Bogeyman (5A)

Shrouded in darkness, the bogeyman approaches the lone child being kicked and bullied. Revealing itself with a roar, the bogeyman makes a mock charge, causing the bullies to flee before picking up the limp body. Slowly nursing the child to health in the perfect darkness of its cave lair, dreading the day he will reach out to touch the monstrous face or realize the helping hand is a claw.

Source: En5ider 83, heavily rewritten.

Bogeymen are men and women who have become the dark things that stalk in the night. Empowered by mystical rituals, unnatural science, or otherworldly forces, bogeymen are thought by most to be dangerous and are shunned and feared by society.

Bogeymen are the stuff of dark secrets and fell power, things of legend and forbidden lore. Becoming one of these otherworldly creatures is sometimes the ultimate goal of a cultist, drinking the blood of an existing monster or engaging in strange rituals to fully realize their power. To others it is a curse bestowed by bloodline or destiny, a burden that strengthens them through hardship. While many bogeymen to fall to evil or are driven there by the angry and misunderstanding society around them, but not all of them give in to their darker desires—some, some survive all this to emerge as monstrous heroes.

Creating an Bogeyman

The first thing to decide when making an bogeyman is the source of your character’s abilities: did you seek out your dark path or was it forced upon you by destiny? You might have discovered a dark object or accidentally happened into a nexus of otherworldly energies, stumbling into a ritual or coming upon the decaying essence of a dying monster whose cursed power was looking for a new soul to tether itself to. Perhaps your character has always sought power regardless of its source, seeking it out with others in a cult or through weird science. Perhaps an ancestor was a monster and you realized your inherited talents in a moment of panic. Perhaps you were an orphan that grew up under the care of another bogeyman, or perhaps you were even abducted. In the gothic stories that inspired this class, an abducted child might redeem a bogeyman abductor or take their curse upon themselves.

Other questions relate to society. Did you grow up among people, or were you a bogeyman as a child? This affects which backgrounds make sense for you. Did you try to hide from society and remain beneath its notice or choose instead to live far from civilized life, surviving in the wilderness? Who—if anyone—knows your truths or helped aid you keep them secret? Perhaps most importantly, does your character feel scorned by society’s treatment of them for their monstrous nature or driven to prove that they are more than their otherworldly appearance suggests? What does your adventuring companions think of you? You cannot keep your identity as a bogeyman secret in the long run, it is best to check with the other players what their attitudes will be and make sure they are ok with you playing a bogeyman.

Multiclassing

You must have a Constitution of 13 to multiclass into or out of this class and multiclassing gives no benefits besides class features.

Class Features

As an bogeyman, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d12 per bogeyman level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per bogeyman level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None
Weapons: Simple weapons
Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Arcana, Deception, Intimidation, Nature, Religion, and Stealth.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to any gear acquired through your background.

(a) a dagger or (b) a sickle
(a) a shortbow with 10 arrows or (b) a sling with 15 bullets or (c) 5 javelins.
a hooded robe
(a) an explorer’s pack or (b) scholar’s pack

Alternatively you can start with 2d4 x10 gp or 50 gp.

Bogeyman Table

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Dark Strike	Features
1st	+2	1d6	Bogeyman Path, Dark Strike, Dark Ward, Unnatural Scent
2nd	+2	1d6	Darkvision, Monster Scare (15 feet)
3rd	+2	1d6	Bogeyman Path Feature
4th	+2	1d6	Ability Score Improvement
5th	+3	1d8	Extra Attack
6th	+3	1d8	Bogeyman Path Feature
7th	+3	1d8	Bogeyman Path Feature
8th	+3	1d8	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	1d10	Supernatural Movement
10th	+4	1d10	Monster Scare (30 feet)
11th	+4	1d10	Bogeyman Path Feature
12th	+4	1d10	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+5	1d12	Supernatural Movement
14th	+5	1d12	Ability Score Improvement
15th	+5	1d12	Bogeyman Path Feature
16th	+5	1d12	Ability Score Improvement
17th	+6	1d20	Supernatural Movement
18th	+6	1d20	Monster Scare (50 feet)
19th	+6	1d20	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+6	1d20	Bogeyman Path Feature

Class Abilities

Bogeyman Path

**Boogeyman Subclasses**
Aberration Abomination^{^{^EN}} Automaton Dragonling Elemental Ghoul Godling Jinni Lycanthrope^{^{^EN}} Possessed Revenant Slime Unseelie Vampire^{^{^EN}}

At 1st level, your supernatural abilities manifest in the pattern of a famous type of bogeyman. Select a Bogeyman Path matching the type of bogeyman you want to be. Your bogeyman path grants you features at 1st level and again at 3rd, 6th, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 20th level. It also changes your creature type, but unless mentioned specifically you keep your racial features.

Dark Power

Unless mentioned in a specific ability, when a saving throw is called for against any bogeyman ability, the DC is 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus.

Dark Strike

Beginning at 1st level, your strikes are imbued with a dark power that allows you to deal more damage with every blow. You gain the following benefits:

You are proficient with unarmed attacks.
You can roll 1d6 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike. This die changes as you gain bogeyman levels, as shown in the Dark Strike column of the Bogeyman table. Your bogeyman path decides what kind of damage your dark strike inflicts.
Your unarmed strikes attacks count as magical weapons for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Dark Ward

Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, you can choose to use your usual AC or your AC equals 10 + your Constitution bonus + your Proficiency Bonus.

Unnatural Scent

Creatures of the beast type react negatively to your scent. They get restless when they catch your scent, which they do when you come within 30 to 120 feet, depending on their Perception and circumstances such as wind. The beasts stir and make noise, but will not attack unless they were already inclined to do so. This is mainly a mood thing, but may occasionally be harmful as enemies might be warned of your approach. You also gain advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against beasts and disadvantage on Wisdom (Animal Handling) checks against beasts until you have worked with them for a full day.

Humanoids have no special ability to discern that you are a bogeyman, but once they do realize it, they tend to consider you the greatest threat. If they don't run away, they are likely to make you their main target. Since bogeymen are quite sturdy, this is an advantage to your allies.

Darkvision

At 2nd level, you gain darkvision out to 60 feet. If you already have darkvision, the range of that darkvision increases by 30 feet.

Monster Scare

At 2nd level, as an action, you can try to scare all creatures of your choice that you can see in a 10 feet square area adjacent to you. Targets must attempt a Wisdom save or become Frightened of you. At the end of each target's turn they can attempt a Wisdom save to end the effect. A creature that has successfully saved against this ability will automatically succeed on any saving throw against this ability until you finish a long or short rest. At level 10, the size of the area increases to 20 feet. At level 18 it increases to 30 feet. If you are disguised when do this, you reveal yourself and if you have a separate monster form, you assume that form.

You always have advantage on all Charisma (Intimidation) checks, even when your bogeyman nature is not known.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. If feats are in use, you can replace an ability increase with a feat.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Supernatural Movement

Starting at 9th level, your movement improves. Choose one of these options:

Your land speed increases by 10 feet. You can take this option multiple times.
You gain a burrowing speed equal to half your land speed. You can move through dirt, soil, and clay, but not brick, stone, or mortar.
You gain a climb speed equal to your land speed.
You gain a swim speed equal to your land speed and the ability to breathe water.
You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed.
You can hover (prerequisite: Fly speed).

You can choose again at level 13 and 17. You can choose speed increase several times, but each of the other options can only be picked once.

Designer's Notes

Additional Ideas

Revenant (ends up incorporeal)
Seelie Fey

What Makes a Good Boogieman Subclass

Not all classic monsters do well as Boogieman subclasses. Here are a few pointers.

Size A boogieman cannot be permanently larger than Medium size. It is simply too inconvenient. You will see that several subclasses can grow and gain power by growing - which is balanced by the inconvenience of size.

Class A boogieman cannot dip deep into the abilities of another class. If you want to build a lich, you could combine wizard/sorcerer with revenant to, but you cannot make a lich subclass. It simply would not be fair to wizards.

Tank The boogieman has a d12 hit points. Sure, hit dice is not everything when it comes to defense, but it is a strong clue. The boogieman is a tank, and the subclass should not break too far out of that archetype.