Lumberjack (5e Class)

Lumberjack

Masters of the axe who work with trees to make their trade selling wood for homes, furniture, and other things. Life is simple and life is good. But, one way or another, you find yourself setting out on some grand adventure.

The Simple Life of a Wood Worker

You are a lumberjack. It is a career often taken by the common folk rather than some ramble-rouser adventurer, bloodthirsty mercenary, or highfalutin’ nobleman. There’s not much more to life than you, your axe, the trees you work with, and the occasional animals that reside in the place you work.

As a lumberjack, you aren’t quite as antisocial as, say, the hermit ranger living all by themselves. But you also don’t have to be as charismatic as the wandering entertainer bard seducing any and all that come their way. You are you- as unique as could be- with only a periodic need to talk with others in order to trade what you cut. Whether boisterous or soft-spoken, there’s no denying the amazing strength you can put behind any blow you deliver though.

Nor is there any denying the connection you have to the region you work with. As a lumberjack you work outside in nature more often than not. So it’s not particularly surprising if you like spending more time outdoors than in. Nor is it particularly strange to pick up a few things about the rest of the woods while you’re out there. Either way your life is typically one of routine with a heavy dependence on nature and making sure you regrow what you take from it.

Whether you came from a humble background or an exciting one just looking for peace, you are quite the intimidating force when your axe must be turned on something other than the bark you carve.

Creating a Lumberjack

Chopping Wood and Looking Good, by Alex T. Frazer

When creating a lumberjack it is important to keep in mind that the class doesn’t exactly scream “Dragon Slayer Extraordinaire.” Typically it is seen as something simple commoners would do, not risk-taking adventurers. However, that’s where you can have fun.

For instance: Why did your character become a lumberjack? Are they really just some simple commoner whose family has done this for generations? Was this just the best job they could find at the time and they settled? Or are they possibly someone who, after a life of adventure, decided to settle down? Perhaps even an ex-criminal now looking to live a life of peace away from the ever-watching eyes of the law.

Then you might ask: are they a recluse? Do they spend far more time within the woods than anywhere else? Do they even come to town at all or do they stay in the woods and only chop down dead trees to grow in new ones? If so, would they go into town just to buy some basic extra supplies they may need? Or do they live in the town with others and only go out to the woods to work?

From there you can figure out: why did your character set off to adventure? Were they merely dragged along somehow and now find themselves so deep in some grand scheme that it’s hard to back out now? Or did they want a life that was more than simply chopping down trees and carving wood?

Quick Build

You can make a lumberjack quickly by following these suggestions. First, Strength should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution then Wisdom. Second, choose the outlander or hermit background. Finally, pick the greataxe and two handaxes.

Class Features

As a Lumberjack you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d12 per Lumberjack level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + Constitution modifier per Lumberjack level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons, all axes
Tools: Herbalism kit or woodcarver's tools
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Pick 2 from Athletics, Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Nature, Perception, and Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a greataxe or (b) any martial weapon
• (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon
• an explorer's pack and a battleaxe
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 2d4 x 10 in funds.

Table: The Lumberjack

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Damage Reduction
1st	+2	Unarmored Defense, Fighting Style, Endurable	1
2nd	+2	Enhanced Metabolism, Axe Veteran	1
3rd	+2	Path of the Woodsmen	2
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	2
5th	+3	Extra Attack, Chopping Force	3
6th	+3	Rough Traveler, Path feature	3
7th	+3	Solid Like An Oak	4
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	4
9th	+4	Right at Home	5
10th	+4	Path feature	5
11th	+4	Heavy Axe	6
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	6
13th	+5	Force of the Fallen	7
14th	+5	Path feature	7
15th	+5	Deeply Rooted	8
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	8
17th	+6	Heavy Axe improvement	9
18th	+6	Iron Wood	9
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	10
20th	+6	Unyielding Resolve	10

Unarmored Defense

Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier.

Fighting Style

You may adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Close Quarters Combatant

Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach, and your base movement speed increases by 5 feet.

Dueling

When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Great Weapon Fighting

When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Endurable

Starting at 1st level, all damage you take is reduced by 1. This reduction increases when you reach certain lumberjack levels as shown in the Damage Reduction column of the Lumberjack table.

Enhanced Metabolism

Beginning at 2nd level, you have advantage on Constitution saving throws against disease and extreme weather, but must eat double the amount of food you regularly need.

Axe Veteran

Beginning at 2nd level, your years of experience with certain axe based weapons has made them your preferred weapon of choice. You have a +1 bonus to damage rolls with handaxes, battleaxes, and greataxes.

Path of the Woodsmen

At 3rd level, you may choose a subclass that determines what type of lumberjack you wish to be. Choose either the Savage, Woodsman, or Wood Carver, all of which are detailed at the end of this class description. Your subclass choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels.

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.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Chopping Force

When it comes to chopping down trees, not many can compare. At 5th level when you make an attack against objects made of plant matter, you deal double damage.

You must be wielding an axe to use this feature.

Rough Traveler

Beginning at 6th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical terrain without being slowed by it and without taking damage from it if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

Solid Like An Oak

You are as tough as the forest you work with. Starting at 7th level, whenever an effect requires you to make a Constitution saving throw, you may use your reaction to add 1d6 to the roll before the results of the roll have been announced. If succeeding on the Constitution saving throw would make you only take half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.

Right at Home

Starting at 9th level, whenever you are within a forest region you may treat it as your favored terrain. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check about a forest, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill you are proficient in.

While traveling for an hour or more in a forest you gain the following benefits:

• Difficult terrain doesn't slow your group's travel.

• Your group can't become lost except by magical means.

• Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.

• If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.

• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.

• While tracking other creatures, you better understand their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

Heavy Axe

At 11th level, whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon that uses your Strength, you deal 1d10 additional damage.

The damage increases by one die to 2d10 at 17th level.

Force of the Fallen

Like the mighty wooden sentinels you fell, you have the might to shake the earth. At 13th level, as a bonus action you may slam the ground around you. Creatures with a 10 foot radius of you must make a DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. You must be using a melee weapon to use this feature, and once you use this feature, you can not use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Deeply Rooted

Your time with your craft has given you insight into the strength of that which you carve. At 15th level you are unable to be knocked prone, pushed, or be grappled whenever you are on solid ground.

Iron Wood

Starting at 18th level, while unarmored, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.

Unyielding Resolve

Starting at 20th level, after taking damage from an effect, you may make a reaction to make it so that no damage is done. You may use this feature twice and you regain all uses of this feature after you finish a long rest.

Savage

Through your time within the yet untamed wilds of the forests, you have learned to embrace your more feral nature and channel it for your own benefit. You become something of a wild beast yourself. Tree, beast, man, or monster: your axe shall cleave through any and all that stand in your way or threaten that which you care for.

Savagery

Starting at 3rd level, you gain the following benefits due to your wild and reckless nature.

• You ignore the heavy property of axes with which you are proficient.
• The first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to half your lumberjack level rounded up.
• You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Unyielding Body

Starting from 6th level, your Strength score, your Constitution score, and your hit point maximum cannot be reduced and anytime you come under the effect of exhaustion you can treat it as one level less then it actually is. In addition, whenever you finish a long rest you may choose to gain resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage. You retain the resistance to this damage type until you choose a different one with this feature.

Endurable

Starting at 10th level, you have advantage on any Constitution saving throw made to go without food or water, or made to prevent disease. In addition, when you are reduced to 0 hit points and not killed outright, you may go back up to 1 hit point and gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier plus your lumberjack level. You regain use of this feature once you complete a long rest.

Brace

Starting at 14th level, when you take damage from an attack, you can use your reaction to give yourself resistance to all of that attack’s damage types until the end of your next turn.

Woodsman

These lumberjacks are renowned for their eagerness to take on any danger, and are always up for a task no matter how difficult it may be. Woodsmen take life in stride, and are known to have phenomenal strength, endurance, and knowledge about the wilds.

Woodsman Bonus Damage

Lumberjack Level	Damage Increase
3rd	1d4
10th	1d6
16th	1d8
20th	1d10

Power Strikes

Starting at 3rd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon, they take 1d4 additional damage. This damage increases when you reach certain lumberjack levels as shown in the Woodsman Bonus Damage table.

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this subclass at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Athletics, Investigation, Nature, or Survival. Alternatively, you learn one language of your choice.

Remarkable Athlete

When you reach 6th level, you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded up to any Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check you make that doesn't already use your proficiency bonus. In addition, you can jump extra feet equal to your Strength modifier on high jumps and extra distance equal to Strength score on long jumps.

Hardened Mind

By 10th level, your mind has become hardened against the effect of outside influence. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws as well as Intelligence or Charisma saving throws (your choice). If you already have proficiency in Wisdom saving throws, you instead gain proficiency in both Intelligence and Charisma saving throws.

Resilience

Starting at 14th level, if you have 1 or more hit point and are below half your hit point maximum, as a bonus action, you may spend a hit die to regain hit points, similar to when you would regain hit points during a short rest.

Wood Carver

Many see lumberjacks as those who would destroy nature. But you, however, know better. You do not take more than what is necessary, and replant that which is struck down. You depend upon the forest to make your livelihood. As such, you have begun to develop some sort of magical bond with the land you work with.

Wood Carver Spellcasting

Class Level	Cantrips Known	—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
3rd	2	2	—	—	—
4th	2	3	—	—	—
5th	2	3	—	—	—
6th	2	3	—	—	—
7th	2	4	2	—	—
8th	2	4	2	—	—
9th	2	4	2	—	—
10th	3	4	3	—	—
11th	3	4	3	—	—
12th	3	4	3	—	—
13th	3	4	3	2	—
14th	3	4	3	2	—
15th	3	4	3	2	—
16th	3	4	3	3	—
17th	3	4	3	3	—
18th	3	4	3	3	—
19th	3	4	3	3	1
20th	3	4	3	3	1

Spellcasting

Your connection with the woodlands has allowed you to use the magical essence of the woods themselves to cast spells.

Cantrips

You learn two cantrips of your choice from the druid spell list. You learn additional druid cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Wood Carver Spellcasting table.

Preparing and Casting Spells

The Wood Carver Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these druid spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

You prepare the list of druid spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the druid spell list. When you do so, choose a number of druid spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + half your lumberjack level (rounded down). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

For example, if you are a 7th-level lumberjack, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Wisdom of 16, your list of prepared spells can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells.

You can also change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of druid spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your Lumberjack spells, since your magical capabilities draw on your attunement to nature itself. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Lumberjack spell you cast, and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell Attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Ritual Casting

You can cast a druid spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell prepared.

Druidic

You know Druidic, the secret language of druids. You can speak the language and use it to leave hidden messages. You and others who know this language automatically spot such a message. Others spot the message's presence with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check but can't decipher it without magic.

Wild Kinsmanship

Starting at 3rd level, beasts can understand your speech, and you gain the ability to decipher their noises and motions. Most beasts lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but a friendly beast could relay what it has seen or heard in the recent past. This ability doesn’t grant you any special friendship with beasts, though you can combine this ability with gifts to curry favor with them as you would with any nonplayer character.

Nature’s Warrior

Through hard work and dedication to your craft, you have become a warrior of the woods and as such it has given you a blessing. Starting at 3rd level, your melee attacks deal additional damage equal to half your Wisdom modifier rounded up(minimum of one).

One With Nature

Starting at 6th level, your ever growing connection to nature has allowed you to draw forth its power to enhance your spells. Your spells deal additional damage equal to equal to half your Wisdom modifier rounded up(minimum of one).

Ageless Guardian

Starting at 6th level, the ancient magic that courses through you manifests in several ways to help protect you. For every 5 years that pass, your body ages only 1 year, you are immune to all effects that cause death such as power word kill and you can not die except through reaching 3 death saving throws.

Evolving Protection

You have come to understand how to rapidly adapt to your surroundings you to better fit your needs. Starting at 10th level, you can choose one damage type when you finish a short or long rest. You gain resistance to that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature. Damage from magical weapons or silver weapons ignores this resistance.

Aura of Vitality

Through your connection to nature, you have come to truly the natural flow of life, and have learned how to manifest it in an aura that is able to protect your allies and hinder your enemies. Starting at 14th level, as a bonus action, you may project an aura within 30 feet of your that lasts for 1 minute. At the start of your turn, all allies in the aura including yourself gain temporary hit points equal to half your lumberjack level, and all enemies in the aura must make an Intelligence saving throw. A target takes psychic damage equal to half your lumberjack level on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Once you use this feature, you can not use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the lumberjack class, you must meet these prerequisites: 13 Strength.

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the lumberjack class, you gain the following proficiencies: melee weapons.

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