Phantoms
A phantom was once a sentient, living creature that experienced great turmoil in life or during death. The power of its emotional trauma ripped it from the flow of spirits rushing toward the Astral Plane and the fates beyond, pulling it through the Ethereal Plane and toward the Negative Energy Plane. During the decent to nothingness and undeath, the spirit was able to break free, and made its way back to the Material Plane to find shelter within the consciousness of a powerful psychic spellcaster. That fusion created a spiritualist.
Phantoms may retain some of their memories from life, but not many. Some phantoms wish to unburden themselves of their emotional shackles, while others just wish to continue existing while avoiding the corruption of undeath. Others still wish nothing more than to inflict their torment upon the living—taking their revenge on life for the horrors they faced during and after death.
Phantoms are powerful beings, but they are far more emotional than they are rational. Phantoms are still shackled by the emotions that created them, and spiritualists must maintain strong control over their phantoms to keep the phantom's often-violent emotions in check.
At 1st level, while a phantom is confined in a spiritualist's consciousness (but not while it's fully manifested or banished to the Ethereal Plane), it grants the spiritualist the Skill Focus feat in two skills determined by the phantom's emotional focus, unless the spiritualist already has Skill Focus in those skills. It also grants a +4 bonus on saving throws against all mind-affecting effects; at 12th level, this bonus increases to +8. Lastly, once per day, when the spiritualist fails a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect, as an immediate action she can shunt that effect into the phantom's section of her consciousness instead. When she does so, she is not affected by the mind-affecting effect, but for the normal duration of that effect, the spiritualist loses the bonuses on saving throws against mind-affecting effects and the Skill Focus effects granted by her phantom, and can't use this ability to shunt a mind-affecting effect into the phantom's consciousness or manifest her phantom in any way. When a mind-affecting effect is shunted into the phantom's consciousness, spells such as dispel magic and break enchantment can be cast on the spiritualist to end the effect's duration as if the spiritualist were affected by the mind-affecting effect.
At 1st level, a spiritualist can force the phantom to manifest in an area around her by pushing the phantom's consciousness though the veil of ethereal essence, allowing it to fully manifest in either ectoplasmic or incorporeal form. Whenever her manifested phantom takes enough damage to send it back to the Ethereal Plane, as a reaction to the damage, the spiritualist can sacrifice any number of her hit points without using an action. Each hit point sacrificed in this way prevents 1 point of damage dealt to the phantom. This can prevent the phantom from being sent back to the Ethereal Plane.
This tether is limited. When the phantom is fully manifested, it and the spiritualist must remain within 50 feet of one another for the phantom's manifestation to stay stable with little to no concentration on the part of the spiritualist. The spiritualist can stretch the limited tether, but only when the phantom is in ectoplasmic form. When a spiritualist starts her turn and her ectoplasmic phantom is more than 50 feet away from her (but closer than 100 feet), the spiritualist must concentrate on the link as a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity or the ectoplasmic phantom immediately returns to the Ethereal Plane and cannot be summoned from that plane for 24 hours. This concentration can be interrupted as if it were a spell. Treat this effect's spell level as equal to 1 + 1 per 10 feet farther than 50 feet that the phantom is from the spiritualist (maximum spell level 6th). If the tether is interrupted or the check fails, the phantom immediately snaps back into the consciousness of its spiritualist master.
If the ectoplasmic phantom is ever more than 100 feet away from its spiritualist, or the incorporeal phantom is ever 50 feet away from the spiritualist or outside of line of effect from the spiritualist for more than 1 round per spiritualist level the spiritualist possesses, the tether is automatically broken; the phantom immediately returns to the Ethereal Plane and can't be summoned from that plane for 24 hours.
At 2nd level, as a standard action, a spiritualist can share the senses of her manifested phantom, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling everything her phantom does. She can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to her spiritualist level, but those rounds do not need to be consecutive. There is no maximum range for this effect, but the phantom and the spiritualist must be on the same plane. The spiritualist can end this effect as a free action.
At 3rd level, as a swift action, a spiritualist can pull on the consciousness of her phantom and the substance of the Ethereal Plane to partially manifest aspects of both in her own body. When she does, she uses this bonded manifestation to enhance her own abilities while the phantom is still bound to her consciousness. For the spiritualist to use this ability, the phantom must be confined in the spiritualist's consciousness; it can't be manifested in any other way.
During a bonded manifestation, the phantom can't be damaged, dismissed, or banished. A spiritualist can use bonded manifestation a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + her spiritualist level. The rounds need not be consecutive. She can dismiss the effects of a bonded manifestation as a free action, but even if she dismisses a bonded manifestation on the same round that she used it, it counts as 1 round of use.
When a spiritualist uses this ability, she must choose either ectoplasmic or incorporeal form. When she makes this choice, she gains all of the abilities based on the form she chooses and her spiritualist level.
Ectoplasmic Bonded ManifestationWhen a spiritualist uses this ability and chooses ectoplasmic form, she gains an ectoplasmic shield that protects her without restricting her movement or actions. She gains a +4 shield bonus to Armor Class; this bonus applies to incorporeal touch attacks. The ectoplasmic shield has no armor check penalty or arcane spell failure chance. At 8th level, the spiritualist also sprouts a pair of ectoplasmic tendrils from her body. Once per round as either a swift or a standard action (spiritualist's choice), the spiritualist can use one or both tendrils to attack creatures within her melee reach (using the attack bonus and damage dice of her ectoplasmic manifested phantom) or to manipulate objects. She can even use that action to have one tendril make an attack and the other manipulate an object, as long as that object can be manipulated with one hand. At 13th level, the phantom's ectoplasm clings to the spiritualist like a suit of armor. This grants the spiritualist a +6 armor bonus to AC without imposing an armor check penalty, an arcane spell failure chance, or any reduction in speed. At 18th level, the spiritualist can take a full-round action to attack all creatures within her melee reach with her tendrils (using the attack bonus and damage dice of her ectoplasmic manifested phantom). When she does, she rolls the attack roll twice, takes the better of the two results, and uses that as her attack roll result against all creatures within her melee reach. If the better attack roll threatens a critical hit, the spiritualist chooses one target that she hit to confirm the critical hit against. The other attacks that hit are considered normal hits rather than critical threats.
Incorporeal Bonded ManifestationWhen a spiritualist uses this ability and chooses incorporeal form, she becomes shrouded in a haze of insubstantial mist, granting her concealment against ranged attacks. At 8th level, the spiritualist can better affect incorporeal creatures with melee attacks; her unarmed strikes and melee weapon attacks are treated as if they had the ghost touch magic weapon special ability. At 13th level, the spiritualist can take a standard action to become invisible (as the invisibility spell) until the start of her next turn. At 18th level, the spiritualist gains the incorporeal subtype and a fly speed of 30 feet (good) while using this form of bonded manifestation.
At 4th level, whenever a spiritualist is within the reach of her ectoplasmic manifested phantom, she gains a +2 shield bonus to her Armor Class and a +2 circumstance bonus on her saving throws. She doesn't gain these bonuses when the ectoplasmic manifested phantom is grappled, helpless, or unconscious. A spiritualist within 30 feet of her incorporeally manifested phantom receives a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects. This bonus is a supernatural ability and does not apply if the phantom is unconscious.
At 5th level, a spiritualist's connection with the Ethereal Plane becomes so strong that she can use detect undead at will as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to her spiritualist level.
At 6th level, as either a swift or an immediate action, a spiritualist can call her manifested phantom to her side or back into her consciousness. This ability functions as dimension door, using the spiritualist's class level as the caster level. When the spiritualist calls the phantom in this way, the phantom appears adjacent to the spiritualist (or as close as possible, if all adjacent spaces are occupied).
When the spiritualist uses this ability to call the phantom back to her consciousness, she can activate bonded manifestation as part of that action, but doing so costs 1 extra round of bonded manifestation.
The spiritualist can use this ability once per day at 6th level, plus one additional time per day for every 4 spiritualist levels she possesses beyond 6th.
Calm Spirit
At 7th level, a spiritualist gains the ability to use <em>calm spirit</em> as a spell-like ability once per day. At 11th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the spiritualist can use this ability an additional time per day (to a maximum of 4 times per day at 19th level).
See Invisibility
At 9th level, a spiritualist gains the ability to see many things normally hidden from sight. She gains the ability to use see invisibility as a spell-like ability once per day, with a duration of 10 minutes.
At 10th level, a spiritualist always gains the benefits of bonded senses when her phantom is manifested. She also gains the skill ranks and bonus to mind-affecting spells granted by the spirit's emotional focus, even when her phantom is manifested. Lastly, she can shunt the effect of a mind-affecting effect into the consciousness of her phantom as the shared consciousness ability even when the phantom is manifested, but doing so causes the phantom to immediately retreat back into the spiritualist's consciousness.
Greater Spiritual Interference
At 12th level, whenever allies are within the phantom's reach, as long as the manifested phantom is in ectoplasmic form, each ally gains a +2 shield bonus to its Armor Class and a +2 circumstance bonus on its saving throws. For the spiritualist, these bonuses increase to +4. The spiritualist and allies within range don't gain this bonus if the manifested phantom is grappled, helpless, or unconscious. While the phantom is incorporeally manifested, allies within 30 feet of the phantom receive a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects. For the spiritualist, this bonus increases to +4. This bonus doesn't apply if the phantom is unconscious.
At 14th level, a spiritualist's life force becomes intrinsically linked with the phantom's spiritual essence. As long as the phantom has 1 or more hit points, when the spiritualist takes damage that would reduce her to fewer than 0 hit points, those points of damage are transferred to the phantom instead. This transfer stops after the phantom takes all the points of damage or the phantom is reduced to a negative amount of hit points equal to its Constitution score. In the latter case, points of damage dealt in excess of this limit are dealt to the spiritualist. This ability affects only effects that deal hit point damage.
Call Spirit
At 16th level, a spiritualist gains the ability to use call spirit as a spell-like ability once per day.
Dual Bond
At 17th level, the spiritualist can use her bonded manifestation ability a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + twice her spiritualist level.
At 20th level, while a spiritualist's phantom is confined in her consciousness, she is immune to mind-affecting effects and spells and effects that involve possession, such as magic jar and possession.