ECHOE — LEGATEE SUBCLASS
Salorras Paragon: Echoe · Path: Legatee · Thread: the Golden Thread of the Fabric (foreknowledge and prophecy) · Subclass type: Legatee Paragon Tradition, chosen at 3rd level
The echoes are the most mysterious and uncanny of the eidolai, named for their gift of “hearing” the possible futures of those around them — the small, branching motions a body is about to make. Carrying the innate, surpassing quickness of mind of their orilyni forebears, they unlock the deepest functions of their own brains; out of the chaos of what-might-be they catch flickering shards of the moment just ahead, and steer the action around them as they please — making themselves desperately dangerous foes and maddeningly difficult targets.
In Praecaria there is a strike-company of such warriors, the Tyrant’s Voice: though they stand beside the tyrant starborn Kyrthan Kane, they never act as his servants or slaves, only as the unpredictable, chaotic outgrowth of Praecaria’s ordered war-machine. Most echoes keep no faith, though some revere Othrax as the supreme power over time, and not a few hold to the mysterious Kaith’otl.
Becoming an Echoe (roleplay, not a mechanical prerequisite)
You choose this tradition at 3rd level with no in-game prerequisites. In the fiction the gift belongs to the eidolai and wakes only in a mind quick enough to bear it; an echoe is rarely met by chance, for their kind hide even in plain sight. (A mage-Path echoe can instead reskin a divination-leaning wizard build.)
Note. Per Salorras canon there are no schools of magic — the echoe’s foresight is drawn from the Golden Thread of the Fabric, the strand of knowledge, oath, and foreknowledge/prophecy. In 5e terms its readings mirror divination magic; only the framing differs — an echoe’s foresight is an extraordinary gift, not spellcraft.
Reading the Golden Thread
An echoe does not cast spells — but the Golden Thread lays the near future bare, and you learn to read it. Starting at 3rd level you can peer down the branching moments as an extraordinary act of foresight (not magic, and never hindered as a spell would be):
- You can perform a reading equal to the Augury spell at will, taking a minute to cast the omens.
- Once per long rest you can perform a deeper reading equal to the Divination spell.
Charisma is your ability for anything tied to these readings, and they use your essence save DC. The visions are true glimpses of what the Thread holds, not conjured magic; Dispel Magic and Antimagic Field do nothing to them.
Echoe Features
| Legatee Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3 | Foresee |
| 6 | Anticipation |
| 14 | Inevitable Strike, Greater Foresight |
| 18 | Insight |
Level 3 — Foresee
You glimpse the branching seconds before they arrive. When you finish a Long Rest, roll two d20s and record the numbers rolled. Until your next Long Rest, you can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check — made by you or by a creature you can see — with one of these foresight rolls. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll only once per turn; each foresight roll can be used only once. (This is the echoe’s signature: steering a foe’s strike into a fumble, or making your own blow land exactly where the future said it would.)
Level 6 — Anticipation
The chaos of the future never catches you unready.
- You can’t be Surprised while you have at least one stored essence, and you add your Charisma modifier to your Initiative rolls (the echoe’s predicted initiative).
- When a creature you can see hits you with an attack roll, you can take a Reaction and expend one stored essence (of any level) to read its blow a heartbeat early: the attacker must reroll the attack and use the lower of the two rolls.
Level 14 — Inevitable Strike & Greater Foresight
Inevitable Strike. You can guide weapon and essence alike to the one place the defense isn’t. A number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum once) per Long Rest, you can choose one of the following with no action required:
- when you make an attack roll, roll twice and use the higher result; or
- when a creature makes a saving throw against one of your essences, it rolls twice and must use the lower result.
Greater Foresight. Your Foresee pool increases — you now roll three d20s after each Long Rest instead of two.
Level 18 — Insight
Your evolved mind can lay a single living future bare. As a Bonus Action, choose one creature you can see within 60 feet. It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your essence save DC or, for 1 minute, you read every motion it is about to make: you have Advantage on all attack rolls against it, it has Disadvantage on attack rolls and on saving throws against your essences, and it can’t benefit from cover or the Dodge action against you. The creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest unless you expend two stored essences to use it again.
Ability Note
The Echoe is a Charisma essencer like any legatee; the lore’s “evolved intellect” is flavor, not a second key ability. Lean on Charisma for your foresight DCs, with Dexterity and Constitution to survive the front line the echoe so often haunts.