“You don’t win by being the strongest. You win by being the last one breathing. And I haven’t exhaled in years.”

In the Age of Ash and Relics, no title is earned in silence — except that of the Trench Reaper. You weren’t forged in a holy temple or crowned by a relic. You were carved from mud, blood, and psalm-static. When others fled the screaming sky and the psionic storms, you held the line with nothing but rusted steel and a growl in your chest.

The Trench Reaper is a subclass for fighters who embody relentless, efficient survival. They are brutalists — disciplined warriors who rely on toughness, muscle memory, and battlefield instincts honed through unending attrition. You’re not graceful. You’re not holy. You’re what’s left when grace and gods run dry.

Where others swing for glory, you swing to kill. And when the Choir screams, you scream back.

Brutal Efficiency

At 3rd level, you learn how to fight like a survivor — no flourish, no hesitation. You strike only when it matters, and you finish what others hesitate to begin.

- When you roll a 19 or 20 on a melee weapon attack roll, it counts as a critical hit.
- When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee weapon attack, you can use your bonus action to make one additional melee weapon attack during the same turn.

This represents your instinct to keep cutting while the enemy bleeds — and your refusal to stop until everything around you is quiet.

Dug In

Starting at 7th level, you know how to make the battlefield work for you.

- While you are in half cover or three-quarters cover, you gain resistance to all damage from ranged attacks.
- While you are in difficult terrain and take the Dodge action, you may use your reaction to make one melee weapon attack if a creature moves within 10 feet of you.

This ability reflects your training in entrenched warfare — using angles, terrain, and stillness as weapons.

No Time to Die

Starting at 10th level, your will to fight overrides even death.

- When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you may instead drop to 1 hit point. You can use this feature once per long rest.

- If you have already used this feature and would be reduced to 0 hit points again, you can choose to remain conscious and active for one additional round. You do not fall unconscious until the end of your next turn. At the end of that turn, you drop to 0 hit points as normal and gain 1 level of exhaustion**.

This ability reflects the brutal truth of trench warfare — survival doesn’t mean walking away. It means standing until nothing’s left to stand on.

Killbox

At 15th level, your mastery of confined combat becomes deadly in close quarters.

- When you use Action Surge, you may also use your bonus action to make one melee weapon attack against every hostile creature within 5 feet of you.

- Additionally, if two or more hostile creatures are within 5 feet of you when you make a melee weapon attack, you have advantage on the attack roll.

You are the worst-case scenario — a living breachpoint. The moment you commit, no one leaves the circle.

Unbroken Wall

At 18th level, when you rally, the battlefield bends to your will.

When you use Second Wind, you also gain the following benefits until the start of your next turn:

- You gain resistance to all damage.
- You cannot be pushed, pulled, or knocked prone.
- You automatically succeed on all concentration saving throws during this time.

You are the line that will not break. You are the wall at the edge of the world.