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2011-10-09, 01:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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[D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Vestige Level: 2nd
Binding DC: 17
Legend: There existed, several millennia ago, a great empire of humans ruled over by two men, identical twins, Zekharyah, a great warlock and warrior, and Thelmeth, a renown scholar and mage. For many years, the brothers ruled the empire that their father left them and did so well and peacefully, but then their gods, whose names have been lost to time, worked a great miracle upon their people: the birth of a wave of triplets. To you and I, this may not seem like much, but to Zekharyah and Thelmeth, this was a great portent, for theirs was a culture of duality, not triplicality.
Zekharyah counseled decisive action, saying that they had a responsibility to their people to act quickly and crush the triplet movement before it began. Thelmeth argued against this position, saying that it was wiser to embrace the triplets and to adapt the empire to the god's desires. The brothers quarreled and fought until Zekharyah, seeing that Thelmeth would not be swayed, broke from the empire, vowing to lead the people or die trying.
The war, inevitable as the tides, was horrifying. Zekharyah undertook a slaughter of the triplets, purging one out of every three, forcing them into the duality he valued so highly. Thelmeth tried time and time again to stop his brother without killing him, but Zekharyah would not yield, and finally, his heart heavy with regret and shame, Thelmeth laid Zekharyah low.
Zekharyah's soul was waylaid upon the shores of the Styx by those he had butchered in his mad quest for duality and was dragged by those souls to a realm beyond life, death, and existence, punished for all eternity to exist as an aggregate mind, as far from his beloved duality as it was possible to be.
Manifestation: Above the seal, a rift in the air is rent open, and a blob of gelatinous black goo drips from it into the center of the seal, the rift closing behind it. From the goo, a single hand stretches forth, straining against the glop as though a drowning man struggling for air, before falling back into the blob. Suddenly, dozens upon dozens of eyes, from all manner of beings, open on the surface of the pile and a voice gurgles up from it, as though spoken by hundreds, if not thousands, of creatures at once. "We... are Zekharyah. Speak."
Sign: An eye opens somewhere on your body. You cannot see through it, nor have you any control over where it looks. The location of the eye changes each time you bind Zekharyah, and follows no discernible pattern, though it is never overly conspicuous (frequently it appears on a shoulder, chest, or back).
Influence: You cannot abide groupings larger than two, and Zekharyah demands that you abstain from associating with more than one person at a time, forcing you to keep at least 10 feet from all but one person at a time.
Granted Abilities: Zekharyah has a great knowledge of warlock invocations and he also bequeaths to you knowledge of poisons and runes, the greatest of his weapons against Thelmeth and the triplets of his ancient war. Finally, and somewhat discordantly, he also grants you the ability to disguise your form.
Warlock's Might: You gain an eldritch blast. It functions exactly like the warlock class ability of the same name. Your eldritch blast deals 1d6 damage per two effective binder levels. Further, you gain access to a single eldritch shape invocation and a single eldritch essence invocation, chosen when you bind Zekharyah. These invocations can be of up to least grade at effective binder level 1, lesser grade at effective binder level 7, greater grade at effective binder level 12, and dark grade at effective binder level 17.
Poison Use: You gain poison use, as per the assassin class feature.
Poisoner's Skill: When you bind Zekharyah, you may choose two poisons of your choice, with the restriction that they must cost less than or equal to 500 gp per dose. You can conjure up a single dose of either poison. This dose lasts for 24 hours or until you unbind Zekharyah, can only be handled by you (if given to another, it instantly dissolves into nothingness without harm), and only one dose of both poisons may be created by this ability at a single time. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.
Hidden Face: You gain the spell-like ability to cast disguise self, but with a duration equal to the amount of time that you are bound to Zekharyah. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.Last edited by arguskos; 2011-10-22 at 05:09 PM.
All that I say applies only to myself. You author your own actions and choices. I cannot and will not be responsible for you, nor are you for me, regardless of situation or circumstance.
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2011-10-09, 08:28 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Looks alright to me as a 1st level vestige but I haven't read how Glyphs work, so I'm not sure how powerful or otherwise those are. Seems comparable to Amon in my book.
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2011-10-09, 08:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Influence = ouch in a dungeon.
Flavorful though.Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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2011-10-09, 11:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Well, given that you get an eldritch blast that scales with your level, I'm not certain it's a fair level 1 vestige. That's not AMAZING, but it seems good. Still, Amon is probably a good comparison.
lykiknorite?
Seriously though, the influence was meant to be a bitch, much like the standard influences are.
Thanks for the feedback, folks, I appreciate it!
All that I say applies only to myself. You author your own actions and choices. I cannot and will not be responsible for you, nor are you for me, regardless of situation or circumstance.
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2011-10-09, 11:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Put a limit on how many Glyphs of Warding exist with the runic knowledge ability, else your player will just fill the world with those.
Do note that the mimicked spell (3rd level no less) has a material component and a 10 minute casting time, which the transition to supernatural ability completely obviates.
I suggest removing it altogether since the Vestige covers up damage anyway with the better than the warlock (remember supernatural abilities have no SR, cannot be dispelled nor do they bother with somatic components) eldritch blast (I might be wrong however, I don't know what the alternate feat does), and replacing it with a passive bonus vs glyphs and related stuff (Since the vestige only gives out active abilities)
Also Dark invocations a level higher than the warlock gets? 24 hour foresight is strong for a 6th level vestige, let alone a 1st level one.
If you decide not to make any changes to the vestige however, I suggest bumping its level to 2nd or even 3rd level.
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2011-10-09, 12:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
The invocations are blast shape and essence, so you can't access the utility invocations, just buff your blast.
I don't have Dragon Compendium so I can't comment on the feat. Ignoring that ability entirely though, the vestige is probably too strong for level 1. I don't see any 1st level bind that is on the same footing.
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2011-10-09, 03:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Eldrich spear with the essence that makes you shaken/sicken along with further binder support / goodies is very strong at low levels. At 1st level you have 2 invocations where a warlock would have only one. Also the warlock can't easily relearn his invocations where you have the flexibility of a cleric.
Eldrich cone / Utterdark blast without spell resistance and with bonuses from other vestiges I would expect from a 5th-7th level bind not from a 1st level one. He scales way too good for a bind of his level.
I don't know what level it should be but I would add some passive bonuses and shoot for a level 4 and above.
Complete Shadow Magic! for Pathfinder Rules. (Google Docs PDF)
Newest: Shadowcaster Archetypes
WIP:Wordcasting Shadowcaster
Previous games: Life in Hell
as Moira
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2011-10-09, 03:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Thoughts: glyph of warding is a really bad spell, actually. Notice that binders can't use the "tie a spell to it" option, due to not having spells and all that, so all they can do is blast stuff. I will put a limit on the number of active glyphs though, that's a great catch.
Bingo! Given that EB isn't all that good to start with, I'm not terribly worried. You also access the higher grades a level later than a warlock does, meaning that you can only do the utterdark+cone thing at level 17, when it's not a big deal.
Remember that at level 17, you only have three vestiges ANYWAYS, so one might as well be useful for attacking.
I don't have Dragon Compendium so I can't comment on the feat. Ignoring that ability entirely though, the vestige is probably too strong for level 1. I don't see any 1st level bind that is on the same footing.
And those are issues I have with Warlock. So yes, you are correct in your criticisms, but then again, I see no reason to deny warlock retraining effects and a bit more shape/blast invocation access (something many many other brewers agree with me on).
Admittedly, I should have clarified that earlier, but there it is. Sorry about the confusion there.
Eldrich cone / Utterdark blast without spell resistance and with bonuses from other vestiges I would expect from a 5th-7th level bind not from a 1st level one. He scales way too good for a bind of his level.
I don't know what level it should be but I would add some passive bonuses and shoot for a level 4 and above.
All that I say applies only to myself. You author your own actions and choices. I cannot and will not be responsible for you, nor are you for me, regardless of situation or circumstance.
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2011-10-09, 04:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
Glyph of warding isn't a bad spell when you can cast it an unlimited amount of times. With very little creativity you can annihilate opponents just by spamming it on objects ahead of time. At the very least you should cap how many you can make at a time.
Many vestiges don't scale well. But that's sort of the point. The balanced vestiges are the ones that are good for their level but get overshadowed by the higher level vestiges. This balance philosophy is also shown in spells, psionics, invocations, even maneuvers.
Yeah, honestly this invocation does way too many things, along with scaling and an obvious option for abuse. No vestige of similar level is at all comparable to it.Last edited by Dralnu; 2011-10-09 at 04:13 PM.
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2011-10-09, 08:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [D&D 3.5 - Vestige] Zekharyah, Aggregate Soul
All of which makes me definitely think to replace it.
Yeah, honestly this invocation does way too many things, along with scaling and an obvious option for abuse. No vestige of similar level is at all comparable to it.
Still, your points are well taken. Glyph idea is going away (possibly to be returned to later), to be replaced with the following:
Poisoner's Skill: When you bind Zekharyah, you may choose two poisons of your choice, with the restriction that they must cost less than or equal to 500 gp per dose. You can conjure up a single dose of either poison. This dose lasts for 24 hours or until you unbind Zekharyah, can only be handled by you (if given to another, it instantly dissolves into nothingness without harm), and only one dose of both poisons may be created by this ability at a single time. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.
All that I say applies only to myself. You author your own actions and choices. I cannot and will not be responsible for you, nor are you for me, regardless of situation or circumstance.