The Ironclast

Plays like: the Barbarian’s endurance without the rage — the immovable juggernaut. If your fantasy is reckless, unarmored fury, this is not that class; if it’s being the last thing standing, it is exactly that class.

Identity: The Ironclast doesn’t dodge — it endures. Where casters bend a Working around a wound, the Ironclast simply refuses the wound its due. Bred from Kardun mountain-forges (though any soldier stubborn enough can take the Calling), it is oath-metal, dense bone, and a will that does not know how to break. It carries no Reaching, needs none, and stands where nothing else can.

“The mountain does not flinch when the storm arrives. It simply outlasts it.” — Kardun proverb, carved into the Ironclast’s forge-oath

Quick Build: Max Constitution first, Strength second. Choose heavy armor and a shield, a martial weapon, and smith’s tools. Pick the Bulwark path if you want to be the wall the party stands behind; Oathforge if you want your gear to be a character in its own right; Deepdelver if you want tunnels, breaches, and sieges to be your battlefield of choice.

Core Stats

• Hit Die: d12 (HP: 12 + Con mod at 1st; 1d12 (or 7) + Con mod per level after)
• Primary Ability: Constitution
• Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
• Armor: Light, medium, heavy, shields
• Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
• Tools: Smith’s tools, mason’s tools
• Skills: Choose 2 — Athletics, Intimidation, Survival, History, Perception, Insight
• Starting Equipment: Chain mail or (scale mail + shield); a martial weapon and a second martial weapon or two handaxes; smith’s tools; an explorer’s pack; oath-metal ingot (heirloom, no mechanical effect until Oathforge)

Like everyone, the Ironclast can lend Unshaped Faith — spend 1 Hit Die’s worth of effort once per rest to grant an ally advantage or an extra Hit Die. No magic-blood required. Ironclasts who inherit or earn a bonded focus stone favor a Weight-bonded (blue) stone set in their armor — the Anchor (Chapter 9) is simply the mountain’s own opinion, worn.

Level Table

Level	Prof. Bonus	Features	Grit Points
1	+2	Ironclad Constitution, Grit	3
2	+2	Fighting Style, Shrug It Off	4
3	+2	Path chosen, Path feature, Open the Gate	4
4	+2	Ability Score Improvement	5
5	+3	Extra Attack, The Wall Hits Back	5
6	+3	Path feature	6
7	+3	Unbreakable Stance, The Mountain Endures	6
8	+3	Ability Score Improvement	7
9	+4	Last Stand	7
10	+4	Path feature	8
11	+4	Indomitable Body	8
12	+4	Ability Score Improvement	9
13	+5	Fortress of One	9
14	+5	Path feature	10
15	+5	Undying Grit	10
16	+5	Ability Score Improvement	11
17	+6	Second Wind of Stone	11
18	+6	Grit Mastery	12
19	+6	Ability Score Improvement / Feat	12
20	+6	Immovable Object (capstone)	13

Class Features

Ironclad Constitution (1st): While you wear heavy armor and are not incapacitated, you add your Constitution modifier to your AC. You also gain resistance to being frightened by anything without an Intelligence score of 8 or higher — you’ve simply seen worse.

Grit (1st): Your Grit pool (see table) refreshes fully on a short or long rest. Spend Grit Points as follows:

• Shrug It Off (reaction, when you take damage, cost 1 Grit; unlocked 2nd level): reduce the damage by 1d12 + your Constitution modifier. You can do this even against damage types you lack resistance to — it isn’t magic, it’s simply refusing to fall.
• Immovable (no action, when you’d be knocked prone, pushed, pulled, or forcibly moved, cost 1 Grit): the effect fails against you entirely. This works even against effects that don’t normally allow a save, so long as it’s physical force — magical teleportation and mind-affecting compulsion still work.
• Hold the Line (bonus action, cost 1 Grit): until the start of your next turn, any hostile creature that starts its turn within 5 feet of you has its speed reduced to 0 unless it succeeds on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + prof. bonus + Con mod). You gain an opportunity attack with advantage against any creature that attempts to move away regardless.
• Open the Gate (bonus action, cost 1 Grit; unlocked 3rd level): you drop the guard on purpose — the gate stands open, and everything that walks through it gets answered. Until the start of your next turn, attack rolls against you have advantage, and your attack rolls have advantage. The mountain does not always wait for the storm.
• Breaker’s Blow (on hit, cost 1 Grit; unlocked 11th level): once per turn, when you hit with a weapon attack, channel the immovable weight of your whole stance into it — add 2d12 + your Constitution modifier bludgeoning damage (increasing to 3d12 + your Constitution modifier at 17th level). This is not magic; it is a mountain deciding to move exactly once. It is the Ironclast’s answer to the day the wall must also be the hammer, and it keeps your damage climbing alongside the blades and Workings around you.
• Last Stand (see 9th level).

Fighting Style (2nd): Choose Defense, Protection, or Great Weapon Fighting.

Extra Attack (5th): You attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action.

The Wall Hits Back (5th): When you use Shrug It Off, you may add your Constitution modifier to the damage of the next melee weapon attack you hit with before the end of your next turn. What they spent breaking against you, you hand back.

Unbreakable Stance (7th): As a bonus action, plant your feet: until you move, you have advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws, and attacks against you have disadvantage unless the attacker is within 5 feet of you or the attack is ranged. Ends immediately if you move under your own power.

The Mountain Endures (7th): When you fail a Dexterity saving throw against an effect that covers an area, you may spend 1 Grit Point to treat it as a success. You don’t dodge the avalanche; you take it on your shoulders.

Last Stand (9th): When you’re reduced to 0 HP but not killed outright, you may spend 2 Grit Points (or none, once per long rest, free) to instead drop to 1 HP and remain standing. For the next minute, you’re not affected by anything that would ordinarily happen from being at 0 HP; when the minute ends, if you’re still at 1 HP or below, you fall unconscious as normal unless healed.

Indomitable Body (11th): You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons at all times (not just while raging or stanced) — this is who you are now, not a stance you take.

Fortress of One (13th): Your Grit maximum increases by your Constitution modifier (minimum +1), and Shrug It Off’s damage reduction increases to 2d12 + Con mod.

Undying Grit (15th): You automatically succeed on Constitution saving throws to avoid gaining a level of exhaustion, and you no longer suffer the speed-halving effect of exhaustion levels 1-3.

Second Wind of Stone (17th): Once per short rest, as a bonus action, regain Grit Points equal to half your Grit maximum (round up) without a rest.

Grit Mastery (18th): Grit costs for Shrug It Off, Immovable, and Hold the Line are all reduced by 1 (minimum 0) — you may use each once per turn at no cost.

Immovable Object (20th, capstone): Once per long rest, as a reaction to any single source of damage or forced movement, spend no Grit and simply negate it entirely — no roll, no save, it does not happen to you. In addition, while you have at least 1 Grit Point remaining, you cannot be reduced below 1 HP by any single instance of damage that does not exceed your HP maximum outright twice over.

The Three Paths

The Bulwark — “Stand where the line must not break.”

The purest expression of the Calling: a body deployed as architecture, holding ground others cannot.

• 3rd — Living Wall: While you’re wearing a shield, allies within 5 feet of you gain a +1 bonus to AC. This bonus increases to +2 at 10th level.
• 6th — Draw the Eye: As a bonus action, force one creature within 30 feet that can see you to make a Wisdom save (DC 8 + prof. + Con mod) or have disadvantage on attacks against anyone but you until the end of your next turn.
• 10th — Nothing Passes: Enemies can no longer move through your space, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against any creature that moves out of your reach without spending its movement to disengage from you specifically.
• 14th — Unmovable Mountain: You are immune to being grappled, restrained, or moved against your will by any effect of CR/level lower than your own, magical or not.

The Oathforge — “My word is oath-metal; it does not bend.”

Kardun oath-smiths bind vows into forged gear, and the Oathforge lives by both hammer and stubbornness.

• 3rd — Bespoke Steel: Using smith’s tools and 8 hours, forge a personal weapon or shield that counts as a magic item for overcoming resistance (it isn’t magic — it’s simply that well made). It’s keyed to you; anyone else wielding it has disadvantage on attacks.
• 6th — Word-Bound Vow: Once per long rest, swear a vow of one sentence about the current fight or quest (“I will not let this gate fall”). While the vow holds true, gain a +2 bonus to saves and Grit-based DCs. If you break your own vow, you gain a level of exhaustion.
• 10th — Reforge Under Fire: As an action, repair your Bespoke Steel or a shattered piece of armor to full function in the field, and grant it a temporary +1 until your next long rest.
• 14th — Unbreakable Oath: Your vow (6th) now also grants immunity to being frightened or charmed for its duration, and once per long rest, if you would drop to 0 HP while your vow holds, you instead drop to half your HP maximum.

The Deepdelver — “The mountain gave me hunger; I give it back in stone and blood.”

Tunnel fighters and siege-breakers, touched by the Kardun “Old Hunger” — a craft-fever that drives them to dig, build, and break fortifications with equal fervor.

• 3rd — Tunnel Sense: You have advantage on checks to detect traps, structural weaknesses, or hidden passages in stone or earth, and you always know which way is up underground.
• 6th — Siegebreaker: Your weapon attacks deal double damage to objects and structures, and you can use mason’s tools to collapse a prepared section of wall or ceiling as an action (DC set by GM based on material).
• 10th — Old Hunger: Once per long rest, as a bonus action, enter a craft-fever for 1 minute: your weapon attacks deal an extra 1d8 damage against constructs, structures, and creatures with 0 movement speed, but you have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks against anything not directly threatening you.
• 14th — Bury the Line: As an action, spend 3 Grit to collapse the ground in a 15-foot radius within 30 feet: the area becomes difficult terrain, and each creature there must save (Dex, DC 8 + prof. + Con mod) or be knocked prone and buried to the waist (restrained until it uses an action to dig free).