Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
With 6.1.1 I hope that the dust has mostly settled from the 6.xre-org. I wanted to do this to balance the disciplines out, especially cryo vs pyro; pyro and psycho always got the best toys (spreading flames and mass levitation) and cryo had to centnt itself with crowd control. I also wanted to tighten the class up as a whole and fix the weird one out stuff at weird tiers. In other words, 6.x is a standardization and rebalance across the discipline trees.
With all that out of the way I present 6.1.1:
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
Changlog:
v6.2.0 addresses some last minute issues with Spreading Flames. Cryo and Psycho players can safely pass on this version.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
Hopefully this is the final rework of Spreading Fflames. I am now treating it as a rider on top of other Pyro features including other riders. Mechanically, this cleans up some rule ambiguities and simplifies tabler play. Essentially, on kill you get to optionally spend 2Psi Points to proc the explosion. Sadly Psycho and Cryo have no updates again. Below is the final text:
Spreading Flames · 20th · On Kill - 2 Psi Pointa
Exception: Spreading Flames stacks on top of any Pyro rider on the killing hit. The one-rider-per-hit rule does not apply to this feature.
T0: When you reduce a creature to 0 HP with Manifested Strike, you may trigger an eruption. All creatures within 20 ft make a Dex save or take 3 Manifested Strike dice of fire damage (half on success). One eruption per Attack action. Delayed burn damage from Ember Lance does not trigger Spreading Flames.
T1 Overload: Creatures that fail the save also gain the Burning condition.
T2 Overload: The eruption radius expands to 30 ft and creatures that fail the save cannot take reactions until the start of their next turn.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
Unfortunately I missed another exception for Spreading Flames. Currently as written, Spreading Flames violates the Declare Before Roll rule; unfortunately, you cannot reliably declare a death blow before it lands so an exception must be made. That is all, Psycho and Cryo players have no updates again. I consider that a mark of subclass maturity.
v6.3.1
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
v6.3.2 is out with another set of bug squashes for spreading flames (again) and some general cleanups across the board for Psi Point costs:
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
Psi cost standardization (8 changes):
Spreading Flames reframe:
Psi cost standardization:
Basically the spreading flames change makes no difference in play, it just cleans and tightens the rules a bit. The big win for this version is the Psi Point cost normalization between disciplines; instead of ad-hoc Psi Point costs they are now standardized across both levels and disciplines. I hope this facilitates better play and faster table pick-up speed. Enjoy!
T2 Overload: 11th → 10th — no more orphan levels. The full KV level grid is now a clean 3/5/7/10/15/18/20 with zero gaps.
Psi Cost Reference table — standalone section between the Feature Table and Disciplines, 19 rows covering every Psi-costed feature with level, name, discipline, cost, and action type. Smaller filtered tables were created for each Discipline cheatsheet as well.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
v6.4.0 shipped — all four docs validated and in sync. Here's what landed: DM, Cryo, Pyro, Psycho
Dazzle split — the dual-mode headache is gone. Dazzle is now a pure social/control Action (charm → suggestion → hold monster, escalating with OL tiers, no MS needed). Mind Blast is a clean combat rider (2d8/3d8/4d8 psychic + Blind → Incapacitated → Stunned, requires MS hit). No ambiguity about which mode you're in.
AT pool expanded — 2 of 4 picks (Mind Crush, Dazzle, Mind Blast, Burst). More build variety, same pick count.
Psi cost curve smoothed — 1/1/2/2-1/3/3/4. No more jarring jump from 2 to 3 at 10th.
v6.4.1 is out: DM, Cryo, Pyro, Psycho
This represents another big fix release, biggest change is reverting T2 Overload unlock to 11th level instead of 10th. fixes an issue with Manifested Stroke power scaling. Beyond that, just minor cleanups and clarifications.
v6.5.0 shipped — all four docs validated and in sync. Three structural changes:
Dazzle — no more custom conditions. You cast the actual spells (charm person → suggestion → hold monster), all with Concentration, XOR tiers. Players already know the spells, DMs already know the rulings. Zero invented mechanics.
Psychic Lance (was Mind Crush) — clean Int-save nuke rider. 4d8/5d8+PAM/6d8+2×PAM with Incap → speed 0 → Stunned. Hits harder than Mind Blast, targets the weaker save, but no sensory CC (no Blind setup for allies). Clear niche.
Capstones → 5 Psi — at 16 Psi pool (20th level), that's exactly 3 uses at full charge. Feels like an ultimate.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
I have restructured the class a bit in 7.0.0, swapping 7th and 10th discipline skills to give better early play and a smoother power curve. I hope you all emjoy.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
New discipline progression:
Key wins: Cryo gets hard CC (Restrained/Stunned) at 7th. Frozen Ground at 10th pairs with Steeled Mind for concentration safety. Psycho gets hover/flight at 7th. Pyro gets Blind at 7th for immediate debuff identity.
At this point I feel like 6.5.0 is complete subclass but I want to continue experimenting with 7.x. With that in mind I am freezing 6.5.0 for now. I cannot afford to keep two branches current so I am keeping 7.x as current. I hope 6.5.0 gets a lot of play. It feels fun, tight, and stable now, there is nothing more I can do to it.
With all that saaid, I present 71.0:
Explosion/Implosion — player declares push or pull on each activation. Same Str save, same Prone, same tier ladder. At the table it's just "I Explode" or "I Implode."
Gravitic Press — replaces Burst in the AT pool. Concentration zone that degrades everything standing in it: difficult terrain + Prone → +no reactions → +disadvantage on attacks. The "hold and punish" complement to Explosion/Implosion's "move and reposition."
Burst cut — dead weight gone. AT pool stays at 2 of 4 with four distinct identities: nuke (Psychic Lance), spells (Dazzle), sensory CC (Mind Blast), gravity zone (Gravitic Press).
DM
|Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
v7.1.1 shipped. Two fixes:
Explosion/Implosion T1 — "pull distance" → "push or pull distance." Now matches the polarity switch in T0.
Psionic Instinct contradiction — Pyro example Attack 1 was showing T2 Ember Lance for free (0 Psi, 12 BT). Fixed to T0 MS + T0 Ember Lance (Instinct free, 0 Psi, 0 BT). Turn totals updated: 2 Psi / 20 BT (was 3 / 36). Rules text and examples now agree — Instinct is T0 only, full stop.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
v7.2.0 is out and so is the Burning condition and DoT in general.
Ember Lance — all damage resolves on hit. T0: 2×PB. T1: 4×PB. T2: primer unchanged. Zero tracking between turns.
Burning condition — deleted entirely. Box gone from master and Pyro sheet.
Replacements:
Pyro example math verified: 2 Psi, 20 BT, ~84 fire. All damage on-hit, no pennies needed.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
I am backporting the Burning removal to 6.x, I don't expect to do this all the time but the QoL improvement by reducing tracking requirements makes it worth it.
DM
Cryo
Pyro
Psycho
v7.3.0 is out.
One targeted change this version: Tier 2 Overload moves from 11th level to 10th.
The 10th-level cluster already hands you Steeled Mind, your discipline's signature feature, and Phase Step all at once — it's the biggest single-level power moment in the subclass. T2 sitting at 11th always felt like an orphan, one level late for no structural reason. Moving it to 10th collapses that gap and gives the 10th-level moment the weight it deserves. The MS table now splits cleanly at 9/10 rather than 10/11, and every discipline cheatsheet reflects the updated power spike header.
No mechanical content changed. If you're mid-campaign on 7.2.0, the only thing that shifts is when T2 unlocks.
DM Master Cryo Player Pyro Player Psycho Player
v7.4.0 is out.
Three things this version.
Manifested Strike now adds half your Proficiency Bonus (rounded down) to attack rolls. This was always a quiet gap — physical fighters naturally accumulate +1/+2/+3 from magic weapons over a campaign, and a psionic striker had no equivalent. Folding it into the chassis rather than making it an Advanced Training pick keeps the AT pool clean and means every Vanguard gets it regardless of build. It scales cleanly: +1 at 3rd, +1 at 5th, +2 at 9th, +2 at 13th, +3 at 17th.
Pyrokinesis identity language has been rewritten. Without the Burning condition and its damage-over-time ticks, Pyro no longer plays like an attrition machine. The old flavor text said as much and it was wrong. Pyro is now framed correctly as a front-loaded burst discipline — sequence the primer with Ember Lance T2, cash in the doubling hit, scatter with Fiery Blast, zone with Firestorm. High impact, immediate pressure, no tracking.
Two doc polish items. The rider definition now explicitly notes that passive bonus damage features are never riders, covering any future features without ambiguity. The Concentration Startup Exception has been pulled out of body text and promoted to a styled callout box — it's an important enough rule that it deserves to be easy to find at the table.
DM Master Cryo Player Pyro Player Psycho Player
v7.5.0 is out.
Two additions this version.
Reactive Barrier joins the Advanced Training pool as the fifth option. Spend 2 Psi as a bonus action to raise a THP shell equal to 4× your Proficiency Bonus. While it holds, every melee attacker that connects triggers a free reaction blast — Str save or pushed 10 ft. T1 bumps the shell to 6×PB. T2 adds Prone on a failed save. The shell is the resource: once the THP is gone, the reaction window closes naturally. At 20th level PB is 6, so you're looking at 24 or 36 THP depending on tier. Meaningful without being absurd.
A third Advanced Training slot opens at 20th level. Players now hold 3 of 5 picks across 15th, 18th, and 20th. The existing four options (Psychic Lance, Dazzle, Mind Blast, Gravitic Press) are still there — Reactive Barrier just joins them. No one is forced into the new pick, but the slot is there.
Both of these are folded in alongside the v7.4.x changes (½ PB to MS attack rolls, Pyro identity rewrite, MS attack bonus design note, Concentration Startup Exception callout box), which are shipping here as part of this release.
DM Master Cryo Player Pyro Player Psycho Player
v7.6.0 is out.
One addition: Concussive Surge joins the Advanced Training pool as the sixth option.
It's a returning feature from the 5.x era that got cut for pool size rather than balance reasons, and now that the pool is deeper it earns its place. On a Manifested Strike hit, spend 3 Psi — the target makes a Constitution saving throw or takes 2 MS dice of force damage and loses reactions until the end of its next turn. T1 adds Restrained on a failed save. T2 upgrades to Stunned instead.
The pool now covers six distinct identities: Int nuke (Psychic Lance), Wis sensory (Mind Blast), spell control (Dazzle), gravity zone (Gravitic Press), THP barrier (Reactive Barrier), and Con shutdown (Concussive Surge). Players hold 3 of 6.
DM Master Cryo Player Pyro Player Psycho Player
Kinetic Vanguard v7.6.1 — Patch Notes
Fighter · Martial Archetype · 5e Homebrew By NixNinja
What changed
v7.6.1 is a rules-clarification patch. No features were added or removed — this cleans up an ambiguity in how critical hits interact with Overloaded Manifested Strikes, and fixes a structural issue in the class document.
Critical Hit Ruling (Clarified)
The old wording said crits "double the Manifested Strike damage dice per normal 5e rules, including any Overloaded die steps." That was ambiguous when Overload steps up the die — does the extra crit die match the stepped-up die, or the base die?
New ruling: On a critical hit, add one die equal to your base (non-Overloaded) Manifested Strike die for your level. The Overloaded die stays as-is; the crit bonus is always the base.
Example — Level 11, Tier 2 Overload: Your base MS die is 1d8. T2 Overload steps it up twice to 1d12. On a crit, you add one d8 (the base), not another d12. Total: 1d12 + 1d8, not 2d12.
This is consistent with the existing T2 19–20 footnote, which already showed
1d20 + 2d12(base d12 added on crit, not another d20).Non-Overloaded crits work exactly the same as before — base die doubled as normal.
Structural Fix
Advanced Training V's feature text was accidentally orphaned inside the changelog section (between the v7.6.0 and v7.5.0 entries) instead of living in the class body. It's been relocated to its proper position after Psionic Apex. No mechanical change — just a formatting fix so the document reads correctly.
License Added
All four documents now carry a simple attribution license: free for non-commercial use with credit to NixNinja. Commercial use requires permission.
Documents
📄 Kinetic Vanguard v7.6.1 — Master Document The full class write-up: all features, Overload system, examples, discipline summaries, Advanced Training pool, and changelog.
❄️ Cryokinesis Player Sheet v7.6.1 Escalating Lockdown · Cold damage
🔥 Pyrokinesis Player Sheet v7.6.1 Compounding Pressure · Fire damage
🟣 Psychokinesis Player Sheet v7.6.1 Tactical Space Control · Force damage
Kinetic Vanguard v7.6.2
Patch Notes · April 2026
Three fixes this patch: a rule clarification that aligns Psionic Instinct with how we were already playing it, a document ordering fix that’s been lurking since v7.0.0, and the crit ruling from v7.6.1 propagated to the discipline sheets.
Psionic Instinct — The T0 Restriction Is Gone
Before (v7.6.1)
“Once per Attack action, the first Manifested Strike hit triggers your Discipline’s 3rd-level T0 feature for 0 Psi. This free activation does not inherit any Overload tier.”
After (v7.6.2)
“Once per Attack action, the first rider activation on a Manifested Strike hit costs 0 Psi — regardless of the rider’s Overload tier. If the rider is Overloaded, you still pay the Blood Tax on hit, but the Psi cost is waived.”
Why
The old text said T0 only. The play patterns section was already showing Ember Lance T2 on the Instinct-free first hit at level 10. The Pyro nova opener — lead with EL T2 to set the doubling primer, then cash in on hit 2 — has been the intended line since v7.2.0. Rather than patch the examples, we patched the rule to match.
The economy stays honest: Psi is waived, but Blood Tax is not. Your first rider is free to activate; if you Overload it, you still eat the HP cost on hit. The ceiling on a free Instinct opener is now higher, but so is the price tag.
What Changes in Practice
Discipline
Old Opener
New Option
Cryokinesis
T0 Glacial Spike (speed −5 ft)
T1 Glacial Spike (speed 0 on fail)
Pyrokinesis
T0 Ember Lance (2×PB fire)
T2 Ember Lance (sets doubling primer)
Psychokinesis
T0 Telekinetic Shove (push 5 ft)
T1 Shove (push 10 ft + Prone on fail)
The Psi economy is unchanged beyond the first activation. Second, third, and fourth riders still cost Psi as normal. This just removes the gotcha where the rule text and the examples disagreed.
Discipline Docs — Feature Ordering Fixed
In v7.0.0, Snow Chains and Frozen Ground swapped levels (Snow Chains moved to 7th, Frozen Ground to 10th). The psi cost reference tables were updated correctly, but the feature write-up sections in all three discipline player sheets still had the 10th-level ability listed before the 7th-level ability.
This is now fixed. All three sheets read 3rd → 7th → 10th → 15th → 20th in both the reference table and the feature prose.
No mechanical changes. Just document hygiene.
Crit Ruling — Discipline Sheet Update
v7.6.1 clarified that a crit on an Overloaded MS adds one base (non-Overloaded) die, not one Overloaded die. The main doc was updated in v7.6.1; the three discipline sheets still had the old summary line (“Crits double all dice including Overloaded steps”).
All three now read: “On a crit, add one base (non-Overloaded) MS die. See main doc for examples.”
New: DM Quick Reference Sheet
This patch ships with a new companion document: a one-page DM quick reference for running Kinetic Vanguard at the table. It covers the declaration flow, save DCs, Blood Tax math, what riders do at a glance, and the most common ruling edge cases. Designed to sit behind the screen so the DM doesn’t need to crack the full doc mid-combat.
Updated Files
Kinetic Vanguard is released under a simple attribution license. You are free to use, copy, modify, and redistribute for non-commercial purposes with credit to NixNinja.