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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khaalis" data-source="post: 1760022" data-attributes="member: 2167">Ok, taking all of your comments for flavor and feel into account... how is this revision?DEATH-TOUCHED LINEAGE: Death-touched sorcerers are a rare lineage of sorcerers born with an ability to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, gifted with the ability to speak directly to the spirits of the dead. This forms the sorcerer’s power in an innate affinity for magic related to the dead, but not necessarily a necromancer that is a specialist in the undead. This connection to the dead is involuntary and death-touched sorcerers may choose to harness the ability for their own ends, champion the causes of the dead or simply feel forced into a life of a tragic hero cursed by the powers they were born with.Benefit: Death-touched sorcerers gain Knowledge (arcana and planes) as class skills. The sorcerer’s link to the spirits of the dead allows them to speak with those spirits to converse or even to glean information. This acts as a speak with dead spell-like ability at will, with the following exceptions.  Unlike the spell, the death-touched sorcerer does not compel a spirit to answer. Instead, information gathered is as if using the Gather Information skill (at a +2 insight bonus to the skill check) rather than the standard Will save. Also, the death-touch sorcerer can communicate with any deceased spirit regardless of whether or not someone has used speak with dead on the corpse. The sorcerer can still use this ability on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, and the corpse still needs to be mostly intact to be able to respond, as it is the gate between the death-touched sorcerer and the spirit. This ability, unlike the spell, allows communication between the sorcerer and the departed spirit, not just lingering memories in the corpse. However, the spirit’s memories of life are vague at best due to their connection to their new plane of existence. The spirit always remembers previous conversations through this ability however, unlike the spell. This ability still does not affect a corpse that has been turned into an undead creature. Death-touched sorcerers may learn any spell, regardless of the spell list from which it comes from, that directly affects undead or incorporeal creatures.Special Limitation: Death-touched sorcerers have an innate connection to the spirits of the dead and with many necromantic magics which leaves a tell-tale mark of negative energy on the sorcerer making it harder for them to heal by magical healing. The death-touched sorcerer gains an involuntary Spell Resistance equal to 5+ their sorcerer class level versus all Conjuration (healing) magic. By involuntary, this means that the Spell Resistance is always active and cannot be voluntarily dropped by the sorcerer. The sorcerer’s aura also always detects as necromantic regardless of the other powers they possess.  The death-touched sorcerer may also never learn any spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability with the Good or Healing designator. They cannot use spell completion or spell trigger items that activate banned spells, as they just do not work for the sorcerer. Due to their strong affinity to magic of the spirit world, they are left with a natural weakness toward magic of good or positive origin, receiving a –2 penalty to all saving throws against any spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability of the good designator or used by creatures of the good subtype.  A death-touched sorcerer who learns a prohibited spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability may no longer gain levels as a sorcerer as well as loses all sorcerer lineage abilities (including lineage bonus known spells and spell-like abilities, but not including weapon proficiencies and normal spells known), until they atone (see the atonement spell description). Also, like a member of any other class, a death-touched sorcerer may be a multiclass character, but they face a special restriction. A death-touched sorcerer who gains a new class or template that involves racial or bloodline or heredity related abilities that are not specifically spirit oriented (for example Half-Dragon), may never again raise their sorcerer level and loses all sorcerer lineage abilities (including their bonus spells known and lineage based spell-like abilities, but not including weapon proficiencies and standard spells known).Lineage Spells: The sorcerer has a specific affinity with the spirits of the dead and the magic they wield manifests in a Lineage Spell List. These lineage spells may never be changed through spell swapping or spell evolution, but only through Innate Ability evolution. These lineage spells are gained as bonus known spells as soon as the sorcerer is able to cast spells of that spell level. The sorcerer gains the Death-touched Lineage spell list.Death-touched Lineage Spell List: 0–disrupt undead; 1st-unseen servant; 2nd-command undead; 3rd-gaseous form; 4th-planar ally, lesser; 5th-contact other plane; 6th-planar ally; 7th-ethereal jaunt; 8th-planar ally, greater; 9th-etherealnessLineage Abilities: The death-touch sorcerer’s connection with the spirits of the dead grows over time and they become more akin to those spirits and to the force of the spirit world.……….At 8th level the sorcerer gains a supernatural ability that may be activated as a move-equivalent action a number of times per day equal to 3+ the sorcerer’s Charisma modifier and acts as a see invisibility spell (at the sorcerer’s class level) except that it detects undead as well as invisible and ethereal creatures by outlining them in a faint aura. This ability also reveals illusions used to hide or camouflage undead, and also reveals undead creatures who are simply hiding, concealed, or otherwise hard to see. The aura also acts as a sanctuary spell against these creatures. This aura can be dispelled, but can be activated again as a move-equivalent action on the sorcerer’s next turn and lasts for 10 minutes per sorcerer class level.……….At 14th level the death-touched sorcerer begins to come closer to the spirits they have such a strong contact with and can become incorporeal once per day per point of Charisma modifier as a standard action. The sorcerer can remain incorporeal for up to 1 minute each time they transform. During this time, the sorcerer’s body fades into an immaterial form that retains their basic likeness. While incorporeal, the sorcerer gains the incorporeal subtype (see below). They gain a Fly speed equal to their base land speed with perfect maneuverability. Their material armor remains in place and continues to provide its armor bonus to AC and their material weapons also remain corporeal. The sorcerer can, in fact, use equipment normally, deriving benefits from items that enhance his capabilities; however, all their equipment remains material even when the sorcerer is incorporeal. Losing their physical form allows the sorcerer to more easily access their innate spell power, and they gain a +1 bonus on all save DCs for spells they cast while incorporeal.…..In this form the death-touched sorcerer appears almost like a ghost wearing items of the material world. This doesn’t make their equipment more susceptible to attack (the normal rules for attended objects apply), but it does make it impossible for the sorcerer to enter or pass through solid objects while wearing solid equipment. If they drop their material equipment, they can pass through solid objects at will as described below. Incorporeal Subtype: An incorporeal sorcerer has no physical body. They can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. They are immune to all non-magical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, they have a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source (except for positive energy, negative energy, force effects, or attacks made with ghost touch weapons).…..An incorporeal sorcerer has no natural armor bonus - and, unlike other incorporeal creatures, does not gain a deflection bonus from their Charisma modifier. An incorporeal sorcerer can enter or pass through solid objects (subject to the restrictions described previously), but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than their own. They can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to their current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal sorcerer that is inside an object. To see farther from the object they are in and attack normally, the incorporeal sorcerer must emerge. An incorporeal sorcerer inside an object has total cover, but when they attack a creature outside the object they only have cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at them as they attack. An incorporeal sorcerer cannot pass through a force effect.…..An incorporeal sorcerer’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects work normally against them. They can pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. An incorporeal sorcerer cannot fall or take falling damage. They cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions.…..Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight. An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if it doesn’t wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to both its melee attack rolls and its ranged attack rolls. Non-visual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.……….At 20th level the death-touched sorcerer becomes so attuned to the spirit world and the dead that they become a being of pure magic and complete connection to the spirit world, gaining the incorporeal subtype permanently. If the sorcerer desires, they can become corporeal once per day per point of Charisma modifier for up to 1 minute each time they transform, but they spend the rest of their time as an entity of magic, untethered by the physical world. The sorcerer’s worn equipment (including armor and weapons) becomes incorporeal with them. This has no effect on the equipment’s function, but now when the sorcerer is incorporeal, they can enter or pass through solid objects while wearing their equipment. The equipment automatically changes to incorporeal when the sorcerer is incorporeal, and it returns to corporeality when the sorcerer does. Unlike other incorporeal creatures, the sorcerer can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be.Thoughts?</blockquote>

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