Investigator

• Investigator overview
• Investigator features
• Antiquarian
• Archivist
• Detective
• Inquisitor
• Medium

Investigator overview

QUICK BUILD
Follow these suggestions to build an investigator
quickly: Intelligence should be your highest ability
score, followed by Dexterity or Strength. Choose any
background. Then, select the rituals clue, comprehend
languages, detect magic, and transient bulwark to add
to your grimoire.

CLASS FEATURES
As an investigator, you have the following class
features.
HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: 1d8 per investigator level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution
modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your
Constitution modifier per investigator level after 1st
PROFICIENCIES
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, heavy
crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
Tools: One gaming set
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Athletics,
Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation,
Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception,
Persuasion, Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and Religion

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
• Leather armor
• A dagger and (a) a longsword or (b) rapier
• (a) a heavy crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) a hand crossbow and 20 bolts
• (a) dungeoneer’s pack or (b) one kit you’re proficient with
• A grimoire and a material component pouch

Investigator features

Expertise

At 1st level, choose two of your skill proficiencies; your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
At 6th level, you can choose two more of your proficiencies to gain this benefit.

Ritualist

You maintain a grimoire brimming with magical rituals, your most potent tools to defeat supernatural threats.

GRIMOIRE

At 1st level, you have a grimoire containing four 1st-level spells of your choice that have the ritual tag from any class’s spell list (the spells needn’t be from the same list). You can’t cast spells in your grimoire except as rituals, unless you’ve learned them by some other means.
Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can add an additional ritual spell from the Investigator Rituals list to your grimoire at no cost. The Ritual Level column on the Investigator table shows the maximum spell level you can add to your grimoire.
Additionally, whenever you find a ritual spell on your adventures, you can add it to your grimoire if it is on the Investigator Rituals list of a level you can add to your grimoire. For each level of the spell, the transcription process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it.

BONUS RITUALS

As an investigator, you can treat specific spells as if they had the ritual tag, allowing you to add them to your grimoire and cast them as rituals. These spells are listed on the Investigator Rituals table to the right.

SPELLCASTING ABILITY

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your ritual spells, since you master your spells through deduction and cunning. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability.
In addition, when you cast an investigator ritual or a spell offered to you by a feature in this class, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC and making an attack roll.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Myths and Legends

At 2nd level, you are extremely adept at uncovering knowledge which pertains to eldritch threats and forgotten legends. You have advantage on Intelligence checks related to researching creatures, spells, and other ancient or secret lore.

Rushed Incantation

Beginning at 2nd level, you can hastily perform any ritual spell in your grimoire that has a casting time of 1 action, completing the ritual as a bonus action. If the ritual requires spell components worth 100 gp or less, you cast it without using spell components. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum once), and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
As you gain higher levels in this class, you can use this feature additional times. You can use it once more at 5th level (Intelligence modifier + 1), 9th level (Intelligence modifier + 2), 13th level (Intelligence modifier + 3), and 17th level (Intelligence modifier + 4).

Occult Specialization

At 3rd level, you choose a specialization, an area of expertise in handling eldritch threats. Your specialization choices are detailed at the end of the class description. Your specialization choice grants you features at 3rd level and then again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
Investigators of all stripes share the broad goal of combating the occult, but their methods vary wildly. Some emphasize cutting down monsters and banishing demons, while others believe that uncovering secrets and compiling critical information is the surest method for eliminating supernatural threats. When an investigator gains enough experience, they can steer their approach, including their specific techniques they employ and the trinkets they carry, into an occult specialization, a school of thought for handling eldritch threats.

Antiquarian - Festooned with powerful magical trinkets of all shapes and sizes
Archivist - A scholar which collects scraps of ancient lore
Detective - Chases down clues and unravels crimes with their impressive intellect
Exterminator - Hunts down vampires, lycanthropes, and beasts which stalk the night
Inquisitor - An agent of the church that performs exorcisms and roots out heresy
Medium - Foretells events of the future using a magical connection to the dead
Occultist - A magician borrowing spells from wizards and warlocks
Spy - Infiltrates with perfect disguises and unmatched charm

TRINKETS

Investigators of each specialization also collect a number of supernatural trinkets. Once you use one of your trinkets, you can’t this feature again until you finish a short or long rest. As you gain higher levels in this class, you can use your trinkets additional times: You can use them once more at 5th level (2 uses), 11th level (3 uses), and 17th level (4 uses).

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Exploit Weakness

Most supernatural creatures have some form of weakness, a gap in their armor that allows them to be defeated. Starting at 5th level, once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, it is treated as if it has vulnerability to the weapon’s damage. Vulnerability from this feature only doubles your weapon damage dice and your ability modifier; do not double additional sources of damage, such as spells and other class features.
Additionally, the attack, as well as all other attacks made against the creature until the start of your next turn, are considered magical for the purposes of bypassing damage resistance and immunity.

Opportunistic Piety

By 7th level, you always keep a wide array of holy symbols and blessed items on your person, even if you aren’t particularly pious. When you use your Opportunistic Piety, you choose which effect to create from the list below. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Opportunistic Piety again.
Banish. You cast the spell banishment without using a spell slot. If the target is a fey, fiend, or undead and fails its saving throw against this spell, it also takes radiant damage equal to your level.
Miracle Healing. As an action, divine light from your hands knit the wounds of a willing creature you touch. That creature regains a number of hit points equal to twice your investigator level.
This ability has no effect on undead or constructs.
Warding. As an action, you trace a holy symbol on a creature within 5 feet of you, warding it from harm. For the next minute, aberrations, celestials, fey, fiends, and undead which touch the target creature or hit it with a melee attack take 1d12 radiant damage.

Supernatural Resolve

At 9th level, you gain an extreme resilience to the attacks and effects of the creatures you regularly investigate. You can’t be possessed or charmed, and you gain resistance to both psychic and necrotic damage.

Finisher

Beginning at 11th level, you know exactly how to bring a monster down. When you take the Attack action and hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can deal an extra 2d8 damage to the creature. If the creature has less than half its hit points remaining, you can instead deal an extra 4d8 damage to the creature.

Enigma Arcane

At 13th level, you uncover a magical secret connected to a wellspring of potent magic. You can cast one of the following spells once without expending a spell slot: mirage arcane, plane shift, reverse gravity, sequester, or teleport. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
At 15th level, you can also cast one of the following spells without expending a spell slot: antimagic field, glibness, maze, or mind blank. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
At 17th level, you can also cast one of the following spells without expending a spell slot: astral projection, gate, or weird. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

Exorcist

Beginning at 18th level, you can cast the spell protection from evil and good without using a spell slot or spell components.

Spellbinder

By 20th level, many rituals you perform have become second nature to you. Select five ritual spells in your grimoire with a casting time of 1 action. You can cast these spells as a bonus action without using a use of Rushed Incantation, and you can do so without
your grimoire on hand. If the ritual requires spell components worth 100 gp or less, you cast it without using spell components.

Antiquarian

Festooned with magical trinkets from every corner of the globe, antiquarians have a tool for every occasion: silver arrowheads for lycanthropes, heartwood stakes for vampires, blessed relics for fiends, and so on. As they expand their collections from piles of trinkets to veritable museums, they become adept historians and arcanists, familiar with the story of every magic item their care, as well how to use them in dire situations.

ARTIFACT HISTORIAN

Starting when you choose this specialty at 3rd level, you add the spell identify to your grimoire and never require material components to cast it.

TRINKETS

By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of magical trinkets to help you collect and unravel profound arcane secrets. You can use the following trinkets:
Hateful Arrowhead. You can cast the spell scorching ray or ray of enfeeblement once without using a spell slot or spell components.
Mirrored Prism. You can cast the spell blur or mirror image, targeting yourself only, once without using a spell slot or spell components.
Razortooth Bandages. You can cast the spell cure wounds or inflict wounds once without using a spell slot or spell components. This spell is cast as if using a spell slot of the level shown in the Ritual Level column of the Investigator table.

RELICS

By 6th level, you’ve secured a handful of priceless relics with rare and delicate enchantments. You can use one of the following relics, and regain the ability to use this feature when you finish a short or long rest.
Antediluvian Dynamo. You can cast the spell fireball or lightning bolt once without using a spell slot or spell components.
Lich’s Deathmask. You can cast the spell counterspell or dispel magic once without using a spell slot or spell components.
Mortal Coil. You can cast the spell animate dead or revivify once without using a spell slot or spell components. Casting animate dead using this trinket causes all undead servants created by previous castings of the spell to revert to lifeless corpses.

MAGIC ITEM COLLECTION

Starting at 10th level, you maintain a vault of magic items, secured in an extradimensional space with an elaborate locking mechanism. You can produce one of these items, and change your selection each day when you finish a long rest.
The item is your choice of the following: a carpet of flying, a cloak of the bat, a flame tongue, gauntlets of ogre power, an instant fortress, a ring of regeneration, a ring of telekinesis, a sun blade, or a wand of wonder.

PHYLACTERY

By 14th level, you’ve secured the crown jewel of your collection: a lich’s phylactery. Though the original owner’s soul has been expelled from this accursed artifact, it retains many of its unique properties. This magic item is always attuned to you and doesn’t count against your total number of attuned magic items. It has 5 charges, and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. You can expend one or more of these charges to use the following abilities:
1 Charge: You can cast the spell false life as a second level spell without expending spell slots or spell components.
1 Charge: You can use your bonus action to regain an expended use of your Trinkets.
2 Charges: As a reaction when you drop to 0 hit points, you can drop to 1 hit point instead.
3 Charges: Make a melee spell attack against creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 5d6 necrotic damage and you regain hit points equal to the total amount of necrotic damage dealt.

Archivist

Though most investigators fill their grimoires
with hard-won knowledge borne from encounters
with the supernatural threats, some prefer to
do bookkeeping instead. Such archivists accrue
knowledge, not trinkets, by spending untold hours
digging through disparate tomes of occult knowledge
and compiling them into encyclopedic texts on the
supernatural. Through their research, archivists
become academic masters of the arcane, and
priceless reservoirs of obscure knowledge.
TRINKET
Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd
level, you’ve collected a powerful trinket to enhance
your ritual magic:
Archaic Scroll. You can perform a ritual
spell with your Rushed Incantation feature without
expending one of the feature’s uses.
THESIS
Also at 3rd level, you gain access to certain spells
associated with your thesis. Pick one of the following
subject areas for your thesis: Corpus, Ignis, Mortis,
or Regis. You gain a list of associated thesis spells.
Once you gain access to a thesis spell, it is added
to your grimoire. If you gain access to a spell that
doesn’t appear on the investigator ritual list, the spell
is nonetheless an investigator spell for you. You can
use your action and expend a use of your Rushed
Incantation feature to cast one of your thesis spells.

Corpus
Investigator
Level Spells
1st jump, longstrider
2nd alter self, heat metal
3rd gaseous form, meld into stone

Ignis
Investigator
Level Spells
1st burning hands, shatter
2nd gust of wind, scorching ray
3rd call lightning, wind wall

Mortis
Investigator
Level Spells
1st bane, false life
2nd blindness/deafness, darkness
3rd revivify, vampiric touch

Regis
Investigator
Level Spells
1st charm person, hideous laughter
2nd enthrall, suggestion
3rd dispel magic, hypnotic pattern

ERUDITE SPELL
By 6th level, you’ve mastered the difficult theory
behind arcane propagation. When you cast a spell
which forces a creature to make a saving throw to
resist its effects, you can give one target of the spell
disadvantage on its first saving throw against the
spell.
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again
until you finish a short or long rest.
ENCYCLOPEDIC EXPERTISE
Starting at 10th level, you can identify any arcane
effect from memory. Whenever you witness a spell
being cast or investigate a magical effect, you can
always identify the spell that was cast, the magic
item responsible, or the monster which produced the
effect. However, this ability fails to identify spells,
magic items, and monsters which are utterly unique
or are otherwise not recorded in arcane texts.
EIDETIC MEMORY
At 14th level, you can effortlessly duplicate spells you
see in the world. You can copy any ritual spell you
see being cast into your grimoire.
Moreover, you can precisely copy the exact
motions of a spell’s casting to duplicate its effect.
When you see a spell of 5th level or lower being cast,
you can use your action and spend 1 use of your
Rushed Incantation feature as an action to cast the
spell yourself without spending a spell slot. The spell
must have a casting time of 1 action, must not have
expensive spell components, and must have taken
place within the last minute to use this ability.
Once you duplicate a spell in this way, you can’t
duplicate it again until you finish a long rest.

Detective

Prowling at the edge of darkness, detectives
chase down clues and pull on threads to unravel
conspiracies which bring darkness into the world.
Sometimes, this requires that you infiltrate a cult’s
secret meetings, other times it calls on you to
reconstruct a man’s last moments at a murder scene,
but no matter what the mystery, you know that there
is always an explanation.
INVESTIGATOR'S HUNCH
Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd
level, you can unravel even the toughest of mysteries.
If you spend at least 10 minutes combing through
documents and arranging clues, you can make an
Intelligence check with advantage.
TRINKETS
By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of magical
trinkets to aid you in tracking supernatural creatures
and unraveling mysteries. You can use the following
trinkets:
Glass Medallion. As a bonus action, you can
cast the spell invisibility, targeting yourself only, once
without using a spell slot or spell components.
Fogstone Periapt. As a bonus action, you can
cast the spell misty step once without using a spell
slot or spell components.
Skeleton’s Key. As a bonus action, you can cast
the spell knock once without using a spell slot or spell
components.
PREDICTIVE INTUITION
By 6th level, you can turn your skills at
reconstructing events towards anticipating the next
likely moment of a fight. As a bonus action, you can
examine the movements of a creature you can see
within 30 feet. You can choose to add 1d4 to your
next attack roll targeting that creature before the start
of your next turn, or you can choose to subtract 1d4
from the creature’s next attack roll against you before
the start of your next turn.
INTERROGATOR'S INSTINCT
At 10th level, you are so accustomed to uncovering
the truth that you can sense the intents behind
someone’s voice. You can tell if a creature that
you can hear speaking is charmed, possessed, or
otherwise enchanted to speak against their will, and
you have advantage on any ability check you make to
determine if you hear a lie.

POWER OF DEDUCTION
Starting at 14th level, you can use your action to
examine a creature you can see within 30 feet, taking
note of innumerable details and making a lengthy
string of logical deductions. For the next minute, you
have advantage on Intelligence and Charisma checks
you make to interact with this creature, and you have
advantage on attack rolls against them.
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again
until you finish a short or long rest.
Exterminator
An exterminator suffers no monster to live. Trained
in the art of slaying aberrations, fiends, and undead,
you stand against evil where others falter, and draw
your blade before others recognize a threat. Grand
schemes and plots are less important than retribution
against those monsters which stalk the night, and
your thirst for such retribution is unquenchable.
There is always another werewolf to be slain, another
vampire to be staked, another demon to be banished;
people rarely thank you, but you find satisfaction
enough in your work.
BONUS PROFICIENCIES
Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd
level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons and
medium armor.
TRINKETS
By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of magical
trinkets to aid you in the elimination of monsters
and other fiendish threats. You can use the following
trinkets:
Consecrated Whetstone. As a bonus action,
you can cast the spell magic weapon once without
using a spell slot or spell components.
Gilded Dragon Scale. As a bonus action, you
gain resistance to one damage type of your choice for
a minute.
Wyverntooth Necklace. When you hit a
creature with a melee weapon attack, you can use
your bonus action to activate this trinket, dealing an
additional 2d6 acid damage to the creature.
MONSTER SLAYER
Beginning at 6th level, when you use the Attack
action, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus
action. You can use this feature a number of times
equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of
once) and regain all expended uses when you finish a
short or long rest.

SILVERED EDGE
Starting at 10th level, whenever you deal damage to
a creature with a weapon attack, it can’t regain hit
points until the start of your next turn. Additionally,
when you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, it can’t be
raised as an undead creature nor be returned to life
for 7 days.
KILLER INSTINCT
Starting at 14th level, you can use your Exploit
Weakness feature twice on your turn, but can’t use it
against the same target more than once.

Inquisitor

The church has long been the first line of defense
against the tide of impending darkness. Yet, the
clergy’s stubborn devotion to righteousness impedes
them where it counts: you must sometimes be willing
to do evil to counter evil. That’s where the inquisition
comes in.
As a righteous inquisitor of the faith, you are
tasked with rooting out heresy, exorcising demons,
and stamping out any sign of the occult, and are
offered clemency for any action you take in the
defense of the greater good. You may investigate
anyone or anything you deem to be in line with the
forces of evil, for you alone are a holy blade in the
dark, the arbiter of your church.
BONUS PROFICIENCIES
Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd
level, you gain proficiency with medium armor.
EXORCIST'S DOCTRINES
Also at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Religion
skill and add double your proficiency bonus to
checks you make with it.
TRINKETS
By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of magical
trinkets to help you banish restless spirits and foul
demonic forces. You can use the following trinkets:
Alabaster Balm. As a bonus action, you can
cast the spell lesser restoration once without using a
spell slot or spell components.
Hallowed Chalice. As a bonus action, you
can utter a prayer and produce a volume of holy
water from this cup sufficient to fill one flask. After
24 hours, this holy water becomes ordinary water.
You can use this trinket 5 times before its power is
expended.
Reliquary of Doubt. As a bonus action, you
can cast the spell detect thoughts once without using

a spell slot or spell components. When casting the
spell in this way, it can only detect thoughts which
are associated with negative emotions, such as guilt,
apprehension, regret, or melancholy.
DIVINE STRIKE
At 6th level, you gain the ability to infuse your
weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of
your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon
attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d6
radiant damage to the target.
ROTE PIETY
Starting at 10th level, you command a mastery of
divine magic seldom seen among the clergy. You can
use your Opportunistic Piety feature three times, and
regain all expended uses when you finish a short or
long rest.
EXCOMMUNICATION
By 14th level, as an action, you can emblazon a
creature you can see within 60 feet with a mark of
religious condemnation. The target must succeed
on your choice of a Constitution or Wisdom saving
throw or be marked for the next minute. While
marked, the creature can’t regain hit points or
have advantage on any attack roll or ability check.
Additionally, whenever the creature takes an action,
it takes 2d6 radiant damage as the mark burns with
radiant light.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again
until you finish a long rest.

Medium

As conduits between the living and dead, mediums
offer an essential glimpse past the veil of mortality.
Using their auguries, seances, and divinations,
mediums can retrieve morsels of information from
the afterlife to settle debts with the living or and
assist ongoing investigations. This information,
however cryptic, can point an interested party
toward clues or evidence which only the deceased
might be able to provide.
FORTELLING
Starting when you choose this specialization at 3rd
level, you can receive glimpses of the future. When
you finish a long rest, roll two d20s and record the
number rolled. You can replace any attack roll, saving
throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that
you can see with this foretold roll. You must choose
to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in
this way only once per turn.

As an action, you can use a use of your Rushed
Incantation ability to make an additional fortelling
roll. You can have up to 3 foretold rolls at one time.
Each foretelling roll can be used only once. When
you finish a long rest, you lose any unused foretelling
rolls.
TRINKETS
By 3rd level, you’ve collected a number of objects
which help you attune to the afterlife. You can use
the following trinkets:
Dead Ringer. As an action, you can ring this
bell to cast the spell speak with dead once without
using a spell slot or spell components. When you
cast this spell using this trinket, you can ask only one
question of the corpse.
Heptagonal Spectacles. As a bonus action,
you can cast the spell see invisibility once without
using a spell slot or spell components.
Lucent Mirror. You can use your bonus action
to activate this trinket, causing you to phase partially
into the Ethereal Plane for up to 1 minute. For the
duration, you can move through other creatures and
objects as if they were difficult terrain, but you take
1d10 force damage if you end your movement inside

a creature or object. Additionally, you have resistance
to all damage. This effect ends early after you take
damage.
FOREWARNING PRESENCE
By 6th level, the spirits of the dead guide your hand
when you would falter. You can reroll an attack roll
or ability check you make, and must use the new roll.
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again
until you finish a short or long rest.
WHISPERS FROM BEYOND
Starting at 10th level, you can open your perceptions
to receive a hint from beyond the pale. The GM
answers with a one-word hint pertaining to your best
course of action, a fruitful line of inquiry, or some
other useful direction.
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again
until you finish a long rest.
THIRD EYE
By 14th level, your connection to the afterlife allows
you to see all. You can use your bonus action to cast
the spell true seeing without using a spell slot or spell
components.
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again
until you finish a long rest.