Anathematist 3.5 PrC

[Doxkid]

Spoiler: Pale Master? Dread Necromancer? Nonsense. I know an Anathematist when I see one.

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REQUIREMENTS
Alignment/Race: Any nongood
Base Save Bonus: Will +5
Skills: Any two of Knowledge (Arcana) 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 6 ranks, or Spellcraft 6 ranks
Special: Must possess some means of 'Cursing' her opponents; the Bestow Curse spell, Hexblade's Curse, Mummy Rot, Lycanthropy, etc.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Hit Die: d6
Class Skills (4+Int): Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge(arcana) (Int), Knowledge(the planes) (Int), Knowledge(religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha).
Special: For the purposes of this class an Anathematist may use her Caster Level or her Hit Dice whenever an ability calls for her 'Caster Level'.

ANATHEMATIST

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+0	+0	+2	Hex, Curse Caller, Manufacture Misfortune
2nd	+2	+0	+0	+3	Bestow Boon, Hex-soaked Blade, +1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd	+3	+1	+1	+3	Curse Spirit, Curse Chain, +1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th	+4	+1	+1	+4	Anathema, +1 level of existing spellcasting class

LVL 1
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Anathematists gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Hex: Anathematist Levels stack with Hexblade levels for the sake of determining what Hexblade Curses the Anathematist has access to and how many times she may use her Hexblade Curse each day. Subjects that resist the Hexblade Curse of a Hexblade Anathematist never gain immunity to the Anathematist's Hexblade Curse. An Anathematist without Hexblade levels does not gain access to Hexblade Curse or advanced Hexblade Curse until/unless she takes levels in Hexblade.

The Anathematist does not count a use of her Curses as expended should the target of the Curse succeed on their saving throw to resist the Curse, or remove the Curse within (Anathematist Level) rounds of being afflicted, or die within (Anathematist Level) rounds of being afflicted with the Curse.

Curse Caller [Supernatural Ability]: The base DC of any Curse effect used by the Anathematist becomes (10 + Hit Dice/2 + Charisma Modifier) if this would be higher than the normal base DC; additional DC increases, such as the Ability Focus feat or the Spell Focus feat, are always applied after the better DC is selected. For the purpose of an Anathematist's abilities a 'Curse' includes any effect including the text 'curse' 'jinx' or hex', any effect normally blocked by a 'Protection from Evil' spell, and any effects that may be removed with 'Remove Curse' or 'Remove Disease' or 'Remove Paralysis'.

Curse effects with limited uses now require two successful saves to resist; should either saving throw fail the Curse takes effect upon the foe.

Manufacture Misfortune [Supernatural Ability]: At first level the Anathematist gains the power to apply an extremely simple hex to her foes. As a Standard Action she may perform Melee Touch Attack against a foe. On a successful hit she applies a (Anathematist Level) penalty to the target's AC and d20 rolls for 3 rounds, or increases the duration of a Curse acting on the target by 3 rounds; a target struck with this ability does not receive a saving throw against either of these effects, even if the original Curse allowed a Save.

Manufacture Misfortune may be delivered by any methods that allows the Anathematist to remotely perform touch attacks, such as a familiar with the 'Deliver Touch Spells' ability or the 'Spectral Hand' spell.

LVL 2
Spellcasting: At every level except 1st, the Anathematist gains new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which she belonged before adding the prestige class level. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If she had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an Anathematist, she must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Should the Anathematist not possess any Spellcasting ability, or should she choose to forgo this Spellcasting advancement, she instead adds +1 to the DC of her 'Curse' Abilities at 2nd level. She may forgo any subsequent spellcasting advancement to continue increasing her Curse DCs at a 1 to 1 exchange rate.

Bestow Boon [Supernatural Ability]: As a Standard Action the Anathematist may touch a creature and expend a use of any of her Curses to create a Boon. This Boon is a direct inversion of the Curse it is derived from; any malus the Curse would normally apply becomes an equal but opposite bonus, and any penalties the curse would normally apply are made to be beneficial instead. When reversing Paralysis, Blindness, or other detrimental effects without a numeric value the Boon will instead cure, and grant temporary immunity to, that detriment; for example the Boon of Bestow Curse's 'Each turn, the target has a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action.' variation would render the target immune to non-physical effects that prevent the target from taking action such as Daze or Cowering, but not Paralysis.

The duration of a Boon is One Minute per Anathematist level.

Hex-soaked Blade [Extraordinary Ability]: As a Swift Action the Anathematist may expend one of her Curses or attempt to end a single Curse effect acting on herself or a Willing Adjacent subject as if by casting 'Break Enchantment' at (HD + Anathematist's Level) caster level; there is no maximum Caster Level for this Break Enchantment effect and any Curse effect created by the Anathematist herself is dispelled automatically.

Upon expending that Curse, or should her dispel check succeed, the Anathematist's next attack within (Anathematist Level) rounds targets Touch AC and deals (Cha Mod) bonus damage.

LVL 3
Cursed Spirit [Supernatural Ability]: By focusing for 2 consecutive Fullround Actions the Anathematist may expend one of her Curses to apply that Curse as a 10ft radius Burst within Medium Range (100 + HD * 10 feet). Any subjects in this area at the time Cursed Spirit is applied, or who enter the area of Cursed Spirit afterwards, automatically suffer the effect of the Curse without receiving a Saving Throw against the effect. Leaving the area of Cursed Spirit removes the Curse from a subject automatically; Subjects in the area of Cursed Spirit always know the fastest route out of the affected area, and the effect of Cursed Spirit alone never prevents a subject from leaving via this route.

The Duration of Cursed Spirit for a location is One Minute or the Curse's duration, whichever would be longer. An instance of 'Cursed Spirit' ends prematurely if a subject in, or adjacent to, the affected area successfully ends the constituent Curse.

Curse Chain [Supernatural Ability]: The base duration of Manufacture Misfortune, and the increase to Curse duration from applying Manufacture Misfortune, is now 6 rounds.

Creatures that fail two saves against a particular Curse are now considered a Cursed Spirit for One Minute or the Curse's duration, whichever would be shorter. As always, subjects in the area of Cursed Spirit always know the fastest route out of the area and the effect of Cursed Spirit alone never prevents a subject from leaving via this route. A being that has become a 'Cursed Spirit' may suppress their Cursed Spirit for one round with a Move Action; removing the constituent curse also ends the Cursed Spirit effect

LVL 4
Anathema [Supernatural Ability]: As a Fullround Action the Anathematist halves her current Hit Points to deeply denounce the existence of a foe within Close Range (25 + HD * 2.5 feet). The subject of Anathema loses 10% of their maximum HP each round and is afforded no saving throw against this effect. On their turn the victim of Anathema may spend a Standard Action to avoid taking damage from Anathema, but this merely delays the inevitable; only by directly removing this potent Curse, or by removing any open paths to the Anathematist for 2 consecutive rounds, may the subject end this Anathema. Not even the death of the Anathematist will end this effect so long as part of her corpse still has an open path to the victim: a barred cage would not end Anathema, but submerging the victim of Anathema under water would end the effect...unless the Anathematist entered that same body of water.

---New Feats---

Spoiler: New Feats

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Spoiler: Repent

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Requirements: The ability to Curse enemies, as defined by the Anathematist 'Curse Caller' ability
Benefits: Your curses seep into the spirit of your targets, tarnishing them irreparably; your Curses require a Caster Level check against DC (10 + Your HD + Anathematist level) from those attempting to remove the curse by means of magic. Should the subject suffer 3 or more Curses for longer than 1 Day, consult the table below for additional requirements to remove the Curse. Penalties start accumulating once a subject acquires the third Curse and are only accrued while the subject has 3 Curses from the same person acting upon them.

A Knowledge Religion Check DC (6 + HD) can be used to identify what is required to remove your Curse. Successfully cleansing one of the lesser symptoms of an advanced curse stops the stops the progression of the curse for the listed duration of that lesser penalty.

Duration	Fluff Penalty	Mechanical Penalty	Requirements to remove the Curse
1 Day	Subject extrudes a foul stench	Subject suffers a (Anathematist Level) penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks	Washing with, or imbibing, a dose of either Holy Water or Unholy Water
1 Week	Subject's body constantly shivers and aches	Subject suffers (Anathematist Level) penalty to all physical ability scores	Praying in a Desecrated or Consecrated area for 1 hour
1 Month	Subject becomes inattentive and lazy	Subject suffers a (Anathematist Level) penalty to all mental ability scores	Praying in a Hallowed or Unhallowed area for 1 day
Each Year	Subject's vitality grows weak	Subject suffers gains a Negative Level that cannot be prevented, ignored, or removed. These Negative levels stack.	Must be subjected to any of the following effects: 'Atonement', 'Holy Word', 'Blasphemy', 'Word of Chaos', 'Dictum'

Spoiler: Maleficent

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Requirements: A minimum of 1 level of Anathematist
Benefit: You gain a Gaze Attack which can apply Manufacture Misfortune out to 25 feet. At 10 Hit Dice the range of your Gaze attack increases to 35 feet; every 3 Hit Dice thereafter further increases the range by 5 feet.

As a Standard Action you may expend a use of any of your Curses to apply that Curse to a target you can detect within Medium range (100 + CL * 10) feet.

Spoiler: Hexfeeder

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Requirements: Able to use Hexblade Curse.
Benefit: As a Swift Action you may sacrifice a spell, or the use of an SLA, of 1st level or higher to regain the same number of Hexblade Curse uses; Necromancy spells count as one level higher for the sake of powering this ability. Upon slaying a creature afflicted with your Hexblade Curse you regain one use of Hexblade Curse.

*Special- Hexblades with stronger curses regain additional uses of their Hexblade curse; slaying a creature afflicted with Greater Curse restores 2 uses, slaying a creature afflicted with Dire Curse restores 3 uses, and slaying a creature afflicted with Final Curse restores 4 uses.

[Tzardok]

As the ability to cast spells isn't a prerequisite of the class I have to ask: what happens if you can't cast spells at all? What does the Spellcasting class trait do then? Just give Hexblade casting equal to prestige class level?

[Doxkid]

As the ability to cast spells isn't a prerequisite of the class I have to ask: what happens if you can't cast spells at all? What does the Spellcasting class trait do then? Just give Hexblade casting equal to prestige class level?

Hm. I'll make an adjustment to fix that.

[Silva Stormrage]

I do love curse based mechanics so here are some comments just from a quick read. I will probably do a more in depth review later today.

1) For bestow boon how does this interact with curses that don't grant bonuses. For bestow curse would the 50% chance to take an action result in a 50% chance per turn to take two actions? What about bestow curse rendering the target blind and deaf, an alternate curse from BoVD. Would this grant a bonus to spot/listen or act as remove blindness and deafness?

2) For cursed spirit would the target suffer from the effect again if they entered the area again after leaving? Would new creatures entering the area but not having been within the area at the first casting be affected?

3)Curse chain has some problems with Bestow Curse. If you were say a warlock with at will bestow curse you could apply one hundred various custom curses to a mindless zombie minion you have under your control then send it in to force enemies to make a hundred various saves if they get near it. That seems a bit obnoxious. I would limit it in some manner, either only allow it to radiate one curse or make it take some action on the casters part to trigger the curse spreading.

4) Your new feat spoiler tag is missing its closing spoiler tag. Also for the new feat unrepentant I am not a fan. It is way too easy to make the curses completely unremarkable. I am mostly imagining this from an NPC side but imagine a group of players at level 6 rescuing a prisoner who was trapped and cursed by an Anathematist villain. They try a standard remove curse but that failed, fine, but they then learn it takes a miracle to remove it? Most players would roll their eyes and think the DM is just railroading them with an unremovable curse. Likewise imagine a player gets hit with a curse by this villain when confronting him and the party didn't prepare remove curse that day or they don't have a cleric. They go to town and the cleric needs to wait a day to prepare the spell. They try and the spell doesn't work. There is no way for the players to figure out they need a specific atonement spell in order to remove the curse and it will just feel like it's a permenantly crippling curse they can't deal with. I would probably lock the higher restrictions by requiring theAnathematist to be higher level to get access to them. As well as allowing a spellcraft check to determine what spell is required to undo the curse and that the requirement changes over time. Also I would probably use Break Enchantment instead of Atonement. That makes more sense IMO

Still I liked the class overall. Always good to see new 3.5 content here.

[Doxkid]

[QUOTE=Silva Stormrage;25090285]
1) For bestow boon how does this interact with curses that don't grant bonuses. For bestow curse would the 50% chance to take an action result in a 50% chance per turn to take two actions? What about bestow curse rendering the target blind and deaf, an alternate curse from BoVD. Would this grant a bonus to spot/listen or act as remove blindness and deafness? [quote]

I just corrected that: the Boon would Cure that particular detrimental effect, and then grant immunity to the detrimental effect for the Boon duration.

2) For cursed spirit would the target suffer from the effect again if they entered the area again after leaving? Would new creatures entering the area but not having been within the area at the first casting be affected?

Any target inside the area suffers the effect, whether they enter early or late or the effect was cast upon them. This is why I stressed that Cursed Spirit alone cannot prevent a target from taking actions to leave.

3)Curse chain has some problems with Bestow Curse. If you were say a warlock with at will bestow curse you could apply one hundred various custom curses to a mindless zombie minion you have under your control then send it in to force enemies to make a hundred various saves if they get near it. That seems a bit obnoxious. I would limit it in some manner, either only allow it to radiate one curse or make it take some action on the casters part to trigger the curse spreading.

That was a problem with the original wording and the new wording conflicting. it now reads as follows Subjects that fail two saves against a particular Curse are now considered a Cursed Spirit for 5 rounds or the Curse's duration, whichever would be less. As always, subjects in the area of Cursed Spirit always know the fasted route out of the area, and the effect of Cursed Spirit alone can never prevent a subject from leaving. A being that has become a ‘Cursed Spirit’ may premature stop being a Cursed Spirit with a Fullround Action, or by successfully ending the constituent Curse.

This should be reasonably fair now.

4) Your new feat spoiler tag is missing its closing spoiler tag.

Fixed.

Also for the new feat unrepentant I am not a fan. It is way too easy to make the curses completely unremarkable. I am mostly imagining this from an NPC side but imagine a group of players at level 6 rescuing a prisoner who was trapped and cursed by an Anathematist villain. They try a standard remove curse but that failed, fine, but they then learn it takes a miracle to remove it? Most players would roll their eyes and think the DM is just railroading them with an unremovable curse. Likewise imagine a player gets hit with a curse by this villain when confronting him and the party didn't prepare remove curse that day or they don't have a cleric. They go to town and the cleric needs to wait a day to prepare the spell. They try and the spell doesn't work. There is no way for the players to figure out they need a specific atonement spell in order to remove the curse and it will just feel like it's a permenantly crippling curse they can't deal with. I would probably lock the higher restrictions by requiring theAnathematist to be higher level to get access to them. As well as allowing a spellcraft check to determine what spell is required to undo the curse and that the requirement changes over time. Also I would probably use Break Enchantment instead of Atonement. That makes more sense IMO

Still I liked the class overall. Always good to see new 3.5 content here.

Hm, I'll hash this out tonight. Thank you for the criticism and the help in beating this class into a usable form; I'll shoot you a message when I've got a few fixes for that last quote.