Cenobite of Want (3.5e Prestige Class)

Summary::A cenobite of Want is a martial initiator who seek to learn all maneuvers, through stealing them. Minimum Level::7 Class Ability:Martial Maneuvers Class Ability Progression::Full

Cenobite of Want
"I will find where Philomactous has gone to and take his soul, then I will be complete!"

The Cenobite of Want are a terrible brand of initiator who learned a powerful maneuver simply called soul drain, allowing them to steal the souls of powerful combatant and learn their sublime techniques. The legend goes that the first Cenobite of Want was woman named Su Yun, a fellow student alongside Philomactous, she was jealous of the battle scholar ability to learn all discipline and his success over other students. Things turned really sour when Philomactous used her own signature maneuver to feat her in an important show fight, in her completely humiliating her.

When Philomactous left for the abyss, she followed, wanting to learn the forbidden discipline herself. He confronted her on an unknown layer of the abyss and defeated her soundly, leaving her alive as an act of mercy and went his way. When Su Yun resumed her journey she found not Philomactous, no forbidden discipline but a gigantic hole in the plane. On the brink of madness she descended into the hole and met an entity who name was never spoken, from this entity she learned Soul Drain and became the first Cenobite of Want.

While her revenge was denied, Yu Sun managed to achieved her dream of mastering all disciplines, but thousand of initiators were sacrificed and consumed for her goal. She left the knowledge of soul drain on scrolls of aeon parchment and left for an unknown quest, perhaps to learn the forbidden discipline herself.

The scrolls of Yun exist in very few copies, each set contain 3 scrolls detailing the art of soul drain. Only through devoting oneself almost entirely unto it is possible to fully unlock it full potential. One might even theoretically be able to learn Su Yun's terrible bodysnatcher stance themselves.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Cenobite of Want.

Maneuvers: At 1st level and every odd level beyond (3rd, 5th, etc), you gain a new maneuver known from the Blood Feast, Devoted Spirit, Diamond Mind, Narrow Bridge, and Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it. You add your full cenobite of want levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known. At 3rd level and every two levels beyond (6th, 9th, etc), you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

Stances Known: At 6th level and every 6 levels beyond (12th, 18th, etc), you learn a new martial stance from the Blood Feast, Devoted Spirit, Diamond Mind, and Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a stance’s prerequisite to learn it.



Soul Drain  (Strike): You make a single unarmed attack at your highest bonus as a standard action, if it hit it deal an extra 1d6 typeless damage per class level and the struck creature must make a will save or be dazed for 1 round. If a creature is slain by soul drain it soul is absorbed into you as per devour soul,leaving only a skeleton behind.

 : At 2nd level you gain a special stance, allowing you to take the exact appearance of any creature you devoured with soul drain. You automatically succeed any disguise skill to appear as the creature, you however need to act like the creature using bluff to make a convincing act. Once the stance is used the change is instantaneous, it does not need to be maintained although if it maintained you can change from to any creature you devoured or yourself as a free action.

Identity thief is merely cosmetic, it does not give you any bonuses the creature had in life (such as size bonus or extra movement mode).

 : A 3rd level cenobite of want can absorb the knowledge of creature she killed using soul drain, whenever she devour a soul using soul drain she gain one of the target's maneuver known for each maneuver level this creature has (one 1st level maneuver, 1 2nd level maneuver and so on) and add it to her own maneuver known permanently. This apply retroactively to souls she devoured before gaining this ability. Even if the soul she devoured are freed she keep the maneuver she learned but she cannot learn maneuvers from the same creature twice.

This ability count as soul drain for the purpose of interacting with the mystic cenobite class feature.

 : At 5th level the cenobite of want may use soul drain on corpse of a creature killed within one round per class level, absorbing it soul as if it was killed by soul drain. This ability extend up to close range and expend your soul drain maneuver as normal.

She may interrogate the soul there but typically they do not feel very chatty. The cenobite of want may bring one creature per class level in her soulscape by meditating with them. This is a purely spiritual experience, creatures cannot be really harmed in the soulscape and can leave it as a standard action (except devoured creatures obviously). The bodies of creature who traveled to the soulscape remain immobile but are not helpless, the creatures in the soulscape instantly become aware if their body is in any danger.

The soulscape is completely and utterly immune to any divination or external observation, making it the perfect place to have private conversation and a pleasant retreat.

 : At 7th level the cenobite of want's soul drain now deal 2d6 per class level instead of 1d6 per class level.

 : A 8th level cenobite of want may use her soul drain at range instead of through an unarmed attack. It target a creature out of close range and does not require an attack roll, deal soul drain damage (but no damage from the unarmed attack).



 : At 10th level the cenobite of want unlocked the most fearsome form of soul drain, the bodysnatcher stance. In this stance any creature slain by her souldrain ability stay alive (at 1 hit points) and serve the cenobite of want for 3 round before being fully consumed. The soul is absorbed on the killing strike as normal.

Most fearsome of all however is that if the cenobite of want is killed in this stance, she may attempt to seize the body of any creature within 60 feet, the creature is allowed a will save to negate the effect. If the will save is successful the cenobite of want die as normal. If the will save fail however the cenobite of want instantly consume the creature's soul and take it body for herself. She may not use this ability on a creature with a higher CR than her's and she do not gain any special ability the creature had, she use her own ability scores and statistics. Sadly the body deteriorate quickly, within 1 day per class level the body will naturally die forcing the cenobite of want to seek constant replacement or get her actual immortal body restored.