Dream Lord (3.5e Prestige Class)

Length::5 Minimum Level::7 Base Attack Bonus Progression::Poor Fortitude Save Progression::Poor Reflex Save Progression::Poor Will Save Progression::Other Class Ability::Arcane Spellcasting [[Class Ability Progression::Other
 * Class Ability=Spontaneous Spellcasting
 * Class Ability=Alternate Magic
 * Class Ability=Other]]

Allowed Alignments::Lawful Good, Allowed Alignments::Lawful Neutral, Allowed Alignments::Lawful Evil, Allowed Alignments::Neutral Good, Allowed Alignments::Neutral Evil, Allowed Alignments::Chaotic Good, Allowed Alignments::Chaotic Neutral, Allowed Alignments::Chaotic Evil



Dream Lord
"What you intend to do to that hapless person over there is pure evil! Why don't you help her friends out, and turn on your master? It is the only way towards righteousness. Oh, and philanthropy gives you great respect - why don't you try with your new friends over there."

Summary::The masters of sleep and distillers of fear; dream lords are the Warriors of Morality, supplanting their own ideas on what is right and wrong. While suggestive by nature, most dream lords are in fact advents of good, punishing evildoers through nightmares or other forms of suffering.

Dream Lord are great for when you’re in town, and can usually give you a better relation with people. But they are also very powerful on the field of battle, controlling the body or mind of their enemies. In combat, most lords either force their enemies to sleep – fighting them in a more controlled atmosphere – or give key monsters lessons in Fear.

A lord is generally weaker in the company of another lord (lords have many abilities to negate each other). Yet, on occasion, some lords will form alliances to change morality in larger areas.

Becoming a Dream Lord
Charisma is the major ability of this class – if it is not ridiculous, you may want to rethink your character creation. Intelligence and Wisdom are useful for skills; Constitution enhances one’s concentration skill (a very important skill for this class); Strength and Dexterity are useful for the typical reasons, but neither modifies class abilities.

Bards are perhaps the quickest to think of ranking in this class; yet a Wizard, Sorcerer, or Cleric based lord is always going to be more powerful. The Witch, Sylvan Occultist, Paladette, Paladin, High Priest, Blackguard, Bishop, and Assassin are also solid classes to have levels in before taking this prestige class. Some lords have been known to advance in Viveka Spectre, Tormentor, Stranger with the Burning Eyes, Soulbinder, Schismsoul, Overmind, Hierophant, Celestial Beacon, or Barrister of the Nine after taking this class.

While any race can become a lord, this path is mostly made up of Unbodied, Succedaneum, Sentient Illusions, Mousa, Microforged Conglomerate, Mahaari, Eldritch Horrors, Archon Hounds, and Aasimars.

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Lords are proficient with tridents, throwing axes, light hammers, light crossbows, javelins, darts, daggers, and light armor, but not with shields.

This grants a +2 bonus (improving to +4 at 4th level), and may be done once per day per class level (5/day at 5th).

 (Ex): A lord becomes learned in the many manners to medically induce sleep. The below effects force sleep with greater intensity than most are able to; this allows a lord to put creatures that are immune to sleep or are sleepless into a deep meditation (which is treated the same as sleep for the purposes of this page). However, creatures that are normally immune have a +3 bonus to their Fortitude saves to resist a sedative. Sedatives require very detailed knowledge to use, thus non-lords are rarely able to use them properly. After failure, the subject(s) do(es) not get to reroll, but an ally can negate with a heal check (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier).

If a subject sustains more than two points of lethal damage, they awaken immediately, but are shaken. They may act normally the following round (i.e. no longer shaken).

The incense causes 15HD of creatures to fall asleep in a 15’ radius, on inhalation. The sleep lasts for 5 minutes per class level. A lord is immune to the incense. It takes a move action to light the incense. Will save (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier) negates.

The tranquilizer causes 20HD of creatures to fall asleep, on injury. The sleep lasts for 10 minutes per class level. A lord is immune to the tranquilizer. It takes a move action to add the tranquilizer to a weapon. Will save (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier) negates.

The salve causes 30HD of creatures to fall asleep, on contact (can fling it, making it a 10’ cone splash attack). The sleep lasts for 15 minutes per class level. A lord is immune to the salve. It takes a move action to apply or fling the salve. Will save (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier) negates.

The smoke causes 40HD of creatures to fall asleep, in a 30’ radius, on inhalation. The sleep lasts for 15 minutes per class level. A lord is immune to the smoke. It takes a full-round action to disperse the smoke. Will save (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier) negates.

This may be done only to one helpless creature. Thereafter, the victim has a 10% chance to forcefully fall asleep every hour (roll at the beginning of an encounter). The victim still treats the other 90% of its life as normal. The victim may be awoken with an aid action (from an ally), or when dealt lethal damage (from an enemy). It takes a move action to inject the pill, and 1d4+1 rounds to take effect. Will save (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier) negates.

A lord also has improved mental stamina, giving a bonus to their concentration checks equal to half their Wisdom modifier (rounded down).

Lords do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a lord, they must decide to which class to add the new level for purposes of determining spells per day, spells known, and maximum spell level.

 (Ex): At 2nd level, a lord’s master gives them an unmodified crystal ball, to aid in finding subjects (at no cost). If lost, the lord must buy another, at the normal cost. The crystal ball signifies that the lord no longer has a need for a master, and may start to train other lords.

Only lords who have at least two levels in this class can train other lord. To retain a student: a lord must buy a crystal ball (worth 42,000 gold), which is used to teach the student; when the student reaches second level, the lord gives the crystal ball to the student, then the student walks away! (From a player’s standpoint, training other lord is almost worthless: the student leaves at second level, you have to give a substantial amount of gold to an NPC. There is also the concern with sharing the dream lord secret.)

 (Ex): A lord’s keystone abilities relate to manipulating dreams. At 2nd level, a dream lord may suggest actions and permanent morality shifts to subjected dreamers. A lord must find their subject, be in the same plane, and the subject must be sleeping to do this. The GM selects form the below table the power level of the dream (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) based on the creativity of the sending that the player suggests (i.e. the more creative the higher the power – but also gives GM control over strength).

Then the dream lord rolls an opposed Will save against the subject, and must beat the subject’s plus the modifier on the above table (i.e. if power level 2, must beat by 2 or more). The above are permanent, but the spell break enchantment can dispel a singular sending’s effects (if multiple sendings on a subject will need an equal number of enchantments to turn the subject back to normal) only if the person casting break enchantment beats the lord’s opposed Will save after casting.

A sending can affect most who are immune to sleep effects or are sleepless, but only when under the effects of a sedative; however, mindless creatures are still immune to sendings even when sedated. Creatures that are normally immune to sleep effects or are sleepless have a +3 bonus to resist.

The subject will remember with great clarity all that occurred within a sending.

 (Ex): After studying and experimenting with their master’s gift, a lord learns how to manufacture a crown of dreams. To make a crown a lord needs 20,000gp of clockwork and rare chemicals, and a day’s worth of work inside a lab or jewelry shop (has lots of tiny parts). Each crown is thoroughly unique and can only be used by the one who makes it. The crown imparts an ability on the wearer that acts like the teleport spell, with the following changes: 1) can only teleport to a sleeping creature that has been found with the Crystal of Dreams in the last year; 2) a lord cannot bring other creatures or more than a medium load; and 3) the lord is instantly transported back two hours later (one can teleport back prematurely).

The crown is rather fragile, with a hardness of 5 and 15 hit points. As noted above, a crown can be a bit pricy to replace. Also, one cannot wear a helmet nor have any other magical head gear while wearing the crown; this decreases the AC bonus of all armor by one (to a minimum of 1).

 (Su): At 3rd level, a lord may haunt others with impossible imaginations – they may pull nightmares from the plane of dreams into the waking world! This take tremendous will; a lord must beat a Will save (DC (total creature CR)x2) to call creatures. If a lord fails the save by more than 5, they themselves fall into a nightmare, receiving 2d10 points of damage and becoming fatigued; if they fail by more than 10, they also (in addition to fatigue and damage) take 1d4 points of Charisma damage and fall unconscious for one minute. Some of the energy of real objects is absorbed by the atrocities, making the visions 30% real (much like shadow spells). Monsters have a minimum duration of five minutes; each minute after, a lord must beat a (DC 10+3/minute after) Concentration check to maintain the vision. Monsters have a “friendly” disposition to the lord, but are not in fact under the lord’s control.

 (Ex): After further study, and a few experiments with their crown, a lord learns how to manufacture a throne of dreams. To make a throne a lord needs 40,000gp of clockwork and rare chemicals, and a week’s worth of work inside a machine shop. Each throne is thoroughly unique and can only be used by the one who makes it. The throne has a hardness of 10, 1800 hit points and weighs 25 pounds. The lord chooses its shape at 5th level; this cannot be changed once chosen. The throne only appears when the lord wishes it (making it unnecessary for a barbarian or horse to always carry it around). It takes a full-round action to materialize or dematerialize the throne.

The throne imparts an ability to curse creatures that act strongly against a lord’s morality – also known as the Immoral. A curse may only be place on sleeping creatures on the same plane, which the lord has given a sending to in the last six months. If the Immoral fails the opposed Will save, they become cursed. After finding the Immoral, it takes one hour to complete the curse; if the lord is interrupted during this time the lord must beat a DC 50 Will save to continue the process. The curse deals 1d6 temporary ability damage to one of their mental scores (lord’s choice), then 1d2 permanent to any score (Immoral’s choice), then has one of the following features applied:
 * Poetic Justice: the Immoral gains a social impediment. This can range from: cannot lie, cannot speak directly (only in metaphor or rhyme), must always speak one’s mind – or for the darker sorts: can only lie (etc., talk to GM about what would be appropriate for your campaign). A social impediment must be something befitting the Immoral’s action; an ironic lesson, if you will.
 * Mark of Pain: boring but effective, the lord selects an arm, leg, toe, finger, eye, or ear, and the Immoral loses it. An Immoral can only lose the aforementioned parts (i.e. no tongues) and cannot be without at least one set of the aforementioned. In other words, if the Immoral is already missing an eye, it cannot lose another from this feature; or if missing an arm, can only lose three fingers off it’s other hand (this feature does not remove thumbs).

The third part of a curse can be removed with an opposing dispel (chaos, evil, good, law), but only a miracle or wish can remove the second roll of permanent ability damage. A lord may only curse one Immoral per day.

The throne can be teleported when using the crown; when doing so, most restrictions of the crown apply, the exceptions being: 1) a lord may remain for up to eight hours; 2) the weight limit changes to a volume limit of: everything within a 5’ hemisphere; and 3) other creatures can be teleported with you, but they also teleport back after eight hours.

A lord is not longer required to make a save against insanity or similar effects when in a dreamland that is not their own. (This is especially useful in the Lovecraft Campaign.)

Ex-Dream Lord
There is no such thing as an ex-lord; once one goes down this road, they are forever marked.

Dream Lord Lore
"Infect the hearts and minds of others and you will turn your enemies into friends."

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) can research lords to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Variant
Instead of taking their spells from the more ridged orthodox lists (from previous classes), a lord may instead select their spells from the lord spell list. This replaces their previous spell list, but they maintain their spell progression and maximum spells known (with the new list). For example: an 8th level wizard ranks into this class (by one level), then chooses this variant (after talking to the GM), for purposes of spells, the maximum level spell the wizard cast is 4th-level (from the new list). Should the wizard rank again (in dream lord or wizard), they would gain access to 5th-level spells.

This only replaces one spell list (not multiple), and all spells from the lord list are considered arcane and may be cast spontaneously.