Entry number 4:

Quote Originally Posted by Alphonse Louise Constant
There is no god but man.

1. Man has the right to live by his own law—
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.

2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.

3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.

4. Man has the right to love as he will:—
"take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where, and with whom ye will." —AL. I. 51

5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.

~Liber OZ, Aleister Crowley

Alphonse Louise Constant, Hidden Seeker of Vol
NE Human, Psychic Rogue 1/Psion 4/Ebon Saint 5/Thief of Life 10

"Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people."

Spoiler: The Build
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"What a lovely face. I think I might borrow it."

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Psychic Rogue 1 +0 +0 +2 +0 Bluff 4 ranks, diplomacy 4 ranks, disguise 4 ranks, hide 4 ranks, move silently 4 ranks, sleight of hand 4 ranks, knowledge (arcana) 2 ranks, heal 2 ranks, balance 4 ranks, knowledge (religion) 2 ranks1 Able Learner, Combat Expertise Sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding
2nd Psion 1 +0 +0 +2 +2 Bluff 1 rank (5), diplomacy 1 rank (5), hide 1 rank (5), move silently 1 rank (5), balance 1 rank (5), heal 1 rank (3) Change shape, discipline (egoist)
3rd Psion 2 +1 +0 +2 +3 Bluff 1 rank (6), diplomacy 1 rank (6), hide 1 rank (6), move silently 1 rank (6), heal 1 rank (4), knowledge (arcana) 1 rank (3) Improved Feint
4th Psion 3 +1 +1 +3 +3 Bluff 1 rank (7), diplomacy 1 rank (7), hide 1 rank (7), move silently 1 rank (7), disguise 2 ranks (6)
5th Psion 4 +2 +1 +3 +4 Bluff 1 rank (8), diplomacy 1 rank (8), hide 1 rank (8), move silently 1 rank (8), disguise 2 ranks (8)
6th Ebon Saint 1 +2 +1 +5 +6 Bluff 1 rank (9), diplomacy 1 rank (9), hide 1 rank (9), move silently 1 rank (9), disguise 1 rank (9), knowledge (arcana) 1 rank (4), sleight of hand 2 ranks (6) Darkstalker Dire strike, shadowfriend
7th Ebon Saint 2 +3 +1 +6 +7 Bluff 1 rank (10), diplomacy 1 rank (10), hide 1 rank (10), move silently 1 rank (10), disguise 1 rank (10), sleight of hand 1 rank (7), Second Impression skill trick Thought theft
8th Ebon Saint 3 +4 +2 +6 +7 Bluff 1 rank (11), diplomacy 1 rank (11), hide 1 rank (11), move silently 1 rank (11), sleight of hand 3 ranks (10), Group Fake-Out skill trick Mind interrogation, sneak attack +2d6
9th Ebon Saint 4 +5 +2 +7 +8 Bluff 1 rank (12), diplomacy 1 rank (12), hide 1 rank (12), move silently 1 rank (12), sleight of hand 2 ranks (12), Mosquito's Bite skill trick Metamorphic Transfer Steal form
10th Thief of Life 1 +5 +4 +9 +8 Bluff 1 rank (13), diplomacy 1 rank (13), hide 1 rank (13), move silently 1 rank (13), sleight of hand 1 rank (13), disguise 3 ranks (13), concentration 1 rank (1), Timely Misdirection skill trick Lifesense (5 ft.)
11th Thief of Life 2 +6/+1 +5 +10 +8 Bluff 1 rank (14), diplomacy 1 rank (14), hide 1 rank (14), move silently 1 rank (14), sleight of hand 1 rank (14), disguise 1 rank (14), concentration 3 ranks (4), Social Recovery skill trick Sneak attack +3d6
12th Thief of Life 3 +7/+2 +5 +10 +9 Bluff 1 rank (15), diplomacy 1 rank (15), hide 1 rank (15), move silently 1 rank (15), sleight of hand 1 rank (15), disguise 1 rank (15), concentration 3 ranks (7), Assume Quirk skill trick Azure Talent Lifesense (10 ft.)
13th Thief of Life 4 +8/+3 +6 +11 +9 Bluff 1 rank (16), diplomacy 1 rank (16), hide 1 rank (16), move silently 1 rank (16), sleight of hand 1 rank (16), disguise 1 rank (16), concentration 1 rank (8), psicraft 4 ranks Borrow vigor
14th Ebon Saint 5 +8/+3 +6 +11 +9 Bluff 1 rank (17), diplomacy 1 rank (17), hide 1 rank (17), move silently 1 rank (17), sleight of hand 1 rank (17), disguise 1 rank (17), concentration 3 ranks (11) Disappear from the mind
15th Thief of Life 5 +8/+3 +6 +11 +9 Bluff 1 rank (18), diplomacy 1 rank (18), hide 1 rank (18), move silently 1 rank (18), sleight of hand 1 rank (18), disguise 1 rank (18), concentration 2 ranks (13), listen 3 ranks (3) Practiced Manifester (Psion) Immunity to fear, lifesense (15 ft.)
16th Thief of Life 6 +9/+4 +7 +12 +10 Bluff 1 rank (19), diplomacy 1 rank (19), hide 1 rank (19), move silently 1 rank (19), sleight of hand 1 rank (19), disguise 1 rank (19), concentration 1 rank (14), listen 3 ranks (6), Listen to This skill trick Sneak attack +4d6
17th Thief of Life 7 +10/+5 +7 +12 +10 Bluff 1 rank (20), diplomacy 1 rank (20), hide 1 rank (20), move silently 1 rank (20), sleight of hand 1 rank (20), disguise 1 rank (20), concentration 1 rank (15), listen 3 ranks (9), Swift Concentration skill trick Immunity to energy drain, lifesense (20 ft.)
18th Thief of Life 8 +11/+6/+1 +8 +13 +10 Bluff 1 rank (21), diplomacy 1 rank (21), hide 1 rank (21), move silently 1 rank (21), sleight of hand 1 rank (21), disguise 1 rank (21), concentration 1 rank (16), listen 5 ranks (14) Undead Empathy Steal vitality
19th Thief of Life 9 +11/+6/+1 +8 +13 +11 Bluff 1 rank (22), diplomacy 1 rank (22), hide 1 rank (22), move silently 1 rank (22), sleight of hand 1 rank (22), disguise 1 rank (22), concentration 1 rank (16), listen 5 ranks (19) Immunity to death effects, lifesense (25 ft.)
20th Thief of Life 10 +12/+7/+2 +9 +14 +11 Bluff 1 rank (23), diplomacy 1 rank (23), hide 1 rank (23), move silently 1 rank (23), sleight of hand 1 rank (23), disguise 1 rank (23), concentration 2 ranks (18), listen 4 ranks (23) Sneak attack +5d6, steal immortality

STARTING STATS (32 PB): Str 8/Dex 14/Con 13/Int 16/Wis 13/Cha 14 (boost Int at each available level)

PSYCHIC ROGUE POWERS KNOWN:
1- Dimensional pocket

PSION POWERS KNOWN2:
1- Disable, control light, psionic grease, entangling ectoplasm, conceal thoughts
2- Chameleon, control sound, psionic knock/ego whip3, psionic tongues
3- Faint memory, time hop, psionic glibness, hustle
4- Metamorphosis, psionic freedom of movement, psionic divination, psychic reformation

Spoiler: Psion PP
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PP/day (Does not include bonus PP from a high Intelligence or Azure Talent)

1- N/A
2- 2
3- 6
4- 11
5- 17
6- 17
7- 25
8- 35
9- 46
10- 46
11- 46
12- 46
13- 46
14- 58
15- 58
16- 58
17- 58
18- 58
19- 58
20- 58

Alphonse gets 0 PP from his Psychic Rogue class levels. However, his high Intelligence means he does draw bonus PP from here - one point to start, thanks to his base Intelligence of 16, but this increases to as much as 5 points by the end of his career (if we can assume 21 Int +5 tome +6 headband).

Assuming standard Intelligence boosting items, by level 20, Alphonse should have a total of 107 PP from his class levels and bonus PP, which is further augmented by Azure Talent and his Thief of Life abilities (see Build Snapshots below for more on this trick).


1The table assumes that Able Learner's benefit does NOT apply at first level. If it does in fact apply, the build picks up six extra skill points. These can be valuable for investing in trained-only skills such as Autohypnosis (which you currently don't pick up until level 20), or for freeing up skill points down the road to use for more skill tricks.

2After level 14, these are best considered sample powers, as psychic reformation means that many of these powers can be re-written when necessary. However, this power selection is meant to best augment your abilities, and should remain the most useful over your career.

3As many of the effects of psionic knock can be duplicated by time hop, this can subsequently be reformed via psychic reformation for ego whip (a potent save-or-lose).


Spoiler: Build Snapshots
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"Dare to will, dare to act, dare to be silent."

LEVEL 5: Psychic Rogue 1/Egoist 4.

Though the bulk of your class levels are in a class not traditionally thought of as stealthy, you are quite the sneak. Your goal is to play as a spy and assassin, with excellent skills focused primarily on stealth and social interactions. The latter in particular is impressive, particularly thanks to the Change Shape ability you received at 2nd level, which functionally gives you disguise self at will. This is further augmented by your psionic powers: conceal thoughts lasts four hours and gives you a huge +10 bonus to your bluff checks (and helps you resist mind-reading magic that might reveal your true intentions) and psionic tongues ensures you can use these skills against anyone, while powers such as control light, control sound, psionic knock and chameleon heavily augment your stealth and infiltration abilities.

In combat, you are primarily an opportunist. You can use that impressive bluff skill in combat with Improved Feint to throw around sneak attacks, but primarily your goal should be to confuse and disable. You've got a few very useful combat-oriented powers such as psionic grease, entangling ectoplasm and disable to shut down opponents and either make your escape or assist your teammates in taking them out, and with your impressive bluffing and disguise skills, you can easily cause mayhem in combat by concealing you and an opponent with control light and taking their form.

LEVEL 10: Psychic Rogue 1/Psion 4/Ebon Saint 4/Thief of Life 1

By level 10, your stealth and social skills have evolved from impressive to extraordinary. Your raw skills have taken a sharp increase, as you expand beyond the standard bluff/diplomacy/hide/move silently and begin picking up things like disguise (further augmented by Change Shape and the Second Impression skill trick) and sleight of hand (especially nice alongside the psychic rogue power dimensional pocket). Your powers also help in this regard: psionic glibness stacks with conceal thoughts to give you a whopping +40 bonus, metamorphosis alongside Metamorphic Transfer gives you access to a whole host of new abilities for infiltration, and faint memory, time hop and freedom of movement make you exceedingly difficult to stop. Even more important, though, are your Ebon Saint abilities. In addition to the raw increase to your skills provided by shadowfriend, you have several dire strikes that can provide unique abilities. Thought theft and mind interrogation allow you to wrest hidden secrets from your opponent, with mind interrogation being especially powerful: on a successful attack, with no save, you can get the answer to any question (assuming they know the answer). This can be downright campaign breaking in the right hands, but even without going down that road, it is easily one of the most useful abilities for a spy. You can also use steal form to easily nab the forms of non-humanoids who are not easy targets of your Change Shape ability.

This combines well with one of your skill tricks, Mosquito's Bite. You can use Mosquito's Bite to activate a dire augment, causing your opponent to think you just swiped harmlessly at them - while your dire augment allows you to steal secrets from their mind or steal their form.

You also begin down the path of the Thief of Life. Your first ability, lifesense, is limited to a small 5' range at this point, but it allows you to get some sense of your surroundings without requiring vision. This can particularly help when you use the oft-overlooked ability of metamorphosis to change into an object. You can remain as an object for an hour per level, completely hidden, using your lifesense to detect when someone passes near - at which point you can attack or beguile your opponent.

LEVEL 15: Psychic Rogue 1/Psion 4/Ebon Saint 5/Thief of Life 5

It's easy to just mindlessly list your stealth and social skills here, and rest assured that they are fantastic, but I want to focus on a couple of other aspects of the build that you pick up in these levels.

First of all, the combination of Azure Talent and your borrow vigor ability means that each opponent you face helps restore your power points. Azure Talent grants you two bonus PP for each essentia invested into it, but ordinarily you can only invest essentia into it once a day and never change it. Borrow vigor allows you to ignore this restriction, granting you bonus PP throughout the day as you fell enemies.

Second of all, metamorphosis, Metamorphic Transfer and Practiced Manifester combine to allow you access to some truly terrifying abilities. A key choice includes the greater doppelganger from Monsters of Faerun, whose Consume Identity ability allows you to consume a victim's brain to permanently acquire its identity and abilities, but the opportunities are nearly boundless. Let that last one sink in, however: you can secretly sneak attack a target, steal its thoughts with your dire augment, sap its vigor to gain power points, and then eat its brain to make the transformation complete. After all, why waste a perfectly good resource?

Third, you gain access to a potent combination in psionic divination and psychic reformation. Now you can use divinations and fact-finding through your dire augments to tailor your powers and skills to a specific threat. While the XP cost means you probably won't be using psychic reformation every encounter, and the above build is what I consider an optimal layout for most days and times, this gives you nearly unequaled flexibility and power.

LEVEL 20: Psychic Rogue 1/Psion 4/Ebon Saint 5/Thief of Life 10

You finish out Thief of Life, giving you several interesting defensive abilities, giving you lifesense out to 25', and increasing your offensive capabilities by improving your sneak attack. With some decent sneak attack and the ability to pick up combat forms via metamorphosis, you actually have a neat trick with the Group Fake-Out skill trick. You can feint against an entire group of enemies and, using a combat form that has multiple attacks, get off your sneak attack against all of them.

Most importantly, however, you may now steal the very lifeforce from your opponents. Steal immortality is an incredibly cool ability that lets you prevent your enemies from being resurrected while extending your own life. It also gives your PP a huge shot in the arm, as now slaying a foe will almost always give you enough essentia to max out Azure Talent.

Also, you've probably noticed that many of your abilities simply don't work on the mindless undead. They're immune to your sneak attack, your attempts at mind control, your dire augments. Undead Empathy shores up this weakness by allowing you to use your social skills on the mindless undead (and giving you a bonus against intelligent undead), allowing you to convert these potential weak points into allies.


Spoiler: Thief of Life
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"Blasphemy? I know not the word."

Thief of Life was an interesting ingredient to build around. It's a bit difficult to showcase, because many of its abilities are passive (various immunities, decent skills, etc.). I knew from the beginning that I wanted to build around the fact that Borrow Vigor and Steal Immortality let you break the once per day cap on Incarnum feats, and I had an idea around using Lifesense to "see" when metamorphed into an object. But where to go from there?

In the end, I decided to think about what would make a quintessential Thief of Life. I wanted a character built around skills and stealth, a thief who stole not jewels or filthy lucre but life itself - someone who could steal your face, your personality, your deepest secrets, and finally, your life itself. Ebon Saint and the greater doppelganger provided cool ways to augment the Thief of Life's natural abilities. This was a stealthy character who could attack you without you ever knowing you were attacked, someone who would fade from your mind seconds after the blow landed. Without knowing that you gave anything up, it would steal your secrets, read your thoughts, transform into a duplicate of you. Then, it would kill you, absorbing your lifeforce, even consuming your brain, and the world would never even know you were gone.

This created an interesting tie-in with the Blood of Vol, that strange religion which worships no single God but rather the divine within us all. There is a secret sect within the Blood of Vol known as the Crimson Covenant, which secretly manages the church. Its members are all immortals and undead, and none but the Crimson Covenant themselves know of them. Alphonse Louis Constant, then, would be a hidden seeker, one who seeks out the mysteries of the Crimson Covenant by wearing the faces of others, and who seeks the immortality necessary to be a part of the Covenant.

I hope you enjoy the character. While it may not put out high numbers in terms of damage, I believe its unique abilities would be welcome in any campaign.


Spoiler: Sources
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"You may spend your nights lying awake, dreaming of that which comes after death. But me? I worry not about such small matters, for I shall never die."

  • Psychic Rogue, Dimensional Pocket: http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../psm/20040723b
  • SRD: Psion, Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Metamorphic Transfer, all spells/powers except those specified here.
  • Egoist ACF: http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../psm/20070314a
  • Races of Destiny: Races of Destiny
  • Complete Scoundrel: Skill tricks
  • Complete Psionic: Practiced Manifester, Ebon Saint
  • Magic of Eberron: Faint Memory, Psionic Glibness
  • Faiths of Eberron: Thief of Life
  • Eberron Campaign Setting: Undead Empathy
  • Magic of Incarnum: Azure Talent