View source for Soul Salvager (3.5e Prestige Class)

{{Author
|author_name=Luigifan18
|date_created=November 18, 2015
|adopter=
|date_adopted= 
|status=Almost ready
|editing=
|balance=High
}}
{{3.5e Class Data
|summary=An agent of religion who seeks to destroy pact magic by restoring the vestiges binders draw their power from to reality. Ironically, he has to be a binder himself in order to achieve his goal, and his actions are motivated just as much by a desire to help the vestiges themselves as a desire to eliminate the heretical practice of soul binding.
|length=10
|minlevel=6
|bab=Moderate
|fort=Good
|ref=Poor
|will=Good
|ability=Divine Spellcasting, Pact Magic<!-- Choose one or more of: Prepared Arcane Spellcasting, Spontaneous Arcane Spellcasting, Prepared Divine Spellcasting, Spontaneous Divine Spellcasting, Alternate Magic, Psionics, Invocations, Martial Maneuvers, Soulmelds, Sneak Attack, Bardic Music, Skirmish, or Other. If multiple abilities apply, separate them with commas. -->
|progression=Full<!-- Choose one of: Full, Partial, Minor, Separate, Other. If the class has multiple abilities with different progressions, choose Other. -->
|align=lg, ng, cg, ln, n, cn
}}

<!-- If your page should contain a picture, replace this line with [[File:Picturename.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Insert the caption here.]] -->

==Soul Salvager==

{{quote
|<-Some quote from a character of this class->
|orig=<-NPC name->, <-race-> <-class->
|src=<!--The source of the quote (manuscript, book, etc)-->
}}

As a general rule, organized religions '''''hate''''' pact magic, and want to see it eradicated forever. After all, vestiges are beings that don't really exist, and are beyond the reach of the gods. Drawing upon their power is completely insane, and risks making reality more or less devour itself. (That, ''and'' it undermines the influence of the gods, which makes their clerics furious... outraged... '''''sick'' with anger!!!''')

But do the vestiges really ''deserve'' the hate and scorn they get? They were once perfectly ordinary beings who met an end so horrific, it catapulted them right out of existence. Now, all they want is a taste of reality, which they can only get by attaching themselves to the souls of others and essentially hitching a ride. This is the basis of pact magic, and it's not really the vestiges' fault that they are they way they are. If anything, they're the ''real'' victims of pact magic; they're essentially being exploited by godless heathens. Perhaps something can be done to restore them to reality, rebuilding their shattered souls. And, of course, making sure those goddamned binders can't use them anymore.

That is the mission of the soul salvager &mdash; to obliterate pact magic at its source by rescuing the vestiges they rely on from nonexistence. In fact, rescuing the vestiges is both a means and an end. The only problem is, he's going to have to employ pact magic himself in order to do it. Can he stay in the good graces of his church, even as he dabbles in the power forbidden by the gods?

===Becoming a Soul Salvager===

The soul salvager is something of an oxymoronic, paradoxical pariah. He studies pact magic with the ultimate goal of sabotaging it by rescuing the vestiges from its grip. This makes him very unpopular both among binders (he's trying to destroy pact magic itself) and among clerics (he's using pact magic). But until he has the power he needs to pull a vestige into reality, he has to make do with borrowing their power, like any other binder, and utilizing pact magic in tandem with his divine magic to fend off his enemies.

Because he represents a fine line between divine and pact magic, the soul salvager needs the exact same ability scores that divine magic users and binders do &mdash; primarily [[Wisdom]] and [[Charisma]].

{| class="d20 dragon monstats"
|+ style="font-size: larger; white-space: nowrap;" | Entry Requirements
|-
! Alignment:
| Any nonevil.
|-
! Skills:
| Concentration 6 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 6 ranks.
|-
! Feats:
| <-feat requirements->.
|-
! Spellcasting:
| Ability to cast 2nd-level divine spells.
|-
! Patron:
| Must have a patron deity.
|-
! Special:
| Ability to bind 2nd-level vestiges.
|} 

{| class="zebra d20"
|+ <div>{{Anchor|Table: The Soul Salvager}}</div>
<p>Hit Die: d8</p>
|-
! rowspan="2" | Level
! rowspan="2" | [[BAB|Base<br/>Attack Bonus]]
! colspan="3" | [[SRD:Saving Throw|Saving Throw]]s
! rowspan="2" | Special
! rowspan="2" | [[#Spellcasting|Spellcasting]]
|-
! [[SRD:Saving Throw#Fortitude|Fort]] || [[SRD:Saving Throw#Reflex|Ref]] || [[SRD:Saving Throw#Will|Will]]
|- 
| 1st || +1 || +2 || +0 || +2
| class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +1]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +1]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 2nd || +2 || +3 || +0 || +3
| class="left" | [[#Greater Suppress Sign|Greater Suppress Sign]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +2]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 3rd || +3 || +3 || +1 || +3
| class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +2]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +3]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 4th || +3 || +4 || +1 || +4
| class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +4]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 5th || +4 || +4 || +1 || +4
| class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +5]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 6th || +5 || +5 || +2 || +5
| class="left" | [[#Unbind Vestige|Unbind Vestige]], [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +3]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +6]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 7th || +6/+1 || +5 || +2 || +5
| class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +7]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 8th || +6/+1 || +6 || +2 || +6
| class="left" | [[#Greater Unbind Vestige|Greater Unbind Vestige]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +8]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 9th || +7/+2 || +6 || +3 || +6
| class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +4]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +9]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 10th || +8/+3 || +7 || +3 || +7
| class="left" | [[#Advanced Unbind Vestige|Advanced Unbind Vestige]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +10]]
| class="left" | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- class="noalt"
| colspan="42" class="skill" |
'''Class Skills ([[Skill Points::4]] + [[SRD:Intelligence|Int]] modifier per level.)'''<br/>
{{3.5e Skills|Bluff, 
Concentration, 
Decipher Script, 
Diplomacy, 
Disguise, 
Forgery, 
Gather Information, 
Knowledge, 
Listen, 
Search, 
Sense Motive, 
Speak Language, 
Spellcraft, 
Spot}}
|}

{| class="zebra d20"
|+ {{Anchor|Table: The [[SRD:Epic Level Basics|Epic]] Soul Salvager}}
|-
! Level || Special || [[#Spellcasting|Spellcasting]]
|- 
| 11th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +11]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 12th || class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +5]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +12]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 13th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +13]], [[#Bonus Feats|Bonus Feat]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 14th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +14]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 15th || class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +6]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +15]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 16th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +16]], [[#Bonus Feats|Bonus Feat]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 17th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +17]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 18th || class="left" | [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige +7]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +18]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 19th || class="left" | [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +19]], [[#Bonus Feats|Bonus Feat]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|- 
| 20th || class="left" | [[#Restore Vestige|Restore Vestige]], [[#Soul Binding Bonus|Soul Binding +20]] || +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
|}

====Class Features====

All of the following are class features of the soul salvager.

'''{{Anchor|Soul Binding Bonus}}:''' At each soul salvager level, your soul binding ability improves as though you had also gained a level in the binder class. Your soul salvager and binder levels stack to determine your bonus on binding checks, the effectiveness of your vestige-granted abilities, your ability to bind higher-level vestiges, and the number of vestiges you can bind. You do not, however, gain any other benefits that a binder would have gained.

'''{{Anchor|Spellcasting}}:''' At each level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the soul salvager class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a soul salvager, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known. Unlike many prestige classes, this choice is made strictly at the 1st level of soul salvager, and cannot be changed later; it is crucial to a few class features.

'''{{Anchor|Acclimate Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' As part of their mission to restore vestiges to reality, soul salvagers seek to give the vestiges they host a stronger taste of reality than those filthy heathens who would heartlessly attach other beings to their souls for the sake of cheap power. Ironically, the vestiges tend to reward this gesture of goodwill with more power. A soul salvager who makes a good pact with a vestige is placed under the vestige's influence anyways, but in exchange, he gets a +1 bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks until the vestige leaves him. These bonuses are increased by +1 at 3rd level and again for every 3 soul salvager levels after 3rd (+3 at 6th, +4 at 9th, etc.). However, if the soul salvager acts in a manner contrary to the vestige's influence, his bonuses are reduced by +1 per violation, to a minimum of +0 (i.e. no bonus at all); a soul salvager who has made a good pact with a vestige cannot suffer penalties for violating the vestige's influence, only lose his bonuses. These bonuses stack for multiple vestiges (at the cost of the soul salvager having several influences to deal with).<br/>
Note that this applies only for ''good'' pacts. A soul salvager who makes a ''bad'' pact must abide by the vestige's influence or else suffer a &minus;1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks, and suffers cumulative penalties for each violation, just like any other binder.

'''{{Anchor|Greater Suppress Sign}} {{Su}}:''' Soul salvagers are part of a religious community, and if other clerics learned that the soul salvager was dabbling in pact magic and consorting with vestiges, they probably wouldn't take it well. Which is actually putting it mildly; they would in all likelihood rather lynch him on the spot than listen to his claims that he's working just as hard towards the eradication of pact magic as any other cleric. As such, the soul salvager quickly learns to make sure that his peers ''don't'' find out that he's working with vestiges. A 2nd-level soul salvager can suppress the signs of vestiges he makes pacts with, even when he makes a bad pact. Of course, the nature of a bad pact is that the vestige gets to be partially one and the same entity as the binder, and so vestiges don't like it much when their signs are suppressed. When the soul salvager uses this ability to suppress the sign of a vestige which he's made a bad pact with, he takes a &minus;1 penalty to his effective binder level for the purpose of using that vestige's abilities until he stops suppressing that vestige's sign.<br/>
(Of course, this only applies to a ''bad'' pact; there is no penalty for suppressing the sign of a good pact.)

'''{{Anchor|Unbind Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' Opposing other binders is a core facet of the soul salvager's mission. After all, binders attach vestiges to their souls for petty gain. As the soul salvager's relationship with the vestiges grows, he can use it to attempt to coax a vestige to leave another binder, using his own divine magic to supply the energy needed to sunder the pact.

To attempt to unbind a vestige, the soul salvager must first identify the vestige in question. Attempting to identify a vestige requires a swift action. Identifying a vestige is rather straightforward if the enemy binder is displaying the sign of the vestige without bothering to conceal it; it requires nothing more than a simple [[SRD:Knowledge Skill|Knowledge (religion)]], [[SRD:Knowledge Skill|Knowledge (the planes)]], or [[SRD:Spellcraft Skill|Spellcraft]] check with a DC of 10 + the vestige's level. However, due to persecution from religious types (including soul salvagers), few binders openly display the signs of their vestiges; in many cases, a vestige's sign will be either hidden or suppressed outright, making the process of identifying the vestige considerably more complicated. If the enemy binder is displaying the sign but keeping it concealed (no, that's not an oxymoron; read [[Publication:Tome of Magic|the Tome of Magic]]), identifying the vestige requires a skill check from the soul salvager opposed by a skill check from the enemy binder. If the enemy binder is suppressing the sign, the same check is required of the soul salvager, but the enemy binder instead opposes the soul salvager with an effective binder level check. In either case, the enemy binder gets a bonus on his check equal to the level of the vestige. (The skills in question depend on the vestige; in most cases, the soul salvager makes a [[SRD:Spot Skill|Spot]] or [[SRD:Sense Motive Skill|Sense Motive]] check, and the enemy binder opposes it with a [[SRD:Disguise Skill|Disguise]] or [[SRD:Bluff Skill|Bluff]] check (assuming that he's concealing, but not suppressing, the sign). The DM should make all of the rolls so that the soul salvager doesn't know exactly what skill he's using.) Only after beating the enemy binder on the opposed check is the soul salvager entitled to the Knowledge or Spellcraft check to actually know what the vestige is. If the soul salvager fails to identify the enemy binder's vestige, he can try again next round, but each attempt requires a swift action. A soul salvager can only attempt to identify one vestige at a time.

Once the soul salvager knows what vestige an enemy binder has bound, he can attempt to unbind it. In order to do so, he must be bound to that vestige himself, as he must be able to communicate with the vestige and request for it to leave the enemy binder. Since vestiges can't leave a binder of their own volition until the pact naturally ends, the soul salvager has to supply some sort of energy to break the pact. Thankfully, the soul salvager's patron deity can help him to generate that energy.

As a full-round action, the soul salvager can designate a vestige he has identified on an enemy binder, which he himself must also have bound, and expend some of his divine energy &mdash; either a divine spell slot, a daily use of turn undead or wild shape, or 10 points of [[SRD:Paladin#Lay On Hands|healing energy]]. This acts as a catalyst for the chosen vestige to leave an enemy binder before its pact has expired, causing the soul salvager and enemy binder to make opposed binder level checks as the pact tries to withstand the assault. The soul salvager gets a bonus on his check equal to twice the level of the divine spell slot he sacrificed to use this ability (if he used a usage of turn undead or wild shape or 10 points from his lay on hands pool instead, he instead takes a &minus;4 penalty). (Note that this cares about the ''actual'' level of the sacrificed spell, ''not'' the level of the spell slot it was prepared in, and metamagic other than [[SRD:Heighten Spell|Heighten Spell]] does ''not'' cause a spell to be treated as having a higher spell level for this purpose.) The enemy binder gets a bonus on his check equal to the vestige's level, plus 1/4 of its binding DC (rounded down); if he belongs to a prestige class which is devoted to the vestige (such as knight of the sacred seal (with the chosen vestige selected as the patron vestige), scion of Dantalion, or tenebrous apostate), he gets an additional +4 bonus.

If the soul salvager wins, the enemy binder's pact with the chosen vestige is broken, as if by the Expel Vestige feat. The enemy binder takes the full penalties of expelling a vestige with Expel Vestige (even if he has [[Improved Expel Vestige (3.5e Feat)|Improved Expel Vestige]]), and does not use up a usage of Expel Vestige if he actually has it.

If the enemy binder wins, the soul salvager's pact with the chosen vestige is strained. If he had made a good pact with the vestige, it becomes a poor pact, instantly costing him whatever [[#Acclimate Vestige|Acclimate Vestige]] bonuses he had. If his pact with the vestige is poor (either by being a poor pact in the first place or having already failed to unbind the vestige from a foe), he is treated as having violated the vestige's influence, suffering a &minus;1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks until his pact with that vestige ends. As normal for influence violations, this penalty can stack with itself.

This opposed binder level check is treated like a binder level check to bind the vestige in the first place. Any bonuses to binder level that specifically apply to binding checks (such as having the Skilled Pact Making feat) apply to the opposed check for this ability, and if both the soul salvager and enemy binder fail to beat the vestige's binding DC, they ''both'' lose the opposed check and suffer the consequences, regardless of which one of them rolled the higher result. If both the soul salvager and the enemy binder beat the vestige's binding check result, and their check result is a tie, they both win the opposed check, and nothing happens except for the soul salvager having wasted a full-round action and divine spell slot, turn undead attempt, wild shape use, or healing energy. (This is an exception to the usual rules for tied opposed checks.)

*'''{{Anchor|Greater Unbind Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' At 8th level, the soul salvager requires less energy to break the pacts of heathens. He only takes a &minus;2 penalty to his opposed binder level check if he uses a use of turn undead or wild shape or 10 points of healing energy instead of a divine spell slot to attempt to unbind a vestige.

*'''{{Anchor|Advanced Unbind Vestige}} {{Su}}:''' At 10th level, the soul salvager has built up quite a reputation among the vestiges; they know that he's a person who is firmly on their side. Because the vestiges themselves have faith in him, the soul salvager can unbind a vestige that he doesn't currently have bound. However, because of the difficulty in communicating with a vestige in the absence of a pact, he suffers a &minus;4 penalty for doing so. Furthermore, in the absence of a pact with the vestige to be unbound, the soul salvager suffers different consequences for failure. If the soul salvager loses the opposed check for a vestige he doesn't have bound, he loses one divine spell slot of the same level as the vestige (for instance, if he fails to unbind a 6th-level vestige, he loses a 6th-level spell slot). If he prepares divine spells, he chooses which spell is lost. If he doesn't have a divine spell slot of that level available to lose, he instead takes Xd6 backlash damage, where X is the level of the vestige (for example, a 6th-level vestige would inflict 6d6 backlash damage). Backlash damage cannot be resisted by any means, and a character killed by it loses an extra level if and when he is brought back to life.

'''''{{Anchor|Restore Vestige}}'' {{Sp}}:''' A 20th-level soul salvager is at the cusp of fulfilling his mission. He can now restore a vestige to reality. Doing so requires a ritual which lasts for 1 week, at the end of which the soul salvager makes a binding check against the selected vestige's binding DC + its restoration value (usually 30, but it may be different depending on the vestige's history). If he succeeds, the selected vestige is called back to reality, and loses its status as a vestige; instead, it becomes an NPC, effectively having been revived by [[SRD:True Resurrection|''true resurrection'']] (though not necessarily restored to ''life'', per se; depending on the vestige, it may be restored to [[SRD:Undead Type|undeath]], [[SRD:Construct Type|mechanical animation]], divinity, or some other state that is neither alive nor dead). No binder, including the soul salvager himself, can ever summon that vestige again for the remainder of the current campaign (unless it somehow becomes a vestige again, which, depending on the vestige, could happen more easily than you'd think). Instead, the former vestige is now an NPC (albeit in all likelihood a ''very'' high-leveled one), who has all the abilities it possessed as a vestige (unless otherwise noted) in addition to whatever other abilities it would have by virtue of being an NPC of its class and level, and who owes a great deal of gratitude to the soul salvager who restored it and will (probably) be a steadfast ally. (However, the former vestige will (probably) ''also'' be extremely friendly to binders who venerated it while it was a vestige, especially knights of the sacred seal and members of other prestige classes who were devoted to it. This could prove to be extremely awkward if these binders happen to be enemies of the soul salvager.) ''Restore Vestige'' functions as an epic-level spell (though it does not require a [[SRD:Spellcraft Skill|Spellcraft]] check to use). Therefore, if the ritual is interrupted, the DC of the [[SRD:Concentration Skill|Concentration]] check to avoid spoiling the ritual is 20 plus any modifiers (such as damage taken or distracting motion modifiers). ''Restore Vestige'' can be used once per 6 months and costs (2,000 &times; level of vestige to be restored) XP to use.

However, it should be noted that restoring a vestige is nowhere ''near'' as easy to do as the above paragraph would imply. First of all, it requires material components and focuses, all of which are going to be things that are important to that vestige. Second, it requires that the soul salvager create or otherwise procure a body that is extremely similar to the body the vestige possessed in life (or undeath, or mechanical animation, or divinity, or whatever); the replica body must be accurate to the degree of precision required by the [[SRD:Clone|''clone'']] spell. (The vestige's manifestation can provide a clue, but is often not a good indicator of what the vestige looked like while it was a conventional being). Third, the above two requirements make it necessary for the soul salvager to know the vestige's history in excruciating detail; the story described under the "Legend" entry may or may not be a good starting point, but it is almost ''never'' sufficient, as gathering information about vestiges tends to be extremely difficult. (And, no, questioning the vestige probably won't help much, not even when done by a soul salvager seeking to restore them; it is impossible to compel a vestige to tell the truth or to tell whether or not it's lying, and many vestiges' memories are so muddled and fragmented that they might not be ''able'' to tell the truth, even if they wanted to.) The necessary research and gathering of components will likely take several months, and it cannot be glossed over; the process of discovering the vestige's true story and gathering the necessary materials for the restoration ritual ''will'' involve going on adventures. The process of conducting research and gathering materials will also inevitably attract the attention of many powerful binders, and it's likely that they'll find out what the soul salvager is up to sooner or later &mdash; and when they do, they are ''extremely'' likely to try to stop him by any means necessary, considering that he is trying to make a vestige completely inaccessible to ''all'' binders. (Note, however, that preparations for performing the ''Restore Vestige'' ritual can be performed at any point in the soul salvager's career, though some aspects of the preparations will likely require him to be a high-leveled character to successfully perform. The only part of the process that cannot be done until soul salvager level 20 is the ''Restore Vestige'' ritual itself.) Fourth, the vestige itself might have some issues that would prevent it from being revived; for instance, it might not even be sentient (such as Phos), it might be a conglomeration of numerous beings (such as Dantalion), or it might have become a vestige due to a divine curse (such as Andromalius, Aym, Dantalion, or Leraje). These issues will usually cause additional requirements to restore the vestige. Finally, the DM has the final say on whether or not restoring a vestige is even possible. If the DM decides that removing a vestige from play would be too damaging for the campaign he or she is running, then the campaign world itself will conspire to ensure that the soul salvager cannot succeed, using whatever methods are necessary to thwart him (up to and including an enormous rock falling directly on top of the soul salvager from out of absolutely nowhere, with absolutely no possibility of avoiding it and killing him instantly, with no possibility of him being revived afterwards).

Furthermore, just because you ''can'' restore a vestige to reality doesn't mean that you ''should'', or that they're going to ''stay'' restored. Some vestiges are the way they are because they were cursed by one or more gods, and restoring that vestige will probably piss off the god who made it that way. (For instance, Corellon Larethian ''might'' not mind if Leraje was restored, since she has been humbled by the circumstances of her becoming a vestige. Thrym, on the other hand, would be very, ''very'' unhappy if Shax was restored, since she would inevitably start bothering the frost giants again.) Some vestiges are the way they are due to some sort of horrible trauma, and might not ''want'' to be restored; therefore, they will inevitably become vestiges once more unless their troubles are addressed, or they might need extensive convincing to return to reality. (For instance, if Halphax were to be restored, and somehow regained his memories of his life, he would almost certainly be driven to commit suicide, and promptly return to being a vestige again. Haagenti, on the other hand, feels an incredible sense of guilt over the repercussions her actions during her life had on frost giant society.) Some vestiges are gods who withered away due to a lack of worship; unless faith in them were to be restored, they would promptly fade away and become vestiges again. (Amon is the classic example of a "former god" vestige, though others "exist"). Some vestiges were never sentient or even entities to begin with; they would require some sort of sentient identity in order to exist. (For instance, Phos is a spark of light that was sent outside of existence as part of a magical experiment, and Tenebrous is simply an alter-ego of Orcus.) Finally, there are the vestiges who were incredibly dangerous threats to the status of the universe (or at least the status quo) while they were properly existing beings, and would in all likelihood spark some sort of catastrophe if restored, disregarding their debt to the soul salvager in order to pursue their own agendas. (For instance, Acererak would reestablish the Tomb of Horrors and resume his efforts to ascend to godhood as soon as possible, taking countless lives in the process; Chupoclops would resume devouring hope and ghosts, giving mortals nightmares, and quite possibly bring about the apocalypse; Shax would return to rule over the storm giants with an iron fist and drive them to conquer the lands of the other giant tribes, causing the conundrum she caused in the giants' pantheon to begin all over again.) Overall, each vestige is a unique entity (or, rather, pseudo-entity), and therefore, they all have their own unique requirements and complications in the process of restoring them. As with all matters of gameplay and story progression, the details of how to restore a vestige should be left up to the DM, but I'll write up guidelines for each vestige to form a basis.

*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Acererak|Restoring Acererak]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Agares|Restoring Agares]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Amon|Restoring Amon]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Andras|Restoring Andras]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Andromalius|Restoring Andromalius]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Aym|Restoring Aym]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Balam|Restoring Balam]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Buer|Restoring Buer]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Chupoclops|Restoring Chupoclops]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Dahlver-Nar|Restoring Dahlver-Nar]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Dantalion|Restoring Dantalion]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Eligor|Restoring Eligor]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Eurynome|Restoring Eurynome]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Focalor|Restoring Focalor]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Geryon|Restoring Geryon]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Haagenti|Restoring Haagenti]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Halphax|Restoring Halphax]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Haures|Restoring Haures]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Ipos|Restoring Ipos]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Karsus|Restoring Karsus]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Leraje|Restoring Leraje]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Malphas|Restoring Malphas]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Marchosias|Restoring Marchosias]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Naberius|Restoring Naberius]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Orthos|Restoring Orthos]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Otiax|Restoring Otiax]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Paimon|Restoring Paimon]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Ronove|Restoring Ronove]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Savnok|Restoring Savnok]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Shax|Restoring Shax]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Tenebrous|Restoring Tenebrous]]
*[[Soul Salvager (3.5e Class)/Restoring Zagan|Restoring Zagan]]

'''{{Anchor|Bonus Feats}}:''' <- any bonus feats gained in pre-epic levels->.

The epic soul salvager gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic soul salvager feats) every 3 levels after 10th.

''Epic Soul Salvager Bonus Feat List:'' <-list of bonus epic feats->

====Ex-Soul Salvagers====

Being a soul salvager requires one to strike an extremely fine balance between one's devotion to pact magic and divine magic. Delve too deep into pact magic, and you're little more than one of the many ex-clerics (or druids, or paladins, or rangers, or whatever) who got a bit ''too'' intrigued by pact magic and fell to the temptation. Focus too much on your religion, and you're basically just another of those ultra-religious types who has a major bone to pick with anyone who uses pact magic, except you're a hypocrite because you use pact magic yourself. (Sure, soul salvagers consider pact magic to be heretical, just like most other clerics, but what sets the soul salvager apart is that he doesn't think the vestiges ''themselves'' deserve the bad rap they get; he considers the vestiges to be unfortunate victims, and other binders to be power-hungry fools who take advantage of the vestiges' plight for their own petty gain.) As such, if your levels in binder exceed your levels in the divine spellcasting class your soul salvager levels are applied to by more than 3 (or your levels in your divine spellcasting class exceed your levels in binder by the same amount), you lose the balance of viewpoints that is required in order to pursue the mission of the soul salvager, and as a consequence, you lose the soul salvager's unique class features and cannot advance in soul salvager (though you still get to apply your soul salvager level to both your binder level and divine caster level). You regain your soul salvager features as soon as your binder levels and divine spellcasting levels return to being within 3 of each other. (If you have levels in multiple divine spellcasting classes, only your levels in the class you apply your soul salvager levels are considered when determining whether your devotion to pact and divine magic is imbalanced.)

===Campaign Information===

<!-- REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "PLAYING A ... " SECTION
====Playing a Soul Salvager====

'''Combat:''' For the most part, soul salvagers play much the same role in battle that other binders and divine spellcasters do. However, at higher levels, they start to ''really'' come into their own against opposing binders, as they have the unique ability to forcibly break pacts between binders and vestiges.

'''Advancement:''' <-Typical advancement options for characters with this class.  Include desirable multiclass options.->

'''Resources:''' <-What kind of assistance members of this class can expect from each other, including possible organizations.->
 REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "PLAYING A ... " SECTION -->

<!-- REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "... IN THE WORLD" SECTION
====<-pluralized class name-> in the World====

{{quote|<-Some quote from a character of this class->|4=<-NPC name->, <-race-> <-class->}}

<-Where characters of this class fit in a d20 world->

'''NPC Reactions:''' <-How NPCs react to characters of this class->
 REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "... IN THE WORLD" SECTION -->

====Soul Salvager Lore====

Characters with ranks in [[SRD:Knowledge Skill|Knowledge (the planes) or Knowledge (religion)]] can research soul salvagers to learn more about them.  When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

{| class="zebra d20"
|+ Knowledge (the planes or religion)
! DC || class="left" | Result
|-
| 11 || class="left" | Soul salvagers are divine spellcasters who also utilize pact magic.
|-
| 16 || class="left" | Because most major religions oppose pact magic, soul salvagers are inherently heretical. Yet they remain just as devoted to their churches as any other cleric (though they do ''not'' want their churches to find out what they're up to, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BurnTheWitch for obvious reasons]).
|-
| 21 || class="left" | Soul salvagers are hated by other binders, and the hatred is mutual. Soul salvagers hunt other binders with a zeal unmatched by any other cleric, for reasons that only they seem to understand; in turn, the binders are desperate to exterminate the soul salvagers, considering them to be a grave threat to their way of life.
|- 
| 26 || class="left" | The ultimate goal of a soul salvager is to rescue the vestiges from the realm of nonexistence they are trapped in, and cause the vestiges to become the beings that they once were. If the soul salvagers succeed in this endeavor, those vestiges will no longer be vestiges, and binders will be rendered unable to call upon their power &mdash; an absolute catastrophe for users of pact magic, including the soul salvagers themselves, but a wondrous miracle for highly religious folk, including the soul salvagers themselves.
|- 
| 31 || Few soul salvagers want to consider this, but there are some vestiges that [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceJobBreakingItHero it would be a '''''very bad idea'''''] to rescue from their nigh-nonexistent state. Seriously, could you imagine if Acererak returned and got the Tomb of Horrors up and running again, or Shax resumed bullying the giants and driving them to conquer everything in sight? The results could be unspeakably horriffic! And the gods would ''not'' be happy about the resulting multiverse-spanning mess...
|}

<!-- REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "... IN THE GAME" SECTION
====<-pluralized class name-> in the Game====

<-How characters of this class fit in the game (PC and NPC) and what roles they play->

'''Adaptation:''' <-Fitting this class in your campaign->

'''Sample Encounter:''' <-DM placement for NPC of this class->

''EL <- whatever ->:'' <-Encounter scenario and character info on sample NPC, including stat block.  The CR of the NPC is typically the same as the EL for the encounter.->
 REMOVE THIS LINE WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE "... IN THE GAME" SECTION -->


----
{{3.5e Prestige Classes Breadcrumb}}
[[Category:3.5e]]
[[Category:User]]
[[Category:Class]]
[[Category:Prestige Class]]
{{Navboxes}}
Article Balance	High +
Author	Luigifan18 +
Base Attack Bonus Progression	Moderate +
Class Ability	Divine Spellcasting +
Class Ability Progression	Full +
Fortitude Save Progression	Good +
Identifier	3.5e Prestige Class +
Length	10 +
Minimum Level	6 +
Rating	Unrated +
Reflex Save Progression	Poor +
Skill	Bluff +, Concentration +, Decipher Script +, Diplomacy +, Disguise +, Forgery +, Gather Information +, Knowledge +, Listen +, Search +, Sense Motive +, Speak Language +, Spellcraft +, Spot + and Pactcraft +
Skill Points	4 +
Summary	An agent of religion who seeks to destroy … An agent of religion who seeks to destroy pact magic by restoring the vestiges binders draw their power from to reality. Ironically, he has to be a binder himself in order to achieve his goal, and his actions are motivated just as much by a desire to help the vestiges themselves as a desire to eliminate the heretical practice of soul binding. te the heretical practice of soul binding. +
Title	Soul Salvager +
Will Save Progression	Good +