Spiritborn Monk (3.5e Class)

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Spiritborn Monk

“

One's duty to the next generation doesn't end with death, death is when it starts.

”

In some animistic societies people are taught that when they die they become spirits and gain new, more powerful forms. During a yearly ritual they come back to the land of the living and pick a young man or woman around the age of 6. These spirits then live inside the child for the remainder of their life. While living inside the host, the spirit grants them magical powers and abilites based on the kind of person they were when they lived. As time goes on the spirit and his host bond and become more attuned to each other. Under no circumstances can the spirit control the hosts body, but it can use all the same senses as his host and communicate with the host telepathically. After becoming extremely close to each other a spirit can even partially manifest itself outside the host with his permission. When the host dies the spirit is then allowed to pass on into the afterlife peacefully and the host then repeats the cycle.

Spiritborn Monks are not capable of dealing as much damage or taking as much damage as a fighter or a barbarian, but they can do many things that others cannot. Spiritborn Monks can serve as partners for the party rogue, especially if you take the Hide and Move Silently skills. Spiritborn Monks make excellent advanced scouts. Perhaps most importantly though, Spiritborn Monks are very good at combating enemy mages. their mobility, spell resistance, and high saving throws make them good and pushing through a mage's spells and taking them out.

Hit Die: d8

Alignment: Any lawful

Religion: Must worships ancestors

Starting Gold: As Monk.

Starting Age: Moderate

Table: The Spiritborn Monk

Hit Die: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	AC Bonus	Unarmored Speed Bonus
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Bonus Feat, Spirit Affinity Power and Spell	+0	+0 ft.
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Bonus Feat, Evasion	+0	+0 ft.
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Fast Movement, Spirit Affinity Spell	+0	+10 ft.
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Spirit Surge, Slow Fall 20 ft.	+0	+10 ft.
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Spirit Affinity Spell	+1	+10 ft.
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Bonus Feat, Slow Fall 30 ft.	+1	+20 ft.
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Ghastly Animation, Spirit Affinity Spell	+1	+20 ft.
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	Slow Fall 40 ft.	+1	+20 ft.
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	Improved Evasion, Spirit Affinity Spell	+1	+30 ft.
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	Slow Fall 50 ft.	+2	+30 ft.
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+7	Blazing speed, Spirit Affinity Spell	+2	+30 ft.
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Slow Fall 60 ft.	+2	+40 ft.
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Diamond Soul, Spirit Affinity Spell	+2	+40 ft.
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+9	Slow Fall 70 ft.	+2	+40 ft.
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+9	Soul Rip, Spirit Affinity Spell	+3	+50 ft.
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Slow Fall 80 ft.	+3	+50 ft.
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Spirit Affinity Spell	+3	+50 ft.
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+11	Slow Fall 90 ft.	+3	+60 ft.
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+11	Mind Sync	+3	+60 ft.
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+12	Ascension, Slow Fall Any Distance	+4	+60 ft.
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the spiritborn monk.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Spiritborn Monks are proficient with all simple weapons, plus the throwing axe, light hammer, hand axe, kukri, light pick, sap, short sword, battleaxe, flail, longsword, scimitar, trident, glaive, guisarme, halberd, ranseur, longbow, shortbow, bolas and net.

Spiritborn Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields.

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a heavy load, a Spiritborn monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement abilities.

Spirit Affinity: A Spiritborn Monk spontaneously casts divine spells, which are drawn from 1 affinity of his choice. The chosen affinity gives the spiritborn monk access to an affinity spell at every odd level (1st, 3rd, etc.), as well as a granted power.

The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a spiritborn monk’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the spiritborn monk’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a spiritborn monk can cast only a certain number of spells per day. He receives spells per day based on his level. Every day the spiritborn monk recieves a number of spell points equal to his level x 2. casting a spell takes spell points equal to the level you attained it. (a 1st level spell takes 1 point, a 2rd level spell takes 3 points, a 3rd level spell takes 5 points, etc.)

Table: Affinities

Fire	Water	Earth	Wind	Nature	Shadow	Blood
Produce Flame	Create Water x3	Magic Stone	Longstrider	Entangle	Silent Image	Remove Fear
Heat Metal	Cure Light Wounds	Soften Earth	Wind Wall	Barkskin	Blindness/Deafness	Cure Light Wounds
Fireball	Water Breathing	Stone Shape	Haste	Plant Growth	Deeper Darkness	Vampiric Touch
Wall of Fire	Wall of Ice	Spike Stones	Shout	Rusting Grasp	Black Tentacles	Hold Monster
Fire Shield	Ice Storm	Wall of Stone	Control Winds	Wall of Thorns	Persistent Image	Waves of Fatigue
Fire Seeds	Cone of Cold	Stoneskin	Chain Lightning	Liveoak	Shadow Walk	Heal
Fire Storm	Acid Fog	Earthquake	Control Weather	Animate Plants	Mass Invisibility	Finger of Death
Incendiary Cloud	Horrid Wilting	Iron Body	Whirlwind	Control Plants	Greater Shadow Evocation	Horrid Wilting
Elemental Swarm	Elemental Swarm	Elemental Swarm	Elemental Swarm	Shambler	Shades	Regenerate

Fire: Take 50% less fire damage, (rounded down). Water: +2/level to swim, and add your class level to trip and disarm attempts. Earth: +2/level to climb, At 3rd level, your movement speed can't be reduced by terrain or spells that dont completely impede it. Wind: +2/level to jump. At 3rd level, your jumps don't provoke an attack of opportunity. Nature: Can speak with animals. At 3rd level, you gain the scent feat. Shadow: Immune to blindness and grants darkvision. At 3rd level, you can see through magical darkness as if it were non-magical. Blood: When at, or above maximum hp, you gain +1/class level to attack and damage.

AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the spiritborn monk adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a spiritborn monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five spiritborn monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the spiritborn monk is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a heavy load.

Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a spiritborn monk may select either Improved Unarmed Strike or Combat Expertise as a bonus feat. At 2nd and 6th level, a spiritborn monk may select any non-skill based feat as a bonus feat that he meets the prerequisites for.

Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher if a spiritborn monk makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a spiritborn monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a spiritborn monk gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on Table: The Spiritborn Monk. A spiritborn monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

Spirit Surge (Su): At 4th level, a spiritborn monk’s ancestor empowers his body, allowing him to unleash magical effects. Depending on the chosen affinity you receive a different effect. you may activate this power once per turn, as a free action. This power can be used a number of times per day, equal to your wisdom bonus, (minimum of 1). This power does not cause an attack of opportunity, and only last until the end of the turn.

Fire: Add your level as fire damage to a single attack. Water: Trip, disarm or bull rush using any water within 50 ft. Earth: Add your level to either your strength or constitution. Wind: An extra attack at your highest base attack bonus. Nature: Next attack reduces target's AC by 1 per 2 levels. Shadow: Move through material objects, ignoring attacks of opportunity. Blood: For each damage you deal, heal that amount, up to 1 hp/level.

Slow Fall (Ex): At 4th level or higher, a spiritborn monk within arm’s reach of a wall can use it to slow her descent. When first using this ability, she takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The spiritborn monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with her spiritborn monk level until at 20th level she can use a nearby wall to slow her descent and fall any distance without harm.

Ghastly Animation (Su): At 7th level or higher, a spiritborn monk can have his spirit temporarily leave his body and inhabit an inanimate object. This ability functions as the animate objects spell with the following exceptions. The spirit can only animate one object at a time. The original host loses his spirit affinity and spirit surge abilites while the spirit inhabits the object. The spirit can only be up to 100 ft away from the original host while inhabiting the object. If the object leaves this range the ability is canceled and the host regains his abilities. The animation lasts until the original host ends the ability as a free action, granting the original host his abilities once more.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a spiritborn monk’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless spiritborn monk does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Blazing Speed (Ex): At 11th level or higher, a spiritborn monk moves so fast that enemies have a hard time keeping track of him, granting immunity to attacks of opportunity from moving, picking up an item, sheathing a weapon, and preparing to throw splash weapons. This does not include other attacks of opportunity, such as getting up from being prone, acrobatic or combat maneuvers, casting a spell, etc. This ability does nothing if you are not capable of moving at your full movespeed that round (e.g. slows or fatigue).

Diamond Soul (Ex): At 13th level, a spiritborn monk gains spell resistance equal to her current spiritborn monk level + 10. In order to affect the spiritborn monk with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the spiritborn monk’s spell resistance.

Soul Rip (Su): Starting at 15th level, a spiritborn monk can rip out the soul of another creature. He can use this attack once a week, and he must announce his intent before making his attack roll. This attack deals no damage and must be made as an unarmed attack. Constructs and undead cannot be affected. Otherwise, if the spiritborn monk strikes successfully, the target makes a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the spiritborn monk’s level + the spiritborn monk’s Wis modifier). If the saving throw is failed, the target dies instantly and cannot be ressurected under any circumstances. If the saving throw is successful, the target is no longer in danger from having his soul ripped out, but it may still be affected by another one at a later time.

Mind Sync (Su): At 19th level, a spiritborn monk has mastered communication with his ancestral friend, freely sharing knowledge and memories. This mastery grants +2 to the following skills: heal, knowledge (history), knowledge (religion), knowledge (planes) and survival.

Ascension (Su): At 20th level, a spiritborn monk gains the spells and abilities of an extra affinity of his choice, including spirit surge.

Ex-Spiritborn Monks and Multiclassing

A spiritborn monk who becomes nonlawful cannot gain new levels as a spiritborn monk but retains all spiritborn monk abilities

A spiritborn monk who has any levels in a different class loses the spirit affinity, spirit surge, ghastly animation and ascension class features and may never again raise her spiritborn monk level. (prevents wizards from powergaming)

Epic Spiritborn Monk

Table: The Epic Spiritborn Monk

Hit Die: d8

Level	AC Bonus	Unarmored Speed Bonus	Special
21st	+4	+70 ft.
22nd	+4	+70 ft.
23rd	+4	+70 ft.
24th	+4	+80 ft.
25th	+5	+80 ft.	Bonus Feat
26th	+5	+80 ft.
27th	+5	+90 ft.
28th	+5	+90 ft.
29th	+5	+90 ft.
30th	+6	+100 ft.	Bonus Feat
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

AC Bonus: The Spiritborn Monk’s bonus to Armor Class when unarmored increases by +1 every five levels higher than 20th.

Fast Movement: The epic Spiritborn Monk’s speed when wearing no armor increases by 10 feet every three levels higher than 18th. The unarmored speed of Small and dwarven spiritborn monks increases by 5 feet instead of 10 feet.

Diamond Soul (Ex): The epic Spiritborn Monk’s spell resistance is equal to his or her class level +10, as normal.

Soul Rip (Su): Use the Spiritborn Monk’s class level when determining the DC to resist this attack, as normal.

Bonus Feats: The epic Spiritborn Monk gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Spiritborn Monk bonus feats) every five levels higher than 20th.

Epic Spiritborn Monk Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Epic Prowess, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Exceptional Deflection, Fast Healing, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Ki Strike, Improved Spell Resistance, Improved Stunning Fist, Infinite Deflection, Keen Strike, Legendary Climber, Legendary Wrestler, Reflect Arrows, Righteous Strike, Self-Concealment, Shattering Strike, Vorpal Strike.

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