The Phantom Master
Today is the second day of Spiritualist Week, the first week of our support for the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures book by Paizo. While that book is still a couple of weeks away, the public playtest means that some of us have been playing with the spiritualist (and other classes from the book) for quite some time now, and we’re so excited that we just can’t wait, so today we have a new spiritualist archetype for those of you who can’t help but feel that one phantom… just isn’t enough.
New Spiritualist Archetype
Phantom Master
Most spiritualists spend their entire lives tied to a single phantom, but some are able to overcome the jealousy and possessiveness of phantoms, bringing multiple spirits to heel under their command. These are known as phantom masters, and their squadrons of spectral allies make them formidable foes.
Phantom Brood (Su): Rather than forming a particularly close bond with a single phantom, a phantom master eventually develops weaker bonds with a greater number of phantoms. She gains access to a second phantom at 4th level, and a third phantom at 12th level. Each of the phantom master’s phantoms has its own emotional focus, and these can be the same as or different from one another.
A phantom master’s phantoms are somewhat weaker than the phantoms of other spiritualists of the same level. Beginning at 4th level, each of the phantom master’s phantoms are treated as though the phantom master’s class level were one or more lower than it actually is. The following table indicates the phantom master’s effective class level for the purpose of determining the Hit Dice, saving throw, skills, feats, and abilities of each of her three phantoms at each class level.
A phantom master can have more than one of her phantoms manifested at the same time. When the phantom master fully manifests one of her phantoms, she can choose to fully manifest any of her other phantoms that are not currently manifested as part of the same 1-minute ritual.
This ability modifies the phantom class feature, and replaces the spiritual interference and greater spiritual interference class features.
Splintered Consciousness (Su): Beginning at 4th level, when the phantom master gains her second phantom, she can have more than one phantom confined within her consciousness at a time, but she must choose a single one of these phantoms for the purposes of determining the benefits that she gains from her shared consciousness class feature. The phantom master can change which of these phantoms is currently granting her the bonuses for her shared consciousness class feature by spending 1 minute in meditation.
This ability modifies the shared consciousness class feature.
Splintered Tether (Su): Beginning at 4th level, when the phantom master gains her second phantom, the nature of her etheric tether changes slightly. She can sacrifice hit points to prevent damage to each of her phantoms separately, as normal for the etheric tether ability. Each phantom’s current and maximum hit points are affected by its distance from the phantom master, as normal for the etheric tether ability.
This ability modifies the etheric tether class feature.
Splintered Sense (Su): Beginning at 4th level, when the phantom master gains her second phantom, the nature of her bonded sense class feature changes slightly. Whenever she uses the ability, she must choose a single phantom whose senses to share.
This ability modifies the shared sense class feature.
Splintered Manifestation (Su): Beginning at 4th level, when the phantom master gains her second phantom, the nature of her bonded manifestation class feature changes slightly. When using this ability, the phantom that is currently granting her benefits for her shared consciousness class feature is the only one that can be used to grant these benefits. The total number of rounds per day that the phantom master can use her bonded manifestation class feature remains the same, and these rounds are shared amongst all phantoms she possesses.
This ability modifies the bonded manifestation class feature.
Splintered Recall (Su): Beginning at 6th level, whenever the phantom master uses her phantom recall class feature, she can affect any number of her manifested phantoms. Each affected phantom must be within range. This is treated as a single use of the ability, regardless of how many phantoms she chooses to affect. This ability otherwise functions as normal for the phantom recall class feature.
This ability modifies the phantom recall class feature.
Unfetter Phantoms (Su): Beginning at 10th level, the phantom master gains the ability to maintain her phantom’s forms at much greater distances. Her phantoms can be up to 200 feet away from her and still remain at full strength. If the phantom is beyond 200 feet away but closer than 2,000 feet, its current and maximum hit point totals are reduced by 50%. If the phantom is more than 2,000 feet away, but less than 1 mile away, its current and maximum hit point totals are reduced by 75%. If the phantom is more than 1 mile away, it’s immediately returned to the Ethereal Plane for 24 hours. This otherwise functions as described in the spirit link class feature.
This ability replaces the fused consciousness class feature.
Shared Spirit (Su): Beginning at 14th level, the phantom master is able to draw upon the energy of one of her phantoms in order to strengthen another phantom. Whenever one of the phantom master’s phantoms takes damage that would reduce it to 0 or fewer hit points, she can choose to have that damage transferred to a different phantom, instead. This transfer of damage stops after the phantom that the damage is being transferred to takes all of the damage or is reduced to negative hit points equal to its Constitution score. In the latter case, damage dealt in excess of the negative Constitution score of the phantom that the damage is transferred to is not transferred, and is dealt to the phantom that would originally have taken the damage, instead. This ability has no effect on effects that do not deal hit point damage.
This ability replaces the spiritual bond class feature.
Shared Bond (Su): At 20th level, the phantom master can draw strength from more than one of her phantoms at the same time. She gains the benefits of the shared consciousness class feature for each of her phantoms that is confined within her consciousness. She gains the Skill Focus feats granted by each of these spirits, and the bonus granted on saving throws made to resist mind-affecting effects increases by 1 for every phantom confined within her consciousness beyond the 1st.
Additionally, whenever she uses her splintered manifestation class feature, if she has more than one phantom confined within her consciousness, she can choose to have each of the phantoms confined within her consciousness be used to gain a different benefit of the bonded manifestation class feature. Each round that she uses this ability still counts as only a single round for the purposes of how many rounds per day she can use this ability (for example, if all three of her phantoms were confined within her consciousness, she could choose to use the spirit touch, ectoplasmic tendrils, and spirit form uses of bonded manifestation simultaneously).
This ability replaces the empowered consciousness class feature.