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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obly99" data-source="post: 9846168" data-attributes="member: 7035194">Coryphaus (Cleric Archetype)Alters alignment, spontaneous casting; Replaces channel energy, domainIn the shadowed corners of the world, where light dares not tread and evil festers in its purest form, there exists a dark and twisted order of clerics, known as the Coryphaus. These malevolent priests have abandoned the light, aligning themselves with the darkest forces of the cosmos. Once devoted to the sanctity of the gods, the Coryphaus has turned its back on those moral constraints, choosing instead to worship the terrible powers of the Lower Planes. Their rituals are not of healing and redemption, but of sacrifice and summoning, where the very souls of the innocent are consumed to fuel their infernal bargains.Bound to an evil entity that reflects their own corrupt nature, the Coryphaus treads a path few dare to follow. No longer constrained by moral alignment, their focus is singular: the pursuit of power through the summoning of fiends—demonic, devilish, or daemonic beings that serve only the most wicked of purposes. Through their rituals, they sacrifice the lives of others, drawing forth these beings from the depths of the planes, their souls devoured by the abyssal forces that come in their wake. These rituals are not just about calling forth power—they are about forging a bond with evil itself, bartering with fiends for favors that require unspeakable prices.The Coryphaus’ true mastery lies in their ability to control the fabric of the occult, their understanding of the arcane rituals far surpassing those of most mortal clerics. They can twist their very being to manipulate the forces of evil, turning their enemies' strengths into their own dark advantage. They do not heal with the magic of the divine, nor do they wield the powers of the light; instead, they weave the dark summoning arts, calling forth fiendish servants to do their bidding. The very nature of their spells summons malevolent creatures, bringing about the infernal forces of destruction to do their will.The fiends they call upon can be bound directly into the very bodies of their allies, turning living creatures into vessels of demonic, daemonic, or devilish power. The cursed beings within these vessels corrupt and twist the bodies of the hosts, giving them unnatural strength and terrifying abilities—but at a cost. Once bound, the fiends cannot easily escape their hosts, and the curse of their power lingers on, corrupting both the vessel and its master.Those who dare walk the path of the Coryphaus are not just clerics; they are harbingers of malevolent change, wielding power that comes from the darkest corners of the multiverse. They stand as grim reminders that even those who once sought to heal the world can become its greatest tormentors, turning their skills to twisted ends.The Coryphaus is a force of destruction and fear, a creature of unholy rites and rituals, who knows no allegiance but to the evil entities they worship. Their enemies tremble at the thought of their summoning, for when the Coryphaus speaks, the fiends listen—and answer with terrifying consequences.Alignment: The coryphaus must be evil and worship an evil entity within one step of his alignment. He also gains Abyssal and Infernal as a bonus languages.This alters alignment.Dark Ritual: A coryphaus can sacrifice any number of willing or helpless sentient creatures for call a fiend (an outsider with both the evil and extraplanar subtype or with the oni or rakshasa subtype) during an occult ritual of one minute duration. Only true sentient creatures can be sacrificed in this way, not summoned ones. A creature sacrificed in this way has most of its soul consumed by the arriving fiend and is more difficult to bring back to life: a character attempting to raise or resurrect it must succeed at a caster level check with a DC equal to 10 + its HD or the spell fails. That character cannot attempt to resurrect him again until 24 hours have passed, though other characters can still attempt to do so.The coryphaus cannot call a fiend with a CR higher than the combined HD of the sacrificed creatures or his cleric level (eg. for call a CR 14 fiend he must at least be of 14th level and sacrifice a combination of 14 or more HD of creatures).A coryphaus may ask the fiend to perform one task in exchange for a payment. This payment can take a variety of forms, from donating gold or magic items to an allied temple, to a gift given directly to the fiend, to some other action on the coryphaus part that matches the fiend’s alignment and goals. Regardless, this payment must be made before the fiend agrees to perform any services. The bargaining takes at least 1 round, so any actions by the creature begin in the round after it arrives. A task taking up to 1 minute per cleric level requires a payment of 10 gp per HD of the creature called. For a task taking up to 1 hour per cleric level, the creature requires a payment of 50 gp per HD. A long-term task, one requiring up to 1 day per cleric level, requires a payment of 100 gp per HD. A nonhazardous task requires only half the indicated payment, while an especially hazardous task might require a greater gift. Few if any fiends will accept a task that seems suicidal (remember, a called fiend actually dies when it is killed, unlike a summoned creature). However, if the task is strongly aligned with the fiend’s ethos, it may halve or even waive the payment. At the end of its task, or when the duration bargained for expires, the fiend returns to its home plane (after reporting back to you, if appropriate and possible).If the coryphaus know a specific fiend (eg. Rhagtz, a babau with 4 levels as a rogue), he can chose to call that specific creature instead of a generic fiend of that type, in this case the creature knows the name, alignment, and patron deity of the coryphaus attempting to calling it and may refuse to return on that basis. For determinate the CR for a fiend with racial HD and levels, use the fiend levels as a CR increment of 1:1 (eg. for call Rhagtz, a coryphaus must be of 10 level [6 base CR + 4 levels as a rogue]).This ritual can be made once per day, plus one more time per day at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.This replaces domains and domain slots.Master of Rituals: A coryphaus gains Psychic Sensitivity and Summon Evil Monster as a bonus feats. A coryphaus can replace the mental modifier of a skill with his Wisdom modifier when using that skill for an occult ritual or an occult skill (like automatic writing writing or prognostication) and gains a bonus equal to ½ his cleric level on such checks. If the ritual has the [calling], [evil] or [summoning] descriptor the bonus increase to his full cleric level.Starting at 8th level, a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom modifier, a coryphaus can try to stabilize a failing ritual: he can reroll a failed skill check while casting an occult ritual. He can’t reroll the same roll more than once.This replaces channel energy.Summon Malevolence: A coryphaus, instead of spontaneous casting cure or inflict spells, he spontaneous cast summon monster spells, but only for summon fiendish or evil creatures. When cast in this way, the casting time of the summon monster spell is reduced to a standard action. If the spell level of the summon monster is at least 3 level lowers that the maximum cleric spell he can cast the spell duration increase to 1/minute level.This alters spontaneous casting.Gal Vorbak (Su): A coryphaus, at 11th leve l, can call a daemon, demon, or devil and bind it inside a willing creature other than himself at the end of an 8 hours long ritual that consume 5,000 gp x CR of the binded fiend. The creature gains the <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/daemon-host-cr-2-3/" target="_blank">Daemon-Host</a> (but without the Daemon Doom and Daemonic Soul abilities), <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/demon-possessed-creature-template/" target="_blank">Demon-Possessed Creature</a> (but the demon cannot exit the creature with Possessed and the creature does not gain Spell Vulnerability ability), or the <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/devil-bound-creature-template/" target="_blank">Devil-Bound Creature</a> template (but without the Contract Bound ability), based on the type of fiend binded. All of this templates are found in the Advanced Bestiary of the Green Ronin Publishing.A coryphaus, with this ritual, cannot bind in a creature a fiend that has a CR higher than his cleric level.</blockquote>

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