The Demented One
2006-10-18, 11:41 PM
Hellborn Virtuoso
Hell has the best tunes. All bards know this, but few are willing to actually act on it, seeking out the forbidden music of the Abyss. Some, however, are willing to swear their souls to a demon lord, an abyssal patron who guides them in the dark ways of music. Some become court singers for their demonic masters, while others remain loners, playing their demoniac rhapsodies whenever the mood strikes them. Calling themselves Hellborn Virtuosos, these possessed songsters are revolutionaries in their own minds, damned souls in reality.
d6 HD
Requirements
To qualify to become a Hellborn Virtuoso, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Feats: Evil Brand (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Evil_Brand,FC1), Thrall to Demon (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Thrall_To_Demon,FC1)
Skills: Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks, Perform 8 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks
Languages: Must speak Abyssal
Special: Bardic Music class feature
Class Skills
The Hellborn Virtuoso’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting
1st|+0|+0|+2|+2|Dark Muse, Sinful Sonata|–
2nd|+1|+0|+3|+3|Evil Hiss|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
3rd|+2|+1|+3|+3|Band of Demons|–
4th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Subliminal Messages|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
5th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Insidious Inspiration|–
6th|+4|+2|+5|+5|Dark Tongues|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
7th|+5|+2|+5|+5|Basso Inferno|–
8th|+6|+2|+6|+6|The Day The Music Died|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
9th|+6|+3|+6|+6|Hell’s Broke Loose|–
10th|+7|+3|+7|+7|The Best There’s Ever Been|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Hellborn Virtuoso prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
You gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.
Spellcasting
Whenever you gain an even Hellborn Virtuoso level, you gain new spells per day and spells known as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belong to before he added the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained.
Bardic Music
Whenever you gain a new Hellborn Virtuoso level, you gain new daily uses of bardic music as if you had also gained. You do not gain any of the Bard’s new bardic music abilities.
Dark Muse (Su)
You gain the ability to draw on musical talent at the cost of a minuscule fraction of your life force. Whenever you make a Perform check, you may apply a +10 profane bonus to the check. However, doing so drains you of vitality, causing you to be fatigued. If you were already fatigued, you instead become exhausted. You cannot use this ability if you are already exhausted.
Sinful Sonata (Sp)
While playing bardic music, you gain the benefits of the protection from good spell as long as you have at least 9 ranks in a Perform skill.
Evil Hiss (Sp)
At 2nd level, you learn a primal song that inspires fear in all those who hear it. If you have 10 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may play this bardic music. All enemies within 30 ft. of you when you begin playing must make a Will save, DC 10 + your class level + your Cha modifier, or be shaken. In the second round of playing, all creatures who failed their first save must make another Will save, or be frightened. In the third round of playing, all creatures who failed both prior saves must make yet another Will save, or be panicked. These effects last for as long as you play, and for 5 rounds thereafter. Evil hiss is a mind-affecting ability.
Band of Demons (Sp)
At 3rd level, your music can call forth the demons of hell. Whenever you begin playing bardic music, if you have 11 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may expend an additional use of bardic music. If you do, one or more demons is summoned under your control, as the summon monster spells. Each summoned demon has a masterwork instrument, meaning it can be used as a back-up player, but they prefer combat to playing. The demon or demons, and their instruments, stay for as long as you play, and for five rounds thereafter. The type of demon you can summon depends on how many ranks you have in Perform.
{table="head"]Ranks|Demon
11-12|1d3 Dretches
13-14|Babau
15-16|Succubus
17-18|Vrock
19-20|Hezrou
[/table]
Subliminal Messages (Sp)
At 4th level, you gain the ability to hide messages in your song. Whenever you use the suggestion or mass suggestion bardic music abilities, you may choose to not have them take immediate effect. Instead, when he uses the ability, he decides upon an event that will trigger the suggestion. If a creature fails its save, the suggestion is implanted in it, only taking effect when the trigger effect occurs. If the trigger does not occur within one day per class level, the implanted suggestion fades away.
Insidious Inspiration (Su)
At 5th level, you can barter off a fragment of your soul for musical power. Once per day, as a swift action, you may gain three additional uses of bardic music. However, doing so causes you to gain a negative level, with no save. This negative level cannot be removed, but automatically goes away within 24 hours.
Dark Tongues (Su)
At 6th level, you gain the ability to speak and understand all languages, as the tongues spell. In addition, you gain Dark Speech (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Dark_Speech,FC1) as a bonus feat.
Basso Inferno (Su)
At 7th level, echoes of the Abyss are channeled through your music, backing your song with an infernal bass line. While playing bardic music, any creature that hits you with a melee attack takes 5d6 points of sonic damage.
The Day The Music Died (Su)
At 8th level, your musical mastery has earned you a measure of immortality. Once per year, when you die, the sheer power of your music draws you back into life, as the true resurrection spell. However, doing so taxes the powers of the Abyss–and they are quick to come calling. Within a month of being resurrected, a demon will appear to you on behalf of one of the demon lords, laying a geas on you to perform an action of the DM’s choice.
Hell’s Broke Loose (Sp)
At 9th level, your manic talent draws forth the raw power of the Abyss. If you have 17 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may expend three uses of bardic music to use either blasphemy or unholy aura as a spell-like ability, with caster level equal to your class level plus any Bard levels you have.
The Best There’s Ever Been
At 10th level, your skill is such that it attracts the attention–and envy–of the demon lords, the rulers of the Abyss. One demon lord of the DM’s choice takes a special interest in you, and attempts to have you brought to his realm by force, magic, or other means. Regardless of the exact methods, within at least a week of attaining 10th level, you are taken to the lord’s realm, regardless of any action you take to the contrary.
Once you arrive in the demon lord’s realm, he challenges you. The most common challenge is making opposed Perform checks, or a series of performed checks, with whoever succeeds on the most checks being the winner. However, some demon lords may devise other forms of competition, though they will all be somehow related to musical skill.
If you should lose, the demon lord shows his displeasure. You are killed, your soul devoured by the demon lord. You can never be revived, save for the intervention of a deity or the power of a major artifact. If you should be revived, the same demon lord will seek to challenge you again, quite possibly after preventing whatever resurrected you the first time from doing so again.
If you succeed, the demon lord concedes, and rewards you with a fragment of his power, transforming you into a demon. Your type changes to outsider, gaining the native subtype, and you gain damage reduction 10/good. In addition, you gain the Tanar’ri subtype, and along with it, you gain immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10, and telepathy out to 100 ft.
Hell has the best tunes. All bards know this, but few are willing to actually act on it, seeking out the forbidden music of the Abyss. Some, however, are willing to swear their souls to a demon lord, an abyssal patron who guides them in the dark ways of music. Some become court singers for their demonic masters, while others remain loners, playing their demoniac rhapsodies whenever the mood strikes them. Calling themselves Hellborn Virtuosos, these possessed songsters are revolutionaries in their own minds, damned souls in reality.
d6 HD
Requirements
To qualify to become a Hellborn Virtuoso, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Feats: Evil Brand (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Evil_Brand,FC1), Thrall to Demon (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Thrall_To_Demon,FC1)
Skills: Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks, Perform 8 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks
Languages: Must speak Abyssal
Special: Bardic Music class feature
Class Skills
The Hellborn Virtuoso’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting
1st|+0|+0|+2|+2|Dark Muse, Sinful Sonata|–
2nd|+1|+0|+3|+3|Evil Hiss|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
3rd|+2|+1|+3|+3|Band of Demons|–
4th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Subliminal Messages|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
5th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Insidious Inspiration|–
6th|+4|+2|+5|+5|Dark Tongues|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
7th|+5|+2|+5|+5|Basso Inferno|–
8th|+6|+2|+6|+6|The Day The Music Died|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
9th|+6|+3|+6|+6|Hell’s Broke Loose|–
10th|+7|+3|+7|+7|The Best There’s Ever Been|+1 level of arcane spellcasting class
[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Hellborn Virtuoso prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
You gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.
Spellcasting
Whenever you gain an even Hellborn Virtuoso level, you gain new spells per day and spells known as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belong to before he added the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained.
Bardic Music
Whenever you gain a new Hellborn Virtuoso level, you gain new daily uses of bardic music as if you had also gained. You do not gain any of the Bard’s new bardic music abilities.
Dark Muse (Su)
You gain the ability to draw on musical talent at the cost of a minuscule fraction of your life force. Whenever you make a Perform check, you may apply a +10 profane bonus to the check. However, doing so drains you of vitality, causing you to be fatigued. If you were already fatigued, you instead become exhausted. You cannot use this ability if you are already exhausted.
Sinful Sonata (Sp)
While playing bardic music, you gain the benefits of the protection from good spell as long as you have at least 9 ranks in a Perform skill.
Evil Hiss (Sp)
At 2nd level, you learn a primal song that inspires fear in all those who hear it. If you have 10 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may play this bardic music. All enemies within 30 ft. of you when you begin playing must make a Will save, DC 10 + your class level + your Cha modifier, or be shaken. In the second round of playing, all creatures who failed their first save must make another Will save, or be frightened. In the third round of playing, all creatures who failed both prior saves must make yet another Will save, or be panicked. These effects last for as long as you play, and for 5 rounds thereafter. Evil hiss is a mind-affecting ability.
Band of Demons (Sp)
At 3rd level, your music can call forth the demons of hell. Whenever you begin playing bardic music, if you have 11 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may expend an additional use of bardic music. If you do, one or more demons is summoned under your control, as the summon monster spells. Each summoned demon has a masterwork instrument, meaning it can be used as a back-up player, but they prefer combat to playing. The demon or demons, and their instruments, stay for as long as you play, and for five rounds thereafter. The type of demon you can summon depends on how many ranks you have in Perform.
{table="head"]Ranks|Demon
11-12|1d3 Dretches
13-14|Babau
15-16|Succubus
17-18|Vrock
19-20|Hezrou
[/table]
Subliminal Messages (Sp)
At 4th level, you gain the ability to hide messages in your song. Whenever you use the suggestion or mass suggestion bardic music abilities, you may choose to not have them take immediate effect. Instead, when he uses the ability, he decides upon an event that will trigger the suggestion. If a creature fails its save, the suggestion is implanted in it, only taking effect when the trigger effect occurs. If the trigger does not occur within one day per class level, the implanted suggestion fades away.
Insidious Inspiration (Su)
At 5th level, you can barter off a fragment of your soul for musical power. Once per day, as a swift action, you may gain three additional uses of bardic music. However, doing so causes you to gain a negative level, with no save. This negative level cannot be removed, but automatically goes away within 24 hours.
Dark Tongues (Su)
At 6th level, you gain the ability to speak and understand all languages, as the tongues spell. In addition, you gain Dark Speech (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Dark_Speech,FC1) as a bonus feat.
Basso Inferno (Su)
At 7th level, echoes of the Abyss are channeled through your music, backing your song with an infernal bass line. While playing bardic music, any creature that hits you with a melee attack takes 5d6 points of sonic damage.
The Day The Music Died (Su)
At 8th level, your musical mastery has earned you a measure of immortality. Once per year, when you die, the sheer power of your music draws you back into life, as the true resurrection spell. However, doing so taxes the powers of the Abyss–and they are quick to come calling. Within a month of being resurrected, a demon will appear to you on behalf of one of the demon lords, laying a geas on you to perform an action of the DM’s choice.
Hell’s Broke Loose (Sp)
At 9th level, your manic talent draws forth the raw power of the Abyss. If you have 17 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you may expend three uses of bardic music to use either blasphemy or unholy aura as a spell-like ability, with caster level equal to your class level plus any Bard levels you have.
The Best There’s Ever Been
At 10th level, your skill is such that it attracts the attention–and envy–of the demon lords, the rulers of the Abyss. One demon lord of the DM’s choice takes a special interest in you, and attempts to have you brought to his realm by force, magic, or other means. Regardless of the exact methods, within at least a week of attaining 10th level, you are taken to the lord’s realm, regardless of any action you take to the contrary.
Once you arrive in the demon lord’s realm, he challenges you. The most common challenge is making opposed Perform checks, or a series of performed checks, with whoever succeeds on the most checks being the winner. However, some demon lords may devise other forms of competition, though they will all be somehow related to musical skill.
If you should lose, the demon lord shows his displeasure. You are killed, your soul devoured by the demon lord. You can never be revived, save for the intervention of a deity or the power of a major artifact. If you should be revived, the same demon lord will seek to challenge you again, quite possibly after preventing whatever resurrected you the first time from doing so again.
If you succeed, the demon lord concedes, and rewards you with a fragment of his power, transforming you into a demon. Your type changes to outsider, gaining the native subtype, and you gain damage reduction 10/good. In addition, you gain the Tanar’ri subtype, and along with it, you gain immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10, and telepathy out to 100 ft.