Horizon walker

The path of the horizon walker was one taken by adventurers whose goals were to explore and map out the plethora of environments within and even beyond the Prime. Those explorers who had an irresistible sense of curiosity and wanderlust to travel took on the path in order to gain an innate connection to their surroundings, whatever those surroundings might be. As horizon walkers became more experienced, they treated their surroundings as part of themselves, which gave them special abilities and senses to protect them from the dangers of incessant travel.

"In time, these eyes will see all realms."

- An anonymous horizon walker

Culture
Few things surprised a horizon walker, for there was little that hadn't already been experienced by such an individual. The only thing that truly piqued a horizon walker's interest was the truly unknown, which unfortunately became harder and harder to find for an experienced seeker of the unknown and untraveled. This knowledge aided those who would seek a horizon walker's wisdom, for the horizon walker was an unsurpassed guide and vanguard, which could be the single difference between life and death in the woods of the Feywild or the wastes of the demon-infested Abyss.

Though the majority of horizon walkers had some training as rangers, many also had a degree of experience as bards, barbarians, or even druids. Bards were attracted to the path as keepers of forgotten lore and natural wanderers, and barbarians were attracted by a similar pull. Those few druids who took up the role of a horizon walker were also drawn by a sense of wanderlust, though their commitment to the natural world and its defense made their numbers relatively few. Most horizon walkers, regardless of their origins, saw one another as a kind of loose brotherhood, a bound network of warriors who pushed the limits of what was unknown and what had been discovered.

Abilities
"To feel no constraint but the four points of a compass, to tread a path that only you can find... these are the flavors of power I've learned to savor."

- Keon, horizon walker.

So difficult was the path of a horizon walker that most who choose it already had a large degree of expertise about the local geography of their world, as well as a capacity for punishment. Though horizon walkers drew initially from physical ability and personal training, adherents to the path often gained supernatural abilities as a result of their constant exposure to harsh environments. At its most basic level, this allowed horizon walkers an increased degree of coordination early on, enabling them to act with greater swiftness. For instance, horizon walkers who had traveled the Shadowfell gained the ability to see in the dark, if they did not possess it already, and were generally more conscious of their environment.

In a similar manner, horizon walkers became extremely hardy as a result of their travels along the transitive Astral Sea, recovering from wounds more quickly and becoming overall more difficult for their enemies to finish off. Some horizon walkers also gained a particular resilience against the material that made up a plane, making them more likely to survive hazards composed of this material.

Therefore, it often wasn't very long before horizon walkers eschewed the exploits used by their predecessors and instead chose to use spells charged with arcane power drawn from the planes. Most of these spells had a distinctively planar flavor, such as fey strider, which allowed a horizon walker to teleport from one location to another. Likewise, elemental chaos smite allowed a horizon walker to charge his or her weapon with elemental energy of any kind.

Horizon Walker Spells
Rangers that chose this path were granted, in addition to those abilities, access to a number of spells, including protection from evil and good, misty step, haste, banishment, and teleportation circle.