The Zar'ir Adept
The Zar’ir Adept is the only sanctioned crossing of the divide — a church-trained priest bonded not to one discipline but to a matched pair, one Order and one Chaos, drawn from a single canonical god-pair. Where any other soul who tried this would risk the Break twice over, the Adept has spent years in liturgy, breath-drill, and paired vigil learning to hold two currents in one body without either drowning the other. They are diplomats between worlds that were never meant to touch, and the church trusts almost no one else to try.
“Order asks the body to hold still. Chaos asks the self to let go. I do not choose. I hold the door open between them and call that my prayer.” — Postulant’s oath, Zar’ir seminary of the Twin Hearth
Quick Build & Core Stats
Section titled “Quick Build & Core Stats”Quick Build: Wisdom first, Constitution second. Choose the Acolyte background. Take a paired sigil as your holy focus and either a mace or a simple ranged weapon.
- Hit Die: d8 (d8 + Constitution modifier per level after 1st)
- Primary Ability: Wisdom
- Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
- Armor: Light and medium armor, shields
- Weapons: Simple weapons
- Tools: None
- Skills: Choose 2 from Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, Religion, History, Perception
- Starting Equipment: (a) a chain shirt or (b) leather armor; a simple weapon; a paired sigil (holy focus); a priest’s pack; an explorer’s pack; a prayer book recording your god-pair’s rites
The Level 1–20 Table
Section titled “The Level 1–20 Table”| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Consecration | Max Half-Reaching Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +2 | Postulant’s Communion, Sacred Sigil | 2 | — |
| 2 | +2 | Balancing Rite, Lent Mercy | 2 | — |
| 3 | +2 | Sanctified Pairing (Path) | 2 | T1 |
| 4 | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 2 | T1 |
| 5 | +3 | Twinned Eye, Hollow Censure | 3 | T2 |
| 6 | +3 | Path feature | 3 | T2 |
| 7 | +3 | Steady Hand | 3 | T2 |
| 8 | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | T3 |
| 9 | +4 | Communion Anchor | 4 | T3 |
| 10 | +4 | Path feature, The Pair Answers | 4 | T3 |
| 11 | +4 | Deep Communion | 4 | T4 |
| 12 | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | T4 |
| 13 | +5 | Warded Channeling | 5 | T4 |
| 14 | +5 | Path feature (capstone) | 5 | T4 |
| 15 | +5 | Practiced Overchannel | 5 | T5 |
| 16 | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | T5 |
| 17 | +6 | Second Consecration | 6 | T5 |
| 18 | +6 | Sanctified Constancy | 6 | T5 |
| 19 | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 6 | T5 |
| 20 | +6 | The Living Covenant | 6 | T5 |
The Adept’s Max Half-Reaching Tier tracks one full band below the standard Reaching schedule — the cost of walking two disciplines at once — bottoming out at Tier 5 rather than Tier 6, the shared ceiling for both halves.
Class Features
Section titled “Class Features”Postulant’s Communion (1st): Before bonding to a god-pair, you can produce cantrip-tier flickers of an Order and a Chaos color at will (no Tier, no cost). You open the Communion: a single cost track capped at 10 + (proficiency bonus × 2), shared by both future halves. Every point added is tagged Order or Chaos by source. A short rest clears all Order-tagged points; a long rest of stillness clears half your Chaos-tagged points. Crossing 75% triggers the matching flavor’s consequence (1 exhaustion for Order, a Loss Menu d6 for Chaos); the cap forces that flavor’s Overchannel.
Sacred Sigil (1st): Required in hand to cast above cantrip-tier; sundered by a called shot until rebonded over downtime.
Sanctified Pairing (3rd): You take vows to one god-pair (your Path), gaining two half-Reachings — one Order, one Chaos — both capped at your Max Half-Reaching Tier. Casting either adds its Tier to the Communion (tagged accordingly), after the normal Faith Die reduction (roll twice, take higher, if dead-center of your Tenet, which must speak to both halves).
Balancing Rite (2nd): Bonus action, 1 Consecration, immediately after a cast: reduce the points that cast adds to the Communion by your Wisdom modifier (min 1).
Consecration (2nd): Your signature resource — devotion, not exertion. Pool size per table; full recovery on long rest, 1 point on short rest from 7th level. Spent on Balancing Rite; Lent Mercy and Hollow Censure (below); Convergence (2 Consecration, cast your Path’s paired Working, adding its Tier to the Communion twice — once each flavor — using one Faith Die roll for both); and Steadying Vow (1 Consecration reaction, from 7th, to reroll a Loss Menu die or negate an exhaustion tick).
Lent Mercy (2nd): All light is lent, and the Adept’s first duty is to lend it onward. As an action, spend 1 Consecration and touch a creature, or reach toward one you can see within 30 feet: it regains, or takes, 1d8 + your Wisdom modifier hit points — your choice, declared as you cast. Channel it through your Order half and it lands as an emitted flare, lit from within; through your Chaos half and it arrives as a deep matte stain that drinks the light around the wound. Either finish, the effect is the same coin. Because this is devotion and not a Working, it adds nothing to the Communion and needs no Faith Die. The die becomes 2d8 at 7th level, 3d8 at 13th, and 4d8 at 18th.
Twinned Eye (5th): Both eyes flash simultaneously on any cast; Insight checks to read you are made at disadvantage instead of advantage.
Hollow Censure (5th): The church did not train you to hold two currents for your own sake. Where the Wound leaks into the world, you are the door that closes. As an action, present your Sacred Sigil and spend 1 Consecration: each Hollow-touched creature and each active Hollow effect within 30 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failure, a creature recoils — for 1 minute it cannot willingly move within 10 feet of you, flinching from a body that carries both currents the Wound has neither of. While you concentrate (as on a Working, up to 1 minute), minor Hollow seepage within the radius — curdled luck, guttering lamps, small stirrings that should not stir — is suppressed, held shut behind the presented sigil. What the Hollow spends of the world, the pair spends back.
Steady Hand (7th): Steadying Vow usable once per rest without spending Consecration.
Communion Anchor (9th): Once/long rest, action, clear points from the Communion equal to your Wisdom modifier, split freely between flavors.
The Pair Answers (10th): Once per long rest, when you cast a Working through either half-Reaching, you may declare that the pair answers: the other god carries the cost, and the Working adds zero points to the Communion — no Faith Die needed, nothing tagged, nothing owed. For one cast, the door you hold open holds you. (At 20th level, The Living Covenant extends this feature; see below.)
Deep Communion (11th): Your Communion cap increases by 2. In addition, you gain your signature active rite, Twinned Channel: once per short rest, on your turn you may cast one Order and one Chaos half-Reaching Working in the same turn (one as your action, the other as a bonus action), resolving both with a single Faith Die roll and letting the two eye-colors flare at once — the sanctioned crossing made manifest. This is the button the whole Path is built toward: for one shining turn, you are the pair.
Warded Channeling (13th): Advantage on saves vs. mind/spirit effects while you hold ≥1 Communion point.
Practiced Overchannel (15th): Order Overchannel drops you to 1 HP instead of 0 (once/long rest); Chaos Overchannel’s loss may be temporary (until next stillness rest) instead of permanent, once/long rest.
Sanctified Constancy (18th): Chaos-tagged points now clear fully (not half) on a rest of stillness.
The Living Covenant (20th, capstone): Once/long rest, declare Covenant: for 1 minute, casts add zero new Communion points (existing points unaffected). The Covenant also extends The Pair Answers: it now recovers on a short or long rest, and it may answer your Path’s paired Working itself — a Convergence cast with zero points added to the Communion and no Consecration spent. What the Adept spent a career holding open, the pair now holds open in return.
The Three Paths
Section titled “The Three Paths”Three of the four canonical pairs are detailed; Ilogo-Jawehn (Unmaking + Dream) is recognized doctrine but has no active seminary and isn’t playable in this book.
Path of Embelekor-Michana (Binding + Knowing) — oathkeepers and confessors. 3rd: half-Reachings into Binding/Knowing; paired Working Oathsight (binds a promise + reveals intent to keep it). 6th: advantage on Insight vs. anyone bound by your Binding. 10th: once/long rest, treat a Binding Faith Die roll as its minimum. 14th: Convergence Oathsight also reveals one hidden fact.
Path of Zathra-Yadra (Weight + Growing) — field-priests of famine and harvest. 3rd: half-Reachings into Weight/Growing; paired Working Bloomwall (crushing, self-mending barrier). 6th: difficult terrain doesn’t slow you or nearby allies while concentrating. 10th: once/long rest, swap a Growing Loss Menu roll for an exhaustion level instead. 14th: Convergence Bloomwall heals half missing HP to up to three sheltering allies once.
Path of Rashel/Bamoph (Current + Heart) — wayfarers and healers-in-motion. 3rd: half-Reachings into Current/Heart; paired Working Tidebond (group moves as one current, shared damage pool). 6th: +10 speed, no opportunity attacks moving 10+ ft straight. 10th: once/short rest, reaction to take half a dying ally’s lethal damage as a Heart-tagged Communion point. 14th: Convergence Tidebond’s damage-share extends to any opted-in ally within 60 ft.