Inculcator (Apath)

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Unofficial rules compendium

Whereas most mesmerists can bend their victims to their will, inculcator's take it one step further: They literally rewrite a victim's personality, possibly turning them into new people.

Class Information

This is a mesmerist archetype that create hidden alternate personalities in their victims.

Publisher: d20pfsrd Publishing based on the works of Jessie Staffler.

Class: Mesmerist.

Hit Die: d8.

Create Alter Ego (Su)

At 1st level a inculcator can implant a secondary personality in a victim, who must have a minimum score of 3 in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. This is a one-hour ritual and the target must be helpless or willing. Using a sleeping or unconscious target is the norm. The inculcator who created the alter ego can remove it in a one-hour session.

To change an alter ego the inculcator must remove the old one and start over from scratch. It is possible to remove one alter ego and create a new one in the same session. The memories of a removed alter ego still exist, but are hidden deep and requires modify memory or extreme experiences to be recalled. An inculcator cannot create an alter ego in himself.

The alter ego created by the inculcator is an alternate personality that lives inside the target's mind. It is separate from the target and mind-affecting effects can be used against the alter ego if its presence is known. If the presence of the alter ego is not known, mind-affecting effects always target the persona that is in control at the moment.

A beginning alter ego is identical to the target creature in abilities and alignment, and has an Ego score of 10 + ½ the inculcator's class level + his Charisma score. An inculcator can spend inoculation points equal to his Charisma bonus (minimum one) to create an alter ego. Each inculcation point can be spent to do one of the following.

  • Change the alignment of the alter-ego by one step, either on the law-chaos or good-evil axis.
  • Give the inculcator one goal or motivation appropriate to its alignment. Motivations must be fairly straightforward, such as "obey Mr Mystico", "be loyal to the revolution", "keep the existence of the alter-ego secret", or "kill king Stephanos".

When a motivation of the alter-ego is triggered, the victim must make a Will save equal to the Ego of the alter-ego or be overwhelmed by the alternate personality. The target is allowed a new saving throw after one minute, one hour, and each day thereafter, a success restores control. The target is also allowed a new saving throw when the alter-ego is about to do something against the target's nature. The alter-ego and target have only a vague, dreamlike memory when trying to recall what the other experienced but can masquerade perfectly; memories needed to act out the role come naturally as the situation demands.

Alter ego is a form of insanity. Any ability that works against insanity affects alter ego. A Sense Motive check to sense enchantment (DC 25) when the alter-ego is in control can sense that something is wrong. Alter ego is a part of the target's mind and is not a charm, compulsion, enchantment, or a mind-affecting effect.

This replaces mesmerist tricks and masterful tricks.

Uses of Inculcation
Inculcation is a complex ability, and many uses are not obvious at first. Here are a number of ideas of what create alter ego can be used for. Using this to benefit allies requires an extraordinary amount of trust.
  • Genuine madness. Pretty useless, sadistic, and evil.
  • Double-agent, slave, or spy. This is the most obvious use.
  • Telepathic spy. As the alter-ego counts as a separate individual, you can make telepathic contact even when it is not in control to learn what is currently happening.
  • Condition the target against harmful behavior, such as drugs, criminal acts, and so on.
  • Place a voice in the target's mind, an extra conscience or devil's advocate.
  • Condition allies against mind control. By motivating the alter-ego to seize control when the target is dominated without otherwise changing motivations or alignment, you give the target a second chance.
  • Alternate role. At high levels you can give the target an alternate setup of skills and feats.

Overwhelming Psyche (Su)

At 5th level, when using create alter ego or continuing inculcation, the inculcator can expend a mesmerist spell slot to increase his inculcation points with this target by a number of points equal to the level of the spell slot expended. The inculcator can also trigger an alter-ego within 100 ft. that he has created to take control, just as if one of its motivations had triggered. This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 5.

Rearrange Abilities (Su)

At 9th level, the inculcator can slightly modify the minds of their victim, giving them different skills and abilities in their alter ego. These changes are only used when the victims alter ego is active. Each inculcation point can be spent to do one of the following:

  • Exchange all of the target's skill ranks between two selected skills when the alter ego is in control. This even works on a skill with zero skill ranks.
  • Swap one of the victim's feats for another one (for which the target must qualify).

This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 9.

Insane Normality (Su)

At 13th level, an alter ego created by the inculcator no longer counts as an insanity and can only be removed using miracle, psychic surgery, or wish. This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 13.

Who Plays an Alter-Ego?
The alter-ego is an NPC and is usually played by the gamemaster. But players that enjoy a role-playing challenge might want to play the alter-ego of either their own character or another, as the GM allows. This can be a good way to keep idle players involved when the action focuses elsewhere. The GM is the final arbiter of motivations and alignment and can give pointers or resume control at any time.

Crush Psyche (Su)

At 17th level, each time a target fails a Will save against the Ego of an alter-ego created by the inculcator, that target suffers 1d4 point of Wisdom damage. If Wisdom is reduced to zero, all Wisdom damage is restored, but the target's original personality is destroyed, replaced by the alter-ego. The alter-ego is no longer considered a madness. This Wisdom drain is subtle, a Sense Motive check (DC 35) can notice the target seems distracted and unfocused. A destroyed psyche can only be restored by miracle, psychic surgery, or wish. This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 17.

Recreate Person (Su)

At 20th level an inculcator can create an entirely new personality in a mindless humanoid body. This ability works only on a body who has taken Wisdom damage or drain equal to their Wisdom score or who otherwise lacks a mind or a soul. The process takes 8 hours. The new character has the same class, level, race, and physical ability scores as the original, but everything else is remade from the ground up and determined by the inculcator, using the rules of character creation. The inculcator can shape this new persona just as he can an alter ego (see above). The target's original psyche is destroyed and can only be restored by miracle, psychic surgery, or wish. This replaces rule minds.

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

  • Mesmerist Tricks
  • Manifold Tricks

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