Haunted Warden
It is no secret the wilds are dangerous and that many an intrepid adventurer has met an untimely end while exploring them. Haunted wardens are rangers who have come face to face with the restless spirit of one of those lost wanderers. Somehow during the course of this meeting, the yearning phantom tethers its spirit to the warden’s in order to put its unfinished business to rest. Even after its final wishes are met, or in the tragic instance they can’t come to fruition, your companion remains with you until you meet your end, both as a constant confidante and a reminder that the veil between life and death is thin indeed.
Level 3: Beyond the Pale
You can use a bonus action to see into the Ethereal Plane for 1 minute. Ethereal creatures and objects appear ghostly and translucent.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Level 3: Haunted Warden Spells
The magic training ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Ranger level specified in the Haunted Warden Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
| Ranger Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 3 | False Life |
| 5 | Invisibility |
| 9 | Speak With Dead |
| 13 | Death Ward |
| 17 | Dispel Evil and Good |
Level 3: Spirit Usher
You gain an undead spirit that anchors itself to you and accompanies you on your journeys. The spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. See the spirit’s game statistics in the Spirit Usher stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places.
You determine the spirit’s appearance, name, and personality. You should choose a personality trait, ideal, bond, and flaw for it, and you should work with your GM to decide on a background story for the spirit that fits the campaign.
In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but, if you don’t issue any commands to it, the only action it takes is the Dodge action. You can use your bonus action to direct it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Help, Hide, or Search action or an action listed in its statistics. If you are incapacitated, the spirit can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
When it joins with you, the spirit learns three cantrips it can cast at will, which you select from the following lists. At the end of a long rest, you can change which cantrips the spirit knows.
- Choose one of chill touch, Ray of Frost, Sacred Flame, or Vicious Mockery. Use your level when determining the damage of the chosen cantrip.
- Choose one of Druidcraft, Prestidigitation, or Thaumaturgy.
- Choose one of Dancing Lights, Message, or Minor Illusion.
The spirit is bonded to you. It can’t be turned or destroyed, such as with the cleric’s Turn Undead feature. When the spirit usher dies, it retreats to the Ethereal Plane to restore itself and returns to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you when you finish a long rest. If the spirit usher died within the last hour, you can use your action to expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to return it to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored.
Level 7: Merge Spirit
You can use an action to cause your spirit usher to join its essence with you for 1 minute. While merged, you gain the spirit usher’s Ethereal Sight trait and can interact with creatures and objects on both the Ethereal and Material Planes. In addition, while you are merged, you become less substantial and gain the spirit usher’s damage resistances and damage immunities.
Once you use this feature, you shouldn’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Each time you use it again, you suffer one level of exhaustion.
Level 11: Guardian Geist
When you take damage that would reduce you to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to call out to your spirit usher. If you do, your spirit usher teleports to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you and takes half the damage dealt to you, potentially preventing your death.
In addition, when your spirit usher dies, you have advantage on attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Level 15: True Psychopomp
You can use your Merge Sprit feature as a bonus action instead of an action. When you and your spirit usher merge forms, you gain its Incorporeal Movement trait and Etherealness action, and you are considered to be undead for the purposes of determining whether or not spells or other magical effects can affect you.
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