"You have such a pretty face..." [3.5, Base Class, PEACH]

[Amechra]

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/030/8/c/blame_by_giuevildoer-d38diaw.jpg (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/030/8/c/blame_by_giuevildoer-d38diaw.jpg)
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An Enmasked Corpse looks somewhat like this (http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs16/f/2007/165/7/5/Faceless_Composition_by_larafairie.jpg)
The Mask Lifter
"I rather like your face; may I borrow it for a moment? I promise I won't break it...

OK, so it might come back a little messy, but that is only to be expected!"

Hit Dice: d6
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Faces Storable|Carvings Known
1|+0|+0|+0|+2|Thief of Faces, Face's Knowledge, Fading Face (10%)|2|-
2|+1|+0|+0|+3|Carvings on the Face, Face's Form (Servant)|3|1
3|+2|+1|+1|+3|Armor of Faces, Evasion|4|2
4|+3|+1|+1|+4|Voice's Restoration|5|2
5|+3|+1|+1|+4|Face's Form (Corpse), Fading Face (20%)|7|3
6|+4|+2|+2|+5|Blade of Visages|8|4
7|+5|+2|+2|+5|Steal Face (Full Round)|9|4
8|+6/+1|+2|+2|+6|Face's Form (Mask)|10|5
9|+6/+1|+3|+3|+6|Beauteous Carvings, Fading Face (30%)|11|6
10|+7/+2|+3|+3|+7|Phylactery of Faces|13|6
11|+8/+3|+3|+3|+7|Improved Evasion|14|7
12|+9/+4|+4|+4|+8|Steal Face (Standard)|15|8
13|+9/+4|+4|+4|+8|Fading Face (40%)|16|8
14|+10/+5|+4|+4|+9|Improved Phylactery of Faces|17|9
15|+11/+6/+1|+5|+5|+9|Mastery of Carvings|19|10
16|+12/+7/+2|+5|+5|+10||20|10
17|+12/+7/+2|+5|+5|+10|Fading Face (50%)|21|11
18|+13/+8/+3|+6|+6|+11|True Phylactery of Faces|22|12
19|+14/+9/+4|+6|+6|+11|Steal Face (Move)|23|12
20|+15/+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Faceless Larceny|25|13[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You are proficient in all simple weapons and all light armor. In addition you are also proficient with light shields.

Thief of Faces (Su): A Mask Lifter is a master of a very specific, very frightening form of magic; namely, they steal the faces of their enemies and then wear them to gain power.

At first level, you gain the ability to form a mask from the faces of your enemies. This takes a full-round action which provokes an attack of opportunity, and may only be performed on an enemy who is either dead or helpless, and is the same type and size category as you are.

Any creatures that are still alive when you take their faces go into a comatose state, where they no longer have any need to eat, drink, or breath.

Once a "mask" has been stolen, you may wear that mask and gain a few benefits, as follows:
-You gain the benefit of a Changeling's Minor Change Shape ability, however you may only take the form of the person whose face your wearing, and the Disguise bonus is instead equal to 10+1/2 your class level.
-You gain any of the following special abilities that that creature may have had: Low-Light Vision, Darkvision, Light Sensitivity, and Scent.
-You gain any racial bonus to spot that the creature may have had.

These bonuses only apply for as long as you are wearing that mask.

You may store a number of faces at a time as indicated on the table above; any face you are currently not wearing that is from a person who is still is alive can be seen to be making expressions of agony and, at times, be seen to be mouthing pleas for help and mercy. Sometimes, they are seen to be weeping and gnashing their teeth.

However, you may have mercy; if you place the mask back onto the body of the still-living creature, they awaken from their comatose state with no memories of the time when their faces were removed; no memories, that is, except that they were in extreme agony and felt completely helpless and alone.

Face's Knowledge (Su): A Mask Lifter would be useless if they didn't know what the person whose face they were wearing knew. So they developed a way to steal a handful of a person's memories.

When you wear a mask, you immediately know what alignment that creature was, and what their strength was relative to yours (see the Sense Motive skill's expanded uses as listed in CA).

In addition, whenever you wear a mask of still living creature, you may make a level check to determine information of about that creature's life. Note, however, that this information must be information that the face could have seen or heard (in other words, you cannot gain any information that the creature did not explicitly see or hear.).

Roll 1d20+Class Level+Charisma Modifier, and check the following table:

Face's Knowledge
{table=head]DC|Type of memories stolen.
10|Common, every day memories; family, where that creature lives, and whatever they were doing in the last day.
20|Slightly murky; anything that might have happened within the last week or so, the plot of the book they read 2-3 days ago, and somesuch.
25|Difficult to remember; this could be anything from a full page of text that they read a few days earlier, to events that happened sometime within the last year, or maybe even what was on every street-sign they passed by on their way to work.
30|Any memory that has not been magically expunged may be identified; this includes things so vague as a name that they heard once 20 years prior.[/table]

In addition, you gain a bonus to Bluff checks to behave as the object of your disguise equal to 1/2 your class level (minimum +1).

This ability may not be used to learn any type of magic from their memories; in addition, any attempt to extract a truename through this method automatically fails.

Fading Face (Su): A Mask Lifter has started the process of removing their own face, in an effort to better wear the faces they steal.

Whenever you wear a mask, you are treated as if you have the same alignment and their relative strength (again, see the expanded skill uses for Sense Motive from CA). In addition, if the creature whose face you stole is still alive, you have a 10% chance that any Divination effects that target you will instead give information as if it was targeting the creature whose face you are wearing.

If you are currently not wearing a face, any Divination effects have a 10% chance to simply fail.

At 5th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, both of the above percentages are improved by 10%.

In addition, cosmetically, your face is seen to become less and less distinct as it slowly and gradually melds back into your face. This does not, in any way, shape, or form, cause any penalties to any of your senses, or prevent you from eating, drinking, or speaking, even once you've lost your mouth; any food or drink touched to the proper part of your face vanishes, and your voice simply seems to come out of the center part of your face.

Carvings on the Face (Su): Of course, leaving a face as it is would be would be a travesty; why waste a perfectly good canvas for... modification.

At 2nd level, you gain the knowledge of a single Carving; you then proceed to gain access to new Carvings as you level.

The rules for Carvings are in the post after this one; the save DCs for a Carving is equal to 10+1/2 class level+Cha, modified by the following table:

{table=head]Assess Opponent Result (CA)|Bonus
A Pushover|-4
Easy|-2
A Fair Fight|+0
A Tough Challenge|+2
A Dire Threat|+4[/table].

Face's Form (Su): Of course, a Mask Lifter cannot wear all of their faces at once; and after all, they sometimes need a little help around the house.

At level 2, you gain the ability to create a Servant from a mask; the face hangs at the height where that creature's head would normally be, supported by an unseen force.

At level 5, you may place a face onto a corpse of a creature of the same size and type of the creature, and that corpse will be controlled by the face, which floats about a foot away from the corpse's now flat face.

At level 8, you may place the face upon a living creature of the same size and type of the creature the face was taken from. The creature must be willing to do so, and the mask replaces their face.

All the relevant rule text is in the next post; note that, in all the above cases except placing the face upon a living creature, the mask does not count as being worn, and so still will perform any attendant grimaces or weeping.

Armor of Faces (Su): It is difficult to be a man whose only talent is to steal faces; people seem to see it as desecration, or some sort of related nonsense. It is good to be able to protect yourself.

At 3rd level, you may, as a full round action that provokes an AoO, have a face meld with any light armor you are wearing; if you do so, anyone who can see your armor receives a morale penalty to attack rolls equal to your Charisma Modifier on any attacks that target you.

In addition, you gain the Armor effects of the Carvings on the melded face, and are treated as if the armor has an enhancement bonus equal to the number of carvings you are capable of placing on the melded face -1. This replaces any enhancements to your armor that already exist.

You may reverse the process of melding the face with another full-round action that provokes an AoO, and may meld more than one face, for the purpose of storage; your armor may only benefit from one mask at any one time.

In addition, for as long as you are wearing that armor, you gain Damage Reduction equal to whatever damage reduction that the creature whose face was stolen would have.

[Amechra]

Reserved for the rules for Carvings and Mask statistics.

[Amechra]

You can start commenting; I'm still putting up some class features, and Carvings and Face's Form will take a while, but I would at least like feedback on the concept and (what) little flavor I have so far.

My dream for this class is that it will be semi-Chameleon like due to carvings, and have the ability to essentially make the creepiest zombies you've ever seen.

Because really, is a walking corpse as scary as a walking corpse with no face, that has a mask hanging a foot in front of where its face should be, and that mask is crying and pleading audibly?

[T.G. Oskar]

Interesting idea. Very interesting. I must say you've piqued my interest...

...but for some reason I can't see this as a class. It would work formidably as a Prestige Class for a character that essentially seeks to master Disguise to a level of arcane art.

I have a bit of issues with the name, as it seems a bit ordinary for what it does (steals faces in order to emulate the creatures that own them). For a concept like this, I would suggest a more elegant name, one that hides the nature of the archetype's work.

I also see a lack of explanation on alignment. I really can't see a lawful good member of the class, because the very nature of stealing the face of someone and essentially leave it in a catatonic state is perverse at the very least. Theft is distinctively non-lawful, and the idea of assuming someone's identity through literally stealing their faces through a supernatural ability definitely doesn't sound as good; perhaps someone who's Chaotic Good might consider the idea as a form of karmic revenge and fitting disguise (what better way to hide than to assume the form of someone important from the other side, while leaving him "dreaming"?). Thing is, the fluff within Thief of Faces definitely takes this to the perverse; essentially the creature moans in agony while remaining helpless simply can't be explained as something someone good would do. At the very least, someone neutral might consider the idea.

While a bit early, I'd like to see the idea regarding the Carvings. As far as I can see them, Masks work in a way as vestiges, while Carvings work as modifications to that template, akin to binding soulmelds to a chakra (which unlocks various powers). Might be different, though, but considering you intend the class (I still insist it looks better as a PrC with a non-good inclination) to be a jack of all trades to an extent, it seems that would be the case; the Mask would provide access to certain abilities, with Carvings providing further modifications or serving as slots where you can tag other abilities.

Like the idea of the masked servant, though. Makes it a bit of a pet class, but it adds further power and separates it from other jacks-of-all-trades (as you have a semi-autonomous entity you can use to spy with, assist in combat or action, or as an alibi). I'd separate the masked servant as its own entity, which gains its own abilities and probably delves a bit more into the essence of the mask itself. Though, that's a suggestion, you probably don't want a familiar/companion/cohort that adds far too much book-keeping (I certainly wouldn't mind).

Finally; the fluff. It's great, but it could be better. Spice it up a bit; make it sensual without making it grotesque or unsafe.

By the way; where did the idea came from? I seem to detect a bit of Majora's Mask, for some reason...

[Amechra]

The idea came about from looking at some of the later Monster Manuals; there is a CR6 Undead named the Defiler that steals people's faces.

Also, I was designing a PrC for my Librarian class that stole knowledge; this guy does so as well.

The fluff is unpolished because it isn't in its final form; I;m not done putting the class up, and yes, it was intended as an "Evil" class... though, I will probably alter the fluff to be more along the lines that the faces will match whatever expression the body might have on its "face".

It would still be freakin' creepy, but less clearly evil.

Though, considering that the servant, pseudo-Zombie making, and masked living creatures are effectively the face having no say in the matter...

I have a planned feature of other people wearing the mask being that the faces might, you know, take OVER their bodies, and throw off your control...

And I'll allow you one guess as to what Phylactery of Faces does...

[Ilorin Lorati]

Primary disclaimer that I know very little about class balance aside, this is an interesting class flavor-wise.

That said, there isn't a class skill list here at all.

[Amechra]

I'm not done yet; I haven't even statted up to 3rd level yet, so...

Patience, my friends. I'll have pretty much all of the class features up by tomorrow, along with a skill list.

[TravelLog]

This looks great and I look forward to seeing the finished product. However, I'll echo what T.G. said, and voice one additional concern. My worry is this clause:



At first level, you gain the ability to form a mask from the faces of your enemies. This takes a full-round action which provokes an attack of opportunity, and may only be performed on an enemy who is either dead or helpless, and is the same type and size category as you are.


This clause, while important in preventing becoming any creature, is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helps keep the class within the realm of balance. On the other however, it grants some players far more options than others. For example, a medium-sized humanoid has an enormous variety of possible transformations at their disposal. Larger and smaller humanoids have less, but by no means experience a shortage. The same cannot be said of others however. For example, players using Outsider characters are far less likely to encounter usable targets in a typical campaign. Likewise a character playing some sort of monstrous character that needs a disguise (like an Illithid or something). In those cases, unless totally setting appropriate, it will be much harder to find viable targets. Players using Tiny/Diminutive characters (almost always Fey to boot), also encounter difficulties.

Just food for thought. Perhaps it could be within one size category of the character. Additionally, you might add a clause that humanoid characters can always be used as valid targets?

[T.G. Oskar]

This looks great and I look forward to seeing the finished product. However, I'll echo what T.G. said, and voice one additional concern. My worry is this clause:



This clause, while important in preventing becoming any creature, is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helps keep the class within the realm of balance. On the other however, it grants some players far more options than others. For example, a medium-sized humanoid has an enormous variety of possible transformations at their disposal. Larger and smaller humanoids have less, but by no means experience a shortage. The same cannot be said of others however. For example, players using Outsider characters are far less likely to encounter usable targets in a typical campaign. Likewise a character playing some sort of monstrous character that needs a disguise (like an Illithid or something). In those cases, unless totally setting appropriate, it will be much harder to find viable targets. Players using Tiny/Diminutive characters (almost always Fey to boot), also encounter difficulties.

Just food for thought. Perhaps it could be within one size category of the character. Additionally, you might add a clause that humanoid characters can always be used as valid targets?

I have the impression that, as the class progresses, you may expand the accessibility of the masks, or that you may get this as a feat or ACF. It's a reasonable concern, and most of the members of this class will seek to create humanoid masks to blend in a bit closer (think, for example, of an aberration of the Far Realm trying to blend in to further their goals; they'd have to find the rare Elan or else find themselves unable to use their key traits). I figure that the clause should expand, probably starting with your own race and humanoids, then expanding to other races until at level 20th you may choose one of the big, nasty creatures.


The idea came about from looking at some of the later Monster Manuals; there is a CR6 Undead named the Defiler that steals people's faces.

Also, I was designing a PrC for my Librarian class that stole knowledge; this guy does so as well.

Ah yeah, I somehow got that idea as well (that, and the Joystealer IIRC; I recall a fey that had a similar trait).

Still, I believe that just rummaging through the chassis, it fits better as a prestige class. I'd have to see the other abilities to see if it really fits a class, but I feel that the builds will look really similar afterwards, and some of the class abilities provide little benefits, something that I feel defining how a mask works and what benefits provides would deal with it better.


The fluff is unpolished because it isn't in its final form; I;m not done putting the class up, and yes, it was intended as an "Evil" class... though, I will probably alter the fluff to be more along the lines that the faces will match whatever expression the body might have on its "face".

It would still be freakin' creepy, but less clearly evil.

Though, considering that the servant, pseudo-Zombie making, and masked living creatures are effectively the face having no say in the matter...

Oh, by all means, keep it perverse. I have no qualms on keeping the class out of the way of the Lawful Goods, although an adaptation removing some of the ickier parts of the fluff might make it worthwhile. For example, a small bit of fluff that makes the mask creation an art, and upon which you can basically draw from the essence of the creature through a manufactured mask; however, make a note that this is merely fluff for an adaptation which could make it kosher for good creatures (and elevate the class to art, actually).

Still, it makes for a formidable villain concept; that of the master of disguise with a lust for the beauty and traits of the other.


I have a planned feature of other people wearing the mask being that the faces might, you know, take OVER their bodies, and throw off your control...

And this is exactly why it should remain macabre and perverse. Treat masks as intelligent items with Ego scores, then? Or a hybrid concept between an intelligent item and a compulsion, in which strong-willed creatures take no orders from you or the mask, but weak-willed creatures are hotly contested.


And I'll allow you one guess as to what Phylactery of Faces does...

Darn, I would have wanted three guesses. Either it stores your masks, or allows you to use more than one mask, and I have a slight inclination for the latter.

I'll have to see it a bit closer to make a better discussion about the class. Though, it might be a nice class to test on a campaign I'm planning, which requires me to start from scratch (it has to deal with bog hags, acolytes of the skin and an eventual upheaval in the Lower Planes).

[Garryl]

And I'll allow you one guess as to what Phylactery of Faces does...

Given the name (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lich.htm) and the levels (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/raiseDead.htm) it appears (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resurrection.htm) and improves (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueResurrection.htm), I'd guess that it lets you revive yourself from death, probably through the still twitching, faceless semi-corpse of one of your mask-making victims.

[Prime32]

Fading Face should be based on a level check, improving to become automatic. Right now it's too unreliable.

I'd also make the disguise aspect Extraordinary at some point, and have it fool true seeing.

Maybe an ability to submerge yourself in the personality of the face, so that even you don't remember who you are until a condition is met. While in this state you completely become the original person, and cannot be detected otherwise even by godly magic. You can also set conditions that will create suggestion effects on "you" or modify your memories. You can use this to resurrect deceased party members by placing their faces on unwitting victims and not including a condition.

[Amechra]

Wait for the carvings... I'll have one for the last one, I swear.

A level check might work...

And of course it will become Extraordinary at some point!

[Quiddle]

This class looks really cool and I was wondering if you ever were going to get around to completing it.

[Just to Browse]

If/When this is finished, may I request permission to create a slenderman ACF?