House of Lancers

Warmages who join the House of Lancers are trained in fluid martial arts and meditative asceticism, melding the stoic discipline of monks with potent spellcasting. As such, they are unarmed elemental warriors, self-reliant and capable of feats no monk or warmage could hope to match. However, Lancers are notoriously neutral in almost all matters, and stand apart from the politics of the other Houses.

Lancers derive their name from an ancient precursor to the pawn, a piece remembered only in early variants of chess. Remote monasteries still play using this ancient set of rules: a smaller board, fewer pieces, and lancers replacing the dutiful pawns. It is a relic from a forgotten age, rife with symbolism.

Level 3: Intercept Technique

You adopt the monastic principle of offensive protection. While you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier. If you are under the effects of the mage armor spell, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier or your Intelligence modifier (your choice). You can't use a shield and gain this benefit.

Level 3: Hand-to-Hand Arcana

You learn the Lancers’ secret unarmed combat technique, granting you the following benefits:

• You can use Intelligence instead of Strength forthe attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes.
• You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strikes.
• Your unarmed strikes count as melee weapons for the purposes of warmage spells.

Level 3: Shock Trooper

You can rapidly close the distance between you and your foes. Whenever you make a melee attack on your turn against a creature you can see, you can lunge up to 15 feet toward your target before making the attack. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. You can perform this movement even if it causes you to travel through the air, though you fall after making the attack if you don’t land on solid ground.

Level 7: Mystical Physicality

Whenever you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check, you can use your Intelligence modifier instead of the normal modifier. In addition, moving through difficult terrain no longer costs you additional movement.

Level 10: Deflect Energy

You can deflect bolts of energy with your bare hands. As a reaction when you are hit by a ranged spell attack or a ranged weapon attack that deals cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, or radiant damage, you can use your reaction to deflect the bolt. The damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Intelligence modifier + half your warmage level (rounded down).

Improved Shock Trooper

You can lunge up to 30 feet using your Shock Trooper feature. This movement causes you to teleport through creatures and objects, blinking to the target in an instant. You can’t end your movement in an occupied space.

Level 18: Flurry of Spells

You can cast spells with superhuman speed. As an action, you can expend a use of your Arcane Surge feature to cast three different cantrips that have a casting time of 1 action or 1 bonus action. You can’t use your Arcane Surge feature on any of these cantrips.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.