Occult Adversary
Gniss ValDinra, binding the powers of vestiges into her weapon.
What we know about vestiges could probably fit one one-hundredth of the space of the inside of a thimble. Some people do not need to know anything about them above and beyond that they are sources of great power. Occult adversaries are a rare breed of binders that not only use their binders in martial combat, but fuse their blades, techniques and vestiges into a deadly melee singularity.
Most occult adversaries have no tendencies toward one alignment over the other and come in all varieties, from noble blades to harbingers of destruction. Like any other binder, however, they tend to attract negative attention due to the magic they dabble in being widely considered as profane.
HD: d8
Requirements
BAB: +4
Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Knowledge (arcana or the planes) 4 ranks, Martial Lore 4 ranks
Feats: Adaptive Style, Sudden Ability Focus
Maneuvers: Ability to use 2nd level maneuvers, including at least one stance.
Soul Binding: The ability to bind 2nd level vestiges, must have bound Savnok to you at least once.
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knolwedge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Martial Lore, Profession, Sense Motive, Swim
Skill-points per level: 4+Int modifier
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
|---|
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Vestiges of war, soul binding +1 |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Draw their power, soul binding +2 |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Bonus feat, soul binding +3 |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Strike of the vestiges, soul binding +4 |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Weapon binding, soul binding +5 |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Stance of those beyond, soul binding +6 |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Bonus feat, soul binding +7 |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Improved weapon binding, soul binding +8 |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Strike beyond the planes, soul binding +9 |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Supernatural warrior, soul binding +10 |
| Level | Man. Known | Man. Readied | Stances Known |
|---|
| 1st | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2nd | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3rd | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4th | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5th | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 6th | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7th | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 8th | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9th | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 10th | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Weapon and Armor proficiencies: Occult adversaries receive no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.
Maneuvers: At each odd-numbered level, an occult adversary gains new maneuvers known from the
Far Realm, Diamond Mind, Iron Heart or Stone Dragon disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. You add your full occult adversary levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
At levels 1st, 5th and 9th, you gain additional maneuvers readied per day.
Stances Known: At 6th level, you learn a new martial stance from the
Far Realm, Diamond Mind, Iron Heart or Stone Dragon disciplines. You must meet the stances prerequisites to learn it.
Soul Binding: At each level, your soul binding ability improves as if you had gained a level of the Binder class. This increases your effective binder level, the bonus you receive on binding checks, and the level and number of vestiges you may bind. You do not, however, gain any other abilities or advantages a Binder would have gained.
Vestiges of War (Su): As a master of the blade, and a servant to the forces beyond that which is known, you know how to beg the vestiges to grant you greater martial prowess and diversity. Depending on the vestiges you are bound to, you are capable of binding a set of maneuvers and a single stance to your current known list. These maneuvers are not automatically readied, and the occult adversary must ready them as their normal maneuvers. You need not meet the prerequisites of the maneuver to know it, you must simply have the associated vestige bound. Unlike normal maneuvers, those granted by a vestige are always considered supernatural abilities.
If you are overcome with the vestige's influence, you must prepare at least one of these vestiges maneuvers and attempt to find every opportunity you can to remain in their stance, even if another stance would be the best choice for a situation than this one.
Draw Their Power (Su): At 2nd level, you know how to channel a bit more raw martial power from your vestiges. You gain a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the highest level vestige bound to you with an additional +1 bonus to both for every additional vestige you have bound to you, but only while initiating a strike, boost or counter, but once you use a maneuver you cannot use it again for another 5 rounds. The character may forgo this ability if they so wish, if they wish to keep using the same maneuver more rapidly.
Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and again at 7th, you may select a bonus feat from the list of feats below. You must meet the feat's prerequisites to learn it.
Feat list: Avenging Strike, Blade Mediation, Defense Against the Supernatural, Empower Supernatural Ability, Enlarge Supernatural Ability, Evasive Reflexes, Expel Vestige, Extend Supernatural Ability, Extra Granted Maneuver, Extra Readied Maneuver, Favored Vestige, Favored Vestige Focus, Ignore Special Requirements, Improved Binding, Improved Critical, Martial Stance, Martial Study, Rapid Assault, Rapid Pact Making, Rapid Recovery, Scribe Martial Script, Skilled Pact Making, Supernatural Crusader, Supernatural Opportunist, Unnerving Calm, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Widen Supernatural Ability.
Strike of the Vestiges (Su): At 4th level, you gain the ability to channel the entropic and spiritual energies of the vestiges within you into sheer martial damage. This is treated just as a normal martial maneuver: you must ready it and expend it normally. It is an 4th level strike, and does not belong to any discipline. When you initiate this strike as a standard action, you deal an additional amount of damage equal to 2d6*the highest level of a vestige bound to you. Once this strike is used, it cannot be re-readied for another 5 rounds.
Weapon Binding (Su): The Occult Adversary has learned to channel vestiges through her blade. Once a day, an occult adversary of at least 5th level may bind a vestige to themself without drawing the seal. This process requires that you hold in your hands a weapon associated with a discipline in which that vestige gives additional maneuvers or stances. For example, the Far Realm Discipline includes the dire flail as an associated weapon, and so an Occult Adversary holding a dire flail could bind with Cthulhu without drawing Cthulhu's seal.
Note that if the vestige has for part of its special requirement how its seal must be drawn than this ability cannot be unless you have the Ignore Special Requirement feat.
Stance of Those Beyond (Su): At 6th level, you gain a unique stance that lets you hear the constant whispers of the vestiges and of the plane they exist on. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. When in this stance you are distracted by the creatures of the unknown, but with the distraction you gain knowledge and wits. You take a -4 penalty to Listen, Search and Spot checks, and in exchange, gain a +2 bonus to all Martial Lore, Balance, Climb, Jump and Swim checks, as well as a +2 bonus to all melee attack rolls.
Additionally, you gain the benefits of the evasion and improved uncanny dodge class features, as you're guided in your stepping and reflexes by the extraplanar somethings that reside elsewhere.
Improved Weapon Binding (Su): At 8th level you may use Weapon Binding twice a day. Furthermore, if when you are binding a vestige using the seal and you hold in your hand an associated weapon, then you gain a +2 martial bonus to the binding check.
Strike Beyond the Planes (Su): At 9th level you tap the unknown, although you gain no knowledge of the creatures that reside there, you know how shunt enemies into a gap between here and there, temporarily removing them and returning them with a fractured personal reality. This is treated just as a normal martial maneuver: you must ready it and expend it normally. It is an 8th level strike, and does not belong to any discipline. When you initiate this strike as a full-round action, you must make a melee attack against an opponent, if the strike hits they are temporarily shunted into a realm their mortal mind can't comprehend. They disappear for 2d6 rounds, and when they return are considered to be confused for 1d8 rounds. Once this strike is used it cannot be re-readied for another 5 rounds.
Supernatural Warrior (Ex): At 10th level, the very power of the vestiges resides within you at all times, even when not bound to them. Your type changes to outsider, with the Extraplanar subtype-no matter what plane you are on. You gain a +6 bonus on saves against spells and abilities that would banish you to your home plane, but failing your save banishes you to the place where the vestiges reside, making you irretrievable unless by
wish or
miracle. Additionally, both your binder level and initiator level are equal to the total sum of your levels in binder, any martial adept class and this prestige class, effectively granting you binder levels equal to your martial adept class and your initiator levels to your binder levels.
For example, Chorzin Dawn is a Binder 3/Warblade 3/Occult Adversary 10, his effective binder level is now 16, as well as his effective initiator level. If he takes another level in binder or warblade, both his binder and initiator levels will go up by one.
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Occult Adversary [PrC]
