Wraith

The Ranger Wraith represents the field-operational branch of Draeven’s Office of Veiled Security: the operatives who leave the ledgers, interrogation rooms, diplomatic salons, and archive corridors behind and follow a threat into the places where conventional intelligence structures begin to fail.

These Wraiths track smugglers through mountain routes, follow slavers across border country, shadow foreign agents moving under false identities, watch hidden roads for courier exchanges, locate cult sanctuaries, escort compromised sources through hostile territory, and investigate why apparently unrelated movements across the wilderness all point toward the same hidden destination.

Where a Rogue Wraith asks, “Who is lying?”, the Ranger Wraith asks:

“Where did they go after the lie?”

Mechanically, the subclass turns Hunter’s Mark into a field-intelligence tool. Your marked quarry becomes easier to pursue, harder to disappear from you, and increasingly vulnerable to coordinated interception. You gain tools for surveillance, counter-tracking, extraction, and eventually complete pursuit control over a small number of priority targets.

The subclass is deliberately less magical than a shadow-themed Ranger. The Wraiths make routine use of wards, detection magic, magical identity protection, and technical counterintelligence, but the organization explicitly treats magic as a supporting capability rather than its defining strength.

Origins in Aetheris

The Ranger Wraith tradition developed from cooperation between the Office and Draeven’s military scouts, Crimson Rangers, Border Watch, Varnari trackers, maritime personnel, and covert couriers.

The Wraiths discovered early that intelligence gathered in cities was useless if an enemy could simply vanish beyond the last paved road. Foreign agents escaped into borderlands. Slaving networks used remote crossings. Cults deliberately chose isolated shrines, abandoned mines, caves, marsh routes, and wilderness settlements where records were poor and witnesses scarce.

The Office therefore began cultivating field operatives who could perform intelligence work without requiring urban infrastructure.

These operatives became especially important within the Third Veil — Border and Dusk, which handles Drakthar-facing threats, slavers, cult routes, refugee cover operations, frontier espionage, and border corruption.

The Office also maintains direct operational relationships with the Crimson Rangers and Border Watch, whose patrols often discover the first fragment of a problem before the Wraiths determine whether that fragment belongs to a larger threat.

Philosophy and Doctrine

Ranger Wraith doctrine emphasizes four principles:

Find without revealing.
Follow without forcing.
Extract before sacrificing.
Record what the trail proves.

The Office prefers to know the full network rather than merely catch the first courier.

A smuggler may lead to a warehouse.

A courier may lead to a handler.

A wounded cultist may lead to a shrine.

A false refugee identity may reveal a trafficking route.

A dead enemy cannot do any of those things.

This is why Wraith planning emphasizes reconnaissance, cover, extraction, legal consequence, and the question of what happens if the operation becomes public. The Office prefers turned agents to unnecessary killings, arrests to disappearances, and controlled pressure to spectacular intimidation when those methods work.

The Ranger Wraith embodies that doctrine in the field.

Visual Identity

Like all Wraiths, Ranger Wraiths avoid recognizable uniforms.

A field operative dresses as the terrain and cover identity require:

• caravan guard;
• hunter;
• surveyor;
• customs rider;
• courier;
• guide;
• forester;
• sailor;
• mercenary;
• rural clerk;
• traveling scholar;
• or ordinary adventurer.

Equipment tends toward muted grey, blackened metal, dark leather, practical wool, weather-resistant field gear, compact weapons, folding optics, map cases, false seals, hidden pockets, and concealed documents.

The organization’s official aesthetic is intentionally restrained. Its internal mark, the Hollow Crescent, is rarely displayed openly, and Wraith field equipment generally bears no visible insignia at all.

Role in Aetheris

The Ranger Wraith is primarily a:

Scout / Striker / Controller / Pursuit Specialist

Its battlefield strength lies in identifying priority targets, controlling their ability to flee, repositioning around them, and supporting allies during pursuit or extraction.

Outside combat, the subclass excels at:

• tracking;
• surveillance;
• counter-surveillance;
• border intelligence;
• smuggling-route investigation;
• source extraction;
• identifying false trails;
• following financial or logistical routes physically;
• and operating beyond ordinary legal or institutional reach.

The Wraith is particularly suited to campaigns involving slavers, cults, hostile agents, fugitives, criminal organizations, border threats, and conspiracies whose members move between cities and wilderness.

Subclass Integration

The Ranger Wraith is most commonly associated with:

Third Veil — Border and Dusk

The natural home of field-pursuit specialists, handling slaver routes, cult activity, foreign infiltration, frontier corruption, and hostile movement through Draeven’s difficult border regions.

Crimson Rangers

Frequent operational partners. Crimson Rangers may discover suspicious movement, tracks, camps, false routes, or unusual frontier activity; Ranger Wraiths determine whether those clues indicate a larger network.

Border Watch

Useful for customs intelligence, false identities, unusual crossings, and hidden transport routes.

Harbor Guard

Ranger Wraiths operating coastal routes may follow contraband from docks into interior networks.

Foreign Courts

Some field operatives escort or support Foreign Courts agents operating outside Draeven, particularly where diplomacy gives way to roads, wilderness, ruined sites, or remote trade routes.

Wraith Ranger Features

Ranger Level	Feature
3rd	Veiled Fieldcraft, Quiet Pursuit
7th	Extraction Route
11th	Pattern Interdiction
15th	No Safe Road

 

Optional Wraith Ranger Techniques

These optional qualifications can be granted through Wraith training, downtime, faction advancement, or DM permission.

Border and Dusk Qualification

You gain proficiency in Survival.

If already proficient, you gain Expertise.

You also have Advantage on checks made to identify:

• slaver trails;
• false refugee routes;
• smuggling paths;
• covert border crossings;
• or concealed wilderness camps.

Silent Signal Training

You and companions who have trained with you can communicate simple tactical information using hand signals at up to 60 feet, provided you can see one another.

Examples include:

• danger;
• retreat;
• flank;
• wait;
• follow;
• target;
• clear;
• or hostile ahead.

This communication requires no speech.

Field Alias

You gain proficiency with a Disguise Kit.

After spending 10 minutes preparing a field identity, you can use Wisdom instead of Charisma for Deception checks made to maintain that identity specifically in:

• rural settlements;
• military camps;
• border stations;
• caravan routes;
• wilderness communities;
• or similar field environments.

Rune-Lock Field Familiarity

You have Advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) or Wisdom (Perception) checks made to identify magical surveillance, warded trails, arcane alarms, enchanted seals, or magical evidence-tampering.

Whisper-Node Couriercraft

You have been trained to exchange information without obvious meetings.

You can conceal or retrieve a Tiny object, written message, coded token, or similar item in a suitable location as part of a normal interaction with the environment.

A creature searching specifically for the hidden item must succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your Ranger Spell Save DC.

Playing This Subclass

The Ranger Wraith is built around pursuit and denial.

Choose the enemy whose escape matters.

Apply Hunter’s Mark.

Quiet Pursuit helps you follow that creature and reposition around it.

At 7th level, Extraction Route makes your entire group harder to pin down.

At 11th level, your attacks begin restricting enemy movement and denying escape options.

At 15th level, No Safe Road allows you to manage several high-value threats at once.

This makes the subclass particularly effective against:

• enemy commanders;
• smugglers;
• spies;
• cult leaders;
• fleeing spellcasters;
• assassins;
• traffickers;
• couriers;
• monsters attempting to retreat;
• and mobile skirmishers.

Strengths

The Ranger Wraith has:

• exceptional tracking;
• strong Hunter’s Mark synergy;
• reliable single-target damage;
• anti-escape tools;
• strong reaction movement;
• party extraction support;
• anti-stealth capability;
• excellent wilderness investigation;
• and strong pursuit of mobile enemies.

Weaknesses

The subclass has:

• little area damage;
• limited defensive durability;
• no companion creature;
• no permanent resistances;
• no broad magical toolkit;
• limited effectiveness when targets cannot reasonably move or escape;
• and heavy competition for Reactions.

It is strongest when the enemy has somewhere to go.

Roleplaying the Ranger Wraith

A Ranger Wraith learns to think in routes.

Who came through this road?

Who avoided it?

Where did the wagon stop?

Why was a fire lit where smoke would be visible?

Why did the courier cross the river twice?

Why does a caravan carrying grain need three armed scouts?

Why are the tracks of eight people leaving a camp when only six arrived?

These Rangers often develop a professional distrust of coincidence.

Not paranoia.

Pattern recognition.

The Wraith organization itself exists to turn apparently unrelated fragments—financial irregularities, travel records, rumors, magical evidence, military reports, and criminal information—into coherent threat pictures before enemies realize they have been detected.

The Ranger Wraith performs the same function geographically.

Ranger Wraith Character Concepts

d8	Concept
1	A Crimson Ranger quietly seconded to the Office after discovering that several border patrol incidents were connected.
2	A former smuggler who knows hidden roads better than the officials now paying you to close them.
3	A Varnari scout recruited for an extraordinary ability to distinguish ordinary migration from organized covert movement.
4	A Wraith extraction specialist who has spent more time rescuing compromised agents than hunting enemies.
5	A Border and Dusk operative who has followed the same slaving network across three jurisdictions.
6	A field investigator who distrusts dramatic theories but has never ignored a repeated footprint.
7	A wilderness courier whose routes were originally designed to evade the Office—until the Office recruited you.
8	A former soldier who discovered that the most important battle in a campaign was identifying who carried the enemy maps.

Faction and Organization Connections

The Wraiths

Your primary institutional connection.

Field Wraiths are specifically responsible for infiltration, surveillance, extraction, covert action, and counterespionage.

Crimson Rangers

Your most natural military partners.

They notice what does not belong.

You determine whether it belongs to something larger.

Harbor Guard

Useful when a wilderness route begins or ends at a port.

Border Watch

Essential for falsified identities, irregular crossings, and suspicious transport routes.

Mistcloaks

Occasional partners for deniable special operations where intelligence crosses into military sabotage or direct action.

Grey Advocates

Field Wraiths may occasionally find exactly the right person and exactly the right evidence—only to discover the Office still needs to prove the case lawfully.

Adventure Hooks

The Trail That Returns

You follow a smuggler trail for three days.

It loops back to the same abandoned farm.

The tracks are different people every time.

Someone is using the location as a relay.

The Extracted Man

You successfully rescue a compromised Wraith source.

He refuses to return to Draeven.

He claims his handler is the real traitor.

The Empty Caravan

A caravan crosses the border legally with every document in order.

When the Rangers inspect it two days later, every wagon is empty.

No cargo was unloaded.

The Quiet Crossing

Several hostile agents enter Draeven separately through perfectly legal routes.

None meet.

All eventually pass within a mile of the same ruined shrine.

The Unmarked Road

A road appears on three different criminal route maps.

It does not exist on any official chart.

Local villagers insist there has never been a road there.

The Second Tracker

You realize someone has been following your party for days.

The tracker knows Wraith counter-surveillance doctrine.

Notable NPCs

Markus Steinmar

Veilwarden of Border and Dusk

Steinmar is perhaps the clearest institutional patron for Ranger Wraiths. He oversees slaver routes, cult movement, frontier corruption, hostile agents, and Duskwood intelligence. His willingness to act before evidence is perfect makes him effective—and frequently audited.

Elise Marenholt

Senior Wraith / Field Instructor

Marenholt teaches extraction, advanced fieldcraft, quiet combat, and disguise discipline. She would logically train both Rogue and Ranger Wraith operatives, making her an important bridge between the companion subclasses.

Mira Kest

Whisper-Node / Senior Wraith

Kest is not primarily a wilderness specialist, but her network of couriers, informants, dock watchers, and traveling sources frequently provides Ranger Wraiths with the initial lead that sends them into the field.

Balance Notes

Intended Role

Primary: Scout / Striker
Secondary: Controller / Support

The Ranger Wraith is a pursuit specialist rather than a pure damage subclass.

Damage Profile

Quiet Pursuit adds 1d6 once per turn at 3rd level.

This increases to 2d6 once per turn at 11th level.

That follows a controlled Ranger damage progression and remains tied to a specific quarry.

At 15th level, No Safe Road broadens target access and provides one 3d8 burst, but does not multiply the subclass damage rider across every attack.

Survivability

The Ranger Wraith gains no permanent:

• AC increase;
• resistance;
• bonus Hit Points;
• or broad Saving Throw protection.

Its defense is movement.

Extraction Route reduces exposure by moving the Wraith or an ally away from compromised positions.

Utility

Utility is high.

Veiled Fieldcraft supports:

• investigation;
• counter-tracking;
• trail reconstruction;
• surveillance;
• intelligence gathering;
• border work;
• and physical evidence analysis.

This deliberately mirrors the Wraith organization’s intelligence-first identity.

Resource Economy

Quiet Pursuit relies heavily upon Hunter’s Mark.

Extraction Route uses a limited Wisdom-based resource.

No Safe Road is once per Long Rest.

The subclass also uses the Ranger’s Reaction frequently.

This is important because the Ranger should regularly face decisions between:

• personal movement;
• ally extraction;
• reactive attacks;
• and ordinary defensive reactions.

Comparison to the Rogue Wraith

The two Wraith subclasses should feel related but distinct.

Rogue Wraith	Ranger Wraith
Social infiltration	Field surveillance
Cover identities	Tracking and counter-tracking
Subject of Interest	Hunter’s Mark quarry
Cunning Strike efficiency	Movement interdiction
Intelligence analysis	Route analysis
Counter-concealment	Pursuit and interception
Reaction attack exploitation	Reaction pursuit
Urban / institutional tradecraft	Border / wilderness tradecraft
Investigator / infiltrator	Scout / tracker / extractor

The Rogue Wraith discovers the hidden person.

The Ranger Wraith makes sure that person cannot disappear.

Together they represent two complementary sides of the same institution.

Summary

The Ranger Wraith takes the Office’s intelligence doctrine into the field.

It is a subclass for a Ranger who does not merely hunt monsters or protect wilderness.

It hunts networks moving through terrain.

Smugglers.

Spies.

Slavers.

Couriers.

Cult cells.

Foreign scouts.

Compromised officials fleeing before arrest.

Sources who must be extracted before their cover collapses.

At 3rd level, the Wraith learns field reconstruction and disciplined pursuit.

At 7th, the Wraith becomes an extraction specialist.

At 11th, marked enemies find their escape routes steadily disappearing.

At 15th, No Safe Road transforms the Ranger into the consummate pursuit operative: multiple threats fixed, movement anticipated, concealment broken, and escape routes closed before the quarry knows where the net begins.

That makes it a natural companion to the Rogue Wraith while remaining mechanically and narratively distinct.

“The city has doors. The wilderness has routes. Both tell you who thought they could leave unseen.”

 

Veiled Fieldcraft

Action Type: Passive
Uses: At-will
Duration: Permanent
Scaling: None

You have been trained in the field techniques used by Wraith operatives working beyond urban intelligence infrastructure.

You gain proficiency in Investigation.

You also gain proficiency with the following:

• Disguise Kit
• Forgery Kit
• Cartographer’s Tools

Counter-Tracking

You have Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to:

• identify false trails;
• distinguish deliberately concealed tracks;
• determine whether a group doubled back;
• recognize staged campsites;
• determine whether evidence was planted;
• or discover signs that another creature is tracking you.

Field Reconstruction

After spending at least 1 minute examining a trail, campsite, abandoned structure, road junction, landing site, or similar location, you can usually determine basic facts the evidence could reasonably reveal, such as:

• approximate number of creatures;
• general direction of travel;
• whether anyone was wounded;
• whether heavy cargo was carried;
• whether mounts or vehicles were involved;
• approximate age of the evidence;
• whether the group traveled cautiously or urgently;
• and whether someone attempted to conceal the route.

This feature reveals no information unsupported by physical evidence.

Quiet Pursuit

Action Type: Passive
Uses: At-will while Hunter’s Mark is active
Duration: Hunter’s Mark duration
Scaling: Improved at level 11

Your Hunter’s Mark becomes a tool of surveillance and interdiction rather than merely damage.

While a creature is affected by your Hunter’s Mark, you gain the following benefits.

Known Quarry

You have Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to track the marked creature.

You also have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to find evidence of its passage.

Follow the Pattern

If the creature is within 1 mile of you and on the same plane, you always know the general direction in which it lies provided that:

• you have physically tracked it during the current Hunter’s Mark;
• or you have observed it for at least 1 minute while the mark was active.

This does not reveal exact distance or location.

Intercepting Strike

Once on each of your turns when you hit your marked creature with a weapon attack, you can deal an additional 1d6 damage of the weapon’s damage type.

After the attack, you may immediately move up to 10 feet without provoking Opportunity Attacks from the marked creature.

This movement does not consume your Speed.

At level 11, this damage and control improve through Pattern Interdiction.

Extraction Route

Action Type: Reaction
Uses: Wisdom modifier per Long Rest, minimum 1
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: 30 feet
Scaling: Movement scales with Speed

The Office teaches that surviving an operation is not cowardice.

Extraction is part of the plan.

When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet is targeted by an attack from a creature you can see, you can use your Reaction after the attack resolves.

Choose yourself or the targeted creature.

The chosen creature may immediately move up to half its Speed.

This movement does not provoke Opportunity Attacks from the triggering attacker.

If the attack missed, the chosen creature may instead move up to its full Speed.

If the creature ends this movement in a place where it could reasonably Hide, it may immediately take the Hide action as part of the same Reaction.

You can use Extraction Route a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, minimum once, and regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Field Extraction Doctrine

This feature can represent:

• pulling an ally behind stonework;
• signaling a source toward a side street;
• guiding someone through a ravine;
• changing firing positions;
• slipping through a concealed doorway;
• breaking line of sight;
• or recognizing an escape route before anyone else does.

The Wraiths specifically teach that compromised operatives should be recovered when reasonably possible rather than abandoned as proof of professionalism.

Pattern Interdiction

Action Type: Passive
Uses: Once per turn
Duration: Varies
Scaling: Quiet Pursuit improves

You have learned to identify not merely where your quarry is going, but how it prefers to move when threatened.

The extra damage from Quiet Pursuit increases from 1d6 to 2d6.

Whenever you deal this extra damage, choose one of the following effects.

Cut the Route

The marked creature’s Speed is reduced by 15 feet until the start of your next turn.

No Easy Exit

The marked creature cannot take the Dash or Disengage action until the start of your next turn.

Expose the Courier

The next attack roll made against the marked creature by a creature other than you before the start of your next turn has Advantage.

Once used, this benefit ends.

Force the Mistake

The marked creature cannot benefit from the Hidden condition against you until the start of your next turn.

If it is Invisible, you do not automatically see it, but if it moves at least 10 feet, attacks, or casts a spell before the start of your next turn, you know its location.

You can apply only one Pattern Interdiction effect each time Quiet Pursuit deals damage.

No Safe Road

Action Type: Bonus Action
Uses: Once per Long Rest
Duration: 1 minute
Range: 120 feet

You have become one of the field operatives enemies fear most: the Wraith who does not merely follow a trail but begins closing every route ahead of it.

As a Bonus Action, choose up to three creatures you can see within 120 feet.

For 1 minute, each chosen creature becomes your Priority Quarry.

A Priority Quarry is treated as affected by your Hunter’s Mark for the purposes of this subclass only.

This does not replace or duplicate the actual Hunter’s Mark spell and does not deal Hunter’s Mark spell damage unless the creature is separately affected by that spell.

For the duration, you gain the following benefits.

Continuous Fix

You always know the direction of each Priority Quarry while it remains within 1 mile and on the same plane.

If a Quarry becomes Invisible, you know its location whenever it:

• moves at least 10 feet;
• attacks;
• casts a spell;
• or takes the Dash or Disengage action.

This does not allow you to see through Total Cover.

Intercepting Fire

Once per turn when you hit a Priority Quarry with a weapon attack, you may apply your Quiet Pursuit damage and Pattern Interdiction effects even if that creature is not affected by the Hunter’s Mark spell.

Closed Route

Your Priority Quarries cannot make Opportunity Attacks against you.

Predictive Intercept

Once per round, when one of your Priority Quarries that you can see:

• moves at least 10 feet;
• takes the Dash action;
• or leaves a space adjacent to one of your allies,

you can use your Reaction to move up to half your Speed.

This movement does not provoke Opportunity Attacks.

If you end this movement with the Quarry within your weapon’s normal range, you may make one weapon attack against it as part of the same Reaction.

Dead Route

Once during No Safe Road, when you hit a Priority Quarry with a weapon attack, you may declare the attack a Dead Route Strike.

The attack deals an additional 3d8 damage of the weapon’s damage type, and the target must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw against your Ranger Spell Save DC.

On a failed save, until the start of your next turn:

• its Speed becomes 0;
• it cannot teleport;
• it cannot become Invisible;
• and it cannot benefit from the Hide action.

Once you activate No Safe Road, you cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest.