Tzardok's Miscellaneous Homebrew Repository

[Tzardok]

This was inspired by a song I recently heard about playing for someone who is unaware of your existence. I hope people will like it.

New Creature: Unseen Refrain
Medium Deathless (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 10d12 + 40 (105 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: Flying 30 ft. (Perfect) (6 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (+3 dex, +4 deflection), touch 17, flat footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/-
Attack: Incorporeal touch melee +8 (1d8) or incorporeal touch melee (2d6 positive energy)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch melee +8 (1d8) or incorporeal touch melee (2d6 positive energy)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Positive touch, subtle music
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., deathless traits, incorporeal trait, natural invisibility, sacred grace, sacred toughness
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +13
Abilities: Str -, Dex 16, Con -, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 19
Skills: Diplomacy +17, Listen +15, Perform (any) +20, Sense Motive +15, Spot +15
Feats: Extra Music^CA, Improved Initiative, Lingering Song^CA, Skill Focus (Perform)
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 8?
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Chaotic Good
Advancement: 11-30 HD (medium)
Level Adjustment: +4?

The deathless entities that are known as unseen refrains are most commonly born from selflessness and self-sacrifice. Many bards, probably more than of any other class, are driven to adventuring out of a desire for personal glory and fame. Yet sometimes, a bard is willing to sacrifice their chance at immortal glory out of altruism. When that happens, and the bard dies in the process or soon after, they are practically guaranteed to rise as an unseen refrain.
Unseen refrains are, as the name says, naturally invisible. They prefer to pretend not be there, working in indirect and subtle ways. A refrain will usually take on a good being or group of beings as a charge, invisibly protecting them like a guardian angel. If a charge doesn't need them anymore, they move on to the next, in most cases never having been noticed nor recognized or thanked.
Characters under the effect of see invisibility will see an unseen refrain as a translucent humanoid silhouette. Through true sight, it appears to be a shining humanoid with a non-descript face wielding an idealized version of their favoured instrument.
An unseen refrain speaks all languages it knew in life.

Natural Invisibility (Su): This ability is constant, allowing a refrain to remain invisible even when attacking. This ability is inherent and not subject to the invisibility purge spell.
Positive Touch (Su): An unseen refrain can with its incorporeal touch (instead of dealing normal damage) deal 2d6 positive energy to the touched creature. Undead will take damage from this touch, living creatures and other deathless will be healed by it. A living creature that is healed this way above its maximum health points gains the reminder as temporary hp that last up to an hour. This overcharges the creature with positive energy, making it jittery and have difficulty concentrating. As long as these temporary hp last, the creature receives a penalty of -2 to attack roles and skill checks.
Sacred Grace (Ex): The unseen refrain gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus on all saving throws.
Sacred Toughness (Ex): The unseen refrain gains a bonus to its hit points equal to its Charisma modifier x its Hit Dice.
Subtle Music: An unseen refrain has access to a specific variant of bardic music. Like a bard, it can use its bardic music 1/day per HD, and if it has class levels as bard, they stack with the racial HD to determine what songs the refrain has access to, how many daily uses it has and what effect the songs have.
The unseen refrain has access to different songs than a usual bard. These subtle songs have a special property: creatures that aren't aware of the refrain's presence don't notice them, not even when they benefit from them. A creature that benefits from subtle music must make a Wisdom check against DC 18 to recognize it as an external effect; if it fails, it believes that it got lucky, or a second wind, or the gods smiled upon it, or whatever rationalization fits best. The music is similiarily rationalized away as something internal, a feeling of euphoria or a distant positive memory. Creatures in the area that don't benefit from the song won't even hear the song unless they make the same Wis check.

• Song of Courage (Su): This works like a bard's Song of Courage, except for the aforementioned effects of Subtle Music. It also doesn't affect the refrain itself.
• Song of Succor (Sp): The refrain can use music or poetics to create an effect equivalent to the panacea^SC spell (caster level equals the refrain's effective bard level). Using this ability requires 1 minute of uninterrupted concentration and music, and it functions on a single target within 30 feet. A refrain can't use song of succor on itself. This ability is relatively unsubtle; the DC of the Wis check to notice it is 15.
• Song of Serendipity (Su): This song allows the refrain to bless creatures with good luck. It affects up to one creature within 30 ft per 3 HD. To be affected, a target must be able to hear the refrain sing. The effect lasts for as long as the target hears the refrain sing and for 5 rounds thereafter. An affected creature receives a +2 luck bonus on saving throws and AC. The refrain can't affect itself.
• Oh Fortuna (Su): While playing the song of serendipity, as an immediate action, the refrain can have one or more of the song's targets re-roll a failed save. This costs one daily use of bardic music per target that re-rolls. Any target that isn't aware of the refrain may make immediately a new Wis check to become aware.

Also, I am not content with the create deathless and create greater deathless spells in the Campaign Setting Eberron. For one, there really aren't enough deathless to split the spell up like that, for another I feel that it's very important to make the spell good with capital G to get the consent of the soul to be recalled into its decayed corpse. Therefore I present my version of the spell. As this spell replaces both create deathless and create greater deathless, I suggest to fill the 8th level spot in the Deathless domain with spark of life^LM, applyable to both undead and deathless.

Petition Deathless
Necromancy [Good]
Level: Cleric 6, Deathless 6, Wizard/Sorcerer 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 Hour
Range: Touch
Target: A corpse
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistence: No

The caster contacts the soul of the touched corpse and asks it to return as a deathless. Similiar to a resurrection spell, the soul must be willing and able to return for the spell to work. The soul receives information about the caster's alignment and the type of deathless it is supposed to become. Not all souls that are willing to be raised are willing to become deathless, nor do souls that are willing to become deathless necessarily want to be raised.
The type or types of deathless the caster can create is based on his caster level, as shown on the table below.

Deathless	Minimum Caster Level	Other requirements	Source
Undying Soldier	11th	-	Campaign Setting Eberron
Undying Wizard	11th	Corpse of a spellcaster	Explorer's Handbook
Prior	12th	Requires additionally an item or location that was precious to the petitioned soul; the soul's corpse is not necessary if it can be addressed unmistakenly otherwise (for example with its name)	Metastachydium
Crypt Warden	14th	-	Book of Exalted Deeds
Unseen Refrain	15th	Corpse of a bard	here
Undying Councilor	18th	-	Campaign Setting Eberron
Ascendant Councilor	23th	-	Campaign Setting Eberron

Additional deathless may be added at the GM's discretion.

Material Component: A clay pot filled with a mixture of fertile soil and gravedirt and another filled with pure water. A diamond worth at least 50 gp per HD of the deathless to be created must be placed on the corpse's heart. This spell can only be cast at day.

Necroheroon/Luminous Animation
Psychometabolism [Good]
Level: Death 6, Egoist 7
Display: Material, Visual, Olfactory
Power points: 11 (Death), 13 (Egoist), XP

This power works like the spell petition deathless, except that it can only create undying soldiers and undying psions (an undying psion is identical to an undying wizard, but instead of casting spells it manifests powers like a 3rd level psion. Undying psions must be made from the corpses of manifesters).
This power is usually called Necroheroon by psions and Luminous Animation by mantle wearers.
XP Cost: 10 XP per HD of the created deathless.
Augment: By spending more power points, more powerful types of deathless can be created:

Deathless	Additional power points	Other requirements	Source
Prior	1	Requires additionally an item or location that was precious to the petitioned soul; the soul's corpse is not necessary if it can be addressed unmistakenly otherwise (for example with its name)	Metastachydium
Crypt Warden	3	-	Book of Exalted Deeds
Unseen Refrain	4	Corpse of a bard	here
Undying Councilor	7	-	Campaign Setting Eberron
Ascendant Councilor	12	-	Campaign Setting Eberron

Additional deathless may be added at the GM's discretion.