Sineater

At 1st level, whenever the sineater deals nonlethal damage with his gentle touch ability or a weapon granted by this philosophy to a creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or greater, he restores 1 point of essence burn. If damage reduction or hardness reduces the damage dealt to 0, or if the target is immune to nonlethal damage, the sineater fails to restore any burned essence.

In addition, whenever the sineater is affected by an attack that would reduce him below 0 hit points, he may, as an immediate action, take a number of points of essence burn up to his class level to negate an amount of damage from the attack equal to 5 times the amount of essence burn taken. This cannot reduce the damage below 0 and cannot be used to prevent damage dealt as ability damage or drain.

At 4th level, the sineater gains increased control over his ability to sustain himself by devouring sin. As an immediate action, the sineater can take 1 point of essence burn to gain DR 1/– until the start of his next turn. This damage reduction improves by 1 for every 5 levels the sineater possesses, to a maximum of DR 5/– at 20th level.

At 8th level, the sineater can instead take 2 points of essence burn to gain Fast Healing 2 until the start of his next turn, improving by 1 for every 4 class levels the sineater possesses past 8th (to a maximum of Fast Healing 5 at 20th).

At 12th level, the sineater can take 3 points of essence burn to gain Regeneration 3 until the start of his next turn, improving by 1 for every 4 levels the sineater possesses past 12th (to a maximum of regeneration 5 at 20th level). This regeneration is suppressed for 1 round if the sineater takes damage from a weapon that shares an alignment component with him (for example, a Lawful Good sineater damaged by a lawful or good weapon would have his regeneration suppressed for 1 round).

These abilities can be sustained as a free action taken when they would expire by taking the listed amount of essence burn again, even if the sineater is unconscious. The sineater can maintain more than one use of this ability by paying the total cost for each type of use; for example, a 16th level sineater could sustain the benefits of both DR/– and Fast Healing by taking 3 points of essence burn. He still needs to spend separate swift actions to activate these abilities.

At 7th level the sineater gains the ability to punish beings that embody sin or sinful ideas. Before making an attack roll with a weapon currently modified by his gentle touch ability against an Aberration, Undead, or Outsider whose alignment is at least one step different from his own, the sineater can choose to take up to 1 point of essence burn per class level as a free action to deal an additional 5 hit points of damage per point of essence burned. The sineater cannot take more essence burn than he has essence currently available when activating this ability.

At 10th level, the sineater gains the ability to cast atonement as a spell-like ability usable 1/day. After successfully using this spell-like ability, the sineater gains a pool of temporary hit points equal to the total hit die of the creature targeted by the atonement. These hit points last for 1 hour per level.

At 13th level, the sineater becomes impossibly difficult to dislodge once he has begun to draw out an enemy’s sins. Whenever he hits an enemy with an unarmed strike, he is treated as having the Grab special attack. For every 2 points of essence invested in his Gentle Touch ability the maximum size category of creatures he can grapple is increased by 1 and the bonus granted by the Grab ability to start or maintain a grapple increases by +2.

At 16th level the sineater can violently absorb a mass of sin from all nearby sources in a whirlwind of tainted energy. As a full round action the sineater can make a single unarmed strike against all enemies within 10 feet. The sineater must have at least 1 point of essence invested in his gentle touch to use this ability.

At 19th level, the sineater can draw all sin out of his opponent in a single intense burst. As a full-round action, the sineater can make a single unarmed strike attack against a targeted opponent and spend a use of his Stunning Fist ability. If the targeted opponent fails a Will save against this attack (DC of 10 + essence invested in Gentle Touch + the sineater’s Wisdom Modifier) the flow of life energy through his body is torn apart as the sineater absorbs all the sin in his soul, paralyzing the target and restoring 1 point of essence burn per hit die of the target to the sineater. A successful save prevents the target from being paralyzed and the sineater from regaining burned essence, though the target still takes normal damage from the attack. This ability cannot affect the same target more than once every 24 hours.