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Arakune
2007-08-06, 12:35 PM
I renounce You
Raziel, Soul Reaver.

This is a Soul Reaver Template based on the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 game. Note that vampires from normal D&D are little diferent to LK:SR2 vampires, so some characteristics Raziel remain from his original vampiric condition are up to DM to either ignore or apply at his choice.

The Soul Reaver is a powerful wraith, created from deities of death to hunt down any creature who cheat it's ultimate destiny. Soul Reavers resemble slightly the appearance they had in the past "life", either undead or alive, but appearing more decadent and frail in contrast with it's actual power. Usually they serve a patron deity but some of then try to defy him without success, since his ultimate goal are harvesting souls and they become weaker without consuming then. Soul Reavers speak any language they had in their previous "life".

Creating A Soul Reaver

"Soul Reaver" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A Soul Reaver uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type
The creature’s type changes to incorporeal undead (augmented humanoid or monstrous humanoid). Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged.

Hit Dice
Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s, even those acquired from class. Treat them as simply 'soul reaver HD'.

Speed
Same as the base creature. If the creature had an Flying speed, he loses his flying speed, but instead gain the ability to fall very slowy avoinding fall damage and being able to travel up to 10 feet for each 10 feet high he was.

Armor Class
The base creature’s natural armor bonus improves by +4.

Attack
A Soul Reaver retains all the attacks of the base creature and also gains a Claw attack if it didn’t already have one. If the base creature can use weapons, the Soul Reaver retains this ability. A creature with natural weapons retains those natural weapons.

Full Attack
A Soul Reaver fighting without weapons uses either its Claw attack (see above) or other natural weapons (if it has any). If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack along with a claw or other natural weapon as a natural secondary attack.

Damage
Soul Reavers have Claw attacks. If the base creature does not have this attack form, use the appropriate damage value from the table bellow according to the Soul Reaver’s size. Creatures that already have claw attacks have their claw damage upgraded in one size category above his normal. Other natural attacks are unchanged.

Claw Damage
{TABLE=head]Size|Damage
Diminutive or Fine|1
Tiny|1d2
Small|1d3
Mediun|1d4
Large|1d6
huge|1d8
Gargantuan|2d6
Colossal|2d8
[/TABLE]

Special Attacks
A Soul Reaver loses all the special attacks of the base creature and gains those described below. Saves have a DC of 10 + ½ Soul Reaver’s HD + Soul Reaver’s Cha modifier unless noted otherwise.

Soul Devour [Ex]: The Soul Reaver can devour the souls of any creature that died in the last 5 minutes. To do so he just need to open his mount and all souls in a radius of his HD x 10 ft. must make a reflex save or be instantly devoured by him and even them the soul must make a will save or have his speed halved, being difficult to escape. The Soul Reaver can even devour the souls of creatures that normally don't permanently die when slain (such as vampires or ghosts). After the 'death' of such creatures the Soul Reaver can try to devour their souls normally. Creatures in the shadow plane must be slain before being devoured (see Shadow Shift). The Soul Reaver recover 1d6 points of HP per HD of the soul consumed (except creatures natives of the shadow plane, in this case it's only 1d4 per HD).

Soul Assimilation [Ex]: After consuming one soul of a creature
with more HD than his Soul Reaver HD he can chose to:

Receive a +1 inherent bonus on one stat if the creature stat was higher than the Soul Reaver Stat. A Soul Reaver cannot have more bonuses from this ability than its number of hit die. If the Soul Reaver is at its limit from this ability then it cannot use this ability until it gains more hit die. The Soul Reaver also gains a random feat the devoured soul had if he can meet the pre-requisites and don't already have it.

Receive one [Su] or [Sp] ability the creature had that the Soul Reaver already didn't had. This ability also works for movement types (such as Climbing speed). Soul Assimilation does not work on [Ex] abilities or abilities requiring extra limbs/bodyparts/features that the Reaver does not posses.

Special Qualities
The Soul Reaver loses all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below.

Shadow Shift [Ex]: The Soul Reaver are native to the Shadow plane, a quasi-ethereal plane in between the material and the outer planes of existence. It appearance are almost identical to the material plane but with twisted terrain and it's own creatures. The Soul Reaver can plane shift to the material plane when he have full HP as a full-round action and can come back as a standard action. Soul Reavers with HD 17+ can posses a corpse to facilitate the plane shift, thus don't need full HP in order to do it. Outside the shadow plane, the Soul Reaver loses 1 HP every 1 minute that can be replenished only with his Soul Devour ability or negative magic.

Shadow Rebound [Ex] When the Soul Reaver gets to 0 hp in the material plane he are 'kicked' to the shadow plane immediately with only 1/3 of his max HP. If he came back this way from the material plane he can only come back with his shadow shift ability after he have full HP.

Soul Dependence [Ex] The Soul Reaver must eat the soul of a creature in the material plane at least once a day or loses 1 Str, 1 Dex and 6 max HP per day until it have only 1 Str, 1 Dex and 1 HP. After he eats at least one soul all penalties are instantly negated (he will still have the HP he had before the recovery, but his max HP will be at the normal value).

Turn Immunity [Ex]: Soul Reavers are Immune to any Turn/Rebuke ability.

Abilities
Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2, Wis +2, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a Soul Reaver has no Constitution score.

Feats
Soul Reavers gains Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, and Great Fortitute, assuming the base creature meets the prerequisites and doesn’t already have these feats.

Skills
Soul Reavers have a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Climb, Jump, Intimidation, Listen, Move Silently and Spot checks. -4 racial bonus on Disguise, Diplomacy checks.

Environment
Ethereal (spectral) plane, or anywhere in the material plane, harvesting souls.

Organization
Solitary

Challenge Rating
Same as the base creature +2.

Treasure
None

Alignment
Usually evil (it's easer to make a harvester of souls that enjoy his work, but it's not a necessary pre-requisite).

Advancement
By character class.

Level Adjustment
Same as the base creature +5.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special thanks to:

JoshuaZ, Paragon Badger: Soul Assimilation tips.
Ossian: Shadow plane idea.

13_CBS
2007-08-06, 12:45 PM
((NEvermind, neat stuff!))

Arakune
2007-08-07, 10:29 AM
((NEvermind, neat stuff!))

just out of curiosity, what you were going to say?
Also, a variant from a history that i have in mind.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQ

Q:Why the Soul Reaver can't shoot psychic balls?
A:Because that's a vampire power. Raziel still got some vampiric traits and abilities (such as his vampiric aparence, his former wings and some of his powers). Besides, since the vampires of the game and the normal D&D have some diferences, I leaved that part for the DM (see in the description of Special Attacks: some [Ex], [Su], [Sp] attacks my or not remain, it's up to DM).

Q:Raziel could pass in the spectral realm some type of obstacle (iron bars, etc) but there is no rule for that.
A:He can, but I don't think it's necessary to specific. Altough he have the Incorporeal Undead type, when he are in the Ethereal plane, he couldn't pass tough walls and doors and couldn't interact with matter (even water for him are treated as if it's 'air'). That's a realy complicated way to emulate since I don't own any book about the ethereal plane and his mechanics. Also, the DM are free to house rule any situation sucha as passing though some kinds of thin material, any material or some spaced things (like, iron bars).

Q:Raziel don't have the Soul Devour Ability.
A:Then why you explain in the SR1 or SR2 he become more strong when consumes some 'boss' soul? Also, it's not everyone, it's just souls from creatures more/as powerfull than him, and the benefits are the same if you devour a HD 15 vampire or a HD 30 demon.

Q:In Legacy of Kain:Defiance, Raziel...
A:I didn't play the game and some of the cool abilities of the SR2 become nerfed. But some ability changes are emulated by feats, skill checks and the new Soulknife that I will make just for Raziel. Even that class will be more inspired in the SR1 and SR2 than LoK:Deficance.

Q:In SR series, Raziel was unkillable!
A:Do you realy want a unkillable character running after you, trying to devour your soul and when you finaly manage to 'destroy' it he just pop up again? Also, D&D don't handle imortality for PCs too well. If you realy want then to be unkillable, just add this Special Quality:
Imortality [Ex]: You are imortal. When you 'die', you ressurect again in some designed spot (the place when you first died, the same place when you died, save points, etc, at DM aproval), after 1d6 rounds. When you 'die', you don't earn any XP from that game session (if it's a NPC, the NPC don't earn any XP from 1~6 days to 1~3 months). Note that 'death' for a Soul Reaver are only when he are reduced to 0 HP when on Ethereal Plane.

puppyavenger
2007-08-07, 11:35 AM
Actualy I think harvesting the souls of those who try to cheat death is neutrel.
Out of curiosity, do they try to harvest ressurected souls to?

de-trick
2007-08-07, 11:44 AM
I like it but one way to make it better use the glyphs in the game like 1-3HD climb speed 10ft

Arakune
2007-08-07, 01:25 PM
I like it but one way to make it better use the glyphs in the game like 1-3HD climb speed 10ft

I don't think so, he have racial bonus on climb and he didn't climbed that fast. also, look at the Spectral Moon Wolf. Only thing: he ARE suposed to be powerful (only 50~70) existed in all the modern world (with our over six bilion people around).


Actualy I think harvesting the souls of those who try to cheat death is neutrel.
Out of curiosity, do they try to harvest ressurected souls to?

Anything that cheat death. Also, since they kill things for the sole purpose of not dying, it's ratter dificult for the deities to don't chose a "naturaly" inclined guy most of the time.

Ossian
2008-03-17, 05:37 AM
just out of curiosity, what you were going to say?
Also, a variant from a history that i have in mind.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQ
Q001:Raziel could pass in the spectral realm some type of obstacle (iron bars, etc) but there is no rule for that.
A:He can, but I don't think it's necessary to specific. Altough he have the Incorporeal Undead type, when he are in the Ethereal plane, he couldn't pass tough walls and doors and couldn't interact with matter (even water for him are treated as if it's 'air'). That's a realy complicated way to emulate since I don't own any book about the ethereal plane and his mechanics. Also, the DM are free to house rule any situation sucha as passing though some kinds of thin material, any material or some spaced things (like, iron bars).

Q002:Raziel don't have the Soul Devour Ability.
A:Then why you explain in the SR1 or SR2 he become more strong when consumes some 'boss' soul? Also, it's not everyone, it's just souls from creatures more/as powerfull than him, and the benefits are the same if you devour a HD 15 vampire or a HD 30 demon.



Aye sir! Never enough e-nk (i.e the net's ink) can be poured to make Raziels!
Just a couple of brainstorming comments.

I'd have personally increased the claw attack damage by 1 die. I'm thinking about Medium SRs and 1d4 seems a bit low. Just 1d6 would be class.

Q/A 001. Try the shadow plane. You don't even need the Planescape book. Coterminal with the Prime Material, but with airly changed distances. Everything is a bit twisted and made of different colors. Dimmer. Darker. Sadder...
As for 002, On such a plane he'd have a +5 to survival (at least not to et lost) and the SR could have 1d4 HP healed for every HD's worth of creature he kills which are native of the plane (thus, if he kills a 5HD shadowplane creatur he heals 5d4 lost HP)

JoshuaZ
2008-03-17, 08:45 PM
Soul Devour [Ex]: Any creature that died in the past 10 minutes (or any
soul that can't go to afterlife, but don't have any Undead template) can
be devoured. By simply opening the Soul Reaver mount the soul will be sucked by
the Soul Reaver. Incorporeal Undead's (such as gosts, wraiths and such) must be
slaied first before being devoured (when destroied, the creature soul will have
no defences against the Soul Reaver), and normal inteligent Corporeal Undeads
(such as vampires, etc) when destroied have their soul at mercy of the Soul
Reaver. All souls in the range of the Soul Reaver HD x 5 feet will be
devoured (Ref save to try to scape from the soul reaver are permited, but the
soul reaver can chase the soul). At every HD consumed the Soul Reaver restores
2 HP.


Ok, there needs to be a mechanic for chasing the soul, and you need a DC for the
reflex save (and what are the underlying stats to determine the reflex save of a
soul?). Less seriously there are a variety of typos which I will note:
"destroied" should be "destroyed" "gosts" should be "ghosts" and "slaied"
should be "slain".





Soul Assimilation [Ex]: After consuming one soul of a creature with HD
equal to Soul Reaver HD or more, the Soul Reaver receive +3 HP, +1 natural
armor, +1 on one stat (if the creature stat was higher than the Soul Reaver
Stat), +1 racial bonus on all skills the creature and the Soul Reaver shared.


Way too powerful even given the level adjustment. I can make someone with this
template easily get an indefinite number of hit points using this and that's
without even thinking about ways to break this. The fact that it only needs to
have as many hit die also substantially reduces the difficulty using this
power.

Here are two suggested revised versions :

Soul Assimilation [Ex] version 2: After consuming one soul of a creature
with more HD than Soul Reaver HD the Soul Reaver receives a +1 inherent bonus
on one stat if the creature stat was higher than the Soul Reaver Stat. A Soul
Reaver cannot have more bonuses from this ability than its number of hit die.
If the Soul Reaver is at its limit from this ability then it cannot use this
ability until it gains more hit die.

Soul Assimilation [Ex] version 3: After consuming a soul of a creature
with more HD than Soul Reaver HD, the Soul Reaver receives a feat that the
consumed creature had that the Soul Reaver meets the prerequisites for if any
such feats exist. If there are multiple such feats the reaver chooses which
feat to take. If the feat involves any choices, the reaver must make the same
choices as those made by the being that had the feat. The Soul Reaver may
choose to not pick up any feat if it wants. A Soul Reaver cannot have more
feats from this ability than its number of hit die. If the Soul Reaver is at
its limit from this ability then it cannot use this ability until it gains more
hit die. Feats gained from this ability cannot be traded in using abilities like
retraining or psychic reformulation.

I like version 3 because it actually reflects on what Raziel does in
that he gains new abilities when he absorbs souls.

Arakune
2008-03-17, 09:49 PM
My topic being affected by the necromancy?

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! :smalleek:

I will take a look at it, thanks. :smallsmile:

Paragon Badger
2008-03-17, 11:05 PM
I attempted to do a Nosgothic vampires template awhile ago. A pain. :smalltongue:

But I would like to see someone apply both the templates to a Human Paladin of Tyranny. :smallwink:

As for the template...


Soul Assimilation [Ex]: After consuming one soul of a creature with HD
equal to Soul Reaver HD or more, the Soul Reaver receive +3 HP, +1 natural
armor, +1 on one stat (if the creature stat was higher than the Soul Reaver
Stat), +1 racial bonus on all skills the creature and the Soul Reaver shared.

I suggest...

Soul Assimiliation (Ex): Whenever a Soul Reaver consumes a soul with a supernatural or psionic ability, the Soul Reaver gains that ability. This ability also works for movement types (such as Climb). Soul Assimiliation does not work on Extraordinary abilities or abilities requiring extra limbs/bodyparts/features that the Reaver does not posess.

Simple and easy.

Ossian
2008-03-18, 04:10 AM
My topic being affected by the necromancy?

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! :smalleek:

I will take a look at it, thanks. :smallsmile:

:smallwink: it's a reziel thread. You're lucky the great chtulhu didn't resurrect it after 10.000 years :)

Bayar
2008-03-18, 04:27 AM
it's a raziel thread

This. I am so going to create a Soul Reaver PC now :smallbiggrin:

Arakune
2008-03-18, 02:49 PM
Updated. YEY!!!