Despoiler of Lilith

Mortality seems to breed a certain close-mindedness, a tendency to turn a blind eye to the inevitability that tomorrow will eventually come. So many seem to dwell in the past, while those who look ahead are branded dreamers and ne’er-do-wells. For those that can take advantage of the present, though, great things can be accomplished. For those willing to disregard consequences in the future, great power can be had.

The Gates of Hell (Dice Freaks)

Grimoire of Cosmic Entities Volume One By Eli Atkinson, William Church and Serge W. Desir, Jr.

Original Concept by Serge W. Desir, Jr.

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Of such a mold comes the despoiler of Lilith. Aligning herself closely with the philosophies of the Sixth Hell, the despoiler is both pioneer and polluter, herald of a new age and harbinger of tomorrow’s doom. She abuses the natural order of things for immediate gain, and then moves on when the resource is spent. Her mark often remains long after she is gone, graven on the lives and land over which she held sway: children dead or ill, animals or plant life extinct, hope for the future lost. Too well is she named despoiler.

Despoilers are not loners; indeed many of them are very good with people. It does not change the fact, though, that the despoiler does not believe in friendship, only in resource manipulation. There is no ‘small-talk,’ only careful analysis of strengths and weaknesses. They are often found as ‘people of vision,’ trailblazing pioneers, and brilliant entrepreneurs. They do not stay in one place or with one idea for too long – eventually the resources are dried up and it is time to move on. Despoilers, of all mortal servants of Hell, may indeed be the most likely to embrace undeath. The fact that such a practice is distasteful is irrelevant. All that matters is that it is effective.

More than anything else, though, the despoiler focuses on controlling and dominating Nature, for the benefit of a new future. This future is one in which the natural environment echoes Hell itself, and all that happens in such a place is dedicated to the advancement of Perdition.

Many despoilers are ex-druids following a new path, or clerics devoted to Lilith. sorcerers and wizards also take up the mantle from time to time, although the focus on the exploitation of nature can sometimes be a little alien to such characters.

Hit Dice: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a despoiler of Lilith, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

• Alignment: Lawful Evil
• Skills: Bluff 6 ranks, Intimidate 6 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Survival 6 ranks
• Feats: Devotee of Darkness (Lilith), Investigator, any one Metamagic feat
• Special: Ability to cast 5th level arcane or divine spells. Despoilers of Lilith must have made peaceful contact with a greater devil (at least CR 15). The devil then instructs the would-be despoiler on the process to submit to the will of Lilith, the Lord of the Sixth.

Class Skills

The despoiler of Lilith’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Bluff (Charisma), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (any) (Intelligence), Diplomacy (Charisma), Gather Information (Charisma), Intimidate (Charisma), Knowledge (nature) (Intelligence), Profession (any) (Wisdom), Sense
Motive (Wisdom), Spellcraft (Intelligence), and Survival (Wisdom).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the despoiler of Lilith prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Despoilers of Lilith are proficient with simple weapons and all types of armor and shields (except tower shields).

Spellcasting: A despoiler increases in spellcasting ability as she increases in levels. At each level, she increases her caster level by one, improving spells per day and so forth as if she had gained a level in the original spellcasting class. If the despoiler had access to more than one spellcasting class before becoming a despoiler, she must choose which class to apply the effective increase to. This increase does not affect other class abilities of the original class, such as a familiar, or the effective level for rebuking undead.

The Despoiler of Lilith
Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spellcasting
1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Corrupt the oath	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2	+1	+3	+0	+3		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Dark dominion	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4	+3	+4	+1	+4		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Harness the earth	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
6	+4	+5	+2	+5		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
7	+5	+5	+2	+5	Winnow	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
8	+6	+6	+2	+6		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
9	+6	+6	+3	+6	Reap the whirlwind	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
10	+7	+7	+3	+7	Dark harvest	+1 level of existing spellcasting class

Corrupt the Oath (Ex): A despoiler who is also an ex-druid regains much of her druidic class abilities. She gains access to all druidic abilities that she was previously entitled to, except for spontaneous casting of summon nature’s ally spells and her animal companion. Her uses of wildshape per day decrease by one, but any wild-shape she takes gains the fiendish template. The despoiler uses the totality of her druid and despoiler levels to determine how many Hit Dice the new form can have. The despoiler is no longer bound by her druidic oaths in terms of what armor and weapons she can use.

Warp the Word (Su): A 1st level despoiler has learnt to change her energy-based spells as needed, although at a cost. She can spontaneously add metamagic feats to any energy-based spell (i.e. a spell with the acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic descriptor) that she casts without the need to prepare the spell ahead of time, and without any increase in the casting time. To do so, she channels the energy of additional spells at the time of casting, using up extra spell slots. Each metamagic feat costs a number of spell levels equal to its usual cost plus one. Thus a wizard/despoiler could cast a silent fireball by spending an additional two spell levels at the time of casting (crossing off either two first level prepared spells, or one second level prepared spell, as well as the prepared fireball spell).

Dark Dominion (Su): A 3rd level despoiler is able to rebuke or command animals and plants as an evil cleric rebukes un-dead. Her effective level is equal to her class level plus nine.

An animal or plant that has been successfully commanded or rebuked has a 5% chance per class level of the despoiler (to a maximum of 50%) of becoming Lawful Evil. The animal or plant in question is otherwise indifferent to the Despoiler.

Harness the Earth (Su): At 5th level, the despoiler of Lilith begins to siphon power from her environment, referred to as Harnessing the Earth. Her touch deals 1d6 points of damage per round to plants (including plant creatures), draining away the life energy within the flora. Alternatively, she can drain half as much energy from soil, dealing 1d3 points of damage per round and by-passing hardness. This is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity (the despoiler can still take a 5-ft. step each round as per normal). Deadwood, barren soil, or similar lifeless resources have no energy to drain, and thus Harness the Earth is ineffective against such materials. Harness the Earth is likewise ineffective against animals and other non-flora living creatures. The energy that the Despoiler siphons can then be utilized to enhance various powers, as found in the table below.

When augmenting a spell with a feat, the casting time is unchanged (unless the spell is augmented with Quicken Spell, in which case it becomes a free action, as per usual. Even sorcerers and other spontaneous casters are able to Quicken Spells using Harness the Earth).

The despoiler cannot siphon more energy than three times her Constitution modifier at any one time; furthermore, she cannot store the life energy that she has taken once she stops siphoning, the energy disappearing one round after the despoiler ceases Harnessing. For example, Calumina the despoiler stands in the midst of a= grassy clearing, faced by a noble paladin and his associates. While her own allies engage the enemy, she prepares to cast a maximized flame strike. She has the feat, and so requires 11 points of life energy to augment the 4th level spell. She Harnesses the Earth for three rounds, dealing 12 points of damage to the grass upon which she stands. At the beginning of the fourth round, she casts her flamestrike to maximum effect. If, for whatever reason, she could not cast the spell in the fourth round (perhaps she didn’t want to hit her own allies), she would have to continue siphoning power round by round until she was able to use the energy. As her Constitution score is 18, additional siphoning does not increase her life energy pool, which is already at its maximum of 12. If she stops siphoning for whatever reason and does not expend that energy, it is lost at the end of the round in which she stopped siphoning.

Obviously, the land or the plants from which this energy is taken cannot live through too much abuse. After three rounds of Harnessing the Earth, small plants have withered and died, and soil has become barren in a 5-ft.cube. Trees and larger plants are not necessarily killed outright within three rounds, but the area of contact between despoiler and plant (a 5-ft. cube) will itself be dead, generally meaning that any part of the plant above that point will die over time as a result. If siphoning occurs in one spot for less than three rounds, wilting or drying out and so forth will be apparent. A 5-foot cube of plant life and soil takes a number of weeks to recover from Harness the Earth equal to the number of rounds of damage that it took. It is therefore possible for the despoiler to return within that timeframe, Harness again, and kill the plant life and soil totally.

Finally, Harnessing the Earth is addictive. Each time the despoiler uses the ability to siphon off energy, she must succeed on a Will save DC 18 or immediately use the Harness ability again (i.e. she siphons the energy, releases it for one of the augmentation purposes described above, and then begins to siphon again immediately). For every day in which she has not Harnessed the Earth at least once, the DC increases by 1. Should she fail the save but be unable to Harness (e.g. she is deep underground with only rock, not soil, about), she is fatigued until such time as she is able to Harness again.

Harness the Earth Energy Costs
Power Enhancement	Energy Cost
Add a metamagic feat with +1 spell level adjustment to a spell spontaneously	4
Add a metamagic feat with +2 spell level adjustment to a spell spontaneously	8
Add a metamagic feat with +3 spell level adjustment to a spell spontaneously	11
Add a metamagic feat with +4 spell level adjustment to a spell spontaneously	15
Utilize a metamagic feat as above without possessing the required feat	+4
Increase the DC of a spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability by +1	4
Increase the DC of a spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability by more than +1	Multiply x2 for each additional +1 beyond +1 (e.g +2 to the DC costs 8, +3 costs 16)

Winnow (Su): A 7th level despoiler of Lilith is able to Winnow out those of an Evil bent. She is able to use her Dark Dominion ability to rebuke or command giants, humanoids and monstrous humanoids of an Evil bent as an evil cleric rebukes undead. Lawful Evil creatures are treated as having -3 Hit Dice, and Chaotic Evil creatures are treated as having Turn Resistance +3. Creatures successfully commanded are treated as if under the effects of dominate monster for 24 hours, while rebuked creatures refuse to approach the despoiler, remaining at least 20 feet away for the next hour, or cowering if they cannot move away. Non-evil creatures, or evil creatures with more Hit Dice or class levels than the despoiler’s character level are immune to Winnow. The despoiler can command up to twice her class level in Hit Dice of creatures at any one time.

Reap the Whirlwind (Sp): At 9th level, the despoiler is able to use control weather as a spell-like ability 1/ day. When the despoiler is within windy
conditions of any sort, she is immune to its effects (thus she is never checked, knocked down, blown away, etc, by powerful winds, although debris blown about by winds can still hit and thus hurt her). Her caster level is equal to her total spellcasting level. If she had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a despoiler, she must choose one of them for determining the caster level of this ability. Being a spell-like ability, the despoiler can use the ability as a standard action, rather than the usual casting time of 10 minutes.

Dark Harvest (Su): A 10th level despoiler is truly ready to exploit her surroundings for power. The time required to siphon the energy is reduced, allowing the despoiler to use Harness the Earth as a move-equivalent action. As a result, she can siphon twice in a round (depleting the resources at the same rate as previously, i.e. killing the plants and soil after three uses of Harness the Earth. In other words, instead of taking three rounds to drain all the life energy in an area away, it can be done in as quickly as one round plus one move-equivalent action).

Once per day, she can Harvest the surrounding area for its power extremely quickly. As a full round action, she affects all plants, soil and living creatures in a 10 ft. radius. This kills all plant life (other than plant creatures) and soil in the area, and deals 4d8 points of damage to all living creatures in the area (including plant creatures). Creatures within the area are entitled to a Fortitude save to take half damage with a DC of 10 + her class levels + her Charisma modifier. The collective damage dealt (including usual damage to soil and plant life) is siphoned directly to the despoiler’s life energy pool as per normal, although this cannot exceed the usual maximum. In many cases, this will result in a full life energy pool. Using Harvest in this way, as with Harness the Earth, provokes attacks of opportunity.

Example Despoiler of Lilith

Merlra Twinbolt
Ex-Druid 9, Despoiler of Lilith 7
Medium Humanoid (Elf, Sapien)
Hit Dice	16d8+32 (107 hp)
Initiative	+2 (+2 Dexterity)
Speed	30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class	22 (+2 Dexterity, +6 armor, +4 deflection), touch 16, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple	+11/+12
Attack	+1 dagger +13 melee or +14 ranged (1d4+2/19- 20); or spell +12 melee touch or +13 ranged touch.
Full Attack	+1 dagger +13/+8/+3 melee or +14 ranged (1d4+2/19-20); or spell +12 melee touch or +13 ranged touch.
Space/Reach	5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks	Dark dominion 8/day, harness the earth, warp the word, winnow
Special Qualities	Corrupt the oath, immunity to disease and sleep, Low-Light Vision, nature sense, resistance to fire 20, resist nature’s lure, trackless step, venom immunity, wild empathy +10, wild shape (2/day, large), woodland stride
Saves	Fort +13, Ref +7, Will +15 (+17 against enchantments)
Abilities	Strength 12, Dexterity 14, Constitution 14, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 19, Charisma 12
Skills	Bluff +6, Concentration +12, Diplomacy +11, Disguise +1 (+3 when acting in character), Gather Information +10, Hide +7, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (nature) +18, Listen +12, Move Silently +7, Search +4, Sense Motive +10, Spellcraft +14, Spot +12, Survival +16 (+18 in natural environments)
Feats	Devotee of Darkness (Lilith), Extra Turning, Improved Turning, Investigator, Natural Spell, Violate Spell
Environment	Any land or underground
Organization	Solitary (unique)
Challenge Rating	16
Treasure	729 gp, +1 dagger, belt pouch (with 70 sp), boots of elvenkind, bracers of armor +6, cloak of the bat, necklace of fireballs type VII, ring of major energy resistance (fire), ring of protection +4, periapt of health, spell component pouches (x3), staff of swarming insects (48 charges), trail rations (x6), traveler’s outfit, waterskin
Alignment	Lawful evil

The terrifying Merlra is a powerful enemy of the surrounding baronies. Committed to the domination of the local land and the potential lucrative opportunities available by controlling it, she seeks nothing less than the subjugation of baronies. She has long since corrupted the local druids and leads a number of other despoilers and clerics of Lilith. She is a warlord in her own right and a tactician of the highest order. She comes ever closer to achieving her ends. Merlra was born as the half-elven Merlson and castrated himself and used potions and other heinous means to adjust his physical appearance to appear as a woman. To date, no one knows this truth. Merlra speaks Common, Elven, and Infernal.

Corrupt the Oath (Ex): Merlra retains much of her druidic class abilities. She has access to all druidic abilities that she was previously entitled to, except for spontaneous casting of summon nature’s ally spells and her animal companion. Her uses of wildshape per day have decreased by one, but any wildshape she takes gains the fiendish template. Merlra uses the totality of her druid and despoiler levels to determine how many Hit Dice the new form can have. Merlra is no longer bound by her druidic oaths in terms of what armor and weapons she can use.

Dark Dominion (Su): Merlra is able to rebuke or command animals and plants as an evil cleric rebukes undead. Her effective cleric level is 17th. An animal or plant that has been successfully commanded or rebuked has a 35% chance of becoming lawful evil. The animal or plant in question is otherwise indifferent to Merlra.

Devotee of Darkness: Once per day, Merlra can call upon the aid of Lilith, granting her a +3 profane bonus to any one roll. Against chaotic or good foes, Merlra gains a +1 profane bonus to Armor Class, and once per day can gain a +2 profane bonus on saving throws against a spell with the chaotic or good descriptor.

Whenever dealing with a higher-ranking servant of Lilith (or the Countess of Malbolge herself), Merlra takes a –2 penalty on attacks, checks, and other rolls, a – 3 penalty to Armor Class, and a -6 penalty to saving throws.

Harness the Earth (Su): Merlra can siphon power from her environment. Her touch deals 1d6 points of damage per round to plants (including plant creatures), draining away their life energy. Alternatively, she can drain half as much energy from soil, dealing 1d3 points of damage per round and bypassing hardness. This is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity (Merlra can still take a 5-ft. step each round as per normal). Deadwood, barren soil, or similar lifeless resources have no energy to drain, and thus harness the earth is ineffective against such materials. Harness the earth is likewise ineffective against animals and other non-flora living creatures. The energy that Merlra siphons can then be utilized to enhance various powers, as found in table.

Merlra cannot siphon more than six points of energy at any one time; furthermore, she cannot store the life energy that she has taken once she stops siphoning, the energy disappearing one round after she ceases harnessing. Obviously, the land or the plants from which this energy is taken cannot live through too much abuse. After three rounds of harnessing the earth, small plants have withered and died, and soil has become barren in a 5-ft. cube. Trees and larger plants are not necessarily killed outright within three rounds, but the area of contact between despoiler and plant (a 5-ft. cube) will itself be dead, generally meaning that any part of the plant above that point will die over time as a result. If siphoning occurs in one spot for less than three rounds, wilting or drying out and so forth will be apparent. A 5-foot cube of plant life and soil takes a number of weeks to recover from harness the earth equal to the number of rounds of damage that it took. It is therefore possible for Merlra to return within that timeframe, harness again, and kill the plant life and soil totally.

Finally, harnessing the earth is addictive. Each time Merlra uses the ability to siphon off energy, she must succeed on a Will save (DC 18) or immediately use the harness ability again. For every day in which she has not harnessed the earth at least once, the DC increases by 1. Should she fail the save but be unable to harness (e.g. she is deep underground with only rock, not soil, about),she is fatigued until such time as she is able to harness again.

Warp the Word (Su): Merlra has learnt to change her energy-based spells as needed, although at a cost. She can spontaneously add metamagic feats to any energy- based spell (i.e. a spell with the acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic descriptor) that she casts without the need to prepare the spell ahead of time, and without any increase in the casting time. To do so, she channels the energy of additional spells at the time of casting, using up extra spell slots. Each metamagic feat costs a number of spell levels equal to its usual cost plus one. Thus, Merlra could cast a violated flaming sphere by spending an additional two spell levels at the time of casting (crossing off either two first level prepared spells, or one second level prepared spell, as well as the prepared flaming sphere spell).

Winnow (Su): Merlra is able to winnow out those of an evil bent. She is able to use her dark dominion ability to rebuke or command giants, humanoids and monstrous humanoids of an evil alignment as an evil cleric rebukes undead. Lawful evil creatures are treated as having -3 Hit Dice, and chaotic evil creatures are treated as having turn resistance +3.

Creatures successfully commanded are treated as if under the effects of dominate monster for 24 hours, while rebuked creatures refuse to approach Merlra, remaining at least 20 feet away for the next hour, or cowering if they cannot move away. Non-evil creatures, or evil creatures with more than 16 Hit Dice are immune to winnow. Merlra can command up to 14 Hit Dice of creatures at any one time.

Typical druid Spells Prepared (6/5/5/4/3/1; save DC 14 + spell level):

• 0 – Create Water, Detect Magic, detect poison, Know Direction, mending, Purify Food and Drink;
• 1st – endure elements, entangle, jump, longstrider, obscuring mist;
• 2nd – barkskin, flaming sphere, heat metal, summon swarm, warp wood;
• 3rd – call lightning, contagion, poison, sleet storm;
• 4th – blight, flame strike, ice storm;
• 5th – call lightning storm.

Epic Despoiler of Lilith

The epic despoiler of Lilith is capable of corrupting nature to such an extent that entire kingdoms are left spent and lifeless in her wake. The epic despoiler’s actions may draw the attention of druids and rangers, yet few can do anything to prevent her from bending nature itself to her whims.

The epic despoiler often takes epic feats that allow her to cast ever more devastating spells, like Epic Spellcasting or Intensify Spell, though a druid-based despoiler may instead work to improve their shape shifting abilities through the Wild Shape epic feats.

Increases to her Wisdom score improve the epic despoiler’s spellcasting ability.

• Hit Die: d8.
• Skill Points per Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.

The Epic Despoiler of Lilith
Class Level	Special	Spellcasting
11		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
12		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
13	Bonus feat	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
14		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
15		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
16	Bonus feat	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
17		+1 level of existing spellcasting class
18	Reap the whirlwind 2/day	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
19	Bonus feat	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
20		+1 level of existing spellcasting class

Class Features

Spellcasting: The epic despoiler of Lilith’s caster level increases by 1 per level gained above 10th. The epic despoiler of Lilith continues to gain new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) at each new level, up to the maximum spells per day and spells known of the spellcasting class to which the despoiler of Lilith belonged before adding the prestige class.

Reap the Whirlwind (Sp): At 18th level, and every 9 levels thereafter, the epic despoiler can use reap the whirlwind one additional time per day.

Bonus Feats: The epic despoiler of Lilith gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic despoiler bonus feats) every three levels beyond 10th.

Epic Despoiler Bonus Feat List: Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Colossal Wild Shape, Diminutive Wild Shape, Dragon Wild Shape, Enhance Spell, Epic Spellcasting, Gargantuan Wild Shape, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Intensify Spell, Profane Energy Burst, Vermin Wild Shape.

Example Epic Despoiler of Lilith

Merlra Twinbolt
Ex-druid 10, Despoiler of Lilith 16
Medium Humanoid (Elf, Sapien)
Hit Dice	26d8+104 (224 hp)
Initiative	+2 (+2 Dexterity)
Speed	30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class	25 (+2 Dexterity, +8 armor, +5 deflection), touch 17, flat-footed 23
Base Attack/Grapple	+17/+18
Attack	+2 unholy dagger +20 melee or +21 ranged (1d4+3 plus 2d6 unholy/19-20); or rod of withering +19 melee (1d4 Strength plus 1d4 Constitution); or spell +18 melee touch or +19 ranged touch.
Full Attack	+2 unholy dagger +20/+15/+10 melee or +21 ranged (1d4+3 plus 2d6 unholy/19-20); or rod of withering +19 melee (1d4 Strength plus 1d4 Constitution); or spell +18 melee touch or +19 ranged touch.
Space/Reach	5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks	Dark harvest 1/day, dark dominion 8/ day, harness the earth, reap the whirlwind, warp the word, winnow
Special Qualities	Corrupt the oath, immunity to disease and sleep, Low-Light Vision, nature sense, resistance to acid 30, cold 30, electricity 30, fire 30, and sonic 30, resist nature’s lure, trackless step, venom immunity, wild empathy +10, wild shape (3/day, large), woodland stride
Saves	Fort +26, Ref +14, Will +26 (+28 against enchantments)
Abilities	Strength 12, Dexterity 14, Constitution 18, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 23, Charisma 19
Skills	Bluff +9, Concentration +24, Diplomacy +14, Disguise +4 (+6 when acting in character), Gather Information +13, Hide +7, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (nature) +32, Listen +14, Move Silently +7, Search +4, Sense Motive +12, Spellcraft +30, Spot +14, Survival +28 (+32 in natural environments)
Feats	Devotee of Darkness (Lilith), Extra Turning, Improved Turning, Investigator, Maximize Spell, Natural Spell, Twin Spell, Violate Spell
Epic Feats	Improved Spell Capacity (10th), Improved Spell Capacity (11th), Improved Spell Capacity (12th)
Environment	Any land or underground
Organization	Solitary (unique)
Challenge Rating	26
Treasure	1,229 gp, +2 unholy dagger, belt pouch (with 70 sp), cloak of the bat and resistance +5, boots of elvenkind, bracers of armor +8, necklace of fireballs type VII, periapt of health, ring of greater universal energy resistance, ring of protection +5, rod of withering, spell component pouch (x3), staff of nature’s fury (48 charges), staff of swarming insects (39 charges), trail rations (x6), traveler’s outfit, waterskin
Alignment	Lawful evil

Merlra has received +4 inherent bonuses to her Constitution and Wisdom scores, and a +5 inherent bonus to her Charisma score.

Corrupt the Oath (Ex): Merlra retains much of her druidic class abilities. She has access to all druidic abilities that she was previously entitled to, except for spontaneous casting of summon nature’s ally spells and her animal companion. Her uses of wildshape per day have decreased by one, but any wildshape she takes gains the fiendish template. Merlra uses the totality of her druid and despoiler levels to determine how many Hit Dice the new form can have. Merlra is no longer bound by her druidic oaths in terms of what armor and weapons she can use.

Dark Harvest (Su): 1/day, Merlra can harvest the surrounding area for its power extremely quickly. As a full round action, she affects all plants, soil and living creatures in a 10 ft. radius. This kills all plant life (other than plant creatures) and soil in the area, and deals 4d8 points of damage to all living creatures in the area (including plant creatures). Creatures within the area are entitled to a Fortitude save to take half damage (DC of 20). The collective damage dealt (including usual damage to soil and plant life) is siphoned directly to Merlra’s life energy pool as per normal, although this cannot exceed the usual maximum. In many cases, this will result in a full life energy pool. Using dark harvest in this way, as with harness the earth, provokes attacks of opportunity.

Dark Dominion (Su): Merlra is able to rebuke or command animals and plants as an evil cleric rebukes undead. Her effective cleric level is 17th. An animal or plant that has been successfully commanded or rebuked has a 35% chance of becoming lawful evil. The animal or plant in question is otherwise indifferent to Merlra.

Devotee of Darkness: Once per day, Merlra can call upon the aid of Lilith, granting her a +3 profane bonus to any one roll. Against chaotic or good foes, Merlra gains a +1 profane bonus to Armor Class, and once per day can gain a +2 profane bonus on saving throws against a spell with the chaotic or good descriptor. She also gains Spell Resistance 26 against chaotic and good spells and spell-like abilities.

Whenever dealing with a higher-ranking servant of Dispater (or the Countess of Malbolge herself), Merlra takes a –2 penalty on attacks, checks, and other rolls, a – 3 penalty to Armor Class, and a -6 penalty to saving throws. In addition, no Spell Resistance Merlra obtains is ever effective against such creatures.

Harness the Earth (Su): Merlra can siphon power from her environment. Her touch deals 1d6 points of damage per round to plants (including plant creatures), draining away their life energy. Alternatively, she can drain half as much energy from soil, dealing 1d3 points of damage per round and bypassing hardness. This is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity (Merlra can still take a 5-ft. step each round as per normal). Deadwood, barren soil, or similar lifeless resources have no energy to drain, and thus harness the earth is ineffective against such materials. Harness the earth is likewise ineffective against animals and other non-flora living creatures. The energy that Merlra siphons can then be utilized to enhance various powers, as found in above.

Merlra cannot siphon more than six points of energy at any one time; furthermore, she cannot store the life energy that she has taken once she stops siphoning, the energy disappearing one round after she ceases harnessing. Obviously, the land or the plants from which this energy is taken cannot live through too much abuse. After three rounds of harnessing the earth, small plants have withered and died, and soil has become barren in a 5-ft. cube. Trees and larger plants are not necessarily killed outright within three rounds, but the area of contact between despoiler and plant (a 5-ft. cube) will itself be dead, generally meaning that any part of the plant above that point will die over time as a result. If siphoning occurs in one spot for less than three rounds, wilting or drying out and so forth will be apparent. A 5-foot cube of plant life and soil takes a number of weeks to recover from harness the earth equal to the number of rounds of damage that it took. It is therefore possible for Merlra to return within that timeframe, harness again, and kill the plant life and soil totally.

Finally, harnessing the earth is addictive. Each time Merlra uses the ability to siphon off energy, she must succeed on a Will save (DC 18) or immediately use the harness ability again. For every day in which she has not harnessed the earth at least once, the DC increases by 1. Should she fail the save but be unable to harness (e.g. she is deep underground with only rock, not soil, about), she is fatigued until such time as she is able to harness again.

Reap the Whirlwind (Sp): 1/day, as a standard action, Merlra is able to use control weather (caster level 26th) as a spell-like ability. When Merlra is within windy conditions of any sort, she is immune to its effects (thus she is never checked, knocked down, blown away, etc, by powerful winds, although debris blown about by winds can still hit and thus hurt her).

Warp the Word (Su): Merlra has learnt to change her energy-based spells as needed, although at a cost. She can spontaneously add metamagic feats to any energy- based spell (i.e. a spell with the acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic descriptor) that she casts without the need to prepare the spell ahead of time, and without any increase in the casting time. To do so, she channels the energy of additional spells at the time of casting, using up extra spell slots. Each metamagic feat costs a number of spell levels equal to its usual cost plus one. Thus, Merlra could cast a violated flaming sphere by spending an additional two spell levels at the time of casting (crossing off either two first level prepared spells, or one second level prepared spell, as well as the prepared flaming sphere spell).

Winnow (Su): Merlra is able to winnow out those of an evil bent. She is able to use her dark dominion ability to rebuke or command giants, humanoids and monstrous humanoids of an evil alignment as an evil cleric rebukes undead. Lawful evil creatures are treated as having -3 Hit Dice, and chaotic evil creatures are treated as having turn resistance +3.

Creatures successfully commanded are treated as if under the effects of dominate monster for 24 hours, while rebuked creatures refuse to approach Merlra, remaining at least 20 feet away for the next hour, or cowering if they cannot move away. Non-evil creatures, or evil creatures with more than 26 Hit Dice are immune to winnow. Merlra can command up to 32 Hit Dice of creatures at any one time.

Typical druid Spells Prepared (6/7/7/6/6/6/5/4/4/4/1/1/1/1; save DC 16 + spell level)

• 0 – Create Water, Detect Magic, detect poison, Know Direction, mending, Purify Food and Drink;
• 1st – detect animals or plants, entangle, faerie fire, jump, longstrider, obscuring mist, produce flame;
• 2nd – barkskin, fire trap, flame blade, flaming sphere, heat metal, summon swarm, warp wood;
• 3rd – call lightning, contagion, meld into stone, poison, sleet storm, water breathing;
• 4th – blight, dispel magic, flame strike, ice storm, rusting grasp, scrying;
• 5th – baleful polymorph, call lightning storm, tree stride, unhallow, wall of fire, wall of thorns;
• 6th – find the path, greater dispel magic, repel wood, transport via plants, wall of stone;
• 7th – creeping doom, flame strike (maximized), heal, true seeing;
• 8th – finger of death, fire storm (violated), flame strike (twinned), reverse gravity;
• 9th – Foresight, regenerate, shapechange, storm of vengeance;
• 10th – fire storm (maximized);
• 11th – sunburst (maximized);
• 12th – storm of vengeance (maximized).