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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Fiend's Grip (Su)
The signature feature of fiendbound marauders is the ability to manifest an oversized, spiny spectral claw, often wrapped in barbed chains. To manifest a Fiend’s Grip, the character must be wearing gauntlets or spiked gauntlets that act as a focus for the marauder’s weapon to come into the world, and he may only manifest one Fiend’s Grip for each gauntleted hand he possesses. The fiendbound marauder may manifest his Fiend’s Grip as a move action and dismiss it as a free action. He may treat the Fiend's Grip as a spiked gauntlet that possesses the grab monster special ability and the reach and grapple weapon properties. This weapon also threatens creatures adjacent to him, unlike with most reach weapons. This weapon inflicts 1d8 points of damage (for Medium-sized characters) plus Strength modifier and threatens a critical hit on 20 with a x2 multiplier on successful critical confirmation. The Fiend’s Grip is treated as both a manufactured light weapon or a natural weapon for the purposes of feats, spells and other effects and may not be wielded two-handed. The damage dealt is either bludgeoning or piercing and slashing, at the character’s option. This hand always counts as a magical weapon, regardless of its enhancement bonus (if any).
When attacking with the Fiend’s Grip, the fiendbound marauder may apply any material properties of any one gauntlet or spiked gauntlet he is wearing, as well as any enhancement bonus or magical properties that it may also possess. As a supernatural ability, Fiend’s Grip does not provoke attacks of opportunity and cannot be counterspelled or dispelled when manifested, however it does not function within an antimagic field. If disarmed or sundered, the spectral weapon disappears and may be called once more on the marauder’s next turn (unless the physical gauntlet the character is wearing is sundered or otherwise removed, then the Fiend’s Grip may not be recalled until this is replaced).
Background:
Sigvarr Khrulson is a middle-aged warrior-scholar and former member of the enigmatic Clan Khanung. Thanks to his fine stock he is a towering mass of muscle with a clean-shaven head, a full beard, and dark brown eyes. Once he was also patient and kind; a family man with a loving spouse and four children. He was called an Amanuensis, a keeper of runes for the Clan. While others would go way on hunts or raids, he would remain behind and see to lore halls. Of course this also meant that he, along with others left in the encampment, were entrusted with the defense of their home should the need arrive, something he became quite adept at over time.
It might be said that that man is dead, or at least a shadow of his former self. Sigvarr is of the Khanung no longer. He is an outcast, exiled for his crimes against the Clan. He bares the runes of his dark deeds branded upon his face. They say 'kin-slayer', 'betrayer', and 'blood-tinged'. He does not seek to justify himself, nor will the specifics of his actions ever willingly pass his lips. Some vile influence has taken him, reducing this once stoic craftsmen to a seething berserker. This influence can also manifest itself physically, infesting Sigvarr's body or nearby objects and twisting them in unnatural ways.
For now he is little more than a drifter; going from place to place without any real end in sight. Honor demands that he end his life in the most glorious way possible, to redeem himself in the eyes of his ancestors. He peddles himself as a simple hired-sword in the hopes of eventually being thrown into a battle that would see his quest ended. So far nothing has been able to meet that challenge.
