Okay so I put this Archetype up half a year ago, got some good feedback, and then it kinda just... faded away. I was busy doing other projects, writing another book, and it slipped my mind until I was going over my PF content and organizing it. I really liked this Archetype I designed and wanted to go back over it without committing a heinous act of thread Necromancy. :P
So without further ado (And with a bit of tinkering) I present to you the Harrow Personifier. Please review and feedback, if able.
SUMMONER ARCHETYPE
Most summoners bond with an eidolon, summoning it from beyond. However the Harrow Personifier uses the same principles to call upon something inside of them, instead of without. Most commonly found in Varisia, the summoner learned to personify their connection through the infamous Harrow Deck. By drawing on the Suit most closely aligned to them, they bring it to life in order to find the strength to face the world around them.
PERSONA
A personifier begins play with the ability to draw out a powerful facet of their personality through their connection to the Harrow. This Persona links with the summoner, who, forever after, summons the same creature. A Persona always bears features reminiscent to the Harrow card associated with the summoner’s alignment. The Persona speaks all languages the Summoner knows. Unlike Eidolons, they are never treated as summoned creatures, and can touch and attack creatures warded by protection from evil and similar effects that prevent contact with summoned creatures. Abilities and spells that target eidolons
A summoner can summon his Persona as a ritual that takes a full round action to perform. The Personification's saving throws, skills, feats, and abilities are tied to the summoner’s class level and increase as the summoner gains levels. In addition, each Persona receives a pool of evolution points, based on the summoner’s class level that can be used to give the Persona different abilities and powers. Whenever the summoner gains a level, he must decide how these points are spent, and can only reassign evolution points when they gain a level. Additionally, if the summoner’s alignment has changed since the last time they leveled, their Persona’s appearance alters to match a Harrow card representing their new alignment.
A Harrow Personifier draws their creature from a facet of themselves by using the Harrow. Because it is in essence a part of themselves, the Persona does not have a separate hit point pool like most eidolons. Instead, any damage dealt to the creature is actually taken by the summoner. This vulnerability can be severe, but steps can be taken to mitigate the dangers of having two separate bodies sharing one health pool. Harrow Personifiers use their ego to literally face the pain and dangers of the world. They may add their Charisma Modifier instead of their Constitution Modifier when calculating their HD gained from the Summoner class.
This ability replaces Eidolon
SOCIAL LINK
A personifier understands that they are not an island; the people they interact with regularly has an affect on their lives and in some small way, their selves. The Harrow Personifier forms a bond with others. This bond must be solid, worked on over time, and are reinforced by the harrow. Additionally, the personifier's connections need to be with strong personalities, so the bond cannot be formed with just anyone. (Only NPC's and creatures with class levels have a strong enough sense of self to form a solid bond)
Gaining a bond requires a number of days spent with the person the summoner is trying to bond with equal to the character's hit dice. This time does not need to be consecutive, but if the character's hit die increases, so does the number of days needed to form the bond. Similarly, already formed bonds need to be maintained, and additional days of time spent must be done every time they increase in hit dice.
The summoner needs to spend at least an hour of un-interrupted time with the person he is forming a bond with for it to count. No significant progress can be made in a group setting; the summoner needs relative privacy for them to get to know each other’s true nature. The time spent could be of almost any action so long as it isn’t stressful: a friendly sparring match would be acceptable, but real combat wouldn’t be.
Once the number of days spent bonding have been completed, a Harrowing must be performed to idealize the bond in a way that the summoner can focus through. This harrowing requires a Perform (Harrowing) or profession (Fortune-Teller) check, the DC equal to 15+the bonded character's hit dice as the reading needs to be as accurate as possible. At the end of the Harrowing, the key Harrow card that exemplifies the character bonded to becomes their Link.
Each character in the bond gains some benefits from the bond. Those around the summoner gain double the normal benefits granted by the aid another action the summoner uses when used in combat or out, and any spells that provide morale/enhancement bonuses last twice as long, as if under the effects of Extend spell. Additionally, the effects of Harrowing cast by the summoner on one member of the bond is shared with all members.
The social rewards of the bonds themselves are part of the summoners benefit, but several of the Personifier's abilities rely on the Social Link to be more effective.
Should a bond be broken, whether through willful action, negligence, or death, the summoner can begin to work on forming a new bond with someone else.
This ability replaces Life Link
HARROWED SUMMONER
A Harrow Personifier gets the Summon Monster 1 class feature at level 2 instead of level 1, and uses their summon monster class feature as if they have the Harrowed Summoning Feat. (Pathfinder Player Companion: The Harrow Handbook 14)They do not need to utilize this feature with regular summon monster spells they may have prepared.
This ability replaces Summon Monster 1, and Bond Senses
LINKED FORTITUDE
Any Social Link characters within 100 feet of the summoner grants them the mental fortitude to resist the pain transferred down the line when their Persona is hurt. At level 4, each linked character within 100 feet of range reduces the damage the summoner receives through their connection to the Persona by 1 each. At level 12 the amount of damage each Social Link character reduces increases to 2. The maximum number of Social Link characters that can assist the Summoner is limited to 1 plus the Summoner’s Charisma modifier.
This ability replaces Shield Ally and Greater Shield Ally
WILD CARD
The Harrow Personifier unlocks the connection his Social Link friends have with the Harrow, allowing him to call a different Persona to aid them. The summoner can instead draw up a Persona of a character linked to them. The Wild Card is constructed just like a standard persona, but only has half the evolution points his true Persona has. This persona always bears traits in common with the Harrow Card that signifies the Social Link.
Creating a Wild Card Persona takes an additional day spent reinforcing the bond of the Social Link with the character that he hopes to draw the Persona from. After the link is successfully reinforced, the character of the link determines where to spend the Persona's evolution points since it is inspired from their Harrowing, not the summoners!
Once created, the summoner can choose to summon that Persona instead of their own so long as the Social Link character is within 100 feet of the Summoner at the time of summoning, which it then acts as the summoner’s in all other respects than their evolution point assignment.
This ability replaces Transposition
GREATER HARROWING
Whenever the Harrow Personifier casts Harrowing, (Pathfinder Player Companion: The Harrow Handbook 9) they treat it as if they had cast Greater Harrowing instead.
This ability replaces Merge Forms
TRUTH BEHIND THE WORLD
Summoners like Harrow Personifiers do not look beyond the planes to entreat powerful outsiders the way that other summoners do. They instead focus on seeing the truth of their world. Personifiers gain True Seeing as a spell-like ability that can be used for one minute per level of the summoner. They activate this ability as a swift action, but they must use it in one minute increments.
This ability replaces Gate
PERSONA MASTER
The Harrow Personifier has reached the peak of their ability to create a Persona and enhance the bonds they have formed.
Any Social Link bonds formed at this level become permanent, unshakeable bonds. Even if the character bonded with gains more levels, there is no more need to upkeep them after the bond is formed.
Additionally, the Wild Card Personas created by those who have bonded with the summoner gain the ability to go through an evolution of form. Spending another day enhancing the bond with a character signifying a wild card will enhance the Persona further, increasing their evolution points to the summoner's max evolution points -2.
The summoner finds great mental and emotional solace in the presence of his friends. The Link Fortitude bonus they receive from bond members being within 100 ft of them increases to 3 each, though the maximum number of contributors remains the same.
This ability replaces Twin Eidolon