The Red Cord Waybook
A steadfast route-keeper binds allies together and finds the one timely intervention that turns a losing fight.
Spellbook · Waybinder · Level 1
The Red Cord Waybook
A steadfast route-keeper binds allies together and finds the one timely intervention that turns a losing fight.
Ex librisMara VennWaybinder, a Charisma-based half-caster
At a glance
Level
1
Waybinder
Spells
8
4 signature
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
8 spells1st level
8- Choose up to three creatures within range. Whenever a target makes an attack roll or saving throw before the spell ends, it adds to the roll.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Up to three creatures within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a sprinkling of holy water)
- Higher levels
- When cast with a slot of level 2 or higher, affect one additional creature for each slot level above 1.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Speak a one-word command to a creature you can see within range. On a failed save, it follows the command on its next turn. The spell has no effect if the target is Undead, doesn't understand your language, or the command is directly harmful to it.
- Duration
- 1 round
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- When cast with a slot of level 2 or higher, target one additional creature for each slot level above 1.
- Conditions
- Prone
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- One creature you can see within range makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it has Disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you, and it can't willingly move to a space more than 30 feet away from you. The spell ends early if you attack another creature, cast a spell on a hostile creature other than the target, an ally damages the target, or you end your turn more than 30 feet from the target.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- A creature you touch regains Hit Points equal to plus your spellcasting ability modifier.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature you touch
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- Healing increases by for each slot level above 1.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- A willing creature you touch is immune to the Frightened condition. At the start of each of its turns, it gains Temporary Hit Points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One willing creature you touch
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- When cast with a slot of level 2 or higher, target one additional creature for each slot level above 1.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- A shimmering field surrounds a creature of your choice within range, granting it a bonus to AC for the duration.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- One creature within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a small parchment with a bit of holy text written on it)
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- The next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack before the spell ends, the attack deals an extra Thunder damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it makes a Strength saving throw; on a failed save, it is pushed up to 10 feet away from you and has the Prone condition.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- The creature hit by your next melee weapon attack before the spell ends
- Components
- V
- Save or attack
- The target makes a Strength saving throw after you hit it with a melee weapon attack.
- Damage
- Thunder
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 1.
- Conditions
- Prone
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- The next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack before the spell ends, the attack deals an extra Necrotic damage. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw or has the Frightened condition until the spell ends. At the end of each of its turns, it repeats the save, ending the spell on itself on a success.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- The creature hit by your next melee weapon attack before the spell ends
- Components
- V
- Save or attack
- The target makes a Wisdom saving throw after you hit it with a melee weapon attack.
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level spell slot.
- Conditions
- Frightened
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
In the margins
3 notes
DiaryA line is not a leash. Give your companions room to choose their own footing.
WarningWhen the press of battle breaks, mark the safest retreat before you mark the enemy.
FormulaBless the crew before the crossing; save the command for the moment their courage falters.
The book itself
The folio smells faintly of salt, lamp oil, and rain on hot stone.
Its silver route-lines gather around passages about protecting allies and breaking an enemy's momentum.
The caster
Waybinder, a Charisma-based half-casterMara Venn
Studies: Battlefield guidance, protective bonds, and turning a retreat into a counterattackManner: Calm and practical under pressure, with a habit of checking that everyone has a clear path before she gives an order.Focus: A notched brass compass and a short length of red sailor's cord; by the Waybinder's practice, a weapon or spellcasting focus can serve as a focus for Waybinder spells.Quirk: Ties a tiny colored knot in her cord for every person she has safely guided through a perilous journey.Wants: Find the missing company whose route appears in the folio, and learn whether they need rescue or have become the danger.Mara Venn once guided refugees through a flooded mountain pass, keeping a frightened column together with rope, landmarks, and a promise that no one would be left behind. She now travels wherever a group is in danger of coming apart.
The book
A weather-beaten field folio bound in blue-gray sailcloth, with brass corner guards and a red cord stitched through its spine. Its pages are ruled like nautical charts, and faint silver lines shift across them when danger is near.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatSailcloth-bound field folio
ThemeTie the line. Turn the tide.
Written by aWaybinder
Caster level1
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2024)
Plot hooks
1A silver route on the folio has begun redrawing itself toward a coastal town that vanished from every known chart.
2A rival wayfinder claims the folio's binding cord was cut from a legendary ship's sail, and wants it returned before the next storm.
3The folio's original owner left a route-note pointing to a battlefield where an entire company disappeared without leaving tracks.
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