Lord_Gareth
2008-07-09, 07:13 PM
Soulless
"It's like...imagine someone asking, 'what is it like to be you?' and the only answer you can give them is, 'I don't know. I'm not me anymore.' It isn't like a hollow feeling - it's like no feeling at all. It's like the thing that makes you you is gone, scattered to dust, but it isn't even like that, because you can't feel its absence or anything else. It's like everything dries up but two things - a single, overwhelming purpose, and the need - the cold, emotionless need - to reclaim yourself." - Marla Vain, former Soulless
Though an evil baron torments the villagers and starve them with taxes, they don't call him soulless. No, they have seen soulless - soulless is their mayor, who was dragged away by the baron's wizards. He came back to them a week later, not a broken man, but not a man at all. He didn't smile, nor did he frown. He never raised his voice. He never got sad or angry or happy. When the priest spoke to him, he came back to the villagers muttering that there was no justice left in the world. And now all he cares about are the laws, and nothing - not pleading, not bribes, not threats - can stop him from enforcing them.
Creating a Soulless
Soulless is an aquired template which may be applied to any corporeal creature with Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of at least three that has an alignment, hereafter referred to as the base creature.
Size and Type: The creature loses any alignment-based subtypes and gains the Augmented subtype. Size is unchanged. However, most people who look at the soulless get a feeling that they are smaller - like they aren't quite there somehow. This has no mechanical effect.
Speed: Speed is unchanged, but, again, there is a perception that the soulless isn't really there. Thus, most people don't really percieve them as moving so much as they believe them to manifest from one place to another. Looking twice always corrects the delusion - for the moment. This has no mechanical effect.
Armor Class: Unchanged.
Alignment: Soulless actually have alignments, but these are less attributes of the soul for them than they are patterns of behavior. Soulless retain any divine casting levels and any divinely granted supernatural abilities as long as they continue to act in accordance to their alignment. A soulless barely detects as their alignment, to the point where those trying to determine their alignment doubt its existence.
Special Attacks: Empty Stare (Ex): Those meeting the soulless's eyes are unnerved by the sheer emptiness they find within them. The brighter and hotter their own souls are, the harder it is not to be unnerved. Any creature looking the soulless in the eyes (treat this as a gaze attack) must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the soulless's hit dice + victim's Charisma modifier) or take a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws and ability checks for the duration of the encounter. Those who succeed gain a cumulative +1 bonus on their next save vs. the effect which dissapears at the end of the encounter. This is a mind-affecting ability.
Special Qualities: Soulless (Ex): A soulless is immune to all mind-affecting abilities - they find no purchase upon him. Furthermore, he is immune to charisma damage and drain.
One True Purpose (Ex): A soulless has only one drive left. This might be to uphold the tenants of their faith, save children from disaster, or murder anyone who says a certain word, but they cling to one part of their former life and it defines them. They get a +2 bonus on all die rolls involved in fufilling this purpose, or against anything that tries to prevent them from fufilling it. This bonus persists even if they lose this template - they remember the strength that purpose gave them, and feel that strength even after they regain themselves.
Abilities: Adjust from base creature as follows: Intelligence +4, Wisdom +2, Charisma -6. These adjustments override any bonuses to those three statistics from other templates - that is, they take the place of them. If the soulless ever loses this template, the adjustments stay, but they stack with (instead of override) other adjustments.
L.A.: +1
"It's like...imagine someone asking, 'what is it like to be you?' and the only answer you can give them is, 'I don't know. I'm not me anymore.' It isn't like a hollow feeling - it's like no feeling at all. It's like the thing that makes you you is gone, scattered to dust, but it isn't even like that, because you can't feel its absence or anything else. It's like everything dries up but two things - a single, overwhelming purpose, and the need - the cold, emotionless need - to reclaim yourself." - Marla Vain, former Soulless
Though an evil baron torments the villagers and starve them with taxes, they don't call him soulless. No, they have seen soulless - soulless is their mayor, who was dragged away by the baron's wizards. He came back to them a week later, not a broken man, but not a man at all. He didn't smile, nor did he frown. He never raised his voice. He never got sad or angry or happy. When the priest spoke to him, he came back to the villagers muttering that there was no justice left in the world. And now all he cares about are the laws, and nothing - not pleading, not bribes, not threats - can stop him from enforcing them.
Creating a Soulless
Soulless is an aquired template which may be applied to any corporeal creature with Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of at least three that has an alignment, hereafter referred to as the base creature.
Size and Type: The creature loses any alignment-based subtypes and gains the Augmented subtype. Size is unchanged. However, most people who look at the soulless get a feeling that they are smaller - like they aren't quite there somehow. This has no mechanical effect.
Speed: Speed is unchanged, but, again, there is a perception that the soulless isn't really there. Thus, most people don't really percieve them as moving so much as they believe them to manifest from one place to another. Looking twice always corrects the delusion - for the moment. This has no mechanical effect.
Armor Class: Unchanged.
Alignment: Soulless actually have alignments, but these are less attributes of the soul for them than they are patterns of behavior. Soulless retain any divine casting levels and any divinely granted supernatural abilities as long as they continue to act in accordance to their alignment. A soulless barely detects as their alignment, to the point where those trying to determine their alignment doubt its existence.
Special Attacks: Empty Stare (Ex): Those meeting the soulless's eyes are unnerved by the sheer emptiness they find within them. The brighter and hotter their own souls are, the harder it is not to be unnerved. Any creature looking the soulless in the eyes (treat this as a gaze attack) must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the soulless's hit dice + victim's Charisma modifier) or take a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws and ability checks for the duration of the encounter. Those who succeed gain a cumulative +1 bonus on their next save vs. the effect which dissapears at the end of the encounter. This is a mind-affecting ability.
Special Qualities: Soulless (Ex): A soulless is immune to all mind-affecting abilities - they find no purchase upon him. Furthermore, he is immune to charisma damage and drain.
One True Purpose (Ex): A soulless has only one drive left. This might be to uphold the tenants of their faith, save children from disaster, or murder anyone who says a certain word, but they cling to one part of their former life and it defines them. They get a +2 bonus on all die rolls involved in fufilling this purpose, or against anything that tries to prevent them from fufilling it. This bonus persists even if they lose this template - they remember the strength that purpose gave them, and feel that strength even after they regain themselves.
Abilities: Adjust from base creature as follows: Intelligence +4, Wisdom +2, Charisma -6. These adjustments override any bonuses to those three statistics from other templates - that is, they take the place of them. If the soulless ever loses this template, the adjustments stay, but they stack with (instead of override) other adjustments.
L.A.: +1