Psychopath, Variant (5e Class)

Psychopath

A brave orc man enters into a cave. He's looking for a predator, or something to explain the disappearances.

The orc catches a glimpse of something in the corner of the cave. He approaches cautiously, before realising it's just a doll. With a sigh of relief, he turns to continue his search, just before the man sees the Psychopath. The Psycho runs towards him, axe drawn, with an primal rage for blood. The orc can see his own terror in the reflection of the Psychopath's mask. Cornered, with no where to run, the orc accepts his fate...

An elf women and human man finish their meal. It's late at night so they book a hotel room.

The elf women seductively gestures towards the bed. The human man strolls towards it. She offers him a drink, and they sit together on the bed. After a short chat, the elf women heads to the bathroom. The human man prepares himself on the bed; removing his shirt and laying down. The women returns, crossbow in hand. The man barely has a chance to react.

Infamous Killers

Psychopaths come in many forms, but share two things in common. Their lack of empathy and want for murder. There's countless theories into what cause Psychopaths to be so ruthless. Is it how they're raised? Or, is it genetic? Whilst these are contributing factors, the truth lies in this: It's just a unique way of thinking.

The strength of a Psychopath lies in their mind. For some, their lack of empathy allows them to break past their morality and slaughter without hesitation, making them dangerous opponents in combat. For others, it allows them to manipulate easily, and gain their kick through a flawless execution of murder. Either way, the Psychopath is a fearsome opponent to come up against.

Creating a Psychopath

How did your ways come to be? Was it from a traumatic event? Or, were you just born this way? How were you raised? Did people realise you were like this from a young age? What currently motivates you? Money? Infamy? Or the feeling of taking a life?

Quick Build

You can make a Psychopath quickly by following these suggestions. First, Strength or Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Charisma. Second, choose a background that isolates you, such as Criminal/Spy, Disgrace or Exile.

Class Features

As a Psychopath, Variant you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, Martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Charisma, Strength
Skills: Choose three from Investigation, Intimidation, Perception, Deception, Stealth, Survival, Insight, Athletics, Performance and Acrobatics

Equipment

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

• (a) 2 handaxes or (b) 2 daggers or (c) A greataxe
• (a) Some leather armor or (b) A light crossbow with 20 bolts
• (a) An Explorer's Pack or (b) A Dungeoneer's Pack
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 3d8 in funds.

Table: The Psychopath, Variant

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Infamy	Features
1st	+2	2	Method, Infamy
2nd	+2	2	Killer's Choice, Method Feature
3rd	+2	3	State of Psychopathy
4th	+2	3	Ability Score Improvement
5th	+3	4	Extra Attack
6th	+3	4	Method Feature
7th	+3	5	Brutality
8th	+3	5	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	6	Method Feature
10th	+4	6	State of Psychopathy Stage 2
11th	+4	6	Extra Attack
12th	+4	7	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+5	7	Killer's Choice Improvement
14th	+5	8	Torture
15th	+5	8	State of Psychopathy Stage 3
16th	+5	9	Ability Score Improvement
17th	+6	9	Method Feature
18th	+6	9	Brutality Improvement
19th	+6	10	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+6	10	Wolf among Sheep, Extra Attack

Method

Murder can be graceful or grizzly. Choose either the Disturbed or Manipulator subclass, detailed at the bottom of the class description. You gain features from your subclass at 1st level, then further at levels 2, 6, 9, and 17.

Infamy

Whether you embrace it or not, all Psychopaths become infamous. This is shown in the form of Infamy points. Infamy points can be gained by:

• Landing critical hits with any weapon
• Frightening creatures
• Killing enemies with a Surprise Attack

Infamy abilities

Infamy gives you certain abilities. By spending 1 infamy point:

• You get a +2 bonus to your next attack roll. This must be used before you roll to hit the target.
• You get a +2 bonus to your next Deception or Intimidation check. This must be used before you roll the check.
• You can use Hide as a bonus action once.

Killer's Choice

Psychopaths are creatures of habit, which allows them to become skilled with particular weapons. At 2nd level, choose Slashing, Piercing or Bludgeoning damage. Whenever you use a weapon of that type of damage, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack and damage rolls with that weapon. At 13th level, this bonus increases to a +2 to the attack and damage rolls.

State of Psychopathy

Starting at 3rd level, you can choose to loose control and attack violently. As a bonus action, you can enter a State of Psychopathy for 1 minute. At 3rd level, you have Stage 1 Psychopathy:

• Your AC decreases by 1
• Your weapon attacks get a +1 bonus to damage
• You become resistant to nonmagical Slashing damage
• If you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you gain 2 temporary hit points and gain 1 infamy point.

At 10th level, you progress to Stage 2 Psychopathy:

• Your AC decreases by 2
• Your weapon attacks get a +2 bonus to damage
• You become resistant to nonmagical Slashing and Bludgeoning damage
• If you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you gain 4 temporary hit points and gain 1 infamy point.

At 15th level, you progress to Stage 3 Psychopathy:

• Your AC decreases by 3
• Your weapon attacks get a +3 bonus to damage
• You become resistant to nonmagical Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing damage
• If you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you gain 6 temporary hit points and gain 1 infamy point.

You must finish a Long rest before you can enter a State of Psychopathy again.

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.

Extra Attack

Starting at 5th level, you can Attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action action on your Turn.

The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.

Brutality

Starting at 7th level, you know how to strike fear into your enemies. Your critical hits now land on a 19-20 roll. Also, whenever you land a critical hit on a creature, all enemies must make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus or be frightened of you for one minute.

Starting 18th level, your critical hits now land on a 18-20 roll.

Torture

It's surprising how a little blood goes a long way. Starting at 14th level, whenever you grapple or restrain an enemy, you can use an Action to deal 1d6+Str damage to them. If done, you and your allies gain a +1 bonus to Persuasion and Intimidation checks against the target for 1 minute. This effect can stack up to three times, giving you a +3 bonus and refreshing the 1 minute timer every time the target is tortured. You lose all bonuses at the end of the minute.

Wolf among Sheep

At 20th level, you have evolved beyond the herd. You can spend 10 infamy points to automatically critical hit a creature when you attack. Upon doing this, you deal maximum damage possible on your weapon dice before applying the double from critical hit. You must finish a Long rest before you can use this ability again.

Disturbed

You take the direct solution to your psychopathic tendencies. You're unstable, easily angered and mostly shunned in society. Despite the brutality of your murder you find it quite fun and have a good sense of humour, even if no one is laughing with you.

Mind over Body

Starting 1st level, your way of thinking helps you shrug off a lot of pain, and your unpredictability assists you in combat. You gain an unarmoured defence equal to 11 + your Charisma modifier + your Dexterity modifier. You also gain a unique mask which hides your face. This mask, when worn, gives you advantage to Charisma(Intimidation) checks and enemies have disadvantage against any checks to avoid being frightened when within sight of your mask.

KABOOM!

You have a lot of spare time to tinker with explosives. Starting at 2nd level, you gain a 1lb Bomb Making Kit. Once a day, during a short rest you can spend 25gp to craft 3 explosives. These bombs can be thrown up to 60 ft as an Action. Alternatively, the bombs can be left in an area and set to explode upon an enemy entering within 15ft of the bomb as an Action. Every creature within 15ft of where the bomb explodes must make a Dexterity(Acrobatics) with a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a fail, they take 3d6 fire damage, or half as much on a success.

Thrilling Hunt

Hunting is you second nature, and it's almost as fun as killing the target. Starting at 6th level, when wearing your mask, your have advantage to Wisdom(Survival) checks to track enemies, and you gain a +10ft bonus to your movement speed, as well as you gaining a climb speed equal to your movement speed.

Frieght Train

Once you get going, there's no stopping you. If you get reduced to 0 hit points, you can instead choose to drop to 1 HP. You can do this once every Short or Long rest.

Desperate for the Kill

Killing is so important to you, that you're always ready to fight. Starting at 17th level, you gain a +2 bonus to initiative. Also, you can now take the Shove action and the Grapple action as bonus actions. If you reduce a creature who you have grappled to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt on the killing blow. These last for 1 minute or until they're used up. These temporary hit points replace any temporary hit points you had before hand, instead of stacking with them.

Manipulator

You've lived among the sheep long enough to know how to blend in. Your Psychopathic tendencies have great utility. It let's you get into hard to get places and convince people without them realising. You're more likely to kill for money, but you still love killing either way.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Starting 1st level, you realise you're superior to those sheep. You have a suit that gives you confidence to act amongst the sheep. Whilst wearing this suit you gain advantage against being frightened or charmed, and advantage on Dexterity(Stealth) and Charisma(Deception) checks. You also gain a +1d6 bonus to damage whenever you do a Surprise Attack.

The Man of many Faces

You can concoct disguises which are almost flawless. Starting at 2nd level, you gain an 1lb Advanced Tailor's kit. Once a day, during a short rest you can spend 20gp to craft 2 Disguises of Factions you have previously seen. These are hard to see through, but not undetectable. To blend in, you must make a Charisma(Performance) check against a DC of the DM's choice. Once you have been detected in an outfit, you have to remake an outfit for that Faction to try and blend in again.

Marked for Death

You may not be a traditional hunter, but you still have prey. Starting 6th level, you can mark a target as your "prey". If you do this, they have disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks to see you whilst your in Stealth, and you can double the damage bonus gained from Surprise Attacks whilst wearing your suit. This effect lasts for 1 minute. You must complete a short or long rest to use this feature again.

Bargining

Starting 9th level, you're winning charm helps you outside of hunting. You get a +2 bonus to Charisma checks against merchants and traders. You also gain a +2 bonus to Sleight of Hand checks that involve theft.

Ambush Predator

You've gotten so good at hunting, it fuels you. Starting at 17th level, whenever you make a Surprise Attack against an enemy, you gain temporary hit points equal to half the damage you dealt. These last for 1 minute or until they're used up. These temporary hit points replace any temporary hit points you had before hand, instead of stacking with them.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Psychopath, Variant class, you must meet these prerequisites: Strength 13, Charisma 15

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Psychopath, Variant class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light armor, Martial weapons, Simple weapons

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