How to Play a Martyr

A female-presenting warrior with long black dreadlocks and three scars over her right eye stands behind the hilt of a massive greatsword. She is wrapped in bloodstained bandages and surrounded by swirling magic the same color as her blood.

Get all 13 subclasses in the Complete Martyr!

The Martyr Class has one of the most magnetic and compelling gameplay loops in the entire lineup, but requires losing Hit Points to use your best class features! Playing the Martyr should feel like taking huge risks to score gigantic hits, and this guide should help you do so with confidence and in style.

Hit Point Yo-Yo

Three critical Martyr features rely on sacrificing your Hit Points: your Spellcasting and your Sacrifice, which itself has the benefits “Sacrificial Strike” and “Sacrificial Skill.” You can also quickly heal yourself with your Miraculous Healing feature at level 2.

Therefore, the class presents a constant question: do you want to burn some Hit Points and be temporarily more vulnerable in order to be more effective in combat? You can easily heal yourself back up, so you can feel confident that running low on Hit Points is only a problem until your next turn.

Your answers to this question funnels you down one of two play styles, the “Holy Cannon” and the “Damage Sponge.”

Holy Cannon

A Martyr using all their abilities looks an awful lot like a Paladin. Chiefly, this is due to Sacrificial Strike, which deals a bonus 10 damage in exchange for taking 5 Radiant damage – somewhat like Divine Smite! You can also cast your new “Word” spells, like Word of Force, to deal some extra damage as a Bonus Action. Furthermore, if you miss an attack roll or fail a saving throw, you can use Sacrificial Skill to add 5 to any D20 Test and turn it into a success.

Burning Hit Points like this every turn won’t leave you a ton left over. You’ll probably be somewhere in the ballpark of a D8 class, like a Rogue. Therefore, you’ll be relying on Miraculous Healing and your reserve of Hit Point Dice to top off your HP every round.

Damage Sponge

The Martyr class has D12 Hit Point Dice and somewhat demands a high Constitution score and the Tough feat, so an average Martyr should be a veritable glutton for punishment. If you simply refrain from using your big spells and your Sacrifice, you’ll be the most tanky class in the game. When you start running low, you can pull out Miraculous Healing and top yourself off, so you never need to put yourself at risk.

Playing as a damage sponge is especially useful if your party lacks a character with a ton of bulk, like a Barbarian, to absorb incoming attacks.

Managing Hit Point Dice

The long term resource that matters most to a Martyr is your supply of Hit Point Dice. You expend these as a Bonus Action with Miraculous Healing to survive in combat, so use them wisely!

Starting at level 9, your Divine Respite feature gives you the ability to regain more Hit Point Dice each day. You get three bonus dice at level 9, six at level 13, and ten at level 17.

Remember, you can’t heal yourself with magic aside from Miraculous Healing, but your allies can heal you with their own magic, if they have that ability! This can help you conserve Hit Point Dice for when it’s really needed.

Roleplaying a Martyr

The Martyr class comes with an instantly recognizable story hook. Here are some personality traits, bonds, ideals, and flaws hand-picked to build the concept of a Martyr character into someone your table will never forget.

How do you do what you do?

These are your personality traits, your own way of moving through the world. Roll on the following table, or choose from the options:

Martyr Personality Traits

When I daydream, as I do frequently, I see flashes of the end of days, of my own death, and of a great storm on the horizon.
Go with the flow; roll with the punches; it was probably meant to work out this way.
I have spent so much time living for someone else, I have forgotten how to live for myself.
There’s a plan in place for my life, I just have to find the path and stick to it.
I’ve been playing along with this whole “martyrdom” thing, but the lack of effort is probably apparent.
The gods haven’t taken away my thirst for the bottle.
I constantly mutter prayers under my breath, more to reassure myself than anything.
My piety is unmatched. None are holier than I!

What do you want?

These are your “bonds”—demands on your life that, like your holy devotion, help you decide what answers or solutions your character will tend to choose if possible. Roll on the following table, or choose one of the options:

Martyr Bonds

Prophecy tells of a great evil I will defeat. I should, uh, get on that.
I saw a vision of someone I love dying, and will stop at nothing to prevent that.
I feel a terrible force in my life guiding me toward an ominous destination as a waterfall guides a rowboat.
I made a promise that I intend to keep, come the nine hells or high water.
I’ll do anything to see my family one more time before this adventure ends.
I don’t care about the gods’ purpose or what has been foretold. I’ll break these bonds if it’s the last thing I do!

Why do you want it?

These are your “ideals”, the guiding principles for your choices, and tend to reflect your alignment. Roll on the following table, or choose one of theoptions:

Martyr Ideals