Animists are students of all things spiritual. They are to spirits, nature and elements what sorcerers are to arcane magic, though instead of drawing upon internal or innate ability they draw power from nature itself. By forming bonds with spirit aspects the animist is able to fully mater a single spiritual path while gaining secondary power in other spiritual paths; apart from these 'spirit pacts' animists are natural healers and play an active hand in warding off abominations that walk the world. Animists do draw some power from within themselves though and this helps to ward them from the challenges that they face.

Role: Animists are more capable channelers of divine energies than clerics and other spellcasters that wield divine might. This makes them more effective in combat against undead and other creatures that suffer against elemental damage. They are very efficient in one type of spirit pact and as they expand their power they are capable of exploring other spirit pacts, but find that their power with each additional spirit pact is a fraction of what their power is with their first spirit pact. Due to animists only fully mastering one spirit pact, each animist is unique in that as many spirit pacts as there are each animist approaches which pacts they want more power from enabling a sense of uniqueness among their kind.

Alignment: Animists may be of any alignment, but most tend toward chaos over law and neutrality over good or evil.

Hit Die: d6

Class Skills

Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (geography) (Int, Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis) and Swim (Str).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 6 + Int modifier

	Base	Fort	Ref	Will		Basal	Elemental	Spiritual
Level	Attack Bonus	Save	Save	Save	Special Abilities	Channeling	Resistance	Grace
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Detect Spirits, Spirit Pact, Spirit Empathy	1d6	+0	+0
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Additional Channeling, Chastise Spirits		+2	+1
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Spirit Pact		+3	+1
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Speak With Spirits	2d6	+3	+2
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Additional Channeling		+4	+2
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Spirit Pact		+5	+3
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Spell Channeling	3d6	+6	+3
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Additional Channeling		+6	+4
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Spirit Pact	4d6	+7	+4
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Peaceful Aura		+8	+5
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Additional Channeling	5d6	+9	+5
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Spirit Pact		+9	+6
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Planar Jaunt	6d6	+10	+6
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Additional Channeling		+11	+7
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	Spirit Pact	7d6	+12	+7
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Bind Spirit		+12	+8
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Additional Channeling	8d6	+13	+8
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Spirit Pact		+14	+9
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Revive Spirit	9d6	+15	+9
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Extract Spirit		+15	+10

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The animist is proficient with all simple weapons and also kukri, longbows (including composite longbows), saps, the scythe, shortbows (including composite shortbows) and whips. Animists are not proficient with any armor or shields. When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, the animist loses her detect spirits, spirit empathy and spiritual grace abilities.

Bonus Languages: Animists may substitute Gaian for one of the bonus languages available to her due to her immersion of all things spiritual.

Basal Channeling (Su): The animist gains Divine Channeling as a bonus feat at 1st level, even though she does not meet the spellcasting prerequisite. The animist channels positive or negative energy as per the standard channeling rules and channels an amount of dice as shown on her class table.

In addition the animist can channel elemental energy, but she must have first selected a spirit domain that grants her the ability to use a spell-like elemental attack, and can only channel elemental types of the kinds that the domains have made accessible to her. When channeling elemental energy the channel attempt is utilized exactly like divine channeling, dealing an amount of dice of damage like the animist would use if she were channeling positive or negative energy.

Detect Spirits (Su): The animist can perceive spirits at will. Some aspects of this ability are the same as the detect evil spell; casting time, range area and duration. Spirits are not entitled to saving throws against this ability. The amount of information revealed depends on how long the animist studies a particular area or subject as noted below. Each round the animist can turn to detect spirits in a new area. This affect can penetrate barriers, but one foot of stone, an inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead and three feet of wood or dirt effectively blocks this ability.

1st Round: Presence or absence of spirits.

2nd Round: Number of spirits in the area and the and the power of the most potent spirit present.

If the strongest spirits potency is overwhelming (see below) or the HD/level of the source spirits is equal to the animists' Charisma modifier plus twice her class level, the animist is stunned for one round and the effect ends.

3rd Round: The potency and location of each spirit. If a spirit is outside an animists' line of sight, then the animist learns the direction of the spirit but not its exact location.

4th Round: The condition of each spirit in the area. Line of sight applies here as with the 3rd round of focusing.

Spirit Potency: A spirit's potency depends on the type of creature being detected and its HD, caster level and/or class level; see the accompanying chart. If a spirit falls into more than one category, detect spirits only indicates the stronger of the two.

Creature*	Faint	Moderate	Strong	Overwhelming
Outsider (HD)	7 or lower	8 - 17	18 - 32	33 or higher
Fey (HD)	6 or lower	7 - 13	14 - 27	28 or higher
Character (Class Levels)	5 or lower	6 - 10	11 - 15	16 or higher

*The following creatures are classified as spirits; all incorporeal undead, all fey, all elementals, creatures in astral form or with astral bodies. Though the Astral Plane does not exist in the Sarûnia cosmology, that doesn't exclude characters and creatures from assuming astral form; there is more than one way for a creature to manifest an astral body.

Spirit Condition: For the purpose of this effect the categories of conditions are; normal (has at least 90% of full normal hit points remaining, free of disease), fair (30% to 90%of full normal hit points remaining), poor (less than 30% of full normal hit points remaining, afflicted with a disease or suffering from a debilitating injury), weak (0 or fewer hit points remaining, afflicted with a disease in the terminal stage, crippled). If a spirit falls into more than one category, detect spirits indicates the weaker of the two.

The animist loses this class feature when she immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Elemental Resistance (Ex): Whenever the animist is the target of any spell with the acid, cold, electricity, fire, force or sonic descriptors she gains a resistance bonus on her saving throw against it equal to the amount listed for her class level plus her Charisma modifier.

The animist loses this class feature when she immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Spirit Pact (Sp/Su): At 1st level the animist selects one of the following clerical domains; Air, Animal, Death, Earth, Fire, Healing, Water, Plant, Weather. The animist gains the domain granted power and spell-like ability of the selected domain, though she uses her Charisma modifier instead of her Wisdom modifier to determine her extra spell-like ability domain uses per day. The animist treats her effective cleric level for her 1st spirit domain as equal to her animist class level.

At 3rd level and every three levels thereafter the animist selects one additional cleric domain from the list of those previously mentioned, until she reaches 18th level when she chooses her last spirit pact. The animist subtracts all previous class levels to determine her effective cleric level for her new spirit domains; for example upon selecting her 2nd spirit domain at 3rd level the animist treats their effective cleric level for the domain as equal to her animist level -2, when selecting her 3rd spirit domain at 5th level the animist treats their effective cleric level for the domain as equal to her animist level -4, etcetera.

The animist gains the supernatural ability of any selected cleric domains if her effective cleric level with the domain is high enough to qualify for it.

Spirit Empathy (Ex): Animists can improve the attitude of spirits. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person (see Chapter 4 in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook). The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical spirit has a starting attitude of indifferent, while incorporeal undead spirits are usually unfriendly.

Spiritual Grace (Su): The animist adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to his AC and his CMD. In addition, the animist gains a +1 bonus to AC and CMD at 2nd level. This bonus increases by +1 for every two class levels thereafter, up to a maximum of +10 at 20th level.   

The animist loses this class feature when she immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Additional Channeling: At 2nd level and every three levels thereafter up until 17th level the animist gains 2 additional daily uses of her divine channeling ability.

Chastise Spirits: At 2nd level the animist gains Chastise Spirits as a bonus feat.

Speak With Spirits (Su): At 3rd level the animist is able to speak to with any spirit (see the detect spirits class feature for what creatures qualify as a spirit). The animist can use this ability at will with no limit. If the animist has selected animal as one of her spirit domains, she adds all animals to the type of creatures that she can converse with.

Spell Channeling (Sp): At 7th level the animist can cast spells from her spirit domains as spell-like abilities with the following stipulations; she must sacrifice a number of daily uses from her divine channeling equal to the level of the spell and the animists effective cleric level with the domain it resides in must be twice the level of the spell in order to be able to cast it; her effective cleric level with the domain is used to determine the affects of the spell.

Peaceful Aura (Su): At 11th level the animist exudes calmness out to a radius of 30 feet. Spirits that are within the area of this ability have its stating attitude increased by one step. In addition the animist can choose to focus this ability against one spirit per round, the selected spirit must make a Will save (DC 10 + the animists class level + the animists Charisma modifier); failure on the save indicates that the spirit is dazed for a number of rounds equal to 1D4 plus the animists Charisma modifier. For each additional time a spirit is subjected to this ability per 36 hour period the save DC is lowered by -5.

Planar Jaunt (Su): At 13th level the animist can plane shift as per the spell to any of the following planes; any elemental plane, the energy planes and the eternal twilight. The animist can planar jaunt once per day per five class levels and can return to the prime material without having to spend a daily use of the ability. The animists' effective cleric level for this ability is equal to her class level.

Bind Spirit (Sp): At 16th level the animist can cast binding as a spell-like ability once per day with her caster level equal to her class level. This ability only affects spirits (see the detect spirits class feature for what creatures qualify as a spirit). The animist must provide the necessary material components for the ritual, which otherwise works exactly like the binding spell.

Revive Spirit (Sp): At 19th level the animist can cast true resurrection once per day. Any living humanoid or spirit creature can be the beneficiary of this ability, thus allowing the animist to resurrect creatures that might be beyond the limits of true resurrection. If the animist has chosen animal as one of her spirit domains she can use this ability to resurrect animals as well.

Extract Spirit (Su): At 20th level the animist is able to extract the soul/spirit from living creatures, including herself if so desired. Creatures must be willing to have their spirit extracted from their body and once done, the body starts to rot unless it is preserved. The spirit takes on the form of a diamond, much like the diamond of the spirit class feature of the anchorite; this diamond is indiscernible as anything other than it appear to be unless viewed under the effects of magic.

If the diamond is viewed under any effect which allows a being to see or perceive magic, then those that handle or study it must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + the anchorite?s level and/or hit dice + the anchorites Wisdom ability modifier). Failure indicates that diamond is definitely a spirit diamond, but nothing more. Success indicates that it is a spirit diamond and the name and commonly known knowledge about the person it is made from. A success by 10 or more allows the handler or viewer to catch glimpses within the diamond from the perspective of the characters soul of events that helped to shape the individual that they became.

SPIRIT PACTS & OTHER PATHFINDER RESOURCES
GMs should feel free to add more clerical domains to be chosen from to the list of spirit pacts that animists may select. The domains should keep in tune with the theme of the animist; for example Ocean/Sea and Renewal domains would be appropriate additions whereas Time and Void domains wouldn't be. If racial domains are being used in the campaign, the animist may only add her race domain to the list of spirit pacts available to her.