Ranger - Poisonlight Stalker (Patreon)

The Poisonlight Stalker ranger hunts in radiation-scarred lands, enduring and exploring the deadly poisonlight in order to master its power.

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"Poisonlight" here is obviously radiation. I didn't want to just toss a weird 20th-century anachronism into a sword-and-sorcery game, so I had a lot of fun thinking how people with zero understanding of nuclear chemistry, but plenty of understanding of magic, would conceptualize it. The starting place, mechanically, is the sickening radiance spell — or rather, irradiate, the SDS rework of it.

The Poisonlight Stalker's spell list was fun. Nauseating poison is on there as a basic poison attack (and also the link between nausea/vomiting and the effects of radiation sickness). Poison light and deadly light are two new radiation-themed nuke/control combo spells I whipped up. Mutate gives us our campy Fallout-style interpretation of nuclear power, causing wild mutations all the time. And irradiate of course caps the list. Wasteland Wanderer gives you a very niche-but-necessary ribbon about poisonlight knowledge, and immunity to your own spells (or your own spells as cast by others). Poisonlight Strike lets you put a flash of radiation into your weapon, adding extra damage and a little debilitation onto your attack. Radiation Resistance gives you some nice resistances and the ability to share them with others. Gamma Shroud lets you cover yourself in terrible radiation, leaking misery around you everywhere you go. And Atomic Blast is what it sounds like on the tin — because D&D doesn't have enough nuclear weapons.

As always, you're invited to come discuss and offer feedback here or on Discord!

Art: Poison-Tip Archer, by Dmitry Burmak © Wizards of the Coast LLC