Soul Shepherd (Monk Archetype)
In fantasy, monks, that is to say, the classic ascetic monks we know from roleplaying games that imply a bigger world with more than just the standard European medieval fantasy, tend to have a unique connection with their own spiritual side that you don’t see in most other classes. Certainly spellcasters, particularly divine casters have that element of mastery over the spiritual, but for the most part, their power focuses on the outside, rather than the inside.
Monks can do wondrous things with their control over their own life energy, both within and without, but what’s interesting is that for all that control, we rarely see the classic kung fu monk using that greater understanding of the soul to lay the dead to rest, at least, outside of certain martial arts movies where ascetics are blended thematically with divine magic.
Whether they are merely emulating them, or were directly taught by psychopomps, some monks master using their own spiritual energies to deal with the restless dead and take on some of the power associated with that breed of outsider.
Thus, these monks can be exorcists in their own right, often able to learn from the restless dead so as to find peaceful ways to help them pass on, rather than simply bash them into oblivion.
The most iconic ability of these monks is their ability to channel their life energy through their fists, not to cause harm, but to temporarily abate the negative emotions of bodiless undead and haunts, causing them to become docile or at least non-hostile, allowing the chance for speech and learning between the living and dead, perhaps even finding a way to help them pass on.
Additionally, their conditioning hardens their bodies, granting them many forms of psychopomp-like resistances.
Further emulating the spirit guides, they can also use their ki to sense the life and death energies of the living and undead alike.
While undead are tragic, to these ascetics nothing is more abominable than holding a soul against it’s will, and they learn a powerful technique to attempt to destroy magical bindings that hold a soul from its final destination, be it a spell, item, or even a creature’s special ability.
Even though this archetype is focused primarily on the undead, there’s enough things useful outside of that purpose that I can recommend this archetype for normal play in a more general campaign. That being said, the calm spirit spell that they can emulate presents a big change to how characters normally deal with undead. I could recommend lots of different builds to go with this archetype, though a more social build could help with dealing with the dead peacefully.
Monks are lawful in nature, while psychopomps are more loose with their interpretation of laws when approaching their duties. As such, most of these monks may be lawful neutral, and may even border true neutral at times. That being said, the philosophy is an emphatic one, seeing the struggle of the undead and taking pity on them.
Found in a strange metal star that fell from the sky, Enphima was taken in by the School of Parted Veils, who were delighted to find her proficient in manipulating her ki despite her mechanical nature, and she now serves as an exorcist in the haunted mists of Janau. However, when an outbreak of spirits whose spectral forms wear the strange padded armor and glass helms she was found in, she drops everything to investigate, but she could use some help.
Hoping to manufacture allips, a necromancer has taken to hanging prisoners in cages in a den of chon chons, those strange aberrant flying heads, hoping to drive them over the edge into suicide with their insane babbling. Following a paper trail, the local guards have contacted adventurers and soul shepherds alike to put an end to this.
In a way, due to her nature, Master Jin Ashii is just as much a prisoner as she is a teacher. Dying a painful death to protect the land and monastery, she continues to teach her style as a ghost. However, occasionally she slips into undead rage, and she must be calmed by the technique she taught her students.
