Author Topic: The Drekmaelir (Base Class) - The Drake-speaker  (Read 1727 times)

Offline Bauglir

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The Drekmaelir (Base Class) - The Drake-speaker
« on: August 29, 2012, 05:06:02 PM »
The Drekmaelir
"In my voice echoes the strength of the mightiest creatures to walk this land. Their power is mine." - Darastriejir, Dragonborn Drekmaelir

Drekmaelir, the drake-speakers, are students of the Draconic language. While many trace their bloodlines back to ancient dragons, in much the same way as many sorcerers, a drekmaelir's connection to dragonkind is not born of blood, but of spirit. Drekmaelir, in their study of their language, uncover the ability to speak words and phrases of power. As they delve into this knowledge, searching their souls for the power the words have unlocked, those that eventually enter the class learn of Draconic's connection to the True Tongue, as a derivative, all but empty of power. This understanding of their own spirit fuels their talents, and eventually grants them mastery over the spirits of others. As drekmaelir speak their utterances, their spirits begin to echo a draconic ideal, eroding their perception as their arrogance grows beyond reason. For them, truespeech is not valuable for the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, but is worth studying in order to bring them closer to the majestic creatures they revere, the progenitors of the very concept of language.

MAKING A DREKMAELIR
Drekmaelir are warriors that have learned the secrets of the Draconic language and its ties to the True Tongue. As a drekmaelir, you dabble in utterances to enhance your abilities in combat.

   Abilities: Your Charisma score determines the effectiveness of many class features, and you can use it to calculate your Truespeech check for utterances from this class, making it of great importance. A high Wisdom score allows you to retain objectivity and sense if you fail to speak utterances. You'll likely want a high Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score, but as you become more powerful, your Charisma score can pick up some of the slack for you.

   Races: Dragonblooded races are frequently drawn to this class, seeking after the secrets of their heritage. In particular, the Dragonborn are well-suited to melee combat, making them among the most famous drekmaelir (and giving rise to a misconception that members of this class are gifted purely by blood).

   Alignment: Drekmaelir can come from any alignment, but many tend to adopt the attitudes of dragons whose alignments they share.

    Starting Gold: 6d4x10(150)

    Starting Age: As paladins.

Class Skills
The Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Truespeech (Int*)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int Modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int Modifier
*While Intelligence is the ability score typically used to determine the results of a Truespeech check, a drekmaelir's Tongue of the Dragon class feature allows the use of Charisma for this purpose.

Hit Dice: d8


Level

BAB
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save

Special
Utterances
Known
Draconic
Will
Exhaled Utterance
Maximum Size
1st+1+2+0+2Tongue of the Dragon, Draconic Will, Exhaled Utterance
2
2
20 ft/10 ft
2nd+2+3+0+3Sagaborn Survivor
2
3
20 ft/10 ft
3rd+3+3+1+3Sagaborn Striker
2
4
20 ft/10 ft
4th+4+4+1+4Syllable of Draconic Form
2
4
20 ft/10 ft
5th+5+4+1+4-
3
5
20 ft/10 ft
6th+6/+1+5+2+5-
3
5
40 ft/20 ft
7th+7/+2+5+2+5Phonema
4
6
40 ft/20 ft
8th+8/+3+6+2+6Spiritual Avarice
4
6
40 ft/20 ft
9th+9/+4+6+3+6Phonema of Draconic Form
5
6
40 ft/20 ft
10th+10/+5+7+3+7-
7
7
40 ft/20 ft
11th+11/+6/+1+7+3+7Spiritual Augmentation
8
7
40 ft/20 ft
12th+12/+7/+2+8+4+8-
9
7
80 ft/40 ft
13th+13/+8/+3+8+4+8Words
10
8
80 ft/40 ft
14th+14/+9/+4+9+4+9Word of Draconic Form
11
8
80 ft/40 ft
15th+15/+10/+5+9+5+9-
13
8
80 ft/40 ft
16th+16/+11/+6/+1+10+5+10Efficient Expulsion
14
8
80 ft/40 ft
17th+17/+12/+7/+2+10+5+10Spiritual Advisor
15
9
80 ft/40 ft
18th+18/+13/+8/+3+11+6+11-
16
9
120 ft/60 ft
19th+19/+14/+9/+4+11+6+11Sentence of Draconic Form
17
9
120 ft/60 ft
20th+20/+15/+10/+5+12+6+12Shout Down
19
9
120 ft/60 ft

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A drekmaelir is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).

Utterances: You learn two utterances of your choice, and gain knowledge of new utterances as you gain levels, as shown in the table. You may choose drekmaelir utterances from the dialects of the Coursing Blood, the Perfected Tool, and the Unshaped Matter. If you fail a Truespeech check to speak a drekmaelir utterance, you take a point of Wisdom burn. At first, you can learn only Syllables as drekmaelir utterances. At 7th level, you master your soul to a greater degree and gain the ability to learn Phonema, as well. At 13th level, you ascend to new heights of power, and gain the ability to learn Words. You also gain special Utterances of Draconic Form as you advance through the class. These do not count toward your utterances known.

Draconic: Your study grants you Draconic as a bonus language at 1st level.

Tongue of the Dragon (Ex): The strength of your spirit drives your ability to speak utterances in a way that no other source of power truly can. Because you master your talent through force of will, you may use Charisma instead of Intelligence when determining your modifier to a Truespeech roll.

Draconic Will (Ex): Your mind is armored against the potential backlash of truespeech, just as a dragon's scales armor it from the swords of lesser creatures. At 1st level, you can ignore the first 2 points of Wisdom burn you would take in a day for failing the Truespeech check to speak a drekmaelir utterance. Your ability to resist this ability burn increases as you gain levels, as indicated in the table above. When you rest for 8 hours, your mind relaxes, and your focus is restored, restoring the number of points you can resist to its normal maximum.

Exhaled Utterance (Ex): Unlike other truespeakers, you are limited in the application of your utterances. Because you learned them through meditation on the nature of the Draconic language, so too do your utterances take their forms from a dragon's breath. When you speak a drekmaelir utterance, it targets an area rather than its normal target. Regardless of the targets the utterance actually affects when you speak it in this way, your Exhaled Utterance is always considered to have the same target for the purposes of the Law of Resistance.
If it normally targeted an area, then you simply target the area determined by this class feature. If it normally targeted a creature or object, then every creature or object within that area is targeted; you cannot choose to exclude any potential targets. Each time you speak an utterance, you can either choose a 20-foot line or a 10-foot cone. In any case, the area's point of origin is in your space, as normal for a breath weapon. As you gain levels in this class, the area you can affect increases, but you can choose to affect an area of any size to which you have already gained access. The first number in the table lists the length of a line, and the second the length of a cone. You cannot choose to affect an area not listed, even if it's smaller than an area to which you have access. You also cannot use a drekmaelir utterance's normal target entry; you must use this ability with every drekmaelir utterance you speak.

Sagaborn Survivor (Su): At 2nd level, your fate becomes entwined with that of the world in which you dwell – your path to mastery of the True Tongue has, in ways others cannot imagine, bound your being to the destiny of the cosmos. When you gain this class feature, you can choose to have this manifest as an uncanny luck that protects you from harm, or improbable strength that allows you to survive even the most grievous wounds. Whatever the case, the power of this ability, born from the countless echoes of utterances that have etched your place in history, is in turn dependent on your surety in your own prowess and importance.
   Luck: You are right where you need to be to avoid harm. You can use your Charisma bonus in place of your Dexterity bonus for the purposes of calculating your armor class. This bonus still follows all the normal rules that your Dexterity bonus does; for instance, you lose this bonus when caught flat-footed, and it is limited by the weight of your armor. Once per encounter, you can reroll a failed Reflex save, using your Charisma bonus in place of your Dexterity bonus. You must make this decision before the effects of your failed saving throw are determined.
   Strength: Your certainty that you can survive any strike makes it so. You can use your Charisma bonus in place of your Constitution bonus for the purposes determining your bonus hit points at each level. This change also applies to levels you have already gained, not just those you gain in the future, so you may gain additional hit points for those levels. Once per encounter, you can reroll a failed Fortitude save, using your Charisma bonus in place of your Constitution bonus. You must make this decision before the effects of your failed saving throw are determined.

Sagaborn Striker (Su): At 3rd level, your place in the world is solidified even further, granting you the ability to bring the power of fate itself to bear against your foes. Your confidence and willpower define your prowess in combat. When you gain this class feature, you can choose whether this fortune takes the form of uncanny luck that places your attacks exactly where they will hurt most, or the form of unnatural strength that lends force to your blows.
   Luck: Your strikes land right where they need to. You can use your Charisma bonus instead of your Dexterity bonus for determining your attack rolls. You can only do this on an attack roll on which you would normally use your Dexterity bonus, and it follows all the normal rules that your Dexterity bonus would. Once per encounter, you can reroll a failed combat maneuver check (such as a grapple check or trip attempt), using your Charisma bonus in place of your Strength or Dexterity bonus (whichever the check originally called for).
   Strength: Your blows strike with unexpected power, born of your certainty that they will be successful. You can use your Charisma bonus instead of your Strength bonus for determining your attack rolls. You can only do this on an attack roll on which you would normally use your Strength bonus, and it follows all the normal rules that your Strength bonus would. Once per encounter, you can reroll a damage roll made as a consequence of a weapon attack, adding your Charisma bonus instead of your Strength bonus (modified just as your Strength bonus would be; for instance, you would deal extra damage with a two-handed weapon).

Syllable of Draconic Form (Ex): At 4th level, you learn a short utterance that embodies in purest form the qualities of dragonkind, the simplest utterance from the Lexicon of Draconic Form, unique to members of this class. It has no particular dialect, and can target only you. Unlike other drekmaelir utterances, you may not speak this with Exhaled Utterance, and may target yourself normally. When you speak this Syllable, your skin toughens into brilliantly-colored scales, and you grow in size. Your natural armor bonus increases by +2, and your size increases by one category. This effect lasts for 3 rounds.

Spiritual Avarice (Su): At 8th level, your spirit takes on another aspect of draconic nature, turned inward to the world of the immaterial. Though you may not be outwardly greedy, your soul echoes a need that those of others cannot ignore. This is not a desire for wealth or other riches, but rather for power of a kind, and you instinctively grasp the means to attain it, drawing the souls of the recently slain into your own.
If a creature within 30 feet of you has died within the past minute, you can use an immediate action to contain its soul within your own body. Because, on a subconscious level, your own soul yearns to prove its own strength through this act, you can only contain the soul of a creature whose CR is 2 lower than your own ECL, or higher. While so contained, the soul cannot move on to the afterlife, but if a spell or other effect would bring the creature back from the dead, its soul leaves your possession and returns to life normally. A contained soul has no particular influence over you, and is usually not even aware of its predicament. It also does not suffer any particular torment or other unpleasant circumstance as a consequence of being contained. While there may be general uses for souls, these souls are partially fused to your being by this class feature, and cannot be extracted from you unless an effect specifically indicates otherwise, and can therefore generally not be used for these purposes. You can have a number of souls so held at any given time equal to ¼ your class level. Whenever you rest for 8 hours, the relaxation loosens your mental grip sufficiently that the souls are able to escape, passing on as if you had never caught them. If you die, any souls you have contained are similarly released.
While you have such a contained soul available, you can release it and harness the energy of its passing into the afterlife to fuel your own spirit and, thereby, the power of your utterances. Releasing a contained spirit is a free action, which can be taken even if it is not your turn, and if you take it in response to a failed Truespeech check made as part of speaking a drekmaelir utterance, you can use the utterance of the length you intended, as if you had not failed the check. In so doing, the reciprocal force on your mind from the soul's departure causes you to take another point of Wisdom burn, as if from a failed truespeech check (which can be overcome by your Draconic Will class feature, as normal).

Phonema of Draconic Form (Ex): At 9th level, you learn the control necessary to speak the next utterance of the Lexicon of Draconic Form. It has no particular dialect, and can target only you. Unlike other drekmaelir utterances, you may not speak this with Exhaled Utterance, and may target yourself normally. When you speak this Phonema, you gain Spell Resistance equal to your speaker level +10, and you gain blindsense out to 60 feet. If you speak it in response to an action, the Phonema takes place first. This effect lasts for 3 rounds.

Spiritual Augmentation (Su): At 11th level, you learn to draw forth a modicum of the energy contained within the souls you have contained. The souls in question, if they are aware of anything at all, feel at worst a sense of lethargy, but otherwise remain unharmed and can be released normally. For each soul you have contained, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus on Appraise, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks, reflecting the draconic nature of your own spirit.

Word of Draconic Form (Ex): At 14th level, you learn the penultimate utterance within the Lexicon of Draconic Form. It has no particular dialect, and can target only you. Unlike other drekmaelir utterances, you may not speak this with Exhaled Utterance, and may target yourself normally. When you speak this Word, you body twists itself into one that resembles a dragon. You gain a bite attack with reach 5 feet greater than normal for a creature of your size, which deals 1d8 points of damage (if you are a Medium creature). You also gain a large pair of wings that allow you to fly at a speed of 60 feet, with Average maneuverability. Finally, your anger is terrifying to lesser creatures; any creature that sees you attack or charge must make a Will save (at the same DC as a drekmaelir utterance of yours) or else be shaken until you exit this form. You remain in this form for 3 rounds before the universe corrects the change in your shape, returning you to your normal form.

Efficient Expulsion (Ex): At 16th level, you master the art of expelling contained souls from their captivity, without harming your own mind. You no longer take the additional point of Wisdom burn for expelling a contained soul in order to mitigate the effects of a failed Truespeech check.

Spiritual Advisor (Su): At 17th level, you gain the power to conjure a fraction of the consciousness of a soul you have contained. Once per day, for 1 minute, you can produce a ghostly image of the face of a creature whose soul you have contained. This image will speak and answer questions to the best of its knowledge, which is limited entirely to that it possessed in life. It speaks only languages it knew in life. The image does not have an attitude toward you, lacking entirely the original creature's opinions and beliefs, but it will answer only one question each round and will not respond to any form of speech other than questions. It answers as briefly as possible, but honestly and to the best of its ability, with no intent to mislead or deceive. However, the soul is aware during this time and remembers events that transpire during the questioning, provided the image could see them if it had the original creature's senses.

Sentence of Draconic Form (Ex): At 19th level, you learn the greatest utterance in the Lexicon of Draconic Form. This is the only Sentence this class will ever allow you to speak. It has no particular dialect, and can target only you. Unlike other drekmaelir utterances, you may not speak this with Exhaled Utterance, and may target yourself normally. When you speak this Sentence, your utterances are imbued with an unstoppable fire. Whenever you speak an utterance with Exhaled Utterance, you breathe it forth with a blast of fire that deals 1d10 points of fire damage per 2 speaker levels. Fire resistance does not apply to this damage, nor does immunity. Creatures and objects within the area avoid this damage only if the utterance you speak would not affect them at all. The effects of this utterance last for 5 rounds.

Shout Down (Ex): At 20th level, the roar of your voice is literally deafening in triumph. If you successfully speak a drekmaelir utterance, any affected creatures are deafened for 1 minute. This ability only has an effect if you actually succeed on the Truespeech check; if you, for instance, spend a contained soul in order to treat it as a success, you do not necessarily deafen creatures.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2012, 08:19:53 PM by Bauglir »