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Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 07:42 PM
Soulslave Sovereign
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad100/my-name-is-mary-rebekah/Angels%20Demon%20and%20Magical%20Beings/Demons/anime_girl_dark_warrior-350x350.jpg

-fluff goes here when mechanics are finished-

Requirements

Alignment: Any Evil
Feats: Spell Focus (Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus(Necromancy), Skill Focus: Knowledge(Religion)
Skills: Knowledge(Arcana): 15 Ranks, Knowledge(Religion): 15 Ranks, Knowledge(The Planes): 15 Ranks, Spellcraft: 15 Ranks
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast Animate Dead and Magic Jar as arcane spells.
Special: Must possess the ability to Rebuke Undead.

Class Features

Hit Die: d4
Skills per-level: 2+ Int Modifier
Class Skills: Bluff(Cha), Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Decipher Script(Int), Intimidate(Cha), Knowledge(All Skills taken Individually)(Int), Profession(Wis), Spellcraft(Int)

Soulslave Sovereign
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Impure Resurrection, Rebuke Undead, Allure of the Grave|---

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|A Slave for a Legion|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Like pieces in a game of chess|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Awaken the Undead Soul|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|A Soul for a Soul|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class[/table]

Spellcasting: At every level except first, the Soulslave Sovereign gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of Soulslave Sovereign to the level of some other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly. If the Sovereign had more then one arcane spellcasting class before entering this class she must choose which arcane spellcasting class to level up.

Impure Resurrection: The signature power of the Soulslave Sovereign is the ability to preform the dread ritual to create soulslaves by ripping the souls of the fallen from the afterlife. This ritual acts as the spell True Resurrection, except as follows: The person you choose to resurrect is resurrected even if they are not willing, and they cannot resist being resurrected in any way. The person resurrected by this power is resurrected with the soulslave template. The Soulslave Sovereign can give up their charisma modifier worth of Rebuke Undead uses during this ritual to make the soulslaves they create bound to them and forced to follow their commands.

This ritual lacks the material component of the true resurrection spell. Instead, the user must sacrifice at least one living creature with at least 3 intelligence who's HD is equal to at least half of the HD of the soulslave to be animated when preforming this ritual. The user must also have at least some of the remains of the creature to be resurrected present while preforming the ritual. These remains are consumed in the ritual. To successfully create a soulslave the Sovereign must succeed on a caster level check against a DC of 10+ half the HD of the soulslave he is seeking to animate + the will save that the soul in question had during it's life.

The user can resurrect more then one soulslave with one use of this ritual, but he cannot resurrect more soulslaves then he is allowed to control and must sacrifice one additional creature for each soulslave beyond the first that he wishes to create. A soulslave sovereign can control at maximum 3x his caster level in soulslaves. No individual soulslave created by a Soulslave Sovereign can have HD that exceeds the Sovereign's caster level. This ritual takes 1 minute for each souslave you wish to create.

Rebuke Undead: Levels of soulslave sovereign stack with levels of other classes for the purpose of rebuking undead.(So a Dread Necromancer 14/Soulslave Sovereign 2 would rebuke as a 16th level cleric.) If you have levels in more then one class that grants rebuking, you must choose which class to advance at 1st level and that choice cannot be changed.

Allure of the Grave: The tantalizing power offered by the creation of soulslaves is so great that no man can resist it's allure. When you take your first level of soulslave sovereign, you can no longer take levels in any other class until you have taken all five levels of soulslave sovereign.

A Slave for a Legion: As the soulslave sovereign advances in power he learns how to sacrifice his soulslaves and use the energy of their souls to make his undead animation spells stronger. At 2nd level, the Soulslave Sovereign gains the ability to sacrifice a soulslave under his command while casting Animate Dead and add double that Soulslave's HD to the number of undead the soulslave sovereign can animate and control with that particular casting of Animate dead. The Soulslave Sovereign can only use this ability once per-day.

Like Pieces in a Game of Chess: As the Soulslave Sovrign grows in his craft he learns how to command his soulslaves from afar. At 3rd level and every level after the soulslave sovereign can give orders to soulslaves under his control telepathically from any distance and can see through the eyes of all of soulslaves he controls simultaneously.

Awaken the Undead Soul: The soulslave sovereign not only learns how to turn souls into soulslaves but also how to awaken the souls of the other undead he animates. At 4th level the soulslave sovereign gains the ability to sacrifice a soulslave under their control while casting the Animate Dead spell to treat all undead with HD equal to or less then the sacrificed soulslave's HD created with that spell as if they had Awaken Undead cast on them. All effects that a casting of awaken undead would have on them are applied to these undead. This ability can only be used once per-day.

A Soul for a Soul: At the peak of his power the Soulslave Sovereign learns how to do something no arcanist can ever hope to achieve: use the power of resurrection in it's purest form. However, due to not being connected to a deity, the Soulslave Sovereign must trade one soul for another. At 5th level, the soulslave sovereign gains the ability to use True Resurrection once per-day as a supernatural ability by sacrificing a soulslave he controls who's HD is equal to his caster level. In addition, at level 5 and every level after, when the soulslave sovereign dies he is immediately brought back to life as if he had the spell true resurrection cast on him and one soulslave he controls who's HD is equal to his caster level is destroyed. He is brought back to life in the area that the soulslave destroyed was occupying. If there is no soulslaves of the right HD to be destroyed then the sovereign remains dead and cannot be brought back to life except through a wish spell or an epic spell.

New Feats and Templates

Feats

Necromancer's Rebuke
Prerequisites: Arcane spellcaster, 1st level.
As an Arcane spellcaster focused in the arts of necromancy, you study the divine to gain greater power over the undead. You gain the ability to rebuke undead as a cleric of your arcane spellcasting class level a number of times per-day equal to 3+ your cha modifier. If you gain another arcane spellcasting class this ability remains keyed off the arcane spellcasting class you had when you took this feat. The arcane casting class you had when you took this feat is considered a class that grants rebuking for the purposes of determining whether or not a prestige class advances your rebuking ability. This feat can only be taken at 1st level.

Templates

Soulslave Template

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except alignment subtypes and subtypes that indicate kind. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Raise all to d12s.
Speed: As base creature
Armor Class: As base creature
Base Attack Bonus: As base creature
Attacks: As base creature
Damage: As base creature
Special Qualities:

Reborn Soul: A Soulslave retains all class levels it had in life and can use any and all abilities, including spellcasting, manifesting ect.. that it possessed in life. Instead of calculating HD the standard way, each individual class level, racial hit die and point of LA is considered a single HD for a soulslave. While a soulslave possesses any and all class levels it had in life it cannot gain experience or level up. Any spells or other abilities which would require a soulslave to pay or otherwise use XP instead uses the XP of the soulslave sovereign that created them.

True Reflection of the Soul: A soulslave is a special kind of undead that dose not bleed or drip with gore. Rather it appears as a pale, corpse-like version of their original selves that dose not bleed and behaves like it was made of a hard, crusty, dust-like material. A soulslave when created has all items, cloths/armor and weapons that it commonly carried with it in life.(Such as a wizard's spellbook or a fighter's magic sword.) These items, however, are not the original ones but rather copies, as a soulslave's is a reflection of a soul rather then an actual animated corpse and as a result it possesses the things most dear to it in life. If a soulslave is destroyed these items are also destroyed. These items cannot be used by anybody except the soulslaves they belong to. Any item that is seperated from it's soulslave owner turns to dust immedatly and cannot be brought back.

Memories of the Past: A soulslave retains it's personality, mind and memories from it's life. While a Soulslave Sovereign can burn rebuke attempts to bring a soulslave under his control once he has died the soulslaves are severed from his command and operate freely. In addition, soulslaves are effected by mind-effecting spells and abilities as normal creatures. The diplomacy skill can be used to put a soulslave at ease and/or make except death as it's only means of gaining freedom, causing it to crumble into dust and forever be destroyed. The DC for this check is different for each individual soulslave due to all souls having different lives, burdens and personalities and as a result is to be set by the DM personally for each slave.

Forever a Slave: A soulslave counts as a 10HD zombie for the purposes of rebuking when the soulslave sovereign who created them attempts to use their rebuke undead power on them. This ability only applies to the soulslave sovrigen's rebuke power. Clerics, Dread Necromancers and other rebukeing characters cannot rebuke soulslaves, no matter what their level.

Saves: As base creature
Abilities: As base creature, except it has no constitution score.
Skills: As base creature
Feats: As base creature
Challenge Rating: As base creature

(Important Notes: I know this class is most likely broken. There is a reason for that. It was made primarily for NPCs, specifically BBEGs. I like the idea of Kabuto's Edo Tensei jutsu from Naruto but could not see it working as a spell. So I decided to make this as a means to emulate most abilities that come with it, though with a slightly different flavor. Basicly, this was a class made for bad guys inspired by the idea of one BBEG bringing back all the past baddies of a campaign to be his super-powered minion squad. However, I feel that as it is, this class is just TOO broken, even for BBEGs, so I want to know what you would do to both keep the concept of a class that creates undead that had all the powers they did in life but make the class slightly more balanced. So, any ideas?)

Zale
2011-08-13, 07:53 PM
So far, I see a few spelling errors you may want to look into. Like the way you used resurrect instead of resurrection in a few of the sentences.

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 07:56 PM
This is a WIP, so I don't care about grammar and wording yet. I am simply looking for help with the mechanics. Nothing more.

EDIT: I edited a few things mechanically with the template and class, so to any potential critics and helpers, please, refresh and re-read.

Zale
2011-08-13, 08:05 PM
Sorry, that was just the only thing that came to mind.

eftexar
2011-08-13, 08:12 PM
Well it is an interesting class, but it seems way too powerful. For one impure resurrection should have a save. And 25 x caster level HD is way too powerful. I would save 3 x caster level max. It wouldn't be such a big deal if they were undead without any abilities, but... Other than that, the other class features are reasonable, although a soul for a soul seems to offer a lot for a single ability (especially one that isn't a 20th level capstone).
As far as Awaken the Undead Soul, I'm not familiar with awaken undead.

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 08:20 PM
Yeah, the 25x was actually suggested by somebody else. Originally I was going to actually have the class get a point pool that would be spent on both animating more soulslaves and also making them serve you...and I had asked for help with setting the point amount(I am horrable at that kind of thing.) The only poster I got said that instead I should make it like a Rebuke pool and suggested the 25x CL. I went with it because I had nothing better to work with. Also, I am generally not that great at setting DCs...so I would need help with thinking of a proper one if one was allowed at all....the whole fluff of the class involves it forcing souls into it's service, which is why DCs where left out initially.

This class is not about politely asking souls to serve you. It's about ruthlessly ripping them from the afterlife and forcing them into your service, hence why there was no DCs involved and it's an evil only class. If they where serving you of their own will then the fluff would be very different and actually very "good guy" feeling(the whole asking the souls of the ancestors to fight evil and protect the world thing..)...which is not what I want....However, if you have a way to add a DC and not lose the whole "unwilling service/slavery" fluff/theme I would like to know. Perhaps make the soulslave sovereign himself roll against a DC rather then allow the soul to make a save to resist being reborn as a soulslave? It would make more sense that way as the failure comes from the caster making a mistake in the ritual rather then the soulslave refusing to serve you, which means the soul still had no choice in the matter and just happened to get lucky.

Gideon Falcon
2011-08-13, 08:26 PM
Also: Regeneration only works if you have a Constitution score. Otherwise, you could have undead trolls that are immune to all damage except fire and acid.

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 08:27 PM
I see. I'll just remove that, then. Would fast healing be a good replacement?

THEChanger
2011-08-13, 08:28 PM
As a note, Awaken Undead is similar to the Druid spell Awaken, except for undead. It can be found on page 21 of the Spell Compendium.
As for the class, Soul for a Soul does seem a little strong. I'm more concerned with the amount of minions this class can generate. It will slow combat to a crawl. Whether used by a PC or a BBEG, slow combat isn't as much fun, in my experience. For DCs, make it similar to a spell. 10+Casting Stat Mod.+Spell level, which in the case of a True Ressurection effect, would be 9. Have the soul use the Will saves it had in life, with perhaps a bonus to the save depending on Alignment?
Fast Healing would work well for what you're trying to accomplish, I think.
As a side note, unless there is a specific clause saying otherwise, a PC can always take a class. It's generally therefore a good idea to always assume they will.
I do apprieciate the Necromancer's Rebuke Feat. It does make a Necromancy-Focused Wizard more viable, if one chooses to go down that route.

eftexar
2011-08-13, 08:33 PM
If you want it to be check, you could handle by requiring a caster level check against a DC 10 + 1/2 your targets HD + any modifiers your target has to will saves. It approximates making a save, but makes it rely more on the caster's abilities.
I, personally, would allow a save. The usually for a spell-like or class granted ability is 10 + 1/2 level + modifier of your choice.

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 08:35 PM
Yeah, I actually decided against the giving a soul a DC idea. I like the idea of making the ritual a spellcraft-based skill check with a DC scalling with the power level of the soul to be reborn. It makes more sense with the fluff that way since the soul still has no say in the matter and failure is instead a result of the caster botching the ritual rather then the soul saying no. Also, the numbers issue has already been addressed and 3x CL seems to be the best option for number of soulslaves you can control. If you want to res somebody else the class has plenty of ways to trade away soulslaves you no longer desire to have in your service to make room for better ones. As for the capstone, I know it's a bit powerful, but I like the fact that the soulslave can res both himself and others...perhaps make it more like a lich in the sense that the true res on the sovereign himself takes a certain number of days and reses you in the spot the soulslave sacrificed for the ability was in?

So, the big question..dose anybody have an idea for how to determine the DCs for the spellcraft check needed for the ritual?

EDIT: The caster level check idea sounds more elegant. I think I will use that instead.

EDIT: Fixed Impure Res and the Soulslave Template with your suggestions, if there is anything else that needs to be done please tell. I still would like to know how to balance a Soul for a Soul without getting rid of the fact it can be used as a self-res and a res for others..

JoshuaZ
2011-08-13, 08:57 PM
The mechanics have some potential issues. It seems currently I can sacrifice a level 1 commoner to get say a level 20 soulslave. It might make sense to require some minimum number of hit die. Maybe the sacrifice should have at least half as many hit die as the being to be resurrected? There's also an issue that since it duplicates True Res, you don't need the body at all. Some archmage in another kingdom just died? Yay, I'll go pick him up. This could get potentially very unbalanced. It should therefore probably be like True Res but require that you have part of the body.

Note also that "Necromancer's Rebuke" would actually be sort of redundant for a Dread Necromancer (since they are an arcane caster who gets rebuke undead for free). It might make more sense to include this feat simply as a feat and have instead a requirement just "ability to rebuke undead".

A Soul for a Soul has issues- in order to use the ability you need to use stronger and stronger sacrifices to get the same result. This seems problematic.

I'd consider increasing the requirements for the class, maybe requiring also Greater Spell Focus(Necromancy).

(Also, I see your earlier remark about not wanting at this stage to focus on spelling and grammar. Keep in mind that people are much more likely to read something and give feedback if the grammar and spelling are decent.)

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 09:09 PM
Yeah. A lot of this is based off of the lore of Edo Tensei and when I design things I tend to work backwards, starting with flavor/fluff and then assigning mechanics based off of that. This usually results in some ridiculous things, so I usually ask for help balancing them, like I am here. As for the HD on the sacrifice, could work, but I don't really like it since Edo did not require sacrificing a super-powerful guy for a superpowerful guy...though I guess if your at the level wear you can make the check reliably to even create a level 20 soulslave a Lv 10 is not that hard to subdue...the only issue is FINDING one, since most worlds don't have people over 5 sans PCs and BBEGs....Perhaps allowing the sacrifice of non-humanoids would alleviate the "people over lv 5 don't really exist in the world" issue by allowing you to sacrifice non-humanoids instead? That way summons and planar bound outsiders, which are not impossible to come by, can be used if there is nobody in existence sans the PCs and main villains who are over level 5?

Either way, Edo required you to have the DNA of the person your animating, so requiring some of or perhaps even the full corpse would not be an off-fluff idea..If I make the whole corpse required can I get away with not having an HD requirement for the sacrifice?

As for Necromancer's Rebuke, I wanted this class to be 100% OFF LIMITS to Clerics. Clerics get all the best Necromancy stuff. I wanted to make at least one thing the wizard has that the cleric lacks in necromancy, since he can poach everything else the wizard can do in necromancy and do many things better then the wizard. While DNs taking this class is nice, I don't want any clerics taking this class, ever, even if it is a one level dip....This class is arcane only and the feat requirement was made to keep clerics without arcane spellcasting class levels out of this PrC. If you have another way to keep clerics without arcane spellcasting class levels out of this PrC please, tell...otherwise, the feat stays as-is.

EDIT: Changed the requirements for entry and did some more work on Impure Res(including some minor grammar fixes.)...Fixed some strange wording on the template.....still need more input on this thing.

JoshuaZ
2011-08-13, 10:18 PM
Keeping clerics away: How about declaring that they taking a level in the PrC causes one to lose any clerical casting and associated domain abilities? Fluff explanation could be something about how deities really don't like people interfering with the afterlife in such a severe fashion?

And yes, broadening it to allow non-humanoids might help. If so, I'd add the additional creature types at the higher levels (so maybe each level you gain you gain an additional creature type). So maybe at level 1 needs to be humanoid. At level 2 get monstrous humanoid. Level three animals and magical beasts. Level four aberrations. Level 5 all living creatures? (If do this way may also want to add that regardless of creature it must have int at least three.)

Maho-Tsukai
2011-08-13, 10:22 PM
Yeah, as of now I went with the you need the whole corpse angel instead of the sacrifice HD angle, though it may still be too overpowered...I'm not sure but I would like opinions on this. As for the cleric issue, your idea is certainly better then the one I put in the OP a few minutes ago and makes more sense fluff-wise.