YAA RAMMA AGUR [PrC]

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Veneficus Esoterica

Yarn, warforged veneficus esoterica and his silver snail, Yran
Sleep is for the WEAK.
HD: d6

AMONG RAAAA AHH AHH AHH AMUNG DOOL AMUNG BARROO ANNG GUGORAMM ASHRA AMOM ZOU AMOM RUGGOR AMA ZURRA GOG AGOROTH ZUGGOR AMMA AHU NAMAA GAA AUG OTHAA ARRUNG ATHRAA NAGAGAG RATHAG RAA ATHRAAAAA AMAGOG RAMM JAHURR NUGUGHHYAHHYAH YAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NAAGAGHH YAHAGODA GOG AGAA AAAA ANUNGAYAGAAA AAAAAAA AMUNG AHU GOG AGARRUM ASSUR ROMM ABORR RAA YUGG ARRAM ANANG ZUGGOR AMMA ZUGGOR AMANG ZUGGOR GAA DURR ANNNNNG BASHUR GURR GOTHAN UN YAMMA

Requirements
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Skills: Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks, Psicraft 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 2nd level spells, including protection from law or any spell of the Chaos descriptor.
Manifesting: Ability to manifest 2nd level powers, including at least one of the metacreativity, psychometabolism or psychoportation disciplines.
Special: Must have spent at least one day in the Far Realm. Whether you survived your experience or not is notwithstanding.

Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disguise, Knowledge (all skills), Profession, Psicraft, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device and Use Psionic Device
Skill-points per level: 2+Int modifier

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Far realm companion, twisted thoughts
2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Cognizance companion
3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Aura of madness (daze)
4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Cracked mind
5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|--
6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Aura of madness (confusion)
7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Shattered mind
8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|--
9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Aura of madness (insanity)
10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Mind of beyond, far shape
[/table]

{table="head"]Level|Manifesting|Spellcasting
1st|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
6th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
7th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
8th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
9th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
10th|+1 level of existing manifesting class|+1 level of existing spellcasting class
[/table]

Weapon and Armor proficiencies: Veneficus esotericas gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Manifesting: At every level, a veneficus esoterica gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if he had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of veneficus esoterica to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.
If a character had more than one manifesting class before he became a veneficus esoterica, he must decide to which class he adds the new level of veneficus esoterica for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Spellcasting: At each level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level(and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a veneficus esoterica, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Far Realm Companion (Ex): At first level, you gain the benefits of a creature from the most maddening parts of the Far Realm, a creature that makes an attempt to be recognizable by mortal minds. This creature usually ends up taking on the form of something 'normal' but still extremely confusing and esoteric(examples include large silver snails or octopi with humanoid faces). Treat this creature as the normal familiar class feature, with an effective wizard level equal to the highest of your caster or manifester levels and the familiar has the psuedonatural template. If you already have the familiar class feature, treat your effective wizard level for this purpose as equal to your full character level.
The visual differences between a normal familiar and the Far entity should be purely thematic, a psuedonatural toad very well capable of being in the shape of a silver snail.

Twisted Thoughts (Ex): You have taken but a single step into the madness that is the Far Realms, and the first step is always the most shattering. At 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th levels, you gain a -1 penalty to your Wis score as a sign of your degenerating mental capacities. Additionally, your far more fragile than your average mind when stress takes it's hold. In any situation where you would be considered shaken, frightened or panicked you instead become confused for the duration.

Cognizance Companion (Su): At 2nd level, you know how to draw power from your Far Realm companion as though he were a cognizance crystal. You are capable of treating it as such a crystal, except it is full of power-points at the beginning of each day and ready to be drawn from without having any put into it beforehand. Your companion holds a number of power points equal to 3+your veneficus esoterica level.

Aura of Madness (Su): At 3rd level, you gain a special ability that lets you filter the raw madness of the Far Realms into the area around you, in a similar way that weak, young daelkyrs do. You can activate this aura as a standard action at will, which triggers a 20-foot-radius burst of mental chaos centered on yourself. Any other creature(except your far realm companion) in the area must succeed on a Will save (DC 10+veneficus esoterica+Cha modifier) or be affected as by the daze monster spell with a caster level equal to the higher of your caster or manifester levels. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same aura of madness for 24 hours. This ability is a mind-affecting compulsion effect, and creatures immune or resistant to insanity are immune to the effect. Once this ability is used, it cannot be used again for 1d6 rounds.
At 6th level, replace the effects of the daze monster spell with the confusion spell. At 9th level it becomes insanity, rather than confusion.

Cracked Mind (Ex): At 4th level, your mind becomes stronger against the effects of insanity because of high exposure to it. You gain a +2 bonus to all mind-affecting spells and effects, with an additional +4 on saves against all confusion effects(including insanity). A veneficus esoterica can lower this resistance(and further advances of this resistance or future immunity) to allow beneficial effects, or allow another to read their mind, for the benefits of the mind of beyond class feature gained at 10th level.

Shattered Mind (Ex): At 7th level, your mind breaks down even more, making it even more resistant to the effects of madness. Your bonus to saves against mind-affecting spells and effects increases to +4, while your mere resistance to insanity becomes immunity to such effects.

Mind of Beyond (Ex): At 10th level, your mind is an impenetrable wall of chaos and insanity, one which none can pierce. You gain immunity to all mind-affecting spells and effects, and your insanity can spread to others. Anyone attempting to read your mind must make a Will save (DC 20+Cha modifier), and on a failed save they are affected as though by the insanity spell. Anyone who passes the save still cannot read the thoughts of the creature, as it's a garbled jumble of nonsense and madness.

Far Shape (Ex): At 10th level, you connect to the Far Realm almost physically. You gain all the benefits of the psuedonatural template(without any sort of level adjustment or material vulnerability), the Chaos subtype, and the ability to use greater plane shift as a spell-like ability once per round as a standard action, and only to plane shift to the Far Realm and Material Plane.

[MageSparrowhawk]

This is....really cool...kinda weird...but I think I like it.

to be honest, I'd have to spend a bit more time sifting through it to be sure, but it doesn't seem that bad...

oh, there should be some kind of negative component with the cracked/shattered/mind of beyond features...just giving bonuses doesn't quite make sense...

[Gorgondantess]

I love it. Truly, it's a great idea... but it seems too much like just a psion theurge, or whatever, rather than being a different kind of alienist- the only abilities it grants, other than dual-spellcasting progression, is saves (leading to immunity) to spellcasting, and you and your familiar get the pseudonatural subtype. And then a couple of rather plain abilities. But enough of my complaining; it's still cool. And that picture of the warforged is awesome... source?

[Adumbration]

You should specify which Pseudonatural template you're using: this or the one in Complete Arcane.

[ErrantX]

Neat work here, wish I had more Lovecraftian crazy in my Eberron game to use something like this.

I will agree with MageSparrowhawk here though, there needs to be a downside to the cracked mind stuff. Take a page from the Alienist, perhaps. Or at the very least some sort of social penalties.

@Adumbration: Aren't they the same template?

-X

P.S. I'm curious as the source of that picture as well, which of Mignola's work is that?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

This is....really cool...kinda weird...but I think I like it.

to be honest, I'd have to spend a bit more time sifting through it to be sure, but it doesn't seem that bad...

oh, there should be some kind of negative component with the cracked/shattered/mind of beyond features...just giving bonuses doesn't quite make sense...

Yeah, I'm probably gonna give it a nice do-over. Fill in gaps, ad negatives to the whole madness abilities. Stuff like that.

I love it. Truly, it's a great idea... but it seems too much like just a psion theurge, or whatever, rather than being a different kind of alienist- the only abilities it grants, other than dual-spellcasting progression, is saves (leading to immunity) to spellcasting, and you and your familiar get the pseudonatural subtype. And then a couple of rather plain abilities. But enough of my complaining; it's still cool. And that picture of the warforged is awesome... source?

Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy.

You should specify which Pseudonatural template you're using: this or the one in Complete Arcane.

Complete Arcane.

Neat work here, wish I had more Lovecraftian crazy in my Eberron game to use something like this.

I will agree with MageSparrowhawk here though, there needs to be a downside to the cracked mind stuff. Take a page from the Alienist, perhaps. Or at the very least some sort of social penalties.

@Adumbration: Aren't they the same template?

-X

P.S. I'm curious as the source of that picture as well, which of Mignola's work is that?

Actually, I've no idea. I just found it on a random Google search.
And no, it's not the same template.

[Ascension]

Silver Snail is actually apparently a comic book store.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Silver Snail is actually apparently a comic book store.

Oh. Who'd have guessed?

Updated the class some.

[Stycotl]

wasn't there a homebrewed pseudonatural template remix floating around the boards somewhere? i remember liking it much more than the pansy template in complete arcane.

[DracoDei]

Yeah I remember something of the sort.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

wasn't there a homebrewed pseudonatural template remix floating around the boards somewhere? i remember liking it much more than the pansy template in complete arcane.

I would very much like to see it.

[DracoDei]

@Adumbration: Aren't they the same template?

The one in Complete Arcane is likely a MUCH MUCH weaker one, and is probably the 3.5 version of the one in the 3.0 "Tome and Blood" splat-book.

[Siegel]

Can i use this class together with Hierophant (or how it is called... the Druid/Wizard PrC) to make my Familiar a

Pseudonatural
Familiar
Animal Companion
Pseudo Psycristal

all in one creature ?

[Stycotl]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...48&postcount=2

this is the one that i was thinking about, courtesy of the intrepid realms of chaos. i like his version a lot more than the '1/day true strike' template, which really blows, though it doesn't look like his would fit well for a familiar.

maybe you'll have to remix the pseudonatural template so that it doesn't suck as much as the official one, but is more familiar, and random monster-friendly than realms' version.

either way, cool class.