Fighter Archetype
Voltblade
Voltblades are warriors who are one with the lightning. Their skills generally come via experimentation; most voltblades could live another life as an inventor quite happily, designing galvanic instruments and complicated machines. But if a voltblade is called to war, they can put their fearsome intellect to use in crafting shocking weapons and electrified equipment.
Voltblade Features
| Fighter Level | Features |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Electrical Expert, Galvanic Strike |
| 7th | Electrified Equipment |
| 10th | Instant Shock |
| 15th | Lightning Infused |
| 18th | Rippling Voltage |
Electrical Expert
When you adopt this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in tinker's tools. In addition, you learn to generate small jolts of electricity to manipulate machines. Before you make an ability check to repair, destroy, or make use of a machine, you can choose to add your Intelligence modifier to the result. If you do so, the effort produces a visible and audible jolt of electricity, and if you roll a 1 on the d20, the machine is rendered inoperable.
Galvanic Strike
Additionally at 3rd level, you are able to charge your weapons with lightning at will. As a bonus action, you can imbue a weapon or piece of ammunition you hold with electrical energy. The next time you hit an enemy with the charged item, the attack deals 1d4 bonus lightning damage. You can choose one additional creature within 15 feet of the target for the lightning to jump to and deal the same bonus damage.
Electrified Equipment
Also at 7th level, you figure out the design of an advanced piece of galvanic equipment. You learn how to make one of the following upgrades to your equipment, which you can install over the course of 1 hour:
- Automatic Armor. You modify your armor with a series of electrical clasps. You can don or doff it as an action, and you gain resistance to lightning damage while wearing it.
- Charged Boots. You install a galvanic battery in your boots which can discharge to power an incredible leap. While wearing the boots, you can jump up to your speed without expending any movement. Once you jump this way, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
- Magnetized Gauntlet. You augment your gauntlets to pass a powerful electric charge through them, enabling a magnetic pull. You can't be disarmed, and you can use an object interaction to can pull a metal item to you from up to 30 feet away.
These modifications require specialized knowledge to use and only function for you. You can select 1 additional modification at 10th level and the last modification at 15th level.
Instant Shock
At 10th level, your Galvanic Strike improves, enabling you to charge it instantly. Using your Galvanic Strike no longer requires your bonus action, though you can still only use it once on each of your turns.
Lightning Infused
At 15th level, you learn to use your inventions to replicate the effects of certain spells. You learn the spells electrifyK, lightning dashS, and static fieldK. You can cast each one once, regaining the ability to do so after finishing a long rest. When you cast these spells in this way, Intelligence is your casting ability, and any attempts to use dispel magic or counterspell against them are made with disadvantage.
Rippling Voltage
At 18th level, your Galvanic Strike increases, growing both more powerful and leaping to more targets. Its bonus damage increases to 1d6, it can spread to 2 additional creatures, and those creatures can be within 30 feet of the attack's target.
Voltblade quirks
The following are some optional quirks for a player of this Domain to choose from.
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your hair is almost always standing on end. |
| 2 | Touching you often gives people a small electric shock. |
| 3 | Your weapons and equipment are festooned with copper wire and small flickering embellishments. |
| 4 | New designs often come to you in your dreams. |
| 5 | You are jealous of those who gain lightning powers through innate magic. |
| 6 | You are scornful of formal lightning magic and think scientifically-controlled electricity is innately superior. |
Appendix 1: Feats
As with many archetypes heavily oriented around a single damage type, your GM might consider allowing the following feat.
Focused Elementalist
When you select this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, poison, radiant, or thunder. You gain the following benefits:
- When you deal the selected damage type through spells, class features, subclass features, or species features, that damage ignores resistance.
- Once on each of your turns when you deal the selected damage type, you can deal additional damage to one target equal to your proficiency bonus.
- As a reaction when you take damage of the selected type, you can reduce the damage by your character level. You can do so once, regaining the ability after a short or long rest.
Appendix 2: Spell Sources
Spells used are available in these collections, all of which are free to use and reference for any purpose.
- Spells That Don't Suck is a set of spells by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, creating replacements for problematic spells contained in first-party WotC materials. These are marked with SDS.
- So Many Spells is a set of wholly original spells written by somanyrobots. These are marked with S.
- Kibbles' Casting Compendium is the complete set of spells written by KibblesTasty. These are marked with K.
Change Log
v0.2
- Added target selection for Galvanic Strike jump
- Clarified action economy on Magnetized Gauntlets
- Various text cleanups
v0.1
- Initial Draft!
Credits & References:
- Voltblade created by somanyrobots Discord | Patreon
Spells
- Electrify and Static Field by KibblesTasty
- Lightning Dash by somanyrobots
Art
Electrostatic Infantry, by Kamila Szutenberg © Wizards of the Coast LLC
Background Image Stains
License
© 2025 somanyrobots, CC BY-NC 4.0
Includes spells from Kibbles' Casting Compendium 2.0 by KibblesTasty Homebrew LLC, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Includes spells from Spells That Don't Suck by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
Fan Content Policy
This work is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
5E SRD Content
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.
The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.
