Vagabond

Brigands encompass all manner of highwaymen, pirates, raiders, and other dastardly folk. No tactic, no matter how heinous, is off the table for a band of brigands, whether that means roadside ambushes or taking hostages at knifepoint. Ultimately, most brigands are driven to their thievery through desperation; it is fitting that they leave others as few choices as were afforded to them.

Beginning at 6th level, you learn the following maneuver:

As a bonus action, you can expend one battle die to seize an incapacitated creature and hold it hostage with a weapon you are holding. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you can use this maneuver to reduce it to 1 hit point instead, rendering it incapacitated while you hold it hostage.

While you have a creature hostage, you can add your battle die to Charisma (Intimidation) checks you make against the creature's allies. You have three-quarters cover from attacks while holding a creature hostage. Attacks that miss you hit the hostage instead.

You can use your reaction to free the hostage or execute a hostage that has 1 hit point in response to any creature's movement or action.

By 10th level, when you hit a creature that hasn't taken a turn in combat yet, you can disorient your target. That creature has disadvantage on attacks it makes until the end of its turn.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest, or when you roll initiative.

Starting at 14th level, ruthlessness is second-nature to you. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack and roll the maximum number on any damage die, you can roll that die again and add it to the damage of the hit, rolling again if the roll is also the maximum number, and so on. You can roll each damage die up to a maximum of four times.

Knights that have failed, forsaken, or betrayed their masters are known as knights errant or rōnin. Though they no longer follow the dictates of a master, these knights are usually reluctant to abandon their vows of ethics entirely. Many wander the lands seeking out honorable quests and worthy adversaries, for even disgraced knights are knights nonetheless.

Starting at 6th level, you can appoint yourself to complete an honorable quest with an unbreakable vow. You can swear this vow over the course of a long rest. This vow lasts until you complete the associated quest or the GM declares that the quest is unfulfillable. When you choose your specific quest, it must be honorable, specific, and reasonably achievable. Furthermore, it should fit the archetype of the Cup, the Blade, or the Heart, and the GM must approve your quest. If your quest doesn't fit one of these archetypes, the GM chooses which benefit you receive while embarking on this quest.

By 10th level, you can protect the unwary in the midst of combat. When a friendly creature within 5 feet of you is targeted by an attack while you are within the attack's range or reach, you can use your reaction to change the target of the attack to you instead. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by this attack.

Starting at 14th level, you can use a bonus action to summon up a well of determination. Until the start of your next turn, whenever you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can roll a battle die without expending it and add it to the roll.

Additionally, whenever you take damage from a hostile creature before the start of your next turn, you can roll a battle die without expending it and add your Constitution modifier. Reduce the damage taken by that total.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Searing runes and arcane geometry into one's skin is an agonizing practice known as spellbranding. Though it was once used by tyrannical giants to imbue their conscripts with a mote of magical potential, spellbranding has long since been disparaged in polite society. However, a few that are willing and desperate enough to burn themselves with magical runes might still utilize that magic today. The so-called "Mage Brands" need none of a mage's intellect or a priest's faith; they need only tenacity and atolerance for pain.

Starting at 6th level, due to your spellbrands, you can smell and taste the lingering evidence of magic. You can instantly identify a creature that has cast a spell within the last 24 hours. If you touch an object, you can detect if it is a magic item, but not its properties.

By 10th level, you bear a defensive spellbrand that wards you from harm and punishes your foes. You can cast the spell hellish rebuke or shield using this feature without expending a spell slot or battle dice.

Once you use this feature to cast one of these spells, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest, unless you expend two battle dice to use it again.

Beginning at 14th level, when a spell is cast that targets you, or you are in the area of a spell's effect, you can temporarily learn that spell if it is of 5th lever or lower, marking it on your skin as a faint spellbrand. You can't use this ability to learn a spell that had no effect on you, even if it forced you to make a saving throw against it.

Once before you finish a long rest, you can cast this spell as a branded spell by expending a number of battle dice equal to the spell's level.

You know this spell until you cast it or you use this feature again.