral Wanderers have a knack for spells that focus on movement and forces helping to augment their martial fighting capabilities with raw magical power slipping between spaces as is the nature of the planar travel, and often learn Gate, Etherealness, Plane shift, Arcane Gate, or Teleport as their higher level spells.
OOC GM note-This Sorcerous origin serves a similar role as a Hexblade Warlock or Bladesinger Wizard thematically appropriate for a Sorcerer, inspired in part by Githyanki Knights/Gish.
Astral Arcana
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Astral Arcana table. Each spell counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of sorcerer spells you know. These spells can't be replaced when you gain a level in this class:
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Gift of Alacrity, Longstrider |
| 2nd | Immovable Object, Pass Without Trace |
| 3rd | Blink, Pulse Wave |
| 4th | Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement |
| 5th | Steel Wind Strike, Wall of Force |
Fighting Style
At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, and two handed or versatile martial weapons. You may adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take the same Fighting Style option more than once, even if you get to choose again.
- Defense: While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
- Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Weapon of the Planes
Starting at 1st level, you can draw on the energy of the planar multiverse to augment your a two-handed or versatile melee weapon.
- Imbue Astral Energy: As a bonus action, you can imbue astral energy into your attacks for one minute, you do extra force damage from those attacks equal to your proficiency bonus, and they are a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.
- High Velocity Impact: As a reaction to hitting a target with a melee weapon attack, you may choose to use your reaction to cause that creature to have vulnerability to all of that attack's damage. You can not use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
- Pocket Dimension: As a bonus action, you may shunt this weapon into an extradimensional space to store it, recalling it later into your hands with a bonus action later on.
Dimensional Slipstream
At 1st level, the influence of your Astral soul allows the ability to slip between the planes riding their currents and eddies. You fold space and link a nearby location to your own. Choose a space you can see within 30 feet of you and treat that space as if you occupy it for one minute or until you are no longer within 30 feet of that space. This allows you to interact with objects or creatures in that space as though they were next to you (including allowing you to make melee attacks from that space).
Astral Empowerment
Starting at 6th level, you gain a number of d6 astral empowerment points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). You may expend that astral empowerment point to enable one of the following planar assault options. On your turn, you can use one of the following astral empowerments options of your choice. You can use only one astral empowerment option per turn. As you level, you may use additional Astral Empowerment options per turn. At level 8, you may use two options per turn. At level 10 you may use three options per turn. At level 12, you may use any number of options per turn so long as you have sufficient Astral Empowerment dice to fuel your maneuvers.
- Arcane Amplification: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to cause the weapon to make more precise strikes. The weapon is imbued with force power which can be used to alter it's swing arc & trajectory. You add the number you roll on the Astral Empowerment die to the attack and to the damage roll as extra Force damage. You can use this effect before or after making the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack are applied.
- Chrono Anomaly: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to defensively phase out of time. Add the number you roll on the Astral Empowerment die to your AC until the start of your next turn.
- Eidolon Focus: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to assault spectral foes. Being unable to see a creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it. Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you. Add the number you roll on the Astral Empowerment die to your attack roll.
- Ephemeral Reversion: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to reverse the wounds nearby allies have taken. Choose a friendly creature within 15 feet of you. That creature gains temporary hit points equal to the roll of your Astral Empowerment die + your Charisma modifier.
- Impulse Momentum: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to force power to ripple outward from you and batter against one target within 20 feet creating negative pressure that pulls the target up to 10 feet towards you. The pull effect is hampered by difficult terrain. If the target is pulled within your reach, you may attack as part of the action and roll your Astral Empowerment die causing extra weapon damage. The damage equals the number you roll on the Astral Empowerment die.
- Phase Shift: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to a target you hit. The damage equals the number you roll on the Astral Empowerment die. Until the start of your next turn, each of your melee weapon attacks can reach a target up to 5 additional feet away from you, as you thrust through the space between the planes.
- Temporal Reverberation: You can expend one use of your Astral Empowerment using planar energy to alter time around you. You may act this round as though your initiative roll was higher by a number of points equal to your roll on the Astral Empowerment die. You may choose to exercise this option at the beginning of the round before other creatures begin taking their turns.
- Transitive Reflexes: You may spend an Astral Empowerment die to gain a bonus to your saving throws equal to the number rolled on the Astral Empowerment die and gain resistance to spells and spell like effects, until the start of your next turn.
You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Force Barrier
At 14th level, you may create a barrier of magical force around you, albeit at the cost of movement speed. The heavier the shield the more it reduces your speed. As a bonus action, you may subtract 5 feet from your movement speed to gain half cover, subtract 10 feet from your speed to gain 3/4 cover, or subtract 15 feet from your speed to gain total cover for one minute. If you gain total cover, all other creatures have total cover from you as well. You may dismiss the effect at any time.
Ethereal Jaunt
At 18th level, you learn to phase into the Ethereal Plane. As a bonus action, you can cast the etherealness spell with this feature, without expending a spell slot. While on the Ethereal Plane, you can use time flows to act more swiftly. You make take 3 actions. This feature ends if any of those actions or effects you create while using this feature affects a creature other than you or an object being worn or carried by someone other than you, or you travel more than 1,000 feet from your present location. Otherwise, this feature ends at the beginning of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
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