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 Four Paths

Path of the Oath-Blade — the blade-sworn (Weapon-relic)

A martial weapon with a will of its own — it chose you for a purpose it hasn’t finished explaining. Where the Burning Glass keeps its distance, the Oath-Blade closes: it wants to be within reach of the thing it hates, and it wants you carried there with it.

3rd — Old Soldier’s Eye (out of combat, always on). Steel knows steel. Whenever you lay eyes on a weapon or standing work, your relic recognizes its make, age, and last wielder on sight and tells you what it reads — usually with unsolicited commentary on the workmanship. This is always active, costs no Relic Charge, and requires no action.

3rd — First Cut. Your Bound Strike takes the color of your blade’s grudge. When you spend a Relic Charge on Bound Strike, its extra damage is now +1d6 of a type your weapon-relic favors — chosen when you first bond the relic from radiant, necrotic, or force — rather than the generic force of an unpathed relic. In addition, on that same Bound Strike you may spend one additional Relic Charge to widen the edge: until the end of this turn, your attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

6th — The Blade Insists. Once per short rest, when you hit a creature with your relic, you may spend 2 Relic Charges to make the blade press its own agenda onto the fight: the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your primary-ability modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn — the relic wants them running, and they can feel that it does.

10th — Awakened Edge (Awakening II tier). Your weapon-relic can now be thrown and returns to your hand. When it returns, you may spend 1 Relic Charge to make an immediate free attack with it (requiring no action) as it comes back to your grip.

14th — Its Purpose. Once per long rest (no action required), you may declare that the relic’s unfinished purpose aligns with your current fight. For the rest of that encounter, all your Bound Strike costs are halved (rounded up) — the blade spends itself freely at last, now that the cause in front of it is one it recognizes as its own.

Path of the Standing Mantle — the wardens (Ward-relic)

A worn standing-work of protection, stitched from a promise someone else couldn’t keep. It spends itself to keep you and yours upright, and every point of shelter it grants is a debt it quietly remembers is owed.

3rd — The Promise Listens (out of combat, always on). The mantle never stopped keeping its promise; it only changed whose. You automatically sense hostile intent aimed at anyone under your protection within 30 feet — not who holds it, not how it will fall, only that a knife is being considered nearby. This is always active, costs no Relic Charge, and requires no action.

3rd — Warded Skin. While the mantle is worn, when you are hit by an attack you may spend 1 Relic Charge as a reaction to have it drink the blow: reduce the damage you take by 1d10 + your Relic-Bound level.

6th — Shared Shelter. When an ally adjacent to you is hit by an attack, you may spend 2 Relic Charges as a reaction to throw the mantle over them instead: extend the Warded Skin reduction (1d10 + your Relic-Bound level) to the damage that ally takes, exactly as if the blow had fallen on you.

10th — The Mantle Remembers Falling (Awakening II tier). Once per long rest, when you would be reduced to 0 hit points, the mantle acts on its own before you can drop: it automatically spends Relic Charges (up to your maximum) to halve the triggering damage, requiring no action from you. If the halved total no longer brings you to 0, you remain standing — the mantle refuses to let the same fall happen twice.

14th — Standing Ground. As an action, spend 3 Relic Charges: you and every ally within 15 feet gain resistance to all damage until the start of your next turn, the mantle stretching itself thin across the whole line. It hates spending this much of itself at once — whenever you use Standing Ground, it marks 1 on your Debt Clock regardless of how much of your charge maximum remained, a bill it always presents.

Path of the Bound Vessel — the reliquary-born (Vessel-relic)

A bound lesser-work that holds knowledge, or a fragment of something that once spoke and still remembers how. You do not so much wield this relic as house it: it rides inside what you carry and answers with counsel, memory, and — when its container is threatened — a lash of its own.

3rd — Whispered Counsel. Spend 1 Relic Charge to draw on the fragment’s counsel: either you gain advantage on one ability check you make, or you grant one ally within 30 feet advantage on their next saving throw. The vessel has seen this kind of trouble before, and it murmurs the way through.

6th — The Fragment Rouses (reaction). The bound power defends its house before it defends anything else. When you or an ally you can see within 30 feet is hit by an attack, you may spend 2 Relic Charges as a reaction: the fragment surges out of its vessel in a lash of lent light. Reduce the triggering damage by 1d8 + your primary modifier (by 2d8 + your primary modifier instead if the target is you — the vessel guards its own container first), and the creature that dealt the damage, if within 30 feet, takes 2d8 force damage as the roused fragment strikes back (3d8 at 14th level). No saving throw; the lash only answers a blow already landed. Because it houses a bound power rather than wielding a weapon, the Vessel does not parry or block — it retaliates, and the party learns to fight where its light can reach them.

10th — It Speaks Through You (Awakening II tier). Once per long rest, spend 2 Relic Charges to let the fragment speak with your voice for one exchange of dialogue. It knows things you do not and says them whether you like it or not — the words leave your mouth, but they do not come from your intent.

14th — What It Remembers. Once per long rest, spend 3 Relic Charges (no action required) to have the vessel surrender a piece of lost or forbidden lore relevant to the current scene. The GM decides how specific the memory is, but what the fragment gives up is always true — it has simply been waiting a very long time for someone to ask the right question.

Path of the Burning Glass — the light-lancers (Lens-relic)

A bound sighting-lens — a disc of old glass in a brass ring, a shard of a shattered focusing-mirror, a monocle that once belonged to something that watched the sky — through which the relic’s lent light does not spill but aims. Where the Oath-Blade closes and the Standing Mantle endures, the Burning Glass keeps its distance and burns holes in the middle distance, sighting down its own borrowed radiance. It is never satisfied with a single shot.

3rd — Reach of the Lent Light. Your bound relic is a sighting-lens, held in one hand or worn over one eye; this Path’s relic makes its attacks through the lens rather than with a swung weapon. On your turn, in place of any weapon attack you could otherwise make, you may loose a lance of lent light: a ranged spell attack against one target within 120 feet, made with your proficiency bonus plus your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice, fixed when you take this Path — this is the modifier your lens favors, and it governs every feature and save DC of this Path thereafter; call it your lens’s modifier). On a hit, the lance deals 1d10 + your lens’s modifier force damage of the relic’s own color. This attack is at-will and spends no Relic Charge — it is the relic’s idle hunger sighting down its own light, and it never runs dry.

As your relic wakes, the lance divides, exactly as the borrowed light learns to split: you loose two lances at 5th level, three at 11th level, and four at 17th level. Each lance is a separate attack roll and may be aimed at the same target or split among any creatures you can see within range. (Loosing lances is your whole turn’s offense; it does not combine with your Extra Attack, which powers a held weapon instead. On any given turn you either fire the lens or you swing steel — never both.)

Bound Strike (this Path). When a lance hits, you may spend 1 Relic Charge to overcharge that beam: it deals an extra 1d6 force damage and shoves the target up to 10 feet straight away from you (a Large or smaller creature only; no saving throw — lent light does not negotiate). You may overcharge each lance separately, paying 1 charge per lance you choose to empower, so a turret that draws hard draws its charges down fast.

6th — Hook of Light. The lens learns to reel as readily as it repels. When a lance hits, you may instead spend 1 Relic Charge to pull the target up to 10 feet directly toward you (Large or smaller, no save); or spend 2 Relic Charges to pull it up to 15 feet toward you and reduce its speed to 0 until the start of its next turn as the light coils and drags, though against this heavier draw the target may make a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your lens’s modifier) to be pulled only 5 feet and keep its speed. You may apply a Hook of Light rider — or the Bound Strike shove — to only one lance per turn.

In addition, the lens sheds light for you at will. As a bonus action you may have it throw a beam of bright light in a line 5 feet wide out to 120 feet (and dim light for 5 feet beyond), and you may fix a mote of lent light to any surface or creature you can see within that range. The mote sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius for 1 minute and travels with whatever it is fixed to; a creature marked by the mote cannot benefit from being invisible or lightly obscured against your lances, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to keep track of it. You may move or dismiss the mote at will (no action).

10th — The Lens Wakes (Awakening II tier). Your relic has borne enough of your fights to sight for itself. Your lances now ignore half cover and three-quarters cover, the lens bending its borrowed light around obstructions to find the mark. Furthermore — the Awakening II autonomy made manifest — once per long rest, when you are reduced to 0 hit points, the lens fires on its own before the light in it goes out: immediately, requiring no action, reaction, or Relic Charge from you, it looses your full complement of lances (two, three, or four by your level) at the creature nearest to you within 120 feet, resolving each as a normal lance including your lens’s modifier to damage. The relic will not let its wielder fall with a loaded shot still sitting in the glass.

14th — Open the Glass. Once per long rest, as a bonus action, you throw the lens fully open and let the lent light pour through unmetered. For 1 minute: you loose one additional lance each turn beyond your normal complement, and you may apply the Bound Strike overcharge and a Hook of Light rider to every lance you fire, each without spending any Relic Charge (the once-per-turn limit on riders is lifted for this minute). When the minute ends, the relic presents its whole invoice at once — mark 2 on your Debt Clock, no matter how few charges you would otherwise have spent. For sixty seconds you are the turret the relic always wanted you to be; then it bills you for the view.