Dream Lord (3.5e Prestige Class)

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6 5 Poor Poor Poor Other Class Ability=Spontaneous Spellcasting |Class Ability=Alternate Magic |Class Ability=Other Other

Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Evil

A dream lord pulling in subjects.

Dream Lord

“	What you intend to do to that hapless person over there is pure evil! Why don't you help her friends out, and turn on your master? It is the only way towards righteousness. Oh, and philanthropy gives you great respect - why don't you try with your new friends over there.	”
—Iris, Sentient Illusion Dream Lord

The masters of sleep and distillers of fear; dream lords are the Warriors of Morality, supplanting their own ideas on what is right and wrong. While suggestive by nature, most dream lords are in fact advents of good, punishing evildoers through nightmares or other forms of suffering.

Dream Lord are great for when you’re in town, and can usually give you a better relation with people. But they are also very powerful on the field of battle, controlling the body or mind of their enemies. In combat, most lords either force their enemies to sleep – fighting them in a more controlled atmosphere – or give key monsters lessons in Fear.

A lord is generally weaker in the company of another lord (lords have many abilities to negate each other). Yet, on occasion, some lords will form alliances to change morality in larger areas.

Becoming a Dream Lord

Charisma is the major ability of this class – if it is not ridiculous, you may want to rethink your character creation. Intelligence and Wisdom are useful for skills; Constitution enhances one’s concentration skill (a very important skill for this class); Strength and Dexterity are useful for the typical reasons, but neither modifies class abilities.

Bards are perhaps the quickest to think of ranking in this class; yet a Wizard, Sorcerer, or Cleric based lord is always going to be more powerful. The Witch, Sylvan Occultist, Paladette, Paladin, High Priest, Blackguard, Bishop, and Assassin are also solid classes to have levels in before taking this prestige class. Some lords have been known to advance in Viveka Spectre, Tormentor, Stranger with the Burning Eyes, Soulbinder, Schismsoul, Overmind, Hierophant, Celestial Beacon, or Barrister of the Nine after taking this class.

While any race can become a lord, this path is mostly made up of Unbodied, Succedaneum, Sentient Illusions, Mousa, Microforged Conglomerate, Mahaari, Kisalli, Eldritch Horrors, Archon Hounds, and Aasimars.

Entry Requirements

Skills:	7 ranks in concentration, craft (alchemy), and either bluff or diplomacy; and 5 ranks in knowledge (arcana).
Spellcasting:	Must be able to cast one 3rd-level compulsion and one 3rd-level illusion.
Feats:	Iron Will, Skill Focus (in Concentration).
Special:	A trainee can be immune to sleep-effects, but cannot be sleepless.
Special:	Training from a dream lord of at least 3rd level.

Table: The Dream Lord

Hit Die: d4

Level	BAB	Saving Throws			Special	Spellcasting
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Modifier Alterations, Psychic Emissions	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Sending	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+4	Waking Visions, Crystal of Dreams	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Crown of Dreams	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th	+2	+1	+1	+5	Throne of Dreams	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+6	Augmented Subtype	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level). Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Alchemy) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana, History, Local, Nobility and royalty, Religion) (Int), Perform (Cha), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha), Use Psionic Device (Cha).

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Lords are proficient with tridents, throwing axes, light hammers, light crossbows, javelins, darts, daggers, and light armor, but not with shields.

Modifier Alterations: A lord is more tempered to using charm over strict cunning, and thus uses Charisma to modify their Will saves and concentration checks. A lord also has improved mental stamina, giving a bonus to concentration checks and Will save equal to 1/2 class level (rounded down).

Psychic Emissions: As a standard action a lord can emit a wave of psychic energy. The wave has: a radius of 30'+15' per class level (120' at 6th), requires a Will save to resist (DC 10+class level+Charisma modifier), last for 10 minutes per class level (60min at 6th), affects 6HD of creatures per class level (36HD at 6th), and a lord can only do one emission per class level total each day (6 at 6th).

The emissions force sleep-like effects with greater intensity than most are able to; this allows a lord to affect creatures that are immune to sleep or are sleepless. However, creatures that are normally immune have a +4 bonus to their Will saves to resist a sleep-like effect. The different waves are as follows:

• Wave of Exhaustion: Can can emit a wave of exhaustion.
• Wave of Sleep: At 2nd level, can can emit a wave of sleep. The subject(s) become helpless while under the effect. If a subject(s) sustains more than five points of lethal damage, they awaken immediately, but are Fatigued for 1d4 rounds after.
• Wave of Insomia: At 3rd level, can emit a wave of sleeplessness, the subject(s) become immune to sleep-effects, energy drain, fatigue and exhaustion. This normaly acts to counter other dream lords (thus being helpful). However, at 5th level, a lord can extend the duration beyond what is healthy. Which can cause hallucinations and exhastion to occur more drastically in the waking world -- while keeping the subject(s) prisoner.
• Wave of Shell Shock: At 4th level, can emit a wave of Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder (treat as confustion).
• Wave of Forgetfullness: At 6th level can emit a wave of forgetfulness. What does it do?... I forget.

+1 level of existing spellcasting class: At the levels marked above, the lord gains new spells per day, spells known, and maximum spell level as if they had also gained a level in a spellcasting class they belonged to before adding this prestige class. Lords do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a lord, they must decide to which class to add the new level for purposes of determining spells per day, spells known, and maximum spell level.

Sending (Ex): A lord’s keystone abilities relate to manipulating dreams. A dream lord may suggest actions and permanent morality shifts to subjected dreamers. A lord must find their subject, be in the same plane, and the subject must be sleeping to do this. A lord selects the challenge level of the sending below (1st-4th) based on what they want to do with the sending.

Sending Power Table

Power	Modifier	Possible Suggestions
1st	+1	The lord can change one subject’s attitude one step in a positive direction with regards to a singular individual. Or can make a subject do a simple task immediately after waking.
2nd	+2	The lord can change one subject’s attitude one step in a positive or negative direction with regards to a group (3HD/class level). Or can make a subject do an average task sometime in the following day, but allows the subject to use judgment on when (in the day) the task has the best chances.
3rd	+4	The lord can change a group's (3HD/class level) attitude up to two steps in a positive or negative direction with regards to another group (5HD/class level). Or can make a subject do a dynamic task sometime in the following week, but allows the subject to use judgment on when (in the week) the task has the best chances. Or can completely reengineer one subject's alignment (both axises).
4th	+6	The lord can change a group's (7HD/class level) attitude up to two steps in a positive or negative direction with regards to another group (10HD/class level). Or can make a subject do an extreme task sometime in the following month, but allows the subject to use judgment on when (in the month) the task has the best chances. Or can completely reengineer a groups alignment (5HD/class level).

Then the dream lord rolls an opposed Will save against the subject, and must beat the subject’s plus the modifier on the above table (i.e. if power level 2, must beat by 2 or more). The above are permanent, but the spell break enchantment can dispel a singular sending’s effects (if multiple sendings on a subject will need an equal number of enchantments to turn the subject back to normal) only if the person casting break enchantment beats the lord’s opposed Will save after casting.

A sending can affect most who are immune to sleep effects or are sleepless, but only when under the effects of an emission; however, mindless creatures are still immune to sendings even when sedated. Creatures that are normally immune to sleep effects have a +4 bonus to resist.

The subject will remember with great clarity all that occurred within a sending.

Example Example: Valentine is a 6th level dream lord with Will modifier of +26, and constitution modifier of +40. He decides he wants to summon a Mimic(4CR), and two Quantum Tigers(16CR), for total DC of 20. He rolls a 10, passing.

{{{2}}}

Waking Visions (Su): A lord may haunt others with impossible imaginations – they may pull nightmares from the plane of dreams into the waking world! This acts like a summon aberration, except with a roll for power level. This take tremendous will; a lord must beat a Will save (DC=total creature CR) to call monsters. If a lord fails the save by more than 5, they themselves fall into a nightmare, receiving 2d8 points of damage and becoming fatigued; if they fail by more than 10, they also (in addition to fatigue and damage) take 1d4 points of Charisma damage and fall unconscious for one minute. Some of the energy of real objects is absorbed by the atrocities, making the visions 30% real (much like shadow spells). Monsters have a minimum duration of five minutes; each minute after, a lord must beat a (DC 10+3/minute after) Concentration check to maintain the vision. Monsters have a “friendly” disposition to the lord, but are not in fact under the lord’s control.

At 5th level, the DC to call monsters changes to 1/2 total HD, and the DC to maintain the monsters changes to 5+1/minute after. Further the monsters are 40% real and under the lord's control like an Druid's Animal Companion.

At 6th level, a lord can add 1/2 class level (round down) to all waking vision rolls. The visons become 50% real, and the DC to maintain changes to 5+1/5 minutes after.

Craft (Device) (Ex): A dream lord has a few devices he can manifest to aid in finding and influencing dreamers. Each device: requires a full-round action to manifest, another full-round action to use, is thoroughly unique (can only be used by the creator), and if outside of lord's possession for more than 24 hours dissipates into nothing. A lord may manifest only one item at a time, but can do so an unlimited amount of times per day.

Crystal of Dreams (Ex): At 3rd level, as a full-round action, a lord can manifest an unmodified crystal ball, to aid in finding subjects (at no cost).

Crown of Dreams (Ex): At 4th level, can manifest a crown of dreams. The crown imparts an ability on the wearer that acts like the teleport spell, with the following changes: 1) can only teleport to a sleeping creature that has been found with the Crystal of Dreams; 2) can select anything within a 5' hemisphere to teleport with; and 3) the lord (and anything that went with) is instantly transported back six hours later (one can teleport back prematurely). The crown is rather fragile, with a hardness of 5 and 20 hit points. Also, one cannot wear a helmet nor have any other magical head gear while wearing the crown; this decreases the AC bonus of all armor by one (to a minimum of 1).

Throne of Dreams (Ex): At 5th level, can manifest a throne of dreams. The throne imparts an ability to curse creatures that act strongly against a lord’s morality – also known as the Immoral. A curse may only be place on sleeping creatures on the same plane, which the lord has given a sending to. If the Immoral fails the opposed Will save, they become cursed. After finding the Immoral, it takes 30 minutes to complete the curse; if the lord is interrupted during this time the lord must beat a DC 40 Will save to continue the process. The curse deals 1d6 temporary ability damage to one of their mental scores (lord’s choice), then 1d3 permanent to any score (Immoral’s choice), then has one of the following features applied:

• Poetic Justice: the Immoral gains a social impediment. This can range from: cannot lie, cannot speak directly (only in metaphor or rhyme), must always speak one’s mind – or for the darker sorts: can only lie (etc., talk to GM about what would be appropriate for your campaign). A social impediment must be something befitting the Immoral’s action; an ironic lesson, if you will.
• Mark of Pain: boring but effective, the lord selects an arm, leg, toe, finger, eye, or ear, and the Immoral loses it. An Immoral can only lose the aforementioned parts (i.e. no tongues) and cannot be without at least one set of the aforementioned. In other words, if the Immoral is already missing an eye, it cannot lose another from this feature; or if missing an arm, can only lose three fingers off it’s other hand (this feature does not remove thumbs).

The third part of a curse can be removed with an opposing dispel (chaos, evil, good, law), but only a miracle or wish can remove the second roll of permanent ability damage. A lord may only curse one Immoral per day. The throne has a hardness of 10, 200 hit points and weighs 50 pounds.

Augmented Subtype: At 6th level, lord gains dreamborn as an augmented subtype. A lord is not longer required to make a save against insanity or similar effects when in a dreamland that is not their own. (This is especially useful in the Lovecraft Campaign.)

Ex-Dream Lord

There is no such thing as an ex-lord; once one goes down this road, they are forever marked.

Dream Lord Lore

“	Infect the hearts and minds of others and you will turn your enemies into friends.	”
—Valentine, Mahaari Dream Lord

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) can research lords to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (Arcana)

DC	Result
8	Dream Lords are very charming and diplomatic.
16	Dream Lords can enter into other’s dreams.
24	Dream Lords are Moral Warriors, redefining the principles of their enemies.
32	Specific info on a lord.

Variant

Instead of taking their spells from the more ridged orthodox lists (from previous classes), a lord may instead select their spells from the lord spell list. This replaces their previous spell list, but they maintain their spell progression and maximum spells known (with the new list). For example: an 6th level wizard ranks into this class (by four levels), then chooses this variant (after talking to the GM), for purposes of spells, the maximum level spell the wizard cast is 4th-level (from the new list). Should the wizard rank again (in dream lord or wizard), they would gain access to 5th-level spells.

This only replaces one spell list (not multiple), and all spells from the lord list are considered arcane and may be cast spontaneously.

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