The soul eater is a gruesome prestige class from the Book of Vile Darkness. It centers on a ridiculously powerful version of the energy drain supernatural ability, and makes it even stronger as you level in the class. You even get a free lazz0r and premature access to Shapechange. It’s extremely fun to play, and quite easy to make very powerful. This is the class for playing the psychopathic murderer, the killer rabbit, Great Old Ones, Boxxy, and most of the characters from Azumanga Daioh.
Advantages:
Good BAB: The BoVD classes tend to have crazy stats, and the soul eater is guilty as charged.
Perfect saves: See above. A lot of entry classes have a lot of poor saves, so this is awesome.
Alright skills: 4 + Int. The skills are versatile, you get Concentration, the senses, the stealth skills, and many of the “move around” skills (jump, climb, etc.). This is no skill monkey, however, and you don’t get Knowledge skills for a certain feat.
You don’t need too many feats for this class’s core ability: This lets you be pretty flexible in your soul eater build.
Variable power level: Since your power level is mostly contingent on how many natural attacks you have, you could play a soul eater in many power levels, from average to b0rked
Disadvantages:
Awkward entry requirements: You have to take a few ranks in a skill that you’re probably never going to use, ever, and isn’t a class skill for the class. You also have to take some stupid feats, and have some form of natural attack. Perhaps most annoyingly, you can’t be a humanoid, or an undead/construct – no necropolitan for you! You also have to be evil, but if you’re playing a soul eater, you probably don’t give a crap.
Vulnerable: A LOT of things are immune to the soul eater's energy drain ability. Perhaps the very worst thing about this class
Bizarre variations in class feature power/frontloaded: Many of the class’s other class features are either okay or total garbage, but some are PRICELESS if you play your cards right.
Interesting hit dice: D8’s okay unless you’re on the front line. However, life drain.
Anti-social tendencies: You’re evil. And, your modus operandi is very evil, apparently. Anyone who knows anything about energy drain will not have to do with you, especially if they know what kind of grisly ritual you had to do to get into the PrC. There’s also absolutely nothing conspicuous about a feral water orc walking down the street with six arms, or Cthulhu walking down the street with six arms. I guess there’s always Sigil, or the option of simply not giving a crap. Not until high levels, though, and with a wight army marching behind you.
Not a primary spellcaster: Therefore, you probably won’t be able to play in the most high-powered of games. But who knows? Maybe sir giacomo will write a handbook about this class…
Since this is usually a melee class, this section writes itself for the most part. However, since these builds are so darn versatile, YMMV depending on your build. In general, though…
Strength:This is important in most soul eater builds, because strength lets you hit stuff good. Also, it increases your damage, which helps make your build viable against the many creatures impervious to your signature move.
Dexterity: This could be good or dump-stat depending on your build. If you’re a lightweight in terms of armor and/or are a Weapon Finesse fiend, go for it.
Constitution: This is important for all builds, but especially those in close combat (ie. soul eaters). Pump it up!
Intelligence: No knowledge class skills = no knowledge devotion = no Intelligence. Soul eaters aren't exactly skill monkeys to begin with.
Wisdom: Soul eaters have good Will Saves, and usually don't use their Wisdom for anything. Fits in RP-wise, because they're usually completely insane and tend to do things like chase spots in their eyes while some other soul eater is punching out the entire classroom looking for a cockroach.
Charisma: Needs a 13 for life drain, but otherwise not important to most builds.
Show
[/SIZE]
Not in as nice a format but then again not so scatter brained either :P
Orginal
Less then a minute before me, hogarth, one minute.
Black Blood Cultist is also very nice, mostly for it's level 8 ability, Savage Grapple. Any time you succeed in a grapple check, you deal damage equal to all of your natural attacks. Both of these PrCs are from the same book, too.
So, let's combine the two with a splash of Soul Eater, some Barbarian, and a squid!
I give you:
Attack of the Squid Monster
Anthropomorphic Giant Squid 3/Barbarian 2/Soul Eater 1/Thayan Gladiator 4/Barbarian +2/Black Blood Cultist 8 (LA bought off)
CE Monstrous humanoid
Init: +3; Senses: Listen +6, Spot +6; scent
Language: common
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AC 19, flat-footed 16, touch 12
(+3 Dex, -1 size, +7 natural)
hp 188.5 (20 HD); DR 3/silver
Fort +20, Ref +16, Will +13
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 80 ft. (16 squares)
Melee: tentacle +26 (1d6+8 19-20/x2 plus energy drain)
Melee: unarmed strike +25 (1d6+8)
Full Atk: tentacle +26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21 (1d6+4 19-20/x2 plus energy drain) and unarmed strike +25/+20/+15/+10 (1d6+8)
Space: 10 ft.; Reach: 10 ft. (20 ft. with tentacle)
Base Atk: +18; Grp: +38
Atk Options: constrict (1d6+8), energy drain, improved grab, pounce, savage grapple, silver strike, stunning critical
Special Actions: feral rage 4/day, ink cloud, jet, stranglehold, study opponent, trapkiller, uncanny dodge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 6 - 32 pt. buy
SQ: damage reduction 3/silver, natural weapon focus
Feats: Alertness, Improved Critical (tentacle) (B), Improved Grapple (B), Improved Multiattack, Improved Natural Attack (tentacle) (B), Improved Unarmed Strike, Multiattack, Toughness, Track, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) +2, Knowledge (nature) +2, Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +12, Swim +16
Other than prereqs. the skills are unassigned, and he has no gear. Still, that shows you the number of attacks he has. Slap on 760,000gp worth of gear and he'll be a real beast.
For the skills, I'd max Survival both for Track and for the Trapkiller ACF (Dungeonscape), which lets you double as a trapfinder/disabler. Spot/Listen are pretty decent to max as well.
CE Monstrous humanoid
Init: +3; Senses: Listen +6, Spot +6; scent
Language: common
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AC 19, flat-footed 16, touch 12
(+3 Dex, -1 size, +7 natural)
hp 188.5 (20 HD); DR 3/silver
Fort +20, Ref +16, Will +13
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 80 ft. (16 squares)
Melee: tentacle +26 (1d6+8 19-20/x2 plus energy drain)
Melee: unarmed strike +25 (1d6+8)
Full Atk: tentacle +26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+26/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21 (1d6+4 19-20/x2 plus energy drain) and unarmed strike +25/+20/+15/+10 (1d6+8)
Space: 10 ft.; Reach: 10 ft. (20 ft. with tentacle)
Base Atk: +18; Grp: +38
Atk Options: constrict (1d6+8), energy drain, improved grab, pounce, savage grapple, silver strike, stunning critical
Special Actions: feral rage 4/day, ink cloud, jet, stranglehold, study opponent, trapkiller, uncanny dodge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 6 - 32 pt. buy
SQ: damage reduction 3/silver, natural weapon focus
Feats: Alertness, Improved Critical (tentacle) (B), Improved Grapple (B), Improved Multiattack, Improved Natural Attack (tentacle) (B), Improved Unarmed Strike, Multiattack, Toughness, Track, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) +2, Knowledge (nature) +2, Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +12, Swim +16
Other than prereqs. the skills are unassigned, and he has no gear. Still, that shows you the number of attacks he has. Slap on 760,000gp worth of gear and he'll be a real beast.
For the skills, I'd max Survival both for Track and for the Trapkiller ACF (Dungeonscape), which lets you double as a trapfinder/disabler. Spot/Listen are pretty decent to max as well.
Champions of Ruin, right? I need to look into this!
Go figure, I go to make the guide for the class and the most important supplementary material is in a book I don't even have..
Champions of Ruin, right? I need to look into this!
Yep. For a non-grapple build I would drop Black Blood Cultist and go Thayan Gladiator 10. Doing so removes the -5 penalty on the extra attacks, lets you add Ghost Touch and Speed to all your natural attacks, gives you more natural armor, and makes all your tentacles count as silver, adamantine, and magic for the purposes of bypassing DR. How does 24 tentacle slaps all at full BAB sound? I thought so. Thayan Gladiator is the natural attack PrC, provided you have one dominant type of attack (all claws, all tentacles, etc).
EDIT: Crap! AoO's abound. get it together... get it together... get it together... Also, I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!
EDIT II: However, if you can't cram in monk, a necrotic focus weapon is 32000 gp. In higher level games, in builds that can't fit monk, this is an alternative
However, everyone has unarmed strike. And there's no such thing as non-lethal negative levels.
EDIT: Crap! AoO's abound. get it together... get it together... get it together...
But only Monk's unarmed strike counts as both manufactured and a natural weapon.
Yep. For a non-grapple build I would drop Black Blood Cultist and go Thayan Gladiator 10. Doing so removes the -5 penalty on the extra attacks, lets you add Ghost Touch and Speed to all your natural attacks, gives you more natural armor, and makes all your tentacles count as silver, adamantine, and magic for the purposes of bypassing DR. How does 24 tentacle slaps all at full BAB sound? I thought so. Thayan Gladiator is the natural attack PrC, provided you have one dominant type of attack (all claws, all tentacles, etc).
Hahaha, oh wow!!! I NEED CoR!!!!
Does it work if you're a feral totemist? I mean, can you have your 24 mega-tentacles, and then 6 claws on the side even though they aren't ub4r?
Also, how late in the class do you get Speed? Because if it's level 7 or earlier it means you can do giant squid 3/x 3[the squid HD has average BAB]/Soul Eater 7/Thayan Gladiator 7 for 24 tentacles and 48 negative levels. It also represents soul eater well instead of having it be a mere dip... which would be nice for a sample build. If it's level 8, that means you can do octopus, which is annoying-er than Giant Squid, but still...
- Elan's from SRD and Psihandbook with are considered abberations.
- Elves/spirit folk with the other worldly feat.
After that Will Deformity feats to get a bite attack or claw attack, or just one level in monk.
Fangshield Ranger: Since you have to be non-humaoniod to get into soul eater this varaint from Campions of Valor might be a good option as it's version of Combat style can grant you Multiattack or Improved Natural Attack at level 2, and Weapon Focus (Natural Attack) later on if you're willing to delay entry for some reason.
Hahaha, oh wow!!! I NEED CoR!!!!
Does it work if you're a feral totemist? I mean, can you have your 24 mega-tentacles, and then 6 claws on the side even though they aren't ub4r?
Also, how late in the class do you get Speed? Because if it's level 7 or earlier it means you can do giant squid 3/x 3[the squid HD has average BAB]/Soul Eater 7/Thayan Gladiator 7 for 24 tentacles and 48 negative levels. It also represents soul eater well instead of having it be a mere dip... which would be nice for a sample build. If it's level 8, that means you can do octopus, which is annoying-er than Giant Squid, but still...
The Speed enchantment comes at level 10. However, Monstrous Humanoids (which is what the Anthropomorphic Animals are) have full BAB.
Girallon Arms gives you two additional limbs, so you can only net 2 claw attacks out of it. Still, it's pretty good.
And yeah, you could go Feral Totemist. Try a Feral Thri-Kreen (see if you can go for the non-psionic version) 2/Totemist 2/Warblade 2/Thayan Gladiator 10/Soul Eater 1/X 3 (LA bought off) for 6 claws (18 attacks). Plus we have 2 rakes, which are claw attacks, which get tripled for 6 more attacks on a pounce. So, now we've got 24 claw attacks when we pounce something. If only we could get multiple pounces off each round ... wait, got it! We take Battle Jump (UE) and put our crazy-go-awesome Jump check to good use. Take Sudden Leap as a Warblade so that we can jump as a swift action. Swift action: jumpounce something. Move action: jumpounce something else. Standard action: jumpounce something else! Multipouncing fun without Telflammar Shadowlord or Blade of Orien. Plus way more attacks than Rapidstrike or Improved Rapidstrike will ever give you.
Girallon claws says "you gain four claw attacks." bah ha ha...
Enh, stupid poorly-written ability. I'm not even going to argue the point.
LA+0 (cohort)
Small Magical Beast (thus you could do rapidstrike)
Str -4, Dex +6, Con +0, Int +2, Wis +0, Cha +0
Multiattack Bonus Feat
Rake attack
+8 to Hide Checks and +8 to Climb Checks
True Seeing always active (for a 0 LA character)
Keep in mind there are other buffs you can get for extra hands
my sig link has a link to a thread I started about increasing base damage.Less then a minute before me, hogarth, one minute.
:D
Now with no XP penalty!
Barbarian 2/Swashbuckler3/Fighter2/Warshaper3/Soul Eater 10
Tibbit Soul Eater
Level 1: Barbarian [Alertness]
Level 2: Swashbuckler [Weapon Finesse]
Level 3: Fighter [Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus: Claw]
Level 4: Swashbuckler (Grace +1)
Level 5: Warshaper (Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons)
Level 6: Fighter [Martial Stance, Martial Study]
Level 7: Warshaper (Morphic Body +4 str, con)
Level 8: Warshaper (Morphic Reach)
Level 9: Barbarian [Shadow Blade]
Level 10: Swashbuckler (Insightful Strike)
Level 11: Soul Eater
Level 12: Soul Eater [Superior Unarmed Strike]
Level 13: Soul Eater
Level 14: Soul Eater
Level 15: Soul Eater [Multi-Attack]
Level 16: Soul Eater
Level 17: Soul Eater
Level 18: Soul Eater [Snap Kick gives you one more lovely drain attack]
Level 19: Soul Eater
Level 20: Soul Eater
Level 1: Barbarian [Alertness]
Level 2: Swashbuckler [Weapon Finesse]
Level 3: Fighter [Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus: Claw]
Level 4: Swashbuckler (Grace +1)
Level 5: Warshaper (Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons)
Level 6: Fighter [Martial Stance, Martial Study]
Level 7: Warshaper (Morphic Body +4 str, con)
Level 8: Warshaper (Morphic Reach)
Level 9: Barbarian [Shadow Blade]
Level 10: Swashbuckler (Insightful Strike)
Level 11: Soul Eater
Level 12: Soul Eater [Superior Unarmed Strike]
Level 13: Soul Eater
Level 14: Soul Eater
Level 15: Soul Eater [Multi-Attack]
Level 16: Soul Eater
Level 17: Soul Eater
Level 18: Soul Eater [Snap Kick gives you one more lovely drain attack]
Level 19: Soul Eater
Level 20: Soul Eater
Fighter 4/Swashbuckler3/Warshaper3/Soul Eater 10
Here we go again
Level 1: Fighter [Alertness, Improved Unarmed Strike]
Level 2: Swashbuckler [Weapon Finesse]
Level 3: Fighter [Superior Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus: Claw]
Level 4: Swashbuckler (Grace +1)
Level 5: Warshaper (Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons)
Level 6: Fighter [Martial Study]
Level 7: Warshaper (Morphic Body +4 str, con)
Level 8: Swashbuckler (Insightful Strike)
Level 9: Fighter [Martial Stance, Shadow Blade]
Level 10: Warshaper (Morphic Reach)
Level 11: Soul Eater
Level 12: Soul Eater [Underfoot Combat]
Level 13: Soul Eater
Level 14: Soul Eater
Level 15: Soul Eater [Multi-Attack]
Level 16: Soul Eater
Level 17: Soul Eater
Level 18: Soul Eater [Snap Kick]
Level 19: Soul Eater
Level 20: Soul Eater
Level 1: Fighter [Alertness, Improved Unarmed Strike]
Level 2: Swashbuckler [Weapon Finesse]
Level 3: Fighter [Superior Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus: Claw]
Level 4: Swashbuckler (Grace +1)
Level 5: Warshaper (Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons)
Level 6: Fighter [Martial Study]
Level 7: Warshaper (Morphic Body +4 str, con)
Level 8: Swashbuckler (Insightful Strike)
Level 9: Fighter [Martial Stance, Shadow Blade]
Level 10: Warshaper (Morphic Reach)
Level 11: Soul Eater
Level 12: Soul Eater [Underfoot Combat]
Level 13: Soul Eater
Level 14: Soul Eater
Level 15: Soul Eater [Multi-Attack]
Level 16: Soul Eater
Level 17: Soul Eater
Level 18: Soul Eater [Snap Kick]
Level 19: Soul Eater
Level 20: Soul Eater
works because their saves are at a penalty and you have many many attacks.
I'll do the builds this weekend, when I have more time - yesterday was a snow day for me, so I was booooooored. Do you mind if I do this one myself, so that I get to um say I did at least something in the builds department??Actually scratch that, please let me do my builds when I get CoR, so I have those resources.
Thank you very much for the builds, guys, it's a lot better than what I could do (of course, if I knew what a Thayan Gladiator was beforehand that could've helped me...)
@ PlzBreakMyCampaign: I don't know where you got the Democratic Presidents from... but yes, that was an Unreal Tournament reference...
I think my builds are gonna be:
Cthulhu (stupid-powered):
I'll do this once I get CoR. I'll use all the tricks that you showed me from Thayan Gladiator!
The Killer Rabbit (high-powered):
See Above
Tomo (average-powered):
My own stunning fist monk idea!
I'd do a crazy Osaka build in lieu of Tomo if I had the optimization skills of anyone else who posted, but I don't.
its everyone's duty to know: who's side the bunnies are onDon't warforged qualify for Soul Eater? I remember seeing a few soul-sucking robot builds on here...
Yep he's in the orginal handbook
Soul-Sucking Robot: Warforged Fighter 5/Soul Eater 10/Thayan Gladiator 5
Non-humanoid is all it takes- rather silly really, but there you have it.
soul slave+thrallherd=infinite number of wights?