Faceless (3.5e Prestige Class)

Faceless

When a person has many bonds to carry, it weakens their greatest wish. Their strongest desire. The faceless are the embodiment of singlemindedness, carrying but one bond, but one drenched in blood, carved through hate, or laid with reverence. To their vow that they will exact their revenge, accomplish their goal or show the reverence to their deity, they shed their own selves - their mind, body and soul - to either their strongest desire or their deity. Faceless have no personality, and are guided by allegience and logic alone. Everything that defined them as a person is wiped away, and their facial features are sealed by a mask. The mask is unique for every faceless, a last memorabilia of their lost selves and, typically, the prison for what has been sacrificed and sealed away, and serves as a token that shows what they were prepared to lose in order to fulfill their destiny.

Prerequisites

Alignment: Any lawful.

Base Attack Bonus: +14

Special: The creature must have sworn, honestly and dutifully, to kill a person or creature, to kill any person or creature of a certain species or riding under a certain flag, to accomplish a single goal, to subvert himself to the will of his deity entirely, or something of the sort. The hate, reverence or desire that brought forth the pledge must have been strong enough to be made manifest by an approving deity.

Table: The Faceless

Hit Die: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+2	+0	Mask of the faceless, the Sleeper's curse, feed
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+0	Singleminded Strike
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+1	Undying Resolution
4th	+4	+4	+4	+1	Devour Soul
5th	+5	+4	+4	+1	Eternal Rest/Suffering
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level) Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str)

Class Features

All the following are class features of the Faceless:

Mask of the Faceless (Su): At 1st level, the faceless receives his mask. This can be the work of any deity that looks favorably on the faceless' plight. The act of becoming a faceless is a violent change, where the creature's soul is forcibly separated from the mind and body. A faceless is alive and behaves as a wholly rational being, that is to say without semblance of personality and only once masked he truly becomes a faceless.

The mask of a faceless is the creation of a deity and can thus be considered a minor artifact in terms of power. Mortal dispelling magic has no effect on its functioning. It is a white mask with red or black etchings, which are unique for every mask of the faceless. The faceless' darkened eyes can peer through slits of the mask regardless. The mask symbolizes the sacrifice of one's soul, and with it all one's arbitrary hopes and dreams, leaving only the desire that birthed him anew. Wearing a mask of the faceless is both a blessing and a curse. A faceless' mask can not be removed by any creature other than the faceless. No attack may dislodge the mask, and it cannot be snatched with a disarm attempt.

Any creature wearing a mask of the faceless loses its Charisma score entirely. He can no longer use any Charisma based skills except for the Intimidate skill, to which the mask bestows a +10 competence bonus. He also gains a +10 competence bonus to Concentration checks. The mask confers a +4 inherent bonus to both Strength and Constitution for as long as the mask is on the faceless' person. The mask renders its wearer immune to both fear and mind-affecting effects and certain scrying effects that would reveal the wearer's thoughts (such as the detect thoughts spell), as well as making it impossible for the faceless to benefit from any sort of morale bonus. The wearer of a faceless mask gains darkvision out to 60 ft. The faceless does not physically age while he wears his mask.

The mask of the faceless bestows damage reduction 2/magic and silver per faceless level and a +1 deflection bonus to Armor Class per faceless level. The mask allows its wearer to regenerate 1 hit point per hour per faceless level.

Finally, the wearer of the mask of the faceless no longer needs to eat or sleep. He however still needs to breathe.

The Sleeper's Curse: For all its power, a faceless is stricken by a curse as well. For the absence of his soul from his mind and body, a faceless will always unconsciously seek out ways of filling this void up. From 1st level on, a faceless will experience 1 point of Constitution drain every day. He cannot save against this effect, nor can it be counteracted by any effect or spell, not even a greater restoration or a miracle or wish spell.

Feed (Su): Once every encounter, a 1st level faceless can feed upon souls and spirits. This ability is only effective against either corporeal or incorporeal undead, who live an unlife as souls diffused from their bodies, or elementals. The feeding special ability is a melee touch attack and works thusly;

Feeding Roll: Roll 2d6 and add your character level. This is the amount of damage that you can do to any elemental or undead when you hit with your feed touch attack.

Cure Drain: A successful feeding attempt cures 1d4 points of the faceless's Constitution drain due to the sleeper's curse.

Saving Throw: If the elemental or undead targeted by a faceless' feed attempt has enough hit points left to survive the feeding damage, it may make a Fortitude save against DC 10 + ½ character level + character's Wisdom modifier to negate all effects (including the curing effect) of the feeding. If the targeted elemental or undead has insufficient hit points to survive the feeding damage, it is not allowed a save and dies outright. When the feeding ability kills its target, it cures double the normal amount of Constitution drain.

Singleminded Strike (Su): From 2nd level on, the faceless may treat any weapon he wields (including natural weapons) as axiomatic for a number of rounds equal to his character level plus his Wisdom modifier. These number of rounds may be consecutive or spread throughout the day in any fashion.

Undying Resolution (Su): From 3rd level on, the faceless may designate one opponent that he is aware of. He becomes immune to critical hits made by that opponent and retains his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against this opponent at all times. When using undying resolution, the faceless incurs a -4 penalty to Armor Class (against any opponent, not just the designated opponent).

Devour Soul (Su): From 4th level on, the faceless's feed ability deals 4d6 base damage and can target any creature that is not a construct, ooze or outsider.

Eternal Rest/Suffering: At 5th level, the faceless can make a feed attempt that affects any elemental or undead within a radius of 30 feet from him.

Ex-Faceless: If a faceless willfully takes off his mask, whether or not his driving desire or his rites of servitude has been fulfilled, he is bestowed a number of negative levels equal to the level of Faceless he managed to attain before hand. When this happens, the character loses the abilities, bonuses and penalties bestowed upon him by his Mask of the Faceless, but retains his curse and his abilities to feed on spirits and souls. The negative levels he has suffered cannot be removed by mortal magic and during the time that he suffers them, he cannot gain any XP; the only way to remove the Sleeper's curse for good is by traveling to the plane of the deity that granted you your faceless powers and reobtain your soul from Him or Her. If your soul is reunited with your body and mind, the curse is undone and you'll lose all faceless abilities and all negative levels.

The mask of the faceless that you wore when you were a faceless no longer carries its curse at this time, but will remain a powerful, but normal magical item (being a minor artifact no longer), granting +10 to Intimidate checks, immunity to mind-affecting effects, a +5 deflection bonus to Armor Class, as well as allowing the wearer to use vampiric touch 3/day at CL 10 and false life 3/day at CL 5.

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