Burning Soul (3.5e Prestige Class)

Burning Soul

“	Give me your worst, but you will not put out the fire in my soul. For this fire is the torch of justice, which shall shed light even in the darkest perils!	”
—Travrog, Human Paladin/Burning Soul

More than often, forces of evil strikes to bring misfortune to the homes of innocent and disrupt peace. But there are people who fights for justice, and these people know that justice always prevails. Even when the darkest night falls upon them, even when the harshest storm engulfs the sky, they will make sure that the next sun will rise. And they will make sure people will get to see it... even if they have to rise from their graves to finish the fight.

Becoming a Burning Soul

The burning souls have passion for justice. They have an inextinguishable fire within their heart that tries to brighten the future that seems to be doomed. They see some resemblance between them and the phoenix, fierce and unstoppable hunter of evil.

The burning souls are ready to risk their lives in battle, but are usually tough enough to turn out to be the victor in their crusades against evil. Many burning souls have been a paladin before, but fighters, monks, clerics, and even barbarians have become burning souls in the past.

They usually stand in front of other people, risking being the ones targeted first by villains.

Entry Requirements

Ability Score:	Constitution 20.
Alignment:	Any Good.
Base Attack Bonus:	+5.
Special:	must have had a near-death experience (HP reduced to a negative　and stabilized on your own).

Table: The Burning Soul

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+1	Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day, Protective Parry
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+1	Damage Reduction 1/-, Resistance to Fire 5, Resist Death 20%
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+2
4th	+4	+4	+1	+2	Damage Reduction 2/-, Ignited Stand, Aura of Guardian
5th	+5	+4	+1	+3	Immunity to Fear, Smite Evil 2/day, Bonus Feat
6th	+6	+5	+2	+3	Damage Reduction 3/-, Resistance to Fire 10, Lingering Smite
7th	+7	+5	+2	+4	Fire Wings, Fierce Stand, Resist Death 50%
8th	+8	+6	+2	+4
9th	+9	+6	+3	+5	Damage Reduction 5/-, Resistance to Fire 20, Smite Evil 3/day
10th	+10	+7	+3	+5	Resist Death 80%, Protective Strike, Last Stand
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level) Concentration, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Religion), Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival.

Class Features

The burning soul is proficient in the use of all simple and martial weapons and all armor and shields. All of the following are class features of the burning soul.

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a burning soul can use detect evil as the spell.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a burning soul may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. He adds his Constitution bonus to his attack roll and damage. If the burning soul accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every four levels thereafter, the burning soul may smite evil one additional time per day. If he had the ability to smite evil before becoming burning soul, he retains that ability (so if a level 10 paladin becomes a burning soul, he has 3 smite evil from the paladin class and another smite evil from the burning soul class).

Protective Parry (Ex): The burning soul can use an attack of opportunity to defend an ally from an attack. Against the opponent's attack roll, make an attack roll and if the burning soul's attack roll is higher, the opponent's attack fails and cannot make any further attacks.

Damage Reduction (Ex): At 2nd level, a burning soul gains Damage Reduction. Subtract 1 from the damage the burning soul takes each time he is dealt damage from a weapon or a natural attack. At 4th level, this damage reduction rises to 2 point. At 6th level, this damage reduction rises to 3 point, and at 9th level, this damage reduction rises to 5 point. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.

Resist Death (Su): When reduced to between -1 and -9 hit points, he has a 20% chance to become stable instead of 10%. At level 7, this is raised to 50%, and at level 10, this is raised to 80%. After stabilizing, the burning soul can continue to make checks in the following rounds in order to regain 1 hp, until he is restored to 0 hit points. The diehard feat can help the burning soul stabilize, but cannot help regain hp.

Aura of Guardian (Su): The burning soul never forgives a villain who harms helpless people. If evil creatures within 30 feet of him attempt to attack a harmless character or a commoner, they must make a Will save against DC 10+level of burning soul. If they fail, they are dazed.

Ignited Stand (Su): During a crusade, the burning soul is filled with so much life force that he gets to ignore negative energy damage. While in combat against an evil creature, he can ignore the effects of negative levels and ability damage. If the negative level goes away while in this stand, the burning soul automatically saves and does not lose a level. If the effects are still active after the combat, the burning soul resumes with whatever effects remaining.

Lingering Smite (Su): The burning soul can take part of his hot passion and embed it as he strikes at evil. With a successful attack with smite evil, energy of good continues to damage the struck creature. If the creature fails a Fortitude save of DC 10+level of burning soul, it will take damage equal to his Constitution bonus every round. This effect lasts for 1d6 rounds, successful save negates it.

Fire Wings (Sp): At the 7th level, the burning soul is even closer to the phoenix. From his back, he can grow wings made entirely of fire that lasts for number of minutes equal to his Constitution bonus. This gives the burning soul a fly speed of 60 feet (or 40 feet if wearing medium or heavy armor). The burning soul can charge but not run, and cannot carry more than a light load. This is a magical fire that is partially divine energy and cannot be removed by quench, immersion in water, or powerful winds, but can be dispelled by other means. Creatures within 5 feet takes 2d6 fire damage per round. Half of this damage is divine energy and cannot be negated by resistance to fire. He can retract the wings at will. After its duration, he cannot use it again until the same number of minutes as its duration has passed.

Fierce Stand (Su): During a crusade, the burning soul is filled with so much life force that he gets to ignore many effects that require a fortitude save. While in combat against an evil creature, he can ignore the effects of poisonss, stunning effects, paralysis, fatigue, and exhaustion. If the effects are still active after the combat, the burning soul resumes with whatever effects remaining.

Protective Strike (Ex): The burning soul can use an attack of opportunity to prevent an enemy's attack against an ally. Against the opponent's attack roll, make an attack roll. If the burning soul's attack roll is higher, the opponent's attack fails and cannot make any further attacks, and takes the damage from the burning soul's attack.

Last Stand (Su): During a crusade, the heart of justice burns to the extreme and overcomes even death. Once per day, when the burning soul is slain in combat, he is dead for a full round but comes back to life in the next round. He is restored to half of his full hit point and the number of Smite Evil he can use for the day. Doing this permanently removes 1 level after 24 hours or a full night's rest, whichever comes first.

Code of Conduct: The burning soul cannot ignore the acts of evil. Whenever people are threatened by evil creatures, he must do whatever he can to remove those threats. If he is capable of doing so and yet refuses to take action, he loses his abilities as if his alignment changed. See Ex-Burning Soul.

Table: The Epic Burning Soul

Level	Special
11th
12th	Immunity to Fire, Bonus Feat
13th	Smite Evil 4/day, Deflect Spell
14th	Resist Death 100%, Protective Strike
15th	Damage Resistance 10/-
16th
17th	Smite Evil 5/day, Immune to Mind-Affecting Effects
18th	Greater Smite, Bonus Feat
19th
20th	Phoenix Stand

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the burning soul.

Deflect Spell (Su): The burning soul can use his weapon to deflect a spell or a spell-like effects that targets him. If such spell that requires a ranged touch attack or a Reflex roll on the part of the target fails, the same check can be made again. If it fails again, the spell is deflected. 70% of the time it is deflected back to the caster, but otherwise it goes elsewhere and dissipates. This ability cannot be used against area spells and other effects.

Greater Smite (Su): With a successful attack with smite evil, energy of good seeps into the body of his target and disrupt their action. If the creature fails a Fortitude save of DC 10+level of burning soul, they are stunned for a round. For creatures that are immune to stun, the burning soul can choose to daze instead.

Phoenix Stand (Su): The fire of life and passion of justice refuses to burn out in a fight against evil. When the burning soul is slain in combat after his Last Stand, he is dead for a full round but comes back to life in the next round. On his coming round, his body burst in flame dealing 20d6 points of damage to all creatures within 30 feet, Reflex save of 10+level of burning soul halves. The damage is good energy, so neutral creatures take half and good creatures take none. Right after the burst the burning soul is restored to half of his full hit point. For number of rounds equal to the burning soul's level, he also gains a bonus to his attack rolls, attack damage, armor class, and saving throws equal to his Constitution bonus. He also has his Fire Wings ability active and loses the limit to the number of Smite Evil he can use for this duration. Additionally, he gains daylight, invisibility purge for 60 feet, and the ability to enter and exit the astral plane active as a spell-like ability, as well as immunity to sleep effects, death effects, and critical hits. His weapons are treated as adamantine for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance. After the duration, he loses all effects and falls to death once again; his body burns to dust.

Ex-Burning Soul

Burning souls who goes out of his way and changes his alignment, he can no longer gain another level in this class. He loses all burning soul abilities and the save bonuses gained by this prestige class is halved. The attack bonus is retained. Abilities and save bonuses returns if he once again returns to the alignment he had as the burning soul.

If the burning soul's Constitution score drops, he loses all his stands and his immunities, resistances, and the resist death ability. He still retains most other abilities, but because they are also based on constitution bonus, retaining high Constitution score is critical.

Campaign Information

Playing a Burning Soul

The burning soul is the one to stand in the front line during combat, especially if fighting evil creatures such as demons, undeads, and other villains. He takes on the one who seems to be the toughest enemy. He is the last to retreat from the combat if he ever does, making sure everyone else is safe.

Combat: Charging into combat is the favored tactic of the burning soul. Otherwise, he stays with his party or other favorable characters and be ready to take actions when assaulted.

Advancement: Usually the burning soul comes from characters with class specialized in armed melee combat, such as a paladin or a fighter. The paladin class especially helps because it increases the specialty of these crusading class and also covers what the burning soul doesn't cover.

Resources: The burning souls are guardians of the people, thus other classes in interest of protecting and helping civilians might stand up together with him. An example would be a cleric from a good church, or a fellow paladin. Even mobs may stand up and aid in whatever ways they can.

Burning Souls in the World

Because of their requirements, they are probably already seen as a great hero by many people. If a burning heart is found at rest, it probably means that he had already finished the fight and have restored peace to the region.

NPC Reactions: The burning souls are usually welcomed wherever they go. There may be few people who shun them, mostly because of the influence of evil leaders.

Burning Soul Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (religion) can research Burning Souls to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge Religion

DC	Result
11	The burning souls are extremely tough in combat. They may be able to avoid seemingly assured death.
16	Their power comes from their power of life, and they specialize in using that power to defeat evil.
21	The burning soul is said to transcend death, much like a phoenix. They take flight with wings of divine fire.
26	The most courageous of the burning soul comes back from death, as his inextinguishable soul refuses to be defeated by the forces of evil.

Burning Soul in the Game

In times of peril, there are people who takes their stand against the forces of evil. That is where the burning soul takes their stand. Burning souls are extremely rare, but a region that experienced an appearance of a phoenix in the past may have a higher chance of a burning soul emerging from one of the crusaders.

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