Another collaboration with veekie. Layout shamelessly stolen from Uncle Kitteh.
VEILED DANCER
A Veiled Dancer, preparing for combat and dancing. "Now pay attention. This is the Dance of the Nineteen Sages, and it'll be the last thing you see."Dancers that employ articles of clothing like long flowing robes, shawls, ribbons or veils in their performance are common, but only those that take the idea to its conclusion are truly known as Veiled Dancers. Veiled Dancers claim that their movements resonate with the world itself, dancing with such abandon that wind and water, time and space fold around them to serve as veils in their dance.
BECOMING A VEILED DANCER The most obvious entry is with levels in Bard, Rogue, Swashbuckler, or Swordsage, and most NPC Veiled Dancers have levels in some combination of these classes. However, entry is theoretically open to practically any class, and the class has good synergy with the Crusader, Paladin, and Warblade classes, among others.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Base Attack Bonus: +3.
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perform [Dance]).
Skills: Perform (Dance) 8 ranks, Tumble 8 ranks.
Class Skills The Veiled Dancer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Survival (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at Each Level : 6 + int
Hit Dice: d10
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +2 | +2 | Passionate Dance +1, Veiled Dance |
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +3 | +3 | Lotus Step, Veils as Water |
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +3 | +3 | Damage Bonus +1d6, Veils as Wind |
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Screen of Veils, Veils as Time |
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Cloud Step, Passionate Dance +2, Veils as Void |
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Veiled Dancers are proficient with bladed scarves [Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide (3.5) or Inner Sea World Guide (PF)], collapsing crescent fans [Sandstorm], war fans [Arms and Equipment guide], whips [Player's Handbook], gnome battle cloaks [Races of Stone], and gnome twist cloth [Races of Stone]. They gain no additional proficiency in any other weapons, armor, or shields.
Passionate Dance (Su): A Veiled Dancer moves with unparalleled passion, working themselves into a frenzy and animating their allies to more reckless moves, stronger blows, faster reflexes. This ability works like a Bard's Inspire Courage ability, granting bonuses according to the table, except as described below. A Passionate Dance requires no musical performance, only dancing. Dancing in this way does not interfere with your movement or combat capabilities in any way. When you begin performing, you may move up to your speed using any movement mode you have access to as part of the action used to begin the performance. Your allies need not be able to hear you to gain the bonus, but they must be able to see you dance. You may use this ability once per day per veiled dancer level.
If you already have the Inspire Courage ability (or an equivalent ability with a different name) from another source, the bonus provided by Passionate Dance stacks with that provided by that ability, and you may activate both abilities as part of the same action. You may mix types of performances if required, but must dance in any case to receive the bonus from Passionate Dance. This ability counts as Inspire Courage for purposes of all feats, items, spells, and so on that reference that ability (such as Snowflake Wardance or Inspirational Boost), but if you have both abilities, any additions to the bonus provided (such as the +1 from Inspirational Boost) apply only once if you are using both abilities at once.
Veiled Dance (Ex): With fast steps, flashing veils, and the occasional seductive move, veiled dancers are experts and diverting their opponents' attention from what they are actually doing. You may feint as a swift action, using Perform (Dance) in place of Bluff.
Lotus Step (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a veiled dancer learns to step lightly and quickly enough to move deftly across any surface, however weak, flimsy, or treacherous it might be - her feet know no such thing as a misstep. So long as you are physically dancing (not necessarily using the Passionate Dance ability), you may move on any solid or liquid surface as if on firm, flat ground, even if it would otherwise be too fragile or too narrow to support you (such as a liquid surface or a suspended sheet of rice paper), without having to make Balance checks. The surface still needs to be oriented properly relative to the direction of gravity - you can't dance up walls or along the ceiling. In addition, your movements ignore difficult terrain while physically dancing.
Previous version
Lotus Step (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a veiled dancer learns to step lightly and quickly enough to move across water. So long as you are physically dancing (not necessarily using the Passionate Dance ability), you may move on liquid surfaces as if they were solid ground, as the Water Walk spell. In addition, you gain a swim speed equal to your land speed. If you already have a swim speed, use the better of your speeds.
: At 2nd level, you begin unlocking the true art of the veiled dancers. With movement and positioning as fluid and flexible as water, hiding your steps behind a veil until they are already finished, you can threaten a much larger area than your stature or weapons might indicate. While performing a Passionate Dance, your reach increases by 5 feet. Starting at level 4, your reach increases by 10 feet instead while performing a Passionate Dance.This increased reach is not due to any stretching of your limbs or weapons, but due to the fluidity and swiftness of your movements.
Damage bonus (Ex): At 3rd level, the extra damage you deal with your Sneak Attack, Skirmish, or Sudden Strike ability increases by +1d6. If you have more than one of these abilities, only one ability gains this increase.
If you have none of these abilities, you instead gain Skirmish +1d6.
Veils as Wind (Su): Starting at 3rd level, a veiled dancer's movements stir the winds themselves, wrapping them around herself like so many more veils, and whipping them about as extensions of her own body. While performing a Passionate Dance, you may control the winds in an area around yourself as if using a Control Winds spell with a caster level equal to your character level. Altering the winds' strength and direction requires only a free action and no concentration, and may be done once per round. You yourself may choose to be unaffected by the winds, and you may choose for any allies benefiting from your Passionate Dance to remain unaffected as well.
Screen of Veils (Ex): From 4th level on, a veiled dancer's reflexes are so acute that even swinging a weapon is not safe within her reach. When a creature makes an attack within your reach, even a melee attack, you may make an attack of opportunity against that creature as an immediate action. This does not count toward your regular limit on attacks of opportunity per round.
Veils as Time (Su): At 4th level, a veiled dancer wreaths herself in veils of time, allowing her to take impossible action in the smallest of openings. Once per round while performing a Passionate Dance, you may choose to take a standard, move, or swift action in place of an attack of opportunity whenever an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from you.
Previous versions
Veils as Time (Su): At 4th level, a veiled dancer lears to wear time itself as a veil, twisting the relations of cause and effect with casual ease. While performing a Passionate Dance, any attacks of opportunity you make resolve before the action that provoked them. If the attack of opportunity somehow renders the target unable to perform the provoking action, the action is wasted.
Veils as Time (Su): At 4th level, a veiled dancer lears to wear time itself as a veil, twisting the relations of cause and effect with casual ease. While performing a Passionate Dance, you may choose for any attacks of opportunity you make to resolve at the start of the turn of the creature that provoked them. If one or more of these attacks of opportunity would somehow render the target unable to take one or more of the actions it took during its turn, those actions are wasted and their results are undone, but any attacks of opportinity provoked by them remain used.
: At 5th level, a veiled dancer can tread even on empty air. As long as you are physically dancing (not necessarily using the Passionate Dance ability), you may choose whether to be affected by normal gravity, light gravity, or no gravity (see DMG page 147-148) as a free action, even when it is not your turn, and take no penalties associated with any gravity conditions other than normal. The direction of gravity remains the normal direction for the plane you are on.
Veils as Void (Su): At the cusp of her abilities, the veiled dancer wears empty space as a veil, contorting impossibly, being elsewhere than she appears to be, and hiding herself behind veils that should not be able to hide her form. Starting at 5th level, while performing a Passionate Dance, you are treated as if under the effects of a Blink spell. You may activate or suppress this ability as a free action at the start of your turn.
Previous version
Veils as Void (Su): At the cusp of her abilities, the veiled dancer wears empty space as a veil, contorting impossibly, being elsewhere than she appears to be, and hiding herself behind veils that should not be able to hide her form. Starting at 5th level, while performing a Passionate Dance, you are treated as incorporeal every other round, starting in the round you begin the dance.
Motion is freedom. Combat is an art. Dancing is enlightenment. You're a performer, ham it up.
Combat: Several options are available to you in combat, and generally it's easiest to focus on one of them and regard the others as gravy. Most of your Veiled Dancer abilities are contingent on Passionate Dance, which provides a buff to yourself and your party members while you're at it. This can be left as an afterthought or focused on. The increased reach granted by Veils as Water, the Control Winds effect of Veils as Wind, and the AoO effects of Screen of Veils and Veils as Time all lend themselves well to battlefield control, while the mobility options and the ability to feint as a swift action allow skirmisher or striker-style builds. As you likely rely strongly on Dexterity, that limits your range of available armors, potentially leaving you squishy; your high HD and a good Con can counteract this, as can appropriate use of your reach advantage.
Advancement: Your Passionate Dance counts as Inspire Courage for nearly all intents and purposes even if you don't already have the latter from somewhere, allowing you access to things like the Snowflake Wardance feat without further qualifications. Conversely, if you do already have Inspire Courage from somewhere, the bonuses stack flat instead of stacking virtual Bard levels, potentially allowing for higher bonuses than normal. Robilar's Gambit and Karmic Strike combine viciously with Veils as Time, and the Combat Reflexes prerequisite plus increased reach always go well with an AoO-focused build.
Resources: Most Veiled Dancers have only their companions and friends they have made to fall back on. Veiled Dancers associated with a church (see below) may have their deity's clergy as contacts, and may be afforded resources like any Cleric or Paladin.
VEILED DANCERS IN THE WORLD "I wouldn't mind that being the last thing I see." The talents of a Veiled Dancer lend themselves well towards the life of a wandering entertainer. As NPCs, they can perform on improvised stages on marketplaces of small communities, or be dancers of national renown, performing in concert halls of large cities and capitals. PC Veiled Dancers take to life on the road like a fish to water, and a performance ont he marketplace is always a great way to break the ice when visiting a new community, or when trying to get something out of an NPC. Some Veiled Dancers instead devote themselves to churches, dedicating their dance to the god or gods they serve and believing their abilities to be divine gifts. Usually, these serve gods whose portfolios somehow involve "party hard".
Daily Life: Veiled Dancers rarely have something resembling a regular daily life, much less so if you're a PC. Those that choose to become professional entertainers may settle down, but few of the type of person that takes up the path of the Veiled Dancer are well suited to any kind of daily routine.
Notables:
Organizations: While many Veiled Dancers are mentored by another or a group of others, others come into the techniques on their own, and in general there is little in the way of an organized. overarching structure to them, other than a general sense of companionship resulting from sharing the same trade and abilities. Veiled Dancers devoted to a church have, as any member of the clergy, their own church to draw upon. Regardless of faith, a first meeting between unfamiliar dancers usually involves a frantic dance-off to get to know each other. Further, some Veiled Dancers are biased towards or away from one or another specific form of dance, which may create further companionship or rivalry.
NPC Reaction To NPCs, you appear as any wandering entertainer or adventurer - possibly a relief from the daily drudge, possibly a way to waste that extra money, possibly a common pickpocket. Common people will generally welcome you, but typically keep a hand on their purse until they are certain you can be trusted.
VEILED DANCERS IN THE GAME As a rare and disorganized group of people pursuing a rare and elusive art, Veiled Dancers are easy enough to integrate into an ongoing campaign - that dancer over there? He's now one.
Adaptation: The Veiled Dancer PrC isn't created with any specific setting in mind, and so should be easy to adapt to any setting that has any kind of dancer. Alternatively, one could run with the idea of deity-inspired Dancers and call them a sect of a specific deity (The Fury in Eberron, for example, is an excellent choice), or a subset of believers that any church has to one extent or another.
Encounters: Veiled Dancers are typically found on the road or in a city giving performances, or else in groups of adventurers.
Sample Encounters EL 8: A dancer arrived in town recently, and immediately became extremely popular among the male population. During each performance, she invites one or two of the crowd onto the stage to dance with her... and picks their pockets in the process. For today's performance, one of the PCs is chosen to dance with her.
Rogue 5/Veiled Dancer 3; Important feats: Weapon Finesse, Shadow Blade
EL 10: A Dirgesinger has been raising undead and is now commanding them to attack the temple of a local god of music. The temple's Veiled Dancer enlists the party's aid against the zombies as he and the Dirgesinger engage in a dance for the fate of the town.
Bard 1/Paladin (Harmonious Knight) 6/Veiled Dancer 3; Important Feats: Song of the Heart, Snowflake Wardance
EL 12: A chancellor of the kingdom asks the veiled dancer belonging to a passing troupe of artists to perform the Dance of the Seven Veils for him. She tells the old pervert exactly where he can stick his Seven Veils, and the PCs are caught in the middle of escalating hostilities between the palace guards and the troupe's combatants.
Warblade 7/Veiled Dancer 5; important feats: Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, Robilar's Gambit
Full statblocks may or may not follow if I get bored.
Namealignment/Gender/Race/Levels
Init +0,
Senses: Listen +, Spot +,
Languages ------------------------------------------------
AC , touch , flat-footed ()
hp ( HD)
Fort +,
Ref +,
Will +
------------------------------------------------
Speed ft. ( squares)
Melee Base Atk +,
Grp +
Atk Options Combat GearSpells Prepared Supernatural Abilities -----------------------------------------------
Abilities Str , Dex , Con , Int , Wis , Cha
SQ Feats Skills Possessions
