Corpse Communer [PEACH]

[Sir_Chivalry]

I was looking at a series of 66 vile feats by Realms of Chaos and found I liked a few of the feats, but I disagreed that the feats needed to be vile. With that in mind I decided to design my first prestige class (with Realms of Chaos’s permission). It’s only 3 levels, but I felt that was appropriate. It’s not a new direction for a character, merely a short detour.

Corpse Communer
There are those who frown upon the act of consuming another creature. Many might not blench at the thought of consuming an animal’s flesh, but the raw flesh of any creature insights a twinge of revulsion in most “civilized” beings. The corpse communer does not turn from such sights. In wild untamed regions, among the “savage” humanoids, and sadly all too often among the broken of mind, there are those who draw sustenance from the flesh of a fallen foe. They are both madman and oracle, tapping into the realm of the mystical through their victims/enemies.

Requirements

Alignment: Any non-good

Skills: Knowledge (arcane, nature or religion) 8 ranks, Knowledge (any
other) 6 ranks, Survival 4 ranks

Base Fort: +4

Corpse Communer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Pick from the Body, Consult the Bones|-

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Drink the Blood, Read the Entrails|-

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Feast Upon Form| +1 to existing spellcasting class or bonus fighter feat[/table]

Hit Dice: d8 Skill points: 4+ Int Class Skills: Craft, Intimidate, Knowledge (all), Listen Spot, Survival

Pick from the Body: At 1st level a corpse communer can pick select bits from a dead creature to gain all of the nutrition he/she need. With 10 minutes of work, the corpse communer can eat away at the most edible parts of a slain humanoid, monstrous humanoid, dragon, fey, animal, or magical beast within one size category (i.e. Small-Medium-Large) of him/her.This both refreshes and hydrates him/her, removing the need to eat or drink for 24 hours. Furthermore, he/she are immediately healed of fatigue (exhaustion is not affected).

Consult the Bones: At 1st level, a corpse communer can see patterns in the bones of devoured creatures and gain great insight. While using your pick from the body ability, he/she may extend the time needed by 5 minutes to throw the bones of his/her prey upon the ground and watch how they fall to gain further insight into all things. At the end of this time, he/she may make an untrained knowledge (geography, local nature or arcana (if the target is a dragon))check with a +4 bonus (with an additional +2 bonus if the target was a dragon or fey) Alternately, the corpse communer can make a trained knowledge check of one the of the previously listed types with these bonuses.

Drink of the Blood: At 2nd level a corpse communer can quench his/her thirst upon the blood of the fallen to refresh him/herself. When using the pick from the body ability, the corpse communer can extend the time needed by 5 minutes to get his/her fill of the creatures’s lifeblood. At the end of this time, the corpse communer heals an amount of health equal to the creature’s hit dice (minimum 1) and receives a new saving throw to resist disease with a +4 bonus. If the save is sucessful, the corpse communer is cured of the disease. This ability can only be used a number of times per day equal to the corpse communer's Constitution modifier.

Read the Entrails: At 2nd level, by peering at the entrails of a fallen creature, the corpse communer can gain insight into the future. When using the pick from the body ability, he/she can extend the time needed by 10 minutes to gaze into the future through patterns in the creature’s entrails. Doing so imitates the augury spell with a caster level equal to the creature’s hit dice. This ability can only be used a number of times per day equal to the corpse communer's Wisdom modifier.

Feast Upon Form: At 3rd level a corpse communer can almost entirely eat a fallen creature to gain more feral features. When using the pick from the body ability, the corpse communer can extend the time needed by 30 minutes to more entirely devour the creature. Doing so grants a +2 profane bonus to a physical ability score of the corpse communer’s choice. In addition, if the target had natural armor, the corpse communer gains a +1 bonus to his/her existing natural armor. The corpse communer also gains any of these movement types, if the creature being devoured had them: burrow, climb, swim. The new movement speed is at the base speed of the corpse communer. Lastly, performing this ritual grants any of these abilites, if they are possesed by the creature being devoured, if they are not already possessed by the corpse communer: blindsense, darkvision, low-light vision, scent, tremorsense. All of these benefits last for 24 hours, but a corpse communer can only benefit from one such feast at a time. Additional feast merely allow the corpse communer to reassign the profane bonus, lose/gain the natural armour bonus dependent on whether the new target has natural armour, gain different movement types and special qualities, and resets the duration to 24 hours after this current feast.

(Realms of Chaos's original thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74001 , thank you again for the permission)

[Debihuman]

You have 5 special abilities, why not make it a 5 level class?

Debby

[Zaydos]

Also you don't have any skill points or hp listed. All in all depending upon the amount of skill points I'd say right now it looks like it ought to have a full BAB, but that's just my opinion.

[Sir_Chivalry]

Oh dang. That's what I forgot. Consider it fixed.

[Sir_Chivalry]

bump for edits

[Zaydos]

Now that the BAB is +1/level it looks good; just what I needed for a necromantic themed warrior.

[Set]

My thoughts;

Sword & Sorcery's Players Guide to Clerics & Druids has a Druid PrC called the Khetan Phagist that is similarly themed (all about eating flesh to gain temporary buffs, and eventually learning how to do that in combat, making a Wild Shaped Druid with a bite attack pretty scary). Necromancer's Legacy, from Mystic Eye Games, also has a cannibal/eat-your-way-to-power PrC called the Anam'Glac, which also appears to be popular for Druids (as reincarnation is among it's PrC prerequisites). Either source might be fun to look at for inspiration.


Full BAB and d10 HD seems kind of high for a class that doesn't specifically revolve around progressing fighting ability. If it's a three level PrC (as originally designed), 3/4 BAB and d8's wouldn't be a huge blow for a Ranger or Barbarian wishing to tap into these abilities (since they'd lose only +1 BAB overall, and about 3 to 6 hp, depending on class). You could also throw a bonus to spellcasting level at the 3rd level, for those creepy Clerics, Shamans, Sorcerers and Wizards (probably no-good Necromancers!) who want to take this PrC.

There's no reason, IMO, for this to be five levels long. I think it worked better at three levels long. The first two powers could be in the 1st level, the second two powers in the 2nd level and the fifth power in the 3rd and final level.

Pick from the Body - Some reference to the size of the creature might be good, as I doubt that a Tiny Fey is going to be much sustenance for a size medium Human. It should probably include animals, vermin, etc. Pretty much anything living (although it might be fun to specifically exclude plants, making this a purely carnivorous form of communion!). Automatically removing fatigue is pretty decent, but I don't see a need to cut it down. Fatigue's not that common a condition (save for Barbarians, whose 'fatigue' ends long before they'd be eating anyway).

Consult the Bones - Having the knowledge checks limited to either local, geography or whatever knowledge type gives information on that creature type might make sense. To use knowledge (arcana), you'd need the flesh of a dragon or magical beast, while knowledge (nature) could be gleaned from animals, fey, plants, vermin, giants or monstrous humanoids! There would be nothing you could eat to get knowledge (engineering) or (nobility), not even a sapper or noble, if this limitation was in play. Perhaps normal animals aren't an option either, as the ability requires sentience (even if only Int 3) on the part of the victuals.

Drink of the Blood - The auto-disease cure might be a bit much. Having the feast of flesh allow the consumer to get a new saving throw to throw off the disease with a bonus to the save might be better. The healing function probably shouldn't be usable at will. Maybe no more than once an hour, or Con mod times / day, or three 'meals' a day or something.

Read the Entrails - Limit this to Wis mod times / day or class level times / day or something. Alternately, or perhaps additionally, require it to use the entrails of something of appropriate CR to challenge the feaster. No butchering doves by the dozens to perform free auguries.

Feast upon Form - Actually a tad weaker than I'd want for a PrC capstone that requires 30 minutes to activate. I'd allow it to give advantages similar to Alter Self, perhaps allowing you to use Exceptional abilities, non-magical senses and movement modes, etc. Instead of consuming the entire creature, perhaps you only devour the heart. Eating an entire creature larger than a housecat to gain it's abilities is going to look kind of freakish, visually, IMO. "Yeah, I'm gonna be able to swim really fast when I'm done completely devouring this 800 lb shark..."

[Sir_Chivalry]

Okay then, I've got one person saying make it five levels, and another saying three. I'm inclined to go with three, and go with a spellcasting level increase at 3rd level, how does everyone like that?

[Zaydos]

I'd not take a -2 to spellcasting to take 3 levels of the class, but that might just be me. I like the full BAB idea, seeing it as a type of cannibal-warrior, but again that might just be me and it might be a little strong for a 3 level class.

[Sir_Chivalry]

I did modify the abilities a slight bit, because I do agree with the main advice being given. That being said, at 3rd level a corpse communer can choose either a +1 to existing spellcasting level or a bonus fighter feat. If this is too much, let me know.

[Inhuman Bot]

Not related, but... What does [PEACH] mean?
Sorry for the derail.

[Set]

Not related, but... What does [PEACH] mean?
Sorry for the derail.

Please something, something, something.

Read and critique, basically.

[Eloel]

Not related, but... What does [PEACH] mean?

Please Elaborate And Critique Honestly.

[Set]

Please Elaborate And Critique Honestly.

As opposed to [GRAPE];

Gratuitously Rip Apart Practically Everyone.

[Mordokai]

I agree with everything what Set said and from what I see, you've also incorporated his advice.

Otherwise, it looks like a nice little PrC I wouldn't mind taking for one of my non-good meele oriented characters. But I'm not sure I really like the Knowledge prerequisities.

[Sir_Chivalry]

I agree with everything what Set said and from what I see, you've also incorporated his advice.

Otherwise, it looks like a nice little PrC I wouldn't mind taking for one of my non-good meele oriented characters. But I'm not sure I really like the Knowledge prerequisities.

The reason I have knowledge requirements is that one of the class features, Consult the Bones, uses Knowledge as that ability's sole function. You can use it without the proper knowledge, but it seemed if the class uses something it should have a basic grounding in that ability.

[Frog Dragon]

Please Elaborate And Critique Honestly.

To my recollection it was Please Examine And Critique Honestly

[Sir_Chivalry]

To my recollection it was Please Examine And Critique Honestly

I can be any of the things you guys have said, Please (Examine/Evalute/Elaborate) and Critique Honestly. The point remains the same, and so far I've been receiving wonderful evaluation, examination, elaboration and critique, so I'm happy.

[Sir_Chivalry]

So does anyone have any opinions? Is it a sound class?

[Sir_Chivalry]

bumpity bump? Is it sound as a class?

[Temotei]

You have a 3-level prestige class, but the ability descriptions say you get one every level for 5 levels. You might want to fix that.

[Sir_Chivalry]

You have a 3-level prestige class, but the ability descriptions say you get one every level for 5 levels. You might want to fix that.

Ya, that's from the brief time that it was a 5 level class.