Phantom
Some rogues find that death is not so much an ending as a threshold — a permeable boundary between the living and whatever lies beyond. Phantoms have learned to listen at that threshold, drawing knowledge and power from the whispers of departed souls. Whether they came to this gift through a brush with death themselves, a pact made in desperation, or simply a natural sensitivity that manifested unbidden, they walk through the world attended by invisible company.
Phantoms are not necromancers in the traditional sense. They do not command armies of undead or traffic in dark rituals. Instead they maintain a more intimate relationship with death — harvesting fragments of souls, channeling spectral energy through their strikes, and ultimately becoming something between the living and the dead. Enemies who face a Phantom in combat often find the experience deeply unsettling, as though they are being watched by eyes they cannot see.
Those who walk this path must make their peace with mortality early. A Phantom understands, perhaps more than anyone, that every living creature carries its eventual death within it like a seed. That understanding grants a strange kind of calm.
Phantom Table:
| Level | Subclass Features Gained |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Whispers of the Dead, Wails from the Grave |
| 9th | Tokens of the Departed |
| 13th | Ghost Walk |
| 17th | Death's Friend |
Subclass Features
Whispers of the Dead
3rd-level Phantom feature
Echoes of the dead cling to you, whispering fragments of knowledge gained in life. Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can choose one skill or tool proficiency. Until your next rest, you gain proficiency with that skill or tool, as a nearby spirit lends you its expertise.
Wails from the Grave
3rd-level Phantom feature
You can channel necrotic energy from beyond the grave through your strikes. Immediately after you deal Sneak Attack damage to a creature on your turn, you can cause a wail of spectral anguish to tear through that creature or a different creature within 30 feet of you. The target takes necrotic damage equal to half the number of Sneak Attack dice you rolled (rounded down), as \(1d6\) per die.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Tokens of the Departed
9th-level Phantom feature
When a humanoid dies within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to capture a fragment of its departing soul in a Tiny object — a coin, a button, a splinter of bone — that you hold or wear. The object becomes a soul trinket, and it is faintly warm to the touch.
While you are holding or wearing a soul trinket, you have advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) and Intelligence (Religion) checks.
You can use a soul trinket to commune with the soul it holds. As an action, you can ask the soul one question; it answers as truthfully and completely as it can, drawing on memories from its life. After answering, the trinket crumbles to dust.
You can hold a number of soul trinkets equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum one). If you would capture a soul but have no room, the oldest trinket crumbles harmlessly.
Ghost Walk
13th-level Phantom feature
As a bonus action, you can assume a spectral form. While in this form you gain the following benefits for 10 minutes:
- You can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn inside an object, you take \(1d10\) force damage and are shunted to the nearest unoccupied space.
- You have resistance to all damage except psychic and force damage.
- Difficult terrain costs you no extra movement.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Death's Friend
17th-level Phantom feature
The boundary between you and death has worn nearly transparent. You gain the following benefits:
- Using Wails from the Grave no longer expends a use of that feature, so you can use it freely on every eligible turn.
- At the start of each of your turns, if you somehow have no uses of Wails from the Grave remaining (such as from a feature that drains your resources), you regain one use.