Trailblazer: Use Terrain to find Spells and set Ambushes

In 18th century North America, hardy frontiersmen called trailblazers—sometimes known as voyageurs or long-hunters—ventured deep into the forested interior to find paths to facilitate trade, expansion, and sometimes conquest by colonial empires.  Many of these trails had their origins in portage sites and footroads long used by indigenous peoples, such as the “Great Indian Warpath” that stretches from upstate New York to the Gulf of Mexico. During the American Revolution, famous trailblazers like Daniel Boone made history rediscovering the Cumberland Gap, a long-sought overland route through Appalachian mountains to the fertile western lands called Kentucke and Tanase.

Trailblazer is a hybrid caster archetype expanding on the favored terrain system in the Ranger class’s Natural Explorer feature, designed to make terrain choices more significant and meaningful. This greatly expands a Ranger player’s spell list, granting select cantrips and a limited access to ritual casting through the Understrap feature.

At 7th level, the Choke Point feature allows a Trailblazer to make a survival check to cast a spell (without expending a slot) at a fixed point in the land. The DC to create higher leveled effects with a Choke Point is designed to scale, but also to be increasingly difficult. The underlying math is balanced around the Ranger applying double proficiency to survival checks in favored terrain, which improves to a triple bonus at 11th level.

The new spells (called “gambits”) included here are flavored as mundane tricks, traps, and healing techniques from the historical period that inspired trailblazer. As such, several have extended cast times so players normally have to think ahead. One of the unique benefits of the Understrap feature lets a player to cast a spell with a 1 minute cast time as an action, allowing a Trailblazer to improvise and use these effects in the heat of combat.

GMBinder Link: Trailblazer