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Originally posted by TomCosta

IIRC, there were a few Realms-specific entities in the binder class right up, not to mention the Karsus offspring race. Aside from that, There may have been a binder or two that appeared in one of the late 3.5E adventures, but I'm not sure.

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Originally posted by sleyvas




The Occultist Binder
While the standard warlock binds themselves to a specific patron, some warlocks have learned to make shorter lasting pacts with what are known as Vestige Spirits. The exact nature of these spirits are unknown and hotly contested in some circles, but what is known is that they are not able to directly interact with the world, and thus they are not undead, elementals, or any kind of normal fiend that is composed of a material body. In return for allowing their spirits to be bound, and thus granting power to the warlock, the spirit vestige is able to experience the world through their host. There is however a darker side to sharing of souls, in that a spirit vestige may gain influence over the warlock and be able to directly affect how he reacts in certain situations. Furthermore, some spirits are safer than others to bind.
There are other kinds of Vestige Spirits as well. These are darker, vengeful, and sometimes mad spirits, and those who traffic with them are known as Occultist Binders. Unlike the powerful lords of fiends or the Great Old Ones of the Far Realm, these spirits generally have no agenda for their warlock servitor other than to be able to experience the world through their host. Occasionally though, the spirit gains influence over its host and can force him to act in ways that are counter to his normal character, and thus even amongst warlocks these practitioners are looked at askance. Of course, these Occultist binders also realize that if a spirit takes advantage of them, they can also choose to seek the aid of a different spirit the next time to punish the transgressor. This threat is what makes most Vestige Spirits temper their acts of rebellion so as not to put their host in direct harm.
These darker Vestige Spirits tend to have once been mortal beings whose acts have somehow harmed their spirit, entrapping them in some form of nether space wherein they are unable to gain peace. Some can only be called upon from specific places tied to their mortal lives in some way. They are too numerous to list them all, but some commonly known ones actually originated within Toril (such as Karsus, the Weave Destroyer; Thayd, Defier of the God-Kings; Zhengyi the Witch-King of Vaasa; Tisan Balshareska, the last Geomancer; Shax, Kin-slain of Annam; Zagan, Serpent God that Never Was). However, they are by no means limited by their planes of origin, and thus knowledge of the pact seals of others are not overly hard to discover when researching Vestige lore, such as Amon, the void before the altar; Andromalius, the repentant rogue; Balam, the Bitter Angel; Chupoclops, the Great Spider; Dahlver-Nar, the Tortured One; Eligor the Dragon's Slayer; Haagenti, Mother of Minotaurs; Haures, the Dreaming Duke; Ipos, Prince of Fools,;Leraje, the Green Herald; Marchosias, King of Killers; Orthos, Sovereign of the Howling Dark; Otiax, the key to the gate; Paimon, the dancer; and Tenebrous, the shadow that was.
The exact spirit(s) used by the character should be chosen between the DM and the player. The idea here is to have the character choosing a spirit whose story seems to meld with the character's own story. Also, you should not limit the character to using one spirit at a time if it makes for a good story. Many of the spirits listed above come from the 3.5 edition Tome of Magic, however where it had certain Vestiges being tied to certain levels, this version of the binder instead “grows” with the spirits that he binds and he is thus able to wrest more power from them over time. Also, the character may have different standard picks of abilities he may use, and its recommended that they pick a different spirit that they want to use for each “set” for roleplaying purposes. Feel free to even let a player design his own spirit's back story.
Binding Checks are also something that should be handled between the DM and the player. Should the Occultist Binder fail a binding check, the vestige spirit gains a small amount of control over the character. This should enforce some kind of roleplaying quirk on the character of the DM's design (you may want to develop a list of quirks and roll against them). Typical examples might be a need to uncontrollably use swear language, an unnatural hatred of priest characters, abnormal greediness or kleptomania, a fear of water or fire, or even cosmetic physical characteristic changes to the Occultist Binder's body to mirror the vestige spirit which infests their body (claws, fangs, hooves, horns, weird eyes, dead looking flesh, serpent's tongue, antennae, additional eyes and/or eyestalks, mandibles, etc...). It is recommended that you review the Tome of Magic or similar resources involving binders for ideas.

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