Illusion [Shadow] Level: Oššorûs 2 Components: S, DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch
Effect: Swordlike shadow Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with; see text)
Spell Resistance: No
You use material from the shadow plane to form a quasi-real ghost touch weapon. The phantom blade can only be wielded by you. Its enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls and the damage it inflicts with a successful attack vary depending on your caster level (see table below). A phantom blade also does less damage to a creature that recognizes its quasi- real nature. Your Strength modifier (if any) does not apply to attack or damage rolls made with the phantom blade, but the shadow
weapon is incorporeal. It ignores your target’s natural armor, armor, and shield bonuses.
Organization: The Ossorus
Purpose
The Oššorûs is a clandestine sect devoted to Râthur, god of the sun. Members of the Oššorûs act as spies, saboteurs, couriers, and even assassins.
Leader
Atans the Unknown (reportedly a LG half-elf male Clr5/Rog5/Oss10)
Current Activities
The Church of Râthur, the Shining Lord, the Destroyer of the Darkness, has a long history of militancy. Râthur’s cathedrals always include a garrison of dedicated, highly trained warriors under the command of the local prelate. In times of crisis, the garrison gates are flung open and Râthur’s faithful march forth to do or die. Hand-in-hand with its armies, the Church of Râthur often employs reliable adventurers. Decades ago, one these reliable adventurers shook the Church of Râthur to its core and, after all was said and done, founded the Oššorûs.
In those days, the campaign against Hezba the Necromancer Queen was suffering as many setbacks as victories. For every enemy slain by the followers of Râthur, the Nightwalk Cabal, Hezba’s wizard-generals, raised another squad of the undead to march onto yet another battle- field. Groups of adventurers employed by the Church of Râthur to defeat the Nightwalk Cabal and Hezba made even less progress than Râthur’s armies. This is when an obscure and heterodox cleric/rogue named Atans stepped forward.
39
Phantom Blade
Oššorûs Enhancement Damage Damage Level Bonus (Will save fails) (Will save succeeds)
3–4 +1 1d6 1d3
5–6 +2 1d8 1d4
7–8 +3 2d6 1d6
Everywhere the sun touches the earth, it casts a shadow. The shadows, therefore, are Râthur’s domain just as surely as are the brightest places. The reason Râthur’s armies could not succeed against Hezba is because the armies feared to go into the shadow, thinking that it was Râthur’s antithesis, a place of evil. Not so, argued Atans before the Church of Râthur’s cleric-generals. Râthur creates shadow to give false hope to the enemy. Evil hates the light and flees into the darkness only to discover that the darkness is a trap. From out of the shadows, an oššorûs, a Celestial word meaning “avenger,” could strike Râthur’s enemies a mortal blow. Over the next three months, Atans assassinated the key leaders of the Nightwalk Cabal. Râthur’s cleric-generals were concerned with Atans’s methods but delighted with his results. A handful of adventurers loyal to Râthur shared this delight. They gathered around Atans, and Atans trained them in the arts of stealth, sub- terfuge, and assassination. The Oššorûs was born. Before the next season began, Hezba her- self was killed by Atans and his followers.
With the war against the Necromancer Queen ended, some of Râthur’s cleric-generals sought to have Atans and his sect officially
disbanded. Others in Râthur’s hierarchy dis- agreed, and the matter raged in synod after synod for nearly eight years. During this time, Atans refined his doctrine and methods and attracted more followers, but the Oššorûs remained inactive. Atans insisted that the Oššorûs could only strike as directed by Râthur’s ministers. Atans’ restraint and loyalty moreso than anything else is probably what finally ended the controversy. The Oššorûs became an official arm of the Church of Râthur.
Today the Oššorûs is more feared than admired. Few doubt their loyalty to Râthur or their devotion to fighting evil, but the methods employed by the Oššorûs as well as the organi- zation’s secretive nature do not engender much public confidence. In the Church of Râthur itself, there are still those who would like to see the Oššorûs vanish into obscurity and dissolu- tion. In many circles, Atans’s theology as well as his methodology are still causes for grave concern.
Campaign Integration
The Oššorûs is an ideal organization for a DM running a military or spy oriented campaign. Even if they operate largely behind the scenes, oššorûs NPCs make valuable points of contact and sources of information. For DMs and play- ers who enjoy such things, the existence of an essentially good and lawful religious order of spies and assassins can provide food for thought. As a result, roleplaying possibilities present themselves as the moral and ethical assumptions of more traditional good-aligned PCs are challenged.
If a more political campaign is the order of the day, the intra-church machinations of the fac- tions opposed to and supporting the Oššorûs could draw in the PCs. Even in a lawful good church, a sure way to bolster one’s own agenda is to prove the opposition somehow betrays the ideals to which all of the faithful are supposed to be dedicated. For example, the PCs could end up spying on the spies in order to find evi- dence that Atans is a threat to Râthur’s church. For a more action-filled approach, the PCs may discover that an Oššorûs cell has gone rogue and has taken it upon itself to decide who are and are not the proper enemies of Râthur. Both the anti-Oššorûs and pro-Oššorûs factions would have a vested interest in putting the
CHAPTER ONE: Prestige Classes
CHAPTER ONE: Prestige Classes
rogue oššorûses out of operation, albeit for dif- ferent reasons. For campaigns with PCs who are less than nice, the PCs may even be target- ed for extermination by the Oššorûs, leading to an extended series of conflicts with the Church of Râthur and its agents.
Packrat
The packrat gathers and hoards possessions not so much for their value as to simply have and hold them. She is a collector of odds and ends, and her larcenous talents, most notably her lightning-quick hands, help greatly in her obsessive hobby. Over time, she fine-tunes var- ious traits of use to someone who always car- ries more than what is needed, usually without bothering to make an accurate inventory. In general, packrats aren’t particularly feared. Their abilities have little offensive strength and minimal defensive value. A packrat’s abilities are not without use, however, for she can per- form important, if seemingly trivial, tasks to aid herself and her allies.
Rogues and bards, including those who are multiclassed, make the best packrats. The requirements for this prestige class are not par- ticularly steep, but most character classes do not have ready access to the skill prerequisites. NPC packrats can be encountered in a variety of roles and places. They are primarily adven- turesome sorts, for it seems that monsters alway have the most interesting stuff to collect.
Hit Die: d6.
Requirements
To qualify to become a packrat, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Bluff: 5 ranks.
Escape Artist: 8 ranks. Pick Pocket: 8 ranks. Feats: Lightning Reflexes.
Class Skills
The packrat’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int, exclusive skill), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Innuendo (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Intuit
Direction (Wis), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Pick Pocket (Dex), Read Lips (Int, exclusive skill), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha, exclusive skill), and Use Rope (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level: 8 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the packrat prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A packrat gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble. Also, Swim checks suffer a –1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armor, equipment, or loot carried.
Packrat (Ex): An obsessive collector must also be an expert packer. A packrat is so adept at packing dry goods that any container or car- rier she uses has its “holds or carries” volume increased by 50 percent. Furthermore, the effective weight of any container or carrier packed by a packrat is reduced by 10 percent.
Right Tool for the Job (Ex): There is no telling what a packrat might be carrying in a pocket, pack, sack, or pouch. Once per day per class level, a packrat can find on her person any normal equipment item, including weapons, which could be packed away in one of her con- tainers or carriers. The discovered item must fit within one of the packrat’s containers or carri- ers. For example, a packrat is not going to find a longspear tucked away in her backpack. Magical containers and carriers, such as bags
of holding, are highly prized by packrats.
Quicker than the Eye (Ex): The packrat’s reflexes reach phenomenal speeds. At 3rd level, she can draw or sheath a weapon as a free action. She also no longer provokes attacks of opportunity when sheathing a weapon. At 4th level, the packrat can pick up an item as a free action or do so without provoking an attack of opportunity (packrat’s choice at the time of the action). Her manual speed reaches its peak at 5th level, at which time the packrat can retrieve a stored item as a free action or do so without provoking an attack of opportunity (packrat’s choice at the time of the action).
Hard to Hold (Ex): At 4th level, a packrat is so adept at escaping from grapples that she can attempt to do so as a free action. She is, how- ever, still limited to one escape attempt per round. At 5th level, a packrat can attempt escape from nets or ensnaring spells such as entanglel, Otiluke’s freezing sphere, and web as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity (instead of a full-round action as normal).
Rogue Special Abilities: At 1st, 3rd, and 5th levels, a packrat’s effective level in either her bard or rogue class increases by one level. This has no effect on base attack bonus, base save bonuses, Hit Dice, or skill points. The effective increase in level applies only to special class abilities such as spells per day, sneak attack, etc. If the packrat has both bard and rogue lev- els, each effective level increase must be applied to one class or the other. Once this decision is made, it cannot be changed.