OSR: Class: Exorcist

The Body and the Soul

In my setting, spells and souls belong in the same category. If someone curses you, they stick a parasite-thing on your soul. If you are enchanted, your soul might be altered or edited. The soul drives the body and not the other way around. Very powerful and willful creatures like dragons don't need a body the same way more fragile creatures do.

Angels, demons, summoned entities, creatures created by spells, and some other spirits are pure spell-stuff. Their bodies are just an extension or aspect of their souls.

Elementals are slightly different. As far as anyone can tell, their matter is their soul.

Brom

Abominations

An abomination is defined as "that which offends the Authority". The Church recognizes three major categories Abomination as particularly dangerous and, over the centuries, has created special orders and rites to combat them. Not all the examples listed below are abominated by the Church; anything listed as "Also Affects" is just incidental stuff that behaves in the same way, effectively, but which the Church has not specifically abominated. These edge cases might lead to some very weird interactions between Exorcist abilities and the things they encounter. This is intentional.

Embodied Undead: Skeletons, zombies, wights, liches, and vampires. Creatures whose bodies died, but whose souls lived on, driving the body. Corpses possessed by a spell or spirit. Also Affects: enchanted weapons, wands, armour, spellbooks, golems and constructs.

Incorporeal Undead: Ghosts, banshees, spectres, and shadows. Creatures whose bodies died, but whose souls lived on and roam freely. Also Affects: spells, angels, summoned demons, summoned entities.

Possessive Undead: Demons, powerful ghosts, and some diseases. Creatures whose  original bodies died but whose souls live on in the body of other living creatures. Two souls in the same flesh. Also Affects: persistent spells that affect a living target, curses.

Mademoiselle Charlotte, Maxim Verehin

Class: Exorcist

Starting Equipment: traveling robes, ceremonial robes. Other equipment varies by Role.
Starting Skill: Religion.

You gain +1 Save vs Fear for each Exorcist template you possess.

You are either a member of the First Estate or an Outlaw. In either case, you need to think like a member of the First Estate. You are part of an elite order, a very small group of men and women outside the usual demands of the Church. Your profession is so dangerous and so necessary that dogmatic rules are bent or broken for you. You roam Creation seeking neither fame nor riches nor glory, but only to do your duty, or to perish in the attempt. And if, along the way, you should acquire wealth and help the poor or live comfortably for a time, who could blame you?

And if you fall...

Role:

1. Bell
2. Book
3. Sword

Your templates vary by your Role. You can only choose templates from one Role. Effectively, the Exorcist class is three classes in one, similar to how Wizards have schools.

If you are using the Estate system, Bell Exorcists are commonly monastic members of the First Estate, Book exorcists are commonly ordained members of the First Estate, and Sword exorcists are commonly Outlaws.

Source Unknown

Mechanical Notes on the Exorcist
This is a very mechanics-heavy class. It's for advanced players who like that sort of thing. The class has a very powerful set of tools, but the tools do not nessesarily work on all enemies. This is not a healing, buffing, miracle-working cleric class. Each of the Exorcist roles is a toolkit made of very strange parts. It is up to the player to use them effectively. I wouldn't recommend this class to new or inexperienced players. The class also uses HP as fuel for many abilities.

And it's also a work in progress, so, you know, be careful with it.

Most campaigns include stuff the Exorcist can interact with at their full potential, or can trivially be adapted to include undead of some description.