The Soul Borrower
We start things off this week with a brand new occultist archetype, the soul borrower. Unlike traditional occultists that invest a portion of their own mental energies into their implements, the soul borrower borrows the souls of other creatures to fuel his powers. While this is somewhat more difficult for the soul borrower and should provide a slightly more challenging game experience for occultist players, they make up for it with a handful of special talents which replace the extremely flavorful but somewhat clunky magic circle talents, allowing the soul borrower to tap the true power of the souls he borrows. Without wasting too much more of your time, let’s dig in.
New Occultist Archetype
Soul Borrower
All occultists have a knack for unlocking the secret magic potential contained in objects around them, but soul borrowers go beyond their peers, infusing these objects with the very immortal souls that invigorate living creatures in order to unlock their full potential. While many consider soul borrowers to be evil, believing that they trap and imprison souls, most soul borrowers would disagree, as they keep souls only on a temporary basis, and many go out of their way to use the souls of unintelligent creatures to fuel their magic.
Soul Borrowing (Su): Soul borrowers do not use their own mental focus in order to power their magical implements, instead using the souls of other creatures to awaken their potential. Whenever a living creature dies within 30 feet of the soul borrower, he may attempt to draw that soul into one of his implements as an immediate action. The soul of the departed creature may attempt a Will save as though it were still alive. The DC for this saving throw is equal to 10 + 1/2 the soul borrower’s level + the soul borrower’s Intelligence modifier. A creature whose soul is drawn into the implement is temporarily trapped inside and cannot be returned to life so long as his soul remains within the implement. A soul remains trapped in this way for a number of days equal to 1 + the soul borrower’s level, at which time the soul departs the item, going to whatever end awaits it in the afterlife. A soul borrower can store a total number of souls in his implements equal to his level + his intelligence modifier.
Each day, an implement gains 1 point of soul energy for every soul which has been in the implement for at least 1 hour. This soul energy is treated like mental focus and functions in exactly the same way.
This ability replaces the mental focus class feature.
Soul Magic (Su): A soul borrower can utilize the power of borrowed souls to fuel his spells. At 8th level, as a free action made as part of casting a spell, a soul borrower can choose to release a soul from within one of his implements. If he does, he treats his caster level for that spell as though it were 2 higher than it actually is and the saving throw DC, if any, is increased by +1.
This ability replaces the magic circles class feature.
Speak with Souls (Sp): A soul borrower can call forth and commune with the soul of any creature within one his implements. At 8th level, as a special ritual which requires 1 minute to perform, the soul borrower can summon the soul of any creature currently stored in one of his implements. He may then ask the summoned soul a number of questions which it must answer truthfully to the best of its ability. The soul is limited to knowledge it had in life and, if stored in an intelligent item, to any information it may have witnessed through the intelligent item’s senses. Once the soul has answered the soul borrower’s questions, it is freed and departs to the afterlife. A soul borrower can ask a number of questions each day equal to his Intelligence modifier. At 12th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the soul borrower can ask one additional question of a conjured soul.
This ability replaces the outside contact class feature.
Soul Expulsion (Sp): A soul borrower can free a borrowed soul in order to use his powers with great alacrity. At 12th level, as a standard action, a soul borrower can chose to release a soul stored in one of his implements, sending it on to the afterlife in order to immediately grant that implement 2 points of soul energy.
This ability replaces the binding circles class feature.
Hide Soul (Su): A soul borrower is able to hide a piece of himself in one of his implements, making him difficult to slay and allowing him greater access to soul energy. At 16th level, a soul borrower can spend 1 hour conducting a sacred ritual which costs 3,000 gp and transfers his soul into one of his implements. After completing this ritual, should the soul borrower die, at any time after 1d4 minutes have passed, the soul borrower may choose to return to life, destroying the implement his soul was grafted to and returning him to life as though with the spell resurrection. If the soul borrower’s body was destroyed, a new body is created at the location where the implement was destroyed.
This ability replaces the fast circles class feature.