Occulant - Rank 4

Your next kill changes everything.

— Occultant divination

An occultant tracks the creatures and foes that a franchise has bested or killed, weighing them against the deeds the franchise has achieved. Using the eldritch abacus for which this position is named, an occultant measures the karmic coordinates of their franchise, hoping to gain portents of that which is yet to come.

Like all occultants, you are a grim and enigmatic figure. Even your closest companions might be wary of the power you channel — and nobody wears that aura of dark mystery like you do. You help advance your franchise by determining whether foes should live or die, prognosticating correctly (or at least authoritatively), keeping the rest of the party attuned to the importance of karma, and making the right calls on how best to “clean up” any incorrect readings or misunderstandings.

Noteworthy Occultants: Talanatha Three-Coins

Essential Functions: Track kills; assess the value to the franchise of the living and the dead

Position Proficiency: In addition to the proficiencies noted below, you can add your proficiency bonus to an ability check to intimidate a creature close to death, assess what disease or poison killed a creature, or explain what that dead body is doing under your bed at the inn.

Proficiencies and Starting Equipment

As a rank 1 occultant, you gain proficiency with one of the following of your choice: cook's utensils, leatherworker's tools or weaver's tools..

Head office also grants you the use of a tool kit for your chosen proficiency, a merchant’s scale, five waterproof belt pouches in which to store creature parts or other tools, and a unique item known as an occultant abacus (sometimes just referred to as an occultant), whose beads resemble tiny skulls.

Read the Kill

Also at rank 1, your occultant abacus not only tracks your franchise’s kills, it helps you determine the impact of those kills on the franchise’s fate. Over a period of 1 minute, you can study a creature killed by someone in your franchise within the last 24 hours, then grant the character who slew it a d10. Once within the next hour, that character can add the d10 to an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. If it’s not clear who administered the killing blow, you grant this benefit to a random creature involved in the fight. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

TALANATHA THREE-COINS

Tiefling Occultant (Paladin)

Occultants know that the unsettled feeling in the pit of your stomach comes from somewhere and has a purpose — and nobody can measure out and use that purpose like they can. As Talanatha “reads” fallen foes, she charts her party’s cosmic effects and can even try to smooth out the fabric of causality. As a tiefling, she often generates a kind of ambient unease in others, but she is always certain to account for this carefully, lest it bloom into “the unforeseen” that is the enemy of every enterprise.

Ways to Read the Kill

Eldritch Occultant

Starting at rank 2, your occultant abacus becomes an uncommon magic item that can track lives both eliminated and saved. While holding your occultant abacus within 5 feet of a creature killed within the past 24 hours, you can cast the augury spell. The course of action you inquire about with the spell does not need to have any connection to the dead creature. This property of the occultant abacus can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Bring Out Your Dead

Also at rank 2, you regain the use of your Read the Kill feature after you finish a short or long rest.

Bead of Instant Karma

At rank 3, one of the beads on your occultant abacus channels the power of instant karma, turning the occultant abacus into a rare magic item. As a reaction, you can target one creature you can see that is about to attempt an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, either granting advantage or imposing disadvantage on the roll. The bead crumbles to dust when used, reappearing on your occultant abacus at the next dawn.

Death’s Omen

Also at rank 3, you gain the ability to read the grim portents of a creature’s demise. As a bonus action, choose a creature you can see that is below its hit point maximum and make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check. On a success, you determine whether this creature’s immediate death would have neutral, negative, or positive ramifications for you and your franchise. If the ramifications are different for you and the franchise, you learn this as well.

Bead of Diverted Karma

At rank 4, one of the beads on your occultant abacus allows you to divert karma to where it’s needed, turning the occultant abacus into a very rare magic item. While the bead is unused, you know automatically when any creature you can see is about to make an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw with disadvantage. When such a roll is made, you can use a reaction to grant a d10 to a different creature you can see. That creature can add the d10 to any ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes within the next minute. The bead crumbles to dust when used, reappearing on your occultant abacus at the next dawn.

Correct the Balance

As a rank 4 occultant, you learn that sometimes the death of a creature has unintended consequences. Within seven days of a creature’s death, you can use your occultant abacus to divine ways to reverse or mitigate events resulting from that death. As an action, make a DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check. On a success, you learn the relevant information based on the nature of the creature and its place in the world.

If you fail the check, this property of the occultant abacus can’t be used again until the next dawn. If you succeed on the check, this property can’t be used again until dawn seven days later.

I don’t really understand occultants, and to be honest, they scare the Abyss out of me.

— Jim Darkmagic