New Class: Spiritualist

[misterguignol]

Hello all, I've developed a new class for my Gothic Fantasy D&D games that might be applicable to any Ravenloft game as well. My blog post about it is here: http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesq ... alist.html
but I'll include the main text below (the powers are all described on my blog post, you can hit print-to-pdf at the bottom of the page if you want to take it all with you!)

Spiritualist

Requirements: Wis 13
Prime Requisite: Wis
Hit Dice: 1d6 through 9th level, +2 per level thereafter
Maximum Level: none
Experience Chart: Cleric
Attacks/Saves: Thief
Weapons allowed: daggers, darts, and pistols
Armor allowed: Leather or padded

Spiritualists are haunted men and women who have an uncanny connection to the spirits of the dead. The spirits of the deceased are drawn to them like moths to a flame; spiritualists learn how to harness their connection to the lands of the dead in a myriad of supernatural ways.

Spiritualist Abilities
Sometimes a Charlatan—a spiritualist has the pick pockets, hide in shadows, and move silently abilities of a thief of the same level.

Seance—a spiritualist can hold a séance to ask questions of a departed spirit. This ability functions as the Speak with Dead spell and can be used three times per day.

Visions of Death—a spiritualist can flood the mind of their foes with visions of decay and mortality. At 2nd level, a spiritualist can use Scare twice per day. At 5th level, a spiritualist can use Fear twice per day. At 6th level a spiritualist can use Phantasmal Killer once per day.

Otherwordly Assistance—a spiritualist has a variety of powers that come from their contact with the lands of the dead. Roll twice (or pick if your GM allows) on the Rank 1 Abilities table below and roll once (or pick if your GM allows) on the Rank 2 Abilities table below. Each ability is gained at the level listed in its description.

[MichaelTumey]

Ah, a 2e character build - I haven't looked at one in over 10 years.

I rather prefer designing character builds in Pathfinder, in that line of thinking rather than providing spell-like powers, I'd actually develop specific unique mechanics for seance, visions of death and otherworldly assistance (plus d8 HD instead of d6), plus he'd get abilities every level or every other level with being a medium spell caster for between levels. I will be building a ghost hunter type class archetype (perhaps based off the inquisitor or oracle, but maybe a new class is the way to go.)

If I come up with alternates to seance, visions of death and otherworldly assistance, I'll post it here - need time to think.

[MichaelTumey]

There's an awesome product from Purple Duck Games, called Legendary Classes: Covenant Magic from David Nicholas Ross introduces covenants, secretive bargains allowing characters of any class to draw on the supernatural gifts of spirits such as fey, outsiders, and undead. This book also introduces mediums, true masters of covenant magic who can contact spirits, call on a spirit guide for supernatural attacks, empower allies and hinder foes with spell-like abilities, and enter a trance that unlocks covenants without a price and enhances their toughness and magical might. (stole their blurb of the product page).

This works great for mediums and there's an awesome review of this product by Endzeitgeist - my go to reviewer for all things Pathfinder. Makes this product really worth getting if you're using PF rules, though anything d20 would apply as well.

Now I don't have to develop a PF version, myself, it appears one of the best designs for this already exists!

[alhoon]

Hi there. I like the concept of the class in general, but I would prefer a few mechanical changes.

- I would make the class a bit more combat oriented. After all they have the thief's attack and armor. So, IMO, crossbows, short swords and maces should also be weapons the spiritualist uses.
- About non-weapon proficiencies, I would give the spiritualist as many as the thief.
- I think the seance should be scalable; I.e. 1/day in 1st lvl, 2/day in 4th lvl and 3/day in 8th lvl.
- I think instead of hide in shadows and move silently, the "somewhat charlatan" spiritualist should have only pick pocket from the thief, and also read languages since some cipher, code or otherworldly language may actually make sense to him suddenly because of the dead.
However, with just 2 abilities from the thief, is hard to choose percentages; so I would think throwing in detect noise should be good too.
I.e. pick pocket, read languages, detect noise from thief abilities
PPocket starts at 5%, read languages at 5%, detect noise at 10%
At first lvl the spiritualist can use 20 points to improve those abilities and gets 5 points for each level thereafter.
Then I would make a couple of 1st rank abilties that give flat bonuses if rolled, like "your understanding of spirits helps you break codes and understand written languages better: +15% read languages" or "ghosts cause distractions you can take advantage of; +15% pick pocket"
- Visions of death should IMO be toned down. Scare and fear should be usable 1/day IMO and phatasmal killer should be availabe at 8th lvl, not 6th.
- About the random abilities, I would personally go more "canonical" when possible. For example, for comandeer body, I would just say "It works like magic jar", or firewalker "it works like protection from fire but can be used on the caster only"
Some other abilities like the ectoplasmic wall seem too... holywood to me, no offense. I.e. instead of a wall of spirits that can sustain some damage, I would go "a wall that causes fear; to approach within 20' you need to pass a fear save (Ravenloft) or save vs spells (AD&D). The provides 20% miss chance from ranged attacks. It can't be damaged but it can be dispelled and it has duration of 1rd/lvl" since a barrier made of howling spirits is actually spooky to look at.

[order99]

misterguignol, I think your version of the Spiritualist is better than the original Masque of the Red Death version-mind if I have one of its kittens to take home?

Mind you, the PCs will suffer more without some sort of Cleric-type spells...so no downsides, then. Also, given the whole 'tainted' aspect of Magic in MotRD, it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a lot of healing/therapeutic spells...between the threat of the Red Death's attention and the godawful delayed casting times, I could likely toss some of the Cleric list into the Arcanist without boosting that Class's raw power by much. Any healing.curing abilities could also have a few minor effects-for example 'magic' healing that leaves the same scars a month's rest in bed would, poison/disease purges that that toxins to exit the body as a 'black sweat' or 'bloody flux' etc...just for atmosphere of course.