Occultist

You've seen them before: the woman with a missing finger, the man with the snake tattooed around his arm, the kid with a cloisonné pendant bearing an ominous symbol. These are not just body modifications—these are magic users.

They're called occultists, and they follow a path of ritual and wisdom long known yet oft forgotten. Rather than force magic to obey, they bind, twist, manipulate, and compromise with it. They follow ancient agreements and techniques to produce results that few fully understand, even those that use them, but they know it will work, for it always has.

The occultist is a tradition of magic that is as mysterious as it is powerful. The occultist seeks the ultimate truths of the universe—no matter how terrible, how forbidden, or how controversial. By sifting through even the most banal and mundane events, an occultist can always find a grain of truth worth exploring. For others, this power to uncover even the smallest sliver of wisdom from all corners of existence can be… frightening. But not for the occultist. Even when threatened, an occultist will never hesitate to defend themselves, using abilities that baffle their foes.

For those who wish to become occultists themselves, there are no specific requirements for where they must live or what they must do. There is no single path to becoming an occultist. However, all paths eventually lead to a place where occultists gather: a hidden sanctuary where only those initiated into the ways of the occult may enter. It is here that they are free to explore every aspect of existence and uncover any truth they desire—or so many believe.

Things that should be impossible? That's where the occultist comes in. 

Master of Rituals

Throughout your travels, you've always been interested in the occult. Maybe it was a tarot reading at a local café that sparked your interest, or maybe it was the fact that your mom has always been really into magic. Either way, you've finally decided to make this fascination of yours into a career. The Occultist is a rogue and seeks out secrets and the supernatural. The Occultist learns a number of languages and gains proficiencies with three tools: the forgery kit, alchemist supplies, and calligraphy supplies. The Occultist also has the ability to copy Ritual spells from other spell lists, and start with two Ritual spells from any spell list.

You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a cleric, wizard or warlock spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. You may also store ritual spells for later in the form of a scroll or page in a spell book, for a 10gp worth of Velum and magically infused ink per spell level of the ritual. 

You start with two Ritual spells from the Wizard, Warlock, or Cleric spell list; these are spells that have a special Ritual tag on them, indicating that they can be cast as a Ritual.

Dutiful Researcher

As an occultist, your power comes from an understanding of the supernatural. Though you've never seen a spirit, you know that they exist because of the strange things that occasionally happen around you. For example, you might have a fondness for candles because they've always seemed to burn brighter whenever you enter a room or hear childish giggling in the dead of night. You may find yourself drawn to texts about the occult and paranormal, particularly books on history and folklore. You can use these texts to help you recall details about your current location or relevant historical information.

As an occultist, you have a number of strange and powerful abilities to draw upon. To begin with, you gain advantage on History and Investigation checks if you have a book of lore about your current location or can readily access written works about your subject (for example, you could use a book from the library to help you remember details of the palace and its history).

Hope you have your Library Card handy.

Resourceful Circles

As an occultist, you have access to rituals and symbols that allow you to cast magic spells, summon spirits, and commune with the beyond. What you might not know is that all of these rituals are extremely portable and can be performed almost anywhere (as long as there's room for a circle). The rest is up to your imagination—and the materials you have on hand.

Meaning? You can perform rituals like summoning a spirit with a piece of chalk on a brick wall or laying down a ritual circle on your kitchen counter using toothpicks and string.

Starting at 9th level, May cast rituals at double the speed of normal, and for half of the material cost if any. Also you may double the speed at which you copy spells down or create magic scrolls.

This increases at 14th level to be four times as fast as the normal rate, allowing a spell that would take one hour to copy to a scroll take only fifteen minutes. 

Additionally you may copy any spell scroll you find and change it into a ritual allowing you to store the spell for later use. Any spell converted to a Ritual in this way has its casting time multiplied by ten due to the added complexity of ritual circles. (i.e. 1 action becomes 1 minute, 1 minute becomes 10 minutes. etc...)

Truth Seeker

Beginning at 13th level, There are truths that cannot be seen with the naked eye. But the Occultist can see these truths with their inner sight.

When you study a tome of knowledge or are attempting to decipher a unknown language you may spend an hour with the written material and the relevant truths in the text will be deciphered and highlighted in your vision. Any falsehoods or misinformation will be grayed out of your vision and all truth will shine with a brilliant silver glow.

In addition you now gain expertise in Insight and advantage on Insight checks vs Deception as you are always looking for the truth in other peoples lies. 

War Ritualist

Starting at 17th level, you may add offensive rituals to weapons as a one use enchantment. As such you may add that spells damage to the weapon attack.