Turning vetala

[Lusinian]

So. After making my character the possibly unique example of a LE character warpriest of a CG deity, my GM is making said character a vetala.

That's a real kind GM, he just tends to go overboard, which, honestly, I love about his GMing. That was a LG oracle worshiping the LG goddess of healing, which got cursed into LE rogue, which didn't suit said goddess, neither her CG husband god of thievery and luck, so after a long (real long) time, said god took the occasion to force a warpriest level on the rogue. Which the rogue didn't like, stating, quote : "such a low-life as me, misbehaving, having no remorse after torture and murder, can never come back to you or your wife". After nearly having the group TPKed because the warpriest had not prepared his spells and refused to use any warpriest class abilities, said god's daimon and the group ganged up on him to get him to just do it, since it was given, and a few sessions later we had him back to LN. Not perfect, but better, and on our way to LG.

So now there's that rogue/warpriest of a CG deity going vetala (we do know the conditions of creation of vetalas, but that's an even longer story than previously, problem's not here).

CR, type, armour class, most of it is fine. Even alignment is safe, because gods got annoyed enough the first time, they won't let it happen a second time, so no problem. We're having real fun launching a climb speed to a character fearing highs. He does get blind midway, but since some retrain will get most of blind-fight and one level will be enough for the last feat, we don't care, it's super-flavourful (and it does rise his Perception to +43... it's a very specialised character).

*Problem is that :*

"Vetalas cannot tolerate the sound of prayers or religious mantras recited by those truly faithful to a good deity. Any character with a good-aligned deity can force a vetala to recoil by dramatically praying as a standard action. Praying doesn’t harm a vetala; it merely keeps the creature at bay. A recoiling vetala must stay at least 5 feet away from a praying character and cannot touch or make melee attacks against it. After 1 round, a vetala can fight past its revulsion and function normally each round it succeeds at a DC 25 Will save. The prayers of those who worship non-good deities or worship no deity have no effect on a vetala."

So we're having a character whose faith to the good-align deity of healing resisted a brutal shift of alignment... not so much demonstrative, but actually preparing his spells (to good-aligned deity) and praying from time to time, performing missions for his god which most of the time imply body-guarding clerics of said healing deity or playing messenger for them... How I am supposed to deal with that ? I suppose he doesn't have to stick together with the others when they perform there obediences, but for his ?

*Then there's that : Malevolence.*

We're talking about a group where everyone knows exactly what a vetala is, not only the main characters, but also a large quantity of former PCs turned into retired adventurers, some who were retired but wait for the first opportunity ro come back. And we're talking about a group where that L-something character showed so fanatically loyal and adept at taking blows rather than letting others do, helping them with anything from choosing meal's menu to going into the Negative Energy Plane to retrieve them (true, that was epic), that they turned fanatically loyal to him, and we're pretty sure that he'll be invited in by some and allowed in if he asks. So, it says :
"The vetala can remain in control for a number of hours equal to its Charisma modifier or until it decides to end the possession. Whenever the possession ends or the host body is killed, the vetala’s consciousness instantly returns to its body, regardless of distance, so long as it remains on the same plane."

I'm getting the feeling it was written assuming that possession was unwanted. If he's actually in with authorisation and all, of course we're forgoing the Will save, but does he still go back abruptly to his own body when he's out of time ? or does he stays until he or the body's owner doesn't want to ? or something wierd along the line ? If it matters, we're using the occult version of the ability.

*Lastly : Possess Corpse.*

I'm no English native speaker. Does it mean the body's special abilities or the vetala's special abilities can't be used ? (Just to be sure, it includes class levels, right ?) What if the corpse happened to be sentient, such as another vampire or a zombie lord ?

*Really Lastly this time.*

Do animals have prana ? We're using vampiric hunger rules so it is important. The real life prana seems to be owned by everything, even possibly plants, if I'm not too wrong. But pathfinder vetalas are described as feeding from memories and cunny-ness.

So, to sum up : how do I manage a vetala with divine class to a good-aligned deity ? what happens when the target of malevolence is willing ? how should I read the possess corpse ability ? where does he feed from ?

[Bloodrealm]

Sounds like your GM has huge issues with hijacking his players' characters. That's just not cool.

[Lusinian]

Well, I have no problem with this hijacking. I did make a back story that invited that sort of events, then I did hint that it would be fun to have something unexpected happen, then he asked directly if I would mind, and I told him that was not the case. I didn't think he would go along with it, honestly, and he went beyond my expectations - I did make it so that that character would deal with turning undead at some point, but I though that would happen a long time after the campaign was finished, when he was turned into a NPC for the next generation to play.

It's still really a PC, though, and "in a few sessions" became "next session" as of today, so I will need some help with this rules interpreting business...

(And my GM is cool. Really comprehensive. The only daring enough GM I ever played with. And he's still a bit shy. He's scared of giving a glorious death to PCs out of fear I wouldn't appreciate a glorious death!)

[Lusinian]

By the way, I'm having more problems than expected with the Drain Prana ability. It says:

Drain Prana (Su) wrote:

A vetala can drain the mental vitality of a grappled opponent. If the vetala establishes or maintains a pin, it drains this energy, dealing 1d4 points of Charisma damage. Additionally, the victim is affected by the spell modify memory, as if the vetala had spent 5 minutes concentrating. The vetala gains perfect knowledge of any memory it chooses to eliminate using this ability. Vetalas often use this ability to prevent victims from remembering they’ve been attacked.

So, I'm moving to the spell:

Modify Memory wrote:

You reach into the subject’s mind and modify as many as 5 minutes of its memories in one of the following ways.

• Eliminate all memory of an event the subject actually experienced. This spell cannot negate charm, geas/quest, suggestion, or similar spells.
• Allow the subject to recall with perfect clarity an event it actually experienced.
• Change the details of an event the subject actually experienced.
• Implant a memory of an event the subject never experienced.

Casting the spell takes 1 round. If the subject fails to save, you proceed with the spell by spending as much as 5 minutes (a period of time equal to the amount of memory you want to modify) visualizing the memory you wish to modify in the subject. If your concentration is disturbed before the visualization is complete, or if the subject is ever beyond the spell’s range during this time, the spell is lost.

There is a Will saving throw (negates), but it is done when the spell is casted, not when the caster has already been concentrating 5 min. Does that mean there is no save to Drain Prana? It looks like it from my point of view. You have, after all, to get a pin.

Second problem. In Blood of the Nights, vetalas are described as able to erase hours, even years of memories. That's a lot more than five minutes, unless there's something wrong with my head. Even if they drain people until they're dead, if one go from Drain Prana erases only 5 min, that can't be done. So, does it mean that vetalas can use Drain Prana to manipulate any amount of memories?

[Lusinian]

Help ?

[Dave Justus]

From what I can tell, you are correct that the modify memory aspect of drain prana, unlike the spell doesn't give a save.

Flavor text and actual abilities don't always line up perfectly. Draining Prana can be done over and over though, so hours of memory is doable (CHR at 0 and below just causes unconsiousness, not death.) Years would take a lot of time, and is really not feasible, although I could see a houserule that somehow multiple expiriences of drain prana against a target might result in increased memory time, eventually allowing years. Probably it would be something that wouldn't actually come up in a game though.

Since your GM seems to play pretty loose with the rules though, your best option is to ask them how they want it to work.

[Lusinian]

Thanks for the input. I know my GM is incredibly loose, but I'd like not to end up almighty, which might very well happen if I ask him just now. It will probably end up this way, but in any case I'd prefer to know how it is supposed to work.