Occultists are undisputed masters among pact magic users. While others flounder, struggling to house a single spirit within their souls, occultists excel at containing the energies of otherworldly beings and harnessing them for their own ends. Viewed as heretics and damned souls by the general public, occultists are both scholars and pioneers to those who seek to discern the secrets of the spirit realm. Other magic users may view pact-making as simplistic, but occultists prove otherwise. While simple at the start, the art takes a lifetime to truly understand. Occultists seek an apex: to bind multiple spirits at once and augment those pacts with sly bargains and insights into supernatural constellations. Role: Occultists excel at meeting challenges head-on and confronting them with a wide array of supernatural abilities and powers. An occultist's talents are beyond those of the material world, and as such, the fruits of the trade are particularly difficult to counter. Those who happen upon an occultist are often baffled by the raw display of power that the occultist commands. Despite the diversity of abilities available, occultists are drastically limited in the number of abilities they call upon each day. As a result, many occultists spend their time plotting and calculating every possible outcome to a situation to ensure they are never caught unprepared. Alignment: Any. Hit Die: d8. Starting Wealth: 2d6 × 10 gp (average 70 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less. Class SkillsThe occultist's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Linguistics (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class FeaturesAll of the following are class features of the occultist. Weapon and Armor ProficiencyAn occultist is proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor. Bind SpiritsAn occultist may seal pacts with spirits. Each day, the occultist may bind one spirit of his or her choice whose level is equal to or less than the maximum spirit level indicated on Table: The Occultist. An occultist's binder level equals his or her occultist class level and an occultist's binding check is equal to 1d20 + the binder level + his or her Charisma modifier. The DC to resist the supernatural power of an occultist's granted abilities equals 10 + ½ the binder level + the Charisma modifier. See Binding Spirits for more details. Constellation AspectsIn addition to regular spirits, occultist may draw power from the constellations with which spirits align themselves. While performing a spirit's ceremony, an occultist may choose to increase the spirit's binding DC by 5 in order to add a constellation aspect to the list of minor granted abilities the spirit grants. The spirit bestows this power to the occultist even if the binding check fails. After the ritual is complete, the occultist selects a constellation aspect from the list of aspects that are associated with that bound spirit's constellation. For example, occultists who bind with Aza'zati, the Green Wyrmling, can select a constellation aspect associated with the dragon constellation (which is Aza'zati's constellation) if they increase the spirit's binding DC by 5 during the ceremony. The decision to add a constellation aspect must be made before the binder rolls the binding check to determine if the pact is a good pact or a poor pact. An occultist may only have one constellation aspect per bound spirit at a time, with a maximum of four constellation aspects at 14th level. Constellation AspectsBelow is the list of constellation aspects available to occultists. An occultist cannot possess aspects from opposing constellations. For example, although an occultist may bind to a dragon spirit and a hero spirit at once, he or she cannot have both a dragon aspect and a hero aspect at the same time. Constellation aspects act like spirits in all regards. Treat the aspects as granted abilities for all purposes. All abilities granted through constellation aspects are supernatural abilities, even if they act like spells, spell-like abilities, or extraordinary abilities. A constellation aspect that acts like a spell uses the occultist's binder level as the caster level for the effect. A constellation aspect ends when the pact that allowed the binder to call upon it ends (such as when a binder uses the Expel Spirit feat). A character cannot select the same constellation aspect more than once, even if the aspect might apply to a different skill, statistic or so forth. Angel Aspects Select from among the following options.
Beast Aspects Select from among the following options.
Dark Beyond Aspects Select from among the following options.
Dragon Aspects Select from among the following options.
Fiend Aspects Select from among the following options.
Hero Aspects Select from among the following options.
Mage Aspects Select from among the following options.
Noble Aspects Select from among the following options.
Seer Aspects Select from among the following options.
Scholar Aspects Select from among the following options.
Skull Aspects Select from among the following options.
Thief Aspects Select from among the following options.
Tree Aspects Select from among the following options.
Pact Augmentation (Su)At 2nd level, an occultist may squeeze additional power from spirits. If the occultist makes a good pact with at least one of his or her bound spirits, then select one of the benefits listed below. Additional good pacts made beyond the first one do not allow for additional pact augmentations. However, at 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the binder selects one additional pact augmentation when making a good pact with at least one of his or her bound spirits, to a maximum of 5 pact augmentations at 18th level. A pact augmentation lasts for 24 hours or until the occultist is no longer bound to any spirits. An occultist may select a single pact augmentation multiple times. Bonuses gained from pact augmentations stack with themselves but not with similar bonuses gained from other sources (such as spirits).
Bonus FeatAt 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, an occultist gains a bonus occult feat or a binder secret. The occultist must meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat or a binder secret including the minimum binder level indicated, if any. These bonus feats are in addition to the feats that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. The occultist is not limited to occult feats when choosing those feats. Bind Additional Spirits (Su)At 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter, an occultist gains the ability to bind one additional spirit to his or her soul, to a maximum of 4 spirits at 14th level. Constellation Mastery (Su)At 18th level, an occultist no longer suffers an increase to a spirit's binding DC when adding a constellation aspect to the spirit. Spirit Mastery (Su)At 19th level, an occultist may select 4 spirits and he gains a +1 bonus to the saving throw DCs of those spirits' granted abilities. This benefit stacks with other bonuses to the saving throw DCs of granted abilities. Alternatively, the occultist may forgo this bonus to instead ignore the spirit's influence when experiencing a poor pact with one of these spirits. True Augmentation (Su)At 20th level, an occultist may extract the very essence of the spirit realm from his or her bound spirits, gaining abilities that transcend reality. Firstly, when an occultist makes a good pact with a spirit, that spirit's granted abilities (but not other supernatural or magical effects) continue to function while in an antimagic zone unless the antimagic spell's caster level (or the effect's CR, if it is naturally caused) is equal to or greater than the occultist's level. Secondly, once daily for each bound spirit, an occultist may immediately end the exhaustion on that spirit's major granted ability, as a free action. Alternative Racial Favored Class BonusesThe following options are available to characters of the specified race that have the occultist class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the favored class reward. Some favored class options add fractional bonuses to rolls or fractional benefits to characters, such as +1/2, +1/3, +1/4, or +1/6. Each time such a benefit is selected, round down (minimum 0) to determine the benefit. In many cases, the option provides no benefit when selected once. For example, a benefit that grants 1/6 of a binder secret has no effect until selected it is selected 6 times.
Archetypes & Alternate Class FeaturesWhen a character selects a class, he must choose to use the standard class features found or those listed in one of the archetypes presented here. Each alternate class feature replaces a specific class feature from its parent class. For example, the elemental fist class feature of the monk of the four winds replaces the stunning fist class feature of the monk. When an archetype includes multiple class features, a character must take all of them—often blocking the character from ever gaining certain familiar class features, but replacing them with equally powerful options. All of the other class features found in the core class and not mentioned among the alternate class features remain unchanged and are acquired normally when the character reaches the appropriate level (unless noted otherwise). A character who takes an alternate class feature does not count as having the class feature that was replaced when meeting any requirements or prerequisites. A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the core class as another alternate class feature. For example, a paladin could not be both a hospitaler and an undead scourge since they both modify the smite evil class feature and both replace the aura of justice class feature. A paladin could, however, be both an undead scourge and a warrior of the holy light, since none of their new class features replace the same core class feature. Archetypes are a quick and easy way to specialize characters of a given class, adding fun and flavorful new abilities to already established adventurers. Characters may take more than one archetype if they meet the requirements. There are many tricks to barter with spirits, and none are as privy to these secrets as an occultist. However, as occultists dive forever deeper into the secrets of forgotten lore and ancient tomes, they risk losing bits of themselves to the spirit realm and its spectral inhabitants. The greatest tragedy of all results in apotheosis to something terrifying and unreal.
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Pact Magic Unbound, Vol. 1. Copyright, 2012, Radiance House. Author(s): Alexander Augunas, Dario Nardi