Grim Legion (3.5e Class)/Grimreaver

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Grimreaver

The wolf. Cunning, fast, and strong, tearing foes apart. These nightbeasts are warriors by nature, hunting in packs and defending their territory with unmatched ferocity. The Grimreavers are warriors of the Grim Legion who seek to emulate the wolf's speed, power and tenacity, hounding foes until they're tired and then tearing them apart, or incapacitating them before they can react.

Making a Grimreaver

Grimreavers are highly-mobile melee warriors, found in the front lines alongside the group's tank, or flanking the enemy to take out key targets.

Abilities: Strength and Dexterity govern the Grimreaver's attacks and AC, and Strength governs the Grimreaver's spells as well.

Races: Most Grimreavers are human, but Elves, half-elves and orc-kin are also found commonly among the ranks, their natural strength or dexterity lending them toward the hit-and-run style of the Grimreaver.

Alignment: Any. The darkness accepts all.

Starting Gold: 6d4×10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: Moderate.

Table: The Grimreaver

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day					Beast Speed Bonus
		Fort	Ref	Will		0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Light/No Armor	Medium Armor
1st	+1	+2	+2	+0	Spells, Trapfinding, Beshadowed Strike +1d6, Shadowbeast, Grimblade, Grim Path	0	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+0	Slayer's Style, Poison Use, Bonus Feat	1	0	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+1	Beshadowed Strike +2d6	1	1	—	—	—	10ft	5ft
4th	+4	+4	+4	+1	Evasion, Familiar Strike +1d6	1	1	—	—	—	15ft	5ft
5th	+5	+4	+4	+1	Shadow's Kiss I, Beshadowed Strike +3d6, Bonus Feat, Spellblade	2	1	—	—	—	15ft	10ft
6th	+6/+1	+5	+5	+2	Uncanny Dodge, Impromptu Strike 1/Encounter	2	2	0	—	—	20ft	10ft
7th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+2	Beshadowed Strike +4d6	2	2	1	—	—	20ft	15ft
8th	+8/+3	+6	+6	+2	Bonus Feat, Familiar Strike +2d6	3	2	1	—	—	25ft	15ft
9th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+3	Shadow's Kiss II, Beshadowed Strike +5d6	3	3	1	—	—	25ft	20ft
10th	+10/+5	+7	+7	+3	Improved Uncanny Dodge, Slayer's Strike	3	3	2	0	—	30ft	20ft
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+3	Beshadowed Strike +6d6, Bonus Feat	4	3	2	1	—	30ft	25ft
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+4	Improved Evasion, Familiar Strike +3d6, Impromptu Strike 2/Encounter	4	4	2	1	—	35ft	25ft
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+4	Beshadowed Strike +7d6	4	4	3	1	—	35ft	30ft
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+4	Shadow's Kiss III, Bonus Feat	5	4	3	2	0	40ft	30ft
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+5	Beshadowed Strike +8d6	5	5	3	2	1	40ft	35ft
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+5	Familiar Strike +4d6	5	5	4	2	1	45ft	35ft
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+5	Beshadowed Strike +9d6, Bonus Feat	6	5	4	3	1	45ft	40ft
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+6	Shadow's Kiss IV, Impromptu Strike 3/Encounter	6	6	4	3	2	50ft	40ft
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+6	Beshadowed Strike +10d6	6	6	5	3	2	50ft	45ft
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+6	Bonus Feat, Familiar Strike +5d6, Impromptu Death	6	6	5	4	2	55ft	45ft
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Control Shape (Wis), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Grimreaver.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Grimreavers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus any single exotic weapon of their choice. Grimreavers are also proficient with light and medium armor, but not with shields. Grimreavers are also proficient with Magic Weapons and one other Magic Implement of their choice.

Spells: Grimreavers can cast a small number of arcane spells. Grimreavers know all the spells on their list, shown below, and can cast any spell on their class list spontaneously. A Grmslayer's spells ignore spell failure from light and medium armor, but not from shields. At each level, the Grimreaver can learn a new spell from any class list, adding it to their class spell list, but the spell must be of the Transmutation or Illusion school, of the Teleportation or Shadow subschool, or have the Darkness descriptor. Additionally, all your Grimreaver spells gain the Darkness descriptor.

Your caster level is equal to one-half your class level. Interestingly, your Grimreaver spells are Strength-based, granting you bonus spells per day from a high Strength score and having a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level + your Strength modifier.

The Grimreaver can only cast Grimreaver spells of a level higher than 0th while his Shadowbeast is alive and within Close range of him, until he attains Shadow's Embrace of the appropriate level. At 5th level, the Grimreaver can cast 1st-level spells without his Shadowbeast; At 9th level his beast is no longer required for 2nd-level spells, and so forth.

0—Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Ghost Sound, Deathwatch, Know Direction, Mage Hand

1st—Alarm, Cause Fear, Darkness, Delay Poison, Detect Poison, Detect Secret Doors, Disguise Self, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Identify, Jump, Know Direction, Light, Longstrider, Mount, Pass without Trace, Shield, True Strike

2nd— Alter Self, Bark Skin, Blur, Bull's Strength, Cats Grace, Darkvision, Death Knell, Detect Thoughts, Glibness, Knock, Locate Object, Misdirection, Obscure Object, Scare, See Invisibility, Spider Climb, Silence, Undetectable Alignment

3rd— Blink, Clairvoyance, Deep Slumber, Displacement, Haste, Keen Edge, Non Detection, Suggestion, Water Walk, Wind Wall

4th— Crushing Despair, Detect Scrying, Dimension Door, Discern Lies, Freedom Of Movement, Greater Invisibility, Locate Creature, Modify Memory, Neutralize Poison, Passwall, Phantasmal Killer, Poison, Zone of Silence

Trapfinding (Ex): At first level, the Grimreaver gains Trapfinding, as the rogue class feature of the same name.

Grim Path: At first level, the Grimreaver chooses one aspect of their innate magic to focus on - The night, or the animals that inhabit it. Thus they choose between the Path of The Beast and the Path of Shadow. These Paths are shown in their own section below.

Track (Ex): At first level, both the Grimreaver and his familiar gain the Track feat.

Beshadowed Strike (Ex): This functions as a Rogue's Sneak Attack, except that its damage changes based on the light. In areas of lighting no brighter than moonlight, the Sneak Attack's dice size increases to d8. However, in areas of bright light, such as natural sunlight, the dice size it reduced to d4. The number of dice increases by one at each odd level, as shown.

Grimblade (Su): Beginning at 1st level, the Grimreaver may generate melee weapons from darkness. This requires their Shadowbeast to be within 10ft of them, and uses the same action as drawing a weapon. You can create a single two-handed weapon, or one or two One-Handed or Light weapons (Or as many weapons as you could normally wield, such as a Thri-Kreen being able to make two Two-Handed weapons or up to four One-Handed or Light weapons). At 1st level, these weapons can be any weapon you're proficient with, but at 2nd level, when you choose your Path, the weapons you can make becomes more specialized as your magic "Settles". These weapons function exactly as their mundane counterparts except that they bypass damage reduction as if they were magic, are subject to Spell Resistance, can be dispelled, and are Illusion (Shadow) [Darkness] effects with an equivalent spell level equal to one-half your class level (Minimum 1st, maximum 9th).

Shadowbeast (Su): At 1st level, the Grimreaver gains a Shadowbeast. This functions exactly as a Familiar, using his class level in place of his Wizard level. However, the creature is completely incorporeal, made of inky shadow, and its natural attacks are touch attacks. In areas of bright light it is Staggered, and in areas of darkness it is Hasted. The creature is actually a manifestation of your shadow; While it is present, you cast no shadow (Nor do you cast a shadow if the creature has been destroyed). As a standard action, the creature can once more become your shadow, ceasing to be a separate entity from you, and immune to harm - If you die the familiar simply remains, inert, as your corpse's shadow.

You can choose any creature from the normal Familiar list, except that the Wolf is added to the list, granting you its +4 racial bonus on checks made to track by Scent. If you later gain an Improved Familiar or similar, its statistics are also altered in the same way as the basic familiars.

Umbral Mount (Su): Beginning at 1st level, you can transform your familiar into a mount. The creature becomes 1 size larger than yourself, gaining +2 Strength and losing -2 Dexterity for every two size categories. Its land speed increases by 10ft, plus 5ft per class level. This is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-half your class level (Min 1, max 9) and can be dispelled. If the shadowbeast is slain while in this form, it returns to its original size.

Slayer's Style (Ex): At second level, you choose a combat style. This affects your Grimblade, as well as granting you additional options.

• Adaptive Style: You prefer a versatile fighting style. You may continue to shape your Grimblades into any weapons of your choice with which you are proficient. You gain the Bonded Weapon feat (Applying to your Grimblade) and the Weapon Aptitude ability of the Warblade, allowing you to change which weapon your weapon-specific feats and abilities apply to. At at 6th level, you gain the Battlefield Agility feat, and at 11th level, you gain Kamaitachi as a bonus feat. At 16th level you gain both Deft Opportunist and Deft Swing as bonus feats, plus any other feat of your choice.

• Twin-Blade Style: You prefer to fight with two weapons. You can only shape your Grimblades into a pair of One-handed or Light weapons. gain Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat, as well as gaining Ambidexterity and Reactive Parry at 6th level. At 11th level you gain the Reactive Riposte and Reactive Combat Maneuver, and at 16th level you gain Robilar's Gambit, Variant.

• Greatblade Style: You prefer to fight with a heavy weapon. You can now only shape your Grimblade into a single two-handed weapon, and may add twice your Strength bonus to damage with two-handed weapons. You gain Power Attack and Great Cleave as bonus feats; and at 6th level you gain Whirlwind Attack and the Improved Power Attack ability of the Frenzied Berserker, increasing the bonus damage granted by Power Attack by 50%. At 11th level you gain Sweeping Strike and Supreme Power attack, (Which replaced Improved Power Attack), doubling the bonus damage granted by Power Attack; And at 16th level, you gain Whirling Dervish.

• Einhander Style: You prefer fighting with a single weapon and nothing else. You can now only shape you Grimblade into a single one-handed or light weapon. You gain the Einhander feat; The feat's Special entry ignores the effects of the Quickswap Fighting feat, which is gained at 6th level. At 11th level, you gain the Wolfblade Tactics feat, and at 16th level, you gain the Crosscut feat.

• Hafted Style: You prefer fighting with hafted weapons, such as the quarterstaff, longspears, and so on. You can now only shape your Grimblade into a single reach weapons (Which is usually two-handed, but may be one-handed). You gain the Short Haft feat, and at 6th level, you may use any two-handed hafted weapon as a double weapon by giving up the weapon's Reach quality; Spiked Chains function as if you possess the Advanced Spiked Chain Proficiency feat and polearms - Such as spears, halberds and the like - Deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage with their second end, just like a quarterstaff. At 11th level, you gain Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat. At 16th level, you gain a Fighter bonus feat of your choice.

Poison Use (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, a Grimreaver never risks accidentally poisoning themselves.

Bonus Feat (Ex): At 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter (5th, 8th, etc.) the Grimreaver gains a bonus feat, for which they must still meet the prerequisites. These must be Fighter feats, Combat feats, or Ambush feats.

Evasion (Ex): At 4th level, you gain the Evasion of a Rogue. At 12th level, this is replaced by Improved Evasion.

Familiar Strike (Ex): At 4th level, your Shadowbeast gains one die of Beshadowed Strike, similar to your class ability. They gain an additional dice at every level divisible by 4 thereafter (2d6 at 8th, 3d6 at 12th, etc).

Shadow's Embrace (Su): At 5th level, you gain Shadow's Embrace. From now on, you can cast your 1st-level spells without your Familiar being within Close range, and your caster level for your 1st- and 0th- level spells is equal to your class level, rather than one-half your class level. This benefit extends to your 2nd-level spells at 9th level, your 3rd-level spells at 14th level, and your 4th-level spells at 18th level.

Spellblade (Ex): At 5th level, you gain the Steel And Spell Style feat as a bonus feat, but only for your Grimreaver spells. You may also now enchant your Grimblade, as if you possessed the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat. However, you ignore spell and feat prerequisites for each enchantment, but must still spend the time, gold and XP costs. Your caster level for the purposes of enchanting your Grimblade is equal to your Grimreaver level.

Additionally, you may create talismans of special materials - Such as adamantine, silver, or cold iron. These Talismans each weigh 1 pound and cost the same as the special material's cost for a weapon - For example, Adamantine weapons cost 3,000GP, so an Adamantine Talisman would cost 3,000 GP. When you form your Grimblade(s), you have the option of assimilating one of the Talismans you carry into the weapons, causing them to act as if made of that special material.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 6th level, you gain the Uncanny Dodge ability of a Rogue. At 10th level, this is replaced by Improved Uncanny Dodge.

Impromptu Strike (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, once per encounter, you may declare a single attack to be a sneak attack, denying the target its Dexterity bonus against that attack. This may be used twice pe encounter at 12th level and three times per encounter at 18th level.

Reaver's Strike (Ex): At 15th level, you gain the Death Attack of the Assassin, except that the DC is based on your Strength instead of your Intelligence. Additionally, if you land a critical hit with a sneak attack, the target is automatically forced to make a save against the effects of your Death Attack, possibly paralyzing or killing them outright.

Impromptu Death (Ex): At 20th level, when you use your Impromptu Strike ability, you may instead make it a Death Attack instead of a normal Beshadowed Strike. Doing so consumes all of your remaining uses of your Impromptu Strike for the encounter, and the DC of the Death Attack is reduced by 2 for each use of Impromptu Strike you've already used that encounter.

Grim Paths

At first level, the Grimreaver chooses one aspect of their innate magic to focus on - The night, or the animals that inhabit it. Thus they choose between the Path of The Beast and the Path of Shadow.

Path of Shadow

Umbral Sight (Su): When you reach 3rd level, your vision extends slightly into the Plane of Shadow. You gain darkvision out to 30 feet. If you already have darkvision, or gain it from another source, the effective distance of that vision is increased by 30 feet. At 10th level, you become able to see perfectly in complete darkness, even magical darkness, out to 60 feet.

Sustaining Shadow (Ex): When you reach 4th level, your bond to the Plane of Shadow allows you to absorb dark energies, mitigating certain biological needs. You need eat only a single meal per week to maintain health. At 8th level, you only need 1 hour of sleep per night (but you must still rest for 8 hours to regain your spells for the next day). At 12th level, you gain immunity to nonmagical diseases and poisons. Finally, at 16th level, you no longer need to breathe, and need never eat or sleep.

Darkstalker Training (Ex): The Grimreaver adds one-half their class level to Hide, Move Silently, Tumble, Survival checks, as well as to critical confirmation rolls made with their Grimblade and weapons of their chosen combat style (See below).

Darkstep (Su): Beginning at 1st level, you can transport yourself via darkness. This transportation must begin and end in an area with at least some shadow. You must possess at least as many levels as the ability requires (Thus you must be at least 4th level before you can teleport as a swift action). You may teleport yourself as follows:

• Up to 5ft per 4 class levels as a swift action,
• Up to 5ft per 3 class levels as a move action,
• Up to 5ft per 2 class levels as a standard action, or
• Up to 5ft per class level as a full-round action.

This ability can be used at will, limited only by the action spent to use it. This ability counts as Shadow Jump for the purposes of prerequisites, and functions as a Conjuration (Teleportation) [Darkness] effect.

Hide In Plain Sight (Ex): At 12th level, you gain Hide In Plain Sight, as the Ranger class feature of the same name.

Spells: You add the following spells to your class spell list. If a spell exists both on this list and your default list, use the lower spell level.

0th— Silent Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Disguise Self

1st— Blur, Blindness/Deafness, Ghoul Touch, Spectral Hand, Mirror Image

2nd— Major Image, Ray of Exhaustion, Vampiric Touch, Dimension Door, Illusory Script

3rd— Shadow Conjuration, Enervation, Teleport, Illusory Wall

4th— Shadow Walk, Mislead, Shadow Evocation, Persistent Image, Greater Teleport, Phantasmal Killer

Path of The Beast

Camouflage (Ex): At 1st level the Grimreaver gains Camouflage, as the Ranger class feature.

Bloodseeker Training (Ex): The Grimreaver adds one-half their class level to Climb, Swim, Jump and Survival checks, as well as to critical confirmation rolls made with their Grimblade and weapons of their chosen combat style (See below).

Woodland Stride (Ex): At 2nd level, you gain the Woodland Stride ability of a Druid.

Trackless Step (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain the Trackless Step ability of a Druid.

Speed Bonus (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain an increase to your movement speed. This bonus applies only when you're carrying no heavier than a Light load, not using a shield, and wearing no heavier than Medium armor.

Wolfpack Tactics (Ex): At 4th level, both you and your familiar gain the Wolfpack Tactics feat as a bonus feat. The bonuses you and your familiar gain from flanking increase from +2 to +4.

Scent (Ex): Beginning at 7th level, you gain Scent, as does your Shadowbeast if they do not already possess it.

Spells: You add the following spells to your class spell list. If a spell exists both on this list and your default list, use the lower spell level.

0th— Enlarge Person, Magic Fang, Jump, Longstrider, Pass Without Trace

1st— Align Weapon, Barkskin, Alter Self, Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Magic Weapon

2nd— Haste, Eagle's Splendor, Fox's Cunning, Owl's Wisdom, Greater Magic Fang, Keen Edge, Water Breathing

3rd— Greater Magic Weapon, Mass Bear's Endurance, Mass Bull's Strength, Mass Cat's Grace

4th— Transformation, Awaken, Disrupting Weapon, Mass Enlarge Person, Polymorph, True Seeing

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