Animancer

## Animancer Leveling Table

* **Hit Points at Higher Levels:** 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per animancer level after 1st

### **Proficiencies**

* **Armor:** Light armor
* **Weapons:** Simple weapons
* **Tools:** None
* **Saving Throws:** Charisma, Wisdom
* **Skills:** Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion

### **Equipment**

* (a) A quarterstaff, or, (b) any simple weapon
* (a) A component pouch, or, (b) an arcane focus
* (a) A Scholar's pack, or, (b) an Dungeoneer's pack
* Leather armor, any simple weapon, and a dagger

Alternatively, you can ignore the equipment from your class and background and start with 3d4 x 10 gp.

## Spellcasting

### **Cantrips**

At 1st level, you know two cantrips of your choice from the animancer spell list. You learn additional animancer cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Animancer table.

### **Preparing and Casting Spells**

The Animancer table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your animancer spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these animancer 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 the list of animancer spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the animancer spell list. When you do so, choose a number of animancer spells equal to your Charisma modifier + your animancer level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

You can also change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest.

### **Spellcasting Ability**

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your animancer spells. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a sorcerer spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

**Spell save DC** = 8 + your proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier.

**Spell attack modifier** = Your proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier.

### **Spellcasting Focus**

You can use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus for your animancer spells.

## Soulsight

At 1st level, your animantic powers have awakened such that you can see wandering spirits clearly. Within 30ft, you are able to see into the Ethereal Plane, and can always see the true form of incorporeal undead creatures, even seeing through invisibility.

## Vestiges

From 2nd level, you have the ability to draw on the energy of souls for specific benefits, known as vestiges. These vestiges are fragments or echoes of souls and spirits, but their specific origin is up  to you to determine. They may be aspects of your own soul made manifest, or ghostly pulled - be it willingly or not - from the grip of the afterlife, or even echoes of ancient heroes drawn from the astral plane.

A vestige does not by default take a physical form, but you may choose to allow it to do so. A vestige might appear as a simple mote of light that occasionally swirls around you, or as a faint humanoid figure over your shoulder. At most, a vestige can emit dim light that illuminates the space you occupy, and they cannot appear convincingly human or alter themselves into other illusory forms.

To call a vestige to you, you must undertake a ritual that you can perform during a long rest. At 2nd level, you can only control a single vestige at any one time. You can command additional vestiges  at the levels indicated in the 'Vestiges Slots' column of the animancer table, at which point you can exchange any number of called vestiges for others that you know during a long rest.

Vestiges grant specific benefits depending on their nature, so long as they remain present. Some vestiges may be expended for one-off benefits. Vestiges expended in this way cannot be benefited from again until you complete a long rest to call them back to you. At 2nd level, you know of two vestiges. You learn of additional vestiges at the levels indicated in the 'Vestiges Known' column of the animancer table.

### **Vestige of Arcana**

When you bind the Vestige of Arcana, select one spell from the Wizard of Sorcerer spell list. While you have the Vestige of Arcana bound, you can cast that spell as though it were an Animancer spell that you knew.

### **Vestige of Awareness**

While you have the Vestige of Awareness bound, your passive perception is increased by 5. You may expend the Vestige of Awareness if a combat starts in which you would be surprised in order to remove the surprised condition from yourself, allowing you to act on the first round as normal.

### **Vestige of Battle**

While you have the Vestige of Battle bound, you are considered proficient with martial weapons and shield.

### **Vestige of Companionship**

While you have the Vestige of Companionship bound, you may treat it as a familiar called by the find familiar spell. The stats for this Vestige are included at the end of the class document. If the Vestige of Companionship is slain or dismissed, it counts as having been expended.

### **Vestige of Duplicity**

While you have the Vestige of Duplicity bound, you are considered proficient in deception. You can expend the Vestige of Duplicity to cast disguise self without expending a spell slot or material components.

### **Vestige of Ferocity**

While you have the Vestige of Ferocity bound, whenever you roll damage for a spell of 1st level or higher you have cast, you may reroll any results of a 1. You can expend the Vestige of Ferocity to deal additional damage equal to your Animancer level + your Charisma modifier when rolling damage for a spell of 1st level or higher you have cast. This damage is of the same type as the spells damage.

### **Vestige of Focus**

While you have the Vestige of Focus bound, you have advantage on concentration checks and Investigation checks. You can expend the Vestige of Focus to achieve perfect concentration for the duration of one active spell that requires concentration. If you do so, you cannot lose concentration on that spell unless you choose to.

### **Vestige of Fortitude**

While you have the Vestige of Fortitude bound, you have a pool temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier that regenerate over time. If, on your turn, you haven't taken damage since your last turn, you regain one temporary hit point up to a maximum of your Charisma modifier. You can expend the Vestige of Fortitude to immediately gain temporary hit points equal to your Animancer level + your Charisma modifier.

### **Vestige of Negation**

While you have the Vestige of Negation bound, if you fail a saving throw against a spell, you may expend it in order to succeed instead.

### **Vestige of Shadows**

While you have the Vestige of Shadows bound, you are considered proficient in Stealth. You may expend the Vestige of Shadows to gain advantage on Stealth checks for one minute.

### **Vestige of Sturdiness**

While you have the Vestige of Sturdiness bound, you have advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks made to resist being involuntarily moved. You expend the Vestige of Sturdiness to temporarily fix yourself in place. Your Speed becomes 0ft, and you cannot be moved by any means (including gravity) until the end of your next turn.

### **Vestige of Swiftness**

While you have the Vestige of Swiftness bound, your base speed is increased by 10ft. You can expend the Vestige of Swiftness to gain the ability to take the Dash action as a bonus action for one minute.

## Animatic Arts

At third level, you can choose your Animatic Art. All Animancers channel souls to power their spells, but each has their own focus when it comes to the more unique ways in which they can employ their art.

* Animator
* Soul Trapper

## Channel Spirit

At 5th level, you gain the ability to channel the spirits of creatures drawn from the afterlife. You may perform a 10 minute ritual at the site of a person's death, their body, or at a place they considered precious in life, in order to draw their spirit to you. You must make a Charisma check, adding your proficiency bonus, to determine the success of the ritual. The DC of this check is 15 at base, but may be modified as detailed in the table below. Your DM may also choose to alter the DC as they see fit.

 You possess an object that belonged to the spirit in life.
 A close friend or a family member of the spirit is present.
 The spirit is unwilling.
 You do not know the spirit's name.

While channeling a spirit in this way, you must maintain concentration, and you and others present may ask the spirit questions. The spirit is not compelled to answer truthfully. You can maintain this consection for a number of rounds equal to your Animancer level, after which the spirit departs back to its resting place.

## Soul Bond

At 10th level, you may choose one creature during a short rest to form a soul bond with. This creature must remain within 10ft of you for the duration of the short rest, or the ritual is interrupted. Whilst bonded to a creature:

* You know each other's current hit points.
* You can sense each other's emotional state.
* You each know direction the other is in.
* You have advantage on Insight checks made against one another.

## True Soulsight

At 20th level, you are so attuned to spirits, souls and the animatic energy of the world that you barely notice the line between them anymore. The range of your Soulsight increases to 120 feet. Additionally, your Soulsight now grants you truesight as well as its other effects.

## Animator

### **Imbue Objects**

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to direct your vestiges into objects. As an action, you may expend one or more of your vestiges in order to animate one Tiny or smaller object for each vestige expended.

At 6th level you can animate a Small object and at 14th level you can animate a Medium object. You cannot target an object being worn, carried or held by a creature.

The targeted object becomes a creature under your control for 1 minute, or until reduced to 0 hit points, As a bonus action, you can mentally command any creature made with this feature while the creature is within 500 feet of you. If you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one.

In combat you decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands the creature will act to protect you and itself, but otherwise takes no actions.

Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.

*Imbued Object Statistics*
 Small
 Medium

### **Spirit Thief**

At 6th level, you can use your Imbue Objects feature to animate an object being held or carried by a creature. If the object is being held, the creature must make a Strength check against your spell save DC. If it fails, it drops the object. If it succeeds the object still animates, but is grappled by the creature that was holding it.

### **Paranormal Activity**

At 14th level, you can call upon minor spirits to imbue all tiny objects within a 30ft-sphere at a point within 60ft that you can see.

This effect requires concentration, like when casting a spell. For 1 minute, or until you lose concentration, the objects begin to fly around erratically within the area. For the duration of this effect, the area is considered difficult terrain and creatures within it other than you have disadvantage on concentration checks and Dexterity-based ability checks. Once you have used this feature, you must take a long rest before you can use it again.

### **Master Animator**

At 18th level, when you expend a vestige in order to use your Imbue Objects feature, it remains as a creature until the object is destroyed, with no time limit

Additionally, as long as the imbued object is not reduced to 0 hit points, you continue to benefit from the passive effects of the vestige you expended to create it.

## Soul Trapper

### **Trap The Soul**

At 3rd level, when you kill a creature, you may create a Soul Gem containing a fragment of the killed creature's soul. You have a number of Soul Gem slots equal to your Vestige slots, and you may not have more Soul Gems than you have Soul Gem slots. After expending a Soul Gem, you cannot reuse the Soul Gem slot that it occupied until after taking a long rest. You can expend a Soul Gem in one of the following ways:

* When casting a spell, to cast it at one level higher than the spell slot expended for it, provided that this would not mean casting the spell at a level higher than you can cast.
* Before rolling damage for a spell, to instead deal the maximum possible damage.
* As an action to imbue a weapon with magical energy, granting to +1 to hit and to damage for 1 hour.
* When casting a spell, to replace any material components for which the total price of the components is equal to or less than 100gp times the hit point maximum of the creature used to create it.
* Upon reaching 0 hit points, to instead drop to 1 hit point (requires no action).

### **Vestigial Soul Gems**

At 6th level, you gain the ability to bind vestiges into Vestigial Soul Gems. You gain no passive benefit from a vestige bound in this way, but you may expend a Vestigial Soul Gem in order to gain the benefit of expending that vestige. Vestiges bound in this way do not take up a vestige slot. You may not use a Vestigial Soul Gem to replicate any of the effects listed under Trap The Soul.

### **Consume Soul**

At 14th level, you gain the ability to consume a soul bound into one of your Soul Gems to restore your magical power. You can expend a Soul Gem in order to regain expended spell slots with a total combined level equql to or less than half the HD of the creature that was killed to create the Soul Gem. Once you have used this feature, you must take a long rest before you can use it again.

### **Soul Slave**

At 18th level, you gain the ability to not only bind the energy of a slain creature, but a more significant portion of its soul. As an action, you may expend a Soul Gem in order to conjure the spirit of the creature you slew to create it under your control. The spirit has the same statistics as the creature, and it acts on your turn. As a bonus action, you can control the creature's actions directly for that turn. If you give it no orders, it will act to protect you and itself, but will otherwise take no actions.