Prerequisites: Forbidden Lore (Isha) 4 ranks, Heal 4 ranks.
XP Cost: 230
The great hero Isha was a follower of Kayyam during his exile to Abachwezi and was considered the greatest of his apostles. She was a fervent beliver in the Unnamed God, and led the prophet's armies accross the Cradle of the World and into the Land of the Young, striking against all who would deny the divinity of Kayyam or his holy message.
Eventually, Isha's army found itself trapped in the fortress-city of Marassa, as soldiers of the Pax Icatia laid siege to it for more than three months. The forces within the city attempted numerous ciounter-attack, but were replused repeatedly by the empire's legionnaires and centurions. Finally, starving and desperate, Isha and her inner circle turned cannibalism to survive. By the time the city's walls were breached by Icatian soldiers, Marassa had become a home of savage and insane degenerates that stalked the city streets for any that were weak or slow enough to feed their perverted desires. The soldiers burned the city to the ground and after numerous attempts managed to purge the fortress of its cannibal denizens.
The cult of Isha survived the purge, however, as the few that escaped the Icatian purge fled into the deserts of the north to preach their own peverted brand of worship to the Unnamed God. The priests of this cult are called Eaters (for obvious reasons), and are feared for their powers and their practices. Despite their reputations, Eaters are often found as advisors to warlords and petty kings who hope that their strange magic will aid them against their enemies.
Starting Ability
Eaters have a special intuition that allows them to hunt with unfailing speed. You gain the Scent special ability.
Abilities
Favorite Feast
XP Cost: 270
You develop a taste for the living. Different eaters have different tastes, however. When you purchase this ability, you may select one of the following preferences. When sampling your favorite feast, you gain additional benefits, as described below. You may benefit from your favorite feast a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier.
Any benefit gained from the Eater's favorite feast lasts for 1 minute for each of your Hit Dice. Activating the benefit of a favorite feast is a swift action used at the same time as the action required to eat the morsel (generally a standard action). If you have more than one favorite feast that could be applied to the same morsel (such as having both the Tongue and Muscle feasts when eating a tongue), you must select one of them to activate upon consuming the flesh.
You may only benefit from a single favorite feast from any particular being. Once you have sampled their flesh, you are compelled to hunt out a more exotic taste to satisfy your continual cravings.
- Blood: When sampling the blood of a victim, you gain temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + 2 per HD.
- Brain: When sampling the brain of a victim, you gain a +1 bonus to Will saves, +1 per 3 HD.
- Eye: When sampling the eye of a victim, you gain any of the following special abilities that the victim possessed in life: blindsight, darkvision, or low-light vision.
- Heart: When sampling the heart of a victim, you increase the save DCs of any spells or spell-like abilities you have available by +1, with an additional +1 per 3 HD.
- Fat: When sampling the fat of a victim, you gain a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves, +1 per 3 class levels.
- Skin: When sampling the skin of a victim, you may increase your natural DR by +1, with an additional +1 increase per 3 HD. This natural DR stacks with any one other source of natural DR.
- Muscle: When sampling the muscles of a victim, you gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls, with an additional +1 per 3 HD. This bonus increases by +1 when you're using natural weapons.
- Sinew: When sampling the sinew of a victim, you a +1 bonus to [[Reflex]] saves, +1 per 3 HD.
- Tongue: When sampling the tongue of a victim, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidation skill checks, +1 for every 2 of your Hit Dice. You also gain the knowledge of any one language your victim spoke in life, even secret languages such as Ogham or nonverbal languages such as a Battle Language.
This ability may be taken multiple times, allowing you to select an additional favorite feast, or gain additional uses per day of a favorite feast which you already have the taste for. You cannot benefit from the same favorite feast twice at the same time, although you can have different feasts active simultaneously.
Feeding Frenzy
XP Cost: 810
Eaters are known to go into a feeding frenzy whenever they smell the flesh of a living being. You may enter this state as a free action whenever you succeed on a Survival check to smell a being with your scent ability. While in a frenzy you gain a +4 bonus to your Strength and Dexterity scores, and you also deal an additional 1d6 damage on melee attacks against the target that enraged you. This frenzy lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier, or until you have eaten the flesh of the target enemy. While under the effects of this frenzy, you are unable to undertake any kind of complicated activity, such as using class or kit abilities or making complex skill checks. In addition, you take a -6 penalty to attack rolls against any target that is not the being you have smelled. You can only be in a feeding frenzy against one creature at a time.
While in a feeding frenzy, your natural bite attack deals 1d8 damage instead of the normal 1d6. If you deal damage with your bite attack, you may swallow one of the following body parts of the target you attack: blood, fat, skin, muscle, or sinew. Thus, you may use any ability that you have access to which requires you to eat flesh in conjunction with this bite attack.
If you activate your Favorite Feast ability while in a frenzy by eating the flesh of the target creature, the numerical bonus provided (if there is one) is increased by +1. You must wait 3 rounds after ending a frenzy to start a new one, or you can spend a full-round action to calm yourself and remove this cool down period.
Devour Memories
XP Cost: 2,430
You may access the memories of your victim when you eat their flesh. You may use this ability once per day per point of your Intelligence modifier as a free action when consuming the flesh of a victim. You learn the victim's surface thoughts, and may learn the answers to up to three questions concerning the past of the victim. These must be simple 'yes/no' questions that you decided upon before eating the flesh. If the creature has been dead for longer than a minute, you can instead spend one use of this ability to ask a single question. The only caveat is that there needs to be something left to eat (the body must have some of its flesh on it).
Devour Vitality
XP Cost: 1,350
Whenever you eat the flesh of a living being, you gain a number of hit points equal to the Hit Dice of the creature. This is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. This is a supernatural ability.
Swallowed Skill
XP Cost: 270
You may steal some of the skills and knowledge of your victim when you devour him. Whenever you consume the flesh of a being with an Intelligence of 3 or greater, you gain 1 skill point that you may immediately allocate as normal into any skill that the being had ranks in. You can only gain 6 skill points in this way for each of your Hit Dice (so an Eater with 3 Hit Dice could gain a total of 18 skill points with this ability). You may only gain 1 skill rank from any given being, even if you consumes their flesh multiple times.
Feat of the Flesh
XP Cost: 1,080
You gain a special Feat slot. Whenever you devour the flesh of a victim, you instantly gain the knowledge of all of the feats that creature possessed. You may then select any one feat that you meet the prerequisites for, and use this special feat slot to hold it. You gain the benefits of this feat until you select a new feat to replace it.
