Sleeper

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Overview & Creation

Sleepers are a unique and out of place creature within a world of Magic. While they may have access to magic, their magical abilities lay dormant within them. Sleepers rely on their own natural abilities that don’t require magic, taking to more physical methods of combat and survival. While among the citizens of Eostia, this may be rare, it’s become a common occurrence as more and more humans fall into their magical world.  

Adventuring without Magic

Sleepers are something that occur often outside of the adventuring area. They normally take care of their kin or communities and find a way to fit in to whatever city they are in. However, they do adventure and seek answers from time to time in a strange world. There’s a stubbornness and ambitiousness to a sleeper that matches the personality and background of many humans, particularly the more recent they’ve crossed into this strange world. While some of them do spend sometime practicing skills, much of what they can do and learn is through experience, life itself being their teacher. Its under the strength of resolve that they have to determine what they are capable and incapable of being a part of. They are environmentalists at their core, using anything and everything at their disposal to make victory happen. Something else to note about this class is that not all Sleepers are Humans. The term “Sleeper” came from the fact that humans enter into the world with their access to their magic closed off. This requires either them doing the correct work to open up their abilities or having a magical individual unlock their closed off magic. There are many humans who never find these two scenarios and have to figure out how to survive in a magical world without magic. There are within the world also individuals who are awoken to magic and can access their magic, but choose to refrain from magic use. These individuals often have reasons for this either due to an event from their past or just a general lack of interest. In very rare cases, an individual may be born closed off to magic similar to humans or have a limited capacity to access it. This condition is known to the community as Muted Birth Syndrome (MBS).  

Creating a Sleeper

If you are a player considering building a sleeper, be sure that you are up to the challenge. Sleepers have advantages, but also stark disadvantages, making this class a challenging one. How creative are you? If you had no weapon, would you find one? Make one from scratch? Do something else entirely? Make sure the DM is willing to take your character's nature into question when designing encounters, and if they can't or won't, it might be a good idea to play a more conventional character. That said, don't force them into making some elaborate puzzle for everything either. Some areas are simply bound to be mundane (Probably), and it's up to YOU to figure out how to make things work.   The most important question to ask yourself about your character is why are they here? What made them adventure, and what makes them continue in spite of the odds levied against them? What drives them, and what creative outlets inspire their ideas and solutions? Keep in mind that even if you find a solution to a problem, you need to wonder if your character sees the problem the same way you do. If they don't, maybe they'd find a different solution entirely, maybe one that isn't even as good, but is still authenticate to them. One way to sideline this conflict is to make a character that's much like yourself, outright removing that guessing room, but this isn't necessary, though playing either way can create a completely different experience and is worth considering.

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Class Features

McGuffin

  Either before the game starts or promptly thereafter, you find a Uncommon to Legendary Wondrous Item or an Artifact of the DM's choice and gain proficiency with the item.   • The McGuffin cannot be a consumable or limited use item, such as a potion, and cannot be cursed or otherwise detrimental to have.   • The item must have the Minor Property, Unbreakable.   • The item must also have the Homebrew minor property, Bound: The item cannot be left behind, returning to a space within reach of the bearer if they move more than 120 feet away from it or leave the plane. If the bearer dies, it can follow their soul to the afterlife, only losing its binding if the bearer's soul is destroyed. It becomes bound to a new owner the moment it is picked up. Items that require attunement only become bound the moment they are attuned.   • It can be a magic item that has limited use in a set period of time, but recharges after that time has passed (Usually a day).   • If the mcguffin is a weapon or tool that you don't have proficiency with or can't normally use because of class restrictions, you can use it in spite of your class, and have proficiency with it (But only your Mcguffin, not any other item of the same kind).   • If the mcguffin is an item you normally can't use because of some attunement requirement (For example class or the need to spellcast), you can attune to it anyways. The DM can use this as part of the game's story, as your character might have an ancestry or family member related to the item that allows you to attune to it. Work with the DM to determine what items you could have and how they might affect your character.  

Attentive

At 1st level, you have a knack for telling when something's off.   You have advantage on Perception checks for hearing abnormal noises, such as distant conversations, whispers and people muttering under their breath, footsteps in a house no one should be in and so on. If you succeed on any of these checks, you begin to feel dread if there is a threat, as if you have a "gut feeling" that something is wrong.   At 6th level, your advantage extends to all Perception checks.  

Perceptive Action

Starting at 2nd level, you gain the initiative to react quickly. As a reaction:   • You can perform a Perception or Investigation check during a round where you are surprised, during a fight, when everyone is rolling initiative for a chase or right before/as a trap goes off.   • If you pass the check you may take the Dash, Disengage or Hide action or interact with an object that doesn't cause an attack roll or saving throw to another creature as part of the same reaction. If you dash, you can take one willing creature you can pull with you, though this halves your speed. If you dash from a trap or source of damage this way, you and anyone you pull don't have to save against the trap or damage if you escape the area it affects, and take no damage from it.   • Once this feature has been used once, it cannot be used again until you have completed a short or long rest.  

Sleeper Archetype

At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that furthers your classless abilities: Adventurer, Investigator, or Generalist, all detailed at the end of the class description. Your archetype choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 9th, 13th, and 17th level.  

Ability Score Increase

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.  

Take Initiative

Starting at 5th level, you learn to take advantage of your opponent's mistakes, and actively look for opportunities to do so. When an opponent rolls a natural 1 on a melee attack roll against you, you may use your Reaction to perform an Opportunity Attack. Additionally, you roll initiative with advantage. Finally, you can target an item (Not a weapon or set of armor) that a creature is wearing or holding with an attack. If you hit the creature's AC, you destroy the object. This can be used even on objects that aren't easy to destroy, such as a Lich's Phylactery. The only exceptions to this are items that are sentient, artifacts, or those that have the Unbreakable minor property, unless you damage them in a way that is predefined to allow them to be damaged or destroyed with the attack. You can also use a Bonus Action if you have a hand free to attempt to steal an item that could be destroyed with your attack and rip it off of the opponent (But not with clothes other than accessories). You make a Sleight of Hand Check against the opponent's contested Perception check. If you succeed, you hold the item and remove it from their inventory.  

Combat Insight

Beginning at 7th level, you begin to think deeper about the concept of enemies being like puzzles. If you can discern the weakness of an enemy, you can maximize the possible damage of the damage dice if you can use that type of damage against them on any attack you successfully hit with. This includes silvered weapons against creatures that are affected by them (Like Lycanthropes). With creatures that regenerate but have a weakness that prevents them from doing so, only that weakness (Or any like it) can be used for this, but doing so prevents them for regenerating for 1D4+1 turns instead of 1. If you discern the weakness of an enemy and have an item stowed that could be used against it, you can get the item from your inventory as a bonus action. Additionally, if you take a weapon you and your allies don't own off of the floor of from an opponent, you can use it as an improvised weapon if you don't have proficiency in it for the first attack you make with it until the end of your turn. If getting the weapon was your action, you can make an attack with it as a bonus action. You can only do this once with any given weapon, and only on the turn you get it.   Finally, you can make an Insight check as a Reaction when an opponent does something other than attacking you (Including attacking others or willingly moving) to trigger your Perceptive Action. Doing so this way looks for an opponent's motives in their next turn, usually contested by their Deception since creatures typically don't want to have their plans known. If you succeed, your Perceptive Action allows you to protect an ally from attacks by that opponent, or move at full speed while dragging an ally with you. If your Perceptive Action is triggered this way, you can't provoke opportunity attacks while you use it, and it doesn't count as using your Perceptive Action for the purposes of having to complete a Short or Long Rest to use it again. You can use your Perceptive Action this way even if you already have used it normally.  

Determined

Beginning at 10th level, your experience and resolve reach new heights, allowing you to find solutions to dangerous problems on the fly. When you have a number of hit points equal to or under half your maximum hit points during initiative for a fight or a surprise round, you automatically pass any Perception and Investigation check with a DC of 12 or lower, and have advantage on Perception and Investigation checks you don't automatically pass, and cannot have an initiative below 20 (Though you can roll above it, any total below it is 20 instead). At 14th level, the DC you automatically pass raises to 15 and you can't have an initiative below 22. At 18th level, the DC you automatically pass raises to 20 and you can't have an initiative below 25.  

Confidence

Starting at level 11, you finally feel confident about your abilities. Every time you complete a successful ability check you gain temporary hit points equal to your level. Additionally, you can now target special limbs (And only those) when you make an attack, for an additional effect if you hit and deal slashing or piercing damage. If you target wings, you cause the creature to plummet, and it can't fly or use wing-based abilities again until it finishes a Long Rest. If you target tentacles or tongues capable of grappling, you sever the limb. A creature with many of these limbs may not suffer any penalty at first, but if you remove enough of them, you can stop it from using the abilities of those limbs. Finally, if you target a creature with multiple heads that can survive with only one, you can roll Percentile Dice, and on a 10 or lower, you sever one of its heads, unless it only has one left. The DM can rule that other similar special limbs can be affected in some way by your Confidence feature, but they determine what effect it would have, and don't tell you if you can target a specific limb, you have to try to. If you try to use your Confidence feature to attack a special limb that it won't work on, the attack is wasted. If a creature's CR is higher than your character level, you cannot use this feature to target special limbs, even if otherwise the DM would rule it being allowed. You're not cutting off Tiamat's head, sorry.  

Overclocked

Starting at 15th level, your senses betray your enemies and environment in ways you might not think of. You can make a Perception, Investigation, or Insight check once during your turn without taking an action to do so. Additionally, you can take an Extra Action during your turn, which can only be used to Use An Object, Disengage, or Attack (One Weapon Attack Only). Additionally, you can use your Bonus Action to make a weapon attack at disadvantage. You can pick up an improvised weapon you aren't holding as part of this Bonus Action. If you hit with this Bonus Action, you can re-roll any one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw you make before the end of your next turn. If you hit with an improvised weapon with this Bonus Action, your next attack with that weapon before the end of your next turn has advantage.  

Stand Out

At 20th level, you have mastered your sense of reacting to the environment. You can now use your Perceptive Action an infinite number of times between rests.

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background.   • A Set of 5 Alchemist's Fire in clay jars. or (b) A set of 5 Potions of Healing in glass bottles. or (c) A set of 3 flasks of Holy Water.   • One Martial Weapon and a Special Weapon or (b) One Martial Weapon and a Simple Weapon or (c) Two Simple Weapons and a Shield   • A set of Leather Armor and a Burglar's Pack or (b) One set of Artisan's Tools of your choice and a Dungeoneer's Pack

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Subclass Options

Sleeper Archetypes

As a sleeper, you can take archetypes as you begin to harness certain skills thanks to you experiences.  

Adventurer

What’s the fun of being in a new world if you can’t explore and find out more about the world? The Adventurer is curious and ambitious, interested in seeing new sights and meeting new people. They consistently find themselves in precarious situations that require the use of their wit and adaptability to help them overcome.  

Improvisor

Starting at 3rd level, you have advantage on the first attack roll of a Improvised or your Special Weapon in any encounter. If your opponent is a humanoid or surprised, the hit is guaranteed, and behaves as a critical.  

Curiosity

At 9th level, you have gained an unmistakable sense of wanderlust. Whenever you are without allies, you are immune to being Surprised and automatically go first in Initiative. If you are without allies, you gain a +5 bonus to all Perception and Investigation checks, and passing one allows you to spend one of your Hit Dice and heal.  

Reckless Abandon

Beginning at 13th level, you have learned to get yourself out of trouble just as well as you get yourself into it. You have advantage on Persuasion and Intimidation checks against hostile creatures in an attempt to defuse their hostility, and advantage on Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal your actions from other hostile creatures. Additionally, you can spend one of your Hit Dice before you roll an improvised weapon attack, and when you do, the number rolled is added to your damage roll if you hit.  

Renown

By level 17, your actions have made everyone turn an eye, and word of your deeds travels fast and far, regardless of if that's always a good thing. You have advantage for Persuasion checks against others of the same basic alignment as you (Ignoring Chaotic, Neutral, and Lawful), and if another feature of any class you are a part of already gives you advantage for any reason, instead you add 10 to the final result of the roll, in addition to your existing advantage.  

Investigator

Those who fall under the investigator archetype are skeptics and intellects who see the world and many situations as a puzzle to solve. Their experiences lead to the logic that all things have an explanation and a reason behind it and nothing is coincidence. This lust for answers presses for them to seek out more information and solve new mysteries.  

Sharp Mind

Starting at level 3, you have a knack for finding out things that are not meant to be found out. You have advantage on Investigation and Insight checks. In addition, you can attempt a knowledge based skill check again 1D8 hours or longer after your first attempt (DM rolls for the length of time after you fail and tells you when you can attempt the check again) or any time new information about the subject of the original check is revealed. You can only do this once for any given knowledge based skill check.  

Private Eye

At 9th level, your base knowledge of how the world works provides a good backing to your basic instincts. Any Investigation, Insight, or knowledge based skill check in which the D20 roll was 9 or less can be treated as a 10.  

Intuition

At 13th level, you've finally figured out how to implement your deductive reasoning in a fight. You gain the following abilities, all used as a Bonus Action:   Defend against melee. If an enemy would melee you this round, they must roll 3 higher than your AC to hit you. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn.   Defend against ranged. If an enemy would make a ranged attack that isn't a spell against you this round, they must roll 3 higher than your AC to hit you. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn.   Defend against spell shots. If an enemy would make a ranged attack that is a spell against you this round, they must roll 3 higher than your AC to hit you. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn.   Defend against spell saves. If an enemy would cast a spell that requires you to make a save to lessen or avoid its effects this round, you add 3 to the final total of your save, and if you succeed on the save you take no damage or harmful effects, except for level 9 spells. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn.   You cannot use any of these abilities if you have any Exhaustion Points, are afflicted with a Disease, or are under the effects of a Feeblemind spell, or any similar spell that lowers your Intelligence or Wisdom score.  

Hardcore Defense

Beginning at level 17, you can use one of your abilities granted by the Intuition feature once without using a Bonus Action. You can also use them while afflicted with any of the afflictions that previously prevented use of those abilities, except for Feeblemind.  

Artifactor

As an artifactor you are someone who is unable to use magic but has found an interest in it. You have searched and found an artifact that has magical properties. With the use of this artifact, you can perform limited magical abilities and feats.  

Magic Artifact

At 3rd level, you have found what you were looking for! A magical artifact that will give you limited casting ability through the artifact itself. With the artifact, you can cast limited cantrips and eventually spells based on the artifact you have found. You may either roll a d6 to determine your artifact and the bonus spells you attain, or you may speak with your DM about selecting an artifact that you would like. When casting spells with your artifact, you may choose whether you use your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifiers. You only choose one and cannot change this choice at a later date. Your spell save DC is 8+the modifier of the ability score of choice plus your proficiency bonus. Your spell attack modifier adds your ability score modifier of choice to the attack, plus your proficiency bonus. This artifact in its connection to you will also grant you the ability to use a spell scroll, but at disadvantage.   Artifact

D6	Artifact	Cantrips
1	Crystal Necklace	Spirit Blades, Fluttering Light, Light, Lullaby, Halt
2	Enchanted Ring	Euford's Scan, Thundersnap, Gloves of Ember, Poison Spray, Mage Hand
3	Cards of Fate	Prediction, Guidance, Sweet Dreams, True Strike, Vicious Mockery
4	Runes of Fate	Prediction, Guidance, Accelerate, Vine Whip, Action Image
5	Shaman's Totem	Soul Claw, Detect Life, Fleeting Ward, Spare the Dying, Nudge
6	Staff of Syrion	Shillelagh,Dancing Lights, Eldritch Blast, Mending, Minor Time Pass

Improved Artifact

Beginning at 9th level, you have gotten a bit better about spellcasting with your magical item and have unlocked more of its magical potential. You can now cast chaos bolt, wrathful smite, thunderous smite, faerie fire, and ensnaring strike spells. For each spell, once you have cast the spell, you cannot cast it again until you have completed a Long Rest.   In addition, you no longer have disadvantage to using spell scrolls.  

Greater Artifact

By 13th level, you finally understand the basic principles of magic, despite not having your own magic. You can now use an additional Cantrip and 1st level spell of your choice. You also learn alter self, gust of wind, enhance ability, and moonbeam spells. For each 2nd level spell, once you have cast the spell, you cannot cast it again until you have completed a Long Rest.   In addition, you can now cast one of your first level spells twice before not being able to cast it again without completing a Long Rest. You can decide which spell to cast a second time at any time.  

Superior Artifact

At 17th level, you have harnessed magic like a true caster, at least in your mind, with the help of your artifact. You learn an additional 1st level and 2nd level spell of your choice. You also learn the blinding smite, counterspell, tidal wave, fireball, elemental weapon, and lightning bolt spells. For each 3rd level spell, once you have cast the spell, you cannot cast it again until you have completed a Long Rest.   In addition, you can now cast one of your first level spells three times (Or two spells twice) before not being able to cast it again without completing a Long Rest. You can decide which spell(s) to cast additional times at any time. You can also cast one of your second level spells twice before not being able to cast it again without completing a Long Rest. You can decide which spell to cast a second time at any time. Finally, you can learn one spell that is 7th level or lower. If you have not cast any spells since your last Long Rest, you can cast this spell. If you cast this spell, you cannot cast other spells until you finish a Long Rest, not including Cantrips.

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