Starspawn Host (3.5e Prestige Class)

Starspawn Host
"You shouldn't have done that."

There are terrible things outside the universe. Nightmares which exist when they clearly should not, and utter defiances to physics. These creatures which seem to make up reality as they go along are almost universally harmful to mankind, regardless if they mean to or not. Sometimes, their "reality" proves infectious, and those unfortunate enough to catch the "disease" would be lucky if their new reality kills them. Those that survive become the terrible creatures known as starspawn hosts...

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Starspawn Host.

 : Starspawn Hosts can see without light, gaining darkvision out to 60 ft. (or adding +60 ft. to their pre-existing darkvision).

 : The starspawn host is anathema to the creatures of this reality. On touch it disrupts their bodies, destroying it by their mere presence. As a melee touch attack as a standard action, the starspawn host can deal 1 negative level to its opponent. Any successful attacks with unarmed strikes or natural weapons also deal this negative level.

Now hosting an alien spirit, they gain new powers which grow with time. Select a cleric domain; you gain the domain power of the domain and gain the spells as spell-like abilities (see below) as appropriate. At 6th level and every 5 levels beyond you gain another domain. If you have clerical casting you can choose to apply this new domain and its spells as a normal domain choice for cleric, or as a domain choice and spell-like abilities as a starspawn patron.

Their bodies and minds start to change to reflect the horrific nightmares from beyond, subtle but disturbing shifts. Perhaps the eyes are not quite right, the skin is an off color, or their tongues are scaled and plated. Whatever the mutations acquired, they gain newfound powers, or perhaps curses, at 2nd level and every even level beyond. With each corruption gained you take a -1 penalty to Diplomacy and Gather Information. Select from the choices below.

 : You gain one more more extra eyes somewhere on your body, granting you a +2 bonus to Search and Spot, a -2 penalty to gaze attacks, and granting you uncanny dodge. Taken a second time (or if you already had uncanny dodge) grants you improved uncanny dodge, using your class level for determining what level a rogue needs to be to sneak attack you. Taking this corruption multiple times increases the bonus and penalty, and if you already have improved uncanny dodge adds +2 to your effective level for the purpose of that ability.

 : Not even you're sure what the organs inside your body do, but you seem tougher from it. You gain 50% fortification, and the color of your blood changes to something abnormal. You can take this corruption a second time, resulting in 100% fortification.

 : Everything you do seems to unnerve others. No one is quite sure why, but the way your eyes gleem, the hissing in your voice, or the way you walk all seem wrong. You gain an aura of fear out to 20 ft. which can be toggled as a free action, and anyone in the area must make a Will save DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha or become shaken for 1 round/level, save negates. This ability can be taken up to three times; the second time it becomes a save vs fear. The third time it becomes a save vs panic, and they become shaken on a successful save. Regardless of the result, a creature can only be affected by your aura of fear once every 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting effect.

 : People see you, but they just can't understand what they see. Reality breaks down, and sanity goes with it. You gain an aura of madness out to 20 ft. which can be toggled as a free action, and anyone in the area must make a Will save DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha or become confused for 1 round/level. This ability can be taken up to three times; the second time a failed save results in insanity. The third time it remains a save against insanity, but creatures are confused as long as they remain in your aura even if they save. Regardless of the result, a creature can only be affected by your aura of madness once every 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting effect.

 : Your legs or arms stretch abnormally and appear deformed and twisted. If you select longer arms, your reach increases by 5 feet. If you select longer legs, your base land speed increases by +10 feet. You can select this corruption twice, once for each effect.

 : You grow an extra mouth somewhere on your body, which occasionally mutters mad phrases on its own when not echoing your own voice. Spells which take longer than 1 standard action to cast are reduced by one step (1 round becomes standard, 1 minute becomes 1 round, 10 minutes becomes 1 minute, 1 hour becomes 10 minutes, and 24 hours becomes 1 hours). In addition if you possess a bite attack, you are now capable of making additional bite attacks. You may take this corruption more than once, each time gaining a new mouth and bite attack, but not decreasing casting time any further.

 : Once per day as a free action you can see into the future and observe the millions of ways for your enemies to die. You gain a +20 insight bonus on your next attack roll. You may take this ability more than once, each time gaining an additional use per day.

 : Once per day as a free action you can see into the future and observe the millions of ways your death may approach. You gain a +20 insight bonus on on AC against the next attack. You may take this ability more than once, each time gaining an additional use per day.

 : In spite of your abject horror caused by your being, your presence fascinates the minds of others. Like a train wreck, you cannot look away. You lose the penalty to diplomacy and gather information, and may use the fascinate ability of a bard at will, using your Perform check or character level as your effective ranks in Perform if higher. If you already possess fascinate, then your ability to sway others improves. Creatures affected do not notice anything around them at all, short of being threatened personally. Attacking one does not affect the attention of others (although one broken from your sway may yet try to rouse the attention of his allies). This is a mind-affecting effect.

 : Your existence seems to cause hiccups in reality, and the world seems jittery and fragmented around you. Once per day you may reroll any dice roll a second time. You must take the second result, even if it is worse than the first. You cannot use this ability on a roll which has already been rerolled once. Each time you select this corruption, you gain an additional use per day.

 : Your ever-darkened body sinks into the shadows and seems to be not there at all. You gain Hide in Plain Sight as a shadowdancer, and whenever in shadowy illumination or less you gain fast healing 2 as the shadows stitch your body back together. Each time you take this corruption, your fast healing gained increases by 2.

 : You are permanently under the effects of synesthete, except you may toggle which sense is replacing which other sense as a move action. It extends beyond sight and sound... you can switch out your sense of touch, taste, and smell as well. However it is usually less useful, as needing to taste your enemies to "see" them is impractical. Rather, its more useful at reading text through sense of touch alone or smelling with your eyes if your nose has been clogged.

 : The voices fill your head with understanding, but sometimes they can be too much. Each level of starspawn host you possess earns you another bonus language learned. However, whenever in stressful situations (such as combat) you must make a Will save DC 16 + 1/2 your own HD or end up speaking in an unknown babbling language which cannot be translated, even by tongues. This lasts as long as the stressful situation does.

 and  : Your mouth distends and becomes distorted, full of sharp teeth, or otherwise malformed. You gain a powerful bite attack which deals 2d6 + strength in damage as a natural weapon (for medium creatures). In addition if you manage to grapple someone, you can make another grapple check against them to swallow them whole. You may swallow a creature up to your size, however impossible that is, and subject them to your bite damage in bludgeoning, and 2d6 acid damage each round. Creatures can cut themselves out with muscular action closing the hole by striking AC 10 + your class level + 1/2 your natural armor (if any) and dealing 4x your class level in damage. More disturbingly, you can swallow any number of creatures and those creatures which drop to -10 and below never quite die, but suffer immobile for all eternity as they are digested, forever. This prevents their ressurection short of cutting them free from your extradimensional stomach or finding a way to summon them out. The bite is extraordinary, but the swallowing is supernatural.

 : Your face is melted clean of features, resulting in horrible blankness. In spite of this you do not lose your sense of sight, smell, or ability to breath or talk, though you can no longer injest potions or food. You no longer need to eat or breath, and you gain your twice class level as a bonus against Sense Motive checks. You gain twice your class level as a bonus on Intimidate checks.

 : Reality rejects you, smudging out your appearance. Others can't focus on you, unable, or unwilling to see what lies beyond. You gain 10% concealment, which is negated by true seeing. Each time you take this you gain another 10% concealment, up to a maximum of 50%.

 : Your body is covered in scales, bone plates, and unknown metals which cannot exist. You gain a +2 bonus to natural armor, and an additional +2 every time you select this ability.

 : You become capable or extending black fingers of entropy out into the world. Treat is as a whip which deals 1d6 force damage with a 18-20/x2 critical. You can summon or dismiss this "whip" at will as a free action, using any feats which apply to whips with this ability. You can get your tendrils of darkness enhanced as any weapon, though you must be present the entire time and the enhancements take the form of tattoos along your body.

 : You gain a tentacle as a natural attack that deals 1d4 + strength damage (for medium creatures). Tentacles appear out of various parts of your body and make you wear armor for monstrous characters (x2 base cost). Taking this corruption multiple times adds a new tentacle, up to a maximum of your Constitution bonus.

 : Your body twists in ways that shouldn't be humanly possible. You gain the Slight Build ability, allowing you to treat yourself as one size smaller when beneficial. In addition, you gain a bonus on Escape Artist checks equal to twice your class level, and can make Escape Artist checks as a move action.

' :''' Your interactions with spirits beyond the veil have given you certain powers in their influence. The spells associated with your domain from your Starspawn Patron ability become spell-like abilities usable 1/day with the following exceptions: you can only use spells of a level equal to your class level (that is, you don't obtain 7th level spells until the 7th level of starspawn host), and spells with expensive material components, focuses, and experience costs continue to require these costs. Alternatively you can not learn one of the spells of your domain and instead gain an additional use per day of a spell-like ability.

 : At 3rd level your blows pervert the natural forms of others. Whenever you kill a creature, you can choose to distort their body, cursing it and making it unable to be used to revive or animate the creature. Many choose to inflict some iconic signature on their kills, such as drowned corpses, distended jaws, empty smoking eyes, or spiral warped bodies. Even if the body is left technically intact the dark energies associated with it prevent the body's use.

As a standard action, you can focus the distorting energy into an attack. As a touch attack, the creature must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha modifier) or take 1d6 points of damage per HD you possess. Creatures which die from this touch attack are always distorted when they die. This cannot be combined with Drain Soul.

 : At 5th level, you can transform your body to reveal the extent of your corruption and horrify others. As a swift action you transform into a mockery of yourself, a creature of oozing holes, writhing tendrils, and non-ecludian geometry. It has no effect on your abilities, but your presence is so disturbing all creatures take a -1 morale penalty to attacks against you. You now count as a resident of the Far Realm as well as your home plane, and are unaffected by the environmental effects of that plane. You can change back to normal with another swift action.

 and  : The corruption has spread even to your name and the concept of you. To speak of you is to invite trouble. To divine you is to invite death. At 7th level your true name is erased, and you are immune to truenaming and power word spells. If you die, you can be revived as normal but the reviver takes 2d6 Wisdom damage from attempting to restore your unspeakable horror of a soul. This is an extraordinary effect. As a supernatural effect, you are aware whenever someone speaks your name (that is, specifically talking about you and not just someone else with your name). You become aware of the speaker's name and general direction, and if you have the ability to teleport you can teleport over to their location as if you had personally observed the area yourself, so long as it is done within 1 minute of speaking.

 : Your mind becomes clouded with the madness of the Far Realm. At 9th level, you become immune to mind-affecting effects. In addition, not even the universe can understand you. Anyone divining information on you fails, and are subject to a phantasmal killer effect, DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha.

You still count as a member of your original type whenever beneficial. You gain DR/magic equal to your class level, and it becomes DR/epic if you are epic level. Finally you gain SR 11 + your HD which may be toggled as a non-action. Your presence is forever a blight on this world, a nightmare made flesh.

Playing a Starspawn Host
Combat: Starspawn hosts are often gish builds, having the BAB and often natural weapons to fight in melee, while having spell-like abilities as back up weapons.

Advancement: Starspawn hosts can take various roles in life depending on the nature of their corruptions. Many may take advantage of classes such as Black Blood Cultist or Soul EaterBoVD.

Resources: No one accepts a starspawn host, and why not? They are cursed people, horrible monsters deserving to be killed. Their existance is a threat. Expect no allies beyond your own party, unless you can hide your monstrous nature.

Starspawn Hosts in the World
"I tried to summon Tiamat you see, but I think I must have gotten something wrong because a king dressed in yellow with a mask appeared. At first I was confused, as this man did not have five heads, was not a dragon, did not speak draconic, and was not Tiamat but I quickly was overjoyed that I managed to summon Tiamat in spite of this. Tiamat instructed me to do some strange things, including something with an oiled walrus, such is the mystery of Tiamat.  In the end she gave me this nice book in human skin and accidentally everything the whole because said so.  Why are you running?"

NPC Reactions: The starspawn host is a monster! Suffer not the monster to live, least he bring the attention of things that should not be upon you.

Starspawn Host Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge The Planes can research starspawn hosts to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Starspawn Hosts in the Game
Adaptation: Have a god of madness in your game? Just like mutants? This class can define clerics of madness or mutant warriors just as well.

Sample Encounter: Ia ia, the gate is open and out pour the countless damned. The city of Derry has begun to change with the opening of the gate, and starspawn hosts have popped up everywhere.

EL 10: PENDING.