#Ashavic Dancer

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Prestige Class Spotlight 12: Ashavic Dancer

(art by Arshi Sy on Artstation)

The image of the lone dancer in the moonlight is a simultaneously serene yet eerie trope, and today we’re tapping into a bit of that with today’s entry!

Named for the Empyreal Lord Ashava (whom we will do an entry on in Deity Drop eventually), who dances to lead the lost home, especially lost souls, today’s subject seeks to emulate their patron by seeking out the restless dead and helping put them to rest with dances of their own.

Some may be bards, while others might be clerics, oracles, and the like devoted to the azata demigod, and others still might belong to other professions. Regardless, however, they are devoted to helping the dead rest and the living find their way.

As we’ll soon see, the moves of these mystical dancers are more than just for show.

Naturally, the prerequisites for this class involve being able to cast spells, being a proficient dancer, and having an affinity for communicating with spirits.

This prestige class has similar roots to a bard, and indeed they gain their own performances, and can even tap into any bardic levels to fuel them as well.

The first such performance saps the motivating force from undead and haunts, slowly fraying their spirits as long as their dance is visible to them.

They can also choose to debilitate the undead instead, weakening them.

Another dance lets them affect all within with healing magic that heals the living within while also withering the dead.

Moving on from those that simply damage or debuff foes, they also eventually learn a waltz which can force possessing spirits out of a victim or simply break normal mental control as well.

The most powerful among them are able to perform a dance which coaxes the dead back into the graves in an almost literal way. Undead subjected to this supernatural performance are rendered sluggish and severely weakened as their ties to this world are severed, and this power is even harder to resist if either the place where they died or a consecrated grave are nearby, the call of final death and repose beckoning them.

Of course, these performers are more than just their performances, though importantly they learn the rituals to bridge the gap between living and dead, so that their performances can affect the undead, which extends to their mind-affecting magic as well as long as they perform the right ritual dance moves beforehand.

Like a bard, they can also learn to utilize their dancing skills in place of other types of skills as well, and even learns to apply them to even more skills later on.

Additionally, while they dance, the magic of their performance lets them reach into the ethereal, blessing their weapons and spells to strike the incorporeal without error.

Whether you go bard, cleric, oracle, or perhaps another class, this prestige class offers a lot of fun counters to incorporeal and otherwise undead foes, and even has elements that work upon haunts as well. If you’re playing any sort of character with a decent charisma, you can probably make use of the class if you plan on going undead-hunting. That being said, you do need at least some spellcasting, so splitting levels further with another multiclass is doable, but be sure to choose something you can dip into nicely, such as swashbuckler, rogue, or fighter. Heck, even sorcerer is a good choice. However, remember that your abilities from this class only really work on the undead, so I recommend using the feats and spells you get from your levels to diversify so you’re not overspecialized to the point of being unable to fend off living foes.

Something that is important to remember about this prestige class is that one of the prerequisites is a feat that literally lets you talk to the dead, both inert corpses and haunts. With that in mind, the charisma of these characters can come into play with more than just slaying undead, but speaking to them, helping them find a way to be put to rest. With that in mind, these dancer likely have a caring and understanding attitude towards the wayward dead.

Hailing from a nocturnal people, it only makes sense that the syrinx mystic Asheda has devoted herself to the faith of the Night Dancer, one who performs the elegant dances to soothe the dead and destroy those that refuse to rest. While she is beloved by her people, she holds a secret: she has fallen in love with one of the wingless.

They say that Vosven Hold is haunted, though no priest has been able to exorcise it. It takes the coming of a spirit dancer, versed in occult lore, to realize the truth, that the haunting spirit is no lingering dead, but a rare kami spirit called a dunagh. Distraught that the family line that once dwelled there has ended, the spirit has tormented visitors ever since. The dancer may be able to convince them to seek a new ward, but in the meantime, the party must fend off an attack from monsters of the wilderness!

When the Deathless King came into power, one of his decrees was to forbid all dancing. As over the top malicious as it seems, this did serve a purpose of criminalizing the art of spirit dancing, in hopes that such mystics with their ability to put the undead to rest could not use their power against him.