"Ben" Mharjaek's page

"Ben" Mharjaek
M Grimspawn Tiefling Occultist 1
N M Outsider (Native)
Init +3; Senses Darkvision 60ft; Perception +4
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +3 Dex, +2 Nat. Armor)
hp 10 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2
Resist Cold 5, Electricity 5, Fire 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Ranged Light Crossbow +3 (1d8/19-20x2)
Melee Light Mace +3 (1d6+1/x2)
Dagger +3 (1d4+1/19-20/x2)
Special Attacks None
Spell-Like Abilities Death Knell (1/day) (Concentration +5)
Occultist (Necroccultist) Spells Known (CL 1) (Concentration +5):
Level 0 (at will) [DC 14]Detect Psychic Significance, Stabilize
Level 1 (2/day) [DC 15]Heightened Awareness, Unseen Servant
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Statistics
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Str 12 (+1), Dex 16 (+3), Con 12 (+1), Int 18 (+4), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 9 (-1)
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats Weapon Finesse, Armor of The Pit
Traits Secret-Keeper, Alman Preacher
Skills (*BG Skills) Acrobatics +2, Appraise +4, Artistry +4, Bluff 0, Climb +0, *Craft (Alchemy) +8, Diplomacy -1, Disguise -1, Escape Artist +2, Fly +2, Heal +5, Intimidate -1, Kn. Arcana +8, Kn. Planes +8, Kn. Religion +8, Perception +4, *Profession (Herbalist) +4, Ride +2, Sense Motive +0, Sleight of Hand +8, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +2, Survival +0, Swim +0, UMD +3
Languages Common, Elven, Meeruwhan, Abyssal, Aklo, Necronomus
SQ
Implements Divination, Conjuration
Mental Focus Conjuration (2/2), Divination (3/3)
Resonant Powers
Casting Focus (Su)
The implement empowers the bearer’s ties to the worlds beyond, allowing his spells to maintain their power for a longer period of time. The bearer can add the implement as an additional focus component to any conjuration spell he casts that has a duration measured in rounds per level. If he does so, he adds 1 to his caster level for every 2 points of mental focus stored in the implement (to a maximum bonus equal to your occultist level). This increase applies only when determining the duration of the spell. Apply this increase after other effects that adjust a spell’s duration, such as Extend Spell.
Third Eye (Su)
The implement allows its bearer to notice that which can’t easily be seen. The implement grants a +1 insight bonus on Perception checks per 2 points of mental focus stored in it, to a maximum bonus equal to the occultist’s level. If the occultist is 3rd level or higher and stores at least 3 points of mental focus in it, the implement also grants low-light vision. If the occultist is 5th level or higher and stores at least 6 points of mental focus in it, the implement also grants darkvision 60 feet. (If the bearer already has darkvision, the implement increases the range of the darkvision by 30 feet.) If the occultist is 7th level or higher and stores at least 9 points of mental focus in it, the implement also grants the effects of see invisibility. If the occultist is 13th level or higher and stores at least 12 points of mental focus in it, the implement also grants blindsense 60 feet. If the occultist is 19th level or higher and stores at least 15 points of mental focus in it, the implement also grants blindsight 30 feet.
Focus Powers
Servitor (Sp)
As a standard action, you can expend 1 point of mental focus to summon a servitor.

This ability functions as summon monster I, but you can use it only to summon a single creature, and the effect lasts for 1 minute. At 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the level of the summon monster spell increases by 1, to a maximum of summon monster VII at 19th level. You can’t have more than one servitor in effect at a time. At any time, you can expend 1 point of mental focus as a free action to extend the duration of an active servitor by 1 minute.
Sudden Insight (Sp)
As a swift action, you can expend 1 point of mental focus to gain an insight into your immediate future. You can use this foreknowledge as a free action before you roll any ability check, attack roll, or skill check to gain an insight bonus on that roll equal to 1/2 your occultist level (minimum +1). You can use your foreknowledge only once per turn, and if it’s not used by the end of your turn, the insight fades and you gain no benefit.
Future Gaze (Sp)
As a standard action, you can gain an insight into the future by expending 1 point of mental focus. This functions as augury, using your occultist level as the caster level.
Other Gear Dagger, Light Crossbow, Crossbow Bolts (20), Studded Leather, Light Mace, Cleric's Kit (This includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, candles (10), a cheap holy text, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), a waterskin, and a wooden holy symbol) Scholar's Outfit, Belt Pouch, Flask Holy Water, Journal, Ink, Inkpen, Implements: Spectacles, Bronze Bowl, Coin: 10 GP, 0 SP, 0 CP
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Special Abilities
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Racial Traits
Darkvision Tieflings can see perfectly in the dark for up to 60 feet.
Fiendish Resistance Tieflings have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.
Heritage: Daemon Spawn Daemon-blooded bringers of devastation are shrewd and swift, but their plans frequently exhibit exploitable flaws. +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis.
Native Outsider Tieflings are outsiders with the native subtype.
Prehensile Tail Many tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. This racial trait replaces fiendish sorcery.
Skilled Daemon-Spawn gain a +2 racial bonus on Disable Device and Sleight of Hand checks.
Spell-Like Ability Daemon-Spawn can use Death Knell once per day as a spell-like ability. Caster level equals class level.

Background Traits
Secret-Keeper You gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff checks and a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against divinations, domination effects, and effects that would compel you to speak the truth.
Alman Preacher You spent many hours in Wicken’s Church of St. Alman, absorbing Father Gromwell’s religious stories that filled your head and heart with dreams of Heaven and Paradise. +1 trait bonus to Heal checks, and Heal is a class skill.

Feats
Weapon Finesse With a light weapon, elven curve blade, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls.
Armor of the Pit You gain a +2 natural armor bonus.
Class Features
KnacksAn occultist learns one knack, or 0-level psychic spell, each time he selects an implement schools (including when he again selects a school that he has already learned to use). These spells are cast like any other spell, but they can be cast any number of times per day. Knacks cast using any other spell slots because of metamagic feats applied to them, for example, consume spell slots as normal.
Mental Focus (Su) An occultist can invest a portion of his mental focus into his chosen implements for the day, allowing him to utilize a variety of abilities depending on the implements and the amount of mental focus invested in them.

An occultist has a number of points of mental focus equal to his occultist level + his Intelligence modifier; these points refresh each day. He can divide this mental focus between his implements in any way he desires. If an implement is lost or destroyed, the focus invested in it is lost as well, though the occultist still refreshes those points of focus normally.

Once mental focus is invested inside an implement, the implement gains the resonant power of its implement school, and the occultist can expend the mental focus stored in the implement to activate the associated focus powers he knows. If a resonant power grants a bonus that varies based on the amount of mental focus invested in the implement, the bonus is determined when the focus is invested, and is not reduced or altered by expending the mental focus invested in the item. Once all of the mental focus in an implement has been expended, it loses its resonant power until mental focus is once again invested in the implement.

The implement grants its resonant power to whoever possesses it; the occultist can lend the implement to an ally to assist that ally, but if he does so, he has difficulty casting that implement’s spells (see Implements) and can’t expend that implement’s focus on focus powers until he retrieves the implement or refreshes his focus.

The occultist refreshes his mental focus once each day after receiving at least 8 hours of sleep. After refreshing his mental focus, the occultist must spend 1 hour preparing his implements and investing them with this power. Mental focus that is not used before the next time the occultist refreshes his focus is lost.

The occultist can choose to save generic mental focus inside his own body instead of investing all of it, but expending this focus comes at a higher cost.

Any focus power the occultist activates with generic focus costs twice as much mental focus to use (and to maintain, if applicable). The occultist can expend his generic focus through an appropriate implement on any focus power he knows, but an implement he didn’t invest any focus in at the start of the day grants no resonant power.
Implements (Su) At 1st level, an occultist learns to use two implement schools. At 2nd level and every 4 occultist levels thereafter, the occultist learns to use one additional implement school, to a maximum of seven schools at 18th level. Each implement school adds one spell per spell level of that school of magic to the occultist’s spell list. No spells from any other school are considered to be on the occultist’s spell list until he selects the associated implement school. He can’t use spell trigger or spell completion magic items from unknown schools without succeeding at the appropriate Use Magic Device check. An occultist can select an implement schools more than once in order to learn additional spells from the associated school.

Each implement schools is represented by a small list of objects. Every day, the occultist selects one item from that school’s list to be his implement for the day for each implement school he knows. The occultist needs only one such item to cast spells of the corresponding school, unless he selected that implement schools multiple times, in which case he needs one item for each set of spells gained from that school. Implements don’t need to be magic items, and non-magical implements don’t take up a magic item slot even if they’re worn. Implements that are not magic items are often of some historical value or of personal significance to the occultist, such as the finger bone of a saint, the broken scepter of a long-dead king, the skull of a mentor’s familiar, or the glass eye of an uncanny ancestor.

Whenever an occultist casts a spell, he must have the corresponding implement in his possession and present the implement to the target or toward the area of effect.

This act is part of casting the spell and doesn’t require any additional action. If the occultist lacks the corresponding implement, he can attempt to cast the spell, but must succeed at a concentration check (DC = 20 + the spell’s level) to do so. Spells cast by an occultist without the appropriate implement are always treated as if they were cast at the minimum caster level for the spell in question (caster level 1st for a 1st-level spell, caster level 4th for a 2nd-level spell, and so on).

Each implement schools also grants a base focus power. This power is added to the list of focus powers possessed by the occultist (see Mental Focus below). In addition, each implement schools grants access to a number of other focus powers that the occultist can select from using his mental focus class feature.

See implement schools for a complete list of implements associated with each school and their focus powers.
Focus Powers (Su)At 1st level, an occultist learns the base focus power from both of his two implement schools (see Implements below) and can select one more focus power from the list of those available to him through those schools.

Whenever the occultist learns a new implement school, he gains the base power of that school. In addition, at 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, he learns a new focus power selected from the options granted by all of the implement schools he knows. The occultist can use focus powers only by expending mental focus (see Mental Focus).

Unless otherwise noted, the DC for any saving throw against a focus power equals 10 + 1/2 the occultist’s level + the occultist’s Intelligence modifier. The occultist can’t select a focus power more than once. Some focus powers require him to reach a specific occultist level before he can choose them.

It was 66 years ago a bundle was found on on the steps of Wicken's Church of St. Alman. Inside, the former caretaker [insert name] found an infant he thought to be dead. But then it's pupiless eyes flicked open and a black, forked, snake-like tongue flicked out between sharpened teeth as it hissed and squirmed, [insert name] uttered a quick prayer to his patron saint and took the child in as an orphan.

What was a feral creature grew up to be an intelligent, well-behaved, bright young boy, although disturbing to gaze upon. Father [insert name] raised Benjamin, as he had been named, as his own, and yet it took the townsfolk a while to grow used to the child’s eerie presence. Ben exhibited a surprising intellect and often secluded himself with whatever sparse books he could find in the small agrarian town. Father [insert name] often took him into the surrounding countryside to harvest medicinal herbs, and educated Benjamin in their applications and ceremonial properties. Benjamin even took to learning by heart the ceremonial prayers of St. Alman, including birth, coming of age, and death rites.

He made few friends as a child, but for those who earned his trust, he proved to be a loyal friend in return. Yet, he could not shake the feeling of being an outsider in a close knit community. The rumors eventually made their way to his bat-like ears, that no one in the community had been pregnant before he showed up, and his parents were likely from the big city, Castorhage. As his adopted father aged and grew weak, Ben began taking over some of the church proceedings. Most in the community expected him to take over after Father [insert name], but Ben had other plans. He had come across some mysterious ancient texts that detailed occult rituals and magical artifacts. In one of these texts, he came across a word, 'Mharjaek', which resonated within him. Secretly he adopted it as his own.

When Father [insert name] passed away, Ben stayed with the body overnight. In the morning, Ben was noticeably absent as the townsfolk gathered to light the funeral pyre. In truth, the young man, having lost the only family he had known, ran off in the night towards Castorhage. Using a bit of coin he stole from the church coffers, he rented a small room above a bookstore in Booktown. He gained employment as a clerk in the store, Vuludash’s Rarities Emporium. The owner, Vuludash, was a raksasha with keen taste and a ruthlessly competitive temperament. The shop was filled with rare and valuable tomes, as well as relics and artifacts from antiquity. Vuludash, perhaps observant of Ben’s fiendish heritage, groomed the boy and let him peruse the occult grimoires at his leisure at night. Determined to gain entrance in the academies of the Seminary, Ben did not take his studies lightly. He secretly continued his studies into the occult and the arcane, learning to empower objects with his own psychic influence.

When he came of age, Ben passed the entrance examinations with honors and entered into academia. It was in the vast libraries of university he met Ketura, a dhampir woman of particular beauty, for whom Ben quickly developed an affection for. Ketura worked as a librarian, and was keen enough to notice a pattern in the literature Ben was researching. She confided in Ben that she was a Deceiver for the Fetch, a position which gave her some access but which also put her in much danger. In return, Ben found in Ketura someone to confide in, to share his secrets and dreams. He still wished to one day find his parents in the sprawling maze of Castorhage and to make sense of his existence. Eventually, Ben too found work as a librarian in the universities of the Seminary, gaining access to a wealth of hidden and suppressed knowledge.

Some years went by before Ben received a letter from one Father Gromwell, the new priest of St. Alman, inviting Ben to return to Wicken. Ever curious, Ben began to make yearly pilgrimages to his hometown for the summer harvest festival. There he would attend the sermons of Father Gromwell, and in them find a light to offset the inherent darkness in his blood.

Benjamin is a being being pulled in multiple directions. In his mysterious origins lies the blood of evil fiends, yet his own upbringing has nurtured a dispassionate if not at least kind heart. He practices forbidden magics in a city held under an iron thumb. His true passion is for greater knowledge, to learn the deepest of secrets. No secret is deeper for him than his own past.

Benjamin, as he introduces himself, is bookish and shy, clumsy in social situations, and even a bit creepy. He has pallid skin which is cold to the touch and is completely hairless. His pupiless eyes blink twice with nictitating membranes. He has shark-like teeth and a black, forked tongue which flicks out randomly like a snakes. His ears are bat-like and come to a sharp point, and furthermore, he bears a pointed tail that whips around and grabs on to things as if it had a mind of it's own. He dresses sharply, in dark scholarly clothes when he's about town, and even wears a pair of spectacles. He stands silent and composed most the time, although his tail whips about when he's excited or nervous. He prefers to stay in the background, unnoticed, and quickly grows uncomfortable when approached. He speaks in a hissing manner.