Weekly Wonders - Archetypes of the Afterlife Volume I - The Damned

Unleash the Powers of the Damned!

Adventurers have a special relationship with death in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. While for many, death is one of the few things in this world that is both certain and final, for an adventurer, especially at higher levels, it is more of an inconvenience than anything else. Some characters may even find themselves dying and being brought back to life with magic multiple times in a single fight. The Weekly Wonders: Archetypes of the Afterlife series explores some of the ways that a brush with death might affect PCs, with a variety of new afterlife-themed archetypes.

For this book, we focus on the damned, those poor souls who know for a certainty that their soul is doomed to one of the lower planes once they finally die and stay dead. Some characters might react to this revelation by desperately trying to change their ways, others by attempting to flee from death and the infernal and demonic agents eager to collect their soul. Still others in this book are not themselves damned, but gain special powers to interact with the damned, either to save them from eternal torment and steer them back to the right path, or to hunt them down and bring them to justice. This book includes the following archetypes:

The hound of the underworld, a hunter archetype with the power to condemns souls, who hunts down the damned at the behest of infernal masters.

The oracle of the damned, an oracle archetype whose own damnation allows her to speak to, conjure, and eventually even save the spirits of others who have been condemned to an afterlife of suffering.

The hell runner, a rogue archetype whose soul is claimed by a powerful evil outsider, and who has learned to better avoid death, because any time he is slain may be his last.

The militant redeemer, a warpriest archetype that focuses on finding the damned and redeeming them with a merciful, yet strong, hand.

The tamo-yogyas, a witch cursed by powerful negative karma from this life or a past one. Although this karma is harmful to her, she can also pass along its ill effects to others.

The Damned, a new emotional focus for spiritualist phantoms, representing phantoms who have been damned for their misdeeds in life.

Whether you're about to embark on a campaign where the afterlife features prominently (such as the official Paizo Adventure Path featuring an undead tyrant), or you just want to play a character touched by the grave, this book has lots of tantalizing options to offer. Even GMs can get in on the fun, as several of the archetypes here are perfect for deathly NPCs as well, and can make for exciting and memorable encounters.