You are a soldier and a strategist.
War may be a high-stakes game of chess, but you're three moves ahead. With a barked command and a swing of a sword, you turn chaos into opportunity. Where others charge headlong into battle, you dictate its rhythm, making every maneuver, every strike, every breath count.
You are the wall that stands between your friends and death’s grasp, taunting the denizens of evil to pick on someone their own size. Whether you're springing the perfect ambush, leading an unbreakable last stand, or simply refusing to fall no matter how many foes surround you, you make sure your squad fights as one—and wins.
Many Tacticians favor their own distinct methods—but what sets you apart is your knack for taking a bunch of adventurers and turning them into a team worthy of song. You don't fight battles—you conduct them, and the battlefield is your symphony.
When you first create your Tactician, you benefit from the following training.
Your key attribute is Reason; raise its score by 1.
At first and every level thereafter, increase your health by 9.
You are trained in a number of skills of your choice equal to 2 + your Reason.
The ringin of steel sharpens your mind. You have a core resource called Focus, which you use to fuel your most powerful abilities.
↳ At the start of each encounter, you start with an amount of Focus equal to your Inspiration.
↳ At the beginning of each round, your Focus increases by 2.
↳ At the end of an encounter, you lose all Focus.
Though you can't gain your resource outside of encounters, you can still use Focus-based abilities. You may use each ability that costs Focus once without spending any Focus, treating them as if they had the endeavor trait instead.
You're extensive combat training lets you punish your foes for the mistakes they make. You gain the Counter-Strike reaction.
Trigger A foe within your reach willingly moves, uses an ability with the manipulate trait, casts a spell, or makes a ranged attack.
Description You immediately punish the triggering foe. Make a melee Strike against them, before the triggering ability is resolved.
During your time spent campaigning, you've developed a preferred style of warfare. Choose a doctrine of war that best fits your tactician. All war doctrines are in the doctrines chapter, which can be found here.
Battle arts are specialized collections of martial techniques, tactics, or spells that define your approach to combat. Your choice of way of wrath determines which battle art you begin with—usually selected from three distinct options.
Quick Build: Art of Strategy.
Each battle art grants you one or two starting abilities, typically including a signature attack.
Feats are powerful magic spells, martial techniques, or other useful features you can learn from your battle arts, and they typically require you to spend your core resource (see "Focus" above) to activate them. At 1st level, you gain two feats of your choice from your starting battle art. At 2nd level, and every level thereafter, you gain an additional feat option of your choice.
If you begin play with multiple battle arts, choose one to count as your starting art—this is the art from which you gain feats at 1st level.
Quick Build: Hook & Lunge, War Cry.
During a rest, you may replace one of your known feats with another feat for which you meet the prerequisites.
Instead of choosing a new feat at 2nd level or later, you may gain a new battle art instead. If you do, you gain that art’s starting features, but no feats from it. Moving forward, you may select feats from any battle art you know.
You are a master at arms, wielding a wide variety of weapons. When you choose a kit, select a second, different kit as well. You may combine the equipment and passive effects of both into a single kit. If both kits grant a bonus to the same statistic (such as armor rating, bonus speed, or damage), choose which one applies—they don’t stack.
Example: If one kit grants you heavy armor and another light armor, choose which one determines your guard rating and which affects your speed.
If both kits grant a melee weapon, choose which weapon's damage range you use—typically the higher.
Your experience in war becomes obvious on some subtle level, influencing how people perceive you, or perhaps how you see them. Choose one of the following options.
You have great control over your emotions; your face is an unmoving mask, revealing nothing of what you’re thinking. Other creatures take a burden on Notice checks made to read your intentions. Moreover, whenever you must pass a gate against the Frightened or Charmed conditions, lower the gate by 1.
Your victories have emboldened you, and you radiate with heroic confidence. You gain an edge on Persuade checks made to influence creatures of a level lower than yours.
You are eternally alert and wary, ready for trouble. You gain an edge on Notice checks made to discover hidden threats, traps, and violent intentions.
Raise two different attribute scores of your choice by 1.
Every fight follows your plan.
At the end of your turn, you can choose two allies who haven't taken a turn yet. They may take their turns immediately after you in any order they choose. Once you do so, you can't do so again until you gain Inspiration or finish a Rest.
Your knowledge in all aspects of war deepens. Choose one of the following options.
You’ve familiarized yourself with wars long past and military protocols of the present. You gain an edge on checks made to Recall lore or gather information regarding warfare or military action. In addition, you gain an edge on checks made to influence soldiers, guards, or other organized military forces.
Description Your combat experience against a wide variety of foes has given you a good eye for evaluating threats. Recall Knowledge about a creature you can see. You also learn its highest and lowest attributes.
You’ve familiarized yourself with wars long past and military protocols of the present. You gain an edge on checks made to Recall lore or gather information regarding warfare or military action. Moreover, you gain the Strategic Adjustment ability.
Description You adapt to meet a new challenge. Choose a feat you don't know but is available to you. You gain that feat until you use this ability again.