Keeper

Standing not quite alone in the centre
of a gloomy woodland glade, a human
parts the mists surrounding them with
the head of their sceptre, demanding the
knowledge of the forest spirits for the
third and final time. The command takes
hold, and the human falls perfectly still
as their mind is seized by a vision.
Suspecting vulnerability, a powerful
beast spirit steps into the glade, eager
to make the interloper regret their
brazen attitude, but before it can strike,
a formless shroud of shock-white frost
coalesces into the shape of a knight bearing
a sword and shield, ready to defend its master.

Hand grasped tightly around the leash
locked to their companion's neck, a tiefling
makes slow, confident strides towards their
foe, the hellhound bound to them growling all the
while, spitting sparks and cinders from the gaps
between its jagged teeth. The dog's spine arches,
and it howls, loud and angry. The tiefling barks an
order as their body is filled with infernal vigor,
burning spirits crawling underneath their skin. In
an instant, the leash is dropped, their companion
blitzing towards the nearest enemy with hate in its
eyes, its master close behind.

Islands of calm in an ocean of chaos, two partners
dance to a symphony only they can hear, the violence
surrounding them seeming all the quieter for the bond
they share. A whirling stormcloud bound into
humanoid shape by scorched rags and bandages
envelops their genasi companion, and a crack of
lightning strikes the ground at their feet. Where two
figures once stood, a blue-skinned giant clutching a
thunderbolt readies themselves for battle, veins
pulsing with electric blue light, and the dance continues.

Keepers and their companions are a living gate
between the magical and the mundane, defined by their
bond to each other and the covenant they form. Wielding esoteric magic, they exert their will on the world by commanding the tiny unseen spirits and connections that permeate the multiverse, drawing on that power to summon otherworldly beings, bind the wills of others, discover hidden secrets, and make their voices heard.

Modest Magic

Seven gods live in every grain of rice. A thousand more live in every meal, and a thousand thousand more than that in every home. Such is the wisdom of a keeper. Where many spellcasters call forth their power from within or channel energy from a higher being, keepers engross themselves in the spirits of place near and dear to wherever they might be, forming relationships with them—whether their bond be gentle, domineering, or outright hostile—and calling on them for strength.

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1

Open the Gate

All things must come to dust. Each and every mortal will one day suffer the ravages of time, be withered by age, injury, sickness, or malice. Even immortals must fall in the end, coming to nothing, or simply fading, forgotten. Spirits, less grounded in reality, know this truth all too well. Rarely, these spirit-beings might even slip from the world entirely, falling between the cracks as they lose their grip on the objects and places which anchor them.

Rather than vanish, however, a number of these beings find a semblance of life in the form of a covenant, a compact sealed with a mortal, binding the pair together, sharing the lives they possess with one another. In this way, the spirit acts as a gate to the magical world, allowing their mortal partner to immerse themselves in things unearthly and occult, while the mortal acts as a gate to the mundane, the material, through which the spirit might flee the jaws of oblivion.

Creating a Keeper

As you create your keeper, you must ask yourself two questions above all others: what is your companion, and what are they to you? Did you find and care for a newborn creature or egg, only to be surprised when it later declared itself your companion? Were you in danger, and saved by forming a bond with your companion, or did you hunt, tame, and bring a spirit being to heel, forcing it to serve you?

Your companion's nature has great effect on your bond. Are they a celestial spirit who came to you in a moment of need, in return for your aid spreading their influence? Did you trick a fiend into your service, wielding its true name like a leash? Or did you bargain with a fey, earning its teachings in exchange for some strange sacrifice you would later regret? Perhaps you even created your companion, raising them from death or hosting a spirit within a body of your own construction.

Consider also your magical abilities. Your bond is the source of your power, but how develop your mystical knowledge? Were you taught by your family, following ages old tradition, or did your companion tutor you in the workings of your new powers? Perhaps you still don't truly understand the rules, simply figuring them out as you
plunge ever deeper into the occult.

Class Features

As a keeper, you gain the following class features

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) three daggers
• (a) leather armour or (b) scale mail
• (a) an explorer's pack or (b) a priest's pack
• An esoteric implement

Alternatively, you can start with 5d4 x 10 gp and spend it on items from Chapter 5 of the Player's Handbook.

Multiclassing

  Prerequisites. The prerequisite for multiclassing as a keeper is a Strength or Dexterity score of 13 and a Charisma score of 13.

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into keeper, you gain proficiency in light armour, medium armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. When determining your total spell slots, you add one half of your keeper levels (rounded down) to the total.

Gate of Travel

Beginning at 10th level, you can ride the bond between you and your companion like a wave. As a bonus action while your companion is within 120 feet of you, you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of it, or teleport it to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. Alternatively, you can both teleport, swapping places. You don't need to see your companion to teleport using this feature.

You can use this feature twice. You regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.

Witch Gate

By 14th level, your companion is a gate to the magical world, and you are the key. You gain one 5th-level spell slot, which you can use to cast your keeper spells.

At higher levels, you gain additional spell slots: one 6th level spell slot at 17th level, and one 7th level spell slot at 20th level. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Retribution

Starting at 15th level, when you or your companion is reduced to 0 hit points, the other can retaliate in fury, demanding aid from nearby spirits. If they do so, the retaliator immediately regains hit points equal to your keeper level + your Charisma modifier, and for 1 minute, the first creature it hits with an attack on each of its turns takes an extra 2d8 damage of your companion's damage type.

Once you or your companion uses this feature, it can't be used again until you finish a long rest.

World Gate

By 20th level, you are a gate to the material world, and your companion is the key. While your companion is alive, you do not age. Additionally, if you die while your companion still lives, the connection between you returns you to the world of the living; if your companion finishes a long rest while you are dead, you can return to life, reforming your body near to your companion, having gained the benefits of a long rest. You can reform your body as a younger version of yourself, if you wish.

If a spell, such as raise dead, has the sole effect of restoring you to life, the caster can cast the spell on your companion as though it were your corpse.

Spirit Covenants

The bond between keeper and companion is a gateway between two worlds, and the powers that flow through that gate are defined by the covenant that opens it. Each covenant is a symbol of a relationship, and like any relationship, it can take many forms. Some keepers see their companions as pets, much like a familiar, while others consider them like family—equals in a mutual partnership. More rarely, a keeper acts as apprentice, their companion acting as master and teacher.

Covenant of the Legion

Keepers of this covenant command such a presence that their will is enough to overwhelm the spirits of the world around them. When these legionnaires walk, the wind is at their back, their way is clear, and their pace is swift as they follow their path to victory, their most loyal companion and follower always by their side. They speak with the voice of a conqueror, and the universe listens.

"Hear me! I claim this place and name it mine! Let all who would oppose me speak now, or fall silent forevermore!"

Covenant Spells

You gain covenant spells at the keeper levels listed.

Covenant of The Legion Spells

Keeper Level	Spell
3rd	command
5th	silence
9th	spirit guardians
13th	freedom of movement
14th	dominate person

Hearthkeeper

When you reach 3rd level, you learn to speak with the spiritual denizens of an area. You can spend 10 minutes entreating or ordering these spirits, burning simple offerings, or otherwise commanding the attention of the world around you.

If you do so, you learn one fact of your choice about any of the following subjects as they relate to the area within 1 mile of you:

• Frequently visited buildings and places of business
• Historically significant events
• Powerful aberrations, celestials, fey, fiends, elementals, or undead
• Safe sources of food, water, and places to rest

Mortals and spirits experience life in fundamentally different ways. In offering their wisdom, the spirits' advice may be cryptic, spoken like a prophecy, or conveyed through potentially disturbing dreams and visions.

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

Sworn Protector

By 3rd level, your companion is your faithful servant and protector. When a creature your companion can see attacks you, your companion can use its reaction to move up to its speed towards the attacker, imposing disadvantage on the attack roll if it ends this movement within 5 feet of the attacker.

March of the Legion

Beginning at 5th level, your companion can attack twice, instead of once, whenever it takes the Attack action on its turn.

Unseen Serfdom

At 7th level, you gain access to the unseen servant spell. You always have it prepared, and it doesn't count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.

Additionally, when you cast unseen servant, you can create a number of additional servants equal to half your keeper level. When you cast unseen servant in this way, each servant has a Strength score equal to the number of unseen servants under your command (maximum Strength score of 12), and you can mentally command any or all of the servants when you use your bonus action to command a servant, issuing the same command to each one.

Once you cast unseen servant in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Oathbound Guardian

Starting at 11th level, your companion is your devoted guardian. When you use your Sworn Protector feature, your companion can make a melee attack against the attacker as part of the same reaction.

Additionally, while your companion is within 5 feet of a hostile creature, that creature has disadvantage on any attack roll targeting you.

Demesne

By 18th level, you can perform a ritual to claim ownership of a location no larger than 500 feet on a side, such as a section of forest, a manor, a castle, or other area, establishing it as your demesne. To perform the ritual, you must spend at least 24 consecutive hours within the area without resting, falling unconscious, or being reduced to 0 hit points. During the ritual, any creature within 1 mile of you is made aware of your claim and the consequences of the ritual. If you successfully complete the ritual, you claim the area as your demesne.

Within your demesne, you can shape reality to your will. You can use your action to manipulate an area you can see within your demesne no larger than a 20-foot cube, destroying solid structures, raising or depressing land, changing the weather and temperature, manifesting sounds or smells, or altering the material of a structure or surface - such as changing a stone wall to one of wood, ice, or flesh. If you manipulate an area to cause harm, each hostile creature within the area must make a Charisma saving throw against your keeper spell save DC. A creature takes 4d8 damage of a type of your choice on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

If you claim another demesne, your lose ownership of your former demesne, and any changes you made within are slowly undone over the course of a week. Anything created by this feature vanishes when it leaves your demesne, and any changes made to an object are rapidly undone if it leaves your demesne.

Burning the Candle

At 3rd level, the spirits invited within change you, making you restless, agitated, and just a little inhuman. You cannot sleep, magically or otherwise, and no longer need to, though you can still be knocked unconscious. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity, such as pacing and keeping watch.

Spirit Riding

Starting at 3rd level, your will is steeled, strong enough to withstand assault from within.

While within 60 feet of you, your companion can use its action to beckon spirits of its nature to enter your body, imbuing you with a portion of their strength through a practice called riding. These spirits remain for 10 minutes. Your Spirit Riding ends early if you die or if you dismiss it (no action required). Your companion can't use this feature while you're Spirit Riding.

While Spirit Riding, you gain the following benefits:

• Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack on your turn, you can push the creature up to 5 feet away from you and immediately move up to half your speed towards an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the target.
• Immediately after you take damage, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
• You cannot be frightened. If you are frightened when you begin Spirit Riding, the effect is suspended while you are Spirit Riding.
• You ignore the effects of any levels of exhaustion.

The first time you use this ability, you suffer no adverse effect. Each time you use this feature again before you finish a short or long rest, you suffer one level of exhaustion.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Hollowed Heart

By 7th level, your harrowed spirit can consume fragments of the dead. By spending 1 minute within 5 feet of a creature's corpse, you can learn what skill and tool proficiencies the creature possessed, what languages it spoke, and its type.

When you use this feature, you can also choose to harvest fragments of its spirit. If you do so, you gain proficiency in two skills or tools of your choice, chosen from those the creature possessed in life, which remain until you harvest fragments of another creature's spirit. You can replace one or both of these selections with languages the creature spoke. If the creature did not speak a language, you can instead communicate with and be understood by any of its kind.

Soul Frenzy

Starting at 11th level, the spirits within you scream at the slightest provocation. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack while Spirit Riding, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the damage of the attack if that creature has damaged you or your companion since the end of your last turn.

Spirit Vault

Starting at 18th level, your body is animated by the spirits held within. You ignore the effects of the first five levels of exhaustion. In addition, while Spirit Riding, having 0 hit points doesn't knock you unconscious. You still must make death saving throws, and you suffer the normal effects of taking damage while at 0 hit points.

Additionally, when your Spirit Riding ends, you can open the vault within your soul and release a hurricane of hungry spirits. Each creature within 30 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw against your keeper spell save DC. A target takes 8d8 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A target killed by this damage is devoured whole. You regain hit points equal to your Charisma modifier for each creature devoured in this way. If your Spirit Riding ended early because you died and the spirits devour a creature, you are returned to life with 1 hit point.

Once you open the vault, you can't open it again until you finish a long rest.

Covenant of Unity

The bond between Keeper and companion typically implies a measure of servitude on the companion's part. This is not always the case. For some, the bond is much more intimate, and the line between the two halves is blurred. These merged beings, often called unions or fusions, embody the relationship between each partner, their mind and body shaped by the interplay between their halves.

Kindred Spirits

Starting at 3rd level, while you and your companion are on the same plane of existence, you can each communicate with the other telepathically. You don't need to see each other to communicate in this way.

Equilibrium

Beginning at 5th level, you and your companion can deal an extra 1d6 damage of your companion's damage type to one creature you hit with an attack on each of your turns. While unified, you can deal this extra damage twice on your turn.

When you reach 11th level in this class, this extra damage increases to 2d6.

Harmony

At 7th level, you gain the ability to strengthen the connection between yourself and another creature. As an action, you can force a creature you can see within 60 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw, which it can choose to fail. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 1, it is unaffected.

On a failed save, the target is charmed by you for 1 minute. While charmed, you and the target can communicate telepathically, can sense each other's emotional state, and have advantage on all Wisdom and Charisma checks made to interact with each other. You and the target don't need to share a language to understand each other.

On a successful save, or if you or your allies do anything harmful to the target, you can't use this feature on that creature again until you finish a long rest.

The effect ends early if you or your companions do anything harmful to the target, or if you use the feature again.

Companion Traits

The following list shows options for your companion's traits.

Keeper Spell List

The following spells are presented in alphabetical order.

Skinchange

2nd-level transmutation (ritual)

• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (blood, hide, or other remains taken from the desired beast, applied to the target as the spell is cast)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You invite a willing creature into the guise of a mundane animal. A creature you touch transforms into a beast with a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower. This spell has no effect on a creature with 0 hit points.

While in this form, the target's game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but it retains its hit points, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. The target retains its alignment and personality, though its mannerisms may be slightly affected by the nature of the beast.

The creature is limited in the actions it can perform by the nature of its new form, and it can't speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech.

The target's gear melds into the new form. The creature can't activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from any of its equipment.

The spell ends early if the target is reduced to 0 hit points, or if they end the spell on their turn (no action required).

Dreamscape

3rd-level illusion (ritual)

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (30-foot radius)
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 8 hours

You share yourself, and allow others the same opportunity. For the duration of the spell, you and any creature of your choice within range can use their action to enter a shared dreamscape, entering a meditative trance or falling asleep (target's choice).

The appearance of the dreamscape is up to you; you and any creature of your choice can shape the environment of the dreamscape, creating landscapes, objects, and other images, such as showing past memories. The dreamscape relies on the creativity of its residents, and cannot create something that has not been seen or imagined by a creature within the dreamscape. A creature within the dreamscape can leave at any time, waking from their trance or sleep.

Regardless of its contents, the dreamscape soothes the soul with its catharsis. A creature that spends at least 4 hours of a long rest within the dreamscape recovers an additional level of exhaustion at the end of the rest.

Summon Dragonkin

3rd-level conjuration

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, M (a gemstone worth at least 100 gp)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You call draconic spirits into the shape of a drake spirit, which appears in an unoccupied space you can see within range. The drake spirit disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends. When you summon the drake, it is imbued with the nature of a certain kind of dragon. It gains a climbing speed, a burrowing speed, or a swimming speed of 20 feet. Additionally, choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. The drake gains resistance to the chosen damage type, and its bite deals an extra 1d6 damage of that type when it hits.

The drake is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the drake, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the drake, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the drake spirit gains 10 temporary hit points for each slot level above 3rd. If you use a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the duration is concentration, up to 24 hours.

Wake Plantlife

4th-level transmutation

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 8 hours

You briefly instill a semblance of life within a Huge or smaller plant you can see within range, transforming it into an awakened tree (MM 317), though it has an Intelligence and Charisma score of 1, and it can't speak. The target grows until it is Huge, if it was smaller. If the target already had an Intelligence score, it is unaffected.

The tree is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the tree, which has its own turns. While the tree is within 1 mile of you, you can telepathically communicate with it. The tree obeys any commands you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the tree, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions. If the tree is reduced to 0 hit points, the spell ends.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can target one additional plant for every two slot levels above 4th.

Spirit Feast

5th-level necromancy

• Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when a creature you can see within 60 feet of you dies
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous

You rush towards a dying creature and gorge yourself on its spirit. As part of casting the spell, you can move up to your speed. If you end this movement within 5 feet of the target, you devour its spirit. You regain 40 hit points, and the target can't be resurrected by any means short of a wish spell.

Ties That Bind

5th-level evocation

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (60-foot radius)
• Components: V
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You radiate kinship in an aura with a 60-foot radius, reminding your allies of their support for each other. Until the spell ends, the aura moves, centered on you. While in the aura, each friendly creature in the aura (including you) can't be charmed, and deals extra damage the first time it hits with an attack on each of its turns. This damage equals 1d6 + the number of allies affected by this spell, to a maximum of 10.

Conjure Undead

6th-level conjuration

• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: 90 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You channel necrotic power, summoning an incorporeal undead of challenge rating 5 or lower, such as a ghost or a wraith. The undead appears in an unoccupied space you can see within range, and disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The undead is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the undead, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the undead, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions.

If your concentration is broken, the undead creature doesn't disappear. Instead, you lose control of the undead, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled undead can't be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.

The DM has the undead creature's statistics.

House of Life

7th-level necromancy

• Casting Time: 1 hour
• Range: 10 feet
• Components: V, S, M (50 pounds of flesh and two cupped handfuls of blood taken from a humanoid or beast, which are consumed by the spell, and an esoteric implement, which is buried within the house's chest as the spell is cast)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You shape, structure, and bind a house of life, which appears in an unoccupied space you can see within range. The house has the same statistics as a Flesh Golem (MM 169), though it lacks the Berserk trait.

The house is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the house, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the house, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions.

If a willing creature dies within 60 feet of the house, you can use your reaction to cage its soul within the house. The soul remains within the house until the house is destroyed, or until it chooses to leave. A soul within the house can control it. Its game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the house, though it retains its alignment and its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. It also retains all of its skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the house, and it retains the benefits of its own class features.

The house collapes into a puddle of flesh when it is reduced to 0 hit points, or after 24 hours. To maintain the house's form for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the house again before the current 24-hour period ends. When you cast this spell to maintain a house's form, it has a casting time of 1 minute, and you can ignore the spell's material components.