Prestige Classes

THRALL OF KOSTCHTCHIE

Thralls of Kostchtchie are savage and cruel barbarians who have excised from their minds all emotions save for fury and rage. The leader of a tribe dedicated to Kostchtchie is almost always one of his thralls, yet not all of his thralls are leaders. A fair amount of them are loners who aren't associated with a particular tribe. A thrall might be a human barbarian who has fallen under the Prince of Wrath's sway, or an ogre who discovered an ancient shrine to Kostchtchie in the mountains. These lone thralls serve as proxies on the Material Plane, often drawing small groups of monsters or bandits to their side to aid them in raids on more peaceful groups. The majority of Kostchtchie's thralls are barbarians. Multiclassed thralls are relatively common, especially barbarian/fighters and barbarian/rangers. Spellcasters tend not to become thralls, since the class not only stalls their spellcasting advancement but the thrall's most potent weapon, the barbarian rage, prevents spellcasting. Nevertheless, a rare few spellcasters with the capacity to cast rage sometimes take levels in this class, in which case they use spells almost exclusively to prepare for or recover from combat - spellcasting thralls of Kostchtthie find casting spells in combat to be a waste of time.

Hit Die: d12.

Requirements

To qualify to become a thrall of Kostchtchie, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.

Gender: Male.

Alignment: Chaotic evil.

Skills: Intimidate 9 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks.

Feats: Power Attack, Thrall to Demon (Kostchtchie), Weapon Focus (any bludgeoning weapon).

Special: Ability to rage as a class ability, racial ability, or by being able to cast rage.

Special: Must seek out a male frost giant and convince him to convert to the worship of Kostchtchie, or must kill no fewer than ten frost giants who refuse to convert.

Class Skills

The thrall of Kostchtchie's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: The Thrall of Kostchtchie

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the thrall of Kostchtchie prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Thralls of Kostchtchie gain no additional proficiency with weapons or armor.

Disfigured (Ex): When a creature becomes a thrall of Kostchtchie, his appearance twists and deforms. He becomes hideously ugly to look upon. The thrall forevermore takes a penalty equal to his class level on Diplomacy, Disguise, and Gather Information checks, but he gains an equal bonus on all Intimidate checks. The saving throw DCs for any fear effects he creates increase by 2.

Ability Increases: As a thrall of Kostchtchie gains levels, his Strength and Constitution scores improve as he grows larger and more muscular. These are ability score increases exactly like those gained every four levels, and stack with all other modifiers.

Rage (Ex): At 2nd level, a thrall of Kostchtchie gains the ability to rage as a barbarian once per day. At 5th level he may rage twice per day, and at 8th level, he my do so three times a day. If he gains the rage ability from another class, these rages stack with those gained from the other class, and can be modified by class abilities like greater rage and tireless rage.

Resist Cold (Ex): At 2nd level, the thrall gains cold resistance 10. This increases by 10 points at 5th level and by another 10 points at 8th level.

Wrathful Rage (Ex): At 3rd level, a thrall of Kostchtchie can select a favored enemy whenever he enters a rage. Use the list of choices available to the ranger when making your selection. Against creatures of his favored enemy type, the thrall of Kostchtchie gains a +4 bonus on weapon damage rolls.

Thick Skin (Ex): At 4th level, the thrall's disfigurement increases to incorporate thickened skin. This improves the thrall's natural armor bonus by 2.

Unfettered Anger (Ex): At 6th level, the thrall becomes immune to the effects of the calm emotions spell. While in a rage, he is immune to charm effects and gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against compulsion effects.

Fiendish Rage (Su): At 7th level, a thrall of Kostchtchie gains the fiendish creature template whenever he rages.

Summon Hound of Kostchtchie (Sp): At 9th level, a thrall of Kostchtchie can summon one of the Prince of Wrath's leucrotta hounds (18-HD advanced fiendish leucrotta of legend) to serve him for 10 rounds in combat. Summoning the hound is a full-round action, and when it arrives, it follows the thrall's spoken commands. If no commands are given, it instinctively attacks the thrall's enemies. This ability can be used once per day.

Wrathful Apotheosis (Su): When a thrall of Kostchtchie reaches 10th level, his body undergoes a terrific transformation. His size increases one category as he grows larger and more muscular. This increase does not impart any changes to the thrall's ability scores (since these changes are in fact spread out during the course of the thrall's class levels), but his new size category does impact his Armor Class and attack rolls as appropriate. His natural armor bonus increases by +2 and his space and reach increase to match his new size category. The thrall of Kostchtchie gains the cold subtype when he undergoes his wrathful apotheosis. If the thrall was originally a humanoid or monstrous humanoid, his type changes to giant.