Nightfarers: The Wylder

"The Erdtree's grace is a faded memory, and the blood of my tribe still stains the ash. If the Nightlord believes this dark will protect him, he has never known what it means to be hunted." — Vaelen, Survivor of the Shattered Veil

Fighters who embrace the archetype of the Wylder are the ultimate survivors, forged in the ashes of a massacred people and tempered by the suffocating dark of the Nightreign. Stripped of divine grace and left to wander a shattered world, these warriors have sworn a blood oath to hunt the horrors that lurk in the shadows. To walk this path is to transform grief into a lethal, highly refined martial art.

Rather than relying on arcane study or blind faith, a Wylder survives through sheer adaptability and mechanical ingenuity. At the core of their arsenal is the Claw Shot, a heavy, wrist-mounted grappling mechanism scavenged from the clockwork ruins of a forgotten age and reinforced with meteoric iron. With this tool, a Wylder dictates the flow of battle—ripping fleeing prey into the reach of their blade, or launching themselves toward colossal beasts to strike where they are most vulnerable.

The trauma of their past has left a permanent mark on the Wylder’s soul, awakening a preternatural Sixth Sense. This uncanny intuition acts as an omnipresent lifeline, allowing their bodies to subconsciously react to danger and dodge lethal blows a split second before they strike.

Whether they choose to shatter their enemies with primordial, unyielding strength or dismantle them with terrifying, erratic grace, a Wylder is an unstoppable force in a broken world. When standard armaments fail to bring down the reapers of the night, they unleash their ultimate art: devastating, explosive iron stakes packed with chaotic fire, ensuring that nothing remains of their prey but cinders.

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Athletics and choose 1 of the following 2 skills of your choice: Survival or Nature.

Claw Shot: Reset

The violent retraction of the Claw Shot requires manual realignment. You have learned to spool the tension wires and realign the meteoric iron gears in the heat of battle.

Wylder Combat Focus

Upon choosing this archetype at 3rd level, you define the martial foundation of your vengeance. Your past survival has taught you that the Nightlord’s terrors are met either with overwhelming force or untouchable celerity.

You choose the method by which your Claw Shot and subsequent Wylder features function: the Path of Might or the Path of Reflex.

Path of Might (Strength)

You embrace the raw, primordial power of the Crucible. Your Claw Shot is reinforced with heavy chains and thick spools of meteoric iron, requiring immense physical power to operate. You do not maneuver around the horrors of the night; you shatter them.

Path of Reflex (Dexterity)

You adopt the erratic grace of the Curseblades and the silent lethality of the Black-Knife Assassins. Your Claw Shot is strung with high-tension wire, designed for instantaneous deployment. Your agility is your shield against the encroaching dark.

Versatile Knight

At 7th level, your study of the fallen champions—from the Blackgaol Knights to the warriors of the Nameless Mausoleums—grants you an unmatched edge with all armaments. Furthermore, you have learned to use the kinetic tension of your Claw Shot to launch yourself through the air with predatory force.

Sixth Sense (Passive)

Starting at 10th level, the scars of your past have attuned you to the very scent of death. Much like those who survived the purifying flames of Messmer’s crusade, your body reacts to lethal intent before your mind registers it.

When you take damage that would reduce you to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to drop to 1 hit point instead. As part of this reaction, you can move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

Onslaught Stake

At 15th level, you master a volatile art born of pure desperation. Drawing inspiration from the Fire Knights, you load your Claw Shot with a massive, explosive iron spike.

As an action, you launch the stake at a point you can see within 60 feet. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Wylder save DC. A target takes 8d8 piercing damage and 4d8 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

You can choose to "charge" this attack. If you spend your action on one turn charging the ignition chamber, you gain invulnerability to all damage until the start of your next turn, at which point you must use your action to launch the stake. If you do so, the fire damage increases to 8d8.

AN: Due to the limitations of D&D Beyond, it will be 12d8 piercing damage, with the charged shot doing 16d8 piercing damage. Simply divide the total damage rolled in half and treat half as fire damage. In addition the charges  are 1:1, sharing the available "ammo" slots.

Peerless Nightfarer

By 18th level, you have emerged from the abyss as its master. Standing as an equal to the legendary Elden Lords, your Sixth Sense is no longer an exhausting reflex, but a permanent state of awareness. Your Sixth Sense feature now replenishes when you finish a short or long rest.

AN: Due to D&D Beyond limitations or my own, it will still be labeled as resetting on Long Rest in Snippets and Description, but it does reset properly upon a Short Rest.