Author Topic: [PrC] Styx Guide  (Read 2328 times)

Offline Garryl

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[PrC] Styx Guide
« on: May 14, 2016, 02:22:30 AM »
Styx Guide prestige class
Styx guides are tasked with bringing peace to restless souls and sending them on their way to their appointed afterlives.

   Skills: Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks, Survival 8 ranks, Swim 4 ranks.
   Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one 2nd-level or higher Undying Call maneuver.
   Martial Stances: Must know at least one Undying Call stance.

Hit Die: d10

Table: The Styx Guide


Level
Base
Attack
Bonus

Fort
Save

Ref
Save

Will
Save


Special

Maneuvers
Known

Maneuvers
Readied

Stances
Known

Spells Per Day
1st2nd3rd4th5th
1+1+0+2+2Domains (1st, 2nd)1001--------
2+2+0+3+3Rest in Peace0002--------
3+3+1+3+3Planar Attunement11021------
4+4+1+4+4Domains (3rd)00132------
5+5+1+4+4Sailing the Styx100321----
6+6+2+5+5Domains (4th)010332----
7+7+2+5+5Charon's Favor1003321--
8+8+2+6+6Domains (5th)0003332--
9+9+3+6+6--11033321
10+10+3+7+7Domains (6th), Psychopomp00133332

Class skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Balance, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Martial Lore, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, and Swim.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As a styx guide, you gain no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Domains: At 1st level you select two of the following domains: Exorcism, Healing, Repose, Renewal, Travel, and Water. You gain access to that domain and its granted power as a cleric of your styx guide level. If you already had access to that domain from another source, your styx guide levels stack for the purpose of the granted power. The spells of the domains you have selected form your styx guide spell list.

At 4th level and again at every even-numbered level thereafter, you select another of the above domains, eventually gaining access to all six of them by 10th level.

Maneuvers: At each odd-numbered level, you gain a new maneuver known from the Devoted Spirit or Undying Call disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisites to select it. You add your full styx guide level to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.

At 3rd level, 6th level, and 9th level, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

Stances Known: At 4th level and 10th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Devoted Spirit or Undying Call disciplines. You must meet a stance's prerequisites to select it.

Spells: As a styx guide, you gain the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the spell lists of the domains you have access to. You must choose and prepare your spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, you must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against your spell is 10 + the spell level + your Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, you can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Your base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, you receive bonus spells per day if you have a high Wisdom score. When the table above indicates that you get 0 spells per day of a given spell level, you gain only the bonus spells you would be entitled to based on your Wisdom score for that spell level.

You prepare and cast spells the way a cleric does, though you cannot lose a prepared spell to spontaneously cast a cure spell in its place. You may prepare and cast any spell from your domains, provided that you can cast spells of that level, but you must choose which spells to prepare during your daily meditation.

Rest in Peace (Su): Starting at 2nd level, whenever you kill or destroy a creature, you can quickly usher its soul on its way to its afterlife. If you do, the creature cannot be returned to life through most magical means, nor can its body be animated as undead. Only a miracle, true resurrection, or wish spell, or another similarly powerful effect can be used to return the creature to life or animate its corpse in unlife. Using this ability in this way takes no action.

You can also sanctify the corpse of a creature that has died or was destroyed within the past 1 day per class level, ushering its soul along and preventing it from being raised or animated as above. This requires a short ritual that takes 1 minute. This has no effect on a creature that has already been returned to life in another body, whose soul has been trapped or destroyed, or that never had a soul to begin with.

This ability can only affect a creature with a soul separate from its body. Creatures without souls and those without a dual nature (that is, those whose bodies and souls form a single unit), are unaffected.

Planar Attunement (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, you become protected from some of the dangers of the Grey Wastes of Hades, through which the Styx flows. You are not subject to any ill effects of the plane's evil alignment, nor are you subject to its entrapping trait, no matter how long you spend there.

Sailing the Styx (Su): Beginning at 5th level, you can guide any sailing vessel or river ship and its occupants through the river Styx. This allows you to travel from any waterway to any waterway, no matter where they are or even if they are on the same plane, assuming that you know your way and how to navigate through the Styx and its many tributaries (see below). Aside from a ship or boat, you and your fellow travelers need no special tools to undertake this journey, it involves sailing through the Gray Wastes of Hades. You are protected from the evil, hope-draining power of the plane (see planar attunement, above), and this protection extends to your fellow travelers as long as they remain with your group, but these are not the only dangers the plane has to offer.

You can bring other willing creatures with you, provided that these subjects are present and and aboard your ship or aboard another one in convoy with it at the time you set out on your journey. These fellow travelers are dependent upon you and must accompany you at all times. If something happens to you during the journey that causes you to break line of sight for more than a short time, your companions are stranded wherever you leave them. You need not personally maintain line of sight with all of your fellow travelers; travelers can follow other travelers in a sequence leading up to you or your ship.

Beginning a journey always takes at least 1 hour. This can include time spent organizing your group, checking supplies, confirming your destination, and other preparations. Even if none of these are necessary (for example, you are traveling alone to a location you know by heart), it still takes 1 hour to get underway.

The journey lasts while you and your fellow travelers continue to travel together, until either (1) you reach your intended destination, (2) you desire to end the journey while still traveling, (3) you or anyone traveling with you breaks the line of sight chain connecting the travelers for more than 2 rounds, or (4) the journey is terminated by some outside means. When the journey ends, you and your fellow travelers halt in whatever portion of Hades you happen to be traversing. You immediately know when the journey ends.

Table: Sailing the Styx
Destination
Knowledge
Survival
Check Modifier
None1n/a
Secondhand (you have heard of the destination)-10
Firsthand (you have visited before)+0
Familiar (you have visited three or more times)+5
1. If you have no direct knowledge of your destination, you must
have some connection to it in order to travel there; see below.

Connection
Survival
Check Modifier
Likeness or picture of destination+2
Object from destination+4
Cartographer’s map of destination+10
Journey
Distance
Journey
Complexity
Arrival
Distance
Same country32-40 (2d20) miles
Same continent45-100 (5d20) miles
Same planet510-200 (10d20) miles
Same plane, different planet610-1000 (10d%) miles
Coterminous or coexistent plane610-1000 (10d%) miles
Non-coterminous plane810-1000 (10d%) miles
Alternate Prime Material plane1010-1000 (10d%) miles
Dimensionally locked or otherwise inaccessible plane12100-10000 (10d% x10) miles

Depending on your skill in navigation, your journey may take a longer or shorter period of time. For each 8 hours you travel, make a Survival check. Unless a location is particularly hard to find and well guarded, or conversely easy to find and well advertised, the average DC for a journey should be set at 20. Hidden, obscure, or particularly inaccessible locations can have DCs of 25, 30, or higher. You cannot take 20 on this check, though you can take 10. Each check may be modified by your degree of familiarity with the destination or by some connection you have with the place; see the associated tables.

Each successful check indicates that you are one step closer to your goal. The first successful check leads you to and through the tributary of the Styx connected to your local waterway, bringing you into Hades. To exit Hades and finally arrive at your location, you must succeed on a number of checks equal to or greater than the journey's complexity within a span of 6 days. (If you fail to make enough successful checks within the first 6 days, you can continue to make one check per 8 hours until you get the requisite successes within a span of 6 consecutive days). When you successfully make the requisite number of checks, the journey ends, and you appear within the indicated distance upstream of your intended destination.

Charon's Favor (Ex): Beginning at 7th level, your work in escorting the souls of the dead to their final resting places has ingratiated you to Charon, who ferries the souls of the dead across the river Styx. When you are returned to life with reincarnate, resurrection, revivify, and similar such effects that restore life to the dead, you receive no level loss, no Constitution loss, and no loss of spells or powers. If such spells or effects would revive you and you alone, their expensive material components (should they have any) are reduced to a single gold piece, and they never have any experience cost. You can be returned to life with lesser magics such as raise dead even if you were killed by a death effect, although any other limitations, such as the amount of time since your death or the need for a complete body still remain.

Psychopomp: Starting at 10th level, the work you have done guiding souls to the afterlife has forever changed you. Your type changes to outsider and you gain the augmented subtype in accordance with your previous type. You are considered a native of both your original home plane (granting you the native subtype if that was the Prime Material Plane) and of Hades. You gain the traits of your new type (and subtype), and you retain the traits of your previous type (except where they are contradictory, such as the need to eat, sleep, and breathe). Do not recalculate your existing racial hit dice, if any. Unlike other outsiders, you can still be brought back from the dead as if you were a member of your previous creature type.

Additionally, your connection to the Grey Wastes of Hades and your cosmic role as a guide for the dead lends you protection. You gain DR 10/magic, allowing you to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack with a non-magic weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn’t have similar damage reduction. You are immune to death effects, and you gain a +4 bonus on your saving throws against all Necromancy effects and against effects that manipulate positive or negative energy.

Finally, you no longer have a maximum age. You continue to age normally, but you will not die of old age no matter how old you become.



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« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 06:36:28 PM by Garryl »

Offline Amechra

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Re: [PrC] Styx Guide
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2016, 03:22:29 AM »
Quick question: Why do they get access to spells one level higher than they can cast at any given level?
"There is happiness for those who accept their fate, there is glory for those that defy it."

"Now that everyone's so happy, this is probably a good time to tell you I ate your parents."

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PrC] Styx Guide
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2016, 10:25:48 AM »
Quick question: Why do they get access to spells one level higher than they can cast at any given level?

Huh? The spell list is all 9 levels of spells on their domains. If you're referring to the numbers on the table, that's which number domain they get to select at that level (the 1st and 2nd domains at level 1, the 3rd at level 4, the 4th at level 6, the 5th at level 8, and the 6th at level 10).

Was there something confusing or incorrect in the text or something?
« Last Edit: January 18, 2022, 11:59:48 PM by Garryl »

Offline Amechra

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Re: [PrC] Styx Guide
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2016, 12:58:38 PM »
That's just me failing at basic reading comprehension.
"There is happiness for those who accept their fate, there is glory for those that defy it."

"Now that everyone's so happy, this is probably a good time to tell you I ate your parents."