A Happy Medium (Alternate Medium)


Occult Adventures Playtest General Discussion


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Inspired by Heladriell's "Alternate Kineticist" thread, I thought I'd just go ahead and post this here (it'll need to be moved to "Houserules/Homebrews" after the OA playtest is over).

This is basically a more archetypical Medium-ish character than the one presented in the playtest: it's one that regularly speaks with the undead, can command or turn them, exorcises hauntings, and barfs out ectoplasm. I couldn't really get autowriting in there, but meh.

It still uses all the Spirits as-written, but it completely throws out the Influence mechanic, and while the emphasis of the class is still solidly on the Spirits and Trancing, it is vastly less dependent on them to define itself.

It also looks to make Trance more versatile by making it more like the Barbarian's Rage, and the class is far less MAD by making the only "required" stat Charisma, while any and all other stat focuses are based on WHAT sort of Medium you want to make.

The Spell List isn't done, especially 5th and 6th level spells, but the general idea is there.

So, here it is:

MEDIUM

Alignment: Any
HD: d8
BAB: 3/4
Good Saves: Fort, Will
Starting Wealth: 1d4+10 gp
Skills per Level: 6+Int
Skills: Bluff, Craft (any), Diplomacy, Fly, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Religion), Linguistics, Perception, Profession (any), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Spells: 6/9 (Charisma)
Spells Known: 1/2 Bard Spells Known (rounded up)

Spell List:
0th - Detect Undead, Detect Good/Evil, Detect Magic
1st - Ghostbane Dirge, Sanctify Corpse,
2nd - Invisibility Purge, Blood Biography, Life Channel
3rd - Tongues, Death Ward, Anti-Incorporeal Shell
4th - Reincarnate, Raise Dead
5th - Undeath to Death
6th - Divine Vessel

Weapons/Armor: All Simple & Martial weapons. All Light & Medium armor. No Shields.

Med1 Spirits, Seance, Lesser Trance, Speak with Dead
Med2 Undead Empathy, Undaunted
Med3 Haunt Sense +1, Exorcism 1/day
Med4 Turn/Command Undead 1/day
Med5 Speak with Haunt, Haunt Sense +2
Med6 Exorcism 2/day
Med7 Haunt Sense +3
Med8 Ectoplasmic Weapon, Turn/Command Undead 2/day
Med9 Exorcism 3/day, Haunt Sense +4
Med10 Shared Seance
Med11 Unwavering, Haunt Sense +5
Med12 Exorcism 4/day, Turn/Command Undead 3/day
Med13 Haunt Sense +6
Med14 Keen Ectoplasm
Med15 Exorcism 5/day, Haunt Sense +7
Med16 Unblinking, Turn/Command Undead 4/day
Med17 Effortless Trance, Haunt Sense +8
Med18 Exorcism 6/day
Med19 Supreme Trance, Haunt Sense +9
Med20 Astral Beacon, Turn/Command Undead 5/day

Spirits (Su):
At 1st level, you gain the ability to contact and make a partnership with Spirits. You begin play knowing a number of Spirits equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. Each of these spirits must be within 1 step of your Alignment. At third level and every 3 levels thereafter, you may choose to lose a connection with one of your Spirits and instead gain access to another Spirit in its place. The new Spirit must still be within 1 step of your Alignment.

Seance (Su):
At the beginning of each day, you must perform a special ritual called a Seance in order to gain contact with your known Spirits for the remainder of the day. This ritual must be performed alone, and takes 15 minutes to perform. While performing the ritual choose 1 spirit. You gain that Spirit's Seance Bonus for 24 hours, whether you Trance with that Spirit during those 24 hours or not.

At level 5 and every 5th level thereafter, you choose another Spirit that you contact during your daily Seance and gain their Seance Bonuses for 24 hours as well (max 5 active Seance Bonuses at level 20).

You must have had 8 hours of rest before performing a Seance.

Lesser Trance (Su):
The Medium may use their connection to spirits to gain extra abilities, spells, and even bonuses to their natural abilities. Starting at level 1, a Medium may enter a Trance for a number of Rounds per day equal to 2 + their Charisma modifier. These rounds need not be consecutive. This number increases by 2 for each Medium level above 1.

When you enter a Trance, choose one of your known Spirits. That spirit gains partial possession of your body, and instills in you part of its power. While you are Trancing with that Spirit, you gain a +2 Spiritual Bonus to its governing Ability Score, its Lesser Ability, and add its Spells Known to your own.

Entering and Maintaining a Trance are Free Actions that do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Whenever you exit a Trance, you become Sickened for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds you were in a Trance.

You cannot enter a Trance if you are Sickened or Nauseated.

Temporary increases to Charisma (such as from spells or from the Trance ability) do not increase the number of rounds in which you can Trance.

Speak with Dead (SL):
At level 1, you gain the ability to use Speak with Dead as a Spell Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to your Medium level. These minutes need not be consecutive.

Undead Empathy (Ex):
Beginning at level 2, a Medium can improve the attitude of an undead. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The Medium rolls 1d20 and adds her Medium level and her Charisma modifier to determine the Undead empathy check result.

To use undead empathy, the Medium and the undead must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an undead in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A Medium can also use this ability to influence an intelligent Undead with an Intelligence score of 3 or greater (such as a Vampire), but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Undaunted (Ex):
At level 2, a Medium has become familiar with the terrifying. It gains a bonus to Will saves vs. Fear effects equal to 1/2 its Medium level (minimum 1).

Haunt Sense (Su):
At level 3, you gain the ability to detect Haunts. You are never caught unaware by Haunts, and may act in the Surprise Round triggered by a Haunt. When you roll for Initiative against a Haunt, you add a +1 Competence Bonus to your Initiative roll. You also gain a +1 Competence Bonus on all Saves made against Haunts.

This Bonus increases to +2 at level 5, and a further +1 at every odd level thereafter.

Exorcism (Su):
Beginning at 3rd level, when you encounter a Haunt, you may attempt to destroy it entirely through an elaborate ritual, called an Exorcism, without meeting the typical requirements for destroying the Haunt.

You may attempt an Exorcism once per day at level 3. At level 6 and every 3 levels thereafter, you may attempt an Exorcism one additional time per day.

Before performing an Exorcism, the Medium must first determine its alignment either by using the spell, Detect Alignment, or by making a Knowledge (Religion) check to determine the Alignment of the Haunt as a Free Action (DC= CL of the Haunt). The Medium must then use either a Holy Symbol of any Deity who's alignment is opposite the Haunts, or the Favored Weapon of such a Deity. If he does not, the Medium incurs a -5 penalty to their Exorcism Check. The Medium must also use a flask of Holy Water during the Exorcism, or else incur a -5 penalty to their Exorcism check.

To perform an Exorcism, the Medium hold out the appropriate Holy Symbol or Favored Weapon in one hand and Holy Water in the other, and make a number of successful Exorcism Checks equal to 1/2 the Caster Level of the Haunt (rounded up). Making an Exorcism check is 1d20 + Medium Level + Charisma modifier. The Medium must be standing within the radius of the Haunt in order to perform an Exorcism. When the total number of Exorcism Checks are successfully completed, the Haunt is destroyed, regardless of the number of Hit Points it has remaining.

The DC of each Exorcism Check is 10 + CL of the Haunt + 5 for each step that the Haunt's alignment is from your own. (For example, if you are LG and the Haunt is CE with a Caster Level of 10, the DC is 10+10+4=24).

Whenever an Exorcism checks fail by 10 or more, the Haunt gains 10 temporary Hit points and the DC to each Exorcism Check made for the rest of that Exorcism increases by +5 (these increases are cumulative). If the Medium fails 3 Exorcism Checks in a row, the Exorcism fails, and the Medium may not attempt an Exorcism against that Haunt again for another 24 hours.

Turn/Command Undead (Su):
At 4th level, you gain Turn or Command Undead as a Bonus Feat. You also gain the ability to use this ability once per day. You gain an additional use of this ability at level 8 and every 4 levels thereafter. Doing so is a Standard Action which provokes Attacks of Opportunities.

The DC of the save against a Turn or Command Undead attempt is equal to 10 + 1/2 the Medium's level + the Medium's Charisma modifier.

Speak with Haunt (SL):
At 5th level, your ability to speak with the Undead extends to your ability to interact with Haunts. You may use the Speak with Haunt as a Spell-Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to 1/2 your Medium level (minimum 1). These minutes need not be consecutive.

Intermediate Trance (Su):
At level 7, your ties to your Spirits grow. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +4, and you gain access to its Intermediate and ability as well.

Ectoplasmic Weapon (Su):
At level 8, you may choose to imbue your weapons with the power to deal damage to incorporeal creatures just as well as flesh-and-blood beings.

As a Move Action, you regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon, granting that weapon the Ghost Touch quality (this doesn't count towards the weapon's total Enhancement Bonus). This effect lasts for up to 1 minute. You may activate this ability a number of times per day equal to your Medium level.

Shared Seance (Su):
At level 10, you may perform a Seance with the aid of others. During this Seance, you may link up to one of your known Spirits to each ally assisting you in your Seance. Spirits linked to Allies must be within 1 step of those allies. If you do so, you do not gain the Seance Bonuses of that Spirit, and you may not use it for a Trance for the next 24 hours.

For next 24 hours, each Ally with a Spirit linked to them gains the Seance Bonus of that Spirit, and may choose to enter a Trance for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your Medium Level. This Trance is identical to your Lesser Trance.

Whenever an ally uses up all their rounds of Trance for the day, the Spirit returns to the aether, and that player looses all connections to that Spirit, including the Seance Bonuses.

If you receive a Spirit from another player this way, you may use it for the full 24 hours as though it were one of your own known Spirits, and you do not lose it if all your rounds of Trance are used up in a day. At the end of the 24 hours, it returns to its master's control.

Unwavering (Ex):
At level 11, the Medium has become hardened to fearful things. Once per Trance, as an Immediate Action, the Medium may reduce their status of Fear by 1 step.

Greater Trance (Su):
At level 13, your connection to your Spirits grow even greater. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +6, and you gain access to its Greater Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Keen Ectoplasm (Su):
Whenever you grant a weapon the Ghost Touch quality with your Ectoplasmic Weapon ability, you may also give it the ability to deal Critical Hits and Sneak Attack damage to Incorporeal creatures. If you do, the duration of your Ghost Cut effect is cut in half (to 5 rounds).

Alternatively, as a Move Action, you may regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon with the Ghost Touch quality to grant it this ability for 5 rounds. If you do, this counts against your daily uses of Ectoplasmic Weapon.

Unblinking (Ex):
At level 16, the Medium has become so accustomed to dealing with otherworldly beings that it becomes literally fearless. The Medium becomes Immune to Fear effects.

Effortless Trance (Ex):
At level 17, you are no longer Sickened from leaving a Trance.

Supreme Trance (Su):
At level 19, your connection to your Spirits grow even greater. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +6, and you gain access to its Greater Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Astral Beacon (Su):
At level 20, the Medium becomes a pure conduit for spirits. Once per day, when the Medium enters a Trance, they may choose to have all their known and available spirits inhabit their body, granting them access to all abilities, spells, and Ability Score bonuses available (like bonuses to ability scores don't stack). At the end of this Trance, the Medium falls unconscious for a number of hours equal to the number of rounds in which they were in the Trance.

---

FEATS:

Dual Vessel:
Prerequisites: Trance class feature, Character level 5th
Details: When you Trance, you may have 2 Spirits possess you, granting you the abilities, spells known, and Spiritual Bonuses to governing stats of both Spirits (like-stat bonuses don't stack).

At the end of your Trance, you are Nauseated instead of Sickened. If you have the Effortless Trance class feature, you instead become sickened.

Extra Trance:
Prerequisites: Trance class feature
Details: You may Trance up to 2 more rounds per day.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. It's effects stack.


I like most of this. The exorcism mechanic can probably be simplified just a bit more. Someone else suggested channel energy, but only against undead. Maybe as the medium levels that can expand to other spirit-like entities (like outsiders, extra planar fey, anything that's incorporeal). You could take the action to exorcise as full-round or longer to lay a spirit to rest and thus keep it from coming back.

Hopefully a third party will pick up on this and offer a streamlined version. This is very close to how I envisioned the medium, minus the harrow characters shoehorned in.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I 100% approve of this.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Mark, this should be an archetype in the book. These are all abilities I think of when I think of a Medium!


I just realized the DC should read 10 + CL + 1(!) for each step away. It has 5 right now, which would make checks insanely hard.

Supreme Trance should also be +8 and Supreme ability at lv19.

YAY PROOFREADING!


I totally dig this. Much better than the official Medium and it fits all the tropes for a medium.

May I recommend adding the following spells to the spell list: hide from undead, calm spirit, command undead, halt undead, speak with haunt, sphere of warding, spiritual ally, spiritual weapon, lesser astral projection, call spirit, mass ghostbane dirge, undeath ward, antilife shell, and ethereal jaunt (as a 6th level)

Also, will this Medium's spells be typed as psychic? I'm guessing it probably should be.


Honestly, I don't like "Psychic" spells and think this is actually better as a Divine class, but since "Psychic" is kinda shoehorned into the book, then, yeah, they're Psychic spells.

Speak with Haunt wouldn't be a spell, probably, because it gets that as a spell-like ability. If there were an archetype, though, that loses both Speak with Dead & Haunt, those spells would probably be added to the list of that Archetype to accommodate the loss.

But, yeah, you can add these to the list above:

1st - Hide from Undead
2nd - Spiritual Weapon, Call Spirit
3rd - Command Undead, Halt
4th - Halt Undead, Mass Ghostbane Dirge, Undeath Ward
5th - Antilife Shell, Lesser Astral Projection
6th - Ethereal Jaunt


Also realized I forgot to list Intermediate and Greater Trance at their appropriate levels on the level breakdown. YAY PROOFREADING! (again)

Med1 Spirits, Seance, Lesser Trance, Speak with Dead
Med2 Undead Empathy, Undaunted
Med3 Haunt Sense +1, Exorcism 1/day
Med4 Turn/Command Undead 1/day
Med5 Speak with Haunt, Haunt Sense +2
Med6 Exorcism 2/day
Med7 Intermediate Trance, Haunt Sense +3
Med8 Ectoplasmic Weapon, Turn/Command Undead 2/day
Med9 Exorcism 3/day, Haunt Sense +4
Med10 Shared Seance
Med11 Unwavering, Haunt Sense +5
Med12 Exorcism 4/day, Turn/Command Undead 3/day
Med13 Greater Trance, Haunt Sense +6
Med14 Keen Ectoplasm
Med15 Exorcism 5/day, Haunt Sense +7
Med16 Unblinking, Turn/Command Undead 4/day
Med17 Effortless Trance, Haunt Sense +8
Med18 Exorcism 6/day
Med19 Supreme Trance, Haunt Sense +9
Med20 Astral Beacon, Turn/Command Undead 5/day


This class looks like it would be fun to play.

As an editorial note, your Greater Trance and Supreme Trance have the exact same spiritual bonuses. Given that the Haunt Sense at level 19 is +9, Should the Supreme Trance be at a +9, instead of the +6 as listed?


Personally, I'll take the playtest version over this any day. This is overly focused on undead, and seriously hurts the utility of the spirits' abilities, for the most part killing non-combat use.

That said, I'm happy to provide some feedback and nitpicking so that it can be (at the very least) a better homebrew. Obviously, these are my opinions, and moreover the opinions of somebody who probably disagrees with some of the actual goals of the class.

The only spirits ever used will be strength and dexterity on a dex-to-damage build. Not sure how to resolve that.

The bonus vs. fear effects scales very oddly. Pathfinder doesn't have any other saves that scale as half-level. I'd recommend either adopting the Fighter progression (toning it down and dropping immunity as something exclusive to Paladins) or using the Alchemist's poison save bonus progression.

That is the kind of capstone people get upset over. Rounds of power in exchange for hours of unconsciousness? Even minutes would be excessive. Better than the Monk that can erase itself from history as a capstone, I suppose. Instead, give them two spirits while raging with no penalties. If the abilities are the same, increase the bonus by +2.

If this is modeled on rage, then make the feat worthwhile. Extra Rage grants six rounds of rage, and with good reason. This should offer six rounds of trance as well. Similarly, initial rounds of trance should be 4 + Cha. There needs to be a large pool to use, because sickened is worse condition than fatigued. (-2 attack, -2 damage, -2 saves as opposed to fatigue's -1 attack, -1 or -2 damage, -1 AC)

You begin play with a number of spirits, but that number never goes up. From your posts, that sounds like a design decision on your part, but it really needs to increase when your charisma permanently increases. (Similarly, if you drop in charisma permanently, you lose access to spirits until it's remedied.)

Undead Empathy should specify that it works on and is normally used on mindless undead, and offer the option at a penalty for intelligent undead. (Pathfinder divides along the intelligent/mindless line for undead rather than an int score of 3.)

Exorcism could use some work. Lawful Good is four steps from Chaotic Evil, not two. And there's a penalty for being opposed to the Haunt's alignment? I think the penalty should be for using the holy symbol of a deity that is not your alignment. Otherwise a CE worshipper of Lamashtu would be wandering around with a bunch of holy symbols of Iomedae, casting out spirits in her name. The fluff here is very weird, and part of why I didn't want Mediums performing exorcisms. That's the job of a Cleric. When you want to talk to a spirit, you call a Medium. When you want to drive it out, you call a Cleric. How opposed does the symbol have to be? Opposed on only one axis means that any good deity will always work. Exorcism also fails to touch a major source of possessions, namely demons.

This class lacks any possibility of being possessed if it messes up somehow.

Supreme Trance increases the ability score bonus from +6 to… +6?

Shared Seance probably shouldn't make your allies sickened. Not worth it for such minor gains at that level.

Haunt Sense should be granting a bonus to perception to spot the haunts rather than automatically granting access to the surprise round. The bonus to saves is huge, and renders haunts obsolete. This is self-defeating, because it means never encountering haunts.

There's no mention of how a Medium decides between Turn and Command Undead.

The class is very specialized. Three haunt-related abilities (which, as noted, feel strong enough to prevent haunts from being included in the campaign except out of pity for the fact that you have three class features related to them), and two undead-only abilities. (Three if you count Ghost Touch as being very close to undead-only.) The spell list is heavily leaning towards undead stuff at the moment. A class that you only play when there's undead involved could be built better, or built as an archetype.

Some spirits are now useless, like The Liar.

Funky gameplay issues outside of combat like making a social check with a bonus, and then getting sick immediately after. Does a Medium need to spend ten rounds of trancing with a charisma spirit to get the bonus on a diplomacy check?

This class will also dip Oracle for trance cycling. (Allowing free changes of spirits during a fight… even between iterative attacks.)

Level 17 trance cycling is even crazier than Barbarian rage cycling in terms of how much switching on and off will happen in a round.


As I said in my comments, I missed proofreading Supreme when finishing - it should be +8 and grants Supreme ability. This is what happens when you write the class and post it in 2 hours, and at around 2am.

At first I meant to have Turn/Command Undead be based on your alignment, but I missed adding that in, and then I thought "honestly, given the flavor of the class, I'm just leaving it as 'You gain one or the other - your choice'." A Medium seems like the kind of class where you have Good characters commanding Undead, and Evil characters Turning Undead as well.

Also, yes, Spirit-cycling WOULD be a bit nuts. That's sorta the point. At lv17 of a class, you are starting to do insane things with that class. However, the crazy things you're doing with Spirit Cycling aren't nearly as bad as the oddball mix-and-match system set up in the playtest Medium

And before that, I would always take being Sickened for a few rounds over having to hand over my character sheet to the DM because I hit Influence 4. The penalties for Sickened aren't unlike those for Fatigued, so fairly piddling.


QuidEst wrote:
Exorcism could use some work. Lawful Good is four steps from Chaotic Evil, not two. And there's a penalty for being opposed to the Haunt's alignment? I think the penalty should be for using the holy symbol of a deity that is not your alignment. Otherwise a CE worshipper of Lamashtu would be wandering around with a bunch of holy symbols of Iomedae, casting out spirits in her name.

The point is not that you are suffering a penalty, it's that the Haunt is enraged and/or more defensive against something of opposite alignment. And I also mentioned that there was a mistake in there, that the DC is 10+CL+1/step. The +5 was from an early idea that I discarded 5 minutes after typing it, yet missed that part.

Also, I modeled this on exorcisms partially in real life, and one of the more odd things with "real" exorcisms is that, many times, having the right kind of priest exorcise a spirit is key.

A Catholic Priest may be useless in exorcising a spirit/haunt, while a Shinto Miko has a significantly easier time. Likewise, a Buddhist Monk may have a major problem exorcising a house, while a Lutheran bishop has no problem at all.

That's not to say that, if you're high enough level, you can't - it's just HARDER because you don't have the proper implements.

The other inspiration came from things like Hellblazer, where, for example, John Constantine doesn't use JUST Christian iconigraphy - Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Mesopotamian, Egyptian... the man does not stick to one faith when battling enemies, and instead uses what is most effective.

A Cleric is thematically obsessed with their own faith and use their own symbols; a Medium, however, would thematically be "neutral" and use whatever symbols are necessary to get the job done.

QuidEst wrote:
You begin play with a number of spirits, but that number never goes up. From your posts, that sounds like a design decision on your part, but it really needs to increase when your charisma permanently increases. (Similarly, if you drop in charisma permanently, you lose access to spirits until it's remedied.)

That was always the intent, but I should probably say as much, yeah.

QuidEst wrote:
The class is very specialized. Three haunt-related abilities (which, as noted, feel strong enough to prevent haunts from being included in the campaign except out of pity for the fact that you have three class features related to them)

The main reason for this is to have the class act as a foil to the Rogue or other classes which has Trapfinding. Those classes typically have no defenses against Haunts; this class, however, would be specialized in dealing with such things.

The reason I didn't bother adding Perception to Haunt Sense is that Haunts can be detected through Detect Undead or Detect Alignment (both of which are Cantrips for this class), but maybe it should be added to Haunt Sense. If I update this, it'll probably be added in.


A couple of more suggestions

Replace Haunt Sense with the Roaming Exorcist's Unseen Revealed ability (or something like it)

Maybe get rid of Exorcism and replace it with a positive energy channel that can only be used to harm undead and haunts.

I also agree the Medium shouldn't be completely immune to fear.


I made some changes and fixed some goofs.

For now I've left in the "immunity to fear" ability at lv16, since most exorcist/medium-ish characters in fiction seem pretty steely against fear once they're high level enough, and after being exposed to the greatest horrors imaginable, you'd kinda become unmoved by any scary things, really. This may change, but for now, it needs a lv16 ability, and it seems fitting.

Here's an updated version:

MEDIUM

Alignment: Any
HD: d8
BAB: 3/4
Good Saves: Fort, Will
Starting Wealth: 1d4+10 gp
Skills per Level: 6+Int
Skills: Bluff, Craft (any), Diplomacy, Fly, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Religion), Linguistics, Perception, Profession (any), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Spells: 6/9 (Charisma)
Spells Known: 1/2 Bard Spells Known (rounded up)

Spell List:

0th - Detect Undead, Detect Good/Evil, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead
1st - Ghostbane Dirge, Sanctify Corpse, Hide from Undead
2nd - Invisibility Purge, Blood Biography, Life Channel, Call Spirit
3rd - Tongues, Death Ward, Anti-Incorporeal Shell, Command Undead
4th - Reincarnate, Raise Dead, Halt Undead, Mass Ghostbane Dirge, Undeath Ward, Contact Other Plane
5th - Undeath to Death, Antilife Shell, Lesser Astral Projection
6th - Divine Vessel, Ethereal Jaunt

Weapons/Armor: All Simple & Martial weapons. All Light & Medium armor. No Shields.

Med1 Spirits, Seance, Lesser Trance, Speak with Dead
Med2 Undead Empathy, Undaunted
Med3 Haunt Sense +1, Exorcism 1/day
Med4 Turn/Command Undead, Channel Essence 1d8
Med5 Speak with Haunt, Haunt Sense +2
Med6 Exorcism 2/day
Med7 Intermediate Trance, Haunt Sense +3
Med8 Ectoplasmic Weapon, Channel Essence 2d8
Med9 Exorcism 3/day, Haunt Sense +4
Med10 Shared Seance
Med11 Unwavering, Haunt Sense +5
Med12 Exorcism 4/day, Channel Essence 3d8
Med13 Greater Trance, Haunt Sense +6
Med14 Keen Ectoplasm
Med15 Exorcism 5/day, Haunt Sense +7
Med16 Unblinking, Channel Essence 4d8
Med17 Effortless Trance, Haunt Sense +8
Med18 Exorcism 6/day
Med19 Supreme Trance, Haunt Sense +9
Med20 Astral Beacon, Channel Essence 5d8

Spirits (Su):

You have the ability to contact and make a partnership with Spirits. You begin play knowing a number of Spirits equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier; if your Charisma score ever increases or decreases permanently, you gain or lose an appropriate number of spirits based on your new modifier. Each of these spirits must be within 1 step of your Alignment. At third level and every 3 levels thereafter, you may choose to lose a connection with one of your Spirits and instead gain access to another Spirit in its place. The new Spirit must still be within 1 step of your Alignment.

Seance (Su):

At the beginning of each day, you must perform a special ritual called a Seance in order to gain contact with your known Spirits for the remainder of the day. This ritual must be performed alone, and takes 15 minutes to perform. While performing the ritual choose 1 spirit. You gain that Spirit's Seance Bonus for 24 hours, whether you Trance with that Spirit during those 24 hours or not.
At level 5 and every 5th level thereafter, you choose another Spirit that you contact during your daily Seance and gain their Seance Bonuses for 24 hours as well (max 5 active Seance Bonuses at level 20).

You must have had 8 hours of rest before performing a Seance.

Lesser Trance (Su):

The Medium may use their connection to spirits to gain extra abilities, spells, and even bonuses to their natural abilities. Starting at level 1, a Medium may enter a Trance for a number of Rounds per day equal to 2 + their Charisma modifier. These rounds need not be consecutive. This number increases by 2 for each Medium level above 1.
When you enter a Trance, choose one of your known Spirits. That spirit gains partial possession of your body, and instills in you part of its power. While you are Trancing with that Spirit, you gain a +2 Spiritual Bonus to its governing Ability Score, its Lesser Ability, and add its Spells Known to your own.

Entering and Maintaining a Trance are Free Actions that do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Whenever you exit a Trance, you become Sickened for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds you were in a Trance.

You cannot enter a Trance if you are Sickened or Nauseated.

Temporary increases to Charisma (such as from spells or from the Trance ability) do not increase the number of rounds in which you can Trance.

Speak with Dead (SL):

At level 1, you gain the ability to use Speak with Dead as a Spell Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to your Medium level. These minutes need not be consecutive.

Undead Empathy (Ex):

Beginning at level 2, a Medium can improve the attitude of an undead creature with Intelligence score of 2 or less. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The Medium rolls 1d20 and adds her Medium level and her Charisma modifier to determine the Undead empathy check result.

To use undead empathy, the Medium and the undead must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an undead in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A Medium can also use this ability to influence an intelligent Undead with an Intelligence score of 3 or greater (such as a Vampire), but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Undaunted (Ex):

At level 2, a Medium has become familiar with the terrifying. It gains a bonus to Will saves vs. Fear effects equal to 1/2 its Medium level (minimum 1).

Ghost Sense (Su):

At level 3, you gain the ability to detect Haunts and incorporeal beings.

You gain a +1 Bonus to Perception checks to detect Haunts and Incorporeal creatures. You also gain a +1 Bonus to Sense Motive checks to determine if a creature is possessed, under the effects of an enchantment or curse, or otherwise magically controlled.

You also gain a +1 Bonus on all Saves made against Haunts and Incorporeal creatures.

These Bonuses increases to +2 at level 5, and a further +1 at every odd level thereafter.

Exorcism (Su):

Beginning at 3rd level, when you encounter a Haunt, you may attempt to destroy it entirely through an elaborate ritual, called an Exorcism, without meeting the typical requirements for destroying the Haunt.
You may attempt an Exorcism once per day at level 3. At level 6 and every 3 levels thereafter, you may attempt an Exorcism one additional time per day.

Before performing an Exorcism, the Medium must first determine its alignment either by using the spell, Detect Alignment, or by making a Knowledge (Religion) check to determine the Alignment of the Haunt as a Free Action (DC = CL of the Haunt). The Medium must then use either a Holy Symbol of any Deity who's alignment is opposite the Haunts, or the Favored Weapon of such a Deity. If he does not, the Medium incurs a -5 penalty to their Exorcism Check. The Medium must also use a flask of Holy Water during the Exorcism, or else incur a -5 penalty to their Exorcism check.

To perform an Exorcism, the Medium hold out the appropriate Holy Symbol or Favored Weapon in one hand and Holy Water in the other, and make a number of successful Exorcism Checks equal to 1/2 the Caster Level of the Haunt (rounded up). Making an Exorcism check is 1d20 + Medium Level + Charisma modifier. The Medium must be standing within the radius of the Haunt in order to perform an Exorcism. When the total number of Exorcism Checks are successfully completed, the Haunt is destroyed, regardless of the number of Hit Points it has remaining.

The DC of each Exorcism Check is 10 + CL of the Haunt + 1 for each step that the Haunt's alignment is from your own. (For example, if you are LG and the Haunt is CE with a Caster Level of 10, the DC is 10+10+4=24).

Whenever an Exorcism checks fail by 10 or more, the Haunt gains 1d6+10 temporary Hit points and the DC to each Exorcism Check made for the rest of that Exorcism increases by +5 (these increases are cumulative). If the Medium fails 3 Exorcism Checks in a row, the Exorcism fails, and the Medium may not attempt an Exorcism against that Haunt again for another 24 hours.

Turn/Command Undead (Su):

At 4th level, you gain Turn or Command Undead as a Bonus Feat (your choice, regardless of alignment), even if you don't meet the prerequisites for the feat.

Channel Essence (Su):

At 4th level, you gain the ability to Channel your essence. This is similar to a Cleric's Channel Energy class ability, except that it neither harms nor heals mortal creatures.

Once per day, as a Standard Action which provokes Attacks of Opportunity, you may Channel Essence to deal 1d8 damage to all Undead, Haunts, and Incorporeal creatures in a 30ft. burst. You also deal 1d8 damage to all corporeal Extraplanar Outsiders whose alignments are 2 or more steps away from your own within the area of that burst.

This ability counts as Channel Energy for the purposes of activating the Turn or Command Undead feats.

At level 8 and every 4 levels thereafter, you may Channel Essence 1 additional time per day and increase your essence amount by +1d8.

Speak with Haunt (SL):

At 5th level, your ability to speak with the Undead extends to your ability to interact with Haunts. You may use the Speak with Haunt as a Spell-Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to 1/2 your Medium level (minimum 1). These minutes need not be consecutive.

Intermediate Trance (Su):

At level 7, your ties to your Spirits grow. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +4, and you gain access to its Intermediate and ability as well.

Ectoplasmic Weapon (Su):

At level 8, you may choose to imbue your weapons with the power to deal damage to incorporeal creatures just as well as flesh-and-blood beings.
As a Move Action, you regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon, granting that weapon the Ghost Touch quality (this doesn't count towards the weapon's total Enhancement Bonus). This effect lasts for up to 1 minute. You may activate this ability a number of times per day equal to your Medium level.

Shared Seance (Su):

At level 10, you may perform a Seance with the aid of others. During this Seance, you may link up to one of your known Spirits to each ally assisting you in your Seance. Spirits linked to Allies must be within 1 step of those allies. If you do so, you do not gain the Seance Bonuses of that Spirit, and you may not use it for a Trance for the next 24 hours.

For the next 24 hours, each Ally with a Spirit linked to them gains the Seance Bonus of that Spirit, and may choose to enter a Trance for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your Medium Level. This Trance is identical to your Lesser Trance, except that they do not becoming sickened after leaving a Trance.

Whenever an ally uses up all their rounds of Trance for the day, the Spirit returns to the aether, and that player looses all connections to that Spirit, including the Seance Bonuses.

If you receive a Spirit from another player this way, you may use it for the full 24 hours as though it were one of your own known Spirits, and you do not lose it if all your rounds of Trance are used up in a day. At the end of the 24 hours, it returns to its master's control.

Unwavering (Ex):

At level 11, the Medium has become hardened to fearful things. Once per Trance, as an Immediate Action, the Medium may reduce their status of Fear by 1 step.

Greater Trance (Su):

At level 13, your connection to your Spirits grow even greater. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +6, and you gain access to its Greater Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Keen Ectoplasm (Su):

Whenever you grant a weapon the Ghost Touch quality with your Ectoplasmic Weapon ability, you may also give it the ability to deal Critical Hits and Sneak Attack damage to Incorporeal creatures. If you do, the duration of your Ghost Cut effect is cut in half (to 5 rounds).

Alternatively, as a Move Action, you may regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon with the Ghost Touch quality to grant it this ability for 5 rounds. If you do, this counts against your daily uses of Ectoplasmic Weapon.

Unblinking (Ex):

At level 16, the Medium has become so accustomed to dealing with otherworldly beings that it becomes literally fearless. The Medium becomes Immune to Fear effects.

Effortless Trance (Ex):

At level 17, you are no longer Sickened from leaving a Trance.

Supreme Trance (Su):

At level 19, your connection to your Spirits is perfected. The Spiritual Bonus granted by Trancing with a Spirit increases to +8, and you gain access to its Supreme Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Astral Beacon (Su):

At level 20, the Medium becomes a pure conduit for spirits. Once per day, when the Medium enters a Trance, they may choose to have all their known and available spirits inhabit their body, granting them access to all abilities, spells, and Ability Score bonuses available (like bonuses to ability scores don't stack). At the end of this Trance, the Medium falls unconscious for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds in which they were in the Trance.

---

FEATS:

Dual Vessel:

Prerequisites: Trance class feature, Character level 5th
Details: When you Trance, you may have 2 Spirits possess you, granting you the abilities, spells known, and Spiritual Bonuses to governing stats of both Spirits (like-stat bonuses don't stack).
At the end of your Trance, you are Nauseated instead of Sickened. If you have the Effortless Trance class feature, you instead become sickened.

Extra Trance:

Prerequisites: Trance class feature
Details: You may Trance up to 6 more rounds per day.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. It's effects stack.


This truly has an archetypal medium feel. I like it very much.


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I keep forgetting to mention that making an Exorcism Check is a Standard Action which provokes Attacks of Opportunity. Bah.


Eh. I think the other version is more fun. I will note that this version makes the skill focused/out of combat focused (intelligence) spirits much less useful since you need to save your actual trance rounds for combat.

I feel like you should take out the trance ability, put something else cool in there and then proceed to call this your home-brewed Exorcist class (because that seems to be what you want to focus on anyways).


chbgraphicarts wrote:
Also, yes, Spirit-cycling WOULD be a bit nuts. That's sorta the point. At lv17 of a class, you are starting to do insane things with that class. However, the crazy things you're doing with Spirit Cycling aren't nearly as bad as the oddball mix-and-match system set up in the playtest Medium

Level 9 is where it actually kicks in for even quick optimization. One level dip in Oracle for Wasting curse, plus a first-level revelation and a bunch of CLW free every day. Consider a NE Medium. Hit with regular iteratives using The Beating (NE strength) using unarmed strikes with your feet. Switch to The Bear (TN strength) as a free action, growing large and gaining two claw attacks. Take those as secondary attacks, then switch to The Fiend (LE strength) and take your new bite attack as a secondary attack, which counts as large and deals bonus damage against good creatures. End your turn with whichever con/dexterity spirit gives you the best defense. That's what level 9 looks like, just with the revealed spirits. In addition, each attack made against a target hit before will get +1 attack, +2 damage, and if the dexterity spirit has any swift/immediate/free action options, those can be taken as well. (At level 14, that same sequence deals a few points of strength damage, makes the claw attacks at +10 strength, and gets a free grapple/swallow whole attempt on the bite attack.)

chbgraphicarts wrote:
And before that, I would always take being Sickened for a few rounds over having to hand over my character sheet to the DM because I hit Influence 4. The penalties for Sickened aren't unlike those for Fatigued, so fairly piddling.

I think that's an inaccurate comparison. Influence 4 can only be reached by repeatedly voluntarily trancing for a spirit. Realistically, that's only going to happen to access abilities early (or spending influence on fancy abilities, like the All Are Slaves to the Rakshasa). Everything that spending rounds of trance in your version can do is granted for free with no trancing by the playtest version, with the exception of switching spirits between combats instead of between days. To accomplish anything your spirit does, the playtest spirit never goes above 1 influence, let alone reaching 4. I would take "free" over "spend a limited daily resource and be sickened later".

chbgraphicarts wrote:
The main reason for this is to have the class act as a foil to the Rogue or other classes which has Trapfinding. Those classes typically have no defenses against Haunts; this class, however, would be specialized in dealing with such things.

Rogues don't auto-succeed against traps. Don't make Mediums auto-succeed against haunts, otherwise haunts are boring. +1 every other level is a very fast progression for a save on anything you aren't working towards immunity on.

Minor mechanical detail: supernatural abilities (generally) don't provoke.

EDIT: I agree with Excaliburproxy. Most of the issues (apart from narrow focus) are with taking spirits designed to grant permanent at-will abilities with temporary access to abilities six levels early and trying to fit them in with a rage mechanic.


Generally, no, but the written rules override basic rules.

Also, what "permanent" abilities are you talking about?

The original Medium is not a Binder. You get the effects for, at most, 7 minutes per day in the original. At lv20. That is unless they are a Seance Bonus. In which case this class does basically the same thing (you get Seance Bonuses for 24 hours)

It's also a full-round action to access the Spirits, and once they're active, you're stuck with them for the full minute. Then, you're done for the day at lv1.

If the class functioned a bit more like the Binder - that you got abilities for 24 hours, I'd agree, but as it stands, the Medium's original Trance is fairly useless for several levels.

This would let you Trance for typically 5 rounds (30 seconds) at lv1, assuming you have a 16 charisma. This would be 27 rounds at lv12, or just under 3 mintues. GAAAASP! SO MUCH LESS THAN 5 MINUTES YOU CAN TRANCE WITH THE ORIGINAL!

Yes, some Spirits aren't as good since they would all-but require you to eat up the full 5-minutes of Trance, but at least with a build that's more than just "Spirits Spirits Spirits" you can do things BESIDES eat spirits up.

And, really, "Narrow?" The original class is far more narrow than this; if I sound defensive it's because I don't understand how a class that literally doesn't function better than an NPC when it loses its main schtick isn't as "narrow" as a class with actual spells and abilities separate from the main schtick.

The original Medium has NO abilities - no spells, no class features, nada - that work when you're not syphoning a Spirit, besides piddling Seance Bonuses. When you're out of your whopping 7 1-minute use of Trance for the day at lv20 you are literally more useless than an Animal Companion.

---

Perhaps I could up the rounds to 4+Cha + 4/level. That brings the total amount to over 8 minutes at lv20, which is longer than 7 minutes you get from the Medium.


chbgraphicarts wrote:

Also, what "permanent" abilities are you talking about?

The original Medium is not a Binder. You get the effects for, at most, 7 minutes per day in the original. At lv20. That is unless they are a Seance Bonus. In which case this class does basically the same thing (you get Seance Bonuses for 24 hours)

It's also a full-round action to access the Spirits, and once they're active, you're stuck with them for the full minute. Then, you're done for the day at lv1.

If the class functioned a bit more like the Binder - that you got abilities for 24 hours, I'd agree, but as it stands, the Medium's original Trance is fairly useless for several levels.

Ooh… I think I understand why you dislike the Medium so much now. Well, I have good news! The Medium does function like a Binder, and you do get the abilities for 24 hours!

Quote:

Each day, a medium must contact his spirits through a ritual known as a seance. Seances take 1 hour to perform and require the medium’s concentration. At the end of the seance, the medium invites any spirit he knows to inhabit him and serve as his primary spirit for that day. The medium gains the listed seance bonus for that spirit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, if the medium does not perform a seance, he does not keep his spirits from the previous day but instead loses all his contacted spirits until he performs a seance.

The medium gains the lesser spirit power from his channeled spirit at 1st level, the intermediate spirit power at 7th level, the greater spirit power at 13th level, and the supreme spirit power at 19th level. The spirit powers are described in the spirit’s entry.

For your primary spirit, you get the level-appropriate abilities for the full 24 hours. Need more? Trance gives you two options. One is accessing the [i]next[/] ability for one minute. At first level, that means accessing your 7th level ability. At 7th, your 13th level ability. And at 13th, you get to access your not-quite-a-capstone ability! (Which is especially awesome for The Unicorn, who can get full daily use of it in that single minute.) The second option is getting the spirit bonus and 1st level ability of any spirit that you aren't channeling already for one minute, provided it meets the alignment/ability rule.

At 5th, 11th, and 17th level, you get an additional spirit. They grant fewer spirit abilities, of course.

Hopefully that addresses your biggest issue with the class? If it really were limited to only during trances, I would be with you 100%!


I prefer this version immensely, even if the only change was just the "At level 5 and every 5th level thereafter, you choose another Spirit that you contact during your daily Seance and gain their Seance Bonuses for 24 hours as well (max 5 active Seance Bonuses at level 20)."

Designer

QuidEst wrote:
chbgraphicarts wrote:

Also, what "permanent" abilities are you talking about?

The original Medium is not a Binder. You get the effects for, at most, 7 minutes per day in the original. At lv20. That is unless they are a Seance Bonus. In which case this class does basically the same thing (you get Seance Bonuses for 24 hours)

It's also a full-round action to access the Spirits, and once they're active, you're stuck with them for the full minute. Then, you're done for the day at lv1.

If the class functioned a bit more like the Binder - that you got abilities for 24 hours, I'd agree, but as it stands, the Medium's original Trance is fairly useless for several levels.

Ooh… I think I understand why you dislike the Medium so much now. Well, I have good news! The Medium does function like a Binder, and you do get the abilities for 24 hours!

Yeah, woaaah. That explains everything. I was wondering why he was so convinced that he would hit 4 influence if there was a spirit he seanced a lot. If you needed to trance to get any powers from your spirit, he's actually right, you would hit 4 influence swiftly if you wanted to use any powers!

As for the exorcist chassis—chb, that's pretty cool. You may considering pitching something similar to a 3pp and publishing it. I bet it would sell some copies!


Okay - taking the opportunity to change the duration of the Trance also let me do a little more spell/grammarchecking and adding in pieces that I kept forgetting to add, here's the updated list (I'll probably have to make a new thread eventually to put this at the top):

MEDIUM

Alignment: Any
HD: d8
BAB: 3/4
Good Saves: Fort, Will
Starting Wealth: 1d4+10 gp
Skills per Level: 6+Int
Skills: Bluff, Craft (any), Diplomacy, Fly, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Religion), Linguistics, Perception, Profession (any), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Spells: 6/9 (Charisma)
Spells Known: 1/2 Bard Spells Known (rounded up)

Spell List:

0th - Detect Undead, Detect Good/Evil, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead
1st - Ghostbane Dirge, Sanctify Corpse, Hide from Undead
2nd - Invisibility Purge, Blood Biography, Life Channel, Call Spirit
3rd - Tongues, Death Ward, Anti-Incorporeal Shell, Command Undead
4th - Reincarnate, Raise Dead, Halt Undead, Mass Ghostbane Dirge, Undeath Ward, Contact Other Plane
5th - Undeath to Death, Antilife Shell, Lesser Astral Projection
6th - Divine Vessel, Ethereal Jaunt

[b]Weapons/Armor: All Simple & Martial weapons. All Light & Medium armor. No Shields.

Med1 Spirits, Seance, Lesser Trance, Speak with Dead
Med2 Undead Empathy, Undaunted
Med3 Haunt Sense +1, Exorcism 1/day
Med4 Turn/Command Undead, Channel Essence 1d8
Med5 Speak with Haunt, Haunt Sense +2
Med6 Exorcism 2/day
Med7 Intermediate Trance, Haunt Sense +3
Med8 Ectoplasmic Weapon, Channel Essence 2d8
Med9 Exorcism 3/day, Haunt Sense +4
Med10 Shared Seance
Med11 Unwavering, Haunt Sense +5
Med12 Exorcism 4/day, Channel Essence 3d8
Med13 Greater Trance, Haunt Sense +6
Med14 Keen Ectoplasm
Med15 Exorcism 5/day, Haunt Sense +7
Med16 Unblinking, Channel Essence 4d8
Med17 Effortless Trance, Haunt Sense +8
Med18 Exorcism 6/day
Med19 Supreme Trance, Haunt Sense +9
Med20 Astral Beacon, Channel Essence 5d8

Spirits (Su):

You have the ability to contact and make a partnership with Spirits. You begin play knowing a number of Spirits equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. Each of these spirits must be within 1 step of your Alignment.

At third level and every 3 levels thereafter, you may choose to lose a connection with one of your Spirits and instead gain access to another Spirit in its place. The new Spirit must still be within 1 step of your Alignment.

If your Charisma score ever increases or decreases permanently, you gain or lose an appropriate number of spirits based on your new modifier.

Seance (Su):

At the beginning of each day, you must perform a special ritual called a Seance in order to gain contact with your known Spirits for the remainder of the day. This ritual must be performed alone, and takes 15 minutes to perform. While performing the ritual choose 1 spirit. You gain that Spirit's Seance Bonus for 24 hours, whether you Trance with that Spirit during those 24 hours or not.

At level 5 and every 5th level thereafter, you choose another Spirit that you contact during your daily Seance and gain their Seance Bonuses for 24 hours as well (max 5 active Seance Bonuses at level 20).
You must have had 8 hours of rest before performing a Seance.

Lesser Trance (Su):

The Medium may use their connection to spirits to gain extra abilities, spells, and even bonuses to their natural abilities. Starting at level 1, a Medium may enter a Trance for a number of Rounds per day equal to 4 + their Charisma modifier. These rounds need not be consecutive. This number increases by 4 for each Medium level above 1.

When you enter a Trance, choose one of your known Spirits. That spirit gains partial possession of your body, and instills in you part of its power. While you are Trancing with that Spirit, you gain a +2 Spiritual Bonus to its governing Ability Score, its Lesser Ability, and add its Spells Known to your own.

Entering and Maintaining a Trance are Free Actions that do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Whenever you exit a Trance, you become Sickened for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds you were in a Trance.

You cannot enter a Trance if you are Sickened or Nauseated.

Temporary increases to Charisma (such as from spells or from the Trance ability) do not increase the number of rounds in which you can Trance.

Speak with Dead (SL):

At level 1, you gain the ability to use Speak with Dead as a Spell Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to your Medium level. These minutes need not be consecutive.

Undead Empathy (Ex):

Beginning at level 2, a Medium can improve the attitude of an undead creature with Intelligence score of 2 or less. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The Medium rolls 1d20 and adds her Medium level and her Charisma modifier to determine the Undead empathy check result.

To use undead empathy, the Medium and the undead must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an undead in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A Medium can also use this ability to influence an intelligent Undead with an Intelligence score of 3 or greater (such as a Vampire), but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Undaunted (Ex):

At level 2, a Medium has become familiar with the terrifying. It gains a bonus to Will saves vs. Fear effects equal to 1/2 its Medium level (minimum 1).

Ghost Sense (Su):

At level 3, you gain the ability to detect Haunts and incorporeal beings.

You gain a +1 Bonus to Perception checks to detect Haunts and Incorporeal creatures. You also gain a +1 Bonus to Sense Motive checks to determine if a creature is possessed, under the effects of an enchantment or curse, or otherwise magically controlled.

You also gain a +1 Bonus on all Saves made against Haunts and Incorporeal creatures.

These Bonuses increases to +2 at level 5, and a further +1 at every odd level thereafter.

Exorcism (Su):

Beginning at 3rd level, when you encounter a Haunt, you may attempt to destroy it entirely through an elaborate ritual, called an Exorcism, without meeting the typical requirements for destroying the Haunt.
You may attempt an Exorcism once per day at level 3. At level 6 and every 3 levels thereafter, you may attempt an Exorcism one additional time per day.

Before performing an Exorcism, the Medium must first determine the Haunt's alignment, either by using the spell Detect Alignment or by making a Knowledge (Religion) check to determine the Alignment of the Haunt as a Free Action (DC = CL of the Haunt). The Medium must then use either a Holy Symbol of any Deity who's alignment is opposite the Haunts, or the Favored Weapon of such a Deity. If he does not, the Medium incurs a -5 penalty to their Exorcism Check. The Medium must also use a flask of Holy Water during the Exorcism, or else incur a -5 penalty to their Exorcism check.

To compelte an Exorcism, the Medium must make a total number of successful Exorcism Checks equal to 1/2 the Caster Level of the Haunt (rounded up).

To make an Exorcism Check, the Medium must be standing within the radius of the Haunt, holding forth an appropriate Holy Symbol or Favored Weapon in one hand, a flask of Holy Water in the other, and reciting a special prayer, making a roll of 1d20 + Medium Level + Charisma modifier. Such an act is a Standard Action which provokes an Attack of Opportunity.

When the Medium performs the proper number of successful Exorcism Checks, the Haunt is destroyed, regardless of the number of Hit Points it has remaining.

The DC of each Exorcism Check is 10 + CL of the Haunt + 1 for each step that the Haunt's alignment is from your own. (For example, if you are LG and the Haunt is CE with a Caster Level of 10, the DC is 10+10+4=24).

Whenever an Exorcism check fails by 10 or more, the Haunt gains 1d6+10 temporary Hit points and the DC to each Exorcism Check made for the rest of that Exorcism increases by +5 (these increases are cumulative). If the Haunt is restored to full Hit Points this way, it is considered Reset and begins attacking again.

If the Medium fails 3 Exorcism Checks in a row, the Exorcism fails, and the Medium may not attempt an Exorcism against that Haunt again for another 24 hours.

Turn/Command Undead (Su):

At 4th level, you gain Turn or Command Undead as a Bonus Feat (your choice, regardless of alignment), even if you don't meet the prerequisites for the feat.

Channel Essence (Su):

At 4th level, you gain the ability to Channel your essence. This is similar to a Cleric's Channel Energy class ability, except that it neither harms nor heals mortal creatures.

Once per day, as a Standard Action which provokes Attacks of Opportunity, you may Channel Essence to deal 1d8 damage to all Undead, Haunts, and Incorporeal creatures in a 30ft. burst. You also deal 1d8 damage to all corporeal Extraplanar Outsiders whose alignments are 2 or more steps away from your own within the area of that burst.

This ability counts as Channel Energy for the purposes of activating the Turn or Command Undead feats.

At level 8 and every 4 levels thereafter, you may Channel Essence 1 additional time per day and increase your essence amount by +1d8.

Speak with Haunt (SL):

At 5th level, your ability to speak with the Undead extends to your ability to interact with Haunts. You may use the Speak with Haunt as a Spell-Like Ability for a number of minutes per day equal to 1/2 your Medium level (minimum 1). These minutes need not be consecutive.

[spoiler=Intermediate Trance (Su)]
At level 7, your ties to your Spirits grow. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +4, and you gain access to its Intermediate and ability as well.

Ectoplasmic Weapon (Su):

At level 8, you may choose to imbue your weapons with the power to deal damage to incorporeal creatures just as well as flesh-and-blood beings.
As a Move Action, you regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon, granting that weapon the Ghost Touch quality (this doesn't count towards the weapon's total Enhancement Bonus). This effect lasts for up to 1 minute. You may activate this ability a number of times per day equal to your Medium level.

Shared Seance (Su):

At level 10, you may perform a Seance with the aid of others. During this Seance, you may link up to one of your known Spirits to each ally assisting you in your Seance. Spirits linked to Allies must be within 1 step of those allies. If you do so, you do not gain the Seance Bonuses of that Spirit, and you may not use it for a Trance for the next 24 hours.

For the next 24 hours, each Ally with a Spirit linked to them gains the Seance Bonus of that Spirit, and may choose to enter a Trance for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your Medium Level. This Trance is identical to your Lesser Trance, except that they do not becoming sickened after leaving a Trance.

Whenever an ally uses up all their rounds of Trance for the day, the Spirit returns to the aether, and that player looses all connections to that Spirit, including the Seance Bonuses.

If you receive a Spirit from another player this way, you may use it for the full 24 hours as though it were one of your own known Spirits, and you do not lose it if all your rounds of Trance are used up in a day. At the end of the 24 hours, it returns to its master's control.

Unwavering (Ex):

At level 11, the Medium has become hardened to fearful things. Once per Trance, as an Immediate Action, the Medium may reduce their status of Fear by 1 step.

Greater Trance (Su):

At level 13, your connection to your Spirits grow even greater. Whenever you perform a Trance with a Spirit, your Spiritual Bonus to its governing ability increases to +6, and you gain access to its Greater Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Keen Ectoplasm (Su):

Whenever you grant a weapon the Ghost Touch quality with your Ectoplasmic Weapon ability, you may also give it the ability to deal Critical Hits and Sneak Attack damage to Incorporeal creatures. If you do, the duration of your Ghost Cut effect is cut in half (to 5 rounds).
Alternatively, as a Move Action, you may regurgitate ectoplasm onto one weapon with the Ghost Touch quality to grant it this ability for 5 rounds. If you do, this counts against your daily uses of Ectoplasmic Weapon.

Unblinking (Ex):

At level 16, the Medium has become so accustomed to dealing with otherworldly beings that it becomes literally fearless. The Medium becomes Immune to Fear effects.

Effortless Trance (Ex):

At level 17, you are no longer Sickened from leaving a Trance.

Supreme Trance (Su):

At level 19, your connection to your Spirits is perfected. The Spiritual Bonus granted by Trancing with a Spirit increases to +8, and you gain access to its Supreme Ability, in addition to all other effects of that Spirit.

Astral Beacon (Su):

At level 20, the Medium becomes a pure conduit for spirits. Once per day, when the Medium enters a Trance, they may choose to have all their known and available spirits inhabit their body, granting them access to all abilities, spells, and Ability Score bonuses available (like bonuses to ability scores don't stack). At the end of this Trance, the Medium falls unconscious for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds in which they were in the Trance.

---

FEATS:

Dual Vessel:

[b]Prerequisites: Trance class feature, Character level 5th
[b]Details: When you Trance, you may have 2 Spirits possess you, granting you the abilities, spells known, and Spiritual Bonuses to governing stats of both Spirits (like-stat bonuses don't stack).

At the end of your Trance, you are Nauseated instead of Sickened. If you have the Effortless Trance class feature, you instead become sickened.

Extra Trance:

[b]Prerequisites: Trance class feature
[b]Details: You may Trance up to 6 more rounds per day.
[b]Special: You may take this feat multiple times. It's effects stack.


Mark Seifter wrote:

Yeah, woaaah. That explains everything. I was wondering why he was so convinced that he would hit 4 influence if there was a spirit he seanced a lot. If you needed to trance to get any powers from your spirit, he's actually right, you would hit 4 influence swiftly if you wanted to use any powers!

As for the exorcist chassis—chb, that's pretty cool. You may considering pitching something similar to a 3pp and publishing it. I bet it would sell some copies!

Thanks - and, wait, it doesn't?

So, let me see if I get this right, after carefully rereading this...

---

You know how to contact (X) number of Spirits. This number grows over time.

During your Seance, you choose 1 Spirit from the list of Spirits that you know as your Bound spirit for the day (borrowing terminology from the Binder, here). All other spirits are kept in an "Unbound Spirit Reserve".

While a Spirit is your Bound Spirit, you gain its Seance Bonus, Lesser Ability, and Spells Known for 24 hours; later, you gain its Intermediate, Greater, and then Supreme Ability for 24 hours as well.

Later levels allow you to have 2, then 3, and finally 4 Bound Spirits active per day. (I still think the way they interact is a little too complex, though - the Binder just added all their abilities together and seemed fine).

Whenever a Spirit becomes your Bound Spirit for the day, its Influence increases by 1.

---

You may also, as a Full-Round Action, enter a Trance, which allows you to choose one of your Unbound Spirits whose alignment exactly matches one of your Bound Spirits: for 1 minute, this Unbound Spirit becomes your Tranced Spirit, and you gain its Least Ability.

Whenever a Spirit becomes a Tranced Spirit, you gain its Least Ability for the duration of that Trance, and its Influence is increased by 1.

If you have more than 1 Bound Spirit, you may switch out the "secondary" or lower Spirits with your Tranced Spirit at the end of the Trance (this seems overly complex, though)

---

---

If THAT'S how it works, then, yeah, I massively misunderstood.

Re-reading it with what you said, I started to understand it better.

Part of the issue is that there are a number of times when Spirits are referred to as "channeled," and the insinuation isn't clear as to whether it's meant to be one of those "Bound" Spirits, or whether it's any Spirit you simple made contact.

I think having very specific terminology like "Bound" "Unbound" "Tranced/Possessing," or somethings else that're a little more inspired than what I have, would help a lot in clearing up that sort of confusion.

Even other players in my group that have looked at this thought that Trancing was the only way to gain a spirit's abilities, etc.

Another, easily-fixable issue arises from the fact that Seance isn't it's own section. I highly recommend making Seance a section unto itself, since a massive part of the confusion from my players and I came from the fact that we thought the paragraphs:

Playtest wrote:

The medium gains the lesser spirit power from his

channeled spirit at 1st level, the intermediate spirit power
at 7th level, the greater spirit power at 13th level, and the
supreme spirit power at 19th level. The spirit powers are
described in the spirit’s entry.
In addition to granting power to the medium, each spirit
additionally inf luences the medium...

were simply describing, (half-fluffily) what happens when a Medium lets a Spirit possess them via Trance; we didn't realize that these effects happened BECAUSE of the Seance itself, that it happens the moment that a Medium BINDS one or more Spirits to himself, that those effects last for 24 hours to gain its effects, and Trancing is on TOP of Binding a Spirit to a Medium.

So, yeah, this just comes down to a organization-of-information mis-communication (god that feels like a dirty rhyme).

Again, I think a lot of this is cleared up by:

a) listing the Seance under its own banner, completely separate from the Spirits

b) using specific terminology so that there isn't a confusion over what's a term and what's fluffy description.

---

So, yeah, my apologies for not getting this before (my face is kinda red now, since it's been pointed out and seems kinda obvious in retrospect).

I still have some issues with how crazy-complex the interactions between Bound Spirits are, and think the Medium should have a Spell List unto himself (with the Spirits only adding Bonus Spells like how Bloodlines and Domains work), along with either a bigger body or increased spell pool, but I do feel that it's quite better than I'd been giving it credit for before.

Designer

Yeah, see your posts were always long and substantive but just didn't seem to mesh with the class completely and I couldn't put my finger on it. I am in instant and full agreement that the class, and particularly influence, would be terribad if you needed to trance to get any powers!


Prince Carrius Stavian 2
cr 22
XP: 307200 human medium 20
LE Medium humanoid(human)
Init +10; Senses true seeing; Perception +26

DEFENSE

AC 43, touch 24, flat-footed 40(+14 armor, +5 deflection, +1 dodge, +5 natural, +6 spirit, +3 Dex)
HP 330(20d8+240)
Fort +24, Ref +22, Will +21
Defensive Abilities absorb blow, legendary guardian, sudden block; DR 10/-;
Immunemind-affecting effects; SR 33; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10, sonic 10

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee +5 speed longsword +26/+26/+21/+16 (1d8+14/17-20)Space 5 ft., Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks astral beacon, haunt channeler (10d6), shared seance, spirit (Guardian), trance of three
Medium Spells Known (CL 20th; concentration +28)
9th (4/day)-Time Stop, Wish
8th (7/day)-Euphoric Tranquility(DC 26), Greater Prying Eyes, Moment of Prescience
7th (7/day)-Greater Teleport, Resurrection, Vision
6th (7/day)-Antimagic Field, Greater Dispel Magic, Heal
5th (7/day)-Dispel Evil(DC 23), Plane Shift, Teleport, True Seeing
4th (8/day)-Divination, Restoration, Spell İmmunity, Stoneskin
3rd (8/day)-Dispel Magic, Haste, İnvisibility Purge, Prayer
2nd (8/day)-Aid, Cure Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Resist Energy,Silence
1st (8/day)-Alarm, Divine Favor, Mage Armor, Shield, Shield of Faith
0th-Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Stabilize

STATISTICS

Str 20, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 26

Base Atk +15; CMB +20; CMD 39

Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (longsword), Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Spirit Focus (champion), Weapon Focus (longsword)

Skills Acrobatics -1, Bluff +31, Diplomacy +31, Fly +13, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (arcana) +26, Knowledge (history) +26, Knowledge (local) +26, Knowledge (nobility) +26, Knowledge (planes) +26, Knowledge (religion) +26, Perception +26, Sense Motive +25, Spellcraft +26, Use Magic Device +31 Languages Common

SQ spirit point 18, ask the spirits, astral journey, connection channel, location channel (20 rounds), propitiation, spacious soul, spirit bonus (+6 on AC, Constitution checks, and Fortitude and Reflex saves), spirit mastery, spirit surge 1d10

Gear +5 chainmail, +5 longsword, amulet of natural armor +5,Belt Of Physical Perfection +6, Primogen Crown,

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Six-Legend Vessel (Ex) Prince Carrius houses within him the legendary souls of six of the previous emperors of Taldor. The souls are working together to further their cause and grant their unified power to Carrius's body. Carrius gains all of the lesser spirit powers. Because the souls are working in tandem, they never gain influence over Carrius. when using abilities that would normally cause a spirit to gain influence over him he loses a spirit point . In addition, when Carrius is using the trance of three ability, the chosen intermediate power remains in effect indefinitely until changed. This increases Prince Carrius's CR by 1.

Powerful Bond (Su) Because of habitually channeling the same spirits and possessing physical links to the spirits’ former lives and legends, a Six-Legend Vessel possesses a strong bond with his spirits. . She chooses two spells of each level with the archmage arcana and divine surge spirit powers instead of one, two exotic weapon proficiencies with champion’s prowess instead of one, three combat feats with legendary champion instead of two, and three skills with trickster’s edge instead of two.

Relics (Ex) Six-Legend Vessel has with him one relic for each of the six spirit legends.Each relic corresponds to a specific spirit and Six-Legend Vessel with 1 week of intense seances and 500 gp per medium level he possesses he can make relics give certeain benefits.Relics gives +6 spirit bonus on each ability check ,120 hit points,choose six int basen skill kills. These skills count as class skills for you, and you are treated as if you had an additional number of ranks in those skills equal to your medium level ( Knowledge (arcana,history, local, nobility, planes, and religion)l)
Source AP 132

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