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Detective

By October 21, 2022May 7th, 2024Investigator
With a book of secret knowledge in one hand, a white-bearded investigator raises a torch against a swarm of many-eyed monstrous creatures. He stalks forward confidently, his trench coat flaring out behind him.

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Investigator subclass

Detective

Prowling at the edge of darkness, detectives chase down clues and pull on threads to unravel conspiracies that bring darkness into the world. Sometimes, this requires that you infiltrate a cult’s secret meetings, other times it calls on you to reconstruct a person’s last moments at a murder scene. No matter what the mystery, however, you know that there is always an explanation.

Investigator’s Hunch

Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd level, you can unravel even the toughest of mysteries. If you spend at least 10 minutes combing through documents and arranging clues, you can make an Intelligence check related to those documents and clues with advantage.

Trinkets

By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of magical trinkets to aid you in tracking supernatural creatures and unraveling mysteries. You can use the following trinkets:

Fogstone Periapt. As a bonus action, you can cast the misty step spell once without using a spell slot or spell components.
Glass Medallion. As a bonus action, you can cast the invisibility spell once, targeting yourself only, without using a spell slot or spell components.
Skeleton’s Key. As a bonus action, you can cast the knock spell once without using a spell slot or spell components.

Predictive Intuition

By 6th level, you can turn your skills with reconstructing events towards anticipating the next moment of a fight. As a bonus action, you can examine the movements of a creature you can see within 30 feet of you. When you do so, you can choose to add 1d4 to your next attack roll targeting that creature before the start of your next turn, or you can choose to subtract 1d4 from the creature’s next attack roll against you before the start of your next turn.

Interrogator’s Instinct

At 10th level, you are so accustomed to uncovering the truth that you can sense the intents behind someone’s voice. You can tell if a creature that you can hear speaking is charmed, possessed, or otherwise enchanted to speak against its will, and you have advantage on any ability check you make to determine if you hear a lie.

Power of Deduction

Starting at 14th level, you can use your action to examine a creature you can see within 30 feet of you, noting innumerable details and making a lengthy string of logical deductions. For the next minute, you have advantage on Intelligence and Charisma checks you make to interact with that creature, and you have advantage on attack rolls against it.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

2 Comments

  • Inspector says:

    Having *Myths and Legends* from the base Class & *Investigator’s Hunch* from Detective Subclass is very redundant. Both Traits could easily be replaced mechanically by a simple “Advantage on all Intelligence (Investigation) Checks”.
    Also, although I really like the content you put here, this Class could use some revisions over the writing. It’s very confusing at places.

    • Mike | Mage Hand Press says:

      Yeah, I think that’s a fair point. Each of these features are designed as ribbons, so the mechanical balance isn’t important, but it’s not great that that both can cover some of the same territory. Though, I’ll say that Myths and Legends has gotten a lot of use in my playtesting, as players can spot when it’s relevant pretty quickly!

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