Living Weapon (5e Class)

Living Weapon

“	For so long, all I could do was destroy. But now, I have a chance to save something...	”
—Emil

Natural Killer or No?

Living weapons are typically organisms that have been engineered to be tools of war. They may have weaponized limbs or enhanced skills meant to be used for violence. Living weapons are also capable of being born or created. They are often subjected to lives of emptiness due to their dangerous nature and often unstable mentalities from scarred childhoods of experimentation if not outright rejection and abuse. Mixtures of magic can sometimes also be a factor, contributing to destructive magical capabilities in a living weapon.

Creating a Living Weapon

By Elsiikun

Was your living weapon created? Or were they born naturally, perhaps from an infected bloodline or some other effect that made them so? Were they engineered instead, in a horrible factory or lab? Were they embraced or rejected for their abilities? Do they harbor resentments and grudges so high it impedes their very thought and warps their personality? Does your living weapon embrace their weaponized capabilities, or reject and try to hide them?

Quick Build

You can make a living weapon quickly by following these suggestions. First, Constitution should be your highest ability score, followed by Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom, depending on what subclass you are going to take. Second, choose the Soldier background.

Class Features

As a Living Weapon you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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

Proficiencies

Armor: All armors and shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Constitution and Strength
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, History, Medicine and Survival

Equipment

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

• (a) any martial melee weapon or (b) any martial ranged weapon
• (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
• (a) a trinket of sorts connected with your origin as a living weapon or (b) shield
• (a) any simple melee weapon or (b) any simple ranged weapon
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 5d6 gp in funds.

Table: The Living Weapon

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Weapons Mastered
1st	+2	Weapon-Like, Bodily Attack	1
2nd	+2	Weapon Master, Fighting Style	1
3rd	+2	Weapon Type	1
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	1
5th	+3	Proliferate	2
6th	+3	Focused Blow	2
7th	+3	Weapon Type Feature	2
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	3
9th	+4	Sail True	3
10th	+4	Weapon Type Feature	3
11th	+4	Proliferate Improvement	4
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	4
13th	+5	Hardened Heart	4
14th	+5	Rebound	5
15th	+5	Weapon Type Feature	5
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	5
17th	+6	Barrage Burst	6
18th	+6	Weapon Type Feature	6
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	6
20th	+6	Ace of Arms	7

Weapon-Like

You are composed like a weapon, a nonliving thing. You take pain better than others and it is harder to hurt you. While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Bodily Attack

As a weapon who's got the stuff inside you, it only makes sense you can attack and deal a good deal of damage using just yourself. Starting 1st level, you can roll a d6 + your Strength modifier in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike.

Fighting Style

Starting at 2nd level, you 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.

Archery

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Blind Fighting (UA)

Being unable to see a creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn't hidden from you.

Defense

While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Dueling

When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

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.

Mariner (UA)

As long as you are not wearing heavy armor or using a shield, you have a swimming speed and a climbing speed equal to your normal speed, and you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Protection

When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.

Tunnel Fighter (UA)

As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach.

Two-Weapon Fighting (UA)

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Weapon Master

You are a master of weapons, but not in the traditional sense. You can subvert weapons to your will and absorb them and their properties to use in your body. Starting 2nd level, you gain the power to absorb weapons into your body. The number of weapons you may absorb into your body at a time are shown under the Weapons Mastered column on the class table. You may only assimilate up to that number of weapons before needing to complete a long rest to regain use of this feature.

You may expend one uninterrupted hour to perform a ritual with a weapon which you are touching, through which the weapon melds and assimilates into your weapon body. The weight of the absorbed weapon counts toward your carrying capacity. The weapon then lends its properties to your Bodily Attack(e.g., absorbing a longsword lets your attack deal slashing damage, absorbing a bow allows you to load arrows onto your body acting as a bow). The damage die of your Bodily Attack does not change and the property absorbed cannot be used if it involves displacing a part of your body, like the Thrown property.

If the weapon has magical properties, you also can manifest those properties. If you have more than one magic weapon absorbed at the same time, you can change the one whose properties are being manifested as a bonus action. If the weapon requires attunement, you can attune to it during the time you spend assimilating it.

You can materialize and dematerialize weapons into your hand without requiring an action.

You can expel retained weapon from yourself as an action. When you drop to 0 hit points, the weapons you were retaining also drop out of your body. When expelled, the weapons dislodges themselves from your body and drop at your feet. Magic items lose their attunement to you when they are expelled.

Weapon Type

At 3rd level, you chose a weapon type to become in totality. Choose between Magic, Attack, or Defense. All are detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels.

Ability Score Increase

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.

Proliferate

You gain the ability to make multiple attacks with your body, be it an amplification of magical powers or a multitude of weaponry from your body. Starting 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you use your Bodily Attack. At 11th level, you may attack up to three times. If you hit with a Bodily Attack, the subsequent attacks can be with a weapon you mastered. This feature doesn't stack with Extra Attack.

Focused Blow

At 6th level, you are more familiar with your body. Your Bodily Attacks now deal magic damage for the purposes of overcoming resistances to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Sail True

At 9th level, you are about to make sure your attacks hit hard. When you roll damage, you can reroll it. You can choose which roll to use. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1), regaining your uses after finishing a short rest or a long rest.

Hardened Heart

Starting 13th level, you retain your mental state and perceptions, but your body has slowly gotten tougher. It becomes colder, more like a weapon now. You gain advantage in saving throws against effects that would have your be charmed or frightened.

Rebound

Starting 14th level, you gain the power to re-calibrate your strikes if needed, with calculation like a weapon. If you would miss an attack with your Bodily Attack or spell attack, you may instead have the attack hit. You may use this feature once, regaining use after you complete a long rest.

Barrage Burst

Starting 17th level, you gain a burst of power allowing you to scissor past enemies and gore into them. When you land a critical hit on a creature, you may have the damage die triple instead of just double. You can only use this feature once, being unable to use it again until you finish a short or a long rest.

Ace of Arms

Starting 20th level, you embody a weapon truly. Not only do you use your body as a weapon, but like a weapon, you aid others in their combat. By expending a bonus action, you may designate up to six weapons you can see and grant them critical rolls on 18-20 for 1 minute. On a critical hit, these weapons deal damage equal to their regular damage die plus a max roll of their damage die rather than a normal critical's roll. You may only use this feature once, regaining use after you finish a long rest.

Attack

You are a brute force weapon that can smash through anything with your body's capabilities alone.

Hard Edge

Starting 3rd level, by charging in brutishly with savage abandon, you may drive yourself like a weapon into enemies. Your Armor Class is lowered by 2 and your attack and damage rolls get an additional d6. This effects lasts for 1 minute. The die increases to 2d4 at 10th level, 3d4 at 15th level, and a 4d4 at 18th level. Can only be used once per long rest.

Weapon Mold

Starting 7th level, you can mold your body's special qualities to form an actual weapon which comes from your body! Thus, you're never without arms. While you have any weapons inside you from your Weapon Master feature, you may choose one to thoroughly manifest into your hand of your own flesh, so it appears as though part of your body, but with all its properties and damage dice. You cannot be disarmed of this weapon if you form it using this feature. Using this weapon to attack counts as a Bodily Attack. This feature causes the weapon to break. If you stop this ability or mold to a different weapon, the original molded weapon is expelled from your body in a broken state.

Multiarm

You can extrapolate your body in a flurry to bluster enemies and buffet them with blows. Starting 10th level, when you use your Proliferate feature, you may another attack by expending your bonus action. You can use this feature a number of times equal Con mod (minimum 1) per short or long rest.

True Strike

Starting 15th level, when you use the Rebound feature, you may have the attack become a critical hit instead. Can only be used once per long rest.

Weapons Might

At 18th level, you can harness the full power of any weapon in your body at a detriment to yourself. For 1 minute or until you miss 5 attacks, all of your attacks deal max damage. This includes dice from the Hard Edge feature. Hard Edge now lasts for 1 hour. You can only use this feature once per long rest.

Defense

Steel Skin

Starting 3rd level, your body toughens up even more. You gain resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Armor Master

Due to your affinity for defense, you can now absorb armors and shields into your body. Starting at 7th level when you absorb a piece of armor, your AC becomes 12 + your Dexterity modifier + Constitution modifier. If this armor have any other properties, magical or otherwise, you now manifest those properties on you. If a shield is absorbed, you gain the bonus of one shield to your AC as if you wearing that shield however, you do not benefit from wearing a shield.

In addition, you gain proficiency with light armor.

Shield Wall

At 10th level, you become more familiar with the workings of your weaponized body. As a reaction to a non-psychic damage roll against you, you can materialize any number of shields that you are bonded to in order to reduce the damage. The damage reduced is equal to 1d10 + your constitution modifier per shield. Shield effects and abilities are ignored. You can only use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier, being unable to do so until you finish a long rest.

Hardened Heart Improvement

At 15th level, your mental state changes even more. You gain advantage in saving throws against effects that would have you be petrified, incapacitated, poisoned or paralyzed.

Defense Savant

At 18th level, you are the embodiment of defense. After a long rest, you can choose any number of damage types equal to your constitution modifier (minimum 1) to be resistant to that lasts until your next long rest. If you pick bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, you instead gain immunity to those damage types. You maintain your resistances from Steel Skin. Steel Skin resistances do not count against the number of resistances you pick.

Magic

The power to cast spells to obliterate is programmed and implanted in you so you need not rely always on brute strength.

Spellcaster

Starting 3rd level, you activate the power inside you and use it as magic. Your casting ability is your Wisdom, since you draw from the power stored within you. Your focus can be any weapon of your choice. It loses its damage properties to become a focus.

The table below shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You prepare each spell only once, imbuing it into your focus. You can cast each as many times as your spell slots will allow.

When you use the Weapon Master feature, you may absorb one property of one magical weapon you have in your body.

Weapons from spells you cast are considered mastered for the purposes of Proliferate. These weapons don't count against the weapons mastered table.

Each time you gain access to a new level, you learn a single spell chosen from the sorcerer spell list of the appropriate level. You start off with 2 spells known.

Your Spell Save DC = 8 + Proficiency Mod + Wisdom Mod

Your Spell Attack Modifier = Proficiency Mod + Wisdom Mod

Living Weapon Spell Table

— Spell Slots per Spell Level —
Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	2	-	-	-	-
4th	3	-	-	-	-
5th	3	-	-	-	-
6th	4	2	-	-	-
7th	4	2	-	-	-
8th	4	3	-	-	-
9th	4	3	-	-	-
10th	4	3	2	-	-
11th	4	3	2	-	-
12th	4	3	3	-	-
13th	4	3	3	-	-
14th	4	3	3	2	-
15th	4	3	3	2	-
16th	4	3	3	3	-
17th	4	3	3	3	2
18th	4	3	3	3	2
19th	4	3	3	3	3
20th	4	3	3	3	3

Magical Embodiment

Starting 3rd level, when you can absorb a weapon into your body, why not your focus to cut out some middle men and free up a hand? You may use Weapon Master to absorb your arcane focus into your body. You may then cast spells without needing to hold the focus constantly. You can also add your Bodily Attack die to your spell damage a number of times equal to your Wisdom Mod per long rest.

Enchanted

At 7th level, you learn to apply magic to other weapons. As a bonus action, you can touch any number weapons equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and give them +1 to attack and damage rolls. Weapons include Bodily Attack and Monk's unarmed strikes. These weapons are considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistances. This effect lasts for 1 hour. You can use this feature once per short or long rest.

Magical Proliferate

At 10th level when you use Proliferate, you can cast a spell instead of making one Bodily Attack.

Redirect

At 15th level when you use your Rebound feature for a spell attack, you automatically crit with that attack.

Magic Eater

At 18th level, your body as become like magic itself. Any time a spell targets you, you can absorb it and redirect it at any target within range. You cast the same spell at the level it was cast using the original casters spell attack modifier or spell save dc. You do not expend a spell slot. You can only use this feature once per long rest.

Multiclassing

You cannot multiclass into this class.

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