User:Luigifan18/Restore Vestige (3.5e Alternate Class Feature)

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Author: Luigifan18 (talk)
Date Created: November 24, 2015
Status: In progress
(Working on individual vestige entries)
Abandoned
Editing: Clarity edits only please
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Restore Vestige

The ultimate goal of the soul salvager — to rescue the vestiges from their nonexistent state, undermining pact magic in the process.

Class: Soul Salvager

Prerequisites: Caster level 18, binder level 18

Level: 10 (see text below benefit)

Replaces: Embody Vestige

Benefit: After many, many long and arduous trials, the soul salvager may obtain the power he seeks to fulfill his mission — the power to restore a vestige to reality. Doing so requires a ritual which lasts for 1 week, at the end of which the soul salvager makes a binding check against the selected vestige's binding DC + its restoration value (usually 30, but it may be different depending on the vestige's history). If he succeeds, the selected vestige is called back to reality, and loses its status as a vestige; instead, it becomes an NPC, effectively having been revived by true resurrection (though not necessarily restored to life, per se; depending on the vestige, it may be restored to undeath, mechanical animation, divinity, or some other state that is neither alive nor dead). No binder, including the soul salvager himself, can ever summon that vestige again for the remainder of the current campaign (unless it somehow becomes a vestige again, which, depending on the vestige, could happen more easily than you'd think). Instead, the former vestige is now an NPC or monster (albeit in all likelihood a very high-leveled one), who has all the abilities it possessed as a vestige (unless otherwise noted) in addition to whatever other abilities it would have by virtue of being an NPC of its class and level, and who owes a great deal of gratitude to the soul salvager who restored it and will (probably) be a steadfast ally. (However, the former vestige will (probably) also be extremely friendly to binders who venerated it while it was a vestige, especially knights of the sacred seal and members of other prestige classes who were devoted to it. This could prove to be extremely awkward if these binders happen to be enemies of the soul salvager.) Restore Vestige functions as an epic-level spell (though it does not require a Spellcraft check to use). Therefore, if the ritual is interrupted, the DC of the Concentration check to avoid spoiling the ritual is 20 plus any modifiers (such as damage taken or distracting motion modifiers). Restore Vestige can be used once per 6 months and costs (2,000 × level of vestige to be restored) XP to use.

However, it should be noted that restoring a vestige is nowhere near as easy to do as the above paragraph would imply. First of all, it requires material components and focuses, all of which are going to be things that are important to that vestige. Second, it requires that the soul salvager create or otherwise procure a body that is extremely similar to the body the vestige possessed in life (or undeath, or mechanical animation, or divinity, or whatever); the replica body must be accurate to the degree of precision required by the clone spell. (The vestige's manifestation can provide a clue, but is often not a good indicator of what the vestige looked like while it was a conventional being). Third, the above two requirements make it necessary for the soul salvager to know the vestige's history in excruciating detail; the story described under the "Legend" entry may or may not be a good starting point, but it is almost never sufficient, as gathering information about vestiges tends to be extremely difficult. (And, no, questioning the vestige probably won't help much, not even when done by a soul salvager seeking to restore them; it is impossible to compel a vestige to tell the truth or to tell whether or not it's lying, and many vestiges' memories are so muddled and fragmented that they might not be able to tell the truth, even if they wanted to.) The necessary research and gathering of components will likely take several months, and it cannot be glossed over; the process of discovering the vestige's true story and gathering the necessary materials for the restoration ritual will involve going on adventures. The process of conducting research and gathering materials will also inevitably attract the attention of many powerful binders, and it's likely that they'll find out what the soul salvager is up to sooner or later — and when they do, they are extremely likely to try to stop him by any means necessary, considering that he is trying to make a vestige completely inaccessible to all binders. (Note, however, that preparations for performing the Restore Vestige ritual can be performed at any point in the soul salvager's career, though some aspects of the preparations will likely require him to be a high-leveled character to successfully perform. The only part of the process that cannot be done until soul salvager level 20 is the Restore Vestige ritual itself.) Fourth, the vestige itself might have some issues that would prevent it from being revived; for instance, it might not even be sentient (such as Phos), it might be a conglomeration of numerous beings (such as Dantalion), or it might have become a vestige due to a divine curse (such as Andromalius, Aym, Dantalion, or Leraje). These issues will usually cause additional requirements to restore the vestige. Finally, the DM has the final say on whether or not restoring a vestige is even possible. If the DM decides that removing a vestige from play would be too damaging for the campaign he or she is running, then the campaign world itself will conspire to ensure that the soul salvager cannot succeed, using whatever methods are necessary to thwart him (up to and including an enormous rock falling directly on top of the soul salvager from out of absolutely nowhere, with absolutely no possibility of avoiding it, and killing him instantly, with no possibility of him being revived afterwards).

Furthermore, just because you can restore a vestige to reality doesn't mean that you should, or that they're going to stay restored. Some vestiges are the way they are because they were cursed by one or more gods, and restoring that vestige will probably piss off the god who made it that way. (For instance, Corellon Larethian might not mind if Leraje was restored, since she has been humbled by the circumstances of her becoming a vestige. Thrym, on the other hand, would be very, very unhappy if Shax was restored, since she would inevitably start bothering the frost giants again.) Some vestiges are the way they are due to some sort of horrible trauma, and might not want to be restored; therefore, they will inevitably become vestiges once more unless their troubles are addressed, or they might need extensive convincing to return to reality. (For instance, if Halphax were to be restored, and somehow regained his memories of his life, he would almost certainly be driven to commit suicide, and promptly return to being a vestige again. Haagenti, on the other hand, feels an incredible sense of guilt over the repercussions her actions during her life had on frost giant society.) Some vestiges are gods who withered away due to a lack of worship; unless faith in them were to be restored, they would promptly fade away and become vestiges again. (Amon is the classic example of a "former god" vestige, though others "exist"). Some vestiges were never sentient or even entities to begin with; they would require some sort of sentient identity in order to exist. (For instance, Phos is a spark of light that was sent outside of existence as part of a magical experiment, and Tenebrous is simply an alter-ego of Orcus.) Finally, there are the vestiges who were incredibly dangerous threats to the status of the universe (or at least the status quo) while they were properly existing beings, and would in all likelihood spark some sort of catastrophe if restored, disregarding their debt to the soul salvager in order to pursue their own agendas. (For instance, Acererak would reestablish the Tomb of Horrors and resume his efforts to ascend to godhood as soon as possible, taking countless lives in the process; Chupoclops would resume devouring hope and ghosts, giving mortals nightmares, and quite possibly bring about the apocalypse; Shax would return to rule over the storm giants with an iron fist and drive them to conquer the lands of the other giant tribes, causing the conundrum she caused in the giants' pantheon to begin all over again.) Overall, each vestige is a unique entity (or, rather, pseudo-entity), and therefore, they all have their own unique requirements and complications in the process of restoring them. As with all matters of gameplay and story progression, the details of how to restore a vestige should be left up to the DM, but I'll write up guidelines for each vestige to form a basis.


Note that while it replaces a class feature gained at soul salvager level 10, and is selected at that point, Restore Vestige is not actually obtained until soul salvager level 20. Until then, you are essentially forfeiting a class feature that you would otherwise have. Furthermore, choosing the path of completely restoring vestiges to reality makes you public enemy #1 among the binder community. All NPC binders who realize who you are and what you can do will automatically be hostile to you, and will do everything in their power to completely and utterly destroy and OBLITERATE YOU. Also, the deities, as mentioned above, consider trying to restore vestiges to be a colossally dumb idea, as many of the vestiges are the way they are because they directly and severely threatened the interests of one or more deities. (Chupoclops, for instance, was a harbinger of the apocalypse who also had a habit of devouring ghosts, consuming the very concept of hope, and giving mortals nightmares. No deity wants to have to deal with it again.) Thus, choosing to take this alternate class feature causes an uproar among the divine community, and while your own patron god hopes that you'll use the ability responsibly and will continue granting you spells unless you start trying to restore a vestige he or she really doesn't want to see return (in which case all bets are off and you're in deep trouble), the other gods will try to sabotage you. Therefore, if you go for this class feature, your divine spells forevermore have a 30% failure chance due to divine sabotage.

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