Gourmet
A round-bellied halfling stirs the great
iron pot, almost as large as he is,
simmering over the embers of last
night’s campfire. He lifts a portion of tender venison from the stew to taste before adding a pinch of salt and pepper from his pouch. The empty ladle finds the flank of the iron pot, rousing the rest of the adventuring party to breakfast with a clanging alarm. The predawn grumbling soon gives way to the licking of lips. They shall feast like kings on the hunt before diving into the necropolis hidden ahead.
A human woman, cutting an intimidating figure in her armor of patchwork skins and scales, squats on the edge of a jagged outcrop. The chimera broken across the rocks offers a unique blend of meats she can use. She begins to skin and butcher the monster, already salivating at the thought of what thrills the meal will bring. The fiery glands in the throat she saves for last, handling them carefully. Surely there is some way to incorporate the mixture into a spicy goat curry...
A drow sits in their make-up, resisting the urge to scratch at the pale stuff by sipping casually at their wine. The fools arranged around the table of a 'high elf diplomat' are already many cups deep into their own. The kitchen doors swing open and the drow summons forth the servants bearing the main course - personally prepared before the arrival of the guests. They tuck in eagerly, tearing the food from the silver platters with uncivilized haste. One by one their eyes glaze over and they turn limply to the head of the table, awaiting instruction. The drow allows themselves a smile that cracks their alabaster mask open around the lips.
Each of these figures is a gourmet. A cook, and more, who has sought out the strangest, finest ingredients in the world and transformed them through their own skill into wonders for the senses. Some cook to delight, some for gain or glory; yet more pursue new flavors purely for the love of the craft. Each is a unique talent whose culinary daring has turned them into experts on certain parts of the natural world.
A Taste for Adventure
The best things in life are for the bold of heart: such is as true of cooking as it is of anything else. A gourmet has the soul of a chef, but they also hold the heart of an adventurer. Their passions are combined in an endless hunt for incredible and exotic ingredients to experiment with.
What sets a gourmet apart from your common-or-garden cook is their view on ‐ or rather, disregard for ‐ civilised boundaries. A gourmet cares not for the stifling directions of the recipe book, but seeks inspiration in bizarre and far-flung flavors. Pioneering food requires daring souls who will visit distant lands and tussle with terrible beasts, just for the chance to taste them as a well-seasoned steak. As such, gourmets maintain the same skills as travelling merchants and nomadic warriors. They are hardy folk that will happily forage grubs for weeks on end to survive, if it means an opportunity to discover a fantastic new delicacy.
The adventuring cook is not fussy, but is interested in a wide selection of meats, powders, seasoning, and vegetation that can often only be found off the beaten path, to be best enjoyed that same night roasted over a crackling campfire.
Fresh Ingredients
Eat what you kill - this is the mantra of a gourmet. With skilled hands they can skin and fillet any number of beasts and even monsters for food. A gourmet will try anything at least once. On the road, they gather an eclectic stock of ingredients from all corners of nature's larder. A traveling chef must be a master of the medley, using what they have to its best to provide for themselves and their companions.
As gifted chefs, gourmets can draw out the nourishing powers of these diverse ingredients in ways no other can come close to, working wonders in even the most trying of conditions. They can ensure that even a single square meal a day is made to count, turning the humblest provisions into a feast that bolsters body and mind. Many adventuring bands have won the day thanks only to the skills of their stalwart cook. The lasting effects of a meal depend on the particular training and instincts of the gourmet who prepares it; but a positive review from those partaking is all but guaranteed.
Creating a Gourmet
When creating a gourmet, think about their relationship with food. Do they love to serve others and see them satisfied, or do they seek out the most wonderful flavors for themselves? Were they formally trained, or did they learn through experimentation? Also consider what sets them apart from other cooks: their call to adventure. What drew them to take their craft on the road less traveled?
Gourmet
| Level | Proficiency Bonus |
Features | Stock | Meal Multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Guts, Stock Up, Campfire Cook | 2 | 1 |
| 2nd | +2 | Culinary Specialty, Chef's Technique | 4 | 1 |
| 3rd | +2 | Discerning Taste, Lunch Rush | 6 | 1 |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 8 | 1 |
| 5th | +3 | Fodder Break, Epicurean Physique | 10 | 2 |
| 6th | +3 | Culinary Specialty Feature | 12 | 2 |
| 7th | +3 | Wine & Dine, Hustle | 14 | 2 |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 16 | 2 |
| 9th | +4 | Varied Palate | 18 | 2 |
| 10th | +4 | Gusto, Culinary Specialty Feature | 20 | 2 |
| 11th | +4 | Breakfast of Kings | 22 | 2 |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 22 | 2 |
| 13th | +5 | Baker's Dozen | 24 | 3 |
| 14th | +5 | Culinary Specialty Feature | 24 | 3 |
| 15th | +5 | Great Gusto | 26 | 3 |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 26 | 3 |
| 17th | +6 | Seasoned Adventurer | 28 | 3 |
| 18th | +6 | Secret Ingredient | 28 | 3 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 30 | 3 |
| 20th | +6 | Way to the Heart | 30 | 3 |
Quick Build
You can make a gourmet quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Constitution your highest ability score. Your next highest score should be Wisdom. Finally, choose either the Folk Hero or Guild Artisan background.
Hit Points
- Hit Dice: 1d12 per gourmet level
- Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + your Constitution modifier
- Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution
- modifier per gourmet level after 1st
Proficiencies
- Armor: Light armor, shields.
- Weapons: Simple weapons, tridents, nets.
- Tools: Cook’s utensils.
- Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence
- Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Insight,
- Medicine, Nature, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, or
- Survival.
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) five daggers, or (b) a simple weapon of your choice.
- (a) an explorer’s pack, or (b) a diplomat’s pack.
- A set of padded armor and a shield.
- A set of cook’s utensils, an iron pot, and 10 days of rations.
If you forgo this starting equipment, as well as the items offered by your background, you start with 3d4 x 10 gp to buy your equipment.
Multiclassing and the Gourmet
If your group uses the optional rule on multiclassing, here's what you need to know if you choose gourmet as one of your classes.
Ability Score Minimum. As a multiclass character, you must have at least Constitution and Wisdom scores of 13 to take a level in this class, or to take a level in another class if you are already a gourmet.
Proficiencies Gained. If the gourmet isn't your initial class, here are the proficiencies you gain when you take your first level as a gourmet: light armor, shields, one skill from the gourmet's skill list, cook's utensils.
Class Features
As a gourmet, you gain the following class features, which are summarized in the Gourmet table.
Guts
1st-level gourmet feature
When a creature you can see attacks a target that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to interpose yourself between the attack and its intended target, making yourself the target of the attack roll instead. You must make this decision before the attack is determined to hit or miss.
1st-level gourmet feature A good cook wastes not and wants not. Your ingredients come not only from the pantry, but also from the creatures you encounter on your adventures. As a gourmet, you build up a stock of special dice called Ingredient Dice by harvesting slain creatures. These dice fuel your other abilities, detailed later in this class.
At the end of a long rest, you gain a number of ingredient dice equal to twice your proficiency bonus, which are d6s. At 6th level, these ingredient dice turn into d8s. At 14th level, they turn into d10s. As an action while holding your cook’s utensils, a dagger, or a weapon that deals slashing damage, you can begin the process of harvesting additional ingredient dice from the remains of creatures within 5 feet of you, so long as they died within the last 24 hours and are one of the following types of creature: aberrations, beasts, dragons, elementals, fiends, fey, giants, humanoids, monstrosities, oozes, or plants. The process takes 1 minute per creature. For each creature you successfully harvest, you gain an ingredient die equal to the size of its hit dice. For example, if you harvest a Tiny creature, you gain 1d4 as an ingredient die. If the creature is Small, you gain 1d6, and so on. Ingredient dice serve as the key components of your dishes. It is assumed that you combine them with other sundries that you gather on your journey. The maximum number of ingredient dice you can store is shown in the Stock column of the Gourmet table. If you exceed your Stock maximum when you gain a new ingredient die, you must choose ingredient dice to discard until you no longer exceed it. Unlike a class feature such as Bardic Inspiration, your Stock isn't necessarily replenished to its maximum upon completing a short or long rest. Therefore, it is important for both players and DMs looking to use the Gourmet to consider the ease of access to this resource. If a campaign is unlikely to feature many creatures to harvest, consider allowing alternate methods to gather ingredients. Fresh stock could be bought in town, for example. 1st-level gourmet feature Your culinary skills are crucial to extending the stamina of your companions. Luckily, you have learnt to cook almost anywhere.
As long as you have access to your cook's utensils at the end of a long rest, you can expend any number of ingredient dice in your Stock to create a meal. A meal comprises a pool of temporary hit points equal to the total number rolled on the expended ingredient dice + your Wisdom modifier. Choose any number of friendly creatures (which can include yourself) within 30 feet of you to partake of the meal. You serve a number of temporary hit points to each creature from your meal as you see fit. A single creature can gain a maximum number of temporary hit points per meal equal to 5 x your gourmet level. Temporary hit points served from your meal last until the start of a creature's next long rest. As you gain levels in this class, the quality of your cooking will improve and the value of your meal will multiply, as shown in the Meal Multiplier column of the Gourmet table. Apply this multiplier when determining the total number of temporary hit points in one of your meals. For example, as an 5th-level gourmet with a Wisdom score of 17, you might roll 7 ingredient dice of varying sizes for a total of 27 points. Adding your Wisdom modifier of 3 brings this to a total of 30 points, before you apply your Meal Multiplier for a pool totaling 60 temporary hit points. To three different creatures, you choose to grant 15, 20, and 25 temporary hit points respectively. 2nd-level gourmet feature Choose a culinary specialty: an area of expertise determined by one of several creature types which you have a personal preference for cooking with.
Select from Beast Cuisine, Monstrous Cuisine, Aberrant Cuisine, Capricious Cuisine, Rare Cuisine, Vegetarian Cuisine, Cannibal Cuisine, or Elemental Cuisine, each of which is detailed after the class's description.
Your choice grants you features at 6th level, and again at 10th and 14th level. 2nd-level gourmet feature Cleavers, knives, or tenderizers: a good cook uses their tools with precision. Choose either bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with melee weapons that deal your chosen damage type.
Your proficiency bonus is now doubled for any ability check you make that uses your proficiency with cook's utensils. 3rd-level gourmet feature You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks that rely on taste or smell in regard to prepared food or drink.
Stock Up
Adding Ingredients to your Stock
Campfire Cook
Culinary Specialty
Chef's Technique
Discerning Taste
Lunch Rush
3rd-level gourmet feature
You can take charge of a busy situation with decisive momentum. Instead of moving as normal on your turn, you can convert your movement into a bold rush. The path of your rush is a straight line equal in width to your space and equal in length to your movement speed. Every creature in the line must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier) or be knocked prone. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. While rushing, you ignore difficult terrain created by moving through a creature’s space, but walls and other solid surfaces arrest your momentum.
Starting at 5th level, you can choose to expend one ingredient die when making your Lunch Rush. Any creature that fails its save and is knocked prone takes bludgeoning damage equal to the number rolled.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
Ability Score Improvement
4th-level gourmet feature
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.
5th-level gourmet feature You can now quickly prepare small meals and snacks to refuel your companions throughout the day. During a short rest, you can expend an ingredient die to grant a friendly creature within 30 feet of you temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + the number rolled on the expended ingredient die. The temporary hit points created by this meal do not replace those granted by your Campfire Cook feature, but instead are added to them. You can bolster up to six creatures this way per short rest, expending one ingredient die per creature.
5th-level gourmet feature Your adventurous diet has made you remarkably robust. You become immune to poison and disease from ingested sources.
In addition, at the start of each of your turns you can choose one of the following benefits. The benefit you choose lasts until the start of your next turn: 7th-level gourmet feature You are able to exploit the natural bonhomie shared between those who break bread. While eating a meal at the same table, or within similar proximity to, another creature with an Intelligence score of 8 or higher, you gain advantage on Wisdom (Insight) or Charisma (Persuasion) checks made against that creature.
7th-level gourmet feature You will ignore minor pains common to the kitchen and the battlefield when time is of the essence. You gain resistance to acid, cold, and fire damage if you have moved since the beginning of your last turn.
9th-level gourmet feature You gain proficiency in one new skill of your choice.
In addition, choose one type of creature detailed in the Stock Up class feature. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from this creature type. 10th-level gourmet feature A creature that partakes of a meal created using your Campfire Cook feature has its exhaustion level, if any, decreased by 1.
11th-level gourmet feature You can expend 8 ingredient dice to cast the heroes’ feast spell, without needing material components. When you do so, you can choose to expend an additional ingredient die for each creature partaking of the feast to grant advantage to all Charisma saving throws as part of the feast’s benefits.
13th-level gourmet feature You can treat any d12 or d20 roll of 12 as a 13.
15th-level gourmet feature A creature that partakes of a meal created using your Campfire Cook feature now has its exhaustion level, if any, decreased by 2.
Fodder Break
Epicurean Physique
Wine & Dine
Hustle
Varied Palate
Gusto
Breakfast of Kings
Baker's Dozen
Great Gusto
Seasoned Adventurer
17th-level gourmet feature
Your vast experience grants you proficiency in Wisdom and Dexterity saving throws.
18th-level gourmet feature When you roll initiative and have no ingredient dice remaining, you regain 1 ingredient die. Roll a d6 to determine its size according to the table below:
20th-level gourmet feature You can reinvigorate your well-fed companions with a rousing display of bravery. As an action once per long rest, you can immediately grant temporary hit points equal to 10 x your Wisdom modifier to any friendly creatures that can see you within 120 feet, so long as they retain at least 1 temporary hit point granted by your Campfire Cook or Fodder Break features. These temporary hit points replace those granted by your other gourmet features.
Every gourmet personalizes their craft. They may have been formally trained in a particular style of regional cuisine, or they might simply let their own tastes guide their work. As adventurers, gourmets often find that their skillsets translate into an affinity with preparing different kinds of creatures. Gourmets value novel experiences, with no two exactly alike in style. Nonetheless, they will generally fall into one of the categories described below. Chefs who choose this specialty favor rustic, countryside cooking: luscious roasts, thick-cut bacon butties, soups, stews, and barbeques. They are often expert hunters as well as cooks, and excel in identifying and tracking the finest game to serve as a centerpiece. Guests to such a gourmet's table leave feeling fit to burst and as strong as an ox. 2nd-level Beast Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting beasts. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the beast tag.
2nd-level Beast Cuisine feature Whenever a creature receives temporary hit points from one of your gourmet features, it can immediately expend 5 temporary hit points to decrease its exhaustion level by 1. Multiple levels of exhaustion can be cured simultaneously, with temporary hit points expended separately for each level.
2nd-level Beast Cuisine feature You use hunting techniques to help secure foes. When you intercept an attack using your Guts feature, you can expend an ingredient die to immediately grapple the attacking creature, so long as you would ordinarily be able to do so.
When you are grappling a creature, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack and attempt to restrain it with a rope, chain, trap, or similar. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them. Make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). If you succeed, the target is restrained. The effect persists even if you release your hold on the creature. The creature can use an action to attempt to break free, as if from a grapple, by contesting your
original roll again. On a success, it is no longer restrained. 6th-level Beast Cuisine feature You can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
6th-level Beast Cuisine feature You learn how to tease out the natural succulence of your protein-packed ingredients. When you create a meal using your Campfire Cook feature, you can choose one effect of the enhance ability spell. A number of creatures of your choice equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) that partake of the meal gain this effect. The effect does not require concentration to maintain, and persists so long as a creature retains temporary hit points from your meal. If the Bear’s Endurance effect is chosen, the 2d6 additional temporary hit points are rolled separately for each creature affected, and are added to the total of temporary hit points they receive from your meal.
Starting at 10th level, you can choose a different effect of the spell to grant to each creature that partakes of the meal. 10th-level Beast Cuisine feature Your skill as a hunter is equal to your talent as a cook. When you hit a creature of a type you are able to harvest with a weapon attack, you can opt to target its vital points and prematurely expend its ingredient die, adding the number rolled + your gourmet level to your total damage for the attack. An ingredient die targeted in this way cannot be harvested later.
If the creature you target is of a type that you can harvest two ingredient dice from, instead of one, you can prematurely expend one or both dice when targeting it with this feature.Secret Ingredient
d6 Roll
Ingredient Die
1
d4
2
d6
3
d8
4
d10
5
d12
6
d20
Way to the Heart
Culinary Specialty
Beast Cuisine
Carnivore's Palate
Hearty Meals
Bait Quarry
Extra Attack
Wild Roast
Game Cook
Choice Cuts
14th-level Beast Cuisine feature
You now treat creatures as one size larger for the purposes of harvesting or prematurely expending ingredient dice. For example, Tiny creatures now offer 1d6, Small creatures 1d8, and so on. The size of an ingredient die cannot exceed d20.
In a world filled with strange and dangerous monsters, it only took so long for reckless souls to ask: can you survive eating the sting of a manticore? And if so, what would it taste like? Gourmets who are known as specialists in monster cuisine are hardy (and often heavily-scarred) cooks who are as ready to wrestle gorgons as they are to knead dough. They are the first to try untested, possibly poisonous, ingredients, and dive into the lairs of local horrors without hesitation to follow the rumor of a new ingredient. To them, a dare is as good as an order from a paying customer, with the price of life and limb no object in the pursuit of bold cooking. 2nd-level Monstrous Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting monstrosities. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the monstrosity tag.
2nd-level Monstrous Cuisine feature You gain proficiency with medium armor and martial weapons.
2nd-level Monstrous Cuisine feature You learn to boil the glands and giblets of your foes down into a bracing bile reminiscent of troll oils. At the end of a long rest, you create a small, yellowish elixir in an empty flask or waterskin. As a bonus action, you can consume the elixir to gain a temporary regenerative effect that lasts for 1 minute. While the effect of the elixir is active, you regain hit points equal to half of your gourmet level (rounded down) at the start of each of your turns.
If you take acid or fire damage, the regenerative effect doesn’t function at the start of your next turn. If you start your turn with 0 hit points and are able to regenerate, the effect of the elixir ends immediately afterward. If a creature other than yourself consumes one of your elixirs, they do not gain its effects, and must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 hour. 6th-level Monstrous Cuisine feature Whenever you expend ingredient dice during a short or long rest, you can use the leftovers to glaze a melee weapon with a poison which lasts for 8 hours. When you hit a creature with an attack using the poisoned weapon, you deal one die of poison damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The die is equal in size to the largest ingredient die you expended during the rest.
When a creature takes this additional damage, you can expend an ingredient die to force it to make a Constitution saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failure, the creature is poisoned for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a successful save. 6th-level Monstrous Cuisine feature You can now turn the natural abilities of your foes against them through your culinary experience. When you create a meal using your Campfire Cook feature, you can choose two conditions from the following list: blinded, charmed, deafened, paralyzed, petrified, or poisoned. A creature that partakes of the meal gains advantage on saving throws against the chosen conditions for 12 hours, or until it is knocked unconscious.
At 10th level, you become permanently immune to two conditions of your choice, selected from those listed. 10th-level Monstrous Cuisine feature When you intercept an attack using your Guts feature and the attack hits you, you can treat the damage of the attack as though your Sturdy Defense is active.
In addition, you can reroll a Constitution saving throw that you fail once per long rest. You must accept the new result. 14th-level Monstrous Cuisine feature Your skill and savagery allows you to instantly tear an ingredient die free from a creature you are able to harvest when you slay it. As a bonus action when you perform this special harvest, you can emit a guttural roar that evokes the very monsters you slay. All hostile creatures that can hear you within 60 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + the maximum roll for your specially harvested ingredient die). Creatures that fail the saving throw are frightened of you for 1 hour. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can make a further Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the effect ends. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw is immune to this effect for 24 hours.
Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before you are able to use it again.Monstrous Cuisine
Daredevil's Palate
Bonus Proficiencies
Pungent Elxir
Whet Appetite
Monstrous Medley
Cast-iron Stomach
Raw & Bloody
Aberrant Cuisine
All gourmets have adventurous appetites. Those who chase the taste of aberrant cuisine push the palate beyond ordinary comprehension. They are fascinated by the possibilities of strange or otherworldly foods that rarely find their way onto the Material Plane. These cooks are often obsessive about recording the details of their dives into the unknown, though such recipes are unlikely to be written in a legible hand, or to be recognized as edible at all. Many gourmets of this persuasion exude an unsettling, invasive air. A steady diet of foodstuffs outside of mortal comprehension can wreak bizarre changes to the tastebuds... and the mind.
Unorthodox Palate
2nd-level Aberrant Cuisine feature
Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting aberrations. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the aberration tag.
2nd-level Aberrant Cuisine feature You follow your tastes down a peculiar path that leaves common wisdom far behind. Whenever a gourmet feature uses your Wisdom modifier, you can use your Intelligence modifier instead.
2nd-level Aberrant Cuisine feature Your meals host an unearthly component that lingers in the body. Friendly creatures that partake of a meal created using your Campfire Cook feature form a shared mental network with one another that lasts 12 hours, or until the start of your next long rest. They can communicate telepathically with other creatures that consumed the meal up to a range equal to your Intelligence modifier x 100 feet (minimum 0). Creatures with an Intelligence score of 2 or less are unable to join the network.
As an action while your network is active, you can expend an ingredient die to detect creatures that can be harvested using your Stock Up feature. You learn the location, as well as the type, of any such creature within 60 feet of you. The probe can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks you. 6th-level Aberrant Cuisine feature You learn to trigger the panic of starvation in your foes by invading their sensory centers with psychic tastes and smells. When a hostile creature moves within 10 feet of you for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, that creature must make a Intelligence saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier). On a failed save, the creature takes psychic damage equal to your Intelligence modifier.
A creature that does not need to eat or drink is immune to this effect. 6th-level Aberrant Cuisine feature Your palate has developed enough to take in psychic flavours as well as physical ones. When you are harvesting from a creature, you can forgo adding any ingredient dice to your stock and instead instantly consume part of that creature, gaining some of its recent memories.
You can choose one of the creature’s skill proficiencies, if it had any, and substitute its bonuses for your own for 1 hour. For up to 10 minutes after consumption, you can explore the memories of events that the target experienced within the last 24 hours. You can hone in on particular events that lasted no more than 10 minutes in detail. Otherwise, you gain a general summary of the creature’s experiences. You can recall what you learned afterwards as accurately as if accessing your own memories. 10th-level Aberrant Cuisine feature When a creature that forms part of your Parasitic Delicacy network is forced to make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw, they can choose to use the save modifier of any other creature currently in the network in place of their own. Multiple creatures can choose the same modifier to use at the same time.
Saves can be substituted in this way a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 0). If multiple creatures substitute a save at the same time, each creature expends a use of this feature. You regain all expended uses after completing a long rest. 14th-level Aberrant Cuisine feature Your unusual diet has wrought permanent changes upon your mind. You become immune to hostile telepathy. If a creature attempts to breach your mind or contact you telepathically without prior consent, you become aware of this, as well as the general direction and distance to the source of the signal, but are otherwise unaffected.
In addition, your Intelligence score increase by 2. Your Intelligence score maximum is now 22. The power to charm, to manipulate, is a tempting reward for the years required to learn a fine craft. Some gourmets seek just such opportunities. They use their culinary skills to practice a kind of black magic, constructing alluring feasts and blending potions of ill intent. These cooks know that the fruits of the conniving fey are the secret to many double-edged delights. They also emulate the tricky nature of such creatures: drawing in, pampering, and deceiving their patrons with the subtle spice of sylvan magic... always ready to turn on them the moment a tantalizing advantage presents itself. 2nd-level Capricious Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting fey. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the fey tag.
Esoteric Method
Parasitic Delicacy
False Hunger
Acquired Taste
Substitute
Brain Food
Capricious Cuisine
Decadent Palate
attention with one hand,
and her blade with the other.
Witches' Brew
2nd-level Capricious Cuisine feature
You have a talent for tricking guests invited to your table. You gain proficiency with the poisoner's kit. By spending thirty minutes with your cook's utensils and either alchemist's supplies, a herbalism kit, or a poisoner's kit, you can create a meal using the same method as your Campfire Cook feature, and secretly fill it with bewitching poisons. The meal’s value equals half of its usual total (rounded down).
Up to six creatures of your choice that partake of the meal must make a Constitution saving throw against (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a success, a creature notices a bad taste in the food but is otherwise unaffected. On a failure, a creature is charmed by you for a number of hours equal to your Wisdom modifier, or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. The charmed creature regards you as a good friend. In addition, the meal’s value is subtracted from a creature’s maximum hit points for the duration. When the effect ends, the creature knows it was charmed by you.
The meals true contents can be revealed by a detect poison and disease spell, but cannot be guarded against by effects such as protection from poison or purify food and drink.
Beckoning Aroma
2nd-level Capricious Cuisine feature
The dangerous allure of your dishes is enough to draw the nose of creatures with the force of a physical gesture. As an action, you can expend an ingredient die to cook up swirls of tantalizing steam that radiate from you in an aura with a 30-foot radius. The steam lasts for 1 minute.
A hostile creature with a working sense of smell that starts its turn in the aura must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Witches’ Brew DC. On a failed save, the creature is compelled to spend at least half of its movement speed to move towards you.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
Mingle Among Many
6th-level Capricious Cuisine feature
If you spend at least 1 minute studying two or more conversing creatures, you gain temporary fluency in the language they are speaking. You retain this fluency for 1 hour. After the hour expires, the fluency is lost when you cease conversing with another creature in the language for longer than 1 minute.
6th-level Capricious Cuisine feature You feed off of the delight and delirium your food evokes. Your attacks now deal an additional 1 damage for each creature that has partaken of your Campfire Cook or Witches' Brew meals in the last 12 hours.
10th-level Capricious Cuisine feature You can touch a creature as an action to extend your hospitality to it. An unwilling creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Witches' Brew DC to resist the effect. The targeted creature immediately becomes invisible and hidden to the senses of all creatures other than you that do not possess truesight. Any conditions currently affecting the target are transferred to you, and any temporary hit points you have are transferred to the creature. If you are under the effects of a beneficial spell of 5th-level or lower, such as the haste spell, you can also choose to transfer the spell and its benefits to the target creature. Your hospitality lasts for 1 hour, or until you choose to withdraw it as a bonus action.
When your hospitality is withdrawn, the target creature immediately loses any benefits you have granted it. Any temporary hit points the target creature has remaining return to you, and any conditions currently affecting you are transferred to the target creature. In addition, the target creature becomes vulnerable to all damage until the start of its next turn. The next attack roll made against the creature before the start of its next turn has advantage. Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use it again. 14th-level Capricious Cuisine feature You can expend an ingredient die as part of a Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) check to grant yourself advantage on the check by offering a small treat of the target's liking. If the target consumes the offering within the next hour, you can choose to have it immediately fall under the effects of your Witches' Brew feature. The value subtracted from the target's maximum hit points equals the number rolled on the expended die + your gourmet level.
Trained in exclusive dining clubs or renowned restaurants, practitioners of this cuisine exude confidence in their cooking ability and use it as a form of expressing their affluence. And nothing but nothing is as tellingly rich as dragon meat. Meals crafted with such rarefied ingredients are known to light a fire in the belly and leave a delightful aftertaste that can lingerCompliments to the Chef
Gracious Host
Seductive Sweetmeats
Rare Cuisine
on the tongue for hours. Some consider chefs of this school to be snobbish, but, like all gourmets, they bear a deep love of excellent cooking. Dragon parts are often hunted for their rumoured mystical or medicinal properties ‐ but a gourmet knows that the true value of such a trophy must be brought out in the skillet.
Refined Palate
2nd-level Rare Cuisine feature
Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting dragons. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the dragon tag.
2nd-level Rare Cuisine feature While you retain the temporary hit points granted by your gourmet features, your body takes on a slightly lustrous sheen, and you add half of your Wisdom modifier, rounded down, as a bonus whenever you make a Charisma check.
As a bonus action while under this effect, you can expend an ingredient die to add the same number to your AC for 1 minute. 2nd-level Rare Cuisine feature You have also developed the dragons’ famous nose for gold. You can use your action to inhale and open your olfactory channels to detect treasures. Until the end of your next turn, you detect the presence and direction of any precious gemstones, gold, platinum, or silver objects within 100 feet of you. You know the type of material and gain a general sense of its quantity. Your sense of smell can penetrate most barriers, but is blocked by 1 foot of solid stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + your Constitution modifier. When you finish a long rest, you regain all expended uses. 6th-level Rare Cuisine feature Nothing you serve to friend or foe would be complete without some added draconic flair. Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you deal additional damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. The additional damage dealt is your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage.
6th-level Rare Cuisine feature You can now concoct recipes that mimic the rare taste of dragon cuisine. When a creature partakes of a meal created using your Campfire Cook feature, it gains a stored version of the 2nd-level spell dragon’s breath that remains stored for 8 hours, or until the creature is knocked unconscious.
As a bonus action, a creature can release this spell to instantly cast it upon themselves. The stored spell is then consumed. When the spell is cast in this way, it does not require material components or concentration. 10th-level Rare Cuisine feature Your high-end diet has nurtured magic in your blood that you can use to rebalance a situation moving out of your control. When a creature that retains temporary hit points from one of your gourmet features is within 60 feet of you and rolls a 1 on an attack roll or saving throw, you can use your reaction to expend an ingredient die and imbue it with a sudden wealth of energy. Translucent, colored scales bloom on its body, granting it a +2 bonus to AC until the end of its next turn. The next attack roll or saving throw it makes before the end of its next turn is automatically a 20.
14th-level Rare Cuisine feature Your appetites are now practically indistinguishable from those of a true dragon. You gain proficiency in Charisma saving throws, and you can now consume gold as if it were ordinary food. For every 1000gp that you eat, your hit point maximum and your Charisma score increase by 1. You can gain a maximum of 50 additional hit points in this way. Your Charisma score maximum is now 22.
Adventurers who pursue this craft seek healthy alternatives to culinary classics by innovating with the humble, unsung vegetable. The provisions of nature are many, and a skilled cook can make a varied, vibrant menu without meat ever gracing the plate. Gourmets who specialize in such cooking are experts at selecting and preparing a bounty of greens that will enhance the overall health benefits of their guests: baking, grilling, steaming, or frying up a colorful culinary experience that boasts an extra zing in every bite, and puts an extra spring into every diner's step. 2nd-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting plants. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the plant tag.
2nd-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature Your skill in botany allows you to nurture high-quality ingredients from natural sources. You gain proficiency in the Nature skill. When you end a long rest in terrain capable of sustaining plant life, you add one extra ingredient die to your stock, which is a d8.
At 6th level, this ingredient die becomes a d10. At 14th level, it becomes a d12.Rich Blood
Expensive Taste
Garnish
Bated Breath
Chef's Scales
Hoard Cuisine
Vegetarian Cuisine
Green Palate
Cultivate
Zest & Zeal
2nd-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature
Your food invigorates guests with extra energy that can be expressed in sudden bursts of speed. A creature has its movement speed increased by 10 feet while it retains temporary hit points from your Campfire Cook meal. This bonus increases to 15 feet at 10th level, and to 20 feet at 14th level.
A creature can expend 5 temporary hit points granted by your gourmet features to add your Wisdom modifier to a Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, or to a Dexterity saving throw. Whenever it does so, its movement speed increases by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
Full-bodied Fling
6th-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature
The number of ingredient dice you can expend when making your Lunch Rush increases to a maximum of two. At 14th level, it increases to a maximum of three.
In addition, when you move at least 15 feet straight towards a creature and then make an attack against it on the same turn, the creature takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Robust Blows bonus, regardless of whether the attack hits or misses.
Compost
6th-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature
Also starting at 6th level, you can expend 4 ingredient dice to cast the plant growth spell as if it were a ritual.
You must complete a long rest before you can use this feature again.
Sensational Flavor
10th-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature
Your cooking equally thrills and enhances the senses. A creature that partakes of your Campfire Cook meal gains darkvision out to a distance of 60 feet until the start of its next long rest. If it already has darkvision, its range increases by 60 feet. While a creature retains temporary hit point from your gourmet features, it adds your Wisdom modifier to initiative rolls, and it cannot be surprised.
14th-level Vegetarian Cuisine feature You have become a boundless dynamo of energy. Your lively constitution affords you the following benefits:
Some societies, including the tribes of the cold-minded Lizardfolk, have normalized the practice of eating others of your own kind. These cultures are few and far-between ‐ most civilizations agree it is one of the ultimate taboos. But desperation creates strong stomachs, and cold hearts. Individuals with a talent for cooking can become grim gourmets indeed under the threat of starvation. Some pursue this craft purposefully, as the butchers and blood-ministers of cults or communities dedicated to wicked gods. Whatever the path taken ‐ neutral, regrettable, or reprehensible ‐ the genuine skill of a cannibal gourmet must be acknowledged. Without the formal learning of their peers, they nevertheless cook up recipes that are worryingly moreish. 2nd-level Cannibal Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting humanoids. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the humanoid tag.
2nd-level Cannibal Cuisine feature You learn how to shadow a target you have marked for consumption. As a bonus action, choose a creature that you can see within 120 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom (Insight) check (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failure, the target is marked by your bloodlust for 24 hours.
A marked target has disadvantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Wisdom (Perception) checks related to you. Once per turn when you hit the marked target with a weapon attack, you can immediately make a second attack against the same target as part of the same action. If necessary, you draw a new weapon or piece of ammunition as part of this attack. This attack is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or higher. The target ceases being marked if it dies, you mark another creature, or if you choose to release it as a bonus action. You can use this feature twice. You regain all expended uses at the end of a short or long rest.Organic Efficiency
Cannibal Cuisine
Grisly Palate
Personal Chef
Cannibal's Craving
2nd-level Cannibal Cuisine feature
When you are harvesting from a creature, you can forgo adding an ingredient die to your stock and instead instantly consume it, recovering a number of hit points equal to the number rolled on the consumed ingredient die + your Constitution modifier.
If the creature is of a type that you can harvest two ingredient dice from, instead of one, you can consume one or both dice when using this feature.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short rest before you can use it again.
Taste for Blood
6th-level Cannibal Cuisine feature
Creatures that you feed gain an enhanced appetite for violence until the start of their next long rest. Once per turn, when a creature that has partaken of your most recent Campfire Cook meal misses an attack against a target within 30 feet and the target is missing any of its hit points, the creature can re-roll its attack against that target.
6th-level Cannibal Cuisine feature Try though you might, sometimes your predilections can be hard to hide. It is evident when you have hunger on the brain. If you have not eaten for 4 hours or more, you gain advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against humanoids.
10th-level Cannibal Cuisine feature Your mind is by now completely dissociated from the horrors you see inflicted by your own blades. When you deal damage to a creature with an attack, you gain resistance to psychic damage and gain a +1 bonus to your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws until the start of your next turn.
14th-level Cannibal Cuisine feature Your hunger for blood has become equal to that of a berserker. If the second attack granted by your Personal Chef feature is a critical hit, you can expend an ingredient die to make a third attack against the same target as part of the same action. If necessary, you draw a new weapon or piece of ammunition as part of this attack. This attack is a critical hit on a roll of 18 or higher.
Gourmets of this persuasion have been inspired by the way that the ingredients of the universe can be broken down into their most basic parts and endlessly recombined in new recipes. Experimenters and inventors at heart, they have an affinity for the study and manipulation of the elements ‐ the very building blocks of all flavor, matter, and power ‐ that elevates their molecular gastronomy to a method not unlike alchemy. With accompaniments of arcane magic, these curious cooks create burning spices, silky-smooth sauces, air-light pastries, and deep textures unlike any other. When called to action as part of an adventuring band, they can use these lessons in fusion to enhance the effects of their spellwork, as well. 2nd-level Elemental Cuisine feature You enhance your cooking and combat skill with the ability to cast spells. See chapter 10 of the Player’s Handbook for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the wizard spell list.
Cantrips. You learn three cantrips: produce flame and two other cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. You learn an additional wizard cantrip of your choice at 10th level. Spell Slots. The Elemental Cuisine Spellcasting table 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 spell slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell burning hands and have a 1st and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast burning hands using either slot. Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher. You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the conjuration and evocation spells on the wizard spell list. The Spells Known column of the Elemental Cuisine Spellcasting table shows when you learn more wizard spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be a conjuration or evocation spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic. Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizard spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be a conjuration or evocation spell, unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 8th, 14th, or 20th level. Spellcasting Ability. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your wizard spells, since you apply your learning through the medium of your cooking. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a wizard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. Spell Save DC Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + 2nd-level Elemental Cuisine feature Your preferences have resulted in particular skill when it comes to hunting and harvesting elementals. You gain two ingredient dice, instead of one, when harvesting from a creature with the elemental tag.
Hungry Stare
Butcher's Mentality
Voracious
Elemental Cuisine
Spellcasting
Primordial Palate
amongst ancient standing stones.
Elemental Cuisine Spellcasting
| Gourmet Level | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | 3 | 3 | 2 | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| 3rd | 3 | 3 | 2 | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| 4th | 3 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| 5th | 3 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| 6th | 3 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| 7th | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | ─ | ─ |
| 8th | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | ─ | ─ |
| 9th | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | ─ | ─ |
| 10th | 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ |
| 11th | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ |
| 12th | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | ─ | ─ |
| 13th | 4 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ─ |
| 14th | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ─ |
| 15th | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ─ |
| 16th | 4 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | ─ |
| 17th | 4 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | ─ |
| 18th | 4 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | ─ |
| 19th | 4 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 20th | 4 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Alchemical Gastromancy
2nd-level Elemental Cuisine feature
Your recipes interact with elemental magic in ways that continue to deliver an exhilarating culinary experience long after the last bite. When a creature partakes of a meal created using your Campfire Cook feature, it gains a stored version of the 1st-level spell absorb elements that remains stored for 8 hours, or until the creature is knocked unconscious.
As a reaction when it takes acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, a creature can release this spell to instantly cast it upon themselves. The stored spell is then consumed.
Element Eater
6th-level Elemental Cuisine feature
You have trained your body to subsist on and savor elemental energy. When you are targeted by or included in the area of effect of a spell, attack, or other effect that deals acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, or bludgeoning damage and you have resistance to that damage, you can expend an ingredient die to absorb the resisted element instead, taking no damage from the triggering effect and instead regaining a number of temporary hit points equal to the number rolled on the expended die. These temporary hit points do not replace those granted by your other gourmet features, but instead are added to them. When you absorb damage in this way, you gain advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks related to the corresponding element for 1 hour.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of 0). You regain all expended uses at the end of a long rest.
Experimental Fusions
6th-level Elemental Cuisine feature
By combining magic and food, you create new recipes greater and stranger than the sum of their separate components. When you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, you can expend an ingredient die to prepare one of the effects listed below as part of the spell.
You can use this feature twice. You regain all expended uses at the end of a short or long rest.
Experimental Fusions
The fusions are presented in alphabetical order.
Deconstructed. You draw out the ingredients of water to change a spell. You can convert the damage type of the spell to one from the following list: acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, or bludgeoning. The first time the spell deals damage, it also deals additional damage equal to the number rolled on your expended ingredient die.
Kick it Up. You draw out the ingredients of fire to bolster a spell attack. Add the number rolled on the expended ingredient die to your spell attack roll.
Rustic Charm. You draw out the ingredients of earth to reinforce the heft of a spell. Add half the number rolled on the expended ingredient die, rounded up, to your spell save DC for this spell. The increased DC lasts for the duration of the spell.
With a Twist. You draw out the ingredients of air to put a spin on a ranged spell attack. Add 5 x the number rolled on the expended ingredient die to the spell’s range in feet. The spell can now also move around corners if necessary, and ignores three-quarters cover and half cover to reach its target if it is in range.
Spell Chef
10th-level Elemental Cuisine feature
You learn the create or destroy water spell. The spell doesn't count against the number of gourmet spells you know, and you can cast it without a material component. You can also cast the create food and water spell once without a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
In addition, you can expend one gourmet spell slot as an action to create an ingredient die. A 1st-level spell slot creates 1d8. The ingredient die's size increases by one for each slot level above 1st. For example, a 2nd-level spell slot creates 1d10.
Stirring Energies
14th-level Elemental Cuisine feature
Your understanding of the way the elements combine and recombine has reached a near-innate level that allows you to draw their power directly from your own sustenance. When you cast a spell with a casting time of an action that deals either acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, or bludgeoning damage, you can choose to convert any temporary hit points you have, up to a maximum equal to twice your gourmet level + your Wisdom modifier, as part of the same action. For every temporary hit point you convert, the first damage roll of the spell deals an additional 1 damage of the corresponding element.
Credits
Concept and development by u/Pixel_Engine.
Special thanks to:
-
Vostock Iakobashvili: dragonborn, friend, and immorally unfussy eater. The goblins fall like wheat before you.
-
u/Serbanzai, who has provided incredibly useful additional playtest feedback and conversation from afar.
-
My bevy of 3.8 playtesters, both gourmets and their allies, including: Enrico; Ernest L as 'Pepper' & others; Fhearghachd as 'Madam Zara'; Ggg the Gathering Goblin Gourmet; Grainne; Hannah; Modo; Petrichor and his many trifles; robbdylanc; & The Fabulous and Enticingly Enigmatic Blaahu Blaa, Legendary Founder of the Society of the Questing Knives.
The class is at long last ready to serve thanks to you all.
A shout-out also to the Spectre Creations Discord for their reviews and discussion across several iterations of v3, as well as r/UnearthedArcana for more of the same. -
My wife, whose generosity of time and thought ultimately made this possible, down to the very final flourish.
- This is the Gourmet v4.1 (Final).
- Changelog for versions 2- 4
The Gourmet 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.
The Art of Cooking
- Gourmet Icon Design by Sabrina Walsh,
based on Cooking Pot by Adriano Emerick https://thenounproject.com/term/cooking-pot/194780/ - Dwarf Cook by Grzegorz Wlazło
grzegorzwlazlo.artstation.com/
- Salt cellar by Vasilyeva Larisa
Salt cellars - Cockatrice by Elisa Mara
Elisa Mara on RedBubble - Innocuous servant by Konstantin-Vavilov
Konstantin-Vavilov on DeviantArt - Chinese Dragon by Evelyn
Free Transparent Coin - Boletus luridus by Anna Maria Hussey
Magic mushroom: fall-toned fungi - Dragon Cook by Bastien Aufrère
(Special thanks for providing a standalone image)
Bastien Aufrère on ArtStation - Bor Breakfist by Nightblue-art
Nightblue-art on DeviantArt