The Noble Bloodline: A Sorcerer Archetype [v 1.1]

The Noble Bloodline: A Battlefield Control Oriented Sorcerer

Sorry this is a bit late, this took a bit longer than I thought it would. There isn't a ton to elaborate on here- old royal families were often pretty prudish about their bloodlines and marrying within other aristocratic families. This of course resulted in some pretty infamous cases of inbreeding (look up the Habsburgs if you feel so inclined). 

Of course, this is high fantasy, not real life. So it can be argued that those nobles have a particular reason for preserving those bloodlines, as for some of them it might be the source of arcane might. It's certainly easier to claim you have superior blood when your blood lets you shoot fire from your fingertips.

Take that, peasants.

Aristocratic Heritage:

This is a ribbon, designed to allow your nobility themed character get by when they find themselves elbow deep in court intrigue. History checks are as useful as the DM wants them to be, so the usefulness of this skill depends on the type of DM using it and the campaign being run.

The language is a reference to how France became the language spoken in many aristocratic courts. If any such language exists in your setting, you now know it, allowing you to blend in with the elites in your society. Sure, maybe everyone just speaks common, but if that's the case then oh well, nothing to be done.


Nobility Obligates:

Learn Command as a bonus spell, and once per rest you can cast it in a advanced form. Command offers you some rudimentary battlefield control right at level 1, and the ability to use a 5 word phrase or sentence allows for more tactically minded players to have a bit of fun with it.

The name for this is a play on the meaning of the literal translation "Noblesse oblige". While historically the phrase refereed to the sorts of obligations that nobles had to their subjects, the phrase "Nobility Obligates" can also mean that the Nobility Obligates other people to do stuff for them.

Kowtow:

A fairly straightforward ability- if a creature fails a saving throw against a spell, they are knocked prone. If you want to show off, you can spend a bunch of sorcerer points to make everyone who fails a save against your spell be knocked prone, which can have some use for big AOE spells like cone of cold or fireball.

The name for this feature comes from Imperial China, as Kowtowing is the act of showing deep reverence and submission to a superior.

Imperial Splendor 

A one minute effect that allows you to blind your enemies, while also disabling blindsight and tremorsense. When you get to higher levels there are tons of enemies that have these features, and I can't recall anything that lets you block these senses outright. While allowing you to shut these down is quite powerful... this is a level 18 class feature.

Personal Unions and You: Adding a bit of Spice to Medieval Era-Esq Style Politics

In a lot of fantasy settings, the world is typically carved up into a variety of different kingdoms, who are typically ruled by, well, kings. Lots of countries feature one race predominantly. Usually there’s a bunch of different kingdoms run by humans, with a minority of other races in each one, a dwarf kingdom, and elven kingdom (nearly always located in a forest). To boot, there’s likely one kingdom that’s larger than the rest, which is either the most dominant political entity or the setting’s “evil empire”. Individual cities and towns will have their own dukes and barons who are beholden to their respective kings in some capacity or another.

And… well, in many D&D games, that’s where the political landscape if the world ends. And truth be told, in some campaigns there’s nothing wrong with that. If the campaign has your party romping through the Nine Hells to steal some McGuffin from the palace of Asmodeus, you might well not need a excruciatingly in depth geopolitics on the prime material planes.

But I’ve always been fond of diving headlong into political intrigue, the politics of royal courts, etc. The games I run almost always have some political bent to them, the more the better mostly. So, in what (I hope) will be a series of posts, I’m going to bring up sorts of situations that occurred in history, and talk about how they can be used as adventure hooks to help spice up any campaigns you have centered on political intrigue.

So, let's talk about Personal Unions.

What is a personal Union?

A king dies. His son/eldest child inherits the throne. Normally, that's all well and good- but what happens when the king has no children? He only had a younger brother- but he’s dead too. But said younger brother did have a son… who happens to be married to the queen of a neighboring kingdom.

That son is made king of kingdom A, who is married to the queen of kingdom B. Whoever inherits the throne from their parents will become the king of both kingdoms A and B. Two counties- who might well have been fierce rivals until recently, and almost certainly have varying religious customs, cultures, administrative apparatus, traditions, and what have you, are now ruled by the same person, should they be able to keep the amalgamation together.

Whether coming about through intrigue, untimely deaths, a series of “accidents”, or the turns of fortune, two monarchies can wind up being ruled by the same person. Yet at the same time, this is not a conquest- both countries remain legally distinct entities. One kingdom is not merely annexed into the other.

So, what does this look like? The answer is something very complicated. Partisans of both territories will be greatly inclined to defend every single old privilege and power they can, without any regard for the well being of the new country. People who loved their nation’s independence will rankle against being ruled by a foreign ruler. Countless debates may arise over what nation ought to be contributing more to the royal treasury in taxes- if the new nation even has a unified royal treasury to begin with. And did I mention the paperwork?

The newfound king of two nations might find himself inclined to try and consolidate his power. He will face resistance. Whether working as agents of the crown, or against it, plenty of opportunities for political adventure.

The Culture Question

The Common language in most DnD games makes life easier for the players, but in reality is a pretty absurd concept. Sure, some settings might have a Lingua Franca- but that would be something reserved for noble courts, not spoken by the average commoner. Now imagine you’re running an army where half of it’s members speak one language, and the other half speak a different one. It’s not impossible to do (its been done in real life, after all), but it certainly doesn’t make things any easier.

Language, of course, is only one aspect of culture. What happens when one person leads two countries with two different state religions? When what is taboo in one culture is celebrated in another?

I’m not here to come up with a variety of local customs and whatnot- the goal of this guide is to help inspire you to have cases where those cultures are forced to be united, which can be the cause of many varieties of political tension.

Historical Examples 

If any of you are interested in basing some nation in your campaign off a Country created by personal Union, here are some examples you can look to.

The Kalmar Union: This was the Union of the Crowns of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

The Iberian Union: Portugal and Spain were under the same crown for 60 or so years. In this time, their colonial empire covered nearly all of the new world.

Austria-Hungary: Possibly the greatest known example of this, the amount of various kingdoms and titles held by the Habsburg family was pretty absurd. It only was destroyed in 1918, little more than 100 years ago. However, this entire amalgamation was the result of a variety of personal unions, not just the merger of the crowns of Austria and Hungary

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a state with a week monarch and powerful nobility that spanned a large swath of Europe, from the Baltic sea to the Black sea.

The United Kingdom: The result of the merger between the formerly independent Scotland And England. Still exists today.

Sample Plot Hooks

The king of Veredil-Alrhine is a half elf- which is only fitting, as he rules what had been up until recently been two separate kingdoms, one of mostly humans and one of mostly elves. The royal family has been desperately trying to consolidate power for generations, but is constantly meant by intransigence from both sides.

The Baroness of Rivingtell has, through a series of timely deaths, inherited the kingdom of Talrun. She has not yet been crowned, and it’s unclear if she has any wish to be. Some rumor that she’s planning on auctioning off the title of king to the highest bidder, a move of questionable legality.

Through a plague, the Baron of Duskmore has found himself to be next in line for the ruler-ship of the Duchy of Cottenbrook. Many rumors persist that the Baron practices forbidden magic and started the plague that wiped out many of his rivals to the throne of the duchy. Only one remaining family member stands in his way to claiming the title of duke- a young girl, who currently is the duchess of of Cottenbrook (although a regent currently rules in her name).

Two neighboring countries rivals with each other recently came to peace. As part of the peace deals, a variety of noble marriages were made, one of which being the binding together of two noble houses who ruled fiefs on the border of each country. Now, one man is the rightful heir of both fiefs. The Marquis and Duke of Orengrad-Burgundia- or at least, what he’s calling “Orengrad-Burgundia” has now declared the lands under his control to be independent and sovereign from both countries their lands were once under., much to the chagrin of both empires his lands were once a part of. Rumor has it he’s seeking powerful mercenaries and diplomats to help him survive what might turn into an onslaught against him.

The new king of Svolk hates his new subjects. In his prior realms, he was able to rule as an absolute monarch. In Svolk, his power is severely checked by a parliament, which he’s desperately trying to run circles around but to little avail. He's stuck in the middle of a war with another empire seeking to annex territory from his first kingdom, and the people of Svolk don't seem particularly inclined to sacrifice either blood or treasure to contribute to the war effort of a foreign country.

The Inquisitor: A Roguish Archetype (Version 1.0)

The Inquisitor: A Roguish Archetype by Michael7123

When someone mentions the word "inquisition", you probably get a notion of Catholic priests in Spain conducting widespread religious persecution. In the context of fantasy settings, inquisitors are typically agents of a church with less than stellar scruples who ensure said church's protection from threats- be they internal in the form of burgeoning heretics or external in the form of hostile cults, witches, demons, or what have you.

 Putting aside the specifics of the historical legacy and cultural image of the inquisition for the moment, the idea of a skill monkey esq character that can also call upon divine power is practically an ideal character concept for me. I've always been creatively drawn to divine magic wielding characters, because I like the idea of having a character who's tightly bound to certain expectations and is in the service of a higher power, and I also enjoy playing skill monkey types of characters who are also able to sleuth around and rely on their wits to get them out of trouble.

Anyone who's remotely familiar with the Inquisitor class for pathfinder would be right to assume it's up their among my favorite. While not as powerful a spell caster as a cleric, it's an incredibly versatile class that lets you dish out high quantities of damage while remaining exceedingly useful outside of conflict. There are few situations where an inquisitor will be outright useless, and you have plenty of interesting plot hooks and character develop opportunities all but written into the class itself.

Alas, no clear cut inquisitor character option exists in the 5th edition of dungeons and dragons. Sure, you can play a religiously zealous paladin with morally questionably methods with the oath of vengeance. Your cleric can have a penchant for cruelty and / or religious intolerance. The ranger can hunt down creatures your holy texts say are abominations, and you can play your assassin rogue as an agent of a faith or some sort of cult who hunts down enemies of your deity. But none of them fit the niche of "skill monkey with divine spell casting" just quite right, in my opinion. That's not saying they're bad character options- they just don't happen to fill the particular roll I'm trying to fill.

That's lead to my inspiration to make my own archetype, loosely styled off the arcane trickster archetype. If you're just looking for mechanical descriptions, feel free to read the link at the bottom of the page, but I'm going to elaborate on my choices here in a way that wouldn't make sense in a rules document.

Spell casting

You get the same spell casting progression as an arcane trickster, but you're limited to Cleric spells of the abjuration, enchantment, and divination schools. The ability to cast spells is, as one might expect, a large drawback. A significant limitation is placed on you in the fact that taking healing spells of any sort is not allowed. The reason for this is fairly straightforward- you aren't meant to be a merciful healer, and you share more in common with "bandit #12" than the friendly neighborhood priest who heals peasants. Your magic isn't necessarily dark, but it's not supposed to be quite as welcoming as that of a cleric. Beyond that, I don't want a party with both a cleric and an inquisitor in the same party to feel like they're competing for the same roll. The rogue plays like a normal rouge that can also concentrate on a cleric spell in combat, which frees up the cleric to use his concentration on one of the many other spells he can access.

You also can't take revivify, for much the same reasons about approachability. Besides, by the time you can take revivify, your party should have much more available means at their disposal to bring the dead back to life, so it's hardly any great loss.

Ideally, at least on a mechanical level, the inquisitor and cleric should compliment each-other. If they clash, it will be due to in character reasons over chosen methods of enacting the will of their respective deities, and that's the sort of spice that makes for interesting role playing sessions.

Forbidden Lore
This is a ribbon- for those of you not in the know about D&D 5e homebrew terminology, it refers to a feature that will be of situational use but that also allows the person making the homebrew to give the class or subclass in question lots of flavor.

In this case the flavor is fairly straightforward, as it ties into what you would normally expect a rogue to do: be a skill monkey. Gaining proficiency in Intelligence (Religion) checks makes plenty of sense for a divine operative such as you would expect of this class. The additional abilities you can choose from help establish the sort of inquisitor you want to be.

If you want to play your character more like a monster hunter, you would select Bane of the Unholy, which grants the bonuses of favored enemy, but with a situational boost to Insight checks instead of a situational boost to Survival checks. You're more familiar with ecclesiastic intrigue than hunting through the wilds, after all.  Alternatively, if you want to play the classic witch hunter esq character, go for Hexenhammer and gain proficiency in Arcana checks. After all, to fight the users of arcane magic, one must know their secrets.

Defender of the Faith

Another ribbon ability, which is standard practice for rogue archetype abilities of 9th level. Once per short rest, you can use your reaction to grant a creature within 60 feet (or yourself) advantage on a save against an effect that can make a creature frightened or charmed. If the goal of the inquisitor is to fight against unbelief, it's only fair that they can offer some assistance to creatures about to fall prey to the dark magics of heretics and heathens.

Fun historical fact, the title "Defender of the Faith" was awarded to King Henry the Eighth of England by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church after he wrote (likely with the assistant of his adviser and friend Sir Thomas More) Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (In Defense of the Seven Sacraments) which was written as a condemnation of the Protestant Reformation then gaining traction in Europe. For those of you scratching your heads and thinking that something seems wrong, yes, this is the same Henry the Eight who created the Church of England, broke with the Roman Catholic Church, and executed Thomas More because he refused to acknowledge that what the King did was legitimate. The monarchs of England still use the title "Defender of the Faith" to this day.

History can be funny like that.

Brand the Unfaithful

Now we start getting back to more mechanically sound features, as per normal for most level 13 rogue abilities. It requires a bit of set up- landing a sneak attack on a monster who is being affected by one of your spells- but once you pull it off it can be quite effective. Canceling a creature's ability to hide or become invisible can be a massive drawback, depending on the type of monster. Converting your sneak attack to radiant or necrotic damage lets the bulk of your damage each turn bypass just about any resistance the monster in question has. And if the monster runs away, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb to just about everyone.

Of course, nothing's stopping you from just taking a normal branding iron and branding prisoners the old fashioned way, if you want your character to imitate the darkest aspects of the inquisition. But they don't have quite the same effect as this.

Final Judgement

Level 17 rogue archetype features are meant to be massive boosts to your power. If a target is under the effect of one of your spells, you have advantage on attacks against them. As advantage on attacks gives you sneak attack, the use of this becomes clear fairly quickly.

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Best Practices:

The spell Bane is your friend. It targets a save that lots of monsters won't have, effects multiple targets, and stacks with many other debuffs. It'll honestly be useful for most of your career and should be a staple spell you cast. Once you get to higher levels, it's likely going to be a spell you cast to use Brand the Unfaithful and Final Judgement.

You're never going to be able to outdo what the cleric does in terms of pure spellcasting: you're a rogue first and foremost, after all. Focus on filling in the gaps that your party's cleric or other divine spellcaster leaves open. If your party doesn't have a paladin, pick up detect evil and good to help hunt down creatures your party will oppose. Select cantrips the rest of the party doesn't use. Zone of Truth won't be a typical cleric pick for day to day adventuring in many parties, but interrogating people for heresy is half of your job so it makes sense for you to have it as a spell known to separate truth from falsehood. Think of how spells can be used in unique and out of the box ways. Be like the gods, and draw straight lines with the crooked instruments you are given.

Protection from Evil and Good, with it's ability to give a charmed, frightened, or possessed creature a new save, is basically an exorcism on demand, and is a much better pick than lots of people give it credit for. It's thematically appropriate and a good pick overall.

You can play as a skirmisher or a ranged character with this archetype, and honestly there are probably pros and cons to each option. I haven't had the opportunity to play test it yet, so I'm unsure which path is strictly the most optimal.

As for feats, don't be afraid to dabble in a bit of magic.  Ritual caster can be thematically appropriate and especially useful if you don't have member of the party with access to the spell list you get ritual caster for. Magic Initiate can let you pick up a few more cleric spells, or some Druid spells if you feel so inclined. If you want to show that you've been dabbling in some forbidden lore a bit more than normal, pick up some warlock spells.

The rogue lends itself to multi classing normally, and the inquisitor is no exception. Add some paladin levels if you want to gain a fighting style and dish out even more damage in melee, add some ranger levels to give your character a wilderness focus and some more ranged abilities. A one level dip in cleric or druid can expand your spell casting options a great deal and give you some other nifty abilities, but I'd stay away from it if you have a druid or cleric in your party already.

Talk with your DM about how closely the inquisitor has to toe the line of the faith. There's no explicit feature about loosing your spells if you break a code of conduct, but an inquisitor of "Generic Neutral Good Sun deity #4" shouldn't just be able to run around murdering everyone who looks at him the wrong way- probably anyways. Your DM might decide that you're bound to less rules than most members of your faith, that you have to uphold more or less the same standards as any other member of your religion, or even that you have

Character Concepts:

And, just for fun, if you're interested in introducing an inquisitor into your game as an NPC or like the class mechanically but are struggling to come up with a character on your own, here are a few concepts for you to use.

• Malatoth is a tiefling who works as a prominent adviser to a local (or not so local) tyrant. He helps enforce the local ordinances that forbid or limit the worship of several good aligned deities who's clergy have preached rebellion and sedition in the past. He's known to be immensely cruel, presiding over executions of victims his inquisition apprehends, but also fair. All accused are given fair trials, where the truth or guilt of their belief is correctly ascertained. Pity for those who are, in the end, found guilty, and sent to the stake. 
• Rethil is a half elf servant of the goddess of the dead, and is currently trying to hunt down a missing corpse stolen from the crypts below the deity. She's looking for reliable and sound help in attempting to track the body through the black markets of the city. 
• Minthil is a halfling in service to a god of justice and purity, who acts as a watchmen against more formal members of his faith. He's in the service of the high priest of the faith, and is currently attempting to ascertain a possible connection between a bishop and a demon cult, which if true would indicate a serious threat of corruption that exists within the church. 
• Bisgarn is a human working for a dark cult that operates in the depths of the city. They've promised him pleasure beyond this world, and so he loyally serves as a puppet in a complicated web of religious intrigue he does not understand, and has no wish to. He is fanatically loyal to his handler, who is a senior member of the cult. 
• Bjornhelm is a dwarven inquisitor of the god of metal and craftsmenship, who's personal mission is to hunt down fey creatures who plauge dwarven settlements. Three days ago, unexpectedly, he left the front gates of town, headed into the forest, and hasn't been heard or seen since. The mayor of the town has offered a bounty for information on the missing inquisitor, and is looking for mercenaries who can mount an expedition to retrieve him from whatever mess he might have gotten himself entangled into. 

Posted again for your convenience: the archetype this is all about.

The Inquisitor: A Roguish Archetype

I hope you all enjoyed this! See you in at least a week where I'll talk about some historical matter that, as of now, is yet to be decided.

Welcome to the Archive!

Welcome to the Archive of Anomalies! I would offer to give you a tour of the place, but at this point I'm as new to it as you are.

This is my first foray into blogging, and I have decided to open up a blog to talk about Dungeons and Dragons, one of my hobbies. I'll be creating home brew content for the latest edition of the game (5e, at the time of this post), but I'll also be talking about historical events, political regimes, societies, and cultures to provide inspiration for dungeon masters and world builders alike. Who knows- you might even learn something in the process.

I'm not an expert at either 5e Dungeons and Dragons, nor am I a professional historian. That said, I'm passionate and eager about this project, and I hope to deliver quality content to you fine readers.

Updates will be weekly, posted on Sundays, and I plan on alternating every week between a piece of home brew (usually a subclass, but possibly some magic items or spells, maybe even a new class altogether if I'm feeling ambitious), and a post about some facet of history I think would be cool to draw inspiration from in building a custom campaign.

So, here's hoping that this blog is a success! The first actual post will be coming up fairly shortly!