Heroic Spirit (3.5e Race)

Heroic Spirits (Servants)

Personality

Heroic Spirits, also nicknamed as Servants, are special greater-epic class familiars of the highest rank which derive from a list of dead heroes, demigods, and even in some cases minor deities of myth and legend that are bound to the Master that summoned them into the prime material plane. Differing from the normal definition of familiars that can be likened to minor creatures such as cats and even regular creatures such as pseudodragons unable to be stronger than their masters, Heroic Spirits are the most powerful of beings with which even some of the most powerful Sorcerers and Wizards would never be able to forge a contract with. Rather than it being a hard process to summon them or the fact that they far surpass even the sages of old magic, it is their intrinsic nature in that they are beings beyond magecraft. Heroic Spirits are summoned heroes which come to serve their Master's magical will and assist them to the best of their abilities. In some rare cases, Heroic Spirits have been able to break free from their Masters who summoned them becoming their own entity.

Physical Description

The physical characteristics of Servants vary quite a bit as they can be basically any heroic creature from the past which gained fame among any race. Most myths and heroes come from the Elvish, Human, and Dwarf societies. Other societies are also known to produce heroes but at a less prominent rate.

Relations

Heroic Spirits will serve the force of magic that summoned them back to the prime material plane. The relation the Servant has to its master varies on how the master treats the Heroic Spirit and how the Heroic Spirit reacts to the master (i.e. goals and ambitions of the Master, and the alignment of the Heroic Spirit determines how cooperative the Servant is to the Master). A Heroic Spirit does not pay much mind to any other sentient creature around it. When a Heroic Spirit manages to break free from the Master who summoned them, or when a magic user would attempt to forge a contact with a Servant that is too powerful for them to handle, the Heroic Spirit manages its own freedoms and interactions. The Heroic Spirits relations to other creatures depends on the heroes' background.

Alignment

The Servant's alignment depends on the hero the Heroic Spirit was in his previous life. This can deviate slightly from the mythical heroes' original alignment depending on how the summoning went.

Lands

Heroic Spirits come from varying times and places, thus each Servant derives from its own time period and location based on the renown of the Heroic Spirit.

Religion

Based on the background of the revived hero, a Servant is pious to any deity it previously worshiped when it was truly alive.

Language

Heroic Spirits gain the ability to speak any language that is spoken to them. Heroic Spirits can only read the languages that its previous Master knew.

Names

The true name of a heroic spirit is kept a secret because knowing that specific Servant's Heroic Name allows opponents to know their weaknesses. Thus depending on the class of the Heroic Spirit they are nicknamed one of the following subclasses: Caster, Berserker, Ruler, Saber, Assassin, Archer, Rider, or Lancer.

Racial Traits

Heroic Spirits are known to have varying natures which in turn manipulate that heroes' stats based on their Hidden Attribute. This Hidden Attribute for the Heroic Spirit is chosen at random by rolling 1d4.

• Stat adjustments depend on the type of Hidden Attribute chosen:

Heaven: +5 to all ability scores - Heroes who are related to the gods, whether they are Divine Spirits ranked down to becoming Heroic Spirits, children of gods, or incarnations of legends about gods.

Earth: +3 to Str, +3 to Con - Heroes who are known as the heroes of the land, known through mythologies and legends of a particular region. Fairies and Magical Beasts are included in this category.

Human: +1 to all ability scores - Heroes belonging to this category are those recognized through common knowledge as great people who contributed to humanity and were regarded as heroes for their actions since the start of the Common Era. They are generally heroes who were deified by the masses after death, but there are those who were truly superhuman in life.

Star: +3 to Dex, +3 to spellcasting ability score - Heroes of this category, belonging to none of the previous three, are the hope of mankind and a symbol of overcoming hardships. Although close in nature to the Pioneer of the Stars achievement that is given to heroes who became turning points in human history, it is an attribute fundamentally given to those that have left behind a great hope in the history of humanity. Simply achieving such exploits is not enough as they also have to be a shining bright star among the figures of mankind.

• Outsider (Native): Unlike normal familiars, Heroic Spirits are summoned beings of legend and myth. Heroic Spirits are classified as Outsiders because of them being from largely from lore and stories, but retain the subtype Native as they still pertain to the prime material plane.
• Medium: none
• Heroic Spirit base land speed is 30 feet.
• Spiritual Body (Sp): As a Standard Action, a Heroic Spirit may become Ethereal for one round. The Heroic Spirit can drop this ability as a Free Action.
• Heroic Familiar (Ex): Being a greater-epic class familiar, a Heroic Spirit is still technically bound to its summoner. While linked to their summoner, the Heroic Spirit cannot harm their Master and would listen to the basic commands of the Master, but is not required to follow them exactly as the Master demands as the Heroic Spirit is a sentient being. The Heroic Spirit is treated as a SRD:Familiars and levels concurrently with its Master as well as gaining its own experience like a player character, gaining all abilities from being a familiar. They key difference from average and lesser familiars is that the Heroic Spirit picks a class, rolls stats (or is assigned them by the DM) and gains levels, abilities, feats, and class features of that class as if it was a Player Character. The Heroic Spirit can be summoned by a Sorcerer or Wizard (or any class that gains a familiar) by performing a summoning ritual which has a casting time of 24 hours and spending a Spell Slot (the chosen Spell Slot determines additional bonuses the Heroic Spirit receives as seen in the Table: Heroic Spirit Summon Bonuses). If a specific heroic figure from the past is desired as a Heroic Spirit the spellcaster must have an item pertaining to the heroic figure to channel when summoning them (In this instance the Player rolls percentile 3 times against the DM to determine whether or not the summoning was successful for the desired spirit, or if it fails. If the ritual fails the item is destroyed and a new item must be acquired). If successful, the Heroic Spirit is either played by the DM or the Player. The Heroic Spirit at 1st level gains one feat and is unaffected by Fear or Planar effects.
• Servant Upkeep (Ex): As a greater-epic class familiar fueled by the summoner's magic, Heroic Spirits require their summoner or Master to feed them massive amounts of magic either in the form of burning Spell Slots or some other magic. If the Heroic Spirit is not fed any magic they will begin to take a -1 to all Ability Scores and Saves per 30 minutes. If any Ability Score is reduced to 0 the Heroic Spirit will die. A Heroic Spirit can maintain itself through the Master or summoner by burning Spell Slots from any spellcasting ability the Master has available to them, each level extending the Heroic Spirit's duration. The following is how long each Spell Slot awards the Heroic Spirit before degradation begins: 1st Level - 30 minutes, 2nd Level - 1 Hour, 3rd Level - 3 Hours, 4th Level - 5 Hours, 5th Level - 8 Hours, 6th Level - 16 Hours, 7th Level - 32 Hours, 8th Level - 64 Hours, 9th Level - 168 Hours. The Master or summoner of the Heroic Spirit may expend multiple Spell Slots to extend the duration before degradation begins allowing for multiple hours to be stacked. If a Heroic Spirit falls unconscious these stacks are lost and degradation immediately begins. An unconscious Heroic Spirit cannot be fed Spell Slots.
• Independent Action (Ex): If a Heroic Spirit breaks free or manages to no longer be tied to the source that summoned it, the Heroic Spirit negates its ability Heroic Familiar (any bonuses gained are kept) as well as its ability Servant Upkeep. Becoming an independent and autonomous force, a Heroic Spirit gains true freedom able to pursue whatever they desire. The Heroic Spirit is still unaging even without the connection to its former master. However, the Heroic Spirit must find some way of tethering its soul to an item it possesses (turning the item into a magical item), after 72 hours of being un-tethered, the magical essence that is constantly leaking out of the Heroic Spirit will deplete ending in the Heroic Spirit's death.
• Untethered Spirit (Ex): The Heroic Spirit only gains this ability if it does not have a Master. A Heroic Spirit who does not have a Master gains 1 additional Bonus Feat as well as the Feat Heroic Presence (3.5e Feat). The Heroic Spirit is unaffected by Fear or Planar effects.
• Automatic Languages: Heroic Spirits automatically know any language spoken to them. Heroic Spirits can read and write only the languages their Master knows. They can learn additional languages equal to their Intelligence modifier.
• Favored Class: A Heroic Spirit's class depends heavily on what they were before becoming a legend, the Heroic Spirit uses the Servant (3.5e Class).

Vital Statistics

Having already passed away and then re-summoned through magical arts, a Heroic Spirit does not age and is considered unaging. The life force is directly tied to its Master for as long as it remains its Familiar. If the Heroic Spirit's master dies, the Heroic Spirit continues living as an unaging spirit. For more information see the ability Independent Action (Ex).

Heroic Spirits gain bonuses depending on the Spell Slot expended when initially summoning them seen in the below Table: Heroic Spirit Summon Bonuses. If the player is using this as a race rather than a familiar summon and does not wish to have a master, he may request to have the DM roll randomly or pick which Spell Slot was expended when they were summoned by picking from below:

Table: Heroic Spirit Summon Bonuses

Inexperienced1	Average2	Experienced3	Expert4
Spell Slot: 1-2	Spell Slot: 3-5	Spell Slot: 6-7	Spell Slot 8-9
An Inexperienced Mage, +2 to one ability score; -2 to one ability score. An Average Mage, +3 to one ability score; -3 to one ability score. An Experienced Mage, +3 to two ability scores; -2 to two ability scores. An Expert Mage, +4 to two ability scores; -1 to two ability scores.

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