Soul Invoker (3.5e Prestige Class)

Soul invokers are occultists who dabble in pact magic, binding the last vestiges of ancient powers and demons to their will. Rather than forming symbiotic composites with these hoary entities, soul invokers see them as tools to be used at their leisure, whether it be in pursuit of greed and power or, in very rare cases, putting their eternal soul on the line for the greater good. Afterall, if these shallow reflections of bygone powers were truly as powerful as they'd have their binders believe, why did they end up in such a pitiful state to begin with?

Similar to anima mages, soul invokers are binders who blend pact magic with warlock invocations rather than that of arcane magic. It is through the powers of these vestiges that a soul invoker learns to tap into the true power behind their warlock abilities. Most soul invokers are lone scholars locked away in obscure libraries and laboratories, while others travel abroad and adventure in order to further their wisdom and power in a more direct approach.

[edit] Becoming a Soul Invoker

[edit] Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Soul Invoker.

Weapon & Armor Proficiencies: You do not gain proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields beyond those you already possess.

Eldritch Blast: Your levels in soul invoker stack with any levels you have in warlock for determining the damage of your eldritch blasts, but only when you have have made a pact for the day.

Soul Binding (Su): At each soul invoker level, your soul binding ability improves as if you had also gained a level in the binder class. Your soul invoker levels, binder levels, and warlock levels stack to determine your effective binder level (EBL) which is used for the purpose of determining your bonus on binding checks, the effectiveness of your vestige-granted abilities, your ability to bind higher-level vestiges, and the number of vestiges you can bind at one time. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a binder would have gained at your EBL, nor do levels in other classes stack unless they specifically state that they advance your soul binding abilities.

Suppress Sign: You are especially adept at hiding the signs of your dark arts. When you make a good pact, you can choose not to exhibit the physical sign that normally accompanies a pact with a vestige. You can suppress or reveal the sign at will as a swift action. With a poor pact, you gain the powers of the vestige, but you cannot suppress its sign. You show it for the duration of the pact and are influenced by it as normal. In addition, your knowledge of warlock tricks allow you to gain more leverage against the vestiges you summon, granting you the Ignore Special Requirements feat as a bonus feat.

Not only can you hide the signs of a vestige, but you can conceal some of your warlock invocation effects as well. If you have a good pact with any vestige, you can also suppress the physical manifestation of any of your non-Eldritch Blast invocations unless the manifestation is an inherent part of the invocation. For example, you can suppress the swirling chaos that surrounds you while using entropic warding, but not the vermin summoned with summon swarm or cloud of darkness when invoking deeper darkness.

Soul Guardian: Even more than your binder brethren, you excel at protecting your mind and soul from the influences of the vestiges and other dark powers you dabble in. You gain the Soul Guardian class feature as described in the binder class, but use your effective binder level +2 to determine its benefits instead of your levels in the binder class.

Steal Enchantment (Su): Your blended mastery of invocation and binding arts allow you to "steal" an enchantment from a magic item and place it into another item of similar quality. For example, you could steal the enchantment of a set of +2 full plate of heavy fortification and place it into a masterwork breastplate, but you couldn't place it into a ring or a longsword. The process takes 10 minutes and requires full concentration; any interruptions ruin the attempt and if the interruption is caused by damage, there's a 1% chance per point of damage inflicted that the enchantment is completely ruined. Otherwise, the original item is left intact in the case of a failed theft of its enchantment. Relics, artifacts, or intelligent items are immune steal enchantment, as are any items specifically deemed as being immune by the GM.

Note: This power exists for the sole purpose of allowing a soul invoker to customize the way his equipment looks. If players find an abuse for this power, the GM is fully within his rights to ban the attempts and possibly even remove the power from their game.

Eldritch Essential: As you progress, the knowledge you have gained from your vestiges allows you to gain a bonus invocation to apply to your eldritch blast ability. At the designated levels, you gain your choice of a bonus eldritch essence invocation or blast shape invocation from any category (least, lesser, greater, or dark) that you already have access to, such as hellrime blast or eldritch chain. These invocations are only available when you have a vestige bound to you.

Otherworldly Secret (Su): At 5th level and again at 10th level, you discover a secret arcane technique from your vestiges, allowing you to choose one of the following special abilities every time you have a bound at least one vestige.

Cantrips: You can use any three 0th-level spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list at will as a sorcerer of your effective binder level, using Charisma as your linked ability score as appropriate. At 10th level you may instead choose a 1st-level spell from the same list that you can use 3/day or a 2nd-level spell you can use 1/day. This secret may be selected more than once, but you may not select the same spell a second time in order to gain additional uses per day.

Eldritch Skill Mastery: Upon gaining this ability, you may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent you from doing so with the following skills: Concentration, Craft (any), Knowledge (any), Profession (any), Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device. If one of these skills is instead used for an extended period of time, such as researching a topic or crafting an item, the minimum required time to perform that action is halved. At 10th level, this secret also grants a competence bonus equal to half your effective binder level (rounded up) on each of those checks.

Master Blaster: You can alter your eldritch blast if it uses one of the following shapes: burst, cone, cylinder, emanation, or spread. The alteration consists of creating spaces within the blast's area of effect that are not subject to the effect. The minimum dimension for these spaces is a 5-foot cube. This secret may only be unlocked at 10th level.

Obtain Familiar: You gain the Obtain Familiar feat as a bonus feat. Once selected, you do not lose your familiar if you have failed to make a pact, but it temporarily loses any special abilities it possesses from your bond until you do so. Until such time, it is treated as an ordinary specimen of its type, albeit loyal and obedient.

Supernatural Transformation: Your eldritch blast becomes a supernatural effect for the duration of your binding, as if by the Supernatural Transformation feat. It still requires a somantic component, but is no longer subject to spell resistance (though it can still be suppressed in an antimagic field), and it does not provoke an attack of opportunity. While so transformed, however, it cannot be affected by eldritch essence invocations such as hellrime blast or utterdark blast.

Telepathy: You can communicate telepathically with any other creature within 100 feet that has an Intelligence of at least 1. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining a telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time. This secret may only be unlocked at 10th level.

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