(Excerpt from the Secrets and Societies)
Incarnates are shapechanging druids who are not only committed to absolute balance, but are in fact the literal embodiment of the neutral ideal. They are a very rare breed of being that has reincarnated many dozens (or even hundreds) of times during the history of the world. In every lifetime, the incarnate has remained true to the tenets of Denev and upheld the laws of immortal nature above the laws any mortal has dared to create.
Only druids may become incarnates, and only neutral ones at that. The ranks of incarnates are quite small even given these stern requirements. The incarnate is one that rediscovers his own "incarnate soul," usually though very intense and realistic dreams of past lives. Many incarnates were simply druids that discovered this potential within themselves; others come from the ranks of those who discovered these dreams of the past within themselves first and then sought out druids to help them awaken their potential.
As the incarnate gains in power, he learns to identify the forms his incarnate soul once wore, combining this knowledge with his skills in druidic shape-changing to once again assume those forms. He also learns to tap into some of the natural flows of the Primal Elements, as well as the powers of life flowing through animals and plants, learning to cast certain spells spontaneously.
Incarnates can be found working alongside those who are good or evil and those who are lawful or chaotic. However, they find themselves seldom trusted. As the sage Yugman explains, "Trusting an incarnate is like trusting a feral cat; one moment it will bring you a prize, and the next that prize will be your caged bird." Fortunately, despite their lack of connection to those they meet on the grounds of religion, philosophy or politics, most incarnates are charismatic individuals who inspire confidence and friendship.
Dreams of the Past (New Feat)
Some folk in the Scarred Lands occasionally experience dreams of the past, reliving memories of an animal life before the one they know. As turns Denev's Wheel of Souls, those who revere her pass from one incarnation to the next, living multiple lives until the soul is refined into purest balance. As the soul begins to achieve that balance, it is sometimes able to draw upon its previous memories and even skills in order to use those skills in this lifetime.
Prerequisites: Neutral alignment, Wis 12+
Benefit: This feat is chosen for a single skill possessed by the animal or vermin that the character was in a previous life. This skill is considered a class skill. Additionally, once per week, the character may draw upon the skills of his previous life, gaining a number of ranks in that skill equal to 1d6 + his Wisdom modifier. During that time, however, he takes on traits and mannerisms appropriate to that former life, from the articulated, precise movements of a giant spider (Climb) to the inquisitive eyes and cocked head of a listening bloodhound (Listen).
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times, each one for different skills. Note that when this feat is taken, a "past life" must be chosen that corresponds to the skill. This past life is limited to that of an animal or vermin.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become an incarnate, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Neutral.
Feat: Dreams of the Past.
Ability: Wild shape.
Skills: Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks.
Special: The character must have never voluntarily possessed an alignment other than neutral.
Class Skills
The incarnate class skills are the same as the druid's (see PHB, Chapter 3, Druid section).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the incarnate prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An incarnate is proficient with the following weapons: club, dart, longspear, quarterstaff, shortspear, sickle (if stone) and sling. Their spiritual kinship to natural items prohibits their use of weapons with any metal whatsoever, so they cannot use darts or spears with metal tips. They are proficient with padded, leather and hide armor only, and may use wooden or leather shields (the same ban against metal applies). Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble.
An incarnate that wears prohibited armor or wields a prohibited weapon is unable to use any of her magical powers while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter. Like druids, though, incarnates can wield weapons and wear armor that has been altered by the ironwood spell.
Spells: An incarnate continues to gain spells as if she were adding levels to her druid class, so that an incarnate always casts spells as a druid of a level equal to her incarnate level + her druid level. Bonus spells are still gained for having a high Wisdom, and the DC to resist spells is still 10 + the spell's level + the incarnate's Wisdom modifier. At least initially, an incarnate also prepares and casts spells as a druid does.
Pastlife form: At first level, an incarnate learns to use her druidic wild shape to assume the form of a past life, usually that associated with her Dream of the Past feat. This form must be an animal or vermin at 1st, 4th and 8th levels; the 2nd and 6th level forms may be an animal, beast, fey, humanoid or vermin that has the potential to be of neutral alignment. This ability follows all the rules of druidic wildshape, save that the incarnate may only take the form of a creature whose CR is equal to or less than his levels in the Incarnate prestige class.
If the incarnate chooses a creature that has a CR lower than what he may gain for that pastlife form, that animal is distinctly superior to creatures of its type, gaining above-average stats for its type. The incarnate receives 2 stat points to divide among the form's Strength, Dexterity and Constitution for every point below the incarnate's potential CR for that pastlife form, counting moving among fractional CRs as single points (thus, playing an owl, which is CR 1/4 grants 4 points, counting the "steps" from CR 1/4 to CR 1/2, then to CR 1). Please note that all fractions that are lower than 1/2 immediately stage up to CR 1/2.
For instance, at first level, an incarnate chooses an eagle (CR 1/2) as a past life form. The incarnate gains 2 points to divide among the stats of that form, adding both points to the eagle's Dexterity; in a previous life, the incarnate was Swift-of-Wing, an eagle of great speed and quickness.
Assuming a pastlife form takes up one use of the incarnate's wildshape per-day usages of that ability. These forms are not "generic" in the way the forms of wildshape are if the incarnate chooses to assume the form of a cheetah as one of his pastlife forms, he always assumes that form, including gender, appearance and the like. Note that because the incarnate does maintain intelligence in vermin forms, he does not gain the normal immunity to mind-influencing effects that vermin get.
The incarnate gains one new pastlife form at 2nd level and then another every other level after the second (at 4th, 6th, 8th, etc.). At each level that the Incarnate gains a new pastlife form, he also adds one to his wildshape uses per day.
For example, a 6th-level incarnate may assume four different pastlife forms, which might be a female hawk at 1st level (1 CR allowed, though the hawk is a CR 1/3, granting 4 additional points to its abilities), a male Albadian battle dog at 2nd level (a CR 1 animal, granting 2 additional ability points to the creature; see Creature Collection, p. 7), a female nixie at 4th level (a CR 1 fey, granting a whopping 6 points to abilities), and a male dire lion at 6th (a CR 5 animal, gaining an additional 2 points to abilities).
Note that some incarnates have been known to assume the forms of humanoids, complete with the skills and abilities of their past life. Any class abilities wielded in these lives has been lost the incarnate is still a druid. They do, however, gain average stats for that character, including skills, racial abilities and ability scores (modified by difference in potential CR) appropriate for the character. Note that feats are not gained, however.
Thus, if Tarhael remembers a life as a dwarven weaponsmith for his 4th level pastlife form, the player of that character work up the abilities for said character, creating a 4th level dwarf expert.
Like wildshape, the ability to assume pastlife form is essentially polymorph self, with a few differences. For instance, despite any forced shapechanges (such as by a polymorph other spell), the incarnate may always return to his base form as long as the incarnate retains his intelligence in the form that he has been turned into.
Each transformation (whether into a pastlife form or back to his current form) allows the incarnate to recover hit points as if she rested for day. Therefore, a transformation into a pastlife form of a hawk and back again results in the recovery of hit points equal to twice the incarnate's normal daily recovery rate.
Additionally, the incarnate loses the ability to cast her own spells when in any animal, vermin or beast form (unless the spells can be cast without somatic and verbal components), but spellcasting ability is retained in all humanoid and fey forms.
There is no limit to the amount of time an incarnate may remain in any of her pastlife forms, but once she transforms out of one, she must exptend another use of her wildshape to reassume it.
Memories of the lifetimes of any of these pastlife forms inevitably return to the incarnate as well, but this takes time. The player and Game Master can agree upon the details. Such details can often figure into the story of the Game Master's campaign.
Fixed Alignment: An incarnate is always a true neutral and no spell or effect can alter her alignment no matter the power of the attempt. Additionally, she receives an additional +2 bonus to any Will save against effects that attempt to coerce or trick her into acting in a manner inconsistent with her alignment. (For instance, if the incarnate falls under the influence of a dominate person spell, any instruction to plunder a village would be considered coercion against her alignment. In this case the +2 bonus would be on top of the +1 to +4 bonus already suggested by this spell's description). The incarnate also gains a chance to break control when given such orders even if the spell or power controlling him does not normally allow such.
Soul of the Cycle: Since the former druid has now reawakened to her incarnate nature, she automatically reincarnates upon her death, whether she dies of old age, violence, disease or any other cause. Unlike the reincarnate spell, though, the incarnate is born again into a newly conceived fetus and must be born and grow again to maturity. For a period of one week after the death of the incarnate, spells such as raise dead will bring her back to life in her current life form. But after that time, such spells (including wish and true resurrection) do not function, as the incarnate's soul has already passed on to a newly conceived body. The incarnate must begin again not only with another mortal birth but also at zero experience points. The incarnate retains no memories from her last life, except for what might be recalled if the terminated life should become a pastlife form for her next incarnation.
Additionally, the incarnate cannot be turned into an undead creature; anything that would do so merely slays the incarnate, whose soul then speeds on to its next incarnation.
Lore of Life: At 3rd level and then again at 7th level, an incarnate may choose any one of the domains of Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant and Water and may prepare spells from that domain list in lieu of equivalent level druid spells. For example, a 3rd-level incarnate who chooses the Fire domain may prepare burning hands (a 1st-level Fire spell in the place of one 1st-level druid spell the incarnate could normally prepare).
Spontaneous Casting: At 3rd level, an incarnate gains the ability to spontaneously cast spells such as a cleric does when he replaces a prepared spell with a cure spell. Instead of spontaneously casting cure spells, the incarnate may spontaneously cast spells from whichever domain(s) the incarnate has gained through the Lore of Life ability. Spells cast must be in the place of an equivalent level prepared spell (just like the cleric's ability). All rules that govern a cleric's spontaneous casting of cure spells apply to this ability of incarnates, including using such spells with metamagic feats.
Baseform: At 5th level, an incarnate may choose to change his "base" life form from that of his current existence to that of one of the pastlife forms he has recalled. Therefore, in our example above, the 6th-level incarnate might choose her nixie form as her baseform. Then, when she transformed into a hawk, she would become a nixie again upon changing back. The incarnate's present life form (such as half-elf) then becomes another form the incarnate may assume through the expenditure of a wildshape use.
Venom Immunity: At 5th level, an incarnate gains immunity to all organic poisons, including monster poisons but not mineral poisons or poison gases.
Timeless Body: At 9th level, an incarnate no longer suffers ability penalties for aging (see PHB, Table 6-5: Aging Effects) and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties the incarnate has already suffered are immediately reversed and the original values are reinstated as the incarnate has achieved the special notice of Denev. Bonuses for aging continue to accrue and the incarnate still dies of old age when his time is up.
Designate Incarnation: At 10th level, an incarnate has earned the right to choose the form for his next lifetime. He may do this at any time prior to his death and the form chosen must follow all the rules of choosing a pastlife form, but once the decision has been made it cannot be changed.
