New Class: Guardian Spirit

In terms of theming, you can be a westernized guardian angel watching over a luckless adoptee, an ancestral spirit watching over a scion of a dwindling house, or a nature spirit watching over a child who was abandoned in the woods.

Wards are usually orphans, children with evil stepparents, or survivors of great tragedies.  They are usually brave and virtuous except for a single flaw (see below).

You're a spirit.  You cannot interact with the world except through your ward.  If your ward goes to see a psychic or takes some weird drugs from a shaman, they (and the rest of the party) might be able to see you directly, even talking to you, but until that point you're basically a dissociated game mechanic.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't put some thought into how your character looks.  Will you wear the traditional white toga, for example?

Your ward is a level 1 commoner.  Commoners are like thieves minus all the special abilities.

Although you don't directly control your ward's actions (they are technically an NPC played by the DM), you still have the last say on what they want to do.  For example, if your ward (a fearless street urchin) is about to jump out his hiding spot and challenge the ogre without waiting for the rest of the party, the player (the guardian angel) can plant the seed of prudence in your ward's mind, causing them to hang back, against their own instincts.

You also roll all the dice for your ward.  Once a day, you can even put words directly into your ward's mouth (for a dramatic speech or whatever).

Every ward has a flaw (chosen by the player).  It can be greed, fear, pride, avarice, low self-esteem, or an inability to form lasting friendships.  This is their great failing.  This is what keeps them from becoming a truly great person, and this is why you became their guardian angel in the first place.

Without you, their flaw will drag them down to frustration and mediocrity, but if you rid them of their flaw, they can become truly great.

Your ward's flaw is the one thing that they cannot overcome, and its the one thing that your Narrative Control doesn't apply towards.  You also can't use any Miracles (see below) to help them bypass their flaw.  If your ward's flaw is greed, you cannot keep them from trying to pocket money from the church box.

They will fail, and you will be sad, but this is part of the journey.

You must lead your ward to rid themselves of their flaw by level 3.  If you cannot, your ward is a lost cause, and you depart, having failed in your task.  If you succeed, your ward is finally ready to become a Hero of Good in the world.  (Or Evil.  There's no reason a guiding ancestral spirit can't be evil, ready to shape them into a beautiful despot.)

Exactly what constitutes "overcoming your flaw" is ultimately between you and your DM, but the only condition is that a flaw must be overcome with a virtue.

A greedy ward, eager for wealth after a life of hardship, steals everything that isn't nailed down.  But after liberating some slaves, he sees their abject hardship and is moved by charity.  He decides to give them every penny that he owns so they can buy a farm, and is doing so, lets go of his flaw.

A cowardly ward fought alongside her friends for the entire dungeon, but upon encountering the dragon in room 22, was so overcome by fear that she fled back the way she came.  While her companions entered combat, she crouched behind the doorway, crying in terror and shame at her cowardice.  Finally, after hearing her companion's screams, she is moved by fellowship and rushes back into the fray, her tear-streaked face shouting a battlecry, and in doing so, lets go of her flaw.

You have a number of guardian points equal to 1 + half your ward's level, rounded up.

To everyone watching, these look like happy coincidences.  They're analogous to spells, in the way that it costs 1 guardian point to invoke one.  However, you don't have a stable miracle list (not all miracles are accessible all the time).

At the start of each day, the number of accessible miracles is equal to 1 + half your ward's level, rounded down.  The first of these miracles is good fortune, and the other ones are determined randomly every day.  (Each morning, roll one or more d10s.)

This is only usable when the ward's death is both immediate or inevitable.  (Being trapped in a room with a crush-trap ceiling qualifies.  Being cursed to die in 3 days is not immediate.  And solo-fighting a dragon is not inevitable because the dragon might miss all its attacks).  It basically functions as a get-out-of-jail-free card that only works at the last minute (the turn before death).  This miracle is unreliable: the chance of it working is only X-in-20, where X is the ward's level (max 15).

Creature must save or drop held item.

Creature must save or forget something recent or minor (within reason).  Guards might forget to replace the ward's shackles before putting your ward back in their cell, or goblins might forget to blow the alarm horn at their belt.

After your ward's attack hits, you can choose to turn it into a critical hit.  Alternatively, the hit does normal damage but includes some beneficial side effect.

A tool or mechanism breaks or jams.  Can be used to foil traps as they occur, e.g. trap door jams after opening halfway, preventing your ward from falling.

People often take an inexplicable shine to your ward.  As the charm spell, except you can only use it on strangers that your ward is meeting for the first time, and in a non-combat situation.  This is nonmagical and pseudo-permanent.