Iphae's Fall — New Setting and Subclasses! Subclass updates: Shadow Knight v1.1 (large), Gravetender v1.21 (small)

Iphae’s Fall (or Illinditharl, “The Way Below” as it was originally called) was founded over two hundred years ago by Illhaefen Iphae, a drow who sought to create a society free from the wicked aspirations and bitter politicking under the thumb of the drows’ patron goddess. Eventually settling far from home in the caverns below a dormant volcano called Oluth’kairn, Iphae labored to liberate her elven brothers and sisters from their religious and familial binds; other ancestries, such as the duergar and deep gnomes, also grew to call Illinditharl home. Before long, this refuge grew to a small city—and with this new prosperity, its time of reckoning began.

Iphae’s spurned goddess, ever scheming and venomous, waited patiently for Illinditharl to become plump with the hopes and dreams of apostates When the time eventually came to pluck it—as one would a ripe fruit—and harvest its sorrows, the goddess reignited the long-dormant Oluth’kairn volcano. Magma began to flow once more, and without intervention, the city would be swept away in a sea of fire, and the goddess would have her harvest.

In her hour of need, Queen Iphae was visited by a child of light, a solar called Sabrael. On behalf of her sun goddess mother, the celestial creature bound Queen Iphae to a divine oath, purifying the Queen of her wicked goddess’ taint. Armed with a newfound divinity, Queen Iphae then plunged herself into the heart of Oluth’kairn in an act of divine-inspired martyrdom. It was through this act of defiance that the queen was transmuted into a living artifact: the Queen’s Heart Crystal. By joining herself to Oluth’kairn, Queen Iphae could regulate its magma flows, ensuring that the volcano would never be a threat to Illindatharl again. Shortly thereafter, her daughter, Queen Iphae II, renamed the city to “Iphae’s Fall” in honor of that sacrifice.

The fallout from her absence is still being felt today; various members of her family have vied for the throne over the past two centuries, resorting to the same infighting, assassinations, and brutal politicking that Iphae had sought to originally escape. It wasn’t until recently, however, that open warfare came to the city’s streets, when Queen Iphae VIII decided to exterminate all opposition to her rule. This led to a civil war that lasted three years. It ended recently when Morne Inabella, the leader of the city’s resistance, drove her blade through the Tyrant Queen’s heart. Thus it was that the Iphae bloodline was ended, and thus it was that the city’s name, “Iphae’s Fall,” took on a double meaning.

Now, the city finds itself in an uneasy, transitional period: the scars of civil war are still fresh, and bad actors threaten to undermine the good intentions of Morne and her new government. It will take compassion, understanding, and most importantly, time, for Iphae’s Fall to rediscover its original mission as a safe haven from the ills of the world.

Iphae's Fall is a now thriving city burdened with political and martial instability. Its marvelous obsidian technology is made possible by the sacrifice of its first leader, Queen Iphae the first, and has turned the city into a bustling town ripe for ingenuity—and devastation. Who can win in this never-ending power struggle? The people that live there, or the ones who say they're in control?

This setting includes new Fighter and Ranger subclasses: the Shadow Knight and Gravetender! The Shadow Knight is a dark warrior that's been touched by the plane of shadow itself—while it's not necessarily an evil-bent archetype, it can certainly be fitting for one! Use shadow itself to weave small trinkets to aid in your travels, or even a vicious weapon of pure darkness! When you're finished with them, you can cause them to burst and release their energy, providing helpful or harmful effects to those nearby.

The Gravetender is dedicated to preserving the memories of the dead and honoring their stories. The eschew undead, and can even transform their own vitality through their Hit Dice to enhance their abilities! This subclass went through a lot of revision, which is why it wasn't released last month (when it was meant to!). Thanks for your patience with this as it went through additional playtests!

Speaking of subclasses, here's a reminder that we also have official subclass playtest sessions on the Discord! So please feel welcome to sign up for them and get early looks and hands-on time with them! As always, further revisions will be made here with published updates as they're released!

What's Included:

• 20 pages of a subterranean, volcanic city on the heels of upheaval and precipice of meltdown!

• Marvel at unique works of magic and machine through queen-touched obsidian! Race through canyons on magical motorbikes!

• Bonus maps donated by Cze & Peku!

• 6 new creature statblocks!

• New Fighter subclass: the Shadow Knight! Harness and strike with raw shadowstuff from the plane of shadow itself! Use its energy to help your allies and hinder your foes!

• New Ranger archetype: the Gravetender! Give the dead an honorable rest, and use your own vitality to amplify your abilities!

Credits

I was responsible for direction, design, and additional editing for this setting. However, this couldn't be possible without extra help. If you like this setting, consider supporting these other incredible creators:

John Webb — Writing

TheArenaGuy — Monster design, editing

Cze & Peku — Maps

Damien Mammoliti — Monster Art & Subclass illustration

Benjamin Sommeregger — Cover art

Jelke Ludolphij — Additional layout

This release is also made especially possible by the extra generosity of $13+ Legendary Heroes! Thank you all so much for you support, and be proud of your place in the end credits! You've earned it!

Updates

Fighter: Shadow Knight 

v1.1: Big update here after some extensive additional testing. Here are the changes:

• Dark Gaze: No longer increases your darkvision to 120 feet at level 10. No longer includes the option to touch someone to grant them the same benefits—this was fiddly to track, and made less necessary in later levels with the other changes.

• Manifest Shadow: Now grants your shadow weapons Versatile 1d8/1d10, functionally. It also includes some added language about what makes these things: shadowstuff. This is a term used in other fiction novels as well as in 5e itself in a few locations.

• Shadowcasting (new level 3 feature): this functionally replaces Umbral Shatters, which came in too late to make the subclass fun early game and were tricky to use in practice (juggling where things are when they dissipate and what's nearby). This lets you cast sort of shadow magic spell effects instead, including a way to debuff enemies you hit with a shadow weapon, and a way to empower a weapon you're already holding with shadowstuff so you get the same bonuses. This way you can use your preferred +1 weapon over a standard shadow one and still use the subclass' core features. This does still match your PB number of uses, BUT can be regained per long or short rest now. More flexibility here now, without increasing overall strength.

• Umbral Warrior: this was originally the capstone's name, but has been moved down to level 7 and given a mix of features from the original Cover of Darkness feature at this level and some new ones. Lets you ignore armors' disadvantage on stealth checks, and gives you advantage on dex saves in dim light or darkness now. This aligns nicely with some of the softer perks seen in other classic Fighter subclasses.

• Improved Shadowcasting: this fills in the gaps lost by moving Umbral Shatters effectively to level 3. It also simplifies the original options: AoE advantage on stealth checks, cast darkness outright, and grant allies your Dark Gaze feature perks in an AoE. You can use multiple of these without ending another effect early, and you can even cast darkness as an action and then grant your allies your Dark Gaze as a bonus action on the same turn.
  You can also attack with a shadow weapon as a bonus action after using an action to use one your Shadowcasting options, which means it's very easy to make the most of your strategic magic options.

• Shadow Sneak: now lets you become invisible when you teleport.

• Cover of Darkness: Now your capstone, this gives you blanket half cover while in dim light or darkness. Very easy to get a +2 AC bonus in this way, especially if you combine your Shadowcasting abilities with attacks.

Ranger: Gravetender

v1.21: Small update. Mostly for clarity in the level 3 and 11 features.

• Touch of the Departed had a formatting change to make it clear you get spare the dying and favored enemy at level 3, not 7.