Talk:Inculcator (Apath)

Inculation Points Version

Whereas most mesmerists can bend their victims to their will, inculator'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.

Class Features

The inculator has all the standard mesmeritst’s class features, except as noted below.

Inculation Points (Ex)

An inoculator cultivates a inoculation points in other creatures, that he can use to create an alter ego in their mind. Each time an inculator successfully uses a psychic spell on a creature, he gains an inoculation point invested in that creature. If the spell fails or is reduced in effect because of a successful saving throw, failed attack roll, spell resistance, immunity or any other reason no inculation point is gained. Inculation points are specific to each creature and to each inculator; there is no way to transfer inoculation points.

An inculator can cultivate inculation points in a number of creatures equal to 1/2 his mesmerist level (minimum 1) plus his Charisma bonus (if any). If the inculator cultivates inoculation points in more creatures than this limit, he must immediately choose one target whose inculation points he loses.

Inoculation points is an enchantment ability, but is not considered to be either mind-affecting, a charm, or a compulsion.

Create Alter Ego (Su)

At 1st level a inculator can implant a secondary personality in a victim by spending inoculation points. The inculator must spend a full-round action adjacent to a target affected by his hypnotic stare to use the ability. The ability is subtle and neither the target or onlookers notice anything unusual unless using detect magic or other ability to detect it.

The alter ego created by the inculator 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, alignment, and motivation, and has an Ego score of ten. The inculator uses inculation points to develop the alter ego. An inculation point can be spent to do one of the following.

• Increase the Ego ability of the alter ego by one, to a maximum of 10 + ½ the inculator's class level + his Charisma score.
• Change the alignment of the alter-ego by one step, either on the law-chaos or good-evil axis.
• Give the inculator one goal or motivation appropriate to its alignment, or remove one of the target's motivations from the alter-ego. Motivations must be fairly straightforward, such as "obey Mr Mystico", "be loyal to the revolution", "love your family", "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, which takes over completely. 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 allows a new saving throw in the alter-ego is about to do something the target violently opposes.

Except as altered by the inculator, the alter-ego is identical to the target and will make the same decisions, influenced by its altered alignment and motivations. It will not harm the target's loved ones or betray the targets loyalties unless such motivations have specifically been removed from the alter-ego. The alter-ego and target have only a vague, dreamlike memory of the experiences of the other, but this is enough to masquerade perfectly as the other; the needed memories come naturally as the situation demands.

Alter ego is a form of madness. Any ability that can detect and cure madness can remove an alter ego, but only if the madness is known. A Sense Motive check to sense enchantment (DC 25) when the alter-ego is in control can sense some form of mental influence.

A target of create alter ego counts against the number of targets of the inculation points ability, whether the inculator has any inculation points against that target. This replaces mesmerist tricks and masterful tricks.

Uses of Inculation

Inculation is a complex ability, and many uses are not obvious at first. Here are a number of ideas of what alter ego can be used to create. Genuine madness. Useless, but cruel. Double-agent or slave. This is the most obvious use. Spy. The limitations on memory makes the alter-ego's reports less than perfect Telepathic partner. As the alter-ego counts as a separate individual, you can make telepathic contact even when it is not in control and learn what is currently happening. Condition the target against harmful behavior, such as drugs, criminal acts, and so on. Place a cricket voice in the target's mind, like an amplified 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. At high levels you can even give the target an alternate setup of skills and feats. This requires an extraordinary amount of trust.

Continuing Inculation (Su)

At level 5 level, the inculator can spend inculation points even after creating an alter ego. He can use these points to create further changes in the alter-ego using the same procedure as create alter ego. A particular alter-ego can only be changed or created once per day. This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 5.

Overwhelming Psyche (Su)

At 9th level, when using create alter ego or continuing inculation, the inculator can expend a mesmerist spell slot to increase his inculation points with this target by a number of points equal to the level of the spell slot expended. This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 9.

Rearrange Abilities (Su)

At 13th level, the inculator 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 inculation point can be spent to do one of the following:

• Shift a victim's skill ranks from one of the victim's skills to another when they are in alter ego form.
• Swap one of the victim's feats for another one (for which they still qualify for with their current feats).

This replaces the manifold tricks ability from level 13.

Who Plays an Alter-Ego?

Usually, the alter-ego is an NPC and 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. This can be a good way to keep idle players involved when the action focuses elsewhere. However, 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 inoculator, that target suffers one point of Wisdom drain. When Wisdom is reduced to zero, all Wisdom drain 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 40) 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.

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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