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| From D&D 3.5's Complete Arcane, WotC. |
Design Background: This souped-up archetype for the summoner class is at take on the D&D3.5 alienist. It is intended for NPC villains in the Lovecraftian tradition.
Most summoners have a close connection to creatures from the farthest reaches of the planes. A few instead have sought a connection to the Dark Tapestry. Little is known of the Dark Tapestry—the darkness between the stars where some believe true madness lies. The few beings able to survive in the vast, cold void of space are too alien for even the wise to comprehend. Some believe that the Great Old Ones dwell in the darkness between the stars. They hold that they are poorly understood beings that are truly ancient and predate the regular human-like gods. To them, the Great Old Ones are a vast incomprehensible intelligence that can be drawn upon for incredible power. These summoners who would delve deeply into the darkness between the stars do so at their own peril. In touching the void, the void touches them, and then their body, mind and spirit yearn to span the gulf between worlds. They embrace the madness that lurks both out there in the Dark Tapestry and in the depths of their own minds.
A Thing from Beyond: An alienist’s eidolon is a thing from beyond. It resembles an unusually deformed and grotesque animal, or some variety of aberration that was not meant to be seen by mortal eyes, such as that of a shoggoth, starspawn, or something even worse. At 1st level, the eidolon gains a tentacle as a bonus evolution. At 5th level, the eidolon gains a second tentacle, and at 10th level a third tentacle.
Pseudonatural Summons: When casting Summon Monster, the alienist summons unusually deformed and grotesque animals. Instead of applying the celestial/fiendish/entropic/resolute templates, use the pseudonatural template. A pseudonatural creature’s CR increases by +1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD. It gains SR equal to new CR +5, and gains DR and energy resistance according to the table. True strike 1/day as a swift action (+20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. It suffers no miss chances vs. concealed targets when making this attack.)
Most summoners have a close connection to creatures from the farthest reaches of the planes. A few instead have sought a connection to the Dark Tapestry. Little is known of the Dark Tapestry—the darkness between the stars where some believe true madness lies. The few beings able to survive in the vast, cold void of space are too alien for even the wise to comprehend. Some believe that the Great Old Ones dwell in the darkness between the stars. They hold that they are poorly understood beings that are truly ancient and predate the regular human-like gods. To them, the Great Old Ones are a vast incomprehensible intelligence that can be drawn upon for incredible power. These summoners who would delve deeply into the darkness between the stars do so at their own peril. In touching the void, the void touches them, and then their body, mind and spirit yearn to span the gulf between worlds. They embrace the madness that lurks both out there in the Dark Tapestry and in the depths of their own minds.
A Thing from Beyond: An alienist’s eidolon is a thing from beyond. It resembles an unusually deformed and grotesque animal, or some variety of aberration that was not meant to be seen by mortal eyes, such as that of a shoggoth, starspawn, or something even worse. At 1st level, the eidolon gains a tentacle as a bonus evolution. At 5th level, the eidolon gains a second tentacle, and at 10th level a third tentacle.
Pseudonatural Summons: When casting Summon Monster, the alienist summons unusually deformed and grotesque animals. Instead of applying the celestial/fiendish/entropic/resolute templates, use the pseudonatural template. A pseudonatural creature’s CR increases by +1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD. It gains SR equal to new CR +5, and gains DR and energy resistance according to the table. True strike 1/day as a swift action (+20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. It suffers no miss chances vs. concealed targets when making this attack.)
HD
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Resist Acid, Cold & Electricity
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DR
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1-4
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5
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-
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5-10
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10
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5/magic
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11+
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15
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10/magic
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Eldritch Lore (Ex): At 2nd level, an alienist becomes an expert on all matters pertaining to aberrations, old cults, the stars and the Dark Tapestry. An alienist adds half his class level to checks about those topics.
Spawncaller (Ex): At 4th level, an alienist may expend a daily use of their summon monster ability to call forth an aberration from the dark tapestry. It can be any aberration with a CR equal to the alienist’s level or lower, and not already appearing on a summon monster list. The aberration gains the extraplanar subtype. Creatures called by this ability are only tenuously under the alienist’s control. Any time an alienist uses this ability he must pass a concentration check to have control of the creature, otherwise the creature is uncontrolled and acts as it’s natural inclinations lead it. The check is 10 + the creature’s CR.
Alien Anatomy (Ex): At 6th level, all summoned monsters and aberrations gain a +4 pseudonatural bonus to either STR, DEX or CON. At 12th level, choose 2 abilities. At 18th level, all 3 are boosted.
Spells Known:
Alienists automatically know the following as bonus spells known.
0: guidance
1: true strike
2: call the void
3: displacement
4: black tentacles
5: contact other plane
6: walk through space
Expanded Spell List:
0: penumbra, ray of frost,
1: color spray, darkness, gravity bow, pseudopod (3PP), true strike
2: aboleth’s lung, call the void, darkvision, deeper darkness, dust of twilight, guiding star, shooting star (3PP)
3: blacklight, blink, displacement, shelter out of time (3PP)
4: eyes of the void, wandering star motes
5: acidic spray, feeblemind
6: reverse gravity, walk through space
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