Kael_Thor
2017-10-28, 01:30 PM
This is my soulknife prestige class. It is a soulknife/shaper who doesn't use power points, but rather a resource the class generates themselves, their orbs.
With this class I wanted to not only expand on the soulknife ability to form something from nothing, but also move the economy away from a daily power point limit into an action economy based limit, where the character has to spend actions, usually standard actions, to make the resource to use for their abilities.
Personally I don't like "3 times per day" things, and was heavily inspired by Ethermagic from Interjection Games and the Psionic Armory from Dreamscarred Press when I made this.
I like the concept of the soulknife, especially the Pathfinder version with the blade skills and all, but I wanted to give it some out of combat utility as well, and I wanted to expand upon the whole "make something with my mind" thing. So I made this. The concept basically started as: 'a soulknife once thought "I make things with my mind. Psions can make things with their mind. How about we combine the two?"' and it developed from there.
Multiple orbs of condensed darkness and light orbited the man. He reached out, plucking one before shaping it into a crossbow and began firing at his foe. The woman closed her eyes in concentration as multiple crystal shards manifested, floating lazily around her body. She gestured towards her foes and the crystals flew forth to entrap the surprised goblins within crystalline bonds. The old man smiled as he finally found the book he was looking for before absent mindedly shaping one of the cubes orbiting him into a chair for him to sit upon as he eagerly began to read the tome.
Forming and creating items from thin air is a skill honed by many who practice the psychic arts.
Some, like the soulknife, form a weapon out of psionic energy. Others, like the shaper, shape ectoplasm into a variety of objects. Some decide to combine the two, using the different techniques together to form create an entirely new discipline. These are the Orb Forgers and what they give up in terms of raw power they make up for in flexibility and longevity, for few can outlast an Orb Forger.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become an orb forger, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Craft (any) 5 ranks, Craft (Sculpting) 5 ranks
Psionics: Enhanced Mind Blade class feature
Class Skills
The orb forger’s class skills (and the key ability modifier for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Knowledge (Psionics) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks at each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Table: The Orb Forger
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Orbs
Mind Blade Prog
1
+0
+0
+0
+1
Conjure orbs, Orb Forged Mind Blade, Orb Creation, Orbed Blade Skill
4
-
2
+1
+1
+1
+1
Reinforcing Orb, Practised Forger
6
+1 level of mind blade
3
+2
+1
+1
+2
Orbed Blade Skill
8
+1 level of mind blade
4
+3
+1
+1
+2
Psychic Strike
10
+1 level of mind blade
5
+3
+2
+2
+3
Orbed Blade Skill
12
+1 level of mind blade
6
+4
+2
+2
+3
Launch Orbs, Orb Creation Greater
14
-
7
+5
+2
+2
+4
Orbed Blade Skill
16
+1 level of mind blade
8
+6
+3
+3
+4
Adaptive Orbs
18
+1 level of mind blade
9
+6
+3
+3
+5
Orbed Blade Skill
20
+1 level of mind blade
10
+7
+3
+3
+5
Orb Savant
22
-
Class Features
All the following are class features of the orb forger prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Orb Forgers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Mind Blade:
At indicated levels, treat the orb forger as if he had gained a level of soulknife for the purposes of Enhanced Mind Blade, including Mind Blade maximum enhancement bonus.
The orb forger does not gain any other benefits from an increased level (blade skills, etc.), but see below.
Conjure Orbs (Su)
An Orb Forger is able to manifest multiple orbs floating around herself formed from condensed ectoplasm combined with the Orb Forger's own psionic energy. The Orb Forger chooses the appearance of these orbs, including shape and composition, but a general rule is that the orbs are no larger than a fist, appear to be made from a cross between ectoplasm and the Orb Forger's normal mind blade, and anything made from the orbs are visibly made from the same material as the orbs.
As a standard action, the Orb Forger may manifest up to 1+Wis modifier(min 2) number of orbs.
A 1st level Orb Forger may maintain up to 4 orbs at the same time, this limit increases by two for every level of orb forger beyond 1st, as indicated in the table above.
These orbs are the Orb Forger’s material that she uses to fuel her abilities, by shaping the orb into a new form. Forming and shaping the orbs is a supernatural ability.
When using her orbs to fuel her abilities, unless otherwise noted, the Orb Forger Invests one orb, forming the resulting effect from that orb, while any other orbs used are Expended. If the ability only uses one orb, it is always Invested, not Expended.
An Invested orb still counts towards how many orbs the Orb Forger can maintain and remains invested for the duration of the ability, at the end of which the orb disappears. The Orb Forger may choose to remanifest the Invested orb before the duration expires, but doing so ends the effect the orb was Invested into instantly.
Expended orbs simply act as additional fuel for the effect they are expended for and do not count towards the number of orbs that may be maintained at once and may thus be replaced without impacting the effect they were used for.
Jane can maintain 12 orbs the same time.
She forms 3 into mind blades and uses 2 for other purposes, leaving her with 7 remaining orbs and 3 Invested orbs, effectively 10 orbs remaining. She can conjure 5 new orbs to replace the ones used, dispersing her mind blades in the process, or she can conjure 2 new orbs, leaving her mind blades manifested.
However the 2 orbs she used was used to reinforce herself using Reinforcing Orb, meaning one of the orbs was Invested. If she still chooses to manifest both of these orbs, her reinforcement is instantly dismissed. Only when the duration of the reinforcement ends can she replace the Invested orb without also dismissing the effect at the same time.
Additionally, if Jane uses 1 orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation to create a chair, the Invested orb is used to form the chair and still counts as a manifested orb.
However if she instead creates two chairs from the same use of Ectoplasmic Creation they still only count as the one Invested orb as they come from the same orb.
Similarly, if she manifests Major Ectoplasmic Creation the object or objects created still only count as one Invested orb.
So two stone chairs manifested from the same manifesting only count as one Invested orb, even though five orbs were used in manifesting the power.
Only the Orb Forger may interact with these orbs but anything formed from the orbs, such as Orb Forged Mind Blades or items made by the use of Ectoplasmic Creation, can be interacted with by anyone as normal Unless directed otherwise they orbit over and around her in seemingly random patterns within the Orb Forger's space.
The orbs remain manifested as long as the orb forger is conscious or until used, even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field) as long as the orb forger succeeds on a DC 20 Will save, just as with the mind blade class ability, however the orbs cannot be used to fuel any ability while within a null psionics field.
The orb forger can instantly dismiss anything made from her orbs as a free action.
Orb Forged Mind Blade (Su)
The Orb Forger may Invest one orb to form a mind blade from that orb as a free action, but may only do so once per round. She may not form two mind blades from the same orb.
A mind blade formed this way functions in all ways as a normal mind blade, except as follows:
The weapon’s hardness and hit points are increased by 1 for each orb forger level.
The orb forged mind blade does not dissipate when the orb forger lets go of it.
When formed, the orb forged mind blade floats around the orb forger in a similar manner to that of her orbs and when released(note: not thrown or dismissed) the orb forged mind blade resumes floating around the orb forger. When thrown, the blade dissipates as normal as per the Throw Mind Blade ability.
The orb forger may, as a swift action, call an orb forged mind blade to her hand, which causes the orb forged mind blade to instantly move to her hand and she may use it as normal. As a swift action, the orb forger may release her currently held orb forged mind blade and call a different orb forged mind blade to her hand. The orb forger may not change between her orb forged mind blades during a full-attack action.
She may form more than one orb forged mind blade this way, each orb forged mind blade may be configured individually in terms of appearance, damage types, attributes and enhancements, in all manners the different orb forged mind blades are separate from each other.
She can maintain up to Wis modifier(min 1) orb forged mind blades at the same time.
At 1st level, if she forms more than one orb forged mind blade, their enhancement bonus is reduced by 1 for each mind blade after the first.
At 3rd level, she becomes able to form two orb forged mind blades without reduction in their enhancement bonus, and at 6th level, she can form three orb forger mind blades without reduction in enhancement bonus. Any other mind blades formed still occur the enhancement bonus reduction.
Jane can, at 3rd level, form two orb forged mind blade with an enhancement bonus of 4.
If she makes a third mind blade, that mind incurs the penalty, forming with a bonus of 3.
If she makes a forth mind blade, both the third and forth mind blades incur the penalty, reducing their enhancement bonus to 2.
An orb forged mind blade retains its shape as long as it is wielded by the Orb Forger and may be reshaped as a standard action. The orb forged mind blade counts as 'wielded' as long as it is within the orb forger's space, similar to her orbs, even if it is not currently being held. However the orb forger may only perform attacks of opportunity using an orb forged mind blade she is holding.
In all other respects, the Orb Forged Mind Blade functions as a the form mind blade class feature, and is subject to anything that would affect a mind blade, save crystalline hilts (see item section).
The orb forger may not use an orb forged mind blade in place of her orbs for her other class abilities, such as Orb Creation, unless otherwise noted.
Orb Creation (Su, Sp)
The Orb Forger gains the ability to manifest select powers using her orbs to form and fuel the effects. Through the shaping of the used orbs, the Orb Forger manifests the chosen power as a psi-like ability.
While shaping orbs is a supernatural ability, using them to manifest a power is a psi-like ability. Effectively the supernatural ability to shape the orbs becomes part of the manifesting action, similar to somatic components for arcane magic. This means that, while the shaping of the orbs cannot be counterspelled, manifesting the power can. Similarly shaping the orbs does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but manifesting the power does.
At 1st level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use one orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Trinket.
At 2nd level she may, as a standard action, use one orb to manifest Astral Construct.
For every additional orb spent this way, increase the level of the astral construct by one.
The maximum level of Astral Construct she can create is equal to half her caster level.
At 3rd level she may, with a manifesting time of 1 min, use one orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation.
At 4th level she may, as a standard action, use two orbs to manifest Psionic Lock. The invested orb is what is holding the door etc closed and is fully visible while in effect.
At 5th level she may, as a standard action, Invest two orbs to form a platform with a duration of 10 min/lvl.
The Orb Forger can move this platform with her as she moves, but only at half her normal speed. The platform may not support more than one creature at a time.
The platform has a hardness of 5 and 10 hit points and may not be larger than the orb forger’s space, 5 feet for Medium orb forgers, 10 feet for Large etc, but does not have to be in the shape of one continuous platform.
As part of the manifesting action, the Orb Forger chooses either Body Equilibrium or Wall Walker. The platform allows the Orb Forger to emulate the chosen power’s effect.
Alternatively she may expend her psionic focus to, as an immediate action, Invest two orbs and form a platform that allows her to emulate the Feather Fall effect, with a duration of 1 round/lvl.
The orb forger's manifester level for purposes that deal with her orbs is equal to her character level.
When manifesting powers this way, the Orb Forger may not augment them with metapsionic feats or using power points, unless otherwise noted.
The duration of powers manifested with Orb Creation may never exceed 1 hour per orb forger levels. In addition if the orb forger moves more than medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per manifester lvl) away from a manifested power, the power dissipates instantly.
Other than as stated above, the power is manifested normally.
Note: any power manifested using orbs is visibly created from the same material as the orbs themselves.
Orbed Blade Skill
At 1st level and every two levels thereafter, the orb forger gains a blade skill. This blade skill can be selected from any list of blade skills that she could select from previously, in addition to a new list she gains access to as an orb forger. When selecting this blade skill, the orb forger’s level is treated as her soulknife level plus her orb forger level.
Reinforcing Orb (Su)
At 2nd level, the orb forger learns to use her orbs to reinforce certain objects by infusing the object with her orbs.
By Investing 1 orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, reinforce an astral construct she has made, and may pick an additional option from an astral construct menu that matches the level of the construct. She may not choose to use this additional option to gain two abilities from a lower level menu. The bonus gained from this option lasts as long as the Astral Construct remains manifested. This ability cannot be used multiple times on the same Astral Construct.
By Investing one orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, touch a willing creature to reinforce their body to greatly enhance their athletic prowess, granting the target the benefits of the Mental Leap or the Speed of Thought psionic feats, even if the target does not have a psionic focus.
By Investing two orbs, the target gains the benefit of both feats. However unlike normal, the target may not expend their psionic focus to increase the effects of the gained feats.
This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1 round per two orb forger levels(min 1).
By Expending at least 1 orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, reinforce an object created with Ectoplasmic Trinket or Ectoplasmic Creation(both regular and Major). For every orb used, the object's hardness and hit points and the DC to dispel the object are increased by 1 per two orb forger levels. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1 round per two orb forger levels(min 1).
If the object has taken damage while enhanced this way that would normally destroy it, even if the object was not destroyed due to the increased hit points, when this bonus expires the object will be destroyed.
Practised Forger
Beginning at 2nd level, the Orb Forger gains a +2 bonus to her Craft rolls when crafting something using her orbs (such as when manifesting Ectoplasmic Creation or creating an Astral Construct using Orb Creation). This bonus increases to +4 at 6th level and +6 at 10th level.
Psychic Strike
At 4th level and again at 8th level, the orb forger’s psychic strike damage increases by one die of damage. If the orb forger does not have the psychic strike ability, she gains the psychic strike ability, dealing 1d8 points of damage at 4th level and 2d8 points of damage at 8th level.
However unlike other soulknives, the orb forger need not charge her mind blade with her psychic strike, instead she may choose to charge her astral construct with part of or the whole psychic strike damage, allowing the construct to deliver the psychic strike damage using it's natural attacks.
Similarly she may spread her psychic strike among her manifested orb forged mind blades. if the orb forger has a psychic strike damage of 3d8, she could charge 2d8 into her orb forged mind blades and 1d8 into her astral construct, or she could charge an astral construct with 2d8 and an orb forged mind blade with 1d8 etc.
As normal, psychic strike is only expended when the orb forger actively discharges the ability. If an orb forged mind blade or astral construct that has been charged with psychic strike dissipates for any reason, the orb forger may recreate them as normal still charged with the same charge they had when dissipating. This does not allow the orb forger to have more psychic strike charges at a time than her maximum (I.e. if she can deal 3d8 psychic strike damage, she can only have up to 3d8 charged at a time, she may not 'store' charges), if she charges a new construct or orb forged mind blade the previous charge is wasted.
Only Astral Constructs and mind blades may be charged with psychic strike.
Other than as stated above, the orb forger's psychic strike functions as normal.
Launch Orb (Su, Sp)
At 6th level, the orb forger gains the ability to use her Orb Creation ability in a different way.
As a standard action, she may infuse one of her orbs with one of the powers listed below. Infusing an orb with a power is a psi-like ability and triggers an attack of opportunity.
Launching an infused orb is a supernatural ability and does not trigger an attack of opportunity.
Infused orbs count as Invested orbs and cannot be used for any other ability other than Launch Orb.
As a standard action, she may launch an infused orb as a ranged touch attack with a range of Close (25 ft.+5 ft./2 levels).
On a successful attack, the orb bursts apart, releasing the imbued power upon the target. The power is resolved as normal against the target. If the attack does not succeed, both the orb and the power are wasted.
The orb forger may Expend four orbs to Infuse one orb with the Crystalline Bonds power.
For every additional orb spent this way, increase the size of the target the power can affect by one,
or
increase the continuous damage done by 1d6. Regardless of option chosen, for every additional orb spent manifesting this power, increase the save DC and break free DC by 1.
The orb forger may Expend one orb to Infuse one orb with the Entangling Ectoplasm power.
For every additional orb spent this way, the power may affect a target one size category larger and the DC to break free increases by 1.
Alternatively the orb forger may Expend one of her orbs to Infuse one orb with increased integrity and strength in order to use the infused orb to perform ranged combat manoeuvres. This functions as the combat manoeuvre portion of the Ectoplasmic Hand spell and has the same duration as the spell, however rather than a hand connected to the caster, the orb forger instead directs and uses her orb to perform the combat manoeuvres.
You can spend a standard action to command the ectoplasmic hand to perform a bull rush, disarm, drag, steal, or trip combat maneuver against a target creature, using your caster level as its CMB and your spellcasting ability score as its Strength score. The ectoplasmic hand takes no penalties for its size. This action doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity against the ectoplasmic hand.
Orb Creation, Greater (Su, Sp)
The Orb Forger's skill with her orbs has increased to the point of allowing her to manifest more advanced powers using her Orb Creation ability.
At 6th level the orb forger may, with a manifesting time of 1 min, use five orbs to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, Major.
At 7th level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use three orbs to manifest Ectoplasmic Grapnel.
For every additional orb spent this way, extend the duration of the power to 1 round per orb forger level if the ranged touch attack hits, and the cord does not automatically retract; you may choose to retract or extend the cord up to 30 feet (to the limit of the power’s range) as a standard action, and must succeed at a combat maneuver check each time you attempt to drag an unwilling creature in this manner. Other creatures may climb or manipulate the cord as they would a rope, but it is as strong as a chain. An unwilling creature attached to the grapnel must cut (5 hp, hardness 10, AC 10) or burst (Str DC 26) the cord to move away from you, unless he succeeds at a drag combat maneuver check to pull you behind him. If the cord is cut or burst, or if you let go of the cord (a free action), the power ends immediately,
or
increase the range of the power to medium (100 ft +10 ft/lvl).
For every 2 additional orbs spent this way, allow the cord to retract the full length instantly. A successful combat maneuver check, by any margin, pulls the target adjacent to you, while a failed combat maneuver check pulls you adjacent to the target (unless you relinquish the cord and go prone instead),
or
increase the size of creature the power may drag by 1 and the cord’s hardness increases by 2, hit points increases by 10, and break DC increases by 2,
or
manifest the power as a move action.
Additionally for every additional orb spent manifesting this power, gain +1 to any combat maneuver checks or Climb checks made with this power.
At 8th level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use four orbs to manifest Wall of Ectoplasm.
Adaptive Orbs (Su)
Whenever the 8th level Orb Forger uses her Orb Creation or Orb Creation, Greater abilities, she may expend her psionic focus to apply her choice of the following metapsionic feats to that ability:
Ectoplasmic Power
Enlarge Power
Extend Power
Hustle Power
Merciful Power
Orb Savant (Su)
At 10th level, the orb forger has reached a greater level of mastery over her orbs and may use the heightened adrenaline of combat to increase her orb generation. Every round the orb forger is in combat, she automatically generates one orb if she is not at her maximum.
Also she is now capable of creating as many orb forged mind blades as she can sustain without any reduction in enhancement bonus and her mind blade maximum enhancement bonus increases to +5.
Additionally, three times per day, by expending her psionic focus, the orb forger may briefly surpass her limits in one of the following ways:
halve the orb cost of manifesting a power using Orb Creation for that round
or
manifest as many orbs as she can sustain at once as a standard action
or
switch orb forged mind blades between attacks when making a full-attack against a target. However she may only deliver on hit effects, such as psychic strike, once per full-attack.
Orbed Blade Skills
Only an orb forger may choose from the following list of blade skills:
Astral Tasker
Prereq: Orb Forger lvl 2, Advanced Constructs feat
You gain additional options for a Utility Astral Construct depending on the level of the Astral Construct.
You can create a specialised utility Astral Construct, called an Astral Tasker, that, in addition to the normal abilities offered by a utility Astral Construct, can be reshaped to grant additional capability depending on its level. Reshaping an Astral Tasker always requires a successful Craft (sculpting) check with a DC of 10+ twice the tasker’s level. Reshaping an Astral Tasker is always done when manifesting it, an already manifested Astral Tasker cannot be further reshaped.
A 2nd or higher level Astral Tasker can be reshaped into a quadruped. This results in an increase in its speed to 50 feet, +4 CMD against Trip, and the tasker can be ridden if the character riding weighs less than the tasker’s carrying capacity. Additionally, in this form, it is easier to strap bags or crates to the tasker or use it to pull a cart. However, it loses the ability to manipulate objects since it has no arms or hands. Taskers of 3rd level or higher that has been shaped into a quadruped can also have a single set of arms added so as to manipulate objects as normal.
A 3rd or higher level Astral Tasker can be shaped with an extra set of arms. These extra arms allow the tasker to perform certain tasks quicker (such as stacking wood); the speed increase is up to the DM.
A 4th or higher level Astral Tasker can be reshaped so it resembles a two-wheeled object such as a cart. This cart can be pushed or pulled at a speed of up to 70 feet. Note the tasker cannot move by itself, it has to be pushed or pulled by something else. Up to two Medium-size creatures/characters can be carried on a Medium wheeled astral tasker if their weight is less than its carrying capacity. A Large wheeled astral tasker resembles a four-wheeled cart and can carry four Medium sized creatures/characters if their weight is less than its carrying capacity. Taskers of 5th level or higher that have been shaped into a cart can also have a single set of arms added so as to manipulate objects as normal. An Astral Tasker cannot have both wheels and also be quadrupeds.
A 5th or higher level Astral Tasker can be imbued with a small amount of knowledge, granting it the ability to perform tasks as though it has a specific profession or craft skill. The skill granted is equal to that of the orb forger, meaning the orb forger cannot grant a skill she does not herself have. An Astral Tasker can only be imbued with a single skill at a time.
For example, an orb forger with the Craft (blacksmithing) skill can create an Astral Tasker and imbue it with blacksmithing.
Additionally Taskers of 6th or higher level that have been empowered with a profession or craft can have an extra set of arms added so as to perform certain tasks quicker (such as using hammer and anvil); the speed increase is up to the DM.
Taskers that have been empowered with a profession or craft cannot have wheels or be quadrupeds. Any 5th-level taskers that are wheeled resemble a four-wheeled cart and can carry up to four Medium-size creatures/characters if their weight is less than its carrying capacity.
Blade Shield
The Orb Forger can, as a standard action, Invest at least one orb, up to a maximum of 1 per two orb forger levels, to further solidify her orb forged mind blades, allowing her orb forged mind blades to protect her. As part of the action to use this blade skill, the orb forger chooses one orb forged mind blade per invested orb. The orb forger gains 1 shield bonus to AC per orb forged mind blade chosen, to a maximum of +5.
The bonus gained remains as long as the chosen orb forged mind blades remain. If one of the chosen orb forged mind blades dissipates, the bonus is reduced by 1 but the orb invested into that orb forger mind blade can be remanifested.
Craft (Orb Forging)
An orb forger with this blade skill gains access to a new skill: craft (orb forging). This skill may be substituted for normal craft skill rolls when using the orb forger's orbs, , such as when sculpting Astral Constructs manifested using Orb Creation.
Exotic Orb Forging
An orb forger with this blade skill may select silver, cold iron, or adamantine when she creates a weapon using an orb, such as through the Orb Forged Mind Blade feature. The weapon is treated as being made of the chosen material with the following exception: the created weapons bypass damage reduction, but not hardness, as though they were made of the chosen material. A DM may choose to allow other materials to be used with this blade skill.
Expanded Orb Manifestation
An orb forger with this blade skill has learned to maintain a greater number of orbs. Add the orb forger's Wis modifier to her character level when determining how many orbs the orb forger may have manifested at the same time.
Floating Stairs
Prerequisite: Orb forger level 5
The Orb Forger learns to telekinetically fixate limited orb creations in place, even in mid air. When using Orb Creation to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, she may Expend an additional orb to affix her creation in space, even floating in mid air.
She is effectively making her creation into an Immovable rod.
However when using this blade skill, the Orb Forger may only create objects up to 1 cubic foot in volume per orb used to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, rather than her normal volume.
Launch Orb Forged Mind Blade
As a standard action, an orb forger with this blade skill may make a ranged attack against a target within 30 feet using an orb forged mind blade not currently being held by the orb forger. The orb forged mind blade is launched at the target and dissipates afterwards, regardless of whether the attack is successful or not.
Orb Trap
The Orb Forger may, as a standard action, Invest one orb to place a trap on a touched surface. The trap takes one round to arm. Once triggered, the trap dissipates.
The Perception and Disable Device DC for this trap is 20.
The trap has a proximity trigger that triggers when any creature, including the orb forger, is within 5 feet of the trap after it is armed.
Upon being triggered, the trap launches spikes at the triggering creature, using the orb forger's BAB and Wis mod to determine its attack bonus and deals 1d8+1 piercing and slashing dmg. For every additional orb spent, increase the damage by 1d8 and increase the Perception and Disable Device DC by one.
Traps made using this blade skill have a duration of 1 hour per orb forger level, additionally if the orb forger moves more than medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per manifester lvl) away from the trap it dissipates instantly.
Orbed Armor
Prerequisite: Form Mind Armaments class ability
An orb forger with this blade skill has learned to improve her mind armor using her orbs. By infusing her mind armor with an orb, the armor’s hardness and hit points are increased by 1 for each orb forger level and the mind armor’s enhancement bonus is increased by one. The orb forger’s mind armor counts as one of her active orb forged mind blades as long as the armor is improved in this way.
Orbed Shield
As an immediate action when targeted by an attack, the orb forger may choose a number of orb forged mind blades she has manifested to protect her, gaining deflection AC equal to the number of orb forged mind blades used against that attack. The orb forged mind blades used in this way are consumed.
Orbed Strike
Prerequisite: Psychic Strike
An orb forger with this blade skill may, as a standard action, imbue her psychic strike into one of her orbs and launch that orb as a ranged touch attack with a range of Close (25 ft.+5 ft./2 levels), that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage in addition to her psychic strike damage. Even if the attack is not successful, the psychic strike is expended.
Psychokinetic Grenade
Prereq: Orbed Strike
The Orb Forger may turn her Orbed Strike into an area attack with explosive psychokinetic energies. When imbuing her psychic strike into on of her orbs, an Orb Forger may Invest one orb other than the one being imbued to charge the strike with greater energy. This turns the Orbed Strike into a Psychokinetic Grenade.
Upon successfully hitting the target with a Psychokinetic Grenade, the orb explodes as if it were a splash weapon, dealing damage to all creatures within a 10-foot-radius zone from the targeted creature. Creatures who succeed on a Reflex save take half damage from this effect.
The splash damage is equal to the psychic strike damage. The initial target does not take the normal 1d6 bludgeoning damage associated with an Orbed Strike.
Rapid Forging
Prerequisite: Orb Forger level 5
An orb forger with this blade skill may form her orb forged mind blades more rapidly than others. As a standard action, she may form up to as many orb forged mind blades as she can currently maintain. This does not allow the orb forger to maintain more orb forged mind blades than normal, but does allow her to exceed the limit on how many orb forged mind blades she may create per round.
Returning Throw
When throwing an orb forged mind blade, such as through the Throw mind blade feature or the Launch orb forged mind blade blade skill, the orb forged mind blade does not dissipate as normal but instead returns to the orb forger upon a successful attack. On a miss, the orb forged mind blade still dissipates.
Crstalline Hilts do not function well for Orb Forgers, so they had to make a substitute, the Crystalline Ioun stone.
Crystalline Ioun stone
Aura faint psychokinesis; ML 3rd (+1), 6th (+2), 9th (+3)
Slot weapon; Price 11,200 gp (+1), 44,800 gp (+2), 100,800 gp (+3); Weight 2 lbs
Description
A crystalline ioun stone looks like a common ioun stone made of deep crystal.
An Orb Forger with a crystalline ioun stone in their possession may use it to empower their Orb Forged Mind Blades.
This does not alter the action needed to manifest the Orb Forged Mind Blades, the Orb Forger must simply have the crystalline ioun stone orbit their person and choose to manifest their Orb Forged Mind Blade through the crystal in whatever way they choose.Some choose to have the orb enter into one side of the crystalline ioun stone and the Orb Forged Mind Blade emerge from the other. Others choose to hold the crystal ioun and use it almost as one would a divine focus.
Regardless of how it is done, when an Orb Forged Mind Blade is manifested empowered by a crystal ioun, the enhancement bonus and the maximum enhancement bonus of the Orb Forged Mind Blade is increased by the enhancement bonus of the crystalline ioun stone, although any enhancement bonus above +5 is lost.
Crystalline ioun stones have 45 hit points and a hardness of 15.
Crystalline ioun stones may only be made with a +1, +2, or +3 enhancement bonus.
Construction
Requirements Craft Crystalline Focus, ability to manifest Orb Forged Mind Blades; Cost 5,600 gp (+1), 22,400 gp (+2), 50,400 gp (+3)
With this class I wanted to not only expand on the soulknife ability to form something from nothing, but also move the economy away from a daily power point limit into an action economy based limit, where the character has to spend actions, usually standard actions, to make the resource to use for their abilities.
Personally I don't like "3 times per day" things, and was heavily inspired by Ethermagic from Interjection Games and the Psionic Armory from Dreamscarred Press when I made this.
I like the concept of the soulknife, especially the Pathfinder version with the blade skills and all, but I wanted to give it some out of combat utility as well, and I wanted to expand upon the whole "make something with my mind" thing. So I made this. The concept basically started as: 'a soulknife once thought "I make things with my mind. Psions can make things with their mind. How about we combine the two?"' and it developed from there.
Multiple orbs of condensed darkness and light orbited the man. He reached out, plucking one before shaping it into a crossbow and began firing at his foe. The woman closed her eyes in concentration as multiple crystal shards manifested, floating lazily around her body. She gestured towards her foes and the crystals flew forth to entrap the surprised goblins within crystalline bonds. The old man smiled as he finally found the book he was looking for before absent mindedly shaping one of the cubes orbiting him into a chair for him to sit upon as he eagerly began to read the tome.
Forming and creating items from thin air is a skill honed by many who practice the psychic arts.
Some, like the soulknife, form a weapon out of psionic energy. Others, like the shaper, shape ectoplasm into a variety of objects. Some decide to combine the two, using the different techniques together to form create an entirely new discipline. These are the Orb Forgers and what they give up in terms of raw power they make up for in flexibility and longevity, for few can outlast an Orb Forger.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become an orb forger, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Craft (any) 5 ranks, Craft (Sculpting) 5 ranks
Psionics: Enhanced Mind Blade class feature
Class Skills
The orb forger’s class skills (and the key ability modifier for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Knowledge (Psionics) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks at each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Table: The Orb Forger
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Orbs
Mind Blade Prog
1
+0
+0
+0
+1
Conjure orbs, Orb Forged Mind Blade, Orb Creation, Orbed Blade Skill
4
-
2
+1
+1
+1
+1
Reinforcing Orb, Practised Forger
6
+1 level of mind blade
3
+2
+1
+1
+2
Orbed Blade Skill
8
+1 level of mind blade
4
+3
+1
+1
+2
Psychic Strike
10
+1 level of mind blade
5
+3
+2
+2
+3
Orbed Blade Skill
12
+1 level of mind blade
6
+4
+2
+2
+3
Launch Orbs, Orb Creation Greater
14
-
7
+5
+2
+2
+4
Orbed Blade Skill
16
+1 level of mind blade
8
+6
+3
+3
+4
Adaptive Orbs
18
+1 level of mind blade
9
+6
+3
+3
+5
Orbed Blade Skill
20
+1 level of mind blade
10
+7
+3
+3
+5
Orb Savant
22
-
Class Features
All the following are class features of the orb forger prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Orb Forgers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Mind Blade:
At indicated levels, treat the orb forger as if he had gained a level of soulknife for the purposes of Enhanced Mind Blade, including Mind Blade maximum enhancement bonus.
The orb forger does not gain any other benefits from an increased level (blade skills, etc.), but see below.
Conjure Orbs (Su)
An Orb Forger is able to manifest multiple orbs floating around herself formed from condensed ectoplasm combined with the Orb Forger's own psionic energy. The Orb Forger chooses the appearance of these orbs, including shape and composition, but a general rule is that the orbs are no larger than a fist, appear to be made from a cross between ectoplasm and the Orb Forger's normal mind blade, and anything made from the orbs are visibly made from the same material as the orbs.
As a standard action, the Orb Forger may manifest up to 1+Wis modifier(min 2) number of orbs.
A 1st level Orb Forger may maintain up to 4 orbs at the same time, this limit increases by two for every level of orb forger beyond 1st, as indicated in the table above.
These orbs are the Orb Forger’s material that she uses to fuel her abilities, by shaping the orb into a new form. Forming and shaping the orbs is a supernatural ability.
When using her orbs to fuel her abilities, unless otherwise noted, the Orb Forger Invests one orb, forming the resulting effect from that orb, while any other orbs used are Expended. If the ability only uses one orb, it is always Invested, not Expended.
An Invested orb still counts towards how many orbs the Orb Forger can maintain and remains invested for the duration of the ability, at the end of which the orb disappears. The Orb Forger may choose to remanifest the Invested orb before the duration expires, but doing so ends the effect the orb was Invested into instantly.
Expended orbs simply act as additional fuel for the effect they are expended for and do not count towards the number of orbs that may be maintained at once and may thus be replaced without impacting the effect they were used for.
Jane can maintain 12 orbs the same time.
She forms 3 into mind blades and uses 2 for other purposes, leaving her with 7 remaining orbs and 3 Invested orbs, effectively 10 orbs remaining. She can conjure 5 new orbs to replace the ones used, dispersing her mind blades in the process, or she can conjure 2 new orbs, leaving her mind blades manifested.
However the 2 orbs she used was used to reinforce herself using Reinforcing Orb, meaning one of the orbs was Invested. If she still chooses to manifest both of these orbs, her reinforcement is instantly dismissed. Only when the duration of the reinforcement ends can she replace the Invested orb without also dismissing the effect at the same time.
Additionally, if Jane uses 1 orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation to create a chair, the Invested orb is used to form the chair and still counts as a manifested orb.
However if she instead creates two chairs from the same use of Ectoplasmic Creation they still only count as the one Invested orb as they come from the same orb.
Similarly, if she manifests Major Ectoplasmic Creation the object or objects created still only count as one Invested orb.
So two stone chairs manifested from the same manifesting only count as one Invested orb, even though five orbs were used in manifesting the power.
Only the Orb Forger may interact with these orbs but anything formed from the orbs, such as Orb Forged Mind Blades or items made by the use of Ectoplasmic Creation, can be interacted with by anyone as normal Unless directed otherwise they orbit over and around her in seemingly random patterns within the Orb Forger's space.
The orbs remain manifested as long as the orb forger is conscious or until used, even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field) as long as the orb forger succeeds on a DC 20 Will save, just as with the mind blade class ability, however the orbs cannot be used to fuel any ability while within a null psionics field.
The orb forger can instantly dismiss anything made from her orbs as a free action.
Orb Forged Mind Blade (Su)
The Orb Forger may Invest one orb to form a mind blade from that orb as a free action, but may only do so once per round. She may not form two mind blades from the same orb.
A mind blade formed this way functions in all ways as a normal mind blade, except as follows:
The weapon’s hardness and hit points are increased by 1 for each orb forger level.
The orb forged mind blade does not dissipate when the orb forger lets go of it.
When formed, the orb forged mind blade floats around the orb forger in a similar manner to that of her orbs and when released(note: not thrown or dismissed) the orb forged mind blade resumes floating around the orb forger. When thrown, the blade dissipates as normal as per the Throw Mind Blade ability.
The orb forger may, as a swift action, call an orb forged mind blade to her hand, which causes the orb forged mind blade to instantly move to her hand and she may use it as normal. As a swift action, the orb forger may release her currently held orb forged mind blade and call a different orb forged mind blade to her hand. The orb forger may not change between her orb forged mind blades during a full-attack action.
She may form more than one orb forged mind blade this way, each orb forged mind blade may be configured individually in terms of appearance, damage types, attributes and enhancements, in all manners the different orb forged mind blades are separate from each other.
She can maintain up to Wis modifier(min 1) orb forged mind blades at the same time.
At 1st level, if she forms more than one orb forged mind blade, their enhancement bonus is reduced by 1 for each mind blade after the first.
At 3rd level, she becomes able to form two orb forged mind blades without reduction in their enhancement bonus, and at 6th level, she can form three orb forger mind blades without reduction in enhancement bonus. Any other mind blades formed still occur the enhancement bonus reduction.
Jane can, at 3rd level, form two orb forged mind blade with an enhancement bonus of 4.
If she makes a third mind blade, that mind incurs the penalty, forming with a bonus of 3.
If she makes a forth mind blade, both the third and forth mind blades incur the penalty, reducing their enhancement bonus to 2.
An orb forged mind blade retains its shape as long as it is wielded by the Orb Forger and may be reshaped as a standard action. The orb forged mind blade counts as 'wielded' as long as it is within the orb forger's space, similar to her orbs, even if it is not currently being held. However the orb forger may only perform attacks of opportunity using an orb forged mind blade she is holding.
In all other respects, the Orb Forged Mind Blade functions as a the form mind blade class feature, and is subject to anything that would affect a mind blade, save crystalline hilts (see item section).
The orb forger may not use an orb forged mind blade in place of her orbs for her other class abilities, such as Orb Creation, unless otherwise noted.
Orb Creation (Su, Sp)
The Orb Forger gains the ability to manifest select powers using her orbs to form and fuel the effects. Through the shaping of the used orbs, the Orb Forger manifests the chosen power as a psi-like ability.
While shaping orbs is a supernatural ability, using them to manifest a power is a psi-like ability. Effectively the supernatural ability to shape the orbs becomes part of the manifesting action, similar to somatic components for arcane magic. This means that, while the shaping of the orbs cannot be counterspelled, manifesting the power can. Similarly shaping the orbs does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but manifesting the power does.
At 1st level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use one orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Trinket.
At 2nd level she may, as a standard action, use one orb to manifest Astral Construct.
For every additional orb spent this way, increase the level of the astral construct by one.
The maximum level of Astral Construct she can create is equal to half her caster level.
At 3rd level she may, with a manifesting time of 1 min, use one orb to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation.
At 4th level she may, as a standard action, use two orbs to manifest Psionic Lock. The invested orb is what is holding the door etc closed and is fully visible while in effect.
At 5th level she may, as a standard action, Invest two orbs to form a platform with a duration of 10 min/lvl.
The Orb Forger can move this platform with her as she moves, but only at half her normal speed. The platform may not support more than one creature at a time.
The platform has a hardness of 5 and 10 hit points and may not be larger than the orb forger’s space, 5 feet for Medium orb forgers, 10 feet for Large etc, but does not have to be in the shape of one continuous platform.
As part of the manifesting action, the Orb Forger chooses either Body Equilibrium or Wall Walker. The platform allows the Orb Forger to emulate the chosen power’s effect.
Alternatively she may expend her psionic focus to, as an immediate action, Invest two orbs and form a platform that allows her to emulate the Feather Fall effect, with a duration of 1 round/lvl.
The orb forger's manifester level for purposes that deal with her orbs is equal to her character level.
When manifesting powers this way, the Orb Forger may not augment them with metapsionic feats or using power points, unless otherwise noted.
The duration of powers manifested with Orb Creation may never exceed 1 hour per orb forger levels. In addition if the orb forger moves more than medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per manifester lvl) away from a manifested power, the power dissipates instantly.
Other than as stated above, the power is manifested normally.
Note: any power manifested using orbs is visibly created from the same material as the orbs themselves.
Orbed Blade Skill
At 1st level and every two levels thereafter, the orb forger gains a blade skill. This blade skill can be selected from any list of blade skills that she could select from previously, in addition to a new list she gains access to as an orb forger. When selecting this blade skill, the orb forger’s level is treated as her soulknife level plus her orb forger level.
Reinforcing Orb (Su)
At 2nd level, the orb forger learns to use her orbs to reinforce certain objects by infusing the object with her orbs.
By Investing 1 orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, reinforce an astral construct she has made, and may pick an additional option from an astral construct menu that matches the level of the construct. She may not choose to use this additional option to gain two abilities from a lower level menu. The bonus gained from this option lasts as long as the Astral Construct remains manifested. This ability cannot be used multiple times on the same Astral Construct.
By Investing one orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, touch a willing creature to reinforce their body to greatly enhance their athletic prowess, granting the target the benefits of the Mental Leap or the Speed of Thought psionic feats, even if the target does not have a psionic focus.
By Investing two orbs, the target gains the benefit of both feats. However unlike normal, the target may not expend their psionic focus to increase the effects of the gained feats.
This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1 round per two orb forger levels(min 1).
By Expending at least 1 orb, the orb forger may, as a standard action, reinforce an object created with Ectoplasmic Trinket or Ectoplasmic Creation(both regular and Major). For every orb used, the object's hardness and hit points and the DC to dispel the object are increased by 1 per two orb forger levels. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 1 round per two orb forger levels(min 1).
If the object has taken damage while enhanced this way that would normally destroy it, even if the object was not destroyed due to the increased hit points, when this bonus expires the object will be destroyed.
Practised Forger
Beginning at 2nd level, the Orb Forger gains a +2 bonus to her Craft rolls when crafting something using her orbs (such as when manifesting Ectoplasmic Creation or creating an Astral Construct using Orb Creation). This bonus increases to +4 at 6th level and +6 at 10th level.
Psychic Strike
At 4th level and again at 8th level, the orb forger’s psychic strike damage increases by one die of damage. If the orb forger does not have the psychic strike ability, she gains the psychic strike ability, dealing 1d8 points of damage at 4th level and 2d8 points of damage at 8th level.
However unlike other soulknives, the orb forger need not charge her mind blade with her psychic strike, instead she may choose to charge her astral construct with part of or the whole psychic strike damage, allowing the construct to deliver the psychic strike damage using it's natural attacks.
Similarly she may spread her psychic strike among her manifested orb forged mind blades. if the orb forger has a psychic strike damage of 3d8, she could charge 2d8 into her orb forged mind blades and 1d8 into her astral construct, or she could charge an astral construct with 2d8 and an orb forged mind blade with 1d8 etc.
As normal, psychic strike is only expended when the orb forger actively discharges the ability. If an orb forged mind blade or astral construct that has been charged with psychic strike dissipates for any reason, the orb forger may recreate them as normal still charged with the same charge they had when dissipating. This does not allow the orb forger to have more psychic strike charges at a time than her maximum (I.e. if she can deal 3d8 psychic strike damage, she can only have up to 3d8 charged at a time, she may not 'store' charges), if she charges a new construct or orb forged mind blade the previous charge is wasted.
Only Astral Constructs and mind blades may be charged with psychic strike.
Other than as stated above, the orb forger's psychic strike functions as normal.
Launch Orb (Su, Sp)
At 6th level, the orb forger gains the ability to use her Orb Creation ability in a different way.
As a standard action, she may infuse one of her orbs with one of the powers listed below. Infusing an orb with a power is a psi-like ability and triggers an attack of opportunity.
Launching an infused orb is a supernatural ability and does not trigger an attack of opportunity.
Infused orbs count as Invested orbs and cannot be used for any other ability other than Launch Orb.
As a standard action, she may launch an infused orb as a ranged touch attack with a range of Close (25 ft.+5 ft./2 levels).
On a successful attack, the orb bursts apart, releasing the imbued power upon the target. The power is resolved as normal against the target. If the attack does not succeed, both the orb and the power are wasted.
The orb forger may Expend four orbs to Infuse one orb with the Crystalline Bonds power.
For every additional orb spent this way, increase the size of the target the power can affect by one,
or
increase the continuous damage done by 1d6. Regardless of option chosen, for every additional orb spent manifesting this power, increase the save DC and break free DC by 1.
The orb forger may Expend one orb to Infuse one orb with the Entangling Ectoplasm power.
For every additional orb spent this way, the power may affect a target one size category larger and the DC to break free increases by 1.
Alternatively the orb forger may Expend one of her orbs to Infuse one orb with increased integrity and strength in order to use the infused orb to perform ranged combat manoeuvres. This functions as the combat manoeuvre portion of the Ectoplasmic Hand spell and has the same duration as the spell, however rather than a hand connected to the caster, the orb forger instead directs and uses her orb to perform the combat manoeuvres.
You can spend a standard action to command the ectoplasmic hand to perform a bull rush, disarm, drag, steal, or trip combat maneuver against a target creature, using your caster level as its CMB and your spellcasting ability score as its Strength score. The ectoplasmic hand takes no penalties for its size. This action doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity against the ectoplasmic hand.
Orb Creation, Greater (Su, Sp)
The Orb Forger's skill with her orbs has increased to the point of allowing her to manifest more advanced powers using her Orb Creation ability.
At 6th level the orb forger may, with a manifesting time of 1 min, use five orbs to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, Major.
At 7th level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use three orbs to manifest Ectoplasmic Grapnel.
For every additional orb spent this way, extend the duration of the power to 1 round per orb forger level if the ranged touch attack hits, and the cord does not automatically retract; you may choose to retract or extend the cord up to 30 feet (to the limit of the power’s range) as a standard action, and must succeed at a combat maneuver check each time you attempt to drag an unwilling creature in this manner. Other creatures may climb or manipulate the cord as they would a rope, but it is as strong as a chain. An unwilling creature attached to the grapnel must cut (5 hp, hardness 10, AC 10) or burst (Str DC 26) the cord to move away from you, unless he succeeds at a drag combat maneuver check to pull you behind him. If the cord is cut or burst, or if you let go of the cord (a free action), the power ends immediately,
or
increase the range of the power to medium (100 ft +10 ft/lvl).
For every 2 additional orbs spent this way, allow the cord to retract the full length instantly. A successful combat maneuver check, by any margin, pulls the target adjacent to you, while a failed combat maneuver check pulls you adjacent to the target (unless you relinquish the cord and go prone instead),
or
increase the size of creature the power may drag by 1 and the cord’s hardness increases by 2, hit points increases by 10, and break DC increases by 2,
or
manifest the power as a move action.
Additionally for every additional orb spent manifesting this power, gain +1 to any combat maneuver checks or Climb checks made with this power.
At 8th level the orb forger may, as a standard action, use four orbs to manifest Wall of Ectoplasm.
Adaptive Orbs (Su)
Whenever the 8th level Orb Forger uses her Orb Creation or Orb Creation, Greater abilities, she may expend her psionic focus to apply her choice of the following metapsionic feats to that ability:
Ectoplasmic Power
Enlarge Power
Extend Power
Hustle Power
Merciful Power
Orb Savant (Su)
At 10th level, the orb forger has reached a greater level of mastery over her orbs and may use the heightened adrenaline of combat to increase her orb generation. Every round the orb forger is in combat, she automatically generates one orb if she is not at her maximum.
Also she is now capable of creating as many orb forged mind blades as she can sustain without any reduction in enhancement bonus and her mind blade maximum enhancement bonus increases to +5.
Additionally, three times per day, by expending her psionic focus, the orb forger may briefly surpass her limits in one of the following ways:
halve the orb cost of manifesting a power using Orb Creation for that round
or
manifest as many orbs as she can sustain at once as a standard action
or
switch orb forged mind blades between attacks when making a full-attack against a target. However she may only deliver on hit effects, such as psychic strike, once per full-attack.
Orbed Blade Skills
Only an orb forger may choose from the following list of blade skills:
Astral Tasker
Prereq: Orb Forger lvl 2, Advanced Constructs feat
You gain additional options for a Utility Astral Construct depending on the level of the Astral Construct.
You can create a specialised utility Astral Construct, called an Astral Tasker, that, in addition to the normal abilities offered by a utility Astral Construct, can be reshaped to grant additional capability depending on its level. Reshaping an Astral Tasker always requires a successful Craft (sculpting) check with a DC of 10+ twice the tasker’s level. Reshaping an Astral Tasker is always done when manifesting it, an already manifested Astral Tasker cannot be further reshaped.
A 2nd or higher level Astral Tasker can be reshaped into a quadruped. This results in an increase in its speed to 50 feet, +4 CMD against Trip, and the tasker can be ridden if the character riding weighs less than the tasker’s carrying capacity. Additionally, in this form, it is easier to strap bags or crates to the tasker or use it to pull a cart. However, it loses the ability to manipulate objects since it has no arms or hands. Taskers of 3rd level or higher that has been shaped into a quadruped can also have a single set of arms added so as to manipulate objects as normal.
A 3rd or higher level Astral Tasker can be shaped with an extra set of arms. These extra arms allow the tasker to perform certain tasks quicker (such as stacking wood); the speed increase is up to the DM.
A 4th or higher level Astral Tasker can be reshaped so it resembles a two-wheeled object such as a cart. This cart can be pushed or pulled at a speed of up to 70 feet. Note the tasker cannot move by itself, it has to be pushed or pulled by something else. Up to two Medium-size creatures/characters can be carried on a Medium wheeled astral tasker if their weight is less than its carrying capacity. A Large wheeled astral tasker resembles a four-wheeled cart and can carry four Medium sized creatures/characters if their weight is less than its carrying capacity. Taskers of 5th level or higher that have been shaped into a cart can also have a single set of arms added so as to manipulate objects as normal. An Astral Tasker cannot have both wheels and also be quadrupeds.
A 5th or higher level Astral Tasker can be imbued with a small amount of knowledge, granting it the ability to perform tasks as though it has a specific profession or craft skill. The skill granted is equal to that of the orb forger, meaning the orb forger cannot grant a skill she does not herself have. An Astral Tasker can only be imbued with a single skill at a time.
For example, an orb forger with the Craft (blacksmithing) skill can create an Astral Tasker and imbue it with blacksmithing.
Additionally Taskers of 6th or higher level that have been empowered with a profession or craft can have an extra set of arms added so as to perform certain tasks quicker (such as using hammer and anvil); the speed increase is up to the DM.
Taskers that have been empowered with a profession or craft cannot have wheels or be quadrupeds. Any 5th-level taskers that are wheeled resemble a four-wheeled cart and can carry up to four Medium-size creatures/characters if their weight is less than its carrying capacity.
Blade Shield
The Orb Forger can, as a standard action, Invest at least one orb, up to a maximum of 1 per two orb forger levels, to further solidify her orb forged mind blades, allowing her orb forged mind blades to protect her. As part of the action to use this blade skill, the orb forger chooses one orb forged mind blade per invested orb. The orb forger gains 1 shield bonus to AC per orb forged mind blade chosen, to a maximum of +5.
The bonus gained remains as long as the chosen orb forged mind blades remain. If one of the chosen orb forged mind blades dissipates, the bonus is reduced by 1 but the orb invested into that orb forger mind blade can be remanifested.
Craft (Orb Forging)
An orb forger with this blade skill gains access to a new skill: craft (orb forging). This skill may be substituted for normal craft skill rolls when using the orb forger's orbs, , such as when sculpting Astral Constructs manifested using Orb Creation.
Exotic Orb Forging
An orb forger with this blade skill may select silver, cold iron, or adamantine when she creates a weapon using an orb, such as through the Orb Forged Mind Blade feature. The weapon is treated as being made of the chosen material with the following exception: the created weapons bypass damage reduction, but not hardness, as though they were made of the chosen material. A DM may choose to allow other materials to be used with this blade skill.
Expanded Orb Manifestation
An orb forger with this blade skill has learned to maintain a greater number of orbs. Add the orb forger's Wis modifier to her character level when determining how many orbs the orb forger may have manifested at the same time.
Floating Stairs
Prerequisite: Orb forger level 5
The Orb Forger learns to telekinetically fixate limited orb creations in place, even in mid air. When using Orb Creation to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, she may Expend an additional orb to affix her creation in space, even floating in mid air.
She is effectively making her creation into an Immovable rod.
However when using this blade skill, the Orb Forger may only create objects up to 1 cubic foot in volume per orb used to manifest Ectoplasmic Creation, rather than her normal volume.
Launch Orb Forged Mind Blade
As a standard action, an orb forger with this blade skill may make a ranged attack against a target within 30 feet using an orb forged mind blade not currently being held by the orb forger. The orb forged mind blade is launched at the target and dissipates afterwards, regardless of whether the attack is successful or not.
Orb Trap
The Orb Forger may, as a standard action, Invest one orb to place a trap on a touched surface. The trap takes one round to arm. Once triggered, the trap dissipates.
The Perception and Disable Device DC for this trap is 20.
The trap has a proximity trigger that triggers when any creature, including the orb forger, is within 5 feet of the trap after it is armed.
Upon being triggered, the trap launches spikes at the triggering creature, using the orb forger's BAB and Wis mod to determine its attack bonus and deals 1d8+1 piercing and slashing dmg. For every additional orb spent, increase the damage by 1d8 and increase the Perception and Disable Device DC by one.
Traps made using this blade skill have a duration of 1 hour per orb forger level, additionally if the orb forger moves more than medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per manifester lvl) away from the trap it dissipates instantly.
Orbed Armor
Prerequisite: Form Mind Armaments class ability
An orb forger with this blade skill has learned to improve her mind armor using her orbs. By infusing her mind armor with an orb, the armor’s hardness and hit points are increased by 1 for each orb forger level and the mind armor’s enhancement bonus is increased by one. The orb forger’s mind armor counts as one of her active orb forged mind blades as long as the armor is improved in this way.
Orbed Shield
As an immediate action when targeted by an attack, the orb forger may choose a number of orb forged mind blades she has manifested to protect her, gaining deflection AC equal to the number of orb forged mind blades used against that attack. The orb forged mind blades used in this way are consumed.
Orbed Strike
Prerequisite: Psychic Strike
An orb forger with this blade skill may, as a standard action, imbue her psychic strike into one of her orbs and launch that orb as a ranged touch attack with a range of Close (25 ft.+5 ft./2 levels), that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage in addition to her psychic strike damage. Even if the attack is not successful, the psychic strike is expended.
Psychokinetic Grenade
Prereq: Orbed Strike
The Orb Forger may turn her Orbed Strike into an area attack with explosive psychokinetic energies. When imbuing her psychic strike into on of her orbs, an Orb Forger may Invest one orb other than the one being imbued to charge the strike with greater energy. This turns the Orbed Strike into a Psychokinetic Grenade.
Upon successfully hitting the target with a Psychokinetic Grenade, the orb explodes as if it were a splash weapon, dealing damage to all creatures within a 10-foot-radius zone from the targeted creature. Creatures who succeed on a Reflex save take half damage from this effect.
The splash damage is equal to the psychic strike damage. The initial target does not take the normal 1d6 bludgeoning damage associated with an Orbed Strike.
Rapid Forging
Prerequisite: Orb Forger level 5
An orb forger with this blade skill may form her orb forged mind blades more rapidly than others. As a standard action, she may form up to as many orb forged mind blades as she can currently maintain. This does not allow the orb forger to maintain more orb forged mind blades than normal, but does allow her to exceed the limit on how many orb forged mind blades she may create per round.
Returning Throw
When throwing an orb forged mind blade, such as through the Throw mind blade feature or the Launch orb forged mind blade blade skill, the orb forged mind blade does not dissipate as normal but instead returns to the orb forger upon a successful attack. On a miss, the orb forged mind blade still dissipates.
Crstalline Hilts do not function well for Orb Forgers, so they had to make a substitute, the Crystalline Ioun stone.
Crystalline Ioun stone
Aura faint psychokinesis; ML 3rd (+1), 6th (+2), 9th (+3)
Slot weapon; Price 11,200 gp (+1), 44,800 gp (+2), 100,800 gp (+3); Weight 2 lbs
Description
A crystalline ioun stone looks like a common ioun stone made of deep crystal.
An Orb Forger with a crystalline ioun stone in their possession may use it to empower their Orb Forged Mind Blades.
This does not alter the action needed to manifest the Orb Forged Mind Blades, the Orb Forger must simply have the crystalline ioun stone orbit their person and choose to manifest their Orb Forged Mind Blade through the crystal in whatever way they choose.Some choose to have the orb enter into one side of the crystalline ioun stone and the Orb Forged Mind Blade emerge from the other. Others choose to hold the crystal ioun and use it almost as one would a divine focus.
Regardless of how it is done, when an Orb Forged Mind Blade is manifested empowered by a crystal ioun, the enhancement bonus and the maximum enhancement bonus of the Orb Forged Mind Blade is increased by the enhancement bonus of the crystalline ioun stone, although any enhancement bonus above +5 is lost.
Crystalline ioun stones have 45 hit points and a hardness of 15.
Crystalline ioun stones may only be made with a +1, +2, or +3 enhancement bonus.
Construction
Requirements Craft Crystalline Focus, ability to manifest Orb Forged Mind Blades; Cost 5,600 gp (+1), 22,400 gp (+2), 50,400 gp (+3)