Quotes / large amounts of flavor text credited to Taioko Rii Spirit Eater "Broken. Broken, broken. That's what they called me. They meant it, too. I didn't believe them at first, but I could feel what they were referring to. I was incomplete. Like a heart missing its lover, a puzzle without a piece. And so my soul grew crooked, grew wrong. And it wanted to grow more. It had a thirst, a hunger. Almost consumed itself. Until I turned to others. Those who spurned me. And I used them to fill the space, to complete the puzzle, to make my soul whole again. Broken. Complete. Shattered, devoured whole. I'll break you, but you won't be broken in death. In death, you'll be a part of me."- Telor Magdelein, the Fallen Priest
Spirit-Eaters are warriors. Whether it's for survival, to permanently erase evil from existence, or for power. They fight. They turn the power of their own 'soul', or a beast within it, towards their enemies
BECOMING A SPIRIT EATER To become a Spirit Eater, one must have some sort of soul-hungry void introduced into their soul itself. Sometimes they are cursed, sometimes their soul is damaged, other times their soul is replaced entirely. There are several ways to gain access to the powers of a Spirit Eater - none, however, are reversible.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTSSpecial: Your soul must be in some way damaged or altered (Or even replaced) so that there is a void within it.
Class SkillsThe Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics(dex), climb(Str), Diplomacy(Cha), escape artist(Dex), intimidate(cha), knowledge (arcana)(Int), Knowledge(local)(Int),Knowledge(Planes)(Int), Knowldge (religion)(int), perception(wis),Stealth(Dex), survival(wis), swim(str)
Skills Points at Each Level 4 + int
Hit Dice: d8
Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special |
1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Marked Vessel, Consume Spirit, Devour Spirit, Bestow Life Force, Spirit Pool, Spirit Hunger |
2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Spirit Gorge, Detect Spirits |
3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Eternal Rest, +1 Constitution |
4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Spiritual Fortitude, +1 Constitution |
5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Devour Soul, Ravenous Incarnation |
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Spirit Eaters gain simple and Martial weapon proficiency if they didn't already have it. They also gain proficiency with light and medium armor (But not with any shields).
Marked Vessel: Unlike most monster classes, the Spirit Eater retains its old racial abilities, but it gains the Aberration type with the Chaos and Evil Subtypes with all the drawbacks of these, and darkvision 60ft. The (Sub)type change does not force the character to change their actual alignment, though they obviously still detect their subtypes. Their body has reacted to the state of their soul - there is some obvious mark on their body, such as 'cracks' that seem to lead through and endless chasm or a glowing mark in some unidentifiable language. This mark allows a knowledge check to identify the Spirit Eater for what she is. With a DC 25 Knowledge (Planes) or DC 20 Knowledge (Religion) check.
Consume Spirit(Ex): At 1st level a Spirit Eater can (And must) eat spirits to survive. Any time they deal a blow that kills or destroys a viable creature, they absorb the creatures spirit. This cannot be stopped by anti-magic or similar any more than souls passing on to the afterlife can.
Creatures slain by the Spirit Eater cannot be Raised or Resurrected in any way that would restore their original soul to them - not even divine intervention. Such creatures can be brought back as undead, even sentient ones, but they are without their original soul in any form, and would likely suffer for it.
Spirit Pool: A Spirit Eater has a pool of Spirit Points - the spirits of those it has devoured. Its spirit pool starts at a six point maximum, and increases by one for each class level, and an additional point per every three unrelated hit dice (So a Spirit Eater 3 / Fighter 3 would have a maximum Spirit Pool of 9).
Each spirit devoured adds one point to the Spirit Eater's Spirit Pool per two HD of the creature, to a minimum of 1.
Some creatures may be ruled by the GM as not having a spirit or spirit-equivelent due to having too low of HD or similar.
Spirit Hunger: Each day that the Spirit Eater goes without feeding it must make a constitution check with a starting DC of 15, plus one per additional spirit beyond one that it had eaten before its last check (to a maximum DC of 20), or lose one point from its maximum Spirit Pool.
Each successful save against the con check reduces the DC by one, to a minimum of 10.
If the Spirit Pool reaches 0 from this, the Spirit Eater dies.
The Spirit Eater needs to eat spirits now even if it did not need to eat before, however, if it did need to eat before this ability replaces that need along with any other form of need for sustenance ; that is to say that the Spirit Eater no longer needs to eat or drink conventional food and water, only spirits. Though she may partake in eating and drinking if she so desires, and benefit from it (Eating magically conjured food that heals HP, drinking potions).
The Spirit Eater recovers one point to their Spirit Pool for each day that they do feed.
Devour Spirit (Su): At 1st level the Spirit Eater gains the ability to use Devour Spirit. They can make either a Touch Attack or Ranged Touch Attack and deal 1d6/2HD untyped damage to any creature whose soul they can eat. Initially, this is only spirits. This ability has a cooldown and is usable once every 1d4 rounds when used as a touch attack, and once every 1d4+1 rounds as a ranged touch attack. The range on this ability is 100 feet + 10ft per HD
Spirits include - Incorporeal Undead, all Fey, all Elementals, creatures in astral form or with astral bodies (But not creatures physically present on the astral plane), All creatures of the spirit subtype, Spirit folk and Telthors, and spirit creatures created by spells such as wood wose or dream sight. Also among Spirits are virtually any outsider - creatures whose Spirit and body are one unit.
Bestow Life Force(Su): A Spirit Eater can spend one point from their Spirit Pool to create a healing effect over an area as a fireball would. They heal 1d6+1 damage per HD. This is treated as a "Profane" source, and causes the area it is used on to detect as evil for the Spirit Eaters HD in rounds. This effect can also be blocked by a Protection from Evil spell.
Spirit Gorge(Su): At 2nd level the Spirit Eater can choose to use their Devour Spirit ability as an area of effect, with the same size as a Fireball spell. Instead of an attack roll, it is a save. Those in the area of effect must make a will save of 10+1/2 the Spirit Eaters HD + the Spirit Eaters Cha mod, or take full damage from the full damage of the Devour Spirit ability. A successful save halves this damage.
Detect Spirit (Su): A Spirit Eater can detect spirits at-will as a standard action. This functions similarly to a Paladins Detect Evil, except it detects the presence of any creature within its line of effect that possesses (or is) a Spirit that the Spirit Eater can devour/consume. After three rounds of concentration, this ability reveals the rough power of each spirit.
Eternal Rest (Su): At 3rd level the Spirit Eaters viable targets for Consume Spirit and Devour Spirit include any and all undead, corporeal, intelligent, mindless, or otherwise. Spirit Gorge also works for this.
Spiritual Fortitude: At 4th level a Spirit Eater adds their class level to their constitution checks to avoid starvation from the Spritual Hunger class feature.
Devour Soul: At 5th level the Spirit Eater can now consume the souls of living creatures. Devour Spirit, Spirit Gorge, and all related abilities can now target mortal creatures, and the Spirit Eater can eat the Soul of any creature that has one.
Ravenous Incarnation (Su): The Spirit Eater can yield her body to her Spirit Hunger, and transform into a beast of pure hunger. The Spirit Eater gains two primary claw attacks, each dealing 1d6 damage for a medium creature. She also gains Fast Healing 10, which stacks with any Fast Healing she previously had while in this form. The claws gained in this form count as magic for purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.
She also gains something akin to a "Retroactive power attack", her hunger being so strong as it is. Any attack roll that exceeds the targets AC has any value above the targets AC converted to extra points of damage.
While in Ravenous Incarnation, a spirit eater with 1-10 HD has DR 5/Good. At 11 HD, this DR improves to DR 10/Good .
Entering Ravenous Incarnation is a Swift Action that uses a point from the Spirit Pool. Ravenous Incarnation can theoretically last forever, but every third turn (Two turns after the first) you must spend another Spirit Point to maintain it. Spending the point to maintain the form is a non-action/free action.
PLAYING A Spirit Eater Brief description on how to play the class you are designing.
Combat: Spirit Eaters will be attempting to deal as much damage as they possibly can in order to add souls to their Spirit Pool. They will likely be using Devour Spirit with some frequency.
Advancement: Spirit Eaters will want to focus on any combat-related abilities - they do best with levels of Barbarian or similar, to advance their ability to dish damage while their Devour Spirit cools down.
Resources:
SPIRIT EATERS IN THE WORLD"It was like fire. Seeing souls expunged like that, doused and devoured with such anger, such ferocity, is scarring enough. I fear for what goes on to the souls lost. If the spirit-eater that devoured them dies, will they at last find solace, find peace? I pray and pray! I pray that the gods would not be so lenient as to allow such a being into the fray of creation. For their tapestry should not be as this. It should not collapse in on itself, burning its own woven fabrics. They are wrong things." Father Endel, the High Priest, after witnessing a lone spirit eater's ferocity against several of his servants.
Daily Life: The life of a Spirit Eater is a struggle - Either to be fed, to hide their condition, or to not lash out and devour all those around them.
Notables: A notable example of a good Spirit Eater is Valos, the Crystal Dragon. Valos was attacked by demons while defending a village on the Prime Material, and his soul shattered along with his body. He was revived by the villages hard efforts (And some blood magic), but brought back in such a jarring way that his soul was splintered apart, and some extradimensional beast managed to worm its way in and fuse to his soul. Valos fought for years, attempting to master the hunger. He fed largely on animals, along with the undead as he learned to do so and eventually on evil outsiders. All the while, he avoided going near those he thought might be innocent, working to uphold ideals of good and righteousness. He eventually vanished after doing battle with a hoard of demons that were summoned to protect the same village thatt had revived him - most reports say he was swallowed by a massive ethereal-looking maw, that also took out a large portion of the demonic army.
EVIL SPIRIT EATER GOES HERE
Organizations: Some information about organizations dedicated to the practice of your class and other organizations which members of your class will be attracted towards.
NPC ReactionThe primary response to Spirit Eaters is fear, followed closely by hatred. They eat souls, they're "wrong things", they're evil. That's what most people think.
SPIRIT EATERS IN THE GAME Spirit Eaters are damage-dealers with minor support and meant to be played as someone struggling to survive.
Adaptation: Anything to deal with souls can do with Spirit Eaters - they can be the result of rituals to evil gods twisting someones soul, or someones soul being altogether replaced. As long as souls are a thing in your campaign, Spirit Eaters are adaptable to fit into it.
Encounters: Generally, they'd be encountered as enemies, though someone who is cursed with the affliction of being a Spirit Eater and simply trying to get by is a possibility.
Sample Encounter
Give an example of how one might encounter a member of this PrC.
EL x: Give the encounter level and description of a sample member of this class and a stat block for him/her.
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Abilities Str , Dex , Con , Int , Wis , Cha
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