Sleeper's Artifice

The Sleeper’s Options · No. 4

Keep the Vigil

The night shift, split four ways between a ranger, a sorcerer, a monk and a paladin, all for 5e.

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Cover of Keep the Vigil: four night watchers holding a lantern-lit crossroads camp, a paladin's sun shield raised

The cover. The rest is in the PDF.

4 Night Watch Subclasses for 5e

Camp needs somebody awake, and these four take the shift, each keeping a different piece of the night. The ranger has the road and the camp beside it. The sorcerer counts the hours as they stack up, the monk walks the perimeter, and the paladin stands in the doorway under oath.

WARDEN OF THE NIGHTROAD (ranger) fights by lantern light. Name the night's problem and stay on it, and by 11th level calling a target gives the whole party Advantage against it. Its watch feature lets a camp take a Long Rest in places other parties won't.

DAWNWARD SORCERY (sorcerer) banks the fight while it happens. Hours pile up as combat runs and get spent through Metamagic, so the sorcerer hits hardest in the late rounds, right about when everyone else is running dry.

WAY OF THE THIRD WATCH (monk) is built for round one. It acts early and arrives first, slows down the fastest thing on the other side, and makes walking up to the monk a decision that costs something.

OATH OF THE VIGIL (paladin) is sworn to a threshold. The paladin gets a duel mark and fifteen feet of ground to call their own, plus a loaded answer for each of the two ways an enemy tries to leave.

WHAT'S INSIDE

  • 4 full subclasses built on the 2024 rules, with features at each class's own subclass levels.
  • Balanced against the strongest published 2024 subclasses, and never stronger than them.
  • Play notes for all four, and a d6 flavor table for each one.
  • Conversion sidebars on every subclass for tables still playing the 2014 rules.
  • A screen edition and a plain white print edition, both US Letter, plus the full text as plain text for VTT import.
  • A bookmarked PDF that isn't locked.

Compatible with the 2024 rules for fifth edition. Includes material from the SRD 5.2 by Wizards of the Coast LLC under CC-BY-4.0. Full license statement in the PDF. Unaffiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

The dream half of this line is Options No. 1, Dream & Ruin, and No. 2, Lullaby & Larceny. For the ruin half, look at No. 3, Ruin & Remnant.

We'll Pick Up Next Week, the free letter: sleepersartifice.substack.com

The Sleeper’s Options

The four inside it

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