PDA

View Full Version : Need help building a prestige



ringsnake
2007-07-26, 09:26 AM
I'm not sure how to flesh this one out. I know the theme and concept I'm aiming for, which I've written down here, but the rules implementation I'm not so sure about. The specials will have to be relatively minor, since it gives a turn undead and spell casting progression at every level.

And yes, this would provide sorcerers and wizards the ability to turn undead. Bards and Rangers even, though I don't use those classes as presented in the SRD. In my own game world the bard is replaced with the scholar, and the ranger has been demagicked.

I'm dead certain of the requirements, since I want the prestige open to just about any 5th level spell caster willing to live up to the social obligations. I'm also certain that I want this class to have the poor BAB progression, and only Will saves as good saves.

Ancestral Voice

Among certain cultures veneration for the dead and the spirits of the natural world is so strong that some spell casters become the voice of those spirits. The ancestral voice is the mouthpiece of the spirits of the departed, and the spirits of the natural world itself. An ancestral voice has as many duties and obligations as powers. They are implacable foes of the necromancer, and for the ancestral voice there is no duty more important than to put uneasy spirits to rest.

The ancestral voices are most common among the Sylthian, who's entire religion and culture is based on worship of spirits and the venerated dead. Dwarves also venerate their deceased ancestors, and it is through the dwarves that the title of ancestral voice comes. To some degree the peoples of all of the other cultures have their own ancestral voices, though some humans enter this prestige through scholars obsessed with learning the history of the dead, and come by their veneration after the fact.

An ancestral voice can commune with the spirits of the natural world and the souls of the departed. A family might have troubles with their crops or business, and need an ancestral voice to interceded with the hearth spirit, or the troubled spirits of a recently clear cut forest. A villiage might be troubled by a wicked ghost, and need the voice to put the ghost to rest. As they grow in power ancestral voices continue to increase their powers of magic, and gain the ability to desrupt the undead.

Requirements

Spells: An ancestral voice must be able to cast arcane or divine spells.
Skills: Diplomacy 8 ranks, Knowledge – History 8 ranks, Knowledge – Religion 8 ranks
Special: Cannot possess the ability to rebuke undead, and cannot have participated in the creation of undead creatures or animated the corpses of the dead such as by the spell Speak with Dead.

Class abilities I'm certain of:
This will be a ten level prestige, since this is a calling, not just an add-on.
BAB: ½ level
Saves: Fort and Ref Poor, Will good
Spell casting: increases casting level of base class.

Turn undead at 1st level. Preexisting turn undead ability continues to progress.

At 1st level the ancestral voice must accept and adopt certain social obligations, like a paladin, but much more limited in scope. Basically, they can't go around mucking up the natural world, angering the spirits, or ignoring ghosts. They're prohibited from animating the dead, or creating undead creatures. This includes the animation of corpses such as the use of the Speak with Dead spell.

Brainstorms on abilities I'm not sure of:

Some sort of anti-undead powers, and especially powers related to conquering ghosts and putting their distressed spirits to rest.

Bonuses to Diplomacy when dealing with spirits, elementals, and ghosts.

Commune with Nature as a spell-like ability at 5th level or so. So as not to give it earlier than a Druid could get it by normal spell progression.

Additions to spell list: Consecrate, Gentle Repose, Death Ward, Hallow, Undeath to Death, Commune with Nature, others? Must be new spells or spells from the SRD or open content that I can lift and put in my own game world.