The Quintessential Chaos Mage

The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover

Author	Patrick Younts
Series	Quintessential Series
Publisher	Mongoose Publishing
Publish date	2003
Pages	128
ISBN	1-904577-54-7
OGL Section 15	qcmg

Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content

Doomringer

The doomringer cult was founded after study in both the fields of necromantic and chaos magic revealed the possibility of forging a bond between the living and the dead and, furthermore, that the bond could be used to shift the lash of chaos from one to the other.

Hit Die: 1d4

Requirements

In order to qualify to become a doomringer, the character must fulfil all the following requirements:

Feats: Endurance
Skills: Concentration 9 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 9 ranks
Alignment: Chaotic neutral or chaotic evil
Spellcasting: The ability to cast chaos magic

Class Skills
The doomringer’s class skills, and the relevant ability for each skill, are: Concentration (Con), Craft (alchemy, coppersmith) (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points Per Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All the following are class features of the doomringer prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Doomringers gain no new proficiencies in any weapons or armour.

Spellcasting: The character continues to improve in spellcasting, gaining a new chaos caster level at every level except 3rd and 9th. These level increases are not taken into account for the purposes of determining access to Chaos Countermagic, Multiple Effect increases or ability score increases for familiars.

Corpse Pact (Su): Upon taking the first level of the doomringer prestige class, the character enchants a pair of copper bells with the mixed blood of the doomringer and the corpse in a ritual which lasts 1d4 hours. The ritual forms a link between the doomringer and the corpse, which allows the doomringer to avoid much of the damage that would normally be caused by manipulating chaos magic. Only one corpse may be bonded in this way at any time.

Any time the doomringer would suffer damage from a casting attempt, one half of the damage is transferred to the corpse instead. This bonded corpse has a number of hit points equal to 1d4 per doomringer level of the caster at the time the bond was created. If the doomringer later gains a doomringer level, the corpse does not gain more hit points. Hit points applied to a corpse are always considered lethal, even if the shunted damage was nonlethal. Once a corpse’s hit points are depleted, it is.

The bells both the doomringer and the corpse wear emit a spectral ringing that lasts for 1 round per point of damage the corpse suffers. The bell can be heard by anyone within a 50 feet radius and cannot be silenced by any means, magical or otherwise.

A corpse may be attacked as per the normal rules for attacking inanimate objects, taking damage on the hit points the doomringer has invested into it. The doomringer must be within his doomringer level in miles of the corpse in order for his corpse pact to be effective (otherwise the corpse crumbles when the doomringer leaves the designated area). There is nothing to stop a doomringer travelling with a corpse. Once a corpse has been destroyed, the doomringer suffers double damage from spellcasting until such time as a new corpse has been bonded.

Preserve Corpse (Su): At 3rd level, once per day, the chaos mage can restore 1d6 points of damage to the corpse. This does not harm the doomringer in any fashion. Preserve corpse is a supernatural ability which requires a full round action in the presence of the corpse.

Blood Shunt (Su): At 4th level, the doomringer can transfer 1 hit point of damage to the corpse for every 4 hit points of damage he suffers. He must decide immediately upon suffering the attack whether or not to transfer the damage to the corpse. Blood shunt is a supernatural ability which can be activated as a free action.

Walking Death (Su): If a doomringer falls below 0 hit points, but is not yet at -10, the imprisoned spirit allows him to remain conscious. The doomringer is limited to taking partial actions only each round. Each round the doomringer remains conscious at negative hit points, his bonded corpse suffers 1d4 points of damage – if it is destroyed while used in this manner, the doomringer immediately dies. Walking death is a supernatural ability which can be activated as a free action.

String Of Bells (Su): Additional corpses up to the character’s Wisdom modifier (minimum of one extra corpse) may now be enchanted with a corpse pact, though to a lesser extent – these additional corpses have only the character’s doomringer level + Constitution modifier in hit points each. In every other respect they are treated like normal corpse pact victims.

Avatar Of Death (Su): He may transfer all damage suffered from chaos spellcasting to his bonded corpse and one half of any damage suffered from injury. Avatar of death is a supernatural ability which can be activated as a free action.

The Black Bell (Su): The doomringer is rendered immune to the effects of critical hits and gains a bonus equal to his Wisdom bonus to saves against mind affecting spells and spell like effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease and death effects. These bonuses apply only while the doomringer is bonded to a corpse. The black bell is a supernatural ability.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spellcasting
1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Corpse Pact	+1 caster level
2	+1	+3	+0	+3		+1 caster level
3	+1	+3	+1	+3	Preserve Corpse
4	+2	+4	+1	+4	Blood Shunt	+1 caster level
5	+2	+4	+1	+4		+1 caster level
6	+3	+5	+2	+5	Walking Death	+1 caster level
7	+3	+5	+2	+5	String Of Bells	+1 caster level
8	+4	+6	+2	+6	Avatar Of Death	+1 caster level
9	+4	+6	+3	+6
10	+5	+7	+3	+7	The Black Bell	+1 caster level