 Putrefactor
Source Blood of the Coven pg. 16
Some witches find their patrons while in the throes of despair and grief, when all they desire is to see the veneer of civilization peel back to reveal the filth and rot that underlies all things. The arcane power they inherit is bleak and tainted, eating them from the inside out and transforming them into living avatars of entropy.
Infestation of Entropy: A putrefactor’s body hosts various pests—insects, rats, or other scavengers—as part of her connection with her patron. She treats the infestation as her familiar, and she communes with the infestation to prepare spells. She still selects a familiar, which must be a house centipede, rat, scarlet spider, or toad; the familiar crawls within her among the other vermin. A putrefactor must be of chaotic alignment and must choose one of the following patrons: Animals, Death, Plague, or Rot.
This alters the witch’s familiar and patron.
Disgorge Familiar (Ex): As a standard action, a putrefactor can cough up her familiar, allowing it to act as a separate entity. She can also devour it again as a standard action when the familiar is within reach. While within her, the familiar cannot be targeted for effects or take any action, but effects affecting it persist, and their duration continues until the next time she disgorges it.
This replaces the hex gained at 1st level.
Verminous Blood (Ex): At 2nd level, the swarming creatures within a putrefactor begin to replace her bodily fluids. Whenever she takes slashing or piercing damage from a melee attack, the creatures spill out and bite the attacker, dealing 1d6 points of damage, which count as damage from a Diminutive swarm. A creature can take damage from this ability only once per round. This damage increases by 1d6 at 8th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
This replaces the hex gained at 2nd level.
Putrefied Innards (Ex): At 4th level, the infestation begins assuming various functions of the witch’s organs. She gains a 25% chance to negate the extra damage from critical hits and sneak attacks, as per the light fortification magic armor ability. At 10th level, this increases to a 50% chance (as per moderate fortification), and at 16th level it increases to a 75% chance (as per heavy fortification). Whenever the putrefactor negates additional damage from a melee attack in this way, the attacker takes damage as if exposed to her verminous blood, even if it has already been targeted by this ability this round.
This replaces the hexes gained at 4th, 10th, and 16th level.
Disgorge Swarm (Ex): At 6th level, while her familiar is inside her, the putrefactor can disgorge all the crawling creatures within her at once as a standard action, retaining only her familiar. When she does, she loses 2 hit points per class level and forms a spider swarm as per the spell vomit swarm. The swarm gains the Armor Class and saving throw bonuses of her familiar. The swarm deals her verminous blood damage instead of its normal damage; while the swarm lasts, the putrefactor loses access to her verminous blood ability. The witch can target creatures with her hexes as if she occupied both the swarm’s space and her own. When the duration ends, the swarm tries its best to return to her and crawl back into her body, restoring hit points equal to its current hit points, up to her maximum hit points. If the swarm dies or cannot return to her once the spell’s duration ends, the witch does not regain any of her spent hit points. Once she reabsorbs the swarm, she can’t disgorge it again for 1 hour.
This replaces the hex gained at 6th level.
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