Gourmand Archetypes: The Sacred Cannibal

Recently I've been experimenting with expanding the Gourmand class I created for Pathfinder with a number of Archtypes. Here is the third, there shall be more to follow... 


An Archetype of the Gourmand class.

Sacred Cannibals eat the dead not out of any inherent viciousness, nor epicurean curiosity, but rather out a deep respect for the departed. To the Sacred Cannibal, consuming their kills is a holy act, sharing in the vital energies of the departed, defending against the scourge of undeath, and unlocking great occult potentiality.

Class Skills: A Sacred Cannibal adds Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (the planes) to his list of class skills.

Sacred Consumption (Su): Sacred Cannibals feed on the bodies of friend and foe alike as a show of respect and devotion. They must be present to witness the death of a creature in order to consume it, but need not have actively participated in the death (i.e. they do not have to have damaged the creature themselves). The act of consuming for a Sacred Cannibal is a highly ritualized and time consuming act — involving carefully extracting organs, cutting them into very small pieces, and selectively roasting and eating those pieces or burning them in sacrifice according to pattern known only to them, while leaving the rest of the body intact for burial or cremation. Using the consume ability takes 2d4 hours for the Sacred Cannibal (instead of the usual 1 hour). Sacred Consumption can only be used on creatures that are of the same type as the Sacred Cannibal (i.e. a human Sacred Cannibal may only use consume on humanoids).

In addition to the normal effects of using Consume, any corpse consumed by a Sacred Cannibal is treated as if it was permanently under the effects of a Sanctify Corpse spell. This effect is subject to dispel magic (against a caster level equal to the Sacred Cannibal’s gourmand level), but is otherwise permanent.

This modifies the Consume ability.

Ritual Consumption: The Sacred Cannibal treats all acts of killing and eating as holy rituals by which he can unlock great occult power. At 1st level, the Sacred Cannibal gains Haruspicy as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the normal prerequisites. In addition, at 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the Sacred Cannibal automatically learns one Occult Ritual of his choice. At 4th level, this must be a 4th-level ritual. At 7th level, he learns a 5th-level ritual; at 10th level, he learns a 6th-level ritual; at 13th level, he learns a 7th-level ritual; at 16th level, he learns an 8th-level ritual; and at 19th level, he learns a 9th-level ritual.

All rituals learned in this manner have double the normal casting time, and require a fresh corpse of the same creature type as the Sacred Cannibal to be partially eaten as an additional material component. Rituals learned by other means do not have this limitation.

This replaces Epicurean, and all instances of the Acquire Special Quality ability.

Bane of the Eaters: Starting at 9th level, the Sacred Cannibal becomes immune to all afflictions (such as curses, diseases, and poisons) delivered via a bite attack. The Sacred Cannibal is also immune to the Blood Drain universal monster ability, and the Create Spawn ability of various undead creatures. This replaces Swallow Whole.