Shugenja (D&D class)

Unofficial rules compendium

Complete Divine, originally from Rokugan. A divine spontaneous caster with a good spell list. Something of a lawful, oriental druid. However, it is balanced for a low-magic setting, and is nowhere near as powerful as other spellcasting classes in D&D; the following seems to rectify that. The additions below makes the shugenja more of an adventurer and specialist in the supernatural and less of a courtly magician.

Rules

Hit die: d8

Attack Progression: 3/4 (as cleric)

Armor and Weapon Proficiency

The shugenja is proficient with light and medium armor as well as with all simple and martial weapons. The shugenja is not proficient in shields.

Spellcasting

A shugenja bargains with spirits to learn her spells, and can exchange the spells she knows by bargaining with a different spirit. At a major shrine holding dozens of spirits, a shugenja can access almost any spell, even if certain rare or unusual spells might only be available in out-of-the-way shrines. When in the presence of a specific spirit, the shugenja can only learn spells appropriate to the nature of that spirit; necromancy spells for undead, elementals spells for elementals, enchantment spells for fey and so on. When a shugenja wishes to exchange her spells in this manner, her spell preparation take s full hour and must be performed in the presence of the spirit.

• Abberations - Transmutation
• Fey - Enchantment, Illusion
• Magical beasts - Abjuration
• Outsiders - Evocation, Conjuration
• Undead and Deathless - Necromacny, Divination
• Creatures of the spirit subtype, Spirit folk and telthors - Universal

Class Abilities

The shugenja gains the following class abilities at the indicated levels:

Level 1 Placate Spirit (Su): The shugenja has devoted his life to the spirits, and knows how to plead and cajole with them. Add the shugenja’s level to any Diplomacy checks against spirits. The shugenja can communicate with and use Diplomacy against any type of spirit that understands a language.

Level 2 Detect Spirits (Sp): The shugenja perceives nearby spirits. At will, the shugenja can use detect spirits as a spell-like ability. It functions just like detect undead, except it detects creatures that are considered spirits (see note below).

Level 3 Blessing of the Spirits (Sp): A shugenja can perform a special rite to gain a special blessing. The shugenja goes into a meditative state. Performing the rite requires 10 minutes; the shugenja can only ward herself with this ability and cannot perform the rite for anyone else. The blessing functions just like protection from evil, except it protects against spirits and lasts until it is dismissed or dispelled. If this ability is dispelled, the shugenja can recreate it simply by taking 10 minutes to do so.

Level 4 Exorcism (Su): As a full-round action, a shugenja can force a possessing creature or spirit out of the body or object it inhabits (for example, a ghost with the malevolence ability). To exorcise a possessing creature, she makes a class level check (also adding her Charisma modifier, if any), against a DC of 10 + the possessing creature’s HD + its Charisma modifier (if any). If her result equals or exceeds the DC, she succeeds in forcing the possessor from the body, with the normal results based on its method of possession. A spirit so exorcised cannot attempt to possess the same victim for 24 hours.

Level 5 Warding of the Spirits (Sp): A shugenja can perform a special rite once per day to ward herself and her companions against hostile spirits. Performing the rite requires 1 minute. The warding lasts for 10 minutes per level and otherwise functions like magic circle against evil, except that it protects against spirits.

Level 7 Chastise Spirits (Su): A shugenja can use divine energy to damage hostile spirits (see the What is a Spirit? sidebar). Chastising spirits is a standard action that deals 1d6 damage/shugenja level to all spirits within 30 feet of the shugenja. The affected spirits get a Will save (DC 10+ 1/2 shugenja level + Cha modifier) for half damage. When using this ability against incorporeal creatures, a shugenja does not have to roll the normal 50% miss chance—the effect hits the spirits automatically. A shugenja can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.

Level 9 Spirit Binding (Sp): The shugenja can attempt to bind a spirit once per day. This works like the binding spell, with a save DC of 10 + half the shugenja’s level + shugenja’s Charisma modifier. It can only affect spirits. Each assisting shugenja adds one-third their level to user’s level for the purpose of the ability. As long as any shugenja holds a ceremony at the binding spot or object before the current binding ends, the effect is extended automatically, but the duration is now based on the renewing shugenja’s level. Generally, a shrine is built at the spot of a binding, and shugenja and passers-by alike perform services there to placate the spirit and renew the binding.

Level 11 Ghost Warrior (Su): A shugenja confers the ghost touch special ability (see Magic Weapon Special Ability Descriptions, page 223 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide) to any weapon she holds for as long as she holds it. She also becomes resistant to the touch attacks of incorporeal creatures, and may use her normal Armor Class (not her touch AC) against any touch attack delivered by an incorporeal creature.

Level 13 Higher Loyalty (Su): A shugenja learns the mental discipline to maintain control of her mind. If a shugenja is affected by an enchantment spell or effect and fails her saving throw, she can attempt it again 1 round later at the same DC. She only gets this one extra chance to succeed on her saving throw.

Level 15 Weaken Spirits (Sp): A shugenja can choose to strip spirits of their defenses instead of damaging them with her chastise spirits ability. When a spirit is weakened, it loses its spell resistance and any damage reduction overcome by magic weapons, silver or cold iron weapons, and aligned weapons (but not damage reduction overcome by adamantine weapons or not overcome by anything). In addition, an incorporeal spirit loses its immunity to nonmagical attack, its 50% chance to ignore damage from corporeal sources, and its ability to move into or through objects. To weaken spirits, a shugenja uses her chastise spirits ability but chooses to do less damage in exchange for weakening the spirits for a short time. For each 3d6 of chastise spirit damage the shugenja foregoes, the affected spirits are weakened for 1 round. For example, a 16th-level shugenja chastising two dread wraiths deals 16d6 points of damage to each dread wraith, but she could choose to deal 7d6 points of damage to each wraith and weaken them for 3 rounds. Spirits that make their Will save against the chastise spirits damage are unaffected by the weakening effect (but still take half the damage).

Level 17 Spirit Journey (Sp): A shugenja knows how to vanish bodily into the spirit world beginning at 17th level. This ability functions like the spell shadow walk, except that a shugenja can only transport herself. She need not use the ability in a shadowy area, and she travels through the Plane of Spirits, not the Plane of Shadows. A shugenja can use this ability once per day.

Level 19 Favored of the Spirits (Sp): A shugenja learns how to perform a special rite that guards her from death. Performing the rite requires 8 hours, and the shugenja must bargain away part of her life force, expending 1,000 experience points. The rite’s effect lasts until it is dismissed or discharged. While under the protection of this rite, a shugenja instantly receives the benefit of a heal spell (caster level equal to her shugenja level) if she is reduced to 0 hit points or lower or has any ability score reduced to 0. The shugenja receives the spell’s effect immediately, even if reduced to –10 hit points or lower by an enemy attack, and thus may survive a blow that otherwise would have killed her. The rite’s protection is discharged once it is triggered, and the shugenja must perform a new rite to use this ability again.

Notes: What is a Spirit?

Several of the shugenja’s abilities affect spirits. For purposes of the shugenja’s ability, a “spirit” includes any of the following creatures:

• All undead
• All deathless (see Book of Exalted Deeds)
• All fey
• All magical beasts
• All aberration
• All outsiders
• Creatures in astral or ethereal form – but only as long as the shugenja is in material form and on her home plane
• All creatures of the spirit subtype (see Oriental Adventures)
• Spirit folk and telthors (see Unapproachable East)
• Spirit creatures created by spells such as dream sight or wood wose.

In the shugenja'’s worldview, elementals and fey are simply spirits of nature, and undead are the spirits of the dead. Magical beasts and aberrations are either spirit-possessed creatures or spirits bound in corporeal form.

Note that this is not the same list as that of the original spirit shaman class, and in fact is much more generous.