The Shattered Soul [prestige]

[TheGeometer]

THE SHATTERED SOUL

Sometimes I wonder how it feels to have your soul trapped in this tiny prison and slowly ripped to shreds. Heh heh. I bet it's a pain too horrible to imagine.

-Faizal, a Shattered Soul

The soul of any mortal creature is brimming with magical energy, and none use that energy more horrifyingly than those who follow the path of the Shattered Soul. As magic can be broken into small pieces of energy and wielded as spell remnants, so too can the energy that comes from the soul of a deceased creature. However, in learning how to split the souls of others, the practitioners of this dark art become so corrupted that their own souls begin to decay as well.

BECOMING A SHATTERED SOUL
Shattered Souls generally begin as students of remnant magic with a fondness for necromancy. Their desire for power exceeds their capacity to value life, and they seek out means of using the unwilling souls of the dead to fuel their own powers.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any Evil
Skills: Use Magic Device 8 ranks
Remnant Casting: Able to cast Undeath and Enervate
Special: Must purchase a black sapphire worth 1,000 gp as a focus for this class's abilities

Class Skills
The Shattered Soul's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Hide, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (The Planes), Move Silently, Profession, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.
Skills Points at Each  Level 2 + int

Hit Dice: d4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Casting
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Soul Binding, Empty Vessel	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Fragment Soul	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
3rd	+1	+3	+1	+3	Aspect of the Undead	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
4th	+2	+4	+1	+4	Energy Transfer	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
5th	+2	+4	+1	+4	Split Soul	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
6th	+3	+5	+2	+5	Aspect of the Undead	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
7th	+3	+5	+2	+5	Interrogation	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
8th	+4	+6	+2	+6	Soul Burn	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
9th	+4	+6	+3	+6	Aspect of the Undead	+1 level of existing remnant casting class
10th	+5	+7	+3	+7	Shatter Soul	+1 level of existing remnant casting class

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Shattered Soul gains no new proficiency with any weapons or armor.

Casting: At each level the Shattered Soul gains more RP per round, more known remnants or remnant slots, and an increase in caster level (and RP per day, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in a remnant casting class to which she belonged before adding the prestige class level. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character taking that class would have gained by taking a level of that remnant casting class. If she had more than one remnant casting class before becoming a Shattered Soul, she must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining remnants known, remnant slots, RP/turn and/or RP/day.

Soul Binding: At 1st level, the Shattered Soul learns a technique that is hidden to all but the most powerful mages: how to bind the soul of a newly-dead creature, entrapping it in a small black gem. The Shattered Soul can do this only with a single gem, the one needed to enter the prestige class, and only with a single soul at a time. If she wants to entrap a soul, she must first release the soul, if any, that is already imprisoned within the gem as a standard action, and then complete a 3-round ritual within close range of the body. She may not perform any other actions during these 3 rounds. As long as the creature whose soul is being bound has not been dead for longer than 1 round per class level at the time when the ritual begins, its soul then transfers to the gem; otherwise, the ritual fails. If the gem is destroyed, any soul within is freed and the Shattered Soul must purchase a new gem to use her class abilities.

A soul entrapped in this manner cannot be raised by any means, including Miracle or Wish. To harness the energy for her powers, the Shattered Soul shreds away bits of energy from her bound soul. The amount of energy that can be torn from a soul in this way is dependent on the HD of the creature to which the soul belonged; each use of certain Shattered Soul class abilities reduces the amount of remaining energy in the gem by a number of HD, and the entire soul is consumed when the number of expended HD equal the total number of HD that the original creature possessed. The weakened remains of the soul hover about the outside of the gem, a weak, invisible aura, until the entire soul has been used in this way. The soul then reconstitutes itself and can be raised normally, although it carries with it the memory of seemingly endless torment.

Empty Vessel: Whenever the Shattered Soul attempts to use castings of the Undeath remnant to reanimate a corpse whose soul is simultaneously being held in the gem she uses for her Soul Binding ability, she may treat the corpse as though it is one size smaller for the purpose of determining the number of remnants she must cast and the RP she must expend to sustain the effect. If she has control over the undead corpse at the point when the soul is fully released from her gem, she must thereafter spend an amount of RP corresponding to its actual size to sustain the effect, or the undead becomes inanimate at the start of the turn in which she does not do so.

Fragment Soul: At level 2, the Shattered Soul can transform small pieces of her bound soul into magical energy that she can use. She may spend a standard action to remove some number of HD from the soul. She then uses this energy to increase her RP/turn by 1 per HD expended from the soul for the round in which she spends the action. She cannot increase her RP/turn by more than 1 per class level in this way at any given time. This ability has no effect if she casts remnants before spending her standard action that turn. When the bound soul runs out of HD, it is freed from the gem, as described in the Soul Binding ability.

Aspect of the Undead: As the Shattered Soul relies increasingly on the power of others' souls, she slowly loses her own humanity. At 3rd level, she gains immunity to fatigue and exhaustion. At 6th level, she cannot be affected by poison, disease, or death effects. At 9th level, she becomes immune to critical hits, nonlethal damage, and death from massive damage.

Energy Transfer: At 4th level, the Shattered Soul learns to transfer the life force being held in her gem directly into her body or that of an ally. As a move action, she may grant one creature within 30 feet a number of temporary HP, and then immediately remove an equal number of HD from her bound soul. This temporary HP lasts for 1 hour, but the HD taken from the gem does not return.

Split Soul: The 5th  level Shattered Soul reaches a new stage of depravity and splits her own soul in two. The two resulting halves of her soul have equal control over her body and mind, and while they are both parts of the same entity and generally agree on which actions to take, this can cause the Shattered Soul to exhibit some of the signs of multiple personality disorder. For every mind-affecting effect that she succumbs to, she may choose which half of her soul becomes affected (she may choose both). At the beginning of every turn, if any such effect is present, roll 1d2 to determine which half is in control, and only if the affected half is in control does she act as the effect describes. In addition, she may maintain concentration on two activities at once, and she may take the higher of 2 d20 rolls when making skill checks or ability checks based on Wisdom or Intelligence.

Interrogation: At 7th level, the Shattered Soul can use her ability to break her bound soul apart to get information out of it. Once per day, she may spend a full minute in concentration to focus her magic toward torturing her bound soul until it tells her what she wants to know. This removes 1 HD from the soul before any other effects of this ability occur, so a soul with only 1 HD of energy will be lost before it can be questioned. She must then succeed on an ability check with a primary casting modifier from one of her remnant casting classes against 10 + the number of remaining HD of the soul. If she succeeds, she may ask the soul a number of questions up to the amount by which she exceeded the check, and receive honest answers.

Soul Burn: Starting at level 8, the Shattered Soul may expend all of the energy in a bound soul in a single blast as a standard action. The soul bursts from the gem amidst a blaze of violet flame that spreads out from the Shattered Soul in a 30-foot radius, dealing 1d4 untyped damage per HD remaining in the bound soul to other all creatures in range.

Shatter Soul: At level 10, the Shattered Soul splits her soul into immeasurable pieces, filling her mind with a multitude of fragmented voices and sounds that reduce her to near-insanity. This essentially maximizes the effect gained from splitting her soul the first time: she becomes immune to mind-affecting effects, she may concentrate on any number of actions at once, and she may treat the roll for any skill check or ability check based on Wisdom or Intelligence as a natural 20.

SHATTERED SOULS IN THE WORLD
He overcharged us; I think he should die. So do I. Good, I love it when everyone gets what they want.

-Faizal, muttering to himself in a market square

Daily Life: Shattered Souls are among the most despicable of necromancers, and are certainly the worst among remnant magic casters. When they live amongst the well-intentioned, they attempt to hide their vile ways, but often can barely control their lust for power. At times, they lose themselves in insane muttering or dark research, and at other times, they go through the day relatively normally. Whatever the case, the death of people around them is an inevitable part of their lives.
 Notables: Many of the most infamous necromancers of history were actually Shattered Souls, craving increasing amounts of power and claiming souls by the dozen. Iyassa the Mad was particularly powerful and just as crazy. She would create armies of undead to slay her enemies, and she would order them to fight each other when she got bored.
 Organizations: Shattered Souls are always alone, with the exception of the undead that often keep them company.

THE EPIC SHATTERED SOUL

Hit Die: d4
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int
Casting: The Epic Shattered Soul continues advancing remnant casting at every level higher than 10th.
Fragment Soul: The Epic Shattered Soul continues increasing the number of bonus RP/round that she can gain from her bound soul as her class level increases beyond 10.
Bonus Feats: The Epic Shattered Soul gains a Bonus Feat every 5 levels higher than 10th.