Spirit Shepherd

The stench of undeath surrounds you and you are haunted by spirits of the dead, perhaps you were damned by the touch of a vengeful spirit or damned by a mad necromancer. However you acquired your connection to the unliving, you are now a Spirit Shepherd, a ranger who can call on ghostly visages to come to your aid. As you wander the land on the cusp of living and dead, your melancholy aura glooms the hearts of those around you, and your martial prowess strikes terror in your foes, for heavy is the curse of the Spirit Shepherd.

Friends on the Other Side

3rd-Level Spirit Shepherd Feature

Your friends on the other side grant you a connection to the ethereal plane. You gain the following benefits:

Mage Hand. You learn the mage hand cantrip, which is a ranger spell for you. The hand manifests as a ghostly spirit and can be made invisible as part of the casting. 

Ethereal Sight. As an action, you can see into the ethereal plane. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier, getting the uses back on a long rest.

Summon Spirit

3rd-Level Spirit Shepherd Feature

As an action, you can magically summon a ghostly spirit that is bound to you. It appears in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of you.

The spirit is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Ghostly Spirit stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. Whenever you summon the spirit, you choose whether it is immune to Necrotic damage or Radiant damage, the damage it is immune to is also the damage it deals with its Life Drain attack. You can also determine the spirit's cosmetic characteristics, such as its original race, its size, or any visible effect of its death; your choice has no effect on its game statistics.

In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the spirit can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

The spirit remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon another spirit, or until you die. Anything the spirit was carrying is left behind when it vanishes.

Once you summon the spirit, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to summon it.

 

Bond of Decay

7th-Level Spirit Shepherd Feature

Your connection to the spirit world intensifies, allowing you control over more powerful spirits. When you summon your Ghostly Spirit, you and the Spirit gain the following benefits:

Horrifying Visage. When your ghostly Spirit is summoned, each non-undead creature within 60 feet that can see it that you choose must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw equal to your ranger Spellsave DC or be frightened for 1 minute. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the spirit's Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours.

Touch of Rot. The ghostly spirit's Life Drain attack deals an extra 1d6 damage of the type chosen.

Resistance. You gain resistance to the damage type chosen for the Ghostly Spirit.

Turn Undead

11th-Level Spirit Shepherd Feature

As an action, you extend your consciousness to the undead, censuring them. Each undead that can see or hear you, excluding your Ghostly Spirit, within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.

A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

When you reach 15th level in this class, when an undead fails its saving throw against your Turn Undead feature, the creature is instantly destroyed if its challenge rating is at or below 4.

Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

Bond of Death

15th-Level Spirit Shepherd Feature

Your bond to the spirit world reaches the pinnacle of its power. While a Ghostly Spirit is summoned, you and the Spirit gain the following benefits:

Touch of Death. The Ghostly Spirit’s Life Drain attack deals an extra 1d6 damage of the type chosen (for a total of 2d6 extra damage).

Possession. You can have your ghostly spirit take possession of a humanoid that you can see within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw equal to your spell save DC or be possessed by the ghostly spirit; the ghostly Spirit then disappears, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. You now control the body but don't deprive the target of awareness. The Ghostly Spirit can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead, and it retains its alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and immunity to being charmed and frightened. It otherwise uses the possessed target's statistics, but doesn't gain access to the target's knowledge, class features, or proficiencies. You continue to command the possessed body using a bonus action as if it were the Ghostly Spirit.

The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, you end it as a bonus action, or the ghostly spirit is turned, forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell, you summon a new spirit or you die.

Pain Link. When either you or your ghostly spirit takes damage while you’re within 30 feet of each other, you can use your reaction to have the other receive the damage instead. You can use this reaction a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.