Guile fits better than martial power for this character (converted from my favorite anime/manga) that I had previously built as a martial hedgewitch.
The Ballerina casting tradition and the Perceptivity drawback have been previously published on this blog. The Bard martial and trade traditions will soon be.
This post already appeared for patrons only on my Patreon page. If you wish to see stuff in advance and have access to other rewards, please consider donating!
The Whirling Seer
Aasimar (musetouched) bard 1 (Champion Bard/Thespian)
NG Medium outsider (native)/humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +6
Defense
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +4
Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee shortsword +3 (1d6, 19-20)
Ranged light crossbow +3 (1d8, 19-20)
Guile
Skill Leverage 1; Trade Tradition Bard; OAM Cha (+3)
Communication Sphere - Skills Diplomacy 1 rank; Talents Monitor Movements (rapport); Utility Talents Bolstering Rapport (rapport)
Performance Sphere - Package dance (Perform (dance) 1 rank); Talents Encouraging Jaunt (dance), Liberating Shift (dance); Utility Talents none
Vocation Sphere - Utility Talents Dilettante, Diplomat, Esoteric Scholar, Storyteller
Magic
Caster Level 1; MSB +1, MSD 12, Concentration +4
Tradition Ballerina (Drawbacks: Skilled Casting [Perform/Dance], Somatic Casting x2; Boons: Easy Focus; +1 spell point, +1 per 6 levels in casting classes; CAM Cha
Spell Points 5
Divination Sphere - DC 14; Duration Divine (Concentration), Sense (1 Hour); Range Medium (110 ft); Talents Expanded Divinations; Drawbacks none
- Divine (Divine Enhancements, Divine Illusions, Divine Warp)
- Sense (Read Magic)
Martial
Tradition Bard (Equipment sphere: Dancer Training, Finesse Fighting, Unarmored Training; Scout Sphere); PAM Cha
Equipment sphere - DC 13, Talents Dancer Training, Finesse Fighting, Unarmored Training
- dancer training (proficient with the battle poi, bladed scarf, chakram, fighting fan, gladius, rapier, scimitar, shortsword, war flute, war lute, war mallet, and whip)
- finesse fighting (add your Dex bonus to attacks with finessable weapons)
- unarmored training (when unarmored and unencumbered, you gain a +3 armor bonus to your AC)
Scout sphere - DC 13, Talents Great Senses; Drawbacks Perceptivity
- scout (swift action, identify creature's weaknesses)
- great senses (Perception 1 rank)
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD +13
Traits Ear for Music, Good Influence
Feats Sphere Focus (Divination)
Skills Acrobatics +9, Diplomacy +10/+11, Heal +6, Knowledge (arcana) +5, Knowledge (local) +7, Linguistics +5, Perception +6, Perform (dance) +11, Spellcraft +5, Use Magic Device +7
Languages Celestial, Common, Elven
SQ scion of humanity
Gear bard’s kit (41 gp), light crossbow (35 gp) with 20 arrows (1 gp), liquid life (20 gp), shortsword (10 gp)
Special Abilities
Communication Sphere Operatives of the Communication sphere are skilled at clear speech, clever wordplay, persuasive rhetoric, and translation across all sorts of differences. They can easily understand other creatures despite language barriers. Others listen to the operative and weigh their words seriously.
Associated Skill: Diplomacy or Linguistics. Choose one to be the associated skill when you gain the sphere.
You gain the following benefits when you gain the Communication sphere.
You gain 5 ranks in that skill, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Communication sphere (maximum ranks equal to your Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in the associated skill not from a skill sphere, you may immediately retrain them.
Skill Leverage: You unlock skill leverage with the Diplomacy and Linguistics skills.
Bonus Talent: You gain a bonus talent with the (rapport) tag, described below. It cannot be an exceptional talent. If you choose a [utility] talent as this bonus talent, you can take the base sphere as a [utility] talent.
You also gain the Build Rapport ability.
Communication: Build Rapport (Ex) When you interact with a creature that is not hostile to you within 30 feet, you can choose to form a rapport with that creature as a standard action, or as a move action if you know one of the creature’s motivations. You cannot form a rapport with a mindless creature. The rapport remains until 24 hours pass, you or the creature chooses to end the rapport as a swift action, or you form another rapport. You can form a rapport with multiple creatures at once if you know a motivation for each of them, up to a number of targets equal to your operative ability modifier.
You can always use gestures to communicate simple concepts to creatures you share a rapport with without using words just as easily as with words, regardless of whether you share a language. Communicating complex information this way requires a successful DC 25 Linguistics check; failing by 5 or more conveys inaccurate information rather than what the creature intended to share.
Each creature that shares a rapport with you (including you) automatically succeeds at Bluff (or Linguistics) checks to send secret messages to each other, although they still attempt a skill check to determine if observers understand. They can use their Linguistics modifier in place of their Bluff modifier to pass the secret message at no penalty.
You can choose one or two (rapport) talents you have when you form a rapport and apply the effect to creatures sharing your rapport (including you). You can only choose two (rapport) talents to apply at once if one or both of them have the [utility] tag.
If you target a creature who already shares a rapport with someone else, you can join the existing rapport without counting against its maximum number of targets, and you can add one of your own (rapport) talents for all members to benefit from. You cannot add a talent the rapport already has. This replaces build rapport’s usual effect.
Communication: Bolstering Rapport (rapport) Creatures that share your rapport understand each other well enough to share their willpower. Whenever a creature sharing your rapport (including you) attempts a Will saving throw, another creature sharing the rapport may spend an immediate action to attempt a skill check with the associated skill against the DC of the saving throw; if successful, the saving throw is attempted with a +2 morale bonus. This can be used after the result of the roll to change the outcome, and both allies must be able to see or hear each other to give an encouraging word, meaningful glance, or other sign of support.
Similarly, a creature sharing your rapport can spend an immediate action when an enemy attempts an Intimidate check against another creature sharing your rapport with to grant a +4 morale bonus to the DC of the check.
These benefits increase by 1 for every 6 ranks you possess in the sphere’s associated skill.
Communication: Monitor Movements (rapport) Each creature that shares your rapport (including you) instinctively knows how the others act in combat, allowing them to avoid getting in the way of each other’s actions. Each creature knows where their allies are as long as they have line of sight, even if they are invisible or using Stealth, and whether they are conscious. No creature that shares your rapport provides soft cover against the attacks of any of the others. Each gets a +2 insight bonus to AC against each other’s attack and on saving throws against each other’s spells and abilities. The bonus increases by 1 for every 6 ranks in the associated skill you possess.
Divination Sphere You can predict the future and gain information not available to the usual 5 senses.
Divination: Divine You may divine to gain information. To divine, you must spend 10 minutes meditating, although you may spend a spell point to decrease this time to a single standard action. Divining always has a duration of concentration, but you must spend a full-round action concentrating (you can take no other action, not even walking); you are flat-footed while divining. Divining reveals information from sources within medium range of you as an emanation; it reveals information each round the effect it is maintained. Divining can penetrate most barriers, but 3 feet of wood or dirt, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, or a thin sheet of lead blocks it.
When you gain the Divination sphere, you gain the ability to divine for magical auras, learning their strength and location. You do not know the exact caster level of an item or spell, but you may sense the aura’s general strength according to the chart below. To determine the spell school or sphere of the effect, you must succeed at a Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC equal to 15 + ½ the caster level.
Table: Aura Strength
A magical aura lingers after its original source dissipates (in the case of a spells and sphere effects) or is destroyed (in the case of a magic item). In such a case, divining reveals an aura strength of dim (even weaker than a faint aura). How long the aura lingers at this dim level depends on its original power:
Table: Lingering Aura
When using Spellcraft to identify the properties of a magic item, you may use divine in place of the detect magic spell. Outsiders and elementals are not magical in and of themselves, but if they are summoned, the conjuration effect registers.
Overwhelming Auras: Whenever an individual divines or senses an aura whose strength is overwhelming, from a source whose Hit Dice or caster level is equal to or greater than the caster's character level + 10, that individual becomes stunned for 1 round.
Alternate Divinations If you possess certain other spheres, you may divine for information other than magical auras. These alternate divinations are detailed below.
Enhancement: Divine Enhancement You may divine what short-term effects creatures you have pinpointed are undergoing. You may divine all creatures you can see within range and determine which (if any) are benefiting from temporary bonuses, and the sources of the bonuses be they magical, alchemical, supernatural, etc.
Illusion: Divine Illusions You may divine for illusions. This grants you a free Will save or Perception check (in the case of illusionary disguises or invisibility) against any illusions or invisibility within the area.
Warp: Divine Warp You may divine the presence of portals, rifts (including extradimensional spaces), and teleportation circles, both active and inactive within range. If you perceived a target teleport within the last hour, this also reveals to you the general direction and distance of their teleportation. If the creature teleports to a different plane, you immediately learn this, but you do not learn to what plane the creature teleported unless your caster level is at least 10. Should you find yourself on that plane before the hour is up, you can divine their general direction and distance.
Divination: Sense As a standard action, you may grant yourself paranormal senses for 1 hour/level. When you gain the Divination sphere, you gain the following sense.
Divination: Read Magic (sense) You may spend a spell point to gain a sense that allows you to decipher all magical writings, such as those found in books, scrolls, on weapons, or in other places intelligible to you. This does not invoke the magic contained in the writing, although it may do so in the case of a cursed or trapped scroll. Furthermore, once you have read a magical inscription through this ability, you are thereafter able to read that particular writing even without this sense. You can read at the rate of one page (250 words) per minute. You can identify glyphs, runes, and symbol spells with a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + ½ caster level).
Divination: Expanded Divinations Pick any three alternate divinations which you do not currently possess. You gain access to those alternate divinations as if you possessed the requisite spheres. If the alternate divination has an additional prerequisite such as the Nature sphere’s Divine Elements, you pick which one you gain access to upon acquiring it. This talent may be taken multiple times. Each time you may pick three alternate divinations which you do not possess.
Easy Focus When maintaining a sphere ability through concentration, effects that normally require a standard action to concentrate on only require a move action for you. This does not decrease the sphere ability’s casting time, only the action used to maintain concentration.
Equipment: Dancer Training (discipline) You are proficient with the intricacies of music and dance, and can apply that precision in battle. You are proficient with the battle poi, bladed scarf, chakram, fighting fan, gladius, rapier, scimitar, shortsword, war flute, war lute, war mallet, and whip. You may add your Dexterity modifier in place of your Charisma modifier when making Perform (dance) checks.
Equipment: Finesse Fighting You may use your Dexterity modifier in place of your Strength modifier when calculating your melee attack rolls with light weapons and weapons with the finesse weapon special feature. You may take this talent a total of two times. If taken a second time, whenever you make an attack using your Dexterity bonus on attack rolls and your Strength bonus on melee damage rolls, you may also add ½ your base attack bonus (minimum 1) as a bonus on that damage roll. Associated Feat: Weapon Finesse.
Equipment: Unarmored Training Your deft movements, physical conditioning, and expert use of your chosen weapons allow you to create a protective barrier around yourself as effective as any true suit of armor. When unarmored and unencumbered, you gain a +3 armor bonus to your AC. This bonus increases by +1 for every 3 points of base attack bonus you possess. Characters who gain Acrobatics as a class skill may instead choose to have the armor bonus increase by +1 for every 3 ranks in the Acrobatics skill they possess.
This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. You lose these bonuses when you are immobilized or helpless, when you wear any armor, or when you carry a medium or heavy load. These bonuses do not stack with the AC bonus class feature of the monk or similar abilities.
This bonus depends on an intricate awareness of the practitioner's body and balance, and as such is lost when the target is under any shapeshift other than blank form, or is polymorphed into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type.
Performance Sphere Operatives of the Performance sphere are creators of various creative endeavors, be it brilliant ballads, complex choreography, or musical melodies; a performer’s ability to draw the eye and instill hope and emotion into those around them is astounding.
Associated Skill: Perform (depending on your chosen package below).
You gain the following benefits when you gain the Performance sphere.
When you gain a package, you choose one of the package’s associated skills to determine the effects of its talents, and you gain 5 ranks in the chosen associated skill, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Performance sphere (maximum ranks equal to your Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in the associated skill you may immediately retrain them.
Skill Leverage: You unlock skill leverage with the Perform skill chosen as your package’s associated skill, in addition to one Artistry or Perform skill of your choice.
Package: When you gain the Performance sphere, you gain one of the following packages with its included abilities. You choose one of the package’s associated skills to be the associated skill for that package and its effects. You may take the Expanded Repertoire talent to gain additional packages.
Bonus Talent: You gain a single (act), (dance), (instrumental), or (lyric) talent, depending on the package you chose. It cannot be an exceptional talent. If the bonus talent you choose is a [utility] talent, you can take the base sphere as a [utility] talent.
Performance: Dance Package As a move action, you can move up to half your speed to begin a dance, gaining the benefits of a single (dance) talent you possess. Allies within 10 feet + 5 feet per 5 ranks in this package’s associated Perform skill of you may either spend a move action and move up to half their speed, or take a 5-foot step, to gain the benefits of your dance until the start of their next turn.
Creatures benefiting from your dance (including yourself) are called dancers. You must maintain the dance each round by moving up to half your speed (minimum 10 feet), usually as part of any action spent to move, or it ends at the end of your turn. Movement made as part of a dance still provokes attacks of opportunity.
Performance: Encouraging Jaunt (dance) All dancers gain a +2 morale bonus on Acrobatics, Perform, and Sleight of Hand checks, increasing by 1 per 5 ranks in the associated skill you possess.
Additionally, whenever a dancer is benefiting from a morale bonus to a particular type of roll, another dancer can apply that morale bonus to a roll they make of that type without using an action. Once a specific effect has had its morale bonus shared this way, it cannot be shared again by any dancer for 1 minute. For example, the Courageous Chorus lyric on one dancer could be used by one other dancer on one saving throw against a fear or charm effect, and then would not be available to share again for 1 minute but could still be used by the original recipient.
Associated Feat: Spirit of the Corps (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex).
Performance: Liberating Shift (dance) All dancers gain a +2 morale bonus to Escape Artist checks, combat maneuver checks made to escape a grapple, and to saving throws against mind-affecting effects, effects that would slow or restrict their actions, and effects that inflict the entangled, paralyzed, staggered, or stunned conditions. The dancers also get an equivalent dodge bonus to Combat Maneuver Defense. This bonus increases by 1 per 5 associated skill ranks you possess.
If a dancer is already grappled or suffering from such an effect, they may spend an immediate action to attempt to break free of a grapple, or attempt a new saving throw against a single applicable effect they are currently suffering from that normally grants a saving throw against the original DC, ending that effect on a success. This dance only allows each dancer to attempt one new saving throw or check against a specific effect or grapple.
Scout Sphere Training in the Scout sphere teaches you how to hide from danger, identify potential threats and hazards, track opponents through almost any environment, and identify a creature’s key weaknesses. When you gain the Scout sphere, you gain 5 ranks in the Stealth skill, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Scout sphere (maximum ranks equal to your total Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in the Stealth skill you may immediately retrain them, but you do not get to retrain when only temporarily gaining talents, such as through the armiger’s customized weapons class feature.
All practitioners of the Scout sphere gain the following ability:
Scout: Scout As a swift action, you may identify a creature’s weaknesses (DC 10 + creature’s CR) as described under the Knowledge skill, but may substitute a Perception check for the appropriate Knowledge check at a -5 penalty. This only reveals the target’s weaknesses, or lack thereof, (such as damage reduction types and vulnerabilities), and does not reveal any additional information about the target. Once you have succeeded at a scout attempt or Knowledge check against a target, any talents or effects that require you to scout a target may be used against the target for the next 24 hours; after this period you must successfully use the scout ability against the target again to continue benefiting from related effects.
Scout: Great Senses You gain 5 ranks in the Perception skill, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Scout sphere (maximum ranks equal to your total Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in the Perception skill you may immediately retrain them, but you do not get to retrain when only temporarily gaining talents, such as through the armiger’s customized weapons class feature.
Perceptivity You do not gain ranks in Stealth from the base sphere and cannot select talents that rely on or improve the Stealth skill. You gain Great Senses with this drawback.
Incompatible: Hidden Eyes, Sentry, Tracker, Veiled, Veteran Warrior.
Skilled Casting You must create your magic through singing, drawing, or performing some other activity. Your magic is tied to a particular Perform, Profession, or Craft skill (although with GM permission another skill may be substituted). You must succeed at a skill check to use any sphere ability. The DC of this skill check is 15 + the ability’s caster level. For every 2 points by which this skill check falls short of this DC, the ability manifests at -1 caster level. If this reduces the ability to a caster level below 0, the manifested ability fails and any spell points used are lost.
A caster with Skilled Casting must be able to perform their skill to use their magic, which is similar to but not the same as possessing other drawbacks. For example, a caster who must draw to create magic must have at least one hand free, although unless he also possesses Somatic Casting he may do so while wearing any armor without a chance of arcane spell failure. Likewise, a caster who uses music to create magic must be able to speak, but unless he also possesses Verbal Casting he can do so by whispering and thus not automatically break stealth.
At the GM’s discretion, this drawback may count as two drawbacks if the skill involved requires bulky equipment or the use of both hands (for example, the Perform (strings) skill, or Craft [stonework]).
Somatic Casting You must gesture to cast spells—a process that requires you to have at least 1 hand unoccupied. When using magic, you cannot wear armor heavier than light without incurring a chance of arcane spell failure.
You may select this drawback twice. If taken a second time, you cannot wear any armor or use a shield without incurring a chance of arcane spell failure.
Vocation: Dilettante (trade) [utility] You gain four skills of your choice as class skills, at least one of which must be a background skill. You may select this talent multiple times, gaining a different set of skills each time.
Vocation: Entertainer (trade) [utility] You gain Acrobatics, Disguise, Escape Artist, and Sleight of Hand as class skills. You may use the better of your Dexterity or Charisma modifier when using one of these skills (chosen when you gain this talent) to entertain or interact with a creature that is aware of you (including escaping from a grapple or tumbling through a creature’s space). You may select this talent a second time, in which case you may use the better of the two ability score modifiers on all of the chosen skills.
Vocation: Storyteller (trade) [utility] You gain Diplomacy, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), and Knowledge (nobility) as class skills. You can use the higher of your Charisma or Intelligence modifiers when attempting two of Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), and Knowledge (nobility) checks, chosen when you select this talent.
Vocation: Virtuoso (trade) [utility] You gain Disguise, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nobility), and Linguistics as class skills. Choose a single Perform skill which you have ranks in (such as Perform (dance) or Perform (sing)). You can use either Dexterity or Constitution score in place of your Charisma score when attempting Perform checks of that type.
Build
The Whirling Seer is built with a 20-point buy and 105 gp starting wealth. Favored Class Bonus is +⅙ magic talent per level (human FCB). If using a lower point buy, you can lower Strength and Constitution. If using a higher point buy (or rolling really well), your most important attributes are Charisma and Dexterity. Charisma is your casting statistic and affects the save DCs of all your magic and martial talents and your spell pool; Dexterity makes you a great finesse warrior, increases your initiative and bolsters your Reflex save. Intelligence and Wisdom are important too, to have better knowledge and understanding of the world, and to better resist mental control and charm.
How to Play a Whirling Seer
Trained to create beauty, you didn’t see yourself as an adventurer, but circumstances forced you to that life. Your priority now is to support your allies and try to overcome enemies without having to kill. You would happily put yourself between dangers and those you love, and are stubborn in your defense of life against all odds.
Future Abilities
Magic Talents Battlefield Sense, Beckoning Call, Detect Scrying, Detect Spellcaster, Divine Biohazard, Dowsing, Expansive Vision, Fallen Fey Sphere*, Fast Divinations, Fey Beauty*, Foreshadow, Ghost Sight, Greater Divine, Penetrating Divination, See Hazard, True Perception*, Unhooded Sight
Martial Talents Advisory Scout
Skill Talents Assess Physicality, Averting Switch*, Auditory Analysis, Coordinated Throw*, Flowing Theatrics*, Guarded Twist*, Investigation Sphere, Peaceful Resolution, Share Insights; Utility: Acute Senses, Briefed Intuition, Discern Esoterics, Heart to Heart, Inspiring Advice, Perfect Synchronization, Suave Performer, Survey Surroundings, Synchronized Rhythm.
Feats Mystic Focus, Practiced Seer, Precogniscient Protection, Precogniscient Resistance, Precogniscient Smite, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Perform/dance), Tabulated Mind, Unerring Eye
Skills Diplomacy, Knowledge (any) and Perform (dance) are the most valuable skills for the Whirling Seer.
You fight with the shortsword and the light crossbow; dancing scarves can be both a weapon and armor for you, as soon as you can afford them.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento