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View Full Version : You'll pay for this, Captian Planet! (The Despoiler..[WIP])



Maho-Tsukai
2010-12-02, 01:09 PM
The Despoiler

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa294/AkatsukiEmperor/despoilerpic.jpg


To most people the world is a paradise, a place of unspoiled beauty where mother nature’s paintbrush creates a land like no other. Many feel the call of nature and the few who decided to follow her voice become her most loyal servants, the druids. However, where there is light there is also darkness, and while some follow the “call of the wild” there are others who are lead astray by the dirge of corruption, filth and evil. Just as a druid seeks out nature, these individuals seek out the corrupt forces of filth, pollution and the blight known as “the taint” for whatever foul intent they may have. Some of these individuals seek to use corruption as a means to gain power and enforce a tyrannical order over a blighted world while others do it out of sheer self-interest. Some even look to these blighting forces as a way to gain sadistic pleasure as they use them to pervert and destroy the world around them.

Whatever reasons these individuals may have for seeking out the corrupt forces of the world they in the end all share the same fate. By taking on and embracing taint and corruption these people become avatar and agents of pollution, taint and filth, spreading these things like rats spread the plague. They are the mortal enemy of the druids. They are dark spellcasters who’s magic is drawn from the most foul force on the planet. They revel in filth, corruption and sin. To the world they are known and feared as the Despoilers, the harbingers of evil’s corrupt power.

Abilities: A despoiler is an arcane spellcaster who much like a sorcerer uses an inner power(in this case his taint)to cast arcane spells. However, unlike a sorcerer a Despoiler’s spellcasting requires far more work, thus making them a prepared spellcaster as appose to a spontaneous one. Despite this, a despoiler still uses charisma to dictate what spells he can use, how powerful his spells are and in addition has many social skills as class skills such as Bluff and Diplomacy, making charisma even more important. Thus, out of every stat, Charisma is of the greatest value for a Despoiler. In addition to a high charisma a Despoiler will want to invest in constitution for more hit points and intelligence for more skill points. While despoilers do obtain light armor they still can benefit from the extra AC a good dexterity score grants as well.

Role: The despoiler, despite being an arcane spellcaster functions somewhat differently from your standard wizard. While he has some spells that control the battlefield, his spell list is more focused on spells that warp, corrupt and taint, as well as reverse these things. However, unlike other limited list spellcasters a despoiler’s spell list is much more robust and features enough options for the Despoiler a bit more flexible then a say a dread necromancer or beguiler. In addition to this a despoiler has the power to employ the taint as a means to debuff enemies and thus combining his taint inflicting powers with debuff spells he can become a dangerous debuffer. Thus the while not as flexible and not possessing nearly as many battlefield control options as a wizard, he can still be a powerful arcane caster who in certain situations can act as “the party wizard” while at the same time being a debuffer and offensive powerhouse due to the fact his spell list has quite a few offensive spells.

However, the Despoiler can fill other roll beyond the debuffer, offensive caster and wizard stand-in. With the ability to rebuke tainted creatures(and thus undead), and a healthy amount of necromancy spells on his list the Despoiler can make an excellent necromancer. While he dose have many powers with a range of touch and gains damage reduction, somebody playing a despoiler should not fool themselves into thinking they can make an effective front line melee class. While they at times do go into melee, a despoiler is not made to survive in the front line like a Crusader or Warblade. However, despite this, his debuffing powers can give him some survivability close up as a monster with a strength score of 1 is going to be hard pressed to hit a despoiler even with his sub-par AC. While out of combat a Despoiler, with his high charisma and the three key social skills(Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate) as class skills can fill the roll of party face as good as any other character class that would usually take this roll.

Organization: Unlike Druids who often work in teams or commune in glades the Despoiler often is more or less his own villain. There is no formal organization for which all despoilers work and many of them see themselves as their only masters, traveling the world only to corrupt and pollute it at their whim. However, there are many despoilers who have a more lawful bent who use their natural charisma and dark magic to their advantage, establishing their own blighted kingdoms populated by animated undead as well as other goons and minions that they have employed to do their dirty work. Such Despoilers often act as enemies to adventuring parties, especially those which feature members who's races or classes tie them to nature.

Alignment: While Despoilers can be of any side of the law-chaos axis, every despoiler is irredeemably evil. Despoilers employ their own wickedness and the corrupt power of the taint as tools to achieve their own ends, something that good characters find absolutely heinous and downright abhorrent. While neutral characters may not have as harsh a view of the Despoilers that good characters do they still tend to shy away from ever taking up the class, seeing it as a path too rooted in evil even for their tastes.

As far as the law/chaos axis is concerned despoilers can bend to either side. Chaotic evil despoilers are depraved maniacs who take pleasure in corrupting, perverting and destroying the natural world which in turn perverts and destroys the life that exist within it. Meanwhile, a lawful despoiler usually sees his corrupt magic and powers as a means to forward his own agenda and place a corrupt order on the world. Some lawful despoilers however, see the very act of corrupting nature as a means of creating order. To them nature is a chaotic, unpredictable force which can be made orderly through being blighted, and corrupted, which allows them to control the “chaotic” force of nature through their power.

Races: Out of all the races of the world, humans create the vast bulk of despoilers. Humans are a highly ambitions race with a natural affinity for controlling and altering nature and are often times prone to self-interest. Thus, out of all the civilized races humans possess all the qualities which are characteristic to Despoilers and naturally produce them in higher numbers then other races. The other humanoid races such a Gnomes, Halflings and Dwarves have the potential to produce despoilers and some members of these races do fall to temptation of the taint. However, unlike humans these races don’t possess nearly as many qualities which lend themselves to the mindset of a Despoiler and as a result do not produce nearly as many Despoilers as humanity dose.

Elves however, utterly abhor Despoilers and see them as irredeemably evil and wicked, which may not be that far from the truth. Elvish society with it’s closeness to nature and love of beauty proves to be a climate that is hostile and unforgiving to Despoilers. Those who walk the path of the despoiler are unwelcome in elvish lands and rarely will you find an elf who has a favorable opinion on Despoilers and the taint. However, while an elf becoming a despoiler is indeed a rare thing, once and a while there is an exception to this rule. The few elvish Despoilers that exist are almost always social outcasts who have a hatred for their own culture and civilization and thus take on the taint as a way to slight their kinsman and bring down their wrath on the society they despise.


Religion: Despoilers usually are not religious people in the traditional sense. Much of their magic is unholy and many times deals with necromancy, negative energy and other things most organized religions find abhorrent. While some Despoilers may chose to serve gods of pestilence, blight, corruption and evil, most claim to work for and venerate
only one being, themselves. Power-hungry and self-interested, the vast bulk of despoilers find the idea of spreading evil for another being as lowering themselves to the level of a servant, a rank which most Despoilers wish to never hold.

Despite this, there are despoilers who count themselves among the followers of evil gods and at least claim they are working in the interest of their dark patron. However, most Despoilers who belong to a certain church are far from being a practicing, pious member of their faiths, though they may pretend to be. Usually a Despoiler is a member of an established church or cult purely out of self-interest, using the influence of that church or cult to further his own dark agenda. While it is rare there are Despoilers who honestly do serve a god. Most of these despoilers come from monstrous races where there is more or less one primary god in their society that they are raised to venerate from youth. Kobalds and Orcs are examples of such creatures and Despoilers of those races and others from similar societies are most likely the ones to be a true servant of a god or goddess.

Other Classes: Despoilers, being truly evil at heart get along best with other depraved individuals, especially those who, like them, have the power to cast spells. Evil wizards and sorcerers, dread necromancers, evil clerics, warlocks, and blighters are the classes with which the Despoiler most identifies and counts among his closest allies. While a Despoiler certainly sees eye to eye with assassins, blackguards and paladins of tyranny and/or slaughter on issues of morality he finds it somewhat more difficult to identify with them due to their lack of deep magical knowledge and greater focus on martial pursuits. Evil rogues, fighters, and other mundane characters while useful allies are not seen as equals in the eyes of a Despoiler. Rather, he views the mundane as tools to achieve his own wicked ends and usually looks down on them as being inferior to those with magical abilities.

Despoilers however have as many, if not more enemies then they do allies. Their most zealous opponents are by far Paladins and Druids. Paladins as avatars of goodness and order find Despoilers, especially chaotic ones, to be evil beyond redemption and a cancer which must be expunged from the world. To the noble Paladins the Despoiler and their foul, taint based magic is the most evil form of spellcasting that is even more wicked the necromancy. While their certainly see necromancy as a blight it still draws it’s power from arcane teachings or the divine power of the gods. A Despoiler’s magic however, is drawn from an inherently evil force and uses that evil power to twist, befoul and corrupt the world. Thus to the Paladin a Despoilers are automatically associated with pure, irredeemable evil and counted among his greatest enemies.

While the Paladins despise despoilers for their evil ways and dark magics, it is the Druids who are the true archenemies of the Despoilers. To a druid, they are the exact opposite of everything they stand for. A druid is an avatar and servant of nature while the Despoilers befoul, taint, manipulate and control nature for their own selfish ends. The druid preaches neutrality while Despoilers preach the utter dominance of evil alignments above all others. In the eyes of the Druids the Despoilers as monsters who’s goal is to rape mother nature and corrupt her to the point where she is a dead, lifeless corpse sitting in a tomb of filth which undead and their Despoiler masters dance atop with depraved joy. Thus, Druids are the ones who most actively oppose Despoilers. Even evil druids, a class that would seemingly be an ally to Despoilers count them among their enemies as despite the fact they share the same view on good vs. evil, an evil druid still serves nature and thus as a vanguard of the natural world they often find themselves pitted against Despoilers despite their shared views on the issue of morality.

Adaptation: The Despoiler is a class with a general enough fluff to fit into any campaign world. Every world has at least some natural elements to corrupt and pervert and every world has the forces of good and evil, at least to some degree. Thus while the Despoiler may be an “anti-druid” in the eyes of some he can easily fit into any world where good vs. evil is a main theme as being more or less what the Paladin is to the lawful good alignment to the evil alignments. In addition to this, the Despoiler can also make a great “necromancer” for a world in which necromancy is meant to be fluffed as purely evil, tainting and wicked.

However, the one major roadblock to this class being used in a campaign is not it’s fluff but it’s use of the taint mechanic. While the taint is an official variant rule created by Wizards, it is just that, a variant. Many DMs chose not to run campaigns which include the taint and in those cases the Despoiler becomes a harder class to work into a world. Trying to include a Despoiler in a game without taint, while difficult, is not 100% impossible. However, to do that the class would more or less need to be gutted and rebuilt into something that would function quite differently, perhaps focusing on desecrating areas rather then tainting them.

[Fluff is still a WIP]

Class Features

Alignment: Any evil

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: As Dread Necromancer

Class Skills: The Despoiler's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Concentration(Con), Spellcraft(Int), Knowledge(Arcana)(Int), Knowledge(Religion)(Int), Knowledge(The Planes)(Int), Knowledge(History)(Int), Bluff(Cha), Diplomacy(Cha), Intimidate(Cha), Profession(Wis)

Skill Points at First Level: (2+ Int Modifier) x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2+Int modifier

Proficiencies: Despoilers are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff, sickle, scythe and all light armor. A Despoiler suffers no arcane spell failure for casting in light armor but still incurs spell failure while in medium or heavy armor as normal.

The Despoiler
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th| 9th

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Taint Suppression, Natural Taint, Hand of Corruption|3|1

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Tainted Vigor(DR/2)|4|2|-

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3||4|2|1|-

4th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Taint Manipulation|5|3|2|-|-

5th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4||5|3|2|1|-|-

6th|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|Blight the Landscape(2/day)|5|3|3|2|-|-|-

7th|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+5|Tainted Vigor(DR/4)|6|4|3|2|1|-|-|-

8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+2|
+6|Command the Corrupted|6|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-|-

9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+3|
+6||6|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-

10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+3|
+7|Blight the Landscape(3/day)|6|4|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-

11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+3|
+7|Tainted Vigor(DR/6)|6|5|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-

12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+4|
+8|Blight the Landscape(4/day)|6|5|4|4|3|3|2|-|-|-

13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+4|
+8||6|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|-|-

14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+4|
+9|Blight the Landscape(5/day)|6|5|5|4|4|3|3|2|-|-

15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+5|
+9|Tainted Vigor(DR/8)|6|5|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|-

16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+10|Despoiler's Wrath(1/day)|6|5|5|5|4|4|3|3|2|-

17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+10||6|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|2|1

18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+6|
+11|Despoiler's Wrath(2/day)|6|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|3|2

19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11||6|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|3|3

20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+12|Tainted Transformation, Tainted Vigor(DR/15), Despoiler's Wrath(3/day)|6|5|5|5|5|5|4|4|4|4[/table]

Spellcasting: Despoilers, despite being seen by many as “anti-druids,” are in reality closer to a wizard or sorcerer. Despoilers are thus arcane spellcasters who learn to channel the corruptive powers of the taint to achieve their own wicked ends. To cast a spell, a despoiler must have a charisma score of 10+ the spell’s level, and the DCs for his spells is 10 + the spell’s level + his Cha modifier. In addition, Despoilers suffer no arcane spell failure while wearing light armor but do suffer arcane spell failure while in medium and heavy armor as normal. The Despoiler, despite being a powerful villain has a somewhat limited spell list that is focused on spells which pervert, twist and corrupt nature, the dead, the minds and bodies of living, and at higher levels even reality itself, as well as a select few spells which can reverse the effect of his taint centric powers. Unlike a wizard or sorcerer, a Despoiler dose not need to learn spells. Rather, a Despoiler, like a cleric, knows all spells on his list of the spell levels he can cast and when he gains the ability to cast a new spell level he automatically learns all spells on his spell list of that new spell level. A Despoiler also prepares his spells differently then a wizard. In the preparation of spells a Despoiler is more like a druid. Rather then use a spellbook a despoiler must spend time in meditation during which he communes with his own inner taint and draws from it the spells he will prepare for that day. This takes the same amount of time as a cleric’s prayer and meditation would and is treated in the same manner except that no material objects such as holy symbols or incense are needed. A Despoiler gains bonus spell slots for a high charisma in the same manner as a wizard dose for a high intelligence.

Despoilers, while they are arcane casters, have spells which function somewhat different from standard arcane spells. Seeing as they draw their spells from their own wickedness and the power of the taint, their spells bypass the needs for most material components but also further corrupt the user. Whenever a Despoiler casts a spell, he must make a Fort save of 10 + the spells level or gain 1 point of taint. If the despoiler chooses, he may willingly let his spell corrupt him and thus skip the save all together and automatically take 1 point of taint. In addition, every spell he casts is cast as if it has the benefits of being prepared with the eschew materials metamagic feat but remains at it’s same spell level. Also, any spell which would require the use of a holy symbol dose not requires one for a Despoiler. Instead, he uses his weapon or even his own hands in place of the holy symbol such a spell would usually require. Due to the corrupt nature of their spells, a despoiler can cast necrotic cyst spells as if he possessed the Mother Cyst feat without actually having taken it and also can cast corrupt spells without taking any charisma damage that a caster would normally incur from casting them.(Though dammage to other ability scores such as constitution still apply.) Despite the unique nature of his spells, a Despoiler still counts as an arcane caster and any prestige class which advances arcane spellcasting thus advances the despoiler’s casting. Despite the difference in function a Despoiler's spells are actual arcane spells and thus are effected by metamagic as any other spell and allow a Despoiler to qualify for prestege classes and feats(including epic feats) that require the character to be able to cast arcane spells.(Including PrCs and feats/epic feats which require a certain level of arcane spells to be castable such as Mystic Theurge or Epic spellcasting and PrCs that require a certain spell or spells to be known such as the Pale Master.)

Taint Suppression: While the Despoiler is likely to build up a large taint score during his lifetime he is insidious and crafty. The Despoiler can suppress his taint and make himself look no different from any other member of his race despite his corruption. Instead of manifesting physically the Despoiler’s taint manifests in mental effects such as insanity, rage, nightmares ect.. The inside of a Despoiler’s body, however, is clearly corrupted and is filled with tumors, internal limbs, black,-oil like sludge and other such signs of corruption. Due to the suppression of their taint Despoilers no longer add their taint score as a penalty to their constitution and only add half of their taint score as a penalty to their wisdom score. If your taint score would lower your wisdom to 0 or lower it lowers it to 1 instead.

Natural Taint: Despoilers all draw their power from the taint. Those who become despoilers thus seek our tainted areas and objects to fill themselves with the taint so they may draw from it the dark powers unique to their class. Du to this, every Despoiler has a natural taint score of 4 + his caster level. Every time a despoiler rests he re-gains this natural taint score but dose not gain back any more taint lost beyond his base taint score of 4 + his caster level. A Despoiler who’s taint score drops to 0 loses the ability to cast spells and all supernatural or special abilities of his class.

To regain these things a Despoiler must seek out a tainted location which was not tainted due to their own abilities. Once they have found such a place, the Despoiler must perform a 2 hour ritual in which they absorb the taint of the area into themselves, once again gaining it’s dark gifts. While performing this ritual a Despoiler ignores all effects of being in a tainted area.. After the ritual is complete the Despoiler regains everything he had lost due to his taint being reduced to 0.

Hand of Corruption: The Despoiler in addition to learning his tainted magics can corrupt living creatures, filling them with an unholy taint. As a standard action a Despoiler can make a melee touch attack against an enemy. This attack acts as a spell with a range of touch but is not effected by spell resistance and is not considered a spell for the effects of any feats, spells, special abilities ect.. If the attack is successful it’s target gains 1d3 taint points and the Despoiler loses the same amount of taint the target gained. In addition, a Despoiler can chose to expend prepared spell(s) while using this attack. If he dose he adds the spell’s level, or in the case the sum of levels of the spells expended, to the number of taint points the target would acquire and thus the amount of taint he loses for using this ability.. This ability cannot be used to give a creature an amount of taint that would lead to any of it’s ability score becoming 0 or less.

In addition to being used on living creatures, this power can be used on non-sentient plants and inanimate objects, both natural(such as stones, crystals ect..) or unnatural. If used in this manner this ability is used as a free action instead of a standard action. Using this power in that manner requires no melee touch attack to taint. If an inanimate object is being worn or held by a creature this power is treated as if it was being used to taint that creature rather then the target object.(So it would still be a standard action, still require a touch attack ect..) Constructs, despite being mechanical in nature are treated in the same manner as a living creature for the use of this power. Undead, being naturally tainted, are unaffected by this power. Creatures who willingly desire to be tainted can be granted taint by this ability. Willing creatures make no will save and automatically gain 1d3 taint points, and prepared spells can be expended to increase this number in the exact same way they can be expended to add to the taint points an unwilling creature would gain. In addition, tainting a willing subject with this power is a free action rather then a standard action.

Tainted Vigor: Starting at 2nd level, the Despoiler’s own taint gives them added protection against enemy attacks. The Despoiler chooses 2 of the following damage types: bludgeoning, slashing, piercing, magic. He gains DR 2 against those two damage types. This DR increases to 4 at 7th level, 6 at 11th level, 8 at 15th level and 15 at level 20.

Taint Manipulation: A Despoiler’s power grows he learns how to manipulate the taint in ways beyond any other. At level 4 and every level after, when the Despoiler has successfully tainted a living creature with one of his class features he can chose either mental or physical. If he chooses mental he can chose to apply the subject’s taint score as a penalty to the mental stat(Intelligence, Charisma, Wisdom) of his choice instead of wisdom. If he chooses physical he can chose to apply the subject’s taint score as a penalty to the physical stat(Strength, Dexterity, Constitution)of his choice rather then constitution. The despoiler can only chose to use this ability on either a mental or physical score penalty but not both. Thus if a Despoiler chose to make a creature’s taint score apply to his charisma instead of his wisdom, he could not make his taint score apply to his strength instead of his constitution in addition to that. Also, the Despoiler is allowed only chose to switch an ability score once per creature. So he could not chose to have a creature take a penalty to int instead of wis one round and then str instead of con another round

Blight the Landscape: A Despoiler’s primary aim is to corrupt and blight the world and the life dwelling within it. Thus as he advances in power he learns how to corrupt and despoil the landscape at whim. At level 6 the Despoiler gains the ability to fill an area with unholy corruption . The Despoiler points his finger or weapon at the desired location and creates a 20ft radius spread of corruption: that area is considered tainted. Any creatures in the area, including allies, immediately gain 1D3 points of taint. Those creatures must make fortitude saves to resist incurring more taint while in that area as normal. The area tainted with this ability remains tainted indefinitely. A Despoiler can also expand the radius of this spread by channeling a portion of their own inner taint into this power. He can chose to alter the area to cover a spread equal to 10ft for every 2 points of taint the Despoiler chooses to lose when using this ability. However, there is a limit to how much a despoiler can increase this spread’s area. This ability cannot be used to cover an area larger then 10ft/2 caster levels. A Despoiler can use this ability 2/day at level 6. This increases to 3/day at level 10, 4/day at level 12, and 5/day at level 14.


Command the Corrupted: A Despoiler knows full well that working through others can be far more effective then simply doing everything on their own. Thus they learn to channel the corruptive power of the taint to dominate those who themselves are corrupted. At level 8 a Despoiler gains to rebuke any creature with a taint score as an evil cleric 2 levels lower then his character level rebukes undead. All undead are effected by this power due to possessing a natural taint but it dose not target only undead. Any creature with a taint score is subject to this power. This ability is treated as being rebuke undead for the purpose of feats and prestige class entrance. The Despoiler can use this power a number of times per-day equal to his unmodified Cha modifier.

Despoiler’s Wrath: At level 16, a Despoiler learns to utterly blight and poison the land. At level 16 and beyond he can use a spell-like ability that acts as the spell Befoul 1/day. At level 18 and beyond this power can instead be used to act as the Despoil spell instead of Befoul, but still can act as Befoul if the Despoiler wishes and can be used 2/day. At level 20 this ability can be used 3/day.

Tainted Transformation: At level 20 the Despoiler has become so corrupted that he can no longer hold his own taint at bay. He transforms into a vile monstrosity which has been utterly warped from it’s former self by it’s own taint. The Despoiler gains a spell-like ability that allows him to change from his normal form to his monstrous true form and back to his normal form at will as the spell shapechange. The Despoiler chooses one creature which he could change into if he had cast a shapechange spell. In his monstrous form he gains the physical ability scores of that creature as well as it’s BAB and HP. Special attacks and all other features it has such as spellcasting, size ect.. are not gained. While in this form the Despoiler retains his ability to cast despoiler spells and use Despoiler Class features such as Blight the Landscape and Hand of Corruption and keeps his own mental ability scores. This form, while it possesses some stats of a monster dose not resemble it. Rather, it appears as a manifestation of the Despoiler’s own corrupt, wicked nature and thus you can chose the appearance this form takes. to the amount of time a wizard of the same character level as him would be able to stay in an alternate form he obtained using the shapechange spell. This power can only be used twice per day, once to change into the monsterous form and once to change back to normal.

Despoiler Spell List:


Level 0 Spells: Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Touch of Fatigue, Ghost Sound, Message, Ray of Frost, Acid Splash, Inflict Minor Wounds, Disrupt Undead, No Light, Slash Tongue.

Level 1 Spells: Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Command, Curse Water, Deathwatch, Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Detect Undead, Doom, Inflict Light Wounds, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Summon Monster I, Angry Ache, Heartache, Slow Consumption, Sorrow, Stupor, Suspend Disease, Tongue of Baalzebul, Seething Eyebane, Necrotic Awareness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Summon Undead I.

Level 2 Spells: Align Weapon, Command Undead, Calm Emotions, Darkness, Death Knell, Delay Poison, Desecrate, Enthrall, Hold Person, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Shatter, Silence, Summon Monster II, Undetectable Alignment, Addiction, Sap Strength, Spores of the Vrock, Wave of Grief, Wither Limb, Devil's Tongue, Fangs of the Vampire King, Lahm's Finger Darts, Necrotic Cyst, Necrotic Scrying, Summon Undead II, Ghoul Touch, Specteral Hand

Level 3 Spells: Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion, Deeper Darkness, Dispel Magic, Glyph of Warding, Inflict Serious Wounds, Invisibility Purge, Magic Circle Against Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Obscure Object, Speak With the Dead, Summon Monster III, Circle of Nausea, Clutch of Orcus, Devil's Eye, Shriveling, Vile Lance, Wrack, Absorb Mind, Love's Pain, Red Fester, Rotting Curse of Urfestra, Serpents of Theggeron, Touch of Juiblex, Necrotic Bloat, Protection from Negative Energy, Protection from Positive Energy, Sheltered Vitality, Summon Undead III, Vampiric Touch

Level 4 Spells: Charm Monster, Death Ward, Dimensional Anchor, Dismissal, Imbue with Spell Ability, Inflict Critical Wounds, Scrying, Poison, Repel Vermin, Restoration, Sending, Spell Immunity, Summon Monster IV, Damning Darkness, Hell's Power, Indentify Transgressor, Psychic Poison, Stop Heart, Absorb Strength, Consumptive Field, Necrotic Domination, Summon Undead IV, Enervation, Fear, Lesser Geas

Level 5 Spells: Break Enchantment, Greater Command, Dispel Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Insect Plague, Nightmare, Plane Shift, Slay Living, Summon Monster V, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep, Unhallow, Charnel Fire, False Sending, Heartclutch, Morality Undone, Resonating Resistance, Forbidden Speech, Power Leech, Claws of the Bebilith, Haunt Shift, Incorporeal Nova, Necrotic Burst, Summon Undead V, Dominate Person, Magic Jar, Lesser Planar Binding

Level 6 Spells: Animate Objects, Antimagic Field, Antilife Shell, Banishment, Blade Barrier, Create Undead, Greater Dispel Magic, Forbiddance, Geas/Quest, Greater Glyph of Warding, Harm, Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds, Summon Monster VI, Symbol of Fear, Symbol of Persuasion, Word of Recall, Cloud of the Achaierai, Fiendish Quickening, Snare Astral Traveler, Thousand Needles, Consume Likeness, Ghost Trap, Necrotic Eruption, Planar Binding, Circle of Death

Level 7 Spells: Avasculate, Awaken Undead, Blasphemy, Control Weather, Control Undead, Ethereal Jaunt, Finger of Death, Limited Wish, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Regenerate, Repulsion, Greater Restoration, Greater Scrying, Summon Monster VII, Symbol of Stunning, Symbol of Weakness, Bestow Greater Curse, Fiendish Clarity, Imprison Soul, Wretched Blight, Death by Thorns, Rapture of Rupture, Greater Consumptive Field, Energy Ebb, Necrotic Tumor

Level 8 Spells: Avascular Mass, Create Greater Undead, Create Undead Warriors, Dimensional Lock, Discern Location, Greater Planar Binding, General of Undeath, Destruction, Mass Inflict Critical Wounds, Mind Blank, Greater Spell Immunity, Summon Monster VIII, Symbol of Insanity, Unholy Aura, Befoul, Bodak Birth, Pestilence, Evil Weather, Plague of Nightmares, Mass Death Ward, Necrotic Empowerment, Mass Restoration, Veil of Undeath

Level 9 Spells: Astral Projection, Energy Drain, Etherealness, Gate, Mass Harm, Mind Rape, Soul Bind, Summon Monster IX, Despoil, Spread of Savagery, Wish, Were-Doom, Apocalypse from the Sky, Storm of Vengeance, Implosion, Mage's Disjunction, Necrotic Termination, Plague of Undead, Wail of the Banshee


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Notes: I know, I know. I suck at homebrew crunch wise. I have stated many times before on this forum that I do, however, I have lots of ideas and thus I decided to post this up. It is a MAJOR WIP and I KNOW that it is completely broken....however, I am looking for ways to neuter it so it's not so broken. Thus, I would like constructive criticism that is not overly brutal and blunt. I want to get better at homebrew so I want your help. This is my first ever base class attempt so I would like to know how I can make this more balanced. Oh, and also, I am aware of the potential cheese between this class and the Tainted Scholar PrC, but the Tainted Scholar is cheesy already so I have created this class with the fact a sensible DM would ban tainted scholar cheese with it in mind.

Also, I am not a grammarian. I know this post is riddled with bad grammar. I don't need people telling me what to fix grammatically. I am not worried about making this read like a Wizard's book. I am concerned only with the mechanics and the fluff, not how nice I make them sound. Grammar can be changed later, right now crunch is what is most important to this.

So, any help/ideas for this class?

GnomeWorks
2010-12-02, 01:13 PM
Immediate personal thought - please don't mix mechanics with fluff. A single sentence at the beginning of an ability's description is fine, but the way the abilities are written now, it's rather difficult to tease out the mechanics.

If you prefer the way it is, that's cool, your stuff. But that makes reviewing it ten times harder.

Maho-Tsukai
2010-12-02, 01:17 PM
I understand what your saying...like I said, this is a WIP and I am not a grammarian....If it where a finished product I would most likely have somebody else proofread it and fix all the grammar mistakes since I know I have poor grammar at times. However, I am worried more about crunch then syntax with this at the moment so the grammar flaws will be fixed once I have the crunch worked out and I re-post this for a final evaluation. Right now this is just a rough draft and that's all.

gkathellar
2010-12-02, 01:19 PM
Thread title makes me laugh.

What tier/balance point do you intend for this?

GnomeWorks
2010-12-02, 01:23 PM
I understand what your saying...like I said, this is a WIP and I am not a grammarian....If it where a finished product I would most likely have somebody else proofread it and fix all the grammar mistakes since I know I have poor grammar at times. However, I am worried more about crunch then syntax with this at the moment so the grammar flaws will be fixed once I have the crunch worked out and I re-post this for a final evaluation. Right now this is just a rough draft and that's all.

Poor grammar and spelling, while irritating, can be overlooked.

What I'm saying is that you've got your crunch all mixed in with your fluff, and your fluff all mixed in with your crunch.


Spellcasting: Despoilers, despite being seen by many as “anti-druids,” are in reality closer to a wizard or sorcerer. Despoilers are thus arcane spellcasters who learn to channel the corruptive powers of the taint to achieve their own wicked ends. To cast a spell, a despoiler must have a charisma score of 10+ the spell’s level, and the DCs for his spells is 10 + the spell’s level + his Cha modifier. In addition, Despoilers suffer no arcane spell failure while wearing light armor but do suffer arcane spell failure while in medium and heavy armor as normal. The Despoiler, despite being a powerful villain has a somewhat limited spell list that is focused on spells which pervert, twist and corrupt nature, the dead, the minds and bodies of living, and at higher levels even reality itself, as well as a select few spells which can reverse the effect of his taint centric powers. Unlike a wizard or sorcerer, a Despoiler dose not need to learn spells. Rather, a Despoiler, like a cleric, knows all spells on his list of the spell levels he can cast and when he gains the ability to cast a new spell level he automatically learns all spells on his spell list. A Despoiler also prepares his spells differently then a wizard. In the preparation of spells a Despoiler is more like a druid. Rather then use a spellbook a despoiler must spend time in meditation during which he communes with his own inner taint and draws from it the spells he will prepare for that day. This takes the same amount of time as a cleric’s prayer and meditation would and is treated in the same manner except that no materal objects such as holy symbols or incense are needed. A Despoiler gains bonus spell slots for a high charisma in the same manner as a wizard dose for a high intelligence.

The parts that I've bolded are things that are mechanically relevant. The rest is flavor. That's what I'm talking about.

The flavor is interesting. But it's getting in the way of a clear reading of the mechanics.

Maho-Tsukai
2010-12-02, 01:24 PM
Teir dose not matter though nothing below tier 3. Ideally this would be a Tier 1-tier 2 so it can play with tier 1-tier 2 classes and not look underpowered. I want this to be able to compete with Tier 1-2s but still be something that a DM would except into a game with other Tier 1-Tier 3 classes present. Also, humor was the point of the title, so I am glad you got the joke.(XD)

Also, thanks for pointing that out. In the final draft of the class that will be changed. As I stated I am better with fluff then crunch when it comes to these things so I tend to get carried away with the fluffy parts.....even more so with worlds/settings then classes...