Elite Mercenary

There are plenty of warriors who become sellswords and mercenaries when their wartime campaigns have ended. It's not at all uncommon to find veterans of one war indulging in security detail, hunting expeditions, bounty captures, or reconnaissance duties all to turn some extra coin. Among that rank and file, however, there are a few of these mercenaries who survive more than a few harrowing campaigns and become reknowned as Elite Mercenaries who are able to draw in bigger contracts and better monies with the clout of their reputation. These Elites approach their service with a wide gamut of useful skills, and they are often a tier above less-experienced mercenaries in any organization they become a part of.

In Avalestra, you will find multiple mercenaries for hire in Port Van Des and regions beyond, and The Red Gauntlet is notoriously the one organization chartered exclusively as a union of such cutthroat sellswords. Even amidst their number, however, there is a clearly-tiered system in which more experience establishes better repute, and the organization itself will promote these Elite contracts to the wealthy bidders demanding the best services. They bring a much wider array of skills to their jobs than most other fighters could muster.

Varied Experience

3rd-level Elite Mercenary feature

You draw from a particular area of experience that colors the predominant set of skills you bring to bear. When you choose this subclass at 3rd level, choose Frontline Experience, Support Experience, or Triage Experience. You gain benefits based on the type of Experience you choose:
- Frontline Experience: you are experienced in army tactics as a frontline soldier, which allows you to choose between the Shield Master or Polearm Master feat and proficiency in your choice of the History or the Insight skills.
- Support Experience: you are experienced in supporting a military effort with your skills and mobility, which grants you the Mobile feat and your choice of three of the following skills or proficiencies: Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Stealth, or Land Vehicles, Water Vehicles, Smith's Tools, Woodcarver's Tools, or any one Musical Instrument.
- Triage Experience: you are experienced in providing medical triage and battlefield medicine, which grants you the Healer feat, and proficiency in Medicine, the Healer's Kit, and the Herbalist Kit.

Deepened Experience

7th-level Elite Mercenary feature

Your experience has now taken you through many different scenarios and you are able to utilize your experience to bring new skills to bear against the challenges you face today. At 7th level, you may choose one of the following benefits:
- Mass Melee Experience: you gain two new abilities to help you protect yourself in a frontline warfare melee, you gain proficiency in Dexterity saving throws, and when you are surrounded by enemies in three or more adjacent squares, you gain a +2 bonus to your armor class if you are wielding a shield.
- Supply Line Experience: you become able to carry more materiel from any one point to another without being impeded, and as a result of this extreme conditioning, you are virtually inexhaustable. Your lifting and carrying limits double, you can move at full speed until you are at your maximum carrying weight, your speed is unaffected by armor you wear, and you suffer no penalty to Stealth checks for being encumbered unless you are dragging objects. Additionally, you are immune to Exhaustion caused by continuous effort or environmental hazards like harsh sunlight.
- Triage Surgeon Experience: you have experience in restoring vitality to those who fall in battle, restoring life to the dying with relative ease. As an action you touch a creature that has died within the last minute with your Healer's Kit in your hand as you expend a use of your Healer's Kit. That creature returns to life with 1 hit point. This feature can’t return to life a creature that has died of old age, poison, disease, or natural causes, nor can it reattach any severed body parts. The target of this ability has a surgical wound until they restore their hit points to their hit point maximum or until they receive magical healing. You cannot use this feature on a target that has a surgical wound.

Mercenary Reputation

10th-level Elite Mercenary feature

Your reputation among other mercenaries is much elevated, and clientele know you're a higher-tier mercenary than others. Whenever you are interacting with lesser nobles, merchants, or other mercenaries, you have advantage on Persuasion checks made to do mercenary business with these people or impress them with your reputation. 

Additionally, if you are among other mercenaries of your organization or among other mercenaries on the same job you have advantage on Persuasion checks to command these soldiers.

Lastly, you receive an advance stipend from your organization or through your own thoughtful investment paying dividends, which you receive monthly. Once each month, you receive your fighter level x10 gold pieces secured for you in a safe place (like a lockbox or your residence) that you may withdraw from freely.

Extraordinary Experience

15th-level Elite Mercenary feature

You are now capable in new talents that reflect your vast array of experiences. When you gain this feature at 15th level, you can choose one of Inspiring Experience, Convoy Experience, or  Hospitaler Experience.
- Inspiring Experience: Your battlefield or warzone experience makes you so capable that less-wizened soldiers on your side of the conflict become emboldened by your experienced tactics. Once on each of your turns when you take an attack action, you may choose a number of creatures up to your proficiency bonus and each of those creatures receive a 1d4 bonus to their attack rolls and saving throws until the beginning of your next turn. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) before you must finish a long rest to use it again. Additionally, whenever you hit a creature with a critical hit, you and all creatures attacking that creature reroll 1s on their damage dice once with weapon damage rolls against that creature until the beginning of your next turn.
- Convoy Experience: Your experience running logistics and supply lines enables you to understand the finer nuances of traveling in a large group. You can designate your proficiency bonus x2 creatures who will be traveling in a group with you as a Convoy as you take 1 minute to issue verbal commands, advisories, and tactics. Once you do, all members of your Convoy ignore difficult terrain when traveling over land, they cannot be surprised, they gain a +2 bonus to their passive perception, and any who have eaten one full meal can ignore any exhaustion caused by environmental hazards or strenuous effort until they finish a long rest. You can use this ability once before you must finish a long rest to use it again.
- Hospitaler Experience: You've become an expert at administering extraordinary medical treatment using the minimum necessary supplies, which allows you to treat more people at once in a tragic situation with several injuries. When you have a Healer's Kit in your hand and expend a use of it, you may use an action to cause any two creatures within 5 feet of you to restore 1d6 + your Intelligence modifier hit points. If you use an additional use of the Healer's Kit when you use this feature, you may add 2d6 to the healing received by one of these creatures. Additionally, with 30 minutes work, two Healer's Kits and 10 gold in materials, you are able to create a Field Surgeon's kit. A Field Surgeon's kit is treated in all ways like a Healer's Kit, but now contains 10 uses instead of 3 and additionally, 1 use can be expended in a 1-hour surgical procedure to reattach a severed arm or leg to a humanoid's body if it has been severed in the last hour. Any creature that has been the target of this procedure has a surgical wound until they restore their hit points to their hit point maximum or until they receive magical healing.

Mercenary Commander

18th-level Elite Mercenary feature

You have become a recognized leader among those mercenaries who would follow you, capable of imparting your wisdom to lesser mercenaries who would join you on your exploits and sharing anecdotes from your time in the field in such a way that these valuable lessons confer new capabilities to your allies. Choose up to two creatures you can see and spend one minute conversing and explaining your experience. Once you have done so, choose any combination of two benefits from the Varied Experience and Deepened Experience features. You do not have to possess the chosen options, and you may choose the same feature twice. The creatures receive these benefits as you choose, conferring both to a creature or one to each creature until they have finished a long rest. When these creatures finish a long rest, each one may roll a d20, and on a roll of 11 or more, they retain these benefits until they finish their next long rest. This process repeats until the creature rolls 10 or less after finishing a long rest. If a creature is receiving a benefit from this feature, you cannot use it to bestow new benefits to that creature. You may use this feature once before you must finish a long rest to use it again.

Additionally, your combat experience grants you an exceptional knowledge of how to attack most foes for devastating effect. You score critical hits on an attack roll of 19 or 20, and you deal an additional die of your weapon's type damage on a successful critical hit.