Jinnblood (Base Class Contest XIX winner, PEACH)

[Zaydos]

Jinnblood
“Good? Evil? What matter these constructs of the mind. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, all things are made from these, all things have their wellspring there. They are true power!” – Hayden Fraes, a large ham barmy jinnblood

A jinnblood is wields the power of the elements, flowing naturally from their fingertips. Reliant primarily on a raw surge of jumbled elemental energy as their primary offense, a jinnblood has a variety of other abilities open to them. Their elemental invocations are primarily usable freely, but some develop more specialized powers that require several moments of calm between uses, or even hold such power that they can only be used once a day.

Adventures: A jinnblood might adventure for any of many reasons. Many born on the Prime find that their powers are distrusted, confused with the demonic powers of warlocks, and adventure because they have little place in society. Others adventure out of curiosity. Their powers are a rarity, an inborn connection to one of the four elements which leads them to a kinship with it. To many just trying to find out why this is, what gave them this power, is reason enough to adventure as such knowledge is beyond common men held by those with power, or in places of lost power.

On the Inner Planes, and to a limited extent the Outer Planes, they are more respected and common. Where a Prime Material jinnblood may adventure to find out why they have this power, planar jinnblood often feel they already know. Many take to adventuring out of a sense of pride, they have been gifted this great power and it would be a shame to squander it in a life that is merely ordinary. Others adventure because even on the planes they feel out of place in mortal society, more at home in the wilds of the Elemental Planes, and with a burning desire to unlock the tightly guarded secrets of these worlds.

Characteristics: A jinnblood wields the powers of the elements themselves, channeling them into magical effects. At their most basic a jinnblood is a ranged combatant, relying on their elemental blast to either weaken or kill enemies. Their invocations provide a variety of boons allowing them a mixture of defensive abilities, fogs and walls which serve to reshape the battlefield, and various utility powers. A jinnblood’s abilities makes them well suited to traversing hostile environments, such as those found on the Inner Planes.

Alignment: Jinnbloods show no strong tendencies towards any alignment. Earth jinnbloods show a leaning towards the lawful alignments, while air and fire jinnbloods are more commonly chaotic. Fire jinnbloods are also polarized between moral alignment, being most commonly passionately good or evil, meanwhile air blooded are usually unconcerned with good or evil. Earth blooded show no strong leaning towards good, evil, or even neutrality in the moral sense, and water blooded reflect their race’s alignment spread fairly evenly.

On the Inner Planes this changes somewhat, as many jinnbloods find themselves aligning with one of the Archomentals. As such jinnbloods on the Inner Planes are more commonly divided between good and evil.

Religion: Many jinnbloods turn to gods with a strong tie to one or more of the elements, especially the one corresponding to their path. Others worship gods of nature as a whole, or travel, while still others forgo gods altogether stitching together a somewhat animistic worship of the elements directly. On the Inner Planes, and on Prime Material Planes where they are well known, many jinnbloods worship the Archomental Princes and Princesses of Elemental Good and Evil.

Background: The power of a jinnblood typically comes naturally. The common theory is that they have traces of genie descent and in some sort of genetic throwback they redevelop these powers which connects them to the elements. Others are descended from other elemental creatures, or are elemental creatures themselves. Rarer are the jinnblood who are the children of elementally dedicated priests and druids who manifest naturally some of the magical powers of their parents. Other jinnbloods have an almost inexplicable connection to the elements the source of which is varied, sometimes it is a matter of the place they were born some leaking of elemental essence into the plane, other times it could simply be fate. It is said that jinnbloods are born not made, but this simple phrase may be wrong. Stories tell of monasteries on the Inner Planes, and a few Primes, were sages teach a creature to harmonize with the elemental powers within them opening themselves to act as a conduit to the raw power of the elemental planes.

Races: Among the common races jinnbloods show up most commonly in cultures that deal heavily with denizens of the Inner Planes or with strong elemental connections. As such humans, and some elven civilizations, sometimes count jinnbloods among their numbers, but it is in dwarves and gnomes that jinnbloods specifically earth blooded ones are most common. Outside of the common races, earth blooded duergar outnumber their hill and mountain dwarf counterparts several times over due to the duergars’ close dealings with the dao.

Among the planes, genasi are very likely to be jinnbloods, not surprising as they are often half genie and it is basically assumed that those who do not manifest it naturally could do so with some training. Mephits contend with genasi for the most common members of the class, though, and many of the planes’ mephit dukes are jinnbloods of some power. Mephlings are less likely to become jinnbloods than their mephit forefathers. Elementals and paraelementals count a few jinnbloods among their numbers, but for one of their number to become a jinnblood seems to be an act of dedicated practice and study that few perform. Genies count relatively few jinnbloods among them, save for the jann who are almost as likely to become a jinnblood as a mephit or genasi. Among the Outer Planar races jinnbloods are rare, a few fiends and celestials with elemental connections manifest these powers and some of their planetouched children, but it is extremely rare for a jinnblood to be counted among the githzerai, neraphim, bariurs, or rogue modrons.

Other Classes: Jinnbloods get along well with druids, their natural connection to the elements giving them a common ground. The same holds true with elemental clerics. They typically know the value of a rogue’s ability to get around, and the usefulness of a frontline combatant to keep enemies away. Jinnbloods are often more accepting of a warlock than most, knowing the hatred that common people often feel for those with a hint of demonic power, but despite their similar powers they feel little true connection with those whose power source is actually so fundamentally different. They respect the power of sorcerers and wizards, but typically get along better with the former who share their innate power tempered by limited learning than with wizards who all too often would study them as a curiosity instead of interact with them as a person.

Role: A jinnblood serves as a ranged combatant dealing out a moderate amount of damage coupled with the potential to debuff opponents. Depending upon a jinnblood’s invocations they can have a variety of debuffing elemental blasts, fogs and walls to shape the battlefield, defensive powers, or even a few buffs usable to augment the power of allies. Between their ability to gain any movement mode, given sufficient levels, various extra senses, increased speed and invisibility a jinnblood can make a decent scout. Their allied buffs, though, are limited and they cannot fulfill the role of a primary buff specialist like a true caster or a bard.

Adaptation: A jinnblood could be divorced from genies entirely, simply drawing their powers from the elements. They could be the priests of a special religious order, or if their invocations were made arcane like a warlock’s and they were given the ability to ignore spell failure for light armor an order of elementalist mages. Remove their first level invocation, give them a monk’s unarmed strike, Wind’s Grace, remove the 30-ft range on their Elemental Blast and make it instead channeled through an unarmed strike or melee touch attack and you can easily turn them into elemental monks.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
JINNBLOODS have the following game statistics.
Abilities: A jinnblood’s Wisdom determines how hard it is to resist their debuffing effects, or any other effects of their invocations. Their Dexterity determines their accuracy, most important at low levels, and adds to their armor class. Constitution serves to increase Fortitude saves and hp allowing them to survive if an enemy does manage to get into melee with them. Intelligence and Charisma are important for various skills and abilities. Strength is their least important ability.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8
Starting Age: As barbarian/simple.
Starting Gold: 4d4x10 (100 GP).

Jinnblood

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Invocations
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Elemental Blast 1d6, Least Invocations, Path of the Elements	1
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Detect Elementals	2
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Elemental Blast 2d6, Blast Invocation (Least)	2
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Planar Knowledge	3
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Elemental Blast 3d6, Second Step	3
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Lesser Invocations	4
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Elemental Blast 4d6, Elemental Diplomat	5
8th	+6/+1	+2	+2	+6	Blast Invocation (Lesser), Focused Blast	5
9th	+6/+1	+3	+3	+6	Elemental Blast 5d6, Alter the Flow (Least)	6
10th	+7/+2	+3	+3	+7	Third Step	6
11th	+8/+3	+3	+3	+7	Elemental Blast 6d6, Greater Invocations	7
12th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Elemental Adaptation	8
13th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Elemental Blast 7d6, Blast Invocation (Greater)	8
14th	+10/+5	+4	+4	+9	Focused Blast (Area), Alter the Flow (Lesser)	9
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+5	+9	Elemental Blast 8d6, Fourth Step	9
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Primal Invocations, Focused Blast (Greater)	10
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Elemental Blast 9d6, Elemental Immutability	11
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+6	+11	Blast Invocation (Primal)	11
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Elemental Blast 10d6, Alter the Flow (Greater, Improved)	12
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Fifth Step	12

Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) ×4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Weapons and Armor Proficiencies: A jinnblood is proficient in all simple weapons, and in light and medium armor.

Invocations: A jinnblood gains access to invocations similar to those of a warlock or dragonfire adept. Unlike a warlock or dragonfire adept a jinnblood’s invocations are closer to divine magic than arcane and they are considered to have a divine caster level instead of an arcane one for fulfilling prerequisites and never suffer arcane spell failure. A jinnblood uses their Wisdom modifier, instead of their Charisma modifier, for determining the save DCs for their invocations and how hard they are to resist.

In addition certain jinnblood invocations are limited in their use to once per day or once per encounter. A jinnblood may learn such an invocation more than once, doing so gives them an extra use of that invocation for each extra time it is learned.

At 1st level jinnblood can only select Least invocations. At 6th level when they gain access to Lesser invocations. At 11th level they gain access to Greater invocations. At 16th level they gain access to Primal invocations their equivalent of Dark or Draconic invocations.

A jinnblood may take the Infernal Adept feat to gain access to Dragonfire Adept and Warlock invocations, and it may be used by the aforementioned to gain access to jinnblood at-will invocations.

Elemental Blast (Sp): An elemental blast is a ray with a range of 30 feet. It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target, allowing no saving throw. An elemental blast deals 1d6 points of damage at 1st level and increases in power as the jinnblood rises in level. This damage, sometimes called Planar damage, is a composite of Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Negative and Positive energy and is only resisted by a creature which resists all these types of damage (living creatures and constructs are considered to be immune to positive energy for this purpose) and it uses the weakest resistance/immunity from among them; vulnerabilities do not apply. It is otherwise identical to a warlock’s eldritch blast.

Elemental Blasts and Eldritch Blasts: If a character possesses both an elemental blast and an eldritch blast they may combine them into a single attack. This attack deals damage equal to the combined damage of their elemental blast and eldritch blast. The range is the lesser of the two attacks (typically the elemental blast’s 30-ft range) and the damage is Planar damage unless an eldritch or elemental essence sets it to another type.

Should a jinnblood gain access to an Eldritch Essence invocation it may be used as an Elemental Essence (the two terms are equivalent) applied to an Elemental Blast, and should a warlock gain access to an Elemental Essence the reverse applies.

An Elemental Blast can be used to qualify for Eldritch Theurge as if it were an Eldritch Blast.

In a gestalt game you may not stack your elemental and eldritch blast damage to obtain damage higher than 1/2 your character level (rounded up) +1 in dice.

Path of the Elements: A jinnblood’s power springs from the elements that form the world. Each jinnblood’s connection to these powers is strongest with regards to a certain element. At first level a jinnblood selects one of the four classical elements (Air, Earth, Fire, or Water), this determines the abilities gained from the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Step abilities and also grants the jinnblood a second good save for their jinnblood levels.

If they select Air or Fire they treat Reflex saves as a good save.

If they select Earth or Water they treat Fortitude saves as a good save.

Detect Elementals (Sp): A jinnblood can detect elemental creatures, whether true elementals, non-elementals with elemental subtypes, and natives to the Inner Planes. This functions as Detect Undead with the following differences:

• It detects elementals, creatures with elemental subtypes, and natives to the Inner Planes even if they lack an elemental subtype or the elemental type.
• Creatures lacking the elemental type has an aura of one half the normal strength.
• During the 2nd round you may also determine which of these auras are associated with a creature with an element subtype matching your Elemental Path.

Blast Invocation: At 3rd level a jinnblood gains a least elemental essence or blast shape invocation if they do not already have one. If you already have a least elemental essence or blast shape invocation you may instead select any least jinnblood invocation.

At 8th level, 13th level, and 18th level a jinnblood gains another invocation with the same restrictions except that each one is 1 grade higher than the one before it.

Planar Knowledge (Ex): A jinnblood finds that they are able to instinctually grasp information about the Inner Planes from which their powers spring. At 4th level a jinnblood gains a +4 insight bonus on Knowledge (the Planes) checks concerning the Inner Planes and their inhabitants and a +2 insight bonus to Survival checks made on the Inner Planes.

Second Step (Ex): A jinnblood’s deep connection to the elemental powers serves to help protect them from harm. At 5th level a jinnblood gains an ability based on their Elemental Path.

Air: +1 dodge bonus to AC per 5 class levels.
Earth: DR 1/-. This DR increases by 1 for every 5 class levels beyond 5th.
Fire: Once per round when you receive damage you may take a 5-ft step as a free action even if it is not your turn. Beginning at 15th level you may use this ability an additional time per round, but only once per instance of damage. You may not use this ability in response to damage caused by entering a square.
Water: You gain 2 temp hp at the start of every round (these do not stack with other temporary hp or themselves) +2 temp hp for every 5 class levels beyond 5th you obtain. At 8th level you gain Uncanny Dodge. This becomes Improved Uncanny Dodge once you obtain 13th level.

Elemental Diplomat (Su): Jinnblood’s often find themselves as go-betweens for various elemental beings, and find that their resonance with the elemental powers lend their words carry a preternatural weight. Beginning at 7th level a jinnblood gains a +3 competence bonus on Charisma checks, Charisma based skill checks, and Sense Motive checks made when dealing with creatures with an elemental subtype matching the jinnblood’s elemental path.

Focused Blast: A jinnblood learns to focus their elemental blast increasing its power. A jinnblood of at least 8th level may spend a full-round action to use their elemental blast with a -3 penalty to hit. If they do so the base damage from the jinnblood’s elemental blast, and any bonus damage from an elemental essence (but not other sources of bonus damage), is doubled. Focused blast may not be used with any blast shape that causes their elemental blast to strike multiple creatures or make multiple attacks. If combined with Empower Spell-like Ability (or similar effect) this gives a 150% increase total to the base damage and bonus damage from elemental essences (and 50% from other sources of bonus due to the Empower effect).

Beginning at 14th level a jinnblood may use their Focused Blast with an elemental blast that affects an area but when doing so the DC of any save for half damage is reduced by 4. They still may not use it with any ability which allows multiple attacks to be made against a single target.

Beginning at 16th level a jinnblood's focused blast now may deal triple the base damage (including damage from elemental essences) instead of double damage but suffers a -6 to hit instead of -3 when used this way. If combined with Empower Spell-like Ability (or similar effect) this gives a 250% increase total to the base damage and bonus damage from elemental essences (and 50% from other sources of bonus due to the Empower effect).

Alter the Flow (Su): As a jinnblood’s connection to their elemental powers deepen so too does their understanding of them. With understanding comes control, and eventually jinnbloods learn to alter the natural flow of their powers allowing them to change how they are manifested. Beginning at 9th level a jinnblood may, once per day, spend 1 hour in meditation to change one Least invocation they have access to as a jinnblood to another jinnblood invocation of the same grade. The sacrificed invocation must be available to use (so it cannot be an expended daily invocation), and it must be an invocation gained through class levels. In addition you must still have at least one blast shape or elemental essence invocation gained through class levels of each grade, and you must retain your Fourth Step invocation. Using this ability ends any currently active instances of the invocation that was lost.

Levels in a class which advance jinnblood invocations stack with jinnblood levels to gain access to Alter the Flow and its improvements.

At 14th level a jinnblood using this ability may change one Least or Lesser invocation under the same restrictions that apply above.

At 19th level a jinnblood using this ability may change one Least, one Lesser, and one Greater invocation (they may choose to only change one or two invocations, they do not have to change one of each grade) under the same restrictions that apply above. In addition activating this ability now only requires 10 minutes.

Third Step (Ex): A jinnblood grows ever closer to their elemental power source. Beginning at 10th level a jinnblood gains either Evasion or Mettle depending upon their elemental path. If they selected the Air or Fire path they gain Evasion, and if they selected the Earth or Water path they gain Mettle.

Elemental Adaptation (Ex): A jinnblood is at home amongst the elements, moving through the Inner Planes with safety even without a need for magical protection. Beginning at 12th level a jinnblood is continuously affected as if by the Avoid Planar Effects^SpC spell.

Fourth Step: A jinnblood’s mastery of their elemental nature continues to deepen manifesting in the form of an additional invocation. At 15th level a jinnblood gains an invocation based on their choice of elemental path, if they already have this invocation they may select a different greater jinnblood invocation in its place.

Air: Shield of Winds

Earth: Earth Glide

Fire: Blazing Blast

Water: Water Step

Elemental Immutability (Ex): A jinnblood elemental connection grounds them, tying their form to the world. Beginning at 17th level a jinnblood is immune to any effect which would alter their physical form (polymorph, disintegration, petrification, most Transmutation effects) and allows a save. A jinnblood may still choose to allow the effect to affect him, but they are no longer considered willing for such effects while unconscious.

Fifth Step (Ex): A jinnblood’s growing closeness to the elemental powers leads them to eventually transcend their natural form entirely. At 20th level a jinnblood’s type changes to Elemental and they gain the subtype matching their Elemental Path. They gain all traits associated with that subtype and the elemental type including immunity to stunning, critical hits, poison, etc, but may still be resurrected normally. In addition this transformation permanently halts a jinnblood’s aging (any previous penalties or bonuses still apply but they will not accrue new ones) and they no longer have a maximum age.

The jinnblood also gains the ability to move between the elemental planes and the Prime Material Plane gaining the ability to use Plane Shift as a spell-like ability at-will on themselves only. They may only use this ability to move to the Prime Material Plane or the Inner Plane matching their Elemental Path and, if the old 2nd edition cosmology is used, any paraelemental or quasielemental plane bordering it. When this ability is use to travel to their corresponding Inner Plane (but not its neighboring planes) this ability does not suffer from the inaccuracy normally inherent in Plane Shift.

Alternate Class Feature: The Qorrashi Born:

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Some jinnbloods draw their power primarily from the Paraelemental Plane of Ice, hypothetically due to descent from the qorrashi or ice genies (Frostburn page 131). These jinnbloods replace their Elemental Path and abilities which build off of it. This is close to a 5th elemental path but different enough to be listed separately. They also require the use of a non-standard cosmology (for 3.X, normal for 2e and earlier) with either the paraelemental planes or the Elemental Plane of Cold.

Changes

Level 1: Elemental Path is replaced with Path of Ice; this grants you a good Fortitude save (just as selecting Earth or Water does).

Level 5: A Qorrashi Born still gains the Second Step as normal but gain the extraordinary ability to hide without cover or concealment as long as they are in an area with ice or snow not of their own creation. At Lv 10 this ability lets them do so even if they are being observed.

Level 7: A qorrashi born replaces Elemental Diplomat with Tongue of Ice. This ability functions the same but applies whenever dealing with creatures of the Cold subtype.

Level 10: A qorrashi born's Third Step grants them Mettle.

Level 15: A qorrashi born's Fourth Step grants them the Frigid Gaze invocation.

Level 20: A qorrashi born's Fifth Step gives them the Cold and Air subtypes and they may move to the paraelemental Plane of Ice as well as both the Elemental Planes of Water and Air but may not go to any quasielemental planes with this ability.

Alternate Class Feature: Jannblooded

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Jannblooded:
Like qorrashi blooded this alternate class feature changes your elemental path feature and abilities which build off of it. Where the qorrashi blooded represents an affinity for a paraelement, the jannblooded is a jinnblood whose elemental affinity truly is equal amongst all four elements.

The following abilities are affected/changed:

Elemental Path: Your Fort and Reflex saves are both poor, but you gain a +1 untyped bonus to them both, increasing to +2 at Lv 10, and +3 at Lv 20.

2nd Step: 1/day per 5 class levels you may, as an immediate action, gain a +10 sacred (if good or neutral) or profane (if evil) bonus to your AC against an attack after you know whether it would normally hit your AC.

Elemental Diplomat: Replace this ability with Transelemental Diplomat granting a +2 on all the same checks but applying to any creature with an elemental subtype.

3rd Step: A jannblood does not get either Mettle or Evasion, instead they gain the ability to 3/day re-roll a saving throw as a free action usable outside of their turn. They must accept the new roll even if it is worse than the initial roll.

4th Step: You gain the Gas Shape invocation.

5th Step: You gain all four elemental subtypes and may travel to any of the four elemental planes, but do not gain full accuracy with any of them.

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