Wanderer
An elf wearing a chain shirt draws her longsword, heavy rain drenching her from head to toe. She dashes forth cutting through two thugs in front of her. As another bandit rounds the corner of a ramshackle building drawing his bow at her, two metallic pings pierce the air. One from a bear trap crushing his left leg, the other from a vibrating heavy crossbow carried by a human nearby. They reach forward to reload the weapon.
A group of goblins surrounds a dwarven in half plate armor, he stands resolute, unfazed at the arrows that pepper him. His grip tightens on his shield as he advances. A half-orc wearing intricate leathers rushes up beside him launching fire, incinerating a few of the goblinoids. Arrows dislodge themselves from the dwarf’s armor and tumble to the dirt as a pulse of healing energy leaves the half-orc’s hand.
An axebeak chases futilely attempting to hit a half-elf as she peppers it with longbow shots, nimbly dodging around it. With a final shot, she takes the beast down. Her party will have plenty of food for the days to come.
To be a wanderer is a way of life, a life of long roads, uncharted wilderness, and stormy nights. Wanderers come in all shapes and sizes. The only things they all have in common are an internal resilience capable of withstanding any adversity and an innate wisdom allowing them to intuit and act on things others may not notice. Wanderers are adventurers in the truest sense of the word.
Rugged Survivalists
Wanderers face the harshest conditions the world can throw at them and barely break a sweat. They have traveled long and far facing more danger than most would if they had a hundred lifetimes. As a result, their palms never drift farther than a few feet from any one of their blades. Through their experience, part of them changed, becoming in tune with the movements of the world. As such, they are almost always prepared for what is thrown at them.
Lone Wolves to Pack Animals
Not every vagabond is a wanderer. Very few are. It takes an uncommon resilience to stand up to nature, and for nature to stand down. Despite this shared trait, wanderers come from all walks of life. From traveling shamans to knights searching for purpose, each wanderer is called to live on the road for their own reason.
Wanderers are built for a life of adventure. They have spent what has felt like lifetimes in the toughest conditions in the world. Many would mistake these creatures of pure willpower as lone wolves or one-man armies. For some, that would be true. Yet, for many, that is not the whole story. Many are looking for somewhere where they truly belong and a group of people that they can call their family. Until then, they will continue moving, no matter what.
The Wanderer
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Preternatural Instinct | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | 4 | Preternatural Instinct, Study Arms |
| 2nd | +2 | 4 | Armored Defense, Wise Mind |
| 3rd | +2 | 6 | Wanderer Archetype |
| 4th | +2 | 6 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 5th | +3 | 6 | Extra Attack, Fast Movement |
| 6th | +3 | 6 | Wanderer Archetype feature |
| 7th | +3 | 8 | Hardy Constitution |
| 8th | +3 | 8 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 9th | +4 | 8 | Master Stroke (one use) |
| 10th | +4 | 8 | Wanderer Archetype feature |
| 11th | +4 | 8 | Focused Attack (1 die) |
| 12th | +4 | 10 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 13th | +5 | 10 | Master Stroke (two uses) |
| 14th | +5 | 10 | Unbreakable Constitution |
| 15th | +5 | 10 | Wanderer Archetype feature |
| 16th | +5 | 10 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 17th | +6 | 12 | Master Stroke (three uses) |
| 18th | +6 | 12 | Focused Attack (2 dice) |
| 19th | +6 | 12 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 20th | +6 | 12 | Crown of Dirt |
Creating a Wanderer
When you build a wanderer, think about two main questions: First, why did your character choose to set out on the road? There are many reasons one might seek such a lifestyle. Are you compelled to perform a quest? Are you seeking redemption for a crime you committed? Were you born on the road and know no other life? Or, did you just have an insatiable appetite for adventure? There are a million reasons why one might set off for a life as a wanderer. The only certain thing is that the reason you were set on this course put enough resolve in you that you were able to push through constant and impossible adversity. Second, why did you slow down enough to work with a party? Perhaps the party is a means to an end? Perhaps you tell yourself that, but are really looking for a place to belong? Perhaps you’ve traveled enough and want to share your stories with people that care about you? Consider what you may have seen on the road and how it may have changed your outlook on life.
Quick Build
You can make a wanderer quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score, depending on whether you want to focus on melee weapons or on archery (or finesse weapons), followed closely by Wisdom. Your next-highest score should be Constitution. Next, choose the hermit or outlander background.
Class Features
As a Wanderer, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per wanderer level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: light armor
Weapons: simple weapons, longswords, shortswords
Tools: none
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Choose 4 from Animal Handling, Athletics, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival.
Equipment
You start with the following items, plus anything provided by your background:
- (a) two shortswords or (b) a longsword and a simple melee weapon
- (a) two handaxes or (b) one simple weapon
- (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
- Leather armor, a shortbow, and a quiver of 20 arrows
Preternatural Instinct
Your life of constant movement and thinking on your feet has led to you having moments of almost superhuman, instinctual action. Your ability to focus on subtle cues of the world around you and take action even before fully processing them is represented by a number of points of preternatural instinct. Your wanderer level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Preternatural Instinct column of the Wanderer table.
You can spend these points to do certain moves in combat. You start knowing three such moves: Distract Foe, Shoulder Pound, and Targeted Strike. You learn more moves as you gain levels in this class.
When you spend a point of preternatural instinct, it is unavailable until you finish a long rest, at the end of which you refocus your mind to regain your points of preternatural instinct. You must spend at least 1 hour of the rest balancing yourself and checking your equipment to regain your points of preternatural instinct.
Distract Foe
You can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to take the Help action to give advantage to a friendly creature in attacking a creature as a bonus action on your turn. When you use the Help action this way, its range is increased to 30 feet.
Shoulder Pound
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to make one shove attack using your bonus action.
Targeted Strike
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you use your bonus action to expend 1 point of preternatural instinct to deal additional damage. You add your Wisdom modifier to the attack’s damage roll.
Study Arms
You can spend 10 minutes studying a weapon. After completing your inspection, you may use the proficiency bonus corresponding to your level in this class (to a maximum of +5) instead of the ability modifier corresponding to the weapon when making attack and damage rolls with this weapon.
For example, a level 1 Wanderer/level 4 Fighter multiclass with a Strength modifier of +1 using a mace would have:
3 (Proficiency modifier)
Damage roll: 1d4 + 1(Strength modifier)
After studying the mace, they would have:
3 (Proficiency modifier)
Damage roll: 1d4 + 2(Wanderer Proficiency modifier)
A weapon ceases being studied as soon as you study a new weapon.
Armored Defense
At 2nd level, you gain the ability to study and take full advantage of the armor that you wear. When you are using armor to calculate your AC, you can use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier for the AC calculation. Wearing a shield does not count as using your armor to calculate your AC.
Wise Mind
Starting at 2nd level, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct and gain advantage on insight, investigation, and perception ability checks for 1 minute.
Wanderer Archetype
At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate from the list of available archetypes. Your choice grants features at 3rd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 15th level.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Fast Movement
Starting at 5th level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren't wearing heavy armor.
Hardy Constitution
Starting at 7th level, your days of facing the elements have hardened your body and mind. You have advantage on Constitution saving throws made against environmental hazards, sleep deprivation, and harmful gases and vapors (such as cloudkill and stinking cloud effects, inhaled poisons, and the breath weapons of some dragons).
Master Stroke
At 9th level, if you make an uncontested ability check which you are proficient in, before you roll, you can instead choose that the roll be treated as a 20. Once you use this ability, you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
You can use this feature twice between long rests starting at 13th level and three times between long rests starting at 17th level.
Focused Attack
At 11th level, before you make an attack roll as a part of the Attack action on your turn, you may declare the attack a focused attack. If the focused attack hits, add 2d6 of your weapon’s damage type to the damage roll. You can declare one Focused Attack per turn. If you use are rolling attack and damage with the formulas given in the study arms feature, focused attack deals half as many dice worth of damage.
When you reach 18th level, you instead add 4d6 (or 2d6 with the study arms formulas) to your damage roll.
Unbreakable Constitution
Beginning at 14th level, hardship has toughened you like tempered steel. You are immune to the poisoned condition and have advantage on saving throws relating to becoming diseased or recovering from a disease.
Crown of Dirt
At 20th level, you have become the peak of human resilience. Your Constitution and Wisdom scores increase by 2. Your maximum for those scores is now 22. Additionally, when you roll for initiative and have no points of preternatural instinct remaining, you regain 2 points of preternatural instinct.
Wanderer Archetypes
Though all wanderers share the common traits of unyielding toughness and resilience, they mostly specialize in one set of tools or another. Generally, but not always, this is related to what they were before they became a wanderer. For example, a noble who lost their liege may become a hedge knight, one born on the frontier may become a woodsman, or someone who has only known the road may become a rover. The more experienced a wanderer is, the more specialized they tend to get. Hence, one only needs to pick which archetype they fit in when they reach 3rd level.
Hedge Knight
Poor knights-errant, warriors who have lost their master, and heroes turned outcast are all examples of hedge knights. They are shadows of their former self. Any delicacies or fine elements of themselves have been ground away by the dirt and rock of the open road. The only thing that keeps them going is pure resolve.
Grit
At 3rd level, whenever you fail at a saving throw against an effect that has repeated saves, the next saving throw you make against that effect is made at advantage.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you become a wanderer at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.
Arrow Breaker
When you reach 6th level, whenever you are hit by a ranged weapon attack, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct and use your reaction to reduce the arrow’s damage to reduce the projectile’s damage by 1d8. If the attack is reduced below 1 damage, the attack is instead a miss and if the projectile is non-magical, it is destroyed.
Noble Perseverance
At 10th level, you gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.
Mobile Bastion
Beginning at 15th level, you and friendly creatures within 5 ft. of you gain a +1 to your AC. Further, bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage you take is reduced by 2.
Huntsman
Both bounty hunters and homesteaders who choose to live in areas far too inhospitable for most men are both examples of huntsmen. They are people of exceptional cool and quick reflexes. They set up for their prey and take them down.
Fling Weapon
Starting at 3rd level, when you attack with a weapon with the light property on your turn, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to throw the weapon.
Trapper
Beginning at 3rd level, whenever you deal damage with an effect not started on your turn, you can use your reaction to deal an extra 2d4 + your Wisdom modifier damage of that type.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you become a wanderer at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with heavy crossbows, longbows, and nets.
Improved Fling
Beginning at 6th level, whenever you use the fling weapon feature, add your wisdom modifier to the weapon damage.
Quality Binds
At 6th level, you understand how creatures will attempt to escape from your traps and compensate for it. Ability checks and saving throws made to break out of binds that you have set up (such as a hunting trap, a net, an improvised trap, or a grapple) are made at disadvantage. This feature does not apply to ability checks and saving throws made against spells you may have.
Poison Maker
At 10th level, gain proficiency with the poisoner’s kit.
Toxic Trapper
When you reach 10th level, you learn to build a poison gas trap over the course of a long rest. If you spend at least an hour of a long rest assembling this trap and use 50 gold worth of trap components, upon the completion of that rest, you create one poison gas trap.
This trap takes 1 minute to set up and can cover up to a 10 foot cube. The trap’s DC is 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus. Upon an unaware creature entering the space, they must make a Constitution saving throw against the trap’s DC. On a failure, they take 4d4 + your Wisdom modifier poison damage and are poisoned for 1 minute. They can repeat the saving throw at the beginning of each of their turns. On a success, they take half damage and are not poisoned. A creature that is aware of the trap can move through its space without triggering it if they either move at half speed or pass a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the trap’s DC. Further, the trap can be detected on a successful Wisdom (Perception) check against the trap’s DC. The trap has hit points equal to your proficiency bonus and an AC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus.
Whenever you apply poison to any trap, you rig it so the poison is contained until the trap is set off. As such, the poison does not evaporate.
Prolonged Exposure
At 15th level, you gain resistance to poison and acid damage.
Nomadic Warrior
Mobility is key for the nomadic warrior. Not only is it foundational to their way of life, one of constant travel, it is also the basis on which they build their combat prowess. Dipping and weaving around their opponents, these wanderers are hard to pin down.
Hit-and-Run Tactics
At 3rd level, immediately after you take the Attack action, using your bonus action you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to move up to half your movement speed. Opportunity attacks that result from this movement are taken at disadvantage.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you become a wanderer at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, longbows, and scimitars.
Kick Off
Starting at 6th level, if an enemy within 5 feet of you misses you with an attack, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to use your reaction to attempt to shove them. For this shove, you can either roll with your acrobatics or athletics ability modifier. If you successfully shove your target, you can move up to 5 feet away from your target. This movement does not incur opportunity attacks.
Far Sight
At 10th level, your time in the wild has honed your vision. Distance no longer causes disadvantage on perception checks. Further, lightly obscured areas within 30 feet of you are considered unobscured to you.
Acrobatic Launch
Beginning at 15th level, you gain near full control of your body’s reaction to danger. When you use the 5 feet movement of the kick off feature, you can now move in any direction. Further, immediately before you use your kick off feature, you can spend 1 more point of preternatural instinct (2 points total), doing so allows you to either perform a weapon attack before or after you attempt your shove or perform a second shove. If you choose to perform a second shove, only one of the shoves must hit for you to be able to take the 5 feet of movement.
Rover
Sitting in the corner of an inn smoking a pipe, the rover is the most quintessential type of wanderer. They are constantly on the move focusing on abilities that have general use and can get themselves out of sticky situations. As a result, rovers tend to be the jack-of-all-trades of wanderers.
Quick Jab
At 3rd level, when you take the Attack action and attack only with weapons that do not have the two-handed property, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to use a bonus action to make a dagger or unarmed melee attack with a free hand. If you use the dagger, you draw the dagger, make a melee attack, and sheath it all as part of the same bonus action.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you become a wanderer at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor.
Healroot Salve
Starting at 6th level, when you complete a short or long rest, you can create a single dosage of healroot salve. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest mixing roots and herbs to create this salve. Using this salve takes one minute to apply, after which the target regains 2d6 + 2 hit points. If unused by the end of your next short or long rest, the salve becomes inert, no longer having healing properties.
Trick Shot
At 6th level, when you use the quick jab feature, instead of making a dagger attack, you can use any weapon that has the light property. Further, instead of making a melee attack and sheathing the weapon, you can throw the weapon.
Evasive Action
Beginning at 10th level, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to use your bonus action to attempt to escape from a grapple. Further, it only costs you 5 feet of movement to stand up from prone.
Tune Body
When you reach 15th level, you learn how to push past your impediments. Using your action, you can remove conditions that you are suffering from at a cost of 1 point of preternatural instinct per condition.
Shaman
They pour a fine dust out of their mortar and pestle into a copper bowl. With a snap of their fingers, a small green flame jumps to the bowl. Heavy smoke begins to billow out; the shaman has begun their work.
Shamen are storytellers and spiritualists. While not blessed by nature like the druid, they have learned to hear her and in return she has given them unique gifts.
Spellcasting
When you reach 3rd level, you gain the ability to cast spells. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the druid spell list.
Cantrips. You learn three cantrips: produce flame and two other cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. You learn another druid cantrip of your choice at 10th level.
Spell Slots. The Shaman Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your wizard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell shield and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast shield 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 divination spells on the druid spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Shaman Spellcasting table shows when you learn more druid spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be a conjuration and divination 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 druid spells you know with another spell of your choice from the druid spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be a conjuration and divination spell, unless you're replacing the spell you gained at 3rd, 8th, 14th, or 20th level from any school of magic.
Spellcasting Ability. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your druid spells, since you get your spells from the natural world. 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 druid spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Shaman Spellcasting
| Wanderer Level | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | —Spell Slots per Spell Level— | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |||
| 3rd | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 4th | 3 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 5th | 3 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 6th | 3 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 7th | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | — | — |
| 7th | 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 | — | — |
| 14th | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | — | — |
| 15th | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 16th | 4 | 10 | 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 |
your Wisdom modifier
your Wisdom modifier
Natural Medicine
At 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit.
Mindfire
When you reach 6th level, you can force your opponents to see their nightmares in the flames you create. Whenever you deal fire damage with a spell granted by this subclass, you can spend 1 point of preternatural instinct to use your bonus action to deal an extra 2d4 + your Wisdom modifier psychic damage to one creature you damaged.
Vision Quest
Starting at 10th level, you can guide yourself or another through a vision quest. Over the course of a long rest, the person going on the vision quest ingests a mixture of herbs you created. The target is then incapacitated for 6 hours. The person on the quest experiences a variety of visions during that time. If they are woken up by taking damage or you are somehow unable to aid them along their quest, in the case that you are not on the vision quest, the vision quest fails and whoever ingested the herbs suffers 1 point of exhaustion. Upon the completion of the quest, the person who took the quest decides how the quest affected them from the following list:
- Change: Remove one of your flaws. After 2d10 days, either roll on your background table or consult with the DM.
- Healing: Cure one form of madness they may have.
- Insight: Remove one of your skill or tool proficiencies. Gain proficiency in insight, medicine, or perception. (You can only benefit from this once.)
Anyone involved in the vision quest does not benefit from the long rest they just took.
Eternal Trance
When you reach 15th level, you gain resistance to psychic damage. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, and stunned. If you have a level of exhaustion, you can roll a d4. If the roll is 3 or higher, you decrease a level of exhaustion. Once you make this roll, you cannot try again until you complete a long rest.