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This The opposed binder level check for Unbind Vestige is treated like a binder level check to bind the vestige in the first place. Any bonuses or penalties to binder level that specifically apply to binding checks (such as having the Skilled Pact Making feat) apply to the opposed check for this ability, and if both the soul salvager and enemy binder fail to beat the vestige's binding DC, ''both'' of them ''lose'' the opposed check and suffer the consequences, regardless of which one of them rolled the higher result. If both the soul salvager and the enemy binder beat the vestige's binding DC result, and their check results are tied, ''both'' of them ''win'' the opposed check, and nothing happens except for the soul salvager having wasted a full-round action and divine spell slot, turn undead attempt, wild shape use, or healing energy. (This is an exception to the usual rules for tied opposed checks.)
→Class Features: Grammar check
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==Soul Salvager==
<!--{{quote
|<-Some quote from a character of this class->
|orig=<-NPC name->, <-race-> <-class->
|src=<!--The source of the quote (manuscript, book, etc)-->}}-->
As a general rule, organized religions '''''hate''''' pact magic, and want to see it eradicated forever. After all, vestiges are beings that don't really exist, and are beyond the reach of the gods. Drawing upon their power is completely insane, and risks making reality more or less devour itself. (That, ''and'' it undermines the influence of the gods, which makes their clerics furious... outraged... '''''sick'' with anger!!!''')
|-
| 5th || +4 || +4 || +1 || +4
| class="left" | [[#Unbind Vestige|Unbind Vestige]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +5]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|-
| 6th || +5 || +5 || +2 || +5
| class="left" | [[#Unbind Vestige|Unbind Vestige]], [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +3]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +6]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|-
(Of course, this only applies to a ''bad'' pact; there is no penalty for suppressing the sign of a good pact.)
'''{{Anchor|Unbind Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' Opposing other binders is a core facet of the soul salvager's mission. After all, binders attach vestiges to their souls for petty gain. As the soul salvager's relationship with the vestiges grows— specifically, by the time he's reached level 5 — he can use it to attempt to coax a vestige to leave another binder, using his own divine magic to supply the energy needed to sunder the pact.
To attempt to unbind a vestige, the soul salvager must first [[Identifying Vestiges (3.5e Variant Rule)|identify the vestige]] in question. Once the soul salvager knows what vestige an enemy binder has bound, he can attempt to unbind it. In order to do so, he must be bound to that vestige himself, as he must be able to communicate with the vestige and request for it to leave the enemy binder. Since vestiges can't leave a binder of their own volition until the pact naturally ends, the soul salvager has to supply some sort of energy to break the pact. Thankfully, the soul salvager's patron deity can help him to generate that energy.
As a full-round action, the soul salvager can designate a vestige he has identified on an enemy binderwithin Long Range, which he himself must also have bound, and expend some of his divine energy in the form of a divine spell slot. (Expending a spell slot in this way is not the same thing as actually casting that spell.) This acts as a catalyst for the chosen vestige to leave an enemy binder before its pact has expired, causing the soul salvager and enemy binder to make opposed binder level checks as the pact tries to withstand the assault. The soul salvager gets a bonus on his check equal to twice the level of the divine spell slot he sacrificed to use this ability. (Note that this cares about the ''actual'' level of the sacrificed spell, ''not'' the level of the spell slot it was prepared in or cast with, and metamagic other than [[SRD:Heighten Spell|Heighten Spell]] does ''not'' cause a spell to be treated as having a higher spell level for this purpose.) The enemy binder gets a bonus on his check equal to the vestige's level, plus ¼ of its binding DC (rounded down); if he belongs to a prestige class which is devoted to the vestige (such as knight of the sacred seal (with the chosen vestige selected as the patron vestige), scion of Dantalion (Dantalion), or tenebrous apostate (Tenebrous)), he gets an additional +4 bonus.
If the soul salvager wins, the enemy binder's pact with the chosen vestige is broken, as if by the Expel Vestige feat. The enemy binder takes the full penalties of expelling a vestige with Expel Vestige (even if he has [[Improved Expel Vestige (3.5e Feat)|Improved Expel Vestige]]), and does not use up a usage of Expel Vestige if he actually has it.
If the enemy binder wins, the soul salvager's pact with the chosen vestige is strained. If he had made a good pact with the vestige, it becomes a poor bad pact, instantly costing him whatever [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige]] bonuses he hadfrom that vestige. If his pact with the vestige is poor bad (either by being a poor bad pact in the first place or having already failed to unbind the vestige from a foe), he is treated as having violated the vestige's influence, suffering a −1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks until his pact with that vestige ends. As normal for influence violations, this penalty can stack with itself.
*'''{{Anchor|Advanced Unbind Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' At 10th level, the soul salvager has built up quite a reputation among the vestiges; they know that he's a person who is firmly on their side. Because the vestiges themselves have faith in him, the soul salvager can unbind a vestige on an enemy binder that he doesn't currently have bound himself. However, because of the difficulty in communicating with a vestige in the absence of a pact, he suffers a −4 penalty on his opposed check for doing so. Furthermore, in the absence of a pact with the vestige to be unbound, the soul salvager suffers different (and harsher) consequences for failure. If the soul salvager loses the opposed check for a vestige he doesn't have bound, he loses one divine spell slot of the same level as the vestige (for instance, if he fails to unbind a 6th-level vestige, he loses a 6th-level spell slot). If he prepares divine spells, he chooses which spell is lost. If he doesn't have a divine spell slot of that level available to lose, he instead takes Xd6 backlash damage, where X is the level of the vestige (for example, a 6th-level vestige would inflict 6d6 backlash damage). Backlash damage cannot be resisted by any means, and a character killed by it loses an extra level if and when he is brought back to life.
'''{{Anchor|Resist Vestige}} {{Ex}}:''' A 7th-level soul salvager has grown popular enough among the vestiges that they don't particularly want to hurt him. A binder who attempts to use a vestige-granted ability against the soul salvager must succeed on a binder level check against a DC of (10 + soul salvager's class level + soul salvager's Wisdom modifier), or else that use of the ability fails to have any effect against the soul salvager. (Essentially, he gets a sort of [[SRD:Spell Resistance and Spell Immunity|spell resistance]] that applies to vestige-based attacks.) Note that this only applies to vestige-granted abilities, not supernatural special attacks in general (for instance, it provides no protection from a shadowcaster's mysteries).
'''{{Anchor|Consolidate Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' At 8th level, the soul salvager doesn't even need to actively rend enemy binders' pacts asunder to keep them from employing their pact magic. When you are bound to a vestige, your presence draws the fractured fragments of the vestige to yourself and makes it more whole while preventing others from accessing their abilities. Creatures bound to the same vestige as you that are within 60 ft automatically have their vestige suppressed and are unable to activate any of their abilities, as if they were no longer bound to the vestige; you do not need to identify the enemy binder's vestige to absorb and suppress it in this manner. This lasts until they leave the area, and you can choose to exclude creatures from its effect. Indeed, while you have suppressed an enemy binder's vestige with this ability, you can't attempt to [[#Unbind Vestige|completely unbind it]] (though suppressing it is almost as good most of the time, and due to the way this ability works, helps to "pseudo-identify" enemy binders' vestiges by narrowing down possibilities).
'''''{{Anchor|Embody Vestige}}'' {{Sp}}:''' A 10th-level soul salvager is capable of creating living vessels to act as hosts for vestiges, giving them a unique autonomy they lack when simply bound as a vestige. This functions like [[SRD:Simulacrum|''simulacrum'']], except it has none of the soul salvager's class features except for [[#Consolidate Vestige|Consolidate Vestige]]. Instead, it is permanently bound to a single vestige of your choice, and takes on the full mannerisms and influence of the vestige in question, while expressing a more extreme form of their sign. They have a binder level equal to your own level, and while they are still technically under your control (as per ''simulacrum''), they show and express a great deal of their own will, personality, and motives.
You can only have one ''simulacrum'' per vestige; if you want to make a new simulacrum for a vestige, you must first destroy the old one. You can only maintain control over a number of these simulacra equal to the number of vestiges that you would be able to bind. If you exceed your limit, the oldest simulacrum fully breaks free from your control, effectively becoming an NPC, and will begin to pursue its own agenda, regardless of whether that agenda helps or hurts you. An embodied vestige that is out of your control still prevents you from creating a new ''simulacrum'' for that vestige.
