Vagabond | Base Class

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Vagabond

Peals of thunder and sheets of rainfall batter a lone traveler on a forest road. In a flash of lightning, a half-dozen hooded bandits emerge from the treeline, brandishing crossbows and shouting demands. Weary but unfazed, the traveler draws a longsword and plunges into an exotic stance, sweeping through the brigands with terrible speed.
      On another road, caustic bile drips from a behir’s teeth as it surveys its latest victim—its next meal. The elf adorned in patchwork armor, beaten and bruised, snaps awake and seizes a cracked floor tile with both hands. Wild desperation in her eyes, the elf drives the tile into the behir’s skull over and over, carving a path toward salvation.
      No matter where they’re going or what they’re running from, a vagabond’s only home is the open road. The peril of their journey would leave most dead on the roadside, but the vagabond endures, driven by a desperate will to survive and a mastery of fierce combat maneuvers.

Endless Wanderers

Vagabonds are constantly on the road, drifting between taverns and backwoods villages on an endless, wandering journey. Some choose the unrooted lifestyle,  but many more were driven from their homes, never to return. Whether a particular vagabond is a dangerous fugitive, penniless vagrant, or devout pilgrim is a secret known only to them. After all, anonymity is a precious boon for the road-weary.
      Many vagabonds prefer to travel alone, but just as many find themselves in the company of adventurers. There is safety in numbers, after all, and a lifestyle of questing and dungeon-delving rarely lets one settle in one place for long.

Desperate Maneuvers

The long miles of their journeys instill a feeling of desperation in vagabonds. They’re desperate to continue, to reach their destinations. But most of all, they’re desperate to survive. When a vagabond is backed into a corner, they fight like a crazed animal, slashing wildly, biting and scratching if necessary.
      But they also learn more practical tools for survival. Vagabonds are experts at performing maneuvers picked up from traveling companions and warriors they encounter on their globe-spanning travels. Those that fail to master these exotic fighting styles end their wanderings early, dead on the roadside.
      When other means fail, vagabonds can always find short-term employment as sellswords or bodyguards, for few can match their experience in perilous combat with equal vigor.

Creating a Vagabond

As you create your vagabond, consider why your character has taken to the road. Do you one day wish to return home? Consult the options in the Wander’s Secret feature for ideas. Also consider how your journey has shaped your character so far. Do you take joy in finding companionship wherever you travel, or do you prefer anonymity underneath a drawn hood? Are you roadweary from your travels or does seeing a new horizon invigorate you each day?
      Who taught you how to wield a weapon, and who trained you in the deeper arts of battle tactics? You might be self-trained, learning through near-death experiences and careful observation of others. Or you might have had a tutor, even several of them, whose teachings have resulted in your unique fighting style. Were you a dangerous combatant before you left home, or are your fearsome maneuvers a survival mechanism learned on the road?

Quick Build
You can make a vagabond 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 a combination of archery and finesse weapons. Your next-highest score should be Constitution, or Charisma if you plan to take a subclass, such as Mage Brand, that employs spellcasting or other magical abilities. Finally, choose any background, preferably one that ties into your choice for your Wanderer’s Secret feature.

Class Features

As a vagabond, you gain the following class features.

Equipment

• (a) chain mail or (b) leather armor and two daggers
• (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) two handaxes or (b) a shortbow and 20 arrows
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• A trinket from your home

Alternatively, you may start with 4d4 × 10 gp to buy your own equipment.

Wanderer’s Secret

By choice or necessity, you have left your home and committed to a life of aimless travel. Your reasons for drifting through the world are deeply personal, either a closely-guarded secret or a painful aspect of your life. Choose your reason for traveling from the options below:
      Avenger. You have set out on a mission to exact vengeance. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill. Choose up to five specific creatures that have  wronged you that you wish to seek revenge against.
You must know these creatures’ names or must otherwise have enough information to identify them. Your weapon attack rolls against these creatures have a +5 bonus to hit and deal an extra 5 damage on a hit.
      Bohemian. Wanderlust is in your bones; you couldn’t stay in one place for too long if you tried. You ignore nonmagical difficult terrain. Additionally, you
can communicate simple ideas to any creature that understands at least one language using universal gestures and some creativity.
      Explorer. Consulting vague maps and ancient texts, you have embarked upon an expedition to find a mythical location or chart a distant corner of the world. You gain proficiency in the Survival skill and with cartographer’s tools and navigator’s tools. Additionally, you learn one language of your choice.
      Ghost. You are dead, as far as anyone knows. If you can keep moving and remain anonymous, no one will be the wiser. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill. Additionally, when you gain this feature, choose one falsehood about yourself that you practice until you can recite it perfectly. This falsehood can be a single lie or an entire false history. You never need to make a Deception check for this falsehood.
      Hunted. You are pursued by those who would kill you on sight or drag you to an ill-fated end. You might be on the run from the law, a wayward assassin, or a supernatural force. This constant threat grants you a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) score and allows you to instantly awaken whenever a  creature moves within 30 feet of you.
      Pilgrim. Your journey is to a remote holy site, both as a test of faith and in search of enlightenment. You gain proficiency in the Religion skill. Additionally, you learn the light and spare the dying cantrips. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this feature (choose when you select this motive).
      Seeker. You are searching for something or someone that is precious to you, such as a loved one or a powerful magic item. You have advantage on ability checks you make to gather information about the object of your search. Additionally, you can take the Search action as a bonus action.
      Vagrant. You are penniless and just trying to get by. Because you are beneath the notice of most people, you never need to make a Stealth check to move unnoticed while traveling alone in public spaces. This anonymity fails if your conduct draws undue attention to yourself. Additionally, you can perfectly conceal one-handed weapons on your person.

Battle Tactics

In your endless wandering, you have adopted a handful of maneuvers from traveling companions and foes that are fueled by special dice called battle dice.

Battle Dice

You have two battle dice, which are d8s. A battle die is expended when you use it. Your battle die changes and more battle dice become available when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Vagabond table.
      You regain all of your expended battle dice when you finish a short or long rest, or when you roll initiative.
      Once per turn, you can use a maneuver of your choice. Maneuvers typically expend a battle die, but you don’t add this battle die to the maneuver’s attack or damage roll unless otherwise noted.

Maneuvers

You learn two maneuvers of your choice, which are detailed in this post. You gain additional maneuvers as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Maneuvers Known column of the Vagabond table. When you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the maneuvers you know and replace it with another maneuver that you could learn at that level.

Click here for vagabond maneuvers

Overexertion

If you have no battle dice remaining, you can still expend a battle die once per turn to fuel a maneuver or feature. When you do so, you roll the battle die and lose hit points equal to the number rolled.

Saving Throws

Some of your maneuvers require the target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Maneuver save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice)

Desperate Attack

By 2nd level, you are most dangerous when backed into a corner. If you have no more than half your hit points left, you have advantage on weapon attack rolls.

Breather

Also at 2nd level, you can take a breather, 1 minute of downtime during which you compose yourself and mend your wounds. When you do so, you can expend one Hit Die to regain hit points as if you finished a short rest.

Wanderer’s Road

By 3rd level, you adopt the mannerisms, style, and skills of an archetypal wanderer, embodied by a wanderer’s road. These subclasses are detailed at the end of the class description. The road you choose grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

Battle Edge

Also at 3rd level, you gain an additional way to spend your battle dice. Once on each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an attack, you can expend one battle die and add it to the attack’s damage roll.
      Starting at 11th level, you can use this feature twice on each of your turns.

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.

Mettle

At 7th level, your determination allows you to shrug off effects that would otherwise harm you. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Constitution 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.

Ambush Reflexes

Beginning at 9th level, you can sense ambushes moments before they happen. You can’t be surprised while you are conscious. Additionally, when you roll initiative, you can move up to your walking speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Desperate Survival

By 15th level, you have a knack for evading lethal blows. If you have no more than half your hit points left and aren’t incapacitated, critical hits against you automatically miss.

Martial Recovery

Starting at 18th level, you can use your bonus action to regain all of your expended battle dice. You can use this bonus action only if you haven’t used a maneuver this turn, and after you use the bonus action, you can’t use a maneuver until the end of the current turn.
      Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Wayworn

By 20th level, your long years on the road have left you bone-weary, but always ready for danger. You are always considered to have fewer than half of your hit points for the purposes of your class features.

Wanderer’s Roads

No two vagabonds embark on the same journey; no two roads are the same. However, the destinations sometimes rhyme. Each of a vagabond’s choices on their  endless journey is a fork in the road that shapes them. Each mile hardens them a bit more. Ultimately, a vagabond’s choices and skills converge on an archetypal expression, that of a wanderer’s road. This road represents how the vagabond chooses to travel, what they value most, and lines they will never cross.

Get all 9 Wanderer’s Roads in the Complete Vagabond!

Changelog: 4/11/2024 (1.1):

• Overexertion: New subfeature of Battle Tactics