Discipline, fear, courage, and the occasional bolt round. The Commissar gives orders, breaks panic, executes cowardice, and makes doomed soldiers hold the line.
Cowardice is contagious. So is courage.
The Commissar is morale made flesh: a political officer, battlefield judge, executioner, orator, and symbol of absolute discipline.
A Commissar does not merely command. They decide which fear is permitted. They turn collapsing squads into firing lines, shame heroes back to their feet, condemn traitors in front of witnesses, and make retreat more terrifying than the enemy advance.
The class fantasy is simple:
A Commissar survives through Presence, Willpower, authority, terror, spectacle, discipline, and the brutal art of making everyone around them fight harder than they thought possible.
The Commissar should not play like a generic commander. The class should create moments like:
The Commissar should create pressure, drama, and morale control without removing player agency. Commissar features should not force player characters into unwanted PvP or make one player control another player's character. Any execution or punishment directed at player characters should be voluntary, narrative, or table-approved.
Commissarial Edicts are the Commissar's signature class mechanic.
An Edict is a battlefield command backed by political authority, ritualized discipline, public threat, inspiring rhetoric, or the promise of immediate consequences.
Where Guardsmen issue Orders to keep the squad alive, Commissars issue Edicts to decide what fear is allowed to exist.
Edict DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Presence modifier
If an Edict is primarily about personal discipline, fear, or resisting corruption, the GM may allow Willpower instead of Presence.
Edicts are special. Commissars do not gain a new Edict every level.
Some Commissar Edicts refer to a Condemned target.
A Condemned target is a creature the Commissar has publicly marked as a coward, traitor, enemy officer, heretic, deserter, breaker of morale, or immediate threat to discipline.
Condemned does not always mean legally guilty. It means the Commissar has decided that the battlefield needs an example.
A name shouted loudly enough becomes a sentence.
| Commissar Level | Edicts Known |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 13 | 6 |
| 17 | 7 |
This progression is a working draft. Edicts should remain meaningful and powerful, not become a bloated list of minor tricks.
Target: Self or one friendly character within 30 feet who can see or hear you.
The target gains Advantage on their next Willpower Save against fear, being Pinned, forced movement, morale-breaking effects, or psychic dread. If the target succeeds, they also gain temporary Vitality equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
If death is coming, meet it with posture.
Target: One friendly character within 30 feet who can see or hear you.
Until the start of your next turn, the target cannot be moved against their will unless they choose to be moved or are physically thrown by an overwhelming force. If the target is in cover, they gain +2 Defense against attacks made from the front. If the target willingly moves away from an objective, fallen ally, active threat, or defended position before the effect ends, the Edict immediately ends.
The line moves when ordered. Not before.
Target: One visible creature within 60 feet.
Mark the target as Condemned. The first attack made by you or an ally against the Condemned target before the end of your next turn gains +2 to hit. If the Condemned target is fleeing, hiding, surrendering falsely, betraying allies, commanding enemies, or spreading panic, the attack also deals additional damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Cowardice becomes easier to shoot once named.
Target: One ally within 30 feet who is Pinned, Frightened, or hesitating due to morale pressure.
The target may immediately make a Willpower Save to end Pinned or Frightened. If the save succeeds, the target may immediately move 5 feet, draw a weapon, or reload without spending an Action. If the save fails, the target still gains Advantage on its next save against fear or Pinned before the end of the scene.
The enemy offers death. You offer consequences.
Target: One Condemned target you can see.
When the Condemned target drops to 0 Vitality, surrenders, flees, or is visibly broken, you may use this Edict. Choose one:
Morale is a lesson. Corpses are visual aids.
Target: One ally within 30 feet who can see or hear you.
Choose one Condemned target. The target ally gains +2 to hit on their next attack against that Condemned target before the end of their next turn. If the attack hits, it deals additional damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
You do not ask for brutality. You approve it.
Target: One enemy, deserter, coward, traitor, panicking NPC, or Condemned target within 30 feet who can see or hear you.
The target must make a Willpower Save against your Edict DC. On failure, choose one:
If the target is Condemned, it has Disadvantage on the save.
There is mercy in clarity.
Some Commissar features may reference execution, punishment, or making an example. These effects are intended primarily for enemies, NPC allies, deserters, traitors, cultists, panicking crowds, or table-approved dramatic moments.
They should not be used to force PvP or remove another player's agency. If a player character becomes the subject of Commissarial punishment, it should be handled through consent, roleplay, Fate, consequences, or agreed table drama.
The Commissar should be frightening, not disruptive.
Commissar progression uses Doctrine Trees.
Doctrine Trees replace the idea of a locked subclass plus scattered feature choices. A Commissar does not choose one permanent subclass and then receive a random pile of features. Instead, they earn Doctrine Points and spend them across Commissar Doctrine Trees.
A player may specialize deeply in one tree or spread points across several to become a broader morale officer, executioner, duelist, interrogator, or battlefield icon.
Doctrine Trees represent the kind of discipline the Commissar has enforced and the kind of terror they have learned to weaponize.
Each rank costs 1 Doctrine Point and requires the previous rank in that tree unless future rules say otherwise.
Commissars gain 1 Doctrine Point at every even level.
| Commissar Level | Doctrine Points Gained |
|---|---|
| 2 | +1 |
| 4 | +1 |
| 6 | +1 |
| 8 | +1 |
| 10 | +1 |
| 12 | +1 |
| 14 | +1 |
| 16 | +1 |
| 18 | +1 |
| 20 | +1 |
This progression is a working draft. Final class balance may change after the other classes are designed.
Iron Orators weaponize voice, posture, timing, and terrifying certainty. They do not inspire because they are kind. They inspire because the alternative is worse.
Your Edict range increases from 30 feet to 45 feet. Allies do not need to see you to receive your Edict if they can clearly hear you through vox, shouting, signal, or another battlefield communication method.
When you use an Edict on an ally who is Pinned or Frightened, that ally gains +2 on the Willpower Save to end that condition. If the Edict is Stand and Die Well or Fear Me More, the ally gains Advantage instead.
When you use an Edict that causes an enemy to make a Willpower Save, the first enemy that fails also becomes Exposed until the start of your next turn.
Once per safe rest, when an ally within Edict range drops to 0 Vitality, you may use your Reaction to issue an Edict without spending an Edict Use. The ally can hear you even through pain, smoke, shellfire, or panic unless they are truly beyond perception.
Once per safe rest, when you issue an Edict to one ally, you may also affect a second eligible ally within range. If both allies can see or hear each other, each gains temporary Vitality equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
A speech is just artillery for the soul.
Design note: Iron Orator should make the Commissar feel like the squad's morale engine.