Evil / Undead Class : Snake Servant
by Eric Cagle, Dragon #296
Snake servants are the chosen of various cults that revere medusas and their power. Unlike most other monster cultists, snake servants are not completely blind to their situation. Medusas demand servitude but they hate obsequious behavior. As a result, snake servants must walk a fine line, following their master's command, but doing so in a way that will not anger her.
Snake servants do most of the dirty work for a medusa, infiltrating organizations, scouting locations, and acting as the first line of defense against attack. Medusas that set up criminal rings use snake servants as proxies and middlemen, negotiating on their behalf and setting up jobs for other cultists. In a city with medusas running these rackets, snake servants are often the "face" that is presented.
Snake servant are very active in setting up "churches" in big cities dedicated to the worship of Shekenster. They actively recruit impressionable, misguided, and deluded individuals into the cult, making them into pawns for the snake servant's use. Snake servants enjoy corrupting officials, nobles, and religious leaders, brining them into the sight of Shekenster's never-ending gaze.
Rogues are the most likely candidates to be chosen as a snake servant, followed by clerics. Fighters, rangers, and monks who understand subtlety are also likely to take this class, followed by wizards and sorcerers. Classes with a chaotic bent, like barbarians and bards, are never found as snake servants.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Snake Servant, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Race: Any humanoid or monstrous humanoid
- Alignment: Lawful evil
- Skills: Bluff 5 ranks, Disguise 5 ranks
- Base Attack Bonus: +5
- Patron: Shekenster
- Special: The potential snake servant must go through a special ceremony with a medusa allowing her to poison him until his Strength score is brought completely down to 0.
Class Skills
The snake servant's class skills are Bluff, Climb, Craft, Disguise, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Profession, and Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the snake servant prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Snake servants are proficient with longbows, composite longbows, shortbows, composite shortbows, and all simple weapons, but they gain no new proficiency with armor or shields.
Medusa Gaze Immunity (Su): The snake servant becomes immune to the petrifying gaze of a medusa. The snake servants gains no immunity to any other sort of gaze attack.
Poison Damage Reduction (Ex): Through constant exposure to poisons of all types, especially those created by medusas, the snake servant can ignore a limited amount of poison damage. If the medusa cultist fails her Fortitude save against poison, she reduces the amount of poison damage by 1 point at 2nd level and 2 points at 4th level. This ability does not reduce any damage from the delivery method, just the poison itself. This reduction applies to both initial and secondary poison damage.
Stunning Gaze (Su): An 3rd level, the snake servant gaze becomes particularly unnerving, causing creatures to be stunned. This effect has a range of 30 feet and is negated by a Fortitude save (DC 10 + snake servant class level + Charisma modifier). The snake servant can use this ability for 1 round a number of times per day as indicated on the snake servant Advancement table. A creature that fails its saving throw is stunned for 1 round.
Petrification Immunity (Su): Snake servants of 5th level are immune to all petrification effects.
Medusa Apotheosis: At 5th level, the snake servant has lost all touch with her original heritage, becoming more like a medusa. her skin becomes scaly, and her eyes change into those of a reptile. her eyelids wither away and are replaced by a nictating membrane - her eyes never blink again. The snake servant's type changes to "monstrous humanoid". All special abilities, spells, or effects treat her as a monstrous humanoid.
Ex-Snake Servants: A snake servant who ceases worshiping Shekenster loses almost all Class Features of the prestige class. The only class feature that is not lost is the medusa apotheosis - the creature is permanently warped and twisted into a monstrous humanoid as a reminder of her former master. However, due to Shekenster's treacherous nature, a snake servant who remains faithful to the deity does not lose her abilities if she opposes medusas.
| Snake Servant | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Medusa gaze immunity |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Poison damage reduction 1 |
| 3rd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Stunning gaze (1/day |
| 4th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Poison damage reduction 2 |
| 5th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Petrification immunity, medusa apotheosis, stunning gaze (2/day) |
Source: Dragon #296