 Rivethun Emissary
Source Adventurer's Guide pg. 164
Rivethun teachings cultivate strength and empathy through knowledge, self-control, and willpower. At their culmination lies the ability to invest pain and discord into a spirit companion, and to take in a portion of that spirit’s burden in exchange. This process creates a powerful bond to the spirit realms, allowing the Rivethun emissary to sense and pacify otherworldly creatures, and to channel powerful outsiders into the physical form of her spirit animal, creating a powerful hybrid called an animus to guide, protect, and advise her. Rivethun emissaries develop much like shamans, but their powerful bond with a singular spirit guide stunts their ability to bond with any wayward spirits they encounter.
Few Rivethun emissaries still exist among the Five Kings Mountains, and many dwarves consider the art of mingling mortal soul with outsider quintessence to be an abomination. Most learn the art from long-discarded writings or ancient and powerful beings that haunt former sacred sites deep below the surface.RequirementsTo qualify to become a Rivethun emissary, a character must fulfill the following criteria.
Feats: Iron Will, Spirit Beacon.
Skills: Diplomacy 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks.
Special: Must have a familiar or spirit animal.Class SkillsThe Rivethun Emissary's class skills are Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Points at each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Hit Die: d8.Class Features| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Spells Per Day | | 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +1 | Spirit animal, spirit bond, sixth sense (undead) | — | | 2nd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Animus (summon monster IV), sixth sense (fey) | +1 level of existing class | | 3rd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +2 | Manifest will, sixth sense (outsiders) | +1 level of existing class | | 4th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +2 | Animus (summon monster V, 2/day) | +1 level of existing class | | 5th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +3 | Parley, spirit conduit (augment) | — | | 6th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +3 | Animus (summon monster VI), manifest will | +1 level of existing class | | 7th | +5 | +2 | +2 | +4 | Spirit conduit (recall) | +1 level of existing class | | 8th | +6 | +3 | +3 | +4 | Animus (summon monster VII, 3/day) | +1 level of existing class | | 9th | +6 | +3 | +3 | +5 | Manifest will | — | | 10th | +7 | +3 | +3 | +5 | Animus (summon monster VIII), spirit conduit (commune) | +1 level of existing class |
The following are class features of the Rivethun emissary prestige class.
Spirit Animal (Ex): A Rivethun emissary strengthens her bond to the spirit world by channeling additional divine power through her familiar or spirit animal. If she had a non-spirit-animal familiar before becoming a Rivethun emissary, she can select a single shaman spirit (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 37). Her familiar gains the spirit animal ability associated with that spirit.
If the Rivethun emissary had the spirit animal class feature before becoming a Rivethun emissary, her spirit animal grows in power and begins to manifest unnatural traits. The spirit animal gains 2 evolution points as if it were an eidolon (see page 60 of Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide) and can use them to purchase eidolon evolutions from the following list: basic magicUM, climbAPG, flightAPG, gillsAPG, improved natural armorAPG, magic attacksAPG, minor magicUM, skilledAPG, swimAPG, tailAPG, and unnatural auraUM. At 5th level, the Rivethun emissary’s spirit animal gains an additional evolution point. It can spend this point to gain an additional evolution, or it can freely reassign all of its points to purchase different evolutions. It also adds the following to its list of available evolutions: burrowAPG, damage reductionAPG, and major magicUM.
Spirit Bond (Su): A Rivethun emissary’s training creates a powerful bond with a specific spirit. Her Rivethun emissary levels stack with any shaman levels she has for the purpose of determining the effects of her spirit class ability, spirit magic class ability, what hexes she qualifies for, and the effects of any hexes with level-dependent abilities.
If a Rivethun emissary has neither the spirit class ability nor a spirit animal, she can select a single spirit from those available to the shaman upon gaining her 1st level of Rivethun emissary. She gains this spirit’s spirit ability. At 8th level, she also gains this spirit’s greater spirit ability.
Spirit bond does not affect a shaman’s wandering spirit class ability.
Sixth Sense (Sp): A Rivethun emissary gains detect undead as a spell-like ability, usable a number of times per day equal to her Rivethun emissary level.
At 2nd level, this spell-like ability also detects creatures of the fey type. The Rivethun emissary must continue concentrating to discern which auras are undead and which are fey, gaining this knowledge as she learns the strength and location of each aura on her third round of concentration.
At 3rd level, this spell-like ability also detects creatures of the outsider type, also requiring concentration to distinguish between aura types.
Animus (Sp): At 2nd level, a Rivethun emissary learns to call down more powerful spiritual servants, using her spirit animal as the focus and conduit to create a hybrid creature called an animus. This ability functions as summon monster IV, except the Rivethun emissary can summon only a single creature at a time (though she can select a different creature each time and can always decide to summon a single creature from a lower-level list). This summoned creature appears in the spirit animal’s location, replaces the spirit animal for the spell’s duration, gains the familiar’s spirit animal ability, and obeys the Rivethun emissary as if it were her spirit animal. An animus typically retains some superficial traits of the spirit animal used as a conduit in its summoning, but gains no other abilities normally associated with a familiar (such as share spells or evolution points). The Rivethun emissary must be within 30 feet of her spirit animal to use this ability.
The animus remains for 1 round per caster level; it vanishes once this duration expires or it is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points. The spirit animal reappears in the animus’s last location and suffers none of the damage, status effects, or spells affecting the animus when it vanished.
As the Rivethun emissary grows in power and prestige, the effective summon monster spell she can use to conjure an animus improves, as indicated on the table.
The Rivethun emissary can use this ability once per day. At 4th level, she can use it twice per day, and at 8th level, she can use it three times per day.
Manifest Will (Su): At 3rd level, spiritual energy flows both into and out of the Rivethun emissary, allowing her to overcome the limitations of her physical body by sheer force of will. The Rivethun emissary selects either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. As an immediate action, she can substitute her Wisdom modifier for her selected ability’s modifier on a single ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. She can use this ability a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier + half her Rivethun emissary level.
At 6th level and again at 9th level, she can select one more physical ability score she can affect with this ability.
Parley (Sp): At 5th level, a Rivethun emissary gains the ability to cast calm spiritOA three times per day as a spell-like ability (her caster level equals her character level). At 6th level, she can also use this spell-like ability to calm corporeal undead and creatures of the outsider type. At 7th level, she can use this spell-like ability to calm creatures of the fey type as well.
Spirit Conduit (Su): At 5th level, a Rivethun emissary’s bond to an animus strengthens considerably. Any animus she summons is treated as if the Rivethun emissary had the Augment Summoning feat, gaining a +4 enhancement bonus to its Strength and Constitution.
At 7th level, when the animus vanishes, the Rivethun emissary can have her spirit animal appear in an empty square adjacent to herself instead of in the animus’s location.
At 10th level, the bond allows the animus to leave parting insight when it vanishes, answering a single yes-or-no question for the Rivethun emissary as per commune.
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