In this series, I’ll be slowly tackling a rework of one of our favorite classes, the Binder. The class was originally a straight update of the class of the same name from D&D 3.5’s Tome of Magic, including most of the original vestiges, but as we revisit this class, we’d like to examine its mechanics and its concepts with fresh eyes, improve upon them, and write a whole new list of vestiges.
We’re at perhaps the last post of the series:a Very Big Pair of Scissors, with which to cut things that don’t quite work. If you’re interested in reading back through the archives, starting at the beginning, you can do so here.
In this post, we’ll be revisiting a list of vestiges, starting with the City Miragic:
City Miragic, The Dreaming Presence
7th-level vestige
An otherworldly presence encountered in the Dream City Miragic, this vestige offers its binders power only found in its subliminal realm.
Legend. For centuries, perhaps since the dawn of time, people have fallen asleep and traveled to the City Miragic, a cyclopean dreamscape of twisting alleyways and breathtaking vistas. The streets of Miragic defy reason, the wild scale and impossible geometries of its buildings strain the waking mind, but the loose logic of dreamers who walk the city’s streets protect them from its maddening features.
Instead, most who dream of the City Miragic become obsessed with something at the city’s center: an enigmatic presence that draws them ever forward, down ever stranger alleys of the dream. They might sketch wild street maps upon waking, or dread falling asleep and returning to that place, but all who dream of the City Miragic eventually travel its center and encounter its entity. Many never wake again. Those who do have no memory of dreaming of such a place.
Of course, the City Miragic is not a real place; it bears no mark on a map, but the compelling entity at its center must truly dwell somewhere, else the shared Dreaming City could not have drawn people in for centuries. The city even has a singular vestige, doubtless belonging to that enigmatic presence at the city’s center, whose wordless beckoning nevertheless echoes through the mind.
Flaw. While bound to this vestige, you gain the following flaw: “I’m possessed by the paranoid dread that something out there has inimical designs on my life.”
Telepathy
You have telepathy, the magical ability to communicate mentally with another creature within 60 feet. The contacted creature doesn’t need to share a language with you to communicate telepathically, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can’t initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.
You don’t need to see a contacted creature, but you need to be aware of the creature to contact it. You can end the telepathic contact at any time. The contact is broken as soon as you and the contacted creature are no longer within range of each other or if you contact a different creature within range. You can initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation without using an action, but while incapacitated, you can’t initiate telepathic contact, and any current contact is terminated.
Daydreaming
Whenever you would fall unconscious, you instead remain conscious in a dreamlike state. You have disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks you make. Furthermore, if you were concentrating on a spell, you lose concentration. If you fall unconscious as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, you still must make death saving throws, and you suffer the normal effects of taking damage while at 0 hit points.
Subliminal Blast
While you are bound to the City Miragic, as an action, you can emanate a projection of the Presence into other creatures’ minds, fracturing their psyches. Each creature you choose within a 30-foot cone must make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 psychic damage is stunned until the beginning of your next turn; on a success, a creature takes half as much damage and is not stunned. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Trait: Outer Thing
While bound to the City Miragic, you take on a distorted aspect: numerous, spider-like digits, additional eyes on the head, and a flattened nose — traits which became more exaggerated when you cast a spell. Once on each of your turns when a creature fails a saving throw against one of your spells or vestige features, you can deal 2d8 psychic damage to the creature.
Döpple, the Archivist
8th-level vestige
Minor Relic
When you bind Döpple, a magic item appears in your possession. The item vanishes when you are no longer bound to Döpple.
The item is your choice of the following: 2 beads of force, a necklace of fireballs (2 beads), an oil of etherealness, a potion of gaseous form, or a potion of invisibility.
Relic
When you bind Döpple, a magic item appears in your possession. You are automatically attuned to it, if it requires attunement, and it does not count against the number of items you can have attuned. Moreover, no other creature can attune to the item or, if the item is a weapon, use it make an attack. The item vanishes when you are no longer bound to Döpple.
The item is your choice of the following: a carpet of flying, a cloak of the bat, a flame tongue, gauntlets of ogre power, an instant fortress, a ring of regeneration, a ring of telekinesis, a sun blade, or a wand of wonder.
Trait: Spectacles
As a final parting gift, Döpple offers his binders his very spectacles. While bound to Döpple, you can put on or take off these spectacles as an interaction on your turn. While wearing the spectacles, if you make an Intelligence (Arcana), Intelligence (History), Intelligence (Nature), or Intelligence (Religion) check, you can treat the result as a 10, or your binder level plus your Charisma modifier, whichever is higher.
Carthin, the Runebreaker
8th-level vestige
Blade of the Inquisition
You can cast the spell magic weapon at will as a 4th-level spell without using spell slots or spell components. Your concentration on the spell breaks if the weapon ever leaves your hand.
Mage-Killer
While bound to Carthin, you can cast the following spells without using spell slots or spell components: counterspell three times, dispel magic three times, true seeing once, and antimagic field once. Casting antimagic field in this way does not disable any of your vestige features, except for spellcasting and magic items. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Trait: Dead Magic Eyes
While bound to Carthin, your eyes become vacant pits with two bright coals burning within them, granting you vision that can pierce arcana. You are constantly under the effects of the spell detect magic, which does not require your concentration. Additionally, you can use your action to focus on a creature you can see within 30 feet. You can determine if that creature has cast a spell within the last 24 hours, and the spell’s school of magic, if any.
Other Changes
Some other changes I won’t full detail here:
- Lexicon’s spell list has been trimmed down a little bit
- Æglæca’s spell list has been reorganized, moving speak with animals to at-will.
- Methuselah’s features are reorganized to simplify things, but don’t entail mechanical changes
- Vestige spellcasting features are organized like Innate Spellcasting
I ultimately declined to make substantial changes to the 9th level vestiges, though I tried out several different builds for Erebus since her release. Those at 9th seem to work best with one explosive expendable feature and a fairly good passive, so that they don’t become default choices at high levels.
With any luck, I’ll have the 1-20 playtest ready at the end of this month or the middle of next month on Patreon. The release of the final class will take a bit longer, as I intend to get a lot of art commissioned for this book.
Thank you all for reading and providing invaluable feedback and playtesting! This class simply wouldn’t have happened without your consideration and support.
Stay tuned into this regular Thursday/Friday article slot: we’ve got a pretty great follow-up article series planned!
