The Reaper

Reapers are people whose souls were scared at their creation, and so seek to be filled when exposed to the fleeting souls of others.  Against or with the will of their bearer they devour the souls of those whom are killed by the reaper.

Alignment: Any (commonly chaotic or evil).

Hit Die: d8.

Special:  All reapers have killed someone and suffered the first awakening.  Those who wish to take the class as a multiclass later in life must first pass their first awakening making all will saves which apply.  No one knows who will become one until the first time they first kill.  It is said to be result of imperfect soul trying desperately to fill the void in their own souls with the Spirit of others.

 

Class Skills

The Reaper’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: Reaper
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Sawollic Fire	Greatest Mystery Depth		Mysteries Known	Spell Points	Maximum Sawollic Distance fire
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Aura of power, eat soul, Sawollic Fire (d4), Spiritual Focus	1d4	Shallow		3	10	5 ft.
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Detect Soul Power	1d4	Shallow		6	19	10 ft.
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Resolve	2d4	Shallow		8	21	15 ft.
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Their strength is mine	2d4	Clever		11	32	20 ft.
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Power Control	2d4	Clever		13	39	25 ft.
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Sawollic Blast (d6)	3d6	Insightful		16	68	30 ft.
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Reap soul 1/day	3d6	Insightful		18	81	35 ft.
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6		3d6	Deep		21	133	40 ft.
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Consume soul	4d6	Deep		23	154	45 ft.
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Improved Power Control	4d6	Obscure	Luminous	26	229	50 ft.
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Their power is my power	4d6	Obscure	Luminous	28	260	55 ft.
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Improved Resolve	5d6	Dark	Shining	31	366	60 ft.
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Devour soul	5d6	Dark	Shining	33	409	65 ft.
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Reap soul 2/day	5d6	Grim	Brilliant	36	548	70 ft.
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9		6d6	Grim	Brilliant	38	605	75 ft.
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Sawollic Inferno (d8)	6d8	Sinister	Radiant	41	785	80 ft.
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Greater Power Control	6d8	Sinister	Radiant	43	858	85 ft.
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		7d8	Infernal	Celestial	46	1081	90 ft.
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		7d8	Infernal	Celestial	48	1222	95 ft.
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Stay the Reaper	7d8	Infernal	Celestial	50	1363	100 ft.

Spell Points given in standard value

Level	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	6	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	7	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	7	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	7	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	7	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	7	7	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	7	7	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—
8th	7	7	7	5	3	—	—	—	—	—
9th	7	7	7	6	4	—	—	—	—	—
10th	7	7	7	7	5	3	—	—	—	—
11th	7	7	7	7	6	4	—	—	—	—
12th	7	7	7	7	7	5	3	—	—	—
13th	7	7	7	7	7	6	4	—	—	—
14th	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	3	—	—
15th	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	4	—	—
16th	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	3	—
17th	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	4	—
18th	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	3
19th	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	5
20th	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7

 

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: reapers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light armor and shields (not including Tower Shields). 

 

Spiritual Focus:  The Reaper can obtain a level of heighten Spiritual awareness.  As a standard action, that does provoke an attack of opportunity, the reaper makes a concentration check DC 10+; the Reaper remains Spiritually focused one round for every point above 10 on the concentration check.  Many class abilities require the Reaper to be Spiritually focused or to expend his focus.  Certain mysteries require Spiritual focus for the duration, if focus is lost at anytime such mysteries are lost.  The Reaper maintains can maintain continuous Spiritual Focus by making an additional concentration check before he loses his Spiritual focus. 

Aura of power:  The power in the reaper is undeniable.  Whenever he is targeted by a detect magic, detect good, detect law, or any other similar detect spell or ability which would apply to (i.e. if the reaper is good and he is targeted by a detect good spell), he detects with an aura as powerful as a cleric of the same class level who is the cleric being detected for cleric’s alignment.  The reaper’s body radiate with the power of necromancy.  For example a good chaotic level 13 reaper would have an overwhelming aura of good, chaotic, and necromancy.

Sawollic Fire (su):  The Reaper lashes out with his very soul.  When he is Spiritually focused he fires a blast of Spiritual energy dealing damage as listed above but not exceeding a number of dice equal to his Charisma Modifier d4s of Sawollic fire.  Sawollic fire deals spiritual damage.  This damage affects corporeal and incorporeal creatures alike.  The attack is both physical and magical in nature and must break through Spell Resistance, but must break through damage reduction just like a physical attack.  Sawollic Fire always bypass DR/Magic. The damage has the same alignment as the reaper damage reduction purposes.  This attack is made as a ranged attack.  Thus a level 4 Reaper with a charisma score of 16 could fire a jet up to 20 ft away and deal 3d4 points of damage.  At level 9, and again 18, the size of each dice increases one size.

Sawollic fire is an innate part of the reaper’s magically powers; if he takes a prestige class that increases his caster level his sawollic fire increases for that level as if he had risen a level in Reaper.

Eat Soul (su):  The Reaper is cursed to take on a portion of the soul of anyone they personally kill.  Whenever they kill a person they gain one Spirit Point (a measure of the strength of the souls you have absorbed per point of charisma modifier possessed by the slain to a minimum of one.  Any creature brought back with a raise the dead spell whom was slain by a Reaper arises with no more than 10 charisma points.  These points cannot be healed by magical means.  If a reaper kills a reaper he gains every Spirit points the slain possessed.  When a reaper kills a reaper he not only eats the reapers soul but all of the Spirit points that he has eaten.

Detect soul power (su):  this functions like the paladin’s detect evil except instead of detecting alignment it detects the power of a soul.

Resolve (ex):  Whenever you succeed on a willpower save which would normally have a lesser affect on a successful save you instead negate the affect completely.

Power Control (su):  The Reaper no longer has to fear an Awakening due to killing a soul of weak power.

Their Strength is Mine (su):  The Reaper may choose to increase the base DC of becoming spiritually focused from 10 to 15 in order to increase his BAB as shown in the chart below.  Then at level ten he may increase the DC of becoming spiritually focused 10 to 20 to increase his BAB further.  If he loses his spiritual focus for any reason he BAB returns to it’s original value. If he loses his focus in conjunction with an attack the his BAB does not return to its original value until the attack has resolved.

Level	Their strength is mine BAB	Their power is my power BAB
1st	+0	+1
2nd	+1	+2
3rd	+2	+3
4th	+3	+4
5th	+3	+5
6th	+4	+6/+1
7th	+5	+7/+2
8th	+6/+1	+8/+3
9th	+6/+1	+9/+4
10th	+7/+2	+10/+5
11th	+8/+3	+11/+6/+1
12th	+9/+4	+12/+7/+2
13th	+9/+4	+13/+8/+3
14th	+10/+5	+14/+9/+4
15th	+11/+6/+1	+15/+10/+5
16th	+12/+7/+2	+16/+11/+6/+1
17th	+12/+7/+2	+17/+12/+7/+2
18th	+13/+8/+3	+18/+13/+8/+3
19th	+14/+9/+4	+19/+14/+9/+4
20th	+15/+10/+5	+20/+15/+10/+5

Improved Power Control (su):  The Reaper no longer has to fear an Awakening due to killing a Moderate soul.

Reap Soul (su):  To use this ability the he must be Spiritually focused.  The Reaper may once a day attempt to pull the soul out of a living body.  First he makes a touch attack, which provokes an attack of opportunity unless he has the improved unarmed attack feat. Then if the attack succeeds the creature makes a will save DC 10+1/2 Reaper level + Charisma modifier, if they fail you take their soul, as if you had just eaten, consumed, or devoured it.  You suffer an awakening and must make a will power save DC 10+hd of the creature you consumed+the creature’s charisma modifier or else take 1d10 points of lucidity damage per hd.  This damage is in addition to any other lucidity damage you would normally have taken.  If used on a creature with spirit points the damage is dealt to his spirit points instead.

Consume Soul (su):  The Reaper takes more of the slain’s soul and now gains 5 Spirit points + the victims charisma modifier, positive or negative, to a total of no less than one Spirit points.  The slain may only be brought back to life with a resurrection or higher level spell and requires an opposed caster/reaper check.

Greater Power Control (su):  The Reaper no longer has to fear an Awakening due to killing a strong soul, and the dc to avoid a great awakening due to consuming an overwhelming soul becomes 10+1/2 HD + Charisma Modifier.

Improved Resolve (ex):  Whenever you succeed on a willpower save which would normally have a lesser affect on a successful save you instead negate the affect completely.  However, when you fail the willpower save you only suffer the lesser affect.  Affects which are normally negated on a successful will save, like the reaper’s awakenings, affect you normally.

Stay the Reaper (Ex): a reaper no longer ages at the normal speed.  His time will be extended in each age category by one year per Spirit point in his pool.  This does not make him become younger.  I only extends the time he has.  Ex Greh the human reaper reaches level 15 at the age of 39, he has 556 Spirit points, if never gains another Spirit points he will not become old until he is 609 nor venerable until he 1182.  These bonus years are lost first.  Ex if Greh should some how at the age 510 lose all of his Spirit points in a single day then he would still have 17 years left before he became old.

Bonuses still accrue, and the reaper still dies of old age when his time is up.

Devour Soul (su):  The Reaper now completely takes the souls of the slain gaining 5 Spirit points + the victims HD + the victims charisma modifier. Only a miracle, alter reality or carefully worded wish can bring take the soul from the reaper, and this still requires an opposed check caster/manifester vs. castr level.

 

PHILOSOPHIES, MYSTERIES, AND THEIR EVOCATION

Mysteries: The spells cast by a reaper are usually called ‘mysteries’.  Mysteries are divine magic, and in a way the reaper is his own god.  The mysteries are the spells he grants himself, evoked from the souls he has eaten.  The Mysteries/spells are exclusive to the reaper class.  These spells function like both casting of spells in that they provoke an attack of opportunity.  The Difficulty Class for saving throws against reaper powers is 10 + the spell’s level + the reaper’s Charisma modifier.  Unlike spells, mysteries are grouped into over reaching philosophies.  Also, all but the simplest mysteries require that the reaper to understand a number of shallower mysteries from the same philosophy. Level 5 mysteries and deeper are split into two paths in each philosophy.  There is the Path of Light and the Path of Shadow.  The Path of Light uses mysteries, which might be described as honorable, just, or fair. The Path of Shadows uses mysteries, which might better be described as insidious, cruel, or shrewd.  While neither is innately good or evil, the path of light lends itself to the acts of good and often lawfulness, and the path of shadows to acts of evil and often chaos. 

Meta-mysteries:  To use meta-feats for mysteries is no different from using them for spells.  With the exception of silent spell, all meta-feats for meta-magic work for meta-mysteries.

Spirit point: A reaper’s ability to evoke the mysteries of a philosophy is dependant on the Spirit points he has captured.  Unlike power points every Spirit point must be captured and no one is born with one.  Every mystery has a minimum number of spirit points required in order to evoke that mystery.

Mysteries Known: A reaper gains one trivial spell from any philosophies of his choice at level one. As he gains levels he learns to cast deeper spells from a philosophy.

He may dedicate his Spirit points to a trivial understanding of any philosophy.  This is called a seedling, as the rest of his understanding in that philosophy must grow from this first Spirit point.  He must have a seedling in a particular philosophy to place Spirit points in a philosophy to any grade other than trivial you must first already have a seedling in that philosophy. 

Trances: He can move his Spirit points around from one philosophy to another, but it is a long and dangerous process.  He must enter a trance to do this, during which he communes with the spirits within.  Everything done during it trance takes time; to break a spell down into free Spirit points takes an hour assigning free Spirit points to trivial philosophies takes another hour, and for each additional depth you increase your understanding in a single philosophy you must spend one more hour in a trance.  When you are breaking a spell down you do not have to do so completely.  Ex. Tromas could break down the Spirit points he has in at the Radiant depth into Shining casting, two deep castings, and free several Spirit points, so long as the light and deep spell were all of the same philosophy.  You cannot break a spell of the Path of Light in to a lesser form of the Path of Shadow or vice versa.  You must completely leave the light or dark path to travel in the other.  Spending more than an hour per day in a trance can cause an Awaking, as indicated on the chart below. 

The Spirit points do not want him to leave the trance as it is their opportunity to take control so every hour after first he is in a trance he must make a will save or remain in the trance for another hour.

Once a reaper has trained himself through his trance he knows all the philosophies he knows; he does not need to prepare them (in the way that some spellcasters prepare their spells), though he must get a good night’s sleep each day and spend ten minutes meditating in order to evoke his mysteries.

 

Deepest Mystery Level	Expected spirit point minimum	Depth of Understanding
0	1-10	Trivial
1	5-30	Shallow
2	15-75	Clever
3	50-170	Insightful
4	80-275	Deep
5	180-505	Obscure	Luminous
6	250-700	Dark	Shining
7	480-1155	Grim	Brilliant
8	615-1480	Sinister	Radiant
9	1050-2250	Infernal	Celestial
(Epic)10	1285-2745	Epic Infernal	Epic Celestial
(Epic)11	2015-3960	Epic Infernal+	Epic Celestial+
(Epic)12	2380-4675	Epic Infernal++	Epic Celestial++
(Epic) 13	3525-6470	Epic Infernal+++	Epic Celestial+++
(Epic) 14	4065-7460	Epic Infernal++++	Epic Celestial++++
(Epic) 15	5760-9360	Epic Infernal+++++	Epic Celestial+++++
Epic levels Etc.	Etc.	Epic Infernal Etc.	Epic Celestial Etc.

 

 

Lucidity:  Your lucidity is the amount of mental control you are able to maintain, and the score is equal to Wisdom score times your Charisma bonus to a minimum of 1 times your class level (to a minimum of 1).  When you have loss half or more of your lucidity, you have begin to hear the spirits as distinct voices. 

When you have loss three quarters or more of your lucidity, you begin to sleepwalk; during your sleep your body is controlled by the spirits and the DM gains control of your character for the duration of the night choosing a random alignment and personality.  If your lucidity ever reaches 0 the Spirits within take over, and the character becomes a NPC.  A character that is over come by may only have their lucidity, their control, restored by a Heal spell which restores 1 point per caster level.  This can only be used to restore a character that has lost all lucidity, after which only the reaper can heal himself.

Every day you heal a number of lucidity points equal to your wisdom bonus.  By spending a whole day spiritually focused in meditation (this in not a trance) you heal a number of lucidity points equal your wisdom bonus plus your class levels.  Great awakening due to eating power souls deal extra damage.  If you are over come while eating a powerful, that soul becomes dominate in your body.

Anyone who kills a reaper becomes infused with the spirits the reaper had consumed and suffers a great awakening even if he is not a reaper, and regardless of a reaper’s level of control.  The killer must alsomake a willpower save DC 10+1/2 class level + charisma modifier, on a failed save the killer becomes plagued by the same spirits that the reaper had consumed.

 

Minor awakenings:  Whenever you cast a spell you must make a will save DC 10+ 2 times the level of the spell, or else take damage as on the chart below

 

 

Spell level	Lucidity damage
0	1
1	4
2	9
3	16
4	25
5	36
6	49
7	64
8	81
9	100
(Epic)10	121
(Epic)11	144
(Epic)12	169
(Epic) 13	196
(Epic) 14	225
(Epic) 15	256
Epic levels Etc.	Etc.

 

Great awakenings:  ever so often a soul of great strength will fight back or should there simply maybe too many Spirits for him to control this is when a Great awakening occurs.  The souls Awaken to what has become of them and they seek to control the body they are in.  If they win they control the vessel ruled by the strongest or fighting for control.  During every Great awakening you take lucidity 1d10 points of damage every 5 Spirits you control.  Great awakening due to particularly powerful soul cause increased damage.  Great awakening due to eating power souls deal extra damage.  If you are over come while eating a powerful, that soul becomes dominate in your body, however it does not gain total control and must struggle for dominance everyday.

 

Great awakening Chart I
When you have this many Spirit points	Will Save		Hours in a Trance/day(s)	Will Save Avoid an Great awakening	Will Save End the Trance
1 x Charisma Modifier	DC 11		1/1	–	–
5 x Charisma Modifier	DC 12		2/1	DC 11	DC 11
10 x Charisma Modifier	DC 13		4/1	DC 12	DC 12
50 x Charisma Modifier	DC 15		8/1	DC 13	DC 13
100 x Charisma Modifier	DC 18		16/1	DC 15	DC 14
500 x Charisma Modifier	DC 23		32/2	DC 18	DC 15
1,000 x Charisma Modifier	DC 31		64/3	DC 23	DC 16
5,000 x Charisma Modifier	DC 44		128/6	DC 31	DC 17
10,000 x Charisma Modifier	DC 65		256/12	DC 44	DC 18
50,000 x Charisma Modifier	DC 99		512/25	DC 65	DC 19
Etc.	Etc.		Etc.	Etc.	Etc.

 

Great awakening Chart II
Saves for eating powerful souls.
Soul Strength	DC	Damage
Weak Soul	1/2HD+Charisma modifier	1d10/Creature’s level
Moderate Soul	5+1/2HD+Charisma modifier	2d10/Creature’s level
Strong Soul	10+1/2HD+Charisma modifier	3d10/Creature’s level
Overwhelming soul	15+HD+Charisma modifier	5d10/Creature’s level

 

 

	———————— Souls Strength ———————
Creature/Object	Weak	Moderate	Strong	Overwhelming
Average creatures1 (HD)	10 or lower	11–25	26–50	51 or higher
Undead (HD) (only those with an intelligence & charisma score 3 or higher i.e. vampires)	2 or lower	3–8	9–20	21 or higher
Outsiders (HD)	1 or lower	2–4	5–10	11 or higher
Dragons and Psionic creatures 4 (HD)	5 or lower	6–13	14–21	22 or higher
Champion, Clerics, Druids,  and Paladins (class levels)	3 or lower	4–8	9–15	16 or higher
Barbarians, Samurai, Slayers, Villains, and Witch Doctors (class levels)	4 or lower	5–10	11–20	21 or higher
Sorcerers and Priests(class levels)	2 or lower	3–5	6–12	13 or higher
Psionic characters 3 (class levels)	2 or lower	3–8	9–19	20 or higher
Reaper (class levels)	1 or lower	2–4	5–10	11 or higher
Other Player Classes  (by class levels)	7 or lower	8–15	16–30	31 or higher
1 Except for undead outsiders and others which have their own entries on the table.
2 Some characters who are not clerics may radiate an aura of equivalent power. The class description will indicate whether this applies.
3 Creatures with class level in a manifesting class like a elan psion or mem wilder (note there are no psionics in Mierdyyn)
4 Creature such as mind flayers or neothied without class levels

 

 

 

 

© 2005-2009 Daniel (DM) Malone