Subclass Spotlight: Operative of the Hollow Veil (Rogue)
Under the Dome – Balaria | Live Play Subclass Reveal
In a campaign of political intrigue, sometimes the most dangerous weapon isn’t a blade or spell—it’s the silence where memory used to be. Our second custom subclass for Under the Dome – Balaria is the Operative of the Hollow Veil, a Rogue archetype that manipulates awareness, memory, and perception itself.
Where the Symbiotic Engineer bends flesh and invention, the Hollow Veil Operative bends reality’s most fragile layer: what people remember. Check out the other classes as part of this game: Artificer, Bard, & Monk.
The Hollow Veil
Legends speak of the Vergussian ruins—a shattered civilization whose arcane experiments tore open rifts in thought and time. From their echoes comes a strange art: the ability to step between moments of awareness. Some rogues learn this discipline from secret guilds, others through exposure to Veilstorm anomalies that warp cognition.
Whatever the source, Operatives of the Hollow Veil are more than infiltrators. They are erasers of truth. When they slip through perception, they do more than vanish—they take certainty with them.
“If they don’t remember I was there… was I?”
Subclass Features
Veilstep (3rd Level)
You’ve learned to shift your presence through cracks in perception.
As a bonus action, you can expend one use of this feature to flicker through the Hollow Veil, becoming momentarily undetectable.
Until the start of your next turn:
- You are invisible to creatures that did not see you at the beginning of your turn.
- Moving more than 30 feet or making an attack or casting a spell ends this effect early.
- If you deal Sneak Attack damage immediately after using Veilstep, you may add your proficiency bonus to the damage.
You can use Veilstep a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Memory Knife (3rd Level)
You’ve learned to cut more than flesh—you cut thought.
Once per short rest, when you hit a creature with Sneak Attack, you can choose to erase a sliver of memory. The creature must make an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 8 + your Dex mod + your proficiency bonus).
On a failure, choose one of the following effects:
- The target forgets the last minute and does not recall you or your allies attacking it.
- The target suffers disadvantage on its next Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw.
- The target cannot speak your name or accurately describe you for 10 minutes.
This memory fracture can’t be used on the same creature more than once per long rest.
Mental Static (9th Level)
Your presence interferes with psychic perception and telepathy.
- You have advantage on saving throws against divination spells, mind-reading, or attempts to detect your thoughts or emotions.
- Anyone who attempts to detect you magically or read your mind must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + Prof + Int mod) or fail.
If they fail, they also suffer 1d6 psychic damage and are distracted, giving you advantage on your next Stealth or Deception check against them.
Hollow Echo (13th Level)
You leave behind perception afterimages—glitches in awareness.
Once per short rest, when you take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action, you can create a phantom echo of yourself in your space.
- The echo lasts for 1 minute or until destroyed (AC 15, 1 HP).
- Creatures who fail a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check may mistake the echo for you.
- As a bonus action on subsequent turns, you can swap places with the echo, teleporting to its location.
While the echo exists, you gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Unwritten (17th Level)
You have become a ghost of thought—a whisper too soft to hold.
- You are immune to being magically tracked, divined, or scryed unless you choose otherwise.
- Creatures have disadvantage on saving throws to resist your Memory Knife or Hollow Veil effects.
- Once per long rest, when you would be reduced to 0 HP, you can instead vanish into the Hollow Veil:
- You become incorporeal, invisible, and untargetable for 1 minute.
- During this time, you heal 5 HP per round, and cannot be remembered or spoken of by any creature who saw you vanish.
- At the end of the minute, you reappear in an unoccupied space within 60 feet.
Why the Hollow Veil Fits Balaria
Balaria is a city built on fragile truths. Factions rise and fall, not through brute force but through the shadows between memory and rumor. An Operative of the Hollow Veil is the perfect weapon for espionage and intrigue: an unseen courier, a political assassin, or the whisper in a council chamber that no one recalls hearing.
Thematically, this subclass pushes intrigue to its limits: when witnesses cannot remember, testimony collapses. When spies cannot be described, suspicion turns inward. And when memories fracture, truth itself becomes negotiable.
Four Down, two to Go
With the Symbiotic Engineer, Hollow Chior, Shattered Flow and now the Operative of the Hollow Veil, our roster of six custom subclasses is beginning to take shape. Each one offers a lens on Balaria’s world of shifting allegiances and dangerous secrets.
Next week, I’ll reveal another—But what will it be. Stay tuned. The Dome closes tighter.
Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!
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