Urban Shadow

When major towns grow, they often do so to the detriment of the traditional habitats of rangers and druids, which can end up destroyed or reduced to a fraction of their original size. However, these bloated cities have a wilderness of their own. Among the landfills and slums, at the periphery of respectable districts, a particular ecosystem takes form, and some rangers make it their domain.

Some of them cling to their former territories, seeking to preserve their traditions as best they can in a changing environment. They lead a guerrilla war against the rampant expansion of urban areas or the unrestrained exploitation of natural resources. Others thrive in these hostile places or make it their home, the better to infiltrate the heart of a system that threatens them and that they abhor. Some rangers even venerate vermin and filth as indispensable steps of the natural cycle. They live among refuse or subsist in the sewers below the streets of big cities, befriending the multitude of rats and pests that populate this underground world. As a result, their magic changes, but it still calls upon the forces of nature, albeit under a different guise.

Urban Favored Enemy

Starting at 3rd level, your urban ranger gains city-dwellers as their favored enemies. For a person to qualify as a city-dweller, regardless of the species they belong to, they must have spent most of their life in large towns. What qualifies as a town-as opposed to a rural community-is at the GM’s discretion.

Street Smarts

At 3rd level, you have grown familiar with the urban underbelly. You speak thieves’ cant.

You also gain proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Persuasion, Stealth, and thieves’ tools. If you choose a proficiency you already have, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the chosen proficiency.

Fleeting Shadow

Beginning at 7th level, you know the spell vivacity.

In addition, as a bonus action on your turn, you can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.

You also gain darkvision within 60 feet.

Vermin Companion

At 11th level, you live in symbiosis with the typical vermin of urban areas. You can add the following beasts to your eligible animal companions: swarm of bats, swarm of insects, swarm of rats, and swarm of ravens. If you choose one of these creatures, it follows the normal rules for the Animal Companion feat and the Animal Bond feature, with the following exceptions:

  • When you are in an environment where such a creature is likely to thrive, you only need a long rest to forge a bond with it.
  • Whenever you move, if your vermin companion occupies the same space as you, you can make it move with you at no cost.
  • As long as your vermin companion occupies the same space as you, whenever you take any type of damage except psychic damage, you can use your reaction to take half the damage. Your vermin companion takes the other half.
  • When you spend a 3rd-level spell slot to use your Animal Bond feature, your companion has immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.

Thrive in Filth

When you reach 15th level, urban pests become your guardian angels. You gain the following effects, which only apply if your animal companion is a swarm of beasts:

  • As long as your companion occupies the same space as you, you are immune to poisons and diseases.
  • Your vermin companion can cast revivify on you only, without spell components, by using one of your spell slots of 3rd level or higher. When this occurs, you and your companion can teleport over 60 feet in the same direction of your choice.
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Fateforge Role-Playing Game Adventurers Core Rulebook Copyright © 2019 Studio Agate Joëlle ‘Iris’ Deschamp