The Nightmare Priest

[gr8artist]

Supplementary Material
The following curse, archetype, and feats are not directly involved with the Nightmare Priest, but they work well with its mechanics and make interesting choices for a dark, priestly character.

• Ominous is an Oracle curse, which fills the caster with dread but gives him insight into his enemies' fates.
• The Weary Soul is an Antipaladin archetype for Samsarans and other reincarnated heroes that have given up on humanity and seek to eradicate evil by whatever means necessary.
• Crusader's Blade allows paladins and antipaladins to channel their touch attacks through a weapon. It requires Ability Focus for the ability in question, which may necessitate a houserule but isn't too much of a stretch.
• Word of Harming allows antipaladins to inflict damage from their touch of corruption at a distance, with only a word and gesture.
• Reward of Suffering allows the antipaladin to heal when he harms another creature with his touch of corruption.
• Hellfire Grasp is a feat for Tieflings that allows them to deal fire damage with their touch of corruption.

Spoiler: Ominous curse

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Ominous

You have been tormented your whole life with visions of pain and suffering yet to come, and ghostly whispers of evil intent. While you have learned to cope with these nightmarish revelations, others find them quite dreadful and unsettling.

Effect
Once per day, usually while you are sleeping, you suffer a terrible vision, as if you were the victim of a nightmare spell, though all damage the vision deals is nonlethal. The DC to resist the vision's effect is 10 + your hit dice + 5 per age category you have attained beyond adulthood (+5 at middle age, +10 at old age, and +15 at venerable age). Whenever a creature succeeds a Will save against a fear effect, you may speak an ill omen to that creature as an immediate action to force him to reroll that Will save and use the new result instead.

At 5th level, when you speak an ill omen to a creature, that creature suffers a penalty on the reroll equal to your Wisdom modifier.

At 10th level, when a creature fails its save as a result of your ill omen, the severity of the fear effect is increased by 1 step (from shaken to frightened, frightened to panicked, and panicked to cowering) if possible.

At 15th level, you may speak an ill omen as a free action a number of times per round equal to your Charisma modifier. You may not target a single creature with your ill omen more than once per round.

Spoiler: Weary Soul archetype

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Weary Soul

Modified Class: The weary soul is an archetype of the antipaladin class, available to samsarans and other creatures that have lived a whole life of goodness and altruism.

Weary souls were once do-gooders and champions of the common folk, driven to the brink of madness by the constant horrors they faced. They once fought the world's evils head on, face to face and toe to toe. But the world can be impossibly cruel, and heroes are often villainized in later years. After years of service and years of persecution and misunderstanding, a peoples' champion begins to feel a weariness that no other can comprehend.
And for a reincarnated hero, death offers little in the way of respite. They are often reborn again with images and memories forever etched into their soul, eating away at their resolve. When they see the wickedness of the world rise up, they break and throw aside the last vestiges of their humanity, descending upon the world in a cleansing, violent purge. They spare no one, and punish the wicked and the devout alike, for their past has shown them that all men eventually succumb to evil's lure. They care nothing for how they are remembered, they do not fear death, and they are devoid of compassion and compromise.

Class Skills: The weary soul adds Knowledge (history) to his list of class skills.

Detect Evil (Su): This functions as the paladin ability of the same name, though the weary soul's criteria are often more strict and reveal any hint of evil in a creature's history.
This replaces detect good.

Judgement (Su): The weary soul can use a judgement once per day, as an inquisitor of the same level. However, he may not choose the healing, protection, or purity judgements. At 4th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, he gains one additional judgement per day, to a maximum of 7 uses per day at 19th level.
This replaces smite good.

Aura of Despair (Su): This ability functions as the antipaladin ability of the same name, except that the weary soul receives this aura at 3rd level, rather than 8th, and the penalty improves with his level. The penalty increases to –3 at 8th level, and increases by an additional –1 at every 5 levels thereafter, to a maximum of –5 at 18th level.
This replaces plague bringer.

Spells: The weary soul adds the following spells to his class spell list for the listed spell levels.

1st - wrath
2nd - castigate, rage
3rd - overwhelming grief
4th - shared wrath

These are in addition to all other spells the weary soul can cast.

Fiendish Boon (Sp): This functions as the antipaladin ability of the same name, except that the second type of boon forms pacts with undead creatures and vengeful spirits. This functions as animate dead, rather than summon monster. At 10th level, this instead functions as create undead, and improves to create greater undead at 15th level. He is still restricted to one companion, and the duration remains permanent.
This replaces the second option for a weary soul's fiendish boon.

Aura of Hopelessness (Su): At 8th level, the weary soul can force his pessimism and sense of hopelessness onto those around him. The use of this ability is a free action that functions as the crushing despair spell on all creatures within 10 feet of the weary soul. The save DC for this effect is 10 + 1/2 the weary soul's level + his charisma modifier. Creatures that fail their saves take the penalties for as long as they remain within his aura, and for a number of rounds afterward equal to his caster level. Creatures that succeed on their save are immune to this aura for 24 hours.
This replaces aura of despair.

Aura of Condemnation (Su): At 11th level, the weary soul can expend two uses of his judgement ability to grant the ability to make a judgement to all allies within 10 feet, using his bonuses and with the same restrictions he follows. Allies must use this judgement ability by the start of the weary soul's next turn and the bonuses last for 1 minute. Using this ability is a free action.
This replaces aura of vengeance.

Scourge of the Complacent (Su): At 20th level, the weary soul has become a perfect tool with which to cleanse the world of corruption and pain. His DR increases to 10/good. Whenever he strikes a creature while his judgement is active, he may spend a swift action to deal additional bonus damage to that creature equal to the damage inflicted by his touch of corruption. This does not expend a use of touch of corruption, nor does it apply any of his cruelties. He may not deal this bonus damage to a single creature more than twice in one day. In addition, whenever he uses touch of corruption or channel negative energy to damage a creature, the damage he deals is increased by 50% as though empowered.
This replaces unholy champion.


Code of Conduct
A weary soul is a curious warrior, seeking to abolish all evil with little concern for his own piety or righteousness, or the innocence of others. Faithless and fueled by anguish and rage, the weary soul suppresses his contempt for those around him only so that he may purge more or greater evil from the world in the near future.
As such, a weary soul has a very liberal code of conduct to which he must adhere. He may perform good acts and behave altruistically, though he does not gain any sense of purpose or reward by doing so. He must attempt to rid the world of great evils, and any time he enters a new region or culture he must set into motion a plan or course of action by which he will slay the most evil character in that region. If he abandons such a quest or goes more than a week without slaying a creature of great evil, his resolve begins to fade and he loses all class features until he resumes such a quest.
This replaces the antipaladin's normal code of conduct and restrictions on alignment.


Table: Class features changed or replaced by this archetype

Smite good

Cruelty

Class skills

Weapon and armor

Aura of evil

Code of conduct

Detect good

1

4

7

10

13

16

19

Unholy resilience

Touch of corruption

Aura of cowardice

Plague bringer

3

6

9

12

15

18

Channel negative energy

Spells

Fiendish boon

Aura of despair

Aura of vengeance

Aura of sin

Aura of depravity

Unholy Champion

C

C

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

C

C

X*

X

X

Spoiler: Crusader's Blade

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Crusader's Blade (Combat)
You can pour divine energy into your weapon for extra damage.

Prerequisites: Lay on hands class feature or touch of corruption class feature; Weapon Focus; Ability Focus (lay on hands or touch of corruption); base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: When you attack with the weapon for which you have weapon focus and hit a creature that you can harm with your lay on hands or touch of corruption feature, you can use a swift action to expend a daily use of that feature to deal its normal damage as if you had hit with the feature’s normal touch attack. This extra damage is not multiplied if you scored a critical hit, and is in addition to the damage dealt by your weapon.

Spoiler: Word of Harming

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Word of Harming
By uttering a single, ominous word, your profane energy passes through the air to wrack pain upon a subject at a distance.

Prerequisites: Touch of corruption class feature

Benefit: You may use your touch of corruption to harm another creature at a range of 30 feet as a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You must be able to speak and have a free hand to use this ability. The target takes half the damage they would have taken if you had touched them, but suffers the effects of your cruelties as normal.

Spoiler: Reward of Suffering

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Reward of Suffering
The suffering of others fills you with vitality and vigor, and this is most prominent with your unholy touch.

Prerequisites: Touch of corruption class feature

Benefit: Each time you use your touch of corruption ability to harm a creature, you heal a number of hit points equal to your Charisma bonus. This ability has no effect if you use touch of corruption to heal undead.

Spoiler: Hellfire Grasp

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Hellfire Grasp
Your supernatural touch burns and engulfs your opponent in hellfire.

Prerequisites: Tiefling or other outsider with connections to Hell or the Abyss; touch of corruption class feature

Benefit: When you use your touch of corruption ability to harm a creature, you may choose to make half the damage fire, rather than negative energy. If you do, and the defending creature fails its save against the damage, it is set on fire for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. A creature set on fire takes 1d6 fire damage immediately, as well as an additional 1d6 damage each round at the end of its turn until the fire is extinguished. The creature may attempt to put our these flames as a full round action, though he must succeed a reflex save to do so, at the same DC as the initial save of your touch of corruption.