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The Demented One
2007-08-23, 10:58 PM
Alchemist of Life

Alchemists of Life are mages who study the creation and transformation of living creatures. Through years of study of anatomy, biology, and alchemy, they are capable of artificially replicating living creatures, and altering them until they are almost unrecognizable. Many of the strange unnatural creatures that roam the world, such as owlbears, that are commonly said to have been created by mad wizards, were actually carefully designed by an Alchemist of Life. They are commonly feared and persecuted by many who call their works abominable and unnatural.

d4 HD

Requirements
To qualify to become an Alchemist of Life, you must fulfill all the following criteria.
Feats: Spell Focus (Transmutation)
Skills: Knowledge (Any Two) 12 ranks, Heal 6 ranks
Spellcasting: Must be able capable of casting 5th-level arcane spells.

Class Skills
The Alchemist of Life’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nature), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack[br]Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Genesis|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Extraordinary Augmentation|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Arcane Power|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Master of Life|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Perfected Alchemy|+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class[/table]

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Alchemist of Life prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
You gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spellcasting
Whenever you gain a new Alchemist of Life level, you gain new spells per day and spells known as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class you belonged to before you added the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained

Genesis (Su)
At 1st level, you gain the ability to create life, artificially creating copies of other creatures. Doing so is a somewhat lengthy and laborious process. Before you can start, you must first thoroughly study the creature. Doing so requires you to obtain either a living sample of the creature to study, or a set of tissues gathered from a dead creature including blood, muscle tissue, nervous tissue, and any other important parts of the creature’s anatomy. You must then study your sample for a number of hours equal to the creature’s HD. At the end of your study, you must make a Knowledge check, with a DC equal to 15 + the creature’s HD. The kind of Knowledge skill you must use to make the check depends on the creature’s type; consult the table below. If you fail the check, you may retry it, but only after studying your sample again.

Knowledge Checks
{table=head]Knowledge|Creature Types
Arcana|Dragons, Magical Beasts
Dungeoneering|Aberrations, Oozes
Local|Humanoids
Nature|Animals, Fey, Giants, Monstrous Humanoids, Plants Vermin
[/table]

Once you have completed your study, you can use your skills to recreate the creature you have studied. However, there are some limitations on your ability to create life. You cannot create a creature with HD greater than your caster level, nor may you create creatures not of the aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin types.

The process of creating a creature requires you to possess a laboratory in which you can perform your experiments. Creating and stocking a proper laboratory costs 5,000 gp. In addition, the creation process requires expensive organic reagents worth 1,000 gp per HD of the creature to be created, and you must spend 40 xp per HD of the created creature. The process takes a number of days equal to the amount of HD the creature has.

Once created, the creature is perfectly normal for a creature of its kind, with one exception. It is difficult to create intelligent creatures with this ability, thus, any created creature’s Intelligence score is lowered to 2 if it would normally be higher. More skilled Alchemists of Life can circumvent this with the Extraordinary Augmentation ability, but at a cost. Creatures created with this ability are not under your control, but their default attitude towards you is Helpful, and will obey your commands as long as they are well treated. If you sell one of your creations, it can typically be sold for an amount of gp equal to 2,000 times its HD.

Extraordinary Augmentation (Su)
At 2nd level, you can alter the creatures you create, improving them. There are four main kinds of extraordinary augmentations–ability modifications, inherent modifications, natural attacks, special attacks, special qualities, and type changes, detailed below.

Ability Modifications
You can increase the ability scores–physical or mental–of a creature you create. For every point you increase a creature’s scores, you must spend an additional 250 gp of components and 10 xp in the creation process. However, you can offset this cost by lowering another one of the creature’s scores. Every point you lower the creature’s ability scores reduces the cost by 250 gp and 10 xp, though this cannot reduce the creation cost to below the base total. The total sum of the modifications you make to the creature’s ability scores cannot exceed one-half your caster level.

Inherent Modifications
You can modify a creature’s HD, natural armor, and movement forms. You can add any amount of extra HD, as long as the total does not exceed your caster level. These extra HD affect the creation time and cost normally. If the extra HD would cause a creature to grow in size, as per its advancement line, then it does so. You can increase a creature’s natural armor bonus by an amount equal to up to one-quarter your caster level; each point of natural armor raises the cost of creation by 250 gp and 10 xp. In addition, you can both increase one of the creature’s existing movement rates by 10 ft., and grant it a new movement form, at a rate equal to half its base land speed. If you grant the creature a fly speed, its default maneuverability is clumsy; you may improve it one step by spending an additional 50 gp and 2 xp. Either option increases the cost by 250 gp and 10 xp.

Natural Attacks
You can grant the creature new natural attacks. Adding a natural attack increases the cost of creation by 100 gp and 4 xp. The total number of natural attacks you can add is equal to one-quarter your caster level. Each new natural attack deals damage normally for the creature’s size. The natural attacks you may add are:

Bite: The creature gains a bite attack as a primary natural weapon.
Claws: The creature gains a pair of claw attacks as secondary natural weapons.
Gore: The creature gains a gore attack as a secondary natural weapon. If used at the end of a charge attack, it deals double damage.
Slam: The creature gains a pair of slam attacks as a secondary natural weapon.
Tail: The creature gains a tail attack as a secondary natural weapon. It may add one and a half times its Strength modifier to damage rolls made with it.
Tentacle: The creature gains a tentacle attack as a secondary natural weapon. The natural reach of a tentacle attack is increased by 5 ft.


Special Attacks
You may give the creature new special attacks, picked from the list below. The total number of special qualities you can add is equal to one-quarter your caster level. Each special attack you give it increases the creation cost by 250 gp and 10 xp. You may choose from the following special attacks:

Constrict: With a successful grapple check, the creature deals damage equal to the damage dealt by its primary natural weapon.
Improved Grab: Whenever the creature successfully hits another character of its size or smaller with its primary natural attack, it may begin a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Poison: The creature’s primary natural weapon delivers a potent poison. The poison’s DC is Constitution based, and it deals 1d4 ability damage to an ability score of your choice. You may increase the ability damage dice by one step, but doing so increases this ability’s cost by 250 gp and 10 xp.
Pounce: Whenever the creature makes a charge attack, it may make a full attack at the end.
Rake: The creature gains two additional claw attacks, which it can only attack with when grappling a creature or at the end of a charge. The creature must already have a claw attack before you can add the rake special attack to it.
Swallow Whole: If the creature begins its turn with a foe of two sizes smaller than it or smaller in a hold, it may make a grapple check to attempt to swallow that foe. Once inside, the swallowed creature takes both acid and bludgeoning damage. Both kinds of damage are determined using dice of one-half the size of the creature’s primary natural attack’s damage dice, rounded down. A swallowed creature can escape by dealing an amount of damage equal to one-tenth the creature’s maximum hp to its gullet. The gullet has an AC of 10 + ½ the creature’s natural armor bonus. The creature’s gullet can hold two creatures whose size categories are two steps lower than its own, eight creatures whose size categories are three steps lower than its own, and so on. You can only give this ability to creatures of Huge size or larger that have the improved grab special attack.
Trample: As a full-round action, the creature may move up to twice its speed and run over any creatures one size smaller or smaller than itself. These creatures take damage equal to the damage dealt by the creature’s primary natural attack plus their Strength modifier. Trampled creatures either make an attack of opportunity against the creature, taking a -4 penalty on the attack roll, or attempt a Strength-based Reflex save for half damage.


Special Qualiteies
You may give the creature new special qualities, picked from the list below. The total number of special qualities you can add is equal to one-quarter your caster level. Each special quality you give it increases the creation cost by 250 gp and 10 xp. You may choose from the following special qualities:

Blindsight: The creature gains blindsight out to 30 ft. You may extend its range up to 90 ft. but every 15 ft. you extend it by increases this ability’s cost by 250 gp and 10 xp.
Blindsense: The creature gains blindsense out to 60 ft. You may extend its range up to 120 ft., but every 30 ft. you extend it by increases this ability’s cost by 250 gp and 10 xp.
Damage Reduction: The creature gains damage reduction 5/magic. You may increase the amount of damage reduction up to 15, but every for every point you increase it, this ability’s cost is increased by 50 gp and 2 xp. In addition, you may change the type of damage required to overcome the reduction. If you change it so that a specific damage type–bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing–is required to overcome the reduction, the cost is unchanged. If you change it so that a special material or specific alignment is required to overcome the reduction, the cost of this ability is increased by 250 gp and 10 xp. If you change it so that the reduction cannot be overcome, the cost of this ability is increased by 500 gp and 20 xp, and you cannot raise the amount of the damage reduction at all.
Darkvision: The creature gains darkvision out to 60 ft. This ability costs only 50 gp and 2 xp.
Fast Healing: The creature gains fast healing 1. You can increase the amount of fast healing up to 5, but every 1 you increase it by increases the cost of this ability by 250 gp and 10 xp. Alternatively, you can grant regeneration to the creature, but doing so doubles the cost of this ability. The regeneration be overcome by a single energy type, material, or damage type, as chosen by you.
Resistance: The creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type–acid, cold, electricy, fire, or sonic. You may grant it resistance 10 to an additional energy type or increase the amount of resistance by ten, up to a maximum of 30 to one energy type by spending an additional 250 gp and 10 xp. You may grant it immunity to an energy type by spending an additional 750 gp and 30 xp.
Low-Light Vision: The creature gains low-light vision. This ability costs only 50 gp and 2 xp.
Scent: The creature gains scent. This ability costs only 50 gp and 2 xp.
Spell Resistance: The creature gains spell resistance equal to 5 + its HD. You may increase this ability to up to twice the creature’s HD, but every for every point you increase it, this ability’s cost is increased by 50 gp and 2 xp.
Tremorsense: The creature gains tremorsense out to 60 ft. You may extend its range up to 120 ft., but every 30 ft. you extend it by increases this ability’s cost by 250 gp and 10 xp.


Type Change
You may change the creature’s type. It does not gain the augmented subtype if you do so, and gains all the traits of its new type. The cost to change a creature’s type depends on the type you change it to. Changing its type to dragon increases the cost by 25 gp and 5 xp for every HD the creature has. Changing its type to magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant increases the cost by 25 gp and 5 xp for every 2 HD the creature has, and changing its type to aberration, animal, fey, giant, humanoid, ooze, or vermin increases its cost by 25 gp and 5 xp for every 3 HD the creature has. You cannot change its type to construct, elemental, outsider, or undead

Arcane Power (Sp)
At 3rd level, you can grant your creatures spell-like abilities. The number of spell-like abilities you can grant it is equal to one-fifth your caster level. You can only grant it spells that you yourself can cast, and you cannot grant it spells whose level is greater than ½ of its HD, rounded down. Each spell like ability you grant it can be used once per day, and has a Charisma-based save. The creature’s caster level is equal to its HD. Each spell-like ability you grant it increases the cost by 50 gp times the spell’s level, and 2 xp times the spell’s level. You can grant it an additional daily use of a spell-like ability, up to a maximum of five times per day, by spending an additional 100 gp and 2 xp. You can allow it to use a spell-like ability at will by spending an additional 500 gp and 20 xp. You cannot grant it spells with expensive material components, foci, or xp costs as spell-like abilities.

Master of Life (Su)
At 4th level, you gain further control over your creations. Whenever you create a creature, you may choose to place it under your direct mental control. It is not allowed a save to resist this. The creature obeys your every command with complete loyalty, as if it were dominated. The maximum HD of creatures you can control this way is equal to four times your caster level. You can permanently release a creature from this control as a free action in order to place a new creature under your control.

Perfected Alchemy (Su)
At 5th level, you have mastered the process of creating life. The total time, gp cost, and xp cost it takes you to create a creature is reduced by 25%.

martyboy74
2007-08-24, 06:50 AM
That only suggestion that I have is a re-naming of Genesis; there're already enough spells running around with that name.

How does the Master Artisan series of feats interacts with this?

The Demented One
2007-08-24, 12:56 PM
That only suggestion that I have is a re-naming of Genesis; there're already enough spells running around with that name.
Good point. I'll try to come up with a good name.


How does the Master Artisan series of feats interacts with this?
They don't, nor does anything else that affects item creation.

martyboy74
2007-08-24, 01:16 PM
Alright. Just curious, but are you ging to add any feats like the ones in the book that does not exist that let you change the form of astral constructs?

Oh yeah. Crysmals!