The Weaponsummoner

A firbolg passes through a street
alley. He is unarmed and
rich looking; a prime target
for the roving gangs of the city. When they attack, they do not see where the knives come from, but they feel the bite of the blade all the same.
An elf soldier rides empty handed under a white parley banner. When it becomes abundantly clear that negotiations are not going as her general wanted them to, she pulls a javelin out of thin air and hurls it at the enemy negotiator.

A blueveined woman throws her axe in the middle of a battlefield. It embeds in a direwolf's side. The beast stumbles and falls. Moments later, the axe disappears. The wounds do not.

The weaponsummoners are a somewhat mysterious group. They study the weave of magic so intently that they can form it into the weapons they fight with at will. They move and adapt with the flow of combat, matching each enemy with exactly what they nee to be bested. A weaponsummoner is never done learning, never done improving.

Creating a Weaponsummoner

When creating a weaponsummoner, it's important to understand how your character came to learn how to summon. Was it something that happened spontaneously? Were they taught by an older Summoner?

After figuring out the relationship your character has with their magic, consider how they fit into the larger community of Weaponsummoners. Do they partake in the great sharing of information, or do they keep themselves in the dark? Do they listen and not contribute? Is being an adventurer apart of a quest for more knowledge, or is it an attempt to avoid the traditional community?

Class Features

As a weaponsummoner, you gain the following class features:

Fighting Style

At the 1st level, you adopt a style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Unarmed Fighting

Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. If you strike with two free hands, the d6 becomes a d8. When you successfully start a grapple, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to the grappled creature. Until the grapple ends, you can also deal this damage to the creature whenever you hit it with a melee attack.

Combustible Weaponry

Starting at the 2nd level, you can, as a bonus action, choose one of your summoned weapons or ammunition to explode after a successful hit. The explosion deals an additional 1d6 force damage to the target of the attack. This ability dismisses the weapon and ammunition and it must be resummoned. Exploding ammunition for a ranged weapon also dismisses the ranged weapon.

The amount of additional damage dealth by this ability increases by 1d6 at the 5th, 11th, and 17th levels.

Steadfast

Also at the 2nd level, the magic of your summoning runs through not only your blood, but through your muscles and your skin as well. You gain resistance to force damage.

Oral Histories

At the 3rd level, you familiarity with the knowledge of those weaponsummoners before you gives you insight to your enemies. You can, as a bonus action, study a creature within 30ft. of you. Make a Intelligence (Investigation) check where the DC is equal to 8 + the CR of the creature, rounding down. On a success, you know one of the creature's resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities, if it has any. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) and regain this ability on a short or long rest. Once you succeed on this check, you cannot use this ability again on the same creature for 24 hours.

Additionally, you gain advantage on Intelligence (History) checks made for knowledge of local mythology, folklore, and urban legends.

Traditions of the Summoners

At the 3rd level, you have learned enough of your Summoning Community to be able to pick the Tradition of Summoners that you wish to follow. Traditions are paths of study that hone and specialize a Summoner's capabilities.

Choose one of the following traditions: the Spellbound's Tradition, the Armsage's Tradition, the Shieldbearer's Tradition, the Toolmaster's Tradition, and the Stone-Breaker's Tradition. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at the 7th, 11th and 15th levels.

Permanent Summon

At the 3rd level, you have mastered the creation of summoning a weapon to the point that you can maintain a summon for as long as you desire unless the summoned weapon is outside a 5 ft radius of the summoner for longer than 1 minute (or 10, one the 18th level is reached).

Extra Attack

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

Field of Battle

Starting at the 6th level, you can spread your weapons out across the battle field. When you summon a weapon as a bonus action on your turn, spending Summon Points as normal, you can move it to a spot within a 30ft radius of you instead of holding onto it. You must concentrate on it as if it were a spell. As a reaction when a hostile creature moves within 30ft of you, you can make an attack of opportunity with each of your currently maintained weapons against any creature that is within range of a maintained weapon.

On subsequent turns, you can move a maintained weapon up to 10ft as a bonus action. These weapons can stay maintained for up to 1 minute, depending on your concentration.

You can maintain a number of weapons equal to your Intelligence modifier at a time (minimum of 1). If you summon a new weapon when you are already at your maximum amount of maintained weapons allowed, the one furthest away from you disappears. A summoned weapon you are wielding does not count against this maximum.

Arcane Augmentation

Starting at the 7th level, you can expend additional points when summoning a weapon to grant the weapon a damage die one size larger than its tangible counterpart. The additional points used to augment the weapon is half the base cost of summoning.

Summoning Point Pool Improvement

Starting at the 9th level, when you level your Summoning Point pool, you use a d8 rather than a d6. Additionally, you can choose to expend a number of hit die equal to half your level to restore your Summoning Points during a short rest rather than healing. This change retroactively applies to your Summoning Point pool, much as Hit Points are.

Full Frontal Assault

Starting at the 10th level, you can, as an action, summon a number of weapons equal to the amount of hostile creatures within 30ft of you (spending Summoning Points as normal) and attack each of them with one of the weapons summoned as apart of this action. Roll each attack separately.

Mystic Weapons

Starting at the 13th level, all weapons - tangible and summoned - are considered magical weapons in your hands. You gain the following benefits:

• You can add your Intelligence modifier to your attack rolls. You may add this to the roll after you have rolled, but before the DM reveals if it has hit or not. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). You regain expended uses after a short or long rest.
• Weapons do an additional amount of Force damage equal to your Intelligence modifier on a hit.
• Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a 19 or 20.

Greater Weapon Summoning

Starting at the 14th level, you can begin to summon weapons that would normally require more than one person to man and use. It takes you 1 minute to summon these special siege weapon, detailed at the end of the class description. You can use an action on your turn to fire this siege weapon without needing additional people to man the weapon. Summoning a siege weapon of Medium size uses 20 Summoning Points. Summoning a Large weapon uses 30. Ammunition for a summoned siege weapon is 5 SP per piece of ammunition. All of your summoned siege weapons deal double damage against structures, buildings, and constructs. Additionally, siege weapons can only be summoned for a maximum of 4 hours.

Battle Ready

Starting at the 17th level, if you have less than 10 summoning points when you roll initiative, you immediately gain a number of summoning points equal to your Weaponsummoner level + your Intelligence modifier.

Endless Pool

At the 20th level, after leveling your Summoning Points pool as normal, add half the amount of your total pool to your Summoning Points maximum, rounding up.

Summoning Traditions

Despite being as scattered across the world as they are, weaponsummoners are community-minded folk. They guard their secrets carefully from outsiders, but are more than willing - eager even - to share their ways with younger and less experienced weaponsummoners. The reticence they display when interacting with non-weaponsummoners about their craft is matched only by their exuberance with those who understand what it is to wield magic as (more than a weapon) an extension of their own bodies. Fellow members of the same tradition are like close siblings or a beloved parent; members of rival traditions are more similar to a cousin who you care for but wish to out do.

Weaponsummoner Taditions are represented all across the world, though they may have one or two centers of excellence in large cities. They rely heavily on oral tradition and communal memory to preserve their work. The choice of tradition is the choice of what type of Summoner a person will become, but more than that it is the choice of what type of person they will be.

Summoning Strike

Beginning at the 11th level, you gain the ability to draw from your pool of Summoning Points to add damage to your hits with magically summoned weapons. For every 1 SP you use, add 1 point of damage when you successfully hit. Starting at the 18th level, for every 1 SP you use, add 2 points of damage when you successfully hit. All damage you add to a hit with this feature is force damage.

Extra Attack (x2)

Beginning at the 15th level, you can attack 3 times in your turn rather than twice.

The Shieldbearer's Tradition

The Shieldbearer weaponsummoners are a bit odd, even by weaponsummoner standards, because rather than focusing on the blades and bows they can make, they are much more concerned with protecting themselves and their allies from the blows of those blades and bows. The shieldbearer is a tradition of protection and piercing protection - after all, the best person to overcome a defense is someone who plays that defense.

The Toolmaster's Tradition

Toolmasters are quiet and sedate. They are weaponsummoners who have largely rejected the martial tendency of their community, and while their elders are some of the most knowledgeable members of the community, they are also wary to share their knowledge with those who would use their knowledge to destroy rather than build. The Toolmasters are builders, before they are most things, and they are proud of that distinction.

Clever Craftsmanship

Starting at the 11th level, you can increase the weapons, armor, and equipment of your allies. During a short or long rest, you can spend a number of Summoning Points equal to the items rarity level to increase the level of rarity. For example, increasing a common longsword to an uncommon longsword gives it the +1 property. You cannot improve an item past +3, and no legendary or artifact weapon can benefit from this improvement. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier, and regain expended uses on a long rest. This enchantment stays on the targeted item for a number of hours equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Magnum Opus

At the 15th level, you have studied and learned the properties of arcane objects well enough to be able to recreate them, even without researching them. You learn three enchantments that create common, uncommon, or rare items and you are able to specially summon mystic versions of those items. This special summoning costs you a number of Summoning Points equal to three times your proficiency modifier, though they follow the rest of the normal Summoning rules. Learning all of these enchantments do not cost you attunement slots, even if they require attunement. Whenever you level up in the Weaponsummoner class, you can change one enchantment you know for one other enchantment. You must meet the prerequisites for any of the enchantments you chose to learn.

The Stone-Breaker Tradition

Weaponsummoners of the Stone-Breaker Tradition prefer to embody the overwhelming brute power of siege weaponry with their summoning. They are often the quietest of the weaponsummoners, but they have a deep knowledge about not only the magic they make, but the things they destroy with their weapons. Stone-Breaker Summoners are often artisans and crafters of the tangible, not just the arcane.

Bolstered Defense

Beginning at the 11th level, you can improve your own natural protections. During a short or long rest, you can choose one of the following damage types and give yourself resistance to poison, acid, fire, cold, lightning, or thunder damage until your next long rest.

Spells

This is the list of spells available to those who study the tradition of the Spellbound. The descriptions for these spells can be found in Chapter 11 of the Player's Handbook. These spells are from the Player’s Handbook. If a spell’s name is bolded, the spell is instead from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.

Simple Melee Weapons

Simple Ranged Weapons

Martial Melee Weapons

Martial Ranged Weapons

Shields

Medium Siege Weapons

Large Siege Weapons

Art Credits

Cover. Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
Character Art. Weapon Summoner by Baylie Magee (@moderngothic)
Page 1. View of Greece with Girls Sacrificing Their Hair to Diana by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes
Page 3. The Knights of the Round Table about to Depart in Quest of the Holy Grail by William Dyce
Page 6. Skaters on a Frozen Lake by the Ruins of a Castle by Charles Leickert
Special thanks to /u/AeronDrake for their formatting guide and resource pack and to Witchfire for their GMBinder theme!