The Journeyman Class

Follow The Work

What truly makes a journeyman, more than anything, is how they make a living. Some might travel from town to town plying their trade and some might do odd jobs around the city they were raised in. Some work in the wilderness and move on when the season ends, while others are in search of the next good time. Whatever the case may be, journeymen are always looking for the next job.

It is common for journeymen to become adventurers for this reason. To a journeyman, being asked to vanquish a monster or going to hunt for a lost treasure is just another gig.

Rough and Tumble

As people always on the way to meet new folk, journeymen have to know how to take care of themselves. They never know when they'll meet a village that doesn't take kindly to outsiders, or get in trouble with the law, or accidentally encroach on a rival's business. Often a kind word or a kinder wallet will smooth things over, but they know they have to be ready if things go south.

Journeymen know the best opponent is the one that's far away. Training from their trade and much time alone on the road has made them an expert at throwing objects. Whether it's power, distance, aim, or control, they excel at putting an object right where they want it. They don't necessarily like to fight, but they won't back away from one, either . . . so to speak.

Creating a Journeyman

When creating your journeyman character, think about where your character comes from and his or her place in the world. Are you from a distant land or did you learn your trade near where your adventure begins? Do you come from a long line of professionals or were you an orphan taken in by a tradesman? And why have you decided to travel for work? Maybe you are down on your luck and always looking for your next meal, or perhaps you hope to build a network of customers.

Also consider why your character has taken up adventuring. Are you looking for riches to supplement your income? Are you trying to locate a missing mentor or a lost loved one? Do you expect to have others indebted to you? Or possibly you simply can't stay in one place for too long, whether that's because of wanderlust or trouble with the law.

Quick Build

You can make a journeyman 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 finesse weapons. Your next-highest score should be Constitution or Charisma. Second, choose the anthropologist background.

Hit Points

• Hit Dice: 1d8 per journeyman level
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier after 1st

Proficiencies

• Armor: light armor
• Weapons: thrown weapons
• Tools: Potter's tools

• Saving Throws: Dexterity, Constitution
• Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Athletics, Nature, Perception, Performance, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, or Survival

Equipment

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

• 10 darts
• (a) a simple thrown weapon or (b) any simple melee weapon
• (a) an entertainer's pack, (b) dungeoneer's pack, or (c) explorer's pack
• leather armor

Deadly Aim

Beginning at 1st level, you know how to hone your focus on a specific target. During combat, you can concentrate for up to 1 minute on a creature to add an extra 1d8 damage to your attack on that creature. The attack must use a thrown weapon. If you choose to end concentration on a turn, you must wait until the next turn to concentrate on a different creature.

Normal activity, such as moving and attacking, doesn’t interfere with concentration. The following factors can break concentration:

• Taking Damage. Whenever you take damage while you are concentrating, you must make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your Concentration. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher. If you take damage from multiple sources, such as an arrow and a dragon’s breath, you make a separate saving throw for each source of damage.
• Attacking a different creature.
• Being Incapacitated or killed.

The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Deadly Aim column of the Journeyman table.

Boomerang

Beginning at 1st level, you exhibit control over thrown objects to an almost magical degree. Any weapon with the thrown property will return to you at the end of your turn. This feature does not apply to extraordinary circumstances such as the weapon being swallowed or the weapon being sent

to another plane.

At 3rd level, this feature begins to apply normally only to the weapon of your Calling. You do not care about other weapons enough to make them return to you. You can, however, spend your bonus action to have a non-Calling thrown weapon return to you.

Missile Deflect

At 2nd level, your skill with ranged attacks allows you to be ready for them. When an enemy hits you with a ranged weapon attack, you can use your reaction to make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. You take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Potables Professional

Beginning at 3rd level, your time spent working in taverns has given you expertise in darts. You also have proficiency in brewer’s tools and poisoner’s kits.

Perilous Precision

It’s important in your game of choice to be able to send darts where you want them to go. Beginning at 6th level, when you successfully hit a target you have previously hit, add 2 to your damage. This bonus increases by 2 each time you successively hit the same target. If you miss the target, or try to hit a different target, the bonus resets to 0.

Pick Your Poison

By 10th level, your love of alcohol has given you an unmatched tolerance to questionable liquids. You have resistance to poison damage, as well as advantage on checks to keep yourself from being poisoned and to heal yourself of poison

Pacifying Presence

A good bartender knows how to end fights quickly; a great bartender knows how to end them before they start. Beginning at 14th level, when combat begins, roll 1d6. All enemy Initiatives lower by the value you rolled. If this would make their Initiative drop to 0, they do not enter combat unless attacked. When a creature is attacked, they roll Initiative without this feature taking effect.

Perfect Performance

By 18th level, you have become a champion of darts. If all three of your attacks hit one target, do an extra 10 piercing damage to the target. Add an additional 5 damage for each critical hit you achieve on this turn.

Cutting Cards

Beginning at level 3, your deft manipulation of playing cards has allowed you to use them in a variety of ways, even as weapons. You have expertise in playing cards, and they count as a thrown weapon for you. They deal 1d4 damage, and that increases to 1d6 at level 10 and 1d8 at level 18. You also have proficiency in Sleight of Hand.

Three of a Kind

By level 6, you have begun to have a greater handling of the cards you throw. A number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, when you take the attack action, you can throw three cards at once. You can choose whether each card targets a different creature or if they all target the same creature. Make

a separate attack roll for each card, and the second and third cards attack with disadvantage. At level 13, you no longer make the second and third attacks with disadvantage. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Controlling the Deck

In cards and in life, you don’t leave a winning hand to chance. Beginning at level 10, when combat begins, you can choose the initiative order of your party. Each player rolls initiative to determine the initiative order; you can then decide which player will be assigned to each value. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Ace High

By level 14, your time at the tables has made you all too aware that highs and lows are a matter of circumstance. You can get a critical hit by rolling a 1 or a 20, and rolling a 1 on initiative counts as rolling a 20.

Double Dealing

Beginning at level 18, you’ll do whatever it takes to give yourself the upper hand. You can take two turns in a row a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Deadly Hands

By 3rd level, anything can be a deadly weapon in your hands. You have expertise in improvised weapons, which count as a thrown weapon for you. Your improvised weapons deal 1d4 damage, which increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, 1d10 at 14th level, and 1d12 at 18th level. You also have proficiency in Investigation.

Ricochet

Beginning at 6th level, you know how to make your shots count even when they seem to miss. If your attack roll misses but the value is no less than 5 below the target’s AC, your attack does half damage, rounded down.

Crackshot

At 10th level, being unfamiliar with a weapon doesn’t prevent you from using it to your benefit. All melee weapons without the thrown property are treated as having the thrown property for you, with a 20/60 range and dealing 2d4 damage.

Assassin's Aim

Beginning at 14th level, you won’t let anything distract you from your target. You can roll Concentration saving throws with advantage.

Bouncing Blow

At 18th level, your ability to manipulate objects allows you to potentially hit multiple targets. After you make a successful hit and the target takes damage, make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw to see if the attack bounces to hit an enemy within 10 feet that has not been hit. The DC save increases by 2 with each successful hit, and the chain ends when one of the following conditions is met:

• when you fail the Dexterity saving throw
• when there is not an enemy within 10 feet of the most recently attacked creature
• when each nearby enemy has already been hit with a Bouncing Blow this turn
• when a Ricochet occurs

Wet and Wild

At 3rd level, your experience with fishing has made you comfortable in the water. You have expertise in tridents, proficiency with water vehicles, and a swim speed equal to your walking speed.

Reel In

Beginning at 6th level, you have combined two styles of fishing to work for you by connecting a rope to your trident. On a successful attack, you can forego your Boomerang feature to pull the target up to 30 ft toward you. The target stops moving if it would enter an occupied square. You cannot use this feature if the creature is behind cover.

If you use this feature and you are able to pull the target to be adjacent to you, you can retrieve your trident as a bonus action. Otherwise, the trident drops to the ground when the target stops moving, and you have to retrieve it before you can use it again.

Sharkskin

By 10th level, you have modified your garments to mimic the sea’s apex predators. Successful melee attacks, shoves, and grapples against you do damage to the attacker equal to your proficiency bonus.

Deep Dive

Beginning at 14th level, your comfort in the water has extended to beneath the waves. You can hold your breath for ten minutes and you have darkvision underwater to 30 feet.

Trident of the Gods

At 18th level, your fisher weapon is imbued with the power of an ocean deity. As an attack, you can strike the ground with your trident to create a small earthquake that turns the ground rough and jagged. The earthquake travels from you to your target in a straight line up to 50 feet. It stops when it reaches your target, even if your target is less than 50 feet away. Each five foot square between you and your target becomes difficult terrain.

The target, and anyone standing between you and your target, makes two saving throws. First they make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. They take 2d6 piercing damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a success. Next, they make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, they fall prone.

Anyone who moves into or within the damaged ground takes 2d4 piercing damage for each 5 feet they move.

Little But Brave

At 3rd level, you have an unearned reputation that you hope to live up to. You have expertise in slings, which count as a thrown weapon for you. You also have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed and proficiency in either Intimidation or weaver’s tools.

The Bigger They Are

By 6th level, you have the skills you need to take on those much larger than you. For each size your target is larger than you, add +1 to your attack.

The Harder They Fall

Beginning at 10th level, your attacks pack more of a punch. For a number of times equal to your Strength modifier, a successful hit to a target larger than you provides an additional effect until your next turn, as seen on the chart below. You gain all expended uses of this feature when you finish a rest.

Provocation

At 14th level, you learn to fight with your brains in addition to your brawn. If an enemy larger than you tries to attack you, you can use your reaction to have them attack your nearest enemy that’s also at least one size larger than you. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier until you take a rest.

Seven At One Blow

At 18th level, your skill at fighting giants finally lives up to the legends. You can target up to seven creatures of at least two sizes larger than you when you attack with a sling. You make one attack roll, but on a successful hit, you roll individual damage for each target. You cannot use this feature and Deadly Aim simultaneously.

Anything to Help

By 3rd level, you have found yourself drawn to skills that require a hammer. You have expertise in light hammers. You also have proficiency in two of the following tools: carpenter’s tools, cobbler’s tools, leatherworker’s tools, mason’s tools, smith’s tools, or tinker’s tools.

Reinforcing Repair

Beginning at 6th level, you can't keep yourself from maintaining your friends' armor, even in the midst of combat. You can choose an ally within 5 feet of you get +2 AC. This feature increases to two allies at 10th level and three allies at 14th level.

Every Problem is a Nail

At 10th level, you decide that a hammer can solve any problem if you try hard enough. Once per rest, your hammer can stand in for one type of tool set. You are considered to be proficient in this tool set since you are using your hammer, but you do not have expertise unless you have expertise in that tool set.

Battle Builder

Starting at 14th level, your strength has increased and you see combat as simply another problem to mend. War hammers now count as light hammers for you.

Let Me Fix That

At 18th level, you know where you're needed. If an ally fails to hit their target, you can use your reaction to make an attack roll at the same target, provided there is nothing preventing you from doing so. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier. You can still only use one reaction per round. You regain all expended uses when you finish a rest.

Circus Performer

By 3rd level, you have taken up juggling. You have expertise in clubs, which count as a thrown weapon for you. You have proficiency in Acrobatics. And you can also choose to learn either one of the following cantrips - dancing lights, mage hand, or vicious mockery - OR both of the 1st-level Bard spells charm person and disguise self, which can each be used once per long rest.

Fire Act

At 6th level, you decide to turn your performance up a few degrees. You can use a bonus action to ignite your clubs or put them out. Igniting a club turns its damage into fire damage. A club’s fire goes out after it deals damage.

Mesmerizing Throw

Starting at 10th level, you have learned how to use the movement of your clubs to confuse and confound your enemies. When you successfully hit an enemy, the target of your attack subtracts your proficiency bonus from their attacks and saving throws until the start of your next turn.

Tumbling Talent

At 14th level, you take your acrobatics to new heights. Whenever you have to make a jump, your distance is doubled. Also, when you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.

Main Attraction

Beginning at 18th level, you know how to make yourself the star of the show. Enemies have advantage on all attacks against you. If an enemy hits you, your allies have advantage on all attacks against that enemy, and the enemy has disadvantage on saving throws, until the start of your next turn.

Woodsman

By 3rd level, you have begun to get a handle on the tricks of the trade. You have expertise in axes. You also have proficiency in either Nature or woodcarver’s tools, and you always know which direction is north.

Sylvain

At 6th level, you are particularly familiar with forests and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to forests, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.

While traveling for an hour or more in your favored terrain, you gain the following benefits:

• Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
• Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
• Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
• If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

Land's Stride

Starting at 10th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such as those created by the entangle spell.

Swell Feller

When you reach 14th level, creatures of the natural world sense your connection to nature and become hesitant to attack you. When a beast attacks you, that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Nature ability check. On a failed save, the creature must choose a different target, or the attack automatically misses. On a successful save, the creature is immune to this effect for 24 hours.

The creature is aware of this effect before it makes its attack against you.

Two-Headed Axe

At 18th level, you have learned how to throw your axe in such a way that you can hit a target coming and going. When you successfully hit a creature with an axe, damage is doubled.

Sports Hero

By 3rd level, you have begun to make a name for yourself in the world of sports competition. You have expertise in javelins and proficiency in Athletics. Furthermore, when you use the Dash action, your extra Movement equal twice your walking speed.

Olympic Mettle

By 6th level, you have trained your body to be formidable. Your AC increases by 3. You also get advantage on Constitution saving throws.

Running Start

Starting at 10th level, you have developed techniques to add power to your throw. If you move at least 15 ft before throwing your javelin, and then you make a successful attack, you can add one damage die to the damage roll.

One Step Ahead

When you reach 14th level, you know that it's important to be prepared for whatever your opponent will do. You can use your bonus action to Ready an action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses of this feature when you finish a long rest.

Pentathlete

Beginning at 18th level, you expand your athletic prowess to include the full pentathlon.

When you make a long jump, you can jump a number of feet equal to your Strength modifier plus your proficiency bonus, and you no longer need to run 10 feet to get the full amount.

When an enemy makes a melee attack against you, regardless whether it's successful, you can use your reaction to try to grapple them.

Your walking speed is doubled.

Night Crawler

By 3rd level, you have begun to excel at being a living shadow. You gain expertise in daggers and proficiency in Stealth. You also gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. If you already have a climbing speed, your climbing speed increases by 10 feet.

Pin Down

At 6th level, you know that you don't always have to hit an enemy to overcome them. If an attack with your dagger misses but the values is no less than 5 below the target's AC, the dagger pins the target to the ground or a nearby object and the target is Restrained until your next turn. When you attack, you can forego an attack roll to make this happen automatically. The dagger does not return to you if you use this feature.

Interception

When you reach 10th level, you realize daggers can be used for defense as well as offense. Once per round, when a creature makes a ranged attack targeting one of your allies, you can use your reaction to make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw to throw a dagger in the direction of the attack. If the save is successful, your dagger blocks the attack.

A standard dagger has an AC of 19. If the dagger takes 5 or more points of damage, it is destroyed; otherwise, it returns to you as normal.

Dark Dagger

By 14th level, you have gained the ability to design daggers to use to your benefit. When you make an attack with a dagger and it either hits or pins down your target, the dagger releases a cloud of black smoke that creates a field of non-magical darkness. The darkness covers a 20-foot radius around the dagger. The darkness does not affect you. Your dagger does not return if you use this feature.

Acid-Tipped

Beginning at 18th level, you have designed your daggers for maximum efficiency. When you make a successful hit with your dagger, add 5 acid damage to the normal damage roll. Each successful hit with your dagger also reduces the target's AC by 1.