Pariah

Description

Not all heroes are born with special abilities, or fortunate enough to find a kindly, old mentor who teaches them their secret arts. Not every hero is a natural-born leader, or has an innate kinship with the shadows. Some heroes must make themselves powerful using any means necessary, taking risks or making bargains that others would fear to even consider. Pariahs are just such people.

Pariahs gain their power by making a bargain with some powerful entity, stealing power from an artifact's endless well of magic, or by carefully borrowing power from another dimension. Some pariahs make a deal with a powerful arch-devil, or inherit the consequences of such a deal from their family. Other pariahs have bargained with the Outer Madness, granting those powers access to our plane in exchange for power for themselves. Others still siphon magic directly from the Well of Power, constantly riding the razor's edge of utter annihilation if they draw too much. Some steal power from the First World, but slowly becoming more Fey-like in the process. Others compel a powerful artifact to grant them power, even in defiance of the artifact's own will.

One thing is true of all pariahs — their power comes at a price.

Role: Pariahs focus on dealing damage to their enemies, typically up close and personal. They are often viewed by society as dangerously unstable individuals, people whose motives cannot be guessed at, and whose self-control is entirely in question. Even during combat, pariahs tend to find themselves apart from their comrades, spreading their powerful brand of destruction around them with little regard for the safety of others. Pariahs are also very capable at manipulating the center of a combat, wielding several abilities which let them move enemies or allies about, whether they want to or not.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d6

Starting Wealth: 250 gp

Bailiwick Skill: Spellcraft

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier

Recommended Ability Score Priority:

• Intelligence: primary; the majority of a pariah's abilities are derived from INT.
• Dexterity: secondary; used for ranged touch and melee touch attacks.
• Constitution: tertiary; used to survive being in close quarters with the enemy.
• Strength: low priority.
• Charisma: low priority.
• Wisdom: low priority. It is rare for pariahs to have a high wisdom, since wise people would probably avoid making a pact with a greater power.

Table: Pariah

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+0	+2	+2	+0	Pact, Karma, Chain, Ward
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+0	Favored Child, Binding
3rd	+1	+3	+3	+1	Chain
4th	+2	+4	+4	+1	Ward
5th	+2	+4	+4	+1	Binding
6th	+3	+5	+5	+2	Chain
7th	+3	+5	+5	+2	Ward
8th	+4	+6	+6	+2	Binding
9th	+4	+6	+6	+3	Chain
10th	+5	+7	+7	+3	Ward
11th	+5	+7	+7	+3	Binding
12th	+6/+1	+8	+8	+4	Chain
13th	+6/+1	+8	+8	+4	Ward
14th	+7/+2	+9	+9	+4	Binding
15th	+7/+2	+9	+9	+5	Chain
16th	+8/+3	+10	+10	+5	Ward
17th	+8/+3	+10	+10	+5	Binding
18th	+9/+4	+11	+11	+6	Chain
19th	+9/+4	+11	+11	+6	Ward
20th	+10/+5	+12	+12	+6	Binding
Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
21st	+11/+6	+13	+13	+7	Chain
22nd	+11/+6	+13	+13	+7	Ward
23rd	+12/+7	+14	+14	+8	Binding
24th	+12/+7	+14	+14	+8	Chain
25th	+13/+8	+15	+15	+9	Ward
26th	+13/+8	+15	+15	+9	Binding
27th	+14/+9	+16	+16	+10	Chain
28th	+14/+9	+16	+16	+10	Ward
29th	+15/+10	+17	+17	+11	Binding
30th	+15/+10	+17	+17	+11	Chain
31st	+16/+11	+18	+18	+12	Ward
32nd	+16/+11	+18	+18	+12	Binding
33rd	+17/+12	+19	+19	+13	Chain
34th	+17/+12	+19	+19	+13	Ward
35th	+18/+13	+20	+20	+14	Binding
36th	Apotheosis!

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Pariahs are proficient with all simple weapons, though they generally require both hands free to make use of their pact's affinities (chains, wards, and bindings). They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with a pariah's movement, which can cause their pact affinities to fail (see Arcane Spells and Armor).

Natural Talent (Ex)

At 1st level, all characters receive two natural Natural Talent skills: one in their bailiwick skill, and one in any other skill of their choice. Natural talent allows you to re-map a skill to use any ability score you wish, rather than the ability score it normally uses. You may not select a skill for natural talent that you cannot put ranks into (such as a bailiwick skill not available to your class). Natural talent skills never suffer an armor check penalty, even if the chosen ability modifier is STR or DEX.

All characters receive an additional natural talent skill at character levels 11, 21, and 31. Additional natural talents may also be gained through Character Retraining.

Pact (Su)

At character creation, each pariah must declare the source of their power by selecting one of the pacts listed below. Once chosen, a pact cannot ever be changed, even by means of character re-training. A pact is an agreement between the pariah and some greater power. The pariah gains the ability to wield exotic and dangerous magic, while the greater power gains... something they want.

Note to GM's: In game terms, the greater power doesn't appear to get much at all; there are no mechanical benefits granted to the greater power by the pact. Instead, there are potential role-playing hooks, available to a creative GM and player, wherein the greater power gains more access to the Prime Material plane, gains a boon, derives quintessence from the pariah, or any of a number of other possible "soft" benefits. In no case should the greater power be given an advantage that directly interferes with the pariah's player having fun and enjoying the game. The greater power should be a nebulous threat, possibly good, possibly evil, looming over the world, and made more potent by the pact the pariah has made. However, they shouldn't be an all-powerful character the GM can play to show off how mighty a GM-run PC can be. Nobody likes that. Don't be that guy.

Pacts grant the pariah several benefits:

• Theme: The greater power behind a pact is an important part of the pariah's character, and should greatly affect how they interact with the world, from a role-playing standpoint. If you like the pact's powers, but don't like the idea of being a pawn, worshiper, or advocate of that particular greater power, you may want to either choose a different pact, or negotiate with your GM to re-skin that pact to a more palatable greater power. (Of course, if you're not comfortable with the rather Faustian nature of pariahs in general, you should probably choose a different class.)
• Critical Effects: Each pact provides a benefit that occurs when a pariah scores a critical hit with a Chain pact affinity against an enemy creature. These critical effects are in addition to dealing double damage with the Chain in question.
• Karma: Each pact provides a unique way that the pariah can gain Karma, in addition to the normal means of gaining karma.
• Unique Abilities: Each pact provides access to a unique binding, chain, and ward, which become available at levels 11, 21, and 31.

Pact	Description
Pact of the Ancestral Relic	You draw your power from a poorly-understood, yet powerful family heirloom passed down from generation to generation.
Pact of the Aura Eater	You feed directly off of the fundamental energies that permeate the world, that surround us, and flow through us.
Pact of the Invisible Sun	You draw power from the black star of the Unterwelt, the shadow sun of the world below the world.
Pact of the Masquerade	You pull power from the unknowable Glamarie of the First World, the living lie of the Feykind.
Pact of the Prince	You derive your power from a deal struck with a powerful devil, perhaps by accident, or perhaps by design.
Pact of the Unfathomed Font	You carefully sip from the limitless torrent of magic gushing forth from the Well of Power
Pact of the Whispering Void	That tentacled god seemed nice enough, and hey, free magic!
Pact of the Willing Host	You open your body to be a willing vessel for one or more potent spirits, in exchange for power.
Pact of the Worldseed	You draw your magic from the natural life energies of the Nascent Seed.

Karma (Su)

Pariahs are more attuned to fortune and fate than most people, having tied their own fates to something much greater than themselves. As a result, beginning at 1st level, pariahs can attain a state of karma during combat, if the right circumstances occur. Pariahs can achieve karma three ways:

• If they roll a natural 1 on an attack roll or a saving throw
• If they drop a non-minion enemy creature to 0 or fewer hit points
• One additional way, based on the Pact the pariah has chosen.

Pariahs can only earn Karma during a combat encounter. Karma does not accumulate, and it is not measured in the form of points, it is a state — either the pariah has karma, or they do not. Once a pariah has karma, they retain it until the end of the current encounter.

Once a pariah has attained a state of karma, they gain a number of benefits which endure until the end of the encounter:

• Any critical threats rolled to resolve a Chain attack against an enemy creature are automatically confirmed as criticals.
• All of the pariah's Chain attacks can target one additional target within their listed area of effect, assuming additional targets are present.
• All of the pariah's Wards become easier to trigger.

Once the current combat encounter ends, the pariah's karma (if they have it) goes away, and must be earned again in each future encounter. It is entirely possible that a pariah will fail to earn karma in a given encounter. Such is the way of Fate — sometimes she's your best friend, and sometimes she wants to smash all your stuff and laugh at you.

Pact Affinities

A pact affinity is a special ability granted to the pariah by the power of their pact. Pact affinities come in three varieties: Chains, Wards, and Bindings. Chains are offensive abilities, Wards are defensive abilities, and Bindings are utility abilities.

With the exception of 1st and 2nd levels, when the pariah learns their first Chain, Binding, and Ward abilities, each time the pariah gains a level, they are given an opportunity to either learn a new pact affinity of a specific type (Chain, Binding or Ward, depending on the class level achieved), or to upgrade an existing pact affinity that they already know of that type. That is, at level 3, a pariah may either select a second Chain ability to learn, or upgrade the Chain ability they learned at level 1. They may not use the new Chain ability to gain a new Ward or Binding, or to upgrade any existing Wards or Bindings.

Each pact affinity can be upgraded up to nine times, and each time the affinity is upgraded, its power is significantly improved. Pariahs, therefore, must decide whether to focus on a small number of affinities and upgrade them to very powerful levels, or to diversify their abilities, allowing them to have more appropriate tools for any situation they encounter.

Unlike spells, pact affinities are not memorized; they are granted by the pariah's pact, and simply known. Each pact affinity can be used as many times per day as the pariah wishes, but no single pact affinity can ever be used more than once in the same round.

Using a pact affinity does not provoke attacks of opportunity from threatening creatures. A pariah does not need to concentrate to use a pact affinity while threatened.

Chains (Su)

Chains are a type of pact affinity that allows the Pariah to directly attack one or more enemy creatures. At 1st level, the pariah learns their first Chain ability. At 3rd level, and every three class levels beyond 3rd level, the pariah may either choose another Chain ability to learn, or upgrade an existing Chain ability.

Wards (Su)

Wards are pact affinities which grant the pariah a defensive advantage. At 1st level, the pariah selects their first Ward. At 4th level, and every 3 Pariah class levels after that, the pariah may either select another Ward ability to learn, or upgrade an existing Ward ability.

Favored Child (Ex)

Beginning at 2nd level, pariahs may use their Dexterity modifier in place of their Strength modifier when calculating their melee to-hit and melee touch to-hit bonuses. Ranged to-hit and ranged touch to-hit continue to be calculated off the pariah's Dexterity modifier, as usual.