December 9, 2016

Hero of Legacy

Martial Archetype

Hero of Legacy

Pauldric Parsons, the man history knows as the First Legacy, was a man of simple means and humble origins. Despite being a poor wheat farmer, Pauldric was the mortal son of a forgotten but not yet powerless god of the Sun and Harvest. During a raid on his lands by orcish invaders which threatened his land, his home, and family, his godly blood took hold of his mortal form, and he smashed through the oncoming horde with ease. Parsons took up the name Legacy to honor his godly parentage, and devoted the remainder of his amazingly long life to destroying the forces of evil.
     Since then, the children and descendants of the Parsons line have upheld Pauldric's Legacy: once or twice a generation, a child would display a feat amazing strength or impossible prowess, and once identified they would be trained to fight and use their strength for good. Though the bloodline has split thousands of ways over the ages, those with a deep connection to the Legacy still exist, and with the right training can bring their powers to fruition and forge their own Legacy.

Starting at 3rd level, while you are both unarmored and not wielding any weapons or a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Strength Modifier + your Constitution modifier. Additionally, your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage, and increase in damage you gain levels in the fighter class, as shown on the Fortitude Unarmed Strike table below.
     Starting at 7th level, your unarmed strikes also count as magical for the purposes of bypassing damage resistance.

Fortitude Unarmed Strike
Fighter level  Unarmed damage

Starting at 3rd level, you learn how to bolster your allies to boost their power in combat. As an action on your turn, you can inspire your allies, causing you and each friendly creature within 30 feet of you to deal additional damage equal to 1d4 + your Charisma modifier on all weapon or spell attacks until the start of your next turn. At 5th level, when you use this ability, you may make a single unarmed strike as a bonus action, and at 10th level this ability effects all friendly creatures within 60 feet.

Danger Sense
Starting at 7th level, you have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.

Motivational Charge
At 10th level, as an action on your turn, you can move up to your movement speed towards a hostile creature you can see and make a single unarmed strike against that creature. If you hit, you and all friendly creatures within 60 feet of you heal an amount of hp equal to 1d8 + your Charisma modifier.

Next Evolution
At 15th level, while you are not wearing medium or heavy armor you gain a fly speed equal to your normal movement speed, and your movement speed increases by 10 feet.

Superhuman Durability
At 18th level, you gain resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. As an action on your turn, you can gain immunity to a single damage type of your choice until the start of your next turn.

New Fighting Styles
The following new options for the Fighting Style feature are available to any class which gains this feature.

     Back-Fist Strike. When a creature targets you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make a single unarmed strike against that creature before their attack happens.
     Surge of Strength. While you are unarmed you add +1 to your unarmed strike attack and damage rolls.
     Lead from the Front. As a bonus action on your turn you can adopt a defensive stance, allowing you to draw your foe's attacks. Until the start of your next turn, when a friendly creature that you can see is hit by an attack you may use your reaction to move up to half your movement speed towards that creature. If you end your movement speed adjacent to that creature, you are hit by that attack instead.

New Magic item
This item is important to a hero of legacy and the Parsons line.

Legacy's Ring
Ring, legendary (requires attunement)
This plain, silver band has an inscription on the inner surface which reads, "Furthering your Father's Legacy." Despite its common appearance, it has been passed down from every Scion of Legacy to the next, for generations. As such, it has gained an immense amount of power over the years, which it grants to its holder.
     Currently, the ring gives an attuned wearer the following benefits:

  • Your Strength score is 24.
  • Your speed is increased by 20 feet
  • You can take an additional action on your turn. Once you use this trait, you must finish a long rest before you use it again.

Background: Scion of Legacy

Though the bloodline of Pauldric Parsons has fractured over the years, at least one direct familial line has lasted through the ages. Though not all choose to or can carry on the family's legacy, each has found their own way to impact the world in a meaningful way
     You are a trueborn son or daughter of the line of Parsons. Since your youth, you have been trained for the day when your blood's powers will either awaken, allowing you to take on the Parson's Legacy, or decide to stay dormant, prompting you to set off and forge your own destiny.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: None

Equipment: A set of common clothes, a set of clothes prominently displaying the Parsons family crest, a signet ring, a copy of the Legacy diary, a letter from your father/mother, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: Hero
Your family name is well known, and that brings both advantages and hurdles. People will actively seek you out to help them right wrongs and obtain justice, and will also readily give you the benefit of the doubt when you are suspected of wrong doing. Many commoners will offer to help you in whatever small way they can.

Suggested Characteristics
As a Scion of Legacy, you've been raised with the sole purpose of taking over as the newest in a long line of heroes. This may perfectly suit you, or it may go completely against your nature; in either case, it is what is expected of you.

d8 Personality Trait

  1. I am headstrong to a fault and always assume my natural powers will get me out of any scrape.
  2. I am reserved, always being careful not to overuse my strength.
  3. I love reading the tales of the previous Legacies.
  4. I am, at my heart, a pacifist; I will not kill unless the situation unbelievably dire.
  5. I do not tolerate foul language from my companions.
  6. I am constantly blessing my allies with idioms and bits of good advice I have learned from my training. 
  7. My compatriots are closer to me than even my family, and I will always fight to protect them.
  8. I have a special place I go when the stress of the world is too great, so that I can meditate in solitude.
d6 Ideal
  1. Greater Good. The meek should be protected by the strong, and no one is stronger than I am. (Good)
  2. Justice. Criminals cannot be allowed to run amok; I am the arm of the law, and I am strong. (Lawful)
  3. Tradition. The Legacy must be kept, and I am next in line. (Neutral)
  4. Independence. I am not my father/mother; I will forge my own Legacy. (Chaotic)
  5. Supremacy. The previous Legacies were fools; with my power, I could rule the world. (Evil)
  6. Abandonment. I was born to this life, but I did not choose it, and I will not be a part of it. (Chaotic)
d6 Bond
  1. My spouse/child is the most important thing in the world to me; they are why I fight evil.
  2. I seek to topple a great foe who has hounded my family for generations.
  3. Legacy Ring is my birthright, but I have not yet earned it. I seek to prove I am worthy to wear it. 
  4. The approval of the previous Legacy (my mentor) is worth more to me than gold. 
  5. My family was driven from our home by evil; I will take it back, by any means necessary.
  6. My city is my ward: I will defend her from all evils, both within and without.
d6 Flaw
  1. Though I was trained to be even-tempered, I often resort to violence as my first course of action.
  2. I honor the Legacy, but I resent it for stripping me of the choice to have a normal life.
  3. I will sacrifice everything to protect my friends and family, even against my better judgement.
  4. My power is often hard to control, and I find it hard to hold back even when it would be important to do so.
  5. I never lie, even when it would benefit me to do so.  
  6. The Legacy means nothing to me; I am using my mentor as a means to an end, and that end is power.

12/11/16: Motivational Charge: Targets only hostile creatures
Superhuman Durability: Non-magical BSP resistance with temporary immunity as an action.
Background: Minor changes to bring it in line with other backgrounds.  


  1. The 3rd level abilities seem polar opposites, fortitude being super strong especially since it uses strength for AC rather than dexterity, while galvanized seems weak granting small bonuses to any non melee center party as well as being very weak at high levels.

    Could there be a way for galvanized to scale with the unarmed die instead of just a static d4.
    How about this galvanized gives all allies a bonus of unarmed die + charisma on first attack that requires an attack roll.

    1. So, a major part of this project was not to simply create a class that works well, but to also emulate the feel of the game it's based on. Galvanize is a basic ability Legacy has that, usually, requires you to sacrifice your ability to do damage for the round to give a small boost to all of your allies. It cetainly depends on your team makeup, but as it stands it's quite strong all the way up to 20th.

    2. 1d4 + Cha mod is definitely not quite strong all the way up to 20th. That falls off very quickly, particularly since it doesn't scale.

    3. Yeah, it might not scale, but it does proc multiple times!
      Let's say you're in a party with a few other superheroes: a Monk (your classic wuxia hero), a Wizard (my buddy played one who shot all his spells out his eyes like Cyclops!), and maybe a Rogue (for the skillful, Batman type).
      You Galvanize, and your party proceeds to (assuming they can hit the broad side of a barn):
      - Monk: flurry of blows, 4d4+(4 x your Cha) extra damage
      - Wizard: Scorching Ray, 3d4+ (3 x your Cha)
      - Rogue: dual-wield, 2d4+ (2 x your cha)
      By the time your next turn rolls around, your party got an extra 9d4+(9 x your Cha) damage (or, more realistically, half that)! If you've got something like 14-16 Cha, that's a minimum of an extra 27-36 damage, which is a lot when you can realistically pull it off at level 5.
      If nothing else, it's a flavorful, leader-type ability that I think suits the subclass both mechanically and rp-wise

    4. This right here. If you in any way focus Charisma (which any good Legacy should) any character in your party that has multiple attacks will benefit from this in a major way.

  2. I'd make the 18 level feature resistances to nonmagical slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage.

    1. I agree. It's to powerful the way it is.

    2. Just out of curiosity, what is your reasoning there? A bear totem gains a much stronger form of this ability at 3rd level, and by 18th can rage at will: I'm not seeing how this is OP.

    3. This shouldn't be compared to the barbarian in the first place. You literally just wrote the 17th level War cleric feature without the magic clause.

      And looking at the barbarian, they doesn't get unlimited rages until 20, but even then that doesn't mean that they can keep it constantly up. Remember that a rage ends early if you haven't attacked a hostile creature or taken damage since your last turn. Meanwhile, this guy just passively has blanket resistances to all SBP.

      It definitely needs either the magic clause or some material that pieces it.

    4. Well, the war cleric is also a full spellcaster on top of that, and is an off-tank, but I digress. I may indeed change it back to non-magical BSP, but I do not think that it is OP as is, especially considering how late it comes into play.

  3. I can't exactly say why... But this feels oddly powerful.

  4. Background's give two skill proficiencies and two mix-and-match tool proficiencies or languages.

  5. The class seems great.
    SO many superhero references. I noticed 2 only in the Personality Traits.
    Tradition seems like a Lawful ideal.

  6. This does seem a little on the strong side – the 18th level feature granting resistance to all B/S/P is a lot stronger than the equivalent capstone for War Cleric, and Motivational Charge has the potential to provide infinite healing – you might want to either specify that it targets a "hostile" creature, or make it grant temporary HP instead of healing.

    That being said, this looks pretty solid! Sentinels is a pretty great game, and the idea of porting its heroes to subclasses is an interesting one. Any plans for an Absolute Zero archetype? Maybe a Argent Adept bard college?

    1. As far as Absolute Zero goes, I would take a look at the newly released Tundra Update on the MFOV Patreon. That said, I am unfamiliar with the card game, so I'm not sure if any of the material there would suffice.

    2. Argent Adept should be a wizard, if anything, but it seems rather lost in 5e, which has no subschools (or tags or whatever). Also there are rather few spells that deal force damage so the result would probably be a less specialized version of the MFoV Force Missile Mage (that's what happened when I tried making one).

    3. I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at – Why should Argent Adept be a wizard rather than a bard? Magical instruments and songs are literally his entire powerset, and he has mostly support abilities with a side of utility and healing. What does he have that would deal force damage?

      I'm just not sure exactly what you mean, sorry if I'm overlooking something obvious.

    4. @Grand Moff Xela: I'm not a member of the Patreon, unfortunately, but while the two subclasses from it that are available here do look pretty nice, I don't think anything not specifically built for the purpose would be able to accurately represent Absolute Zero ( – basically, he's a guy in an Iron Man-style suit of armor who can use cold to heal himself and deal damage, but his powers cause fire damage to himself. Not exactly sure how he'd be converted to D&D, but it'd be interesting to see.

    5. Adept is 100% a Bard, so I'm not doing a subclass for him, but after these four subclasses are out we'll be posting a collection of magic items including Fanatic's relics and Adept's instruments.

    6. Also, yes, hostile creature. That's the intent.

    7. @Spiriah: I think we're talking about 2 different Argent Adepts. I was talking about the 3.5 prestige class from Complete Mage. I suppose you were talking about a character from the game this subclass is based on.

    8. @ Idan, yes, that's correct. Argent Adept is a character from Sentinels of the Multuverse(think Doctor Strange if he was a bard instead of a wizard). What YOU are thinking of is the Argent Savant, the force mage from 3.5.

  7. I envision a bumbling lawful good do-gooder PC who just stands there declaring himself as a scourge to all evil, taking hits and getting punched in his stupid Facebook while galvanizing all his allies.

  8. Man, I like this! Feels very much like a man-of-steel type, ready to leap into the fray, take hits, and hit back harder while being cool as hell, too. The item and background makes it feel very complete, if a bit restructive in character concept (though without those, it certainly has plenty of legs to stand up on flavor-wise!)
    I like that Fortitude requires you be unarmed, means you really have to stick with your fists for those first few levels, feeling like your figuring this whole superhero thing out. The flight is what really entices me, though. Show those full-casters we don't need 'em!
    Definitely want to play one!

    1. That was a big part of it. Using Str + Con isn't all that different than using Dex + Con like the barb does, but the barbarian doesn't benefit as much from Dex as an unarmed fighter potentially could. The way it's set here, it doesn't mesh cleanly with either of the other Unarmored Defense abilities so it's less ripe for abuse, and it both forces you in to unarmed combat (a mechanically Weaker damage source until later levels) and caps out at 20.

  9. So, overall I like this! As someone who plays Sentinels of the Multiverse, I read this and I'm like, "Yeah, that's Legacy."

    I think the two 3rd level abilities are fine.

    Danger Sense is an awesome choice to use for Legacy.

    10th level I would argue maybe turn it into temporary HP instead. Just sitting and healing while doing damage is a bit much for the potential repetitious HP gain.

    18th level I think is fine as it eats your action. It allows Legacy to have some real selfless hero moments.