Class Feature Friday: Divine Niche (Evolutionist Niche)
(art by Ausp-ice on DeviantArt)
While we’ve talked about a few of the evolutionary foci of the evolutionist class before, that is small potatoes compared to the true customization option of the class, and that is the niches.
Essentially, the niches are broad concepts of what the character is working to turn into, reflecting the types of augs they try to gain and the powers they try to invoke. There are four basic options based on the different types of augmentations, but today we’re focusing on a newer one that was introduced later: the Divine Niche.
While the eldritch option (which we will cover at a later date) does cover those that wish to become outsiders among it’s potential aspects, the divine niche instead specifically on those that seek some manner of literal apotheosis to go with the regular apotheosis normally associated with the class.
Some may wish to become a servant of their deity in body and mind long before they pass away, while others seek to become a minor divine being in their own right. Either way they likely have a very strong code of conduct they seek to follow either in devotion or for their own sake in defining who and what they are to the cosmos.
Even when they look the most like their original species, these evolutionists likely carry marks of their cosmic allegiances. A fiendish one might sport horns or a spade tail, while a holy evolutionists might sport eye-like tattoos on their bodies that suspiciously seem to move as if they were actual eyeballs on occasion. Either might use a religious symbol as their fulcrum, and as they master their transformations and surge, they become more and more like the sort of outsider they wish to emulate, and gain all sorts of magical abilities to reflect that.
Additionally, their adaptive strike might take the form of a projected divine weapon such as a flaming sword or shining bow and arrow in addition to the normal physiological transformations you might see in most evolutionists.
Regardless of the forms they take, their quest to become something sacred and/or unholy remains the same.
Associated with magitech, each divine evolutionist chooses one alignment to be imbued with. As long as they have mutation points, their adaptive weaponry bypasses the DR and energy resistance of beings of the opposing cosmic alignment, and they become more resistant to the abilities and spells of such beings.
However, they also suffer from a vulnerability to the harm caused by such effects and attacks too.
They also gain the ability to channel an aura around themselves that bolsters allies in combat with divine blessings, which they can extend by burning mutative potential.
Unleashing the power of the divine, they can also call down a fiery smite upon their foes at range, or even change the damage type with a bit of mutation potency.
Finally, these beings ascend to a higher state, becoming unique true outsiders that gain the immunities to petrification and poison present in all of these beings thanks to being made of raw quintessence, and sporting a subtype shared with their favored outsider type.
With their ability to punish and resist enemy outsider types, this option is great for a game where outsiders of the opposing philosophy are a huge factor, but even if they aren’t, there are plenty of fun things to do with them as evolutionists anyway.
Selection of different outsider types being as diverse as it is, it’s to the surprise of nobody that this option has as many was to play it as there are such beings and more. The angelic guardian, the inevitable protector of law and order, and the violent fiend are all possibilities.
The maraquoi of Tevokas have taken to worshipping an ancestral spirit known as the Allsire, a guardian of clans and tribes that makes sure the cycle of life is unbroken. Apparently their worship is bearing fruit, for a few of their number have begun exhibiting a primal transformation into something wild and divine.
An expedition to an undiscovered planet reveals that it once harbored a great civilization that apparently had a close relationship with the divine. Many bas reliefs depict individuals that let divine powers into their body, transforming them into mortal angels and demons, which eventually led to a great calamity. Among the ruins are strange lore guardian constructs that are carved to depict such people in mid-transformation.
Clicking gears and thrumming conduits fill Erziba’s body as he continues to master his power to become like an inevitable. However, while the desire to be a guardian of law is there, he lacks focus and purpose, as he does not seem to know yet what aspect of order he wishes to defend.
