The Warrens-Runner

Plays like: the Rogue — the knife in the city’s shadow; skill is your magic.

Identity: Sulamir stacks three cities on top of each other and pretends they are one, and the Warrens-Runner is what happens when someone grows up in the seams. No Reaching, no flashing eyes, no ledger of Strain or Fray — just a body trained on rooftop lines and steam-tunnel crawls, hands that open what the city locks, and an unerring instinct for the one clean line through a fight, a manor, or a lie. Casters bind the world; a Runner simply knows where it doesn’t quite meet, and slips through.

“The Spire folk think the city has three layers. It has hundreds — every ledge, every vent, every debt. I run all of them.” — Vess “Two-Stairs” Marrol, Warrens courier, never once convicted

Quick Build & Core Stats

Quick build: High Dexterity, then Intelligence (for the Layer-Ghost or Spider’s Hand) or Charisma (for the Long Count); take Expertise in Stealth and Thieves’ Tools, and pick Tricks of the Trade that match your route — tunnels, rooftops, or parlors.

Hit Die: d8
Primary Ability: Dexterity
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, shortswords, rapiers
Tools: Thieves’ tools
Skills: Choose 4 — Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Starting Equipment: A rapier or shortsword; a shortbow with 20 arrows or a hand crossbow with 20 bolts; leather armor; two daggers; thieves’ tools; a burglar’s pack; unshaped Faith like any soul in Merretia — no Reaching required to lend it.

Runners prize Knowing-bonded stones (magenta) above all treasure — a stone that remembers the Knowing lets a talentless thief read a cipher’s gist or catch a spoken lie, no Reaching required (see Chapter 9, Stone-Set Gear). A bonded stone is a Runner’s retirement fund and working capital in one setting.

The Warrens-Runner — Level Table

Level	Prof. Bonus	The Clean Line	Features
1	+2	1d6	Expertise, The Clean Line, Warrens-cant
2	+2	1d6	Runner’s Step
3	+2	2d6	Circuit chosen, Tricks of the Trade (2)
4	+2	2d6	Ability Score Improvement
5	+3	3d6	The Clean Job
6	+3	3d6	Expertise, Circuit feature
7	+3	4d6	Trick of the Trade (3)
8	+3	4d6	Ability Score Improvement
9	+4	5d6	Runner’s Web
10	+4	5d6	Uncanny Dodge, Circuit feature
11	+4	6d6	Reliable Talent
12	+4	6d6	Ability Score Improvement
13	+5	7d6	Evasion, Trick of the Trade (4)
14	+5	7d6	Circuit feature
15	+5	8d6	Layer-Sense
16	+5	8d6	Ability Score Improvement
17	+6	9d6	Trick of the Trade (5)
18	+6	9d6	No Clean Shot
19	+6	10d6	Ability Score Improvement
20	+6	10d6	The Last Run

Class Features

Expertise (1st, 6th) — Choose two of your skill or thieves’-tools proficiencies; your proficiency bonus is doubled for checks with them. Choose two more at 6th level.

The Clean Line (1st) — Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a finesse or ranged weapon and you have advantage on the roll — or an ally of yours is within 5 feet of the target and you don’t have disadvantage — deal extra damage per the level table. Every job has one clean line through it; this is you taking it.

Warrens-cant (1st) — You speak the layered argot of chalk-marks, knot-signs, whistle-codes, and double-meant pleasantries used for Warrens work. You can pass and read hidden messages in plain sight, and you can read a district the way others read a page: one minute of observation tells you where the watch patrols thin, which doors the Order of the Spider has already marked, and who locally buys what shouldn’t be sold.

Runner’s Step (2nd) — Bonus action: Dash, Disengage, or Hide. The vertical city doesn’t wait, and neither do you.

The Clean Job (5th) — Once per short or long rest, when you deal Clean Line damage, you may declare the job clean: the Clean Line dice deal maximum damage, and you may immediately move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. In, done, gone.

Runner’s Web (9th) — You can teach the working bones of Warrens-cant fast. Companions who travel with you a week can pass simple cant with you. Moreover, when you scout ahead and return, allies who follow your route within the hour gain advantage on group Stealth checks along it and can’t be surprised by anything you spotted and named. Your line becomes the party’s line.

Uncanny Dodge (10th) — Reaction, when an attacker you can see hits you: halve the damage.

Reliable Talent (11th) — Whenever you make an ability check with a proficient skill or tool, treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Evasion (13th) — On a Dexterity save for half damage: take none on a success, half on a failure.

Layer-Sense (15th) — You have spent so long in the seams that you feel spaces the way others see them. While you can hear, you know the location of any hidden or invisible creature within 10 feet, and you always know your depth, heading, and nearest exit inside any structure or tunnel you’ve been in for a minute.

No Clean Shot (18th) — You are never where the blow believes you are. No attack roll has advantage against you while you aren’t incapacitated.

The Last Run (20th, capstone) — Once per short or long rest, when you fail an ability check or miss with an attack, you may treat the d20 as a 20. Additionally, once per long rest when you use The Clean Job, you may take a second full turn immediately after your first — the run the ballads get wrong in your favor.

Tricks of the Trade

You learn 2 Tricks at 3rd level (a 3rd at 7th, a 4th at 13th, a 5th at 17th), chosen from:

Tunnel Rat — You can squeeze through any gap a creature two sizes smaller could, and you gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed in the Steam Tunnels and any worked-stone interior.
Rooftop Line — Your long and high jumps double, and you take no damage from falls of 30 feet or less if you end them against a surface you could climb.
Pickman’s Hands — You can use thieves’ tools or make a Sleight of Hand check as a bonus action, and picking a lock or pocket never takes you more than one try’s worth of noise.
Second Face — You can flawlessly mimic any voice or accent you’ve heard for a minute, and you carry one standing false identity with the papers to prove it.
Crowd-Swim — You can attempt to Hide even when only obscured by a creature your size or larger, or by crowd, steam, or market-press.
Stone-Wise (prereq: 7th level) — Rebonding a bonded focus stone takes you one day instead of days (Chapter 9), and you may use a bonded stone’s effect one additional time per short rest. Runners without magic learn to carry it.

The Three Circuits — Routes of the Trade

The Spider’s Hand

Sanctioned killer of the Order of the Spider; the ledger closes, quietly.

3rd — Sanction Strike: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t yet acted in combat, and any hit against a surprised creature is a critical hit. You gain proficiency with the disguise kit and poisoner’s kit.
6th — Standing in the Web: You carry the Order’s quiet accreditation. In any settlement with a Spider presence, you can secure a cover identity, a safehouse night, or an introduction in a day’s work — and reading whether someone else is Order takes you one look.
10th — Marked for the Ledger: Bonus action: mark a creature you can see. Your Clean Line applies against your mark even without advantage or an adjacent ally, and you have advantage on checks to track, find, or read it. One mark at a time; it lasts until the job is done.
14th — The Clean Kill: When you hit a surprised creature with The Clean Line, it must make a Constitution save (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + Dex modifier) or take double damage from the attack.

The Layer-Ghost

Tunnel-and-rooftop infiltrator; the vertical city is one continuous floor.

3rd — Three-Layer Body: You gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed, climbing costs you no extra movement, and you can make a running jump from a standstill. Locks, latches, and shuttered windows open to you in half the usual time.
6th — The Steam Map: You are never lost in Sulamir, above or below. You always know your layer, depth, and heading; you can lead a group through the Steam Tunnels at full pace; and you notice any tunnel-work, false wall, or fresh excavation you pass within 10 feet.
10th — Stillness in the Dark: While motionless in dim light or darkness, you are effectively invisible to creatures relying on sight, even darkvision — the seams hide their own. Moving ends it until you stop again.
14th — The City Steps Aside: Once per short rest, at the start of your turn, move up to three times your speed across any surface — walls, ceilings, cables, sheer brick — without provoking opportunity attacks, and Hide as a free action at the end of it.

The Long Count

Swindler-face; the con is measured in weeks, and the mark thanks you.

3rd — The Working Face: You gain proficiency (and may apply Expertise) in Deception or Persuasion. After one minute of conversation, you learn whether a creature’s Wisdom and Charisma scores are higher or lower than yours, and one thing it currently wants.
6th — The Setup: Once per short rest, declare a mark you’ve spoken with. For the next hour you have advantage on all Charisma checks against the mark, and allies you’ve briefed add your Warrens-cant hand-signs to the play: each gains a +2 bonus on their first check made to support the con.
10th — Grifter’s Grace: Reaction, when a creature you can see attacks you: force it to make a Wisdom save (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + Cha modifier) or target another creature of your choice in its reach or range instead. Nothing personal — the count just doesn’t end here.
14th — Sell the Lie: Your lies read as truth to any Working, stone, or talent that detects falsehood — the Knowing itself buys your story. Once per long rest, make one plausible false claim to a creature that can hear you; unless it succeeds on a Wisdom save against your Working Face DC, it believes the claim wholly for 8 hours or until shown incontrovertible proof.