Libertine
An elf wearing a supple purple cape saunters into a grimy parlor filled with curls of devilweed smoke and wide, scared eyes. A glint of gold passes between her and the proprietor...
A human deftly draws his rapier and taps it under a nervous priest's chin, and makes it very clear St. Cuthbert's cudgel is not wanted here.
A half-orc squints contemptuously at the painting he's working on before abruptly hurling it across the room. He slumps into a plump love seat and rubs aggressively at the dark circles under his eyes. How long has it been since he's slept? Two days? Three? Longer than that?
The so-called libertines are contrarians, radicals, and miscreants. Born into wealth and privilege, each one forsakes his or her duty or status to make their own way in the world. Libertines deny themselves nothing, and explore their each and every inclination; they produce the most wildly avant-garde art, perform the most innovative experiments, and plumb the most dangerous depths. But it is also these very same libertines who waste away inside moldering devilweed dens and brothels. To be a libertine is to live the fullest life anyone can—if not the longest one.
Captivating and Reckless
A libertine is possessed by a larger-than-life personality and an inexorable sense of self; he or she knows who they are, or at least who they want to become. Libertines can be found cavorting in a myriad of circumstances. From one night to the next they could be hobnobbing at a gilded masquerade, brooding over their writer's block in solitude, or railing against a proselytizers' dogma in the street. When a libertine starts to feel restless or bored, he or she might even strike out into the wild to lead an adventuring life.
No matter where, or when, a libertine is they're always likely to have a wineskin at their side or a tabacco pipe in their hand—oftentimes filled or packed with worse and more potent things than either. For while their virtures are many, their vices are so many more. It's no surprise to find the libertine at the center of barroom brawl after giving one too many insults or backed up against an alley wall by greedy vodare pushers claiming to have been shortchanged (and, indeed, maybe they were). Libertines are nothing if not bold though, and they're as capable of violence as they are of composing a sonnet.
Iconoclast
Not every eccentric artist or charming rascal is a libertine. Libertines are set apart by their rejection of normal conventions and ethics, their revolutionary ideas, their debauchery, and most of all, their sheer force of will. To be branded a libertine is an insult to anyone other than a libertine.
The Libertine
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Excess, Lifestyle |
| 2nd | +2 | Dabbler |
| 3rd | +2 | Ability Score Improvement, Lifestyle |
| 4th | +2 | High Tolerance |
| 5th | +3 | Excess |
| 6th | +3 | Dabbler |
| 7th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 8th | +3 | Lifestyle |
| 9th | +4 | High Tolerance |
| 10th | +4 | Excess |
| 11th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement, Dabbler |
| 12th | +4 | — |
| 13th | +5 | Lifestyle |
| 14th | +5 | High Tolerance |
| 15th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement, Excess |
| 16th | +5 | — |
| 17th | +6 | Dabbler |
| 18th | +6 | Lifestyle |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement, High Tolerance |
| 20th | +6 | Excess |
Libertines who choose to live transient lives as adventurers are often motivated to do so by their epicurean, or downright hedonistic, desires. Sometimes they're more interested in finding new mind-altering substances to explore, sometimes they want to immerse themselves in a foreign culture, and sometimes their motivations are more philosophical than all of that.
Creating a Libertine
As you compose your libertine character, think about the cirumstances of your upbringing. Did you stand to inherit a prosperous dukedom, but frittered away your father's favor with an extravagant lifestyle? Did your dalliances with a lord's daughter embarrass your wealthy merchant family so badly they disowned you? Perhaps your ideas were so alien and objectionable to your community you were cast out altogether? Are you resentful? Ambivalent? Do you want to be accepted?
All libertines have vices and obscene notions—at least to ordinary commoners and nobles alike; what might these be for you? Are you obsessed with risk-taking? Do you have an addictive personality? Are you controlled by your impulses?
Finally, what are your passions? Are you a spirited debater who might publicly challenge an intellectual rival? Are you an ingenious alchemist? Do you draw, sculpt, or paint? Your lively mind has room for all these and more.
Quick Build
You can make a libertine quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score followed by either Dexterity, Intelligence, or Constitution. Then, choose the Noble background.
Class Features
As a libertine, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per libertine level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per libertine level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, crossbows, rapiers
Tools: One musical instrument of your choice
Saving Throws: Charisma, Intelligence
Skills: Choose any two from Sleight of Hand, Arcana, History, Religion, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Deception, Performance, Persuasion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) rapier or (b) light crossbow (20 bolts), and a dagger
- Diplomat's Pack
- one musical instrument of your choice
- leather armor
Excess
When necessary, and even when it's not, libertines will push their minds and bodies far beyond what is prudent and healthy. As a libertine, you always live to excess—you may very well die by it.
After you make a saving throw, ability check, or attack roll, with proficiency, but before you know if it succeeds or fails, you can choose to add Excess to it. At that time, if you are under the influence of a drug, you immediately add 1d8 Excess to your roll. You can also choose to add Excess to your damage rolls, after you have calculated the other damage normally. You can only add 1d8 Excess to any one roll, of any kind. If you are not under the influence of a drug, you can add Excess another way: substract one point from any of your ability scores. Your ability score recovers this lost point after one week. You can then add 1d8 Excess to an applicable roll, as you would normally.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain expended uses after you have finished a long rest.
The number of times you can use this feature before you have finished a long rest increases by +1 starting at 5th level, and again at 10th, 15th, and 20th level.
Lifestyle
At 1st level you choose what lifestyle you will lead: the lifestyle of a Rake, the lifestyle of a Heretic, or the lifestyle of a Bohemian. All three are detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you additional features at 3rd level, and again at 8th, 13th, 18th level.
Dabbler
Libertines are polymaths, and no single subject or diversion can occupy all their time to their satisfcation. At 2nd level, you can choose to delve into the arcane arts and learn one cantrip from the wizard spell list, become proficient in one new skill, or develop proficiency with one new set of tools.
You make this choice again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. Should you choose to learn any cantrips, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw for a spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. You treat your libertine level as your caster level.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, 15th, 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.
High Tolerance
You are a habitual drug user and have built up a resistance to the ill-effects of these drugs. At 4th level, you get a +1 on Constitution saving throws against a drug's Adverse Effects.
At 9th level, you become immune to Vicious withdrawals, and if you would take damage from Vicious withdrawals, you take the Extreme damage instead.
At 14th level, you get a further +1 on Constitution saving throws against a drug's Adverse Effects.
At 19th level, you become immune to Extreme withdrawals, and if you would take damage from Extreme withdrawals, you take the High damage instead.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the attack action on your turn.
Bacchanalia
When you reach 20th level, you can add an additional 1d8 Excess to a saving throw, ability check, attack roll, or damage roll you've already added Excess to.
Lifestyles
Every libertine is an individual with a unique way of engaging with, and understanding, the world around them. Still, all of them come to lead one of three broady similar lifestyles: the Heretic, the Rake, or the Bohemian.
Heretic
Heretics are antagonistic towards their society's beliefs and values. They often spend long hours in seclusion, contemplating musty old tomes of forbidden knowledge or brewing strange alchemical concoctions. It is not uncommon for Heretics to be accused of witchcraft or dealing with devils—it is not uncommon for these accusations to be true.
The method
When you choose this lifestyle at 1st level, you gain the following bonus proficiencies and equipment:
- Skill Proficiencies: Investigation
- Tool Proficiencies: (a) Alchemist's supplies or (b) tinker's tools
- Equipment: (a) Alchemist's supplies or (b) tinker's tools, and (a) alchemist's fire, (b) acid, or (c) ball bearings
Fascinations
You are fascinated by what others might find obscene. Starting at 1st level, and again at 8th, 13th, and 18th level, you can choose a Fascination, conferring certain benefits to you. These Fascinations are detailed below.
Morbid Fascination: You gain +1 to attack rolls you make against undead that you can identify, and +1 to the range you can score a critical hit against them.
Beastly Fascination: You can choose to reroll one damage die for attacks you make against monstrosities that you can identify, and +1 to the range you can score a critical hit against them.
Perverse Fascination: You gain +1 bonus to saving throws against mind-affecting spells and abilities used by aberrations that you can identify, and +1 to the range you can score a critical hit against them.
Diabolical Fascination: You gain +1 bonus to Deception and Persuasion checks against fiends that you can identify, and +1 to the range you can score a critical hit against them.
Trial and Error
You know knowledge comes at a price, and you are bold enough to pay it again and again. Starting at 3rd level, during combat encounters, after you make successful attacks against the same target on consecutive turns, you have learned their weaknesses such that the range you can score a critical hit against them increases by +1. The range can increase further, as detailed in the chart below. If you make no successful attacks on a turn, the range resets.
Trial and Error
| Consecutive Turns | Bonus to Critical Hit Range |
|---|---|
| 0 —1 | +0 |
| 2 —3 | +1 |
| 4—5 | +2 |
| 6+ | +3 |
Obsessive
Starting at 8th level, you can choose to subtract one point from any of your ability scores, as you would when using the Excess feature, to double the speed at which you craft an item for one week, at which time your ability score recovers this lost point. You can use this feature once a week. The resource cost of the item is unchanged.
Reckless Experimentation
Starting at 13th level, after you add Excess to an attack or damage roll, the range you can score critical hits against any target increases by +1 for as many rounds equal to your Intelligence modifier. This effect does not stack.
Dangerous Ideas
Starting at 18th level, Excess you expend normally becomes 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier.
Rake
Rakehells, or more commonly, Rakes, are the most pleasure-seeking of all libertines. You're likely to find these Rakes slinking across a city one bordello, back alley, or ballroom at a time. For whatever reason, Rakes are often magic-touched, and their powers manifest in the most indecent ways.
Wealthy Patron
A Rakes leads a sordid life, and no matter how far they climb the social ladder, they always find themselves back in the gutter. Your natural charisma ensures there's always someone there waiting to fetch you out again. Starting at 1st level, you have a wealthy patron who will advocate on your behalf in well-to-do circles and in royal courts.
You know how to get messages to and from this patron, even over great distances; specifically you know the businessmen and women, and visiting lords and ladies, who can ferry messages for you.
Thieves' Cant
Starting at 1st level, you have spent years consorting with all manner of scoundrels, grifters, and thieves. You've learned a thing or two, including Thieves' Cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows rogues to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation.
Just a Taste
When you choose this lifestyle at 1st level, you gain bonus equipment—one dose of one the following drugs:
- (a) redflower leaves, (b) devilweed, or (c) baccaran
Corruption
Starting at 3rd level, you can touch a substance and infuse it with corruption that creates a magical version of a drug. This magical version manifests as greenish fumes that rise from the chosen focus.
The fumes persist for up to one minute and mimic one dose of a drug when inhaled as a standard action. The type of drug depends on the substance used.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain expended uses after you have finished a long rest.
Corruption
| Substance | Effect | Drug |
|---|---|---|
| Metal | A metal object develops a rusty, red residue where you touched it | Baccaran |
| Stone | A stone object is blackened and scorched where you touched it | Luhix |
| Water | Water is befouled (up to 10 ft. radius) around where you touched it | Sannish |
| Air | Air is musty and stale (up to 50 ft. radius) around where you touched it | Mordayne Vapor |
| Wood | A wooden object molders with rot where you touched it | Redflower Leaves |
Sadomasochism
Starting at 8th level, you are able to invoke your sadomasochistic nature against your enemies as readily as you are able to with your own lovers. During combat encounters, as a standard action, you may invoke your sadomasochism for a number of rounds equal to 1d4 + your Charisma modifier. During this time, for every 10 damage you deal or receive, you gain +1 on all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for the following round. You also deal +1 damage, after you have calculated the other damage normally.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain expended uses after you have finished a long rest.
At 13th level, instead of every 10 damage, it becomes every 8 damage. At 18th level, instead of every 8 damage, it becomes every 6 damage.
Bondage
Starting at 13th level, you can animate one rope or chain you can see, within 60 feet, for a number of rounds equal to 1d4 + your Charisma modifier, provided that it isn't being worn or carried. Doing so makes it an animated object with a movement speed of 30 feet, with AC 20, 20 hit points, resistance to piercing damage, and immunity to psychic and thunder damage.
You can use a standard action to command this object to make a grapple or an attack (1d20 + 5). On a successful hit it deals 2d6 + your Charisma modifier as damage. It has a +2 to strength. It cannot make an attack while grappling. It reverts to its inanimate state if reduced to 0 hit points or if you are incapacitated.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain expended uses after you have finished a long rest.
Starting at 18th level, you can add your Excess to this animated object's saving throws, grapple checks, attack rolls, and damage rolls.
Rough Play
Starting at 18th level, you can use Bondage (either to animate an object, or command it to move and take an action) as a bonus action on your turn, if you are using the Sadomasochism feature.
Bohemian
Bohemians are eclectic vagabonds, fliting from one adventure to the next. They are often the most colorful character in any room—or dungeon. Capricious, stormy, and romantic to a fault, they leave a trail of broken hearts, breathtaking paintings, and empty wine goblets in their wake.
A little of this, a little of that
Starting when you choose this lifestyle at 1st level, you gain the following bonus proficiences and equipment:
- Skill Bonuses: Choose any two
- Tool Proficiencies: (a) Dice set, (b) painter's supplies, or (c) glassblower's tools
- Languages: One of your choice
- Equipment: (a) Dice set, (b) painter's supplies, or (c) glassblower's tools
Provocateur
Whether by your unconventional dress, speech, beliefs, or activities, you cause a stir wherever you go. Starting at 1st level, you gain +1 to your Charisma ability score.
Revolutionary Behavior
You are as deft with the razor-edge of a rapier as you are with the tip of a pen or the head a brush.
Starting at 3rd level, after you take a Dodge action, you gain +2 on attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to 1d4 + your Dexterity modifier.
Starting at 8th level, after you take a Disengage action, you cannot provoke any attacks of opportunity for a number of rounds equal to 1d4 + your Dexterity modifier. This effect cannot stack.
Starting at 18th level, after you add Excess to an attack or damage roll, you may make an additional attack as a bonus action. You cannot choose to add Excess for this additional attack or, if it succeeds, its damage roll.
Psychonaut
Starting at 8th level, your explorations into altered states of mind are often accompanied by powerful feelings of déja vu. When you are under the influence of a drug, add your Wisdom modifier to your AC.
Worldly-wise
Starting at 13th level, through your travels, you have encountered many exotic arms and armaments. This, combined with your considerable powers of observation and insight, has made you proficient with martial weapons and medium armor.
<img src=' https://i.imgur.com/NwecXt3.png 'style='position:absolute;bottom:550px;right:290px;width:300px' />
Cause célèbre
Starting at 18th level, over the course of all of your adventures and exploits, your natural charisma and propensity for outlandish behavior have only grown. You gain +1 to your Charisma ability score.
Drugs
Rules for drugs
Effects: Every drug has unique effects that the user feels immediately when they consume a dose of that drug.
Adverse Effects: Whenever a user consumes a dose of drug, they make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, they feel that drug's adverse effects too.
Addiction Rating: All drugs have an addictive quality that can range from Low to Vicious. When a user makes a Constitution saving throw to see if they feel a drug's adverse effects, they also check to see if the roll is lower than the DC associated with that drug's addiction rating. If it is, they become addicted to it. Sometimes the saving throw to beat a drug's addiction rating is higher than the one to beat feeling its adverse effects.
Whenever a user consumes a dose of a drug they are already addicted to, they increase its addiction rating by one level (e.g., Low becomes Medium). They can stop being addicted to a drug by making a Constitution saving throw at the end of each day they don't use that drug. They can also stop being addicted to a drug by enduring its ability damage from withdrawal for 3 days, after which, they are no longer addicted.
Satiation: Whenever a user is addicted to a drug, they must use that drug once before its satiation period has ended or suffer ability damage (withdrawals), both of which are determined by its addiction rating (e.g., if a user becomes addicted to devilweed, they must smoke devilweed again, or beat the addiction, before its two week satiation period has ended, or else they will start taking Low damage at the beginning of the 15th day).
Each time they use a drug, its satiation period is reset. The dose in which a user becomes addicted counts as satiation.
Addiction
| Addiction Rating | Con Saving Throw | Satiation | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 5 | 2 weeks | 1d4 Wis |
| Medium | 10 | 1 week | 1d4 Wis, 1d4 Dex |
| High | 15 | 5 days | 1d4 Wis, 1d4 Dex, 1d4 Con |
| Extreme | 20 | 3 days | 1d6 Wis, 1d6 Dex, 1d6 Con |
| Vicious | 25 | 1 day | 1d6 Wis, 1d6 Dex, 1d6 Con, 1d6 Str |
Duration: This is how long you feel a drug's effects (and its adverse effects, if you failed your saving throw).
Overdose: If a user consumes a dose of a drug while they are already under the influence of a drug, they overdose. The user is instantly Poisoned for the rest of the duration of the first dose.
List of Drugs
Devilweed
Devilweed is derived from the wyssin plant, whose leaves are dried and rolled for smoking like tobacco.
Addiction Rating: Low (DC 5).
Effects: The user feels a sense of warmth and relaxation; -1 to Initiative.
Adverse Effects: The user feels confused and skittish; -1 to Charisma modifier (DC 10).
Duration: 1d4 hours.
Baccaran
Baccaran is a pasty substance that is dried and kept as a powder or sometimes as a paste. It has numerous, difficult to obtain ingredients.
Addiction Rating: Medium (DC 10).
Effects: The user experiences minor hallucinations; -1 Perception checks, -1 Investigation checks.
Adverse Effects: The user experiences a painful headache; -1 Intelligence modifier (DC 15).
Duration: 1d4 hours.
Mordayne Vapor (Dream mist)
Mordayne vapor is made from the ground leaves of a rare herb found deep in tropical forests. The highly potent mordayn is taken by steeping a small amount in hot water, and then inhaling the vapors from the resultant tea. Raw mordayn powder and mordayn-tainted water are a deadly poison. Dream mist is well-known for the beautiful visions it induces and the deadly peril that can come from its sinister embrace.
Addiction Rating: Extreme (DC 20).
Effects: The user feels as if their consciousness is expanding, and becomes endowed with extraordinary new clarity and awareness; +1 to proficiency bonus.
Adverse Effects: Visions of incredible, mind-boggling beauty enthrall the user; the user cannot add their proficiency bonus to their rolls (DC 15).
Duration: 1 hour.
Redflower Leaves
Redflower leaves are the crushed leaves of a tiny red bog flower.
Addiction Rating: High (DC 15).
Effects: The user has heightened hand-eye coordination; +1 Dexterity.
Adverse Effects: The user feels out of breath and fatigued; one level of Exhaustion (DC 15).
Duration: 1 hour.
Sannish
Sannish is a bluish liquid distilled from the milk of wolves and a powdered desert plant. Addicts are easily spotted by the permanent blue stains on their lips.
Addiction Rating: Medium (DC 10).
Effects: Induces a pleasant state of euphoria in the user.
Adverse Effects: The user feels extroverted and overconfident; +1 Charisma modfier, -1 Wisdom modifier (DC 15).
Duration: 1d4 hours.
Luhix
Luhix is made from the powdered stalks of the luhix plant, which folklore claims is native to the Abyss itself. It is normally sprinkled onto bleeding wounds, which are then sealed with bandages or magical healing.
Addiction Rating: Extreme (DC 20).
Effects: The user feels a painful prickling sensation that transitions into a pleasurable tingle; +1 Constitution modifier.
Adverse Effects: The user's skin turns sallowy and their eyes, ears, and pores ooze blood; 1d6 damage an hour(DC 15).
Duration: 1d4 hours.
Image Sources
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oQ9WO "male human swashbuckler"
https://vk.com/fave?z=photo-82916436_456275671/album-82916436_00/rev "half elf bard cloak crossbow"
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/29/7d/a6/297da662a181e919a47b284e7ec13ea5.jpg "male half-elf aristocrat noble"
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/314970567681917639/ "bard human"