Disciple

An elven woman strides calmly through
a forest glade, smirking as she subtly
grips her sheathed blade. She closes
her eyes as brigands leap from the
surrounding brush. Before they can
even shout their demands, the woman's
blade makes a wide arc at the group. Each
brigand manages to barely dodge her preemptive strike,
but their movements suddenly stop as they start to draw
their blades. A large wound appears across each of their torsos where her blade had grazed them, and then they slump to the ground.

Atop a grassy plateau, a lone human figure stands in total focus amidst a swarm of hovering spectral blades. Like a masterful conductor, the figure directs the blades to fluidly strike the targets painted on the stones around. With a quiet whisper of pride, the figure recalls the blades before willing them to fall to dust and blow away with the wind.

A battle rages upon a blood-soaked field overlooked by a regal keep. In its center, stands a lone battle-worn tiefling fighting for his life. A pair of hulking spectral arms sprout from his back, allowing the tiefling to wield four axes at once. He charges into a group of soldiers, wreathing himself in flames as the lone figure carves into the enemy line. Each step taken could be his last, yet the tiefling fights with the widest of grins.

Although these warriors fight using a diverse range of extraordinary methods, they are all disciples. Disciples are defined by their mystical fighting styles and the introspective focus that gives purpose to their training. For a disciple, combat is a conduit of self-improvement, and battlefields exist to test the strength of ideals.

Forged Ideals

A disciple's ideals are represented in their fighting style by the sublime disciplines they follow. While some disciples discover these paths themselves, others learn them from masters of the art. Each sublime discipline holds one ideal above all others, and it serves as the anchor for the tempo techniques of that discipline. As a result, combat using these disciplines is a form of self expression and an opportunity to refine one's philosophy. The danger and rigor of the battlefield provides the perfect situation to test the disciple's focus, their understanding of themselves, and their values.

Born Wanderers

Because of this predisposition towards experience and conflict, it is rare you'll find a disciple that stays in one place for too long, or subsisting under the yoke of military regulation. They are natural wanderers, and tend to flock towards interesting people that may lead them to greater challenges and adventures. Such people often prove to be worthy rivals and life-long friends for the wandering disciple: the perfect sparks to ignite the flames of inspiration.

Eternal Students

To a disciple, survival is often secondary to growth. To that end, you may yet find disciples working as sellswords or mercenaries in an attempt to find new conflicts to test themselves. Each and every fight is an opportunity to push past one's limits, and test not only ability, but also their willpower and determination. The path of the disciple is one filled with decision. Each must decide which disciplines to pursue and which to discard, as the path to perfection is littered with broken philosophies and weak hearts.

Creating a Disciple

When you are creating your disciple, the most important thing to consider is why they fight. For a disciple, fighting is a means of self-discovery and affirmation. What kind of lessons have their fights taught them up until this point? What kind of person or warrior do they strive to be, and how close to that idealized version of themselves are they? Do they have a specific person or creature they are trying to defeat? Or perhaps they are seeking out a new mentor to fill a gap they feel in their skill or personhood? Consider how your character would feel when faced with what looks to be an insurmountable threat, and how they would feel after losing or defeating it.

Equally important is when your character first began to notice the flow of tempo around them. Was it something they always saw, but never realized its significance? Maybe it was inherited? Or maybe the power was unlocked in a dire moment of emotional or physical danger? Or did you eventually come to see the tendrils of tempo through deliberate training, either alone or under a master or school? Which discipline did you manifest first, and why? Lastly, how does your character feel about their power now? How your character first came upon this magic should influence how they feel about both it and themselves in relation to it.

Awakenings

Tempo Techniques

Each discipline has a list of techniques─its discipline techniques─that you gain at the disciple levels noted in the discipline's description. These techniques require you to spend tempo points to use which you gain at 2nd level.

Some techniques modify a specific attack. You can only use one such technique per attack.

Tempo Ability

Your ability to utilize tempo is tied your intuition and ability to perceive the ripples of magic around you; as such, Wisdom is the key ability for disciples. Some of your discipline features require for your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

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.

Defense

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

Two-Weapon Fighting

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

Bound Arsenal

Starting when you choose this journey at 3rd level, you learn to call upon an arsenal of weapons you store within your mind. You must bind weapons to yourself in order to call upon them. If you hold a weapon and meditate for 1 hour over the course of a short or long rest, you can bind the weapon to your arsenal, causing it to disappear. When you summon your arsenal, this weapon is summoned within it while it is bound.

You can have a number of weapons bound this way equal to your Wisdom modifier plus your disciple level. A weapon becomes unbound 24 hours after you die or unbind it with an action, causing it to appear within 5 feet of you. Sentient weapons must agree to be bound, and can choose to unbind themselves at any point.

Conjure Weapons

Starting at 3rd level, you can conjure or dismiss your arsenal of bound weapons, which hover in your space, as a bonus action. The weapons that are part of this arsenal deal force damage instead of their normal damage type, and gain the thrown property range (20/60). Any thrown arsenal weapon immediately returns to your space after the attack.

Whenever you can make a weapon attack and are not wielding any weapons or shields, you can instead mentally direct any single weapon in this arsenal to attack as if you are wielding it (as if using your choice of one or two hands). You can engage in two-weapon fighting using the arsenal, provided the weapons you use meet its conditions.

Additionally, when you conjure these weapons, and as a bonus action on subsequent turns, you can put the weapons in one of the following formations:

Assault. Your arsenal poises to attack. Ranged attacks made with your arsenal do not suffer disadvantage due to attacking at long range or being within 5 feet of a hostile creature and ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.

Storm. Your arsenal enters a frenzy. The area within 5 feet of you is difficult terrain for creatures of your choice.

Ward. Your weapons form a protective barrier. The first time you take damage after the start of each of your turns, it is reduced by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).

Dream Gate

At 18th level, you can bring out the full force of your arsenal in an instant. As an action, you create a visage of your field behind you and conjure 100 weapons all around you. Choose any number of creatures within 120 feet of you, and divide 100 projectiles among them (a creature can be targeted by up to 10 projectiles). Each creature must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d8 force damage for each projectile launched at it, or half as much on a successful save. These weapons disappear at the end of your turn.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Journey of the War God

A disciple who follows the Journey of the War God is unmistakable on the battlefield by the manifestation of their soul fighting alongside them, often taking the form of spectral arms or a looming figure at their back.

The influence of tempo can reach further than most would think; after all everything moves, even your own spirit. Disciples that define themselves by intense emotions, or a need to prove their own self worth, can develop a sensitivity to the movements of their soul. After enough time, the disciple gains the ability to summon and wield this element of their soul in combat. Legends speak of disciples that attain definite control, and ultimately learn harness the divine spark that resides within them.

Shard of Divinity

At 18th level, you have fully reconnected with your soul, unlocking the divine power within it. You have resistance to damage from weapon attacks, and any damage you deal with a weapon attack or tempo technique ignores resistance and bypasses immunities.

You can no longer die from old age, and your soul cannot be stolen, trapped or destroyed, nor can you be unwillingly raised as an undead, except by divine intervention.

Sublime Disciplines

Ardent Lion

No true warrior fights in isolation; their friends, family, and all their allies follow them into every fight. Ardent Lion disciples fight using rallying cries and by utilizing the strength of their bonds to perform superhuman feats in combat.

Ideal: Camaraderie. Your allies are your family, and those bonds are more precious than anything the world can muster. Cherish them and look out for them, for they will make you your best self.

Signature Art: Rally. As an action, you let out a riveting war cry that sends jolts through the bodies of your allies. Any allied creature within 30 feet can use their reaction to move up to their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

This ability's range increases by 30 feet when you reach 5th level (60 feet), 11th level (90 feet), at 17th level (120 feet).

Techniques

Warding Strike (2nd Level). When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can use your bonus action and spend 1 tempo point to instill hesitation within them. The next attack it makes before the start of your next turn has disadvantage if it is against someone other than you.

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Bolstering Bond (5th Level). As an action, you can spend up to 5 tempo points to bolster yourself and an ally. You and an ally of your choice within 30 feet of you gain 1d8 temporary hit points for each tempo point you spent. These temporary hit points last 1 minute, until you use this technique again, or until you focus to regain your tempo.

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Unified Assault (11th Level). Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can use your bonus action and spend 3 tempo points to call in an assault. A single allied creature of your choice within 30 feet of you can use their reaction to make a weapon attack against that same creature.

Fury of the Fallen (17th Level). Whenever you see a creature reduce an allied creature to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction and spend 4 tempo points to move up to your speed and make an attack against the attacking creature. On a hit, the attack deals damage as normal and the allied creature regains hit points equal to your level.

Coursing Ember

To live life on the sidelines, bored and discontent, is to not really live life at all. Disciples of the Coursing Ember discipline are fiery individuals who follow their whims and passions to the ends of the earth. Coursing Ember techniques involve spreading radiant flames and gliding through the battlefield.

Ideal: Passion. Your heart must burn like the desert sun. Do not live idly and let opportunities pass you by. Be invested in every action you choose to take, and use the fire in your eyes to guide you into the future.

Signature Art: Salamander Charge. As an action, you move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, leaving behind a wall of fire that is 10 feet high and 1 foot thick along your path, lasting for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). You can move through creature's spaces for this movement, but you can't end your turn there. The wall lightly obscures vision. Any creature in the wall when it first appears, and whenever a creature enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d8 fire damage.

This damage increases to by 1d8 at 5th level (2d8), and again at 11th, (3d8) and 17th levels (4d8).

Techniques

Searing Lashes (2nd Level). You coat your weapons in searing flames. When you take the Attack action, you can spend 1 tempo to increase your reach by 10 feet until the end of your turn. Your attacks deal fire damage instead of their normal damage type for the duration, and deal an additional 1d4 damage.

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Leaping Flame (5th Level). Whenever you are damaged by a hostile creature within 60 feet of you that you can see, you can use your reaction and spend 2 tempo to briefly turn into a wisp of flame and fly to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of them without provoking opportunity attacks.

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Flame's Blessing Stance (11th Level). At the start of your turn, you can spend 2 tempo points to engulf yourself in beautiful flames. Until the start of your next turn, you are immune to fire damage, and creatures take 1d8 fire damage any time they make a melee attack against you.

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Bursting Sunspot (17th Level). When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can use your bonus action and spend 3 to 5 tempo points to cause the target of your attack to explode in a blaze of glory. Every creature in a 10-foot radius, increased by 10 feet for every tempo point spent above 3, must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 6d6 fire damage. You are immune to this damage.

Students of the Diamond Mind discipline are renowned for their ability to remain calm in even the most dire of situations. Combat is an equation to be solved, and it is the practice of the Diamond Mind to understand all of its elements. This view lends itself to a prescient combat style, where the practioner appears able to act in impossibly short spans of time.

Ideal: Order. Everything has a cause and an effect. The world may appear chaotic, but a clean layer of order underlies it all. The more you discover and understand this order, the greater a warrior and the more fulfilled an individual you will become.

Signature Art: Quick Draw. If you are not surprised, immediately after initiative is rolled, but before anyone acts, you can move up half your your speed and make a single weapon attack. This attack deals double damage to objects and structures.

If you are surprised, you can instead use this signature art to no longer be surprised.

Techniques

Driving Wind (2nd Level). You can use your action and spend up to 5 tempo points to unleash a cone of rushing air from your weapon. The size of the cone is an amount of feet equal to 10 times the amount of tempo points you spent. Creatures of your choice in the cone must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed backwards until they reach an unoccupied space at the end of the cone. A creature can choose to fail this saving throw.

Wind Scar (5th Level). You can use your action and spend any amount of tempo points to swing your weapon and unleash a blade of air forward. Pick up to 3 creatures you can see within 60 feet of you. If you target more than one creature, each target must be within 5 feet of at least one other target, and none of them can have cover from you. Each of these targets must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 1d8 magical slashing damage for each point of tempo you spend, or half as much on a success.

The Wind That Walks (11th Level). As a bonus action, you can spend 3 tempo points to become invisible and able to move through the space of any creature, as well as through spaces as small as 1 inch gaps without expending additional movement until the start of your next turn, or until you attack a creature or force it to make a saving throw.

Tranquil Windstorm (17th Level). As a bonus action, you can spend 3 tempo points to create a 10 foot radius sphere of whirling air that follows you, which lasts until the end of your next turn. While within the sphere, creatures of your choice can ignore difficult terrain, and you can impose disadvantage on any ranged attack that targets a creature inside of the sphere. Additionally, if a creature starts its turn inside the sphere, you can increase its speed by 10 feet until the end of its turn.

Technique

Mirror Step (2nd Level). You twirl the world about a creature, disorienting its perception of your position. When a creature moves within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction and spend 1 tempo point to force that creature to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, you can teleport to any space within 5 feet of the creature, and the next attack it makes against you before the end of the turn is made at disadvantage.

Inversion (5th Level). As an action, you can spend 3 tempo points to force a creature you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, you teleport into a space that creature occupies and cause that creature to teleport into your space. If there is no room for the you or the creature where the other stands, this technique fails.

Altered Perspective (11th Level). When a hostile creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and spend 3 tempo points to force that creature to repeat the same attack against a creature of your choice within range of the attack (other than itself).

Shifting Sides (17th level). As a bonus action, you can spend 4 tempo points and attempt to alter a creature's perception of the battlefield. A creature of your choice within 30 feet of your must make an Intelligence saving throw to see through the illusion you foist on it. On a failed saving throw, the creature can't make reactions until the start of its next turn, and immediately makes a melee weapon attack against a creature of your choice within its reach.

Techniques

Gaze of the Flock (2nd Level). When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you damages you or forces you to make a saving throw, you can use your reaction and spend 2 tempo points to force it to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. At the end of each of your turns while a creature is frightened of you in this way, you can spend 1 tempo point to force the creature to make another Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the creature remains frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

Unkindness In Turn (5th Level). You can spend your bonus action and 2 tempo points to teleport to a creature within 30 feet of you that is frightened of you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it becomes paralyzed with fear until the start of their turn.

Futility (11th Level). Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 tempo point and have it make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, its speed is halved, and it has disadvantage on saves against becoming frightened until the end of their next turn.

Vengeance of the Swarm (17th Level). A black mist of ethereal ravens surges from you to enact your revenge. When a creature damages you, you can use your reaction and spend 4 tempo points to cause that creature to lose hit points equal to the amount of damage you took (maximum of 40 damage).

Techniques

Roots of the Earth (2nd Level). When an effect would knock you prone or move you against your will, you can spend 1 tempo point to hook into the earth. Until the end of your next turn, you can't be be knocked prone or moved against your will, including against the original effect.

Mountain Hammer (5th Level). When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 2 tempo points to embed it into a fissure below it. The target must make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, the target is knocked prone. If the target is already prone, it is instead restrained until the end of its next turn.

Earthbound (11th Level). As an action, you can spend 3 tempo points to petrify yourself until the start of your next turn. While petrified in this way, any damage you take is halved, and your form can't be changed.

Additionally, the earth around your feet attempts to encase those around you. Each creature within 15 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, that creature is restrained until the end of your next turn.

Breath of Ages (17th Level). As an action, you can spend 5 tempo points to exhale an eroding mist that originates from either you or your Dragon Sentinel. All creatures in a 60-foot cone, which spreads around corners, must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature's body becomes heavy and sluggish until the end of your next turn. For the duration, the creature's speed is halved, and it can't use reactions. On its turn, it can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. Regardless of the creature's abilities or magic items, it can't make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn.

Once per turn, when you hit a sluggish creature with a melee weapon attack, you can force it to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target becomes petrified until the end of your next turn.

Titan Fury

The path of the warrior is full of rivals and obstacles. Followers of the Titan Fury discipline make it their goal to shatter the competition and make it clear that their power is absolute. Techniques of the Titan Fury discipline focus on demolishing the weak and cowardly and ripping through attempts at stopping your advance.

Ideal: Power. It is not enough to merely defeat your enemies; you must overcome them and demonstrate the gap in your abilities. You must prove to yourself and to the world that your might is unrivaled.

Signature Art: Blood of the Ancients. As a bonus action, you can bolster your form. You gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + half your disciple level, which last for 1 minute (rounded up, minimum 1).

For as long as you have these temporary hit points, whenever you make a Strength check or saving throw and you roll a number below half your Wisdom score on a d20, you can treat the roll as half your Wisdom score.

Starting at 5th level, for as long as you have these temporary hit points, your size increases to Large if you are not already Large or bigger. This means that your size doubles in all dimensions, and your weight is multiplied by eight. Your equipment grows to match your new size. If there isn't enough room for you to double your size, you attain the maximum possible size in the space available.

Technique

Power Overwhelming (2nd Level). When you hit a target with a melee weapon attack, you can use your bonus action and spend up to 5 tempo points. The target is pushed backwards 5 feet for every point of tempo you spent.

If this movement would force the target to impact a creature, object, or structure, then it and whatever it collided with take 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 5 feet of forced movement remaining (minimum of no damage).

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Cull the Meek (5th level). Those who seek to mar you without facing you deserve a swift punishment. When a creature you cannot see hits you or a creature hits you with a ranged attack, you can use your reaction and spend 3 tempo points to reduce that damage by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier, and then force that creature to succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take psychic damage equal to the amount you reduced.

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Titan's Will (11th Level). At the start of your turn, you can spend 4 tempo points to remove one of the following conditions from yourself: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, incapacitated, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned.

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Arduous Wrath (17th Level). As an action, you can spend 4 tempo points and slam your weapon into the earth. Every creature in a 15-foot cone in front of you must make a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

Credits

The Disciple class is made by Izzy#9070 (/u/InfKore). This class would not be possible without the assistance, input, and support from the people of the Discord of Many Things, the official discord for /r/UnearthedArcana. I want to offer special thanks to Caim, Jay, Jaek, GenuineBeliever, Layhnet, Moddy, Marceline, QalarValar SwordMeow, BladeBotEU, 3A, and all the other countless wonderful people who helped me along the way.

The “Disciple” is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

This document was made and formatted using GMBinder, and the artwork was edited in photoshop, with the watercolor effects courtesty of Brusheezy's "Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes."

Art Credits

The Disciple Class Symbol, by /u/Modstin
Mauve, by Camila Vielmond
Last Woman Standing, by Jarreau Wimberly
Waterfall and Floating Island, by Nathaneal M
Silveria pose, by Angelica Alieva
Fisherman's Village
Official Fate/Stay Night Artwork, by Type-Moon
Indian Dancer, by LifelessMech
Free Sword Clipart
Amevius Fiscaro, by Phong Anh
Irelia, by Jessica Oynheart
Fairy Tale (Беларуская казка), by Viktor Apanasovič
Footer, by Kamidio on the Discord of Many Things