Echo Knight

Overview & Creation

FIGHTER   A human in clanging plate armor holds her shield before her as she runs toward the massed goblins. An elf behind her, clad in studded leather armor, peppers the goblins with arrows loosed from his exquisite bow. The half-orc nearby shouts orders, helping the two combatants coordinate their assault to the best advantage. A dwarf in chain mail interposes his shield between the ogre’s club and his companion, knocking the deadly blow aside. His companion, a half-elf in scale armor, swings two scimitars in a blinding whirl as she circles the ogre, looking for a blind spot in its defenses.   A gladiator fights for sport in an arena, a master with his trident and net, skilled at toppling foes and moving them around for the crowd’s delight—and his own tactical advantage. His opponent’s sword flares with blue light an instant before she sends lightning flashing forth to smite him.   All of these heroes are fighters, perhaps the most diverse class of characters in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Questing knights, conquering overlords, royal champions, elite foot soldiers, hardened mercenaries, and bandit kings—as fighters, they all share an unparalleled mastery with weapons and armor, and a thorough knowledge of the skills of combat. And they are well acquainted with death, both meting it out and staring it defiantly in the face.   Well-Rounded Specialists   Fighters learn the basics of all combat styles. Every fighter can swing an axe, fence with a rapier, wield a longsword or a greatsword, use a bow, and even trap foes in a net with some degree of skill. Likewise, a fighter is adept with shields and every form of armor. Beyond that basic degree of familiarity, each fighter specializes in a certain style of combat. Some concentrate on archery, some on fighting with two weapons at once, and some on augmenting their martial skills with magic. This combination of broad general ability and extensive specialization makes fighters superior combatants on battlefields and in dungeons alike.   Trained for Danger   Not every member of the city watch, the village militia, or the queen’s army is a fighter. Most of these troops are relatively untrained soldiers with only the most basic combat knowledge. Veteran soldiers, military officers, trained bodyguards, dedicated knights, and similar figures are fighters.   Some fighters feel drawn to use their training as adventurers. The dungeon delving, monster slaying, and other dangerous work common among adventurers is second nature for a fighter, not all that different from the life he or she left behind. There are greater risks, perhaps, but also much greater rewards—few fighters in the city watch have the opportunity to discover a magic flame tongue sword, for example. Creating a Fighter   As you build your fighter, think about two related elements of your character’s background: Where did you get your combat training, and what set you apart from the mundane warriors around you? Were you particularly ruthless? Did you get extra help from a mentor, perhaps because of your exceptional dedication? What drove you to this training in the first place? A threat to your homeland, a thirst for revenge, or a need to prove yourself might all have been factors.   You might have enjoyed formal training in a noble’s army or in a local militia. Perhaps you trained in a war academy, learning strategy, tactics, and military history. Or you might be self-taught—unpolished but well tested. Did you take up the sword as a way to escape the limits of life on a farm, or are you following a proud family tradition? Where did you acquire your weapons and armor? They might have been military issue or family heirlooms, or perhaps you scrimped and saved for years to buy them. Your armaments are now among your most important possessions—the only things that stand between you and death’s embrace.

Class Features

Fighting Style (level 1)   You adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.   Archery: You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.   Defense: While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.   Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.   Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.   Protection: When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.   Two-Weapon Fighting: When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.     Second Wind (level 1) You have a limited well of stamina that you can draw on to protect yourself from harm. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.   Action Surge: Starting at 2nd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level, you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.   Martial Archetype. At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate in your combat styles and techniques. Choose Champion, Battle Master, or Eldritch Knight, Echo Knight, Brute, Rune Knight, or a martial archetype from another source. The archetype you choose grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th level.   Ability Score Improvement. When you reach 4th level, and again at 6th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.   Extra Attack. Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.   Indomitable. Beginning at 9th level, you can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll, and you can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest. You can use this feature twice between long rests starting at 13th level and three times between long rests starting at 17th level.   Extra Attack. Beginning at 11th level, you can attack three times, instead of twice, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. The number of attacks increases to four when you reach 20th level in this class.   Extra Attack. At 20th level, you can attack four times, instead of three, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Starting Equipment

Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) chain mail or (b) leather armor, longbow, and 20 arrows
• (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) two handaxes
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack

Subclass Options

DUNAMIS AND DUNAMANCY     Dunamis is the primal magical energy of potentiality and actuality, an anticipatory arcane force that helps shape the multiverse and might very well be what holds its elements together, like an infinite web of unseen tethers. Manifesting as a translucent gray energy that shimmers and drifts like an ethereal cloud of mist when gathered, dunamis darkens as it vibrates and condenses to the moment of action or invocation, manipulating fundamental aspects of reality. Those who study to control and tap into this near-invisible power can subtly bend the flow of time and space by controlling the forces of localized gravity, peering into possible timelines to shift fate in their favor, and scattering the potential energy of their enemies to rob them of their potency. Dunamancy is an ancient, esoteric study of magic almost unknown across Exandria. Facets of dunamancy have quietly bled into the more common applications of spellcraft like an unrealized glimpse behind the curtain of creation. Mages who pursue the study of this strange and complex force call themselves dunamancers, and their interest in learning to alter the fabric of gravity, potential, and time often coincides with a hunger to understand the oldest mysteries of the cosmos. BEYOND THE KRYN DYNASTY Although the Kryn Dynasty is responsible for the carefully guarded development and refining of dunamancy, the mysteries of this magical art have long since spread beyond the dynasty's borders. The hidden secrets of harnessing dunamis eventually found their way into the hands of the Cerberus Assembly and have continued to slowly disseminate across all Wildemount as a result. If you are considering a character pursuing a path involving the manipulation of dunamis, you can easily tie your story into the Kryn Dynasty and the ready access to dunamancy it provides. But you can also consider where else in the world dunamancy might have spread, and how its secrets have influenced your character's path. You might have stumbled into a cabal of defecting Kryn expatriates who teach you their ways, or you might have been entrusted with learning such secrets as a means of fighting the Kryn with their own power. Work with your Dungeon Master and figure out a fun and logical way that your character and the mysterious power of dunamancy might have crossed paths.   In campaigns outside Wildemount, there is no factional control of dunamancy, so the implementation of this arcane discipline is entirely open. Talk to your Dungeon Master about how dunamancy might fit into their campaign, and how your character's story could be woven into that lore.   DUNAMIS AS A MARTIAL FOCUS Life is a n extended series o f choices. Every crossroads offers paths to different possibilities. The reality of each possible choice begins to coalesce as you approach the moment of decision, with multiple timelines humming with opportunity. Once a choice is made, one path sparks to life and continues while others fade, their energy of potentiality diffusing into the multiverse. A rare few characters learn to invoke and harness this released dunamis in the throes of battle to enhance their martial capabilities-and such warriors are uniformly feared.   FIGHTER The fighter takes many forms in Wildemount, from the grizzled mercenary who earns their keep by the might of their blade, to the dedicated soldier who fights for the banner of their homeland, to the hearty treasure hunter whose skill with a weapon is their finest asset. At 3rd level, a fighter gains the Martial Archetype class feature described in the Player's Handbook. The Echo Knight is a new option for that feature.     ECHO KNIGHT   A mysterious and feared frontline warrior of the Kryn Dynasty, the Echo Knight has mastered the art of using dunamis to summon the fading shades of unrealized timelines to aid them in battle. Surrounded by echoes of their own might, they charge into the fray as a cycling swarm of shadows and strikes.   MANIFEST ECHO   3rd-level Echo Knight feature   You can use a bonus action to magically manifest an echo of yourself in an unoccupied space you can see within 15 feet of you. This echo is a magical, translucent, gray image of you that lasts until it is destroyed, until you dismiss it as a bonus action, until you manifest another echo, or until you're incapacitated.   Your echo has AC 14 + your proficiency bonus, 1 hit point, and immunity to all conditions. If it has to make a saving throw, it uses your saving throw bonus for the roll. It is the same size as you, and it occupies its space. On your turn, you can mentally command the echo to move up to 30 feet in any direction (no action required). If your echo is ever more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn, it is destroyed.   You can use the echo in the following ways:   • As a bonus action, you can teleport, magically swapping places with your echo at a cost of 15 feet of your movement, regardless of the distance between the two of you.   • When you take the Attack action on your turn, any attack you make with that action can originate from your space or the echo's space. You make this choice for each attack.   • When a creature that you can see within 5 feet of your echo moves at least 5 feet away from it, you can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if you were in the echo's space.   UNLEASH INCARNATION   3rd-level Echo Knight feature   You can heighten your echo's fury. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can make one additional melee attack from the echo's position. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.   ECHO AVATAR   7th-level Echo Knight feature   You can temporarily transfer your consciousness to your echo. As an action, you can see through your echo's eyes and hear through its ears. During this time, you are deafened and blinded. You can sustain this effect for up to 10 minutes, and you can end it at any time (requires no action). While your echo is being used in this way, it can be up to 1 ,000 feet away from you without being destroyed.   SHADOW MARTYR   10th-level Echo Knight feature   You can make your echo throw itself in front of an attack directed at another creature that you can see. Before the attack roll is made, you can use your reaction to teleport the echo to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the targeted creature. The attack roll that triggered the reaction is instead made against your echo. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.   RECLAIM POTENTIAL   15th-level Echo Knight feature   You've learned to absorb the fleeting magic of your echo. When an echo of yours is destroyed by taking damage, you can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 2d6 + your Constitution modifier, provided you don't already have temporary hit points. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.   LEGION OF ONE   18th-level Echo Knight feature   You can use a bonus action to create two echoes with your Manifest Echo feature, and these echoes can coexist. If you try to create a third echo, the previous two echoes are destroyed. Anything you can do from one echo's position can be done from the other's instead. In addition, when you roll initiative and have no uses of your Unleash Incarnation feature left, you regain one use of that feature.