Heroes of the Coast

Cultures of the Coast

Bloodbound. Your once-human soul has been captured in the blood pact that looms over the Scarlet Coast. When you die, you are bound to return to the region as a tiefling, aasimar, half-elf, half-orc, or human. A rare few of these bloodbound souls manage to ‘perfect’ their soul within a lifetime to become celestials or fiends.

Deathless. Your soul clings to this realm and is difficult to snuff out. When making death saving throws, you may use your Strength or Charisma saving throw bonus if one is higher than 0. A result of 20 or higher allows you to recover 1 hit point and regain consciousness. If higher, you may use your Strength or Charisma saving throw bonus on saving throws to prevent effects that would kill you instantly as well. When you truly die, you may choose to reincarnate as an adult immediately in place of your previous body or linger as a soul for up to 10 days, upon which you are reborn as an infant elsewhere with no memories of your past life. Should you choose to reincarnate, you have a 25% chance to become a tiefling, a 25% chance to become an aasimar, and a 50% chance to remain of the same blood. Your appearance randomly changes and many of your memories become hazy, jumbled, or are entirely lost. Work with your DM to determine if you’d like to continue playing the character with room for changes to personality traits and alignment or if the character becomes an NPC wandering the Dream on their own.

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Adepts

The bombastic and fearless antics of the halflings of the Scarlet Coast are the stuff of storybooks. Free of the dreary Delta, their forward-looking sense of style and nimble tongues set a fashionable standard in the Tooth and beyond. Others who live on the cutting edge of the bleeding coast have to keep up with their boldness. When you’re dealing with the Scarlet Coast, sometimes the first move is the only move.

Exceptional Boons

Starstruck

You are a master of compelling introductions. You have advantage on Charisma checks to establish your identity, or that your identity matters. On the first turn of combat, you also have advantage on attack rolls and impose disadvantage on saving throws against enemies that haven’t acted yet in combat.

Benefit of the Doubt

Once you’ve told one lie, you know how to keep the ball rolling in your favor. You have advantage on Charisma checks on subsequent checks after a first successful check, and that continues until you fail. Once you’ve used up your benefit of the doubt, you can’t gain it again until you complete a long rest.

Effectively Unlucky

The Muses have taken a perhaps cruel interest in your reactions to failure. If you fail a roll where you have advantage or suffer a critical hit, you immediately regain inspiration. If you already have inspiration, you may gain greater inspiration instead at DM discretion.

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Paragons

The Scarlet Coast has had countless tiny kingdoms, brief dynasties, and attempts at empire in its past, but few have been more successful than the Blooded Houses. Composed of half-orcs, a rare few pure-blooded orcs, and fewer Galasteri humans, their martial discipline and reverence for the land they hold has become the standard for warriors in the region. One bleeds for the land, one way or another.

Ancestral Boons

Born at Sea

You were born in the waters of the ocean and were blessed by them. A rare few who nearly drown are similarly blessed. Swimming does not use extra feet of movement for you and you may hold your breath without issue for a number of minutes equal to your Constitution score before you start drowning.

Born on the Rocks

You were born on the basalt stone of the Coast and were blessed by the igneous rock. Some climbers who take terrible falls also receive this blessing. Climbing does not expend additional movement for you and you have resistance to falling damage.

Born to the Sky

You were born during a great storm or monsoon and received its blessing. Some say those who survive being struck by lightning also gain this blessing. You have advantage on Acrobatics checks to maintain your balance on narrow beams, ropes, and other precarious situations and do not expend additional movement on narrow walkways or against strong winds.

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Sages

Sages of the Scarlet Coast face an interesting dilemma. Something is gathering power in the region, and it’s unclear what final form this power shall take. The mysterious Blood Pact that binds any soul who comes into contact with it has upended the already-unknown workings of death and rebirth. Fiends rise from cracks in the stone or vents in the coastal shelf. People hunger for power that only magic can provide, and there are as many con artists at work as genuine mages throughout the region.

A possibility that few entertain, but most have heard, is that all of this arcane and divine energy is pooling in preparation for a new Throne to rise in the region, one that will dramatically reshape the coast. The Throne of War may have been so subsumed by the Ramparts that they no longer apply to the Coast as a whole. If this is the case, the great question becomes... What will the Scarlet Coast become? The changes could be drastic, devastating, and deadly, considering the ruins found in many regions.

Supernal Source: Fiendish Blood

The history of blood pacts in the Scarlet Coast is strongly tied to infernal cults that plague the region to this day. While the initial cultists were servants of the forces beyond, generations of experimentation and both sacred and meditations have spawned bloodlines of tieflings, aasimar, and native fiends. These fiends can be killed in the Dream for good, but only if their family line if extinguished. Wars to purge the lines of wicked demons are the stuff of legend on the Coast and the stories have more truth than fiction.

To this day, each blood pact bears a tiny trace of infernal or abyssal magic, just enough to leave a sense of the pact’s weight upon the souls of those who swear. One who studies this lingering stain carefully may be able to draw upon the bloodlines that have seeped into the ground of the Scarlet Coast, gaining their power. While not inherently evil, these powers lend themselves to cruel purposes. It takes a great deal of discipline to avoid falling into the grasp of the vile ancestors of old, intent only on doing harm.

Source Feature: Pactbinder

Whenever a creature that can see and hear you swears an oath or makes a promise, you may spend 1 focus point to bind the pact in blood. This pact lasts for 24 hours, upon which you may spend another focus point to renew it. Should the oath be broken while the pact is active, you know of it, and you immediately gain the benefits of the hex spell on that creature and you also gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) checks to track down that creature. These benefits last until the next dawn, though you may spend focus to keep fueling the broken pact as above.

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Supernal Boons

Hungry Eyes

You gain darkvision for 60 feet, in which you see colors more vividly than others do in bright light while text or runes remain obscured. Not even magical darkness hinders your vision. In addition, you can use telepathy to hear thoughts directed at you from within 60 feet and know when someone you can see is thinking about you within that range.

Terrible Caress

Your fingertips can touch the soul, leaving pain and frayed emotions in their wake. You can make an unarmed strike using Charisma instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls. When you do, your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 + your Charisma modifier psychic damage and the target can’t take reactions until the start of its next turn.

Mercurial Flesh

You gain control over your corporeal form, the better to reflect the desires or expectations of others. You learn the alter self spell, which does not count against the number of spells you may know. The spell is always considered prepared for wizards, clerics, and druids. The changes you make with alter self are permanent until dispelled or until you cast it again.

Timeless Heart

You have advantage on saving throws to resist the charmed or frightened conditions. If you gain or already have this advantage from any other source, you gain immunity to the condition instead.

Additionally, as your reaction to taking at least 1 point of damage, you gain resistance to that damage type for up to 1 hour. Once you do, you cannot develop this resistance again until you complete a long rest.

Manifold Form

You have learned to take on the form of a celestial or fiend bound to the blood of the Scarlet Coast for 1 hour or until you choose to revert. You grow an extra set of limbs which may operate independently of the other. You gain an additional action on each of your turns which may only be used to attack using the Terrible Caress or to cast a cantrip. You also gain resistance to a single damage type of your choice, which you may change at the start of each of your turns. While in this form, your creature type becomes a celestial or fiend, chosen when you acquire this boon.

Your desires grow stronger and more satisfying when indulged in this form, adding great pleasure to performing evil acts, but there is no compulsion to do so.

Once you’ve taken on the manifold form, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.

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