Totem Spiritualist (Spiritualist Archetype)
We’ve been talking a lot about mystical animals and totem spirits this week, but now we end that off with an archetype that blends the occult and primal divine magic.
Whether they are nature spirits given phantasmal form or the actual spirits of animals, totem spiritualists call upon such beings to serve as their phantoms. In this way, they blend many of the advantages of phantom ectoplasm with the abilities of various animal, plant, or vermin species.
No doubt such beings are sacred to the culture that the spiritualist belongs to. Indeed, in-setting, this archetype is associated with Sarkoris, the remnants of which blended the deification of minor spirits into nearly every aspect of their culture. Beyond that, these spirits may be local guardians that might be known or unknown to those that live in the area.
As previously mentioned, these mystics gain a phantom that possesses many of the natural capabilities of an animal companion, though they gain other abilities as a phantom. However, they can also gain the choice to acquire either other phantom animals, or to empower one they already have, teaching them new skills, the ability to manifest various animal foci, and even boosting their natural attacks, assuming they repeatedly choose to empower the same companion. Normally, they can only have one such companion spirit active at a time. Finally, they can also release such anima spirits from their service, letting them either move on easily (animals don’t tend to have the baggage keeping them tied to the mortal plane like other phantoms.) or return to the spirit world to watch over nature as they once did.
Rather than gain insight into skills tied to a normal phantoms emotional foci, the totem spirits, lacking such strong binding emotions, instead offer knowledge and insight of the natural world.
What’s more, such animal spirits in their consciousness can also grant them any special senses they have.
Some of the most powerful totem spiritualists can even temporarily bypass the limitation of only one phantom companion at a time, temporarily summoning a second from their arsenal to aid for a minute or two.
Already a companion class, this archetype lets you blend some of the rules and variety of choice seen with animal/plant/vermin companions into the phantom, replacing the somewhat limited selection of emotional foci. What’s more, you’re also getting the potential for either a lot of different companions or perhaps one especially powerful one. I would recommend either taking one versatile one that has both mobility and power on it’s side, or several, one for each situation. Also, remember to take into account your spell and feat choices and how they differ with how the companions lack emotional foci or certain other phantom qualities.
The exact specifics of the nature of these phantoms is not given, so that should give you carte blanche to go in and come up with your own lore, both as a GM and as a player. Perhaps your phantom ant is the collective spirit of a colony, or your carnivorous flower phantom might be a manifestation of hunger as an aspect of nature.
The Redblight Plague, a supernatural illness the plagued trees and poisoned animals was a horrific disaster, turning the forest of Duranwood into a wasteland of poisoned rotten trunks and undead beasts. However, here and there the innocence of the wild remains, and can be called upon by kindly masters of the occult.
In the desert nation of Onek, the gods are often depicted with the heads of animals that are sacred to them. While they do not literally have such heads most of the time, the beasts are nonetheless still sacred, and in particular, many shabti adopt the sacred animals of the tomb protector gods, such as scorpions, emperor cobras, and the like, out of a kinship for the role.
Failing to cultivate a slithering sundew from the much larger giant variety, Jakron seemed to be a failure as a druid. However, he also made a discovery, a way to channel the unrealized potential life force of the plant into manifesting in occult ectoplasm, creating an ethereal form of life that was bound to him. Some of his peers are intrigued, while others call it unnatural.