Possessed (3.5e NPC Class)

The Possessed
"Rrrragh!"

When demons invade, they typically spread Abyssal energy all over the place, and tend to perform evil acts to weaken the barriers between the plane they invaded and the Abyss. While for those who are strong enough (and significant enough) to resist all this, there are bargains to be made, battles to fight and plots to foil, for most ordinary folks in the world, there is only slow decay and corruption to look forward to. Areas invaded by demons are generally wandered by gangs of these 'possessed' - shells of people whose main job is to wreck stuff more and take on adventurers.

Possessed in the Game: Possessed aren't playable as PCs. They lack the depth and tactical versatility to be an interesting character and they are not powerful enough to pull their weight in any real adventuring setup. They have a CR equal to half their possessed level and don't get multiclassed with real classes at all. In order to keep this from being potentially unbalanced, we strongly suggest that possessed show up in groups. So while a 4th level possessed is nominally a CR 2 opponent, he's not really a good challenge for a 2nd level party. But 2 of them are an appropriate challenge for a 4th level party. And that's really what the possessed is for – showing up in groups and getting smacked around anyway.

Alignment: For fairly obvious reasons, possessed can be only neutral evil or chaotic evil.

Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, &times;4 at 1st level) (Dex), (Str), (Int), (Dex), (Cha), (Cha), (Str), (Wis), (Wis), (Dex), (Wis), (Wis), (Str), (Dex).

Class Features
All of the following are the class features of the possessed:



 : Possessed represent the faceless hordes of mooks that wander demon-infested lands. They are intended to be easy to use, and very easy to replace. Instead of worrying about the feats that a possessed has, simply give possessed DR 3/- and energy resistance 3 to all elements for each feat they would be eligible for.

 : From 2nd level, a possessed is so fuelled by the demonic energies within them that they receive a slam attack dealing 1d6 damage for a Medium creature. They also gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls with it.

 : 3rd level possessed will fight to the death and remain conscious when below 0 hit points (they are still staggered as normal).

 : A 4th level possessed gains a bit more control over the energies flowing through them, allowing them to fire off a blast of unholy power as a standard action. This has a range of Close, deals 1d6 damage per class level of the possessed, and requires a ranged touch attack to hit. The damage is of no particular type.

 : From 5th level, possessed become hideously fast. Their base land speed doubles. This also gives them a +2 bonus to AC.

Trading Out Possessed Levels
Possessed aren't capable of doing anything good. If for some reason a possessed became a named character, he becomes a member of a real character class. That is, simply trade levels of possessed for levels in a real class that has a full BAB progression.