1st Level Vestiges (5e Other)

Amon, The Void Before The Altar

Legend: Scholars claim that Amon is what remains of the personality of a god who died of neglect millennia ago. Once worshiped by thousands, Amon eventually lost his faithful to more responsive deities. His will was strong enough, though, to resist eternal sleep on the Astral Plane. Since his demise, his half-existence as a vestige seems to have dramatically changed his appearance and personality. Once a calm and wise protector, a god of light and law, Amon is now a foul tempered and hateful spirit.

Special Requirement: Amon particularly despises four other vestiges: Chupoclops, Eurynome, Karsus, and Leraje. If you have hosted one of these spirits within the last 24 hours, Amon refuses to answer your call. Similarly, these spirits will not answer your call if you are already bound to Amon.

Manifestation: Amon manifests in a burst of black smoke, howling foul curses at his summoner. He possesses a black wolf’s body with a ram’s head and a serpent for a tail. His mouth is filled with sharp teeth, and fire escapes it when he speaks.

Sign: You grow a ram’s curling horns.

Influence: Amon’s influence makes you surly and irritable. In addition, since Amon despises living deities of fire, sun, and law, he forces you to resist even beneficial spells cast by those devoted to such powers. You must make a saving throw to resist such a spell if one is allowed; failure allows you to gain the benefit.

Granted Features: Amon grants you his sight and his breath, as well as the deadly use of his horns.

Darkvision: You gain darkvision out to 60 feet. If you already have darkvision from your race, this increases its range by 30 feet.

Searing Heat: When you roll a 1 for damage on an attack, spell, feature, or ability that deals fire damage, you may treat it as a 2 instead.

Ram's Horns: While showing Amon's sign, you can use your horns as a melee weapon that deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage. You are proficient with your horns, and you use your Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls. If you spend half of your movement traveling in a straight line towards an enemy and make an attack with your horns, you deal an extra 1d8 damage on hit, and the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Fire Breath: You can use your action to breathe fire in a line that extends 15 feet. Each creature in its area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d6 fire damage on a failed save, and half as much on a successful one. For every five binder levels you possess, the length of the line increases by 15 feet (up to 75 feet at 20th level), and the damage it deals increases by 2d6 (up to 10d6 at 20th level).

You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Aym, Queen Avarice

Legend: Dwarven legends depict Aym as the greediest dwarf queen who ever lived. Modern-day dwarves still spit at the mention of her name. Not long after Moradin first forged the dwarves, Aym arose as a great leader among them. Greed brought her to power, and greed consumed her while she ruled. Dwarves mined furiously in response to Aym’s constant demand for more gems and precious metals, and her people became virtual slaves to their work. As onerous as Aym’s rule was, however, all this mining greatly expanded the dwarves’ territory, and many dwarven clans grew quite wealthy. Jealous of the dwarves’ wealth and smarting from their conquests, a great horde of orcs, giants, and goblinoids banded into an army to assault Aym’s kingdom. The dwarves fought bravely, but because their forces were stretched so thin across Aym’s empire, they could not respond quickly enough to the horde’s concentrated assault on their capital. Legend has it that when the fires of the burning city reached her, Aym stood among a hundred wagons laden with gold that her servants had loaded in preparation for her flight. But so engrossed was she in counting the coins to make certain she didn’t lose a copper that she didn’t notice the danger until the fires began to melt the coins in her grasp. Rather than repenting her greed at the point of her death, Aym cursed Moradin for not protecting her, and in return, Moradin cursed her.

Manifestation: Aym arises from a coiled heap within the seal. She has two great worms for legs and three heads—one a lion’s, one a female dwarf’s, and one a bull’s. Her powerfully muscled torso strains beneath the finery of an empress, and her fingers glitter with more than a dozen jeweled rings. In one hand she holds a red-hot, star-shaped branding iron, and with the other, she holds shut the lion head’s mouth. Aym speaks through her dwarf head, since both animal heads are incapable of speech. She prefers to keep the lion muzzled because if she doesn’t, it roars and causes the bull’s head to low in terror, making it impossible for her to hear.

Sign: While you host Aym, you bear a star shaped brand on the palm of your left hand or on your forehead, which you choose at the time you make the pact.

Influence: Under Aym’s influence, you become stingy and greedy, begrudging every coin or item of value that you or your group must give to another. At the same time, she requires that you give a coin (copper, silver, gold, or platinum, your choice) to every dwarf you meet within 1 minute of learning his name.

Granted Features: Aym grants you powers that reflect her dwarven heritage and the ruin she brought to her kingdom.

Dwarven Step: You gain proficiency with heavy armor, and you can move at normal speed (without the usual reduction) while wearing armor that you do not meet the Strength requirements of.

Ruinous Attack: You have advantage on your attack rolls against objects, and your melee attacks deal double damage to objects. If your binder level is at least 10th, your melee attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Halo of Fire: At will, you can shroud yourself in a wreath of flame, producing the same amount of light as a torch. Your own flame does not harm you, nor does it harm objects unless you will it to do so. You can suppress or activate this feature as a bonus action. While active, you gain the following benefits:

• You gain resistance to fire damage.
• Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 fire damage on one melee attack you make.

Fiery Brand: If a hostile creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to deal 1d6 fire damage to them, plus 1d6 fire damage for every five binder levels you possess (up to 5d6 fire damage at 20th level). Using this feature activates Halo of Fire, if it wasn't already active.

Leraje, The Green Herald

Legend: Tales of Leraje’s prowess with a bow exist to this day, although her feats are now ascribed to deities and other great heroes, and most elves think her legend is heresy. Pact magic treatises maintain that Corellon Larethian called upon Leraje to be his first herald among mortals. She taught the elves how to make and use bows, though none could ever come close to matching her prowess. Legend holds that she killed Thessala, goddess of hydras, by shooting a single arrow through all one thousand of her heads, thereby causing her children, the hydras, to be dull and crude throughout eternity. One day, Leraje helped Corellon save Lolth, who had not yet fallen from grace, from an ambush set by Gruumsh.

Lolth praised Leraje for her skills, claiming that not even Corellon could fire an arrow as fast or as accurately as his herald. Leraje beamed under the compliment, and a bemused Corellon challenged her to an archery duel to settle the matter. When Leraje agreed, Corellon declared their target: her heart. Corellon expected his servant to realize the error of her pride and yield the contest, but Leraje instead brought up her bow, aimed an arrow at Corellon, and pulled back the string. Surprised, he raised his own bow and fired at her. Leraje released her bowstring at that same moment, aiming not at the god but at the arrow that sped toward her heart. Leraje’s arrow met that of her deity in midair and ricocheted back, piercing her heart before Corellon’s arrowhead even touched her chest. As punishment for wasting her life for the sake of her stubborn pride, Corellon cast Leraje’s soul from heaven and earth.

Special Requirement: To summon Leraje, you must break an arrow crafted by an elf while calling out Leraje’s name and title. In addition, Leraje hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to him.

Manifestation: Leraje appears before her summoner as though she had always been there, but camouflaged so well that she could not be seen. First her dull eyes open, then her yellowed teeth come into view out of seeming nothingness, revealed in a sly smile. As Leraje moves, her body takes shape against the background, and her clothes and skin change color to reveal her as an elf archer dressed in beautifully decorated green leather armor. Although she was clearly beautiful at some point, the ravages of some toxin or disease have made her hair limp, yellowed her eyes and teeth, and made her skin pockmarked and sallow.

Sign: You look sickly and diseased, and your skin becomes sallow and pockmarked.

Influence: While influenced by Leraje, you become quiet and unassuming. Leraje still feels considerable guilt about the actions that led her to become a vestige, so she requires that you not attack any elf or creature of elven blood, including half-elves and members of the various elf subraces, such as drow.

Granted Features: You gain supernatural powers related to Leraje’s skills in life, as well as the ability to fire arrows that strike multiple foes.

Stealth Bonus: You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

Low-light Vision: You can see three times as far as your light source would normally illuminate, and you are not subject to disadvantage when making Wisdom (Perception) checks in dim light.

Ranged Weapon Mastery: While bound to Leraje, you gain proficiency with longbows and heavy crossbows, and you gain a +1 bonus to ranged weapon attack rolls.

Precise Shot: You are not subject to disadvantage when making a ranged attack at long range.

Ricochet: You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon's range. Make a single attack roll and apply that result to the Armor Class of each target. Any hit you score deals damage to the target normally. Extra damage from features such as sneak attack or smite apply to only one target, which you must designate prior to making the attack roll.

You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Naberius, The Grinning Hound

Legend: Though Naberius’s origin remains mysterious, binder scholars know that his name and form have changed many times over the centuries. Ancient pact magic texts refer to a spirit matching Naberius’s powers as Naberus, Kaberon, Cerbere, and Serberius. One of these spirits appeared as a noble, bird-headed man, another as a dog with a crane’s head, another as a wolf with fifty heads and a tail of three entwined snakes, and the fourth as a heap of bodies surrounded by a cloud of flies.

A few fiendish sages have suggested that Naberius might be an aspect of the three-headed, doglike creature that guards the gates to the Underworld on the third layer of Hades, but that creature is thought to be simpleminded and has never been known to speak. Naberius never admits to having had older forms or names, and questions about his origin get only a sly smile in reply.

Special Requirement: Naberius values knowledge, industry, and the willingness to deceive. He manifests only for a summoner with proficiency in Deception, Arcana, History, Nature, Persuasion, or Religion.

Manifestation: Naberius’s manifestation begins with a great squawking and flutter of feathers. Moments later, a black crane flies in an agitated fashion over the seal, then crashes down atop it, apparently dead. Naberius then stalks forward out of invisibility as a three-headed hound to feast upon the crane. He speaks hoarsely from whichever dog head isn’t eating at the moment. Despite his terrible appearance and raucous voice, Naberius somehow manages to seem amiable and eloquent.

Sign: Your voice deepens and acquires a gravelly, growling tone.

Influence: While you are influenced by Naberius, you love the sound of your own voice and are constantly pleased by your cleverness. Whenever you are presented with a pulpit, a stage, a talking stick, or any other place or object designed to give a speaker the floor, Naberius requires that you immediately seize the opportunity to speak. Any topic will do, but since Naberius resents others taking control of the discourse, he requires that you either shout them down or mock them. Your speech must last a number of rounds equal to your binder level to satisfy Naberius.

Granted Features: Naberius grants you the power to wear any face, swiftly recover from exhaustion, use skills of which you have no knowledge, and talk your way through danger.

Silver Tongue: You have advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks.

Faster Healing: Finishing a long rest reduces your Exhaustion level by 2, instead of 1. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against diseases.

Naberius’s Skills: At the time you make your pact, you can choose one skill that you lack proficiency with. For the duration of the binding, you can add your proficiency bonus to ability checks with your chosen skill. For every five binder levels you possess, you can choose one additional skill (up to 5 skills at 20th level) to gain this benefit.

Disguise Self: You can alter the appearance of your form as an action, as the disguise self spell. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain any expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Persuasive Words: You can use your action to direct a verbal command at a creature, as the command spell. If your binder level is at least 10th, this feature instead functions as the suggestion spell. You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Ronove, The Iron Maiden

Legend: Many binder scholars credit Ronove with laying the foundation for orders of monks, and indeed, her philosophies and abilities bear a strong resemblance to the training that monks now receive. In life, Ronove was a charismatic guru who taught that enlightenment comes from denial—first of the needs of the flesh, then of the perceived limits of reality, and lastly of the rules of reality. Her frequent demonstrations of power served to illustrate the validity of her ideas to others. She leapt from cliffs without harm, lifted boulders with her thoughts, and lived for months without eating or drinking. Although Ronove gathered many followers, not one of her disciples could manage her great feats. Some began to question her methods.

To prove the veracity of her teachings, Ronove secluded herself in an iron coffin, telling her students to bury her and dig her up only when they received a sign from her. Years passed, and no sign came. One by one, her followers lost faith and deserted her. At last only one remained. Disillusioned, he dug up the rusted sarcophagus, only to find it empty. He tracked down his fellow disciples to tell them of the miracle, but none believed him. Ronove and her nameless disciple would have been lost to obscurity, but her lone faithful follower inscribed his story on the walls of a cavern. The recent discovery of this inscription explains the strange powers and appearance of Ronove.

Special Requirement: Ronove’s seal must be drawn in the soil under the sky.

Manifestation: When Ronove manifests, the ground quakes, and a rusted iron sarcophagus erupts from the earth within her seal, shedding dirt and flakes of rust as it grates upward. The metal visage of a human woman is discernible on the lid. The metal bindings holding the lid closed burst in clouds of corroded metal, and the sarcophagus creaks open, releasing a tumble of human bones and noisome black liquid. Ronove does not speak to her summoner, but the visage on the lid smiles or frowns during the pact-making process.

Sign: The flesh of your face settles into a frown or a smile (a frown if you succeeded on your binding check, or a smile if you did not) and retains that general expression regardless of your actual feelings. This alteration to your visage does not affect your Charisma, Charisma-based skill checks, or others’ ability to make Insight checks against you.

Influence: Ronove’s influence makes you think that others doubt your abilities and competence. Despite what anyone says, you feel the constant need to prove your worth. In addition, Ronove requires that you consume neither food nor beverages including potions) for the entire time you remain bound to her.

Granted Features: Ronove gives you the power to fall any distance without harm, lift objects without touching them, and run like the wind.

Magic Attacks: Your melee attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Ronove’s Fists: You roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike, and you can use your Dexterity, instead of Strength, for its attack and damage rolls. Additionally, when you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.

The damage die of your unarmed strike increases to d6 at 5th level, to d8 at 11th level, and to d10 at 17th level.

Feather Fall: You fall as though you were under the influence of a feather fall spell. You can suppress or activate this feature as an action, or as a reaction if you start to fall.

Sprint: Your movement speed increases by 10 feet.

Far Hand: At will as a bonus action, you can lift and move an unattended object within 40 feet of you that weighs no more than 60lbs. During the bonus action, you can move the object up to 20 feet, although not more than 5 feet off the ground. In any round during which you do not use a bonus action to manipulate the object, you lose control of it. You can never move an object outside the range of this feature, and you lose control of the object if you move too far away from it or if a creature touches it. You can move only one object at a time in this fashion.

For every five binder levels you posses, the range increases by 40 feet (up to 200 feet at 20th level), the weight limit increases by 60lbs (up to 300lbs at 20th level), and you can move the object an additional 20 feet (up to 100 feet at 20th level).

Ethereal Shove: You can use an action to shove a creature within 20 feet of you with the telekinetic force of your Far Hand. The hand deals 1d6 force damage and initiates a shove, using your Charisma modifier for the Strength (Athletics) check, and adding your proficiency bonus, even if you lack proficiency with that skill. If the shove is successful, the target moves in the direction you indicate, or falls prone. For every five binder levels you possess, the range increases by 20 feet (up to 100 feet at 20th level), and the damage it deals increases by 1d6 (up to 5d6 force damage at 20th level).

You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

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