Librim Eternia: Tome of Epic Prestige (Completed) [Archive]

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:08 PM

Table of Contents

Post 1: Introduction (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461559&postcount=1)
Post 2: Table of Contents (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461566&postcount=2)
Post 3: Explanation of Piercing Mechanics (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461571&postcount=3)

THE REMAKES

Post 4: Implacable Retriever (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461576&postcount=4) A fixed agent retriever actually aimed to continue non-epic tracking rather than replacing it with a series of SLAs.
Post 5: Cosmic Descrier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461581&postcount=5) More or less the same class that you know and love, minus infinite caster level boosts.
Post 6: Divine Emissary (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461585&postcount=6) A very empowered paladin class who performs all manners of divine greatness.
Post 7: Epic Infiltrator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461591&postcount=7) Instead of a skillmonkey hodge-podge, you get a focused infiltrator class that nobody would ever see coming.
Post 8: Guardian Paramount (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461598&postcount=8) Boosted up from “Epic NPC” status to a playable, if somewhat narrow, level of glory and protective might.
Post 9: High Proselytizer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461603&postcount=9) The default epic PrC for clerics out there, this class now lives up to the proud and powerful legacy of CoDzilla.
Post 10: Legendary Dreadnought (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461609&postcount=10) A Relentless and tough-as-nails melee combatant equipped with exceedingly powerful arms and armor.
Post 11: Perfect Wight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461614&postcount=11) A physical infiltrator to match the social infiltration of the epic infiltrator. No more infinite bonuses from shadow form.

THE ORIGINALS

Post 12: Abyssal Warlord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461621&postcount=12) a ruthless warrior from the abyss who conscripts demons to join it in its mad crusades.
Post 13: Agent of Death (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461632&postcount=13) An assassin who effectively assassinates. Who would have thought.
Post 14: Arbiter of Balance (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461637&postcount=14) Just as others protect their specific causes, you maintain neutrality within the multiverse, ensuring that no faction ever wins.
Post 15: Artisan of Beauty (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461651&postcount=15) A bardic PrC that uses performance to weave emotions and thought.
Post 16: Ascendent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461657&postcount=16) Ascending the limits of mortality with the help of ki and mysticism.
Post 17: Celestial Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461668&postcount=17) Rare beings chosen by the rulers of upper planes to personally represent the interests of goodness wherever they go.
Post 18: Chosen (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461676&postcount=18) Rather than gaining any special talent, you have found yourself adept at mastering many more basic strengths all at once.
Post 19: Dragon Overlord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461685&postcount=19) Embodying the orbs of dragonkind, you are an undisputed leader of dragonkind.
Post 20: Dread Emperor (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461696&postcount=20) Armed with dangerous and nigh-unlimited hordes of the undead, you are the scourge of every living creature.
Post 21: Elemental Sovereign (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461703&postcount=21) A lord of all 4 elemental planes and a true master of evocation.
Post 22: Eternal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461710&postcount=22) Become an immortal and near-indestructable being.
Post 23: Flawless Enforcer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461726&postcount=23) When even the inevitable fail to maintain cosmic law, you are the final line of defense; judge, jury, and executioner.
Post 24: Font of Life (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461730&postcount=24) Overflowing with life energy, you are among the strongest of healers to ever exist.
Post 25: Godking (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461743&postcount=25) If a king can rally and control a kingdom, a godking can rally and rule an empire or an entire world.
Post 26: Grand Creator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461751&postcount=26) An adventuring crafter, adept at the art of quick item creation.
Post 27: Harbinger of Endings (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461759&postcount=27) A dark envoy of the apocalypse, holding forbidden entropic powers.
Post 28: Herald of the Outer Spheres (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461771&postcount=28) You have seen order in the madness of the far realms and have been tasked with spreading this order throughout your world.
Post 29: Infernal Regent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461782&postcount=29) Living in ease at the expense of the archdukes of hell, you are among the greatest of corruptive forces the multiverse has ever known.
Post 30: Legend Stalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461792&postcount=30) An insatiable hunter, slayer, and tamer of great beasts across the great wheel.
Post 31: Living Dominion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461799&postcount=31) Spreading your control effortlessly into others, you exist more as an enchantment than as a genuine person.
Post 32: Lord of Nine Blades (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461807&postcount=32) A simple and safe translation of maneuvers into epic play.
Post 33: Magitech Savant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461813&postcount=33) With the proper technology, there is nothing that magic can do that you cannot.
Post 34: Master of Shadows (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461829&postcount=34) A master of shadow magic, darkening the world and disrupting the normal flow of magic in your wake.
Post 35: Mastermind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461835&postcount=35) A master of divination, enchantment, and illusion, equipped to create and execute the most labyrinthine of plots.
Post 36: Mythic Commander (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461842&postcount=36) A true leader who guides his or her forces to victory nearly without fail.
Post 37: Omnimind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461858&postcount=37) The ultimate manifestation of psionic energy within a single entity.
Post 38: Peerless Marksman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461863&postcount=38) A ranged combatant without equal.
Post 39: Primeval Force (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461866&postcount=39) Controlling the forces of the natural world, primeval forces are the ultimate druids.
Post 40: Protean Avatar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461885&postcount=40) Representing the best elements of chaos, protean avatars can adapt to almost any challenge before them.
Post 41: Scion of Sorrow (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461897&postcount=41) Cursed with true permance, Scions of Sorrow have suffered irreversible woes and leave marks on the world that never quite rub off.
Post 42: Soulweaver (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461906&postcount=42) A master of incarnum whose soul is tied to the very flow of souls.
Post 43: Spellblade Elite (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461927&postcount=43) A master of both martial and magical combat, blending them together into a seamless whole.
Post 44: Temporal Wanderer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461939&postcount=44) A being with incredible influence over the flow of time.
Post 45: Unmage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461950&postcount=45) A master of unraveling magic in all of its forms.
Post 46: Unmatched Dervish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461963&postcount=46) A fleet-footed and unarmored combatant capable of laying down attack after attack.
Post 47: Unreal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461973&postcount=47) Blurring the line between real and imaginary, the unreal are masters of illusions.
Post 48: Veneficus Optima (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461979&postcount=48) As archmages are to wizards, so too are the veneficus optima to archmages.
Post 49: Venerated Sage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13461989&postcount=49) A master of divination, utilizing its knowledge and awareness in a number of ways.
Post 50: Voice of the World (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13462001&postcount=50) An epic extension of truename magic that doesn’t suck.
Post 52: Voidkeeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13462013&postcount=52) A speaker for the banished spirits resting between spaces.
Post 53: Warden of Faerie (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13462023&postcount=53) Mischevious and canny combatants enabling the capricious desires of their masters in Faerie.
Post 54: Wilderness Incarnate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13462034&postcount=54) Represent all of the might and strength of a single natural environment.

Post 55: Explanations and Loose Ideas (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13462049&postcount=55)

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:09 PM

Before I start, one thing I should introduce is a mechanic I made to help smooth out the rocket tag war (another, smaller effort along the same strain can be found in the final post).

Piercing Effects:

Certain effects throughout the following thread are either referred to as piercing effects or retroactively make other spells or abilities piercing effects.

Piercing effects ignore most immunities, although a target receives a +6 bonus to its saving throw (if any) for each source of immunity against that effect it would otherwise possess (multiple identical sources [such as two magic items both granting mind blank effects] don’t stack).

For each immunity against that effect gained through epic means (or each racial immunity possessed by a creature with 21 or more racial Hit Dice), there is a 50% chance that the immunity functions normally (check separately for each such immunity).

Save DCs, Immunities, and Piercing Effects:
To discuss the line of thought that led to piercing effects, I have to start with the high save DCs that these classes get. Some of you might wonder why the abilities here have such save DCs. Reading through the Epic PrCs in the ELH, you might notice that hardly any Save DCs are actually listed (that’s what you get when half of the abilities are passive and the other half are SLAs, I supposed). The only one I could find with a quick look was for the high proselytizer’s main ability, DC 20 + 1/2 level + Wis modifier. My save DCs are 20 + level + Wis modifier. Over time, this can make a very big difference. Again the question is why.

I suppose that there were three reasons for this.

First of all, if you continue taking a non-epic PrC into epic levels, you end up with exactly the save DCs that I came up with. I didn’t think it was right that an Epic Assassin or Epic Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil should become deadly twice as fast as an epic PrC.
Secondly, while adding only half of your level makes sense at non-epic levels (where some people have good progressions and others have bad progressions), every epic level character effectively has good progression (although some are 6 points behind). Having the DCs and saving throws doesn’t make much sense when saving throw boosts are generally far more accessible than save DC boosts.
Thirdly, I honestly don’t think it will be that relevant most of the time due to immunities. Yes, I’m finally getting back to piercing effects. One of the greatest difficulties in making epic abilities is that most characters are already immune to most stuff you can throw at them by the time they reach epic levels, whether by class features, spell effects, or (most notably) magic items.

For this reason, making a mind-affecting effect for characters without the expectation of disjunction seems silly and pointless with preexisting epic rules. Unless I wanted to encourage every encounter starting with the removal of all of the items you could have looted (or by taking away all of your party’s items), I had to come up with a way to overcome immunities while still making them worthwhile (and preferably making the ones I’m granting out with class features/feats more relevant than low-level immunities). What I ended up with was the piercing mechanic.

Sidebar 1: Why a +6 bonus? Some of you might wonder why I put a +6 bonus per immunity instead of a nice round number like +5. The answer is simple. I assume that most people will choose their first immunities by the time they reach early epic levels. A Wizard is likely to want Deathward to cover his or her low Fort while Fighters want Mind Blank to handle their low Will, for example. These characters are protecting their poor saves (which have base saves 6 points lower than good saves at epic levels without multiclassing). I chose +6 so that the hypothetical wizard effectively ends up with a good Fort save against death effects and so that the fighter gains a good will save against mind-affecting effects and divinations.

Sidebar 2: Pricing Epic Items Giving Immunities: Because the basic rules don’t differentiate between epic immunities and nonepic immunities the way piercing does and because the game largely assumes that you already have most of your immunities, there aren’t any good price guidelines out there for making epic items granting immunities. To rectify that, here is a formula.

First, start with the market price of a non-epic magic item that grants an immunity. Divide its market price by its caster level and then multiply the cost by 21 (or higher if you want a higher caster level). Finally, because epic immunities are distinctly superior when dealing with piercing abilities (and because wealth increases dramatically), multiply the resulting price by x 10. If you are adding an immunity to an item with other abilities (now a real possibility as having redundant immunities is useful), multiply the higher cost of the two abilities by x 1.5 as normal.

Example 1: Let’s make a periapt of epic health.
Step 1: divide the cost of a periapt of health by its caster level: 7,500/5 = 1,500
Step 2: multiply the cost by x 21 (or desired caster level): 1,500 x 21 = 31,500
Step 3: multiply cost by x 10: 31,500 x 10 = 315,000 gp

Example 2: Let’s make combine the above object with a periapt of proof against poison.
Step 1: divide the cost of a periapt of proof against poison by its caster level: 27,000/5 =5,400
Step 2: multiply the cost by x21 (or desired caster level): 5,400 x 21 = 113,400
Step 3: multiply cost by x 10: 1,134,000
Step 4: multiply the higher of the two costs by x 1.5: 1,701,000 gp

Sidebar 3: What this ability cannot do: This ability does not foil abilities that are not immunities such as evasion or mettle. This ability does not foil spell resistance, incorporeality (or other miss chances), spell turning, antimagic field, globe of invulnerability (and variations), Spell Immunity (and variations), impeded, wild, suppressed, or dead magic planar traits, or the immunity of golems against spells. Piercing does not overcome circumstances that simply pre-empt certain effects such as trying to use a language-dependant effect in an area of silence or a pattern in deep magical darkness. Needless to say, this ability does not prevent counterspelling or dispelling (or healing) if they would normally work on the ability. If an ability simply overcomes effects such as true seeing peering through magical disguises, piercing does nothing to prevent this from occurring.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:10 PM

Implacable Retriever (Fixed Agent Retriever)

Few could ever hope to track things down with more skill than an implacable retriever. Whether hunting down creatures who don’t want to be round, recovering items lost for generations, or discovering sites thought by most to be mere legend, an implacable retriever is the ultimate bounty hunter by a large margin. Given enough time and success, the fame of an implacable retriever exceeds that of the legends that he or she uncovers. Whatever an implacable retriever is searching for in life, it is only a matter of time until he or she stumbles across it.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements:
To qualify to become an implacable retriever, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Skills: Gather Information 23 ranks, Survival 23 ranks
Feats: Track, Urban Tracking

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Implacable retriever
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Quarry (1), Uncanny Tracker|--

2nd|
+2|Capture/Kill 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Implacable x1|--

4th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|To the Source I|--

6th|
+6|Quarry (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Capture/Kill 2/encounter|--

8th|
+8|Implacable x10|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Bonus Feat|--

10th|
+10|To the Source II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the implacable retriever.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an implacable retriever can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, compel, conceal, foresee, fortify, heal, reveal, and or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. The implacable retriever can use his or her ranks in knowledge (nature) to determine epic spell slots per day. If the implacable retriever doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine your epic spell save DCs.

Uncanny Tracker (Su): You gain a bonus to survival checks and gather information checks made to track targets equal to your class level x 5. The implacable tracker can track targets that normally avoid leaving trails behind through non-epic means (such as druids) but he or she loses this bonus when doing so. Lastly, you automatically become aware of when a trail you follow ends due to a teleportation or plane-travelling effect and can analyze where it leads by spending 1 minute studying it.

Quarry (Ex): When an implacable retriever spends one hour attuning him or herself to a person, object, or location he or she is seeking, he or she automatically determines the location of their target as the discern location spell (when selecting a location, it must be chosen as if using a find the path spell). As this information is gained due to incredible insight and deductive skills rather than magic, immunities and protections against divination effects do not protect a target searched for in this way. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an implacable retriever can attune him or herself to an additional target during that hour.

Capture/Kill (Ex): Inevitably, an implacable retriever is forced into conflicts with others on his or her travels and is forced to deal with them one way or another. Starting at 2nd level, an implacable retriever may make a special attack against one of his or her quarries (if a creature), a creature who explicitly seeks to keep you from reaching at least one of your quarries (or who seeks to delay you), or a creature who seeks to reach at least one of your quarries before you or to keep it for itself. If the attack hits, the target much make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Class level + Wis bonus) or else either die immediately or fall unconscious for one week or until the implacable retriever awakens them as a full-round action (implacable retriever’s choice). This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and an additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even implacable retriever level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an implacable retriever, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Implacable (Ex): An implacable retriever can hunt down enemies with almost unthinkable speed. Starting at 3rd level, while tracking, an implacable retriever and up to 10 allies of his or her choice gain immunity to fatigue and exhaustion and takes no penalty to survival checks for his or her movement rate. Travelling as though on the winds, an implacable retriever and chosen allies travel at a rate of 500 miles per hour while tracking a creature. At 8th level and every 5th level afterwards, the number of allies that can be affected and the speed at which they travel are both multiplied by x 10 (allowing for 1,000 allies to be led at 50,000 miles per hour by 13th level, for example).

Bonus Feats: At 4th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an implacable retriever can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Combat Archery, Distant Shot, Epic Avoidance, Epic Endurance, Epic Prowess, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Eye on the Hunt*, Fast Healing, Force Cooperation*, Hear Each Heartbeat*, Implacable Hunter*, Implacable Stalker*, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Manyshot, Improved Spell Capacity, Infallible Hunt*, Inspire Paranoia*, Lay of the Land*, Learn Condition*, Legendary Climber, Legendary Rider, Legendary Tracker, Long-Range Tracker*, Perfect Health, Planar Tracker*, Rile Quarry*, Spontaneous Spell, Storm of Throws, Swarm of Arrows, Threatening Presence*, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy, Unceasing Hunter*.

New FeatsHear Each Heartbeat [Epic]
You are aware of every living creature nearby
Prerequisites: Quarry (1), Listen 24 ranks
Benefits: So long as you can hear, you can detect all living creatures within 100 feet as though you possessed blindsight.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times, doubling the range of this blindsight each time.

Learn Condition [Epic]
You can guess at the condition of a quarry with the smallest of clues.
Prerequisites: Quarry (2)
Benefits: When learning the location of your quarry, you may learn its condition as well. If the quarry is a creature, you gain a quick idea of its health at the moment as if viewing it with deathwatch and status and learn whether it knows it is being tracked or not. If the quarry is an object, you learn if it is whole, damaged, or destroyed. With magic items, you additionally learn if the item is in current use or not and if its magic has been partially or fully expended. If the quarry is a location, you learn if it is undisturbed, disturbed, desecrated, or destroyed and furthermore learn the rough population of small or larger creatures in the area as well as the most numerous type (aberration, construct, etc) of creature in the area.

Eye on the Hunt [Epic]
You can get the big picture of what is going on in a hunt.
Prerequisites: Quarry (3)
Benefits: When learning the location of your quarry, you learn how many others are seeking out your quarry and learn approximately how close they are to it (though you do not learn their exact locations). You likewise learn the number of people acting to support or hide the quarry (if any) and their general proximity to the quarry. Lastly, you learn how many of these forces (including the quarry if it is a creature) is aware of your presence.

Infallible Hunt [Epic]
Your quarry can’t deceive you easily
Prerequisites: Quarry (4)
Benefits: You gain the benefits of true seeing and discern lies (caster level equals class level + 20) against all targets of your quarry class feature within the past 24 hours.

Force Cooperation [Epic]
You can awaken a knocked out quarry to accompany you on its own two feet.
Prerequisites: Capture/Kill 1/encounter
As a full-round action, you can awaken a creature knocked out through your capture/kill class feature. For the remainder of the time that they would otherwise have spent unconscious, the creature behaves towards you as if friendly. If the creature can’t sense your presence for 10 consecutive hours for any reason, this effect ends. This ability is not a mind-affecting effect but it only functions on sentient creatures.

[b]Lay of the Land [Epic]
You can learn about the area around your quarry.
Prerequisites: Quarry (3)
Benefits: When learning the location of your quarry, you may choose a single target and learn about the area around them as if through a commune with nature effect.

Unceasing Hunter [Epic]
You never rest while on the hunt.
Prerequisites: Quarry (5)
Benefits: While tracking down a creature, you need not eat, drink, sleep, or breathe and you cease aging. Tom maintain these benefits, you must spend at least 8 hours per day actively pursuing a creature or actively pursuing the means to do so.

Long-Range Tracker [Epic]
You can teleport anywhere to instantly reach your quarry.
Prerequisites: Implacable x 10
Benefits: You can use greater teleport as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your character level. Only you and up to a light load of non-living objects can be teleported in this way. After using this ability once, you have to spend one hour in silent contemplation to regain access to it.
Special: This ability can be taken any number of times. Each time it is taken after the first, double the amount of times that you can use the spell-like ability before needing to contemplate.

Planar Tracker [Epic]
You can travel across the planed in pursuit of your quarry.
Prerequisites: Implacable x 100
Benefits: You can use planeshift as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your character level. After using this ability once, you have to spend one hour in silent contemplation to regain access to it.
Special: This ability can be taken any number of times. Each time it is taken after the first, double the amount of times that you can use the spell-like ability before needing to contemplate.

Rile Quarry [Epic]
When your quarry is a creature, you can let it feel that you are on its trail.
Prerequisites: Quarry (2)
Benefits: Whenever you learn of the location of one or more creatures using your quarry class feature, you may elect to let any or all of them know that they have been located. Doing so sends shivers down the spine of the target and gives them the impression that they’re always being watched. The target is shaken for 24 hours. This is a supernatural fear effect and doesn’t stack with itself.

Inspire Paranoia [Epic]
You inspire paranoia in those who you hunt, leading quarries to distrust those who could help them.
Prerequisites: Rile Quarry
Benefits: Any target affected by Rile Quarry behaves one category closer to hostile towards all creatures, even if otherwise helpful or fanatic towards them.

Implacable Hunter [Epic]
You have honed your skill at hunting to an artform.
Prerequisites: Uncanny Tracker, Favored Enemy
Benefits: Level of implacable retriever stack with ranger levels for the purposes of favored enemies.

Implacable Stalker [Epic]
You have continued working on your chosen form of mobile combat.
Prerequisites: Uncanny Tracker, Skirmish
Benefits: Levels of implacable retriever stack with scout levels for the purposes of your skirmish class feature (both increasing damage and the AC bonus).

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

To the Source (Su): Starting at 5th level, whenever an implacable retriever is tracking an opponent and reaches a point at which the trail is broken through teleportation and/or dimensional travel, he or she may follow the effect to its destination as a standard action. This allows the implacable retriever to follow teleportation effects, follow creatures to the ethereal plane, astral plane, or plane of shadows when accessed through other means, intrude upon extradimensional spaces and demiplanes, and so forth. This ability is not stopped by any effect that would limit travel to this destination such as a dimensional anchor. Even if following an effect that has a duration (such as following a creature using ethereal jaunt onto the ethereal plane), this travel has no such duration. The implacable retriever may only trail such effects that have been used within the past day. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the implacable retriever can trail such effects used up to one additional day in the past and can be used to carry an additional ally with him or her when using this ability. This is a teleportation effect.

Notes and Explanation And with the implacable retriever, we start working on the revised classes. Much as many that will come afterwards, this one doesn’t look much like the original class at all.

One of the big things that I expect people will point out is that this class has been nerfed. The spellcasting have been nerfed and the SLAs have been removed. There is a reason for this change. Out of the original 9 epic prestige classes, only two of them came with full spellcasting progression and this class was by far the easier of the two to enter. This means that even though this class had pretty explicit fluff and crunch as a bounty/treasure hunter, full casters ended up getting far more use out of it (and used it more often) than actual bounty/treasure hunters. Now that I am producing other full-caster PrCs in this project, removing that aspect of this class doesn’t particularly hurt those who it is aimed at. On a similar line of thought, all of those SLAs were actually harmful to the archetype of searchers rather than helpful. Because those SLAs effectively take the place of traditional methods of hunting people down instead of improving existing methods, all implacable retrievers of equal level would end up equally skilled and finding and bringing back their targets (making specialization as a bounty-hunter before epic levels totally worthless).

Some people may see urban tracking in the prerequisites and think that I’m using splatbooks (as onow it’s appeared at least twice) but if you know where to look, you can find it in the SRD. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#urbanTracking)

With that out of the way, there are a couple of general design notes to point out. First, every class gains two abilities (not including epic spellcasting) at 1st level, including one scaling ability and one more-or-less static ability. One the rare occasions when a party actually reaches epic level (rather than starting there), it is highly likely that the campaign is entering (if not wrapping up) its buildup to the finale. Giving an extra ability at 1st level should help to give the character an extra boost of flavor to make them feel like a member of their prestige class even if it’s unlikely that their level will raise much higher.

Secondly, I noticed when making these classes that setting uses of an ability per increment of time isn’t that useful. In my mind, the point of an Epic Prestige class is that it should literally scale indefinitely. If I give abilities scaling uses per day/per hour/per minute/etc, they will eventually reach the point where the abilities stop scaling once you can use them every round (though I’ll admit that this would require a mind-boggingly high level). To overcome this limitation, I have stuck to using abilities per encounter (which can technically stretch infinitely long), per round (these abilities always require nonactions to activate and can thus be used any number of times in a round), and per recharge (my answer to the traditional per day limitation).

Lastly, every class that I’ve created gets some form of epic spellcasting. This includes classes likely won’t have any spellcasting levels, such as the legendary dreadnaught. While the three full-casting classes in here gain epic spellcasting automatically and gain wide variety, other classes are more focused get less but get their spells cheaper. Note that even if you gain abilities like this from dips in multiple different prestige classes, you only gain the discount if all seeds used are granted by a single prestige class.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:11 PM

Cosmic Descryer Fix

A cosmic descryer is fascinated by the vastness of the great wheel and the infinite variations on life within it. Calling the entire multiverse home, a cosmic descryer travels from one plane to the next, experimenting and learning more and more about the planes as he or she increases his or her influence over planar matters. A cosmic descryer draws even more powerful from the planes themselves and can call upon the creatures of other planes to do his or her bidding. Even so, most cosmic descryers have no intention of conquering the cosmos, instead seeking to join with its infinite energy. Whenever drastic events shake the balance of power on a plane of existence, the more learned must ask how cosmic descryers failed to see it coming… or how they may be responsible.

Hit Die: d4

Prerequisites: To become a cosmic descryer a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Skills: Knowledge (the planes) 24 ranks
Feats: Spell Focus (Conjuration), Augment Summons
Spells: Ability to cast gate and any planar ally or planar binding spell.
Special: Must have previously travelled to any other plane of existence.

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Knowledge (arcane), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Sense Motive, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Cosmic Descryer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Planeswalker, Superior Planar Summoning +5|--

2nd|
+1|Cosmic Form I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Enduring Gate (1 day)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Cosmic Will (1 creature)|--

6th|
+3|Superior Planar Summoning +10|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Cosmic Form II|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Enduring Gate (2 days)|--

10th|
+5|Cosmic Will (2 creatures)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: All of the following are class features of the cosmic descryer.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a cosmic descryer can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, compel, conjure, contact, foresee, summon, transform, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. The cosmic descrier may use his or her ranks in Knowledge (the planes) to determine epic spell slots per day.

Planeswalker (Ex): A cosmic descryer is always treated as being a native to whatever plane he or she is on for the purposes of spells like banishment and is perpetually defended from planar effects as if by an avoid planar effects spell. Lastly, a cosmic descrier can pass across planes through normally unseen connections, acting as an extraordinary planeshift effect, except that the cosmic descryer and all travelling with him or her arrive at the precise destination desired. After using this ability a number of times equal to the cosmic descryer’s class level, he or she must spend 1 hour meditating to re-establish the connection and regain these usages.

Superior Planar Summoning (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, the cosmic descryer can increase the power of any of the following spells—elemental swarm, gate, greater planar ally, greater planar binding, summon monster IX, or summon nature’s ally IX—to affect or summon outsiders of 5 Hit Dice higher than the spell’s normal limit or conjure creatures with 5 Hit Dice of advancement. Every five levels thereafter, the cosmic descryer can increase the number of extra Hit Dice by 5.

Cosmic Form (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a cosmic descryer can tap into the immense power of the multiverse as a swift action. Doing so costs 5 hit points and the transformation lasts for 1 round. While connected with the multiverse, a cosmic descryer is immune to critical hits, gains blindsight out to 100 feet, can teleport up to his or her movement speed as a move action, and gains 5 mana points each round. mana points can be spent at any time to add a bonus of equal size to an attack roll, saving throw, skill check that either you or a summoned or called creature within 30 feet makes, or to the caster level of a single spell or spell-like ability you or such a creature uses. Any mana points leftover at the end of a round do not carry over into the next round. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability lasts for 1 additional round and the cosmic descryer gains an additional 5 mana points each round.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even cosmic descryer level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a cosmic descryer, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Cosmic Descryer can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Additional Magic Item Space, Bonded Summons*, Control Portal*, Cosmic Being*, Cosmic Guidance*, Descryer’s Spell Legion*, Efficient Item Creation, Energy Resistance, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Familiar Spell, Fast Healing, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell capacity, Master of the Planes*, Paragon Summons*, Perfect Summons*, Permanent Emanation, Planar Dampening*, Planar Sensitivity*, Share Spells*, Spell Knowledge, Summoned Swarm*, Versatile Call*

New FeatsMaster of the Planes [Epic]
Outsiders have a hard time acting against you.
Prerequisites: Planeswalker class feature
Benefits: Outsiders can’t attack you unless you attack them first or they succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + cosmic descryer class level + Wis modifier). If an outsider is the result of a (summoning) or (calling) spell or effect, it takes a -5 penalty to this saving throw.

Cosmic Being [Epic]
You are no longer a being of mere flesh and bone.
Prerequisites: Cosmic Form I
Benefits: You become an outsider if not already one. Do not recalculate your hp, skills, base attack bonus, or saving throws. You can be restored to life as if a member of your previous type.

Share Spells [Epic]
You can share spell effects that you cast on yourself with summoned and called creatures.
Prerequisites: Superior Planar Summoning +5
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell and target yourself, you may extend its effects to any number of creatures you have summoned and called within 10 feet of yourself. These spell effects continue even if the creature later travels beyond this range.

Perfect Summons [Epic]
The creatures that you summon or call are without parallel.
Prerequisites: Superior Planar Summoning +10
Benefits: Any creature that you summon or call appears with maximum possible hit points for its HD and its attacks are treated as epic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Paragon Summons [Epic]
You can call forth a true exemplar of a race to serve you.
Prerequisites: Perfect Summons
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell that summons or calls exactly one monster, you may choose to apply the paragon template to that creature if its CR (before applying extra HD from Superior Planar Summoning) is equal or less than 5 + your class level. After you use this ability once, you cannot use it again until you spend 8 hours in contemplation of the multiverse to recharge this ability.
special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, double the number of times you can use this ability between recharges.

Versatile Call [Epic]
You are not limited to elementals and outsiders with your calling spells and effects.
Prerequisites: Superior Planar Summoning +15
Benefits: When using a calling spell or effect, you can call any extraplanar creature rather than only summoning outsiders or elementals. Any restrictions placed on the effect other than type (such as HD) still apply, however.

Summoned Swarm [Epic]
You can call large amounts of creatures over a period of time.
Prerequisites: Superior Planar Summoning +20
Benefits: When casting a spell that can the benefits of Superior Planar Summoning, you can choose to make it a swarm spell. If you do so, you halve the benefits of superior planar summoning (round down) but you summon 2d4 additional creatures of the same type. 10 minutes later, an additional 1d4 creatures of the same type with 5 additional HD each appear as if summoned or called by the same spell. 10 minutes afterwards, a single creature of the same type with 10 additional HD appears. Each creature summoned in this way lasts for the full normal duration of the spell after appearing.

Descryer’s Spell Legion [Epic]
You can allow the minions you summon and call to access your spells.
Prerequisites: Superior Planar Summoning +25
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may select any number of sentient creatures that you have summoned or called. For 1 round, all chosen creatures may cast spells as if they were you, expending your spell slots or spells known and spending your XP when applicable. Minions can only cast spells of a spell level up to half of their HD, can’t cast a spell with an alignment descriptor opposed to at least one of its subtypes, and can never cast epic spells in this way.

Cosmic Guidance [Epic]
The cosmos grant you guidance when you possess need of it.
Prerequisites: Cosmic Form II, Outsider type
Benefits: You can use contact other plane as a spell like ability with a caster level equal to your class level. When doing so, there is no chance of having your Intelligence or Charisma decreased by the effect. After using this ability once, you must spend 8 hours in meditation to recharge the ability.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it, double the amount of times that the spell-like ability can be used between recharges.

Bonded Summons [Epic]
You bond your mind and senses to those of creatures you summon and control.
Prerequisites: Cosmic Will (1 Creature)
Benefits: All summoned creatures under your control and all called creatures affected by your cosmic will class feature are bonded with you. You can observe the world through the senses of bonded creatures and can communicated telepathically with them over any distance.

Control Portal [Epic]
You can commandeer control over almost any planar portal.
Prerequisites: Enduring Gate (1 days)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can target a single planar portal with a diameter of up to 100 feet at its widest point within 100 feet of yourself. You may choose to activate the portal if it is inactive, deactivate the portal if it is active, or stabilize a malfunctioning portal. If the portal is already under the control of another cosmic descryer with this feat, you must make an opposed caster level check against them to gain control over a portal in this way. You retain control of the portal for as long as you concentrate + 1 round.

Planar Sensitivity [Epic]
You can detect breaks in the boundaries between planes.
Prerequisites: Planeswalker Class Feature
Benefit: You can detect the presence of all planar portals within 100 feet of yourself, whether or not they are currently active. Similarly, whenever planar travel or teleportation occurs within 100 feet of a planeswalker, you are instantly made aware of that fact. Lastly, while within 10 feet of a planar portal, you detect what plane of existence the other end rests upon.

Planar Dampening [Epic]
You can halt the utilization of planar energies and travel with your very presence.
Prerequisites: Planar Sensitivity, Enduring Gate (2 days)
Benefit: All spells that allow or force travel onto other planes of existence, that teleport creatures or objects, that create extradimensional space, and that contact planar entities (such as commune or contact other plane) can only be cast within 30 feet of yourself + 10 feet per class level if you allow it or if the caster succeeds on caster level check against a DC of 30 + class level. Similar permission is required to use calling spells, summoning spells, and spells of the shadow subschool. Effects that banish creatures and possess other effects (such as holy word) require your permission for the banishment to occur but otherwise function normally. If multiple cosmic descryers with this feat are within range of a single caster, the permission of all of them is required to utilize such spells.

Enduring Gate (Su): Starting at 4th level, as a full-round action, the cosmic descryer can make any casting of the gate spell remain for a full day, rather than disappearing after 1 round per caster level. Every five levels thereafter, the cosmic descryer can increase the duration of gate by one additional day.

Cosmic Will (Su): Starting at 5th level, whenever a cosmic descryer successfully use a (calling) effect to call a creature, that creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Wis modifier) or fall under his or her total control (as dominate monster with no maximum duration) as the cosmic descryer exerts their will as an extension of that of the multiverse. This ability can affect up to one creature at 5th level and one additional creature every 5 levels afterwards. Creatures freed from this effect have no memories of the time spent under the control of the cosmic descryer. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Notes and Explanations:
Of the revised epic PrCs, this is likely the one least altered, though some changes did go into it. Naturalization, being incredibly weak and having a relatively low “cap”, was condensed and empowered into the planeswalker ability. Incidentally, this revision was at least in part influenced by Magic the Gathering. When considering what an epic-level conjurer would be like, I ended up with a planeswalker. The other huge change to this class was the modifications to the cosmic form class feature. Though empowered in some senses (unlimited uses per day and decent side-benefits), the class feature has lost its main draw of an effectively infinite caster level bonus. I’d hope that the reason for this would be pretty much self-explanatory.

Again on a more technical note, more observant homebrewers may notice that some bonus feats that the original would have access to aren’t on the list of this class. Seeing as I’m more than quadrupling the number of epic PrCs (not counting those from Epic Insights articles), I wanted to avoid giving every single caster-ish class the exact same feat list and so some feats are being withheld and replaced with specialized feats specific to that class.

On that note, I might as well make a small remark regarding the role of these bonus feats. While I firmly believe that the actual class features of an epic PrC should be endlessly scalable, I know that some abilities that I would otherwise give them don’t scale or involve one-time improvements to existing class features. I’ve chosen to use epic feats to serve these purposes.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:12 PM

Divine Emissary Fix

A divine emissary is a living extension of his or her deity’s will, empowered beyond most of the deity’s favored minions and allies and trusted with the most important of tasks. As the divine emissary grows stronger, he or she grows to emulate the power of his or her divine patron. Almost paradoxically, the most powerful of divine emissaries are said to be even stronger than their sponsors, though they still require their sponsor to retain their strength. When a divine emissary involves him or herself in a matter of importance, it is often a sign that his or her deity has taken great personal interest in that matter as well. To cross or insult a divine emissary is to insult his or her god as well.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a divine emissary, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Feats: Weapon Focus (deity’s favored weapon)
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 10 ranks
Class Features: Smite good or Smite evil or Smite chaos or Smite law 4/day
Special: Must have a patron deity. Furthermore, the potential divine emissary must have completed some quest that furthered his or her deity’s goals so much that it impresses the deity.

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Listen, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Divine Emissary
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Final Judgment, Aura of Divinity I|--

2nd|
+2|Domain|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Divine Insight 1/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

5th|
+5|True Miracle 1/recharge|--

6th|
+6|Aura of Divinity II|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Domain|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Divine Insight 2/encounter|--

10th|
+10|True Miracle 2/recharge|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Divine Emissary.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a divine emissary can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, compel, conceal, foresee, fortify, heal, reveal, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the divine emissary doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Special Mount/Fiendish Servant: If he or she has one, the divine emissary’s special mount and/or fiendish servant continues to increase in power. Every five levels after 1st, the special mount and/or fiendish servant gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by +2, its Strength adjustment increases by +1, and its Intelligence increases by +1. The creature’s spell resistance equals the divine emissary’s class level + the class level that provided the special mount + 5.

Final Judgment (Ex): A divine emissary’s supply of smite evil or smite good usages are measured per encounter instead of per day and divine emissary levels stack with other class level to determine uses of smite per encounter and the extra damage dealt by a smite. When using such a smite, a target’s damage reduction (if any) is reduced by twice the divine emissary’s class level (minimum 0) and the extra damage automatically overcomes regeneration.

Perhaps most impressively, when such a smite attack is used to slay a creature, the divine emissary passes judgement on the target’s soul. He or she learns all of the good deeds and evil deeds that the target has committed and the creature is sent to the divine realm of the divine emissary’s deity (or extraplanar patron) in place of the normal destination for their soul. At the divine emissary’s option, the target of such a smite may be granted an atonement effect (redemption or temptation only) right as the creature dies, guaranteeing the target a pleasurable afterlife if they accept or damning them to eternal torture if they deny. Either way, the target can’t be restored to life or reanimated as an undead via non-epic means.

Aura of Divinity (Su): Just as a god, a divine emissary carries around an aura that influences the emotions of those within. All creatures within this aura can make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) to resist this effect and are immune for 24 hours afterwards if they succeed. The divine emissary may change the effect of this Aura as a Swift Action and can grant any number of creatures immunity from this aura for 24 hours as a free action. The radius of this aura is 10 feet at 1st level and is multiplied by x10 at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.
Aura of Awe: Affected beings stare in fascination at or towards the divine emissary, taking no other action but to do so. A divine emissary can give any number of affected creatures a suggestion, as the spell, as a standard action (use the same save DC). Whether the save succeeds or fails, no creature can receive more than one suggestion in this way per 24 hours at 1st level, plus one additional suggestion at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.
Aura of Fear: Affected beings are frightened, fleeing from the divine emissary if possible. Whenever the divine emissary takes an offensive action against one or more affected creature, all such creatures must make another saving throw against the same DC or die of fear. Whether the save succeeds or fails, a creature is only at risk of death in this way once per 24 hours at 1st level, plus one additional chance of death at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards. This is a piercing mind-affecting fear effect.
Aura of Resolve: Affected allies gain a +4 morale bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks while affected enemies take a -4 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. As a standard action, the divine emissary may grant any number of affected allies a move action to be taken immediately or restrict any number of affected enemies to taking only a single move or standard action during their next round. In either case, a Will Save against the same DC negates this effect and a creature can only be affected in this way once per 24 hours at 1st level, plus once at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Domain (Sp): At 2nd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Divine Emissary may choose a cleric domain. The divine emissary gains that domain’s granted power (using his or her class level + 20 as his or her cleric level if necessary) and may use all spells on that domain up to 7th level at will as spell like abilities.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even divine emissary level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a divine emissary, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a divine emissary can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Deific Consultation*, Deific Shield*, Devastating Critical, Divine Authority*, Emissary to None*, Empowered Servant*, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Favored Caster*, Holy Strike, Improved Aura of Courage, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Moment of Ascension*, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Health, Permanent Emanation, Planar Turning, Positive Energy Aura, Spectral Strike, Spell Smite*, Spontaneous Spell, Sudden Smite*, Tend to the Flock*, True Sacrifice*, Unstoppable*, Widen Aura of Courage, Wings of Faith*.

New FeatsEmissary to None [Epic]
You no longer require a deity in order to maintain your own deific powers.
Prerequisites: Must have slain a deity (either alone or with allies), Final Judgment
Benefits: You no longer require a patron deity to maintain your powers, instead maintaining your own strength with the divine spark of the deity you have slain. Your final judgment ability sends creatures to the divine realm of a deity of your choice.

Deific Consultation [Epic]
You can consult with your deity over more important matters
Prerequisites: Aura of Divinity I
Benefits: With 10 minutes of prayer, you can establish a telepathic link with your deity regardless of distance between the two of you. This link lasts for as long as you concentrate.

Empowered Servant [Epic]
You can empower the servants you have received through your faith.
Prerequisites: Fiendish Servant and/or Special Mount
Benefits: If you possess a special mount, it can move as if it were a phantom steed with a caster level equal to your class level. If you possess a fiendish servant, its template is replaced with the half-fiend template.

Spell Smite [Epic]
Prerequisites: Final Judgment
Benefits: Whenever you successfully smite a creature, you can cast a spell or use a spell-like ability with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a free action. The spell cast must possess a single target and the creature you have smote must be declared as that target.

Favored Caster [Epic]
Prerequisites: The ability to cast 4th level divine spells, Final Judgment
Benefits: Add all cleric spells to your paladin and/or blackguard spell lists. If you gain access to 5th level spell slots or higher through the improved spell capacity feat or similar sources, you gain access to cleric spells of the appropriate levels.

Deific Shield [Epic]
Your divine insight can protect you from most forms of harmful effects.
Prerequisites: Divine Insight 1/encounter
Benefits: By expending a use of divine insight, you can gain Spell Resistance equal to 30 + your class level and add your Charisma bonus (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws for 1 round.

Sudden Smite [Epic]
Prerequisites: Divine Insight 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you succeed on an attack roll against a creature of the appropriate alignment, you may expend any number of uses of divine insight. For each use expended in this way, you may apply a single use of your smite good/evil/law/chaos (as appropriate for the target) to the attack (bonuses to the damage roll from multiple smites stack).

Unstoppable [Epic]
Prerequisites: Divine Insight 3/encounter
Benefits: By expending all remaining uses of divine insight for the encounter (minimum 1), you can prevent yourself from dying for 1 round. During this time, any negative levels beyond your HD -1 that you would gain are ignored, ability damage and drain can’t reduce your constitution score to less than 1, damage can’t reduce you to less than -9 hit points, and any effect that would kill you outright (such a finger of death or implosion) fails to function against you.

Moment of Ascension [Epic]
You can channel a bit of your deity’s raw might for a moment or two in combat.
Prerequisites: Divine Insight 4/encounter
Benefits: Once per day, you may sacrifice all of your remaining uses of divine insight for an encounter. In return, you may select a single salient divine ability your patron deity possesses for which you possess all prerequisites and gain that ability for 1 round. You are treated as possessing a Divine Rank of 1 for this purpose. If you possess no patron deity, you may select a salient divine ability of your choice so long as you meets its prerequisites.

Wings of Faith [Epic]
Your faith enables you to travel as you couldn’t before.
Prerequisites: Aura of Divinity II or Wondrous Inspiration 2/encounter.
Benefits: You gain a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with perfect maneuverability as you sprout wings from your back. If you already possessed a fly speed, its maneuverability is increased to perfect and the speed is doubled.
Special: If you worship a deity with a portfolio related to water or the ocean, you may choose to instead gain a swim speed equal to twice your land speed from this feat. If you worship a deity with a portfolio related to stones, metal, or the earth, you may choose to instead gain a burrow speed equal to your land speed from this feat.

Tend to the Flock [Epic]
Clerics of your deity swarm at the chance to serve you directly.
Prerequisites: Epic Leadership, Aura of Divinity II or Deific Infusion (4 cleric levels)
Benefits: You treat clerics of your deity as followers of an equal level for the purposes of your epic leadership feat.

True Sacrifice [Epic]
You can sacrifice your life to perform incredible feats of magic.
Prerequisites: True Miracle 2/recharge
Benefits: When you use true miracle, you may choose to sacrifice your life to fuel an even greater miracle (even feats and abilities like unstoppable can’t stop you from dying in this way). The maximum DC of the spell to be cast is doubled. After using this ability, you can’t be returned from the dead by any means for 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day.

Divine Authority [Epic]
Prerequisites: Aura of Divinity III
Benefits: All followers of your deity recognize your position as a divine emissary on sight and have a starting attitude of friendly towards you (unless otherwise better).

Divine Insight (Su): At 4th level, a divine emissary gains the ability to harness the divine power within them to accomplish incredible tasks. Once per encounter, plus an additional time each encounter every 5 levels afterwards, the divine emissary may do one of the following.

Treat the result of any roll the divine emissary makes as a natural 20 (automatically hitting a target and threatening a critical hit or succeeding on a saving throw as normal).
Negate all damage and secondary effects that would be taken from a single attack, spell, or ability.
Take a full round of actions at any time.

True Miracle (Sp): At 5th level, a divine emissary can channel true deific energy through them as a full-round action. In effect, this allows a divine emissary to cast an epic spell that they have not researched without needing the epic spellcasting feat or even requiring a spellcraft check. The spell cast, however, can’t use mitigating factors or possess a spellcraft DC over his or her class level x 5. Furthermore, the divine emissary takes damage equal to the spell’s normal spellcraft DC and this damage can’t be lowered, redirected, or prevented in any way (not even through the emissary’s divine insight ability). After using this ability, a divine emissary can’t use it again until he or she spends 8 hours in prayer to regain the favor of his or her patron(s). At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the divine emissary can use this ability one additional time between these prayers.

Notes and Explanations:
Dealing with the divine emissary, spellcasting has again been nerfed as with the implacable retriever. Unlike the implacable retriever, this was more of an accident than intentional (the ELH forgot to put the spellcasting progression on the class table so it’s easy to miss). With that said, I’m trying to keep full-advancement classes pretty special and a paladin/blackguard doesn’t get too much use out of full progression. Also, I’ll admit that this class was designed in part to compensate for the weakness of its prerequisite classes. I don’t think that any particular ability here is too strong but I may be wrong here.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:13 PM

Epic Infiltrator Fix

While some characters of epic might achieve glory and attain notoriety, a few such beings shy away from the public eye to the extreme. Among these beings are epic infiltrators, spies specializing in the art of escaping notice at any cost. Shifting from disguise to disguise as easily as a lesser scoundrel might disguise his or her voice, an epic infiltrator never seems too far out of place and can remain unnoticed even as they murder, steal, and sabotage their targets from within. The most skilled of infiltrators have managed to remain hidden in plain sight for years at a time. Whenever things start going wrong in an organization, there is always some chance that an epic infiltrator lies at the source.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Epic Infiltrator, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Bluff 23 ranks, Disguise 23 ranks, Forgery 10 ranks, Knowledge (local) 10 ranks
Feats: Skill Focus (any two of the four skills above)
Special: Must be able to speak at least 10 languages
Special: Must have successfully spent one month using Disguise skill to pose as someone else or to escape notice in an area where he or she should not be permitted.

Class Skills: Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device

Skill Points at Each Level: 8 + Int modifier

Epic Infiltrator
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Backstabber 1d6, Perfect Infiltrator

2nd|
+2|Into the Background (5 rounds)

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Fast Friends (1)

5th|
+5|Subtle Works (1)

6th|
+6|Backstabber 2d6

7th|
+7|Into the Background (10 rounds)

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Fast Friends (2)

10th|
+10|Subtle Works (2)[/table]

Class Features:The following are class features of the Epic Infiltrator.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an epic infiltrator can still develop and cast epic spells using the compel, conceal, delude, foresee, reveal, slay, transform, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An epic infiltrator can use his or her ranks in knowledge (local) to determine epic spell slots per day. If the epic infiltrator doesn’t cast spells, It uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine his or her epic spell save DCs.

Perfect Infiltrator (Ex): An Epic Infiltrator gains a bonus to disguise checks equal to his or her class level x 5, can make a disguise check as a full-round action, and perfectly imitates the voice and scent of whatever he or she disguises as. Furthermore, an epic infiltrator can’t be tracked using the urban tracking feat and can make disguise checks to avoid detection notice like hide checks, even if observed and/or lacking concealment or cover. Lastly, an epic infiltrator can make disguise checks in place of Will saves made against divination effects.

Backstabber (Ex): An epic infiltrator knows exactly how to harm enemies, crippling and destroying them with well-placed strikes. Whenever an epic infiltrator attacks an opponent who is denied their Dexterity bonus or who is flanked, the attack deals 1d6 negative levels to the target, plus an additional 1d6 levels at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards. For each negative level that would be dealt to a creature in this way, that creature is also dealt 5 damage (even if they are immune to negative levels).

Into the Background (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, an epic infiltrator can escape notice from all those around him or her. Once per encounter, as a swift action, an epic infiltrator can choose to fade into the background. All actions that the epic infiltrator had taken within the past 5 rounds and all information learned about him or her by divination spells and effects during that time are forgotten or are dismissed are unimportant, requiring a DC 20 + class level Wisdom check to remember. This ability repeats itself 5 rounds later. If a target loses memories of the entire period when they were aware of the epic infiltrator, they forget about his or her presence as well as actions. If a target forgets information in this way, not even magical means can pry it forth from their minds. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability extends 5 additional rounds into the past and future. An epic infiltrator can choose to exempt any number of creatures from this effect.

Blending into the background carries other benefits as well, helping the infiltrator escape notoriety. All knowledge checks and gather information checks made to learn about the epic infiltrator take a penalty equal to his or her class level x 5 for the purpose of learning information that the infiltrator does not want public. Bardic knowledge, lore, legend lore, and similar abilities can never be used to learn about the epic infiltrator as legends about him or her never develop.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an epic infiltrator can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Circulate Rumor*, Develop Alias*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Stealth*, Epic Trapfinding, Extended Lifespan, Faceless Crowd*, Fill the Gap*, Fishing for Answers*, Forgotten Combatant*, Great Charisma, Great Dexterity, Improved Combat Reflexes, Master of Ambush*, Master Saboteur*, Mislead Magic*, Not Important*, Overlooked Target*, Polygot, Sense Onlookers*, Spellcasting Harrier, Subtle Killer*, Unnoticed Assassin*, Unnoticed Scroundrel*.

New FeatsNot Important [Epic]
Others tend to overlook your existence entirely, quickly forgetting about you.
Prerequisites: Into the Background (10 rounds)
Benefits: If a creature is given no reason to remember encountering you within 24 hours of the encounter, the target forgets about the encounter entirely. Any gaps formed in a creature’s memory in this way are filled in with false mundane memories that his or her own mind generates.

Develop Alias [Epic]
Even those who deal with you may not know who you really are.
Prerequisites: Perfect Infiltrator
Benefits: With one week of work, you may develop an alias for yourself with a new name, false history, quirks, and habits. Your disguise bonus from perfect infiltrator is doubled when playing the part of your alias. While acting as your alias, you effectively don't exist for the purposes of spells and abilities like discern location, locate person, or the implacable retriever's quarry class feature, though such abilities can find him or her if searching for the alias. Likewise, the alias can only be found while you are using it. You may switch back and forth between your true identity and your alias as a swift action. You may only possess one alias at a time.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times, gaining a new alias each time.

Forgotten Combatant [Epic]
Opponents seem to lose track of you in the heat of battle.
Prerequisites: Into the Background (5 rounds)
Benefits: All opponents you have not yet attacked in an encounter are treated as flat-footed against your attacks. After using into the background, each other creature in the encounter must instantly make their Wisdom check against the normal or else be treated as if you had not yet attacked them in the encounter (rendering them flat-footed against another attack) along with the normal effects.

Overlooked Target [Epic]
When selecting a target to attack, others tend to ignore you completely.
Prerequisites: Into the Background (25 rounds)
Benefits: In order to take an offensive action against you, a creature must succeed on a successful spot check opposed by your disguise or hide check. After taking an aggressive action against a target, this feat doesn’t affect that target for 1 round.

Fishing for Answers [Epic]
You can seek out information without letting others know it.
Prerequisites: Fast Friends (1)
Benefits: You may make a special gather information check against a target of your Fast Friends class feature as a full-round action. The DC is the same as normal (though the check always fails if the target doesn’t know the desired information) and the target is unaware of the information you were trying to get, supplying it to you incidentally.

Faceless Crowd [Epic]
You can make an entire group of individuals seem as faceless as the rest of the crowd.
Prerequisites: Into the Background (15 rounds)
Benefits: When you use into the background, you may share the benefits with up to one other creature per class level.

Fill the Gap [Epic]
You can use the moment right as a target forgets you as a chance to slip in false memories.
Prerequisites: Into the Background (20 rounds)
Benefits: On the round after a target is affected by into the background, if that target is still able to perceive you but can’t remember you, you may make a bluff check as a standard to fill in the gaps in the target’s memory however you choose if they fail on their opposed sense motive check. If the lie is obviously impossible (at least from the target’s perspective), this ability fails to function.

Mislead Magic [Epic]
Your disguises can fool even the strongest of spells.
Prerequisites: Perfect Infiltrator
Benefits: Whenever you would targeted by or hedged out of a spell effect that your disguise would not be in the same situation (such as if a human disguised as an elf walks through an area affected by antipathy targeting humans), you may make an opposed disguise check against a caster level check made by the spell’s caster. If your check is successful, the magic is fooled by your disguise.

Subtle Killer [Epic]
When forced to kill others, you are very skilled at covering up your tracks
Prerequisites: Backstabber 1d6
Benefits: Whenever you successfully attack a creature and benefit from backstabber, the target has the air driven from its lungs and is exhausted for 1 round, during which time it can’t speak, shout, or produce other oral noises. If the target was previously undamaged and is slain by the attack, the target is unaware of how he or she died if later revived or conferred with via speak with dead and very little blood or visible injury results from the attack, requiring a successful DC 20 spot or heal check to recognize the target as dead via nonmagical means.

Circulate Rumor [Epic]
You can circulate false rumors to sow discord and cover up your own actions.
Prerequisites: Fast Friends (I)
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can start circulating a rumor with a target of your Fast Friends ability. Every 24 hours, each target believing this rumor passes it onto a number of other creatures equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). The rumor persists for 1 day/point of Charisma bonus you possess (minimum 1 day) or until it is publically proven false, whichever comes last. You can only circulate once rumor per week.

Master Saboteur [Epic]
You break things with the greatest of skill and precision.
Prerequisites: Perfect Infiltrator, Disable Device 35 ranks
Benefits: You can sabotage any item using the disable device skill rather than merely sabotaging devices. Such items withstand 1d4 x 10 minutes of casual use before falling apart and becoming useless. Disabling an item requires a full-round action for medium and smaller objects and 15 minutes per size category larger than medium. Alternately, you can set the item to remain functional until it is next dealt any amount of damage.

Sense Onlookers [Epic]
You have a knack for knowing when you are under scrutiny
Prerequisites: Perfect Infiltrator, Disguise 35 ranks
Benefits: You are always aware of when you are being observed by creatures, whether through direct senses or magic. Furthermore, you specifically learn which creatures with which you possess a line of sight are observing you. This is not a divination effect and pierces defenses against such effects.

Unnoticed Scoundrel [Epic]
You have continued learning how to best take advantage of a target’s weaknesses in combat.
Prerequisites: Sneak Attack +8d6, Perfect Infiltrator
Benefits: Your Rogue Levels and Epic Infiltrator levels stack for the purpose of advancing sneak attack.

Unnoticed Assassin [Epic]
You have perfected the art of striking from shadows and of utilizing your ki.
Prerequisites: Sudden Strike +8d6, Perfect Infiltrator
Benefits: Your Ninja levels and Epic Infiltrator levels stack for the purpose of advancing sudden strike as well as your uses of ki powers per day.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Master of Ambush [Epic]
You can use the element of surprise to deliver an onslaught of horrific blows against your enemies.
Prerequisites: Sneak attack +8d6 or Sudden Strike +8d6 or Skirmish +4d6/+4
Benefits: When acting in a surprise round, you can take a full-round of actions against an enemy. Whenever you successfully hit an enemy with an attack roll during a surprise round, you may use the result of that attack roll (including modifiers) for any or all additional attacks you make against that creature within the next round.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Fast Friends (Ex): Beyond simply fooling others into thinking that he belongs in his environment, an epic infiltrator of 4th level or higher can press his or her luck to fool others into thinking that he is an ally or superior worthy of aid and support. As a standard action, an epic infiltrator can make an opposed disguise check without the benefit of his or her Perfect Infiltrator class feature against the spot or sense motive check (whichever is higher) of another creature who can hear and understand him. If the infiltrator succeeds, the target becomes helpful towards the Infiltrator. This ability lasts until the epic infiltrator is conclusively revealed to be an imposter or traitor or until he or she uses it again on another creature. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the epic infiltrator can maintain an additional ally in this way at a given time.

Subtle Works (Ex): Starting at 5th level, an epic infiltrator can get away with almost anything without people noticing what has occurred until it is far too late. At any time, an epic infiltrator may declare an action he or she has taken within the past hour to be one of his or her subtle works. Nobody but an epic infiltrator’s allies is able to notices that the action has been taken or takes actions that would reveal this deception of their own volition, allowing an epic infiltrator to steal, kill, and sabotage without anyone noticing for a long time. If directly confronted with irrefutable proof of this work, however, a creature can see through this deception. For example, if an epic infiltrator chose to hide his murder of the king, nobody would note his absence with suspicion (if they even notice his absence at all) and none would think to look in the rosebush where his body was stashed. Similarly, if the epic infiltrator chose to conceal his sabotage of war wagons, mechanics wouldn’t think to examine the vehicles or would overlook the damage done altogether. Rather than controlling the minds of others, however, this ability simply relies on forethought and application of psychology on the infiltrator’s part.

An action to be declared as a subtle work can’t involve more than one creature per level or one 10-foot cube of nonliving material per level and creatures already aware of the subtle work when it is declared aren’t fooled by it and may act to make others aware. A subtle work lasts for one month or until it is replaced with a new one, at which point the discovery is made at a normal rate. An epic infiltrator can only possess one subtle work at a time at 5th level and one additional subtle work at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
Many homebrewers out there (including myself in past works) seem to associate infiltration with the ability to perfectly impersonate others and gain their abilities or at least with the ability to create distinct personas. This class, however, takes a more subtle and streamlined approach to infiltration. At the end of the day, all that a good infiltrator needs to do is to get into an area, carry out his or her business, and get out without attracting a fuss. This class was designed to serve as a vastly simplified infiltrator who uses disguises more to escape detection than to actively mislead others.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:15 PM

Guardian Paramount

A guardian paramount is an extraordinary guard or bodyguard, a supernatural protector skilled in preventing harm to his or her wards. Often put in charge of guarding important beings and sites, the most powerful among guardian paramounts have been known to watch the backs of kings, unique outsiders of power, and vaults of hidden artifacts. Whether protecting others for intrinsic or extrinsic reward, the work of a guardian paramount is always in high demand and is often appreciated when offered. Guardian paramounts travelling with adventurers may well be mercenaries selling their services in the short-term or may be full-time guardians to another member of the party.

Hit Die: d12

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Guardian Paramount, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Intimidate 23 ranks, Listen 10 ranks, Sense Motive 10 ranks, Spot 10 ranks
Feats: Improved Initiative, Stand Still (XPH)
Class Features: Evasion or Uncanny Dodge or Bulwark of Defense

Class Skills: Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Spot.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Guardian Paramount
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Eternal Guardian, Sacred Ward (1)

2nd|
+2|True Guardian 1/round

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Close at Hand (1 mile)

5th|
+5|Restore Ward (once)

6th|
+6|Sacred Ward (2)

7th|
+7|True Guardian 2/round

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Close at Hand (10 miles)

10th|
+10|Restore Ward (twice)[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Guardian Paramount.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a guardian paramount can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, contact, foresee, fortify, heal, life, transport and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A guardian paramount may use his or her base attack bonus to determine his or her epic spell slots per day. Epic spells targeting at least one of his or her sacred wards (see below) or that create areas within or that contain at least one sacred ward require only a swift action to cast unless their casting time has been extended. If the guardian paramount doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Eternal Guardian (Ex): At 1st level, a guardian paramount starts to hone the skills required to guard their sacred charges effectively. The guardian paramount gains a bonus equal to his or her class level x 5 on spot, listen, and sense motive checks and gains blindsense out to 10 feet per class level. While the guardian paramount is within 1 mile of at least one sacred ward (see below), he or she does not age, can see invisible and ethereal creatures, and need not eat, drink, sleep, or breathe.

Sacred Ward (Su): At 1st level, a guardian paramount gains the ability to bond to a creature or to a location occupying up to a 100-foot cube (this space need not be bounded by walls) by spending one hour in meditation. After meditating in this way, the guardian paramount is bonded to this creature or location, henceforth referred to as the guardian’s ward. A creature designated as a ward gains uncanny dodge and evasion and gains improved uncanny dodge and/or improved evasion if you possess said abilities. Furthermore, that creature is bonded to the guardian by a status effect. A location designated as a ward is protected by a forbiddance effect, all structures within it have their hardness doubled, and the entire periphery of the area acts as an alarm effect (silent alarm only). These effects last until the guardian paramount chooses a new ward to replace the old one. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a guardian paramount may select an additional ward. One area or creature can’t be selected multiple times as a ward by a single guardian paramount at the same time.

True Guardian (Su): A guardian paramount would be of little use if he or she were incapable of protecting his or her sacred ward from harm. Starting at 2nd level, a guardian paramount can negate any amount of hit point damage that his or her sacred ward (if a creature) or a structure/feature of his or her sacred ward (if a location) would take from a single source once per round as a free action. If the guardian paramount successfully damages the creature who would have dealt this damage within the next round, the guardian paramount adds the amount of damage prevented as a bonus to the damage roll. Otherwise, the guardian paramount takes nonlethal damage equal to the amount of damage prevented at the end of his or her next round. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability may be used an additional time each round (track damage dealt by different creatures separately).

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even guardian paramount level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a guardian paramount, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Guardian Paramount can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Ageless Sanctuary*, Armored Skin, Blinding Speed, Bring Back*, Bulwark of Defense, Call My Name*, Combat Archery, Damage Reduction, Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Reputation, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Will, Eternal Haven*, Exceptional Deflection, Fast Healing, Great Constitution, Great Dexterity, Halt Intruders*, Hidden Sanctum*, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Spell Resistance, Infinite Deflection, Inseparable Guardian*, Inspired Protector*, Interposition*, Perfect Health, Reflect Arrows, Sanctum’s Heart, Self-Concealment, Shared Defenses*, Spellcasting Harrier, Stern Gaze*, Superior Initiative, and Warded Site*.

New FeatsStern Gaze [Epic]
Those who you gaze upon know that they must go through you to reach your wards.
Prerequisites: Eternal Guardian
Benefits: Creatures that you threaten can’t attack a sacred ward unless they succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + class level + charisma modifier).

Inseparable Guardian [Epic]
Attempts to snatch your sacred wards away are doomed to failure.
Prerequisites: Eternal Guardian
Benefits: Whenever a creature declared as your sacred ward is subjected to an effect that teleports them or otherwise sends them to another plane of existence, you may follow this effect as well as an immediate action, appearing in the nearest available space to your sacred ward. Within 5 rounds of this teleportation, you can follow it back to the source, also taking back any sacred ward(s) touched. This ability can’t be used to return a sacred ward engaged in a grapple.

Interposition [Epic]
You can replace a sacred ward as the target of a spell.
Prerequisites: True Guardian 2/round
Benefits: By spending two uses of true guardian, you can force any spell with a single target to target yourself in place of a sacred ward (if that sacred ward is a creature) if you are within 30 feet of the sacred ward. If you would not be an eligible target for the spell, that spell fails to function.

Call My Name [Epic]
A sacred ward can call for you when you are needed.
Prerequisites: Close at Hand (10 miles)
Benefits: Any creature selected as one of your sacred wards can teleport you by his or her side as the close at hand ability by spending a standard action. If you are not within range of the sacred ward, this feat offers no benefit

Shared Defenses [Epic]
You can help shore up any weaknesses in the defenses of your sacred wards.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (4)
Benefits: All creatures declared as your sacred wards can use your AC and/or Saving Throws if superior to their own while you are within 30 feet of them.

Bring Back [Epic]
With quick work, you can stop your sacred wards from dying.
Prerequisites: Restore Ward (four times)
Benefits: Within 1 round of the death of a creature you have declared as a sacred ward, you may spend a standard action to restore his or her back to life at -9 hp and stabilized with no loss of levels, constitution, or spells prepared. You must be adjacent to the sacred ward in order to use this ability and his or her body must be at least mostly intact.

Inspired Protector [Epic]
The words of a sacred ward can spur you on to greatness.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (1)
Benefit: Any creature designated as one of your sacred wards can spend a move action to immediately grant you a move action. Similarly, they can spend a standard action to immediately grant you a standard action.

Ageless Sanctuary [Epic]
Within your sacred ward, time holds little sway.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (1)
Benefits: The area of your sacred ward(s) is treated as possessing the timeless trait (DMG p148), allowing the site and all objects within it to escape the ravages of time so long as they remain within. Unlike a normal area with the timeless trait, natural healing still occurs and inanimate objects removed from the area don’t have time catch up with them.

Eternal Haven [Epic]
No harm can be done to sites declared as your sacred wards that you don’t approve of.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (2)
Benefits: Within the area of your sacred ward(s), objects can’t be damaged and all strength checks made to break objects and dispel checks take a -20 penalty.

Halt Intruders [Epic]
Others feel a pang of unease around your sacred ward
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (3)
Benefits: The area of your sacred ward(s) is affected as if by an antipathy spell with a caster level equal to you class level + 20. With 24 hours of meditation, you can change who is affected by this effect.

Warded Site [Epic]
Strong magics protects your sacred wards.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (4)
Benefits: The area of your sacred ward(s) is affected as if by a guards and wards spell with a caster level equal to your class level + 20. With 24 hours of meditation, you can alter any number of decisions made for this effect.

Hidden Sanctum [Epic]
Your sacred ward is protected from prying eyes.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (5)
Benefits: The area of your sacred ward(s) is affected as if by a mage’s private sanctum spell with a caster level equal to your class level + 20.

Sanctum’s Heart [Epic]
You can set extra defenses around a small area of your sacred wards.
Prerequisites: Sacred Ward (1)
Benefits: Anywhere within each area you declare as a sacred ward, you can place a spherical wall of force (either opaque or transparent at your option) with a diameter of 10 feet. This wall of force doesn’t damage objects and barriers that it travels through as it is established. With 24 hours of meditation, you can change the location, remove, or reinstate this sphere of force.

Close At Hand (Su): At times, it may be necessary for a guardian paramount to part from one or more sacred wards. Starting at 4th level, however, the guardian paramount is always near when a sacred ward is threatened. While within 1 mile of a sacred ward, a guardian paramount can teleport back to a sacred ward as a standard action. If the ward is a creature, the guardian paramount appears in the nearest open space, interposing him or herself between the ward and harm if at all possible. If the ward is a location, a guardian paramount appears in any square of that location of his or her choice (if the square is occupied, he or she appears in the nearest unoccupied space instead). At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the distance over which a guardian paramount can teleport is multiplied by x 10.

Restore Ward (Su): Even if the ward of a guardian paramount should seem to fall, a guardian of at least 5th level may be able to bring them back. As a full-round action, a guardian paramount can bring back a sacred ward. If the ward was a creature, they are restored as if through true resurrection. If the ward’s soul was harmed or destroyed by non-epic sources, it is fully restored. Even if the ward is not slain, the guardian paramount may instead elect to teleport the ward to any open square within 30 feet of him, ignoring any non-epic spells or effects that would prevent this transfer, while clearing the ward of all petrification, polymorph effects, diseases, poisons, curses, insanity, ability drain, ability damage, charms, compulsions, and energy drain that the ward may be suffering from.

If the ward was a location, all structures and features that were around when the location was designated as a sacred ward are rebuilt, destroying or displacing new structures as appropriate. Any active spell effects tied to such structures and features whose durations wouldn’t have ended by the time this ability is used are restored along with the structure. Structures and features merely transported or teleported immediately return to their original spaces, ignoring any non-epic effect that would prevent this and destroying or displacing new structures as appropriate.

No single ward may be affected more than once by this ability when used by a particular guardian paramount, plus one additional time at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation: The guardian paramount has always been kind of an odd class out. This was one of the two original epic PrCs from the ELH specifically designed for NPCs instead of PCs like the Union Sentinel. Following the view that any character to reach epic levels must have accomplished tasks that bards across at least one world have added to their canon, however, it seems incredibly wrong that any epic PrC should exist purely to act as the lackey to stronger PCs. As a result, I tried to see how player-friendly I could make the concept of a bodyguard. I think that I succeeded to at least some extent (it’s at least better than the original class).

Changes to the prerequisites mean that rogues aren’t the easiest means of entry (which always struck me as weird) and allows for barbarians and knights to also try their hand at this class. Also, I feel a particular need to explain the replacement of call back with restore ward and the unusual limitation (uses per target) that restore ward uses. This class was designed in theory to act as a body guard, a role that interacts oddly with resurrection magic. On the one hand, if this class gains resurrection magic, its role as a body guard faces incredibly little difficulty or narrative tension as a slain ward can always be restored later on. On the other hand, not giving this class resurrection magic means that normal non-epic clerics make better bodyguards than this specialized epic PrC. As such, a compromise of such was formed. Restore ward seems far more reliable than any non-epic spell as far as saving one’s ward but the limited uses per target makes it preferable to actually protect ones ward and not let them die in the first place.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:16 PM

High Proselytizer Fix

While one might say that divine emissaries act as the hands of deities, high proselytizers almost certainly act as their mouths. A high proselytizer wields the words and teachings of his or her deity as a warrior would wield weaponry, targeting the hearts and minds of others and bending them to the deity’s cause. Equipped to manipulate, care for, or do away with vast numbers of people at once, all forms of high proselytizers are known across the multiverse. Some lead holy crusades in the name of their deities with those they have converted while others are content to rule as leaders of their church. A vast majority of proselytizers, however, have taken it upon themselves to travel across the multiverse and spread the word of their deity wherever they may travel. Wherever they are found, high proselytizers are almost certain to leave a large influence.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a high proselytizer, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Skills: Diplomacy 10 ranks and either Knowledge (religion) 23 ranks or Knowledge (nature) 23 ranks.
Feats: Leadership.
Spells: Ability to cast 5th-level Divine spells.
Special: Must have a patron deity.

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (arcane), Knowledge (nature), Profession, Sense Motive, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

High Proselytizer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Proselytize, Wondrous Inspiration 1/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|Deific Infusion (2 cleric levels)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

4th|
+2|Reach the Masses x 10|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Master of the Divine (1)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

6th|
+3|Wondrous Inspiration 2/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Deific Infusion (4 cleric levels)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Reach the Masses x 100|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

10th|
+5|Master of the Divine (2)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the high proselytizer.

Epic Spellcasting: A high proselytizer gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat, even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each high proselytizer level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a high proselytizer the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Proselytize (Sp): A high proselytizer is best known for the ability to preach the word of his or her deity to large crowds with great effect. He or she may speak in such a manner at will and doing so possesses three effects. First, while speaking in this way, the high proselytizer is treated as though affected by a sanctuary spell. Secondly, his or her voice can be heard clearly within a radius of 100 feet plus 50 feet per class level, regardless of background noise, and his or her speech can be understood as though the audience were affected by a comprehend languages spell. Finally, creatures who can hear the high proselytizer must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Wis mod) or become enraptured. A successful saving throw against this ability renders a creature immune to further uses from the same high proselytizer for the following 24 hours.

Enraptured audience members act as though charmed (as charm monster) and temporarily change their alignment to match your own if this is not already the case. This may mean that some of a target’s class abilities, spells, or other abilities are unavailable to it for as long as this ability continues. The high proselytizer can inspire the crowd to take any of a number of actions, depending on his or her alignment. Any suicidal suggestion grants audience members a new saving throw to break the rapture.

This rapture lasts for as long as the high proselytizer continues concentrating and speaking, though targets gain a new saving throw to break free at the start of each hour. When a creature is freed from this effect, it has a choice: It can continue to act according to its new alignment, or it can shift back. If the creature chooses to change back, it must make another Will save (with the same save DC as before). If it fails this saving throw its alignment changes back but it needs an atonement spell to gain back any abilities it lost due to its temporary alignment change. If the creature chooses to permanently change its alignment to the evangelist’s, it acts as if a cleric of the appropriate alignment had cast atonement on it and the creature may further choose to adopt the high proselytizer’s religion or to keep its own beliefs. If the target chooses to adopt the high proselytizer’s religion, it may instantly retrain any number of class levels into an equal number of levels in cleric and/or favored soul. Creatures with an alignment subtype are never enraptured by a high proselytizer. This is a piercing mind affecting charm effect.

Wondrous Inspiration (Su): Even while proselytizing, a high proselytizer can work in a few spells to impress those who have been enraptured. Once per encounter at 1st level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards, a high proselytizer can cast a spell while using his or her proselytize class feature. For a number of rounds afterwards equal to the spell’s level, all creatures enraptured by the high proselytizer’s proselytize class feature gain a morale bonus of equal size to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks.

Deific Infusion (Su): While proselytizing, a high proselytizer of 2nd level or higher can choose to infuse any number of those who he or she has enraptured with divine energy. Doing so heals the target of all diseases and poisons, subjects them to a regenerate effect, and grants the targets the spellcasting abilities of a level 2 cleric without domains or spontaneous casting. Each target chooses what spells they prepare as they gain this energy and this energy lasts for 5 rounds. No creature may be affected by this ability more than once per 24 hours. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the effective cleric level of those affected is increased by +2.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a High Proselytizer can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Bonus Domain, Disheartening Miracle*, Divine Cleansing*, Divine Spell Knowledge*, Enhance Spell, Epic Reputation, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Epic Spellcasting, Epic Will, Essence of Faith*, Extended Infusion*, Extended Lifespan, Great Charisma, Great Wisdom, Ignore Material Component, Improved Alignment-Based Casting, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Influence the Faithful*, Inspire Fervor*, Intensify Spell, Legendary Commander, Multispell, Negative Energy Burst, Otherworldly Army*, Permanent Emanation, Planar Turning, Polygot, Positive Energy Aura, Protect The Flock*, Selective Spell*, Spectral Strike, Spell Stowaway, Spell Opportunity, Spontaneous Domain Access, Spontaneous Spell, Superior Spellcaster*, Tenacious Magic, Tend to the Flock*, True Blessing*, Undead Mastery, Wings of Faith*, Zone of Animation.

New Feats Tend to the Flock [Epic]
Clerics of your deity swarm at the chance to serve you directly.
Prerequisites: Epic Leadership, Aura of Divinity II or Deific Infusion (4 cleric levels)
Benefits: You treat clerics of your deity as followers of an equal level for the purposes of your epic leadership feat.

Disheartening Miracle [Epic]
The magic that you perform while proselytizing disheartens those who would oppose you.
Prerequisites: Wondrous Inspiration 1/encounter
Benefits: When you use your wondrous inspiration class feature, sentient enemies take a penalty of equal size to their attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for the same duration.

Superior Spellcaster [Epic]
Your spells are more powerful than those of others
Prerequisites: Caster level 30th
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your caster level.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Divine Spell Knowledge [Epic]
Your access to spells is larger than that of most divine casters.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast spells of the maximum normal spell level of a divine spellcasting class.
Benefits: You learn two new divine spells of any level up to the maximum level you can cast. This feat does not grant any additional spell slots.
special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Influence the Faithful [Epic]
Your long-standing faith allows you to influence other worshipers of your deity.
Prerequisites: Turn/Rebuke Undead, Proselytize
Benefits: Your levels of cleric stack with levels of high proselytizer for the purpose of turning or rebuking undead. Furthermore, you can rebuke and control followers of your deity.

Essence of Faith [Epic]
You live your entire life in worship of your deity, allowing you to take the form of its followers.
Prerequisites: Wild Shape, Proselytize
Benefits: Your levels of druid stack with levels of high proselytizer for the purpose of wild shape. Furthermore, you can use wild shape to assume the form of outsiders so long as their alignment does not conflict with your own on at least one axis.

True Blessing [Epic]
Your spells last far longer on your followers than they rightfully should
Prerequisites: Epic Leadership, Deific Infusion (8 cleric levels)
Benefits: Spells that you cast on your followers with a duration other than instantaneous last for a full 24 hours beyond their normal duration. Other creatures other than your followers also affected by the same casting do not benefit from this feat.

Wings of Faith [Epic]
Your faith enables you to travel as you couldn’t before.
Prerequisites: Aura of Divinity II or Wondrous Inspiration 2/encounter.
Benefits: You gain a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with perfect maneuverability as you sprout wings from your back. If you already possessed a fly speed, its maneuverability is increased to perfect and the speed is doubled.
Special: If you worship a deity with a portfolio related to water or the ocean, you may choose to instead gain a swim speed equal to twice your land speed from this feat. If you worship a deity with a portfolio related to stones, metal, or the earth, you may choose to instead gain a burrow speed equal to your land speed from this feat.

Extended Infusion [Epic]
You can infuse more divine energy into those who you proselytize
Prerequisites: Deific Infusion (2 Cleric Levels)
Benefits: Deific Infusion lasts for 5 additional rounds.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times.

Protect the Flock [Epic]
Even as you weave miracles of divine magic, you protect those who follow you.
Prerequisites: Wondrous Inspiration 2/encounter
Benefits: whenever you use wondrous inspiration, targets of your proselytize class feature gain a morale bonus of equal size to their AC and gain Damage Reduction X/-, where X is the size of the bonus. Both of these abilities last for 1 round/spell level of the spell cast.

Divine Cleansing [Epic]
When you fill proselytized creatures with divine energy, they are cleansed of harmful magic.
Prerequisites: Deific Infusion (6 cleric levels)
Benefits: All creatures affected by your deific infusion class feature are subjected to a break enchantment effect with a caster level equal to your class level +20.

Otherworldly Army [Epic]
When you infuse creatures with deific energy, their forms change as well.
Prerequisites: Deific Infusion (6 cleric levels)
Benefits: Whenever you use your deific infusion class feature, all creatures affected gain either the half-celestial (if you are good) or half-fiend (if you are evil) template until the end of the encounter. If you are neutral, choose which template you apply as you select this feat (the choice can’t be changed later on).

Selective Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can prevent your spells from harming your allies.
Benefits: This feat can only be applied to spells that create areas. When casting a spell modified by this metamagic effect, you may select any number of targets within its area. Only the chosen creatures are affected by the spell. A selective spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Ignite Fervor [Epic]
You create true fervor in those you proselytize, allowing you to direct them however you wish.
Prerequisites: Deific Infusion (10 cleric levels)
Benefits: All creatures subjected to your proselytize class feature are treated as fanatic towards you, willingly turning on their own nations or performing suicidal tasks without permitting additional saving throws to end the effect.

Reach the Masses (Ex): Starting at 4th level, whenever a high proselytizer casts a non-epic spell or spell-like ability, they may choose to cast that spell up to ten times simultaneously, using only one spell slot to do so. No single creature may be targeted with more than one casting of the spell and no two areas created in this way can overlap. The twin spell metamagic feat only adds one additional casting and the repeat spell metamagic feat only repeats one casting. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a high proselytizer multiplies the number of times they can cast that spell by x 10.

Master of the Divine (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a high proselytizer can manipulate far greater magics than most other divine casters. A high proselytizer can cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation: With this class, we reach the first of the full spellcasting classes. All three classes are about at the same level of power and all three possess pretty much identical “capstones” as nothing is more valuable to a sensible epic caster than epic spell slots. In case you were wondering, deific infusion and wondrous inspiration DO work in combination to provide you with tons of casters contributing spells to help you use your epic spell. This was intended. One last note I’d like to make is that though reach the masses was meant to be a useful ability and impressive-looking ability (buffing or debuffing large forces, sanctifying or defiling large areas with magic, summoning armies of summoned monsters, etc.), I can’t think of any uses that are overpowered as far as raw strength (though they are amazing as far as scope goes).

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:18 PM

Legendary Dreadnaught

Nearly unstoppable on the battlefield, a legendary dreadnaught is the perfect melee combatant. Capable of shrugging off large amounts of punishment and delivering it in turn, few targets are capable of overcoming a legendary dreadnaught in pitched combat. While used on occasion to lead armies, a legendary dreadnaught almost always fights on the front line. Though it is rare that anyone so powerful as a legendary dreadnaught would refer to themselves as mercenaries, a few of them do hire their services, contacts, and resources to whatever great powers can entice them. Wherever they are found, however, the presence of even one legendary dreadnaught can drastically change the outcome of a battles and alter the course of history with each swipe of his or her weapon.

Hit Die: d12

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a legendary dreadnaught, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Skills: Intimidate 15 ranks
Feats: Great Cleave and any three of the following: Improved Critical, Improved Shield Bash, Mounted Combat, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Weapon Focus

Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Swim, and Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Legendary Dreadnaught
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Dreadnaught’s Array, Resist Harm 2

2nd|
+2|Inevitable Strike I

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Relentless Force 1/round

5th|
+5|Unstoppable 1/encounter

6th|
+6|Resist Harm 3

7th|
+7|Inevitable Strike II

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Relentless Force 2/round

10th|
+10|Unstoppable 2/encounter[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Legendary Dreadnaught.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a legendary dreadnaught can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, destroy, dispel, energy, fortify, and/or slay seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A legendary dreadnaught may use his or her base attack bonus in place of ranks in knowledge skills to gain epic spell slots and in place of ranks in spellcraft when making the spellcraft check to cast such a spell. A legendary dreadnaught can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot is not expended. If the legendary dreadnaught doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Dreadnaught’s Array: The gear of a legendary dreadnaught, infused with his legendary might, becomes more powerful than others could ever hope to imagine. By spending 24 hours meditating or practicing, a dreadnaught can infuse two items that fit the following categories: armor, shield, weapon. Two items of the same category can be enchanted in this way but a shield or armor with spikes must be enchanted either as defensive items or as weaponry (or as both if selected twice).

All items enchanted in this way are treated as major artifacts, meaning that they can’t be damaged by normal means, aren’t suppressed in an anti-magic field, and few effects have any chance of removing their magic. As a standard action, a legendary dreadnaught may call one of this items from any distance into his person (weapons appear in hand while armor appears worn and so forth) if the dreadnaught is capable of possessing them on their person (the dreadnaught may not call armor while already wearing another suit of armor, for example). This teleportation negates all non-epic effects that would prevent extradimensional movement or teleportation effects.

Lastly, each item in a dreadnaught’s array gains a total bonus (in addition to whatever qualities the items already possess) equal to his or her class level while in his or her possession. This bonus may be split between special abilities and enhancement bonuses however the dreadnaught sees fit. With 24 hours of additional meditation, these bonuses may be redistributed or new items can become a part of the dreadnaught’s array in place of old ones.

Resist Harm (Ex): The hide of a dreadnaught, some people say, is the toughest substance in all of existence. While this is often hardly the case, legendary dreadnaughts do have an unmatched skill for mitigating harm. All hit point damage, ability damage, and ability drain that a dreadnaught takes is divided by 2 before applying damage reduction, energy resistance, and any similar abilities that he or she may possess. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the number that the damage is divided by is increased by +1.

Inevitable Strike (Ex): A dreadnaught is rarely ever stopped by defenses for long, no matter how powerful they may be. Starting at 2nd level, whenever a dreadnaught misses with an attack roll or successfully hits with an attack roll and fails to deal damage, that dreadnaught gains one dreadnaught point. A dreadnaught gains a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the number of dreadnaught points they possess x 5 and lowers all miss chances on that attack gained from any source by an equal amount. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the number that the number of dreadnaught points is multiplied by increases by 5. Whenever a dreadnaught deals damage to a creature, he or she loses all dreadnaught points that he or she possesses.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a legendary dreadnaught can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Armored Ease*, Damage Reduction, Devastating Berserker*, Devastating Critical, Devastating Soulwielder*, Dire Charge, Dreadnaught’s Mount*, Dreadnaught’s Tenacity*, Dreadnaught’s Toughness*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Mounted Combat*, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Fast Healing, Godslayer*, Great Constitution, Great Strength, Immovable Object*, Infallible Warrior, Iron Warrior*, Legendary Rider, Mythic Equipment*, Overwhelming Critical, Penetrate Damage Reduction, Ruthless Assailant*, Sentient Array*, Shake it Off*, Threatening Presence*, To the Last*, Unstoppable Force*

New Feats
Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.
This effects of this feat do not stack with themselves.

Dreadnaught’s Toughness [Epic]
Your capacity for taking punishment is unmatched.
Prerequisites: Resist Harm 2, Con 25
Benefits: You gain additional hit points equal to your legendary dreadnaught level x 3.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Unstoppable Force [Epic]
You can smash your way through just about anything.
Prerequisites: Strength 25, Resist Harm 2
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can make a strength check to break an object with a +20 bonus. You can even destroy walls of force, prismatic walls, and similar magical barriers when using this feat (DC 10 + caster level and you add the +20 bonus to this roll as well) without subjecting yourself to the effects of such a barrier (if any). Alternately, you may make a single attack roll with a +20 bonus as a full-round action.

Immovable Object [Epic]
You are nearly impossible to move against your will.
Prerequisites: Constitution 25, Resist Harm 2
Benefits: As an immediate action, you may gain a +20 bonus to an opposed strength check made to avoid being grappled, bull rushed, tripped, or overrun or to a saving throw against an effect that would change your location.

Armored Ease [Epic]
You wear your armor as if you had been born in it.
Prerequisites: Medium Armor Proficiency, Dreadnaught’s Array.
Benefits: You ignore any speed penalty from armor you wear. Any armor check penalty your armor possesses is halved and your armor allows you to add half of your Dexterity bonus to your AC unless it already allows you to add more than that.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Mythic Equipment [Epic]
The mere sight of your array is enough to influence others.
Prerequisites: Dreadnaught’s array
Benefits: While at least one item from your Dreadnaught’s Array is visible on your person, you add the highest enhancement bonus among such visible items as a bonus to all bluff, diplomacy, gather information, and intimidate checks that you make. Non-epic sentient creatures are cowed by the presence of such power and are shaken so long as one such item remains visible.

Dreadnaught’s Tenacity [Epic]
You are difficult to ever truly vanquish.
Prerequisites: Resist Harm 3
Benefits: You are immune to death from massive damage and do not automatically fail saving throws on a roll of natural 1, though you may still fail if your result wasn’t high enough.

Infallible Warrior [Epic]
You will never fall before the attacks of weaker weapons and foes.
Prerequisites: Resist Harm 4
Benefits: Attacks made against you by targets with HD equal to or less than your legendary dreadnaught level using nonmagical equipment automatically misses you (no attack roll is made).

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

To the Last [Epic]
You will not fall until the battle is truly over.
Prerequisites: Unstoppable 4/encounter
Benefits: No matter how much you are damaged, you do not fall unconscious or die until the encounter ends or until you possess no conscious, mobile, and free-willed allies within 100 feet of yourself. Until this point, you can be healed as normal. Allies kept in extradimensional space do not count as being within range unless you are in the same extradimensional space.

Shake it Off [Epic]
You can escape from even the most dangerous of effects
Prerequisites: Unstoppable 2/encounter
Benefits: By spending a use of unstoppable, you can negate up to three nondamaging spells or effects that would target you before the end of the encounter. Other targets of the same spells and/or effects are still affected normally.

Dreadnaught’s Mount [Epic]
Any creature you ride upon is ready to see the worst of battlefields.
Prerequisites: Epic Mounted Combat, Unstoppable 1/encounter
Benefits: Any creature you use as a mount gains the immunities of the construct type.
Secondly, you may make an attack of opportunity against any creature who attacks your mount.
Lastly, you gain a second supply of usages of your unstoppable class feature per encounter to be used on mounts.

Iron Warrior [Epic]
You use your armor to block the worst of maladies on the battlefield
Prerequisites: Armored Ease
Benefits: You gain all immunities that constructs possess so long as you wear medium or heavy armor.

Ruthless Assailant [Epic]
Your attacks are as accurate as they are vicious.
Prerequisites: Relentless Force 2/round
Benefits: The first successful attack you make each round is treated as a critical hit.

Sentient Array [Epic]
Your dreadnaught’s array awakens to sentience and further might.
Prerequisites: Mythic Equipment, Base Attack Bonus +30
Benefits: Both pieces of your dreadnaught’s array become sentient, gaining your mental ability scores and alignment, blindsight within 120 feet, and the ability to speak with you telepathically. Each item in the array gains three spells of your choice of 3rd level or lower to use at will (Caster Level = Class Level + 20). Spells with a range of personal can't be selected in this way. The identities of these sentient items are set, transferring from one item in your dreadnaught’s array to the next as you replace items with more powerful equipment.

Devastating Berserker [Epic]
Your skill as a barbarian doesn’t diminish even as you train as a dreadnaught.
Prerequisites: Rage 5/day, Dreadnaught’s Array
Benefits: Your levels of legendary dreadnaught stack with your levels of barbarian to determine uses of rage per day. For every 5 levels of legendary dreadnaught you possess, the bonus to Strength and Constitution from rages increase by +2 and the bonus to Will saves increases by +1.

Relentless Force (Ex): So long as a dreadnaught continues killing and destroying, very little could ever hope to stop him or her. Starting at 4th level, whenever a dreadnaught successfully slays a creature who has dealt damage to him or her, the dreadnaught may immediately take another full round of actions after this action ends. This ability can be used once per round at 4th level and one additional time per round every 5 levels afterwards.

Unstoppable (Ex): A legendary dreadnaught is nearly impossible to stop in the heat of battle. Starting at 5th level, a legendary dreadnaught is nearly unstoppable on the battlefield. Whenever a legendary dreadnaught would be slain, a legendary dreadnaught immediately returns to life as if targeted by a true resurrection effect. To all outside appearances, however, the legendary dreadnaught never died in the first place. This ability can be used once per encounter at 5th level, plus one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
And with this, we get to the first of the dedicated martial classes. As the original class didn’t really do much of anything (DR, Hit Points, and 2 abilities with uses per day), this class was an effort to change that. Now we have a nigh-unstoppable melee warrior who wields powerful artifacts and who alters the very flow of the multiverse with his blade (epic spells).

I hope that the epic spellcasting mechanics listed above allow for a more martial feel to continue permeating this class even though it is capable of epic magic. Also, while I know that resist harm is less powerful than the original’s DR against low damage, you should find it more versatile and more effective against level-appropriate sources of damage (such as devastation vermin). While I know that some people enjoy having immunity to damage from average folk, this kind of benefit can still be gained from feats if required.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:19 PM

Perfect Wight Fix

A Perfect Wight is the true master of stealth and physical infiltration. Among the greatest of all thieves and dungeoneers, they have pushed their abilities beyond the realm of the extraordinary and are as one with the endless shadows of night. Most barriers placed before perfect wights, whether physical or magical, fail to halt their progress in the slightest. The greatest of perfect wights can pass into royal vaults and ancient crypts with the greatest of ease and can escape without leaving any trace beyond the valuables they have taken. When perfect wights become involved in a matter, nothing from artifacts of power to the treasuries of kingdoms can truly be considered safe.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Perfect Wight, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Skills: Hide 23 ranks, Move Silently 23 ranks.
Special: Sneak Attack +10d6 or Steal Spells (9th)

Class Skills: Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (any), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope

Skill Points at Each Level: 8 + Int modifier

Perfect Wight
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Shadow Form, Improved Legerdemain 1/encounter

2nd|
+2|Through the Shadows 30 ft.

3rd|
+3|Uncanny Avoidance 1/round

4th|
+4|Bonus Feat

5th|
+5|Trap in the Dark (1 creature)

6th|
+6|Improved Legerdemain 2/encounter

7th|
+7|Through the Shadows 60 ft.

8th|
+8|Uncanny Avoidance 2/round

9th|
+9|Bonus Feat

10th|
+10|Trap in the Dark (2 creatures)[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Perfect Wight.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a perfect wight can still develop and cast epic spells using the compel, conceal, contact, delude, dispel, reveal, slay, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A perfect wight may use his or her ranks in hide to determine epic spell slots per day and in place of spellcraft checks when casting epic spells. If the perfect wight doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Shadow Form (Su): A perfect wight is best known for their ability to become one with the shadows around them. As a standard action, a perfect wight can assume their shadow form. While in shadow form, a perfect wight is immune to critical hits and becomes incorporeal. As an incorporeal creature, the perfect wight can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magical weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. He or she is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, the perfect wight has a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source (except for force effects or attacks made with ghost touch weapons). An incorporeal perfect wight has no natural armor but has a deflection bonus equal to his or her Charisma modifier (always at least +1, even if his or her Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus). An incorporeal perfect wight gains a fly speed equal to his land speed with perfect maneuverability and can pass through solid objects at will, but not force effects. His or her attack ignores natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects work normally against it. An incorporeal perfect wight moves silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if he or she doesn’t wish to be. While incorporeal, the perfect wight has no Strength score, so his or her Dexterity modifier is applied when making both melee and ranged attacks. A perfect wight remains in their shadow form for one round per class level and can only enter their shadow form while in darkness or shadowy illumination, though they can enter bright light without penalty while in their shadow form.

Improved Legerdemain (Su): A perfect wight can perform the following class skills at a range of up to 30 feet: Disable Device, Listen, Open Lock, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spot, and Use Rope. If desired, the perfect wight can take 10 on the check. Any object manipulated during the skill check must weigh 100 pounds or less. Alternatively, the perfect wight can use improved legerdemain to make one melee sneak attack against any creature within 30 feet. The perfect wight executes the sneak attack (or death attack, if applicable) as if attacking from a flanking position. If the attack is successful, the victim is dealt the appropriate sneak attack damage despite the fact that the perfect wight and his or her weapon do not physically cross the intervening distance. A perfect wight can use improved legerdedemain once per encounter at 1st level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Through the Shadows (Su): Very little can block the path of a determined perfect wight. Starting at 2nd level, a perfect wight can teleport a total of 30 feet each round, split into any number of smaller jaunts no smaller than 5 feet each. This teleportation may be used at any time during your action as a free action, even between the attacks of a full attack. Each destination must be within 10 feet of shadowy illumination. At At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the distance that can be travelled in this way per round is doubled. The perfect wight must possess a line of sight with their intended destination. Lastly, after using this ability, all creatures are considered flat-footed against the perfect wight for 1 round.

Uncanny Avoidance (Su): Perfect wights are well known for their ability to escape harm when needed. Whenever a perfect wight makes a saving throw against an effect that would inflict partial effects on a successful saving throw, the perfect wight may choose to use this effect. If the perfect wight suffers no affect from the ability if he or she succeeds on the saving throw and suffers only partial effects even if he or she fails the saving throw. Alternately, a perfect wight can use this ability to grant him or herself a 50% miss chance against a single attack (checked separately from any miss chance gained due to incorporeality). This ability can be used once per round at 3rd level and one additional time per round every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 4th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a perfect wight can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Blinding Speed, Combat Archery, Dextrous Fortitude, Dextrous Will, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Dodge, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Stealth*, Epic Trapfinding, Hidden in Shadows*, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Sneak Attack, Legendary Climber, Legendary Thief*, Lingering Damage, Master of Ambush*, Prowling Magebreaker*, Prowling Scoundrel*, Self-Concealment, Shadow Self*, Share Shadows*, Shadowspace*, Slippery Wight*, Sneak Attack of Opportunity, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative, Supernatural Theft*, Uncanny Accuracy, Wight’s Mind*

New FeatsLegendary Thief [Epic]
You possess a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of valuables.
Prerequisites: Appraise 24 ranks, Sleight of Hand 24 ranks
Benefits: As a move or standard action, you may make a single appraise check against all valuables with which you possess a line of sight. If you did so as a standard action, you learn the effects of all magical items appraised in this way as if through an Identify spell.

Shadowspace [Epic]
You can store items within the shadows.
Prerequisites: Shadow Form
Benefits: You gain the ability to store unattended objects within the shadows, acting in many ways as a handy haversack. Unlike a handy haversack, however, there is no maximum volume or weight of objects that can be stored and sharp objects don’t risk rupturing the space. Only unattended objects or willing creatures can be stored in shadowspace and items or creatures larger than yourself can’t be stored or withdrawn from shadowspace.

Hidden in Shadows [Epic]
You are able to hide yourself in plain sight.
Prerequisites: Uncanny Avoidance 1/round
Benefits: You can make hide checks without cover or concealment and even while being actively observed so long as you are within 10 feet of some form of shadow (other than your own shadow) or darkness.

Supernatural Theft [Epic]
You can steal things that shouldn’t be possible.
Prerequisites: Shadow Form
Benefits: You are a master of stealing what shouldn't be possible. You gain all of the following abilities. Each one can be used as a standard action:
Steal Feature: You can steal two dimensional details from a touched object or creature (such as the stripes of a tiger or words from a page). Stealing from a creature in this way requires a sleight of hand check opposed by the target’s spot check as normal. While stolen in this way, these loose details weigh nothing and can’t be seen by anyone other than perfect wights. You can’t do anything with these details other than giving (or more frequently, selling) them to other perfect wights or putting them on another object or creature by touching it as a standard action.
Steal Voice: You can steal a creature’s voice by succeeding on a sleight of hand check opposed by the target’s spot check. While stolen in this way, the target is rendered mute and you may make use of this voice as you see fit. By touching a creature as a standard action, you can pass one or more voice onto them. You may even surrender your own voice in this way.
Steal Years: You can steal a year of a creature’s life by succeeding on a sleight of hand check opposed by the target’s spot check. Neither you nor the target seems to age or become younger as only maximum lifespans are affected in this way. As a standard action, you can touch a creature and give it any number of years you possess (including those that were yours to start with). Creatures immune to magical aging can’t have years stolen from them but can have years added to them.
Steal Identity: You can steal a sentient creature’s identity by succeeding on a sleight of hand check opposed by the target’s spot check. Unlike similar feats, you may only possess one identity at a given time and stealing the identity of one creature grants them your former identity. Regardless of evidence provided to the contrary, all creatures are recognized according to their identities rather than by their physical forms or abilities. In most cases, this costs the target its job, friends, and more.
Special: This feat fools divination effects that look for people (such as discern location or scrying) but not effects that detect things about you (such as detect evil).
Steal Life [Epic]: Within 1 round of killing a creature, you may formally steal its life force. When doing so, you heal hit points equal to twice the HD of that creature. Furthermore, the next time you would be slain through hit point damage, you instead stabilize at -1 hit points and the soul is expended. A creature can only store one additional life force at a time and you can pass on a life force along with it’s death-defying properties (but not the healing). To a touched creature as a full-round action.

Slippery Wight [Epic]
You slip past even those few wards that might slow you down.
Prerequisites: Through the Shadows 60 ft, Escape Artist 30 ranks
Benefits: You can walk through barriers of force as if they weren’t there and your through the shadows class feature isn’t affected by any non-epic spell or ability that blocks or prevents teleportation.

Shadow Self [Epic]
You can create an temporary copy of yourself formed from shadows.
Prerequisites: Improved Legerdemain 3/encounter
Benefits: You may spend a use of your improved legerdemain class feature as a free action to create a copy of yourself formed from shadowstuff in any open square within 30 feet. That copy acts in initiative directly after you, has nonmagical copies of all of your equipment, and all damage that it deals is treated as nonlethal damage. The copy lasts for 1 round.

Share Shadows[Epic]
You can bring others into the shadows along with you.
Prerequisites: Shadow Form, Through the Shadows 60 ft.
Benefits: Whenever you use your shadow form or through the shadows class feature, you can affect any number of adjacent allies as well. If sharing your through the shadows class feature, all allies you share this ability with must end their movement in a square adjacent to your own.

Wight’s Mind [Epic]
You are mystically protected from effects that would infiltrate your mind.
Prerequisites: Uncanny Avoidance 3/round
Benefits: You are affected at all times as if by a mind blank effect. This is a supernatural ability.

Prowling Magebreaker [Epic]
Prerequisites: Steal Spell (9 th), Shadow Form
Benefits: Your Spellthief levels and Perfect Wight levels stack for the purpose of your sneak attack class feature and your Perfect Wight level is added as a bonus to the caster level of all spells you cast that are granted by Spellthief levels, including those stolen and cast through your steal spell class feature.

Prowling Scoundrel [Epic]
Prerequisites: Sneak Attack +10d6, Shadow Form
Benefits: Your Rogue levels and Perfect Wight levels stack for the purpose of your sneak attack class feature.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Master of Ambush [Epic]
You can use the element of surprise to deliver an onslaught of horrific blows against your enemies.
Prerequisites: Sneak attack +8d6 or Sudden Strike +8d6 or Skirmish +4d6/+4
Benefits: When acting in a surprise round, you can take a full-round of actions against an enemy. Whenever you successfully hit an enemy with an attack roll during a surprise round, you may use the result of that attack roll (including modifiers) for any or all additional attacks you make against that creature within the next round.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Trap in the Dark (Su): Whenever a perfect wight of at least 5th level makes a successful sneak attack or sudden strike, the wight may choose to subtract any number of dice from the damage dealt to temporarily seal away the enemy in extradimensional darkness for an equal number of rounds. The target doesn’t possess a line of sight or line of effect with anyone or anything while trapped in this way and can only take purely mental actions. The perfect wight, meanwhile, may attack creatures trapped in this way as though the targets were within their reach and were flat-footed. At the end of this ability, the target (or what is left of it) emerges from the darkness into the nearest open square.

No creature can be affected in this way more than once per day and creatures more than three size categories larger than the perfect wight can’t be affected in this way. At 5th level, a perfect wight can only trap a single creature at a time in this way and capturing another creature ends the captivity of the prior target prematurely. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, however, an additional creature can be held in the darkness at a given time.

Notes and Explanation:
Designed as the second of the “rogue classes” along with the epic infiltrator and agent of death, this class was built to act as the ultimate thief and dungeon raider. Once again, small bits of the void incarnate class (or at least of its spirit) managed to slip in.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:20 PM

Abyssal Warlord

In the dark chaos of the abyss, power is all that really matters. Though many pretenders claim to rule the plane and some have even won the respect of demons not in their control, anyone with the power and depravity to do so can win over legions of demons. Abyssal Warlords are proof of this fact. Commanding large number of troops, the weakest of abyssal warlords work for the supposed rulers of the abyss and serve as their greatest weapons against devils, the forces of good, and one another. Stronger abyssal warlords, however, frequently care little for matters of planar politics beyond what affects them personally and do whatever they choose to regardless of jurisdiction. While very few actually settle down and attempt to rule the abyss, the armies that some warlords controls exceed the normal populations of entire layer.

Hit Die: d12

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an abyssal warlord , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any non-good and non-lawful
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Skills: Intimidate 23 ranks or Knowledge (the planes) 23 ranks
Special: Must have lived in the abyss for at least a month.

Class Skills: Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Survival, Swim
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Abyssal Warlord
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Dark Reputation, Demonic Warband x1

2nd|
+2|Canny Warlord (1 feat)

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Rallying Death Knell 1/encounter

5th|
+5|Incite Demonic Frenzy (2 creatures)

6th|
+6|Demonic Warband x2

7th|
+7|Canny Warlord (2 feats)

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Rallying Death Knell 2/encounter

10th|
+10|Incite Demonic Frenzy (4 creatures)[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Abyssal Warlord.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an abyssal warlord can still develop and cast epic spells using the animate dead, destroy, dispel, energy, fortify, and/or slay seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An abyssal warlord may use his or her base attack bonus in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills for the purpose of determining epic spell slots per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when making a spellcraft check to cast an epic spell. As a full-round action, the abyssal warlord can make a full attack and cast an epic spell. If the attack hits, the epic spell slot isn't expended. If the abyssal warlord doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Dark Reputation (Ex): Even among the infinitely fractured factions spread among infinite layers of chaos and misery, the name of an abyssal warlord stands out as a name to be respected and feared. The abyssal warlord gains a bonus to intimidate checks equal to his or her class level x 5. All chaotic evil outsiders with an Intelligence score of 5 or higher are shaken in the presence of the abyssal warlord and must make a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod) to perform any action that might attract the abyssal warlord’s ire. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Chaotic evil allies of an abyssal warlord, meanwhile, are heartened by their near proximity to such a warrior. Such allies start each encounter with temporary hit points equal to the warlord’s class level x 10, are immune to fear effects while they possess a line of sight with the warlord, and fight as if they possessed the diehard feat.

Demonic Warband (Su): An abyssal warlord would hardly earn his or her moniker without the small army of demons that follow him or her around. Once per hour, as a standard action, an abyssal warlord can call a demon with a demon with HD up to (20 + class level)/2 from the abyss. Alternately, an abyssal warlord can target a demon of up to the same HD within 30 feet and force it to make a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod). Creatures called or who fail their saving throws in this way are under the permanent sway of the abyssal warlord (as charm monster) (this is considered a piercing effect). At any given time, an abyssal warlord can possess demons in his or her warband whose total HD doesn’t exceed (20 + class level) x 2. If the abyssal warlord ever finds him or herself over this limit, demons must be freed to put him or her below the limit. Though a demon can only be called once per hour, existing demons can be pressed into the demonic warband as frequently as the abyssal warlord desires. A summoned creature pressed into the warband is freed when the summoning effect ends. The number of HD in demons that an abyssal warlord can keep in his or her warband is doubled at 6th level, tripled at 11th level, and so forth. Demon lords aren’t ever affected by this ability.

Canny Warlord (Su): Starting at 2nd level, an abyssal warlord learns to train him or herself and his or her warband in more martial pursuits. The abyssal warlord chooses one bonus fighter feat that he or she meets all prerequisites for. He or she gains the bonus of that feat, as do all demons in his or her demonic warband who also meet the prerequisites. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an additional feat can be chosen in this way. Any or all chosen feats can be switched after spending eight hours practicing new techniques with the warband.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an abyssal warlord can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Damage Reduction, Demonic Canny*, Demonic Onslaught*, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Entropic Aura*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Leadership, Epic Mounted Combat*, Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, Excite the Slaughterers*, Fast Healing, Fiendish Enlistment*, Fractured Ranks*, Godslayer*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Strength, Incite Rage, Legendary Rider, Legendary Commander, Loumara Infiltration*, Obyrinth’s Presence*, Overwhelming Critical, Rapid Frenzy*, Savage Blitz*, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative, Threatening Presence*, Unbarred Aggression*, Unquestionable Loyalty*, Vile Entity*

New FeatsSavage Blitz [Epic]
You and your allies can barely contain yourselves when combat starts
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus + 20, Superior Initiative
Benefits: Whenever you roll initiative, all allies who rolled a lower initiative score may take their actions immediately after yours in the order of your choice (decided after initiative is rolled).

Demonic Onslaught [Epic]
The death of your enemies excites you just as much as the death of your allies.
Prerequisites: Rallying Death Knell 1/encounter
Benefits: You may use rallying death knell when an opponent dies.

Unbarred Aggression [Epic]
Others have difficulty stopping you and your allies from attacking.
Prerequisites: Incite Demonic Frenzy (6 creatures)
Benefits: While in combat, both you and your allies ignore any effects that would impede their movement (as freedom of movement) and gain immunity to all mind-affecting effects that would prevent those creatures from attacking.

Rapid Frenzy [Epic]
You and your warband can dispatch large number of foes in only a short amount of time.
Prerequisites: Incite Demonic Frenzy (8 creatures)
Benefits: Whenever you make at least one successful attack with an attack or full attack, any number of allies you choose can instantly move up to their speed and make an attack with a -4 penalty to the attack roll. If at least half of the creatures you have selected succeed on their attack roll, you may move up to your speed and make another attack with a -4 penalty to your attack roll. This pattern repeats with the penalties stacking until either you or over half of the allies you select miss. Creatures in a demonic frenzy halve the penalties to attack rolls.

Fractured Ranks [Epic]
You force your enemies to adapt to the chaotic arrangement of troops in your warband.
Prerequisites: Canny Warlord (1feat)
Benefits: Each enemy you fight is considered flat-footed against the first attack of the encounter made against it by each creature in your demonic warband. In place of making an attack of opportunity, a creature in your demonic warband can switch places with a willing adjacent creature or move up to 10 feet without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Demonic Canny [Epic]
You can provide a bit more than raw combat training for your troops
Prerequisites: Canny Warlord (1 feat), Evil and/or Chaotic
Benefits: You may select abyssal heritor feats (if chaotic) and/or vile feats (if evil) using your canny warlord ability in place of or in addition to bonus fighter feats.

Fiendish Enlistment [Epic]
You may include more than just the Tanar’ri in your warband
Prerequisites: Demonic Warband x1
Benefits: You may forcefully enlist fiendish creatures and half-fiend creatures into your demonic warband along with any form of non-demonic chaotic evil outsider.

Entropic Aura [Epic]
The very same energies that fuel a demonic frenzy now leak from their vessel to cause additional harm.
Prerequisites: Incite Demonic Frenzy (4 creatures).
Benefits: Whenever a creature in your demonic warband takes damage from your incite demonic frenzy class feature, all adjacent good and/or lawful creatures take an equal amount of damage and become fatigued. A successful fortitude save (DC 20 + abyssal warlord level + Con mod) halves the damage taken in this way and negates the fatigue.

Obyrinth’s Presence [Epic]
Your very presence inspires slight madness in others
Prerequisites: Dark Reputation, Fiendish Enlistment
Benefits: All creatures other than chaotic evil outsiders that see you must succeed on a will save (DC 20 + abyssal warlord level + Cha mod) or develop the permanent belief that you are always destined to win and that true success at even the smallest of tasks can only occur with your blessing. Allies affected by this madness gain a +4 morale bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks while within sight of you. Enemies and allies out of sight with you instead take a -4 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. Once a creature has succeeded on their saving throw against this madness, they never need to do so against you again. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Loumara Infiltration [Epic]
Inspired by the works of loumara, you are one of the few abyssal warlords who has mastered subtlety.
Prerequisites: Dark Reputation, Fiendish Enlistment
Benefits: All demons with at least 4 HD and 13 Charisma in your abyssal warband gain the demonic possession ability (Fiendish Codex I, page 21-26). The demons can possess creatures as allies, controllers, enemies, mutterers, and/or riders. They may possess objects as controllers, corrupters, enhancers, and/or watchers.

Unquestioned Loyalty [Epic]
Those in your demonic warband never second-guess your decisions.
Prerequisites: Demonic Warband x 3
Benefits: Creatures in your demonic warband are fanatic towards you.

Excite the Slaughterers [Epic]
The creatures in your warband live to kill, going berserk around death.
Prerequisites: Demonic Onslaught
Benefits: Whenever you or a creature in your demonic warband kills a creature and you use your rallying death knell ability, all creatures in your warband are affects as if by a haste spell for 1 round per HD of the slain creature.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Vile Entity [Epic, Vile]
Your very essence is filled with dark power that you express with every spell.
Prerequisites: Five or more vile feats
Benefits: All damage that you deal with your spells or attacks is treated as vile damage.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Rallying Death Knell (Su): Starting at 4th level, an abyssal warlord can use the death of a member of his or her warband as an opportunity to rally the rest of the warband into fight even harder. The abyssal warlord and all members of the warband who witness the creature being slain are healed 50 hit points and gain a +4 bonus to Strength. The Strength bonus stacks with itself and lasts for 10 minutes. This ability can be used once per encounter at 4th level and one additional time per encounter at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Incite Demonic Frenzy (Ex): Starting at 5th level, an abyssal warlord can infuse him or herself and/or a number of creatures within his or her demonic warband with power, rage, and recklessness gathered from those that the warlord has slain. An affected creature gains a +20 bonus to Strength, a -10 penalty to AC, and can make an attack of opportunity against any creature that attacks it. Whenever the creature makes an attack, however, it takes 5d8 damage (this damage ignores damage reduction and regeneration). The abyssal warlord can increase the Strength bonus as he or she sees fit when inspiring the frenzy but every additional +4 bonus to Strength (round up) immediately deals 1d8 damage to the target and deals an additional 1d8 damage each time it attacks. The target is restricted in its actions as if in a barbarian’s rage. This demonic frenzy lasts until a target can detect no more enemies or until the abyssal warlord invests this energy in new targets. When a creature leaves this frenzy, it is exhausted. As a move action, the abyssal warlord can send up to two creatures into this frenzy. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an abyssal warlord can affect an additional two creatures with this ability at a time.

Notes and Explanation: This class, though not a spellcaster, ended up surprisingly well-rounded (at least in my opinion). In essence, this is a martial leader who can summon his or her minions over time and who can hold his (or her) own in combat. You end up with a smaller retinue of minions than the dread emperor but this has its own upsides as well. Even with all of that said, however, this is still one of the more passive classes and thus isn’t my personal favorite.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:21 PM

Agent of Death

Almost every adventurer, over the course of their journeys, is forced to kill other living things. Whether predators attacking their camp, armies of orcs in the midst of an uprising, or alien entities bent on world conquest, there are plenty of enemies out there that an adventurer might slay. For all of the death involved in adventuring, however, normal adventurers come nowhere near agents of death. Agents of death are the greatest of all specialized assassins, about as likely to be serving a deity of death as to be selling their art to the highest bidder. Though not outwardly magical, the bloodlust that fills each agent of death heightens their skills beyond their normal limits and allows them to store away the souls of those that they slay. Though many agents of death are quite intelligent and a few are even charismatic, only fools allow themselves to forget that each agent of death is always waiting for another reason to kill. Masters of physical and psychological warfare, few last longer than a few seconds in an ambush planned by an agent of death.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Agent of Death , a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Alignment: Any Nongood
Skills: Hide 23 ranks, Move Silently 23 ranks
Class Features: Sneak Attack +7d6 or Sudden Strike +7d6
Special: Must be responsible for the deaths of no fewer than 1,000 sentient creatures.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Disguise, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Local), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Agent of Death
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Crippling Strike 2/attack, Slay

2nd|
+2|Cat and Mouse 1/encounter

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Canny Slaughter 1/round

5th|
+5|True Death (10)

6th|
+6|Crippling Strike 4/attack

7th|
+7|Cat and Mouse 2/encounter

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level

9th|
+9|Canny Slaughter 2/round

10th|
+10|True Death (100) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Agent of Death.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an agent of death can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, conceal, destroy, dispel, slay, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An agent of death may use his or her base attack bonus in place of ranks in knowledge skills to gain epic spell slots and in place of ranks in spellcraft when making the spellcraft check to cast such a spell. An agent of death can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot is not expended. If the agent of death doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Slay (Ex): By watching a target and learning how it moves, an agent of death can ensure a deadly assault. As a full-round action, an agent of death can observe any enemy he or she possesses a line of sight with. The next attack that the agent of death makes against that creature within the next three rounds treats the opponent as flat-footed and automatically scores a critical hit if it hits. If the target was unaware of the agent of death’s presence prior to the attack, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Class level + Int modifier) or either die instantly or become paralyzed for 1d6 hours at the agent of death’s option. Creatures immune to critical hits are also immune to this death and paralysis.

Furthermore, an agent of death continues training in more traditional manners of murder. At each even class level, an agent of death increases either his or her sneak attack damage or sudden strike damage by +1d6. This is treated as normal dice of sneak attack or sudden strike for all purposes.

Crippling Strike (Ex): Agents of death are masters of disabling their foes, stopping them from fighting back, escaping, or acquiring help. Whenever an agent of death damages a creature with a a weapon (natural or manufactured), he or she may apply two of the following benefits (or one if the target is immune to critical hits). Each of the following benefits can be chosen multiple times and their effects stack with themselves:

The target possesses a -10 foot penalty to its speed for all modes of movement it possesses for one round, down to a minimum of 5 feet (multiple uses increase the penalty).
The target takes one point of ability damage to any one ability ability score other than Constitution.
The target is deafened for one round (multiple uses increase the duration)
The target is blinded for one round (multiple uses increase this duration)
The target is unable to talk or make verbal noises for 1 round (multiple uses increase the duration)
The target becomes unable to wield manufactured weaponry or produce somatic components for spells for 1 round (multiple uses increase the duration)

At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the agent of death may choose an additional two benefits (or one if the target is immune to critical hits) each time.

Cat and Mouse (Ex): With a single well-placed strike, an agent of death can awaken a deep primal fear within that creature or in witnesses, rendering those creatures incapable of putting up a decent fight. Starting at 2nd level, whenever an agent of death makes a successful attack against a creature, that creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Int modifier) unless it is mindless or become panicked for one minute.This is a piercing mind-affecting fear effect. Alternately, when an agent of death delivers a killing blow to a creature, he or she may have all non-mindless creatures with a line of sight to the target make these saving throws, though this ability doesn’t ignore immunities when used in this way. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an Agent of Death can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Agent’s Mark*, Blinding Speed, Combat Archery, Dextrous Fortitude, Dextrous Will, Create Opening*, Consult the Dead*, Don’t Fight the Reaper*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Dodge, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Stealth*, Eternal Killer*, Godslayer*, Hide the Body*, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Create Opening*, Improved Sneak Attack, Lingering Damage, Madden With Feat*, Mutilation*, Slaughterer*, Slay with Fear*, Sneak Attack of Opportunity, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative, Uncanny Accuracy, Without a Trace*

New FeatsDon’t Fight the Reaper [Epic]
Creatures who have seen you kill lose all will to fight you
Prerequisites: Cat and Mouse 1/encounter
Benefits: Any creature who has witnessed you slay at least one creature within an encounter loses all morale bonuses to attack rolls, damage rolls, and/or saving throws against you until the end of the encounter. Furthermore, that creature suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and damage rolls against you for each sentient creature that it has watched you kill within the encounter.

Slaughterer [Epic]
You are rarely satisfied with only one kill.
Prerequisites: Slay, Improved Uncanny Dodge
Benefits: When you use your slay class feature, you watch all creatures that you possess a line of sight with instead of just choosing one. Your first successful attack against each such creature within three rounds fo using your slay feature all benefit from your slay class feature.

Agent’s Mark [Epic]
Your most powerful strikes permanently cripple others.
Prerequisites: Crippling Strike 2/attack
Benefits: Whenever you score a critical hit (such as when making a coup de grace), one of of the crippling strike abilities you possess and select (of your choice) becomes permanent. Ability damage becomes ability drain and other options don’t end until the target is treated with a regenerate effect or more powerful regenerative magic. Creatures with regeneration are unaffected by this class feature unless the attack deals lethal damage.

Hide the Body [Epic]
When you claim a creature’s soul, you can destroy their body as well.
Prerequisites: True Death (10)
Benefits: Whenever you use your true death class feature, you may choose to destroy the body of a creature along with all nonmagical equipment on their person. Such items and bodies are reduced to a few traces of dust noticeable only in the cleanest of areas.

Madden With Fear [Epic]
Creatures you fill with fear are incapable of thinking coherently.
Prerequisites: Cat and Mouse 2/encounter
Benefits: Creatures who fail their saving throw against your cat and mouse class feature are treated as flat-footed against all attack and are incapable of spellcasting or performing any other action requiring focus, even if attempted in the name of escape. Both of these penalties last for as long as the target is panicking.

Create Opening [Epic]
You create openings for your allies to attack.
Prerequisites: Canny Slaughter 1/round
Benefits: Whenever you successfully harm a creature, that creature provokes attacks of opportunity.

Improved Create Opening [Epic]
When you slay a creature, you distract your enemies enough for your allies to act.
Prerequisites: Create Opening, Canny Slaughter 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you deliver the killing blow to a creature, all non-mindless creatures possessing a line of sight with the slain creature provoke attacks of opportunity.

Slay with Fear [Epic]
Others who witness your horrid deeds may just die where they stand out of fright.
Prerequisites: Cat and Mouse 3/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use your cat and mouse ability, you may spend an additional use before saving throws are rolled. If you do so, creatures who fail their saving throw are forced to roll a Fortitude save agains the same DC. Those who succeed on their Fortitude save take 3d6 damage but are otherwise affected normally by your cast and mouse class feature. Those who fail, however, instantly perish as their hearts stop. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Mutilation [Ambush, Epic]
You can sacrifice extra damage to hinder a foe.
Prerequisites: Crippling Strike 6/attack, Sneak Attack +10d6 or Sudden Strike +10d6
Benefits: Whenever you would deal sneak attack or sudden strike damage, you may subtract any number of dice of damage. For every 2d6 points of damage sacrificed, you may choose an additional benefit with your crippling strike class feature.

Quick Slaughter [Epic]
You can end battles before they have even started
Prerequisites: Canny Slaughter 3/round, Crippling Strike 8/attack
Benefits: During a surprise round, you and your allies gain a +10 foot bonus to speed, don’t provoke attacks of opportunity for your movement, and may take full rounds of action even if you were the ones being surprised. Furthermore, any enemy you or an ally damage during a surprise round automatically rolls a 1 for its initiative (modified as normal). Finally, any time that an ally damages a creature with a weapon (whether natural or manufactures) in a surprise round, that ally may apply a single ability from your crippling strike class feature to the target. These benefits are only extended to allies within 100 feet of yourself.

Without a Trace [Epic]
When you seal away a creature’s soul, others forget all about that creature
Prerequisites: True Death (10,000)
Benefits: Whenever you use your true death class feature, all other creatures familiar with the target must make a Will save (DC 20 + agent of death level + Int modifier) or forget all about the target. Close friends, family, lovers, and similar close acquaintances gain a +4 bonus on this roll. This ability does not remove physical traces or written records of the target’s existence. If and when a target’s soul is freed, this ability ends in relation to that soul.

Consult the Dead [Epic]
You can squeeze some info out of the souls you’ve trapped
Prerequisites: True Death (100)
Benefits: You may use speak with dead once on each soul that you have trapped with your true death class feature. The save DC equals 20 + agent of death level + Ind modifier and the caster level equals your agent of death level + 20.

Eternal Killer [Epic]
You are sustained by the death you bring to others.
Prerequisites: Slay
Benefits: Whenever you deliver the killing blow to a creature, you may reduce your current age by up to one week. You may not lower your age beyond the minimum adult age for your race in this way.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Canny Slaughter (Ex): Making the most of their environments and of their their allies, agents of death can rain down death in ways few others could. Starting at 4th level, an agent of death can call upon superior positioning and combat prowess to deal damage equal to your sneak attack or sudden strike damage against a creature normally immune to such abilities if you would otherwise deal such damage (this does not let you apply the damage twice if you ignore such immunities). Alternately, the agent of death can lend an ally within 60 feet the benefits of his or her sneak attack or sudden strike class feature for the duration of one attack made against a creature the agent of death had attacked within the past three rounds.This ability can be used once per round at 4th level and one additional time per level every 5 levels afterwards.

True Death (Su): Starting at 5th level, an agent of death reaches the supernatural peak of his or her abilities, gaining a power that separates him or her from all other would-be assassins. Whenever an agent of death kills a creature while within 100 feet of it, he or she may trap away that creature’s soul. While a creature’s soul is trapped in this way, it can’t be returned back to life through any means. Even epic spells, artifacts, and the magic of deities fails when used to bring about this result. This ability lasts until the agent of death dies or until he or she frees a soul to make room for a new one. When in an antimagic field or similar effect, the agent of death can’t capture new souls but previous souls remain trapped. An agent of death can capture up to 10 souls at a time at 5th level and this number is multiplied by x 10 every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
With this class, we finish off the trifecta of rogue-based classes. That didn’t take too long at all, did it?

While the epic infiltrator is more of a social infiltration rogue (spy/charlatan/etc) and the perfect wight is a physical infiltration (thief/dungeoneer/etc), this class is for those rogues out there who just want to kill as quickly and effectively as roguishly possibly.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:23 PM

Arbiter of Balance

Conflict is frequently seem as one of the great shaping forces of the multiverse. Conflicts create and destroy kingdoms and shape the world even as they produce the greatest of innovation sand the most famous of heroes and villains of the world. For all that we think of conflicts, however, it is hard to distance oneself away from them long enough to see their impact on the greater multiverse. In the eyes of a few wise souls, what matters isn’t the face of the victor but whether balance itself is maintained. Tipping the cosmic balance of existence too far in any direction, even in favor of goodness, can hold dire consequences for the delicat balance of the multiverse itself. To maintain conflicts that can’t be allowed to end and shift the balance of others, arbiters of balance are chosen to represent cosmic balance.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an arbiter of balance, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any neutral
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Diplomacy 23 ranks

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (The Planes), Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int Modifier

Enforcer of Balance
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Even the Odds (1), Voice of Balance|--

2nd|
+2|Centered Existence 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Neutral Ground I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Enforce Balance 1/recharge|--

6th|
+6|Even the Odds (10)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Centered Existence 2/encounter|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Neutral Ground II|--

10th|
+10|Enforce Balance 2/recharge|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the arbiter of balance.

Epic Spellcasting:[/b Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an arbiter of balance can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. The arbiter of balance may use his or her ranks in Diplomacy in place of his or her ranks in Knowledge skills to determine epic spell slots per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when attempting to cast an epic spell. If the arbiter of balance doesn’t cast spells, he or she may use his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even arbiter of balance level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an arbiter of balance, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Voice of Balance (Su): An arbiter of balance stands on a plateau far above those of raging passions, tasked with keeping these unsteady creatures in balance with one another. All other creatures in existence are capable no only of understanding what an arbiter of balance says but of comprehending it. As a standard action, an arbiter of balance can make a demand of a creature within 100 feet who can hear the arbiter of balance so long as this demand it used to help even an imbalance of some sort (such as ordering an ambushing demon to let you prepare for a fight or making a rich man donate to the poor). If the target fails his or her Will save (DC 20 + class level + Wis modifier), it obeys the order much as a penetrating suggestion effect. Orders to hurt or kill oneself or one’s allies are ignored and the moment this order is used to tip the balance in a new direction (DM’s discretion), the target is freed. The arbiter of balance may not use this ability to help reverse an imbalance that he or she helped to create. No creature can be affected by this class feature more than once per day. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Even The Odds (Su): An arbiter of balance can enforce some semblance of balance in an otherwise unfair battle. If those on the arbiter’s side of an encounter are fewer in number than his or her enemies, the arbiter may target an enemy with a maze effect (Caster level 20). The Intelligence DC required to leave equals 20 + 1/2 the arbiter’s class level and this ability has a range of medium. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the maximum number of targets this ability can affect is multiplied by 10, although it cannot be used to make the arbiter’s side of an encounter outnumber the opposite side when used. The arbiter cannot target more powerful creatures until he or she has targeted all creatures with fewer HD and at last half as many HD as the arbiter of balance within range.

Centered Existence (Su): Starting at 2nd level, an arbiter of balance is sufficiently centered that it is hard to change them against their will. Once per encounter, at the end of a round, an arbiter of balance may return yourself to the condition he or she was in at the start of that round. This ability doesn’t recover uses of items or abilities the arbiter of balance had used and doesn’t set back the clock on durations but otherwise removes all new conditions and forms of damage the arbiter of balance had suffered that round. This ability can’t be used if the arbiter of balance had been slain. The arbiter of balance may use this ability an additional time per encounter at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an arbiter of balance can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Balance the Masses*, Center Allies*, Disciple of Pain*, Dismiss Incarnates*, Epic Prowess, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Equalize Battlefield*, Extended Life Span, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Impartial Observer*, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Dismiss Incarnates*, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Oppose Conviction*, Outland Sentry*, Preserve Status Quo*, Protect Bystanders *, Servant of Sigil*, Spell Stowaway, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Inititative, Take a Side*, Truly Centered*, Unaligned*, View From Afar*

New Feats[b]Oppose Conviction [Epic]
You are better prepared to fight those who would jeapordize the cosmic balance for their beliefs.
Prerequisites: Even the Odds (1)
Benefits: Any weapon you wield gains the Chaotic Power, Holy Power, Lawful Power, and Unholy Power abilities. You ignore all negative levels that this would otherwise give you.

Impartial Observer [Epic]
Until you formally enter a battle, the will of the multiverse keeps you safe.
Prerequisites: Centered Existance 2/encounter
Benefits: Until you have made an aggressive action in an encounter, creatures must make a Will save (DC 20 + Arbiter of Balance level + Wis modifier) each time they with to take an aggressive action towards you or be unable to follow through with the attempt, wasting the action. This is not a mind-affecting effect.

Center Allies [Epic]
You can help center allies to let them escape harm.
Prerequisites: Centered Existence 1/encounter
Benefits: You may you’re your centered existence class feature on others. For each axis in which the ally is not neutral, that ally gains one negative level that lasts until the end of the encounter. If this negative level would slay the ally, this ability can’t be used to target him or her.

View From Afar [Epic]
You can approach most issues with an impartial view, seeing the best way to maintain balance.
Prerequisites: Voice of Balance
Benefits: You may spend 10 minutes in meditation to imitate the effects of a commune spell (Caster Level 20 + Arbiter of Balance level). You gain a +5 bonus on d20 rolls made to end imbalances you have not created using this knowledge. If you use information gleaned from this feat to create an imbalance, you lose the benefit of this feat and gain 4 negative levels for 24 hours.

Dismiss Incarnates [Epic]
When you remove outsiders from a conflict, they don’t re-enter the conflict.
Prerequisites: Even the Odds (10)
Benefits: If a creature targeted by your even the odds class feature possesses the good, evil, lawful, and/or chaotic subtypes, they exit this maze to a random destination on their homeplane rather than rejoining the fight

Improved Dismiss Incarnates [Epic]
When you remove outsiders from a conflict, they can’t return even if they want to.
Prerequisites: Even the Odds (100)
Benefits: When creatures with the good, evil, lawful, and/or chaotic subtypes leave your even the field class feature, they are affected by a dimensional anchor effect that lasts for 1 hour.

Protect Bystanders [Epic]
You can help protect those who are unrelated with a conflict.
Prerequisites: Neutral Ground I
Benefits: Within a range equal to that of your neutral ground class feature x 100, unarmed creatures with equal or fewer HD than your Wisdom modifier are treated as being within the area of your neutral ground class feature. This benefit is retracted from a creature the moment that it takes an offensive action.This effect only functions while the aura from neutral ground is active.

Preserve Status Quo [Epic]
You can prevent any side of a conflict from reaching decisive victory.
Prerequisites: Centered Existence 4/encounter
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may start or stop maintaining the status quo. While maintaining the status quo, all creatures with which you possess a line of sight are affected by your balanced existence class feature at the end of each round. If you are slain, you automatically stop maintaining the status quo. You must spend one use of Centered Existence each round that you maintain the status quo.

Truly Centered [Epic]
Even death can not sway you from your duties.
Prerequisites: Centered Existence 3/encounter
Benefits: Your centered existence class feature can return you from death if desired. You suffer no loss of levels, prepared spells, or Constitution.

Take a Side [Epic]
For the sake of maintaining neutrality, an arbiter of balance if sometimes forced to pick sides of a battle.
Prerequisites: Neutral Ground II
Benefits: As a swift action, you may select any number of creatures within the range of your neutral ground class feature. These creatures are treated as not being within the area of your neutral ground class feature. You may end this exclusion as another swift action

Equalize Battlefield [Epic]
Even if you can’t get rid of a large enemy force, you can supplement the other side to handle the matter.
Prerequisites: Even the Odds (10,000)
Benefits: After using your even the odds class feature, if one side of a conflict still outnumber the other, you may create a number of creatures formed of force up to the number of creatures banished. Each creature formed in this way acts as a simulacrum of a chosen creature from the less numerous side of the conflict of your choice (you need not make all simulacrums of the same creature). These simulacrums last until the end of the encounter.

Unaligned [Epic]
You have broken free from the metaphysical framework of ethics and morals in the multiverse.
Prerequisites: True Neutral
Benefits: Your alignment can’t be detected by any means. You gain immunity to any or all effects that function based on your alignment. You meet prerequisites as though true neutral. When you die, your soul simply vanishes, though you can still be revived from the dead.
Special: Though your character is free to believe to the contrary, thiis feat does not free you from ethical and moral matters. While it frees you from the cosmic concept of alignment, you still make choices for yourself and can likely still be labeled as being of a particular alignment by your actions.

Balance the Masses [Epic]
You can make orders from vast numbers of people for the sake of maintaining balance.
Prerequisites: Voice of Balance
Benefit: When you use your voice of balance class feature to give a command, you may give that command to up to 10 creatures/arbiter of balance level you possess. Each one receives the same command and makes a separate save to resist.

Outland Sentry [Epic]
Energy from the outlands flows through you, allowing you to suppress magical combat around you.
Prerequisites: Neutral Ground I, Must have been to the Outlands
Benefits: As a swift action, you may choose to neutralize all magic within the area of your neutral ground class feature as if it were an antimagic field. You may end this effect as another swift action.

Servant of Sigil [Epic]
Even if you’ve never been there, you possess a unique link with sigil.
Prerequisites: Neutral Ground II, Outland Sentry, Must have visited Sigil
Benefits: Within the range of your neutral ground class feature, you may activate or deactivate any planar connection as a standard action. Furthermore, outsiders and deities may not enter the area of your neutral ground class feature while it is active unless you force this barrier agains them, though they may freely send effects or minions into the area. If such a creature is within range when your neutral ground class feature is activated, they may freely leave the area but cannot re-enter afterwards.

Disciple of Pain [Epic]
Though you’ve never so much as spoken with her, you have been chosen by the enigmatic Lady of Pain.
Prerequisites: Neutral Ground III, Outland Sentry, Sentry of Sigil, Must have seen Lady of Pain.
Benefits: Whenever you use your even the odds class feature, you may target outsiders regardless of what their HD is relative to those around them. Furthermore, if such a creature fails ten consecutive Intelligence rolls to escape from the maze, they are forever trapped as imprisonment.

Neutral Ground (Su): Starting at 4th level, when necessary, an arbiter of balance can create an area of neutral ground, making combat a risky and tiring option for all involved. This ability is an aura extending out to 50 feet that the arbiter can activate or deactivate as a swift action. Attacks made against targets in this area take a -5 penalty, saving throws made in the area gain a +5 bonus, and half of any damage dealt to a creature within this aura (regardless of how this damage is dealt) is redirected to whoever dealt that damage (if any creature could claim responsibility) as untyped damage that ignores regeneration. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the size of the attack bonus and saving throw penalty both increase by 5 and the range of the aura increases by 50 feet. An arbiter of balance may suppress or reactivate this ability as a swift action.

Enforce Balance: For the sake of maintaining cosmic balance, an arbiter of at least 5th level can call upon even the strongest of magics. In effect, this allows an arbiter of balance to cast an epic spell that they have not researched without needing the epic spellcasting feat or even requiring a spellcraft check. The spell cast, however, can’t use mitigating factors or possess a spellcraft DC over his or her class level x 5 and must be used to help equalize an imbalance of some manner that he or she did not help to create. After using this ability, an arbiter of balance can’t use it again until he or she spends 24 hours in self-reflection. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the arbiter can use this ability one additional time between these periods.

Notes and Explanation:
This was a weird class to make, let me tell you. After creating classes dedicated to good, evil, law, and chaos, it seemed inevitable that I’d create one for neutrality. Even so, neutrality is one of the hardest things to maintain at epic levels. When you wield the power to level worlds, almost any proactive action you take is going to shift the balance one way or the other. Unless you favor the save-a-puppy-kill-a-kitty approach to neutrality or act entirely reactively to correct imbalances others create, playing a true neutral arbiter of balance is ironically almost impossible. That’s the reason why this class will allow any neutral alignment. A neutral good arbiter of balance is obsessed with preserving balance between chaos and law but would be more than willing to even out demonslaying with some devilslaying.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:26 PM

Artisan of Beauty

Masters of the inner workings of emotion, artisans of beauty use their audiences as blank canvases for their performances. Able to drastically alter both basic and more complicated emotions with a few words or notes, few could hope to match the beauty of a artisan’s performance. The greatest of artisans have been known to inspire entire armies, talk tyrants down from the throne, or to sponsor younger adventurers with their powers, helping to make them a true hero. The envy of bards across the world, artisans of beauty are inevitably captured in epic legends of their own.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Artisan of Beauty, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Skills: Perform (any) 24 ranks
Spells: Must be able to spontaneously cast arcane spells of at least 4th level
Class Features: Bardic Music

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (local), Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Tumble, Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Artisan of Beauty
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Master Performer, Weave Emotions (1 target)|--

2nd|
+1|Live the Legend 1/encounter|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Weave Feelings (1 target)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Inspire Change (1 target)|--

6th|
+3|Weave Emotions (2 targets)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Live the Legend 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Weave Feelings (2 targets)|--

10th|
+5|Inspire Change (10 targets)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Artisan of Beauty.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a artisan of beauty can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, banish, compel, delude, fortify, heal, life, and/or slay seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Master Performer (Su): A Artisan of Beauty is a true master of performance, gaining a bonus to perform checks equal to his or her class level x 5. The Artisan of Beauty multiplies his or her daily uses of bardic music and similar abilities as well as the range of such abilities and the number of targets that can be chosen (if applicable) by his or her class level + 1. Furthermore, such abilities can be used and maintained as swift actions if they would otherwise take longer. Finally, while using such abilities or using the perform skill, a Artisan of Beauty adds his or her Charisma bonus as a bonus to his or her AC and saving throws.

Weave Emotions (Su): A Artisan of Beauty can inspire the highest of emotions with his or her performances. While using a perform skill or using bardic music (or a similar ability), a Artisan of Beauty may choose a single target within range as a free action once per round. That creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or suffer one of the following effects of the artisan’s choice:

Joy: The target gains a +10 morale bonus to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. This effect cancels out sadness.
Trust: The target has its attitude towards any number of creatures the artisan of beauty selects moved two steps towards helpful. This effect cancels out disgust
Fear: The target becomes fearful towards the entire world, becoming panicked by all creatures, whether friend or foe. This effect cancels out anger.
Surprise: The target takes a -10 penalty to initiative rolls and to its AC and is considered flat-footed. This effect cancels out anticipation.
Sadness: The target takes a -10 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. This effect cancels out joy.
Disgust: The target has its attitude towards any number of creatures the artisan of beauty selects move two steps towards hostile. This effect cancels out trust.
Anger: The target becomes furious and lashes out towards the entire world, taking no action other than to harm the nearest creature each round to the best of its ability, whether friend or foe. This effect cancels out fear.
Anticipation The target gains a +10 bonus to initiative rolls and to AC and is never denied its Dexterity bonus to its AC so long as it is mobile and conscious. This effect cancels out surprise.

This effect last for as long as the performance continues or until another free action is spent to choose a new target (or to afflict the same target with a new effect, allowing a new saving throw). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can target an additional creature at a time. Alternately, a single creature can be targeted multiple times, given different emotions each time. When spending a free action to change targets, the artisan can choose to leave any number of ongoing effects as they are. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Live the Legend (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a artisan of beauty can evoke timeless moments of legendary triumph, allowing others to succeed against all odds. Once per encounter, a artisan of beauty can declare that the next round be spent living the legend as a free action. While living the legend, the artisan of beauty and all of his or her allies are treated as rolling natural 20s on all attack rolls while all enemies are treated as rolling natural 1s on attack rolls. Furthermore, all allies below half of their maximum hit points double all bonuses they would gain to dice rolls they make while enemies over half of their maximum hit points halve all bonuses they would gain to dice rolls they make. This ability lasts until the end of the artisan’s next action. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the artisan of beauty can use this ability an additional time per encounter.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even artisan of beauty level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a artisan of beauty, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a artisan of beauty can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Blended Symphony*, Castings of Legend*, Conflicts of Legend*, Deafening Song, Epic Leadership, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Great Charisma, Heroes’ Eulogy*, Hindering Song, Improved Spell Capacity, Inspire Excellence, Inspire Resilience*, Lasting Inspiration, Legendary Acclaim*, Legendary Commander, Legendary Diplomat*, Mastered Emotions*, Music of the Gods, Polygot, Ranged Inspiration, Rapid Inspiration, Reach the Unhearing*, Reactive Countersong, Spell Knowledge, Tapestry of Emotions*, Teller of Tales*, Tug at Heartstrings*, Unstoppable Voice*, Weave Spell Effect*

New FeatsWeave Spell Effect [Epic]
You can weave your magic seamlessly into your music.
Prerequisites: Master Performer, Perform (any) 45 ranks
Benefits: Whenever you use bardic music or a similar ability to affect or target allies, you may also cast a single spell listed as harmless in its saving throw line with a casting time of no more than one standard action. That spell affects all allies affected by your bardic music and the spell lasts for as long as the effects of the bardic music (or 1 round if the effects are instantaneous).

Blended Symphony [Epic]
You can blend multiple forms of music together over the course of several rounds.
Prerequisites: Master Performer, Perform (any) 40 ranks
Benefits: Whenever you use bardic music or a similar benefit to grant a bonus to allies with a duration other than instantaneous, it’s duration is altered so it lasts until a target hasn’t heard you use any form of bardic music or similar ability for 5 consecutive rounds. In this way, you can use inspire courage on one round and inspire heroics on the next and both effects would last until 5 rounds after you finished using inspire heroics.

Unstoppable Voice [Epic]
Others can’t hope to silence the strength of your voice.
Prerequisites: Master Performer, Perform (any) 35 ranks
Benefits: You are immune to silence and similar effects that would prevent you from being heard unless you allow it to affect you. You are likewise immune to any spell or effect that would render you mute and you suffer no chance of miscasting spells with verbal components due to deafness.

Castings of Legend [Epic]
You bring out the best in the casters you inspire.
Prerequisites: Live the Legend 3/encounter
Benefits: When you use your live the legend class feature, affected creatures ignore all chances of miscasting spells due to armor, deafness, and other similar sources. Conditions that would force skill checks or caster level checks to cast spells, however, aren’t ignored. Furthermore, any spell, mystery, or power used while this effect is active doesn’t expend a spell slot (for spontaneous casters) or prepared spell (for prepared casters) or daily use (for mysteries) or power points (for powers).

Conflicts of Legend [Epic]
The warriors you inspire are driven to great acts of martial skill.
Prerequisites: Live the Legend 2/encounter
Benefits: When you use your live the legend class feature, critical hits that affected allies threaten are automatically confirmed and any immunity that the target of such an attack would possess is ignored. Furthermore, any martial maneuvers that an affected ally uses is not counted as expended.

Teller of Tales [Epic]
You can access vast repositories of knowledge to lead you on your way.
Prerequisites: Master Performer
Benefits: You may use vision as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your artisan of beauty level + 20. After doing so, you must spend one hour in silent contemplation to recharge this ability before you can use it again.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, double the number of times you can use vision between recharges.

Inspire Resilience [Epic]
Your performances help inspire your allies to fight on.
Prerequisites: Bardic Music, Perform (any) 25 ranks
Benefits: You can use your bardic music to help others keep going. To be affected, an ally must hear you perform for 1 full round. The effect lasts for as long as you perform and for 5 rounds after you stop performing (or 5 rounds after the ally can no longer hear you). While performing, you can fight but cannot cast spells or activate magic items by spell completion, spell trigger, or command word. Each ally to be inspired gains fast healing equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Inspire resilience is a supernatural, mind-affecting ability. Using this feat counts as a use of bardic music for the day.

Tug At Heartstrings [Epic]
As a master of emotions, you make it difficult for others to justify attacking you.
Prerequisites: Weave Emotions (1 target)
Benefits: In order to knowingly attack you, a sentient creature must succeed at a Will save (DC 20 + artisan of beauty level + Cha modifier). Creatures with the evil subtype gain a +4 bonus to this saving throw. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Legendary Diplomat [Epic]
You possess untold skill with persuasion.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Benefits: Targets you render fanatic remain so until you take actions that would change this attitude rather than the normal 1 day + 1 day per point of Charisma bonus.

Legendary Acclaim [Epic]
Your reputation has spread across entire worlds.
Prerequisites: Epic Reputation
Benefits: All creatures who would otherwise start with an attitude of at least indifferent towards you move one step closer to fanatic.

Heroes’ Eulogy [Epic]
You may speak out in honor of a fallen comrade and preserve their heroism for another day.
Prerequisites: Inspire Change (1 target)
Benefits: Within one week of a creature’s death, you may speak a mystical eulogy for that creature over the course of 10 minutes. This eulogy protects the target from any non-epic spell or effect that would reanimate its remains as undead, preserves the body indefinitely, and allows for any ally of the target in life to freely use speak with dead with the remains. Unlike the normal spell, this ability allows the ally to communicate with the target’s soul from beyond the grave and that soul may lie or refuse to answer questions as he or she sees fit. If a creature’s soul is unwilling to benefit from a heroes’ eulogy, it remains entirely unaffected. To gain these benefits, the target’s body must be mostly intact.

Giving such a eulogy carries one additional benefit regardless of their physical condition, preserving the heroism of the interred target for a future date. As a full-round action, you may conjure forth the soul of the dead comrade to fight alongside you, granting it the ghost template. This ghost can be called only once and lasts until the end of the encounter (or for 5 minutes if not in an encounter). This ability can’t be used if the target has since been restored to life.

A single creature can only be granted a single heroes’ eulogy per death that it suffers and a living or undead creature can’t be targeted by this ability. Likewise, a creature whose remains have been incorporated into a construct can’t benefit from this ability.

Tapestry of Emotions [Epic]
You can change the emotional state of multiple creatures at once.
Prerequisites: Weave Feelings (2 targets)
Benefits: Whenever you spend a free action to weave emotions or a move action to weave feelings, you may target a number of creatures up to your maximum number of targets simultaneously. All creatures targeted at the same time must be granted the same emotion or feeling, however.

Mastered Emotions [Epic]
None could hope to change the way you feel by force.
Prerequisites: Weave Emotions (1 targeet)
Benefits: You are immune to fear effects, charm effects, and all other spells and effects that function by changing your emotional state (at DM’s discretion).

Reach the Soundless [Epic]
Even creatures that can’t hear you can pick up on the dedication in your performances.
Prerequisites: Master Performer, Perform (Any) 25 ranks
Benefits: Spells and effects you use that normally depend on your target’s ability to hear you now function normally against creatures who can’t hear you so long as they are capable of pinpointing your location with at least one of their senses. Such creatures gain a +10 bonus to their saving throw. This does not allow you to use language-dependant effects on creatures that don’t understand you.

Weave Feelings (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a artisan of beauty can inspire more complex feelings beyond simple emotions. While using a perform skill or using bardic music (or a similar ability), a Artisan of Beauty may choose a single target within range as a move action once per round. That creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or suffer from one of the feelings below. In order to be affected with a feeling in this way, the target must already be affected by one of two emotions specific to that feeling (a creature afflicted with both takes a -5 penalty to its saving throw):

Optimism: The target must be affected by anticipation or joy to be targeted by this ability. Whenever the target would roll a d20, they roll an additional 2d20 and add the sum to the results. The original roll is treated as a natural twenty if either d20 lands on a 20. This effect cancels disappointment.
Love: The target must be affected by joy or trust to be affected by this ability. The target is filled to the brim with energy, providing that energy to those around it, acting as though affected by a haste spell. All creatures adjacent to the target that it is friendly or helpful towards gains a +5 morale bonus to AC and to Saving Throws. This effect cancels remorse.
Submission: The target must be affected by trust or fear to be affected by this ability. The target freezes in place and takes no action to defend itself while adjacent to targets of the artisan’s choice (chosen when using this ability), effectively becoming helpless. The target must have fewer HD than all creatures selected in this way. This effect cancels contempt.
Awe: The target must be affected by fear or surprise to be affected by this ability. The target can’t use standard and full-round actions to physically attack others. The target can successfully use magic offensively instead with a successful Will save against the same DC but the spell’s caster level takes a -4 penalty. This effect cancels aggression.
Disappointment: The target must be affected by surprise or sadness to be targeted by this ability. Whenever the target would roll a d20, they roll an additional 2d20 and subtract the sum from the results. The original roll is treated as a natural one if either d20 lands on a 1. This effect cancels optimism.
Remorse: The target must be affected by sadness or disgust to be affected by this ability. The target is utterly drained of energy and drains the energy of those around it, acting as though affected by a slow spell. All creatures adjacent to the target that it is unfriendly or hostile towards take a -5 penalty to AC and Saving Throws. This effect cancels love.
Contempt: The target must be affected by disgust or anger to be affected by this ability. Creatures of the artisan’s choice (chosen when using this ability) freeze in place and take no action to defend themselves while adjacent to the target, effectively becoming helpless. The target must have more HD than all other creatures chosen in this way. This ability cancels submission.
Aggression: The target must be affected by anger or anticipation to be affected by this ability. The target can’t do anything with standard actions and full-round actions other than physically attacking others. The target can successfully use magic offensively with a successful Will save against the same DC but the spell’s caster level takes a -4 penalty. This effect cancels awe.

This effect last for as long as the performance continues, until the target is no longer affected by either of the required emotions, or until another free action is spent to choose a new target (or to afflict the same target with a new effect, allowing a new saving throw). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can target an additional creature at a time. Alternately, a single creature can be targeted multiple times, given different emotions each time. When spending a free action to change targets, the artisan can choose to leave any number of ongoing effects as they are. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Inspire Change (Su): At 5th level, a artisan of beauty learns how to perform one of the more harrowing tasks with his or her performances, inciting permanent change within others. While using a perform skill or using bardic music (or a similar ability), a Artisan of Beauty may choose a single target within range as a standard action. If the target fails a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod), the artisan of beauty can change the target’s alignment, beliefs, and perspectives however the artisan of beauty sees fit. This ability can’t change a creature’s knowledge or memories but can change the way that the target views these things. Rather than relying on mind control, a artisan of beauty is simply able to condense millennia of philosophical debates and struggles into a single, powerful and convincing performance that wins over the target. Even so, tricking the target into believing something for the express purpose of hurting it or benefiting oneself is an evil action. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the amount of creatures that can be targeted with a single use of this ability is multiplied by x 10. All targets must be affected in the same way. Mindless creatures are immune to this ability and other creatures immune to mind-affecting effects gain a +10 bonus on their saving throw against this ability.

Notes and Explanation:As the original Epic PrCs had absolutely nothing fit for bards (except maybe the high proselytizer for divine bards), I decided to do something about that. Here is a class that capitalized on the performance aspect of the class. In addition to stretching out action economy like no tomorrow (weave emotions as a free action, live the legend as a free action, bardic music as a swift action, weave feelings as a move action, and a spell/inspire change as a standard action), I set out to make a class that would represent the paragon of performance. For everyone out there who recognize Plutchik’s emotion wheel, good work.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:27 PM

Ascendant

Many beings across the multiverse steadily work towards self-improvement. Whether we look at the brave paladin training to protect his town or at the lowly rogue perfecting her trade, the drive to be better or to even be the best is hard to ignore. In most of these cases, however, self-improvement is merely a means to an end. Whether that end is protecting others, destroying enemies, or just amassing fame and influence, self-improvement is rarely a goal in and of itself. To an ascendant, however, the goal has always been perfection. Striving always to prove him or herself and to push his or her abilities further, the goal of an ascendant is nothing less than perfection itself.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Ascendent, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 23 ranks
Class Features: Diamond Soul
Special: Must have four or more ability scores of at least 16, not including enhancement bonuses.

Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (religion), Listen Move Silently, Profession, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Ascendant
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Flowing Ki I, Perfect Form

2nd|
+2|Shrug Off 1/round

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Infinite Wisdom (1 question)

5th|
+5|Ki Evocation 1/encounter

6th|
+6|Flowing Ki II

7th|
+7|Shrug Off 2/round

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Infinite Wisdom (2 questions)

10th|
+10|Ki Evocation 2/encounter[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Ascendant.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an ascendant can still develop and cast epic spells using eight seeds of his or her choice (chosen at 1st level). For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An ascendant may use his or her base attack bonus in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when making a spellcraft check to cast an epic spell. As a full-round epic, an ascendant can make an attack and cast an epic spell. If the attack hits, the epic spell slot is not expended. If the ascendant doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Perfect Form: An ascendant’s form has been honed to the point of perfection. The ascendant gains immunity to ability damage and ability drain. At each class level, the ascendant increases a single ability score of his or her choice by +2.

Flowing Ki: An ascendant possesses energy that flows throughout his or her body, aiding with almost any task that the ascendant should need done. The ascendant gains 5 stacking +1 insight bonuses that he or she can assign to armor class, attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, or skill checks once per round and that remain until reassigned. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the ascendant gains an additional 5 +1 insight bonuses and can assign these bonuses an additional time each round.

Shrug Off (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, an ascendant is hard to afflict with ailments of the mind and body, shrugging them off as though nothing had happened. Once per round, an ascendant can choose to shrug off an attack or targeted effect. Doing so halves all damage that the ascendant takes and allows him or her to ignore all other effects from the attack or effect

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an ascendant can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Absolute Awareness*, Blinding Speed, Damage Reduction, Destructive Ki*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Speed, Epic Will, Exceptional Deflection, Fast Healing, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Dexterity, Great Intelligence, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Improved Denial*, Improved Ki Strike, Improved Spell Resistance, Improved Stunning Fist, Infinite Deflection, Instant Response*, Inviolable Form*, Inviolable Mind*, Keen Strike, Ki Affliction*, Ki Debilitation*, Legendary Wrestler, Mystic Penetration*, Purge Affliction* Purge Wounds*, Reflect Arrows, Responsive Evocation*, Superior Initiative, True Self-Sufficiency*, Vorpal Strike, Walking on Air*

New FeatsPurge Wounds [Epic]
Your fine manipulation of ki allows you to restore your wounds quickly.
Prerequisites: Flowing Ki I
Benefits:The first time each round that you redistribute the bonuses from your flowing ki class feature, you heal hit points equal to your ascendant level.

Purge Affliction [Epic]
Your inner manipulation of ki allows you to overcome most maladies.
Prerequisites: Purge Wounds
Benefits: Each time that you redistribute the bonuses from your flowing ki class feature, you heal yourself of one of the following conditions: sickened, nauseated, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, frightened, panicked, blinded, deafened, dazed, stunned, paralyzed, or confused.

Ki Debilitation [Epic]
You can pass your ki into an opponent to weaken it.
Prerequisites: Flowing Ki I
Benefits: Whenever you make a successful unarmed attack or unarmed melee touch attack against a creature, you may sacrifice any number of bonuses from your flowing ki class feature. You may then assign these bonuses as penalties of equal size to the touched opponent, applying them in any of the same ways you could apply them to yourself. Whenever you change how your bonuses are redistributed, you may change how these penalties are redistributed in one or more opponents as well. The sacrificed bonuses remain lost until the enemy dies or until you withdraw the penalties from a creature as a swift action.

True Self-Sufficiency [Epic]
You require nothing and nobody else to survive.
Prerequisites: Outsider type
Benefits: You do not need to breathe to survive.

Destructive Ki [Epic]
The ki that you place in your enemy slowly kills it.
Prerequisites: Ki Debilitation
Benefits: Whenever you change the distribution of penalties you have put in place on an enemy using your ki debilitation feat, that enemy takes damage equal to your ascendant level, or half of that with a successful Fortitude save (DC 20 + ascendant level + Wis modifier).

Ki Affliction [Epic]
The ki that you place in others prevents them from putting up a fight.
Prerequisites: Ki Debilitation, Destructive Ki
Benefits: Whenever you change the distribution of penalties you have put in place on an enemy using your ki debilitation feat, that enemy must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + ascendant level + Wis modifier) or become staggered for 1 round.

Walking on Air [Epic]
You have transcended the pull of gravity.
Prerequisites: Perfect Form
Benefits: You gain a fly speed equal to your highest movement rate with good maneuverability.

Responsive Evocation [Epic]
You can use the magic of your ki with hardly a moment’s notice.
Prerequisites: Ki Evocation 4/encounter
Benefits: You may use ki evocation at any time, even when it is not your action.

Improved Denial [Epic]
You have mastered the art of denying pain and injury
Prerequisites: Shrug Off 2/round
Benefits: By spending a second use of shrug off for the round, you can entirely nullify all damage that would be dealt by a source instead of halving it.

Mystic Penetration [Epic]
Your mystical energies are incredibly difficult to resist and end.
Prerequisites: Ki Evocation 3/encounter
Benefits: The spell effects you create through your ki evocation class feature are treated as supernatural abilities instead of spell-like abilities.

Inviolable Mind [Epic]
Prerequisites: Shrug Off 3/round
Benefits: You gain immunity to mind-affecting effects.

Absolute Awareness [Epic]
Your senses are exceedingly difficult to fool.
Prerequisites: Infinite Wisdom (2 questions)
Benefits: You gain blindsight out to 100 feet.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it after the first, the range of the blindsight is doubled.

Inviolable Form [Epic]
Your form is impossible to alter by force
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 2/encounter or Shrug Off 2/round or Infinite Adaptation (15 immunities)
Benefits: You aren’t affected by any effect that would forcefully alter your form (such as baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, or disintegrate) unless you allow it to affect you.

Instant Response [Epic]
You are quick to act where others might be caught by surprise
Prerequisites: Superior Initiative, Dex or Wis 25
Benefits: You always act during surprise rounds and may take a full-round of actions during such rounds.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Infinite Wisdom (Sp): Starting at 4th level, an ascendant gains the ability to tap into the universe and learn about the world. This ability functions much as the commune spell, with a couple of exceptions. Using this ability requires one hour of meditation and only a single question, plus one additional question at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, is asked in this way. As the ascendant gains the answer from the universe rather than from any specific entity, however, the correct answer is given so long as any deity is aware of the answer and the answer given is tailored to suit the ascendant’s needs (within the limits of the spell) rather than furthering the agenda of another being.

Ki Evocation (Sp): Starting at 5th level, an ascendant is able to channel his or her inner energy into feats of magic. The ascendant can cast any divine or arcane spell of the abjuration, conjuration, evocation, or transmutation schools with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability as a free action by subtracting its spell level from the number of bonuses his or her flowing ki class feature grants for 1d4+1 rounds. This ability is usable once per encounter at 5th level, plus once per encounter at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:While the unmatched dervish covers the raw mobility and martial elements of the monk class, this class is designed for the more mystical, almost wuxia feel. Even with this being the case, however, I’m of mixed opinions regarding ki evocation. It seemed like a good ability to put in the slot at the time but there might be something more flavorful out there that I didn’t consider. Any Ideas?

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:28 PM

Celestial Champion

The fight between the forces of good and evil is one of the oldest and largest conflicts throughout the multiverse. Although powerful beings may in time see themselves as wasting their time with petty squabbles or even with wars between nations, the true of heart often see the struggle of good against evil as a just and worthy cause regardless of how powerful they themselves become. Among the most visible of those who have dedicated themselves to this conflict are the celestial champions. Fighting and rooting out evil both in and out of the battlefield, the celestials from the upper plane give as much support to these righteous beings as possible. Though few in number and often used to defend the celestial planes from attack and infiltration, those celestial champions who travel the planes in pursuit of evil inevitably wind up among the greatest of war heroes in the greatest of wars.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Celestial Champion, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any Good
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 23 ranks

Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (the planes), Knowledge (religion), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Swim
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Celestial Champion
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Celestial Magic I, Righteousness Incarnate|--

2nd|
+2|Bastion of Virtue 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Celestial Light I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Righteous Ally (1)|--

6th|
+6|Celestial Magic II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Bastion of Virtue 2/encounter|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Celestial Light II|--

10th|
+10|Righteous Ally (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Celestial Champion

Special Mount: If he or she has one, the divine emissary’s special mount continues to increase in power. Every five levels after 1st, the special mount gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by +2, its Strength adjustment increases by +1, and its Intelligence increases by +1. The creature’s spell resistance equals the divine emissary’s class level + the class level that provided the special mount + 5.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a celestial champion can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, banish, foresee, fortify, heal, life, reflect, and/or reveal seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the celestial champion doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Righteousness Incarnate (Su): A celestial champion is a being transformed into a beacon of righteousness. The champion’s type changes to outsider (do not modify base attack bonus, saving throws, skill points, or hit points) and he or she gains the good subtype. The champion can still be restored from the dead as if a member of its previous race, however. Expected to formed varied and difficult tasks, a celestial champion can tap into different aspects of their celestial essence. A celestial champion can have up to two celestial aspects active at any given time and switching from one celestial aspect to another is a swift action.

Aspect of the Traveler: Many of the duties that a celestial champion may be trusted with involve a good deal of travel. To aid in travel, the celestial gains angelic wings (or his current wings become angelic). If the celestial champion doesn’t already possess a fly speed, he or she gains one equal to twice his or her highest movement rate with good maneuverability. If the champion does already possess a fly speed, however, it is doubled and its maneuverability is increased by one step.
Aspect of the Inquisitor: A celestial champion may be called upon to uproot corruption where other forces have proven themselves incapable of doing the same. The celestial champion can see the alignment of creatures just as easily as he or she sees colors. Furthermore, the celestial champion can see invisible as if through see invisibility and is continually affected by a discern lies effect (caster level equals class level + 20).
Aspect of the Mendicant: Not all of a celestial champion’s duties need to involve the sabotage or destruction of evil. Some are assigned to help foster or maintain peace in an area or help those who are otherwise in need. The celestial champion gains an aura out to 20 feet that acts as a double-strength magic circle against evil and as a globe of invulnerability. All good creatures within the aura gain fast healing 5 and the celestial champion can use atonement at will.
Aspect of the Warrior: One of the most common jobs a celestial champion is charged with involve the slaying of a creature or (more often) organization that threatens the common good. Any weapon that the celestial champion holds gains the holy power ability if it didn’t already possess it. At the champion’s option, any attack against an extraplanar creature can either bind it from extradimensional travel (as dimensional anchor) for 1 round or send it back to its native plane if it fails a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod).

Celestial Magic: A celestial champion inherits some of the divine might that all celestials inherit, allowing them to utilize magic. As a standard action, a celestial champion can select an divine spell from the cleric spell list of a spell level up to 7th and with a casting time of 1 standard action or less and cast it. After casting a spell once (plus one additional time at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards), the celestial champion may not cast that specific spell again until he or she has spent 24 hours in meditation or study to recharge this supply of energy. Furthermore, after casting a spell in this way, a celestial champion cannot cast any further spells with this class feature until he or she spends a full-round action to pray and regain the favor of the celestials

Bastion of Virtue: Starting at 2nd level, a celestial champion can call upon the greatest of all virtues that the forces of good hold dear to protect him or herself and his or her allies. A celestial champion can call on each of these virtues once per encounter.

Charity: the celestial champion may select another of these abilities other than generosity and grant its benefit to an ally within 30 feet. This does not count as a use of that ability.
Chastity: The celestial champion negates one death effect that would target him or her. Other targets of the effect are still affected normally.
Generosity: The celestial champion can copy a spell or effect as it targets him or her, affecting any number of willing allies within 30 feet as well.
Humility: The celestial champion causes one attack made against him or her by a creature with more HD than the celestial champion to miss.
Patience: the celestial champion delays all hit point damage, ability damage, and/or ability drain that he or she would take from any one source by 1 round. Other effects of the source (such as improved grab or energy drain) occur normally.
Temperance: the celestial champion can end one ongoing spell effect active on his or her person. The celestial champion must be conscious and in control of its actions to use this ability.
Zeal: the celestial champion negates one mind-affecting effect that would target him or her. Other targets of the effect are still affected normally.

At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the celestial champion can use each of these abilities one additional time per encounter.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even celestial champion level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a celestial champion, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Being of Light*, Celestial Armory*, Celestial Sanctuary*, Dawnbringer*, Detect Greatest Evil*, Devastating Critical, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Gateway to Paradise*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Heavenly Zephyr*, Holy Strike, Improved Aura of Courage, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Invoke Miracle*, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Mark the Sinful*, No Rest for the Righteous*, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Health, Permanent Emanation, Planar Turning, Positive Energy Aura, Spectral Strike, Spontaneous Spell, Superior Bastion*, Time of Need*, Widen Aura of Courage.

New FeatsInvoke Miracle [Epic]
At times, you can call upon the full support of your celestial patrons.
Prerequisites: Celestial Magic III
Benefits: If you possess access to your celestial magic class feature, you can use miracle as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your celestial champion level + 20 and a Charisma-based save DC (if necessary). After using this ability, you lose access to your celestial magic class feature until you spend 1 hour in prayer to recharge the ability.

Time of Need [Epic]
With so much relying on your actions, you can call for additional aid when in trouble.
Prerequisites: Righteous Ally (2)
Benefits: While at half of your hit points or lower and in combat, you can use your Righteous Ally class feature to summon twice as many creatures. Likewise, you may summon unique outsiders.

Superior Bastion [Epic]
You’re defenses are far more difficult to overcome in combat.
Prerequisites: Bastion of Virtue 3/encounter
Benefits: Select one virtue. Your usages of that virtue with your bastion of virtue class feature are measured per round instead of per encounter.
Special: You may select this feat up to seven times. Each time, you must select a new virtue.

Gateway to Paradise [Epic]
If your situation demands it, you can hide away from the world
Prerequisites: Righteousness Incarnate
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can pull yourself and any number of adjacent non-evil creatures into an extradimensional space identical to that created by a rod of paradise, except that there is no maximum duration that you can remain there. As another full-round action, you and all those in the extradimensional space with you can be made to leave this paradise. If you would be rendered unable to take this action for any reason, everything in this space is automatically ejected.

Detect Greatest Evil [Epic]
You inherently detect where great evil lies.
Prerequisites: Celestial Light I
Benefits: You are constantly aware of the direction to the evil creature with the Highest HD within a one-mile radius (if more than one are tied, you learn the direction to all of them). This feat does not inform you of the distance to that creature or to its power.

Celestial Sanctuary [Epic]
Your purity is beyond question.
Prerequisites: Celestial Light I
Benefits: Other creatures need to make a Will save (DC 20 + celestial champion level + Cha modifier) in order to attack you or a creature within 20 feet of you. Whenever you or a creature within 20 feet of you attacks, this ability is suppressed for 10 minutes.

Celestial Armory [Epic]
You fight with weapons much like those of solars.
Prerequisites: Celestial Light I
Benefits: As a swift action, you can grant any melee weapon you possess the dancing property or you can grant a single piece of ammunition the slaying properties of a greater slaying arrow targeting a creature type of your choice. These benefits last until you use this ability again.

Heavenly Zephyr[Epic]
You can fly at the greatest of speeds.
Prerequisites: Celestial Light I
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can move at up to 10 x your fly speed. This action does not cause fatigue or exhaustion like normal running or hustling.

Dawnbringer [Epic]
Your presence carries the light of day with you.
Prerequisites: Righteousness Incarnate
Benefits: You shed light that acts as sunlight out to a range of 60 feet. This sunlight cancels out all non-epic spells and effects with the darkness descriptor within range and casts no shadowy illumination. You may suppress or resume this effect as a standard action.

Mark the Sinful [Epic]
The wounds you leave on evil creatures are incredibly difficult to heal.
Prerequisites: Righteousness Incarnate
Benefits: Hit point damage you deal to evil creatures doesn’t heal naturally and can’t be healed magically except by good-aligned creatures acting of their own free will.

Being of Light [Epic]
You can become a being of pure light and goodness.
Prerequisites: Celestial Light III
Benefits: As a standard action, you can become incorporeal for 1 round. If you do not already possess such a speed, you gain a fly speed equal to half of your land speed with perfect maneuverability. You may not activate this ability in shadowy illumination or darkness, though you can travel into and through such areas while incorporeal.

No Rest for the Righteous[Epic]
Judged as necessary in the fight for good, you are never allowed to claim your eternal rest.
Prerequisites: Bastion of Virtue 5/encounter
Benefits: Unlike most outsiders, you reform on the plane your soul is destined for 1d4 days after you die unless revived during this time. Instead of reaching the plane as a petitioner like most mortals, however, you arrive completely intact and are free to leave and continue the fight for good. If you died in the midst of committing an evil act, this feat does not function for you.

Celestial Light: Starting at 4th level, a celestial champion constantly holds the light of the upper planes within him or herself, driving the champion onwards to greater acts of valor. How this light manifests, however, depends on what aspects the champion has active.

Procession of Light: If the celestial champion’s aspect of the traveler is active, he or she may share his fly speed with other willing and good creatures (granting them wings of light) as a standard action. This flight speed lasts for as long as the celestial champion possesses the aspect of the traveler, until he or she ends the flight as a standard action, or until he or she chooses a new target. This ability can target only one creature at a time at 4th level and this number is multiplied by x 10 every 5 levels afterwards. Any number of targets (up to the limit) can be affected with one standard action.
Inquisitor’s Light: As a full-round action, a celestial champion with the aspect of the inquisitor active can make a pronouncement, asking all creatures who have committed an action, who know the location of a creature or object, or who belong to an organization to step forward. Whether they do or don’t step forward, all creatures who know that they fit the description and who hear and understand the celestial champion start glowing with a light equivalent to a faerie fire spell for 1 hour or until a new pronouncement is made. Only one creature can be lit up by a pronouncement at 4th level but this number is multiplied by x 10 every 5 level afterwards. Closer targets are affected before further targets.
Soothing Light: If the celestial champion’s aspect of the mendicant is active, he or she may tend to the ills and woes of others with ten minutes of focus. During this minute, a warm light bathes the targets and sooths their ailments. At the end of this time, the targets are affected as if by a panacea spell and receive sustenance as though they had just had food and water. Only one creature can be targeted at a time at 4th level but this number is multiplied by x 10 every 5 levels afterwards.
Light of Armageddon: If the celestial champion’s aspect of the warrior is active, he or she can slay the minions of evil as a full-round action. The celestial champion must possess a line of sight with all creatures to be targeted in this way. All targeted creatures must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or be slain, vanishing into a burst of light and leaving no remains. Creatures with HD higher than (Class level + 20)/2 are immune to this ability. Only one creature can be targeted at a time at 4th level but this number is multiplied by x 10 every 5 levels afterwards

Righteous Ally (Su): By 5th level, a celestial champion has proven him or herself more than worthy of aid when he or she requires it. As a full-round action, the celestial champion can call any outsider with the good subtype so long as its CR doesn’t exceed the celestial champion’s class level + 15. The creature is called into any square within 100 feet that can support the creature and the creature called obeys the commands of the celestial champion. The creature called remains for 1 hour, until slain, until dismissed as a standard action, or until replaced with a new one. Unique outsiders can’t be selected in this way. A celestial champion can possess one celestial ally at a time at 5th level and can possess an additional such ally every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:First of all, I’m aware that this class is pretty darn powerful. I realized midway through creation that this class was going to be a paladin class and so it had to compete against the divine emissary. Even so, I might have gone a bit too far with celestial magic (thoughts?). I am well aware that the 7 virtues listed above do not correlate to the traditional 7 virtues, instead coming from the saintly domains in Dragon Magazine (which realized that making abilities for things like hope and faith are pretty difficult and that courage is hard to scale beyond fear immunity). As one last note, I kind of feel as though I’m cheating with Celestial Ally as summoning doesn’t quite fit in here as well as it does elsewhere. Any suggestions for replacement abilities would be welcomed.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:30 PM

Chosen

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a chosen, a character must meet all of the following criteria
ECL: 20 or higher

Class Skills: All skills are class skills for a Chosen.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Chosen
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Advancement

1st|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of class features for two classes

2nd|
+2||+1 level of class features for three classes

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|+1 level of class features for two classes

4th|
+4||+1 level of class features for three classes

5th|
+5|Bonus Feat|+1 level of class features for two classes

6th|
+6||+1 level of class features for three classes

7th|
+7|Bonus Feat|+1 level of class features for two classes

8th|
+8||+1 level of class features for three classes

9th|
+9|Bonus Feat|+1 level of class features for two classes

10th|
+10||+1 level of class features for three classes[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Chosen.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a chosen can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the chosen doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Chosen Advancement: At each level, a chosen selects two different base classes and gains class features (including spellcasting ability) and an increase in effective level as if you had also gained a level in those classes. You need not have previously possessed levels in that class and may choose different classes at each level. You do not gain the benefit of chosen class’ Hit Dice, attack progression, or skill points, however. At each even level, the chosen may select a third base class to advance in this way.

Bonus Feat: At every odd level, a chosen may select any feat that he or she qualifies for as a bonus feat.

Notes and Explanation:
Behold the chosen; the class without flavor; the class that breaks just about all of my own rules. Behold the glory of its simplicity and weep. Okay, not really. Seriously, though, this class serves two purposes that I didn’t think I could fill through more traditional means:

First and most obviously, this class is the universal theurge that enables pretty entertaining builds. Just finish rogue 20? Become a scout/ninja and continue training rogue at even levels. Just finish warblade 20? Let me show you the wonders of a wizard/erudite with a bit of factotum sprinkled in. The possibilities go on and on.

The less obvious use of this class is to stop base class purists. Most people are pretty accepting of the fact that prestige classes in general are typically stronger than base classes. I’m trying hard to make these epic PrCs stronger on average than normal PrCs. Thus, having someone who insists on playing a fighter 30 is just going to wreck balance unless everyone is acting like that. I kept the prerequisites simple so every epic character qualifies automatically and I kept the class simple so even newcomers to epic levels can use it. This is meant as the default epic PrC, to be taken if nothing else interests you or if you don’t meet the prerequisites for anything else.

Also, I must admit that this class only doesn’t have introductory text because my first five tries all crashed and burned. I have no idea how to write flavor for the text and can’t be sure that any is even needed at all. If you want to take a shot at it, go right ahead.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:31 PM

Dragon Overlord

Few beings could hope to match the majesty of dragons for many are their strengths and few are their weaknesses. Even groups of adventurers have been known to list the slaying of some dragon among their greatest accomplishments. A few individuals, however, have managed to isolate and control the essence of dragons in much the same way as the orbs of dragonkind. Drawing upon the arcane essence of all of dragonkind, a dragon overlord can freely utilize draconic energies and enslave dragons at will. Though most overlords acquire this power by enslaving dragons, a rare few are entrusted with this power by the dragons themselves to help organize them against some common threat. However a dragon overlord achieves his or her rank, the presence of one in a nation will likely be remembered for centuries to come.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Dragon Overlord, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana OR Nature) 23 ranks
Spells/Class Features: Must be able to cast 7th-level arcane spells OR possess a breath weapon through class levels that deals at least 8d6 damage.
Special: Must have followed one of the two following conditions:
1. Must have enslaved at least 10 true dragons (whether by force, magic, or other means) of different types and of at least ancient age for 1 consecutive month each. You need not enslave all of these dragons simultaneously
2. Must have received the permission of at least 10 true dragons (without compulsion or duress) of different types and of at least ancient age to become a dragon overlord. As this permission cannot be later revoked, it is granted rarely and often only in times of great need.

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Nature), Listen, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int mod

Dragon Overlord
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Draconic Magic I, Ruler of Dragonkind|--

2nd|
+1|Presence of the Dragon 1/encounter|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Commandeer Spell 1/round|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Draconic Fury (1)|--

6th|
+3|Draconic Magic II|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Presence of the Dragon 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Commandeer Spell 2/round|--

10th|
+5|Draconic Fury (2)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Dragon Overlord.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a dragon overlord can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, compel, conjure, contact, reflect, slay, summon, and/or transform seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the dragon overlord doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Ruler of Dragonkind (Su/Sp): A dragon overlord embodies complete rulership over all dragons, embodying the hated orbs of dragonkind. A dragon overlord can use the breath weapon of each type of chromatic and metallic dragon (as an ancient dragon) 3 times per day (Reflex DC = 20 + class level + Cha modifier) and is immune to the breath effects of all chromatic and metallic dragons. The overlord can dominate any sort of metallic or chromatic dragon dragon within 500 feet (as dominate monster), the dragon being forced to make a DC 20 + class level + Cha modifier Will save to resist (spell resistance does not help against this effect). This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

The dragon overlord knows whether there are dragons within 100 miles at all times. Within 10 miles, the dragon overlord learns how many dragons of each type there are within range. Within 1 mile of a dragon, the dragon overlord is aware of the exact age and location of the creature. Furthermore, all dragon overlords can communicate telepathically with each other and all owners of the orbs of dragonkind and can attempt to dominate the owner of an orb over a distance of 1 mile, though a DC 20 + class level + Cha modifier Will save resists.

Lastly, a dragon overlord can use protection from energy (cold), cure serious wounds, wall of fire, spectral hand, suggestion, scrying, teleport, haste, and fly at will as spell like abilities with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20. The save DCs of these abilities equal 10 + spell level + Cha modifier.

Draconic Magic: A dragon overlord inherits some of the arcane might that flows through the veins of a dragon, allowing them to utilize magic. As a standard action, a dragon overlord can select an arcane spell from the sorcerer spell list of a spell level up to 7th and with a casting time of 1 standard action or less and cast it. Spells with XP costs or with expensive foci or expensive material components can’t be cast in this way. After casting a spell once (plus one additional time at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards), the dragon overlord may not cast that specific spell again until he or she has spent 24 hours in meditation or study to recharge this supply of energy. After casting a spell in this way, the dragon overlord must wait 1d4+1 rounds before doing so again.

Presence of the Dragon (Su): A dragon overlord holds the essence of dragonkind within his or her form, an essence that forever seeks to escape even if it was willingly given. Starting at 2nd level, a dragon overlord can let some of this energy out to protect himself and prove his identity. As an immediate action, the dragon overlord can let loose tornado-force winds outwards from himself to a distance of 100 feet for 1 round, as if releasing the wingstorm of an entire horde of dragons. At the same time, all creatures who can see the dragon overlord must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or become panicked for 1d4 rounds (this is a piercing mind-affecting fear effect). This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and one additional time per encounter at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even dragon overlord level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a dragon overlord, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a dragon overlord can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Awe Dragonkind*, Control Impure Dragons*, Damage Reduction, Detect Horde*, Devour Magic*, Dragon Senses*, Dragon Skin*, Dragon Wings*, Epic Breath Weapon*, Energy Resistance, Epic Dragon Mastery*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Leadership, Epic Mounted Combat, Epic Reflexes, Epic Reputation, Epic Will, Expanded Dragon Mastery*, Extended Life Span, Eye of the Storm*, Gem Dragon Mastery*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Intelligence, Great Strength, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Multispell, Overlord’s Aura*, Planar Dragon Mastery*, Spell Knowledge, Threatening Presence*, Wyrm’s Fury

New FeatsOverlord’s Aura [Epic]
Your draconic auras greatly aid your draconic allies.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind, 7 draconic auras known
Benefits: For every 5 Dragon Overlord class levels you possess, the bonus from your draconic auras increases by +1. Draconic allies (including those you have enslaved) gain double the normal bonus from your draconic auras and benefit from your draconic auras up to 1 mile away.

Planar Dragon Mastery [Epic]
Your control over dragons extends to those on other planes of existence.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind, Draconic Fury (3)
Benefits: You can control, detect, and use the breath weapons of planar dragons as well as chromatic and metallic dragons. Furthermore, your Ruler of Dragonkind class feature grants you the following as additional spell-like abilities usable at will (determine caster levels and save DCs in the same way): Heroes’ Feast, Dimensional Anchor, Wind Wall, Control Water, Shout, Daylight, Wall of Iron, Mind Fog, and Resilient Sphere.

Gem Dragon Mastery [Epic]
You can control the psionic energies of gem dragons.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind, Draconic Fury (2)
Benefits: You can control, detect, and use the breath weapons of gem dragons as well as chromatic and metallic dragons. Furthermore, your Ruler of Dragonkind class feature grants you the following as additional spell-like abilities usable at will (determine caster levels and save DCs in the same way): Invisibility, Dominate Person, Nondetection, Move Earth, and Control Winds.

Expanded Dragon Mastery [Epic]
You possess more influence over draconic energies.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind, Draconic Fury (1)
Benefits: Choose one form of non-epic true dragon and a spell-like ability that it obtains of 5th-level or lower. If you couldn’t already, you can control, detect, and use the breath weapon of the chosen dragon with your Ruler of Dragonkind class feature. Your Ruler of Dragonkind class feature grants you the chosen spell-like ability at will (determining caster level and save DCs in the same way).

Epic Dragon Mastery [Epic]
Even the strongest of dragons bow before you.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind, Draconic Fury (4)
Benefits: You can control, detect, and use the breath weapons of epic dragons as well as chromatic and metallic dragons. Furthermore, your Ruler of Dragonkind class feature grants you the following as additional spell-like abilities usable at will (determine caster levels and save DCs in the same way): Wall of Force and Prismatic Spray.

Control Impure Dragons [Epic]
You hold sway over all dragons and dragon-blooded creatures
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind
Benefits: You may use your ruler of dragonkind class feature to detect and control dragons other than true dragons as well as creatures with the dragonblood subtype.

Eye of the Storm [Epic]
You exclude your allies from the burst of draconic energies you release.
Prerequisites: Presence of the Dragon 1/encounter
Benefits: When you use presence of the dragon, you may exclude any number of allies from its effects.

Wyrm’s Fury [Epic]
The incorporeal dragon spirits you call are older and stronger than normal.
Prerequisites: Draconic Fury (2)
Benefits: The dragons you call with your draconic fury class feature are now of the wyrm age category instead of merely being ancient.
Special: This feat can be taken twice. If taken a second time, dragons called with your draconic fury class feature are now of the great wyrm age category.

Dragon Senses [Epic]
Your senses are just as strong as a dragon.
Prerequisites: Ruler of Dragonkind
Benefits: You gain blindsense out to 60 feet, superior low-light vision, and darkvision out to 120 feet. If you already possess blindsense or darkvision, increase its range by the distance listed above. If you already possess superior low-light vision, double the range at which you can see in dim light.

Dragon Skin [Epic]
Your flesh protects you from weaponry much like that of a dragon.
Prerequisites: Presence of the Dragon 2/encounter
Benefits: You are immune to damage from nonmagical weaponry.

Dragon Wings [Epic]
You grow fantastic dragonic wings that allow you to travel through the air quickly, if a bit clumsily.
Prerequisites: Presence of the Dragon 3/encounter
Benefits: You gain a fly speed of 200 feet with clumsy maneuverability. If you already possess a fly speed, increase that speed by +200 feet and use the high of the two maneuverabilities.

Epic Breath Weapon [Epic]
Your breath weapon is more powerful than it has ever been.
Prerequisites: Breath weapon dealing at least 8d6 damage.
Benefits: Your breath weapon deals an additional 1d6 points of damage.
If your breath weapon is a cone, extend its range by 5 feet. If your breath weapon is a line, instead increase its range by 10 feet.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Detect Hoard [Epic]
You can naturally detect the presence of treasure in your surroundings.
Prerequisites: Appraise 30 ranks, Ruler of Dragonkind
Benefits: You automatically detect all precious stones and precious metals within 100 feet of yourself, all art objects worth at least 100 gp within 50 feet of yourself, and all magic items within 25 feet of yourself.

Devour Magic [Epic]
Even as you redirect the magic of others, you can save a bit of it for yourself
Prerequisites: The Ability to cast 9th level arcane spells spontaneously, Commandeer Spell 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you successfully use your commandeer spell class feature, you regain a spent spell slot (if any) of a level up to the commandeered spell’s level – 4.

Awe Dragonkind [Epic]
Even the smallest display of your powers stops all dragons that would oppose you in their tracks.
Prerequisites: Presence of the Dragon 3/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use presence of the dragon, all dragons within 100 feet of yourself are paralyzed for one round, ignoring any racial immunities they may possess. The first time that a creature is subjected to this feats effects in a 24 hour period, it is not permitted a saving throw. Afterwards, it may negate this effect with a successful Fortitude save (DC 20 + Dragon Overlord level + Con modifier). This is treated as a piercing effect against other sources of immunity.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Commandeer Spell (Su): Starting at 4th level, the magic that courses through the blood of a dragon overlord grants him or her influence over magic itself. Whenever a dragon overlord witnesses another creature casting a spell, the dragon overlord can make an opposed Spellcraft check against the caster. If successful, the dragon overlord gains control over the spell and can make all decisions for it. This ability can be used once per round at 4th level and one additional time per round every 5 levels afterwards.

Draconic Fury (Su): Starting at 5th level, a dragon overlord can call upon the true fury of the draconic power flowing through him or her, releasing and chaining these powers. As a full-round action, the dragon overlord conjures forth an incorporeal ancient true dragon of any type he or she can control through his or her ruler of dragonkind class feature of his or her choice that is suspended around his or her person. This ancient dragon obeys the telepathic orders of the dragon overlord but can’t cast spells or use its spell-like abilities. The attacks and breath weapon of the dragon, however, functions normally against corporeal targets, even adding their normal strength bonus to damage rolls. If there isn’t enough room for the incorporeal dragon (such as if caught in a small, force-lined room), this ability fails to activate. If the dragon summoned in this way is slain, it dissipates and the dragon overlord reclaims its power. Either way, the dragon called forth in this way takes its action immediately after the dragon overlord before dissipating on its own. Once this ability has been used, it can’t be used again for 1d4+1 rounds. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability calls forth another ancient incorporeal dragon with each use.

Notes and Explanation:
This makes for 3 potential BBEG classes right in a row, though this one isn’t nearly as disruptive as the first two for a player to gain access to. I’ve always loved the orbs of dragonkind and think that I’ve done them justice with their transition into a class feature. I was tempted to restrict this class to spontaneous casters only when I first started it but I eventually decided that wider prerequisites allow for more possibilities, which is generally a good thing.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:32 PM

Dread Emperor

Controlling vast armies of the undead, a dread emperor (or dread empress) is a master of necromancy. Rather than focusing on life force and its manipulation, however, a dread emperor has focused on the creation of its twisted mockery. Beyond the simple reanimation of the undead, a skilled dread emperor creates a true plague of undeath. Every creature his or her undead slay soon joins his forces and even those merely injured may find themselves turning in a matter of hours. Combining this plague with a mastery of strategy that dwarves most mortal tactitians, entire nations have been known to fall before dread emperors in mere weeks.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a dread emperor, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Alignment: Any nongood.
Skills: Knowledge (Religion) or Knowledge (Arcana) 23 ranks
Spells: The ability to cast spells up to 7th-level, including at least four necromancy spells.
Note: Subtract the level adjustment of any template granting you the undead type from the number of ranks in a knowledge skill you require to enter this class.

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Profession, Ride, Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int Modifier

Dread Emperor
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Overwhelming Swarm -1, Unending Legion|--

2nd|
+1|Dark Tactician 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Emperor’s Plague 1d6|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Undying Avatar (1)|--

6th|
+3|Overwhelming Swarm -2|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Dark Tactician 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Emperor’s Plague 2d6|--

10th|
+5|Undying Avatar (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Dread Emperor

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a dread emperor can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, animate dead, armor, dispel, fortify, reflect, slay, and/or summon seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Rebuke Undead: Your levels in dread emperor stack with levels in one class that grants you the rebuke undead class feature for the purpose of rebuking undead. If you possess levels in more than one such class, choose one to advance as you take your first class level in dread emperor.

Unending Legions (Su): Dread emperors are best known for armies of the dead large enough to overwhelm entire nations and worlds. A dread emperor no longer counts undead with HD equal to or lower than his class level towards his limit of controlled undead. Any creature slain by an undead controlled by a dread emperor revives 1d4 rounds later as a zombie or skeleton as appropriate (unless its HD are too high to allow for this) under the control of the dread emperor. Lastly, a dread emperor can use animate dead and revive undead (libris mortis) at will as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20.

Overwhelming Swarm (Ex): Though the undead that a dread emperor controls may individually be too weak to overcome foes, a dread emperor knows perfectly well how to batter the defenses of more powerful enemies by continually swarming them. Starting at 1st level, for every ten attacks made against a creature by undead controlled by a dread emperor (whether the attack succeeds or not), the target takes a stacking -1 penalty to its AC, Damage Reduction (if any), Fast Healing (if any), and regeneration (if any). None of these values can be reduced below 0. This penalty remains until the target has gone for an entire hour without being attacked by undead controlled by the dread emperor. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this penalty increases by -1.

Dark Tactician (Ex): As a ruler of a grand army, few know more about strategy than a dread emperor. Starting at 2nd level, a dread emperor can spend a full-round action to either heal any number of controlled undead within his or her line of sight up to full hit points. Alternatively, he or she can grant them a +10 bonus to attack rolls, Saving Throws, and AC for 1 round. As a final option, the dread emperor can grant these undead a full round of actions to take immediately and may control how mindless undead affected spend this action. The dread emperor can use an ability from this list once per encounter at 2nd level and one additional time per encounter at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards. A Dread Emperor can never target him or herself with this ability.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even dread emperor level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a dread emperor, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a dread emperor can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Atropal’s Aura*, Commandeer Undead*, Debilitating Swarm*, Desecration Aura*, Debilitating Touch*, Divine Spell Knowledge*, Dread Spellscribe*, Epic Undead Leadership*, Eternal Horde*, Extended Lifespan, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Legions*, Improved Spell Capacity, Legendary Commander, Life from the Lifeless*, Link Senses*, Master of Necromancy*, Multispell, Negative Energy Burst, Quick Transformation*, Selective Spell*, Spell Knowledge, Superior Legions*, Threatening Presence*, Undead Mastery, Vile Entity*, Zone of Animation

New Feats
Debilitating Touch [Epic]
Your touch is filled with necromantic energies.
Prerequisites: Unending Legions
Benefits: You gain a melee touch attack that deals 10d8 points of negative energy damage to the living (healing undead instead). Whenever you make a successful touch attack in this way, you may cast a non-epic necromancy spell with a range of touch as part of the same action, provoking no attacks of opportunity in the process.

Deep Corruption [Epic]
Your necromancy pierces through the most staunch of defenses.
Prerequisites: Dark Tactician 2/encounter
Benefits: All non-epic death spells you cast become piercing. Furthermore, non-epic necromancy spells you cast that bestow curses, trap souls, bestow disease, or work through poison also become piercing.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Debilitating Swarm [Epic]
Given enough time, your undead horde can tire and wear out any opponent.
Prerequisites: Overwhelming Swarm -2
Benefits: Your overwhelming swarm class feature also affects attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws.

Life from the Lifeless[Epic]
You can draw life force from your undying minions to preserve your own existence.
Prerequisites: Dark Tactician 5/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you would be damaged, you may transfer some or all of that damage to any number of undead you control within a 1-mile radius. You may not transfer more damage to an undead in this way than would be necessary to slay it.

Eternal Horde [Epic]
Your undead never stay down for too long before rising once more.
Prerequisites: Dark Tactician 4/encounter
Benefits: Each night at midnight (or its rough equivalent), all undead you control on the same plane of existence as yourself that have perished within the past 24 hours are instantly restored to existence and to full health so long as you possess positive hit points. Effects that would prevent undead such as lich’s or ghosts from returning back to life function normally against this ability.

Superior Legions[Epic]
The undead you control are far more effective than most.
Prerequisites: Improved Legions
Benefits: You can animate zombies and skeletons that would possess more than 20 HD. In all other ways, they function normally as undead.

Improved Legions [Epic]
Prerequisites: Unending Legions
Benefits: Undead that you animate through your spells and class features gain maximum hit points per hit dice and are affected as if by an awaken undead effect, except that they remain completely under your control.

Epic Undead Leadership [Epic]
You control great
Prerequisites: Undead Leadership
Benefits: This functions as the epic leadership feat except as noted under the description of the undead leadership feat.
Special: This feat can be used in place of Epic Leadership to meet the prerequisites of the legendary commander feat.

Dread Spellscribe [Epic]
Prerequisites: Dark Tactician 3/encounter
Benefits: With 24 hours of work and 1,000 gp of materials, you can apply the spellstitched template to any undead under your control with one major exception. Whenever a creature casts a spell-like ability granted to them in this way, you lose a spell slot or random spell prepared of the same spell level. If you have none left, that spell-like ability fails to function.

Link Senses [Epic]
You can link your senses with those of the undead you have created
Prerequisites: Dark Tactician 1/encounter
Benefits: As a swift action, you can link your senses with a single undead you control on the same plane of existence for 1 round. You may use your own skills to observe the scene and can telepathically control the undead during this round but are limited to the senses of the undead.

Desecration Aura[Epic]
You release an aura of malign energies that empower the undead.
Prerequisites: Unending Legions
Benefits: You gain an aura out to 20 feet that imitates the effects of a desecrate spell. For all purposes, you count as a shrine to an evil deity and thus double the effects of the spell.

Atropal’s Aura [Epic]
You release dark energies that harm the living and heal the undead.
Prerequisites: Desecration Aura
Benefits: You possess an aura out to 10 feet that grants all other living creatures one negative level for as long as they remain (this negative level never results in level loss) and that grants yourself and all undead within range fast healing 8. You may suppress or resume this aura as a standard action.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack (though the area of the aura does not increase).

Quick Transformation [Epic]
The plague you release can quickly turn others into undead.
Prerequisites: Emperor’s Plague 2d6
Benefits: Any creature who fails three consecutive saving throws against emperor’s plague inflicted by an undead under your control transforms into an undead under your control.

Commandeer Undead[Epic]
You can permenently steal the free will of a pre-existing undead.
Prerequisites: Undying Avatar (2)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can force an undead within 100 feet to make a Will save (DC 20 + Dread Emperor class level + Cha modifier) or fall under your control, counting normally towards your maximum hd of controlled undead.

Vile Entity [Epic, Vile]
Your very essence is filled with dark power that you express with every spell.
Prerequisites: Five or more vile feats
Benefits: All damage that you deal with your spells or attacks is treated as vile damage.

Divine Spell Knowledge [Epic]
Your access to spells is larger than that of most divine casters.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast spells of the maximum normal spell level of a divine spellcasting class.
Benefits: You learn two new divine spells of any level up to the maximum level you can cast. This feat does not grant any additional spell slots.
special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Master of Necromancy [Epic]
You gain mastery over the forces of death.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Necromancy spell
Benefits: All undead you create with necromancy spells are automatically under your control (counting towards your normal maximum) and your necromancy spells bypass any immunities granted by the undead type or by death ward effects. Once per encounter, you can reanimate any number of dead creatures within 100 feet of yourself as skeletons or zombies (depending on the state of the bodies) with a total HD of up to your caster level. These undead only lasts until the end of the encounter before falling apart.

Selective Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can prevent your spells from harming your allies.
Benefits: This feat can only be applied to spells that create areas. When casting a spell modified by this metamagic effect, you may select any number of targets within its area. Only the chosen creatures are affected by the spell. A selective spell uses up a spell slot six levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Emperor’s Plague (Su): Starting at 4th level, all corporeal undead under the control of a dread emperor pass on a disease with their natural attacks known as emperor’s plague. The disease has a Fortitude save of 20 + Class level + Int modifier, has an incubation period of 1 hour, and deals 1d6 points of constitution damage with each failed save, plus 1d6 points of constitution damage at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards. Unlike most diseases, creatures must make additional saving throws against emperor’s plague every hour instead of every day and the disease and ability damage it deals can only be healed within a consecrated or hallowed area. The disease is not naturally removed through any number of successful saving throws and can only be healed magically within the area of a consecrate or hallow effect. Any creature who dies of emperor’s plague awakens 1d4 hours later as a zombie or skeleton as appropriate (unless its HD are too high to allow for this) under the control of the dread emperor unless the body is dismembered or destroyed. This class features is a piercing effect.

Undying Avatar (Ex): At 5th level, a dread emperor can spend 24 hours molding dead flesh into a perfect likeness of themselves. This avatar acts as a zombie of the dread emperor’s race with 20 HD, though it looks exactly like the dread emperor (DC 30 spot check to realize its identity). Each undying avatar, though mindless, has its senses directly linked to that of the dread emperor at all times and can be controlled through the dread emperor’s thoughts at all time (even across planes of existence). A dread emperor can even cast his or her non-epic spells through an undying avatar, though doing so requires that the avatar spend actions casting the spell as normal. A dread emperor can only have one undying avatar at any given time at 5th level, plus one every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
For our second BBEG class in a row, we have a class intended to serve as the progenitor for the zombie plague of a survival horror game. Like the Harbinger of endings, this class remains more or less playable for PCs as well but runs into some problems. For this class, however, the problems you’d run into are the mechanical holdups associated with having large numbers of troops whose attacks actually matter. So long as you get into this class well aware of the logistics it involves, however, things shouldn’t break down too badly.

If the massive numbers of undead still bother your or would conflict with a campaign, however, worry not. Gaiyamato has created another version of this class right here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250040) which, though a bit less powerful, fits into more games.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:33 PM

Elemental Sovereign

The entire multiverse, when one gets down to the very basics, is comprised of surprisingly few components. Earth. Air. Fire. Water. These are the inner planes that form the world around us and that give birth to life in the form of elementals. Though uncountable mages reshape these elements on a daily basis, few make any concentrated effort to control them and even fewer succeed. Among these rare masters of the elements are the elemental sovereigns. Weilding the tremendous power of the elements with apparent ease, elemental sovereigns harness the energy of the inner planes to destroy their foes, lead elementals, and reshape the very world around them.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an elemental sovereign , a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana or Knowledge) 23 ranks
Spells: Must be capable of casting a spell of at least 4th level from each of the following descriptors: acid, air, cold, earth, electricity, fire, light, and water.
Languages: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Nature), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Elemental Sovereign
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Elemental Raiment, Primordial Dissolution (1 target)|--

2nd|
+1|Destructive Retort 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Reformed Realm (50 ft)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Infallible Blast +5d6|--

6th|
+3|Primordial Dissolution (2 targets)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Destructive Retort 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Reformed Realm|--

10th|
+5|Infallible Blast +10d6|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the elemental sovereign.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an elemental sovereign can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, destroy, dispel energy, reflect, summon, transport, and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Elemental Raiment (Su): An elemental sovereign carries heavy influence over the elements, representing this tendency with an array of powers similar but superior to the rings of elemental command. At any time, an elemental sovereign may only possess a single active elemental raiment and he or she can switch which is active with a move action. The save DC for all saving throws required equals 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier.

Air Raiment: Creatures of the air subtype can’t take aggressive action against the elemental sovereign without first succeeding on a Will save. He or she may attempt to charm such a creature (as charm person with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20) as a standard action but if the target succeeds on its Will save, it is freed from the sovereign’s protection against it for 24 hours. The elemental sovereign gains immunity to electricity damage and can use a full-round action to imitate any non-epic spell of the [Air] or [Electricity] descriptors with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his or her Class level + 20. Lastly, the elemental sovereign gains a fly speed equal to your land speed with good maneuverability.

Earth Raiment: Creatures of the earth subtype can’t take aggressive action against the elemental sovereign without first succeeding on a Will save. He or she may attempt to charm such a creature (as charm person with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20) as a standard action but if the target succeeds on its Will save, it is freed from the sovereign’s protection against it for 24 hours. The elemental sovereign gains immunity to acid damage and can use a full-round action to imitate any non-epic spell of the [Acid] or [Earth] descriptors with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his or her Class level + 20. Lastly, the elemental sovereign gain a burrow speed equal to your land speed.

Fire Raiment: Creatures of the fire subtype can’t take aggressive action against the elemental sovereign without first succeeding on a Will save. He or she may attempt to charm such a creature (as charm person with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20) as a standard action but if the target succeeds on its Will save, it is freed from the sovereign’s protection against it for 24 hours. The elemental sovereign gains immunity to fire damage and can use a full-round action to imitate any non-epic spell of the [Fire] or [Light] descriptors with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his or her Class level + 20. Lastly, double the elemental sovereign’s speed for all modes of movement he or she possesses.

Water Raiment: Creatures of the water subtype can’t take aggressive action against the elemental sovereign without first succeeding on a Will save. He or she may attempt to charm such a creature (as charm person with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20) as a standard action but if the target succeeds on its Will save, it is freed from the sovereign’s protection against it for 24 hours. The elemental sovereign gains immunity to cold damage and can use a full-round action to imitate any non-epic spell of the [Cold] or [Water] descriptors with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his or her Class level + 20. Lastly, the elemental sovereign gains a swim speed equal to your land speed and can breathe underwater.

Primordial Dissolution (Su): An elemental sovereign, beyond simply manipulating energy to harm others, can reduce a target into nothingness by removing some of its core components. As a standard action, the elemental sovereign may choose a creature within 100 feet and one of the following forms of energy: acid, cold, fire, or electricity. The target must make a fortitude save against a DC of 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier. If a target hasn’t been affected by this ability within the past 24 hours, he or she perishes if the saving throw is failed or takes 20d6 + 1d6/level damage of the chosen energy type if he or she succeeds. Otherwise, the target takes 20d6 + 1d6/level damage of the chosen energy type if he or she fails and half as much if he or she succeeds. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the elemental sovereign may choose an additional target with each use of this ability.

Destructive Retort: They say that the best defense is a good offense, a strategy that most elemental sovereigns take to heart. Starting at 2nd level, once per encounter, an elemental sovereign can cast an evocation spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less in response to an aggressive action being taken against them. If the spell selects one or more targets, the creature attacking must be selected as one of those targets. If the spell creates an area, the creature attacking must be within the area of this spell. Casting a spell in this way expends neither a spell slot nor a prepared spell. At 7th level and every 5 class levels afterward, you may use this ability an additional time per encounter.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even elemental sovereign level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an elemental sovereign, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an elemental sovereign can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Absolute Control*, Control Elementals*, Counterburn*, Debilitating Blast*, Distracting Blast*, Elemental Awareness*, Elemental Essence*, Elemental Flesh*, Energy Resistance, Enhance Spell, Epic Leadership, Fatal Blast*, Form Life*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Enlarge Spell*, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Widen Spell*, Intensify Spell, Legendary Commander, Lingering Blast*, Master of Evocation*, Precise Control*, Risky Retort*, Selective Spell*, Sonic Attunement*, True Alchemy*

New FeatsControl Elementals
You can rebuke and control elementals as a cleric rebukes the undead.
Prerequisites: Elemental Raiment
Benefits: You may rebuke or control elementals as a cleric of your elemental sovereign level + 20.

Lingeriing Blast
You reshape the battlefield with displays of elemental might.
Prerequisites: Infallible Blast +15d6
Benefits: Whenever you cast an evocation spell with a duration of instantaneous that deals energy damage to everyone within an area, that area instead persists for 1 minute (10 rounds). All creatures who start their round in the area or who pass into the area are subjected to its effects, though they are permitted spell resistance and saving throws as normal.

Debilitating Blast [Epic]
The wounds you inflict with energy damage mess with a target’s body and mind.
Prerequisites: Infallible Blast +5d6
Benefits: For every 4 dice of energy damage you would deal a target with a single source, you may deal that target a point of ability damage to any ability score of your choice.

Distracting Blast [Epic]
The wounds you inflict keep others from keeping their cool.
Prerequisites: Infallible Blast +10d6
Benefits: Any creature you deal energy damage must succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + elemental sovereign level + Cha) or become dazed for 1 round. Even if a creature isn’t dazed by this effect, however, casting spells or performing other acts requiring concentration within the next round requires that creature to make a successful HD check opposed by your caster level check.

Elemental Essence [Epic]
You have become one with the elemental forces at your control.
Prerequisites: Primordial Dissolution (3 targets)
Benefits: You gain all benefits of the elemental type and are treated as either your previous type or as an elemental (whichever if more beneficial) for all purposes (such as returning back from the dead).

Elemental Flesh [Epic]
Your flesh is woven with energy dangerous to those who would harm you.
Prerequisites: Primordial Dissolution (2 targets)
Benefits: Whenever a creature hits you with melee attack using a natural weapon or unarmed strike, it takes 5d6 damage of whatever form of energy your elemental raiment class feature grants you immunity against. A creature also takes this damage each round that it grapples you. You may make a melee touch attack to deal this damage to a target.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take it after the first, increase the damage by +2d6.

Risky Retort [Epic]
By allowing an attacker to get in a strike first, you can strike with unparalleld accuracy
Prerequisites: Destructive Retort 2/encounter
Benefits: When you use your destructive retort class feature, you may delay your spellcasting until after the target has taken its aggressive action against you. If that action successfully deals you hit point damage, you can apply up to four spell levels of metamagic effects to the spell you cast as you cast it, even if normally a prepared caster.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take it after the first, you can apply an additional two spell levels of metamagic effects.

Counterburn [Epic]
Those who counter your spells find themselves targeted by another
Prerequisites: Destructive Retort 1/encounter
Benefits: Successfully counterspelling one of your evocation spells counts as an attack against you for the purpose of your destructive retort calss feature.

Elemental Awareness [Epic]
You can use the elements to learn what creatures are around you.
Prerequisites: Elemental Raiment
Benefits: Depending on which elemental raiment you have active, you gain insight into your surroundings. If the air raiment is active, you learn the location of all creatures in contact with the air within 30 feet. If the earth raiment is active, you gain tremorsense out to 60 feet. If the fire raiment is active, you detect all creatures that give off heat (all living creatures except for those with the cold and/or incorporeal subtypes) within 60 feet. If the water raiment is active, you detect all creatures in the same body of water as you within 100 feet.

Sonic Attunement [Epic]
Though unaligned with any element, you may manipulate the fifth form of energy.
Prerequisites: Elemental Raiment
Benefits: You may choose to deal sonic damage with your primordial dissolution class feature. Furthermore, you gain the ability to don a sonic raiment with your elemental raiment class feature. Doing so grants you immunity to sonic damage and allows you to can use a full-round action to imitate any non-epic spell of the [Force] or [Sonic] descriptors with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your Class level + 20. No other benefits are associated with this raiment, however.

Fatal Blast [Epic]
You frequently destroy targets with the raw might of the elemental power at your control.
Prerequisites: Infallible Blast +20d6
Benefits: If you would deal energy damage to a creature equal or greater than its current hit points before applying energy resistance, energy immunity, successful saving throws, and any similar effects that would reduce damage or negate damage, that creature is destroyed.

Absolute Control [Epic]
Your every whimsy is reflected in your reformed realm
Prerequisites: Reformed Realm (400 ft.)
Benefits: You treat the area within your reformed realm as a deity treats his or her godly realm. You are treated as possessing a divine rank of 20 for this purpose. When changing terrain or constructing buildings, only the space withing your reformed realm at the end of your year and a day of work can be affected in this way. Also, you may not make time flow faster in your reformed realm than it does in the surrounding area.

Form Life [Epic]
Within your reformed realm, you can even create life.
Prerequisites: Reformed Realm (200 ft.)
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can create a life form within your reformed realm. That creature must be of the elemental type and it enters existence with an attitude of fanatic towards you. The creature fades away if it leaves your reformed realm or if you spend a full-round action to destroy that creature or to create a new one. You may not create a creature with more HD than yourself.

Precise Creation [Epic]
You can reform your surroundings exactly as you need them.
Prerequisites: Reformed Realm (100 ft.)
Benefits: Within the boundaries of your reformed realm, you can freely add objects and features as if supplied with an endless amount of marvelous pigments. You need never make skill checks to use this ability as you would with normal marvelous pigments. The objects created in this way last only as long as they remain in your reformed realm but changes to the landscape are permanent.

True Alchemy[Epic]
You can effortlessly transform one form of matter into another.
Prerequisites: Reformed Realm (50 ft.)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can transform up to 10 pounds of touched non-living, non-magical material into an equal mass of less valuable non-living material. This ability is instantaneous.

Master of Evocation[Epic]
You blast targets into dust with your control over the fundamental energies of existence.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Evocation spell
Benefits: All evocation spells you cast ignore spell resistance and energy resistance and deal half damage even against creatures immune to the relevant form of energy. Once per encounter, you can choose a form of energy and deal 1d6 damage/caster level of that form of energy to a target within 100 feet, or half of that if they succeed on a Reflex Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Practiced Burn [Epic]
Even though your training in magic has slowed, your skill with evocation has not declined.
Prerequisites: Elemental Raiment
Benefits: You gain a bonus equal to half of your elemental sovereign level to your caster level when casting evocation spells.

Selective Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can prevent your spells from harming your allies.
Benefits: This feat can only be applied to spells that create areas. When casting a spell modified by this metamagic effect, you may select any number of targets within its area. Only the chosen creatures are affected by the spell. A selective spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Improved Widen Spell
You can widen the area of your spells to a tremendous degree.
Prerequisites: Widen Spell
Benefits: You may apply the widen spell feat to a spell multiple times. Its effects stack.

Improved Enlarge Spell
You can extend the reach of your spells to a tremendous degree.
Prerequisites: Enlarge Spell
Benefits: You may apply the enlarge spell feat to a spell multiple times. Its effects stack.

Reformed Realm (Sp): Starting at 4th level, an elemental sovereign can reshape the basic elements of the universe as he or she sees fit. The elemental sovereign gains a permanent planar perinarch effect within a 50-foot radius of him or herself, except that it functions on all planes of existence. The radius of this effect’s area is doubled at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Infallible Blast: Starting at 5th level, an elemental sovereign can gain more benefit from offensive magic than others could ever dream of. Whenever the protean avatar casts a spell that deals energy damage, he or she selects one form of energy damage that the spell deals and adds an additional +5d6 damage of that type. If the spell allows for a saving throw, the entirety of this extra damage is dealt regardless of the result of the save (even if the target possesses improved evasion). If the spell instead requires an attack roll, the additional damage is dealt even if the attack misses. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, increase this additional damage by +5d6.

Notes and Explanation:
This class here is an odd combination, allowing for an epic character who wants to master the elements, rule over elementals, and/or play the role of a blaster. Though I feel that this class is fairly competent (or is at least passable) in the first two roles, I should probably comment on the roll of blaster.

I am more or less aware of the problems that blasters suffer in D&D (at least as much as the next man, anyways), having read through essays and entire threads delineating how they don’t work and how they should be fixed. The apparent common consensus says to use kicker effects to keep evocations relevant. There are reasons why I did not go this route apart from a line of new feats, however. First, I’m trying to keep the abilities of these PrCs more or less infinitely scalable and most methods of inserting “kickers” such as status effects would be pretty difficult to scale at all. Secondly, by the time that a party reaches epic levels, the only non-epic spells that parties tend to rely on oare ones already optimized for the task at hand (such as instant-gib spells, a wide array of abjurations, and divination spells to learn whatever you need to know). When you get right down to it, evocation spells would only ever be the most worthwhile effects (kicker or no kicker) if I was making every single one of them apocalypse from the sky, something that I wasn’t quite comfortable with.

Instead of focusing on power and trying to force a metaphorical square peg into a round hole, I decided to focus on making this class as reliable as possible in regards to evocation. From first level, elemental raiment ensures that you never ever run out of blasting. If allies and enemies are clumped together, you face enemies with evasion, or you only see a few foes, primordial dissolution gives you a quick save-or-die to try throwing out at the start of combat. Infallible blast, in addition to ensuring that the damage scales properly, also helps to ensure that the targets of your spells are dealt damage. Combining this with a few of the bonus feats (master of evocation, fatal blast, distracting blast, debilitating blast, and lingering blast) and you have a pretty rock-steady frame for evocation.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:35 PM

Eternal

Among the many things that mortals desire and seek out, few are more famous, or more elusive, than the gift of immortality. Such is the draw of eternal life that some monks dedicate their entire lives in pursuit of the necessary bodily perfection while others seek out artifacts of lore or resort to undeath to preserve their mind for all of eternity. In a few rare cases, however, powerful mortals may achieve mortality through the raw strength of their desires or through simple chance. The exact process of becoming such a being is different from person to person. After a lifetime of avoiding blades and spells and dragon talons, some soldiers simply have all that they know about harm snap into place as they realize how they can avoid all of it. Other healers, having studied anatomy for decades, suddenly realize how they can protect their own bodies from the ravages of time. Some psions manage to lock their bodies into an odd form of temporal stasis, possessing the same basic effects. These immortal creatures, known as the eternal, are gifted not only with eternal life but with an outstanding resilience against most forms of harm. Armed with these defenses, many of these eternals will surviv up until the multiverse itself comes to an end.

Hit Die: d12

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Eternal, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Heal 23 ranks OR Spellcraft 23 ranks OR Autohypnosis 23 ranks
Feats: Any Two of the Following: Armor Proficiency (heavy), Combat Expertise, Diehard, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Toughness, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Psionic Body

Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Psicraft, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Eternal
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells/Psionics

1st|
+1|Eternal Life, Fight For Survival 5|--

2nd|
+2|Perfect Guard 1/encounter|+1 level of existing class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Wealth of Experience 10|+1 level of existing class

5th|
+5|Selective Invincibility I|--

6th|
+6|Fight For Survival 10|+1 level of existing class

7th|
+7|Perfect Guard 2/encounter|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing class

9th|
+9|Wealth of Experience 20|--

10th|
+10|Selective Invincibility II|+1 level of existing class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Eternal.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an eternal can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, foresee, fortify, heal, life, reflect, transport, and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An eternal may choose to use his or her ranks in heal or autohypnosis (whichever is higher) in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills for the purpose of determining epic spells per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when attempting to cast such a spell. If an Eternal doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Spellcasting/Psionics: At each even eternal level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. Alternately, the character gains new powers known and power points per day as if he or she had also gained a level in a psionic class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster or psionicist, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells or Psionics entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one applicable class before becoming an eternal, the player must decide to which class to add the new level.

Eternal Life (Su): From the moment that a being becomes an eternal, it is granted with the gift of life neverending. An eternal does not age and is immune to any spell or effect that would age it. The eternal need not eat, drink, or breathe in order to survive. Lastly, if an eternal with more than half of his or her total hit points would be slain (either through a large amount of damage or through a death effect or something similar), the eternal instead has his or her hit points lowered to his or her class level.

Fight For Survival (Ex): Eternals are anything but easy to slay as their bodies fight desperately for survival the moment they are placed at risk of death. Whenever an eternal is lowered below half of his or her maximum hit points, he or she gains Damage Reduction 5/-, Fast Healing 5, and Regeneration 5. Half of any energy damage that would be done to the eternal overcomes this rgeneration and critical hits overcome this regeneration as well. The Damage Reduction stacks with any preexisting damage reduction of the same kind and the fast healing stacks with preexisting fast healing. The value of these abilities increase by 5 at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Perfect Guard (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, an eternal knows exactly how to fight against almost any form of attack. Once per encounter, the eternal may opt to automatically succeed on a saving throw or have an attack roll made against him or her automatically fail. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per encounter.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Analyze Foe*, Anchored Form*, Anchored Mind*, Anchored Soul*, Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Cling to Life*, Damage Reduction, Effortless Guard*, Endure Energy*, Energy Resistance, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Toughness, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Freed Motion*, Great Constitution, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Spell Resistance, Incredible Dodge*, Instantaneous Invincibility*, Instinct of the Hunted*, Never Surrender*, Perfect Health, Spell Guard*, Superior Initiative, Widened Invincibility,

New FeatsInsinct of the Hunted [Epic]
When you are at risk of death, you fight back with unrivaled tenacity.
Prerequisites: Fight for Survival 5
Benefits: While benefitting from your fight for survival class feature, you gain a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the value of the fast healing that ability grants you.

Cling to Life [Epic]
You are not as easily slain as others around you.
Prerequisites: Eternal life
Benefits: You gain immunity to critical hits and death from massive damage.

Incredible Dodge [Epic]
You can dodge out of the way of attacks with great ease.
Prerequisites: Perfect Guard 1/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use your perfect guard class feature, you may immediately move 10 feet unless paralyzed, unconscious, or otherwise incapable of movement.

Analyze Foe [Epic]
You can analyze your opponents to better defend against them.
Prerequisites: Wealth of Experience 10
Benefits: Each round, you may select a single opponent with which you possess a line of sight as a free action. For every 10 points your wealth of experience class feature grants you, you gain 5 more points that may only be used against attacks and effects of the chosen foe.

Widened Invincibility [Epic]
Your invincibility isn’t as narrow as it once was
Prerequisites: Limited Invincibility II
Benefits: Though your invincibility remains limited in many senses, it now extends against all examples of the chosen source of damage ( all castings of the chosen spell, all attacks made with rapiers, all breath weapons, all forest fires, all cave-ins, etc).

Instantaneous Invincibility [Epic]
You can make yourself invincible to attacks right before they hit you
Prerequisites: Limited Invincibility I
Benefits: Once per encounter, you may change one immunity from your limited invincibility class feature to another as an immediate action.
Special: You may select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you may use the effects of the feat an additional time per encounter.

Endure Energy [Epic]
Even energy damage has a hard time piercing your defenses at times.
Prerequisites: Fight for Survival 5
Benefits: Once per encounter, when benefitting from your fight for survival class feature, you may choose to have all energy damage from a single source converted into nonlethal damage instead of half.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected, you may use this ability an additional time per encounter.

Spell Guard [Epic]
You are almost perfectly protected against magic
Prerequisites: Perfect Guard 2/encounter
Benefits: You may use your perfect guard class feature to ignore a spell as though it failed to overcome your spell resistance (whether or not you possess actual spell resistance). This has no effect against spells that don’t allow for spell resistance.

Freed Motion [Epic]
You are almost impossible to trap or immobilize.
Prerequisites: Fight for Survival 10
Benefits: You gain the benefits of freedom of movement at all times.

Anchored Soul [Epic]
Other possess an incredibly hard time snuffing out your life with magic.
Prerequisites: Fight For Survival 15
Benefits: You gain the benefits of deathward at all times.

Anchored Mind [Epic]
Without control over your own mind, eternal life is meaningless.
Prerequisites: Fight For Survival 15
Benefits: You gain the benefits of mind blank at all times.

Anchored Form [Epic]
All of the defenses on your life force aren’t worth much if others can still turn you into a frog.
Prerequisites: Fight for Survival 15
Benefits: You are immune to spells or effects that would alter your form against your will.

Never Surrender [Epic]
Even after you should rightfully be dead, it takes a while for your body to realize it.
Prerequisites: Fight for Survival 20, Diehard
Benefits: Whenever you would otherwise die, you may continue acting normally for a number of rounds equal to your Constittution modifier (minimum 1 round) before finally falling. You are immune to all forms of healing during this time.

Effortless Guard [Epic]
You can avoid harm with the greatest of ease
Prerequisites: Perfect Guard 5/encounter
Benefits: Your uses of your perfect guard class feature are measured by round instead per encounter for all purposes other than meeting prerequisites.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Wealth of Experience (Ex): If there is anything that an eternal has a great deal of experience with, it is keeping him or herself alive. Starting at 4th level, each round, the eternal gains 10 points that he or she can spend at any time to either add add an AC bonus or a Saving Throw bonus of equal size to either him or herself or to an ally who can hear and understand the eternal against a single attack or effect. Unused points do not carry over into the next round. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the number of point per round increases by +10.

Selective Invincibility (Su): So long as an eternal knows what he or she is up against, almost nothing can hope to harm him or her. Starting at 5th level, an eternal may choose to render him or herself immune to all damage that a specific source (a specific shortsword, one claw attack of a specific creature, a specific casting of wall of fire, a specific wildfire, cave-ins in one cavern, etc). At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an eternal can choose an additional source of damage to gain immunity against. As a Full-Round action, an eternal may replace one immunity with another. Only hit point damage is prevented by this effect.

Notes and Explanation:
Yes, I have made a class that fits into the role of “adamantine brick”. It is thus my job to warn people why this is generally not a good idea and justify why I created it anyways.

Generally speaking, there are two gigantic problems with “adamantine brick” classes. First of all, although most of these classes are intended as tanks, few or none of them have any ability to ensure that enemies attack them instead of your other party members. Secondly, as many of these adamantine brick classes amount to a huge and misshapen blob of immunities, they don’t really “do” anything, which is generally considered poor class design.

I personally feel that the eternal, however, doesn’t have either of these problems. The main difference between this class and other adamantine brick classes is that this class wasn’t built with the intention of turning anyone into a tank. Instead, this class is made to allow casters to keep casting and fighters to keep fighting while giving them a tremendous defensive boost. Furthermore, although these class features generally aren’t proactive, the majority do allow for some degree of choice (even if the choice is purely reactive). Also, this type of class (at least as I have heard it) does particularly well in solo games where you don’t want to play the role of healer.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:39 PM

Flawless Enforcer

Though many in existence complain about laws that inconvenience them, law remains a vital force in the multiverse. Law is what keeps large societies together and keeps things running smoothly. Law even permeates the most chaotic of societies, creating loose guidelines that allow the group to function as a whole. For every law in existence, however, there are those who wish to break them. Whether they act to unravel society or to unravel the multiverse itself, those who break the laws strain the connections between all living beings. Much like the inevitable of Mechanus, flawless enforcers are beings of great might who act to protect select laws throughout the planes. Lawmen of the entire multiverse, flawless enforcers help where things are at their worst to help the multiverse continue running smoothly.

Hit Die: d12

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any Lawful
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Skills: Intimidate 23 ranks or Sense Motive 23 ranks

Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spot, Swim, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Flawless Enforcer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Favored Transgression (1), Universal Lawkeeper

2nd|
+2|Immutable Arbiter 1/encounter

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Prevent Transgression (1)

5th|
+5|Rightful Reparations 2/recharge

6th|
+6|Favored Transgression (2)

7th|
+7|Immutable Arbiter 2/encounter

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Prevent Transgression (2)

10th|
+10|Rightful Reparations 2/recharge[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Flawless Enforcer

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a flawless enforcer can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, banish, compel, contact, destroy, dispel, foresee, reveal, and or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A flawless enforcer can use his or her base attack bonus in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills for the purpose of determining epic spell slots per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when making a spellcraft check to cast an epic spell. As a full-round action, a flawless enforcer can make a full attack and cast an epic spell. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot is not expended. If the flawless enforcer doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Favored Transgression (Su): Flawless enforcers maintain law across the multiverse, preventing certain actions from occurring and punishing transgressors. At 1st level and every 5 levels afterwards, a flawless enforcer may choose a general action that he or she exists to prohibit, ranging from rare actions such as deicide and destabilization of the planes to common actions such as theft or vandalism. Whenever a forbidden action is taken within 1 mile of the flawless enforcer, he or she instantly learns which action occurred, what direction it occurred in, the distance away it occurred, and the name and appearance of the transgressor (if any) at the moment of the crime. A flawless enforcer can identify any creature who has performed at least one prohibited action within the past 24 hours by sight so long as they are within 60 feet of him or her. With 24 hours of reflection, one prohibited action can be replaced with another.

Universal Lawkeeper (Su): As beings of law, flawless enforcers possess all of the skills that they need to judge and punish transgressors. A flawless enforcer can speak, write, understand, and read all languages and is aware of all laws in any society that they find themselves in and the punishment for breaking such laws, whether properly codified or kept by tacit agreement. Furthermore, a flawless enforcer receives a bonus to Sense Motive checks equal to his or her class level x 5 and may use Sense Motive checks in place of Forgery checks for the purpose of detecting forgeries.

At will, a flawless enforcer can spend a standard action to affect a single creature within 100 feet as if through a calm emotions effect with a duration of one hour. If the target resists or is immune to this effect (and only in such circumstances), a flawless enforcer can spend a standard action to use an implosion effect with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20, except that it’s duration is instantaneous and that it only targets that single creature. In either case, these are piercing effects with save DCs equal to 20 + Class Level + Wis mod.

Finally, a flawless enforcer can use geas/quest at will as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his or her class level. A creature affected by calm emotions isn’t freed from the effect by this action and takes no action to resist this spell. Most frequently, this ability is used to enlist additional help or to pass judgment effectively.

Immutable Arbiter (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a flawless enforcer stands strong against other effects that would seek to alter his or her form and undermine the perfection of a flawless enforcer. Once per encounter, a flawless enforcer can declare him or herself immutable for 1 round. For that round, an arbiter can’t be damaged, all spells that allow for spell resistance fail to affect him or her, and the arbiter stays in place as if an immovable rod.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Absolute Order*, Armor Skin, Contact Authorities*, Cosmic Dispensation*, Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Extended Jurisdiction*, Extended Life Span, Fast Healing, Favored of Mechanus, Flawless Zealot*, Flawless Protector*, Forced Immutability*, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Imperious Question*, Inevitable Punishment*, Irrevocable Punishment*, Label the Lawless*, Legendary Tracker, Peer Through Deception*, Recruit Enforcers*, Secure Crime Scene*, See Intent*, Superior Initiative

New FeatsRecruit Enforcers [Epic]
Those who you press into the service of law understand the importance of the task.
Prerequisites: Universal Lawkeeper
Benefits: Any creature successfully affected by your calm emotions effect is also charmed by you, as per charm monster for the same duration. Using Geas/Quest on the target does not end this effect.

Irrevocable Punishment [Epic]
Others can’t bring themselves to undo the lawful punishments you bring upon them.
Prerequisites: Universal Lawkeeper
Benefits: Any creature who you punish for breaking a law as the laws of the land dictate can’t (prematurely) reverse this punishment without first succeeding on a Will save (DC 20 + Flawless enforcer level + Wisdom modifier). In this way, a fine can’t be stolen back, targets can’t seek out healing for wounds lawfully inflicted, and targets can’t even escape from prisons they are placed in until their term is finally over. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Absolute Order [Epic]
Random chance influences very little of what you try to accomplish.
Prerequisites: Universal Lawkeeper
Benefits: Once per round, you may treat the result of any d20 roll you make as an 11. This decision must be made before the dice is actually rolled.

Imperious Question [Epic]
You can ask a question with such authority that the subject answers completely and honestly
Prerequisites: Favored Transgression (2)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can ask a being a question with the full authority of lawfulness behind it. If the target fails a Will save (DC 20 + flawless enforcer level + Wis modifier), the target answers the target honestly and completely, unable to deceive even through omission or the creation of false implications. Regardless of whether the target succeeds or fails, however, they are immune to this ability from you for the next 24 hours. This is a piercing mind-afffecting compulsion effect.

Forced Immutability [Epic]
You can temporarily freeze a creature in place if required.
Prerequisites: Immutable Arbiter 2/encounter
Benefits: As a swift action, you may spend a use of your immutable arbiter class feature and choose a creature within 100 feet. If that target fails a Will save (DC 20 + flawless enforcer level + Wis modifier), it is frozen in place for 1 round as if affected by a temporal stasis effect.

Favored of Mechanus [Epic]
You have received the full benefits of law, becoming a being akin to an inevitable.
Prerequisites: Favored Transgression (3)
Benefits: You gain the immunities of the construct type.

Extended Jurisdiction[Epic]
You can detect crimes from farther than normal
Prerequisites: Favored Transgression (2)
Benefits: The distance from which you can detect crimes through your favored transgression class feature is multiplied by x 10.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Peer Through Deception [Epic]
Your senses are difficult to fool through magic.
Prerequisites: Favored Transgression (3)
Benefits: You see the world through a true seeing effect out the full normal range of your sight. When you get an image of what the transgressor of a crime looks like through your favored transgression class feature, you view that target as if with a true seeing effect.

See Intent [Epic]
You can see the intent to break laws as easily as you can see perpetrators.
Prerequisites: Prevent Transgression (2)
Benefits: You can visually discern creatures who intend to commit one of your favored transgressions within the next 24 hours.

Cosmic Dispensation [Epic]
As a being of pure law, all of your actions are interpreted as such.
Prerequisites: Prevent Transgression (4)
Benefits: As flawless enforcers function to prevent the breaking of specific laws, they may naturally be forced to break other laws in defense of their chosen laws. With this feat, all actions you take to prevent at least one of your favored transgressions or to punish a transgressor are viewed as lawful in the eyes of all creatures around you and don’t cause you to change alignments.

Contact Authorities [Epic]
Even when you lack time to take care of an issue yourself, you can alert the rightful authorities.
Prerequisites: Prevent Transgression (3)
Benefits: As a swift action, you may mentally contact a proper authority to report information about a crime such as its time, place, nature, value of objects or number of people involved, and descriptions of any or all suspects known. The nature of what constitutes a proper authority depends on who in the area is held responsible for solving an issue of that matter. With 10 minutes of meditation, you may instead report a crime to the nearest inevitable in the multiverse responsible for maintaining one or more laws broken by the crime (if any).

Label the Lawless [Epic]
You can label a creature as a lawbreaker with the greatest of ease.
Prerequisite: Favored Transgression (1)
Benefit: Whenever you witness a creature commit one of your favored transgressions and you successfully attack that creature within the next 24 hours, all who see that creature within 24 hours after the successful attack automatically know what crime that creature has committed.

Secure Crime Scene [Epic]
You can prevent a culprit from escaping while preserving the crime scene as evidence.
Prerequisite: Favored Transgression (2)
Benefit: Whenever you witness one of your favored transgressions occur, you may secure the crime scene as an immediate action. Doing so subjects all objects in an area of up to 100 feet in radius to a gentle repose effect, protects them against disintegrate and similar effects, and holds them in place as if through an immovable rod. All suspects and culprits in the area are furthermore subjected to a dimensional anchor effect (no save). These effects last for up to one hour or until you dismiss them all as a standard action.

Inevitable Punishment [Epic]
Others are more likely to accept you as a natural force of law, making it harder to fight you.
Prerequisite: Favored Transgression (3)
Benefit: In order to take an aggressive action against you, a creature must first succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + Flawless enforcer level + Wis modifier). Lawful creatures take a -5 penalty to their saving throws. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Flawless Zealot [Epic]
Your fervor allows you to fight those who would otherwise break the law.
Prerequisites: Smite evil 3/day, Favored Transgression (1)
Benefit: Your paladin level and flawless enforcer level stack for the purpose of your smite evil class feature and you may use your smite evil class feature against any creature who has committed at least one of your favored transgressions within the past 24 hours, regardless of alignment.

Flawless Protector [Epic]
Your determination and skill in battle shines through when fighting enemies of law.
Prerequisites: Knight’s Challenge, Favored Transgression (1)
Benefit: Your knight level and flawless enforcer level stack for the purpose of determining daily usages of your knight’s challenge class feature. Whenever you kill a creature who has committed at least one of your favored transgressions within the past 24 hours, you regain a daily usage of your knight’s challenge class feature (up to your normal maximum supply).

Prevent Transgression (Su): Starting at 4th level, a flawless enforcer gains the ability to prevent specific instances of favored transgressions. The flawless enforcer names one specific example of a favored transgression such as “vandalize statue of mayor in town square of Alstead” or “murder Alvin Thompson”. In order to knowingly perform a chosen transgression, a sentient creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Wis mod). If a creature fails this saving throw, they may not knowingly commit the transgression for 24 hours afterwards. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, additional specific transgressions can be chosen and prevented in this way. With 24 hours of self-reflection, one specific transgression chosen in this way can be replaced with another. If the favored transgression is changed, all of these specific preventative measures are lost and must be reinstated one at a time in this way. This ability does not stack with itself and counts as a mind-affecting effect.

Rightful Reparations (Su): Starting at 5th level, a flawless enforcer can reverse a crime that has been committed within the past 24 hours as a full-round action. A slain creature returns to life, stolen objects return to their owner, vandalized objects are repaired, and so forth. This ability even functions if measures have been taking to prevent such occurrences, such as if a slain creature’s soul is destroyed or if stolen objects are disintegrated. If an epic monster or epic-level character commits the crime, however, the flawless enforcer must succeed on an opposed HD roll against the transgressor to reverse the crime in this way. After using this ability twice, a flawless enforcer must spend 24 hours in meditation before gaining the ability to use this ability once more. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a flawless enforcer can use this ability two additional times before recharging.

Notes and Explanation:I absolutely hate the union sentinel for reasons described later but suffice it to say that this class is meant to serve as a replacement epic lawman class. To make it clear, taking aggressive action against a creature targeted by the calm emotions effect to break it free of the effect does not allow you to use implosion. I suspect that favored transgression and prevent transgression allow for some degree of abuse but I can’t quite see how. Also, I might need help rewording rightful reparations to be more clear.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:40 PM

Font of Life

While many heroes are known for the tyrants and monsters they slay, a few gain renown for just the opposite. These legendary healers are known either for their care of other great heroes or, more rarely, for the healing they provide to the masses. Among the greatest of these healers, fueled their their connection to the positive energy plane, are known as fonts of life. While many good clerics are known for their generosity with their magic, fonts of life possess unlimited acces to curative magics and they are well aware of this fact. If a font of life stays in a town for a week, it is more than likely that all who had died within the past few centuries of the town’s history will be alive and well when the font of life decides to leave. Not bound by the same limitations as most healers, many fonts of life are forced to remind themselves that too much of their aid may cause further troubles.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a font of life, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any non-evil
Skills: Heal 23 ranks
Spells: Ability to cast at least 6 divine spells of the healing subschool, at least one of which must be 6th level or higher.

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Knowledge (religion), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Font of Life
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Everflowing Energy, Superior Healing 1/encounter|--

2nd|
+1|Spell-Woven Cure (1 spell)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Overcharge (50)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Preventative Measures (1 spell/target)|--

6th|
+3|Superior Healing 2/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Spell-Woven Cure (2 spells)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Overcharge (100)|--

10th|
+5|Preventative Measures (2 spells/target)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the font of life.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a font of life can still develop and cast epic spells using the animate, contact, dispel, fortify, life, heal, reveal, and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved

Everflowing Energy: Fonts of life possess what at times seem like a limitless supplies of positive energy, allowing for them to heal almost indefinitely. Whenever a font of life casts a spell of the healing subschool with a spell level of 4th or lower, no spell slot or prepared spell is expended. If a prepared caster spontaneously casts such a spell (as with good and some neutral clerics), the previously prepared spell is not lost. When a spell of the healing subschool of 5th level or higher would be cast, the font of life may choose to gain the same benefit in exchange for losing the benefits of this class feature for 10 minutes afterwards.

Superior Healing: When the opportunity calls for it, a font of life can call upon all of his or her skill in the blink of an eye. Once per encounter, a font of life may cast a spell of the healing subschool outside of the initiative order regardless of its normal casting time. This spell ignores all normally required components and may target any applicable target within 100 feet regardless of the spell’s normal reach. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per encounter. If adding additional spell effects with the font’s spell-woven cure class feature, all components for these added spells must be provided.

Spell-Woven Cure: With enough time and experience, a font of life can weave other spells into his or her healing. Starting at 2nd level, whenever a font of life casts a spell of the healing subschool that allows for a saving throw to resist, he or she may also cast another spell of an equal or lower spell level that designates one or more targets and add it to the effect. All creatures who voluntarily fail their saves against the healing effect are also subjected to the additional spell if they are applicable targets, even if they are not within the spell’s normal range. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an additional spell may be added to each spell of the healing subschool. Spells of the healing subschool can’t themselves be added in this way.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each font of life level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a font of life, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Font of Life can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Aggressive Overcharge*, Caster-Woven Cure*, Dominate Life Force*, Energized Healing*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Toughness, Epic Will, Everflowing Empowerment*, Establish Connection*, Extended Lifespan, Fast Healing, Font of True Life*, Great Constitution, Great Wisdom, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Cure*, Improved Overcharge*, Improved Spell Capacity, Inspire Fecundity*, Lifesense*, Manipulate Life Force*, Perfect Health, Shifting Precautions*, Superior Resurrection*, Sustenance*

New FeatsInspire Fecundity [Epic]
Your very presence creates an explosion of growth around you.
Prerequisites: Everflowing Energy
Benefits: You inspire life of all forms in the world around you. All plants within a 1-mile radius of yourself are affected as if by the enrichment function of plant growth, except that their productivity is multiplied tenfold rather than being raised by 1/3. All living creatures within range give birth to litters of twice the normal size and all unintelligent living things within range age at twice their normal rate until they reach adulthood (or an analogous state) for so long as they remain within range.

Sustenance [Epic]
You can use the energy you produce to keep yourselves and others sustained.
Prerequisites: Everflowing Energy
Benefits: You need not eat, drink, or sleep. As a standard action, you may touch a creature to heal it of fatigue and exhaustion and provide nourishment for it as if it had just received a full meal.

Everflowing Empowerment [Epic]
You are always able to provide your allies with just the boost they require.
Prerequisites: Spell-Woven Cure (3 spells)
Benefits: Spells that you cast using your spell-woven cure class feature benefit from your everflowing energy class feature as though they were of the healing subschool.

Caster-Woven Cure [Epic]
Rather than simply sending spell effects, you can send those you heal spells to cast.
Prerequisites: Spell-Woven Cure (2 spells)
Benefits: When you use your spell-woven cure class feature, you may replace any number of spell effects with an equal number of non-epic spells of a spell level up to half of that of the healing spell used to transfer such spells. These spells can be cast by their recipient any time within the next 10 minutes, regardless of mental ability scores, and the recipient need not provide any components (though the casting time remains unchanged). For the purposes of caster level and save DCs, you are treated as the caster of such spells. If these spells are not used within the next 10 minutes, they disperse and your prepared spells or spent spell slots remain expended.

Establish Connection [Epic]
You can create a temporary link between yourself and a creature you cure.
Prerequisites: Spell-Woven Cure (1 spell)
Benefits: Whenever you target an ally with a spell of the healing subschool, you create a link with that ally that lasts for 10 minutes. During this time, you are always aware of the target’s condition as if through a status effect and you may cast spells with a range of touch on the target as though they were right next to you regardless of the real distance between you.

Aggressive Overcharge [Epic]
You can pump a target with enough negative energy to make him or her explode.
Prerequisites: Overcharge (100)
Benefits: Unlike normal temporary hit points, those that you grant to enemies with your overcharge class feature are lost last instead of first. While such a creature possesses more temporary hit points than hit points, it must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Font of Life level + Wis modifier) each round or explode into a burst of light, leaving nothing but its equipment behind.

Improved Overcharge [Epic]
Every time you heal a target, you also manage to bolster them further.
Prerequisites: Overcharge (50)
Benefits: Whenever you use a spell or effect of the healing subschool to restore the hit points of a target, that target gains half as many temporary hit points (as if through your overcharge class feature). These temporary hit points stack with each other and with those granted by your overcharge class feature.

Lifesense [Epic]
You can sense the life force of all who are nearby.
Prerequisites: Superior Healing 2/encounter
Benefits: You sense the location of all living creatures within 100 feet of yourself as if you possessed blindsense. Furthermore, you detect the current hit points of all such creatures.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time you take it, the range of this sense is doubled.

Shifting Precautions [Epic]
You may change the contingent effects you have active on allies from any distance.
Prerequisites: Preventative Measures (2 spells/target)
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may cast a spell of the healing subschool with a casting time of 1 standard action or less without immediate effect. Instead, you replace any spelll effect placed on an ally with your preventative measures class feature with whatever spell was cast, regardless of the distance between the two of you.

Dominate Life Force [Epic]
You can control the positive energy in living beings as a puppeteer pulls on puppet strings.
Prerequisites: Overcharge (150)
Benefits: As a standard action, you may force any creature with temporary hit points gained through your overcharge class feature to make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Font of Life level + Wis modifier) or fall under your direct control as Dominate Monster. This is not a mind-affecting effect and the target may make another Fortitude save against the same DC each round to end the effect.

Font of True Life [Epic]
You are nearly impossible to slay
Prerequisites: Superior Healing 5/encounter
Benefits: When you use superior healing and target only yourself with the healing effect, it does not take up a use of your superior healing class feature.

Manipulate Life Force [Epic]
You can freeze living beings in place or send them fleeing.
Prerequisites: Superior Healing 2/encounter
Benefits: You may turn and rebuke living creatures as a cleric of your font of life level + 20 a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

Energized Healing[Epic]
You can give a creature an extra boost of energy with positive energy.
Prerequisites: Superior Healing 3/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you target a creature with one or more spells or effects of the healing subschool, it may take an additional standard or move action during its next action. This effect does not stack with itself.

Improved Cure [Epic]
You restore more hit points with your healing spells.
Prerequisites: Everflowing Energy
Benefits: All targets of your healing spells and effects heal an additional 20 hit points in addition to any other effects that spell may possess.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Superior Resurrection [Epic]
You bring others back to life with the greatest of skill.
Prerequisites: Superior Healing 4/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell that would return a creature back from the dead, any non-epic, non-artifact effects that would prevent it from coming back are ignored, though the soul can still choose not to be revived. Furthermore, you may revive a creature that has died of old age, granting it an additional 1d10 years of natural life.

Overcharge: Although conventional wisdom states that the healthy gain no benefits from curative magic, a font of life can fill a creature with positive energy until it overflows with vitality. Starting at 4th level, any hit points that a spell of the healing subschool would heal beyond a creature’s normal maximum, when cast by a font of life, are instead gained as temporary hit points. Temporary hit points gained through this class feature last for 10 minutes and stack with themselves but not with other sources of temporary hit points. At any given time, a creature may possess up to 50 of these temporary hit points, plus 50 at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards. For every 10 of these temporary hit points that a creature possesses, it gains a +1 morale bonus to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks.

Preventative Measures: Starting at 5th level, a font of life can use his or her curative measures to prepare in advance. A font of life can choose to cast any spell of the healing subschool with one target on any living creature as a preventative measure, even if the target isn’t a legal target at the time of casting (such as casting true resurrection on a living creature). Doing so is exactly like casting the spell except that the effects don’t immediately take effect. Instead, the font of life can make any number of spells cast as preventative measures activate at any time in the future and from any distance. At 5th level, a font of life may only place a single preventative measure on each creature. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the font of life may cast an additional preventative measure on each creature. Spells cast in this way don’t benefit from the font of life’s Spell-Woven Cure.

Notes and Explanation:
Although the thought of an epic healer sounded kind of absurd to me when I started creating this class, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I’ll be the first to admit that I strayed from the path of pure healbot into buffomancer grounds but it seems to work here (though I might be biased). Even if you aren’t too big of a healing fan, I hope you’ll agree that the idea of spamming free true resurrections at any time does sound pretty epic.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:42 PM

Godking

What does it mean to rule? While many heroes have attracted followers and cohorts to follow them, what does it truly mean to hold the fates of an entire nation in your hand? Godkings are those few beings with the charisma to join huge numbers of people together without inheritance or fortunate happenstance. Whether carving out new kingdoms or joining tribes together in unity, a godking demands respect from his or her followers that borders on worship. While less than ideal for adventuring in person, a godking is more than capable at acting through intermediaries.

Hit Die:d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Godking, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Diplomacy 23 ranks or Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 23 ranks
Feats: Leadership

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Listen, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Godking
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Absolute Authority 1/round, Godking’s Subjects

2nd|
+1|Attract the Masses x2

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat

4th|
+2|Godking’s Blessing (1 level)

5th|
+2|Attract Viceroy (1)

6th|
+3|Absolute Authority 2/round

7th|
+3|Attract the Masses x3

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat

9th|
+4|Godking’s Blessing (2 levels)

10th|
+5|Attract Viceroy (2) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Godking.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a Godking can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, animate, banish, compel, contact, heal, life, and/or summon seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A Godking may use his or her ranks in Diplomacy in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills to determine epic spell slots per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when casting an epic spell. If the godking doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Godking’s Subjects (Ex/Su): A godking evokes loyalty beyond what most leaders could ever hope to accomplish. All followers of a godking are treated as fanatical towards the godking and are immune to fear effects while possessing a line of sight with the godking. Furthermore, all followers and cohorts of at least 6th level gain leadership as a bonus feat.

The great respect and admiration that the godking’s subjects hold for him, meanwhile, grants him a degree of power similar to divinity used to reward these servants. A godking’s subjects are always able to find food and water and can always find shelter (or the materials needed to make one) regardless of what environment they find themselves in. Furthermore, a godking’s subjects are never at risk of dying from natural disasters such as famines, droughts, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, plagues, tornados, and so forth. If such a disaster is magical, supernatural, or man-made in nature, this protection does not hold. Likewise, this protection does not extend to natural conditions of dangerous environments (such as damage taken on the elemental plane of fire). This protection is supernatural in nature.

Absolute Authority (Su): A godking is able to exercise total control over those who can hear and understand him. At any time, a godking can grant any other creature who can hear and understand the godking a single standard or move action that must immediately be used as the godking dictates (if at all possible). Alternately, a godking can immediately halt any such creature from taking a single offensive action that would risk harming the godking and/or one of his or her allies. Either way, a successful Will save (DC = Leadership score) negates this ability. This ability can be used once per round at 1st level plus one additional time per round every 5 levels afterwards. This is a piercing mind-affecting, language-dependant compulsion ability.

Attract the Masses (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a godking can attract incredibly large numbers of followers. The godking multiplies the number of followers that they would gain from their leadership score by the given number (after multiplying this number through the legendary commander feat as normal), which increases by +1 at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Godking can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Bolster Allies*, Bow to None*, Chain of Command*, Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Epic Leadership, Epic Reputation, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Godly Realm* Great Charisma, Halting Authority*, Hardened Ruler*, King of the Wild*, Legendary Commander, Legendary Diplomat*, Loyalty Past Death*, Mage King*, Martial Subjects*, Perfect Health, Polygot, Renown*, Skilled Subjects*, Staggering Authority*, True Leader*, Versatile Blessing*, Warrior King*.

New FeatsRenown [Epic]
You are known far and wide for your greatness
Prerequisites: Epic Leadership
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your leadership score.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Bolster Allies [Epic]
Your presence increases the fortitude of allies.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects
Benefits: All allies within 100 feet of yourself gain temporary hit points equal to twice your godking level at the start of each round. These temporary hit points last for 1 round.

King of the Wild [Epic]
You exercise command over even less intelligent creatures.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects, Wild Empathy, Diplomacy 20 ranks
Benefits: You may make diplomacy checks against animals and can communicate with them as if affected by a perpetual speak with animals effect.

Warrior King [Epic]
You have managed to maintain your skill at arms even with your attentions turned to ruling others.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: You gain a stacking +1 morale bonus to attack rolls for each ally within 100 feet of yourself (up to +1 per godking level). Whenever you successfully hit a creature with an attack, all allies gain a morale bonus on attack rolls against the same foe equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum +1).

Mage King [Epic]
You have learned how to use the assistance of others to help you cast spells.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects, Caster 20th
Benefits: Any number of creatures can spend a full-round action to grant you a +1 bonus to your caster level for 1 round. When casting a spell with multiple targets (like haste or mass bull’s strength), you may select any number of your followers within range without counting them towards the limit of targets chosen.

Legendary Diplomat [Epic]
You possess untold skill with persuasion.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Benefits: Targets you render fanatic remain so until you take actions that would change this attitude rather than the normal 1 day + 1 day per point of Charisma bonus.

Skilled Subjects [Epic]
Your subjects are masterful with a skill of your choosing.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects
Benefits: Select one skill. All of your cohorts and followers treat that skill as a trained skill for all of their classes and gain skill focus in that skill as a bonus feat.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times, choosing a new feat each time.

Martial Subjects [Epic]
Your subjects are capable of defending themselves if requires.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects
Benefits: Select one weapon. All of your cohorts and followers gain proficiency with that weapon if they lacked it as well as with light armor (if they lacked such proficiencies) and gain weapon focus in the selected weapon as a bonus feat.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times, choosing a new weapon each time.

Chain of Command [Epic]
You control staggering forces through a chain of command.
Prerequisites: Attract the Masses x6
Benefits: Your Godking’s Subjects class feature applies to all cohorts and followers of your cohorts and followers and to their cohorts and followers and so forth.
Special: If you possess the martial subjects and/or skilled subjects, their effects are shared in the same way.

True Leader [Epic]
Others either can’t see or can see past your faults as a leader.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Subjects
Benefits: Ignore any penalty that would be applied to your leadership score, including penalties for possessing a poor Charisma score. Preexisting penalties to your leadership score are removed. Lowering your level still lowers your leadership score as normal.

Halting Authority [Epic]
You can stop others from acting with your very presence
Prerequisites: Absolute Authority 2/round
Benefits: You can use your absolute authority class feature to prevent a creature from performing any single action you choose.

Staggering Authority [Epic]
You know how to knock the wind from a target’s sails with nothing but words
Prerequisites: Absolute Authority 3/round
Benefits: Whenever you successfully use Absolute Authority to stop an enemy’s action, you may spend an additional usage to render them dazed for 1 round.

Godly Realm [Epic]
You can assert your right to rule over the world around you.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Blessing (3 levels)
Benefits: On divinely morphic planes, you gain a godly realm centered on yourself as a deity with a divine rank of (Godking level + 1)/5.

Loyalty Past Death [Epic]
Your followers and cohorts remain loyal to you long after your death
Prerequisites: Godking’s Blessing (2 levels)
Benefits: Even if you die or vanish, your followers and cohorts will remain loyal to you for the rest of their lives (or until controlled to the contrary). Unless commanded not to, your followers will do everything in their power to recover you if lost or revive you if slain, giving up their lives in the effort if necessary. Furthermore, your Godking’s Subjects and Godking’s Blessing class features continue functioning even after your demise.

Versatile Blessing [Epic]
You can help grant strength to others in a wide variety of ways.
Prerequisites: Godking’s Blessing (1 level)
Benefits: You can grant levels of any NPC class with your godking’s blessing class feature.

Hardened Ruler [Epic]
You have toughened yourself to better resist assassination attempts
Prerequisites: Absolute Authority 2/round
Benefits: You are immune to critical hits.

Bow to None [Epic]
Your mind can’t be bent by others
Prerequisites: Absolute Authority 3/round
Benefits: You are immune to mind-affecting effects.

Godking’s Blessing (Su): Starting at 4th level, a godking’s power seeps into his or her servants, making them tougher and more skilled than they would otherwise be. All of the godking’s servants gain one level in expert or warrior (their choice). This counts as a normal level in all ways (granting hp, skills, feats, and so forth) but doesn’t affect what the followers’ level counts as for the purpose of the godking’s leadership feat (a level 1 commoner empowered into a commoner 1/expert 1, for example, still counts as a level 1 follower). Levels gained in this way can’t be retrained. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the godking grants an additional level of expert or warrior to all of his or her followers (followers need not choose the same class for all additional levels gained in this way).

Furthermore, a godking of at least 4th level can touch one of his or her followers as a standard action to grant even greater benefits, granting a +4 enhancement bonus to one ability score of the godking’s choice for 24 hours. Multiple touches to a single target erase the benefits of previous touches.

Attract Viceroy (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a godking can attract and surround himself with a large variety of cohorts. At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, a godking can possess an additional cohort. Each cohort gained in this way must possess an ECL of at least 5 levels lower than the one before it.

Notes and Explanation:
This is the worst of the classes that I have created, and I mean that on multiple levels. Not only is this a class that eventually gives you an entire adventuring party of epic adventurers as a CLASS FEATURE and not only does this class open the way to headache-inducing chains involving cohorts with levels in this class but this is also the most passive of the classes that I’ve created, lacking even the excuse of spellcasting progression.

Why, then, did I make this class? Well, there are three reasons that I can come up with.
1. I have always felt that this class should have the right to exist. On some level, I was always searching through new 3.5 splatbooks hoping to find a vanilla leadership class. While some classes like the legendary leader (HoB), legendary captain (SW), thrallherd (XPH), evangelist (CDiv), and high proselytizer (ELH) came close, I was never quite satisfied. Even if the niche it fills is questionable, nothing else out there quite fills it.
2. Though perhaps a bit of a cop-out, mass minion control is already quite possible by epic levels in the hands of casters. Summoners and Necromancers (and Illusionists copying summoners) can select from lists of pre-selected minions more or less at will and Enchanters, though hindered by an “easy” immunity, can theoretically control anyone and can do so in the long term thanks to programmed amnesia and similar effects. All that this class really allows is for noncasters to get a turn with these shenanigans.
3. Even if this is the worst class here, that doesn’t mean that it is automatically horrible. Even considering the passiveness of this class, its one “usable” ability is given uses per round and remains quite versatile. Furthermore, this class has an advantage over most caster overlords in that this class will likely control far fewer relevant combatants around with him in number (only his or her cohorts and their cohorts in most cases), meaning fewer stat blocks to memorize and theoretically faster combat rounds (at least compared to other mages with similar jobs).

With all of that said, I would still appreciate any advice on how to curb the more destructive elements of leadership so long as this class can maintain its core identity. Also, I should point out that all classes like this that gain minions as class features (and there are at least a couple more) extend the length of combat rounds and risk breaking the game just as any other class with minions can so be weary.

As a final note, I apologize if anyone actually expected the godking to be a king of deities or a PrC reserved for those with divine ranks. It seemed like a good name.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:43 PM

Grand Creator

Of the many ways that casters leave their marks on the world, one of the most commonplace is through the enchanted objects he or she leaves behind. Whether these items serve some trivial function or mean the difference between life and death, their crafting is often viewed either as the pursuit of some secluded craftsmage or as the mere hobby of a more competent mage. Standing in stark opposition to these views are the grand creators, crafters who have gained near-mythic repute for the items they have forged. Beyond simply creating superior items, however, a grand creator can turn out magic items at incredible speeds and surrounds him or herself with minions of his or her own design. Far more suited for the rigors of adventure than the average magical artisan, grand creators leave behind epic legacies in the items that they choose to create.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a grand creator, a character must meet all of the following criteria.
Skills: Craft (any) 23 ranks, Spellcraft 23 ranks
Feats: Craft Construct and any four other item creation feats
Spells/Infusions: Must be able to cast 6th level spells or infusions.

Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft, Disable Device, Knowledge (all skills, taken separately), Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Grand Creator
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Quick Crafter (10,000/day), Wondercraft|--

2nd|
+1|Caged Miracles (1)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Multicraft (2 items)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Crafted Guardian (1)|--

6th|
+3|Quick Crafter (100,000/day)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Caged Miracles (2)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Multicraft (3 items)|--

10th|
+5|Crafted Guardian (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Grand Creator.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a grand creator can still develop and cast epic spells using any 8 seeds seeds of his or her choice (selected at 1st level). For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Wondercraft (Su): A grand creator can weave powerful magic into items faster than anyone else, forming powerful magic items in a matter of moments. When using this ability, a grand creator must have access to a non-magical item capable of occupying the same item slot if the item to be created is worn or to any nonmagical tiny or diminutive object if making a tool. The grand creator doesn’t cast spells or need to know the spells normally needed for crafting the item and no money or experience points are spent in this way, though he or she must be capable of crafting that type of magic item. Crafting an item in this way takes at least 1 round per day of crafting it would otherwise require, though a grand creator can choose to take longer to make the enchantment last longer. Each round that this item is being made, the grand creator must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + highest level of spell used in item’s construction + 1 per previous check). A single check failed in this way ruins the enchantment process and forces the grand creator to start over from scratch. The item is only temporarily enchanted, however, lasting for one minute per round spent making it in the first place. Any objects, creatures, and areas that the object creates also vanish at the end of this time. Constructs can’t be made in this way. At any given time, a grand creator can’t possess more items crafted in this way than half of his or her class level +1.

Quick Crafter (Ex): Even when crafting items normally, a grand creator can make permanent enchantments at an incredible speed. Creating a magic item only requires 1 day per 10,000 gp of cost (minimum 1 day). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the amount of progress that can be made towards the completion of a magic item each day is multiplied by x 10 (allowing grand creators of 11th level to create items in 1 day per 1,000,000 gp, for example).

Caged Miracles (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a grand creator can perform the otherwise impossible and create items that utilize or imitate epic spells. Doing so isn’t cheap, however, for the spell’s gp cost to develop is used in place of [caster level x spell level] when calculating the price of the item. The grand creator must make a successful spellcraft check when creating the item but people using epic spells in scrolls and similar sources need not make such a check. A grand creator may have up to one such epic item in creation at a time at 2nd level and one additional such item every 5 levels afterwards. Creating such items beyond this limit disenchants another item of the grand creator’s choice. Epic spells written onto scrolls can’t be copied into spellbooks.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even grand creator level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a grand creator, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a grand creator can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Additional Magic Item Space, Augmented Alchemy, Burn the Midnight Wax*, Commandeer Construct*, Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Epic Rod, Craft Epic Staff, Craft Epic Wondrous Item, Craft Reserves*, Craft the Mundane*, Enduring Wondercraft*, Energy Resistance, Epic Skill Focus, Forge Epic Ring, Fortify Item*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Master Staff, Master Wand, Quick Repairs*, Retain Spells*, Scribe Epic Scroll, Simple Miracles, Something from Nothing*, Tenacious Enchantments*

New FeatsEnduring Wondercraft [Epic]
The enchantments you weave in a hurry last for far longer.
Prerequisites: Wondercraft class feature
Benefits: The items you make with your wondercraft class feature last for 10 minutes per round spent creating them.

Craft Reserve [Epic]
You can craft items without expending your life force.
Prerequisites: Wondercraft class feature
Benefits: You gain a supply of 5,000 craft points that can be spent in place of experience points when crafting items. Once these points are spent, this feat grants no further benefit.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time it is taken after the first, double the number of craft points it grants and add that total to any remaining craft points you possess.

Craft the Mundane [Epic]
You can craft even mundane items at an incredible pace
Prerequisites: Quick Crafter (10,000/day)
Benefits: You may use fabricate as a spell-like ability as a standard action with a caster level equal to your grand crafter level + 20. After doing so, you must spend one hour in concentration to recharge this ability before you can do so again.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, double the amount of times you can use fabricate between recharges.

Something From Nothing [Epic]
You can create full mundane products from thin air.
Prerequisites: Quick Crafter (100,000/day)
Benefits: You may use Major Creation as a spell-like ability as a standard action with a caster level equal to your grand crafter level + 20. All items created in this way, regardless of composition, last for 24 hours/grand creator level. After using this ability, you must spend one hour in concentration to recharge this ability before you can do so again.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, double the amount of times you can use Major Creation between recharges.

Fortify Item [Epic]
You can work on a fully constructed item to make it more powerful.
Prerequisites: Efficient Crafter (100,000/day)
Benefits: You may increase the caster level of an existing item as you see fit. Doing so takes one day of crafting regardless of the costs involved. For each +1 bonus that you apply to an item’s caster level, you must pay gold pieces equal to (item cost/[current caster level x 2]).

Burn the Midnight Wax [Epic]
Crafting magic items is no longer a stressful activity for you.
Prerequisites: Multicraft (3 items)
Benefits: You are no longer restricted to 8 hours of working on item crafting each day. For every full 8 hours spent working on an item, you make progress as though you had worked for a full day. Furthermore, time spent crafting items counts towards your 8 hours of rest required for regaining spells and/or infusions.

Tenacious Enchantments [Epic]
The magic imbued in the magic items you create refused to be removed.
Prerequisites: Efficient Crafter (10,000,000/day)
Benefits: If a magic item you have created would be dispelled by a non-epic spell or effect, its effects return after 1d4 rounds.

Retain Spells [Epic]
The spells you use in magic item creation aren’t expended
Prerequisites: Efficient Crafter (1,000,000/day)
Benefits: When you work on crafting a magic item, you need not actually cast any spells listed under its crafting criteria. Instead, you must instead spend at least 8 hours of the crafting process either with all such spells prepared (if a prepared caster) or with all such spells known and with sufficient open spell slots to cast all such spells (if a spontaneous caster).

Quick Repair [Epic]
Fixing broken items is no challenge for you
Prerequisites: Multicraft (2 items)
Benefits: No matter how much it may cost to repair a broken magic item, it only ever requires 8 hours of crafting to fix. Furthermore, you can repair a dispelled item (but not an expended item) as if it were merely broken.

Commandeer Construct [Epic]
You can temporarily wrench control of an unintelligent construct over from its caster.
Prerequisites: Crafted Guardian (2)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can speak authoritatively to an unintelligent construct within 100 feet. If that construct can hear you and fails a Will save (DC 20 + Grand Creator level + Int modifier), it falls under your control. Every round, the construct may make a new Will save against the same DC to break free from this effect.

Simple Miracles [Epic]
You have found shortcuts for creating the more powerful of items
Prerequisites: Caged Miracle (4)
Benefits: Halve the cost of all items you craft with the caged miracle class feature.

Multicraft (Ex): At 4th level, a grand creator has gained enough confidence in his or her craft to multitask efficiently. The grand creator can work on creating two items instead of one during the normal 8-hour period of crafting, making full progress towards the completion of both. If one item is finished before the other, it can be replaced with the start of a third project as early as the next day. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a grand creator can work on making an additional magic item at a time.

Crafted Guardian (Ex): In a moment of truly inspired genius, a grand creator of 5th level can create a construct and imbue a part of his or her soul into it to make the crafting process easier. The grand creator can create the construct in a single day while spending only one tenth of its normal price in gold pieces and experience points. The construct to be created in this way must have a CR equal to or less than 15 + class level. Due to the infused soul the creature crafted in this way gains a +4 bonus to it’s Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, gaining an Intelligence score of 10 (including the +4 bonus) if it would otherwise lack one. Only able to press his or her soul so far, a grand creator can only have one crafted guardian at 5th level, plus an additional crafted guardian every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:At epic levels, crafting becomes surprisingly useless. If a game starts at epic levels, the crafter will start play having made all items that he or she requires. If a game achieves epic levels, it will likely be in the endgame of the campaign and it seems doubtful that there would be too much free time to work on items (especially when “decent” items start taking weeks of consecutive work to create). Between wondercraft, quick crafter, and multicraft, I hope that crafting has been sped up enough to remain usable. Crafted guardian helps to provide the grand creator some additional flavorful presence in encounters. Also, just to specify, it is completely intentional that efficient crafter makes it easier to wondercraft bigger items as you gain levels.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:44 PM

Harbinger of Endings

Contrary to how most people think, death is not the end. After one’s death, his or her soul is judged before being sent on to its rightful reward or punishment. While this is a great change to be sure, it is not the end. As for what the end even is, few can hope to wrap their minds around it. The end is the looming threat on the horizon that inspires true dread. The end, for there is only one, is the opposite bookend to the genesis of the multiverse. Almost every religion in existence has its own myths as to how it will occur and as to what will happen to the faithful afterwards. Those who actively work towards the end, however, are rare and far between. Inspired by the whispers of dark beings or through raw nihilistic fervor, a Harbinger of endings is one of the few who willingly stares out into the void. Though some are content to observe the slow approach of the end, many are drawn to play a far more active role. Whatever the case, Harbingers of endings are a threat to the multiverse itself.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Harbinger of Endings, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any Evil
Skills: Spellcraft 23 ranks
Spells: Ability to cast spells up to 6th level, including at least 2 spells with the evil descriptor
Special: Must worship an elder evil or cause the deaths of at least 100 individuals for no other purpose than to become a Harbinger of endings (you need not kill these individuals directly).

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Harbinger of Endings
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Envoy of the End, Twisted Servitude (1 outsider)|--

2nd|
+1|Destruction’s Embrace 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Glimpse the End 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Apocalyptic Might (2 epic spells)|--

6th|
+3|Twisted Servitude (2 outsiders)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Destruction’s Embrace 2/round|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Glimpse the End 2/encounter|--

10th|
+5|Apocalyptic Might (3 epic spells)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Harbinger of Endings

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a Harbinger of endings can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, banish, destroy, dispel, slay, and summon seeds. A Harbinger of endings is particularly blessed at creating effects of monumental scope. For the purpose of developing and casting epic spells using these seeds (and only these seeds), increasing the duration or range of a spell by 100% increases the spellcraft DC by +1 per application of the factor (instead of +2) and increasing the area of a spell by 100% increases the spellcraft DC by +2 per application of the factor (instead of +4).

Envoy of the End (Su): A Harbinger of endings represents the forces that mean to unravel the very multiverse and submit all into darkness. Everywhere that the Harbinger goes, signs of his or her influence inevitably appear. Within a 1-mile radius/class level of the Harbinger, minor omens make themselves known at every turn, allowing any creature within range to make a DC 20 Knowledge (religion) check to notice your presence. Furthermore, one of the following auras is always active within the area. A Harbinger of endings can switch which aura is active as a swift action.
Aura of War: All creatures within range take a penalty to Charisma-based skill checks equal to twice the Harbinger’s class level. If a creature within range fails on a bluff, diplomacy, or intimidate check, the target of this skill check has their attitude towards the one who made the skill check worsened by one step (no saving throw). As a swift action, a Harbinger of endings may specify any creature within range whose presence he or she is aware of as an object of ire. All creatures in range who are aware of that creature’s existence must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or spend their next action inflicting as much harm on the object as ire as they are able to, fighting with their best abilities.
Aura of Famine: All food and drink (other than water) within range of this aura instantly spoils to the point of inedibility as grain rots, meat spoils, milk sours, and so forth regardless of measures taken to preserve such food (whether mundane or magical). Even if eating directly off of a living creature, each mouthful taken turns to inedible ash in a creature’s mouth. As a swift action, a Harbinger of endings can quicken the hunger in any number of creatures he or she is aware of within this range. All targets within range must make a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha mod) or become exhausted and take nonlethal damage equal to half of his or her maximum hit points. No creature can be successfully affected in this way more than once per 24 hours.
Aura of Pestilence: Upon selecting this aura, the Harbinger of endings selects a disease from the list that a contagion spell can inflict. All creatures within this aura must make a Fortitude Save each hour against a DC of 20 + Class level + Cha mod in place of the normal DC for the disease or catch the disease. A new disease from the list can be chosen as a swift action. All creatures with diseases in this aura have the incubation periods of such diseases lowered to 1 hour and must make additional saving throws every hour in place of every day. As a swift action, the Harbinger of endings can inflict ability drain equal to his or her class level split however he or she desires among the ability scores of a creature he or she is aware of within this aura. This ability doesn’t permit a saving throw but no ability score can be reduced below half of its original value in this way.
Aura of Death: Within the area of this aura, the maximum lifespan of all other creatures are reduced by twice your class level (killing all creatures over this age) and the hit point total at which point creatures die is increased by the same amount (killing all creatures with hit points below this value and possibly increasing this value to a positive number). As a swift action, the Harbinger can reap the souls of any number of creatures who he or she is aware of having died within the aura within the past round. Creatures with their souls so harnessed can’t be returned from the dead by non-epic means. More importantly, each soul reaped in this way grants a stacking +1 bonus to spellcraft checks until the end of the next round (this bonus may not exceed the Harbinger’s class level x 10).

Twisted Servitude (Su): However much they would want to deny it, the very machinations of outsiders slowly but surely work towards the end of all things. A Harbinger of endings can forcefully remind outsiders of this truth, dragging them kicking and screaming into his or her servitude until the energies of the end times overwhelm them entirely. As a full-round action, the Harbinger of endings can summon any one outsider with a CR equal or less than 13 + his or her class level (regardless of its alignment). That creature is called anywhere within 100 feet (so long as that space is capable of supporting it) and obeys every order from the Harbinger of endings, comprehending regardless of the language they are spoken in. At the start of each round, however, that creature gains a negative level (even if normally immune to them) that can’t be cured through any means at the outsider rots away. This summoning lasts until the outsider is dead (it can’t be ended prematurely) and the outsider doesn’t reform on its home plane when it dies in this way, instead perishing permanently. After using this ability, a Harbinger of endings can’t do so again for one hour. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used to call an additional outsider at the same time, so long as their total CR doesn’t exceed the maximum.

Destruction’s Embrace (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a Harbinger of endings can embrace the destructive energies of the multiverse, finding succor in what brings others pain. Once per round, when a Harbinger of endings would take hit point damage from any source, he or she may choose to instead be healed by an equal number of hit points. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be use an additional time each round.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even Harbinger of endings level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a Harbinger of endings, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Arcane Control*, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Chorus of Entropy*, Diabolic Plot*, Drag to the Grave*, Drain Life*, Elder Ward*, Enhance Spell, Epic Will, Eventual Return*, Extended Lifespan, Fast Healing, Final End*, Godslayer*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Spell Capacity, Intensify Spell, Lasting Impressions*, Multispell, Subtle End*, Tenacious Magic, Threatening Presence*, Usher in Doomsday*, Vile Entity*, Words of Death*

New FeatsUsher in Doomsday [Epic]
You can perform elaborate rituals to bring about the darkest of effects
Prerequisites: Apocalyptic Might (5 epic spells)
Benefits: With 24 hours of research, supplication, and concentration, you can research an epic spell. This research requires gold pieces and experience points each equal to one tenth of the normal cost that would be required to research that spell. At the end of the 24 hours, you make a Spellcraft check to attempt to cast it once. After this casting, you do not add this epic spell to your list of epic spells known but you may repeat the process or properly research the same spell in the future. If this ritual is interrupted, all gold pieces and experience points are spent without effect.

Elder Ward [Epic]
Your conviction in your dark mission protects you from divine magic.
Prerequisites: Destruction’s Embrace 3/round
Benefits: Divine spells that allow for spell resistance fail to affect you as if they had failed to overcome your spell resistance.
Special: You cannot select Elder Ward if you already possess Arcane Control. You may not select both feats at the same level.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Arcane Control [Epic]
Your total mastery over arcane magic protects you from it.
Prerequisites: Destruction’s Embrace 3/round
Benefits: Arcane spells that allow for spell resistance fail to affect you as if they had failed to overcome your spell resistance.
Special: You cannot select Arcane Control if you already possess Elder Ward. You may not select both feats at the same level.

Eventual Return [Epic]
Prerequisites: Destruction’s Embrace 4/round or Dark Tactician 4/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you are slain, your body is forced back to life 1d10 months later as per true resurrection. Only effects that would otherwise destroy or seal away your soul can prevent you from returning in this way.

Lasting Impressions [Epic]
Even the small glimpse you grant of the end can leave lasting impressions on others.
Prerequisites: Glimpse the End 1/encounter
Benefits: Any enemy successfully panicked by your glimpse the end class feature at any point in the past is shaken for as long as it remains within your presence. Any enemy successfully nauseated by your glimpse the end class feature at any point in the past is sickened for as long as it remains in your presence. These effects have no maximum duration.

Subtle End [Epic]
None can tell that you are present until it is far too late
Prerequisites: Envoy of the End
Benefits: You may suppress or reactivate your envoy of the end class feature as a full-round action.

Final End [Epic]
You destroy the souls of those that you slay.
Prerequisites: Glimpse the End 1/encounter
Benefits: All creatures that you slay have their souls destroyed. They can’t be revived by any divine magic short of a miracle or wish and even such magic possesses a 50% chance of failing.

Diabolic Plot [Epic]
When you take the time to plan ahead, success is almost guaranteed.
Prerequisites: Envoy of the End or Puppet Master
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may choose to embark upon a diabolical plot. You may select a number of attack rolls, saving throws, and/or skill checks up to your Intelligence modifier. When selecting a saving throw, you must specifically designate what save will be made and specifically what that save will be made against (getting as specific as what caster will cast what specific spell if you select a spell or what specific trap in what specific location will provoke the saving throw). If selecting a skill check, you must specify exactly what skill will be used to accomplish exactly what end (and against which specific creature, if applicable). If selecting an attack roll, you must specify who the attack roll will be against and what specific weapon or spell will be used for the attack.
At any time within the next 24 hours, when you would make one of your specified rolls, you may instead treat the dice result as a 20 and add an additional +2 bonus for each other specified roll you have already used. You may use each specified roll only once in this manner (though you can choose a single roll more than once) and this feat does not allow you to automatically succeed on attack rolls or saving throws. You may only use this feat once per day.

Drag to the Grave [Epic]
The twisted outsider that you summon can drag others back into oblivion with them.
Prerequisites: Twisted Servitude (1 outsiders)
Benefits: Whenever a creature you summon through twisted servitude dies, all living creatures within 5 feet of it (other than you) must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Harbinger of Endings level + Cha mod) against a destruction effect (Caster level equals Harbinger of Endings level + 20). This is a piercing effect.

Vile Entity [Epic, Vile]
Your very essence is filled with dark power that you express with every spell.
Prerequisites: Five or more vile feats
Benefits: All damage that you deal with your spells or attacks is treated as vile damage.

Drain Life [Epic]
The life you regain from embracing destruction is stolen from the one to harm you
Prerequisites: Destruction’s Embrace 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you use Destruction’s Embrace, any creature who would have dealt you that damage takes half as much damage itself. This is a necromancy effect.

Chorus of Entropy [Epic]
The twisted creatures you summon flourish when exposed to energies of the end times.
Prerequisites: Twisted Servitude (3 outsiders), Glimpse the End 2/encounter
Benefits: Outsiders you summon through your twisted servitude class features aren’t negatively affected by your glimpse the end class feature. In fact, they gain a +4 enhancement bonus to all of their ability scores and don’t gain any negative levels on any round in which you use glimpse the end.

Words of Death [Epic]
You can bring death to others with the greatest of ease.
Prerequisites: Twisted Servitude (3 outsiders)
Benefits: As a standard action, you can use Power Word Kill or Wail of the Banshee as a spell like ability with a Caster Level equal to your Harbinger of endings level + 20 (Save DCs are Charisma-based). After using either ability once, you must spend one hour in meditation, supplication, or concentration to recharge this ability before you can use either spell-like ability again.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it after the first, double the number of times you can use these spell-like abilities (in any combination) before needing to recharge.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Glimpse the End (Su): Starting at 4th level, a Harbinger of endings can give those around him and her a short taste of what is yet to come as a standard action, revealing the broken landscapes of the end times filled with the broken bodies of the fallen and incomprehensible beings of apocalyptic might. Only creatures within 100 feet of the Harbinger can perceive this world but it is not a simple illusion and true seeing and similar effects do not see through it. All other creatures within range must make a Fortitude save, Will save, and Reflex save. Creatures who fail their Fortitude save are nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds. Creatures who fail their Will saves are panicked for 1d4+1 rounds. Creatures who fail their Reflex Save take 5d6 damage/level as the creatures take note of them. Also, during this time, all other creatures treat all squares within range as difficult terrain. At the Harbinger’s option, he or she may grant any number of willing allies immunity to this ability, though doing so renders the targets blind, deaf, and dazed for 1 round. This vision of the end times only lasts for a single round. This ability can be used once per encounter at 4th level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Apocalyptic Might (Su): Starting at 5th level a Harbinger of endings can chain together even the most powerful of magicks together in a show of apocalyptic might, though doing so is not without dangers. A Harbinger of endings can cast two epic spells with a casting time of 1 standard action as a single standard action. To do so, make a single Spellcraft check against the higher spellcraft DC + 10. Even if this check succeeds, however, there is a 50% chance that only the first epic spell manifests. Whether this check succeeds or fails, the Harbinger immediately takes damage equal to this DC x 5 (this damage can’t be negated, reduced, shared with others, or turned into healing via destruction’s embrace). At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Harbinger of endings may cast an additional epic spell simultaneously, though each spell after the first adds a + 10 bonus to the spellcraft DC.

Notes and Explanation: At long last, a class designed for bad guys (though still playable for players). Not too much to say here for once. I’m pretty happy with how things turned out, though there might be a couple of feats that I should address.

First, the subtle end feat may look like a blatant feat tax to some people if you want any chance of interacting with people. While I’ll admit that this eventually becomes the case, I’d like to point out that you can actually go a few levels without it as the death aura is hard to detect at lower levels.

Secondly, Diabolic plot is more than a little bit complicated, though mostly by design. To make the most use of the feat, you’ll need lots of information about what you are planning on doing ahead of time. While not always feasible or practical, it can make for nice situations when it does work.

As one last note, even though this class is where the ability would go, I have purposefully left out any ability to call up a sphere of annihilation (even through feats). I personally hate that epic-level binders can call one up as it is. It’s not that I have anything against artifacts as a class feature (see the dragon overlord, above) but I just don’t believe in no-save-just-die abilities and think that they make for horrible anti-climaxes.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:47 PM

Herald of the Outer Spheres

Beyond the furthest planes of existence, in the space between all spaces, rest the Far Realms of Insanity. Obeying few if any of the constants that we take for granted in the multiverse, the Far Realms is a place devoid of structure and beyond comprehension. At the very least, that is what most scholars believe. A rare few beings, however, seem to demonstrate that this may not be the case. Calling themselves heralds of the outer spheres, these beings wield incredible might that seems to have been drawn from the far realms themselves. Those few who have talked with these heralds or read their works inevitably learn that they believe themselves to be working for a greater power beyond the planes. Some of these heralds even claim to have pierced the madness of the realm to discern its true nature. Though the truth of these claims has never been tested, the power and fervor that most heralds wield is beyond question. Whenever these heralds go, madness follows not far behind.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Herald of the Outer Planes, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (The Planes) 23 ranks
Spells: Must be capable of casting 4th level spells or lesser invocations.
Special: Must have made peaceful contact with a creature from the far realms or have been driven insane in the past (you need not have been cured since then).

Class Skills: Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (The Planes), Perform, Profession, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Herald of the Outer Planes
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Cage of Flesh, Herald of Madness I|--

2nd|
+1|Alien Geometry 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Dread Influence (1 mile)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Otherworldly Summons 1/encounter|--

6th|
+3|Herald of Madness II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Alien Geometry 2/round|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Dread Influence (10 miles)|--

10th|
+5|Otherworldly Summons 2/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the herald of the outer spheres.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a herald of the outer spheres can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, banish, compel, conjure, slay, summon, transform, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Cage of Flesh (Su): A herald of the outer spheres has been forever reshaped by the alien powers he or she serves, no longer resembling the being he or she once was. The herald is treated as either his or her previous type or as an outsider (whichever if more beneficial) for all purposes (such as returning back from the dead). Furthermore, the herald gains immunity to mind-affecting effects. Whenever a divination spell or effect either includes the herald in its area, targets the herald, or would otherwise reveal information about the herald, the caster must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier). If successful, the caster simply gains no information. If the caster fails, he or she goes permanently insane as the insanity spell.

Lastly, a herald of the outer spheres gains great influence over creatures of madness, including aberrations, creatures from the far realm, and all other creatures suffering from insanity (whether such insanity is racial as with derro, results from taint, or is gained through magical means like insanity). Such creatures automatically recognize a herald of the outer spheres for what it is, start with an attitude two categories closer to fanatic towards him or her, and can only attack the herald with a successful Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier).

Herald of Madness (Su): The madness of the outer spheres is forever carried around with the herald of outer spheres, often lurking just beyond the perception of mortals. As a swift action, a herald may call one of the many elements of this madness to the surface where others are exposed to it. The element of madness remains in place so long as the herald of the outer spheres spends a swift action each round to maintain it. Unless otherwise noted, a herald of madness must decide when calling forth an element of madness whether it should target creatures of madness (aberrations, creatures from the far realms, and creatures suffering from insanity) or sane creatures (all other living creatures). While some heralds of the outer spheres live to hunt and torment other beings of madness, others torment the living exclusively or simply harms whatever is close at hand.

At 1st level, a herald of the outer spheres must select how these elements of madness are delivered (this decision can not be changed afterwards). The herald may choose to deliver these elements as a gaze attack with unlimited range, filling his or her own visage with madness to infect others. Alternately, the herald may choose to deliver this madness audibly to anyone who can hear the herald, slipping the madness into his or her words or performances. Finally, the herald may simply choose to deliver this madness with his or her presence, not requiring anyone to sense the herald but restricting the maximum range of this ability to 100 feet. The save DC for all elements that possess them equals 20 + Class level + Cha modifier. The different elements that a herald of the outer spheres can call forth are detailed below:

Essence of Endless Flesh: Affected creatures are affected as if by a freedom of movement effect, gain an extra tentacle natural attack sized appropriately for them, and gain fast healing 5. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, targets gain an additional tentacle attack with this class feature and the value of the fast healing is increased by 5.
Essence of Madness Unleashed: Affected creatures are confused and take two points of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma damage each round. Each round, such a creature may make a Will save to negate the confusion for 1 round. Any creature with an ability score reduced to 0 in this way remains conscious, are freed from the confusion effect, and under the control of the herald (as dominate monster) for the duration of this element of madness, At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, increase the amount of ability damage to each mental ability score by two per round.
Essence of Recurrent Oblivion: Affected creature gain two negative levels per round and are both dazed and paralyzed as their bodies twist and consume themselves. At the start of each round, such a creature may make a Fortitude save to break free from the daze and paralysis for 1 round. Any creature slain by this melody leaves nothing more than a puddle on the ground where they once stood. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterward, this melody grants an additional two negative levels each round.

Alien Geometry (Ex): Though a herald of the outer spheres looks much like a being of flesh and blood, his or her body is built in a way that defies most logic and space is bent around him or her in a way that makes attacking the herald quite difficult. Most attacks and spells aimed at the herald seem to go absolutely nowhere at all. Starting at 2nd level, a herald of the outer spheres can force a creature who is targeting him or her with an attack, spell, or effect to make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier). If the saving throw is failed, the herald is unaffected by that attack, spell, or affect. This ability can be used once per round at 2nd level and one additional time per day every 5 levels afterwards.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even class level, a herald of the outer spheres gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a herald of the outer spheres, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a herald of the outer spheres can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Broken Barriers*, Damage Reduction, Dimensional Jaunt*, Edge of Perception*, Eternal Herald*, Fast Healing, Forced Conversion*, Glare of the Void*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Influence Goals*, Insidious Herald*, Mad Scribe*, Perfect Health, Persona of Madness*, Shattered Geometry*, Sire Madness*, Threatening Presence*, Unearthly Circulation*

New FeatsEdge of Perception [Epic]
The madness you unleash into the world lurks at the edge of the senses, thankfully missed by many.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness I
Benefits: Whenever you use your herald of madness class feature, you may select any number of creatures that you are aware of. All chosen creatures are immune to that usage and remain immune if you continue that usage.

Broken Barriers [Epic]
You can shatter boundaries that were never made to be crossed
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness V
Benefits: Once per day, as a full-round action, you can open a permanent gate to the far realms, as per the gate spell. These gates can only be used for travel, however, and not for calling creatures.

Shattered Geometry [Epic]
Few weapons used to attack you surive the process to do so again.
Prerequisites: Alien Geometry 2/round
Benefits: Whenever a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your alien geometry class feature when attacking you with a manufactured weapon, that weapon must succeed on a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Herald of the Outer Spheres level + Cha modifier) or be shattered immediately afterwards as the alien geometry around you twists the weapon into impossible shapes. Artifacts are immune to this ability.

Unearthly Circulation [Epic]
You can use your otherworldly geometry to capture and harness effects rather than simply avoid them.
Prerequisites: Alien Geometry 3/round
Benefits: Whenever a creature fails on a saving throw against your alien geometry class feature when targeting you with a spell or effect, you may store that spell or effect away. Within the next 10 minutes, as a full-round action, you may call up that spell or effect, targeting a legal target within 100 feet. For this purpose, use the same save DC, caster level, and attack roll results as applicable. You may only store one spell or effect at a time in this way and trying to store another results in the first being lost.

Dimensional Jaunt [Epic]
You can move small distances without ever having been seen to move.
Prerequisites: Alien Geometry 1/round
Benefits: Whenever a creature fails on a saving throw against you alien geometry class feature, you may teleport a distance up to half of your speed.

Insidious Herald[Epic]
You can pass along sane beings and slip into almost any society.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness II
Benefits: You may use disguise self at will as a supernatural ability. The resultant disguise is not illusory in nature and allows no saving throw to disbelieve.

Persona of Madness [Epic]
Even the uttering your name means running the risk of attracting your mad attentions.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness IV
Benefits: Whenever a creature utters your name aloud and with the intention of referring to you, you instantly learn of this fact and may subject that creature to your herald of madness class feature as an immediate action. You may sustain this usage as normal but no other targets are affected. Each time this feat is activated, you only learn the identity of the creature to speak your name if you are exceedingly familiar with that creature (such an an old friend or family member).

Eternal Herald [Epic]
Death has little hold over you.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness III
Benefits: You can not be slain through hit point damage. While below -10 hit points, you are unconscious even if a feat or ability like diehard would otherwise keep you conscious at negative hit points. While at or under -10 hit points, you need not breathe and you heal one hit point each year.

Sire Madness [Epic]
Your progeny are forever marked by the far realms.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness I
Benefits: All offspring that you have after gaining this feat are born with the half-farspawn template (Lords of Madness p. 151).

Influence Goals [Epic]
You can use your influence over the world around you to bend the will of others.
Prerequisites: Dread Influence (1 mile)
Benefits: Once per day, you may use your Dread Influence class feature to grant all creatures within range a single suggestion effect as a standard action, using the normal save DC as for your Dread Influence class feature. The maximum duration of this suggestion is 24 hours.

Forced Conversion [Epic]
You can transform a creature of flesh into a being of madness, putting him or her under your control.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness III
Benefits: By spending 1 hour with a willing or immobilized target, you may attempt to forcefully convert it into a less mundane creature, requiring that the creature make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Herald of the Outer Spheres level + Cha modifier) or gain the pseudonatural template (Lords of Madness p. 161). Such creatures retain little of their original personalities and few of their memories but start with an attitude of friendly towards you (this does not stack with your cage of flesh class feature).

Glare of the Void [Epic]
When others seek to learn about you, you end up learning about them.
Prerequisites: Cage of Flesh
Benefits: Whenever a creature attempts to use a divination spell or effect in a way that would trigger your cage of flesh class feature, you automatically view, detect, or learn about that creature (and only that creature) as if you were using the same divination spell or effect with the same spellcaster level and save DC.

Mad Scribe [Epic]
All that you write and draw carries a bit of your madness.
Prerequisites: Herald of Madness II
Benefits: All text that you write and artworks you produce absorb your madness, becoming a symbol of insanity with a caster level equal to your class level (Save DC 20 + Herald of the Outer Spheres level + Cha modifier) 10 minutes after the writing has been completed.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Dread Influence (Ex): A herald of the outer spheres acts as the epicenter to a massive incursion of inimical energies that flood in from the Far Realms. Through raw force of will, a herald of the outer spheres can direct this energy to some limited degree. As a standard action, a herald of the outer spheres can generate any of the following effects within a 1-mile radius:

Influence Sleepers: All sleeping and dreaming creatures within range are instantly subjected to a dream or nightmare effect with a caster level equal to the herald of the outer spheres’ class level + 20. All targets must be affected by the same effect and must receive the same nightmare or dream.
Influence Emotion: All waking creatures within range are either thrown into fear or anger if they fail their Will save. Creatures thrown into fear are Panicked for 1d4 rounds. Creatures thrown into Anger are forced to spend each round attempting to kill the nearest living thing (or searching for a living thing to kill if none are available) using the most efficient methods available to them for 1d4 rounds. All targets must be affected by the same emotion.
Influence Geometry: The herald of the outer spheres messes with either movement or connection for 1 round. If messing with movement, creatures move 5 feet in a random direction for every 10 feet of movement they would otherwise take. If messing with connections, each portal (such as doors or windows) connect not to their destination but to the destination of another random portal within 100 feet (if any). Which side of the portal it leads to is determined randomly.
Influence Magic: The herald of the outer spheres can either suppress or randomize magic within range for 1 round. If suppressing magic, all spell effects within range with a caster level equal to or lower than the herald’s class level + 10 are suppressed for 1 round. If randomizing magic, all spells cast during that 1 round have all decisions required for those spells (such as selecting a target) determined at random from among all possible eligible choices.
Influence Details: The herald of the outer spheres can make any cosmetic change to the area so long as it carries no mechanical effect such as cracking all mirrors in the area, coloring the bark of all trees green, or causing a momentary chill to fill the area. This effect is instantaneous.

The save DCs for all abilities that possess them equals 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the radius of the area that the herald can influence is multiplied by x 10.

Otherworldly Summons (Su): A herald of the outer spheres rests at the boundary between the sane world and the far realms. Creatures from the far realms seeking to invade the world often sense this weakness in the barrier and swarm around the herald, unseen to others and little more than figments even to him or her. Starting at 5th level, a herald of the outer spheres can spend a move action to call forth an aberration or a creature from the far realms with HD up to his or her Class Level + 13 into a square within 100 feet capable of supporting the creature once per encounter. The summoned creature lasts for one round, acts in initiative right after the herald of the outer spheres, and is controlled telepathically. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per encounter.

Notes and Explanation:
Ah, the Far Realms. How I do so adore the Far Realms (an adoration that spawned my screen-name, incidentally). Though I understand that some people might have been expecting it, I decided not to plug this class into my xenotheurgy system. In fact, I decided to do something entirely different.

The Far Realms, as it is frequently depicted by WotC, frankly doesn’t strike me as all that Lovecraftian. According to most D&D mythos, the Far Realms are a realm of complete and utter madness made incarnate, a place beyond our comprehension where several beings strong enough to end the multiverse a thousand times over just happen to be lurking.

Reading through, say, dreams in the witch house, however, we get a bit of the chaos and madness described above (unearthly geometry and sentient bubbles, for example) but that’s hardly the only thing we get. We get an entire city of elder gods where discordant music plays in the background for the blind, deaf, and dumb creator and we see at least one servant of that creator as well. Rather than being told that there is no structure to be found, we are led to believe that there is some manner of structure to the realm beyond but that mere mortals are unable to comprehend this structure.

The idea behind this class, as it were, is that the character has grown powerful enough to start seeing a pattern in the infinite madness of the far realms. Not even these heralds could hope to understand this structure, mind you, but they have glimpsed behind the curtain just long enough to know that it’s there. If you prefer your far realms formless and crazy, reflavoring the class shouldn’t be too difficult.

Also, although I’m kind of glad that I included some manner of summoning ability (it really does seem to suit this class), I personally don’t think that I implemented the idea in the best way. Any ideas you may have for altering that ability or for transforming it into a pseudo-summoning ability will be taken to heart.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:49 PM

Infernal Regent

They say that every man has his price, a maxim that devils often prove true with the faustian bargains they offer. As a soul’s possessor becomes stronger, however, more and more effort or compensation is required to obtain that soul. By the time that a being can cast epic magic, there is little in all of the nine hells that could hope to approach the worth of his or her soul. To some enterprising mortals, however, this is taken as a challenge. Offering their souls and a promise not to usurp the archdukes of hell, these mortals have managed to obtain the most valuable of commodities: debt owed to them from all of devilkind. Infernal Regents typically emerge from powerful beings aligned with the forces of hell long before their deaths, hoping to slip into the highest echelons of baator while forever escaping the rightful torment that their souls deserve. While they have surrendered the right to rule in hell, the most powerful among them still control it from the shadows.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Infernal Regent, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any nongood and nonchaotic
Skills: Profession (barrister) 23 ranks or Knowledge (the planes) 23 ranks
Spells/Invocations: Must be capable of casting glibness, charm monster, and/or the charm evocation.
Special: Must have made a faustian bargain with a devil or another infernal regent.

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Knowledge (the planes), Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Infernal Regent
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Signed in Blood, Temptation 1/encounter|--

2nd|
+1|Devil in the Details (1)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Hellfire Shield 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Taste of Power 1/target|--

6th|
+3|Tempation 2/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Devil in the Details (2)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Hellfire Shield 2/round|--

10th|
+5|Taste of Power 2/target|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Infernal Regent

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an Infernal Regent can still develop and cast epic spells using the afflict, animate dead, compel, conceal, reflect, slay, summon, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Signed In Blood (Su): Above and beyond signing away his or her soul, an infernal regent has signed away his or her service as well, a prize for which infernal powers have paid most handsomely. Outsiders with the lawful and evil subtypes can’t attack or take aggressive actions against the infernal regent without succeeding on a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod). As a standard action, an infernal regent can dominate any such creatures (DC 20 + class level + Cha mod Will save rejects), as a piercing dominate monster effect with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20. This ability doesn’t affect the archdukes of hell and any such archduke can free any devil from the infernal regent’s control and/or grant it immunity to this ability for 24 hours over any distance as a swift action. The terms of your agreement also prevent you from taking aggressive actions against any archduke (no save).

An infernal regent can make Faustian bargains similarly to other devils, granting a creature with a soul up to three wishes in exchange for its soul, though none of these wishes can be used to harm or kill the infernal regent directly. The infernal regent decides how these wishes are granted. This form of agreement can’t be formed under magical compulsion or threat of death, though other forms of duress (such as threatening to kill others) are acceptable.

The infernal regent no longer ages and can last for eons and eons. Even when the regent dies, he or she is granted 24 hours of leeway, during which time he or she can be restored from the dead. After this time, however, his or her soul is quickly processed into a lemure before being promoted almost immediately into a pit fiend. The pit fiend possesses dim shadows of its former memories and identity, acting friendly towards former allies and unfriendly towards former enemies. Even so, the person who the regent once was is truly gone forever and this pit fiend is an NPC under the control of the DM. After being transformed in this way, an infernal regent can’t be restored from the dead by any means.

Temptation (Su): Even when not actively forming pacts, an infernal regent can take advantage of the darkness in the hearts of others. Once per encounter, an infernal regent can spend a move action to force a creature to make a Will Save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha) or become lawful evil, viewing the regent as an ally while viewing any former allies who now oppose the target’s alignment on at least one axis as a hated enemy. Evil or lawful creatures take a -5 penalty to this saving throw and lawful evil creatures suffer a -10 penalty instead. The target is permitted to a new Will save against the same DC to free themselves each round and this ability lasts until the target frees itself. This is a piercing mind-affecting ability. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used one additional time per encounter.

Devil in the Details (Su): Starting at 2nd level, an infernal regent learns how to sneak hidden conditions into his faustian bargains. When making a faustian bargain, the infernal regent may include a suggestion effect with a preselected order to be secretly added into the pact, activating only when a specific, observable circumstance comes about (also preselected by the regent). This ability allows for no saving throw as the target unwittingly agrees to this condition with the rest of the pact. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an additional suggestion can be included.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even infernal regent level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an infernal regent, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an infernal regent can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Call in a Favor*, Dark Sustenance*, Devil’s Thoughts*, Energy Resistance, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Eye on the Prize*, Grant Hellfire*, Grant Reprieve*, Great Charisma, Hellfire Mastery*, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Incite Paranoia*, Infernal Debt*, Loan of Luck*, Perfect Health, Polygot, Power of Promise*, Spell Stowaway, Summon Minion*, Superior Initiative, Sweeten the Deal*, True Power*, Twisted Admiration*.

New FeatsIncite Paranoia [Epic]
You’re words distract others as they keep an eye on their supposed allies.
Prerequisites: Temptation 1/encounter
Benefits: All creatures who can hear and understand you take a stacking -1 penalty to attack rolls and to AC until the end of the encounter each time an ally of that creature that the both of you can see or hear misses with an attack roll. This penalty can’t exceed your Charisma bonus (minimum -1).

Devil’s Thoughts [Epic]
You can communicate with others telepathically like a devil.
Prerequisites: Signed In Blood
Benefits: You gain telepathy out to 100 feet.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, double the range of your telepathy.

Loan of Luck [Epic]
You can loan another creature luck in the short term and pass off their bad fortune to another.
Prerequisites: Signed In Blood
Benefits: Whenever a creature within your line of sight would make an attack roll or saving throw, you may mentally offer a boost of power, granting a bonus equal to your charisma modifier or infernal regent level (whichever is higher) to that roll. If the target accepts this boost, you harmlessly carry the debt of luck with you for up to 10 minutes or until you utilize it, granting the same creature or an ally of that creature a penalty of equal size to an attack roll against one of its foes or to a saving throw against an effect created by such a foe. You may not grant further bonuses while you carry a debt of luck.

Grant Reprieve [Epic]
You can make a deal with a creature to grant it protection in return for protection from itself.
Prerequisites: Loan of Luck
Benefits: As a move action, you may mentally offer a creature within your line of sight temporary reprieve in the middle of combat. If the creature accepts this reprieve, no creature can take aggressive actions against it without succeeding on a Will save (DC 20 + infernal regent level + Cha modifier) for 1d4 rounds or until it next takes an aggressive action. In return for this reprieve, the target can’t take aggressive actions against you or your allies for 5 rounds (no saving throw). This protection holds even if the target expends their own protection or if you or your allies succeed in attacking the target.

Hellfire Mastery [Epic]
You can instill your attacks with the power of hellfire.
Prerequisites: Hellfire Shield 1/round
Benefits: Your Hellfire Shield class feature deals an extra +1d6 points of damage. With a ranged touch attack within 30 feet, you can deal 1d6 points of hellfire damage. If you possess the eldritch blast class feature, this extra damage is also added to your eldritch blast.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Grant Hellfire [Epic]
You can grant hellfire to others with the right words.
Prerequisites: Hellfire Mastery
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can grant the benefit of your hellfire mastery feat(s) to a touched creature for 10 minutes. If the target lacks your hellfire shield class feature, it gains hellfire shield as a 4th level infernal regent. When using your signed in blood class feature to seal a faustian bargain, you may offer this hellfire as an additional incentive. When you grant a creature hellfire in this way, it lasts for a year and a day instead of 10 minutes.

Summon Minion [Epic]
You can summon minions to serve you or grant infernal lackeys to those who make pacts with you.
Prerequisites: Temptation 2/encounter
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can spend a use of your temptation class feature to summon a devil with a challenge rating up to your infernal regent level anywhere within 100 feet. This effect functions much as a Summon Monster spell except that it lasts until the end of the encounter and can’t be used while not in immediate peril. When using your signed in blood class feature to form a faustian bargain, you may offer an infernal minion as an additional incentive. When you grant a creature a minion in this way, it remains for a year and a day (or until slain or dismissed).

Dark Sustenance [Epic]
You require very little to survive, a gift that you can pass onto others who make pacts with you.
Prerequisites: Signed In Blood
Benefits: You no longer need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. Furthermore, you are protected at all times as if by an endure elements effect. When you use your signed in blood class feature to make a faustian bargain, you may offer this sustenance as an additional incentive. When you grant a creature this sustenance, it lasts a year and a day or until the target’s alignment shifts towards chaotic or good, whichever comes last (a chaotic and/or good creature granted this benefit only benefits for a year and a day regardless of alignment shifts within this time).

True Power [Epic]
You are rewarded for your efforts corrupting the souls of others and can offer greater power.
Prerequisites: Taste of Power 1/target
Benefits: At the start of each week and whenever you make a faustian bargain using your signed in blood class feature, you gain a soul point. You may spend one or more soul points at any time to harness greater fiendish energy. For each point spent, you either gain a stacking +1 bonus to your caster level or a stacking +2 bonus to an ability score of your choice for 10 minutes. When you use your signed in blood class feature to make a faustian bargain, you may offer a target the benefits of up to two spent soul points as an additional incentive. When soul points are spent in this way, the benefits last for a year and a day.

Twisted Admiration [Epic]
Those who make pacts with you never hold grudges and you can lend them a bit of your dark charisma.
Prerequisites: Taste of Power 2/target
Benefits: Creatures that you make faustian bargains with through your signed in blood class feature can’t be worse than indifferent towards you, improving to indifferent if otherwise hostile or unfriendly. This effect allows for no saving throw but is suppressed for 10 minutes on any targets you take an aggressive action towards. When you use your signed in blood class feature to make a faustian bargain, you may offer a target the ability to win over others as an extra incentive. For a year and a day after being lent this power, the target can use charm person at will as a spell-like ability (Caster Level 20, DC 14 + target’s Charisma modifier).

Infernal Debt [Epic]
You can lend others some small taste of your immortality, though the price is incredibly high.
Prerequisites: Taste of Power 3/target
Benefits: When using your signed in blood class feature to make a faustian bargain, you may offer to grant them immortality as an extra incentive. Doing so grants the target most of the benefits of your signed in blood class feature as a 1st level infernal regent, although it gains no influence over outsiders. In return for this immortality, however, the target is put in debt to both the nine hells and to yourself. The target permanently loses the benefits of the signed in blood class feature if he or she fails to make at least one faustian bargain each month. Furthermore, you may claim repayment from your target in the form of obedience as your taste of power class feature except that the domination lasts for up to 1 year. You may not call in repayment for 1 month after forming the pact and instructions that would invalidate one or more of the target’s wishes (such as slaying a creature who he or she used a wish to revive) are not only ignored but end the payment period prematurely.

Call in a Favor [Epic]
You reserve the right to call in favors from those
Prerequisites: Devil in the Details (4)
Benefits: When you decide the suggestions to put in place with your devil in the details class feature, you may decide to replace any number of specific suggestions with favors. As a full-round action, you may select any creature that owes you at least one such favor in this way. That creature is instantly summoned anywhere within 100 feet of you that can support the creature. As the creature is summoned in this way, you give them a single suggestion (no saving throw) with a caster level equal to your infernal regent level + 20. After 10 minutes, when the target is slain, or after the suggestion is dispelled or expended (whichever comes first), the target returns from where it came from (even if slain, as normal for summoning) with no memory of the summoning.

Sweeten the Deal [Epic]
You have learned ways to make your faustian bargains look more attractive, though not without costs.
Prerequisites: Devil in the Details (3)
Benefits: When you use your signed in blood class feature to form a faustian bargain, you may add one or more of the following conditions to the pact to make it more attractive to the target:

Escape Clause: When making a faustian bargain with an escape clause, you set one or more conditions that allows a target to reclaim his or her soul while maintaining the benefits of the bargain. Typically used when labor is more needed than souls, at least one of the conditions must be met before the target’s death for the target to escape its fate. To prevent you from setting simple conditions to use faustian bargains as “gifts”, at least one of the nine archdukes of hell must agree with the condition you set as you set it (all nine are alerted whenever you use this ability). If a target reclaims its soul in this way, a target may never form a faustian bargain again.

Limited Terms: When making a faustian bargain with limited terms allows you to put a concrete limit on how long the target’s soul remains in hell. This period can be as short as 10 years and as long as you desire. After this period, the targets soul continues to its normal reward (or is immediately processed into a devil if otherwise heading for hell) and can be returned from the dead as normal.

Non-interference: Among the greatest of fears among those making faustian bargains is that the bargainer will find a way to hasten his or her demise. When making a faustian bargain with non-interference, you are physically prevented from knowingly harming or bringing harm to the target (whether directly or indirectly) except in self-defense.

These advantages that you grant, however, help to conceal additional infernal trickery in your bargains. For each of the above strategies incorporated into a faustian bargain, you may place in another suggestion as per your devil in the details class feature.

Eye on the Prize [Epic]
As an you learn to use your bargains strategically, you learn how to keep an eye on your pawns.
Prerequisites: Devil in the Details (3)
Benefit:[b] You may use scrying as a spell-like ability against any creature you have formed a faustian bargain with at will with a caster level equal to your infernal regent level + 20 and a save DC of 20 + Infernal Regent level + Charisma modifier. The target of such a scrying effect can’t detect the attempt through magical means such as detect scrying but other creatures can. This is a piercing effect.

[b]Power of Promise [Epic]
The bargains and pacts that you have formed with others give you great power over them.
Prerequisites: Devil in the Details (5)
Benefits: Creatures you have formed a faustian bargain are physically prevented from knowingly taking any action that would harm or bring harm to you (whether directly or indirectly).

Hellfire Shield (Su): Starting at 4th level, an infernal regent can protect him or herself when necessary with a shield of Hellfire. Once per round, an infernal regent can deal 5d6 points of damage from hellfire to a manufactures weapon as it strikes him or her, ignoring hardness. If the weapon breaks in this way, no damage is dealt by the attack. Alternatively (or additionally), if the attack being made is a melee attack, the attacker takes 5d6 points of damage from hellfire. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Taste of Power (Su): Starting at 5th level, an infernal regent need not form a full-blown Faustian bargain with a target to grant them a taste of the possibilities. If a target agrees to owe the infernal regent an undesignated favor at some point in the future, the infernal regent can grant that target a single wish. When the infernal regent chooses to call in the favor, the target is dominated as dominate monster (no save) for 24 hours. The amount of power that archdukes will lend the regent to win over a creature, however, is limited. A single target can be granted no more than one taste of power at 5th level, plus one additional taste of power every 5 levels afterwards. Multiple “favors” accrue and can be used on consecutive days if the infernal regent desires.

Notes and Explanation:This is one of my personal favorite classes, though it is probably one of the weaker ones. I’ve always had a thing for more insidious forms of evil and this was a way to truly indulge in such forms of power. I’ve heard it argued before that having epic characters take orders from non-deific entities (including the lords of hell) makes characters non-epic but I think that the promises infernal regents make seem to make sense on at least a couple levels.

Level 1: The General Idea is that either a lawful evil ne’er-do-well seeks out this deal at low epic levels to obtain immortality and avoid their eventual eternal torment in Baator (which simply deposing one or more archdukes wouldn’t prevent) or that the archdukes would (metaphorically) headhunt these beings before they grow strong enough to take over on their own.

Level 2: While ruling hell might look attractive, working behind the scenes allows an infernal regent to maintain more freedom and upsetting the balance of power would invite attacks and interference both from the devils themselves and from every single other infernal regent who was either plotting the same or who was benefitting from the status quo.

Lastly, I kind of realize that this class is actually kind of lacking when played in an actual epic campaign (seeing as it only reaches its potential if allowed to lazily interact with non-epic creatures that would value wishes, not the situation for most campaigns) but I’m not quite sure how to remedy this problem.

Edit: Also, to give credit where credit is due, certain elements of this class (such as a few of the feats) came from a disciple of Mephistopheles fix by Sir Chivalry.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:50 PM

Legend Stalker

The world is filled with living legends; monsters whispered in bedtime stories and foes vanquished in the greatest of epics. Almost every adventurer faces off against a few such creatures. For some, however, the fight is simply intoxicating. Living for the rush of the battle and the greater prestige it brings, beings called Legend Stalkers spend years tracking down the strongest and most dangerous of monsters to slay or train for their own use. Though the world is filled with living legends, Legend Stalkers seek to stand above them all.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a legend stalker, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +20
Skills: Knowledge (any) 23 ranks
Feat: Track
Special: Must have singlehandedly defeated a creature with more HD than yourself.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (All skills, taken individually), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Legend Stalker
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Myth Hunter, Fell Greatest Foe +5/+5d6

2nd|
+2|Grizzly Trophies 1/encounter

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Emulate Legend (1)

5th|
+5|Tame Beast of Legend (1)

6th|
+6|Fell Greatest Foe +10/+10d6

7th|
+7|Grizzly Trophies 1/encounter

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Emulate Legend (2)

10th|
+10|Tame Beast of Legend (2) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the legend stalker.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a legend stalker can still develop and cast epic spells using the conceal, destroy, energy, dispel , reveal, slay, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A legend stalker may use his or her base attack bonus in place of ranks in knowledge skills to gain epic spell slots and in place of ranks in spellcraft when making the spellcraft check to cast such a spell. A legend stalker can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot isn’t expended. If the legend stalker doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Myth Hunter (Ex): A legend stalker has a particular awareness in regards to powerful creatures, allowing him or her to find creatures worthy of fighting. At all times, a legend stalker knows the direction to the creature with the most HD within a 1-mile/level radius. This sense ignores humanoids and monstrous humanoids and doesn’t reveal how powerful that creature is (or the distance to it).

Fell Greatest Foe (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a legend stalker is most at home fighting against the greatest and largest of foes that the world has to offer. When attacking the largest enemy he or che can sense and/or the enemy with the highest HD that he or she can sense, a legend stalker gains a +5 bonus to the attack roll and deals +5d6 damage with a successful attack. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, increase the attack bonus by +5 and the damage by +5d6.

Grizzly Trophies (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a legend stalker can collect small trophies from any number of creatures he fights, drawing from them courage and confidence to help him or her in battle (Trophies collected before 2nd level may be used for this purpose as well but only trophies from creatures he has personally helped to kill grant any benefit). Claiming a trophy requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity. Once per encounter, a legend stalker can cause an attack made against him to fail or automatically succeed on a saving throw if the attack or effect comes from a creature of a race that the legend stalker possesses a trophy for. Trophies from humanoids or monstrous humanoids grant no benefit in this way. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the legend stalker may use this ability an additional time per encounter.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Combat Archery, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Distant Shot, Disturbing Trophies*, Draw it Out*, Emulate Form*, Emulate Spell-like Ability*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Euphoria of Challenge*, Fast Healing, Godslayer*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Dexterity, Great Strength, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Favored Enemy,Improved Manyshot, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Legendary Rider, Legendary Tracker, Legendary Wrestler, Lord of the Horde*, Multiweapon Rend, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Superior Initiative, Teller of Tales*, Topple Behemoth*, Two-Weapon Rend, Unnerving Trophies*, With Their Own Might*, Wondrous Trophies*

New FeatsEpic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Euphoria of Challenge [Epic]
In the midst of a difficult fight, you fight at a level you could otherwise never reach.
Prerequisites: Fell Greatest Foe +20/+20d6
Benefits: Whenever you fight a creature with HD equal to at least twice your own or fight one with HD equal to at least your own alone, you add the attack bonus from your fell greatest foe class feature to saving throws against that creature’s spells and effects, to your AC against its attack rolls, to opposed skill checks made against that creature, and to your speed in feet when moving towards it.

Draw it Out [Epic]
You know better than most that good fights often end too quickly and can take steps to prevent that.
Prerequisites: Fell Greatest Foe +5/+5d6
Benefits: Whenver you make a successful attack against a target using your fell greatest foe class feature, you may sacrifice some or all of the extra die of damage to draw out the fight. For each dice of damage sacrificed in this way, the target gains a +1 bonus to saves against fear effects, a -1 penalty to attack rolls made against you, and a -2 penalty to all other attack rolls for 1 round. Furthermore, an affected creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + class level + number of sacrificed die) to willingly retreat from battle (whether by mundane or magical means).

Unnerving Trophies [Epic]
Simply carrying around your trophies is enough to make some people uneasy.
Prerequisites: Grizzly Trophies 1/encounter, Intimidate 23 ranks
Benefits: So long as you keep one or more of your trophies visible, anyone who shares a type (aberration, dragon, etc) with at least one of them is shaken. If you would otherwise demoralize such a creature with Intimidate, it acts as if frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

Disturbing Trophies [Epic]
Others may think they see piece of themselves among your assembly of trophies.
Prerequisites: Grizzly Trophies 2/encounter, Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefits: So long as you keep one or more of your trophies visible, anyone who shares a race with at least one of them refuses to attack you or willingly approach within 5 feet unless it succeeds on a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Charisma modifier). This is a piercing fear effect.

Teller of Tales [Epic]
Though you know much about monsters from experience, you know even more from stories.
Prerequisites: Myth Hunter, Knowledge (Any 2) 24 ranks
Benefits: For the purpose of making knowledge checks to recognize and learn about creatures, you may treat your ranks in the appropriate knowledge skill as equaling your class level +20 if they would otherwise be lower.

Topple Behemoth [Epic]
You have fought enough gigantic creatures to know how to use your size to your advantage.
Prerequisites: Fell Greatest Foe +10/+10d6
Benefits: For each size category larger than you a creature is, your fell greatest foe class feature grants you an additional +1 bonus to the attack roll and +1d6 damage. Against you, large and larger creatures double their size penalty to AC and attack rolls. Furthermore, you may grapple creatures of any size and creatures of large size and larger treat their size bonus to grapple checks as a penalty instead. When grappling creatures 2 or more size categories larger than yourself, however, you cannot pin them and they can make a normal move action each round, moving you as well.

Emulate Spell-Like Ability [Epic]
You can embrace the more magical powers of those you emulate.
Prerequisites: Emulate Legend (1)
Benefits: You may copy a spell-like ability instead of an extraordinary or supernatural ability using your emulate legend class feature. You use your Charisma modifier to determine the save DC when needed and you use the original caster level or your class level + 20, whichever is lower. You copy the spell-like ability with the same frequency as the creature you emulated them from. At any given time, you can only emulate one spell-like ability in this way.

Emulate Form [Epic]
You can wholeheartedly embrace the essence of those creatures that you emulate.
Prerequisites: Emulate Legend (2)
Benefits: Once per encounter, you may take on the shape of any creature who you are emulated via your emulate legend class feature, as shapechange without the maximum HD limit. You remain in that form until you dismiss it as a swift action or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes first.

With their Own Might [Epic]
You can turn the might of a creature against themselves.
Prerequisites: Fell Greatest Foe +15/+15d6
Benefits: Whenever you make an attack using your fell greatest foe class feature against a target, you may choose to use the target’s Strength modifier or Dex modifier (as appropriate) for attack and damage rolls in place of your own. If you do so, the target doesn’t add that ability score to its attack and damage rolls for 1 round afterwards.

Wondrous Trophies [Epic]
You can use your trophies almost as figurines of wondrous power.
Prerequisites: Grizzly Trophies 3/encounter
Benefits: Once per encounter, you may spend a standard action to use one of your trophies from a creature with HD up to 40 + (class level x 2) as a figurine of wondrous power, calling forth the original creature to serve you until the end of the encounter. If the creature is destroyed, it returns to its previous form and can’t be used again for 1 week.

Lord of the Horde [Epic]
You control far more than the small managerie of creatures most legend hunters obtain.
Prerequisites: Tame Beast of Legend (4)
Benefits: Creatures with HD equal to or less than half of your class level don’t count towards the maximum number of creatures you can control through your Tame Beast of Legend class feature.

Emulate Legend (Ex/Su): Starting at 4th level, a legend stalker can begin emulating the powers of creatures he or she fights. At the end of any encounter, a legend stalker may select a single enemy and select an extraordinary or supernatural ability that the enemy possessed. The legend stalker gains that ability, using his or her own HD and ability modifiers to determine the saving throws where necessary. If that ability relies on biology that the legend stalker doesn’t possess or alters another ability that he or she doesn’t possess, he or she doesn’t gain any benefit from that abiliy. At any given time, the legend stalker may only possess one ability in this way and selecting a new one replaces the old one. Abilities can’t be copied from humanoids and monstrous humanoids and class features similarly can’t be emulated. You cannot emulate the abilities of a creature with more HD than 40 + (2 x class level). At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the legend stalker may emulate an additional extraordianary or supernatural ability at a given time.

Tame Beast of Legend (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a legend stalker can break the fighting spirit of most beasts, taming them and using them to achieve greater prestige and fight greater foes. Each time that the legend stalker knocks a creature unconscious using nonlethal damage, that creature must make a Will save (DC 20 + legend stalker level + Charisma modifier) or bow down to the legend stalker’s might, serving the legend stalker to the best of their abilities. This ability isn’t mind affecting and even mindless creatures can be made to bow down before the legend stalker, though humanoids and monstrous humanoids are immune to this ability. Only creatures with HD up to 40 + (class level x 2) can be affected by this ability. You can only control one creature at a time at 5th level and can control one additional creature at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
This was the last class that I ended up making and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. If someone sees some ways in which emulate legend can be used to break everything, I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to balance it more to prevent that type of chicanery. To address the one other problem I suspect people will have with this, I know that using Charisma for the few things I needed an ability score for is kind of weird, considering that this was made in part for Rangers (which normally dump charisma). Even so, most of the charisma-like things I did with that score all involved intimidation-like aspects and I stand by that decision.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:52 PM

Living Dominion

Of the many threats to civilization at large, few pose as large of a risk as enchantment magic. With but a single spell, any sufficiently trained mage can make any guildhead, general, or king into a trusting ally or completely dominate its thoughts. With the right compulsion, an enchanter can claim whatever position of power he or she desires. In most societies where magic is more prevalent, fortunately, this threat can be detected and protected against. Though it would often prove impractical or impossible to guard every member of a society, guarding the leaders that enchanters would target is a far more feasible task. If prevented from controlling powerful targets, the damage that most enchanters do is severely limited. Unfortunately, living dominions aren’t normal enchanters. Though preferring powerful targets just like any enchanter, the true power of a living dominion can be felt in the branching network of enchanted servants that he or she gains, allowing the dominion to protect himself from harm and death and to sense the world and cast spell spells from afar. Though nominally a single being, the most powerful living dominions are legion, existing more in the collective minds of his or her mental network than within the bounds of his or her own skull.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any nongood
Skills: Any two of the following skills 23 ranks: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive
Spells: The ability to cast any 6 spells of the enchantment school, at least one of which must be 6th level or higher.

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcane), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (religion), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Living Dominion
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Realm of Influence, True Thrall (1)|--

2nd|
+1|Calming Aura (1 save)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Share Harm (1 creature)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Imprint Consciousness (5 creatures)|--

6th|
+3|True Thrall (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Calming Aura (2 saves)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Share Harm (2 creatures)|--

10th|
+5|Imprint Consciousness (10 creatures)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the living dominion.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a living dominion can still develop and cast epic spells using the animate, compel, conceal, contact, delude, dispel, reveal, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. The living dominion may use his or her ranks in Knowledge (local) in place of ranks in other knowledge skills for the purpose of determining epic spells per day.

Realm of Influence (Su): A living dominion builds a center of power around him or herself, a web of enchantments that allows those converted to convert others in turn. Creatures under the effects of one or more of the living dominion’s charm or compulsion spells or effects provide him or her with constant sensory input using their senses while within a 1-mile/level radius of him or herself. Furthermore, he or she may communicate with such creatures telepathically and can cast any enchantment spell as though occupying the space of such a target while they are within this range.

True Thrall (Su): With 1 hour of work, a living dominion can seek to turn a willing or restrained creature into a permanent thrall. If the creature fails a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier), the target’s attitude towards the living dominion is permanently changed to fanatic and that creature gains both a sensory link and a telepathic link with the living dominion that extends any distance (even between planes). In addition, the extreme mental interference put in place renders the target immune to mind-affecting effects except for those used by the living dominion.

At 1st level, a living dominion can only possess one true thrall at a time. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a living dominion can possess an additional thrall at a time. If a living dominion obtains a true thrall that would place him or her over the limit, a previously controlled thrall of his or her choice is immediately free. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Calming Aura (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a living dominion halts hostilities in the surrounding area with the greatest of ease. Within a 60-foot radius of the living dominion, enemies must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier) or be affected as if by a calm emotions effect for 1 round. After succeeding on at least one such saving throw, a creature can’t be affected by this ability again for 24 hours. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the target must succeed on this saving throw one additional time before it gains immunity to this ability for 24 hours. The living dominion may suppress or reactivate this ability as a swift action. This is a piercing mind-affecting effect.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even living dominion level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a living dominion, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a living dominion can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Aura of Ignorance*, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Displaced Mind*, Dominating Aura*, Epic Leadership, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Fast Imprint*, Great Intelligence, Great Charisma, Halfway Gone*, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Influence the Network*, Legendary Commander, Master of Enchantment*, Of Two Minds*, Polygot, Share Afflictions*, Skinwalker Liege*, Sleeper Agents*, Strengthen Spell*, Superior Thralls*, Suppress Anger*, Unwilling Informants*

New FeatsInfluence the Network[Epic]
By concentrating, you can steer those within your realm of influence.
Prerequisites: Realm of Influence
Benefits: For as long as you concentrate, you can generate a single sympathy and/or a single antipathy effect within the range of your realm of influence. For this purpose, your caster level equals your highest caster level and the save DC equals 20 + your highest mental ability score.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected, double the number of sympathy and/or antipathy effects you can create with this effect.

Of Two Minds [Epic]
You can choose to simply ride around in a body without trying to take it over.
Prerequisites: Imprint Consciousness (5 creatures)
Benefits: Whenever you use your imprint consciousness class feature to take up residence in the mind of a new creature, you may delay your attempts to actively take over the target. While riding around with a target, you observe the world through its senses and can only take purely mental actions. For each day that you ride in a target’s mind observing what they do, you gain a stacking +2 bonus to disguise checks made to pass off as that target (maximum +10) when you take over their body. As a standard action, you can force the creature to make its first opposed will save and begin fully imprinting your consciousness but you can’t back down once this process has begun.

Unwilling Informants [Epic]
You can glean some basic information off of the surface thoughts of those in your realm of influence.
Prerequisites: Realm of Influence
Benefits: So long as there are at least 10 sentient creatures within the range of your realm of influence (whether or not they are affected by your realm of influence), you may make a gather information check as a standard action without interacting with anyone.

Sleeper Agents [Epic]
Your thralls are hard to pick out of a crowd.
Prerequisites: True Thrall (1)
Benefits: The magic aura created by your true thrall class feature can’t be detected by non-epic spells and abilities and the sense motive skill fails to detect that their minds have been tampered with. Lastly, targets of your true thrall class feature don’t remember time spent under your control while in an antimagic field or similar effect.

Suppress Anger [Epic]
Even those who break through your calming aura may find their desire to fight you diminished.
Prerequisites: Calming Aura (1 save)
Benefits: Whenever a creature fails a saving throw against your calming aura class feature, it takes a stacking -2 penalty to all attack rolls made against you for 24 hours.

Aura of Ignorance [Epic]
Your calming aura traps others in blissful ignorance to the world around them.
Prerequisites: Calming Aura (2 saves)
Benefits: Violent actions taken against creatures who have failed a saving throw against your caming aura don’t end the effect prematurely.

Dominating Aura [Epic]
Those who are beguiled by your calming aura may fall under your full influence instead.
Prerequisites: Calming Aura (3 saves)
Benefits: Whenever a creature fails a save against your calming aura class feature, it must make an additional will save against the same DC. If it fails, that creature is instead under your control (as dominate monster) for 1 round. If it succeeds, it is affected normally and the success does not count towards the amount needed to gain immunity against the aura. This is a piercing mind-affecting compulsion effect.

Share Afflictions [Epic]
You can pass most of your woes onto others.
Prerequisites: Share Harm (1 creature)
Benefits: You may use your share harm class feature to pass along ability damage, ability drain, and/or negative levels as you would otherwise acquire them. Each point of ability damage and/or drain grants a +4 bonus to the target’s will save and each negative level passes on a +10 bonus.

Halfway Gone [Epic]
You exist more in your network of enchantments than you do in your own body.
Prerequisites: Share Harm (2 creatures)
Benefits: So long as at least 5 creatures are affected by your realm of influence class feature, you are immune to the following conditions: fatigued, exhausted, sickened, nauseated, stunned, and staggered. You also gain immunity to all effects that rely on creating or manipulating pain.

Superior Thralls [Epic]
Your thralls are more susceptible to your other abilities.
Prerequisites: True Thrall (2)
Benefits: Your true thralls are immune to your calming aura and never occrisk breaking free when damaged through your share harm class feature. Furthermore, all of them are treated as though you had targeted them with your Imprint Consciousness class feature (these thralls don’t count towards your maximum limit with that ability).

Displaced Mind [Epic]
So long as others remain within your area of influence, you are incredibly difficult to control.
Prerequisites: Imprint Consciousness (10 creatures)
Benefits: Whenever you would be targetted by or fall within the area of a divination or mind-afecting effect, you may redirect it to another creature you have imprinted your consciousness on within your realm of influence. If redirecting a mind-affecting effect, that target makes any saving throws in place of you and is affected in your place. If redirecting a divination effect, information is discovered as if the target had been targetted or was within the area instead of you.

Fast Imprint [Epic]
You can take over a creature’s body in a matter of hours.
Prerequisites: Imprint Consciousness (15 creatures)
Benefits: When using your imprint consciousness class feature, you and the target make opposed saving throws every hour instead of every day.

Skinwalker Liege [Epic]
You can override a creature’s consciousness at any time instead of only after death.
Prerequisites: Imprint Consciousness (20 creatures)
Benefits: With 10 minutes of work, you may activate any of your imprinted consciousnesses as if you had died. If you were previously occupying your own body, it falls comatose while you fight for control over the new one (it still requires food, drink, and air to survive). If you were previously occupying someone else’s body, the body’s previous consciousness reasserts itself (although the target still possesses your imprinted consciousness) and possesses no memory of its time spent under your control. So long as your body exists and lives, you may return to it at any time as a full-round action.

Strengthen Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can affect more powerful creatures with your magic.
Benefits: A spell with this metamagic feat applied to it treats all creatures as if they had two fewer hit dice for all purposes (this does not affect the saving throws of creatures), down to a minimum of 1 HD. A strengthened spell occupies a spell slot one higher than its normal spell level.
Special: Unlike most metamagic effects, a single spell can be strengthened multiple time. Increases to the spell level accrued in this way stack with themselves.

Master of Enchantment[Epic]
You can make others act exactly as you would want them to with your impressive powers.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Enchantment spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting enchantment spells, though only basic concepts can be conveyed and such targets gain a +10 bonus to their saving throw. A creature who succeeds on a saving throw against one of your enchantment spells is unaware that they were ever targeted. Once per encounter, you can force a single creature to follow your instructions for 1 round as is dominated unless it succeeds on a Will Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Share Harm (Su): Though a living dominion continues to live in one body, it can be difficult at times to rob him or her of that form without first taking away the living dominion’s entire network of enchanted creatures. Starting at 4th level, whenever a living dominion would take damage, he or she may direct any amount of that damage to a creature affected by his or her Realm of Influence class feature (regeneration, energy resistance or immunity, and damage reduction don’t apply against this redirected damge). Any target dealt damage in this way may make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha modifier) with a bonus equal to the amount of damage redirected. If successful, that creature breaks free from all enchantment effects cast by the living dominion. Damage in excess of what is needed to kill a creature is still suffered by the living dominion. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the living dominion may redirect damage to an additional creature each time he or she takes damage (at 14th level, for example, the living dominion can split all damage he or she takes between him or herself and up to three affected creatures).This ability only affects hit point damage.

Imprint Consciousness: Starting at 5th level, a living dominion learns how to imprint his or her mind on others, placing a seed that grows into a copy of your consciousness when you die. Whenever a creature of the same race (and sub-race, if applicable) as the living dominion fails its saving throw against an enchantment effect that the living dominion uses, he or she may choose to imprint his or her consciousness on that target (if the spell targets multiple applicable creatures that fail their saving throw, you may only choose one). Whenever the living dominion is slain, he or she may select one creature that he or she has imprinted his or her consciousness onto. The living dominion immediately makes an opposed Will save against the target and make an additional such save every 24 hours later. Whenever the living dominion succeeds, the target is overcome by his or her consciousness for 24 hours, functioning as if he or she had merely polymorphed into the target’s form. Whenever the living dominion fails, the target retains control for the next 24 hours. If the living dominion succeeds on three consecutive saving throws in this way, he or she permanently controls the body. Before this point, the imprinted consciousness can be removed only by a wish or miracle effect. If the living dominion is removed in this way or if the target dies while the fight for dominance continues, the living dominion may activate a new consciousness as though dying once more. At 5th level, the living dominion may only imprint his or her consciousness on up to 5 creatures at a time. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the living dominion can imprint his or her consciousness onto up to an additional 5 creatures at a time. A creature who already has a consciousness imprinted onto them in this way is immune to further attempts while the former consciousness remains.

Notes and Explanation:
In creating an epic enchantment class, I decided to take a less than obvious choice of direction. My first instinct, of course, was to end up giving this class an effectively unlimited supply of minions. In the end, however, I decided that I wanted the godking class to remain the king (pun intended) of controlling vast numbers of living beings. Instead, I set this class up with an entire network of control with a few permanent slaves but with almost everything still relying on your enchantments. As an extra “fun fact”, the actual class is based off a character from a story I was writing, a supposed “god” who was in reality a long-dead enchanter living in the minds of others.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:54 PM

Lord of Nine Blades

Although Reshar was the first to master the nine martial disciplines, he was neither the last nor the strongest. After studying martial disciplines for a lifetime, a rare few initiators experience an epiphany regarding the many disciplines. For some, the desire to truly master all nine disciplines finally pays off as the initiator realizes how to fit them together. For other more focused individuals, the knowledge of new disciplines comes almost unbidden as they figure out how best to shore up their own weaknesses. These enlightened warriors, known as lords of nine blades, have perfected the art of combat and always seem to have another technique that they’ve been meaning to practice

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a lord of nine blades, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Martial Lore 23 ranks
Maneuvers: Nine or more.

Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Lord of Nine Blades
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Master of Nine, Improved Strike 1/encounter

2nd|
+1|Masterful Counter 1/round

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat

4th|
+2|Superb Boost 1/encounter

5th|
+2|Perfect Stance 1/round

6th|
+3|Improved Strike 2/encounter

7th|
+3|Masterful Counter 2/round

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat

9th|
+4|Superb Boost 2/encounter

10th|
+5|Perfect Stance 2/round[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the lord of nine blades.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a lord of nine blades can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A lord of nine blades may use his or her ranks in martial lore in place of ranks in knowledge skills to gain epic spell slots and in place of ranks in spellcraft when making the spellcraft check to cast such a spell. A lord of nine blades can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot isn’t expended. If the lord of nine blades doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Master of Nine: A lord of nine blades is a master of many forms of combat. When he or she gains his or hor first level in this class, if the lord of nine blades possesses maneuvers from fewer than 9 disciplines, he or she chooses a number of disciplines in which he or she knows no maneuvers to make up this difference. For each chosen discipline, the lord of nine blades learns three maneuvers and two stances of his or her choice. If the lord of nine blades already possessed maneuvers from nine or more disciplines, however, he or she instead learns two maneuvers and/or stances in each these disciplines. Either way, the lord of nine blades increases the number of maneuvers he can have readied by 9.

Improved Strike: A lord of nine blades can unleash even the greatest and most complex of strikes with the greatest of ease. Once per encounter, the lord of nine blades can use any strike in place of a normal attack without expending that strike for the encounter. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per encounter.

Masterful Counter: The lord of nine blades can counter most assaults that come in their direction. Starting at 2nd level, once per round, the lord of nine blades may initiate a counter without spending any action and without expending that counter for the encounter. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a lord of nine blades can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Discipline Synchronization*, Distant Shot, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Extra Maneuver*, Great Charisma, Great Constutition, Great Dexterity, Great Intelligence, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Instant Recovery*, Multiweapon Rend, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Spellcaster Harrior, Superior Initiative, Two-Weapon Rend

New FeatsExtra Maneuver [Epic]
You know a vast number of martial maneuvers.
Prerequisites: Master of Nine
Benefits: You learn another maneuver that you meet all prerequisites for.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Instant Recovery [Epic]
You can recover your lost maneuvers in the blink of an eye.
Prerequisites: Master of Nine
Benefits: Once per encounter, you may recover all expended maneuvers as an immediate action.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Discipline Synchronization [Epic]
You can synchronize yourself to any discipline that you possess maneuvers from.
Prerequisites: Master of Nine
Benefits: As a swift action, you may synchronize yourself with any one martial discipline from which you know at least one maneuver. While synchronized in this way, you add twice your lord of nine blades level to all skill checks made with that discipline’s skill and to all damage rolls made using one of that discipline’s chosen weapons. This effect lasts until you fall unconscious or synchronize with another discipline as a swift action.

Superb Boost: Starting at 4th level, the lord of nine blades has gained fine control over the last of his or her true maneuvers. Once per encounter, the lord of nine blades can use a boost without spending any action and without expending that boost for the encounter.

Perfect Stance: Starting at 5th level, a lord of nine blades always seems to be in the perfect stance to deal with any problems that should come up. Once per round, the lord of nine blades can switch which stance he or she is in without spending any action. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Notes and Explanation:
Though hardly the worst class that I have created, this is definitely the “safest”. Though I’m pretty comfortable with the mechanics of the ToB and was commited to the idea of creating an Epic PrC for martial initiators, I was pretty much terrified the entire time I was writing this and I kept noticing how anemic the fluff of the ToB really is. Having seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 homebrewed disciplines and 20 homebrewed initiator classes on these boards, I really didn’t want to make any discipline-based class features or feats that would open the floodgates to hundreds more. At the same time, although it seemed obvious that this class would be better than the other martial PrCs in this project due to sheer versatility, I didn’t want it to lord in that superiority too much (hence why this class doesn’t get full epic spellcasting and extra epic spells like every other alternate magic PrC). Though I didn’t take too many risks with this class, I doubt that it’s horrible or even bad. Just… safe.

If anyone has additional feat ideas for this guy, feel free to suggest them.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:56 PM

Magitech Savant

Even in their wildest dreams, the masterpieces of the most gifted artisans could never hope to outperform an average magical craftsmen. Once one travels past a certain point, the only way to get a better product is by applying magical principles. The study of alchemy, practiced only by those more familiar with magic, is among the best known of these schools. Another branch of pseudo-magical study, however, exists for the powerful and inquisitive. Blending the cutting edge of technology and the magical formulae that bind spells together, the science of magitech is being formed even now by its few practitioners. Binding their own essence to a few select tools, these geniuses of technology make outstanding leaps and bounds. Though traditional casters look down upon them for their extreme focus, few can bring themselves to deny that these magitech savants are potent.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a magitech savant, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Skills: Craft (blacksmith) 23 ranks
Feats: Craft Magic Arms and Armor
Spells: Ability to cast 5th-level spells
NOTE: see Commentary below.

Class Skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (architecture and engineering), Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Magitech Savant
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Magitech Nanites, Magitech Armor (1 spell)

2nd|
+1|Magitech Cannon 1/encounter

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat

4th|
+2|Augment Armor I

5th|
+2|Augment Cannon I

6th|
+3|Magitech Armor (2 spells)

7th|
+3|Magitech Cannon 2/encounter

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat

9th|
+4|Augment Armor II

10th|
+5|Augment Cannon II[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the magitech savant.

Magitech Nanites: Among the most important of a magitech savant’s tools are his or her smallest weapons, fine constructs living within his or her own body. At 1st level, the magitech savant may select two of the following forms of nanites, each of which grant a set benefit and allow the magitech savant to effectively develop epic spells of a different seed. This selection can’t be changed later on. When developing epic spells using only one of these seeds and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved but the maximum range of such spells when first cast may not exceed 500 feet. Any effects that would stop dust or similar particles from reaching a creature prevent the savant from targeting that creature with an epic spell used in this way unless the range is touch. Any wind stronger than severe wind stops the use of any of these spells unless the spell has a range of touch or personal or is used to target the magitech savant.

If the magitech savant dies and is later returned to life, the nanites remain so long as the body was at least mostly intact. If the savant’s body is destroyed, he or she is reincarnated, or he or she otherwise finds him or herself in another body, the magitech savant must replace these nanites by spending 10,000 gp in materials and spending 24 hours rebuilding them. Other creatures occupying a magitech savant’s body for any reason gains no benefit from these nanites.

Nanites
Reactive Endoskeleton
Description: These nanites remain relatively stationary within the body, converting local materials into microfibers stronger than tempered steel. They react to the thoughts of the magitech savant, allowing the network of fibers to move the savant at a moment’s notice like a second skeletal system. When programmed as an epic “spell”, the nanites extend their fibers out of the savant to connect to the target before quickly self-replicating and forming a nearly invisible exoskeleton around the target and “animating” it. By secreting small amounts of acid and filling resulting cracks when no longer needed, even immobile objects such as trees can be made to bend and act almost alive. Over time, animated objects gain dull grey spots that spread along their surface as more and more of their mass becomes made up of these nanites.
Benefits: The magitech savant can take an extra move action each round.
Epic Seed: Animate

Necrotech Implants
Description Unlike most nanites, necrotech nanites actively assault living flesh within the magitech savant, forming large cyst-like conglomerations and storing information on biological components. This network of self-replicating cysts protects the target against attacks that attack its life force directly but become uncomfortable and outwardly visible if not drained from the savant’s blood every now and then. When programmed as an epic “spell”, the nanites are released in a thin mist harmless to living creatures that repair physical damage to a corpse before rebuilding its brain from scratch and pumping life of sorts into the creature once more. Undead that would normally be created by these nanites are instead treated as constructs.
Benefits: The magitech savant is immune to death effects and energy drain.
Epic Seed: Animate Dead

Neural Redundancy Network
Description: These nanites circulate solely through the brain of the magitech savant, copying neural signals and spacing out to form an identical neural network. Whenever the nanites observe a drastic change in the pattern, is increases the strength of its signal to force the organic system back to its previous configuration. When programmed as an epic “spell”, these nanites are launched from the skin and do almost the opposite to the target; copying their neural network, altering themselves in accordance with their programming, and forcing the target’s mind to conform with the new neural pattern.
Benefits: the magitech savant is immune to mind-affecting effects.
Epic Seed: Compel

Latent Fabricators
Description: These nanites circulate harmlessly through the magitech savant, doing almost nothing except collecting the energy to self replicate and eject once needed. When programmed as an epic “spell”, these nanites pour out from the savant and begin building copies of themselves using anything available (even heavier atmospheric elements) to form the desired object. Unless the “spell” is permanent, the item loses integrity at the end of the duration and collapses into its component nanites. Unlike other nanites, the primary function of these fabricators can be used to a certain extent without formally programming them.
Benefits: The magictech savant can create any mundane object up to 20 pounds in weight as a standard action. This object lasts for 24 hours.
Epic Seed: Conjure

Cerebral Relay
Description: Cerebral relays are comprised of two unique types of nanite (though they only count as one selection), one of which circulates through the magitech savant’s body and the other of which resides solely within his or her brain. The ones in the brain interpret the electrical charges of neurons into signals picked up by the somatic nanites. Unlike most other nanites, the somatic nanites are continually shed from the savant’s body and work their way into nearby creatures where they work their way into the brain and recive and respond to messages from their counterparts in the savant’s brain. When programmed into an epic “spell”, these links are reinforced, allowing them to continue longer and across longer distances.
Benefits: The magitech savant can communicate telepathically with other creatures within 500 feet.
Epic Seed: Contact

Colloidal Projectors
Description: These nanites are embedded throughout the skin of a target, absorbing energy from adjacent cells and storing it in one of fefw different ways. When programmed as an epic “spell”, they are launched into the air where they suspend themselves and project heat, light, sound, or scents as necessary (even providing tactile simulations with their own forms if needed). Alternately, they can be used to project without leaving the skin, creating a rough illusion over the magitech savant.
Benefits: The magitech savant can use disguise self at will (Caster Level 20 + class level, Save DC 20 + Class level + Int modifier), except that the illusion possesses audio, olfactory, gustatory, thermal, and tactile info.
Epic Seed: Delude

Somatic Calculators
Description: These nanites circulate throughout the body of a magitech savant, harnessing energy and acting as an extension of his or her brain. When programmed as an epic “spell”, they perform specific calculations within the body so complex and precise that they can nearly predict the future or reach answers otherwise outside of the savant’s reach. Even when left idle, they constantly perform predictory calculations a few seconds in advance, preventing the magitech savant from being surprised.
Benefits: The magitech savant is never surprised and always acts during surprise rounds.
Epic Seed: Foresee

Micro-Chirurgeon
Description: These nanites, among the most popular variety in existence, function by repairing or dismantling living tissues and doing the reverse to undead tissues. These nanites continually flow through the body of the magitech savant, slowly making repares as they do so. When programmed as an epic “spell”, some are kicked into overdrive for a few moments before deactivating without further harm.
Benefits: The magitech savant gains fast healing 10
Epic Seed: Heal

Reanimator
Description: These nanites, for the most part, seem to do nothing at all. They float freely through the magitech savant’s body, silently examinging the various tissues and fluids they come into contact with on their travels. When the magitech savant dies, however, these nanites leap into action, helping to perfectly preserve the savant’s body and aiding to ease any attempt to revive the savant from the dead into the same body. When programmed as an epic “spell”, they function similarly to a necrotech implants, although they leave the mind intact and help the body just long enough for it to start supporting itself once more. When used to awaken a creature or object, it alters the target to grant them a working neural network or expand such an existing network.
Benefits: The magitech savant is continually affected by gentle repose when slain, and spells used to return him or her to life do not cause loss in level and require no material components.
Epic Seed: Life

Sensory Enhancers
Description: These nanites are stored in small caches in the brain and within the eyes, physically adjusting his or her visual abilities. When programmed as an epic “spell”, they refine the way in which the savant interprets visual information to near perfection. If using the nanites to scry on a location in this way, the 500 foot limit still applies applies to the spell.
Benefits: The magitech savant is immune to blindness, takes a -1 penalty to spot checks for every 50 feet of distance instead of every 10 feet, and can see through solid objects as though wearing a ring of x-ray vision except that it can be used for any duration without negative impact.
Epic Seed: Reveal

Simulacra Matrix
Description: These nanites flow harmlessly through the magitech savan’ts body, using the body only to keep it energized. With one hour of work, a magitech savant can secrete these nanites and weave them together into a rough double of his or her form as each nanite converts matter from the environment into both more nanites and into a matrix of web-like strands connecting the nanites together. When programmed as an epic “spell”, the nanites rush themselves into the pre-decided shape. Creatures created by such a “spell” are not truly summoned from anywhere and are all constructs in place of their normal types.
Benefits: The magitech savant gains a simulacrum of him or herself by spending one hour of work making it. If the simulacrum is destroyed, it can be replaced with another hour of work 24 hours later. The magitech savant can restore all lost hit points to his or her simulacrum with 10 minutes of work.
Epic Seed: Summon

Form Destabizer
Description: These nanites are constantly at work in the body of a magitech savant, making sure that his or her vitals are save from attack by increasing their elasticity. When programmed as an epic “spell”, the nanites begin the daunting task of reshaping the target. Sampling the enzymes of the target body body (or similar substances) and using them to build synthetic enzymes, these nanites can reduce the resistance of most bodily tissues to change. By travelling to the skin and back, nanites can dissolve and carry back materials from immediately outside of the body to create additional mass where needed. If there is not enough such materials to fuel a desired transformation, the epic “spell” fails.
Benefits: The magitech savant gains immunity to critical hits, stunning, and any effect that would alter his or her physical form against his or her will.
Epic Seed: Transform

Magitech Armor (Su): Starting at 1st level, a magitech savant may alter a single suit of armor with which he or she possesses proficiency and enhance it with magitech elements, allowing him or her to use it as the base for incredible magitech defenses. In effect, the savant can research and cast epic spells of the Armor, Fortify, and/or Ward seeds so long as he or she is within reach of the armor. Any epic spell using these seeds (and only these seeds) requires only half the normal cost in gold pieces and experience points to produce. Any armor bonus resulting from spells using the armor seed stack with the normal armor bonus of the magitech armor.

Most impressively, a magitech savant may store epic spells of the armor, fortify, and/or ward seeds within their armor permanently so long as no other seeds are included in the spells. Only epic spells with a range of personal or that target the magitech savant and that possess a duration other than instantaneous can be placed in the armor in this way. The magitech savant only gains the benefit of these spells when in physical contact with the altered armor. A magitech savant can store a single epic spell at a time at 1st level and one additional spell every 5 levels afterwards. Any additional epic spells stored beyond this limit take the place of a previous effect.

No creature other than the magitech savant that altered a suit of armor (even other magitech savants) gain any special benefits from using his or her magitech armor. At any given time, a magitech savant can only keep a single suit of magitech armor up and running. If it is destroyed or lost, a new suit can be altered by spending 24 hours and 10,000 gp of materials creating it.

Magitech Cannon (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a magitech savant may develop a special weapon using magitech. Though it’s overall appearance may vary from savant to savant, it functions as an antimatter rifle (DMG, p147) with unlimited ammunition whose attacks are treated as touch attacks. For every iterative attack the magitech savant would normally have due to base attack bonus, the cannon deals an additional +8d8 damage with each attack. The magitech cannon can be enchanted just like any other weapon. Furthermore, the savant can effectively research and cast epic spells of the Destroy, Energy, and/or Slay seeds so long as he or she is within reach of the cannon. Any epic spell using these seeds (and only these seeds) requires only half the normal cost in gold pieces and experience points to produce.

Finally, the magitech savant can use his or her magitech cannon to use these destructive “spells” far more than usual by delivering them with attacks. As a full-round action, a magitech savant can use his or her magitech cannon to attack a creature and attempt to use an epic spell using the destroy, energy, and/or slay seeds (and no other seeds) so long as the spell selects a single target and the target of the attack is selected as the target of the spell. That epic spell doesn’t count as one of the savant’s epic spells for that day. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

No creature other than the magitech savant that crafted it (even other magitech savants) can successfully shoot or gain any benefit from his or her magitech cannon. At any given time, a magitech savant can only keep a single magitech cannon up and running. If it is destroyed, a new cannon can be crafted by spending 24 hours and 10,000 gp of materials creating it.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Additional Magic Item Space, Agony Shot*, Arcane Emulator*, Audio Dampener*, Augmented Alchemy, Bracer Greaves*, Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Epic Rod, Craft Epic Staff, Craft Epic Wondrous Item, Dimensional Shot*, Efficient Item Creation, Forge Epic Ring, Great Intelligence, Jaunt Transmitters*, Magitech Backup*, Magitech Blade*, Magitech Blast*, Magitech Booster*, Magitech Forcefield*, Magitech Gadgetry*, Magitech Plating*, Mechanize Creature*, Mystic Scope*, Nanite Distribution*, Pattern Shunt*, Piercing Cannon*, Portal Generator*, Scribe Epic Scroll, Stealth Extensions*, Superior Inititative, Torturous Feedback*

New FeatsPiercing Cannon [Epic]
Your cannon can pierce through magical barriers with ease.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Nullifier [2])
Benefits: Your magitech cannon easily pierces through all non-epic magical barriers that abstruct movement (such as wall of force, prismatic sphere, or antilife shell) or that deal damage to those who pass through (such as blade barrier, forebiddance, wall of fire). Each shot with the magitech cannon creates a 5 x 5 foot hole in the barrier that lasts for the rest of the spell’s duration. This effect has no effects on spell effects active on creatures (you cannot, for example, punch a hole in a foe’s mage armor).

Mystic Scope [Epic]
Looking through the scope of your magitech cannon, you can see magical auras.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Nullifier [1])
Benefits: You create a special scope for your magitech cannon. When looking through it, you can see the world as if benefitting from a greater arcane sight effect (Caster Level = magitech savant level + 20).

Agony Shot [Epic]
You can launch special ammunition from your cannon, letting you prolong the misery of your foe.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Pain Magnifier [2])
Benefits: whenever you make a painful shot, you may choose to utilize specially prepared ammunition in place of the normal antimagic burst before making the attack roll. If the attack hits, the damage is halved but the ammunition is lodged deep within the target’s body. At any time within the next week, you may press a button on your magitech cannon as a standard action to set off one such ammunition off within the target, dealing the same amount of damage (or half with a DC 20 + magitech savant level + Int modifier Fortitude save) and affecting them as if they were hit with another pain shot. Each piece of ammunition can be activated up to four times in this way. A piece of ammunition can be withdrawn from the target’s body with a successful surgery, requiring 1 hours of work and a DC 20 + magitech savant level + Int modifier heal check. If the heal check fails, the target is slain instead.

Torturous Feedback [Epic]
Your magitech cannon can let loose waves of energy that inflict pain in those nearby.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Pain Magnifier [1])
Benefits: As a swift action, you can press a small switch on your magitech cannon, letting out a horrendous noise created through reverberations in the barrel that inflicts pain in others. Creatures within 10 feet of you take a -4 penalty to attack rolls and Skill checks for 1 round and can’t make attacks of opportunity during this time. You are immune to the effect of your own cannon’s torturous feedback, as are all creatures who are either deaf or are immune to sonic damage.

Dimensional Shot [Epic]
You can open up temporary planar portals with your magitech cannon.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Dimensional Disrupter [1])
Benefits: With 10 minutes of work, you can configure your magitech cannon and build up enough energy within it to blow open a portal to another plane of existence of your choice within 30 feet. The portal remains for 30 minutes before closing once more and you possess no control over where it opens.

Pattern Shunt [Epic]
Rather than sending foes back to their native plane, you can capture them within your cannon.
Prerequisites: Augment Cannon (Dimensional Disrupter [2])
Benefits: Whenever you would send a creature back to its own plane using your dimensional disrupter, you may instead reduce that creature to its essence and store it within the magitech cannon itself. You may release any creature from this cannon into an adjacent square as a standard action but they can otherwise only be freed by destroying the cannon altogether.

Audio Dampener [Epic]
Your magitech armor eliminates all sound that you would otherwise make.
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Chameleon Projector [2])
Benefits: Your armor is capable of dampening sound around you, acting as a silence effect that extends 5 feet out from you. You may suppresss or reactivate this ability as a standard action.

Stealth Extensions [Epic]
You create pliable extensions of your armor to cover yourself completely and increase your stealth
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Chameleon Projector [1])
Benefits: So long as you wear your magitech armor, you can make hide checks even without cover or concealment or while being observed. Furthermore, all attacks against you gain a 20% miss chance.

Portal Generator [Epic]
The apertures around your body release enough energy to leave portals behind you when you teleport.
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Mini-Portal Generator [1])
Benefits: Whenever you use your mini-portal generators to teleport, you can choose to leave two portals behind. These portals last for 1 minute and allow two way travel. You may select the orientation of the two portals as desired so long as they are within range of each other.

Jaunt Transmitters [Epic]
Small transmitters installed into your armor greatly increase the distance across which you can teleport.
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Mini-Portal Generator [2])
Benefits: By spending 1 hour gathering energy within your magitech armor, you can use your mini-portal generators to travel up to 1 mile/magitech savant level. You control the precise point at which you arrive as.

Magitech Plating [Epic]
You have plated your armor to help you better resist magical assaults.
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Magipulse Reflector [1])
Benefits: You gain Spell Resistance 35 + magitech savant level while wearing your magitech armor.

Arcane Emulator [Epic]
Your armor absorbs latent energy given off by spellcasting and replicate this energy in turn.
Prerequisites: Augment Armor (Magipulse Reflector [2])
Benefits: Whenever you are targeted by a non-epic spell or spell-like ability, you can have various filters installed throughout your armor take in a bit of the energy (even if you reflect it with your magipulse reflector or otherwise resist it). After your armor analyzes the energy in the spell, you can use a small magitech generator to imitate this energy, driving all traces of it from the armor and imitating the spell at Caster Level 20. The Save DC, if any, equals 10 + spell level + Int modifier. You do not imitate any metamagic effects on the spell and may make new decisions for it. You must use the energy within 5 rounds of obtaining it or else it is lost. Using the energy takes up time actions as if casting the spell.

Magitech Gadgetry [Epic]
You can use an assemblage of gadgets to accomplish almost anything you would wish
Prerequisites: Magitech Nanites
Benefits: You may develop and cast epic spells using seeds that your other magitech savant class features don’t grant you access to. At any given time, you may know one epic spell with one or more of these seeds and learning a new one replaces the old. Each casting of such a spell requires special materials worth one tenth of the gold piece cost to develop the spell (this cost does not lower the spellcraft DC).

Bracer Greaves [Epic]
Your magitech armor protects you from great falls.
Prerequisites: Magitech Armor (1 spell)
Benefits: You take no damage from falls and gain a bonus to jump checks equal to your magitech savant class level x 5.

Magitech Boosters [Epic]
Your magitech armor allows you to fly for limited durations.
Prerequisites: Bracer Greaves
Benefits: You gain a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with average maneuverability. You may fly for up to 100 rounds before you run out of energy and fall. You regain one round of use each round that you don’t spend in flight.

Magitech Blade [Epic]
You can create a specialized weapon to let you use your magitech in melee.
Prerequisites: Magitech Cannon 1/encounter
Benefits: With 24 hours of work and 10,000 gp of materials, you can create a special hilt with a blade of antimatter, allowing you to fight in close quarters. This is treated as a one-handed weapon and deals half damage but it allows you to make full attacks. You may not make lighter ones even if you possess magitech backup. This weapon gains all of your cannon augmentations and functions only for you.

Magitech Backup[Epic]
You can create a second, smaller cannon for when rate of fire is vital.
Prerequisites: Magitech Cannon 1/encounter
Benefits: With 24 hours of work and 10,000 gp of materials, you can create a special, smaller magitech cannon. This cannon is treated as a one-handed weapon and deals half damage but allows you to make full attacks. This weapon gains all of your cannon augmentations and functions only for you.

Nanite Distribution [Epic]
With time and resources, you can spread your nanites into others.
Prerequisites: Magitech Nanites
Benefits: With 24 hours and 100,000 gp of materials, you can spread one of the two types of nanites you possess into another willing or restrained creature. That creature gains the benefit of the nanites but can’t use them to gain epic spells (even if they are also magitech savants).

Mechanize Creature [Epic]
You can transform living creatures into constructs using your mastery of magitech.
Prerequisites: Magitech Armor (4 spells)
Benefits: With 24 hours and 100,000 gp of materials per HD of the target, you can transform a willing or restrained creature into a construct with the living subtype. The construct retains its mental ability scores (if any).

Magitech Blast [Epic]
You can blast large numbers of foes with your magitech cannon.
Prerequisites: Magitech Cannon 1/encounter
Benefits: Once per encounter you may use your magitech cannon to attack all creatures within a 60-foot line or 30-foot cone with a single attack roll.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Magitech Forcefield [Epic]
You can entirely halt damage that would otherwise harm you.
Prerequisites: Magitech Armor (1 spell)
Benefits: Once per encounter, if wearing your magitech armor, you can negate all hit point damage that you would take from any one source. If that source would deal damage on subsequent rounds (such as a wall of fire), only damage dealt this round is prevented.

Augment Armor: As a magitech savant develops his or her magitech arsenal, he or she modifies and augments his or her existing equipment. At 4th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a magitech savant may select one of the following benefits for his or her magitech armor. A single benefit can be selected multiple times if desired. Much as the armor itself, these augmentations provide no benefit to anyone other than the magitech savant who created the armor.

Chamoflauge Projector: Armor augmented in this way absorbs light from every direction and displays the image on the opposite side of the savant, helping to camouflage the wearer and allowing him or her to become invisible for 1 round as a swift action once per encounter per time this ability has been selected. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the conceal seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Magipulse Reflector: Armor augmented in this way reacts violently to the presence of magic, reflecting the offending effect back at its source. This armor allows the savant to reflect one non-epic spell as spell turning per encounter per time this ability has been selected. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the reflect seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Mini-Portal Generator: Armor augmented in this way possesses several small apertures spaced throughout it, each of which can generate enough energy to punch holes through space. Once per encounter per time this ability has been selected, the magitech savant may teleport up to his or her speed as a move action. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the transport seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Augment Cannon: As a magitech savant develops his or her magitech arsenal, he creates special additions for his or her magitech cannon. At 5th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a magitech savant may select one of the following benefits for his or her magitech cannon. A single benefit can be selected multiple times if desired. Much as the cannon itself, these augmentations provide no benefit to anyone other than the magitech savant who created the cannon.

Dimensional Disruptor: A magitech cannon augmented in this way absorbs energy from the current plane of existence, modifying the blast in accordance with that energy and forcing targets without this form of energy out of the plane. Once per encounter per time this ability has been selected, the magitech savant can declare an attack with the magitech cannon to be a disruptive shot before making the attack roll. A creature with the extraplanar subtype damaged by a disruptive shot must make a Will save (DC 20 + magitech savant level + Int modifier) or be sent back to its home plane. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the banish seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Nullifier: A magitech cannon augmented in this way possesses the ability to send out a second, invisible beam along with the first. Though this second beam ignores most matter, the pulse disrupts waves of magic. Once per encounter per time this ability has been selected, the magitech savant can declare an attack with the cannon to be a nullifying shot before rolling the attack roll. A creature damaged by a nullifying shot has all activate spell effects and magic items on its person subjected to a dispel attempts. This functions much like greater dispel magic with a caster level equal to the savant’s class level +20 except that there is no maximum bonus to the dispel roll. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the dispel seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Pain Amplifier: A magitech cannon augmented in this way has its beam modified to avoid destroying nervous tissue when desired, continually activating pain receptors instead of simply destroying them. Once per encounter per time this ability has been selected, the magitech savant can declare an attack with the cannon to be a painful shot before rolling the attack roll. A creature damaged by a painful shot gains a 50% chance of missing its next round due to the pain and takes a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, skills checks, and saving throws for each time this ability was selected for 1 round. Furthermore, the savant can develop and cast epic spells with the afflict seed. When developing spells using this seed and no others, the cost in gold pieces and experience points is halved. At any given time, you may only know a number of epic spells using this seed up to the number of times you have selected this option (unless you possess access to it from another source). If you would develop a spell that would put you beyond this limit, you forget another epic spell with this seed to make room.

Notes and Explanation:
First, I want to apologize if you guys were expecting an epic continuation to one of the few “magitech” baseclasses I’ve seen on the homebrew forum. I’m honestly not too familiar with them and I’m trying to avoid creating homebrew specifically for homebrew.

Next, I apologize if you are one of those people who really like technology in your d20 but hate it when the mechanics used just add up to spellcasting. As I explain in the last real post of this project, I am doing this exact same thing for every possible “magic” system. See the spoiler in that last post for the full reason but it basically boils down to this. The mechanics of epic spellcasting allows you to build whatever effect you want. Making separate epic mechanics for each magic system either means giving limited options and making that system weak or basically remaking the wheel. This was the simpler way.

Lastly, I want to briefly discuss the prerequisites and the difficult part about this class. While I can easily imagine this class seeing use in games and I imagine steampunk games liking it particularly well, I forced myself to stick to the SRD when making prerequisites. Though I can see a wide variety of games where this would fit in, I don’t know what relevant craft skill to set as prerequisites, what feats (if any) would be appropriate, and what other prerequisites may be necessary. In all honesty, it would honestly differ based on what campaign setting or set of steampunk rules you were using. My prerequisites and flavor text are more of a placeholder than anything else so please alter them to fit your campaign.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 09:58 PM

Master of Shadows

All of existence possessed a shadow. The world is cast into deep relief upon the plane of shadows and those of a magical bent can harness shadows to great effect or tap into the shadow of magic itself. Harnessed through arcane and alien formulae most casters never even consider, magic drawn from shadows is one of the more versatile forms of magic and its practitioners possess a far greater understanding of magic as a whole. In the hands of a true master, shadows can be made just as fearsome as the beings to cast them.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Master of Shadows, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 23 ranks
Spells/Mysteries: Ability to cast seven spells of the shadow subschool or mysteries including at least one of 5th level.
Special: Must have visited the plane of shadow.

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (the Planes), Move Silently, Profession, Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Master of Shadows
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells/Mysteries

1st|
+0|Warp Arcana 1/encounter, Well of Shadows|+1 level of existing mystery-using spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|World of Darkness 4/round|+1 level of existing mystery-using class or existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing mystery-using spellcasting class

4th|
+2|Shadow Duplication 1/encounter|+1 level of existing mystery-using class or existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Ubiquity of Shadow/Twilight Master I|+1 level of existing mystery-using class

6th|
+3|Warped Arcana 1/encounter|+1 level of existing mystery-using class or existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|World of Darkness 8/round|+1 level of existing mystery-using class

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing mystery-using class or existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Shadow Duplication 2/encounter|+1 level of existing mystery-using class

10th|
+5|Ubiquity of Shadow/Twilight Master II|+1 level of existing mystery-using class or existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the master of shadows.

Epic Spellcasting: If a master of shadows can cast 6th level mysteries, he or she gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. Otherwise, the master of shadows may select four epic seeds of his or her choice and can develop and cast epic spells using those seeds even without the epic spellcaster feat. For the purpose of developing epic spells with those chosen seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Mysteries/Spellcasting: At each odd master of shadows level, the character gains new mysteries and an increase in caster level as if he or she had also attained a level in a mystery-using class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If the character did not possess levels in such a class, this advancement is not gained. At each even master of shadows level, the character gains new mysteries or spells and an increase in caster level (and mysteries or spells known, if applicable) as if you had also attained a level in either a mystery-using class or an arcane spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If the master of shadows possessed mor than one applicable class before becoming a master of shadows, he or she must decide to which class to add each even level for this purpose.

Well of Shadows (Su): You are surrounded by a miasma of thick supernatural shadows that you can use to power your mysteries and shadow spells. You possess ten levels of shadow. Whenever you would cast a mystery or a spell of the shadow subschool, you may spend a number of levels of shadow equal to its spell level. If you do so, you do not expend the spell slot, prepared spell, or daily usage of that spell or mystery by casting it. You regain lost levels of shadow at a rate of one per round. In addition, whenever you witness the casting of a spell without the shadow descriptor, you regain levels of shadow equal to the spell’s level (up to the normal maximum). Furthermore, you gain a 5% miss chance against all attacks and a +1 bonus to hide checks for each level of shadow you possess.

Warp Arcana (Su): Shadow magic often carries certain morphic properties, useful both on the offensive and on the defensive. If you prepare spells, you may sacrifice a prepared spell of the shadow subschool to spontaneously cast another of at least two spell levels lower. If you spontaneously cast spells, you may cast any spell of the shadow subschool not on your list of spells knonw by using a spell slot of at least two spell levels higher. If you cast mysteries, you may sacrifice a daily use of a mystery to spontaneously cast another one of at least two spell levels lower, even if you don’t know it. Whatever the case, this class feature also allows you to treat mysteries and spells of the shadow subschool as any other spell or mystery of the same spell level for the purpose of counterspelling. This ability can be used once per encounter (whether offensively or defensively) at 1st level and can be used an additional time per encounter at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

World of Darkness (Su): Effective use of shadow magic often requires unorthodox tactics and an almost alien mindset. Starting at 2nd level, a master of shadow can subtly reshape the the world to match the visions in his or her mind. Each round, a master of shadow may gain four of the benefits below (each benefit can be selected multiple times and stack with themselves):

Target creature within 100 feet takes a -5 penalty to a Listen or Spot check.
Target creature within 100 feet gains a +5 bonus to a Hide or Move Silently check.
Target creature within 100 feet suffers from a 5% miss chance on an attack roll, doubled if it and/or the target are in areas of shadowy illumination and darkness.
Target creature within 100 feet with no more than half of its maximum hit points suffers a -1 penalty to a saving throw, doubled in areas of shadowy illumination and darkness.
Target creature within 100 feet has the final destination of any movement made (even a 5-foot step or involuntary movement such as a bull rush) altered by 5 feet in any direction that can support that creature. The target’s path doesn’t change but the target doesn’t end up where they should.
You may extend the maximum range of these abilities by 5 feet for the next 10 rounds.

At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a master of shadow can select an additional four benefits each round.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Bonus Mystery*, Cancel Arcana*, Destructive Mystery*, Domain of Shadows*, Efficient Metashadow*, Epic Stealth*, Extended Shadows*, Extraordinary Mystery*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Greater Line of Shadow*, Improved Quicken Mystery*, Instant Duplication*, Into the Darkness*, Opportunistic Mystery*, Pall of Twilight*, Piercing Mystery*, Retain Arcana*, Shadow Double*, Stealth of Shadows*, Superior Spellcaster*, True Duplication*, Warped Shadows*

New FeatsStealth of Shadows [Epic]
Your well of shadows allows you to conceal yourself well
Prerequisites: Well of Shadow
Benefits: You possess hide in plain sight so long as you possess at least four levels of shadow and you gain a bonus to move silently checks equal to the number of levels of shadow remaining.

Into the Darkness [Epic]
Your deep shadows allow you to escape notice and retreat into shadows entirely.
Prerequisites: Stealth of Shadows
Benefits: So long as you possess all ten levels of shadow, you possess the benefits of improved invisibility and can use shadow walk as a full-round action (caster level equals Master of Shadows level + 20).

Pall of Twilight [Epic]
You gain an aura that enhances shadow magic and weakens other forms of magic.
Prerequisites: World of Darkness 4/round
Benefits: You gain an aura of shadowy illumination out to 30 feet that overcomes all but epic spells and effects of the light or darkness descriptors (which suppress this ability). Within this aura, any spells of the shadow subschool or mysteries cast gain a +2 bonus to their caster levels and to their Save DCs, if any. Other spells cast within range take a -2 penalty to their caster levels (minimum 1) and to their Save DCs. You may suppress or activate this aura as a swift action.

Cancel Arcana [Epic]
You are adept at the art of counterspelling others.
Prerequisites: Warped Arcana 1/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use warped arcane to counterspell, you need not have readied an action to do so. Furthermore, you may counterspell spell-like abilities and mysteries cast as supernatural abilities.

Extended Shadows [Epic]
You can manipulate the world around you from a greater distance.
Prerequisites: World of Darkness 8/round
Benefit: Double the range over which you can use your world of darkness benefits (increases to this range from the class feature are also doubled in this way).

Retain Arcana [Epic]
You can use the echoes of the magic you have warped into new forms.
Prerequisites: Warped Arcana 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use your warp arcane class feature to cast a mystery or spell of the shadow subschool, you retain the sacrificed spell slot, prepared spell, or daily use until the end of your next round. If you utilize it within this round, however, the spell or mystery is only 50% real (shadow normally not fully real are only half as effective as normal). Any creature targeted by such a spell or mystery, who enters the area of such a spell or mystery, or who interacts with the spell effect of such a spell or mystery must make a Will save against that spell’s save DC or see through the illusion, taking only half damage from the effect or possessing a 50% chance of ignoring it altogether if it doesn’t deal hit point damage. Objects and creatures created, summoned, animated, or called in this way always possess half as many hit points as normal.

Instant Duplication [Epic]
You can imitate a spell right as you witness it being cast
Prerequisites: Shadow Duplication 2/encounter
Benefits: By spending a second use of shadow duplication, you may cast the spell right as you copy it without spending any action to do so.

Warped Shadows [Epic]
You gain extra uses of mysteries you claim through your warped arcane.
Prerequisites: Warped Arcana 3/encounter, ability to cast master mysteries
Benefits: Whenever you use warped arcane to imitate a mystery from an initiate path, you gain a second use of that mystery you can use any time within the next 10 rounds. Whenever you use warped arcane to imitate a mystery from an apprentice path, you gain two such additional uses.

Shadow Double [Epic]
You gain a shadowy duplicate with more substance behind it.
Prerequisites: Ubiquity of Shadow II
Benefits: You gain a simulacrum of yourself formed from raw shadowstuff instead of ice and snow. If this simulacrum is slain, you may form a new one as a standard action 24 hours later.

True Duplication [Epic]
You can duplicate even the strongest of magics
Prerequisites: Shadow Duplication 3/encounter
Benefits: You can use shadow duplication on epic spells. To do so, you must spend two uses of the ability and make a spellcraft check against the spell’s DC. If you succeed, the spell is imitated. Otherwise, the uses are spent without any effect. An additional Spellcraft check against the DC must be made to actually cast the spell as normal.

Domain of Shadows [Epic]
The world around you is submerged in shadows
Prerequisites: World of Darkness 20/round
Benefits: You are surrounded at all times by either a shadow landscape (Spell Compendium p. 184) effect if you cast 5th-level spells or by a black labyrinth effect (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a) if you cast 5th-level mysteries. Both effects possess a caster level equal to your master of shadows level + 20, are centered on and move with you, and can be suppressed or reactivated as a swift action. If you qualify for both effects, you only benefit from one at a time and can switch back and forth as a swift action. If benefiting from a shadow landscape effect, you do not gain shadow guardians as is normal for the spell.

Superior Spellcaster [Epic]
Your spells are more powerful than those of others
Prerequisites: Caster level 30th
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your caster level.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Bonus Mystery [Epic]
You have unlocked additional shadow magic.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast mysteries from master paths.
Benefit: You learn an extra mystery. You must still learn paths in order if your class requires you to do so.

Efficient Metashadow [Epic]
You can utilize metashadow feats using less time.
Prerequisites: Any twelve metashadow feats
Benefit: Whenever you apply one or more metashadow feats that would extend casting time to a full-round action to any mystery, it is instead cast as a standard action. The quicken mystery metashadow feat may not be applied to such as mystery.

Extraordinary Mystery [Epic]
You can turn your mysteries into completely mundane effects.
Benefit: select one mystery you can use as a supernatural ability. You gain an extra daily use of that mystery and can cast it as an extraordinary ability, meaning that it can be cast even in antimagic zones or dead magic zones. It can still affect incorporeal creatures like a supernatural ability.

Destructive Mystery [Epic, Metashadow]
You can force your damage to damage those who might otherwise ignore it.
Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effect of the destructive mystery feat to any mystery you cast. A destructive mystery converts all elemental and nonlethal damage normally deal into untyped lethal damage.
Casting a destructive mystery is a full-round action.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Greater Line of Shadow [Epic]
You can cast mysteries without line of sight or line of effect to the target.
Prerequisites: Line of Shadow
Benefit: You may use line of shadow one additional time per day. In addition, you may use it after any amount of time has past since you last had line of sight or line of effect, so long as the target is in or adjacent to the last square in which you saw them. The target no longer gets a bonus on their save if you delay the casting of the mystery.

Improved Quicken Mystery [Epic]
You can utilize several mysteries in quick succession.
Prerequisites: Quicken Mystery
Benefit: When you cast a quickened mystery, it is cast as a free action instead of as a swift action, but you may only cast a number of quickened mysteries each round equal to your charisma modifier.

Opportunistic Mystery [Epic]
You can use any opening to cast another mystery
Prerequisites: Combat Reflexes, Spellcraft 25 ranks
Benefit: Whenever you could make an attack of opportunity, you may instead cast a mystery. No metashadow feats may be applied to this mystery.

Piercing Mystery [Epic, Metashadow]
You can force a mystery to pierce through your enemy’s defenses.
Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effect of the piercing mystery feat to any mystery you cast. A piercing mystery ignores its target’s Spell Resistance, if any would apply.
Casting a piercing mystery is a full-round action.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Shadow Duplication (Su): Starting at 4th level, a master of shadows can use shadows to capture and imitate almost any spell effect. Once per encounter, when a master of shadows witnesses a non-epic spell or mystery being cast, he or she can capture that casting. Before the end of the encounter, the master of shadows may cast the very same spell or mystery using his or her own caster level and ability scores to determine DCs. If you copy a mystery in this way, it is treated as being the same type of ability (spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability) that it was when first cast. Metamagic and metashadow effects are not copied in this way. This ability can be used one additional time per encounter at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Ubiquity of Shadow (Su)/ Twilight Master (Su): How exactly a master of shadows perfects his or her art largely depends on whether he or she casts spells or mysteries. If the master of shadows does both, he or she must select one option upon first reaching 5th level and may not change this decision.

Ubiquity of Shadow: If the master of shadows casts spells of at least 5th level, he or she gains a permanent projected image at 5th level that he or she can suppress or reactivate as a swift action. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, he or she gains an additional projected image in this way. Controlling projected images created by this ability requires no action and the master of shadows can cast one spell of the shadow subschool with a casting time of one standard action or less through each image each round without spending an action to do so.

Twilight Master: If the master of shadows casts mysteries of at least 5th level, he or she gains the ability to cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
Well, I suppose that there are two things in particular that I suppose I should address with this class:

1. The general wonkiness: This class is kind of weird in that it is supposed to serve two very different purposes. It is trying to be a general casting class (to which I tend to give stronger casting) for shadowcasters but it is also a specialist casting class (to which I give weaker casting) for arcane casters who simply like the shadow subschool. This is why the spellcasting progression is weird and why there are two “capstone” abilities. While this certainly ended up looking odd, I hope that it still looks all right.

2. The epic casting: Those of you out there who remember my descent of shadows project might remember that I did come up with mechanics for epic shadowcasting. Though I did borrow some epic feats from that project, this class uses normal epic spellcasting mechanics. Truth be told, I never really liked the epic mechanics I came up with and epic spellcasting is already there so why not?

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:00 PM

The Mastermind

Not all roads to power are equally visible. For every mountain-shattering spellcaster and army-slaying warrior, there is someone of equal power who prefers to operate behind the scenes. Among these hidden beings are masterminds, subtle casters that work though illusions and charmed intermediaries while always remaining one step ahead. Even when personally engaging in a matter of interest, masterminds are gifted enough at bending the truth that their presence may never be properly noticed. From the shadows, powerful masterminds can control entire civilizations or enact other plans with such subtlety that not even dragons would pick up on them. Though not all masterminds are evil and some even work in the name of the greater good, even allies are often lead to keep an eye on a mastermind’s activities just in case its next plot goes awry.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a mastermind, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: 23 ranks in any two of the following: bluff, diplomacy disguise, intimidate
Feats: Greater Spell Focus (illusion or enchantment), Greater Spell Penetration (illusion or enchantment)
Spells: The ability to spontaneously cast arcane spells up to 6th level.

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Tumble, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Mastermind
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Layered Truth I, Puppet Master|--

2nd|
+1|Never There 1/encounter|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Mastermind’s Ward (personal)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Countermeasures 1/round|--

6th|
+3|Layered Truth II|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Never There 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Mastermind’s Ward (Personal + 1 target)|--

10th|
+5|Countermeasures 2/round|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Mastermind.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a mastermind can still develop and cast epic spells using the compel, conceal, contact, delude, foresee, reveal, slay, and/or transform seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

The Puppet Master: A mastermind’s techniques are insidious works of genius, nearly impossible to detect or to resist. The spells that a mastermind casts can’t be detected by effects that normally detect magic such as detect magic or arcane sight unless he or she wishes it.

As a full-round action, a mastermind can cast an illusion, divination, or mind-affecting enchantment spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a puppet master spell. Casting a puppet master spell never requires verbal or somatic components. Puppet master spells are piercing abilities. Furthermore, puppet master illusions aren't pierced by true seeing and similar effects, wards on areas that prevent divination (like mage's private sanctum) don't stop puppet master divinations, and sense motive checks can't detect the influence of puppet master enchantments (when applicable). After casting a number of puppet master spells equal to the mastermind’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

Layered Truth (Ex): A mastermind is a master of deception, leading others from the truth into even deeper deceptions. Whenever a creature succeeds on a sense motive check to pierce through the bluff check of a mastermind, a spot check to pierce through the disguise check of a mastermind, a forgery check to pierce through the forgery check of a mastermind, or a Will save to disbelieve an illusion of a mastermind by 10 points or fewer, the mastermind can have the target interpret a false “truth” behind the situation of the mastermind’s choice. A creature may recognize a forgery as having been written by another creature, for example, or perceive another illusion hiding behind the first. The mastermind can only falsify a single false “truth” for each illusion or skill check.

Each time this ability is used against a creature or that a creature simply fails on such a skill check or saving throw against the mastermind, that target falls deeper into the mind games of a mastermind and takes a stacking -2 penalty to such checks and saves against the mastermind and his or her spells for 24 hours. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the amount by which a creature may have succeeded on their check or save while still being affected increases by +10.

Never There (Sp): It is difficult to ever tell whether a mastermind is actually present or not, often acting through illusions or disguised intermediaries. Starting at 2nd level, whenever a mastermind would be dealt damage, they may choose to have never been there in the first place, appearing up to 100 feet away in a square possessing cover or concealment as it is revealed that an intermediary or illusion (depending on circumstances) was attacked (dispersing the illusion or killing the intermediary). If there are no squares within 100 feet in which a mastermind could hide, this ability can’t be used. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and one additional time per encounter at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even mastermind level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a mastermind, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a mastermind can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Additional Magic Item Space, Always Prepared*, Assess Defenses*, Combat Puppetry*, Diabolic Plot*, Epic Leadership, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Epic Stealth*, Epic Will, Extended Lifespan, False Positive*, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Metamagic, Instant Response*, Legendary Commander, Master of Divination*, Master of Enchantment*, Master of Illusion*, Perfect Health, Play Along*, Polygot, Spell Knowledge, Spell Stowaway, Spontaneous Spell, Sting of Betrayal*, Superior Initiative, Think Ahead*, Thrall*, True Deception*, True Thrall*, Web of Deception*, What They Don’t Know*

New FeatsFalse Positive [Epic]
Your ward allows you to provide false information to magical queries.
Prerequisites: Mastermind’s Ward (personal)
Benefits: Whenever a creature affected by your mastermind’s ward would have a divination effect detect their alignment, thoughts, or some similar aspect regarding its thoughts, philosophy, allegiances, and/or memories, that creature automatically learns what information is detected by that divination effect and may supply false information.

Play Along [Epic]
Your ward allows you to play at being manipulated by another.
Prerequisites: Mastermind’s Ward (personal)
Benefits: Whenever a creature affected by your mastermind’s ward would otherwise be subjected to a mind-affecting effect, that creature automatically learns its effects and can choose to play along. While playing along, the creature gains a magical aura (if appropriate) as though affected, is detected as dominated through the sense motive skill if appropriate, and extra effects from the spell (such as the sensory link formed through dominate person) function as though the spell were successful. If a creature would be slain or rendered sleeping or comatose through the spell, they fall prone and only a successful Heal check opposed by the creature’s bluff skill reveals them to be conscious. As a free action, the creature can stop playing along all together.

What They Don’t Know [Epic]
You can obscure the mundane and magical senses of others.
Prerequisites: Puppet Master
Benefits: You can use screen as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your mastermind level + 20 (Save DC 20 + Mastermind level + Int modifier). After using this ability once, you must spend one hour in contemplation to recharge this ability before you can use it again.
spoiler: You may select this ability multiple times. Each time you take this ability beyond the first, double the number of times you can use this ability between recharges.

Sting of Betrayal[Epic]
You have a knack for inserting your weapon into the back of your supposed allies.
Prerequisites: Layered Truth III
Benefits: Whenever you attack a creature that is friendly, helpful, or fanatic towards you or who is subjected to one of your charm or compulsion effects, your attack automatically hits and is treated as a successful critical hit (if the target is immune to critical hits, the attack simply hits).

Combat Puppetry [Epic]
Even in the midst of combat, you can get others to act exactly as you wish.
Prerequisites: Layered Truth III
Benefits: You may spend a move action, standard action, or full round action to force an adjacent ally to take a single action of equal length of your choice during its next round with you making all decisions necessary for that action. Instructions that either can’t be carried out or that would directly bring harm to the target (including walking off of a cliff or into magma or through a wall of fire but not including attacking a foe, provoking attacks of opportunity, or walking in front of a raging dragon) are ignored. This effect allows no saving throw

Web of Deception [Epic]
Others quickly fall into your web of lies if they stay around you for too long.
Prerequisites: Layered Truth II
Benefits: Any creature who is affected by your layered truth class feature for three consecutive checks falls into your web of lies and is considered charmed by you (as charm person, no save). This effect lasts until the target makes an appropriate check but isn’t affected by your layered truth class feature, until he or she receives definite evidence that at least one false truth you provided is false, or until the creature spends 24 hours away from you.

True Deception [Epic]
You can lie as well as anyone could ever hope to.
Prerequisites: Layered Truth I
Benefits: When others use the sense motive skill to get a hunch about you, the DC is equal to your bluff check bonus (if any) + 10. Furthermore, you are immune to any non-epic effect that would force you to tell the truth or that can detect lies other than the sense motive skill.

Thrall [Epic]
You can extend the effects of a compulsion spell indefinitely.
Prerequisites: Layered Truth IV
Benefits: Whenever a creature fails its saving throw against a compulsion spell or effect that you use, you can make that creature a thrall. Doing so extends the maximum duration of the compulsion spell or effect indefinitely (though any conditions that would normally end it prematurely, such as completing a suggestion, still function). You may only have one thrall at a time and creating a new one frees any previous thrall, ending the spell effect if it’s duration would have normally expired.

True Thrall [Epic]
Your magic trains others to follow your commands long after the magic itself has gone.
Prerequisites: Thrall, Layered Truth V
Benefits: If your thrall remains under the effect of its compulsion effect for at least 24 hours, it reprograms the brain of its target. Even if the spell or effect is dispelled or suppressed, the target continues to act as though under its effects. Similarly, protection from evil and similar effects don’t prevent new orders from being given (if applicable). This effect can only be removed with a carefully worded wish or miracle after the compulsion effect has been dispelled. When ordered to take actions against the target’s nature, they continue using the Save DC for the ended compulsion effect. Choosing a second thrall still frees any prior thrall, even if the actual compulsion on the first thrall isn’t active.

Always Prepared [Epic]
You always seem to possess just what you need.
Prerequisites: Never There 1/encounter or Prepare for Everything (1 action)
Benefits: At any time, you may spend up to 10,000 gp in coins, gems, or similar valuables in order to retroactively possess any item at least two size categories smaller than you that weighs nor more than the valuables spent on it (50 coins = 1 pound). You may not spend valuables gained since the last time you had an opportunity to freely purchase items in this way.

Assess Defenses [Epic]
You can identify a creature’s defenses just by looking at it.
Prerequisites: Never There 3/encounter
Benefits: As a swift action, you can identify all defenses a creature within your line of sight possesses. You learn what immunities, resistances, damage reduction, regeneration, fast healing, and spell (or power) resistance the target possesses. At the same time, you learn of any special vulnerabilities the target possesses.

Think Ahead [Epic]
You work to keep your past self aware of what is about to occur, letting them react faster.
Prerequisites: Confer with Future (1 week) or Countermeasures 1/round
Benefits: You can ready a move or standard action as a swift action.

Instant Response [Epic]
You are quick to act where others might be caught by surprise
Prerequisites: Superior Initiative, Dex or Wis 25
Benefits: You always act during surprise rounds and may take a full-round of actions during such rounds.

Diabolic Plot [Epic]
When you take the time to plan ahead, success is almost guaranteed.
Prerequisites: Envoy of the End or Puppet Master
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may choose to embark upon a diabolical plot. You may select a number of attack rolls, saving throws, and/or skill checks up to your Intelligence modifier. When selecting a saving throw, you must specifically designate what save will be made and specifically what that save will be made against (getting as specific as what caster will cast what specific spell if you select a spell or what specific trap in what specific location will provoke the saving throw). If selecting a skill check, you must specify exactly what skill will be used to accomplish exactly what end (and against which specific creature, if applicable). If selecting an attack roll, you must specify who the attack roll will be against and what specific weapon or spell will be used for the attack.
At any time within the next 24 hours, when you would make one of your specified rolls, you may instead treat the dice result as a 20 and add an additional +2 bonus for each other specified roll you have already used. You may use each specified roll only once in this manner (though you can choose a single roll more than once) and this feat does not allow you to automatically succeed on attack rolls or saving throws. You may only use this feat once per day.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Master of Divination [Epic]
You can act exactly as you need to in order to succeed at almost any task.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Divination spell
Benefits: All emanations that your divination spells create are doubled in size and you are aware when there is information that your divination spells is unable to detect, though you don’t automatically learn what knowledge you are kept from. Once per encounter, you can add your caster level as a bonus to an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Using this feat requires no action.

Master of Enchantment[Epic]
You can make others act exactly as you would want them to with your impressive powers.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Enchantment spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting enchantment spells, though only basic concepts can be conveyed and such targets gain a +10 bonus to their saving throw. A creature who succeeds on a saving throw against one of your enchantment spells is unaware that they were ever targeted. Once per encounter, you can force a single creature to follow your instructions for 1 round as is dominated unless it succeeds on a Will Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Master of Illusion[Epic]
You can fool the senses of others with incredibly ease.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Illusion spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting illusion spells. Touching an illusion you have that allows for saving throws to disbelieve does not allow the target to automatically disbelieve as such illusions now create imagined tactile sensations. Once per encounter, you can turn yourself or a creature within 100 feet of yourself invisible for 1 round. While invisible, the target can’t be seen through see invisibility or true seeing, is unaffected by glitterdust, faerie fire, and invisibility purge, and can’t be detected by scent, blindsight, blindsense, or tremorsense.

Mastermind’s Ward (Su): Starting at 4th level, a mastermind can defend him or herself against divination and mind-affecting effects. Divination spells and effects do not detect the mastermind, can’t be used to scry on the mastermind (and don’t see the mastermind when scrying on his or her surroundings), and can’t be used to learn about the mastermind. Even magic used by deities and epic spells using the Foresee and/or Reveal seeds can’t be used in this way. Similarly, the mastermind can’t be affected by mind-affecting effects (including epic spells using the compel seed). At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be shared with an additional creature (willing or otherwise) through a 1 hour ritual. New targets can replace old ones by repeating this ritual.

Countermeasures (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a mastermind is prepared to deal with almost any situation that they might come across. Once per round, a mastermind may cast a non-epic spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less at any time. The mastermind can use this ability twice per round at 10th level and one additional time per round every 5 levels afterwards. The total spell level of all spells cast in this way in a single round may not exceed the mastermind’s class level.

Notes and Explanation: And I decided to make one more bard-compatible class (though it goes with the beguiler just as well if not better) for a more sneaky approach.

I’ll admit that never there can seem a bit cheesy (and not powerful cheesy) if overused with body doubles always taking the fall (“did I say I had a twin? I clearly meant to say triplets!”) but it shouldn’t cause too much distress in a game if played straight.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:02 PM

Mythic Commander

In the open battlefields, any number of factors can make the difference between defeat and victory. Anything from the accuracy and speed of information to the weather to the training, morale, well-being, and number of troops on either side can tip the battle in one side’s favor. With the right commander in charge, however, even the greatest of disadvantages can be overcome. Having honed their mastery of warfare over dozens of battlefields, Mythic Commanders can inspire their allies to fight back and win against outrageous odds. In the capable hands of such a commander, even a few dozen soldiers could hope to take down an entire army with minimal casualties.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a mythic commander, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Diplomacy 23 ranks or Intimidate 23 ranks, Knowledge (history) 10 ranks
Feats: Leadership, Any three bonus fighter fights
Special: Must have led a force of at least 100 soldiers to a decisive military victory.

Class Skills: Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (History), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Mythic Commander
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Loyal Legions, Protect the Legions 1/round

2nd|
+2|Commander’s Aura (100 ft)

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Mobilization 1/encounter

5th|
+5|Loyal Lieutenant (1)

6th|
+6|Protect the Legions 2/round

7th|
+7|Commander’s Aura (200 ft)

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Mobilization 2/encounter

10th|
+10|Loyal Lieutenant (2) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Mythic Commander

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a mythic commander can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved and you only add +5 to the spellcraft DC (instead of +10) for each additional target you add. If the mythic commander doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Loyal Legions (Ex): A mythic commander is capable of leading vast quantities of troops. The voice of a mythic commander can be heard clearly by allies up to 100 feet/class level away regardless of whether other noice is present. Allies within this range gain immunity to fear. Furthermore, allies in range with HD up to your class level automatically succeed on all attack rolls against foes with up to two more HD than they possess and all attacks made against these allies by such foes automatically fail. If two mythic commanders lead forces against each other, neither side automatically hits or automatically misses the other.

Protect the Legion (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a mythic commander can protect his or her own forces against untraditional forms of attack. Once per round, when one or more allies would be forced to make a saving throw, the mythic commander may lend any or all affected foes a bonus to their saving throw equal to the commander’s Charisma bonus and if one or more targets succeed on this save, all of them do so. This ability can be used an additional time per round at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Commander’s Aura (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a mythic commander radiates an aura of competence out to 100 feet. The nature of this aura is chosen from those listed below and the commander can switch between auras as a swift action.

Aura of Desparate Measures: If an ally possesses more than one hit point and would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points from a single source, it is instead reduced to 1 hit point and remains conscious.
Aura of Shattering Ranks: If an ally hits an enemy with half as many hit dice or fewer and deals lethal damage, that creature is instantly slain.
Aura of Ideal Formation: All allies within range may take a second move action each round.

At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the range of this aura extends by 100 feet.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a mythic commander can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Aura of Harsh Journeys*, Cavalry Charge*, Command Loyalty*, Commander’s Ward*, Concentrated Result*, Element of Surprise*, Epic Leadership, Epic Mounted Combat*, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Will, Force Route*, Great Strength, Great Dexterity, Great Intelligence, Great Charisma, Last Stand*, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Legion’s Shield, Perfect Morale*, Superior Initiative, Superior Lieutenants*

New FeatsAura of Harsh Journeys [Epic]
You gain an additional commander’s aura that helps allies travel long distances.
Prerequisites: Commander’s Aura (100 feet)
Benefits: You gain a new Commanders’ aura. While active, it grants all allies within range immunity against nonlethal damage from force marches, halves all other nonlethal damage from sources other than combat, and grants immunity against fatigue.

Commander’s Ward [Epic]
Those that you protect may escape unscathed from attacks that would otherwise still harm them
Prerequisites: Protect the Legion 1/round
Benefits: Any creature protected by your protect the legion class feature gains either evasion or mettle against the attack, depending on what saving throws are needed.

Command Loyalty [Epic]
Only the strongest of magic can make your forces turn against you
Prerequisites: Loyal Legions
Benefits: Creatures affected by your loyal legions class feature automatically succeed on all saves against charm and compulsion effects.

Element of Surprise [Epic]
Your troops can take advantage of surprise to take out enemies far stronger than themselves.
Prerequisites: Commanders’ Aura (200 ft)
Benefits: While your aura of shattering ranks is active, your allies treat flat-footed foes as possessing two fewer HD (to a minimum of 1 HD) for the purpose of both that aura and your loyal legions class feature.
Special: You may select this feat a number of times up to the range of your commanders’ aura divided by 100. Its effects stack with itself.

Cavalry Charge [Epic]
Your troops can use mounts to gain even greater mobility in combat.
Prerequisites: Commander’s Aura (200 ft)
Benefits: Mounts that your allies ride benefit from your loyal legions and commanders’ aura class features so long as they possess an appropriate amount of HD. Furthermore, while your aura of ideal formation is active, all allied mounts within range gain a +20 foot bonus to their speed.
Special: You may select this feat a number of times up to the range of your commanders’ aura divided by 100. Its effects stack with itself.

Last Stand [Epic]
Your troops can continue fighting beyond what would normally slay them.
Prerequisites: Commander’s Aura (200 ft)
Benefits: While your aura ofdesperate measures is active, allies within range aren’t disabled at 0 hit points, continue acting normally at negative hit points, and only die at -20 hit points (unless they could otherwise survive with fewer hit points).
Special: You may select this feat a number of times up to the range of your commanders’ aura divided by 100. Each time you select it, decrease the hit point total at which point affected creatures die by an additional 10 hit points.

Concentrated Assault [Epic]
You can concentrate your forces on taking out a limited number of specific enemies.
Prerequisites: Mobilization 2/encounter
Benefits: As a swift action, you can choose a single creature and call out for your allies to take it down. Until you declare a new target or the current target falls, all allies who can hear and understand you gain a +5 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls against the creature. Furthermore, allies moving toward the target don’t provoke attacks of opportunity for their movement and allies making range attacks against the target gain the benefits of the far shot and precise shot feats if they do not already possess them (even if they don’t meet the prerequisites).

Force Rout [Epic]
If your forces possess the upper hand in combat, enemies are quick to take note.
Prerequisites: Mobilization 2/round
Benefits: Every five consecutive rounds that you and your allies have suffered no casualties but your enemies have, all enemies capable of witnessing the frontlines must make a Will save (DC 20 + Mythic Commander level + Cha modifier). If a creature fails this saving throw, he or she is frightened.

Legion’s Shield [Epic]
With a few quick shouted instructions, you can protect your allies from harm.
Prerequisites: Protect the Legion 3/round
Benefits: You may use your protect the legion class feature whenever one or more creatures affected by your loyal legion class feature would take hit point damage. All creatures who would be damaged and who can hear and understand you reduce this damage by 5 points per point of Charisma bonus you possess (minimum 1)

Superior Lieutenants [Epic]
Your lieutenants gain additional skill at leading your troops on the battlefield
Prerequisites: Loyal Lieutenant (3)
Benefits: All of your loyal lieutenants gain the ability to use your protect the legion class feature 1/round and your mobilization class feature 1/encounter, though they can only extend the benefits of these class features to allies within 100 feet. These uses don’t count towards your maximums.

Perfect Morale [Epic]
Under the command of such a brilliant leader, troops feel capable of anything.
Prerequisites: Mobilization 4/encounter
Benefits: Each of your allies affected by your loyal legion class feature may choose to take 20 on an attack roll or saving throw once per encounter. These rolls automatically succeed as normal and taking 20 on an attack roll threatens a critical hit.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Mobilization (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a mythic commander can help spur on others to victory. Once per encounter, as a free action, a mythic commander may select any number of allies with a total sum of HDs no higher than 80 + (Class level x 4). The mythic commander may not select him or herself in this way. All selected creatures may immediately take a full round of actions. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, you may use this ability an addition time per encounter.

Loyal Lieutenant (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a mythic commander may select a single creature to become a lieutenant for his or her forces. That creature emanates the mythic commander’s loyal legions class feature out to 100 feet and radiates whichever one of your commander’s aura it was last affected by out to a range of 50 feet. If a creature selected as a loyal lieutenant possesses fewer than half as many Hit Dice as the commander, it gains temporary racial Hit Dice sufficient to make up the difference. These Hit Dice don’t grant feats or skill points. Lastly, loyal lieutenants are immune to fear, charm, and compulsion effects. If a lieutenant displeases the commander or is slain, the commander may declare a new creature to take the previous ones place with 10 minutes of talking to the new candidate. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a mythic commander can select an additional loyal lieutenant.

Notes and Explanation:
Though I kind of like this class, I’ll admit that it is weird as hell. In some ways, it’s a more practical version of the godking as it comes with expectation of leading more battles. I’m pretty happy with how loyal legions turned out as it allows for mass combat (always a tricky and nebulous thing) to be streamlined if the soldiers of the two sides would otherwise be closely matched. I’m aware that a king or similar power would be better off hiring an epic blaster to wipe out an enemy army than hiring a mythic commander but that’s always going to be a problem when comparing mundane to casters and I couldn’t think of any way to overcome that without giving your army the ability to completely curbstomp an entire enemy army in 1 round, something I honestly don’t want (If you’re leading an army to battle in a campaign, I’m guessing that you probably want more than a one-round slaughter of anything you face).

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:06 PM

Omnimind

The strength of the mind, though incredibly vast, is left almost entirely untapped by most of the population. While some utilize a fraction of this power through the outlet of psionics, they remain woefully unaware of their true potential. Only once or twice in each generation does a being manage to break through the limitations of their own mind, accessing the vast stores of power held within the collective unconsciousness of all living beings. These beings, referred to as omniminds, possess mental powers guided by the entirety of all thoughts.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Omnimind , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (Psionics) 23 ranks, Psicraft 23 ranks
Powers: Ability to manifest 5th-level powers.
Feats: Any four psionic feats

Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Knowledge (Psionics), Profession, Psicraft, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Use Psionic Device Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Omnimind
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Powers Known

1st|
+0|Mental Prowess, Flowing Augmentation 4|+1 level of existing manifesting class

2nd|
+1|Mind Over Matter (halve)|+1 level of existing manifesting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing manifesting class

4th|
+2|Collective Conscioussness 1/encounter|+1 level of existing manifesting class

5th|
+2|Psionic Master (1)|+1 level of existing manifesting class

6th|
+3|Flowing Augmentation 8|+1 level of existing manifesting class

7th|
+3|Mind Over Matter (third)|+1 level of existing manifesting class

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing manifesting class

9th|
+4|Collective Conscioussness 2/encounter|+1 level of existing manifesting class

10th|
+5|Psionic Master (2)|+1 level of existing manifesting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Omnimind.

Epic Spellcasting: An omnimind gains epic manifestation as a bonus feat, even if he or she doesn't meet the prerequisites for it.

Powers Known: At each omnimind level , he or she gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if he or she had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class he or she belonged to before he or she added the prestige class level. The omnimind does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). If a character had more than one manifesting class before he or she became an omnimind, he or she must decide to which class he or she adds the new level of omnimind for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Mental Prowess (Su): Omniminds are masters of mentalism, possessing psychic talent that dwarves others. He or she may regain his or her psionic focus once per round as a free action and is immune to mind affecting effects while he or she possesses psionic focus. In addition, the omnimind gains telepathy out to 50 feet/class level and can detect and pinpoint all non-mindless creatures within this range. Lastly, the omnimind need not possess a line of sight or line of effect with a creature detected in this way so long as it remains in range of the power.

Flowing Augmentation (Su): Drawing upon the collective consciousness of all beings for psychic energy, omniminds can save their own supply of psychic power for when it truly matters. Whenever an omnimind manifests a power, he or she may spend the power points of a willing ally within 100 feet rather than spending his or her own. Furthermore, whenever he or she manifests a power, he or she gains 4 temporary power points that can only be used to augment that power and are immediately lost if not used for this purpose. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the number of temporary power points increases by +4.

Mind over Matter (Su): While many omniminds may appear frail at first glance, they can absorb great deals of harm through nothing more than raw will power. Starting at 2nd level, whenever an omnimind would take hit point damage, he or she may choose to divide the amount of damage by 2 and subtract it from his or her remaining power points instead of hit points. If the omnimind doesn’t possess enough power points to negate the damage in this way, this ability can’t be used. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, increase the amount by which the damage is first divided by + 1.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an omnimind can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Aggressive Psychokinesis*, Assume Mantle*, Astral Master*, Discern Intentions*, Discern Thoughts*, Epic Expanded Knowledge, Epic Psionic Focus, Epic Will, Exceed Limitations*, Extended Lifespan, Extra Augments*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Body Fuel*, Improved Combat Manifestation*, Improved Manifestation, Improved Metapsionics, Improved Mind Over Body*, Improved Wild Surge*, Intensify Power*, Overrule Power*, Pierce Mind*, Power Knowledge, Psicrystal Power, Quick Psychoportation*, Reactive Psychometabolism*, Subtle Telepathy*, Superior Cognizance*, True Clairsentience*, Web of Metacreativity*

New FeatsSuperior Cognizance [Epic, Psionic]
You consider problems from every possible angle.
Prerequisites: Mental Prowess
Benefits: By expending your psionic focus, you can take 20 on any Intelligence-, Wisdom-, or Charisma-based skill check.

Improved Combat Manifestation [Epic, Psionic]
You have not difficulty manifesting powers in the midst of combat
Prerequisites: Combat Manifestation
Benefits: You never provoke attacks of opportunity for manifesting powers.

Improved Wild Surge [Epic, Psionic]
Your mind can withstand more than others would suspect
Prerequisites: Wild Surge +5
Benefits: Whenever you use your wild surge class feature on a power, increase the manifester level bonus by +1 (this does not increase the odds of psychic innervations) and you gain a further +1 bonus on power penetration checks made using that power.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Exceed Limitations [Epic, Psionic]
You can press your mind beyond its limits at the cost of your body.
Benefits: You may spend power points on powers as if your manifester level were 2 higher.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Discern Intentions [Epic, Psionic]
You can get a basic idea of what creatures around you mean you ill will.
Prerequisites: Mental Prowess
Benefits: You treat all creatures within the area of your mental prowess class feature as if they were in the area of a detect hostile intent effect.

Discern Thoughts [Epic, Psionic]
You can dive deep into the thoughts of those nearby.
Prerequisites: Discern Intentions
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may submit any single creature within the area of your mental prowess class feature to a probe mind effect with a manifester level equal to your omnimind level + 20 and a Save DC of 20 + Omnimind level + your highest mental ability score modifier. A creature who succeeds on its saving throw against this effect can’t be affected by this feat again for the next 24 hours.

Intensify Power [Metapsionic]
You can draw out incredible strength from your powers.
Prerequisties: Empower Power, Maximize Power, Psicraft 30 ranks, ability to manifest 9th level powers
Benefits: To use this feat, you must expend your psionic focus. All variable, numeric effects of an intensified power are maximized, then doubled. An intensified power deals twice maximum damage, cures twice the maximum number of hit points, affects twice the maximum number of targets, and so forth, as appropriate. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are powers without random variables. Augmented powers can be intensified; a maximized augmented power deals twice the maximum damage (or cures twice the maximum hit points, and so on) of the augmented power. You can’t combine the effects of this feat with any other feat that affects the variable, numeric effects of a spell. Using this feat increases the power point cost of the power by 7. The power’s total cost cannot exceed your manifester level.

Improved Body Fuel [Epic, Psionic]
You can extract more psionic power ouf of your body.
Prerequisites: Body Fuel
Benefits: You regain 10 power points per point of ability burn you suffer to each physical ability score with your body fuel feat.

Astral Master [Epic, Psionic]
You can personalize your astral constructs to a greater degree
Prerequisites: The ability to cast the astral construct power
Benefits: Whenever you manifest astral construct, you may choose an additional ability from any menu and apply it to that construct with no additional cost.
Special:{/b] This feat can be taken multiple times. Its effects stack.

[b]Improved Mind over Matter [Epic, Psionic]
You can prevent many afflictions that would befall you through raw will.
Prerequisites: Mind Over Matter (Halve)
Benefits: You may prevent any or all ability damage, ability drain, and/or negative levels you would acquire at a cost of two power points per point of ability damage, four power points per point of ability drain, and eight power points per negative level to be preventing.

Pierce Mind [Epic, Psionic]
You can exert your mental focus to crush the defenses around a target’s mind.
Prerequisites: Mental Prowess, Psicraft 30 ranks
Benefits: By expending your psionic focus, you may have a single power you manifest, ignore both immunities against mind-affecting effects and power resistance.

Overrule Power [Epic, Psionic]
You can commandeer an enemy’s power with your superior mind
Prerequisites: Mind Over Matter (Third)
Benefits: You may ready an action to commandeer the next power you witness another creature manifest. When that creature next attempts to manifest that power, you make an opposed psicraft check against it. If you are successful, you may choose to either cancel that power (all power points and XP spent on it are still lost) or to make all decisions for it as if you were the manifester (although it still emanates from the original manifester’s square).

Web of Metacreativity [Epic, Psionic]
The objects and creature you create emanate the same psychic aura as yourself.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the metacreativity discipline.
Benefits: You may manifest powers as if occupied the same square as any object or creature you create with metacreativity powers. If the duration of such a power is instantaneous or permanent, you may only manifest powers in this way within 5 rounds of first manifesting the power to create that object or creatures.

Reactive Psychometabolism [Epic, Psionic]
Your body is quite capable of responding to physical harm when required.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychometabolism discipline.
Benefits: Whenever an enemy successfully attacks you and deals hit point damage, you may manifest a power of the psychometabolism discipline as an immediate action.

Quick Psychoportation [Epic, Psionic]
Utilizing psychoportation is as easy for you as moving through space.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychoportation discipline.
Benefits: You may manifest a single power of the psychoportation discipline as part of any other move action.

Aggressive Psychokinesis [Epic, Psionic]
You attack with your psychokinesis with the greatest of ease.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychokinesis discipline
Benefits: In place of any attack you would otherwise make, you may manifest a single power of the psychokinesis discipline.

Subtle Telepathy [Epic, Psionic]
You can sneak a telepathic power onto another power that you cast.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the telepathy discipline.
Benefits: Whenever you manifest a target of a discipline other than telepathy that targets a single creature, you may simultaneously manifest a power of the telepathy discipline with a single target, targeting the exact same creature.

True Clairsentience [Epic, Psionic]
You think far more efficiently than most creatures in existence.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the clairsentience discipline.
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may manifest any number of powers of the clairsentience discipline.

Assume Mantle [Epic, Psionic]
You possess access to a wider array of mantles.
Prerequisites: Access to at least 2 mantles.
Benefits: You gain access to an additional mantle. If you would normally be restricted in which mantles you could select (such as a divine mind), you may ignore such restrictions.

Extra Augments [Epic, Psionic]
You are more skilled at augmenting your psionic sneak attacks.
Prerequisites: Lurk Augments (3 at once)
Benefit: You may use an additional lurk augment with each swift action. You may use lurk augments an additional number of times per day equal to your intelligence modifier.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Collective Consciousness (Su): Tapping in the the universal consciousness that all thinking beings possess, an omnimind can target a vast number of creatures with a single psionic power. Starting at 4th level, once per encounter, an omnimind may expend his or her psionic focus to manifest a power with a single target and a range other than personal while targeting any number of creatures within range. If that power possesses an XP cost, it is paid for each target. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per encounter.

Psionic Master (Ex): Starting at 5th level, an omnimind can manipulate far greater magics than most other manifesters. An omnimind can cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
There’s nothing much to note here, though I’ll admit that the fluff is a bit flat. Psionics is the the largest submagic system so I figured that I’d be best off with a rather broad class. I’m not seeing too much trouble here but I’m sure that you’ll let me know if I’m wrong.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:08 PM

Peerless Marksman

While most warriors measure their skill by their ability to fight head to head with strong opponents, others measure their skill by controlling the battlefield without ever coming within an enemy’s reach. The most skilled among these ranged combatants are known as peerless marksmen. Possessed of keen senses and unmatched speed and accuracy, peerless marksmen can quickly disable singular foes or hold off larger forces with minimal difficulty. The strongest of peerless marksman can even fight off spellcasters and dragons if required, at least for a short while. Though glory and renown may be piled on those who fight in close quarters, the skill of peerless marksmen demands its own respect.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a peerless marksman, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Spot 23 ranks.
Feats: Point-Blank Shot and any four feats using it as a prerequisite.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (geography), Listen, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Peerless Marksman
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Master Marksman, Trick Shot 5/round

2nd|
+2|Flawless Sight I

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Suppressing Fire (-1)

5th|
+5|Perfect Shot 1/encounter

6th|
+6|Trick Shot 10/round

7th|
+7|Flawless Sight II

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Suppressing Fire (-2)

10th|
+10|Perfect Shot 2/encounter[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Peerless Marksman

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a peerless marksman can still develop and cast epic spells using the armor, destroy, dispel, energy, fortify, and/or reveal seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A peerless marksman may use his or her base attack bonus in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills to determine epic spell slots per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when making a spellcraft check to cast an epic spell. As a full-round action, a peerless marksman can make a full-attack and cast an epic spell. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot isn’t expended. If the peerless marksman can’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Master Marksman (Ex): A peerless marksman possesses unrivaled skill with ranged weaponry. He or she gains the distant shot epic feat, even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. In addition, the peerless marksman doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunities when making ranged attacks. The peerless marksman can make attacks of opportunity when using ranged weaponry, threatening the area within one normal range increment with that weapon. Lastly, the peerless marksman adds twice his or her class level to the number of attacks of opportunity he or she can make each round and to damage rolls when making a ranged attack roll.

Trick Shot (Ex): A peerless marksman can perform remarkable feats using ranged weaponry. Each round, a peerless marksman can perform up to 5 trick shots. With a trick shot, a peerless marksman can alter a ranged attack to bull rush, trip, or disarm a creature or sunder an item that the target wears in addition to damaging the creature if the attack succeeds, provoking no attacks of opportunity and making Dexterity checks with an additional bonus equal to twice his or her class level in place of Strength checks. Alternately, the peerless marksman can use a trick shot to make a single ranged attack outside of his or her action in initiative. Multiple trick shots can be used on a single attack roll to provide additional benefit. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a peerless marksman may make an additional 5 trick shots each round.

Flawless Sight (Su): To become successful at attacking enemies, a peerless marksman is forced to hone his or her sight until the marksman can see everything as it is. Starting at 2nd level, the peerless marksman gains blindsense out to 200 feet, tremorsense out to 100 feet, and true seeing out to 50 feet. These distances are doubled at 7th level, tripled at 12th level, and so forth.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a peerless marksman can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Bane of Enemies, Blinding Speed, Bottomless Quiver*, Create Opening*, Death of enemies, Eagle-eyed Hunter*, Eagle-eyed Stalker*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Speed, Fall Back*, Find the Gap*, Godslayer*, Great Dexterity, Great Wisdom, Halt Advance*, Hobble Opponent*, Improved Arrow of Death, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Favored Enemy, Improved Manyshot, In the Shade*, Instant Reload, Instant Response*, Legendary Sniper*, Penetrating Shot*, Press the Advantage*, See the Glimmer*, Spell Arrow*, Stagger Opponent*, Sudden Shot*, Swarm of Arrows, Uncanny Accuracy

New FeatsHobble Opponent [Epic]
With enough attacks, you can stop an enemy in its tracks.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 5/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. By spending a trick shot, you may negate all damage that an attack would deal. If the attack hits, the target’s speed for all forms of movement is reduced by 5 feet (to a minimum of 0 feet) for 1 round. This effect stacks with itself.

Penetrating Shot [Epic]
Your attacks strike at the vulnerabilities of your foes and display these weaknesses to others.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 10/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. By spending a trick shot, you can choose to make an attack a penetrating shot. If the attack hits, the target’s damage reduction is lowered by 5 for that attack and all other attacks made against it for 1 round. During this time, the target’s regeneration and fast healing (if any) are reduced by an equal amount. This effect stacks with itself and none of these values may be reduced below 0 in this way.

Find the Gap [Epic]
Your attacks have a knack for finding the weakest point in an opponent’s armor.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 15/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. By spending a trick shot as you make a ranged attack roll, that attack is treated as a touch attack.

In the Shade [Epic] ]
You can single-handedly release volleys of shots that are impossible to dodge.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 25/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. By spending a trick shot as you make a ranged attack roll with a manufactured weapon, you may make the attack against a square instead of against a creature, treating the attack much as a grenade-like weapon. If the square the shot lands in is unoccupied, it is treated as difficult terrain for 1 round. If the square the shot lands in is occupied, the target must make a Reflex save (DC = your attack roll) to resist being hit by your attack. For each adjacent square to the target that has been hit in this way within the past round, that target takes a -2 penalty to its saving throw. If at least eight adjacent squares have been hit in this way within the past round, the target instead automatically fails its saving throw.

Stagger Opponent [Epic]
You can knock the fight out of an opponents by keeping it on the defensive.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 20/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. By spending a trick shot as you make a ranged attack roll against an opponent, you can make it a staggering shot. If the attack is successful, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + peerless marksman level + 1 per previous such saving throw made in the past round) or become staggered for 1 round.

Instant Response [Epic]
You are quick to act where others might be caught by surprise
Prerequisites: Superior Initiative, Dex or Wis 25
Benefits: You always act during surprise rounds and may take a full-round of actions during such rounds.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Legendary Sniper [Epic]
You can launch attacks from hiding far better than others can.
Prerequisites: Master Marksman, Hide 24 ranks
Benefits: You take no penalty to hide checks when sniping.
Furthermore, you are not restricted to making only one attack while sniping.

Press the Advantage [Epic]
You can use the smallest of openings to release an entire volley of attacks.
Prerequisites: Improved Combat Reflexes, Perfect Shot 2/encounter
Benefits: You may make a number of attacks of opportunity up to one plus your dexterity modifier for a given opportunity.
Normal: You are restricted to one attack of opportunity for a given opportunity.

Create Opening [Epic]
The suppressing fire you lay down creates openings for your allies to move about freely.
Prerequisites: Suppressing Fire (-1)
Benefits: Any creature successfully hit by one of your ranged attacks can’t make attacks of opportunity for 1 round.

Halt Advance [Epic]
You can stop your enemies from approaching you in combat.
Prerequisites: Suppressing Fire (-2)
Benefits: Any creature successfully hit by one of your ranged attacks treats all squares within a cone originating from you and reaching as far as that opponent as difficult terrain for 1 round.

Fall Back [Epic]
After making an accurate shot, you can easily fall back to prevent a counterattack.
Prerequisites: Perfect Shot 1/encounter
Benefits: After using your perfect shot class feature or scoring a critical hit with a ranged attack during your action, you may immediately spend the rest of your action making a withdraw action. Doing so ends any series of attacks you were in the middle of performing.

See the Glimmer [Epic]
Among the greatest of archers, it often falls to you to strike at invisible foes far in the distance.
Prerequisites: Flawless Sight I
Benefits: You can see through any form of invisibility within your range of sight.

Spell Arrow [Epic]
You can enchant your ranged attacks with spells.
Prerequisites: Master Marksman, Ability to cast 1st level spells
Benefits: You may cast a spell that either possesses a range of touch or that requires a ranged touch attack whenever you make a ranged attack with a manufactured weapon. You add the spell level of the chosen spell as a bonus to the attack roll and damage roll and the spell is successfully delivered if the attack is successful. Only spells with a casting time up to one standard action can be cast in this way.

Bottomless Quiver [Epic]
Your magic ensures that you never run out of ammunition
Prerequisites: Spell Arrow
Benefits: So long as you possess at least one spell slot or spell prepared, you can make masterwork ammunition as you attack. You always create just the right amount to attack with and can thus make full attacks or use the manyshot feat. This ammunition lasts until the attack is completed.

Eagle-eyed Stalker [Epic]
You have mastered the art of attacking on the move
Prerequisites: Skirmish +4d6/+4, Master Marksman
Benefits: Your scout level and peerless marksman level stack for the purposes of your skirmish class feature.

Sudden Shot [Epic]
Your attacks come and go in the blink of an eye.
Prerequisites: Trick Shot 20/round
Benefits: You gain a new use for your trick shot class feature. Whenever you make a ranged attack, you can spend a trick shot to make the attack a sudden shot. No actions of any sort, whether readied actions or immediate actions, can be taken in response to a sudden shot. Similarly, contingent spell effects fail to activate in response to a sudden shot.

Eagle-eyed Hunter [Epic]
You have continued learning how to hunt specific prey.
Prerequisites: Four favored enemies, Master Marksman
Benefits: Your ranger level and peerless marksman level stack for the purposes of your favored enemy class feature.

Suppressing Fire (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a peerless marksman knows how to inflict lasting pain with his or her attacks, distracting and weakening the enemy with every shot. For each successful ranged attack that a peerless marksman makes against a creature, that creature takes a stacking -1 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for 1 round. This penalty increases by -1 at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Perfect Shot (Ex): Starting at 5th level, when making a ranged attack, a peerless marksman can declare it to be a perfect shot. A perfect shot ignores cover, concealment, miss chances gained through magical sources, damage reduction, and regeneration. The attack can’t be deflected, snatched, or reflected using feats, spells, and abilities that normally allow for this. The attack automatically hits its target, threatens a critical hit, and imposes twice the normal penalty for the marksman’s suppressing fire class feature. This ability can be used once per encounter at 5th level and one additional time per encounter at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:Because archers are universally viewed as awful, I decided to see how far I could push them within their given role. I think that I’ve given archers a pretty good chance at contributing to combat. For the record, master marksman is meant to grant AoO within 1 normal range increment of the weapon (not at infinite range as the distant shot feat may lead you to believe). As one last note to those nitpickers and tippyverse supporters out there, the initial claim that this class can fight off spellcasters for a while is assuming a non-optimized caster.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:09 PM

Primeval Force

The entirety of the natural world, from the meekest of prey to the grandest of predators, remains entirely interconnected. Ancient magics woven through countless leylines, intertwined with the life force flowing through all living things, create what most people think of as nature. Though many people have been known to siphon and redirect small amounts of this energy to protect the natural world, a rare few have become channels for this ancient magic, becoming leylines in their own right. These living leylines, known collectively as primeval forces, possess incredible power over nature. Though most think of themselves as mere stewards of nature rather than acting as domineers, the difference is often difficult to see when such great powers are being manipulated. Whether we like it or not, primeval forces freely walk the multiverse, firmly entrenched in the natural world.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any neutral
Skills: Knowledge (nature) 23 ranks
Class Features: Animal Companion, Wild Shape 3/day

Class Skills: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Primeval Force
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Steward of Nature, Roiling Skinshift 1/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|Primordial Resilience 10|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

4th|
+2|Primeval Influence (1 mile)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Master of the Primeval (1)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

6th|
+3|Roiling Skinshift 2/encounter|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Primordial Resilience 20|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Primeval Influence (10 miles)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

10th|
+5|Master of the Primeval (2)|+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Primeval Force.

Epic Spellcasting: A primeval force gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat, even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. If the primeval force doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Animal Companion: At 1st level and every 3 levels afterwards, a primeval force’s animal companion (if any) gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by 2, its Strength and Dexterity modifiers increase by 1, and it learns one additional bonus trick.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each primeval force level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a primeval force, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Steward of Nature (Ex): Beyond a single animal companion, a primeval force exercises control over the very forces of nature. A primeval force can talk to any and all animals, magical beasts, plants, vermin, and elementals regardless of their intelligence scores and such creatures can only attack the primeval force if they succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + class level + Wis mod). Any time such a creature within 1 mile of the primeval force is harmed by a creature not from this list, a primeval force learns of this altercation and the direction and distance to it.

Most Impressively, a primeval force can replace his or her animal companion with any such creature from this list with HD up to his or her Class level + 20 by spending a full-round action to establish the bond (allowing a DC 20 + Class level + Wis mod Will save to resist) while severing the previous bond. The effective druid level of the primeval force equals 20 + class level – base HD of the animal companion.

Wild Shape: A primeval force gains another daily use of wild shape at 2nd level and every 4 levels afterwards.

Roiling Skinshifter (Su): A primeval force is filled with ancient knowledge of thousands of forms and knows how to always assume just the form that he or she requires. The primeval force need not be familiar with a type of creature to assume its form through wild shape. Once per encounter, a primeval force can assume a new form using wild shape as an immediate action. This shift doesn’t use one of his or her daily uses and only lasts for 1 round before the primeval force returns to his or her previous form. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an addition time each encounter.

Primordial Resilience (Su): Just as life has continued unhalted from times primordial, so too does a primeval force of 2nd level continue living regardless of circumstances. The primeval force gains fast healing 10. As a standard action, a primeval force can lend out some or all of this fast healing to a touched creature, stacking with any fast healing the target already possesses and lasting for 24 hours or until the primeval force calls back the energy as a standard action. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the value of this fast healing increases by +10.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a primeval force can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Colossal Wild Shape, Damage Reduction, Diminutive Wild Shape, Divine Spell Knowledge*, Dragon Wild Shape, Draw Essence*, Embrace the Form*, Energy Resistance, Enhance Spell, Enhanced Form*, Extended Life Span, Fine Wild Shape, Gargantuan Wild Shape, Godslayer*, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Elemental Wild Shape, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Spell Capacity, Intensify Spell, Inviolable Form*, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Legendary Rider, Legendary Trainer, Legendary Wrestler, Magical Beast Wild Shape, Master of Nature*, Menagerie Shape*, Multispell, Nature’s Gift, Polygot, Quick Restoration*, Retain Enhancements*, Revitalization*, Spell Opportunity, Spell Stowaway, Spontaneous Spell, Superior Spellcaster*, Tenacious Magic, Tarrasque Carapace*, Universal Tongue*, Vermin Wild Shape

New FeatsDraw Essence [Epic]
You can draw upon the essence of the wilderness to help you cast an epic spell.
Prerequisites: Steward of Nature
Benefits: You may draw essence from any number of friendly, helpful, or fanatic animals, elementals, magical beasts, and plant creatures within your line of sight as a standard action. For each creature you draw essence from, you add half of its HD (minimum +0) to the next spellcraft check you make to cast an epic spell within the next 10 minutes. All creatures you draw essence from become exhausted and you may not draw essence from fatigued, exhausted, or unconscious creatures.

Enhanced Form [Epic]
The forms you assume using wild shape are greater than normal animals of their kind.
Prerequisites: Steward of Nature
Benefits: While using the wild shape class feature to become a small or smaller creature, you gain a +2 bonus to your dexterity score. While using the wild shape class feature to become a large or larger creature, you gain a +2 bonus to your constitution score.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Revitalization [Epic]
You are exceedingly difficult to truly damage.
Prerequisites: Primordial Resilience 30
Benefits: You gain regeneration equal to your fast healing. Whenever you lend some of your healing to another, they gain an equal amount of regeneration as well. All forms of energy damage and critical hits overcome this regeneration.

Inviolable Form [Epic]
Your form is impossible to alter by force
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 2/encounter or Shrug Off 2/round or Infinite Adaptation (15 immunities)
Benefits: You aren’t affected by any effect that would forcefully alter your form (such as baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, or disintegrate) unless you allow it to affect you.

Menagerie Shape [Epic]
You can use wild shape to take the form of multiple creatures at once.
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 5/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use wild shape, you may take the form of any number of creatures with a total summed HD no higher than twice your character level. All of these creatures share a single hp total and any effect that successfully harms one of these creatures affects them all (if the effect would affect more than one of these creatures, it doesn’t stack with itself). When you use your roiling skinshifter ability, you may change the form of any number of these creatures. When you end your wild shape, you appear in a square occupied by any of these creatures of your choice. If you would be unable to occupy any such space (such as if you split into 50 bats and all are trapped in tiny cages), you are instantly slain as your body tries to retake its original form.

Embrace the Form [Epic]
You become one with the forms you embrace
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 4/encounter
Benefits: You gain all extraordinary and supernatural abilities of creatures you transform into using your wild shape class feature.

Retain Enhancements [Epic]
Much of the equipment you use remains useful even while transformed.
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 3/day
Benefits: All equipment on your person occupying an item slot remains functional while you use your wild shape class feature.

Master of Nature [Epic]
You can bend nature to your will and drive off those that nature abhors.
Prerequisites: Steward of Nature
Benefits: A number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier + 3, you may attempt to rebuke or control animals, elementals, magical beasts, and/or plant creatures with an effective cleric level equal to your primeval force level + 20. Alternately, you may spend a use of this ability to turn or destroy aberrations, constructs, oozes, and/or undead.

Universal Tongue [Epic]
You have been placed in touch with the entire natural world
Prerequisites: Polygot, Primeval Influence (1 mile)
Benefits: You can communicate with all living things, though mindless creatures and creatures of animal intelligence are limited to basic concepts. You can also use speak with plants and stone tell at will as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to your primeval force level + 20.

Quick Restoration [Epic]
Minor conditions inflicted upon you are quickly removed.
Prerequisites: Primordial Resilience 20
Benefits: Any creature healed by your primordial resilience class feature is instantly healed of the following conditions: shaken, fatigued, sickened, dazzled, confused, blinded, and/or deafened.

Nature’s Gift [Epic]
You can lend your magic to large numbers of natural creatures around you.
Prerequisites: Primeval Influence (10 miles)
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell described as harmless in its saving throw description that targets more than one creature, don’t count any animals, elementals, magical beasts, and/or plant creatures you target in this way towards the number of targets selected.

Tarrasque Carapace [Epic, Wild]
You can manifest the carapace of the dreaded tarrasque to protect you from both attacks and magic.
Prerequisites: Wild Shape 10/day
Benefits: By paying four uses of your wild shape class feature, you can take on the great defenses of the tarrasque. You gain a +30 bonus to your natural armor, Damage Reduction 15/epic, and all lines, rays, cones, and magic missiles harmlessly deflect off of you, possessing a 30% chance of rebounding against the caster.

Superior Spellcaster [Epic]
Your spells are more powerful than those of others
Prerequisites: Caster level 30th
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your caster level.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Divine Spell Knowledge [Epic]
Your access to spells is larger than that of most divine casters.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast spells of the maximum normal spell level of a divine spellcasting class.
Benefits: You learn two new divine spells of any level up to the maximum level you can cast. This feat does not grant any additional spell slots.
special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Legendary Trainer [Epic]
Animals aren’t quite as responsive with anyone as they are with you.
Prerequisites: Handle Animal 25 ranks
Benefit: When you use the handle animal skill, the number of tricks that you can teach an animal doesn’t count against the maximum number of tricks it can learn.

Primeval Influence (Su): Starting at 4th level, a primeval force gains full control over the forces of nature in the surrounding area. As a swift action, a primeval force can make one of the following changes, which occurs over the next 1d10 rounds.
-Create, destroy, and move clouds to provide shade and sun over the top of the area as the primeval force sees fit (sunlight is only provided during the day, as normal).
-Alter the temperature within two temperature bands of the normal temperature.
-Alter the direction of the wind and alter its speed within two degrees of its normal speed.
-Alter the directions of water currents in range and alter their speeds by up to 50%.
-Affect any or all plants within range as if through plant growth or diminish plants
-Alter the weather as per the control weather spell, except that effects are not limited by season.
-Create an earthquake throughout the entire area as if through an earthquake spell (the earthquake occurs at the end of the 1d10 rounds, though it is preceded by low rumbling and shaking).

This ability functions over an area up to 1-mile in radius, centered on the primeval force when he or she uses this ability. These abilities last for 1d10 x 10 minutes (except for those who are instantaneous in nature), even if the primeval force moves during this time. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the maximum area of this ability is multiplied by x 10.

Master of the Primeval: The very powers of the natural world grant the primeval force far greater powers than they would otherwise possess. At 5th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a primeval force gains the ability to cast an additional epic spell each day

Notes and Explanation: Of the full casters I designed, this is ironically among the weakest as it revolves more around flavor and less around spamming the biggest epic spells that you could ever think of. Even so, it remains functional and pretty powerful as well. Though a druid could technically have become a high proselytizer from the EDH, it seemed pretty clear that the class’ flavor was intended for clerics and this class is far more druid friendly (though the prerequisites purposefully don’t mention spellcasting so a wild shape ranger can get in as well).

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:12 PM

Protean Avatar

When most beings think of chaos, they think of a destructive force. While law stands for harmony and fairness for many, chaos is seen as a force that stands against harmony and often against common sense itself. Those who look deeper into the conflict between law and chaos, however, realize that this is only one side of the story. For some, law represents stagnation and oppression while chaos represents adaptation, spontaneity, and freedom. A few beings of more eclectic interests, after gaining sufficient power, can tap into the more positive elements of chaos. Known as protean avatars, these beings warp themselves and their environments to best meet their needs and they travel.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a protean avatar, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Alignment: Any Chaotic
Skills/Spells: Any eight skills 23 ranks

Class Skills: All skills are class skills for a protean avatar.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Protean Avatar
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Effortless Reshaping (1), Morphic Mind|--

2nd|
+1|Infinite Adaptation (5 immunities)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Warp World 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Omnicopence 1/encounter|--

6th|
+3|Effortless Reshaping (2)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Infinite Adaptation (10 immunities)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Warp World 2/round|--

10th|
+5|Omnicopence 2/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Protean Avatar

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a protean avatar can still develop and cast epic spells using the animate, destroy, dispel, energy, reflect, summon, transform, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A protean avatar casting an epic spell with these seeds (and only these seeds) need not make a Spellcraft Check if the DC is equal or lower than 20 + (Class Level x 2). Unless a protean avatar has sufficient ranks in a skill to gain more slots per day, he or she gains a number of epic spell slots per day equal to his or her effective character level / 20. If the protean avatar doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Effortless Reshaping (Sp): Just as a protean avatar can reshape him or herself, so too can the protean avatar reshape the world around him or herself. As a standard action, the protean avatar can use polymorph any object as a spell-like ability (Save DC = 20 + class level + Wis mod) with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20. This ability can only affect a single target at a time at 1st level and up to one additional target every 5 class levels afterwards. Using this on another target beyond this maximum frees a previous target. This ability is a piercing effect.

Morphic Mind (Su): Representing the best aspects of chaos, a protean avatar is almost always adapt and respond to difficulties as they come up. As a swift action, the protean avatar can retrain any number of ranks from other skills into a single new skill, within normal limitations. Alternately, the protean avatar can retrain a single feat into another feat for which he or she meets all prerequisites. These switches follow all normal rules for retraining and can’t be used to stop the protean avatar from meeting the prerequisites for this class. After making a number of switches equal to twice his or her class level, a protean avatar can’t use this ability again until he or she spends one hour re-centering him or herself, setting his or her feats and skills as they originally were. A protean avatar who gains a level is automatically re-centered in this way.

Infinite Adaptation (Su): A protean avatar of at least 2nd level can adapt to almost any harmful situation that he or she runs up against, gaining immunity to further harm. After suffering from an attack, spell, or effect, a protean avatar can choose to gain immunity to it. These immunities are incredibly narrow, however. If gaining immunity to a physical attack, the protean avatar must be hit at least once (though he or she need not be damaged) and the protean avatar thereafter gains immunity to that form of weaponry (whether manufactured like daggers or natural like claws) when used by that attacker, taking neither damage nor secondary effects of the attack like poison. If adapting to a spell or effect, the protean avatar must have been hit by that effect (if requiring an attack roll) or have failed its save (if there is one) but thereafter gains immunity to that spell or effect when used by the same creature. A protean avatar can maintain up to 5 immunities in this way at a time at 2nd level and can maintain an additional 5 immunities every 5 levels afterwards. Any immunities gained beyond this limit take the place of previous immunities.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even protean avatar level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a protean avatar, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a protean avatar can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Energy Resistance, Enhanced Form*, Epic Skill Focus, Extended Life Span, Fluid Movement*, Free Mind*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Improvised Tactics*, Inviolable Form*, Lethal Warp*, Master of Transmutation*, Reactive Energy Resistance*, Scramble Magic*, Share Enhancements*, Spontaneous Spell, Superior Initiative, Unbarred Movement*, Unstabilized World*, Writhing World*.

New Feats [Epic][b]Unbarred Movement [Epic]
Nothing can hope to hold you still.
Prerequisites: Infinite Adaptation (15 immunities)
Benefits: You are continually affected as if by a freedom of movement effect.

Free Mind [Epic]
Your mind can wriggle free from any form of manipulation.
Prerequisites: Infinite Adaptation (10 immunities)
Benefits: Even if you fail a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect, its duration is reduced to 1 round if otherwise longer.

Improvised Tactics [Epic]
You can come up with any number of small tricks when in trouble.
Prerequisites: Morphic Mind
Benefits: Once per encounter, you may make use of any single skill trick (complete scoundrel) regardless of whether you meet its prerequisites.

Share Enhancements [Epic]
You can enhance the bodies of others through physical contact.
Prerequisites: Enhance Form
Benefits: You can grant a touched target any number of your +1 enhancement bonuses to ability scores with 10 minutes of concentration. You can change how they are distributed in the target by touching the target and concentrating for 10 minutes and you may concentrate for 10 minutes to reclaim these bonuses regardless of distance between you and the target. You may share these bonuses with any number of creatures at the same time.

Enhance Form [Epic]
You can transmute your own form for greater benefits.
Prerequisites: Effortless Reshaping (2)
Benefits: You gain a total of 4 +1 enhancement bonuses that you can apply to your ability scores however you see fit. With 10 minutes of concentration, you can change how these bonuses are applied. These bonuses stack with each other but not with other enhancement bonuses.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times, gaining an additional 4 +1 enhancement bonuses each time.

Fluid Movement [Epic]
Your movement isn’t as well defined as most other creatures
Prerequisites: Effortless Reshaping (1)
Benefits: Whenever you move, you can choose to grant yourself the benefits of the gaseous form spell with a fly speed equal to your land speed until the end of the movement. From an outsider’s perspective, your form seems to flow from one place to the next.

Reactive Energy Resistance [Epic]
You can adapt your energy resistance over the course of battle to best face your foes.
Prerequisites: Energy Resistance, Infinite Adaptation (5 immunities)
Benefits: Whenever you are dealt energy damage, you may switch any energy resistance you have against another form of energy to the form of energy damage you were just dealt. This new energy resistance doesn’t stack with any other energy resistance you previously possessed against that energy.

Master of Transmutation [Epic]
You twist the forms of others in magnificent ways.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Transmutation spell.
Benefits: You gain the supernatural abilities of any creature you transform into using transmutation spells. Any bonuses to ability scores granted by your transmutation spells are doubled. Once per encounter, you may grant yourself a burrow speed, fly speed (with perfect maneuverability), or swim speed equal to your land speed or double your land speed until the end of the encounter.

Inviolable Form [Epic]
Your form is impossible to alter by force
Prerequisites: Roiling Skinshifter 2/encounter or Shrug Off 2/round or Infinite Adaptation (15 immunities)
Benefits: You aren’t affected by any effect that would forcefully alter your form (such as baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, or disintegrate) unless you allow it to affect you.

Writhing World [Epic]
As you reshape the world around you, you can carry a creature into a new place.
Prerequisites: Warp World 1/round
Benefits: Whenever you use your warp world class feature, you may move a single other creature anywhere within the area so long as the resulting shift in the landscape could support it. If this movement would take a creature out of range of an attack or area effect, that creature possesses a 50% chance of ignoring that attack or effect. Moving directly downwards does not inflict falling damage and an unwilling creature can ignore this movement with a successful Reflex Save (DC 20 + Protean Avatar level + Cha modifier).

Unstabilize World [Epic]
Reshaping the world around you unstabilizes the planar connections to that area, preventing escape.
Prerequisites: Warp World 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you use your warp world class feature, the area within 100 feet of you is treated as if affected by a dimensional lock effect for 1 round. You are not affected by this effect.

Scramble Magic [Epic]
Reshaping the world momentarily disrupts magic flowing through it with chaotic consequences.
Prerequisties: Warp World 3/round
Benefits: Whenever you use your warp world class feature, the area within 100 feet of you is treated as if possessing the wild magic trait (DMG p149) except that there is no level check permitted to overcome the effects. You are not affected by this effect.

Lethal Warp [Epic]
You can warp the world around you aggressively, harming all that you choose.
Prerequisites: Warp World 4/round
Benefits: You can use your warp world class feature to harm creatures in a wide variety of ways. Each time you use your warp world class feature, you may select any number of creatures within 20 feet of the landscape (including vertical elements such as cliffs or bluffs). For each creature, you may select one of the following four effects:
Landscape Slam: Nearby trees, water, or earth is animated to momentarily come to life and slam into the creature. You make an attack roll with a bonus equal to your protean avatar class level and the attack deals 5d6 damage if successful.
Earthen Crush: the surrounding landscape wraps around the target and begins crushing them. Make an attack roll with a bonus equal to your protean avatar class level and if successful, the target is considered grappled by the landscape. The landscape uses your grapple modifier with a bonus equal to your protean avatar class level.
Instant Cliff: You may form a fall directly below a creature. If that creature fails a Reflex save (DC 20 + Protean Avatar level + Cha modifier) and can’t fly, it falls and takes normal damage.
Harmful Pool: You may transmute the ground below a target into acid, magma, or similar mundane materials. If the target fails a Reflex save (DC 20 + Protean Avatar level + Cha modifier) and can’t fly, it falls in and takes appropriate damage.

Warp World (Su): Starting at 4th level, a protean avatar can forcibly alter the environment to best meet his or her needs. Once per round, a protean avatar can warp the world within 100 feet of him or herself as he or she seems fit. Existing elements of the landscape can be moved and reshaped however the protean avatar sees fit and any number of unattended items and/or substances can be replaced with an equal amount of substance of equal or lesser value. Attended items can’t be affected in this way and this shift can’t be used to harm, move, or even knock over creatures. If total cover is granted to a creature in this way in response to an attack against that creature, that attack treats the target as possessing improved cover. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the protean avatar can reshape the world one additional time per day.

Omnicopence (Su): Starting at 5th level, a protean avatar can imitate others to gain an edge in combat. Once per encounter, a protean avatar can spend a swift action to gain a class feature belonging to another class. Any ability from a base class or non-epic prestige class other than spellcasting or similar abilities (including psionics and soulbinding) can be selected in this way. The protean avatar is treated as possessing all nonepic levels of the class that has the chosen class feature for the purpose of determining its power if it scales but other abilities that increase its power (such as a barbarian’s tireless rage class feature) are not gained. This insight is fleeting, lasting for only 1 round (though any class features with durations started during that round such as a barbarian’s rage or knight’s challenge started last their full duration). At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a protean avatar can use this ability one additional time per encounter.

Notes and Explanation:And finally, a class to show the best parts of being chaotic. Though it wasn’t intended to act as a factotum PrC, I’ll admit that it works decently well as one. Not too much to say here at all for once.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:13 PM

Scion of Sorrow

Many in the world assume that power brings only happiness, assuming that those of exceptional strength and riches can reverse or mitigate any woes that would trouble them. Though often the case, this is not always true. Some beings of exceptional power, after having brought themselves to ruin, are simply shattered under the weight of their broken hearts and dreams. Transformed and empowered by this bottomless sense of loss and longing, scions of sorrow are beings of true and irreversible finality, capable of wreaking havoc or bettering the world in ways that no one can ever reverse. Fortunately for many in the multiverse, scions of sorrow are exceptionally rare. Beyond the scarcity of such tragedy needed to fuel the transition, the first act of most scions is one of irreversible self-destruction.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Scion of Sorrow, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
ECL: 20 or higher
Special: Must have accidentally brought great tragedy to oneself in a way that the character has yet to fix or reverse.

Class Skills: Any ten of the Scion of Sorrow’s choice
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Scion of Sorrow
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Entity of Loss, What’s Done is Done|--

2nd|
+2|Futility 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Blade of Broken Dreams 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Unending Existence I|--

6th|
+6|What’s Done is Done|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Futility 2/round|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Blade of Broken Dreams 2/encounter|--

10th|
+10|Unending Existence II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Scion of Sorrow.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a scion of sorrow can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the scion of sorrow doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even scion of sorrow level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a scion of sorrow, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Entity of Loss (Ex): Whatever troubles torment a scion of sorrow’s past, the feelings of sorrow and regret they evoke change the scion on a fundamental level. A scion of sorrow no longer possesses a soul and is immune to spells and effects that would alter, move, trap the scion’s soul or that would allow a creature possess the scion’s body. The scion of sorrow can only be restored from the dead through a wish or miracle effect. A scion of sorrow ceases to age and is immune to lethal damage from dehydration or starvation (though these effects can still knock the scion unconscious).

What’s Done is Done (Su): The greatest power (or curse) that a Scion of Sorrow possesses is the ability to irrevocably alter the world. A Scion of Sorrow may choose a render any event he or she is directly responsible for irrevocable as that event concludes (thus, the scion may choose the make the fall of a kingdom irrevocable as his or her forces finally make it fall or may make the death of a king irrevocable as the king dies [so long as the scion of sorrow is responsible for the death]). That event is entirely irrevocable through mundane and magical means. Not even epic magic, artifacts, or the work of gods can undo what has been wrought and attempts to change the past fail. If the event that a scion of sorrow wishes to make irrevocable is not as the scion suspects (such as if he or she wishes to make a king’s death irrevocable but only slays a body double), the scion learns that things are not as they seem and may choose not to use this ability.

At 1st level, the tragedy that the scion of sorrow has brought upon him or herself to allow access into this class is rendered irrevocable in this way and the scion of sorrow may render an additional event irrevocable at any time. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a scion of sorrow may render two additional events irrevocable. Once an event has been declared irrevocable, that use of this class feature is forever loss. Uses of this ability not used by the time it is gained again carry over.

Futility (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a scion of sorrow can foil just about any action that an enemy can undertake. Once per round, a scion of sorrow can grant a creature a 50% miss chance with a single attack roll, a 50% failure chance with a single spell, or a penalty equal to twice his or her class level to a single skill check. Only enemies within 30 feet of the scion of sorrow can be targeted in this way and he or she gains an additional use per round at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Beyond Prediction*, Burden of Life*, Claim Calamity, Claim Woes*, Crush Will*, Damage Reduction, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Fast Healing, Glimpse of Solace*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Improved Spell Capacity, Numbed to Affliction*, Refuge of Dreams, Share the Pain*, Tortured Psyche*, Wield the Shattered Blade*

New FeatsShare the Pain [Epic]
You can let others know the pain that they inflict upon you.
Prerequisites: Futility 2/round
Benefits: Whenever a creature successfully damages you with an attack, spell, or ability, you may spend a use of your futility class feature to deal an equal amount of nonlethal damage to that creature, or half that much if the creature succeeds on a Fortitude save (Save DC = 20 + Scion of Sorrow class level + Cha modifier).

Numbed to Affliction [Epic]
Your unending life has exposed you to enough hardship that little phases you any more.
Prerequisites: Unending Existence I
Benefits: So long as you possess fast healing with your unending existence class feature, you are protected by an endure elements effect and are immune to ability damage and drain as well as negative levels.

Burden of Life [Epic]
Life is more of a curse than a blessing for you, a curse quite hard to remove.
Prerequisites: Numbed to Affliction, Unending Existence II
Benefits: So long as you possess fast healing with your unending existence class feature, you are immune to death effects. Furthermore, whenever you fail a Constitution check to hold your breath, you merely fall unconscious until oxygen becomes available.

Crush Will [Epic]
You can crush the will of an enemy to continue fighting.
Prerequisites: Blade of Broken Dreams 1/encounter
Benefits: Whenever a sentient creature fails its saving throw against your blade of broken dreams class feature, that creature must make an additional Will save (DC 20 + Scion of Sorrow class level + Cha modifier) or lose the will to continue the fight for the rest of the encounter or until an aggressive action is next taken against him or her. Whenever a creature affected by your futility class feature misses you with an attack roll, fails to cast a spell against you, or fails on a skill check made against you, they must make this same saving throw or be affected for 1d4 rounds. This is a penetrating mind-affecting effect.

Tortured Psyche [Epic]
Woe to those who try to pry their way into your thoughts
Prerequisites: Futility 1/round
Benefits: Whenever a creature attempts to read your thoughts or target you with a mind-affecting ability, you can spend a use of your futility class feature to force that creature to make a Will save (DC 20 + Scion of Sorrow class level + Cha modifier) or become tortured with grief for 1d4 rounds (treat as dazed). A creature who fails its saving throw fails to read or influence your mind with whatever spell or ability it was using. This is a penetrating mind-affecting effect.

Claim Woes [Epic]
You can claim the pains and woes of others for yourself, bringing your targets solace.
Prerequisites: Entity of Loss
Benefits: By touching a creature as a standard action, you gain transfer any number of hit points from yourself to that creature. Furthermore, you may transfer any spell or ability with a single target that functions by creating or manipulating pain (DM’s Discretion) from the touched target to yourself. If the spell or ability allows a saving throw, you are allowed to make one against the same DC as if you were being newly targeted although the remaining duration is not reset.

Glimpse of Solace [Epic]
When you use your power to forever alter the world, you catch a glimpse of what can never be.
Prerequisites: What’s Done is Done, Unending Existence IV
Benefits: Whenever you use your what’s done is done class feature, you may choose to briefly glimpse the world that could never be. For each creature of at least 1 HD whose life was ended or irrevocably changed (whether for good or ill) by your use of the class feature, you vanish from existence for 1 round, occupying a fleeting glimpse of a world in which your great tragedy never occurred. Nothing done in this other world leaves any lasting effects on you or the real world. When you return to the real-world, your short-lived joy spills out as power far greater than the sorrows you harness. In effect, you may cast an epic spell with a spellcraft DC of up to 1% of the number of rounds you spent in the other world (up to a maximum of your scion of sorrow class level x 10).

Refuge of Dreams [Epic]
Sleep is your last refuge from the dark realities of the world.
Prerequisites: What’s Done is Done, The ability to sleep
Benefits: So long as you have obtained at least 8 hours of sleep within the past 24 hours, you are immune to all fear effects and may roll 2d20 for each will save you make and take the better result. After receiving at least 2 hours of sleep, if you are awakened before receiving a full 8 hours, you add your Charisma bonus as a morale bonus to all attack and damage rolls against any creatures responsible for your awakening for the next 10 minutes. Lastly, you are immune to any effect that manipulates dreams or that specifically target sleeping creatures.

Claim Calamity [Epic]
You can prevent events of great destruction at the cost of great personal sorrow.
Prerequisites: What’s Done is Done, Unending Existence III
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may halt any single natural distaster (whether an erupting volcano, storm, tidal wave, earthquake, wildfire, or so forth) within a 1 mile/scion of sorrow level radius of yourself. If the event takes place over a larger area, the area within a 1 mile/scion of sorrow level radius is unaffected by the entirety of the disaster (even if you subsequently leave that area). This ability functions against non-epic spells and abilities used to cause such a disaster and has a 50% chance of functioning against epic spells and abilities used to cause such a disaster. If multiple applicable disasters are within range, you halt one of them that you are aware of of your choice. After using this ability, the next great tragedy that occurs in your life is rendered irrevocable as if by your what’s done is done class feature. Until this occurs, you may not use this feat again.

Beyond Prediction [Epic]
None could hope to predict your actions.
Prerequisites: Futility 3/round
Benefits: Effects that attempt to predict the future (including the portfolio sense of deities and the know death salient divine ability) can never predict your future and fail to take your presence and actions into account when predicting the future. You gain Spell Resistance 30 + Scion of Sorrow level against all other divination effects.

Wield the Shattered Blade [Epic]
Prerequisites: Blade of Broken Dreams 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever one of your weapons is either destroyed and/or permanently disenchanted by an enemy in combat, you may choose to make that weapon your shattered blade (replacing any previously chosen shattered blade). As a swift action, you can call forth a ghostly copy of your shattered blade, intact if the original was destroyed and enchanted if the original lost its power. If you lose contact with this weapon, it vanishes at the end of that action. The weapon can damage incorporeal and ethereal creatures as a force effect and it can’t be damaged, dispelled, or disjointed (although it is suppressed in an antimagic field or dead magic zone). For every 5 scion of sorrow levels you possess, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls against creatures who have damaged you in the past (no matter how long ago). No matter how many times you call upon this weapon, abilities with limited uses only recharge at their normal rate.

Blade of Broken Dreams (Su): Starting at 4th level, a scion of sorrow can forever part a creature from its ambitions, severing it from its dreams with raw might. Once per encounter, a scion may make a declare a single attack to be made with his or her blade of broken dreams (the blade is metaphorical in nature and the attack may be made with any sort of weaponry or even with a spell). Whatever weapon or spell makes the attack has its physical form altered to match the nature of its target’s greatest desire. If the attack hits, the target must make a Will save (DC 20 + Class level + Cha modifier). If the target succeeds, it is merely nauseated for 1 round in addition to all normal damage and effects. If the target fails, however, the target is nauseated for 1d4 rounds and is doomed never to achieve its greatest desire (at the time of the attack) for as long as the scion of sorrow lives. Desires involving basic biological needs (such as the desire of a devastation vermin to eat) and specific desires to kill the scion of sorrow aren’t affected in this way. Similarly, any hit point damage the attack deals can’t be healed for as long as the scion lives if the target fails its Will save. This ability can be used an additional time per encounter at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Unending Existence (Su): Just as the emotions that fuel a scion’s powers allow him or her to leave permanent marks on the world, so too do these powers transform the Scion into a permanent feature of the world. Starting at 5th level, a scion of sorrow can no longer be slain through hit point damage. No matter how his or her body is mangled (even if the body is destroyed or reduced to dust), the scion of sorrow continues living and regrows body parts (including heads or entire bodies if necessary) as if he or she possessed regeneration. While at or under -10 hit points, the scion falls unconscious even if he or she possesses diehard or a similar feat, ability, or spell effect and can be slain with a miracle or wish effect. The scion of power can’t be affected by spells and abilities of the healing subschool while in this state unless the spell would normally restore the dead to life (in which case they function normally on the scion even though he or she wasn’t truly dead), and the scion gains fast healing 10 while in this state. After this fast healing has restored at least 20 hit points/class level, you lose this fast healing (although you continue heal naturally) until you spend 2 hours in self-reflection. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the value of this fast healing increases by an additional 10 points and the maximum amount you can heal before needing to recharge this class feature increases by 20 hit points/class level.

Notes and Explanation:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. This is a class specifically designed to let epic characters angst. I understand if I’ve lose some credibility for this but I ask that you let me explain myself before you shake your heads in disgust (or fall to the floor laughing).

At epic levels, the way things are currently written, tragedy is pretty much impossible unless you don’t have casters in your party. With epic spellcasting, you can literally have whatever you want so long as your can achieve a higher spellcraft modifier than anyone who doesn’t want you to have it. Nothing really carries lasting consequences and the idea of epic tragedy is a bit of an oxymoron.

Some people out there enjoy tragedies and tragic characters. Though the brooding and angsty beautiful twenty-somethings enjoying ridiculous superpowers has becomes something of a staple (and in-joke) when talking about these characters, some people can actually take a tragic character and play it straight. This class was made for them. If you are a DM, be careful who you show this PrC to.

Also, I just wanted to talk about about what’s done is done quickly. On a theoretical level, this is one of the weakest abilities ever. Limited uses that don’t recharge except through leveling and nothing immediately happens when you finally DO decide to use it. In an actual campaign, however, this is one of the strongest abilities out there and DMs should take care when it’s in the picture. If a scion of sorrow kills a recurring villain, you have to be ready to simply retire that villain: if you cheat around that ability (Ex: now he’s undead), you are cheating that character out of his or her class feature. Some people will probably think that this ability just shouldn’t exist at all but I think that it makes sense for this class so long as the DM doesn’t forget about it.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:15 PM

Soulweaver

All souls in existence share a special bond. Existing beyond the normal flow of time, all souls that have ever existed and that ever will exist intermingle just beyond the tangible world to form the flow of incarnum. Though this form of magic is often viewed by other casters with a sense of condescending exoticism, those who have mastered this form of magic prove themselves to be more than capable. Uniting themselves with the flow of incarnum, beings called soulweavers maximize the power of their soulmelds and gain incredible versatility. The strongest can become beings of pure incarnum and lend their soulmelds to vast armies of allies. Through the endless ranks of nameless souls flowing through them, a soulweaver achieves true power.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a soulweaver, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Essentia: 10
Soulmelds: 5 per day
Chakra Binds: greater chakras (throat, waist)

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Soulweaver
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Conduit of Souls, Invigorate Soulmeld 1/encounter

2nd|
+1|Reweave Essentia 1/round

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat

4th|
+2|Azure Ascension I

5th|
+2|Master of Incarnum (1)

6th|
+3|Invigorate Soulmeld 2/encounter

7th|
+3|Reweave Essentia 2/round

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat

9th|
+4|Azure Ascension II

10th|
+5|Master of Incarnum (2)[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Soulweaver.

Epic Spellcasting: A soulweaver gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. A soulweaver may invest essential into this ability. Soulweavers gaina bonus to their spellcraft checks made to cast epic spells equal to the number of points of essentia invested in this way.

Conduit of Souls: As a master of incarnum, a soulweaver channels far more essentia than most mortals could ever imagine. He or she gains bonus essentia equal to twice his or her class level and the essentia capacity for all of his or her incarnum feats, class features, magic items, and soulmelds increase by his or her class level.

Invigorate Soulmeld: When a soulweaver finds him or herself in trouble, he or she can flood a soulmeld with energy, creating an soulmeld akin to an epic item. Once per encounter, a soulweaver can invigorate a single active soulmeld for the next 5 rounds as a free action. All numerical bonuses provided by an invigorated soulmeld are multiplied by five, as is all damage dealt by the soulmeld or dealt through natural attacks that it permits. Any creature animated or created by an energized soulmeld gains 10 additional hit points and a +2 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws for each point of essentia invested in the soulmeld. Any effect an invigorated soulmeld possesses that would unshape the soulmeld no longer does so. Finally, an invigorated soulmeld grants the soulweaver benefits as if it were bound to every applicable Chakra, though it does not interfere with magic items or with other soulmelds already bound to such Chakras. This ability can be used once per encounter at 1st level and one additional time per encounter at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Reweave Essentia: Starting at 2nd level, the essentia of a soulweaver seems almost alive, moving from soulmeld to soulmeld without any conscious thought. Once per round, a soulweaver can redistribute his or her essentia as a free action, even if it is not the soulweaver’s action or if the soulweaver is unconscious or otherwise not in control of his or her actions. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a soulweaver can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Attune Soulmeld*, Bonus Soulmeld, Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Epic Essentia, Epic Fortitude, Extended Invigoration*, Extended Lifespan, Extra Chakra Bind, Fast Healing, Find By Soul*, Fuse Soulmelds*, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Infuse the Soulless*, Infused Essentia*, Midnight Mastery*, Necrocarnum Puppetry*, Open Heart Chakra, Open Soul Chakra, Perfect Health, Rapid Meldshaping, Rebind Soulmeld Restore Soul*, Shift Bind*, Soul Guard*, Soul Sense*, Summon by Soul*, Superior Necrocarnum Puppetry*, Tenacious Soulmelds*, True Invigoration*, True Necrocarnate*

New FeatsSoul Sense [Epic]
You are sensitive to the presence of other souls in your proximity
Prerequisites: Conduit of Souls
Benefits: You gain blindsight out to a range of 100 feet for the purpose of detecting living creatures.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time that you select it beyond the first, the range of the blindsight is doubled.

Fuse Soulmelds [Epic]
You can assign more than one soulmeld to a single chakra
Benefits: You may assign and/or bind two different soulmelds to a single chakra, combining their appearance. Essentia must be invested into each of the soulmeld separately as normal.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times, allowing an additional soulmeld to be assigned to a single chakra each time this feat is selected.

Shift Bind [Epic]
You can shift where you possess a soulmeld bound.
Prerequisites: Invigorate Soulmeld 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever your invigorate soulmeld class feature ends, you may choose for the targeted soulmeld, if previously bound to a chakra, to now be bound to a new chakra you possess access to. This ability can’t bind the soulmeld to a chakra already occupied by another soulmeld (unless you possess the fuse soulmelds feat) or magic item (unless you possess the split chakra feat).

Infused Essentia [Epic]
Your essentia is infused with your will, allowing it to act when you can not.
Prerequisites: Reweave Essentia 1/round
Benefits: You may use your reweave essential class feature even while dazed, dying, unconscious, mind-controlled, or similarly unable to take normal actions.

Tenacious Soulmelds [Epic]
It is almost impossible to rob you of your soulmelds
Benefits: Whenever a soulmeld bound to one of your chakras becomes unshaped, it returns 1d4 rounds later bound the the same Chakra. That chakra counts as being occupied by the soulmeld even while it is gone.

Midnight Mastery [Epic, Incarnum]
You can empower all of your incarnum feats simultaneously
Prerequisites: Four or more incarnum feats.
Benefits: Once per day, you may invest essentia into this feat. All other incarnum feats you possess are treated as possessing additional invested essentia equal to the the amount of essential invested in this feat (up to the normal maximum). Once the amount of essentia has been chosen, it cann not be changed and remains invested for 24 hours.

You gain one point of essential for each incarnum feat you possess.

Infuse the Soulless [Epic]
You can infuse creatures with life and a soul while channeling incarnum through yourself.
Prerequisites: Azure Ascension I
Benefits: When you activate your azure ascension class feature, you may select any number of nonliving creatures within range of the ability. All such creatures temporarily gain life and souls. As a result, they count as living creatures for all purposes and lose all racial immunities gained from the undead or construct types. All mindless creatures affected in this way gain an intelligence score of 2 but don’t gain any feats or skills as they are unaccustomed to this intellect. All of these effects last for the duraction of your azure ascension class feature.

Extend Invigoration [Epic]
You can increase the power of your soulmelds for longer durations.
Prerequisites: Invigorate Soulmeld 1/encounter
Benefits: Your invigorate soulmeld class feature lasts for 5 additional rounds.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Restore Soul [Epic]
You can fight against abilities that affect the souls of others.
Prerequisites: Azure Ascension II
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may force any beings possessing a creature out of a touched creature’s body. If the possessing entity possesses at least 20 HD, you must make an opposed Constitution check against the creature to push it out.

With one minute of meditation, you may restore any number of negative levels that the target is suffering from (though actual level loss can’t be reversed) and you can free the target from any number of effects that a remove curse spell could remove.

Finally, with 10 minutes of meditation, you may restore a creature’s damaged soul or recover a creature’s stolen soul. So long as there has ever been any chance of a destroyed soul being restored through wish or similar spells or abilities (such as the 50% chance of recovering souls eaten by a bargest), that creature’s soul is restored. If a non-epic spell or effect has stolen a creature’s soul, it is instantly freed. You must either possess access to the creature’s body or be able to unambiguously name the creature to be helped in order to use this abiloity.

True Invigoration [Epic]
You can perpetually empower a single soulmeld
Prerequisites: Invigorate Soulmeld 3/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you shape your soulmelds for the day, you may select a single soulmeld. That soulmeld benefits continually as if targeted by your invigorate soulmeld class feature.

Soul Guard [Epic]
Harming and displacing your soul is anything but simple
Prerequisites: Reweave Essentia 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you are targeted by an effect that would possess you, grant you negative levels, curse you, displace your soul, or destroy your soul, you may spend one of your uses of reweave essentia for the round to negate the effect if you are still alive (or if the ability targets you as you die).

True Necrocarnate [Epic]
You can control a greater amount of zombies animated through incarnum.
Prerequisites: Ability to bind soulmelds to crown chakra, access to the necrocarnum circlet
Benefits: For each soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have shaped, you can animate and control an additional necrocarnum zombie using your necrocarnum circlet. Furthermore, all unintelligent undead react to you as if you were another undead so long as you possess at least one such soulmeld shaped and you gain a +2 bonus to Charisma checks made against sentient undead for each such soulmeld shaped.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected after the first, you may animate and control an additional number of necrocarnum zombie for each soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have shaped.

Necrocarnum Puppetry [Epic]
Using the power of necrocarnum, you can keep yourself for another creature acting beyond death.
Prerequisites: True Necrocarnate
Benefits: Whenever you or an ally within 50 feet would otherwise die, you may delay their deaths using necrocarnum as an immediate action. The target ignores death and may act normally while dying for 1 round per soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have bound (minimum 1 round). At the end of this time, the target falls dead regardless of any healing effects he or she may have received during this time. After using this ability, you may not use it again until 1d4 rounds after the previous target has died.

Superior Necrocarnum Puppetry [Epic]
You can use your necrocarnum to control a creature that would otherwise die.
Prerequisites: Necrocarnum Puppetry
Benefits: You may use your necrocarnum puppetry on an enemy, taking control of its body for as long as it remains aactive in this way. This functions much as dominate monster (no save) except that immunity against mind-affecting effects doesn’t protect the creature as his or her body is being controlled directly.

Attune Soulmeld [Epic]
You can ensure that a particular creature’s soul is incorporated into any soulmeld you shape.
Prerequisites: Conduit of Souls
Benefits: For each soulmeld you shape, you may name a single creature. You double any bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, AC, or to skill checks granted by that soulmeld against the chosen creature. Furthermore, you can sense the presence of that specific creatures so long as it is within 100 feet of yourself. At your option when shaping the soulmeld, you may also have the creature feel your presence within this range, unnerving the target and rendering them shaken (no save). Lastly, you can communicate telepathically with that creature.

Find by Soul [Epic]
You can find creatures and recognize creatures whose soul you have attuned to.
Prerequisites: Attune Soulmeld
Benefits: You know the direction towards any creature you are attuned to so long as you are within one mile of that creature. Furthermore, as you recognize the soul of a creature, you can recognize any creature you possess an attuned soulmeld for regardless of attempts to disguise that creature through illusions and transformative effects

Summon By Soul [Epic]
You can summon almost any creature through its soul.
Prerequisites: Azure Ascension III
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may select a shaped soulmeld you possess and a type of creature with HD less than or equal to your own and attempt to summon it. You may either attempt to summon a specific individual or summon a random creature of a chosen race and subrace. If you select a specific target who is willing, he or she is summoned automatically and instantaneously. Otherwise, the target is only summoned if he or she fails a Will save (DC 20 + Clas level + Con modifier) and the summoning acts as a summon monster effect with a duration of 5 rounds. Regardless of what occurs, you lose all benefits from the chosen soulmeld for 5 rounds. The total summed HD of all creatures you summon in this way each day may not exceed your character level.

Azure Ascension (Su): Starting at 4th level, a soulweaver can burn off excess essential to become a being of pure incarnum. As a swift action, the soulweaver can expend one point of essentia to enter this state for 1 round. While a being of incarnum, the soulweaver gains a fly speed equal to twice his or her base speed with perfect maneuverability. Furthermore, nonliving material (including force effects) pass through the soulweaver with no risk of harm (this does not cause the soulweaver to lose his or her equipment) and all weapons the soulweaver wields gain the brilliant energy property.

Finally, the soulweaver lends all living allies within 50 feet the benefits of all of his or her soulmelds and 5 points of essentia that last for as long as the soulweaver remains in this state. These soulmelds must occupy the same chakra as they do for the soulweaver but can’t be bound to that chakra even if the target can otherwise bind soulmelds to it. If a target already possesses a soulmeld occupying the same chakra as a soulmeld that would be granted in this way, he or she may choose to temporarily replace his or her chakra with the new one. A target with essentia may invest his or her own essenta into these soulmelds and may invest the temporary essentia however he or she sees fit. The effects of the invigorate soulmeld class feature don’t carry over to other targets in this way.

All essentia expended to use this ability is lost until the soulweaver spends two hours meditating and mingling with the stream of incarnum to regain them. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability lasts for an additional round, grants an additional 5 points of essentia to targets, and grants soulmelds and essentia to targets 50 feet further away.

Master of Incarnum (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a soulweaver can manipulate far greater magics than most other practitioners of incarnum. A soulweaver can cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
I’ll admit right off of the bat that incarnum has never exactly been my cup of tea but I think that I managed to hit most of the right notes here (even if the most flavorful stuff ended up buried in the bonus feats section). If I got any of the mechanics wrong or used a wrong term somewhere (I wouldn’t be surprised if the word “essential” appears instead of “essentia” a lot as my computer does that automatically), please let me know and I’ll fix things right back up.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:18 PM

Spellblade Elite

Rather than pursuing a single path to power, there are those in existence who try to master many different techniques. One of the more popular combinations is a balance of martial and magical teachings, made famous in part by the infamous githyanki wizard-warriors known as gish. Such a being can rely on his or her blade both to reserve spells for later and to protect him or herself when no more magic remains. In all but the most extreme cases, those who train in martial and magical means end up as masters of neither art. For a rare few, however, both paths can be mastered in a sense. Spellblade Elites, masters of both mundane and magical combat. Capable of seamlessly blending the two forms of combat together, few can hope to match their pace on the battlefield.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a spellblade elite, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Caster Level: 10th or higher
Feats: Combat Casting
Skills: Spellcraft 23 ranks

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Profession, Ride, Spellcraft, Swim
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Spellblade Elite
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Master of Two Arts, Spellblade Response 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

2nd|
+2|Pierce Defenses (1 creature)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+4|Spellblade Barrage 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Dweomered Onslaught (1 spell)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+6|Spellblade Response 2/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Pierce Defenses (2 creatures)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Spellblade Barrage 2/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+10|Dweomered Onslaught (2 spells)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the spellblade elite.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a spellblade elite can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A legendary dreadnaught can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action. If the attack is successful, the epic spell slot isn't expended.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each spellblade elite level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a spellblade elite, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Master of Two Arts: Well-trained both in mundane and in magical combat, spellblade elites are well-equipped to fight in either manner. Spellblade elites gain improved combat casting as a bonus feat (even if they do not meet the prerequisites) and creatures within their threatened area can’t defensively cast spells. Spellblade elites gain a bonus to saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities equal to the highest level of non-epic spell they care capable of casting. Furthermore, spellblade elites gain Spell Resistance equal to their AC.

Spellblade Response (Ex): Whether engaged in martial or magical combat, a spellblade elite can respond to his or her weaknesses. Once per round, when a creature makes a weapon attack against the spellblade elite and misses, the spellblade elite may immediately make an attack roll against the creature if it is within range (this attack is not an attack of opportunity and can thus be made using ranged weaponry). Alternately, when the spellblade elite succeeds on a saving throw against a spell, the spellblade elite can instantly cast a spell with a casting time up to one standard action and that possesses a single target that targets the offending caster (the caster must be within range of the spell and be a legal target for the spell). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a spellblade elite can use this ability an additional time per round.

Pierce Defenses (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a spellblade elite can use his or her own magic to overcome the magical defenses on his or her targets. Whenever a spellblade elite casts a spell with a single target and the target either fails its saving throw or is dealt damage by this spell, a spellblade elite can choose to pierce that creature’s defenses. Against weapon attacks the spellblade elite makes, a target with pierced defenses loses all miss chances, AC bonuses, damage reduction, and/or regeneration gained through magical or supernatural means. This benefit only affects a single creature at a time at 2nd level and choosing a new target ends the effects on the first. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a spellblade elite can use this ability on an additional foe at once.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a spellblade elite can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Await Opening*, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spelll, Blended Combat*, Blinding Speed, Build Power*, Combat Archery, Dimensional Jaunt*, Dire Charge, Disarming Jaunt*, Divine Spell Knowledge*, Distant Shot, Enhance Weaponry*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Epic Will, Familiar Spell, Fast Healing, Great Charisma, Great Constitution, Great Dexterity, Great Intelligence, Great Strength, Great Wisdom, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Manyshot, improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Spell Resistance, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Penetrate Damage Reduction, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Piercing Blow, Recover Arcana*, Shatter Defenses*, Shatter Offense*, Spell Knowledge, Spell Opportunity, Spell Stowaway, Spellblade Blaster*, Spellblade Invigorator*, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative, Swarm of Arrows, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy

New FeatsBuild Power [Epic]
You can refrain from spellcasting temporarily to increase your power.
Prerequisites: Master of Two Arts
Benefits: As a swift action, you can build up a bit of power. After doing so, the next spell you cast within the next 5 rounds gains a stacking +1 bonus to its caster level if it targets a single creature.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times , increasing the size of the bonus by +1 each time.

Await Opening [Epic]
You can refrain from attacking temporarily to seek the perfect moment to wade into combat.
Prerequisites: Master of Two Arts
Benefits: As a swift action, you can observe your surroundings. After doing so, all attacks you make with weapons until the end of the encounter gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls. This bonus stacks with itself up to 5 times or until you next attack.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times, increasing the size of the bonus by +1 each time.

Blended Combat [Epic]
You can cast spells and attack almost interchangeably
Prerequisites: Master of Two Arts
Benefits: When you make a full-attack, you may replace any number of weapon attacks with an equal number of spells requiring attack rolls. These attack rolls are made with the usual penalties for iterative attacks. If you don’t make and hit with at least one weapon attack in such a full-attack, you lose the benefit of this feat until the end of the encounter.

Disarming Jaunt [Epic]
You knock foes off-balance with your counters, forcing them to attack in new ways.
Prerequisites: spellblade response 1/round
Benefits: Whenever you use your spellblade response to successfully attack a creature who made a weapon attack against you, you may make a free disarm attempt without provoking attacks of opportunity. Whenever you use your spellblade response to launch a spell at a spellcaster who targeted you with a spell, you can attempt to counterspell the next spell that target makes within the round as though you had prepared an action to do so.

Enhance Weaponry [Epic]
You can bolster your weaponry with your arcane might.
Prerequisites: Spellblade Barrage 1/encounter
Benefits: All weapon attacks you make are treated as touch attacks. Whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon attack, you may cast a non-epic spell targeting the same creature as the attack. If that target was slain by the attack, you can instead cast a non-epic spell targeting yourself or cast such a spell with a range of personal.

Dimensional Jaunt [Epic]
Prerequisites: Spellblade Response 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you use your spellblade response against a creature you possess a line of sight with, you may teleport into any any other square that possesses a line of sight with the target before making your counter. If you move to a square normally incapable of supporting you (such as moving up to join a flying target), you are magically supported until the end of your next action. This is a teleportation effect.

Piercing Blow [Epic]
Your physical attacks can rob a creature of his or her magical defenses.
Prerequisites: Pierce Defenses (2 creatures)
Benefits: Each time you successfully damage a target with a weapon attack, its spell resistance and energy resistances are all reduced by 5 until the end of the encounter (this effect stacks with itself). If the target possesses spell immunity (like a golem ) or energy immunities, these are each reduced to spell resistance or energy resistance equal to the target’s Hit Dice x 5.

Spellblade Blaster [Epic]
You can rain large areas of fiery destruction rather than targeting specific foes.
Prerequisites: Spellblade Barrage 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever one of your spellblade class features would allow you to cast a spell targeting a single creature, you may instead cast a spell that creates an area so long as that creature is within the area. All other restrictions still apply.

Spellblade Invigorator [Epic]
You can empower yourself rather than taking magical vengeance on foes.
Prerequisites: Spellbladge Barrage 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever one of your spellblade class features would allow you to cast a spell targeting a single creature, you may instead cast a spell with a range of personal. All other restrictions still apply.

Shatter Offense [Epic]
By striking at a target, you can keep them from launching an effective counterattack.
Prerequisites: Pierce Defenses (3 creatures)
Benefits: Each time that you damage a creature with a weapon attack or a creature fails a saving throw against one of your spells, that creature takes a stacking -4 penalty to attack rolls and spell penetration rolls against you for 1 round.

Shatter Defenses [Epic]
You can rob an opponent of all defenses they possess
Prerequisites: Pierce Defenses (4 creatures)
Benefits: When you use your pierce defenses class feature on a creature, all other creatures pierce through that target’s defenses. Furthermore, you ignore any spell resistance, spell turning, spell immunity, or globe of invulnerability effect that targets may be affected by.

Recover Arcana [Epic]
You can use your spells from battle to battle
Prerequisites: Spellblade Barrage 4/encounter
Benefits: Each time you make a successful weapon attack in an encounter, you gain one arcana point. Every time you score a critical hit and/or reduce a target to 0 or fewer hit points with such an attack, you gain an additional arcana point. At the end of each encounter, you lose all arcana points regain prepared spells or spell slots expended in that encounter with a summed spell level no higher than the number of arcana points spent in this way.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Divine Spell Knowledge [Epic]
Your access to spells is larger than that of most divine casters.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast spells of the maximum normal spell level of a divine spellcasting class.
Benefits: You learn two new divine spells of any level up to the maximum level you can cast. This feat does not grant any additional spell slots.
special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Spellblade Barrage: Starting at 4th level, a spellblade elite can launch large barrages of spells against those they have engaged in combat. As a standard action, a spellblade elite may select any creature he or she has damaged with at least one weapon attack within the past round. For each such successful weapon attack made against that foe within that time, the spellblade elite may cast a spell with a casting time up to one standard action and that possesses a single target, targeting that creature with each spell. That target must be within range of all spells cast in this way and must be a legal target for all of them. This ability can be used once per encounter at 4th level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Dweomered Onslaught: Starting at 5th level, a spellblade elite can release untold energy with each strike of his or her blade. Whenever the spellblade elite makes an attack roll against a creature with at least half as many hit dice as him or herself and casts an epic spell as a full-round action, the spellblade elite may choose an additional applicable epic spell that he or she knows. The attack roll takes a -2 penalty but if it hits, the spellblade elite may attempt to cast the second epic spell as well, taking a -5 penalty to the spellcraft check. Whether this check succeeds or fails, the second epic spell slot isn’t wasted in this way. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a spellblade elite may choose to add an additional epic spell each time this ability is used. Each epic spell beyond the first increases the attack penalty by -2 and increases the spellcraft penalty for that specific spell by -5 (attempting to slip in two spells, for example, gives a -4 attack penalty, a -5 penalty to spellcraft for the first spell, and a -10 penalty to spellcraft for the second spell). No single epic spell can be added more than once in this way.

Notes and Explanation:
Though I’ve made more than a couple of gish-y classes in this project, I felt in the end that a straightforward gish was also necessary. As with the other “basic spellcasters”, this one has a bit more raw spellcasting power than the other similar classes. Not much to say about this one, to be honest. In case you guys are wondering, though, a bit of google research suggests that the word “gish” used to describe fighter/casters can be traced back to the githyanki. I’m not just making that up.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:20 PM

Temporal Wanderer

Most individuals live their entire lives with only the dimmest notion that other planes of existence are out there, never straying too far from their homes. More powerful beings, such as adventurers, are known to travel across these planes with great regularity. Even with the commonality of planar travel available, however, there remains one form of travel that few even consider. Temporal Wanderers are those who have received some small taste of temporal energies, knocking them free from their normal temporal alignment. Granted awareness of the past, of the future, and of alternate timelines, Temporal Wanderers act in ways that often befuddle those around them but that tend to work out for the best. Whatever their goals and ambitions may be, Temporal Wanderers are always one step ahead.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Temporal Wanderer, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Effective Character Level: 20 or more
Special: You must have interacted with the time stream in some meaningful and unusual way, such as the following:
Must have travelled through time using methods other than planar travel.
Must have encountered a creature closely related to the timestream (such as a phane).
Must have visited the temporal energy plane at least once.

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (the planes), Spellcraft, Use Magic Device. Upon taking your first level of temporal wanderer, you may add up to four additional class skills of your choice to this list. This decision can’t be changed later.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Temporal Wanderer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Confer with Future (1 week), Eternal Wanderer|--

2nd|
+1|Delay the Inevitable 1/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Stretch Time I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Browse Timelines (2 timelines)|--

6th|
+3|Confer with Future (2 weeks)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Delay the Inevitable 2/encounter|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Stretch Time II|--

10th|
+5|Browse Timelines (3 timelines)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Temporal Wanderer.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a temporal wanderer can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, destroy, dispel, foresee, heal, reveal, transport, and/or summon seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A temporal wanderer casting an epic spell with these seeds (and only these seeds) need not make a Spellcraft Check if the DC is equal or lower than 20 + (Class Level x 2). Unless a temporal wanderer has sufficient ranks in a skill to gain more slots per day, a temporal wanderer gains a number of epic spell slots per day equal to his or her effective character level / 20. If the temporal wanderer doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Eternal Wanderer (Su): A temporal wanderer is aware of all timelines branching out from his or her present, future, and past. As a result, the temporal wanderer gains an insight bonus to all skill checks, saving throws, and attack rolls equal to half of his or her class level + 1. A temporal wanderer never ages, is never caught flat-footed, and always acts first in initiative (if multiple temporal wanderers are in the same encounter, they still roll initiative amongst themselves to decide their order), even acting first on surprise rounds.

More impressively, a temporal wanderer possesses a limited ability to travel through the past, present, and future. At the end of any round, a temporal wanderer may choose to travel into the past, restarting the round (only the temporal wanderer and his or her allies are aware of what has occurred). Alternatively, a temporal wanderer may choose to follow their normal action with an additional set of actions taken as if using a timestop effect. Finally, a temporal wanderer may choose at any time to leap 1 round into the future and reappear in the same space (or nearest empty space) at the conclusion of this round (if this jump is taken in response to an attack, targeted effect, or area effect, the temporal wanderer escapes that effect [though an area effect with an ongoing duration may still affect him or her]). Once one of these three abilities has been used, none can be used again for 1d4+1 rounds.

Confer with the Future (Su): Starting at 1st level, a temporal wanderer can turn to his future selves for guidance, looking forward along the varying timelines that branch out once a specific decision has been made. As a swift action, the temporal wanderer can learn whether taking a specific action will have good results, bad results, good and bad results, or neither good nor bad results. Though the future selves the temporal wanderer turns to for advice have no reason to lie to him, even the smallest of decisions made afterwards may change how things unfold and there is only a 90% chance that the temporal wanderer will hear from the timeline he is destined to take past that point (otherwise the temporal wanderer receives an answer at random). A temporal wanderer may not check the results of taking a single action more than once. A temporal wanderer can reach himself up to one week into the future at 1st level and one additional week further at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards

Delay the Inevitable (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a temporal wanderer can delay harm and death if necessary. As an immediate action, the temporal wanderer can prevent all damage that either him or herself or an ally who the temporal wanderer can see within 30 feet would take for the next 5 rounds. Any effects that would target the affected creature are likewise delayed during this time, though attack rolls and saving throws are made immediately as normal. At the end of these 5 rounds, all damage and effects that have been delayed immediately catch up with the affected creature. While delaying damage and effects using this ability, such damage and effects can be healed in advance as appropriate. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and once more per encounter at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even temporal wanderer level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a temporal wanderer, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a temporal wanderer can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Advantageous Divergence*, Blinding Speed, Change the Past*, Damage Reduction, Epic Prowess, Epic Skill Focus, Eye to the Past*, Fast Healing, Freeze Foes*, Frequent Delays*, Improved Spell Capacity, Indefinite Delay*, Into the Future*, Know Vulnerabilities*, Spell Stowaway, Spring of Youth*, Superior Initiative, Think Ahead*, Time Heals All*, Wild Card*.

New FeatsChange the Past [Epic]
You can embark on the most difficult of travels, a travel backwards through time.
Prerequisites: Browse Timelines (5 timelines)
Benefits: With one hour of concentration, you and up to eight other willing creatures within 100 feet can travel back in time by any duration. You do not change your physical location, however, and if this travel would deposit one or more of you into a solid object, you instead appear in the nearest space capable of holding you. Your actions in the past alter the future appropriately with one major exception. You and those you bring back with you are detached from the timeline by this ability. Any actions that those travelling back in time would result in one or more of you not being born, being slain early, or that would prevent this ability from being used in the first place fail to affect your current conditions. Sadly, this ability comes with a price. Changing the past requires the temporal wanderer to unravel the future they called home. As a result, this travel only works one way (unless you possess the Into the Future feat).
Note: Barring epic spells that destroy the multiverse, Change the Past and Into the Future are the most disruptive abilities that you could allow in your campaign. These feats require DM permission to utilize and their implications should be considered carefully before allowing them.

Into the Future [Epic]
You can embark on a journey through time into the future
Prerequisites: Browse Timelines (4 timelines)
Benefits: With one hour of concentration, you and up to eight other willing creatures within 100 feet can travel forward in time by any duration. You do not change your physical location, however, and if this travel would deposit one or more of you into a solid object, you instead appear in the nearest space capable of holding you. This travel works in only one directly, however (unless you possess the Change the Past feat).
Note: Barring epic spells that destroy the multiverse, Change the Past and Into the Future are the most disruptive abilities that you could allow in your campaign. These feats require DM permission to utilize and their implications should be considered carefully before allowing them.

Wild Card [Epic]
Those who peer into the future never take you into account.
Prerequisites: Browse Timelines (3 timelines)
Benefits: Spells and abilities that look into the future (including the portfolio sense of deities) never take you or your actions into account.

Advantageous Divergence [Epic]
You take advantage of divergences in the timelines of others.
Prerequisites: Browse Timelines (2 timelines)
Benefits: As a swift action, you may select a creature. During that creature’s next action, it takes two separate sets of actions that may not be identical. At the end of the action, a temporal wanderer selects one set of actions taken and the others never occur as the alternate timeline is abandoned. The temporal wanderer is aware of what happens in each of the separate timelines but all others (including the target) are only aware of what occurs in the main timeline.

Eye to the Past [Epic]
You can see what has happened in the past of an area.
Prerequisites: eternal wanderer
Benefits: You may use hindsight as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your temporal wanderer level + 20. After using this ability once, you must spend 1 hour in concentration to recharge this ability before you can use it again.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it after the first, double the number of times you can use this feat between recharges.

Indefinite Delay [Epic]
You can delay an affliction indefinitely
Prerequisites: Delay the Inevitable 1/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use your delay the inevitable class feature, you may choose to instead use an indefinite delay. Damage and/or effects put on an indefinite delay don’t take effect for 5 rounds or until you use this ability again, whichever comes last.

Time Heals All [Epic]
Given enough time, any affliction is wiped away by time.
Prerequisites: Indefinite Delay
Benefits: If damage and/or an effect if put on an indefinite delay and remains so for 24 hours, the target is freed from whatever you delaying and no longer risks facing it later.

Frequent Delays [Epic]
You can delay harm to yourself and others with great frequency
Prerequisites: Delay the Inevitable 3/encounter
Benefits: Your uses of delay the inevitable are now measured per round instead of per encounter. For the purpose of meeting prerequisites, however, these usages are still measured per encounter.

Freeze Foes [Epic]
You can freeze foes in temporal stasis.
Prerequisites: Delay the Inevitable 3/encounter
Benefits: By making a successful melee attack or melee touch attack against a creature as a standard action, you can subject it to a temporal stasis effect with a caster level equal to your temporal wanderer class level + 20. After using this ability once, you must concentrate for 1 hour to recharge this ability before you can use it again.
special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it after the first, double the number of times you can use this feat between recharges.

Know Vulnerabilities [Epic]
You are sure to inform your past self on what forms of a attack prove effective against your foes.
Prerequisites: Confer with Future (2 weeks)
Benefits: You are automatically aware of all damage reduction, energy resistance, spell resistance, and immunities that your opponents possess. If your enemies possess any special vulnerabilities, you also learn this information.

Think Ahead [Epic]
You work to keep your past self aware of what is about to occur, letting them react faster.
Prerequisites: Confer with Future (1 week) or Countermeasures 1/round
Benefits: You can ready a move or standard action as a swift action.

Spring of Youth [Epic]
You can pass on your timelessness to others through touch.
Prerequisites: Eternal Wanderer
Benefits: As a standard action, you can touch a willing creature and reduce its age by 1 month.

Stretch Time (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a temporal wanderer seems to perceive time as travelling at a slower rate, allowing them to get more done in less time. A temporal wanderer gains an extra move action each round plus an additional extra move action at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards. Any number of move actions gained in this way can be sacrificed to instead gain half as many extra standard actions that round (rounded down).

Browse Timelines (Su): Starting at 5nd level, a temporal wanderer can often select the best of multiple destinies. At the start of the temporal wanderer’s action, the wanderer may choose to take two sets of actions. Rather than occurring in a row, however, these actions occur separately and simultaneously. At the end of the action, a temporal wanderer selects one set of actions taken and the others never occur as the alternate timeline is abandoned. The temporal wanderer is aware of what happens in each of the separate timelines but all others are only aware of what occurs in the main timeline. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a temporal wanderer can choose to take up to one additional set of actions.

Notes and Explanation:
Though I stick by my statement that the godking was the (philosophically) weakest of the classes I created, this was most definitely the hardest to create out of all of them.

Though I felt that a time-based epic PrC was needed (matters of time travel are a common direction for epic games to turn, after all), there aren’t any specific classes that would naturally progress into such a class. While there are some spells and powers relating to time, I couldn’t even pin these abilities to a single specialization with much luck.

Instead, I tried to do something totally unlike any other prestige class (epic or otherwise), making a class that literally anyone has the potential to enter. Rather than acting as the result of long-spun character development planning, this class was designed to be a spur-of-the-moment decision. Rather than being a huge goal in and of itself, I wanted this class to serve as an organic extension of certain campaign themes, powerful enough so that people might consider it as an option but not so strong that players feel particularly deprived if time travel isn’t a theme in a campaign. It’s a pretty hard tightrope to walk and would appreciate suggestions if anyone has them.

I also feel that I should explain the one pseudo-restriction that I DID put in, a flavor restriction. As people have seen with examples like the Rainbow Servant, this can go one of four ways:

1. The game starts as high epic and a player simply puts the prerequisite into their background, making it a total non-issue.
2. The game reaches epic levels and the player eventually encounters time travel, making this class accessible afterwards.
3. The game reaches epic levels and the player never encounters time travel, making this class entirely inaccessible.
4. The game reaches epic levels and would never naturally encounter time travel so the player goes entirely off of the rails and leads the players on a tangent to encounter time travel.

Naturally, situations 3 and 4 are a problem for game play, made worse by the knowledge that there likely wouldn’t have been a problem if they were in scenario 1. In most cases, however, the problems that would emerge seem rooted more in poor communication (either the player not making it clear that he’d like to take this class or the DM not making it clear that the class just doesn’t fit the campaign) than anything else. I felt as though I needed some form of time-related prerequisite and couldn’t think of anything else that would keep the sub-goal of letting anyone join intact. Again, any advice to help make things easier (perhaps require venerable age instead?) would be appreciated.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:22 PM

Unmage

When dealing with meddlesome or dangerous mages, many believe that the only solution is to bring in another, allied mage. In this respect, many are sorely mistaken. A few gifted individuals, known as unmages, have gained the ability to counter, unravel, and simply ignore magic in their environments. Some unmages oppose magic in all of its forms and unravel “unnatural” influences wherever they are found. On the opposite end of the spectra, some unmages are abjurers who have simply perfected the art of cancelling magic around them. Whether an unmage reserves their abilities for self-protection or actively fights others who use magic, the current location of unmages on a given plane is invaluable information both for those who would abuse magic and for those who would stop them.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Unmage, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) OR Use Magic Device 23 ranks
Feat: Combat Reflexes OR Improved Counterspell
Spellcasting: Must possess no non-epic spellcasting ability above 4th level spells OR be able to cast 9th level abjuration spells, including mage’s disjunction.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope

Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Unmage
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Momentary Suppression (1), Unravel Dweomers

2nd|
+2|True Counterspell 1/encounter

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Spell Immunity 1/round

5th|
+5|Instant Reversion (1 spell)

6th|
+6|Momentary Suppression (2)

7th|
+7|True Counterspell 2/encounter

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Spell Immunity 2/round

10th|
+10|Instant Reversion (2 spells) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Unmage.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an unmage can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, dispel, reflect, and/or reveal seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An unmage may use his or her ranks in use magic device to determine his or her epic spell slots per day. Furthermore, he or she may use his or her ranks in either use magic device or knowledge (arcana) in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when making a spellcraft check to cast an epic spell. If the Unmage doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Unravel Dweomers (Su): As a swift action, an unmage may unravel magic around them, functioning as a mage’s disjunction spell with a caster level equal to his or her class level + 20 with a few adjustments. The radius of the burst is limited to 10 feet/class level, the unmage may exempt any number of magic items or spell effects that he or she is aware of, and epic spells, antimagic fields, and minor artifacts are subjected to this effect with 100% accuracy (though artifacts are permitted a saving throw). The Save DC of this ability is 20 + Class level + the unmage’s Cha modifier. Although this ability is supernatural in nature, it can be utilized freely within an antimagic field.

Momentary Suppression (Su): As a standard action, an unmage can temporarily suppress the effects of a single spell effect or magic item. Primarily used for disabling magic items without ruining them and for bypassing wards without alerting others, this functions much as the unmage’s unravel dweomer effect except that it only targets one spell effect or magic item and that the magic is only lost for 5 rounds or until the unmage uses this ability again or reinstates the magic as a move action. At 6th level at every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can last for an additional 5 rounds and can target an additional magic item or spell effect at a given time.

True Counterspell (Su): Once per round, as a free action, an unmage can interfere with another creature they possess a line of effect with as they attempt to cast a spell or spell-like ability. The unmage makes an opposed spellcraft check against the caster and if the unmage succeeds, the casting is foiled and the spell or spell slot is expended as normal. For every 5 points by which the unmage succeeds on this check, the caster may not cast spells or spell-like abilities for 1 round afterwards. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and an additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an unmage can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Anchoring Aura*, Antimagic Burst*, Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Conceal Mind*, Countermage*, Counterspike*, Damage Reduction, Dimensional Aura*, Dismiss Outsiders*, Energy Resistance, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflex, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Will, Expanded Aura*, Extended Life Span, Forced Deanimation*, Guarded Abjuration*, Ignore Hindrance*, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Spell Capacity, Inescapable Aura*, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Legendary Wrestler, Mageslayer Juggernaut*, Master of Abjuration*, Mystic Feedback*, Perfect Health, Pressure Casters*, Reveal Deceptions*, Seeping Suppression*, Share Immunity*, Spell Stowaway, Spellcasting Harrier, Spellkill Ascetic*, Spellkill Magebreaker*, Superior Counterspell*, Withstand Death*.

New FeatsSuperior Counterspell [Epic]
You can counterspell an opponent with unparalleled ease.
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell
Benefits: You need not ready an action in order to counter an opponent’s spell.

Mystic Feedback [Epic]
Your attacks are more dangerous to spellcasters as your turn their magic against them.
Prerequisites: Unravel Dweomers
Benefits: Whenever you successully attack a spellcaster, that spellcaster loses one spell slot (or one random prepared spell) of the highest spell level still available to him or her and takes 1d6 additional points of damage per spell level of the lost spell/spell slot.

Inescapable Aura [Epic]
You exude an aura that makes it difficult for others to escape from you through magical means.
Prerequisites: Momentary Suppression (1)
Benefits: Within 30 feet of you, spells and spell-like abilities that grant alternate forms of movement or that increase existing forms of movement can’t be utilized. You may suppress or reactivate this aura as a free action.

Anchoring Aura [Epic]
You exude an aura that stops teleportation effects cold in their tracks.
Prerequisites: Momentary Suppression (2), Inescapable Aura
Benefits: Within 20 feet of you, spells and spell-like abilities of the teleportation subschool fail to function. You may suppress or reactivate this aura as a free action.

Dimensional Aura [Epic]
You exude an aura that prevents others from escaping the plane at all.
Prerequisites: Momentary Suppression (3), Anchoring Aura
Benefits: Within 10 feet of you, spells and spell-like abilities that involve extradimensional travel (such as shadow walk, etherealness, and blink) fail to function. You may suppress or reactive this aura as a free action.

Expanded Aura [Epic]
Your auras affect more people at once.
Prerequisites: Inescapable Aura
Benefits: The range of your inescapable aura is doubled. If you possess the anchoring aura and/or dimensional aura feats, their range is also doubled.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Ignore Hindrance [Epic]
You ignore magic that attempts to restrict your movement.
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 1/round
Benefits: You gain the benefits of a freedom of movement effect except that it only protects against magical effects.

Withstand Death [Epic]
Magical death effects slide off of you without any problem.
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 2/round
Benefits: You gain the benefits of a death ward effect except that it only protects against magical effects.

Reveal Deceptions [Epic]
You can easily see through magic designed to fool your senses.
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 3/round
Benefits: You gain the benefits of a true seeing effect.

Conceal Mind [Epic]
Your mind is hidden from all wishing to detect or manipulate it magically.
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 4/round
Benefits: You gain the benefits of a mind blank effect.

Mageslayer Juggernaut [Epic]
It is hard to injure you directly through the use of magic
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 2/round
Benefits: Whenever you would take damage from any magical source, halve that damage before applying damage reduction, energy resistance, and similar abilities

Counterspike [Epic]
You can harm a creature simply by countering its spells.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 1/encounter, Mystic Feedback
Benefits: You benefit from your mystic feedback spell whenever you successfully counter a target’s spell with your true counterspell class feature.

Share Immunity [Epic]
You can share your defense against magic with allies.
Prerequisites: Spell Immunity 1/round
Benefits:You may spend a use of your spell immunity class feature for the round to grant a willing creature within 100 feet the benefits of that class feature against a single spell effect.

Pressure Casters [Epic]
Your very presence causes enemy spellcasters to slip up and make careless mistakes.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 3/encounter
Benefits: Any enemy spellcaster that is aware of your presence can’t cast spells defensively, can’t use free, swift, or immediate actions for spellcasting, and can’t take 10 on spellcraft checks when casting epic spells.

Antimagic Burst [Epic]
You can release bursts of antimagic to protect against magical effects.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 4/encounter
Benefits: By expending two uses of your True Counterspell class feature, you may create an anti-magic field centered around yourself for 1 round. For each additional use spent beyond the first two, the radius of the effect increases by 20 feet and the duration increases by 1 round. You may dismiss this effect early as a swift action and this anti-magic field doesn’t suppress unmage class features.

Countermage [Epic]
Your training as a spellcaster and as an unmage has taught you how to fight other spellcasters.
Prerequisites: Unravel Dweomers, the ability to cast 9th-level spells
Benefits: Select one spellcasting class you possess levels in. You add your unmage level as a bonus to your caster level when casting spells gained by virtue of levels in that class. Furthermore, you gain a bonus spell slot of each spell level that you possess access to in the chosen class. These spell slots can only be used for counterspelling.

Spellkill Ascetic [epic]
You have mastered the art of ending spells while travelling to their origin.
Prerequisites: Unravel Dweomers, Quavering Palm
Benefits: Your unmage class level stacks with your monk level for the purposes of your AC bonus, fast movement, and diamond soul class features.

Spellkill Magebreaker [epic]
You have turned the art of stealing magic from foes into a science.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 1/encounter, Steal Spell (9th level)
Benefits: Your unmage class level stacks with your spellthief level for the purposes of your sneak attack class feature. Whenever you counter a spell with your true counterspell class feature, you can steal it as if you had used your steal spell class feature.

Master of Abjuration [Epic]
You possess masterful energies that act to ward and protect.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Abjuration spell
Benefits: The value of any armor class bonus, saving throw bonus, or energy resistance that your spells grant is doubled. The value of any damage reduction or spell resistance your spells grant is increased by +5. Lastly, once per encounter, you may negate all damage that one attack or spell would deal to yourself or to a creature within 30 feet.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Guarded Abjuration [Epic]
Your protective spells are almost impossible to remove.
Prerequisites: Unravel Dweomers, Ability to Cast 9th-level Spells
Benefits: Spells you cast of the abjuration school that target you or have a range of personal can’t be dispelled and are immune to mage’s disjunction

Dismiss Outsiders [Epic]
You can send extraplanar creatures back to their home planes.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 2/encounter.
Benefits: If you make a successful melee touch attack against an extraplanar creature, you can send it back to its home plane (no save). After you use this ability once, you can’t use it again until you have spend an hour resting to recharge it.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it, double the number of times you can use it before you need to recharge it.

Forced Deanimation [Epic]
You can remove the unnatural animating spark from constructs and the undead.
Prerequisites: True Counterspell 2/encounter
Special: If you make a successful melee touch attack against a construct or undead creature, you can force it to make a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Class Level) or instantly lose its animating spark, effectively becoming destroyed while its body remains intact. After you use this ability once, you can’t use it again until you have spend an hour resting to recharge it.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it, double the number of times you can use it before you need to recharge it.

Seeping Suppression [Epic]
Weaker magic is all but impossible around you.
Prerequisite: Unravel Dweomers
Benefit: The area within a 100 foot radius of yourself is treated as an antimagic field for all spells up to 3rd level.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times, doubling the range of its effects each time.

Spell Immunity (Su): It is rare that spells can ever even faze an unmage. Starting at 4th level, the first time each round that an unmage is targeted by a spell or finds himself in the area of a spell, that spell treats the unmage as not being there. Damaging spells fail to damage them, divination spells fail to detect them, and even area effects made to contain an unmage like forcecage can be seen and walked though by the unmage as if it weren’t even there. This ability extends to the next spell that the unmage is targeted with each round at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards. An unmage can lower or resume this protection as a free action.

Instant Reversion (Su): Even when a spell seems to occur instantaneously, an unmage can reverse the effects. As a standard action, an unmage of at least 5th level can reverse the effects of a single instantaneous spell or spell-like ability that he or she has witnessed within the last round. Creatures who have teleported return to their positions, creatures who have been healed or damaged return to their prior state (coming back to life or dying once more if necessary). Effects created vanish back into nothingness and knowledge learned through such effects is instantly and irrevocably forgotten. Other occurrences that occurred due to such a spell effect (such as an attack made after teleporting or falling prone due to dying) are likewise instantaneously reversed. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can target an additional instantaneous effect with a single use.

Notes and Explanation:
Classes that specialize at ending magic are often viewed in a mixed way (even putting aside their level of specialization). Immunity to magic blocks beneficial spells, area dispel effects hit your allies as well, and disabling the equipment of an enemy dips into your own WBL. This class was designed as a means to be an effective anti-mage while minimizing the impact of these traditional problems.

The only part of this class that I’m not too happy with are the prerequisites. They were originally far worse with non-SRD feats required and prerequisites set up so that monks and spellthieves (the two iconic “anti-mage” classes) couldn’t get access but they still seem a bit weird. If someone can help me hammer the prerequisites out, I would be very appreciative.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:24 PM

Unmatched Dervish

While legendary dreadnaughts may represent the pinnacle of stationary combat, unmatched dervishes make no attempt to best them at their own game. While still combatants of mythic proportions, unmatched dervishes approach combat in very different ways. Rather than ignoring attacks, unmatched dervishes aim to dodge them entirely. Rather than focusing on a few strong blows, unmatched dervishes unleash rapid volleys of attacks. While a legendary dreadnaught may be better at fighting others in pitched combat, the strongest of these dervishes can engage entire armies single-handedly and hope to emerge victorious. Whether fighting on their own or as part of a greater force, an unmatched dervish is often nearly impossible to stop.

Hit Die: d10

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an Unmatched Dervish , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Tumble 23 ranks
Feats: Great Cleave and any three of the following: Improved Critical, Spring Attack, Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Improved Feint, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Move Silently, Ride, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Unmatched Dervish
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+1|Evasive Repositioning x1, Peerless Mobility, Unarmored Mastery

2nd|
+2|Whirlwind Dervish 1/round

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|Engage the Army 10 feet

5th|
+5|Blink of the Eye (1/2)

6th|
+6|Evasive Repositioning x2

7th|
+7|Whirlwind Dervish 2/round

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9|Engage the Army 20 feet

10th|
+10|Blind of the Eye (2/4) [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Unmatched Dervish

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an unmatched dervish can still develop and cast epic spells using the destroy, dispel, energy, fortify, slay, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. An unmatched dervish can use his or her base attack bonus in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills to determine epic spell slots per day and in place of spellcraft ranks when making a spellcraft check to cast such a spell. As a full-round action, an unmatched dervish can make a full-attack and cast an epic spell. If the attack hits, the epic spell slot is not expended. If the unmatched dervish doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Unarmored Mastery (Ex): An unmatched dervish requires full freedom of movement in order to benefit from many of his or her abilities. As such, an unmatched dervish wearing any armor, using a shield, or carrying more than a light load loses the benefits of all class features below. While conscious and mobile, however, the unmatched dervish gains a dodge bonus to his or her AC equal to his or her Dexterity bonus plus his or her class level.

Peerless Mobility (Ex): An unmatched dervish moves better than most others would imagine possible. The unmatched dervish gains a bonus to his or her speed equal to +20 feet per class level and his movement provokes no attacks of opportunity. So skilled is the unmatched dervish at moving about that they can spend a standard action to move up to their speed without needed to make jump checks, climb checks, swim checks, or balance checks (if the unmatched dervish ends this movement in mid-air or in an environment that would need one or more of these skill checks, they are affected as normal), though they are still limited to paths that make sense (preventing the dervish from suddenly changing direction in mid-air and from performing other such acts). If this movement is taken as a full-round action the unmatched dervish may move up to twice their speed in this way and make a full attack, spreading the attacks along his or her movement as he or she wishes (an unmatched dervish with monk levels may use a flurry of blows while moving in this way).

Evasive Repositioning (Ex): An unmatched dervish can move at speeds that boggle the mind. Over the course of each encounter, an unmatched dervish can move a total distance equal to their land speed at any time. This movement may be split into several smaller increments if desired. If this movement is made in response to an attack or area spell or effect, the unmatched dervish remains utterly untouched if this movement takes his or her out of the attacker’s reach (if a melee attack), out of the attacker’s range or path of attack (if a ranged attack) or beyond the area of the effect. The total distance that can be travelled each encounter is doubled at 6th level, tripled at 11th level, and so forth.

Whirlwind Dervish (Ex): Starting at 2nd level An unmatched dervish is masterful at taking every opportunity to attack, even in cases that others would consider risky. Whenever the unmatched dervish would normally provoke an attack of opportunity for his or her movement, he or she may choose to provoke one as normal in spite of the peerless mobility class feature or any similar abilities the unmatched dervish may possess. In return, the unmatched dervish may first make a single attack against the attacker if able to do so. If this attack hits, the target takes a penalty to its attack roll equal to the amount of damage it suffers (if any). This ability can be used once per round at 2nd level and one additional time per round at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, an unmatched dervish can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Blinding Speed, Deadly Volley*, Dervish’s Mount*, Devastating Critical, Dive for Safety*, Epic Avoidance*, Epic Dodge, Epic Mounted Combat*, Epic Prowess, Epic Reflexes, Epic Speed, Godslayer*, Great Dexterity, Great Intelligence, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Sneak Attack, Improved Stunning Fist, Infinite Deflection, Instant Response*, Intercept Movement*, Know no Bounds*, Legendary Climber, Legendary Leaper, Legendary Rider, Lingering Damage, Living Blur*, Mass Feint*, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Quicksilver Ascetic*, Quicksilver Stalker*, Reflect Arrows, Ride the Air*, Roll With It*, Superior Initiative, Two-Weapon Cleave*, Two-Weapon Rend, Wear Out Opponent*, Weightless Step*, Whirlwind Distraction*.

New Feats Instant Response [Epic]
You are quick to act where others might be caught by surprise
Prerequisites: Superior Initiative, Dex or Wis 25
Benefits: You always act during surprise rounds and may take a full-round of actions during such rounds.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Roll With It [Epic]
You roll with the force of blows to escape further attacks.
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x1
Benefits: Whenever you are successfully attacked, you may move up to 10 feet away from your attacker in any direction immediately afterwards unless prevented from doing so (such as if the attack starts a grapple with the improved grab ability).

Mass Feint [Epic]
You can feint multiple targets as you move, rendering them vulnerable to attack
Prerequisites: Improved Feint, Peerless Mobility
Benefits: When you feint, you may make the attempt against any number of creatures that you have threatened at any point since the start of your round. Furthermore, targets who you feint lose their Dexterity bonus against the next attack your or an ally make against it within the next round.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Legendary Rider, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Know No Bounds [Epic]
Your movement is nearly impossible to restrict
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x 3
Benefits: You are affected at all times by a freedom of movement effect.

Weightless Step [Epic]
You can move past surfaces that wouldn’t normally support your weight.
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x1
Benefits: You can walk across water and other surfaces that would fail to support your weight. Unless you end your movement on a solid surface, however, you fall through as normal.

Ride the Air [Epic]
You can ride the faintest of heat waves and changes in air pressure to control your movement through otherwise empty air.
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x4
Benefits: During your action, you gain a fly speed equal to your land speed with perfect maneuverability. If you don’t end your action in a square that can support your weight, you fall as normal.

Dive For Safety [Epic]
You can drag others to safety at a moment’s notice.
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x2
Benefits: You can share the benefit of your evasive repositioning class feature with any single willing adjacent creature up to one size category larger than yourself (including creatures you pass by while already using your evasive repositioning class feature). You and the target must move in the same direction and each square you move another target costs twice as much movement from your evasive repositioning class feature.

Living Blur [Epic]
You move so fast that it is difficult to keep track of you.
Prerequisites: Evasive Repositioning x4
Benefits: On any round in which you move at least half of your full land speed, you gain a 50% miss chance against all attacks.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Dervish’s Mount [Epic]
Your mount serves as an extension of yourself, moving in unparalleled ways.
Prerequisites: Epic Mounted Combat, Evasive Repositioning x2
Benefits: Any mount you utilize of up to one size category larger than yourself gains the benefit of your Unarmored Mastery and Peerless Mobility class features and can be moved effortlessly through your evasive repositioning and engage the army class features. Lastly, whenever a creature attacks your mount, you may first make an attack against them. If the attack hits, subtract all damage that you deal from the target’s attack roll.

Deadly Volley [Epic]
Your onslaught of powerful attacks makes those that come afterwards more deadly
Prerequisites: Blink of the Eye (2/4)
Benefits: For each successful attack that you make against a creature, your threat range on all further attacks you make against that creature for 1 round increases by 1. This ability stacks with itself.

Intercept Movement [Epic]
You can halt a target’s movement with that of your mount.
Prerequisites: Dervish’s Mount, Evasive Repositioning x3
Benefits: When a creature attempts to move, you may use your evasive repositioning class feature to cross or block that creature’s intended path. If you are on a mount, the target can’t proceed on their movement past where you have crossed its path unless it succeeds on a Reflex save (DC 20 + Unmatched Dervish level + Dexterity modifier) to dive past you. You may use this ability to block a single movement more than once if necessary.

Two-Weapon Cleave [Epic]
You are a blur of swinging weapons out on the battlefield
Prerequisites: Great Cleave, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting
Benefits: Whenever you make use of the great cleave feat, you are granted one cleave attack with each of your two weapons.

Whirlwind Distraction[Epic]
The attacks you make as you break off from foes distract them from more immediate threats.
Prerequisites: Whirlwind Dervish 2/round
Benefits: You subtract all damage you deal with your Whirlwind Dervish class feature from both the target’s attack of opportunity and from their AC against the next attack a creature other than you makes against that target within the next round.

Wear Out Opponent [Epic]
Even your failed attacks may wear out your opponents
Prerequisites: Blind of the Eye (4/8)
Benefits: Whenever you miss with a melee attack roll against a creature within your threatened area, that target takes nonlethal damage as if you had struck. For each point by which you missed your attack roll (minimum 0), subtract one point from your damage roll.

Quicksilver Stalker [Epic]
You have continued to advance your skill at skirmishing
Prerequisites: Peerless Mobility, Skirmish (+4d6/+4)
Benefits: Your unmatched dervish class levels stack with your scout levels for the purpose of your skirmish class feature.

Quicksilver Ascetic [Epic]
You have continued to hone your skill at mobility.
Prerequisites: Peerless Mobility, Fast Movement +40 ft.
Benefits: The bonuses to speed and AC that you receive from your peerless mobility and unarmored mastery class feature are doubled.

Engage the Army (Ex): At 4th level, an unmatched dervish learns how to engage foes en masse, slaying vast armies in almost no time at all. Between cleave attacks, an unmatched dervish may move up to 20 feet as a free action. This distance doesn’t count towards the dervish’s movement for the round but every 10 feet moved in this way imposes a -1 penalty on all attack rolls the unmatched dervish makes until the start of his or her next turn. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the maximum distance that can be moved between attacks increases by +20 feet.

Blink of the Eye (Ex): Starting at 5th level, an unmatched dervish can attack with peerless speed. When not moving, an unmatched dervish can take an attack action as a move action and make a full attack as a standard action. Furthermore, at 5th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the unmatched dervish gains an extra attack at his or her full base attack bonus when making an attack action and an additional extra attack at his or her second-highest base attack bonus when making a full-attack.

Notes and Explanation:
In the unmatched dervish, we receive a melee class that fits the opposite end of the spectrum from the legendary dreadnaught. Instead of punishing attacks and withstanding damage, you get tons of attacks and avoid damage. Monks were one of the few classes in the PHB that didn’t really have any options among the original Epic PrCs (along with Druids and Bards) so this was a class designed for monks, scouts, swashbucklers, and less armored barbarians.

I feel that I should make a note regarding unarmored mastery, seeing as it’s the only class that gains this type of ability. The reason that it exists is that it doesn’t seem right for a dervish to be rushing around at full speed wearing a breastplate. Weak as it may be, that is the one huge reason why I’m saying no armor. If mithral didn’t exist, I’d say that light armor was allowed as I don’t see any problem with padded armor or even chain shirts. As it does exist, however, any armor = breastplate. While you could certainly argue that overcoming the limitations of armor to become mobile is an awesome idea, this class is meant to represent the pinnacle of mundane mobility that mundane characters can achieve. This is probably partially me being finicky but it just doesn’t seem right that the most mobile (non-caster) class in the world should be running around armored.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:26 PM

Unreal

What is reality? That is a question that has baffled scholars since the dawn of time. Built with laws and woven with magic that contradict these laws at every turn, the nature of reality is often inscrutable. Even the more common philosophical answers are stifled by the existence of illusions. Are illusions real, one might ask. Though certainly not what they appear to be, it remains unclear whether they exist at all. Formed from common perceptions locked in space, one must wonder whether it persists when none are around to observe it. The greatest practitioners of illusion often claim that these illusions persist. Whether we can take their claim seriously, however, is another matter. After all, these same practitioners cast the rest of existence into doubt. These practitioners, known as the unreal, blur the line between the real and imagined.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become an unreal , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (the planes) 23 ranks
Spells: The ability to cast any 6 illusion spells as spells or spell-like abilities, including at last one of 6th level or higher.

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disguise, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

The Unreal
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Actualize I, All An Illusion|--

2nd|
+1|Disbelieve Harm 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Fictionalize I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Sensory Control (1 set of perceptions)|--

6th|
+3|Actualize II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Disbelieve Harm 2/round|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Fictionalize II|--

10th|
+5|Sensory Control (2 sets of perceptions)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the unreal.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, an unreal can still develop and cast epic spells using the animate, compel, conceal, contact, delude, dispel, reveal, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved

All An Illusion (Su): From the perspective of the unreal, everything else is one giant illusion. As a standard action, the unreal may select an object or creature of up to gargantuan size and attempt a Will save (DC 20 + 1 per previous attemnpt) to disbelieve it. If successful, both that object and the unreal treat each other as though they were incorporeal for 1 minute. Furthermore, the unreal can see through the object like a foiled illusion and the target, if a creature, can see through the unreal. By spending one hour in self-reflection or study, the Save DC is reset to 20.

Actualize (Su): When the unreal weave illusions, they can sometimes be carried over into the physical world. Whenever an unreal casts an figment spell or spell-like ability that allows a will save to disbelieve, the unreal can choose to actualize the illusion. An actualized illusion gains physical presence for the effects duration, receiving an appropriate tactile component and exerting the proper amount of weight as well as gaining damage reduction, hardness, and/or natural armor as appropriate for the nature of the illusion. Furthermore, an actualized illusion allows for no saving throw to disbelieve. Even so, an actualized illusion is incapable of dealing damage. If the illusion of a creature is created in this way, it loses all special attacks and special qualities of the base creature and possesses no mental ability scores (and thus possesses no ranks or feats) but otherwise possesses the stats of the creature. The figment otherwise functions as normal (an actualized major image can be controlled with concentration, an actualized programmed image still follows its script, etc.)

At 1st level, the undreal may possess a single actualized illusion at a time. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an additional illusion can be actualized. Attempting to actualize an illusion beyond this limit results in one previously actualized illusion of the unreal’s choice becoming illusory. Illusory spaces and passages created in this way can’t be accessed.

Disbelieve Harm (Su): Starting at 2nd level, once per round, when the unreal would take damage, he or she may make a Will save (DC = damage dealt). If successful, the damage is completely negated. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even unreal level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an unreal, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Awaken Fiction*, Delayed Actualization*, Disbelieve Spells*, Disbelieve Weaponry*, Epic Will, Extended Control*, Extended Lifespan, Great Charisa, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Infallible Illusion*, Lethal Illusion*, Master of Illusion*, Partial Illusion*, Pierce Illusion*, Reverse-Illusion*, Strengthen Spell, Sudden Actualization*, Tenacious Magic

New FeatsPartial Illusion [Epic]
Even if an object seems too large to dismiss entirely, you can view part of it as an illusion.
Prerequisites: All An Illusion
Benefits: when using your all an illusion class feature, you may designate a 15-foot cube of a larger object or creature instead ofselecting a gargantuan or smaller target.

Disbelieve Weaponry [Epic]
Much of what assails you doesn’t truly exist at all.
Prerequisites: Disbelieve Harm 1/round
Benefits: When you use your disbelieve harm class feature to successfully negate all damage from a manufactured weapon, that weapon becomes a mere figment that floats in mid-air for 1 minute. The save DC for others to disbelieve the figment equals 10 + Unreal class level + Int modifier.

Disbelieve Spells [Epic]
Much of the magic that others weave is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
Prerequisites: Disbelieve Harm 2/round
Benefits: When you use your disbelieve harm class feature to successfully negate all hit point damage that a spell would deal you, that spell becomes a mere figment for its normal duration. The save DC for others to disbelieve the figment equals 10 + Unreal class level + Int modifier.

Delayed Actualization [Epic]
You can provide substance to your illusions after casting them.
Prerequisites: Actualize I
Benefits: You need not make the decision to actualize an illusion when casting it. As a standard action, you may actualize any appropriate illusion already in effect.

Sudden Actualization [Epic]
What was once an illusion may suddenly gain a sense of reality behind it.
Prerequisites: Delayed Actualization
Benefits: You may use your delayed actualization feat as an immediate action instead of as a standard action.

Awaken Fiction[Epic]
You may allow those that you transform into illusions to remain sentient and move about.
Prerequisites: Fictionalize I
Benefits: When you fictionalize a creature, you may choose to allow it to awaken it. An illusion awakened in this way gains your mental ability scores and personality and controls its own movement through the environment. It may perform no other action apart from movement and and the production of mundane sounds, however.

Pierce Illusions [Epic]
Having mastered the art of illusion, you know how to recognize them at a glance.
Prerequisites: Disbelieve Harm 3/round
Benefits: You automatically recognize all illusions that you perceive and automatically succeed on all saving throws against them.

Extended Control [Epic]
You control the perceptions of others within a larger range.
Prerequisites: Sensory Control (2 sets of perceptions)
Benefits: The range of your sensory control class feature is increased by 50 feet.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Reverse-Illusion [Epic]
You have found away to mask reality as an illusion.
Prerequisites: Fictionalize II
Benefits: When you fictionalize a creature, you may choose to simply mask that creature as an illusion rather than transform it into a full illusion (such a creature still counts towards the limit of your fictionalize class feature). Anyone who interacts with such a creature perceives that creature as a mere illusion as though they had succeeded on a Will save against a figment unless they succeed on a Will save (DC 20 + Unreal level + Int modifier). Anyone harmed by an affected creature automatically succeeds on this saving throw.

Lethal Illusion [Epic]
The process of disbelieving your illusions is harmful for most minds
Prerequisites: Sensory Control (3 sets of perceptions)
Benefits: Whenever a creature would disbelieve or pierce through one of your illusions through mundane or magical means, it must make a will save (DC 20 + Unreal level + Int modifier) or fall dead. For each successful saving throw that a creature makes against this effect, it gains a stacking +1 bonus on further saving throws against this effect for the next 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting phantasm effect.

Infallible Illusion [Epic]
Your illusions can’t be pierced through most means.
Prerequisites: Sensory Control (4 sets of perceptions)
Benefits:Creatures vulnerable to mind-affecting effects can’t disbelieve your illusions through will saves (even when presented with irrefutable proof) and can’t pierce through your illusions without the aid of epic spells, effects, or items. Even if the illusion isn’t actualized and lacks physical substance, the mind of a creature fills in all resulting logic gaps.

Strengthen Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can affect more powerful creatures with your magic.
Benefits: A spell with this metamagic feat applied to it treats all creatures as if they had two fewer hit dice for all purposes (this does affect the saving throws of creatures). A strengthened spell occupies a spell slot one higher than its normal spell level.
Special: Unlike most metamagic effects, a single spell can be strengthened multiple time. Increases to the spell level accrued in this way stack with themselves.

Master of Illusion[Epic]
You can fool the senses of others with incredibly ease.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Illusion spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting illusion spells. Touching an illusion you have that allows for saving throws to disbelieve does not allow the target to automatically disbelieve as such illusions now create imagined tactile sensations along with an illusory sense of weight. Once per encounter, you can turn yourself or a creature within 100 feet of yourself invisible for 1 round. While invisible, the target can’t be seen through see invisibility or true seeing, is unaffected by glitterdust, faerie fire, and invisibility purge, and can’t be detected by scent, blindsight, blindsense, or tremorsense.

Fictionalize (Su): Just as the unreal can force illusions into reality, so too can he or she consign reality into illusion. Starting at 4th level, as a full-round action, an unreal can force a single creature to make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Int modifier) or become a mere illusion (as permanent image). At 4th level, the unreal can only fictionalize one creature at a time. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the unreal may fictionalize another creature at once. Fictionalizing another creature beyond this limit frees a previously fictionalized creature. Likewise, dispelling or dismissing these illusions results in the real creature returning into existence.

Sensory Control (Su): At the peak of his or her power, the unreal can directly control what others perceive in the world around them. Starting at 5th level, so long as the unreal concentrates, he or she can create a separate set of visual, audio, olfactory, and thermal information that takes the place of a target’s normal perceptions for any number of target creatures. The area in which the unreal can control senses is limited to 50 feet but creatures within this area can have their perceptions of more distant objects or creatures altered. The unreal is free to add, remove, or alter features of the environment as he or she sees fit. Any creature who interacts with the environment or who notes discrepencies within it is permitted a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Int modifier) to disbelieve this illusion. Once the illusion has been disbelieved, creatures are immune to this ability from that unreal for the next 24 hours. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the unreal may create an additional set of perceptions to subject any number of targets to when using this ability. One creature may receive any or all sets of perceptions depending on the whims of the unreal. This effect is a phantasm and can be pierced with a true seeing effect but can’t be affected by the unreal’s actualize class feature.

Notes and Explanation:
This was one of those lucky cases where the class almost seemed to write itself as I went along and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. With that said, something tells me that some of these abilities have the potential to be abused (though I can’t come up with any examples as to how). If anyone could give me a better idea of how this class may be (mis/ab)used, please let me know so that I’ll have some idea of what’s needed to fix it (if I tried to fix it right now, I’d just be hacking blindly at it).

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:28 PM

Veneficus Optima

Even among the most prodigious of sorcerers and skilled of archmages, there are yet names spoken of in whispers of fear and awe. Known as veneficus optima, some arcane casters have unlocked unparalleled insights into the nature of magic itself. Weaving even epic spells with mind-bogging ease, even a single veneficus optima holds the potential to disrupt activity in entire regions or even entire worlds.

Hit Die: d4

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Veneficus Optima, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 23 ranks, Spellcraft 23 ranks
Feats: Any two metamagic feats.
Spells: The ability to cast 9th-level arcane spells

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

Veneficus Optima
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Multispell (1), True Arcanist|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|Efficient Researcher x1|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

4th|
+2|Practiced Metamagic (4 levels)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Master of the Arcane (1)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

6th|
+3|Multispell (2)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Efficient Researcher x2|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Practiced Metamagic (8 levels)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

10th|
+5|Master of the Arcane (2)|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Veneficus Optima.

Epic Spellcasting: A veneficus optima gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each veneficus optima level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a veneficus optima, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

True Arcanist: A veneficus When a veneficus optima cast a non-epic spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less, he or she can cast it as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

Multispell: Once per round, a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic arcane spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a free action. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used one additional time per round.

Efficient Researcher (Ex): A veneficus optima can develop epic spells in ways that others could only dream of, regularly making intuitive leaps that a normal mage would take days to figure out. Starting at 2nd level, when developing an epic spell, the process takes 1 day less (to a minimum of 1 day), 2,000 fewer experience points (to a minimum of 360 xp), and 50,000 fewer gold pieces (to a minimum of 9,000 gp). These bonuses are doubled at 7th level, tripled at 12th level, and so forth.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Veneficus Optima can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Enhance Spell, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Epic Spellbook*, Epic Will, Extended Life Span, Familiar Spell, Godslayer*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Improved Spell Resistance, Intensify Spell, Master of Abjuration*, Master of Conjuration*, Master of Divination*, Master of Enchantment*, Master of Evocation*, Master of Illusion*, Master of Necromancy*, Master of Transmutation*, Multispell, Permanent Emanation, Selective Spell*, Spell Knowledge, Spell Opportunity, Spell Stowaway, Spontaneous Spell, Spontaneous Spell Knowledge*, Superior Counterspell*, Superior Spellcaster*, Tenacious Magic

New Feats
Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Master of Abjuration [Epic]
You possess masterful energies that act to ward and protect.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Abjuration spell
Benefits: The value of any armor class bonus, saving throw bonus, or energy resistance that your spells grant is doubled. The value of any damage reduction or spell resistance your spells grant is increased by +5. Lastly, once per encounter, you may negate all damage that one attack or spell would deal to yourself or to a creature within 30 feet.

Master of Conjuration [Epic]
Your possess energies that allow you to summon and move creatures about.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Conjuration spell
Benefits: All conjuration spells with a casting time of 1 round have their casting times reduced to 1 standard action. Summoned and called monsters need not be brought forth into environments capable of supporting them. Once per encounter, you can teleport one creature within 100 feet of yourself into any other square within 100 feet of yourself. A successful Will save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier) negates this movement.

Master of Divination [Epic]
You can act exactly as you need to in order to succeed at almost any task.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Divination spell
Benefits: All emanations that your divination spells create are doubled in size and you are aware when there is information that your divination spells is unable to detect, though you don’t automatically learn what knowledge you are kept from. Once per encounter, you can add your caster level as a bonus to an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Using this feat requires no action.

Master of Enchantment[Epic]
You can make others act exactly as you would want them to with your impressive powers.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Enchantment spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting enchantment spells, though only basic concepts can be conveyed and such targets gain a +10 bonus to their saving throw. A creature who succeeds on a saving throw against one of your enchantment spells is unaware that they were ever targeted. Once per encounter, you can force a single creature to follow your instructions for 1 round as is dominated unless it succeeds on a Will Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Master of Evocation[Epic]
You blast targets into dust with your control over the fundamental energies of existence.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Evocation spell
Benefits: All evocation spells you cast ignore spell resistance and energy resistance and deal half damage even against creatures immune to the relevant form of energy. Once per encounter, you can choose a form of energy and deal 1d6 damage/caster level of that form of energy to a target within 100 feet, or half of that if they succeed on a Reflex Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Master of Illusion[Epic]
You can fool the senses of others with incredibly ease.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Illusion spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting illusion spells. Touching an illusion you have that allows for saving throws to disbelieve does not allow the target to automatically disbelieve as such illusions now create imagined tactile sensations. Once per encounter, you can turn yourself or a creature within 100 feet of yourself invisible for 1 round. While invisible, the target can’t be seen through see invisibility or true seeing, is unaffected by glitterdust, faerie fire, and invisibility purge, and can’t be detected by scent, blindsight, blindsense, or tremorsense.

Master of Necromancy [Epic]
You gain mastery over the forces of death.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Necromancy spell
Benefits: All undead you create with necromancy spells are automatically under your control (counting towards your normal maximum) and your necromancy spells bypass any immunities granted by the undead type or by death ward effects. Once per encounter, you can reanimate any number of dead creatures within 100 feet of yourself as skeletons or zombies (depending on the state of the bodies) with a total HD of up to your caster level. These undead only lasts until the end of the encounter before falling apart.

Master of Transmutation [Epic]
You twist the forms of others in magnificent ways.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Transmutation spell.
Benefits: You gain the supernatural abilities of any creature you transform into using transmutation spells. Any bonuses to ability scores granted by your transmutation spells are doubled. Once per encounter, you may grant yourself a burrow speed, fly speed (with perfect maneuverability), or swim speed equal to your land speed or double your land speed until the end of the encounter.

Epic Spellbook [Epic]
Even your spellbook has become an artifact of legend.
Prerequisites: Must prepare spells from a spellbook, True Arcanist
Benefits: Select one spellbook you possess. That spellbook is treated as a minor artifact for all purposes and you may call it to your empty hand (ignoring all non-epic effects that would prevent teleportation) as a standard action. The chosen spellbook possesses infinite pages and produces its own ink as it is pressed upon with a dry quill, requiring no cost for scribing spells.

Spontaneous Spell Knowledge [Epic]
You possess erratic and ever-shifting access to magic.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast 9th-level spells spontaneously, True Arcanist
Benefits: Select an arcane spell from any spell list. You add that spell to your list of spells known. As a swift action, you may expend a spell slot to replace the chosen spell with another of that spell slot’s spell level or lower.

Superior Spellcaster [Epic]
Your spells are more powerful than those of others
Prerequisites: Caster level 30th
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your caster level.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Superior Counterspell [Epic]
You can counterspell an opponent with unparalleled ease.
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell
Benefits: You need not ready an action in order to counter an opponent’s spell.

Selective Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can prevent your spells from harming your allies.
Benefits: This feat can only be applied to spells that create areas. When casting a spell modified by this metamagic effect, you may select any number of targets within its area. Only the chosen creatures are affected by the spell. A selective spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Practiced Metamagic (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a veneficus optima can add metamagic to arcane spells with great efficiency. Whenever casting a non-epic arcane spell, the veneficus optima may add any number of metamagic effects who in total would raise the spell’s level by up to +4 without increasing its spell level or casting time. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the veneficus optima can add another four levels of metamagic effects to each spell they cast.

Master of the Arcane (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a veneficus optima can manipulate far greater magics than most other arcane casters. A veneficus optima can cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation: Well, what do we have here (other than blatant butchering of dead languages)?

From start to finish, this class was intended the quintessential arcane caster class, fit for prepared and spontaneous casters alike and just as powerful as you would imagine it being. While the high proselytizer gets off simply gigantic spells by being around crowds, this guy gets smaller benefits that don’t rely on any particular circumstance.

As one last note here, I really don’t know if I love or despise the generic flavor of the class. On the one hand, this class is pretty much perfect for wizards/sorcerers/wu jen/warmages/beguilers/dread necromancers and trying to add too much flavor would risk ruining this neutral arrangement. On the other hand, this class has pretty much no fluff or class-specific feats. If you think this class could use some more fluff/feats, feel free to make suggestions.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:30 PM

Venerated Sage

Knowledge is power. Though there are many ways to obtain knowledge, everyone from the lowest of farmhands to the greatest of archmages is forced to bow before this simple truism. Sentient beings of any great power, in the process of gaining that strength, almost inevitably garner a rich store of information from his or her travels. Those who make it a point to study, however, go far further than this. Utilizing vast archives of knowledge and delving deeper with divination over the course of a lifetime, certain sages make it a point to learn as much as possible. These repositories of knowledge, frequently refered to as venerated sage, are revered (and sometimes feared) for their knowledge wherever they travel.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a venerated sage , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Age Category: Old or older
Skills: Knowledge (Any four) 23 ranks
Spells: Must be capable of casting at least six divinations spells, at least one of which must be sixth level or higher.

Class Skills: All skills are class skills for a venerated sage.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Venerated Sage
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|Combat Evaluation +8, Master of Knowledge|--

2nd|
+1|Prepare for Anything (1 action)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+2|Uncanny Senses 50 ft.|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+2|Harmful Truths 1/round|--

6th|
+3|Combat Evaluation +12|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+3|Prepare for Anything (2 actions)|--

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+4|Uncanny Senses 100 ft.|--

10th|
+5|Harmful Truths 2/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the venerated sage.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a venerated sage can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, compel, contact, dispel, foresee, reveal, transport, and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Master of Knowledge (Ex): All venerated sages are known for the vast supply of knowledge that they have acquired. These sages may make Knowledge checks untrained and gains a bonus to all knowledge checks equal to his or her class level x 5. Furthermore, a venerated sage remembers his or her entire life in perfect detail and is immune to all spells and effects that would remove, alter, or allow access to his or her thoughts or memories. Lastly, your extensive knowledge of the world aids with your divination spells and effects. All divination spells you cast that rely on or benefit from knowledge of, nearness to, and/or a connection with a specific target (such as discern location, legend lore, and scrying) grant you the maximum possible results for any target (a legend lore spell, for example, will always reveal full legends). Any non-epic divination spell with a casting time over 1 minute has its casting time reduced to 1 minute.

Combat Evaluation (Ex): While venerated sages are known for collecting vast quantities of knowledge, they are more than capable of applying this knowledge on the battlefield. As a move action, a venerated sage can review all that he or she knows about a single creature he or she can see or hear before coming up with the most appropriate response. Until the end of the encounter or until this ability is used again, the venerated sage gains a +8 insight bonus to attack rolls against the target, to AC against the target’s attacks, to saving throws against spells and abilities of the target, and to opposed rolls against the target until the end of the encounter. Against other creatures of the target’s race (and sub-race, if applicable), these bonuses are halved. If the venerated sage chooses to use this ability as a full-round action, he or she can announce his or her conclusions aloud and any ally who can hear and understand him or her gains half of these benefits for the same duration (the sage still gains full benefits). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the bonus granted (before halving) increases by +4.

Bonus Spells Known: A venerated sage knows much of the ways of magic, learning spells much faster than many others. At each odd level, a venerated sage may add any single spell from any class list to his or her spellbook, list of spells known, or spell list. These spells, if recorded to scrolls or spellbooks (or prayerbooks), can't be copied into other spellbooks or prayerbooks.

Prepare for Everything (Ex): Starting at 2th level, venerated sages always seem prepared for almost any possibility. As a swift action, a venerated sage may ready a single move or standard action. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the venerated sage may ready an additional action as part of his or her swift action. No matter how many actions a venerated sage readies in a single round, he or she may only actually take one.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even venerated sage level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a venerated sage, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a venerated sage can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Adaptable Preparations*, Always Prepared*, Analyze Item*, Educated Dungeoneer*, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Extended Lifespan, Gifted Cartographer*, Great Charisma, Great Intelligence, Great Wisdom, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Maddening Truth*, Master of Divination*, Masterful Architect*, Opportune Action*, Planar Scholar*, Polygot, Quick Analysis, Royal Recorder*, Soothsayer*, Spontaneous Spell, Studious Archaeologist*, True Certainty*, Uncanny Foresight*, Universal Truths*, Urbanite*, Widened Senses*

New FeatsTrue Certainty [Epic]
You always know which option to take.
Prerequisites: Prepare for Everything (5 actions)
Benefits: Whenever you attempt to make a choice or solve a riddle or problem that possesses one or more objectively correct answers or solutions and one or more objectively wrong answers or solutions, you instinctively know whether each solution or answer you come up with is correct, incorrect, or neither. This feat doesn’t point out correct options that you have yet to consider.

Opportune Action [Epic]
You always act at just the right moment.
Prerequisites: Prepare for Everything (4 actions)
Benefits: You need not roll initiative. Instead, you may take your action each round at any time, even in the middle of another creature’s action. If you don’t take your action by the end of a round, you act last in that round. If more than one creature with this feat doesn’t act by the end of a round, they roll initiative amongst themselves to dictate the order they act in that round.

Adaptable Preparations [Epic]
Prerequisites: Prepare for Everything (3 actions)
Benefits: Whenever you ready actions, you need not specify under what conditions you will use those actions. Instead, you may simply use a readied action at any time.

Uncanny Foresight [Epic]
You are impossible to truly surprise.
Prerequisites: Prepare for Everything (2 actions)
Benefits: You gain the benefits of a foresight effect at all times.

Always Prepared [Epic]
You always seem to possess just what you need.
Prerequisites: Never There 1/encounter or Prepare for Everything (1 action)
Benefits: At any time, you may spend up to 10,000 gp in coins, gems, or similar valuables in order to retroactively possess any item at least two size categories smaller than you that weighs nor more than the valuables spent on it (50 coins = 1 pound). You may not spend valuables gained since the last time you had an opportunity to freely purchase items in this way.

Analyze Item [Epic]
You can recognize most magic items by sight.
Prerequisite: Master of Knowledge
Benefits: You automatically recognize identify any magic item that you observe as if it were subjected to an identify effect.

Soothsayer [Epic]
Your senses sometimes extend into the future.
Prerequisites: Uncanny Senses 50 ft.
Benefits: As a standard action, you may use augury as a spell-like ability (Caster Level 20). After using this ability, you lose the benefits of your uncanny senses class feature for 30 minutes.

Maddening Truth [Epic]
The truths of the world that you reveal to others can threaten their sanity.
Prerequisites: Harmful Truths 2/round
Benefits: Any creature you knock unconscious using your harmful truths class feature is driven permanently insane (as an insanity with a caster level of 20). This effect allows no saving throw.

Widened Senses [Epic]
You can harness more of your unearthly senses at a given time.
Prerequisties: Uncanny Senses 100 ft.
Benefits: At any time, you may possess two senses provided by your uncanny senses class feature.

Universal Truths [Epic]
The truths of the world that you reveal are often of importance to more than one opponent.
Prerequisites: Harmful Truths 1/round
Benefits: With each use of your harmful truths class feature, you may target one additional creature.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Quick Analysis [Epic]
You can analyze the battle around you quite quickly.
Prerequisites: Combat Evaluation +8
Benefits: You may grant yourself the benefits of your combat evalutation class feature as a move action or share them with others as a standard action.

Educated Dungeoneer [Epic]
With your encyclopedic knowledge of dungeons, you can predict a good deal about them with a glance.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (dungeoneering) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: After seeing the interior of a dungeon (whether man-made or naturally occurring) or even hearing a detailed description of its interior, you can identify every type of creature (aberration, animal, humanoid [elf], etc.) that resides within that dungeon. Furthermore, you automatically recognize all traps (whether mechanical or mundane) by sight, requiring no search check. This gives you no special ability to disarm traps, however.

Masterful Architect [Epic]
You know exactly how buildings and other structures fit together and how others would build them.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (architecture and engineering) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: After seeing the interior of a building or even hearing a detailed description of its interior, you learn the entirety of its layout, including sealed-off spaces and secret rooms and corridors. Furthermore, may take 20 on all ability checks and skill checks made to break, manipulate, or maneuver around architectural features.

Gifted Cartographer [Epic]
You know the landscape like the back of your hand.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (geography) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge.
Benefits: You always recognize the geography around you, knowing all roads and paths within a mile of yourself as well as where they go. Even when there are no such paths within range, you always know exactly where you are and never risk getting lost. You and any creatures travelling with you through non-urban environments double your overland speed.

Royal Recorder [Epic]
You have studied royalty long enough to learn about power structures and the art of supplication.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: You can tell approximately how many other creatures any creature commands simply by looking at the way they behave. If you have seen both one creature and another that he or she is either subservient to or that is subservient to him or her, you realize this connection (you need not see both creatures at the same time to do so). Furthermore, you may take 20 on any skill check made to interact with royalty or similar community leaders.

Studious Archaeologist [Epic]
You frequently put your extensive knowledge of history to the test.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: You can identify the age of any object or place that you see or have heard a detailed description of. You can also tell how any object was utilized, what race crafted it, and when it was last used. You are fluent with all ancient dialects of any languages you speak. Furthermore, you halve the time required to repair a magical object and double your progress when using the craft skill to repair mundane objects.

Planar Scholar [Epic]
You possess extensive knowledge regarding planes and planar connections.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (The Planes) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: If you can see or possess a detailed description of a magical portal, you know what plane of existence it leads to and learn of any special qualities it possesses. You can recognize what plane of existence a creature comes from by sight. Furthermore, whenever you witness a creature travel to another plane of existence, you learn which plane of existence was accessed (after travelling through the astral plane if the astral plane wasn’t the end destination).

Urbanite [Epic]
You are exceedingly knowledgeable regarding local matters.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (Local) 23 ranks, Master of Knowledge
Benefits: If you can see or possess a detailed description of a settlement, you know exactly where all services, features, and districts are located in relation to each other. Furthermore, you may communicate basic messages with sentient creatures who don’t share a language with yourself.

Master of Divination [Epic]
You can act exactly as you need to in order to succeed at almost any task.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Divination spell
Benefits: All emanations that your divination spells create are doubled in size and you are aware when there is information that your divination spells is unable to detect, though you don’t automatically learn what knowledge you are kept from. Once per encounter, you can add your caster level as a bonus to an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Using this feat requires no action.

Uncanny Senses (Su): Starting at 4th level, a venerated sage learns how to peer out into the world and see things as they truly are. Listen and Spot checks aren’t penalized for distance within the first 50 feet and the venerated sage gains a special sensory capability within a 50-foot radius. As a move action, he or she can switch which sense is active:

The venerated sage benefits from a true seeing effect
The venerated sage automatically sees through all manner of mundane darknesss, fog, smoke, and disguises.
The venerated sage functions as though possessing any senses he or she has been robbed of or denied.
The venerated sage detects life force and its strength (as deathwatch).
The venerated sage detects the presence and location of one named substance within range.
The venerated sage perceives the world as though a named substance does not exist (gaze attacks may not be delivered if the venerated sage lacks a line of effect with the target).
The venerated sage detects all lies (even through omission) spoken within range (as discern lies).
The venerated sage pierces through invisibility and can see ethereal creatures (as true seeing).
The venerated sage perceives all magic in the surrounding world (as arcane sight).

At 9th level and every 5 level afterwards, the venerated sage’s senses extend an additional 50 feet before being penalized for distance and the range of these special senses likewise extends 50 feet.

Harmful Truths (Su): Starting at 5th level, a venerated sage can rebuke and harm others with the darkest and most personal or traumatizing of secrets. Once per round, a venerated sage can target a creature who can both hear and understand him or her with one of these truths and force that creatur e to make a saving throw (DC 20 + Class level + Int modifier). If the target hasn’t be targeted by this ability in the past 24 hours, it takes 10d6 nonlethal damage and is dazed for 1 round if it fails the save and halves this damage and is merely staggered for 1 round if it succeeds. Otherwise, the target takes 5d6 nonlethal damage and is staggered for 1 round if it fails the save and halves this damage and negates the staggered condition if it succeeds. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round. No creature can be targeted more than once per round and this ability can be used at any time without expending any action.

Notes and Explanation: Much like the divination school as a whole, it seemed a bit inevitable that this class would end up as the weakest of the school-focused PrCs. I’m sure that sticking this class right next to the veneficus optima isn’t doing it any favors, either. Even so, I am still pretty happy about the way things turned out (and if anyone out there has any ideas of how I could empower this class a bit, don’t hestitate to make recommendations. With that said, a few notes:

1. Master of Knowledge makes mysteries far more difficult to run in an epic campaign as if overcomes many of the limitations purposefully placed on divinations. I am aware of this and it was mostly intended considering that immunity to divinations is more than possible at epic levels.
2. While uncanny senses never provides the full benefits of a true seeing spell, I am still very happy with the amount of versatility I managed to cram in there.
3. In case it wasn’t obvious, the point of harmful truths is to control and suppress one or more enemies in the short term. The nonlethal damage was added mostly as an after though as the notion of overwhelming weak minds entirely was beyond my power to resist.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:32 PM

Voice of the World

There are few sources of magical power quite as fascinating or frustrating as truenames. The concept, in its basest form, sounds most incredible and wondrous. Foregoing the years of research and practice that most other casters require, one must simply learn a new language to gain influence over all of creation. When one tries to use truenames, however, the true difficulty reveals itself. As one grows more powerful and practices their art, they learn that the truenames of more powerful foes are far more exacting than they had ever suspected and even the truenames of themselves and their allies become harder and harder to say as the universe takes note of them. As such, most truenamers of note either lord over far weaker creatures or obsessively seek every possible edge they can get so that they can speak more powerful truenames. The strongest and most cunning of these obsessive truenamers, known as voices of the world, have found extensive techniques for overcoming the restrictions of the multiverse. Though perhaps not as strong as the strongest of casters, these voices still manage to live up to the expectations that most truenamers possess when they start training.

Hit Die: d6

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Voice of the World, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Truespeak 23 ranks
Utterances: Any five

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Forgery, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Profession, Speak Language, Truespeak, Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Voice of the World
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Free Verse, Practiced Speaker +4

2nd|
+1|Master Personal Truename (1 creature)

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat

4th|
+2|Endless Vocabulary (2 switches/recharge)

5th|
+2|Master of Truenames (1)

6th|
+3|Practiced Speaker +6

7th|
+3|Master Personal Truename (2 creatures)

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat

9th|
+4|Endless Vocabulary (4 switches/recharge)

10th|
+5|Master of Truenames (2)[/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the Voice of the World.

Epic Spellcasting: A voice of the world gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. Furthermore, the voice of the world can use his or her ranks in truespeak in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills for the purpose of determining epic spells per day and in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when attempting to cast an epic spell. Voices of the World use their Intelligence scores to determine the save DCs of epic spells

Free Verse: A voice of the world is gifted by the cosmos in his or her ability to truespeak with minimal interference from the multiverse. While in free verse, a voice of the world can speak and understand all languages, can use utterances as move actions, and need not make truespeak checks in order to use utterances. Each time he or she uses an utterance, however, he or she risks the loss of these boons. Whenever a voice of the world uses an utterance, he or she must make a Truespeak check with a DC of 10 + 1 per previous attempt. If he or she fails this check, he or she looses the benefit of this class feature for 24 hours, after which time the DC is reset. Utterances used while in free verse are ignored by the law of resistance.

Practiced Speaker: Although the multiverse tries to make it difficult for utterances to be used frequently, a voice of the world can reverse this process in the short term. Starting at 1st level, each time that a voice of the world attempts to use an utterance (whether or not he or she succeeds on the truespeak check), he or she gains a +4 bonus on truespeak checks made to use that specific utterance until the end of the encounter. This bonus increases by +2 at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Master Personal Truename: With enough time and practice, a voice of the world can perfect his or her pronunciation of specific truenames. At 2nd level, a voice of the world may select a single creature whose personal truename he or she knows. When targeting that creature with an utterance from the lexicon of the evolving mind, the voice of the world need not make a truespeak check. With 1 week of practice, he or she may replace one such name with another. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the voice of the world may maintain such mastery with an additional personal true name at a time.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a Voice of the World can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Echoing Utterance*, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Will, Exploit Personal Truenames*, Extended Lifespan, Great Intelligence, Guard Personal Truename*, Improved Truespeak*, Invoke by Name*, Layered Recitation*, Master of Language*, Mirrored Utterance*, Multispeak*, Recitation of the Deathless State*, Recitation of the Fluid State*, Recitation of the Martial State*, See Truenames*, Shattered Sequence*, Wordsense*

New FeatsImproved Truespeak [Epic]
You are practiced in the art of pronouncing truenames.
Prerequisites: Free Verse
Benefits: You gain a +5 bonus to truespeak checks.
Special: You may select this feat muitiple times. Its effects stack.

Shattered Sequence [Epic]
You can ignore the law of sequence.
Prerequisites: Practiced Speaker +4
Benefits: You need not follow the law of sequence with your utterances.

Echoing Utterance [Epic]
Your utterances can be made to echo through the fabric of existence.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks
Benefits: If the utterance is successful, you can cause it’s effects to automatically repeat on the same target or area at the start of the next round without need for an additional truespeak check. If the utterance has an ongoing duration, it instead repeats on the round after the first effect ends. If the original target or area is no longer applicable, the echo is wasted. An echoing utterance possesses a truespeak DC 25 higher than normal.

Guard Personal Truename [Epic]
You can protect your personal truename so that none may use it against you.
Prerequisites: Practiced Speaker +6
Benefits: Creatures with fewer ranks in truespeak than you can’t speak your personal truename or target you directly with utterances.

Master of Language [Epic]
Others could never hope to overcome you through language, whether mundane or magical.
Prerequisites: Practiced Speaker +8
Benefits: You ignore the affects of language-dependend effects and whenever you are specifically targetted by one, you may reflect it back upon its user (if the user is an applicable target) as if through a spell turning effect. Furthermore, you automatically recognize lies as if through a discern lies effect and are never affected by the intimidate skill.

Recitation of the Fluid State [Epic]
This recitation allows you to free yourself from most impediments
Prerequisites: Truespeak 30 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: You grant yourself the benefit of a freedom of movement effect for 1 round.

Recitation of the Deathless State [Epic]
This recitation allows your body to deny death.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 35 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: You may act naturally at 0 and fewer hit points and do not die at -10 or fewer hit points until the end of your next round when you successfully use this recitation.

Recitation of the Martial State [Epic]
This recitation allows you to enter the front lines of battle.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 30 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: When you successfully use this recitation, your base attack bonus is increased to your ranks in truespeak -3 (unless already higher) and you gain proficiency with all weaponry until the end of your next round. If you make a full attack within this time, the duration is extended by one additional round.

Exploit Personal Truename [Epic]
When you use a creature’s personal truename, it becomes difficult for them to resist your utterances.
Prerequisites: Master Personal Truename (2 creatures)
Benefits: Whenever you target a creature whose personal truename you know with an utterance, increase the save DC (if any) by +2.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. It’s effects stack.

See Truenames [Epic]
You can identify a creature’s personal truename just by looking at it.
Prerequisites: Master Personal Truename (3 creatures)
Benefits: You automatically learn the personal truenames of any creature within your line of sight that possesses equal or fewer HD than you possess ranks in truespeak. For each additional HD above that limit, there is a 5% chance that you fail to learn a creature’s truename.

Layered Recitation [Epic]
You can subject yourself to more than one recitation as part of the same action
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks, two or more recitation feats
Benefits: You may attempt to use two or more recitation feats as part of the same action. For each recitation added beyond the first, the Truespeak DC increases by 5.

Wordsense [Epic]
You can detect the presence of spoken words in your environment.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks
Benefits: You can detect all spoken words within 500 feet of yourself regardless of interposing barriers and your (in)ability to hear these words. This ability allows you to hear the words spoken and pinpoint the speakers in space. This ability does not detect telepathic or nonverbal communication.

Mirrored Utterance [Epic]
You make the most of your utterances from the lexicon of the evolving mind.
Prerequisites: Practiced Speaker +10
Benefits: Whenever you use an utterance from the lexicon of the evolving mind, you may choose to utter both its normal effects and its reversed effects simultaneously. These two effects need not target the same creature and a single truespeak check is made for both effects (if the truespeak check fails to affect one creature, the other is still affected).

Invoke by Name [Epic]
You have learned how to summon forth a creature from afar or from the death through its truename.
Prerequisites: Master Personal Truename (5 creatures)
Benefits: As a standard action, you may make a Truespeak check using a creature’s personal DC as if targeting them with an utterance. If that creature is alive, it is summoned anywhere within 100 feet of your choice that can support it and it fights under your control for 5 rounds (as dominate monster) before returning from whence it came (this functions as a [summoning] effect). If the creature is dead and had died within the past 5 rounds, it instantly returns to life as if revived by a wish spell. Each time beyond the first that this ability is used on a specific creature, the truespeak DC increases by 5.

Multispeak [Epic]
You possess the gift of speaking in tongues, invoking multiple utterances simultaneously.
Prerequisites: Quicken Utterance
Benefits: You may use an additional quickened utterance each round.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Endless Vocabulary: Though a voice of the world can’t maintain a constant grasp on the exacting pronunciations of all truenames, all voices of the world eventually become at least familiar with most true names at some point or another. Starting at 4th level, by spending a full-round action to reclaim his or her pronunciation of a truename, a voice of the world can replace one utterance with another from the same lexicon. After using this ability twice, the voice of the world can’t do so again until he or she spends 1 hour practicing the nigh infinite conjugations of truenames to recharge this ability. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a voice of the world may make up to two additional switches before needing to recharge this ability.

Master of Truenames (Ex): Starting at 5th level, a voice of the world can manipulate far greater magics than most other truenamers. A voice of the world can cast an additional epic spell each day, plus one additional such spell at 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Notes and Explanation:
In my quest to make an epic prc for most alternate forms of magic, it was inevitable that I’d eventually run across truenaming eventually. Aside from the slightly tongue-in-cheek introduction, however, I decided to take this endeavor pretty seriously and I’m actually pretty surprised with what I ended up with. Namely, it doesn’t suck nearly as much as I expected it to. While I still pity the truenamer that plays up until epic levels, taking his or her first level in voice of the world should make everything much easier from there on out. While I’m aware of the many many many truenamer fixes out there (I’m a personal fan of Kellus’ work), I decided to make this thing run off of the RAW rules due to my general policy of not making homebrew-dependent homebrew.

Amechra

2012-06-26, 10:32 PM

Holy. ****ing. Hell.

This is going to be intense; you don't do anything as a half-measure, do you?

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:34 PM

Voidkeeper

A promise holds power. This is the cornerstone from which all of soul binding emerges. In exchange for a view of the world, a binder receives wondrous power from creatures beyond the reach of the multiverse. The bargain is equal, all parties are satisfied, and the process is simple. So long as a being possesses the memory to retain rituals and seals and the force of personality to force vestiges to answer his or her call, anyone can become a binder. Despite the ease of becoming a binder, however, true mastery of the art is only ever accomplished. Voidcallers, after working for years with vestiges, have learned how to bring them even closer to the multiverse. Armed with the ability to offer unparalleled pacts to the desperate beings from beyond, Voidcallers alone can claim any degress of subservience from the vestiges he or she binds.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a voidcaller, a character must meet all of the following criteria:
Soul Binding: Capable of binding 6th level vestiges
Feats: Ignore Binding Requirements, Improved Binder
Skills: Knowledge (The Planes or History) 23 ranks

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Sense Motive
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int Modifier

Voidcaller
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special

1st|
+0|Lord of the Lost, Bind Creature (1 pact), Soul Binding +1

2nd|
+1|Bound to Flesh I, Soul Binding +2

3rd|
+1|Bonus Feat, Soul Binding +3

4th|
+2|Summon Vestige 1/encounter, Soul Binding +4

5th|
+2|Bind the Void (1 pact), Soul Binding +5

6th|
+3|Bind Creature (2 pacts), Soul Binding +6

7th|
+3|Bound to Flesh II, Soul Binding +7

8th|
+4|Bonus Feat, Soul Binding +8

9th|
+4|Summon Vestige 2/encounter, Soul Binding +9

10th|
+5|Bind the Void (2 pacts), Sould Binding +10 [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the voidcaller.

Epic Spellcasting: A voidcaller gains epic spellcasting as a bonus feat even if he or she doesn’t meet its prerequisites. The voidcaller may use his or her binder bonus in place of his or her ranks in knowledge skills to determine epic spells per day and may make a binder check in place of a spellcraft check to cast epic spells. Voidcallers use their Charisma scores to determine the save DCs of epic spells.

Soul Binding Bonus: At each voidkeeper level, his or her soul binding ability improves as if he or she had also gained a level in the binder class. The voidkeeper’s class level and binder levels stack for the purpose of determining his or her bonus on binding checks, the effectiveness of his oer her vestige-granted abilities, his or her ability to bind higher-level vestiges, and the numer of vestiges he or she can bind. The voidkeeper does not, however, gain any other benefit a binder would have gained.

Lord of the Lost (Su): Although vestiges jump at any chance to rejoin the multiverse, they are only truly subservient to voidkeepers, beings capable of giving them far more complete experiences of the world. A voidkeeper never suffers from physical signs or from the influence of vestiges. Whenever the voidkeeper makes a good pact with a vestige, he or she may use one of its activated abilities without spending any action once per encounter. Lastly, you may alter the duration of any pact you form from the base of 24 hours as you form the pact. Although vestiges personally enjoy longer pacts and feel cheated by shorter pacts, they are incapable to telling how the pact is being altered and thus impose a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks that the voidcaller makes per hour by which the pact is altered for the first 1d4 hours of the pact.

Bind Creature (Su): Among the most frightening of abilities that voidkeepers possess is the power to consign others to the void and bind them for strength. Doing so requires that the voidkeeper spend one minute creating a customized seal around a living creature or the intact remains of a dead creature that had died within the past hour. At the end of this time, the voidkeeper must speak the creature’s name, grant it a title, and consign it to the void as a full-round action. The creature may make a Will save (DC 20 + Class Level + Cha modifier) to resist this effect. If this save succeeds, that creature is saved and can’t be targetted again for 24 hours. If it fails, the target’s body and soul vanish and the voidkeeper binds its essence for the next 24 hours. That creature’s granted abilities include all extraordinary senses and modes of movement, a +4 bonus to its highest ability score, and the ability to use each of its racial supernatural abilities. Activated abilities gained in this way can only be used once every 5 rounds. A creature turned into a vestige can never be bound again after its pact with the voidcaller ends and can’t be revived from the dead except by a deity or by a caster with a caster level at least 10 higher than the voidcaller’s binder level. At 1st level, a voidkeeper can only possess one such pact at a time. At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the voidkeeper may possess one additional such pact. Pacts formed in this way do not count towards the maximum number of pacts with vestiges you can possess.

Bound to Flesh (Su): The vestiges that a voidcaller binds are granted an unrivalled experience of the multiverse. As these beings are bound to the soul of the voidcaller, however, they viciously work to keep that soul anchored within the voidcaller’s body. Starting at 2nd level, so long as a voidcaller is bound to a vestige, he or she acts normally at 0 and fewer hp and does not die at -10 or fewer hp. Whenever the voidcaller is at -10 or fewer hp and takes damage, however, he or she must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + 1 per previous success or failure within the past 24 hours) or else have the remaining duration of a single pact of the voidcaller’s choice reduced by 1 hour plus 1 additional hour for every 5 points by which his or she fails the save, ending if the remaining duration equal or less than that amount. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a voidcaller gains a +5 bonus to these Fortitude saves. Furthermore, the voidcaller is immune to all effects that would displace, capture, or destroy his or her soul while bound to at least one vestige.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Anchored Essence*, Back To Life*, Consign to the Void, Contingent Pact*, Damage Reduction, Dexterous Fortitude, Dexterous Will, Dominate Vestige*, Energy Resistance, Extended Lifespan, Fast Healing, Gateway to Nowhere*, Grant Pact Magic*, Hide Beyond*, Living Vestige*, Lore of the Lost*, Pact Substitution*, Perfect Health, Pulled Back*, Quick Pact*, Spy From Beyond*, Sublte Pact*, Through the Beyond*.

New FeatsPact Substitution [Epic]
When in a tough bind, you can replace one bound vestige with another
Prerequisites: Lord of the Lost
Benefits: You may create a pact even when you possess your maximum number of pacts, replacing one of your previously bound vestiges with another of a lower level.

Subtle Pact [Epic]
Others can rarely tell that you are even forming a pact.
Prerequisites: Lord of the Lost
Benefits: Rather than going through the entire soul binding process, you may simply meditate for one minute to make a pact, never actually drawing the pact or calling forth the manifestation of the desired vestige.
Special: This feat doesn’t effect pacts you make using voidcaller class features.

Pulled Back [Epic]
The vestiges you bind are loathe to let you die without a fight.
Prerequisites: Bound to Flesh I
Benefits: So long as you are bound to at least one vestige, whenever you would be targeted by a death effect, negate that effect and make a fortitude save as per your bound to flesh class feature.

Hide Beyond [Epic]
You can hide yourself within the space between spaces that vestiges occupy.
Prerequisites: Lord of the Lost
Benefits: Although vestiges only bind to you to experience the multiverse, they are willing to harbor you in their domain when needed. As a full-round action, you may vanish from your square into the space beyond spaces if you are bound to at least one vestige. While in this space, you effectively do not exist and can’t be targetted by any spells or effects. The space functions like a rod of paradise except that you can only bring yourself and that time spent in this space doesn’t count towards the maximum duration of your pacts (other durations pass by as normal). When you leave the void, you return into the same square you occupied before you left (or into the nearest open square if it is occupied).

Spy From Beyond[Epic]
You can continue viewing the world even in your own absence.
Prerequisites: Hide Beyond
Benefits: While using your hide beyond feat, you can continue observing the world as if you still occupied the square that you will exit out into. Furthermore, you gain blindsight out to 30 feet (or the range of your preexisting blindsight increases by 30 feet) while observing the world in this way.

Through the Beyond [Epic]
You can use the space between spaces to travel far distances.
Prerequisites: Hide Beyond
Benefits: While using your hide beyond feat, you can spend a full-round action to move the square that you will exit back into by up to one mile in any direction.
Special: If you possess the spy from beyond feet, you do not see the intervening distance that your entrance back into the world travels to reach its destination.

Quick Pact [Epic]
You can draw the power of vestiges in but a moment.
Prerequisites: Subtle Pact
Benefits: When using your subtle pact feat, you may choose to make a pact as a full-round action.
Special: This feat doesn’t effect pacts you make using voidcaller class features.

Grant Pact Magic[Epic]
You can make pacts on the behalf of others, granting them strength.
Prerequisites: Summon Vestige 1/encounter
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can touch the soul of a willing creature touched, effectively granting the bind vestige feat to that creature for 24 hours with the exception that the pactsworn corruptor must be the one to call forth the vestige to be bound. Any number of targets may bind to a vestige summoned in this way when it is summoned and you may choose to bind to it simultaneously.
Special: This feat can be selected up to 5 times, granting additional benefits each time. If it is taken a second time, all targets gain the benefit of the suppress sign class feature as if a 2nd level binder. If this feat is selected a third time, all targets gain the benefits of the Practiced Binder feat as well. If this ability is taken a 4th time, all targets are granted the benefits of a single pact augmentation ability of their choice for 24 hours. If it is taken a 5th and final time, all targets gain the benefits of the Improved Bind Vestige feat for 24 hours.

Anchored Essence [Epic]
You can perfectly meld the soul of a vestige with your own, making it difficult to suppress.
Prerequisites: Bound to Flesh III
Benefits: The granted abilities of vestiges you bind aren’t suppressed in an anti-magic zone or within a dead magic zone. Furthermore, no form of magic reveals the presence of vestiges bound to you.

Back to Life [Epic]
You can bring a recent vestige back from the space between spaces as a minion
Prerequisites: Summon Vestige 2/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you use your summon vestige class feature to summon a vestige gained through your bind creature class feature, that creature is summoned back in their entirety, functioning exactly as that creature (though under your control) for the duration of the ability.

Lore of the Lost [Epic]
You can learn much from those you bind to your soul.
Prerequisties: Lord of the Lost, Bind Creature (1 pact)
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may attempt to gain information from one vestige. If that vestige was gained through your bind creature class feature, you learn what the target believes to be the truthful answer to a single question posed to it. Otherwise, this ability imitates a legend lore effect and you must listen to the rambling of the chosen vestige for the full normal casting time of the spell in that situation to learn the desired information..

Gateway to Nowhere [Epic]
You can send large numbers of foes to the void at once.
Prerequisites: Consign to the Void
Benefits: When you use your consign to the void feat, you may affect creatures at any range so long as they are within your line of sight and may choose a number of creatures up to the number of remaining pacts you possess with your bind creature class feature.

Consign to the Void [Epic]
You can bind a creature to the void with incredible speed.
Prerequisites: Bind Creature (2 pacts)
Benefits: Once per encounter, if you don’t possess the maximum number of pacts available to you through your bind creatures class feature, you may attempt to bind a creature within 10 feet to the void as a full-round action. The target must make a Will save (DC 20 + voidcaller level + Cha modifier) or be affected as if by your bind creature class feature, vanishing and leaving its seal burnt somewhere into the world around it.

Dominate Vestige [Epic]
You can force a vestige you have bound to stop aiding another creature.
Prerequisites: Summon Vestige 2/encounter
Benefits: As a standard action, you may select a creature with which you possess a line of sight and select a single vestige you possess a pact with. If the chosen creature also possesses a pact with the chosen vestige, it loses all benefits of that pact until the end of the encounter.

Contingent Pact [Epic]
You can set certain pacts to come into effect under set situations
Prerequisites: Bound to Flesh IV
Benefits: You may form a special pact with a vestige, neither gaining benefits right away nor counting towards your maximum number of pacts. When you form this pact, you go through the entire pact-making process and place the vestige’s seal somewhere on your body and select a single condition under which the pact activates, as if choosing the condition for a contingency effect. When that condition comes to pass, the pact activates, replacing another active pact if you possess the maximum number available to you. You can only possess one contingent pact at a time and making a new one replaces the old one. A contingent pact lasts until it is either triggered or replaced in this way.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you do so, you may possess an additional contingent pact at a given time.
Special: This feat doesn’t effect pacts you make using voidcaller class features.

Living Vestige [Epic]
Though you may not reside in the void, others can still bind your soul, for a price.
Prerequisites: Bind Creature (5 pacts)
Benefits: Though you don’t leave the multiverse, you become an 8th-level vestige with your own seal and a binding DC of 10 + your binder bonus. At the DM’s discretion, you may decide your own manifestation, influence, and physical sign. When bound, your granted abilities are identical to those you’d grant others if you were targeted with your own bind creature class feature and you additionally grant that creature the ability to bind an additional vestige of 2nd level or lower. You automatically learn whenever you are being bound. As a standard action, you may either see the world through the senses of a creature who has bound you for 1 round or you can give such a creature a mental order functioning much as suggestion effect (Save DC 20 + voidcaller level + Cha modifier) .

Summon Vestige (Su): Starting at 4th level, a voidcaller can call vestiges back from the void for short periods of time. Although not quite restored to their former selves, it is the closest that any could hope to get. Once per encounter, as a standard action, a voidcaller may summon a vestige into any open square within 100 feet. A summoned vestige appears as its own manifestation, remaining mostly illusory in nature and lasting for 5 rounds. A summoned vestige possesses the mental ability scores and senses of the voidcaller, acts in initiative directly after him or her, and gains a fly speed of 30 feet (perfect maneuverability). As a standard action, a vestige may activate any of its supernatural granted abilities as a binder of the voidcaller’s binder level. Summoned vestiges aren’t under the voidcaller’s control but understand everything he or she says and possess an attitude of friendly towards the voidcaller.

Bind The Void (Su): Starting at 5th level, a voidcaller can use his or her expertise to reach past the vestiges around him or her and bind directly to the ineffable neverwhen they inhabit. These fragments of the void, when carefully brought into existence, react in ways that resemble the greatest of magics. A voidcaller can spend ten minutes performing a ritual similar in nature to that used to bind vestiges, save that actual seal is far more complex. At the end of this ritual, the voidcaller may make a binder check to effectively bind and epic spell effect, the DC of which equals twice the spellcraft DC of the spell. If the voidcaller extends the duration of this pact, the DC is doubled for every 24 hour period beyond the first (round up) in place of the normal penalties given by the lord of the lost class feature. The maximum final DC of this pact is limited to 5 x class level and no mitigating factors can be utilize, though the voidcaller need not have researched that epic spell ahead of time.. If the voidcaller succeeds on the check, they are granted that spell effect for the duration of the pact. If the voidcaller fails on the check, however, the pact is still formed but grants no benefits for its full duration.

If the pact is successful, the precise benefits depend on the epic spell effect. If the spell possesses a duration other than instantaneous and targets a single creature, the voidcaller can use it every 5 rounds as a full-round action, although only one such effect can be active at a time and using it again ends the previous effect. Otherwise, the ability can be used once per hour as a full-round action. Any spell effects with a duration other than instantaneous end at the end of this pact (even if “permanent”). All spell effects imitated in this way function as supernatural abilities when beneficial to the voidcaster.

At 5th level, only a single pact can be made in this way at a given time. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, an additional simultaneous pact can be made. Pacts formed in this way do not count towards the maximum number of pacts with vestiges you can possess.

Notes and Explanation:
Behold the class that almost wasn’t, a project so frustrating that I nearly ragequit on five different occasions. The problem with making any epic-level binder class is simple. Unlike many classes and magic systems in 3.5, both the binder and soul binding in general have epic progressions. The problem is that these classes were found not in any rulebook but appeared in Dragon, a magazine that many groups don’t even allow at their kitchen tables due to a history of poor balance. Adding to the problem is that the particular issue was was of the few hosted on Wizards rather than Paizo and that it has since been deleted from the site, meaning that there is no legal way to acquire info on Epic binders if you don’t already possess it on your computer. Making this class, I had to choose whether I wanted to embrace the dragon options and alienate everyone who didn’t have them or ignore those options and inadvertently overpower anyone who does have that issue of Dragon. In the end, I went with the second option although I don’t think that things are too horribly bad. To be safe though, leave the list of bonus feats untouched even if you do possess Dragon #363.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:36 PM

Warden of Faerie

The world as we know it, at least for some, is a game of epic proportions. Though the fey may show themselves on the material plane, we see only a small percentage of all fey in existence. Beyond the world, beyond all worlds we are aware off, rests the realm of faerie. In this realm, the very forces of nature, represented by beings of nearly deific power, play a game of subtlety and savagery as they manipulate events on the material plane. Among the most dangerous of tools at the disposal of these beings are those mortals who have proved themselves or have entertained the fey enough to earn their favor. Known as wardens of faerie, these beings are forever linked to the natural world. Though some wardens end up stronger than their sponsors, these sponsors would be quick to point out that even this imbalance is a source of amusement.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Warden of Faerie, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Base Attack Bonus: +15
Skills: Knowledge (Geography) 23 ranks, Knowledge (Nature) 23 ranks
Special: Must have made peaceful contact with fey in the past.

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowedge (Geography), Knowledge (Nature), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Warden of Faerie
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Fey Guile 1/encounter, Walk The In Between|--

2nd|
+2|Warden’s Defense 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Unseen Mischief (10 spirits)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Ephemeral Presence I|--

6th|
+6|Fey Guile 2/encounter|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Warden’s Defense 2/round|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Unseen Mischief (100 spirits)|--

10th|
+10|Ephemeral Presence II|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the warden of faerie.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a warden of faerie can still develop and cast epic spells using the banish, compel, conceal, delude, dispel, heal, reveal, transform, and/or transport seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved.

Walk The In Between: All wardens of faerie possess the ability to pass seamlessly into a space between most planes of existence and the realm of faerie. As a full-round action, a warden may enter or leave this space. While walking the in between, a warden is invisible (as superior invisibility) to all creatures not already aware of his or her presence and all all creatures whose presence he or she is unaware of are likewise hidden from the warden’s own perception. As a warden and creatures around him or herself are made aware of each other through indirect means, they become visible to one another as appropriate. Furthermore, the warden can clearly see magic in this space, functioning as though affected by a greater arcane sight effect.

Fey Guile (Su): A master of beguiling foes, a warden of faerie can use fae magic to manipulate a foe, either robbing them of their will to continue combat or simply leading them astray. As a standard action, you may force a target to make a Will save (DC 20 + Warden of Faerie level + Cha modifier). If the target fails, he or she is transfixed in place as though fascinated for the next 10 minutes or until next attacked. At any point, a warden of faerie may halve the remaining duration for a target in order to have the target spend the remainder of the duration fulfilling a suggestion. Alternately, a warden may end the effect as a standard action to spirit away an affected foe. If the target fails another Will save against the same DC, it disappears into the realm of faerie and is never heard from again. After taking an attack or full attack action and successfully hitting a foe, you may use this ability against that foe as a swift action within the next round. You may use this ability once per encounter at 1st level and one additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

Warden’s Defense (Su): Charged with protecting the natural world by the fae, wardens of faerie have mastered the art of harming those who have left the natural world behind. Starting at 2nd level, a warden of faerie may negate all damage that would otherwise be dealt by an attack using a manufactured weapon once per round. At 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can be used an additional time per round.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even warden of faerie level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a warden of faerie, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a warden of faerie can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Beguiling Blade*, Combat Archery, Deafening Song, Distant Shot, Enhanced Spirits*, Epic Endurance, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Skill Focus, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Extended Ephemera*, Fast Healing, Fey Mischief*, Gossamer Chains*, Hindering Song, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Manyshot, Improved Spell Capacity, Inspire Excellence, Lasting Inspiration, Layline Network*, Legendary Climber, Legendary Rider, Legendary Tracker, Music of the Gods, Perfect Health, Ranged Inspiration, Rapid Inspiration, Reactive Countersong, Reweave Memories*, Shun the Unnatural*, Sight From Beyond*, Spellgift Spirits*, Spontaneous Spell, Storm of Throws, Swarm of Arrows, Through Faerie*, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy, Wyldwise Hunter*, Wyldwise Troubador*

New FeatsWyldwise Hunter [Epic]
You have continued to hone your skill as a hunter even while acting as a warden for the fey.
Prerequisites: Four favored enemies, Animal Companion, Walk the in Between
Benefits: Your ranger level and warden of faerie level stack for the purposes of your favored enemy and animal companion class features.

Wyldwise Troubador [Epic]
Your knack for mischief is reflected in the fey you watch over, giving you a good amount of practice.
Prerequisites: Inspire Greatness, Walk the in Between
Benefits: Your bard level and warden of faerie level stack for the purposes of your bardic knowledge and bardic music class features.

Shun the Unnatural [Epic]
Those whose presence upsets the fey find themselves unable to harm you.
Prerequisites: Warden’s Defense 1/round
Benefits: You may use your warden’s defense class feature against the natural attacks and unarmed strikes of aberrations, constructs, and undead.

Reweave Memories [Epic]
You can attempt to revise the memories of those you have beguiled.
Prerequisites: Fey Guile 2/encounter
Benefits: As a full-round action, you can end the effect of your fey guile class feature on a target to revise its memory of the time it spent under your influence (as modify memory with no saving throw or spell resistance).

Beguiling Blade [Epic]
You are most effective at leading a foe astray after attacking from ambush.
Prerequisites: Fey Guile 1/encounter
Benefits: Whenever you successfully attack a flat-footed foe, you may instantly use your beguiling blade class feature after the attack. This use does not count towards your limit of usages per encounter.

Through Faerie [Epic]
You can pass short distances through the realm of Faerie itself.
Prerequisites: Walk the in Between
Benefits: As a full-roun daction, you may teleport a distance up to your land speed.

Spellgift Spirits [Epic]
The minor spirits that you summon can channel lesser spells.
Prerequisites: Unseen Mischief (10 spirits)
Benefits: You may cast 0- and 1st-level spells through the spirits you create with your unseen mischief class feature. You may only cast through one spirit with each casting and you are the one to provide all components for the spell.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it after the first, you may cast spells up to one spell level higher through spirits.

Extended Ephemera [Epic]
You can conceal your presence for much longer than normal.
Prerequisites: Ephemeral Presence I
Benefits: Each use of your ephemeral presence class feature lasts an additional minute.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Enhanced Spirits [Epic]
The minor spirits that you call upon are the most canny of their kin.
Prerequisites: Unseen Mischief (100 spirits)
Benefits: The spirits you call upon with your unseen mischief class feature are invisible, though they still vanish if they or their actions would be detected through some means. Furthermore, the spirits gain your Dexterity Score and Strength Score and can make skill checks using your ranks in Strength- and Dexterity-based checks as well as craft, disable device, forgery, and use magic device (The spirits are treated as possessing Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores of 10).

Sight From Beyond [Epic]
You can gain some idea of where creatures lie even while walking the in between.
Prerequisites: Walk the In Between, Listen 35 ranks, Spot 35 ranks
Benefits: While walking the in between, you can see creatures that you were not previously aware of without difficulty.

Gossamer Chains [Epic]
Becoming consciously aware of your presence requires a great amount of mental extertion.
Prerequisites: Ephemeral Presence II
Benefits: Whenever a target of your ephemeral presence class feature witnesses you taking a threatening action, that creature must make a Will Save (DC 20 + Warden of Faerie level + Cha modifier -1 per previous save) to break free from the effect. If the threatening action was directed at that target, he or she gains a +4 bonus to the saving throw.

Fey Mischief [Epic]
You may call forth the fey to assist you in place of nameless nature spirits.
Prerequisites: Unseen Mischief (1,000 spirits)
Benefits: In place of 10 spirits, you can summon a single fey with 1 HD using your unseen mischief class feature. You may summon fey of higher HD but for each additional HD, multiply the number of spirits that the fey replaced by x 10. If you possess the enhanced spirits and/or spellgift spirits feat, the benefits are gained by the summoned fey as well. Fey summoned in this way last even if observed but vanish the moment they are dealt even one point of damage. In all other ways, this ability functions like the unseen mischief class feature.

Leyline Network [Epic]
You are perfectly connected to the axes of nature, keeping you informed as to your surroundings
Prerequisites: Unseen Mischief (10,000 spirits)
Benefits: You are constantly aware of all information in your general area that a commune with nature effect would be able to provide you (Caster Level equals Warden of Faerie level + 20).

Unseen Mischief (Su): Even the most minor of fey and nature spirits bow before the might of a warden of faerie, granting him or her a network of unseen hands to perform work in his or her absence. Starting at 4th level, a warden of faerie may call upon up to ten minor spirits as a standard action, functioning like unseen servants with a few exceptions. First of all, the unseen servants can be created over any distance (even across planes of existence) as spirits in the desired place are merely roused to action. Secondly, the warden controls the servants telepathically and possesses a sensory link with each one. Lastly, each spirit lasts until slain, until dismissed as another standard action, until new spirits are summoned in this way, or until it would be perceived (whether through direct senses or magic) by a being other than the warden. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the maximum number of spirits that the warden can upon at once is increased by x 10.

Ephemeral Presence (Su): Even when while not walking the in between, others tend to pay less mind to a warden of faerie. Starting at 5th level, a warden of faerie can spend a move action to hide his or her presence from a single creature. Though that creature can observe the warden of faerie with his or her normal senses and will later remember the warden, the creature fails to react to the warden’s presence and is treated as flat-footed by the warden. This ability lasts on a target until that target witnesses the warden performing a threatening act, one minute has passed, or until the warden uses this ability again (whichever comes first). After a creature has been affected by this ability, it can’t be affected again until the warden spends 1 hour reestablishing connections to the surrounding leylines. At 10th level and every 5 levels afterwards, this ability can target an additional creature with each use and can affect creatures an additional time between recharges.

Notes and Explanation: While I’m pretty happy with how this class turned out, I’m a bit disappointed that it doesn’t really add too much to the design space of this project. Apart from incorporating the fey, this class allows for more subtle gish builds as well as giving another option for more natural warriors.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:37 PM

Wilderness Incarnate

For as long as sentient creatures have existed, they have fought to control their environments. Reshaping it through magic and technology alike, civilizations extend from the environments as testament to the victory of sentience over nature. For some individuals, however, the goal to be achieved is quite different. Far from trying to transform their environment, they seek to master it as it exists. This goal is often realized only late in life, when a creature reaches the very peak of their power. After exploring their chosen environment for ages and committing to memory all life to be found within it, something clicks quite suddenly into place. From that point on, those former wardens of the environment become incarnations of the world itself. Though each wilderness incarnate is only devoted to one element of the natural world, they remain a force to be reckoned with.

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a Wilderness Incarnate, a character must meet all of the following criteria
Skills: Knowledge (geography) 23 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 23 ranks
Special: Must have spent at least one year continually in this environment (entering structures within such an environment still counts).

Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (Nature), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Tumble.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Wilderness Incarnate
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Special|Spells

1st|
+1|Chosen Environment, Incarnate’s Domain 50 ft|--

2nd|
+2|Wilderness Defense 1/round|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|Bonus Feat|--

4th|
+4|Wilderness Guardian I|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5th|
+5|Bring Forth Calamity (5 rounds)|--

6th|
+6|Incarnate’s Domain 100 ft|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|Wilderness Defense 2/round|--

8th|
+8|Bonus Feat|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|Wilderness Guardian II|--

10th|
+10|Bring Forth Calamity (10 rounds)|+1 level of existing spellcasting class [/table]

Class Features: The following are class features of the wilderness incarnate.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a wilderness incarnate can still develop and cast epic spells using the conjure, energy, heal, life, transform, transport, summon and/or ward seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. A wilderness incarnate may use his or her ranks in Knowledge (geography) in place of his or her ranks in spellcraft when attempting to cast such a spell. If a wilderness incarnate doesn’t cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each even wilderness incarnate level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a wilderness incarnate, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Chosen Environment (Su): Every wilderness incarnate represents but one environment found on the material planes. At 1st level, a Wilderness Incarnate chooses from one of the seven options below, determining the benefits of the rests of his or her class features in the process. This decision can not later be changed.
Tangle Incarnate: A tangle incarnate represents the jungles and forests of the world, leaving no tracks in such environment, ignoring undergrowth with his or her movement, and gaining immunity to all forms of poison.
Spire Incarnate: A spire incarnate represents the hills and mountains of the world, leaving no tracks in such an environment, ignoring movement restrictions on moving uphill, and gaining immunity to altitude sickness and fatigue (but not exhaustion).
Mire Incarnate: A mire incarnate represents the swamps and bogs of the world, leaving no tracks in such an environment, walking atop stagnant water as if through water walk, and gaining immunity to mundane and supernatural disease.
Cavern Incarnate: A cavern incarnate represents the deep spaces of the world, whether natural or man-made, leaving no tracks in such an environment, ignoring movment restrictions on moving across rubble, and gaining blindsight out to 100 feet.
Wasteland Incarnate: A wasteland Incarnate represents the warm and temperate deserts of the world and spaces suffering from intensive heat (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving no tracks in such an environment, gaining immunity to heat stroke, sunburn, and the effects of hot weather, ignoring movement restrictions on moving across sand, and no longer needing to drink.
Frostfell Incarnate: A frostfell incarnate represents the tundras of the world and spaces suffering from intensive cold (under 0 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving no tracks in such an environment, gaining immunity to hypothermia, frostbite, and the effects of cold weather, ignoring movement restrictions for moving across snow, moving across ice with no chance of slipping or breaking through accidentally, and no longer needing to drink.
Savannah Incarnate: A savannah incarnate represents the natural fields and grasslands of the world, leaving no tracks in such an environment, losing all scent in such an environment, and gainin hide in plain sight in such an environment, and automatically succeeding on all Constitution checks made to continue a forced march or run.
Aqueous Incarnate: An aqueous incarnate represents the oceans, lakes, and similar bodies of water in the world, acting as if under freedom of movement and water breathing effects while fully submerged in water.

Incarnate’s Domain (Su): Starting at 1st level, a wilderness incarnate carries around an aura that imitates the the effect of his or her chosen terrain. This aura extends out to 50 feet at 1st level and this range is multiplied by x10 at 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards. The wilderness incarnate may suppress or reactivate this aura as a swift action. Similarly, the wilderness incarnate may shrink or enlarge the range of this aura (within its normal limits)as a swift action. The effects of this aura depend on the type of terrain the wilderness incarnate is attuned to but none of these auras alter manmade structures or objects, merely altering the natural terrain around it. If the auras of two or more wilderness incarnates overlaps, each wilderness incarnate must make opposed class level checks. The aura of those with higher results suppress the aura of all those with lower results for the next 24 hours.
Tangle Domain: Trees, grasses, bushes and more raise up out of a newly fertilized ground, vanishing the moment that these plants leave range. The wilderness incarnate possesses no say in the actual layout of the forest but it restricts the range of vision as a dense forest would, the entire floor is made up of light undergrowth, and survival checks made to forage for food within range gain a +20 bonus. This overgrowth covers even bodies of water (or portions of larger ones that enter this area) and never risk sinking in such a body of water. Any manmade structure within range takes 1d10 damage/class level the first time it enters this aura every 24 hour period.
Spire Domain: The ground grows bumpy and jagged at places as the world transforms into a hilly and nearly mountainous environment. Even if no overall change in elevation is desired, the area is filled with long, gentle hills and short mountainous outgrowths. The wilderness incarnate may choose to increase or decrease the elevation of an area smaller than their domain (centered on themselves) once per round as a swift action but cannot create slopes greater than 45 degrees in this way. This terrain restricts the range of vision as rugged hills would. Furthermore, all creatures are treated as being 10,000 feet higher for the purposes of altitude sickness and all squares have their slopes increased by one degree with natural flat surfaces becoming gentle slopes, gentle slopes becoming steep slopes, and steep slopes becoming sheer cliffs that must be climbed. This terrain covers even bodies of water (or portions of larger ones that enter this area) with a stone shell 5 feet thick and never risks sinking in such a body of water. Manmade structures within range are not adversely affected by this domain unless wheeled or otherwise inclined to travel downhill. When a square leaves the range of this aura, it returns to its normal elevation, doing no harm to anything or anyone atop of it.
Mire Incarnate: The ground becomes covered in a few feet of stagnant water (salt or freshwater at the incarnate’s option) that refuses to leak from the area as a few swamp- and marsh-dwelling plants raise up to join the flora of the environment. This area restricts the range of vision as a swamp would, is covered in shallow bog, and requires other creatures not native to marshes to make a Fortitude save every day (DC 20 + Class level + Wis modifier) or take 1d4 points of both Strength and Dexterity damage (creatures with immunity against disease are immune to this effect). Lakes and smaller bodies of water are undisturbed by this aura but the surface of larger bodies of water such as oceans is replaced with a thick layer of mud five feet thick extending to the outer extend of the incarnate’s aura (which is itself covered with a few feet of stagnant water as normal). Manmade structures within range suffer normally from flooding and may sleep a bit into the mud, remaining sunk even after the structure as left the area.
Cavern Domain: The area is covered with a thick ceiling of unworked stone (1 foot/class level) 50 feet up that floats unsupported above the ground, plunging the area below it into darkness as the ground is converted into stonework itself. This area is filled with magical darkness that normal darkvision and mundane light sources can’t pierce. Furthermore, the entire floor is covered in light rubble. Lakes and smaller bodies of water are undisturbed by this aura but the surface of larger bodies of water such as oceans is replaced with a thick layer of stone (5 feet thick) extending to the outer extend of the incarnate’s aura. Manmade structures within range are unaffected as the “ceiling” to the cavern bends and climbs over the top of even the tallest structure.
Wasteland Domain: The area has its temperature increased by two categories (DMG pg 303-304). If the temperature. If it is increased to at least severe heat, all natural sources water within range are reduced to half of their normal levels as water evaporates and all mundane plants within range not suited for living in deserts die (these effects are not reversed when the incarnate leaves) and the ground in the area is covered in sand like a desert. This area restricts the limit of sight as a desert with sand dunes would and is covered in sand. Manmade structures may be partially buried in the newly created sand (which moves along with the incarnate as if carried by a sandstorm) but otherwise are unaffected.
Frostfell Domain: The area has its temperature decreased by two categories (DMG pg 303-304). If the temperature. If it is decreased to at least severe cold, all natural sources water within range freeze and snow starts falling across the area at all times, restricting vision (and motion if it piles up) as normal. Manmade structures may be partially or entirely buried in snow but otherwise are remain unaffected.
Savannah Domain: Tall wild grasses grow up from the fertile ground as the ground grows fertile and the ground flattens out in the area of this aura. This area restricts the limit of sight to 1d6 x 5 feet without the aid of elevation due to the grasses. Furthermore, all Survival checks made to find food in the area gain a +10 bonus and the temperature in the area moves one category (DMG pg 303-304) less extreme (unless already temperate). Lakes and smaller bodies of water are undisturbed by this aura but the surface of larger bodies of water such as oceans is replaced with a thick layer of earth (5 feet thick) extending to the outer extend of the incarnate’s aura. Manmade structures are unaffected by this aura.
Aqueous Domain: The ground within the area of this aura is covered in 1,000 feet of water (either fresh or salty, depending on incarnate's wishes) which magically fails to spill from the area. This area restricts the limit of sight to 2d6 x 100 feet above water and to 4d8 x 10 feet underwater. Creatures and Manmade structures may take damage from moisture and pressure but the movement of this area does not risk moving or disturbing the location of objects.

Wilderness Defense (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a wilderness incarnate can call upon his or her environment to protect him or herself in combat. Once per round, plus one additional time per round at 7th level and every 5 levels afterwards, a wilderness incarnate may use the ability specific to his or her chosen environment. This ability may be used even outside of the chosen environment, however.
Arboreal Barrier: A tangle incarnate may cause a tree between 5 and 15 feet wide and between 10 and 100 feet tall to raise up from the ground anywhere within your line of sight. This tree grants cover if used in response to an attack and all adjacent squares are filled with light undergrowth (or heavy undergrowth if already filled with light undergrowth). If the tree is raised up under a creature, that creature must make a Reflex save (DC 20 + Class level + Wisdom modifier) or be raised harmlessly to the top of the tree and end its movement immediately (if applicable). This effect is permanent.
Shaking Slopes: A spire incarnate can have the earth shift and stir beneath a creature’s feet, possibly trapping it within a fissure. One target that the wilderness incarnate possesses a line of sight with has his or her speed halved for 1 round, can’t run or charge, and gains a 50% miss chance with all ranged attacks as the target can’t aim. Unless that target succeeds on a Reflex save (DC 20 + Class level + Wisdom modifier), he or she is also knocked prone. If this saving throw is failed by at least 5 points, the target is instead trapped within a fissure in the ground, immobilizing the target until he or she frees him or herself as a full-round action. This has no effect on creatures not standing on the ground
Marshy Mist: A mire incarnate can create a foul and slightly poisonous mist raise up from the ground when needed. The incarnate creates a cloud of mist 10 feet in diameter anywhere within his or her line of sight. This fog obscures sight as mundane fog (true seeing fails to pierce through it) and functions as a stinking cloud effect (Fortitude DC 20 + Class level + Wisdom modifier). The mist lasts for 5 rounds before fading away on its own but can be blown away faster by winds as a fog cloud.
Cavernous Echoes: A cavern incarnate can use echoes to create the illusion of creatures for those not relying on sight. You may choose any creature with which you possess a line of effect and whose location you are aware of and move their apparent location by up to 100 feet for the purposes of tremorsense, blindsense, blindsight, and listen checks. Alternately, the incarnate can fabricate the echo of a roughly humanoid shape or shapeless mass anywhere within 100 feet of him or herself. These fabricated or distorted echoes only last for 2 rounds.
Wasteland Wind: A wasteland incarnate can call upon strong winds to blow creatures away. The incarnate creates a windstorm-force wind in a 50-foot line anywhere within his or her line of sight, extinguishing flames, disrupting ranged attacks, and affecting creatures as normal. Furthermore, each creature in this line must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Class level + Wisdom modifier) or be blinded for 1 round. This gust of wind is instantaneous in duration.
Frostfell Barrage: A frostfell incarnate can prevent creatures from concentrating by focusing a barrage of precipitation on the target. The incarnate chooses a target within his or her line of sight. That creatures and all creatures in adjacent squares require Concentration checks (DC 30 + Class level + Wisdom modifier) in order to cast spells or take other actions requiring concentration. This barrage lasts for one round, during which time creatures in affected squares take twice the normal penalties for being in snow. All affected squares are filled with heavy snow (DMG, p94).
Predator’s Ploy: a savannah incarnate can synchronize him or herself with the hunting techniques of those who live in the tall grasses, allowing him or herself along with his or her allies to appear and vanish without a trace. A savannah incarnate may select a creature with which he or she possesses a line of sight and who he or she knows the location of. If that creature does not possess cover or concealment from one or more enemies, it may immediately move up to its speed so long as it ends this movement in a square where it would possess cover or concealment from all enemies. If such a creature already possesses cover or concealment from all of its enemies, it may instead teleport up to 100 feet into another square where it would possess such cover or concealment.
Standing Wave/Strong Current: An aqueous incarnate possesses two different defenses depending on whether he or she is in or out of water. If out of the water, the incarnate selects one creature within his or her line of sight and conjures forth a standing wave of water that moves it up to 60 feet in any direction upon the surface that this wave travels or until it hits an obstacle like another creature, whichever comes first. This movement can be halved with a Successful Reflex save (DC 20 + Class Level + Wis modifier). If within a body of water, the incarnate instead creates a line up to 15 feet wide and up to 60 feet wide so long as it remains entirely within one body of water. All creatures in this area are pushed 1d6 x 10 feet in one direction down the line of the incarnate’s choice or until it hits an obstacle like another creature, whichever comes first. This movement can be halved with a Successful Swim check (DC 30 + Class level + Wis modifier)

Bonus Feats: At 3rd level and every 5 levels afterwards, a wilderness incarnate can select a single bonus feat from the following list: Armor Skin, Cavernous Weaponry*, Cragtop Weaponry*, Damage Reduction, Disruptive Echoes*, Drowning Surge*, Energy Resistance, Epic Endurance, Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Speed, Epic Toughness, Extended Lifespan, Fast Healing, Flatland Weaponry*, Frostfell Weaponry*, Frostfell Hailstorm*, Hellwind Scourge*, Killing Mist*, Oceanic Weaponry*, Perfect Health, Predator’s Ambush*, Timberfall Offense*, Trembling Earth*, Wasteland Weaponry*, Wetland Weaponry*, Woodland Weaponry*

New Feats

Killing Mist [Epic]
You can cause localized earthquakes in your surroundings.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (marshy mist) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your marshy mist, you may use particularly virulent poison in the mist, imitating a stationary cloudkill (Save DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) occupying the same space as the marshy mist for its full duration. This ability is penetrating but you are unaffected by it.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your marshy mist. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and any Constitution damage dealt by the cloudkill effect gains a +1 bonus (before halving on a successful save, if applicable).

Disruptive Echoes [Epic]
The vibrations you create wreak havoc on the senses of others.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (Cavernous Echoes) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your cavernous echoes, you may simultaneously choose one target who you possess a line of effect with and whose location you are aware of. That target must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) or lose all nonvisual senses for 1 round and become nauseated for the same duration.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your cavernous echoes. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and your target takes a stacking 4d6 points of sonic damage if it fails its Fortitude save.

Hellwind Scourge [Epic]
The winds you call forth burn like the hottest of fires.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (wasteland wind) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your wasteland wind, you may choose to deal 4d6 fire damage to all creatures in the area and 4d6 damage from flames so hot that they ignore fire resistance and immunity to fire.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your wasteland wind. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and the amount of fire damage and untyped damage you deal are both increased by +1d6.

Frostfell Hailstorm [Epic]
The hail that you create bludgeons targets and renders them numb
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (frostfell barrage) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your frostfell barrage, you may deal 4d6 bludgeoning damage and 1d6 Dexterity damage to all creatures in affected squares. With a successful Fortitude save (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier), the bludgeoning damage is halves and the Dexterity damage is negated. All all damage dealt to the DC of concentration checks your frostfell barrage ability requires targets to make. You are unaffected by this ability.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your frostfell barrage. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round, you deal an additional +1d6 bludgeoning damage with this ability, and any Dexterity damage dealt gains a +1 bonus.

Predator’s Ambush [Epic]
You allow your allies to move and attack in the blink of an eye.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (predator’s ploy) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your predator’s ploy, you may allow your target to make a single attack at his or her highest attack bonus at the end of the move action or teleportation.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your predator’s ploy. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and the target deals an additional +2d6 damage with the attack if it was made against a flat-footed foe.

Drowning Surge [Epic]
The water you manipulate attempts to drown your target.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (standing wave/strong current) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your standing wave or strong current, you may partially drown an affected creature, forcing it to make a Constitution check with a -4 penalty to avoid drowning (DC calculated as normal). The penalty to Constitution checks made to avoid drowning remains but each standard action spend coughing up water reduces the penalty by 2. So long as any penalty remains, the target is fatigued (no save). Creatures that don’t breathe are immune to this effect.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your shaking slopes. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and the initial penalty increases by -2.

Trembling Earth [Epic]
You can cause localized earthquakes in your surroundings.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (shaking slopes) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your shaking slopes, you may simultaneously start an earthquake within a 40-foot radius of the target. The Reflex save DCs are increased by your Wilderness Incarnate level. You are unaffected by this ability even if you are in range.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your shaking slopes. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and the radius of the effect increases by 20 feet.

Timberfall Offense [Epic]
You can collapse the natural barriers that you create, harming those in its path.
Prerequisites: Wilderness Defense (arboreal barrier) 2/round
Benefits: Once per round, when you use your arboreal barrier, you may instantly cause the barrier to collapse in the direction of your choice. All creatures occupying the arc that the barrier falls through must make a Reflex save (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) or take 10d6 bludgeoning damage. All creatures caught on top of the tree instead take appropriate falling damage.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times per round that you can use your arboreal barrier. Each time this feat is selected beyond the first, you may use this ability an additional time per round and all of the damage dealt by this feat increases by +2d6.

Woodland Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the woodlands you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (tangle incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Sharding weaponry: sharp shards of wood erupt from your weapon whenever you score a hit, inflicting a stacking -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for 1 round. Whenever you score a critical hit, the penalty instead lasts until the shards are removed with a full-round action and a successful Heal check (DC 30 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier).
Entangling weaponry: Strong vines and roots wrap around your weaponry, allowing your weapon to aid you in your attempts to grapple others. You add your wilderness incarnate level to grapple checks and may start a grapple without provoking attacks of opportunity whenever you make a successful attack. Finally, you may utilize any form of weaponry while grappling other than siege weaponry.
Poisoned weaponry: Select one form of injury poison with a cost up to 25,000 gp per dose. Each successful weapon attack you make spreads that poison to the target. This poison is treated as a penetrating ability and you possess no risk of poisoning yourself with it. Increase the save DC by your wilderness incarnate level.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Cragtop Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the mountains you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (spire incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Metallic weaponry: Your weaponry is filled with veins of every form of metal imagineable while you wield it. You ignore any damage reduction overcome by weapons made of specific materials and ignore hardness of up to 20 with your weapon attacks.
Weighty weaponry: Your weaponry acts far heavier than it is, capable of delivering tremendous blows. Your weapon deals damage as if two size categories larger and whenever you make a successful weapon attack, you may make a bulrush check against the target without provoking attacks of opportunity and without spending any additional action.
Sturdy weaponry: Your weaponry inherits the incredible stability and durability of the mountains, becoming indestructible. So long as you live, weaponry you hold is immune to damage from any source and is immune to effects that would destroy or rust it. You can’t be disarmed.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Wetland Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the wetlands you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (mire incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Sickening weaponry: Your weaponry exudes liquid filth, coating itself in disease. Select one form of disease that the contagion spell can inflict upon a target. Each successful weapon attack you make spreads that disease to the target. This disease is treated as a penetrating ability and you possess no risk of infectinging yourself with it. The incubation period is lowered to 1 minute and the save DC is increased by your wilderness incarnate level. Attempting to remove such a disease magically requires a DC 20 + Wilderness incarnate + Wis modifier caster level check.
Mooring weaponry: Your weaponry gets stuck within your target, continually harming them. When you make a successful attack, you may choose to lodge the weapon in the target, preventing you from making further attacks using that weaponry, but dealing the target weapon damage as if succeffully attacked once per round while it remains. The weapon is kept in place by a thick tar-like substance, requiring a Strength check (DC 20 + 1/2 Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) to remove as a full-round action. You may remove such weaponry from the wound without a Strength check and may choose not to lodge weaponry in a target when you make a successful attack.
Destabilizing weaponry: Your weaponry can disrupt the form of your target, quickly reducing them into a pile of ooze. Whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon attack, the target is affected as if by a Chaos Beast’s corporeal instability (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier, MM p.33). If a target’s Wisdom score is reduced to 0, it is reduced to a lifeless mass of ooze.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Cavernous Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the woodlands you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (cavern incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Invisible weaponry: Your weaponry is impossible to see, allowing you to take your enemies by surprise with it. Enemies who can’t see through invisibility and who haven’t been hit by any of your weapon attacks in the current encounter are treated as flat-footed against your attack.
Rubble-spraying weaponry: Each swipe or stab of your weapon releases a shower of rubble that can distract foes. You can make a feint attempt as a free action before any attack or full-attack action and if the bluff check passes the target’s AC, they take 4d4 points of bludgeoning damage.
Echoing Weaponry: Each swipe of your weapon releases echoes that create the audio impression of dangers surrounding the target. Whenever you make a successful weapon attack, the target takes 2d6 points of sonic damage and is treated as flanked for 1 round. Whenever you make a successful critical hit with a weapon attack, the target takes 4d6 points of sonic damage and is treated as flanked until the end of the encounter. Deaf creatures are immune to this effect.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Oceanic Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the waters you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (aquatic incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Fluid weapon: Your weapon ripples and reshapes itself as if made out of water, allowing for strikes that would otherwise seem impossible. Your reach with melee weapon attacks increases by +10 feet.
Flowing weaponry: Your weapon flows around most barriers, penetrating most forms of armor to hit what rests below. All weapon attacks you make are treated as touch attacks.
Drowning weaponry: Your weaponry is as cruel and capricious as the sea, drowning all that it hits. Each successful weapon attack you make against a creature takes away its ability to breathe (even if it normally breathes water) for 1 round. Multiple hits extend the duration for 1 round per hit and targets of this ability are unable to hold their breaths, though creatures who need not breath are unaffected.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Wasteland Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the wastelands you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (wasteland incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Cauterizing weaponry: Your weaponry burns with such heat that every wound inflicted with it is instantly cauterized and scarred. Any damage you deal with a weapon attack can’t be healed naturally, even through fast healing or regeneration. Magical healing still functions, however.
Storming weaponry: With each attack of your weaponry, you may choose to have the weapon explode into a small dust storm of wrath, each particle carrying the force of the original attack and striking creatures around the target before reforming. With each weapon attack, you may choose to make the attack against all enemies within 5 feet of your target instead of just against your target.
Dessicating weaponry: With each attack of your weaponry, you may choose to sap the strength of your target. Each successful weapon attack you make against a creature imposes a stacking -2 penalty to Strength (minimum 1). This penalty is reduced by -2 each round spent imbibing potable fluids or spend at least half-submerges in such a fluid.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Frostfell Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the frigid lands you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (frostfell incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Glaring Weaponry: Your weapon reflects even the dimmest of light, focusing it in a manner that could blind your targets. Whenever you make a weapon attack against creature, that creature must make a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) or be blinded for 1 round. This ability does not function in darkness.
Storming Weaponry: At your command, your weaponry can break into a localized storm of tiny frozen flakes much like hailstones. Whenever you make a weapon attack, you may choose to automatically hit with your attack, although the opponent may make a Reflex save (DC 20 + Wilderness Incarnate level + Wis modifier) to halve the damage and negate any additional effects from the attack.
Freezing Weaponry: Even if your targets are immune to damage from the cold, you can slowly freeze your targets in place. Whenever you make a successful weapon attack against a corporeal creature, it takes a -2 penalty to its Dexterity for 5 rounds (minimum 0). If its dexterity is reduced to 0 in this way, it freezes in place, paralyzed, until the Dexterity recovers.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Flatland Weaponry [Epic]
Your weaponry is enhanced by the plains you call upon for power.
Prerequisites: Chosen Environment (savannah incarnate)
Benefits: Upon taking this feat, you may select from among three options:
Pouncing weaponry: emulating the prowess of wild cats and similar beasts, your weaponry can unleash a series of blows even at the end of a charge, granting you the pounce ability.
Ambushing weaponry: You may draw your weaponry as a free action even if you lack the quick draw feat. During a surprise round, you may make a trip, bull rush, overrun, disarm, sunder, or grapple attempt against any creature you successfully hit as a free action. This attempt provokes no attacks of opportunity and adds your wilderness incarnate level to all rolls you make to initiate the maneuver.
Windswept weaponry: Like the frequent storms that blow across the plains, the blows of your weaponry can be carried on even the lightest of breezes. You may make weapon attacks against any creature you possess a line of sight with who doesn’t possess cover or concealment, regardless of the distance between you two. This ability does not increase your threatened area, however.
Special: You may select this feat up to three times, selecting a different option each time.

Wilderness Guardians (Su): Starting at 4th level, a wilderness incarnate can create personal guardians out of the very landscape that he or she represents. To form such a guardian, the incarnate must spend 24 hours of work in his or her chosen landscape (or within his or her active incarnate’s domain class feature). The wilderness incarnate selects one creature native to his or her chosen landscape with equal or fewer HD than him or herself and creates a copy of it from the natural elements of the environment. The copy is a mindless construct with no spell-like abilities or supernatural means of attack but otherwise functions normally. Creatures native to all environments may not be made into guardians in this way. A wilderness incarnate may only possess one wilderness guardian at 4th level and one additional guardian at 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards.

Bring Forth Calamity (Su): Starting at 5th level, once per encounter, a wilderness incarnate may spend a standard action to bring forth a calamity specific to the form of landscape he or she represents. This calamity remains so long as the wilderness incarnate spends a swift action to maintain it each round, up to a maximum of 5 rounds at 5th level and an additional 5 rounds every 5 levels afterwards.
Verdant Surge: A tangle incarnate can create and enlarge plants within a 100 ft./class level radius centered on him or herself. All squares on the ground are filled with heavy undergrowth and the plants attempt to grapple all other creature within 100 feet of the ground each round, using an attack bonus equal to his or her class level + 20 and gaining a bonus to grapple checks equal to +40 + his or her class level. Each round that a creature remains pinned by these plants, it must make a Fortitude save (DC 20 + class level + Wis modifier), instantly dying with a failed save.
Volcanic Flow: A spire incarnate can make magma leak up from the very ground within a 100 ft./level radius centered on him or herself The magma raises one foot higher each round that it remains. So hot is this magma that it ignores fire resistance and deals half damage to creatures with immunity to fire. All attack rolls madeagainst creatures within 10 feet of the magma gain a 50% miss chance as the air seems to ripple around them. The spire incarnate is immune to the damage he or she would otherwise take from this magma.
Deadly Miasma: A mire incarnate can release a thick mist that displaces all air in the area and that corrodes and calcifies lungs. Creatures other than the incarnate within 100 feet/class level must hold their breaths if they breathe and must succeed on a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Class level + Wis modifier) each round that they remain within range or take a -5 penalty to all Constitution checks for 1 hour. This effect permeates both air and water.
Ruinous Collapse: A cavern incarnate can cause a seemingly constant stream of boulders, stalactites, and other bits of stone to rain down from above. Each round, all other creatures within 100 feet/class level of the incarnate take 10d6 damage from collapsing rubble and are buried as if in a cave-in. A successful Reflex save (DC 20 + Class level + Wis modifier) halves the damage and negates the burying. Furthermore, the ground is covered in heavy rubble and the area within 10 feet of the ground is covered in clouds of debris that function as fog.
Center of the Sun: A wasteland incarnate can call forth the full heat of the greatest wastelands across the multiverse down on others. All darkness within a 100 feet/class level radius of the incarnate, whether natural or magical, is replaced with brilliant light unless it comes from an epic source, an artifact, or the magic of a deity. This light is treated as daylight for all purposes but all creatures who can see this light (even if they aren’t within range) must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 20 + Class Level + Wisdom modifier) or become blinded for 1 round by the intensity of the light. All corporeal creatures without immunity to fire must make an additional Fortitutde save against the same DC or take a stacking -1 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for 24 hours as their skin boils in the heat of the area. Lastly, any creature who takes a full round action within the area is fatigued immediately afterwards (or is exhausted if already fatigued).
Winter Night: A frostfell incarnate can call upon those regions that rarely see the light of day to bring forth the true wrath of the frostfell. All light within a 100 feet/class level radius of the incarnate, whether natural or magical, is snuffed out unless it comes from an epic source, an artifact, or the magic of a deity. Severe winds howl through the area, causing all listen checks made in the area to fail. Lastly, hailstones the size of human fists fly through the area, inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage/class level (Half with a DC 20 + Class Level + Wisdom modifier Reflex save) to each creature within range each round. The incarnate ignores all of these effects.
Perfect Storm: A savannah incarnate can create a storm of unrivalled proportions. This ability functions much as a storm of vengeance spell centered on the incarnate that functions within a 100 ft/class level radius of him or herself except that all effects (thunder, acid, lightning, hail, rain and winds) persist every single round this ability continues. Furthermore, a tornado rests in the center of this storm at all times with the incarnate in its eye. The incarnate is not subjected to the effects of this ability. All save DCs for this ability equal 20 + Class Level + Wisdom modifier.
Savage Deluge: An aquatic incarnate can call forth great floods from out of nowhere or stir up great bodies of water. Any open squares within 100 feet/class level of the incarnate that are filled with air become filled with water and all water within that range rages and roils at random. Creatures other than the incarnate caught in the area require Swim checks (DC 30 + Class Level + Wis modifier) to move meaningfully. If a creature does not make such a successful check during his or her action, it is instead batted 1d4 x 5 feet in a random direction and takes 5d6 points of nonlethal damage. The waters created in this way are frothing and hard to see through, limiting range of sight to 1d6 x 5 feet.

Notes and Explanation:
Some of you out there may be wondering what sort of weirdo would want control over a single form of landscape. Truth be told, this class was designed for use in specific types of campaigns. If a campaign is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or in a dune-like world, being the lord of the desert seems like a pretty big goal to aspire to. If you are in an aquatic campaign, rulling the ocean becomes totally awesome. Though capable of functioning in more varied worlds, this class was designed for campaigns focused on one type of environment).

Also, I’d like to apologize for the relative dearth of feats for each individual archetype here. The simple truth is that producing feats for this thing nearly made me give up this project altogether and at over ten pages in length, this thing is already my longest class.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-26, 10:42 PM

Explanations and Arguments

But Nobody Plays at Epic Levels…
This just plain isn’t true. I’ve heard about epic and even high epic campaigns multiple times on this forum and recruitment for epic games in the looking for players board isn’t too rare. A closer to true statement may be that nobody REACHES epic levels. The vast majority of the times, games either start at epic levels, start at high levels but are essentially one-shots, or start at low levels and end or die out before reaching epic levels. Even so, saying that nobody plays at epic levels just isn’t true.

Didn’t You Forget to Revise the Union Sentinel? (Warning: Contains Vitriol) No, I didn’t “forget”. I personally hate that class (and the entire concept of Union for that matter) and saw no point in creating a revision for an epic PrC specifically intended for NPCs. The entire concept behind union that epic level characters suddenly discover entire communities where they are still the “small fish in a big pond” kind of annoys me and the existence of an EPIC LEVEL PRESTIGE CLASS intended for average workers of that community’s police force frankly makes me nerdrage. Between the extreme flavor ties to union and the questionable class design, I decided to ditch the class altogether. If one of your characters wants to be an epic lawman, the flawless enforcer was created as a replacement.

Why BAB Continues Into Epic Levels (and Why Saving Throws are Untouched)
I can understand perfectly well why saving throws were regularized at epic levels. If the gap between good and bad saves continued growing to 20 points or higher, it would be impossible to throw a DC at the group that would challenge those with high saves without (more-or-less) automatically punishing those with bad saves.

With BAB, however, things are a little bit different. For one thing, everyone starts advancing at the slowest rate possible (unlike saving throws, which advance at the highest rate possible) while enemy ACs continue climbing. For another thing, while epic casting classes gain more caster levels, nothing sets an epic martial class apart other than a higher HD (and hp often means little at high levels). Third, while you could argue that a growing gap would prevent the lower attackers from hitting AC as some point, you have to keep in mind that when low-BAB classes attack, they typically target touch AC (which is far lower) or saving throws. For these reasons, I decided to include both good and bad advancements for BAB. As medium-BAB classes typically rely on hitting normal AC as well, however, they are upped to full BAB to prevent that gap from growing harmfully large.

Epic Spells for Everyone: An Explanation
One of the things that many people may notice about these classes is that every single one of them (even the straightforward martial classes) gain access to epic spells. One may wonder why this is. I can produce both a crunchy and a fluffy answer to this conundrum.

fluff: At high epic levels, your Truespeak DC raises too high for any reasonable truenamer to pronounce as the multiverse takes greater interest in you and many DMs that I’ve met consider giving out divine ranks through merit alone. Granting epic spells in this way is an extension of “ascending through raw might”. Rather than representing arcane formulas or prayers, these epic spells can represent one’s influence over the multiverse gained through sheer willpower or practice. As more martial classes gain the ability to deliver these “spells” through attacks and use BAB in place of spellcraft ranks (allowing them to shatter magic or sunder continents with attacks without creating a new “magic system” specifically for them), I’m not seeing where many complaints would come from.

Crunch: People often say that spellcasting > everything else. When they say it, they are more or less serious. To that, I would like to make an amendment. Epic spellcasting > everything else. When you have an epic spellcaster on the team, someone who could destroy or remake planes of existence or summon forth fiendish or celestial armies with enough time and resources, you really aren’t worth carrying around and splitting loot with unless you can do the same to at least some extent. While the full casting PrCs get wider access to epic spells, therefore, it seemed only right to grant some degree of access to everyone.

Alternate Magic Systems?One request I’d otherwise expect to get within one page of responses is a class that deals with an alternate magic system such as incarnum, shadow magic, psionics, and so forth. There is a bit of a reason why I didn’t do this.

Namely, I don’t think that those particular systems need individual epic advancements for their abilities. When I look at epic spellcasting, I feel that I’m instead looking at epic magic in general. In the various seeds, we get all of the fundamental building blocks to the universe and can rearrange them for any effect you can think of. If I created epic advancement for incarnum or psionics, it would involve a lot of effort and would result in a re-flavored but redundant system letting you get at those same fundamental building blocks of existence in other ways (otherwise, the ability would end up weak in the long run like the epic vestiges produced late in Dragon’s run). In other words, whether you achieve epic power through your mind or through truenames, the system would need to be functionally similar to epic spellcasting or risk becoming broken (if better) or ultimately useless (if worse). As most of the difference would be in fluff, it seems far easier to call epic spellcasting epic magic for most purposes.

With that said, I suppose that I could technically make epic classes for these alternate systems (even if not epic progressions for their magic). I don’t have any real idea how to do so, however.

4 Easy Steps to More Balanced Epic Spells:
Working through these prestige classes, I had a lot of time to think over epic mechanics like epic spellcasting and how such concepts break. Though I don’t have a miracle cure for epic spells still being able to do everything, I did come up with 4 simple steps that seem to eliminate the worst of epic spellcasting cheese without reworking the entire system.

Step 1: For the purpose of epic spell development (and no other purpose), mitigating factors add to the spellcraft DC instead of subtracting from it.

Step 2: For the purpose of epic spell development (and no other purpose), multiply any ad hoc additions to the spellcraft DCs by x 10.

Step 3: Mitigating factors can’t reduce the spellcraft DC below one half of its normal total.

Step 4: Epic spells can never be inscribed on stone tablets (that factor no longer exists).

The reasoning: Step 1 eliminates the timeless problem of large rituals with thousands of casters allowing a spellcaster to get any spell effect of any power for no cost. As lowered spellcraft DCs increases the array of spell effects possible, doing so should increase the price rather than lowering it.

Step 2 actively discourages players from using epic seeds in ways that they weren’t meant to be used and though epic spellcasting still allows for anything, it makes staying strictly to the effects of seeds preferable to straying from the path.

Between steps 1 and 2, the actual cost invested in epic spells actually becomes notable even to epic level characters. Just learning eclipse, for example, suddenly costs around 2,000,000 gp, which is a sizeable chunk of your money throughout lower epic levels (except to those mages who choose to become “economancers”).

Step 3 goes even further than steps 1 and 2 and makes it so that gaining more powerful spell effects (at least to some extent) relies on becoming more powerful rather than on roping more casters into your next gigantic ritual. Stopping storylines that involve stopping apocalyptic rituals before it’s too late (rituals that could just as easily hinge upon artifacts as they could with epic spells) seems like a small price to pay to stop this sort of insane abuse.

Step 4 stops casters from brainwashing other epic casters into developing spells for them that they could learn for free, which seems to be the last big obvious way to avoid paying for your own spell. Having a brainwashed servant with epic spells is useful, mind, but it’s still not yours.

Dealing with Divinations (New Feat):
One of the biggest challenges in making an epic level campaign is keeping a bit of mystery in there. If the group is competent and has access to divination spells, hiding things becomes pretty hard. If you fight back and use things like mind blank and mage’s private sanctum, however, you risk making someone’s area of specialization worthless. To deal with this, I present another new feat.

Cryptic Essence [Epic]
Divinations have a hard time getting a good look at you.
Benefit: Divination spells and effects used on you only reveal vague and cryptic information. Attempts to use contact other planes or commune and ask about you may result in riddles and prophecies instead of direct answers. Discern Location may reveal only the town that you are in and Scrying may only show a faint and blurry image of you. Even trying to read your thoughts with mind probe or detect thoughts may only succeed in getting the a whirlind stream of consciousness from you.

While this feat restricts the use of divination to some extent, a diviner may still be able to find out partial information from his or her divinations and work around it (and learn far more from non-epic associates who aren’t protected in this way).

Withstanding the Rocket Tag (New Feat):
Perhaps the most famous aspect of epic level combat is the notion of rocket tag. Wizards sling out insta-gib after insta-gib while martial characters ubercharge or toss small moons at their targets. The fact that pretty much everything kills in one hit means that battles become very lethal and often quite short unless the DM inflates the scope of battles while underpowering the enemies to compensate. To help with that trend, I present another new feat.

Withstand Blow [Epic]
You are hard to get rid of.
Benefits: You gain immunity to death from massive damage.
Once per encounter, if you possess at least half of your maximum hit point total, you may negate any single source of damage or effect that would kill you, incapacitate you, or move you against your will. Instead, you gain 2 negative levels that last until the end of the encounter. These negative levels ignore immunities, can’t be healed until the end of the encounter, and don’t grant benefits to the undead.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it beyond the first, you can use it one additional time per encounter.

If you (as a DM) feel that the battles at epic level seem to fly by a bit too quickly, feel free to have enemies load up on this. If you want enemies to engage in rocket tag themselves, you might grant the above feat to every epic character. If you want to go more extreme, you can grant it every 2, 3, 4, or 5 levels above 20 as a bonus feat.

But it doesn’t seem Epic: A Rant:

Looking through these Epic PrCs, I imagine that a common sentiment among a large number of people will be that either certain abilities or entire classes don’t seem epic in any way. The point of this rant-slash-argument is to hopefully point out the reasons why this may be the case.

Problem 1: A Wizard can Do It: The biggest problem making Epic PrCs (and I’m guessing Epic Destinies) is that a wizard or other optimized tier 1 caster can already do pretty much anything by level 20. In fact, the concept that just about anything you would want to do by level 20 can be done seems firmly cemented into the mindset of D&D and many of its players. With that in mind, how would an Epic PrC be able to advance? The three methods that Wizards ran across when making the epic level handbook are A) give them more of the same, B) give them high-level abilities from other areas so that Epic PrCs are faster than multi-classing, and C) (at least in theory) allow players to defeat enemies of higher and higher Challenge Ratings. In case you can’t see the problem with this, it goes a little something like this…

Problem 2: Nothing New Can Ever Exist: Because of the way that Epic PrCs are expected to climb, it is almost impossible to give one of them abilities that don’t increase previous class features, rip apart bigger foes, or amount to high-level SLAs. If you try to give someone a unique ability, the mindset that everything should be available by level 20 kicks in and someone else ends up making a PrC or Feat or Spell that does the same thing, robbing from the epic-ness of the ability. I honestly don’t think that I’m exaggerating too much here. Even if you come up with extreme examples like a spell to create a new universe, someone out there will think that it would be better off as a 9th level spell with heavy XP costs and expensive material components so that their non-epic BBEG can use it. Though I found a small exception to this rule in abilities that mess with epic spells and 9th level spells, there aren’t any other exclusively high-level/epic mechanics to mess with. Even the most basic of arguments for an epic ability being epic doesn’t work due to the very medium of homebrew.

Problem 3: Canon, Homebrew, and Circular Logic: At a first glance, the process to making unique class features exclusively epic seems incredibly simple. If you create an ability that an Epic PrC has access to but that can’t be accomplished through other means, than the ability would tautologically be defined as an epic ability. If the original Epic PrCs actually had unique abilities, I think (but of course can’t know) that people would more or less accept those abilities as epic abilities as that’s how they appear in canon.

What I’m producing, however, is homebrew rather than canon. I have no more say over what should or shouldn’t be considered epic than you do and your non-epic feats and spells doing the same things as my epic PrCs are equally valid (possible issues of power creep aside). I can’t say that something is epic because nobody else has it as you can give it to everyone else with equal force. To protect what epic-ness these classes do possess, therefore, I feel compelled to make a request that I’ve never seen anyone on these boards make before (and I’m well aware of its limited effectualness)...

Please do not use the PrCs and feats provided above as a direct jump-off point for your own non-epic homebrew. While I can't hope to enforce this and don't wish to stifle your creativity, I can still ask you as one homebrewer to another (for my reasons, read the rant above).

Noxsis

2012-06-26, 11:02 PM

cant wait for the master of shadows. (i love shadow magic:smallbiggrin:) but some of the other sound good to.

Craft (Cheese)

2012-06-27, 01:49 AM

I've gotta say, you're not even finished posting all of this up yet and I'm already extremely impressed. *Love* the legendary dreadnought rework, and I'm quite eagerly awaiting to see how you mechanically implement the Abyssal Warlord and Godking classes (and normally I could care less about non-casters!).

Dante & Vergil

2012-06-27, 04:26 AM

I think my head exploded from all the awesome that just happened here! It happened so fast that my obliterated mind hasn't registered it yet!
Also, the reserved posts you have here, have you already finished the content they're holding places for, and just wanted to get the placeholders up quickly, or have you yet to do them?

Merchant

2012-06-27, 06:52 AM

This is not just metaphorically epic but it is literal as well.

Awesome work. I was missing your homebrew so much that I found myself reading your older stuff including your awesome Xenotheurge.

Which brings me to a question. Your Herald of the Space Spheres is themed around the Far Realms as far as I could tell. Will it be a Epic Prestige which most classes can enter depending on PrCing, feats, and skills, or might it be essential for it to hail from your Xenotheurgy? I'm sure either will be great but since you created Epic Truenamer and Shadow magic I thought you might include your own master piece- magic system as well.

I'll have to check again but was there a Pact Magic epic PrC? I remember a soul weaver but I'm not sure if it was more for a Spirit Shaman or not. If you are doing Pact then I just want to point out Xefas(?) homebrew where he/she takes feats that combine Vestiges for more versatility and just awesome Vestige-ness.

i have to say that I'm also looking for the GodKing. I just see him being the person who has every other Epic Prc by his side, ruling over them all.

Quoting Riley from National Treasure : Realms of Chaos 'Can I marry your brain?'

The Tygre

2012-06-27, 09:44 AM

http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/83f/2c1/c6b/resized/pinkie-pie-smile-meme-generator-our-god-is-an-awesome-god-9eb6ba.jpg

It... It's so beautiful.

I don't have words.

Should have sent a poet.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-27, 12:16 PM

And now... it is finally done. *collapses*

Starsign

2012-06-27, 12:20 PM

:smalleek:

The amount of work that is put into this is insane. Heck this could be a sourcebook and it'd fit in better than almost anything else I've seen. :smallbiggrin:

Shadow Lord

2012-06-27, 06:32 PM

Another great homebrew, Realms. If I somehow get the time, I'll do a comprehensive PEACH of this.

Morph Bark

2012-06-27, 07:25 PM

And now... it is finally done. *collapses*

*catches and puts to bed*

Easy now, champ. Even heroes gotta get their rest sometime.

Zaydos

2012-06-27, 07:42 PM

I have to admit I haven't had a chance to actually look over the classes yet, and I'm more than a little unsure on epic balance, but still have to say wow. Your introduction alone was enough to make me subscribe to the thread and your explanations and modifications were excellent (Epic Attack Bonuses had always bugged me but I never considered the long term problems for Medium BAB characters if you just continued BAB for example).

I'll have to look through the classes sometime soon.

Pennance

2012-06-28, 12:09 AM

True Arcanist: A veneficus optima gains a bonus to spellcraft checks equal to his or her class level x 5. As a full-round action, a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

This would have been a little clearer if you used a word like "emulate" instead of cast, where it's been made bold. Just because I couldn't figure out how that was supposed to be of use for a moment.

Quite a bit of excellence to digest, but figured I should toss out what I've noticed. All of...one case of ambiguous wording. Well done to you!

Xzoltar

2012-06-28, 05:16 AM

Implacable Retriever: Great overall, good to see they can use some Epic magic without too much investment. Think Uncanny tracker should give you a penalty if trying to track someone who have the ability to leave no trails, with a bonus so high you will succeed anyway, its just feel more "fair". The Quarry feature is really strong and any high level heroes should fear this, how does it interect with gods ? Learn Condition & Unceasing Hunter seem a bit weak for a epic feat. For Force cooperation you should write it if its a mind-affecting effect. Epic Avoidance also seem a little weak +2 Dodge bonus seem more appropriate, its a pretty standard fix to have dodge work against everyone and its a non-epic feat. If you try to discern the location of someone protected against this, but not to prevent it but to inflict damage on the person spying, does it affect the Retriever ? If he teleprot using To the source does it still trigger spell like Anticipate Teleportation and Teleportation rediection magic ?

Cosmic Decryer: Almost everything seem fine, so not a lot of comments here. I like that Cosmic Form give you "Mana Points" it help balance the thing much more than the ability did in the past. I think it could be nice to be able to take Paragon Summon many time and stack the use per day even if its a strong ability. Summoned Swarm is quite strong, however Superior Planar Sumonning increase in power with level and this feat dosent, so later I think it become less attractive. Think it would be nice to have Planar Dampening scale with level for the range of the spell like xft per Class level. The Descryer should also be able to Planeshift at the exact location he want and not randomly as the spell.

Divine Emissary: Everything seem fine and balanced here. I still think Smite does not provide a high enough bonus to damage non-epic, buts that's just me. Great Paladin/Blackguard PrC.

Infiltrator: The Perfect Infiltrator ability is bypassed by the Implacable Retriever. Its two Epic PrC opposed in goal and find that the Infiltrator is losing here on that ability. The Backstabber ability is really strong and with piercing it can disable most epic threat very fast, can comment without playtesting but I think even at 2 negative level instead of 1d6 this ability will still be strong. That's Something to test to see. I love Into the Background very useful non-combat ability. How does it interact with magic that search the mind, the memory is just not there ? Sense Onlookers pierce throught Magic Protection like non-detection ?

DeusMortuusEst

2012-06-28, 05:01 PM

To begin with I'd like to say that I'm deeply impressed, RoC. You might not post your homebrew as often as some, but when you post... Wow.

I've been reading through some (almost all now) of the classes and they all look good, I've noticed a few typos here and there (I think that the dervish refer to the dreadnought in one place for example) and when I got more time I'll try to compile a list if you'd be interested.

Sadly I'm not too good with handling balance at epic levels, but I like the way you give everyone epic magic, I can finally make a martial character who's not a gish and still usable at epic levels.

And lastly, if anyone is interested in playtesting these classes count me in as a player :smallbiggrin:

Milo v3

2012-06-29, 06:54 AM

I just read through every single one, and this is truly what Epic SHOULD have been. I want to play nearly every single PrC in this thread, after reading them.

And I found this thread while I was stating up an Epic Character.... :smallbiggrin:

Network

2012-06-29, 11:07 AM

Realms of chaos definitely makes some of the best homebrews I've ever seen. I won't use the fixes to epic spellcasting, but the rest is just fine.

I'm making my own campaign setting (in french), where epic characters are known to exist, and I came to a similar conclusion concerning immunities and piercing effects. Otherwise, Divinations and Death effects are useless at epic levels, and after all, that's just the way Searing spell is working.

DeusMortuusEst

2012-06-29, 11:52 AM

Unmage

True Counterspell (Su): Once per round, as a free action, an unmage can interfere with another creature as they attempt to cast a spell or spell-like ability. The unmage makes an opposed spellcraft check against the caster and if the unmage succeeds, the casting is foiled and the spell or spell slot is expended as normal. For every 5 points by which the unmage succeeds on this check, the caster may not cast spells or spell-like abilities for 1 round afterwards. This ability can be used once per encounter at 2nd level and an additional time per encounter every 5 levels afterwards.

There's no listed range for this, as written it can be used on anyone, anywhere, is this intended?

Veneficus Optima

Spontaneous Spell Knowledge [Epic]
You possess erratic and ever-shifting access to magic.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast 9th-level spells spontaneously, True Arcanist
Benefits: Select an arcane spell from any spell list. You add that spell to your list of spells known. As a swift action, you may sacrifice a spell slot to replace the chosen spell with another of that spell slot’s spell level or lower.

Is sacrifice a defined term in D&D? I first read it as if you loose this spell slot forever, but I suspect you mean that it's used as if you cast a spell from it.

Avalon®

2012-06-29, 12:04 PM

*Salutes RoC*

Congrats on another excellent project RoC! I can't wait to try things out.

*Starts hunting for a new Epic game*

Kobold-Bard

2012-06-29, 12:04 PM

1. Holy **** :smalleek:

2. HOLY ****!! :eek:

3. Still reading, so no useful comments atm, but goddamn, just had to subscribe.

4.
Behold the chosen; the class without flavor; the class that breaks just about all of my own rules. Behold the glory of its simplicity and weep.

I looked upon The King of Theurges, and I did indeed weep.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-29, 01:35 PM

Okay, time for some comments and corrections.

Xzoltar:

Implacable Retriever:

Rather than give uncanny tracker a static penalty, you now lose the insane bonus when tracking the untrackable (making untrackability more useful).
While quarry is powerful (and is intended to work against gods), it takes an hour to utilize each time and it only provides you with instantaneous information (making it a worthily powerful trick for teleporting casters who are foregoing the full casting classes but only useful for traditional rangers).
Both Learn Condition and Unceasing Hunter have received power boosts, though they are still not that impressive over all.
Force Cooperation is not mind-affecting (it's more about basic psychology) but only sentient creatures can be affected now.
While epic avoidance seems weak, I was balancing it against the equally lack-luster Armor Skin. While one grants a stacking +2 AC bonus that tons of things ignore, the other grants a +1 AC bonus that is far more reliable. If necessary, I'll put in a monklike "sixth sense" line in it to make it apply against flat-footed attacks (which it is already supposed to apply against, at least in my head). While balancing against a weaker feat seems weird, I chose to keep more basic feats around where the general ELH feats are.
Reworded Quarry so that it overcomes all divination wards/immunities rather than just immunities.
I specifically labeled back to the source as a teleportation effect to clarify what should and shouldn't affect it.

Cosmic Decryer:

As it's a strong ability, I think that I'll keep Paragon Summon where it is, though you can now get stacking uses of it.
Summon swarm now only halves the bonus from superior planar summoning.
Planar dampening now scales in range.
I originally didn't put precise planeshifting as it doesn't exist within the SRD (seriously, greater planeshift is a spell compendium spell) but I admit that it makes sense so that change has been made.

Infiltrator:

I added the "develop alias" feat so that paranoid or particularly wanted infiltrators can escape abilities like discern location or quarry. The wording is a bit weird, however, and any assistance there would be appreciated. :smallsmile:
Barring future playtesting, I think that I'll keep backstabber where it is for now. Enemy HD increases far faster than PC HD and the debuffing doesn't sound too horrible (though, again, playtesting is needed).
Into the background does not allow magic to retrieve memories (added).
Sense onlookers is not divination and ignores listed defenses (added).

Thank you for all of the comments. Keep up the good work. :smallwink:

DeusMortuusEst
Unmage: I meant for this to affect anyone you have a line of effect with (like normal counterspelling) but I forgot to actually say something to that effect. Thanks for the save.
Veneficus Optima: I mean "expend" (that's a term, right? :smallconfused:)

Pennance: I'm pretty sure that cast is actually the right word, just as a shadow caster can cast supernatural mysteries. It just means no components/counterspelling/dispelling/SR. With that said, I could be wrong.

DeusMortuusEst

2012-06-29, 01:40 PM

DeusMortuusEst
Unmage: I meant for this to affect anyone you have a line of effect with (like normal counterspelling) but I forgot to actually say something to that effect. Thanks for the save.
Veneficus Optima: I mean "expend" (that's a term, right? :smallconfused:)

Unmage: Nice, works good, and with no range specified makes it suitably epic.

Veneficus Optima: Expend works much better language-wise, though I'm not sure if it's a term or not. and is used in the same way in the 'Spontaneous Metamagic' section of the SRD. *thumbsup*

I'll be back with more comments. :smallbiggrin:

Network

2012-06-29, 06:28 PM

Dread emperor :

Skills: Knowledge (Religion) or Knowledge (Arcana) 23 ranks
[...]
Note: Subtract the level adjustment of any template granting you the undead type from the number of ranks in a knowledge skill you require to enter this class.

First, it's hard to count for those few undead templates without LA (I'm talking about NPCs here). Most are unintelligent, but I suppose there are some.
Second, a 13th wizard vampire has a ECL of 21, but is not epic by-the-rules. He doesn't have epic bonuses to the saves, I mean. Isn't that better to remove the note, otherwise requirements seem low.

Xzoltar

2012-06-29, 08:43 PM

Guardian Paramont : I think that True Guardian should be at least cap to something like max the amount of hit points the ward have or something like that. Still think its a pretty powerful ability usable at will once per round as a Free action without any drawback. Creature that you attack should be able to attack you (Stern Gaze) just like with Sanctuary. Inspired Protector could give a lot of action the the Guardian, it cost their action, but it also mean we could buff the Guardian and go nova giving him few more attack per round. Not sure as a Epic Feat if Warded Site and Hidden Sanctum are strong enough giving that having the same effects permanent won't cost that much money comparing to a Epic Feat. You can probably merge them without getting out of balance.

High Proselytizer : True Blessing might give too much buff to a party if they all follow the same god. Selective Spell seem to have a cost way to high considering the effect. I would say that 2-3 at most would be enough, but maybe there's combination that are powerful and that I dont have think about yet. Not a PrC that seem that strong crunch wise, but something I would enjoy playing ina roleplaying game.

Legendary Dreadnaught : Im not sure about Dreadnaught’s Array, does it mean that my Magic Sword +8 can become a Magic Sword +15 (if im like lvl 7 in this class) ? I guess Fear effect from Threatening Presence stack as usual ? Relentless Force should work only on creature you kill that provide a minimal challenge (like half your CR) so that you dont summon minions like skeleton around you just to kill one or more per round and than get a full round worth of action back. Pretty powerful PrC that make you nearly impossible to kill.

Perfect Wight : You can use Shadow Form at will, having to spend a Standard action every class level round ? What'S the point of Supernatural Theft ? That might be me because I rarely play rogue-like class, but this PrC seem weak.

wiimanclassic

2012-06-30, 01:16 AM

Lord of Nine Blades, in Epic Spell Casting you mention the Legendary Dreadnaught.

Also, holy **** how long did this take?

DeusMortuusEst

2012-06-30, 07:59 AM

Sentient Array [Epic]
Your dreadnaught’s array awakens to sentience and further might.
Prerequisites: Mythic Equipment, Base Attack Bonus +30
Benefits: Both pieces of your dreadnaught’s array become sentient, gaining your mental ability scores and alignment, blindsight within 120 feet, and the ability to speak with you telepathically. Each item in the array gains three spells of your choice of 3rd level or lower to use at will. The identities of these sentient items are set, transferring from one item in your dreadnaught’s array to the next as you replace items with more powerful equipment.

There's no mention of caster level, does the set use the dreadnought's character level, ECL or class level?

Also, if the item casts a spell with the target of Personal, does it target the item or the wielder?

EDIT: And while we're on the subject of the array, from the text I'm guessing that the bonuses gained are divided over the different items, correct? It's a little bit ambiguous.

Cardea

2012-06-30, 08:31 AM

Impressive. I run epic games when I can, and your homebrew is generally some of the only stuff I accept. I will definitely be reading over everything here, man. It deserves to be.

Realms of Chaos

2012-06-30, 11:00 AM

Okay, time for more edits.

Network: ECL 21+ =/= Epic? :smallconfused:
If this is the case, I was honestly unaware of this. Allowing Vampire Wizard 13s and Lich Cleric 18s was actually the point of that note so that LA doesn't punish you for this specific class as much but if ECL can't push things into epic, I'll take this right out. Can someone else confirm that this is how LA/ECL works?

Xzolter:
Guardian Paramount:

I personally don't like the idea of a cap on true guardian, actually. Though I tried to push it into player territory, I still want NPC guardians to be able to protect their Level 1 aristocrat charges against epic assailants. I'd cap the ability at the guardian's HP but at that point the ability kind of loses its per round status and I see nothing wrong with having the guardian paramount sacrifice him/herself to protect his/her charge from all damage from a single source.
If you read stern gaze again, you'll see that it doesn't protect yourself at all. All that it does is stop enemies from attacking your sacred charges while you threaten them.
I've considered the implications of inspired protector but I honestly can't tell if you are suggesting that it be changed (I'm personally okay with the thought of a protector-gone-nova, though you may be able to convince me to the contrary).
I think that I'm going to keep the fortress line of feats separated for now on the grounds that as you choose additional places as your charge, the effects of each feat extend to each of them (not something a magic item would emulate well). If more people support the fusion, however, I'll go through with it.

High Proselytizer

True blessing only works on your followers (gained through leadership).
Changed selective spell to only +3 spell levels (Will have to fix other instances of the feat later)

Legendary Dreadnaught

Made it clear that each separate item in the array gains its individual set of bonuses and that they stack with existing bonuses.
Made Threatening Presence not stack with itself (will have to fix other instances of the feat later).
I changed relentless force so it only activates when you slay a creature that successfully injured you. If anyone wants it back the old way (triggering whenever you slay something with 1+ HD or destroy a medium object), feel free to make an argument for it.

Perfect Wight

Shadow form is indeed a 1 round/level ability that can be used at will.
The teleportation was slightly empowered.
All supernatural theft feats were crushed into one far more useful feat.
Do you have any more suggestions for empowerment of the class?

wiimanclassic: Fixed. Also, this took about half of a year to write up.

DeusMortuusEst: All three questions have now been addressed. :smallbiggrin:

AmberVael

2012-06-30, 12:07 PM

DeusMortuusEst

2012-07-01, 04:31 AM

DeusMortuusEst: All three questions have now been addressed. :smallbiggrin:

Yup, thanks! :smallsmile:

EDIT: A comment on the entry reqs for the Dervish. They are similar to that of the dreadnought, but with a significant difference. While the dreadnought is something that a standard fighter with a lot of bonus feats might go into, the dervish is more designed for monks, scouts and other fast moving types of combatants, which typically are pretty feat starved, and having to spend 6 feats to get into the class is a heavy toll when making a character with only 7 feats before epic. Especially since the feats don't synergize that well at all.

I'd probably go for a few more feats and more skill reqs on this prc, but that's me, and I'm a bit surprised that Weapon Finesse isn't on the list, seeing how it is pretty standard in many TWF-builds and regular dervishes.

(I discovered this when trying to build a character that qualifies for both the dervish and the dreadnought and is playable at lvl 30. It's a bit of a challenge :smalltongue:)

Kobold-Bard

2012-07-01, 08:06 AM

Nitpicking -

Arbiter of balance:
Tiny formatting error, Epic Spellcasting isn't bolded because the sqaure brackets don't close.

Elemental Sovereign:
Has Skills: Knowledge (Arcana or Knowledge) 23 ranks, as one of it's pre-reqs. I assume Knowledge (Knowledge) isn't the right skill?

Infallible Blast says Protean Avatar in it's description.

Does the Control Elementals feat only let you turn/rebuke elementals of the Raiment you currently have active, or just any at any time?

Chambers

2012-07-01, 10:09 AM

Copy/Paste error in Spellblade Elite under Epic Spellcasting. "A legendary dreadnaught can cast an epic spell and make a full attack as a full-round action."

---

Congrats on getting all this finished. It looks like it must have taken a long time. Some of the balance choices that you've made though, I don't entirely agree with. My first reaction to the whole Librim was "This reminds me of Frank and K's Tomes." I don't mean that in an accusatory or insulting manner, as people can play using Tomes and that doesn't mean they're doing it wrong.

What I mean by that is the Peerless Marksman reminds me a lot of the Tome Combat (http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Races_of_War_(3.5e_Sourcebook)/Warriors_with_Style#The_Failure_of_Feats) feats for archery. It feels very similar in terms of mechanics, though of course the styles are different.

I disagree with giving everyone Epic spells. That's another decision that reminds of the Tomes, as the Tome concept of balance is to bring the non-Wizards up to the Wizards power level, or a close approximation thereof.

AmberVael

2012-07-01, 06:02 PM

I tend to disagree with the decision to give everyone epic spells too, but my main contention is that the system is completely broken.

I don't mean just overpowered, you did make some good steps towards limiting those shenanigans. I mean broken as in "it doesn't really work at all." For example, ever try making an "epic" fireball?

Turns out, dealing even just 20d6 fire damage as a standard action in a 20ft radius is DC 59. Costs half a million gold, 20K xp, and over a week to make. And you can basically cast it once per day for every ten levels you have.

And if you want to give someone a +5 deflection bonus? Why, you can do that, and it'll even last 24 hours... but even if you spend 1 minute casting it, it'll be DC 54 to do, and cost about the same amount as your fireball. (You should probably just buy a ring of protection, it's cheaper).

With mitigation, you can do really absurd things, and you can break it- but if you use it normally, it's just bad. It doesn't even really compare to normal spellcasting. It's too expensive, and has too little result, and cannot be cast often enough for it to be worthwhile.

Edit: There are a few ways you might use it (large enhancement bonuses, for example), but really, it's not worth it. You're better off with non-epic magic.

Network

2012-07-01, 06:16 PM

There's actually an epic magic item that worth 650 000 gp and substitute to any XP cost for epic spells. I think it is called ''Scepter of superior magic''.

Still, the best use is for permanent enchantment. If you have a Ring of sustenance, the cost for a permanent +20 armor bonus is ridiculously low. In my world, a very specific epic dragon uses this trick.

Avalon®

2012-07-02, 06:18 AM

Does the Lord of Nine Blades progress Initiator level? I assume it does but RAW there's no mention of it in its write up.

Albertyon

2012-07-02, 10:03 AM

Great work! as a DM, I look forward to using some of these PrCs in my game.
There is just one thing I want to discuss, but it has nothing to do with the classes: I'm talking about the title.
I know it sounds cool using Latin-like terms, but if the literal meaning of the title was intended to be "The Book of Eternity" (or something similar), then i suggest changing it into "Liber Eternitatis": it would be more correct.

Realms of Chaos

2012-07-02, 10:08 AM

While I don't have time to go through all of the fixes at the moment, let me give you guys more of a run-down on why I'm handing out epic magic like cheap party favors.

In the end, it all comes down to everything you've ever heard about casters versus the mundane. One grows quadratically and the other grows arithmetically. Even without new spell slots to obtain, simply boosting the spellcraft DC of an epic caster gives an incredible boost in what they are capable of.

At low epic levels, I'll admit that this doesn't make much of a difference (at least without mitigation shenanigans). As vael said, spellcraft DCs are so high that normal spells are actually preferable for a long while. In the long run, however, summoning armies and destroyed planets becomes possible and trying to match anything against the potential of epic magic (except for a blatantly more powerful system) is doomed for failure.

My biggest questionable stance regarding epic play, I think, has rather little to do with Frank and K (though I admit there's a comparison there) and has far more to do with the infamous immortal's handbook. Like the writer of the handbook, I personally believe that DnD isn't meant to have a maximum level of any sort and that playing in a somewhat balanced epic party should be as conceptually possible at level 30 as it is at level 300 or 3,000 (not that I think any games actually get there). Furthermore, I wanted each of my epic classes capable to lasting indefinitely without random dips.

To consolidate the three issues of indefinite advancement, quadratic vs. arithmetical power increases, and my unwillingness to make dips an issue, I did the only thing I could think of, giving epic magic in some way to everyone. If anyone else has a different method for solving this conundrum, feel free to suggest it.

In short, the decision to give everyone epic spellcasting was made to allow for the existence of HIGH campaigns that currently either exist in small numbers or possibly not at all. If you don't like this decision, however, taking out the epic casting often means very little. While I'm keeping it in the main text for the sake of my foolish mission, feel free to treat it as an alternate/optional rule like epic luck from the ELH. Very few (if any) noncaster PrCs make any outside reference to their epic spellcasting and, outside of the full casters, only a couple make any such reference. I may actually put up a section in my last explanatory post specifically about taking out epic casting for all and what to replace the few abilities that interract with them with.

So... yeah. If you want to play at relatively sane levels, feel free to leave them in or take them out depending on how you feel about the matter. As Vael said, after all, there's a pretty big space where epic casting doesn't make much of a difference at all and I only put inserted the rules in the first place for a bit of personal piece of mind. Have fun with this stuff and feel free to alter stuff to fit your needs. :smallsmile:

RadicalTurnip

2012-07-02, 10:36 AM

A few questions about the Veneficus Optima.

"True Arcanist", does this allow the Veneficus Optima to cast any non-epic spell, is it implies? Or is it only non-epic arcane spells? Or only non-epic spells on his class list? Or that he knows? Or has prepared? Can metamagic feats be applied? And I assume it doesn't, but does this ability expend any of his normal spell slots?

"Practiced Metamagic", does this ability stack with any abilities that lower the cost of metamagic such as the incantrix's capstone ability, or others that are similar? If you are a spontaneous caster, can you spend part or all of the four for a portion of a metamagic feat, and then spontaniously spend the rest of it elsewhere?

Network

2012-07-02, 11:52 AM

My biggest questionable stance regarding epic play, I think, has rather little to do with Frank and K (though I admit there's a comparison there) and has far more to do with the infamous immortal's handbook. Like the writer of the handbook, I personally believe that DnD isn't meant to have a maximum level of any sort and that playing in a somewhat balanced epic party should be as conceptually possible at level 30 as it is at level 300 or 3,000 (not that I think any games actually get there). Furthermore, I wanted each of my epic classes capable to lasting indefinitely without random dips.

To consolidate the three issues of indefinite advancement, quadratic vs. arithmetical power increases, and my unwillingness to make dips an issue, I did the only thing I could think of, giving epic magic in some way to everyone. If anyone else has a different method for solving this conundrum, feel free to suggest it.

Some of the most powerful spells are still non-epic : Disjunction, Implosion, Miracle, True resurrection, Wish, all of those are just the core ones. Implosion, of course, because you can't be immune with Death ward (that protects against most save-or-die), nor with Mind blank (that protects against Phantasmal killer). Still, any epic character has access to all non-epic spells if he buys the right magic items, and Antimagic field protects against most of them (except some necromancy spells such as Animate dead).

Giving epic magic to everyone seems fine for me, considering the above doesn't work at all when the caster level reach 40 (when you automatically succeed your caster level check in Antimagic field). There are too many abuses with epic magic, anyway, so I'm just wondering what epic caster won't take it (even if it's expensive, the cost worth it).

Noctis Vigil

2012-07-04, 10:13 AM

:smalleek:

I repeat: :eek:

This is some of the best homebrew I know of. I love epic level stuff. I've read through all of the classes now, and while not going into crazy depth, a few things jumped out at me.

1.) You have way more free time than me.

2.) You have copy pasta errors all over the place here; I suggest just going through once and checking each class for these, since around a third of them seem to have at least one.

3.) It erks me somewhat that the actual epic spellcasters get no reduction to the cost of epic spellcasting while the martial warrior classes get reduced cost epic spellcasting for half the seeds. I suggest giving epic casters a choice of a few seeds to reduce the cost of, since they are the ones who really should have the reduced cost.

4.) The Epic Level Handbook already has rules for epic psionics; the seed DCs and such are listed on page 102.

Realms of Chaos

2012-07-06, 06:02 PM

After a hectic work week, it is time for me to respond to all the things.

RadicalTurnip: The idea behind true arcanist was to convert a spell that you are already casting into a supernatural ability instead of giving a certain amount of uber-wishes every day. within that limit, I'd say that you can convert any spell that you cast. With all of that said, I might need assistance wording the ability. :smallconfused:

Practiced Metamagic, meanwhile, would "stack" with metamagic reducers but wouldn't allow you to partially pay metamagic effects.

Network: I say that Epic Spellcasting is more powerful than mundane casting (and vastly so at that) for one real reason: Ad Hoc modifiers. With the proper ad-hoc adjustments, you could make an epic spell far better than any non-epic ones (other than maybe wish/miracle). I'd have suggested cutting them out of epic casting altogether but the system actually relies on them. Seriously, a good deal of the sample epic spells rely on them to function. Without them, Epic Spellcasting is pretty horrible in just about every single way.

Noctis Vigil:
2) I'll have to go through and wipe out copypasta errors when Legendary Dreadnaught find some time in the future. As far as I can tell, there's one particularly prevalent error that I need to get rid of.
3) Writing up the classes, It made more sense at the time for casters to spend more of their resources on spells then other characters (who are generally more gear-reliant and only get 1/3 or even 1/6 of what's available in the first place). If more people agree that full spellcasters should get equal reimbursement, however, I'll put it in.
4) While I was aware that the seeds were sorted into the psionic disciplines, I had gone on for all of this time while believing that the Epic Manifestation feat didn't exist (which I thought was a weird mistake). Now I see that it doesn't exist in a properly formatted form but that one paragraph does give the basic info. With that said, the omnimind was altered.

Leonardo

2012-07-07, 12:17 PM

I suggest the following additions to the venerated sage:
-making venerated sage a full caster
-since a permanent true seeing isn't too difficult, I suggest giving it continuous arcane sight, true seeing, deathwatch, discern lies etc. and allowing use of one of the other senses per level above fourth at the same time.
-giving bonus spells known
-gaze attacks not functioning through the special senses
-adding the knowledge domain to the spell list of the sage
-lowering the casting time for divination
-lowering epic spell resource costs for this class
-adding bardic knowledge to the class
-all skills class skills

I think these will help bring it up to par.

137beth

2012-07-07, 04:31 PM

Under ascendant, it says
Prerequisites: To qualify to become a , a character must meet all of the following criteria
Might want to fix the typo:smallwink:
Anyways, I too have frequently played at epic levels, and get annoyed by the vast amount of epic-bashing on these forums. Almost all of the reasons people give for epic play being "bad" apply equally well to ECL 15-20. Pretty much the only other problem people pick out (other than abundant cheese and a dramatic difference between tier powers) is that the official rules don't have much support for (interesting) epic content. Well duh, that is what homebrew is for. Almost any group playing to high epic levels (30+) will be using a lot of homebrew and house rules. No group will get that far without house-ruling out the non-epic cheese (there are no level 20 pun-puns...not that pun-pun would gain anything from additional levels anyways...), and so there is no reason to expect that they wouldn't do the same for epic cheese.
I have played with variations on your piercing ability, but this is done substantially better, and I will probably use it in the next epic game I play:smallsmile:

Some of the most powerful spells are still non-epic : Disjunction, Implosion, Miracle, True resurrection, Wish, all of those are just the core ones. Implosion, of course, because you can't be immune with Death ward (that protects against most save-or-die), nor with Mind blank (that protects against Phantasmal killer). Still, any epic character has access to all non-epic spells if he buys the right magic items, and Antimagic field protects against most of them (except some necromancy spells such as Animate dead).
Epic spells can do all of those things, and better. Not to mention that an absurdly high spellcraft skill (gained from an rapidly increasing bonus from magic items, due to exponential WBL) can get you an enormous number of epic spells per day (even passing your 9th level spell slots). The ELH seemed to assume that your spellcraft check would increase linearly with level. This is far from the case, due to the rapid increase in available gold. At higher epic levels, spellcraft ranks gained from skill points and intelligence modifier hardly matter anymore, since wealth available at epic levels is so great.

Network

2012-07-07, 05:12 PM

As I said, without epic magic, epic spellcasters would worth absolutly nothing (except, maybe, if they can cast a quickened Disjunction, but still). What I means is than any decent player will buy a perfectly affordable Wand of Wish as soon as possible. Since anyone will try that, anyone will also find a Wand of Antimagic Field to protects against other epic characters.:smallfrown:

And then, magic not only becomes copyable for a (relatively) ridiculous price, but everyone also has a ''You can't use magic'' button. Permanent Emanation (Antimagic Field) would become the new most powerful feat, since it force your enemy to don't use magic, but you, you only need a free action before casting.

Fortunately, there's Epic Magic, and spellcasters remains useful after the 21st level... a number of time per day equal to 1/10 of their level. Giving epic casting to everyone resolves any other problem.:smallwink:

In any case, with Ignore Material Component, anything that can't be solved by True Resurrection is solved by Ice Assassin.:smallbiggrin:

Salbazier

2012-07-08, 01:06 PM

My goodness,...:O

I haven't read anything beyond the second post but I had to say that this is seriously AWESOME! RoC, you definitely have some Epic level there yourself. :) No lacking of epic material ever again! And its only few weeks ago I was wondering if I can ever have again more of Realm of Chaos' awesomeness too...

Leonardo

2012-07-09, 07:59 AM

I believe my post was missed.

Zarthrax

2012-07-11, 02:46 PM

Copy/Paste error in Wilderness Incarnate-

In the Epic Feats section, the benefits for Woodland Weaponry and Frostfell Weaponry are exactly the same.

AmberVael

2012-07-14, 11:52 AM

Epic spells can do all of those things, and better. Not to mention that an absurdly high spellcraft skill (gained from an rapidly increasing bonus from magic items, due to exponential WBL) can get you an enormous number of epic spells per day (even passing your 9th level spell slots). The ELH seemed to assume that your spellcraft check would increase linearly with level. This is far from the case, due to the rapid increase in available gold. At higher epic levels, spellcraft ranks gained from skill points and intelligence modifier hardly matter anymore, since wealth available at epic levels is so great.

The number of epic spells per day that you have are based on your knowledge rank, not your modifier. As such, yeah, it increases linearly barring some form of cheese.

137beth

2012-07-14, 12:08 PM

The number of epic spells per day that you have are based on your knowledge rank, not your modifier. As such, yeah, it increases linearly barring some form of cheese.

Ack, that was a mistake. I meant that exponentially increasing spellcraft bonuses from items give you rapidly increasingly powerful epic spells, since the actual spellcraft DC requires a high modifier, not rank. An insanely powerful epic spell still does a lot, even if you can only use it three times a day.

RadicalTurnip

2012-07-17, 10:19 AM

After a hectic work week, it is time for me to respond to all the things.

RadicalTurnip: The idea behind true arcanist was to convert a spell that you are already casting into a supernatural ability instead of giving a certain amount of uber-wishes every day. within that limit, I'd say that you can convert any spell that you cast. With all of that said, I might need assistance wording the ability. :smallconfused:

Edit: See my post below

Assuming you mean a spell that you have on your spell list (or are able to cast) it could say
"a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell on his/her spell list that he/she would normally be able to cast with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour." (Bolded part my addition).

But assuming you wanted it to be a spell that was known/prepared by the spellcaster, the maybe it should be

"a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell that they have already cast that day with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour."

or

"a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell that they prepared the last time they prepared spells (if they are a prepared caster) or is on their spells known (if they cast spontaneously) with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

or you could do

"a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell that they know with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

but that would make it better for wizards than sorcerers (imo).

You might want to add something like...
"a veneficus optima can cast a non-epic spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. Any material or focus that they would normally need to provide for the spell must still be provided (and is still consumed, if applicable), and any xp costs they would normally need to pay if they cast the spell must still be paid. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour.

Network

2012-07-17, 11:07 AM

RadicalTurnip

2012-07-17, 12:01 PM

I think it should read like this :
"When a veneficus optima cast a non-epic spell with a casting time of 1 standard action or less, he or she can cast it as a supernatural ability instead of as a spell. After doing so a number of times equal to the veneficus optima’s class level, he or she can’t do so again until he or she meditates for 1 hour."

It's at least the more literal way to interpret it.

Ahh, I see. So it still takes the spell slot? I may have been missing the intent even after clarification...

After looking at his post again, I See that that's what it means. I had originally just thought it meant that I get extra spells I can cast, lol. So the purpose of converting it into an SLA was to get rid of the verbal, somatic, material, and xp components?

Merchant

2012-07-18, 11:34 PM

I love this but I was wondering if you considered an epic luck prc? I know you might have hung up your hat on luck due to the base classes you did long ago (which I thought were awesome too).

Realms of Chaos

2012-07-20, 09:41 AM

Okay, time to make some changes.

DeusMortuusEst: Sorry that I missed that comment for so long. Finally updated the unmatched dervish pre-reqs to include finesse.

Leonardo: Haven't missed your post. Just took me a while to get back here. Responding to your suggestions one by one.

I would generally consider upping the casting on the venerated sage but one of the base aesthetics I made in this project was keeping the full casters somewhat unique in the project, rather than the expected norm for all casters (especially as it doesn't mean delays on 9th-level spells anymore).
I condensed the four vision abilities that make up true seeing into a single true seeing ability. I still don't want to grant more and more senses as you level up, however. One of my principles with these classes is the concept of infinite scaling and after you would earn all of your senses on your version, that aspect of the ability would suddenly come to a halt.
They now get extra spells known.
As for the gaze attack thing, the only ability I could see that really being a problem with would be the x-ray vision ability and I'm not sure if you can use gaze attacks without line of effect. Could a scrying medusa turn people to stone? I somehow doubt that but I put text there just in case.
The knowledge domain actually doesn't seem that necessary.
The casting time has been lowered for those that take far too much time.
I am aware that making this class better at casting epic spells would make it more appealing. The same can be said for every class in this project. :smalltongue: With that said, I don't feel comfortable using this element of the class as a balancing feature as, like with caster levels, it's easy to swing right from "weak" to "very powerful" without even trying (especially where epic spells are concerned). As studying efficiently does make sense for this class, however, I might include a bonus feat to this effect if someone can come up with a relatively balanced one.
I don't have anything in particular against bardic knowledge/lore but I don't see what adding them would do for this class as they already gain a huge knowledge bonus (level x 5) and can use all knowledge skills untrained. I can't even think of any real prerequisites you'd want it for at epic levels.
all skills are now class skills

137ben typo has been fixed

Zarthrax Thanks for finding that error. Frostfell Weaponry (or at least a rough draft) has been put in.

Network You found the wording that I was looking for. The Veneficus Optima has been updated

Radical Turnip Yup. Turning it into a Supernatural Ability means no components, no spell resistance (death to golems), no dispelling (resistance to disjunction but not antimagic), no counterspelling, and so forth.

Merchant I'll have to give that a bit of thought. I honestly never even considered luck during the long creation process.

Also, Gaiyamato has given us a new version of the Dread Emperor (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250040) for those who think that infinite weak zombies simply can't be justified (which, in more political campaigns, can really be the case). I linked to him in the comments of the original dread emperor.

If anyone else wants to take their own crack at one of these classes, feel free to do so. More options is rarely ever a bad thing in this game. :smallsmile:

Merchant

2012-07-20, 10:30 AM

I love the Mastermind. I just want to make sure of something first.

Counter measure only refers to spells he knows, right? It just says non-epic. I can see how pulling any spell out of your hat would be too much so I think I'm just making a mountain out of a mole hill.

What kind of spells would be so useful during combat. It seems illusions would be the most especially mislead but that is just like Never There. I checked what I thought were reliable sources to the Bard and Beguiler spell lists but teleportions don't exist in either.

Never there it says damage. Does that mean a death effect would not activate the ability? Or baleful polymorph and then placed in a soon-to-die situation or put you in a situation where you might drown or starve.

Does Never there allow for you to have all your spells and items refreshed seeing as how it wasn't really you using them. Or is it more like you weren't there when that damage occured? I like the second way more because it gives goosebumps fighting something like that.

Could someone give an example encounter with either a beguilder or bard build and spells and how CounterMeasure works?

PS I have next to no experience with DnD and none with spellcasters and spells so i am not judging. I just need clarification

RadicalTurnip

2012-07-20, 01:02 PM

Ahhh, Supernatural ability, not SLA. That makes more sense. That seems very useful without probably being too OP.

dragon666

2013-10-02, 10:27 AM

This one is the best class compendium of the entire site. Good work!

The Mentalist

2013-10-02, 03:22 PM

Godking

Godking’s Subjects (Ex/Su): A godking evokes loyalty beyond what most leaders could ever hope to accomplish. All followers of a godking are treated as fanatical towards the godking and are immune to fear effects while possessing a line of sight with the godking. Furthermore, all followers and cohorts of at least 6th level gain leadership as a bonus feat.

Chain of Command [Epic]
You control staggering forces through a chain of command.
Prerequisites: Attract the Masses x6
Benefits: Your Godking’s Subjects class feature applies to all cohorts and followers of your cohorts and followers and to their cohorts and followers and so forth.
Special: If you possess the martial subjects and/or skilled subjects, their effects are shared in the same way.

Godking’s Blessing (Su): Starting at 4th level, a godking’s power seeps into his or her servants, making them tougher and more skilled than they would otherwise be. All of the godking’s servants gain one level in expert or warrior (their choice). This counts as a normal level in all ways (granting hp, skills, feats, and so forth) but doesn’t affect what the followers’ level counts as for the purpose of the godking’s leadership feat (a level 1 commoner empowered into a commoner 1/expert 1, for example, still counts as a level 1 follower). Levels gained in this way can’t be retrained. At 9th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the godking grants an additional level of expert or warrior to all of his or her followers (followers need not choose the same class for all additional levels gained in this way).

Between these three abilities you gain infinite followers at level 22 of this class (and I know it may not have been meant to be taken that far but it is something that may need to be curbed)

Perhaps the Automatic Leadership for Godking's Subjects should only count levels in PC classes or the effects of Godking's Blessing should be reduced by 1 for each iteration.

Amechra

2013-10-02, 03:27 PM

Honestly?

At 32nd level, an infinite number of non-epic followers is not broken.

Realms of Chaos

2013-10-02, 03:35 PM

The Mentalist

2013-10-02, 03:39 PM

Grand Creator

Wondercraft (Su): A grand creator can weave powerful magic into items faster than anyone else, forming powerful magic items in a matter of moments. When using this ability, a grand creator must have access to a non-magical item capable of occupying the same item slot if the item to be created is worn or to any nonmagical tiny or diminutive object if making a tool. The grand creator doesn’t cast spells or need to know the spells normally needed for crafting the item and no money or experience points are spent in this way, though he or she must have the proper item creation feat. Crafting an item in this way takes at least 1 round per day of crafting it would otherwise require, though a grand creator can choose to take longer to make the enchantment last longer. Each round that this item is being made, the grand creator must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + highest level of spell used in item’s construction + 1 per previous check). A single check failed in this way ruins the enchantment process and forces the grand creator to start over from scratch. The item is only temporarily enchanted, however, lasting for one minute per round spent making it in the first place. Any objects, creatures, and areas that the object creates also vanish at the end of this time. Constructs can’t be made in this way. At any given time, a grand creator can’t possess more items crafted in this way than half of his or her class level +1.

Quick Crafter (Ex): Even when crafting items normally, a grand creator can make permanent enchantments at an incredible speed. Creating a magic item only requires 1 day per 10,000 gp of cost (minimum 1 day). At 6th level and every 5 levels afterwards, the amount of progress that can be made towards the completion of a magic item each day is multiplied by x 10 (allowing grand creators of 11th level to create items in 1 day per 1,000,000 gp, for example).

Between these two abilities the Grand Creator gains infinite non-epic spells (off any list with UMD). This could be be fixed (if you didn't intend it) by allowing only normally permanent items to be crafted by Wondercraft.

The Mentalist

2013-10-02, 03:41 PM

I think I'm missing something. Chain of command doesn't pass on the benefits of godking's blessing (only godking's subjects). Could you point out the last step that leads to infinite subjects? :smallconfused:

I took Godking's servants as Godking's Subjects. If it doesn't pass on the benefits that's fine but I think it could stand to be cleared up a little better.

I think if the Veneficus Optima is going to be stacking so much metamagic he needs the ability to actually STACK metamagic and use the same feat more than once.

Network

2013-10-02, 05:27 PM

Between these two abilities the Grand Creator gains infinite non-epic spells (off any list with UMD). This could be be fixed (if you didn't intend it) by allowing only normally permanent items to be crafted by Wondercraft.
It wouldn't solve much, I think. That an item is permanent does not mean that it can't cast spells.

Azdoine

2014-02-21, 06:35 PM

Venerated Sage

Uncanny Senses (Su): Starting at 4th level, a venerated sage learns how to peer out into the world and see things as they truly are. Listen and Spot checks aren’t penalized for distance within the first 50 feet and the venerated sage gains a special sensory capability within a 50-foot radius. As a move action, he or she can switch which sense is active:

The venerated sage benefits from a true seeing effect
[A bunch of other stuff]

While uncanny senses never provides the full benefits of a true seeing spell, I am still very happy with the amount of versatility I managed to cram in there.

So, uh, maybe I'm just confused, but you contradict yourself between your notes and the class itself. What is Uncanny Senses supposed to do?

Stycotl

2014-02-23, 01:30 PM

realms, this is stupendously cool. i've only been able to absorb a fraction of it, but so far i am thoroughly impressed. and your argument as to incorporating epic magic in multiple class types makes a lot of sense to me.

Azdoine

2014-04-14, 05:16 PM

Perfect Wight Fix

Shadowspace [Epic]
You can store items within the shadows.
Prerequisites: Shadow Form
Benefits: You gain the ability to store unattended objects within the shadows, acting in many ways as a handy haversack. Unlike a handy haversack, however, there is no maximum volume or weight of objects that can be stored and sharp objects don’t risk rupturing the space. Only unattended objects or willing creatures can be stored in shadowspace and items or creatures larger than yourself can’t be stored or withdrawn from shadowspace.

Some questions:

1)Can the Perfect Wight put himself into Shadowspace? If so, can he take himself back out?

2)Is it possible to get in or out of Shadowspace (say with Teleport or Plane Shift) without the Perfect Wight's help?

3)What would happen if you put a Lich's Phylactery into Shadowspace and then killed the Lich? Assuming he regenerates by the Phylactery, he would be stored in Shadowspace, but he's also presumably an unwilling creature. If he is stuck in Shadowspace, can he trash the contents within? Shatter your Gems & the like?

WebTiefling

2014-10-07, 03:32 PM

Chosen

Hit Die: d8

Prerequisites: To qualify to become a chosen, a character must meet all of the following criteria
ECL: 20 or higher

Class Skills: All skills are class skills for a Chosen.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Chosen

Level
BAB
Special
Advancement

1st

+1
Bonus Feat
+1 level of class features for two classes

2nd

+2

+1 level of class features for three classes

3rd

+3
Bonus Feat
+1 level of class features for two classes

4th

+4

+1 level of class features for three classes

5th

+5
Bonus Feat
+1 level of class features for two classes

6th

+6

+1 level of class features for three classes

7th

+7
Bonus Feat
+1 level of class features for two classes

8th

+8

+1 level of class features for three classes

9th

+9
Bonus Feat
+1 level of class features for two classes

10th

+10

+1 level of class features for three classes

Class Features: The following are class features of the Chosen.

Epic Spellcasting: Even without the Epic Spellcaster feat, a chosen can still develop and cast epic spells using any four seeds of his or her choice seeds. For the purpose of developing epic spells with these seeds (and only these seeds), costs in gold pieces and experience points are halved. If the chosen doesn't cast spells, he or she uses his or her highest ability score modifier to determine epic spell save DCs.

Chosen Advancement: At each level, a chosen selects two different base classes and gains class features (including spellcasting ability) and an increase in effective level as if you had also gained a level in those classes. You need not have previously possessed levels in that class and may choose different classes at each level. You do not gain the benefit of chosen class’ Hit Dice, attack progression, or skill points, however. At each even level, the chosen may select a third base class to advance in this way.

Bonus Feat: At every odd level, a chosen may select any feat that he or she qualifies for as a bonus feat.

Notes and Explanation:
Behold the chosen; the class without flavor; the class that breaks just about all of my own rules. Behold the glory of its simplicity and weep. Okay, not really. Seriously, though, this class serves two purposes that I didn’t think I could fill through more traditional means:

First and most obviously, this class is the universal theurge that enables pretty entertaining builds. Just finish rogue 20? Become a scout/ninja and continue training rogue at even levels. Just finish warblade 20? Let me show you the wonders of a wizard/erudite with a bit of factotum sprinkled in. The possibilities go on and on.

The less obvious use of this class is to stop base class purists. Most people are pretty accepting of the fact that prestige classes in general are typically stronger than base classes. I’m trying hard to make these epic PrCs stronger on average than normal PrCs. Thus, having someone who insists on playing a fighter 30 is just going to wreck balance unless everyone is acting like that. I kept the prerequisites simple so every epic character qualifies automatically and I kept the class simple so even newcomers to epic levels can use it. This is meant as the default epic PrC, to be taken if nothing else interests you or if you don’t meet the prerequisites for anything else.

Also, I must admit that this class only doesn’t have introductory text because my first five tries all crashed and burned. I have no idea how to write flavor for the text and can’t be sure that any is even needed at all. If you want to take a shot at it, go right ahead.

(Just fixing the table. Don't mind me.)

AvatarVecna

2020-03-12, 05:30 PM

New Feats Not Specific To LE Classes
(To be clear this is just a compilation of the LE feats that don't require class features from LE classes. I didn't make these feats I just gathered them in one convenient place.)

Aggressive Psychokinesis
You attack with your psychokinesis with the greatest of ease.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychokinesis discipline
Benefits: In place of any attack you would otherwise make, you may manifest a single power of the psychokinesis discipline.

Assume Mantle [Epic, Psionic]
You possess access to a wider array of mantles.
Prerequisites: Access to at least 2 mantles.
Benefits: You gain access to an additional mantle. If you would normally be restricted in which mantles you could select (such as a divine mind), you may ignore such restrictions.

Astral Master [Epic, Psionic]
You can personalize your astral constructs to a greater degree
Prerequisites: The ability to cast the astral construct power
Benefits: Whenever you manifest astral construct, you may choose an additional ability from any menu and apply it to that construct with no additional cost.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Its effects stack.

Bonus Mystery [Epic]
You have unlocked additional shadow magic.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast mysteries from master paths.
Benefit: You learn an extra mystery. You must still learn paths in order if your class requires you to do so.

Destructive Mystery [Epic, Metashadow]
You can force your damage to damage those who might otherwise ignore it.
Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effect of the destructive mystery feat to any mystery you cast. A destructive mystery converts all elemental and nonlethal damage normally deal into untyped lethal damage.
Casting a destructive mystery is a full-round action.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Divine Spell Knowledge [Epic]
Your access to spells is larger than that of most divine casters.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast spells of the maximum normal spell level of a divine spellcasting class.
Benefits: You learn two new divine spells of any level up to the maximum level you can cast. This feat does not grant any additional spell slots.
special: You can select this feat multiple times.

Echoing Utterance [Epic]
Your utterances can be made to echo through the fabric of existence.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks
Benefits: If the utterance is successful, you can cause it’s effects to automatically repeat on the same target or area at the start of the next round without need for an additional truespeak check. If the utterance has an ongoing duration, it instead repeats on the round after the first effect ends. If the original target or area is no longer applicable, the echo is wasted. An echoing utterance possesses a truespeak DC 25 higher than normal.

Efficient Metashadow [Epic]
You can utilize metashadow feats using less time.
Prerequisites: Any twelve metashadow feats
Benefit: Whenever you apply one or more metashadow feats that would extend casting time to a full-round action to any mystery, it is instead cast as a standard action. The quicken mystery metashadow feat may not be applied to such as mystery.

Empowered Servant [Epic]
You can empower the servants you have received through your faith.
Prerequisites: Fiendish Servant and/or Special Mount
Benefits: If you possess a special mount, it can move as if it were a phantom steed with a caster level equal to your class level. If you possess a fiendish servant, its template is replaced with the half-fiend template.

Epic Avoidance [Epic]
You are skilled at dodging attacks.
Prerequisites: Dex 25
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. You lose this bonus whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Epic Breath Weapon [Epic]
Your breath weapon is more powerful than it has ever been.
Prerequisites: Breath weapon dealing at least 8d6 damage.
Benefits: Your breath weapon deals an additional 1d6 points of damage.
If your breath weapon is a cone, extend its range by 5 feet. If your breath weapon is a line, instead increase its range by 10 feet.

Epic Mounted Combat[Epic]
Any mount you utilize is pushed to the limits of its abilities.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Base Attack Bonus +20
Benefits: While mounted, your mount may use any of your physical ability scores if they are superior to their own, may make use of any of your feats that it meets all prerequisites for, and can make any or all of its natural attacks without forcing you to make additional ride checks.

Epic Stealth [Epic]
You can escape notice even from the most extraordinary senses.
Prerequisites: Hide 30 ranks, Move Silently 30 ranks
Benefits: You are never detected through blindsight, blindsense, scent or tremorsense

Epic Undead Leadership [Epic]
You control great
Prerequisites: Undead Leadership
Benefits: This functions as the epic leadership feat except as noted under the description of the undead leadership feat.
Special: This feat can be used in place of Epic Leadership to meet the prerequisites of the legendary commander feat.

Exceed Limitations [Epic, Psionic]
You can press your mind beyond its limits at the cost of your body.
Benefits: You may spend power points on powers as if your manifester level were 2 higher.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Extra Augments [Epic, Psionic]
You are more skilled at augmenting your psionic sneak attacks.
Prerequisites: Lurk Augments (3 at once)
Benefit: You may use an additional lurk augment with each swift action. You may use lurk augments an additional number of times per day equal to your intelligence modifier.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Extraordinary Mystery [Epic]
You can turn your mysteries into completely mundane effects.
Benefit: select one mystery you can use as a supernatural ability. You gain an extra daily use of that mystery and can cast it as an extraordinary ability, meaning that it can be cast even in antimagic zones or dead magic zones. It can still affect incorporeal creatures like a supernatural ability.

Fuse Soulmelds [Epic]
You can assign more than one soulmeld to a single chakra
Benefits: You may assign and/or bind two different soulmelds to a single chakra, combining their appearance. Essentia must be invested into each of the soulmeld separately as normal.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times, allowing an additional soulmeld to be assigned to a single chakra each time this feat is selected.

Godslayer [Epic]
You can face even the divine with some chance of success.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +35 or ability to cast 12th level spells
Benefits: Deities attacking you never take 20 on their attack rolls. Against your spells and abilities, deities never take 20 on their saving throws. Against you, Deities lose their divine bonus to AC and Saving Throws. Lastly, you aren’t detected by the remote sensing abilities or portfolio sense of deities and salient divine abilities that create areas or that designate targets don’t affect you.

Greater Line of Shadow [Epic]
You can cast mysteries without line of sight or line of effect to the target.
Prerequisites: Line of Shadow
Benefit: You may use line of shadow one additional time per day. In addition, you may use it after any amount of time has past since you last had line of sight or line of effect, so long as the target is in or adjacent to the last square in which you saw them. The target no longer gets a bonus on their save if you delay the casting of the mystery.

Improved Body Fuel [Epic, Psionic]
You can extract more psionic power ouf of your body.
Prerequisites: Body Fuel
Benefits: You regain 10 power points per point of ability burn you suffer to each physical ability score with your body fuel feat.

Improved Combat Manifestation [Epic, Psionic]
You have not difficulty manifesting powers in the midst of combat
Prerequisites: Combat Manifestation
Benefits: You never provoke attacks of opportunity for manifesting powers.

Improved Enlarge Spell
You can extend the reach of your spells to a tremendous degree.
Prerequisites: Enlarge Spell
Benefits: You may apply the enlarge spell feat to a spell multiple times. Its effects stack.

Improved Quicken Mystery
You can utilize several mysteries in quick succession.
Prerequisites: Quicken Mystery
Benefit: When you cast a quickened mystery, it is cast as a free action instead of as a swift action, but you may only cast a number of quickened mysteries each round equal to your charisma modifier.

Improved Widen Spell
You can widen the area of your spells to a tremendous degree.
Prerequisites: Widen Spell
Benefits: You may apply the widen spell feat to a spell multiple times. Its effects stack.

Improved Wild Surge [Epic, Psionic]
Your mind can withstand more than others would suspect
Prerequisites: Wild Surge +5
Benefits: Whenever you use your wild surge class feature on a power, increase the manifester level bonus by +1 (this does not increase the odds of psychic innervations) and you gain a further +1 bonus on power penetration checks made using that power.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Instant Response [Epic]
You are quick to act where others might be caught by surprise
Prerequisites: Superior Initiative, Dex or Wis 25
Benefits: You always act during surprise rounds and may take a full-round of actions during such rounds.

Intensify Power [Metapsionic]
You can draw out incredible strength from your powers.
Prerequisties: Empower Power, Maximize Power, Psicraft 30 ranks, ability to manifest 9th level powers
Benefits: To use this feat, you must expend your psionic focus. All variable, numeric effects of an intensified power are maximized, then doubled. An intensified power deals twice maximum damage, cures twice the maximum number of hit points, affects twice the maximum number of targets, and so forth, as appropriate. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are powers without random variables. Augmented powers can be intensified; a maximized augmented power deals twice the maximum damage (or cures twice the maximum hit points, and so on) of the augmented power. You can’t combine the effects of this feat with any other feat that affects the variable, numeric effects of a spell. Using this feat increases the power point cost of the power by 7. The power’s total cost cannot exceed your manifester level.

Layered Recitation [Epic]
You can subject yourself to more than one recitation as part of the same action
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks, two or more recitation feats
Benefits: You may attempt to use two or more recitation feats as part of the same action. For each recitation added beyond the first, the Truespeak DC increases by 5.

Legendary Acclaim [Epic]
Your reputation has spread across entire worlds.
Prerequisites: Epic Reputation
Benefits: All creatures who would otherwise start with an attitude of at least indifferent towards you move one step closer to fanatic.

Legendary Diplomat [Epic]
You possess untold skill with persuasion.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Benefits: Targets you render fanatic remain so until you take actions that would change this attitude rather than the normal 1 day + 1 day per point of Charisma bonus.

Legendary Thief [Epic]
You possess a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of valuables.
Prerequisites: Appraise 24 ranks, Sleight of Hand 24 ranks
Benefits: As a move or standard action, you may make a single appraise check against all valuables with which you possess a line of sight. If you did so as a standard action, you learn the effects of all magical items appraised in this way as if through an Identify spell.

Legendary Trainer [Epic]
Animals aren’t quite as responsive with anyone as they are with you.
Prerequisites: Handle Animal 25 ranks
Benefit: When you use the handle animal skill, the number of tricks that you can teach an animal doesn’t count against the maximum number of tricks it can learn.

Master of Ambush [Epic]
You can use the element of surprise to deliver an onslaught of horrific blows against your enemies.
Prerequisites: Sneak attack +8d6 or Sudden Strike +8d6 or Skirmish +4d6/+4
Benefits: When acting in a surprise round, you can take a full-round of actions against an enemy. Whenever you successfully hit an enemy with an attack roll during a surprise round, you may use the result of that attack roll (including modifiers) for any or all additional attacks you make against that creature within the next round.

Master of Abjuration [Epic]
You possess masterful energies that act to ward and protect.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Abjuration spell
Benefits: The value of any armor class bonus, saving throw bonus, or energy resistance that your spells grant is doubled. The value of any damage reduction or spell resistance your spells grant is increased by +5. Lastly, once per encounter, you may negate all damage that one attack or spell would deal to yourself or to a creature within 30 feet.

Master of Conjuration [Epic]
Your possess energies that allow you to summon and move creatures about.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Conjuration spell
Benefits: All conjuration spells with a casting time of 1 round have their casting times reduced to 1 standard action. Summoned and called monsters need not be brought forth into environments capable of supporting them. Once per encounter, you can teleport one creature within 100 feet of yourself into any other square within 100 feet of yourself. A successful Will save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier) negates this movement.

Master of Divination [Epic]
You can act exactly as you need to in order to succeed at almost any task.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Divination spell
Benefits: All emanations that your divination spells create are doubled in size and you are aware when there is information that your divination spells is unable to detect, though you don’t automatically learn what knowledge you are kept from. Once per encounter, you can add your caster level as a bonus to an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Using this feat requires no action.

Master of Enchantment[Epic]
You can make others act exactly as you would want them to with your impressive powers.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Enchantment spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting enchantment spells, though only basic concepts can be conveyed and such targets gain a +10 bonus to their saving throw. A creature who succeeds on a saving throw against one of your enchantment spells is unaware that they were ever targeted. Once per encounter, you can force a single creature to follow your instructions for 1 round as is dominated unless it succeeds on a Will Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Master of Evocation [Epic]
You blast targets into dust with your control over the fundamental energies of existence.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Evocation spell
Benefits: All evocation spells you cast ignore spell resistance and energy resistance and deal half damage even against creatures immune to the relevant form of energy. Once per encounter, you can choose a form of energy and deal 1d6 damage/caster level of that form of energy to a target within 100 feet, or half of that if they succeed on a Reflex Save (DC 10 + caster level + Intelligence modifier).

Master of Illusion[Epic]
You can fool the senses of others with incredibly ease.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Illusion spell
Benefits: You can affect mindless creatures with your mind-affecting illusion spells. Touching an illusion you have that allows for saving throws to disbelieve does not allow the target to automatically disbelieve as such illusions now create imagined tactile sensations. Once per encounter, you can turn yourself or a creature within 100 feet of yourself invisible for 1 round. While invisible, the target can’t be seen through see invisibility or true seeing, is unaffected by glitterdust, faerie fire, and invisibility purge, and can’t be detected by scent, blindsight, blindsense, or tremorsense.

Master of Necromancy [Epic]
You gain mastery over the forces of death.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Necromancy spell
Benefits: All undead you create with necromancy spells are automatically under your control (counting towards your normal maximum) and your necromancy spells bypass any immunities granted by the undead type or by death ward effects. Once per encounter, you can reanimate any number of dead creatures within 100 feet of yourself as skeletons or zombies (depending on the state of the bodies) with a total HD of up to your caster level. These undead only lasts until the end of the encounter before falling apart.

Master of Transmutation [Epic]
You twist the forms of others in magnificent ways.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 2 7th-, 2 8th-, and 1 9th-level Transmutation spell.
Benefits: You gain the supernatural abilities of any creature you transform into using transmutation spells. Any bonuses to ability scores granted by your transmutation spells are doubled. Once per encounter, you may grant yourself a burrow speed, fly speed (with perfect maneuverability), or swim speed equal to your land speed or double your land speed until the end of the encounter.

Midnight Mastery [Epic, Incarnum]
You can empower all of your incarnum feats simultaneously
Prerequisites: Four or more incarnum feats.
Benefits: Once per day, you may invest essentia into this feat. All other incarnum feats you possess are treated as possessing additional invested essentia equal to the the amount of essential invested in this feat (up to the normal maximum). Once the amount of essentia has been chosen, it cannot be changed and remains invested for 24 hours.

You gain one point of essential for each incarnum feat you possess.

Multispeak [Epic]
You possess the gift of speaking in tongues, invoking multiple utterances simultaneously.
Prerequisites: Quicken Utterance
Benefits: You may use an additional quickened utterance each round.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Necrocarnum Puppetry [Epic]
Using the power of necrocarnum, you can keep yourself for another creature acting beyond death.
Prerequisites: True Necrocarnate
Benefits: Whenever you or an ally within 50 feet would otherwise die, you may delay their deaths using necrocarnum as an immediate action. The target ignores death and may act normally while dying for 1 round per soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have bound (minimum 1 round). At the end of this time, the target falls dead regardless of any healing effects he or she may have received during this time. After using this ability, you may not use it again until 1d4 rounds after the previous target has died.

Opportunistic Mystery [Epic]
You can use any opening to cast another mystery
Prerequisites: Combat Reflexes, Spellcraft 25 ranks
Benefit: Whenever you could make an attack of opportunity, you may instead cast a mystery. No metashadow feats may be applied to this mystery.

Piercing Mystery [Epic, Metashadow]
You can force a mystery to pierce through your enemy’s defenses.
Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effect of the piercing mystery feat to any mystery you cast. A piercing mystery ignores its target’s Spell Resistance, if any would apply.
Casting a piercing mystery is a full-round action.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Quick Psychoportation [Epic, Psionic]
Utilizing psychoportation is as easy for you as moving through space.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychoportation discipline.
Benefits: You may manifest a single power of the psychoportation discipline as part of any other move action.

Reactive Psychometabolism [Epic, Psionic]
Your body is quite capable of responding to physical harm when required.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the psychometabolism discipline.
Benefits: Whenever an enemy successfully attacks you and deals hit point damage, you may manifest a power of the psychometabolism discipline as an immediate action.

Recitation of the Deathless State [Epic]
This recitation allows your body to deny death.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 35 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: You may act naturally at 0 and fewer hit points and do not die at -10 or fewer hit points until the end of your next round when you successfully use this recitation.

Recitation of the Fluid State [Epic]
This recitation allows you to free yourself from most impediments
Prerequisites: Truespeak 30 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: You grant yourself the benefit of a freedom of movement effect for 1 round.

Recitation of the Martial State [Epic]
This recitation allows you to enter the front lines of battle.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 30 ranks, ability to speak utterances, must know your personal truename
Benefits: When you successfully use this recitation, your base attack bonus is increased to your ranks in truespeak -3 (unless already higher) and you gain proficiency with all weaponry until the end of your next round. If you make a full attack within this time, the duration is extended by one additional round.

Renown [Epic]
You are known far and wide for your greatness
Prerequisites: Epic Leadership
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your leadership score.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Savage Blitz [Epic]
You and your allies can barely contain yourselves when combat starts
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus + 20, Superior Initiative
Benefits: Whenever you roll initiative, all allies who rolled a lower initiative score may take their actions immediately after yours in the order of your choice (decided after initiative is rolled).

Selective Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can prevent your spells from harming your allies.
Benefits: This feat can only be applied to spells that create areas. When casting a spell modified by this metamagic effect, you may select any number of targets within its area. Only the chosen creatures are affected by the spell. A selective spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Strengthen Spell [Epic, Metamagic]
You can affect more powerful creatures with your magic.
Benefits: A spell with this metamagic feat applied to it treats all creatures as if they had two fewer hit dice for all purposes (this does not affect the saving throws of creatures), down to a minimum of 1 HD. A strengthened spell occupies a spell slot one higher than its normal spell level.
Special: Unlike most metamagic effects, a single spell can be strengthened multiple time. Increases to the spell level accrued in this way stack with themselves.

Subtle Telepathy [Epic, Psionic]
You can sneak a telepathic power onto another power that you cast.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the telepathy discipline.
Benefits: Whenever you manifest a target of a discipline other than telepathy that targets a single creature, you may simultaneously manifest a power of the telepathy discipline with a single target, targeting the exact same creature.

Superior Counterspell [Epic]
You can counterspell an opponent with unparalleled ease.
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell
Benefits: You need not ready an action in order to counter an opponent’s spell.

Superior Necrocarnum Puppetry [Epic]
You can use your necrocarnum to control a creature that would otherwise die.
Prerequisites: Necrocarnum Puppetry
Benefits: You may use your necrocarnum puppetry on an enemy, taking control of its body for as long as it remains aactive in this way. This functions much as dominate monster (no save) except that immunity against mind-affecting effects doesn’t protect the creature as his or her body is being controlled directly.

Superior Spellcaster [Epic]
Your spells are more powerful than those of others
Prerequisites: Caster level 30th
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your caster level.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Its effects stack.

Tarrasque Carapace [Epic, Wild]
You can manifest the carapace of the dreaded tarrasque to protect you from both attacks and magic.
Prerequisites: Wild Shape 10/day
Benefits: By paying four uses of your wild shape class feature, you can take on the great defenses of the tarrasque. You gain a +30 bonus to your natural armor, Damage Reduction 15/epic, and all lines, rays, cones, and magic missiles harmlessly deflect off of you, possessing a 30% chance of rebounding against the caster.

Tenacious Soulmelds [Epic]
It is almost impossible to rob you of your soulmelds
Benefits: Whenever a soulmeld bound to one of your chakras becomes unshaped, it returns 1d4 rounds later bound the the same Chakra. That chakra counts as being occupied by the soulmeld even while it is gone.

Threatening Presence [Epic]
Others are often terrified by your presence on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Epic Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Benefit: enemies within 10 feet of you are shaken (no save). This is a fear effect.
Whenever you make a successful attack, the target of the attack must make a Will save (DC 10 + your class level) or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. This is a piercing fear effect.

True Clairsentience [Epic, Psionic]
You think far more efficiently than most creatures in existence.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the clairsentience discipline.
Benefits: As a full-round action, you may manifest any number of powers of the clairsentience discipline.

True Necrocarnate [Epic]
You can control a greater amount of zombies animated through incarnum.
Prerequisites: Ability to bind soulmelds to crown chakra, access to the necrocarnum circlet
Benefits: For each soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have shaped, you can animate and control an additional necrocarnum zombie using your necrocarnum circlet. Furthermore, all unintelligent undead react to you as if you were another undead so long as you possess at least one such soulmeld shaped and you gain a +2 bonus to Charisma checks made against sentient undead for each such soulmeld shaped.
Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected after the first, you may animate and control an additional number of necrocarnum zombie for each soulmeld with the necrocarnum descriptor you have shaped.

True Self-Sufficiency [Epic]
You require nothing and nobody else to survive.
Prerequisites: Outsider type
Benefits: You do not need to breathe to survive.

Two-Weapon Cleave [Epic]
You are a blur of swinging weapons out on the battlefield
Prerequisites: Great Cleave, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting
Benefits: Whenever you make use of the great cleave feat, you are granted one cleave attack with each of your two weapons.

Unaligned [Epic]
You have broken free from the metaphysical framework of ethics and morals in the multiverse.
Prerequisites: True Neutral
Benefits: Your alignment can’t be detected by any means. You gain immunity to any or all effects that function based on your alignment. You meet prerequisites as though true neutral. When you die, your soul simply vanishes, though you can still be revived from the dead.
Special: Though your character is free to believe to the contrary, thiis feat does not free you from ethical and moral matters. While it frees you from the cosmic concept of alignment, you still make choices for yourself and can likely still be labeled as being of a particular alignment by your actions.

Vile Entity [Epic, Vile]
Your very essence is filled with dark power that you express with every spell.
Prerequisites: Five or more vile feats
Benefits: All damage that you deal with your spells or attacks is treated as vile damage.

Web of Metacreativity [Epic, Psionic]
The objects and creature you create emanate the same psychic aura as yourself.
Prerequisites: ability to manifest five or more powers of the metacreativity discipline.
Benefits: You may manifest powers as if occupied the same square as any object or creature you create with metacreativity powers. If the duration of such a power is instantaneous or permanent, you may only manifest powers in this way within 5 rounds of first manifesting the power to create that object or creatures.

Wordsense [Epic]
You can detect the presence of spoken words in your environment.
Prerequisites: Truespeak 25 ranks
Benefits: You can detect all spoken words within 500 feet of yourself regardless of interposing barriers and your (in)ability to hear these words. This ability allows you to hear the words spoken and pinpoint the speakers in space. This ability does not detect telepathic or nonverbal communication.

NineOfSpades

2020-06-11, 12:52 PM

AvatarVecna

2020-06-11, 01:40 PM

I recently attempted to build a Grand Creator (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?247756-Librim-Eternia-Tome-of-Epic-Prestige-(Completed)&p=13461751#post13461751), and came to a rather stunning realization.

Caged Miracles is broken.

Not Broken as in 'this ability is so strong it shatters any semblance of game balance' but broken as in 'this ability has a fundamental flaw which renders it non-functional'. Bad Broken.

First, the text of the ability

Starting at 2nd level, a grand creator can perform the otherwise impossible and create items that utilize or imitate epic spells. Doing so isn’t cheap, however, for the spell’s gp cost to develop is used in place of [caster level x spell level] when calculating the price of the item. The grand creator must make a successful spellcraft check when creating the item but people using epic spells in scrolls and similar sources need not make such a check. A grand creator may have up to one such epic item in creation at a time at 2nd level and one additional such item every 5 levels afterwards. Creating such items beyond this limit disenchants another item of the grand creator’s choice. Epic spells written onto scrolls can’t be copied into spellbooks.

On the surface, it seems straightforward and appropriate. An Epic Item Crafter can make gear with Epic Spells, sounds perfect. But it isnt.

Lets start with an example. Suppose that We take a 30th level Grand Creator, and they decide they want to make a scroll that casts an epic spell. The formula for the price of the magic item is [Spell Development DC x 9000] x [Item type multiplier]. So for a scroll (or any single use spell completion item), that formula is 25 x Spell Development DC x 9000 gp.

So with our 30th level crafter wants to make a scroll, and lets not be greedy, and say the epic spell has a DC of 30. This is pretty low, all things considered. At 30th level, a crafter could reliably make epic spells with DC's closer to 50 or 60. But again, keep it simple. So DC 30 into the formula gives the result of 6,750,000 GP. WOW That is a LOT. But thankfully, that is the price of the item. The cost to create the item is only half of that (as per normal crafting rules), so that drops it down to only 3,375,000 GP.

3,375,000 GP is crazy. At level 30, the WBL is expected to be around 4,300,000 GP. So for a mere 78.5% of your expected wealth, you get a single scroll that can cast a spell once. That is NOT ok. Even if you only intended to ever cast the spell once, you'd be better off just researching the spell normally. Doing so would only cost 270,000 GP, and afterwards you would know the epic spell Forever and be able to cast it multiple times per day, if you felt like it.

Now, I suspect some people will point out that if you are playing a dedicated crafter, you'd probably have access to feats and items and effects that work to reduce the cost of item crafting. Its kind of par for the course. So then, perhaps the expectation is that any Grand Creator worth their Golems would already have those effects in place to bring the cost down?

I'll go into the math on that in a second, but before I do, I think that argument is flawed. Class features should not be designed so that the Expectation is that the player will have to optimize themselves just to use them. Nobody looks at RAW truenamer and says its good build design. And this should be doubly true when applied to the already broken optimization that can be brought about via crafting and WBL manipulation.

But lets try it anyway, just to check. Using The Cost Reduction Handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1000.0) and stacking every applicable modifier to cut costs down, we get a reduction (after already applying the 50% reduction for crafting it ourselves) of 90% (Item Requires Specific Skill) x 70% (Item requires a specific class or alignment) x 90% (Apprentice (Craftsman) Feat) x 75% (Extraordinary Artisan) x 80% (Binding a colossal elemental) x 75% (Magical Artisan) x 90% (Guild Membership) x 95% (Favored In Guild) = 21.82%.

So with excessive build design, we can reduce the cost by 21.82%. Pretty good! And furthermore, Grand Creator gets to select 8 epic spell seeds which reduces the cost to develop spells with that seed by half. Lets make sure our scroll uses one of those!

Applying all these benefits we get the following scroll cost.

[DC 30 x 9000 x 0.5 (Spell seed reduction)] x 25GP (Scroll) x 0.5 (Crafting) x 0.2182 (Crafting cost reduction) = 368,212.5 GP. That is a significant improvement from the initial 3,375,000 GP. But, and I want to stress this, It doesn't matter. Because even though 368,212.5 GP is a lot cheaper, if we apply the spell seed reduction to the cost of developing the epic spell instead of making the caged miracle, it'd only cost [DC 30 x 9000 x 0.5 (Spell seed reduction)] = 135,000 GP.

Even with all the reduction and optimization, making a caged miracle of a spell costs 2.73 times as much as just researching it. And in fact, it will Always be the case that a caged miracle costs more (often much much more) than the cost of just researching and developing an epic spell. Because the cost of the caged miracle uses [cost of development] as an element in the formula, no matter how much item crafting cost reduction you can apply, it will never decrease the cost of development to lower than the cost of just researching. Stacking additional cost reduction multipliers (like the simple miracle epic feat) won't change that.

If C is the cost of a caged miracle, X is the cost of researching an epic spell, and Y is the product of the item type and all cost reduction multipliers, than it follows that C=X*Y, and that C=X if and only if Y=1.

Remember also, this math was done with the cheapest possible item to make. In a real game, a PC would probably want to make items that aren't single use, ideally being either at will or at least a limited number of times per day, especially since you can only have a (Grand Creator Level / 5) Caged miracle items at a time. I wont bother writing it all out, but making an item with 1/day use of a DC 30 epic spell as a caged miracle ends up costing 26,511,300 GP, which is 196.38 times the cost of researching that same spell and over 6 times the expected wealth by level.

Caged Miracle is broken, it does not work. It is a class feature which is mathematically less effective than just not using it.

I don't really have a great solution at this time. My best suggestion would be to make the formula for caged miracles [Item Type Multiplier] x 5 x [Epic Spell Development DC^2]. I arrived at this by looking at the different item types cost as a factor of wealth by level and saw that there was a consistant pattern, and used that to extrapolate out to epic levels. It results in caged miracles being comparable to magic items using 10th level spells or higher. You may find this cost to low, but I would argue that it should be low, because the number of caged miracles that a Grand Creator can have is already limited by level. It would be unfair to also limit it to a High expenditure of GP.

Caged Miracle is too expensive to use normally in any optimal way, otherwise known as "the primary problem with all epic spellcasting". Of course, this is the one class where it's less problematic, because not only can you build epic spells into items, you can build temporary items that take 0% normal gp, 0% normal XP, and 0.69% normal time to craft (and separately, your crafting speed multiplies by 10 every 5 levels, and is explicitly supposed to make that temporary crafting stronger). And the only real limit is your spellcraft bonus.

[spoiler=Examples]Lvl 26, you have 29 ranks, +15 from Int, item familiar for +29, and a +30 item for Spellcraft, and taking 10 via artificer. Crafting speed is x100 from Grand Creator, x4/3 from Exceptional Artisan, and...let's end it there, actually. Epic spells are effectively 10th lvl spells, so crafting some kinda item with an epic spell in it will have a starting Wondercraft DC of 30 going up 1 per round after. Assuming you stop once taking 10 would no longer meet the DC, you get 84 rounds of crafting at a rate of 133,333 gp worth per round. Final worth of the temporary magic item is 11,200,000 gp, and epic spells cost 4500 per DC to craft from your primary seeds.

11.2 mil can be a scroll of up to ~DC 99 epic spell.

Lvl 31, you have 34 ranks, +20 from Int, item familiar for +34, and a +60 item for Spellcraft (epic items making boosting this so much easier). Crafting speed is x1000 from Grand Creator, x4/3 from Exceptional Artisan. DC climbs until it hits 158 and then you stop, giving you 129 rounds of crafting at a rate of 1,333,333 gp worth per round. Final worth of this temporary item is 172,000,000 gp.

172 mil can be:
Scroll up to DC 1528
50-charge wand up to DC 50

Lvl 36, you have 39 ranks, +30 from Int, item familiar for +39, and a +100 item for spellcraft (epic crafting gets nuts quickly). Yada yada DC yada yada craft rate yada yada item's final worth is 2.52 billion gp. That takes 19 minutes to craft and lasts either 190 or 1900 minutes, btw.

2.52 billion gp is an at-will use-activated item of an epic spell of up to DC 280. It is, alternatively, an item of +500 to one attribute, or 96 pearls of power for every spell level up to 20th, if that's your preference instead.

Past this point, Wondercraft basically makes the game unplayable - either you're a Grand Creator creating a pile of "temporary" magic items worth more than the planet's weight in gold, or you're not. The only reason the examples go so high into the levels is because Caged Miracles is expensive even for Wondercrafting. Because the example I didn't do is lvl 21.

Lvl 21, you got 24 ranks, Int +10, no item familiar, and a +30 magic item. You'll get at least 46 rounds of crafting if you're not making an epic spell, and that's at least 10000 gp per round, for a final temporary item worth 460k and lasting 46 minutes. By non-epic standards this is utterly absurd. This is where Wondercraft starts at lvl 21. This is assuming you're a pretty **** artificer. And it's still Batman pulling whatever nonsense he needs to out of his utility belt.