Themes - D&D 4e Compendium

116 entries

• Alchemist

  Alchemist Masters of a rare and ancient discipline, alchemists study the properties of mundane and magical elements. They are keen observers of the physical world, and many alchem...

• Animal Master

  Animal Master Gifted with an uncanny ability to befriend and train natural beasts, animal masters are often more at home with animals than with people. Anyone who lacks for humano...

• Athasian Minstrel

  Athasian Minstrel The minstrels of Athas are entertainers to the wealthy and powerful elite of the city-states. Singers, acrobats, poets, dancers, and storytellers, minstrels tour...

• Beguiler

  Beguiler Beguilers aspire to become masters of deception in all its forms. Consummate practical jokers, they delight in playing tricks even on their closest friends. A beguiler mi...

• Black-Hearted Knave

  Black-Hearted Knave Personal gain motivates the black-hearted knave. Scoundrels of the highest order, these cunning, untrustworthy villains exploit, betray, and deceive, having li...

• Blackstaff Apprentice

  Blackstaff Apprentice Prerequisite: Wizard. You must be able to prepare spells from a spellbook (such as with the Arcanist's Spellbook, Bladesinger's Spellbook, or Mage's Spellboo...

• Bloodsworn

  Bloodsworn Evil emerges from below to work villainy on the innocent. Those of good heart stand against its machinations and struggle to rebuild in the aftermath of the conflict. F...

• Brazen Ambassador

  Brazen Ambassador The City of Brass in the Elemental Chaos is a complex net of social intrigue, woven through the courts of the efreet lords who stand as the city's masters. The f...

• Bregan D'aerthe Mercenary

  Bregan D'aerthe Mercenary Menzoberranzan is built on unwritten laws that provide some semblance of structure to the chaotic lives of the drow. Its harsh society does not tolerate...

• Bregan D'aerthe Spy

  Bregan D'aerthe Spy Prerequisite: Drow You were on patrol in the Underdark outside your home, beautiful and benighted Menzoberranzan, when betrayal came. As if directed by psychic...

• Callidyrr Dragoon

  Callidyrr Dragoon Prerequisite: Human or halfling. Callidyrr stands as a beacon of hope in a region overrun with malevolent fey, marauding giants, and bloodthirsty lycanthropes. A...

• Chaosmade

  Chaosmade Throughout the mortal world and scattered among the planes, hidden pockets of the Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye work in secret to avoid persecution from those who do n...

• Chevalier

  Chevalier Dedicated to the ideals of chivalry, chevaliers are gallant warriors who serve as champions and exemplars to the people around them. A chevalier's personal honor is his...

• Cipher

  Cipher There is a rhythm to the planes that few can hear. It is all around, permeating every living being, every piece of land and sea, and every act of magic. Yet it often goes m...

• Cormyrian Battle Mage

  Cormyrian Battle Mage Prerequisite: Unaligned, good, or lawful good wizard or sorcerer Although any magician can create fire or force effects to hinder foes, a battle mage studies...

• Courtier

  Courtier Prerequisite: You must be trained in Diplomacy. The games of court are about winning allies and subtle persuasion, which is impossible without at least some knowledge of...

• Cultist

  Cultist Given the vital role that religion plays in many societies and the number of people who venerate gods, cults could find wider acceptance in the general population. After a...

• Dead Rat Deserter

  Dead Rat Deserter Prerequisite: Human, half-elf, or halfling The port city of Luskan squats along the northern frontier of the Sword Coast. It is a den of thieves and murderers th...

• Deep Delver

  Deep Delver Beneath the tramping of nations and the roots of forests is a world that surface dwellers can barely imagine. Countless tunnels and caverns, rivers and oceans form a f...

• Demon Spawn

  Demon Spawn Encounters between demons and mortals end almost always in swift death for the mortals. Demons live to destroy everything they can until they are destroyed themselves....

• Devil's Pawn

  Devil's Pawn Throughout Faerûn's history, the North has ever been a breeding ground for cults, whether they serve devils, demons, or any of a thousand other dark masters. The last...

• Disgraced Noble

  Disgraced Noble Song and story profess that nobility carries a higher morality, that the aristocracy upholds honor, justice, truth, and valor. The hard truth is that this celebrat...

• Dune Trader

  Dune Trader Dune traders roam every civilized corner of the known world. From crowded marketplaces crawling with thieves, to caravans wending across difficult wastes, to the isola...

• Earthforger

  Earthforger Strong, durable, and implacable, earthforgers embody elemental earth. They can manifest its power in defense or as a weapon, drawing energy from the stones or releasin...

• Elderboy

  Elderboy Prerequisite: Male, drow. Some drow males rebel overtly against their subservient roles, while others find subtler means to confound the expectations of an order that see...

• Elemental Initiate

  Elemental Initiate Elemental initiates follow a philosophy grounded in the understanding of the four elements and their influence over mortal bodies, hearts, and minds. One who wo...

• Elemental Priest

  Elemental Priest The gods of Athas are little more than half-remembered myths in the current age, but many of those who live beneath the crimson sun give their devotion and worshi...

• Escaped Slave

  Escaped Slave The cities of the sorcerer-kings crouch upon the backs of slaves. Slave bones litter their alleys. Slave blood makes mud in the dust of their streets. Almost everywh...

• Escaped Thrall

  Escaped Thrall In the deepest caverns, where the sun is but a myth and the weight of the world crushes all hope, abominations haunt the dark. These perverse beings—aboleths, mind...

• Explorer

  Explorer Seekers of new lands and lost places, explorers are masters of the trackless wilderness. Formal exploration is not very common in the world; a few wealthy kingdoms and me...

• Fatedancer

  Fatedancer Everyone wants good luck, but few have minds broad enough to embrace the whole of fate, sense what is meant to be, and follow that path. Those who do so learn to accept...

• Fey Beast Tamer

  Fey Beast Tamer When the natural world was young and humanity was in its infancy, callous elf nobles intentionally opened fey crossings between their realm and the natural world,...

• Firecrafter

  Firecrafter Fire creates and destroys. With fire, one can transform raw iron into a useful blade, clear a field of crops to halt the spread of a disease, or lay waste to anything...

• Ghost of the Past

  Ghost of the Past History litters the worlds featured in the Dungeons & Dragons® game. Old statues of people long forgotten stand in mute battle against the creepers and overgrowt...

• Gladiator

  Gladiator Life under the sorcerer-kings is hard. Water, food, and shelter are never guaranteed, and one misstep can result in a public flogging by an overambitious templar or a sw...

• Gloomwrought Emissary

  Gloomwrought Emissary Gloomwrought, also known as the City of Midnight, is one of the few bastions of civilization within the Shadowfell. It is a place of treachery and subterfuge...

• Guardian

  Guardian Members of elite societies or military orders dedicated to the preservation of a worthy ideal, guardians are vigilant warriors ready to defend their sworn charges with th...

• Guttersnipe

  Guttersnipe Heroes can rise from unfortunate circumstances, and few circumstances are less fortunate than to begin life as a penniless street urchin in a hard, unforgiving city. O...

• Halaster's Clone

  Halaster's Clone For over a thousand years, the Mad Mage Halaster Blackcloak ruled Undermountain, the labyrinthine dungeon beneath Waterdeep. During that time, he created untold n...

• Harper Agent

  Harper Agent Bards who chronicle the past age sing of the Harpers, a secret society dedicated to advancing the cause of good across Faerûn. In the group's glory days, its members...

• Haunted Blade

  Haunted Blade When a mortal commits a cold, calculated act of violence with a sword, an axe, or some other weapon, he risks being cursed by the dark powers to a life of fear and s...

• Heir of Delzoun

  Heir of Delzoun Prerequisite: Dwarf Thousands of years ago, in an age of great empires, the dwarven realm of Delzoun thrived. Said to be the pinnacle of dwarven culture, Delzoun w...

• Hordelands Nomad

  Hordelands Nomad Between Faerûn and Kara-Tur is a vast steppe, held through history by more than one ancient empire. Despite the area's turbulent past, the advent of the Spellplag...

• House Priestess

  House Priestess Prerequisite: Female, drow, any divine class. Drow society thrives on infighting, treachery, and ruthless ambition, and nowhere is this more apparent than among th...

• Iliyanbruen Guardian

  Iliyanbruen Guardian Prerequisite: Eladrin Anyone with a passing knowledge of history knows of Iliyanbruen—the great kingdom of the mortal world that was home and sanctuary to the...

• Infernal Prince

  Infernal Prince Eager to extend their influence into the world, the lords of the Nine Hells have long mingled their essence with those of chosen mortals to create bloodlines taint...

• Infernal Slave

  Infernal Slave Free will shapes the infernal slave's identity. Whether the decision was made after careful consideration or in the heat of passion, the infernal slave agrees to sa...

• Inquisitive

  Inquisitive When a merchant wants to know which employee is stealing from her, or when a nobleman wishes his wastrel son located, or when a farmer's wife needs evidence of her hus...

• Iron Wolf Warrior

  Iron Wolf Warrior Every adult Iron Wolf member considers himself or herself a warrior, taking pride in his or her bravery, tenacity, and stoicism in the face of pain or adversity....

• Ironwrought

  Ironwrought Air, earth, fire, and water eclipse the other expressions of elemental essence found in the Plane Below. They are, after all, the most dominant forms, and most element...

• Janissary

  Janissary The races of geniekind have a reputation for carrying off mortals to serve as slaves in the cities and palaces of the Elemental Chaos. Few mortals realize, however, that...

• Knight Hospitaler

  Knight Hospitaler Hospitalers are members of a religious order of compassionate warriors sworn to provide care and comfort to the poor, the sick, and the injured. Their chapter ho...

• Mariner

  Mariner Mariners are intrepid folk who take to the world's great oceans and seas, living on the rolling waves aboard ships of all kinds. Though they hail from many races and walks...

• Masked Lord

  Masked Lord You are one of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep—a secret ruler of the City of Splendors. You're also a fugitive, hunted through the streets, alleys, parks, and marketplac...

• Melee-Magthere Champion

  Melee-Magthere Champion Prerequisite: Drow, any martial class or defender role. You are a warrior born and bred. The pounding of blood in your veins, the thrill of battle, the kni...

• Mercenary

  Mercenary Sellswords, spellslingers, soldiers of fortune, freebooters—regardless of their appellation, mercenaries are heroes who work for pay. Capable warriors and spellcasters a...

• Misshapen

  Misshapen When a person commits an act of brutal violence without the use of a weapon other than one's bare hands, the dark powers might consign the perpetrator to live afterward...

• Moteborn

  Moteborn Thousands of otherwise ordinary mortals live among the wonders and perils of the elemental plane, inhabiting isolated citadels that loom atop drifting earthmotes or thron...

• Neverwinter Noble

  Neverwinter Noble Prerequisite: Human Twenty-seven years ago, before you were even born, the city of Neverwinter perished in a great conflagration that slew its people and scatter...

• Noble

  Noble Heroes arise from all levels of society. Some begin their stories as peasants, some as rough-and-ready homesteaders from frontier lands, and others as well-off townsfolk, bu...

• Noble Adept

  Noble Adept Within the city-states, noble castes own more land and more slaves than anyone except the sorcererkings. The members of this social class are largely ineffectual puppe...

• Occultist

  Occultist Occultists believe the cosmos is trying to tell them something. They see signs everywhere—in the arrangement of leaves upon a pond, the flight of birds, or the positions...

• Oghma's Faithful

  Oghma's Faithful The dreams began for you as for so many others. Strange shapes half seen in the darkness. Eerie sounds that upon waking made you think of the sea. A sense of othe...

• Ooze Master

  Ooze Master Few drow are mad enough to forsake the ways of Lolth for Ghaunadaur, the elder evil that rules over the disgusting filth of the world. Those who do might become lords...

• Oracle of the Evil Eye

  Oracle of the Evil Eye Like the misshapen fomorians and their cyclops servants, an oracle of the evil eye has a deformed eye with a catlike iris. The eye grants the oracle influen...

• Ordained Priest

  Ordained Priest Ordained priests are characters who are formally appointed to work in the service of a faith, a sect, or a system of worship. Although some are devout wielders of...

• Order Adept

  Order Adept Great wizards are forged, not born. Natural talent and a quick mind are only the bare beginning of being able to wield the arcane arts. Achieving true mastery requires...

• Outlaw

  Outlaw The world is a hard place. Many people are forced to do unfortunate things to survive; some are wrongly accused, and others find that the laws and structures that are meant...

• Pack Outcast

  Pack Outcast Prerequisite: Human or shifter For your whole life, you've been one with the pack. Not all members of the Gray Wolf tribe manifest the beast within in the same way, b...

• Primal Guardian

  Primal Guardian Much of Athas is desolate and defiled, but the life of a world is difficult to quench altogether. In spite of the supernatural ruin visited over so much of the pla...

• Primordial Adept

  Primordial Adept Most mortals give their devotion to the gods, but other powers that crave worship dwell in the cosmos. A primordial adept is a cultist, a seeker after hidden know...

• Purple Dragon

  Purple Dragon Prerequisite: Good or lawful good alignment Many able-bodied men and women of Cormyr have taken the oath of sworn service to the Crown of Cormyr and earned the title...

• Reaver

  Reaver Fingers of smoke claw at the sky from the burning village. The bones of shops and houses smolder in the attack's aftermath, crumbling as the flames consume them. Bodies, bl...

• Renegade Red Wizard

  Renegade Red Wizard Prerequisite: Wizard (mage) Thay is a nation dedicated to magic and death—a land where undead are not only common, they hold great power. The regent Szass Tam...

• River Rat

  River Rat The world's twisting waterways create a pathway for trade between realms, with rivers and shorelines connecting goods to eager merchants in many cities. Wealth trickles...

• Samurai

  Samurai Samurai are the elite warriors of the nations of Kozakura and Wa, trained since childhood in the arts of battle. Sworn in service to the powerful nobles who govern the emp...

• Sarifal Feywarden

  Sarifal Feywarden Prerequisite: Any fey race but drow To become a feywarden, you must suppress the innate capriciousness of your kind. Threats to the kingdom are manifold, and the...

• Scholar

  Scholar For some, the past is dead and buried, but any adventurer who has ever set foot in a trap-filled, ancient tomb or battled a terrible demon freed from some centuries-old bi...

• Scion of Shadow

  Scion of Shadow Prerequisite: Human, shadar-kai, or shade More than a century has passed since the Year of Wild Magic and the return of Thultanthar, the City of Shade, to the skie...

• Secret Apostate

  Secret Apostate Prerequisite: Drow. All secret apostates are drow who have turned against Lolth. Some Menzoberranzan drow yearn for a life free from the tyranny of the Spider Quee...

• Seeker of Illefarn

  Seeker of Illefarn Prerequisite: Eladrin, elf, or half-elf You grew to adulthood in the shade of Ardeep Forest among a small community of elves, not far from the bustling metropol...

• Seer

  Seer Gifted with unusual abilities to perceive things hidden by distance or uncertainty, seers are prized as advisors by powerful people throughout the world. They might call them...

• Sensate

  Sensate Society of Sensation members are referred to as Sensates and often are stereotyped as hedonists, pleasure-seekers, and layabouts. For some members, these characterizations...

• Sentinel Marshal

  Sentinel Marshal Sentinel Marshals undertake many types of missions and have many reasons to travel. They receive assignments within Deneith enclaves throughout Khorvaire and some...

• Sidhe Lord

  Sidhe Lord Prerequisite: Half-elf, or any race that has the fey origin. Among the fey races, particularly elves and eladrin, powerful noble houses have arisen over the years as th...

• Skulker of Vhaeraun

  Skulker of Vhaeraun Prerequisite: Drow. The power of the priestesses of Lolth in Menzoberranzan is almost absolute, but some residents worship the patron god of male drow, Vhaerau...

• Sohei

  Sohei In Kara-Tur, as in the West, grand shrines can be found in the teeming cities. However, those seeking a quicker path to enlightenment or total devotion to the gods prefer re...

• Son of Alagondar

  Son of Alagondar You grew up on the mean streets of ruined Neverwinter, long after the Spellplague reduced the city to smoldering rubble. You learned the laws of this new world th...

• Sorcere Adept

  Sorcere Adept Prerequisite: Drow, any arcane class. Sorcere represents the most powerful bastion of male power in Menzoberranzan. Although the school owes ostensible fealty to the...

• Spellscarred Harbinger

  Spellscarred Harbinger Nearly a century ago, Faerûn was ravaged by the Spellplague. Few of those alive today can describe this scourge firsthand, and every story disagrees in the...

• Spy

  Spy A secret war is waged in the city—a war of information. On the front line of this war, the spy excels. A city's ruler might retain a network of spies to root out enemies. Ambi...

• Stormraider

  Stormraider In the Elemental Chaos, merchants must transport valuable goods between cities in order to make a profit, and where there is trade, there are pirates who stand ready t...

• Student of Evard

  Student of Evard In many places, studying death, darkness, and peril is taboo. Most mortals fear what they cannot explain, including death. Those innovative souls who dare to acti...

• Templar

  Templar Judges, officials, and enforcers of the king's laws, templars are the embodiment of civic authority in the great cities of Athas. They form a privileged meritocracy of ind...

• Trapsmith

  Trapsmith Some things you just don't fight. To take on adversaries that have superior strength, cunning, or resources (or all three), you need to remove their advantages. Such an...

• Treasure Hunter

  Treasure Hunter Attaining wealth and glory might be a shallow and selfish goal, but treasure hunters are fine with that. They take on great risk and danger to dig up great riches....

• Tuathan

  Tuathan Prerequisite: Human or half-elf. Legend tells of a great tribe of humans that settled the world in antiquity. Some say these humans were shapeshifters, born of primal spir...

• Underdark Envoy

  Underdark Envoy The Underdark is a dangerous place, and not just for the horrors that lurk in the darkness. The cities and enclaves that dot its murky caverns are hotbeds of spite...

• Underdark Outcast

  Underdark Outcast A lone figure, haggard and lean, scrambles through the tunnel as he peers fearfully over his shoulder. He bears marks of shame—scars from lashes and manacles, br...

• Unseelie Agent

  Unseelie Agent The Feywild is a place of magic and enchantment, but within its shadows lurk creatures of mischief, malice, and malevolence that are the source of horrific campfire...

• Uthgardt Barbarian

  Uthgardt Barbarian Prerequisite: Human You are an Uthgardt barbarian—a member of one of the savage human tribes that took Uthgar's name and worshiped him after he fell defending h...

• Veiled Alliance

  Veiled Alliance Arcane spellcasters are feared and reviled throughout Athas, but a secret society protects those who choose the path of the preserver: the Veiled Alliance. Cells o...

• Vigilante

  Vigilante In even the noblest kingdoms, justice can fall by the wayside, and in corrupt or evil ones, villains can often escape fair judgment. Most people stand by and let this pa...

• Vile Scholar

  Vile Scholar Certain things mortals were not meant to know. These ideas are so foul and so obscene that to understand them is never to be clean again. The gods and devils recoil f...

• Wasteland Nomad

  Wasteland Nomad Civilization huddles behind the towering walls of the Seven Cities, citizens and slaves alike subject to the tyrannical sorcerer-kings and their power-mad templars...

• Watershaper

  Watershaper The versatility of elemental water manifests in the talents of the watershapers. These elemental devotees can wield water as a weapon, sending waves crashing into thei...

• Werebear

  Werebear The wilderness holds dangers aplenty for the unwary and unprepared. Savage humanoids gather in fell places to launch raids against caravans and homestead alike. Twisted m...

• Wererat

  Wererat They carry plague. They live in squalor and filth. They eat whatever they can, fouling foodstuffs and other supplies with their leavings. And they breed at an alarming rat...

• Werewolf

  Werewolf When people think of lycanthropy, they think of werewolves. No other lycanthrope evokes the same fear, even if other lycanthropes might be stronger and more dangerous. Li...

• Widow of Arach-Tinilith

  Widow of Arach-Tinilith Prerequisite: Female, drow, any divine class. Lolth governs all aspects of drow life, teaching the art of destruction and the beauty of chaos. All things f...

• Wild Hunt Rider

  Wild Hunt Rider The Wild Hunt is a supernatural horde that, from time to time, tears through the lands at breakneck speed for days or weeks in pursuit of its quarry. The presence...

• Wilder

  Wilder Throughout the world, from city-states to slave tribes to nomadic clans in the wastes, people spontaneously develop psionic abilities. Without formal training, these wilder...

• Windlord

  Windlord The mantle of the windlord is taken up by those who devote themselves to mastering elemental air, able to manipulate any expression of it from the lightest breeze to the...

• Wizard's Apprentice

  Wizard's Apprentice Apprentices exist in any trade, of course, but none are more famous—or infamous—than wizards' apprentices. Stories tell of foolish apprentices stealing peeks a...

• Xaositect

  Xaositect Patterns. Rules. Order. These are tools of the dim and the ignorant use to attempt to codify the multiverse and understand it. Instead, Xaositects (also known as the Cha...

• Yakuza

  Yakuza Outcasts, renegades, folk heroes, and criminals—the yakuza are many things to different people, but without exception they are the rejects of a society that values conformi...