Wits (First Draft)
Hit Die: d8
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Saving Throws: Dex, Cha
Proficiencies: two toolsets, languages, or musical instruments of choice
Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Driving, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Mechanics, Occult, Parapsychology, Perception, Persuasion, Pilot, Religion, Science, Stealth
| Level | Prof. | Features |
| 1 | +2 | Slick Operator, Make a Remark |
| 2 | +2 | Jack of All Trades |
| 3 | +2 | Specialty |
| 4 | +2 | Personal Development |
| 5 | +3 | Social Aggro |
| 6 | +3 | Rally the Troops |
| 7 | +3 | Confusion Attack |
| 8 | +3 | Specialty |
| 9 | +3 | The Hair of Your Teeth |
| 10 | +4 | Personal Development |
| 11 | +4 | Go Get ‘Em! |
| 12 | +4 | C’mon Boxcars |
| 13 | +5 | Specialty |
| 14 | +5 | Work the Crowd |
| 15 | +5 | Personal Development |
| 16 | +5 | Smooth Recovery |
| 17 | +6 | Devastating Quip |
| 18 | +6 | Specialty |
| 19 | +6 | Stroke of Luck |
| 20 | +6 | Personal Development |
Slick Operator
Choose two skills from: Acrobatics, Intimidation, Investigation, Persuasion, Perception, Stealth. When make ability checks using those skills, your proficiency bonus is doubled.
Make a Remark
You can use your wit to bring cheer to your friends or dismay your foes. As a bonus action on your turn, choose a creature within 60′ who can hear and understand you. If you are making a cheering remark, that creature may add a Ghost Die to one attack roll, saving throw, or ability check they make within the next minute. Alternatively, they may roll a Ghost Die and regain that many hit points. If they Roll a Ghost when restoring hit points, then they regain a number of hit points equal to their Constitution score (or 6, whichever is greater). If you are making a cutting remark, you roll a Ghost Die on their next d20 roll: they must subtract that amount from their roll. Alternatively, you may choose to roll a Ghost Die and subtract that number from their hit points. If you Roll a Ghost when making a cutting remark, the affected creature must subtract a number equal to your Charisma score (or 6, whichever is greater). You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). After that, you must complete a short or long rest to use it again.
Jack of All Trades
Starting at 2nd level, you can add half your proficiency bonus (rounded down) to any ability check that does not already include your proficiency bonus.
Specialty
At 3rd level, you choose a specialty for character. The choices are The Pro and Snarkmaster General. You immediately gain the first benefit associated with that specialty, and gain another benefit at 9th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level.
Personal Development
Whenever this option comes up, you have your choice of one of the following options: increase one ability score of your choice by +2, increase two ability scores of your choice by +1 each, or gain a feat.
Social Aggro
Beginning at 5th level, you may use your action to weave a distracting string of words, causing a creature of your choice within 60′ who can hear and understand you to make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier). Any creature that can’t be charmed succeeds the saving throw automatically, and if you our your companions are fighting a creature, it has advantage on the save. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to perceive any creature other than you until the beginning of your next turn or until the target can no longer hear you. The effect immediately ends if the creature takes damage from any source. You may extend this effect for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) by using a bonus action on each turn to continue talking. You must complete a short or long rest before you can use this ability again.
Rally the Troops
At 6th level, you use your charm and humor to bolster the morale of your allies. Every friendly creature within 60′ who can hear and understand you (including yourself) immediately gains a Ghost Die of hit points + your Charisma modifier. If you Roll a Ghost on this roll, the creatures regain hit points equal to their Constitution score (or 6, whichever is higher) + your Charisma modifier. You may use this ability of number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, after which you must complete a long rest before you can use it again.
Confusion Attack
At 7th level, your ability to spin fascinating but ultimately spurious talk has been honed to such a degree that any creature affected by your Social Aggro ability also becomes charmed and incapacitated.
The Hair of Your Teeth
At 9th level, when you are targeted by an attack or forced to make a saving throw, you may add a Ghost Die to your AC or your d20 roll. You may choose to do this before or after the attack or saving throw result is revealed, but before the damage or effects are applied. You must complete a long rest before you can use this ability again.
Go Get ‘Em!
At 11th level, you have become very effective at getting other people to achieve. On your turn, if you take no actions (except a possible reaction) and do not move, you may instruct one friendly creature within 60′ who can hear and understand you to take an action instead. That creature immediately gets the benefit of an Action Surge (as the Brawn class ability). You must complete a short or long rest before you may use this ability again.
C’Mon Boxcars
At 12th level, when using the Make a Remark or Rally the Troops abilities, you roll two Ghost Dice and take the more favorable result.
Work the Crowd
By 14th level, you have become so adept at Social Aggro (and by extension Confusion Attack) that it affects all creatures of your choice within 60′ who can hear and understand you.
Smooth Recovery
At 16th level you’ve mastered the art of rolling with a flub. When you expend a use of Make a Remark, Social Aggro, or Hair of Your Teeth and receive no or minimal benefit (rolling a 1 on the Ghost Die, failing the saving throw anyway, etc.), that use is automatically recovered. (The result does not change, but the use is no longer considered to have been expended.)
Devastating Quip
At 17th level, when you make a cutting remark, the affected creature must make a Charisma saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier). On a failure, the creature becomes stunned until the end of their next turn.
Stroke of Luck
At 19th level, if your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20. Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Specialties
The Pro
More Skills to Pay the Bills: At 3rd level, you gain three more skills, tool proficiencies, languages, or musical instrument proficiencies of your choice.
Pinch Hitter: At 3rd level, you can “fake it” well enough to emulate the 3rd level specialty of another class for 24 hours. For instance, you might choose to emulate the Inventor specialty of the Brain class, or the Danger Magnet specialty of the Moves class (or even the Snarkmaster General specialty of the Wits class). This confers all of the abilities that specialty would at 3rd level, but any ability must be one that stands alone rather than building on another ability of the class for you to be able to use it– you couldn’t emulate the Heart of the Team ability of the Guts class for instance, because it requires you to have the Got Your Back ability first. You may even choose non-spellcasting specialty trees from classes not in the Ghostbusters game with Ghostmaster approval, selecting the Thief specialty of the Rogue class from the Players Handbook, for example.
You may choose which ability you wish to emulate at any time; once the choice is made, it cannot be changed until you finish a long rest or a maximum of 24 hours. Once the 24 hours is up, any benefits granted by your current choice end immediately– the gadgets fall apart, for example, or you just can’t quite get the knack of those Slick Moves. Even if you choose the same specialty again, it is effectively “reset” to a fresh start.
Flexible Thinking: At 8th level, you are such a quick thinker that you can manage to twist even the most thorough compulsion to your own ends. You have advantage on all saving throws to resist all mind-affecting effects, including charm, fear, or confusion. Your character may very well be dominated by that Class IV possessor, but with a successful save they still remain completely under player control.
Quick Study: At 13th level, when you emulate the specialty of another class, you gain all of the abilities in that specialty tree up to 13th level.
The Pro From Dover: At 18th level, when you emulate the specialty of another class, you gain all of the abilities in that specialty tree up to 18th level.
Snarkmaster General
No Job Is Too Big, No Fee Is Too Big: Starting at 3rd level, when negotiating to mitigate damage or increase your team’s fee for a bust, you have advantage on your Charisma (Persuasion) check.
Fast Talk: Beginning at 3rd level, you have such a gift of gab that you can suggest a wildly improbably or even outrageous course of action (limited to a sentence or two) to someone within 30′ who can hear and understand you, and they must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus = your Charisma modifier) or they will pursue it to the best of their ability for up to 8 hours (or until they complete the action, whatever it is). Creatures that can’t be charmed are immune to this effect. Asking a creature to actively harm themselves or do something completely contrary to their basic nature immediately ends the effect. For instance, you might convince a police officer to stand guard over a sofa instead of questioning you, but you couldn’t convince him to shoot himself. You may also specify actions that will trigger a special activity during the 8-hour period. For instance, you might convince the police officer to arrest the first ghost they see– but if the police officer doesn’t see any ghosts before the 8 hours are up, he can’t very well arrest them. Once you have used this ability, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Deadpan Snarker: Beginning at 8th level, you’ve become so jaded that you gain proficiency with Wisdom saving throws and have advantage on all Wisdom and Charisma saving throws.
Mind Trick: At 13th level, you’re so good at fast talking that you can actually make people doubt their memories. By taking an action to weave an at least marginally-convincing alternative scenario, you can force a creature within 30′ that can hear and understand you to make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus = your Charisma modifier). Creatures that can’t be charmed are immune to this effect, and if you are fighting the creature, it has advantage on the saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes charmed by you for one minute. During that time the creature is incapacitate and unaware of its surroundings, though it can still hear you. If the creature takes damage for any reason the effect ends and none of the creature’s memories are modified. While the charm lasts, you can affect the target’s memory of an event that it experienced within the last 24 hours and that lasted no more than 10 minutes. You can permanently eliminate all memory of the event, allow the target to recall the even with perfect clarity and exacting detail, change its memory of the details of the event, or create a memory of some other event. The modified memories take hold when the charm ends. A modified memory doesn’t necessarily affect how a creature behaves, particularly if the memory contradicts the creature’s natural inclinations or beliefs. An illogical modified memory, such as implanting a memory of how much the creature enjoyed dousing itself in acid, is dismissed, perhaps as a bad dream. Once you have used this ability, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use it again.
Reality Distortion Field: By 18th level, your powers of persuasion are so off the charts that the stuff you come up with doesn’t even have to be believable any more. When using Fast Talk, Mind Trick, Social Aggro, or Devastating Quip, all creatures targeted by the abilities have disadvantage on their saving throws. (Alternatively, creatures with advantage on their saving throws have that advantage canceled out.) You still cannot force a creature to do something clearly suicidal or completely against its true nature, no matter how persuasive you are. But you can make them think about it, which is creepy enough.
That’s it for the classes! Whattya think? Next time, Ghostbuster Backgrounds (Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws).
-The Gneech
