The Relic-Bound

Plays like: the Warlock — except your patron is the ancient relic you carry, and it keeps score.

A warrior who did not choose their weapon so much as survive being chosen by it. Somewhere in the Relic-Bound’s past a lesser standing-work — a blade, a mantle, a bound vessel carrying a fragment of something that once spoke — reached back when touched, and did not let go. They fight with borrowed light, and borrowed light is never free.

“Everyone thinks I command it. I don’t. I make payments.” — Corvenna Ashwrit, Relic-Bound of the oath-blade Seldrach

Quick Build & Core Stats

Quick Build: High Strength or Dexterity (whichever suits your relic’s weapon), then Constitution, then Wisdom (to hear the relic clearly). Choose the Soldier or Grave-Robber background.

• Hit Die: d10 (HP: 10 + Con mod at 1st; 1d10 + Con mod per level after)
• Primary Ability: Strength or Dexterity
• Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
• Armor: Light, medium, shields
• Weapons: Simple and martial weapons
• Tools: One artisan’s tool of your choice (upkeep of the relic)
• Skills: Choose 2 from Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Religion, Survival
• Starting Equipment: Your Relic (see below, chosen with your Path), a martial weapon and shield or a second martial weapon, medium armor, an explorer’s pack, 5d4 gp

Level Table

Level	Prof. Bonus	Features	Relic Charges	Concessions
1	+2	The Relic, Bound Strike, Leash	2	—
2	+2	Awakening I, Relic’s Voice, Concessions	2	2
3	+2	Path chosen	3	2
4	+2	Ability Score Improvement	3	2
5	+3	Extra Attack	3	3
6	+3	Path feature	4	3
7	+3	Steady the Debt	4	3
8	+3	Ability Score Improvement	4	3
9	+4	Awakening II	5	4
10	+4	Path feature	5	4
11	+4	Relentless Bond	5	4
12	+4	Ability Score Improvement	6	4
13	+5	Overdraw Mastery	6	5
14	+5	Path feature	6	5
15	+5	Awakening III	7	5
16	+5	Ability Score Improvement	7	5
17	+6	The Relic Remembers	7	6
18	+6	Unbreakable Bargain	8	6
19	+6	Ability Score Improvement	8	6
20	+6	Apotheosis of the Bound	9	6

Class Features

The Relic

At 1st level you are bonded to a relic — an intelligent, semi-independent lesser standing-work, statted as a magic item with a name, a voice, and a want. It is emphatically not a Working, a spell, or a Reaching: nothing about it touches Strain, Fray, Tier, or Conviction. It is lent light, and lent light collects on its own ledger. Nor is it stone-set gear (Chapter 9): a bonded stone remembers one discipline asked of it; a relic remembers itself — older, prouder, and owed. At 1st and 2nd level the relic’s deeper nature is still stirring, and it grants only the generic Bound Strike below. At 3rd level you choose your relic’s Path (below) — what it truly is — unlocking that Path’s rider effects and feature tree, exactly as every Calling chooses its subclass at 3rd.

Relic Charges

You have a pool of Relic Charges (see table) that recovers fully on a long rest. On a short rest, the relic extends a fresh line of credit: you regain spent charges up to half your maximum (rounded up) — an hour’s attention is worth more to it than a night’s neglect. Spend charges to fuel your relic’s Path features, listed under each Path. Most relic feature costs are 1 charge; larger effects cost 2-3.

Bound Strike

As part of any attack made with your relic (or, for Ward/Vessel relics, any attack while it is worn/carried), you may spend 1 Relic Charge to add a burst of the relic’s lent light. Before you choose a Path (levels 1–2) this is a generic rider: +1d6 force damage of the relic’s own color. From 3rd level, Bound Strike instead adds the damage or rider effect defined by your chosen Path.

The Leash

Your relic is not a tool — it is a creditor. Track a Debt Clock (0-6).

Overdrawing (your risk lever). When your Relic Charges are spent, you may Overdraw — deliberately spend a charge you do not have, up to a number of extra charges per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. Each charge Overdrawn fuels a relic feature as normal and immediately marks 1 on the Debt Clock. This is the bargain at the heart of the Calling: the power is always there when you truly need it, and the relic always, always adds it to your bill. The GM may also mark Debt after you repeatedly ignore the relic’s Voice (below). The Debt Clock is entirely separate from your charge pool — it is the relic keeping score.

At Debt 3, the relic imposes a Burden: a standing complication chosen by your Path (a compulsion, a sensory leash, a debt owed to something the relic serves). The Burden persists until you pay it down through roleplay/downtime service to the relic’s agenda (GM’s call, typically an adventure beat) or until 1 long rest of deliberate reconciliation — a full rest spent doing nothing but attending to the relic’s want, during which you gain no other rest benefits.

At Debt 6, the debt comes due: the GM cashes in a scene where the relic’s true agenda overrides yours — it may act on its own initiative through you, refuse to function until served, or drag you toward its unfinished business. This is never lethal by fiat, but it is never comfortable. Debt resets to 3 (not 0) once the scene resolves; full forgiveness to 0 requires a story milestone the GM sets.

Awakening I / II / III

At 2nd, 9th, and 15th level your relic wakes further — it has borne enough of your fights to remember more of itself. Each Awakening unlocks a new tier of Path features (marked in each Path below) and permanently raises your relic’s presence: it can now speak unprompted (Awakening I), act with limited autonomy in defense of you when you’re at 0 HP (Awakening II), or manifest a minor physical form of its own for 1 minute once per long rest (Awakening III).

Relic’s Voice

Starting at 2nd level, your relic communicates opinions, warnings, and demands. Before you take an action it strongly objects to, the GM may have it speak to you (no action cost, this is fictional positioning, not a mechanical tax) — ignoring it repeatedly is what feeds the Leash.

Concessions

Not everything the relic gives, it charges for. Starting at 2nd level it makes Concessions — small permanent allowances it grants freely, because they serve its interests as much as yours. Choose 2 from the list below; you learn one additional Concession at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level (see table, 6 total). Whenever you gain a Relic-Bound level, you may trade one Concession you know for another — the relic renegotiates terms, it never tears up the contract. Concessions cost no charges and mark no Debt.

• Old Eyes. The relic lends you its way of seeing: you gain darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Long Arm. Choose when you take this Concession: your Bound Strike attacks gain +5 feet of reach, or your relic can be thrown 30 feet (returning to your hand at the end of your turn) and Bound Strike applies to the throw.
• Heavy Word. When your Bound Strike hits, you may push the target 10 feet directly away from you.
• Borrowed Tongues. You can read any language the relic has lived through — and it has lived through most of them. (The GM decides the rare exceptions; the relic is old, not omniscient.)
• Kindred Light. The relic knows its own kind. You sense the presence and direction of standing works within 60 feet, though not their nature or intent.
• The Whisper Before. The relic murmurs warnings a half-heartbeat ahead of trouble: you have advantage on initiative rolls.
• Collateral. While your Debt Clock is at 3 or higher, you gain +1 AC. The relic armors what it is owed — a debtor who dies is a bad account.
• Small Favors. Once per short or long rest, the relic performs a minor utility trick suited to its Path (Oath-Blade: sharpens, mends, or marks a blade-scratch sigil visible only to you; Standing Mantle: shields your camp from weather or shrugs off one round of environmental harm; Bound Vessel: recites a fact, ruling, or verse it once held). GM adjudicates scope; it is a favor, not a feature.
• Parley. Once per day you may ask the relic’s memory one question about anything it has personally witnessed, and it answers truthfully — in its own words, with its own grievances attached.
• Quiet the Voice. The relic has heard every honeyed lie and every scream there is; nothing in your head impresses it. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

Steady the Debt (7th level)

Once per long rest, as an action, you may spend 10 minutes in communion with your relic to remove 1 point from the Debt Clock without a full reconciliation rest.

Relentless Bond (11th level)

When you would drop to 0 HP, you may spend your relic’s remaining charges (minimum 1) to instead drop to 1 HP. A life bought back is the deepest draw of all: mark 2 Debt when you do. The relic will keep you standing — and it will remember exactly what it is owed for it.

Overdraw Mastery (13th level)

You may Overdraw twice before marking Debt (i.e., the first Overdraw each long rest is free).

The Relic Remembers (17th level)

Once per long rest, you may ask your relic one true question about its own past, a creature, or a place it has witnessed across its long existence — the GM answers honestly, in character.

Unbreakable Bargain (18th level)

You may willingly accept a Burden at Debt 1 or 2 (rather than waiting for Debt 3) to gain +1 to Relic Charge maximum until the Burden is paid off.

Apotheosis of the Bound (20th level)

Once per long rest, spend all remaining Relic Charges as a bonus action: for 1 minute, every Bound Strike and Path feature costs no charges, no matter how hard you draw. Keep a tally of every charge you would have spent during that minute. When it ends, mark Debt equal to half that tally (rounded up, minimum 2) — the relic lets you draw freely and then presents the whole invoice at once. Draw lightly and the bill is small; empty yourself into that minute and the debt that follows can bring the whole Calling’s reckoning down on you.

The Three Paths

Path of the Oath-Blade (Weapon-relic)

A martial weapon with a will of its own — it chose you for a purpose it hasn’t finished explaining.

• 3rd — Old Soldier’s Eye (out of combat, always on): Steel knows steel. On sight, your relic recognizes the make, age, and last wielder of any weapon or standing work, and tells you — usually with commentary on the workmanship.
• 3rd — First Cut: Bound Strike now deals +1d6 damage of a type your weapon-relic favors (chosen at creation: radiant, necrotic, force). Spend an additional charge to make it a critical threat on a 19-20 this turn.
• 6th — The Blade Insists: Once per short rest, spend 2 charges to force a creature you hit to make a Wisdom save (DC 8 + prof + primary mod) or be frightened of you until end of your next turn — the relic wants them running.
• 10th — Awakened Edge (Awakening II tier): Your weapon-relic can be thrown and returns to your hand; spend 1 charge when it returns to make an immediate free attack.
• 14th — Its Purpose: Once per long rest, declare the relic’s unfinished purpose aligns with your current fight — for that encounter, all Bound Strike costs are halved (round up).

Path of the Standing Mantle (Ward-relic)

A worn standing-work of protection, stitched from a promise someone else couldn’t keep.

• 3rd — The Promise Listens (out of combat, always on): The mantle never stopped keeping its promise; it only changed whose. You sense hostile intent directed at anyone under your protection within 30 feet — not who, not how, only that a knife is being considered.
• 3rd — Warded Skin: While worn, spend 1 charge as a reaction when hit to reduce damage by 1d10 + your Relic-Bound level.
• 6th — Shared Shelter: Spend 2 charges as a reaction to extend the Warded Skin reduction to one adjacent ally.
• 10th — Awakening II tier, The Mantle Remembers Falling: Once per long rest when you’d be reduced to 0 HP, the mantle automatically spends charges (up to your max) to halve the damage, no action required.
• 14th — Standing Ground: Spend 3 charges, action: you and allies within 15 ft gain resistance to all damage until the start of your next turn. The mantle hates spending this much at once — it always marks 1 Debt regardless of your remaining maximum.

Path of the Bound Vessel (Vessel-relic)

A bound lesser-work that holds knowledge, or a fragment of something that once spoke and still remembers how.

• 3rd — Whispered Counsel: Spend 1 charge to gain advantage on one ability check, or to grant an ally within 30 ft advantage on their next save.
• 6th — Fragment’s Sight: Spend 2 charges, action: the vessel shows you a 1-round vision of a nearby (within 60 ft) hidden creature, trap, or door.
• 10th — Awakening II tier, It Speaks Through You: Once per long rest, spend 2 charges to let the fragment speak with your voice for one exchange of dialogue — it knows things you don’t, and says them whether you like it or not.
• 14th — What It Remembers: Spend 3 charges, no action, once per long rest: recall a piece of lost or forbidden lore relevant to the current scene, GM’s call on specificity, always true.