Powder Mage

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Overview & Creation

A young human steps forward to the barricade and looks out at the advancing force of ghouls. The other soldiers, archers, give him a curious look. The targets weren't in range yet. The young soldier lifted a large metal tube atop his shoulder and lit the fuse. The ghouls never stood a chance.   A grizzled dwarf pressed against a fallen tree. Three orcs were closing in on him. Each from a different direction. He had no bullets left. No problem.   The drow took a deep breath through her nose. She could feel the black powder work through her system, as her senses clarified. She could smell every goblin within a hundred feet, and hear their terrible chattering with unpleasant clarity. She flashed a grin as she leveled her pistols at the horde and opened fire.  

Power in Powder

In a world of monsters, gods, and magic, it's hard for an adventurer to find something surprising and new. But while black powder alone was one thing, powder mages are something else.   Powder mages are forces to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Their power comes from their unique ability to manipulate black powder. Every powder mage is able to ingest a small amount of black powder to enhance their abilities to superhuman levels, or even burn it using their willpower and redirecting the force elsewhere. They may use their powers to redirect bullets, or manipulate the force of explosions.   Powder mages are deadly efficient with firearms, as well as having skill with martial and simple weapons.  

Creating a Powder mage

As you build your powder mage, consider how you came to have your powers. Was it the result of being eperimented on by a wizard? Or maybe you had some motivation to gain power, and you made a deal with a demon. Maybe you were born with it and developed the abilities after exposure to black powder. Be sure to discuss the origin of your powder mage with your DM.   Also consider your characters views their own powers. Do they revel in their unique abilities, or are they reluctant to use them and seek a way to remove them?

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Class Features

Marked Sense

you are able to sense the presense of nearby black powder. The range of this sense is 10 ft, and increases as you gain powder mage levels as indicated in the Marked Sense Range column of the class table.   At 5th level, your senses expand to the supernatural, allowing you to cast detect magic at will.  

Powder Charge Burning

Powder mages can manipulate black powder through force of will via a process called "burning". They may also enhance their abilities by consuming black powder. Using these abilities costs Marked Points, representing the mental and physical strain of performing such feats. You have 2 Marked points, and gain more as you increase in level, as represented in the Marked Points column of the powder mage table. You regain all expended Marked Points after a short or long rest.   As an action, you may spend 1 Marked Point to detonate a single source of black powder that you can sense. You may detonate up to 3 sources at 3rd level, 5 sources at 9th level, and 10 sources at 15th level. You must spend 1 Marked Point for each source you detonate.   Explosions you create in this way, as well as other features you will gain later, require a saving throw. The DC for these saving throws is calculated as such:   Powder Mage DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier  

Powder Trance

On your turn, you may enter a powder trance, as a bonus action, by inhaling a powder charge and spending 1 Marked Point. You gain the following benefits:  

• You gain a bonus to your attack rolls equal to half your proficiency bonus.

• Your senses become finely attuned, giving you advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. You can see up to 1 mile away with no difficulty, able to discern even fine details as though looking at something no more than 100 feet away from you.

• Additionally, dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks.

• Your trance lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious. You can also end your trance on your turn as a bonus action.

 

Floating and Stinging

Upon reaching 2nd level, when you hit with an attack, you may spend Marked Points to increase the damage dealt by 1d6 for each point you spend. The damage type is the same as that of the weapon you are using.   Additionally, when you make a ranged attack, you may spend 1 Marked Point to double the range of the attack.  

Powder Mage Specialty

At 3rd level you commit to a form of specialized powder mage training. You gain features from your archetype at 6th, 10th, and 17th level.  

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.  

Combustion Control

At 7th level, your ability to manipulate black powder becomes further refined. Whenever black powder is detonated within range of your Marked Sense, you may use your reaction to change the point of origin of the explosion to a point within the range of your Marked Sense. This feature may be used to nullify a shot from a firearm, or to redirect powder that you detonate yourself, for example.   Redirecting this force costs 1 Marked Point, plus 2 additional Marked Points for every 10 feet of the radius or length of the explosion.   Any explosion you redirect with this feature uses your Powder Mage DC.  

Improved Powder Trance

Starting at 9th level, while in a powder trance you gain the following additional benefits:   You gain a bonus to saving throws equal to your Constitution modifier. Your movement speed is doubled. Hidden Reserves Upon reaching 11th level, whenever you use a feature that requires you to spend a Marked Point, you may choose to not spend the point. When you do, you gain one point of exhaustion.   Additionally, you gain the following additional benefit while in a Powder Trance:   Unless you have 6 levels of exhaustion, you ignore the effects of exhaustion.  

Self Medication

At 13th level, Your body's ability to metabolize black powder has become much more refined. As a bonus action, you may ingest a small amount of black powder to cure yourself of a disease, regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your powder mage level, or end a single condition on yourself. This condition may be blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned. Whenever you use this feature, you must spend 1 Marked Point.  

Advanced Powder Trance

When you reach 14th level, you become able to push the limits of a powder trance even further than normal. When you enter a powder trance, you may choose to spend 3 Marked Points instead of 1. If you do so, you gain one of the following benefits of your choice, for the duration of your powder trance:  

• You may make one attack as a bonus action.

• You have darkvision for a distance equal to the range of your Marked Sense.

• You have advantage on one type of saving throw of your choice.

• You don't trigger attacks of opportunity.

 

Deflection

After reaching 15th level, you can bolster your defenses using well timed detonation, and redirection, of black powder. When you are hit with an attack, you may spend 1 or more Marked Points to increase your AC by 1 for each Marked Point you spend, against the triggering attack.  

Killer Instinct

When you reach 18th level, your senses are always on alert, ensuring you're always ready to jump into action. When you roll initiative you may choose to immediately enter a powder trance and put yourself at the top of the initiative order instead. Once you do so, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.   Additionally, you cannot be surprised.  

Mastered Powder Trance

Upon reaching 20th level, your body has become strongly attuned to the effects of black powder. Whenever you finish a long rest, you may choose one of the benefits you would gain from a Powder Trance. You gain this benefit without the need for a Powder Trance, until your next long rest.   You cannot choose from the benefits gained from the Advanced Powder Trance feature.

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Starting Equipment

Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:   leather armor (a) a musket or (b) any one-handed firearm (a) any martial weapon or (b) any simple weapon 15 rounds of ammunition

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Spellcasting

Powder Addiction and Blindness Powder mages who ingest a large amount of black powder, or many small amounts in a short period of time, run the risk of a condition known as Powder Blindness.   When a powder mage uses their powder trance or self medication features, or a combination of both, an amount of times equal to half their level within the same 4 hour period, they suffer the beginning stages of Powder Blindness. When a powder mage becomes Powder Blind, they lose the use of one of their powder mage class features, determined by the DM. The feature lost cannot be the Powder Trance feature, and the powder mage may use the lost feature while in a Powder Trance. The powder mage loses use of an additional feature for each day that passes and they have not cured themselves of their Powder Blindness.   A powder mage suffering from Powder Blindness may cure themselves of it by not ingesting any black powder for 7 days, for each feature the mage has lost use of.

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Subclass Options

Powder Mage Specialties

All powder mages draw power from black powder, but each has their own specialty. Some prefer the elegance and precision of the Bullet Dancer, while others practice the explosive techniques of the Bombardier.  

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Bullet Dancer

As a Bullet Dancer, you rely on the precise application of black powder. Able to accomplish manuvers that are difficult even for powder mages. You excel at redirecting bullets mid air, getting as much use out of each one as possible.  

Always Armed

Upon taking this Specialty at 3rd level, you have honed your skills to ensure you are always armed. You now treat bullets as ranged weapons with a normal range of 20 ft., a long range of 60 ft, and a damage die of 1d8.  

Angle Floating

At 6th level, you have begun to use black powder to manipulate the trajectory of your ranged attacks, and adjust your aim. As a bonus action, you may spend 1 Marked Point to ignore the effects of One-quarter, half, and total cover on the target of your next attack, provided the shot can be fired around the cover. Shots may be fired around cover, provided the shot would not need to travel more than 10 ft. after being redirected around said cover.  

Pocket Shot

Once you reach 10th level, you are able to interrupt attacks made near you. When a creature you can see makes an attack within range of your bullet attack, as per your Always Armed feature, you may spend 2 Marked Point use your reaction to make a bullet attack against that creature. Regardless of whether the attack hits or not, the target's attack is made at disadvantage.  

Two-Shot

After reaching 17th level, you have gained the ability to make two ranged attacks simultaneously. When you make a ranged attack you may spend 2 Marked Points to make an additional ranged attack. The attack may target either the same target as the original attack, or a creature within 90 feet of the original target, provided it is within range of your weapon.  

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Bombardier

Some Powder Mages prefer to focus on the raw explosive potential of black powder. They use their powers to disorient their foes and to manipulate the force of explosions. These Powder Mages are known as Bombardiers.  

Flashbang

Starting at 3rd level, as a bonus action, you may spend 1 Marked Point to burn a small amount of black powder and redirect the force to disorient a creature within range of your Marked Sense. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target becomes blinded and deafened until the end of their next turn.   Once you reach 10th level, this feature affects a 10 ft. radius around a point of your choosing, rather than a single target. The point must be within range of your Marked Sense.   This feature uses you Powder Mage DC.  

Expanded Marked Sense

Upon reaching 6th level, the range of your Marked Sense is doubled. Also, the amount of black powder sources you can detonate, as per your Powder Charge Burning feature, is also doubled.  

Shaped Charge

Also at 6th level, whenever there is a black powder explosion within range of your Marked Sense, you may use your reaction to spend 1 Marked Point and choose any number of creatures within the area of the explosion. Those creatures are unaffected by the explosion.  

Accelerate

After reaching 10th level, you can dampen the force of black powder explosions to push creatures and objects. You may reduce the damage of a black powder explosion that you detonate, or redirect, by 1 or more dice. When you do so, the creature is pushed 5 ft., plus an additional 5 ft. for each die the damage is reduced by, if they fail their saving throw against the explosion.   Objects may also be pushed in this way, provided their weight is less than or equal to 10 lbs. times the number of dice by which the damage is reduce.  

Advanced Shaped Charge

At 17th level, whenever you use your Combustion Control feature you may choose to manipulate the shape of the explosion. You may change the shape to a cone, a line, or focused on a single target.   The size of the new shape is the same as the size of the original shape. The radius of a sphere, becomes the the length of a cone or line, and vice versa.   If you focus the explosion on a single target, all damage done by the explosion is maximized, and you must spend an amount of additional Marked Points equal to half the points spent to redirect the blast (minimum 1).

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