Two brand new subclasses have hit D&D Beyond this week, taken straight from the world of Critical Role as Matt Mercer releases new options for the Paladin and Monk.
During his time DMing on Critical Role, Matt Mercer has created two truly fantastical campaigns and with them, added his own touch to a few of the available classes.
The Gunslinger, Blood Hunter and College of the Maestro have all made their way onto DMs Guild. But now, Oath of the Open Sea and Way of the Cobalt Soul have hit D&D Beyond too.
Oath of the Open Sea
The Oath of the Open Sea calls to sea-faring warriors, swashbuckling sailors, and journeying guardians who seek the thrill of an endless horizon. Driven to seek the adventure and mystery across and beneath every endless oceanic expanse, paladins who swear this oath stand against those who would deny the liberties afforded to likeminded travelers, rooting out the tyrannical and corrupt that claim any shore. Such guardians believe in the natural beauty of the sea, often making offerings and prayers to entities or deities like the Wild Mother or Storm Lord that influence safe passage, while often feeling called to hunt those monstrosities that seek to terrorize and spoil the waters with wanton violence and ill intent.
Used by Fjord, the half-orc Warlock/Paladin, the Oath of Open Sea is all about travelling the vast oceans and as such, its abilities reflect that.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Marine Layer. As an action you can channel the sea to create a thick cloud of fog that surrounds you and heavily obscures the area for 20 feet in all directions, following you as you move. You and all creatures within 5 feet of you instead treat this fog as lightly obscured. This fog lasts for 10 minutes, spreads around corners and cannot be dispersed.
Fury of the Tides. As a bonus action, you can channel the powerful might of the waves to bolster your attacks for 1 minute. Once per turn for the duration, when you hit a creature with weapon attack, you can choose to push the target 10 feet away from you. If the target is pushed into an obstacle or another creature, they take additional bludgeoning damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
Aura of Liberation
Starting at 7th level, you emanate an aura while you’re not incapacitated. You and any creature of your choice within 10 feet of you cannot be grappled or restrained, as well as ignore penalties on movement or attacks while underwater. Creatures that are already grappled or restrained when they enter the aura can spend 5 feet of movement to automatically escape nonmagical restraints.
When you reach 18th level in this class, the range of the aura increases to 30 feet.
Stormy Waters
At 15th level, you can call crashing waters around you as a reaction whenever a creature enters or exits your melee range. The creature takes 1d12 bludgeoning damage and must succeed a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Mythic Swashbuckler
At 20th level, you learn to channel the spirits of historic sea captains to briefly become a paragon of heroic adventure. As an action, you embrace these spirits of the sea, gaining the following benefits for 1 minute:
Climbing costs no additional movement, and you have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks.
If you are within 5 feet of a creature, and no other creatures are within 5 feet of you, you have advantage on your attacks against that creature.
You can take the Dodge action as a bonus action.
You have advantage on all Dexterity ability checks and Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see.
Way of the Cobalt Soul
Driven by the pursuit of knowledge and their worship of the Knowing Mentor, the archives of the Cobalt Soul stand as some of the most well-respected and most heavily guarded repositories of tomes, history, and information across Exandria. Here, young people seeking the clarity of truth and the strength of knowledge pledge to learn the arts of seeking enlightenment by understanding the world around them, and mastering the techniques to defend it. To become a Cobalt Soul is to give one’s self to the quest for unveiling life’s mysteries, bringing light to the secrets of the dark, and guarding the most powerful and dangerous of truths from those who would seek to perverse the sanctity of civilization.
The monks of the Cobalt Soul are the embodiment of the phrase “know your enemy”. Through research, they prepare themselves against the ever-coming tides of evil. Through careful training, they have learned to puncture and manipulate the spiritual flow of an opponent’s body. Through understanding the secrets of their foe, they can adapt and surmount them. Then, once the fight is done, they return to record their findings for future generations of monks to study from.
Marisha Ray makes use of the Way of the Colbalt Soul as Beauregard, the human monk and worshipper of Ioun, the ‘Knowing Mistress’.
Extract Aspects
Beginning at 3rd level when choosing this tradition, you can strike pressure points to extract crucial information about your foe, granting you insight about their combat ability. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you mark them as analyzed. Whenever an analyzed creature misses you with an attack, you can immediately use your reaction to make an unarmed melee attack against that creature. This benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest.
In addition, you learn the following attributes about the target: Damage Vulnerabilities, Damage Resistances, Damage Immunities, and Condition Immunities.
Extort Truth
At 6th level, you can hit a hidden cluster of nerves on a creature with precision, temporarily causing them to become mentally malleable. If you hit a creature with an unarmed attack, you can spend 1 ki point to force them to make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is unable to speak a deliberate lie and all Charisma checks directed at the creature are made with advantage for up to 10 minutes. You know if they succeeded or failed on their saving throw.
An affected creature is aware of the effect and can thus avoid answering questions to which it would normally respond with a lie. Such a creature can be evasive in its answers as long as the effect lasts.
Mystical Erudition
Beginning at 6th level, you’ve undergone extensive training with the Cobalt Soul, teaching you extensively in history or lore from the monastery’s collected volumes. You learn one language of your choice, and you gain proficiency with one of the following skills of your choice: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion. If you already have proficiency in one of the listed skills, you can instead choose to double your proficiency bonus for any ability check you make that uses the chosen proficiency.
You gain an additional language and an additional skill proficiency from the above list (with the ability to double the bonus of an existing proficiency from the list) at 11th and 17th level.
Mind of Mercury
Starting at 11th level, you’ve honed your awareness and reflexes through mental aptitude and pattern recognition. Once per turn, if you’ve already taken your reaction, you may spend 1 ki point to take an additional reaction.
Mystical Erudition (Additional)
You gain an additional language and an additional skill proficiency from the above list at 11th level. If you already have proficiency in one of the listed skills, you can instead choose to double your proficiency bonus for any ability check you make that uses the chosen proficiency.
Debilitating Barrage
Upon reaching 17th level, you’ve gained the knowledge to temporarily lower a creature’s fortitude by striking a series of pressure points. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can spend 3 ki points to cause the creature to suffer a vulnerability to a damage type of your choice for 1 minute, or until they take damage of that type. A creature who is affected by this feature cannot be affected by it again for 24 hours.
Mystical Erudition (Additional)
You gain an additional language and an additional skill proficiency from the above list at 17th level. If you already have proficiency in one of the listed skills, you can instead choose to double your proficiency bonus for any ability check you make that uses the chosen proficiency.
If you fancy giving one of these new subclasses a go, head over to D&D Beyond and start building your new character now.