[3.5] Need help creating a character concept, Soul based.

[D4rkh0rus]

Hey community, I've been pondering a certain character concept... although I am not sure where to begin... or rather, I can only come up with a bit of an overused chasis for a build with a specific story behind it...

But anyways, first, I would bother you guys with this badly thought up sample story, as its what makes me wanna make a character...

"The story starts with a typical party. Fighter, wizard, cleric and rogue. Lets just grab common archetypes for all these classes. Now, like many other adventuring parties, they were sent to X castle. Unknown to them, and most of the populance, including the king. The castle house X ancient Relic of ultimate power. Evil lich/powerful sorcerer/BBEG comes in, blows up everything, leaves with his new relic toy. Party survives and gets pissed off, they go to kill the BBEG. in this epic encounter they realize that they're not strong enuf to even dent him, and they all die, except the (insert class here, or wizard). This survivor manages to escape. The BBEG seeing as it could kill some time, grabs and imprisons the souls of the other 3 in crystals, size doesnt matter, but small enough to be thrown into a backpack at least.

He then places these crystals on special automatons, who gain all the abilities of the former heroes while serving the BBEG. The souls are trapped and are forced to watch as the automatons kill innocents, yadda yadda.

Now... The wizard began researching necromancy in order to defeat this Lich BBEG, while doing so, he comes into contact with the automatons and one by one defeats them, taking off the crystal with the souls trapped inside.

Lets just say this or that, and said souls cant return into the real world... so the wizard agrees with them that he shall use their powers to defeat the lich."

Cliche, bad, and not so entertaining, IK. But, thats the idea that ocurred to me. Is there any class/combination of classes/Prestige/etc that would allow me to either combine all these 4 bases classes with possibly full spell progression/skills/sneak attack/etc or allow me to swap from one role to the other (one minute im playing with the cleric soul strapped in, then I switch to the wizard soul)..

Preferably all synergized with 1 or 2 stats (preff int and dex, but can be worked with).

So far, the other idea I've had about this would be straight up chameleon, since that effectively covers it... but I'm not a big fan of that prestige class, what else is there. Also, is there any method in which this can be duplicated but without time limitations?
(Like I can swap as many times, or a decent amount of times per day from 1 soul to the other)


Im pretty sure vestiges/incarnum may have something to do with this, But I don't really understand them, so I have no idea.

[Faily]

Hmmm... I'm not an expert on this sort of stuff, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is:

1. Look at the Gestalt character-rules in Unearthed Arcana. For each soul saved, he gains access to a new class to add to his Gestalt.

2. Check out the Synthesist-variant Summoner from Pathfinder. Change the class-features (and spells) of the dead friends into Eidolon-like powers that are available when the character enters the Synthesist-form.

[Psyren]

A Psion can do this. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm) You can also transform your friends into magic items using Nybor's Psychic Imprint, (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041215a) which will give you access to most of their abilities.

[D4rkh0rus]

Psionic one looks fun, but It requires a willing, living person. also the nybor spell, it only says it clones personality and memories, nothing about granting the wearer its knowledge, feats, etc.


Ill look for the synthethist variant, but gestalting is not something I find fun.

[Mjollnir075]

Im actually gonna vote for Occultist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/radiance-house/occultist) (Pathfinder's 3rd party Binder). Psyren, (featured above) actually just came out with a really awesome handbook (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FGgq3CJYQaeAugHvaaws-ak1ryZzijKou_w1KN0D9HA/pub) for it.

Now, while I'm no master optimizer by any stretch, I think you could cover all four of those basic archetypes by using the "Spirits".

Healbot Cleric - Ubro, the Blind Hospitaler (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/binding-spirits/spirits/ubro) (level 2 Spirit)
Big Stupid Fighter - Tyrant Cromwell, the Black Knight (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/binding-spirits/spirits/tyrant-cromwell) (Level 2 Spirit)
Sneaky Rogue - Vandrae, Drowess Poisontouch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/binding-spirits/spirits/vandrae) (Level 2 Spirit)
Blaster Wizard - Jayna Warlock, Traveler of Worlds (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/binding-spirits/spirits/jayna-warlock) (Level 6 Spirit)

In order to be able to bind all 4 Spirits, you would need at least 14 levels in Occultist.

Now, that being said, you can take a few levels in Wizard if you wanted. There are archetypes for the core base Pathfinder classes found in the same book (Pact Magic Unbound, Vol. 1) that fully count toward your EBL, or Effective Binder Level.

So you could, say for RP aspects of the build, take 6 levels in Soul Weaver Wizard (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/archetypes/radiance-house---wizard-archetypes/soul-weaver), then say that he believes that his friends spirits are still living on in some fashion, so he delves into the secrets of Spirit Binding, which has him take the next 14 levels in Occultist, which would give him an EBL of 20, letting him be able to bind the most powerful Spirits. (Psyren, feel free to double check this. I bow to your infinite occult knowledge)

I doubt its the most optimized build, but I think it meets the pre-reqs you set out.

[D4rkh0rus]

Allright, everything looks nice... but is there some 3.5 non 3rd party material? Or its restricted to only PF