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The ebon saint lives in the darkness, but seeks to expose his enemies to the light. Flitting from the shadows to learn the secrets of his enemies and dispatch them quickly, the ebon saint seeks to further his personal agenda by gathering and exploiting information on those who oppose him.

The goal of these dark infiltrators is to sneak into the lairs of their enemies, uncover their dark secrets, and expose them to the world. Whether an ebon saint seeks to right the wrongs of the world, maintain the status quo, or strike tyrannical fear into the hearts of the oppressed, he does so from the cold, unchanging certainty of the darkness in which he resides.

Ebon saints nearly all begin their careers as lurks, since that class provides the necessary foundation for ebon saint abilities. A fair number, however, are rogues with the Wild Talent feat. Whereas a lurk might use the shadows to achieve his ends, an ebon saint lives in them, seeking to master the art and discipline of the dire strike in the service of an ideology that is greater than any one person. The nature of that ideology is determined by each ebon saint, and is molded by his alignment and life experiences.

Requirements

Class Features

Powers Known: At every level above 1st level, you gain additional power points per day, an increase in manifester level, and access to new powers as if you had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one manifesting class before becoming an ebon saint, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Dire Strike (Ex): Ebon saints are trained at infiltration and gathering of information through subversive means. If you study a creature for 1 round and then make a successful sneak attack against that creature, you gain an insight into that creature's abilities.

For the rest of that encounter, you gain a bonus on attack rolls made against that creature equal to your ebon saint level. You also gain a dodge bonus to AC against that creature's attacks equal to one-half your class level, rounding down (minimum 1). In addition, a creature you have used dire strike against is subject to dire augments that are unique to the ebon saint class.

Once you have completed your round of study, you must make your dire strike attempt within the next 3 rounds. If you do not, you must spend another round studying your target before you can attempt a dire strike. You cannot use a dire strike against an unconscious opponent. As with a sneak attack, you can deal nonlethal damage with a dire strike, which becomes important when you master the disappear from the mind ability.

Shadowfriend (Ex): While you are psionically focused, you gain an enhancement bonus on Hide checks and Move Silently checks equal to your class level.

Dire Augments: An ebon saint gains dire augments that function much as the lurk class feature does (see page 14). While a lurk's abilities cover a spread of options, however, you have dedicated yourself to the art of infiltration and espionage.

Using a dire augment is a swift action. You can spend a number of power points less than or equal to your character level on a single attack. You can use your dire augments a number of times per day equal to 3 + your ebon saint level. In addition, you can only use your dire augments to modify a dire strike attack, not a normal sneak attack.

At 3rd level, you can combine any two of your dire augments in a single dire strike (as a single swift action), provided you can pay the power point cost of each ability. At 5th level, you can combine any three of your dire augments in a single dire strike, provided you can pay the power point cost of each ability.

Thought Theft (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can gain insight into any hazards you will encounter in the near future that your victim is aware of. If your dire strike is successful, you can access the creature's mind in a manner similar to the read thoughts power (EPH 128). The information you ascertain is the nature of any hazards the creature is aware of within 50 feet. Hazards include traps, enemies, and other obstacles intended to impede you or cause you harm. You become aware of these hazards in only the most general sense. You might learn, for example, that a trap lies 30 feet down a corridor from your victim, but not the nature of the trap or how to bypass it. You might also learn that a patrol of four guards comes down the corridor every few minutes, but not the race or weaponry of each of the guards.

The creature can attempt a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Int modifier) to resist the thought theft. Using this augment costs 3 power points. For every 2 additional power points you spend, the save DC of the ability increases by 1.

Mind Interrogation (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, you gain the ability to steal specific important information directly from the mind of the victim of one of your dire strikes. When you make a successful dire strike against a foe that deals damage, you can visualize one question in your mind and spend 4 power points. If your victim knows the answer to the question, you immediately know the answer as well.

Steal Form (Su): At 4th level, you learn the pinnacle of successful infiltration: You can become the victims of your dire strikes. If you make a successful dire strike attack and spend 5 power points, you can shift your form into that of your victim as a full-round action, as if using an alter self spell (PH 197) cast by a spellcaster of your ebon saint level.

You can shift back into your own form with another full-round action; doing so does not require an expenditure of power points. You can also shift back into the form of your victim again at any time during the next 24 hours by spending 5 more power points. You only have a total time of 50 minutes to use your victim's form, but you can spread that time out over the 24-hour period. Once 24 hours have elapsed, you can no longer access the victim's form unless you seek out that creature and perform another successful dire strike against it (if it is still alive). You are subject to the same limitations as described in the alter self spell when using this ability. You can "collect" a total number of five forms in a given 24-hour period that you can use, although you must pay power points separately for each one and you must still successfully use dire strike against each victim.

Disappear from the Mind (Su): At 5th level, you master the art of disappearing right in front of your victim. When you make a successful dire strike attack that deals nonlethal damage, you can spend 5 power points to erase your presence from the victim's mind. This works as the cloud mind power. Your victim can attempt a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Int modifier) to resist the effect. If you have dealt lethal damage to your victim within the previous 24 hours, you cannot use this ability against that target. If you deal lethal damage to the target at any point after using this ability successfully, it remembers everything about this encounter.

You must remove yourself from the victim's line of sight within 1 round of using this power, or the creature remembers everything. You must remain out of sight for at least 1 minute; once this time has passed, the creature treats you as if the previous encounter never happened if you again expose yourself to its line of sight.

Sneak Attack (Ex): At 3rd level, the damage you deal on a sneak attack improves by 1d6 points. If you have the psionic sneak attack class feature, that ability improves instead. If you have both sneak attack and psionic sneak attack, choose one or the other to improve.

Advancement