So here's something that I think fills a niche we don't have yet. The main problem is that it's fire again, which already has a bit of an overload of the available classes.
EDIT: A buddy supplied me with a superior picture for the class.
Source.Soulkindled
Burn, baby, burn! – Aden Brenton of the Blazing Rose
The Soulkindled sees in fire the beauty of life, the strength of courage, and ultimately the foundation of all virtues worth having. To express the depth of this affinity is the noblest of gifts, and those who follow this path find themselves skilled in bringing forth the same strength of feeling in their companions.
BECOMING A SOULKINDLEDVirtually all Soulkindled are multiclassed Bards with spellshaping levels. A single-classed bard could qualify with sufficient feat expenditures, and there are a few other ways of meeting the required bardic music prerequisites. Of these, warrior skalds are the most common members of this class. Ultimately, however, getting the most out of this class is best achieved through the standard entry.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Skills: Perform (any) 8 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks
Feats: Dragonfire Inspiration
Special: Able to cast 1st level arcane spells
Special: Able to shape formulae, including at least 1 2nd level Searing Flame formula and 2 1st level Searing Flame formulae
Special: Your Dragonfire Inspiration feat must add only fire damage to damage rolls
Class Skills The Soulkindled's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (n/a), Spellcraft (Int), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skills Points at Each Level : 4 + int
Hit Dice: d6
BAB Fort Ref Will Formulae Formulae Abilities Spellcasting
Known Prepared
1. +0 +0 +2 +2 1 0 Bardic Music, Minor Heart's Flame +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
2. +1 +0 +3 +3 1 0 Passionate Fire --
3. +2 +1 +3 +3 0 1 Fireshaped Song, Brilliant Aura +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
4. +3 +1 +4 +4 1 0 Inspire Love +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5. +3 +1 +4 +4 1 0 Major Heart's Flame --
6. +4 +2 +5 +5 0 1 Charm the Blaze, Searing Flame Aura +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7. +5 +2 +5 +5 1 0 Rekindle +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
8. +6 +2 +6 +6 1 0 Phoenix Song --
9. +6 +3 +6 +6 0 1 Rouse the Buried Flame +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
10.+7 +3 +7 +7 1 0 Dis'ko Inferno +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting classWeapon Proficiencies: A Soulkindled gains no new proficiencies with any weapon or armor.
Formulae: At each level except 3rd, 6th, and 9th, you gain knowledge of a new formula from the Searing Flame circle. In addition to meeting the formula’s prerequisite, your spellshaping ability score must be equal to at least 10 + the formula’s level in order to learn it. You add your full Soulkindled level to your shaper level, rather than 1/2.
At 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, you gain an additional formula prepared per day.
Spellcasting: At each level except 2nd, 5th, and 8th, you gain an increase in caster level and new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a Soulkindled, you must decide to which class to add each level for this purpose.
Bardic Music: Your Soulkindled levels stack with your bard levels for the purposes of determining the effects of your existing bardic music effects, as well as your daily number of uses of bardic music. This does not, however, add any new bardic music abilities to your repertoire.
Minor Heart’s Flame (Su): You can replicate the effects of a
dancing lights,
flare,
raging flames, or
slow burn spell at will. The effects last for 1 minute if they are not instantaneous, and any effects dependent on caster level use your character level. You can also replicate the effects of the
endure elements spell, except that it protects only against cold – this effect lasts for 24 hours. Unlike most supernatural abilities, using these requires a verbal component for the duration of the effect.
Passionate Fire (Su): At 2nd level, you make the fundamental connection between mundane flame and the fire of the soul. Whenever you use your
fireblast or your Dragonfire Inspiration feat, you can choose to convert the energies to an emotional assault, rather than a merely physical. The effect becomes a mind-affecting morale effect, but any fire damage it deals ignores fire resistance or immunity. It is still considered fire damage, however, so, for instance, creatures weak to fire take extra damage.
Fireshaped Song (Su): At 3rd level, you condense the disparate techniques for awakening the inner flame into a single, cohesive whole. When you use your
fireblast attack, you can substitute the damage that would ordinarily be added to an attack by your Dragonfire Inspiration feat for the spellshape attack’s base damage. Damage added by a formula is still added normally, for instance. Doing this requires the expenditure of a use of your bardic music, and alters your base
fireblast damage for the rest of your turn.
When you use your Dragonfire Inspiration feat, you can substitute, for the duration of the effect, your
fireblast base damage for the damage normally added to attacks by the feat. Doing this requires the expenditure of a formula, as if it had been shaped, and you cannot recover this formula while your Dragonfire Inspiration is adding damage to attacks.
Brilliant Aura (Su): At 3rd level, the fire in your heart begins to shine forth in physical form, creating a bright aura that makes you difficult to strike. You add your Charisma bonus to your AC. If you have another special ability or quality that allows you to add an ability score to your AC (whether directly, such as a Monk, or through another bonus type, such as an incorporeal creature’s deflection bonus), this does not stack. Instead, you increase that bonus by +1.
Inspire Love (Ex): At 4th level, you gain a new form of bardic music. Using
inspire love requires a standard action and a use of your bardic music ability. All of your allies that can hear your performance are filled with a deep affection for their allies. While affected by this ability, allies can choose to block line of effect to other allies for any given effect, taking the brunt of attacks themselves. Thus, if a dragon were to breathe fire at the party, the warrior directly in front of the dragon could create a safe zone behind her, in a line directly from the breath weapon’s point of origin, that would remain unaffected by the breath weapon. Additionally, allies can use an immediate action to take a move action, but only if doing so allows them to block line of effect to an ally from some effect. A creature that does this is considered to have used a move action from its next round, in addition to its swift action. Finally, all creatures affected by this ability gain a morale bonus equal to ½ your class level on damage rolls against creatures that have dealt damage to an ally of theirs within the past turn.
Major Heart's Flame (Su): You can replicate the effects of a
pyrotechnics,
rage, or
wings of fire spell at will. The effects last for 1 minute (if they are not instantaneous), and any effects dependent on caster level use your character level.
In addition, you can use a standard action to awaken an ally's inner fire in a reflection of your own. You must touch the ally in question, who gains the ability to replicate one of the spells your Minor Heart's Flame ability allows you to replicate. The ally uses their own character level to determine the effects, and while the ally possesses the ability, you cannot use it yourself, having expended a portion of your own power to awaken it. Your ally can give up the power as a free action at any time, at any distance (even across planar boundaries), returning it to you and allowing you to use your power again normally. Unlike most supernatural abilities, using these requires a verbal component for the duration of the effect.
Charm the Blaze (Su): You gain the service of a fire elemental, as if you were an Elemental Adept devoted to fire. As normal, it gains special abilities and grows in size as your shaper level increases. Your levels that grant uses of bardic music count fully toward your effective shaper level for this purpose, if they did not before. If you already have (or later gain) an elemental companion from Elemental Adept levels, you gain a second one instead, except that you use your shaper level -4 for determining its abilities.
You also gain the ability to turn creatures with the (Water) subtype, just as a good cleric does undead, using your shaper level in place of your cleric level. You can also rebuke or bolster creatures with the (Fire) subtype, just as an evil cleric does undead, using your shaper level in place of your cleric level. You may use this ability a number of times each day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. If you already possessed the ability to turn water creatures and rebuke fire creatures, it instead improves; a creature that would be turned by this ability is instead destroyed, while a creature that would be rebuked is instead controlled.
Searing Flame Aura (Su): At 6th level, your inner fire projects into the world around you. You gain the power to project the
spellshape aura associated with the
searing flame circle.
Rekindle (Su): At 7th level, you gain the ability to create an echo of your
searing flame formulae. As a swift action, you can spend a use of your bardic music to cause the effects of a
searing flame formula you used on your last turn to repeat. The point of origin, target, and any other decisions or modifications to the formula you might have made remain exactly as they were when you first used the formula, but you must roll any dice that were involved again.
Phoenix Song (Su): At 8th level, you learn the melody of a phoenix, and can play it with such beauty and intensity as to push back death itself. This is a new bardic music ability. Using this ability requires a daily use of your bardic music ability, and unlike most bardic music abilities, is a supernatural ability. Activating this ability requires a standard action, and it lasts as long as you continue to sing. An ally must be able to hear you perform in order to gain the benefit.
While under the effects of
phoenix song, your allies (including yourself) are surrounded by a halo of harmless fire that emits light as a
daylight spell (though it does not counter or dispel any [Darkness] effects) and which protects them from cold, reducing any cold damage dealt to them by half.
In addition, when an ally dies while under the effects of this ability, you can spend a use of your bardic music as an immediate action to grant your ally a fiery rebirth. If you do, the ally’s corpse explodes in a shower of flames, dealing 2d6 points of damage per hit die the ally possessed to all enemies within 15 feet. Half of this damage is fire damage, while the other half is untyped. Any other allies caught within the radius of such a blast remain undamaged, but gain fast healing equal to your class level for 1 minute. The blast leaves behind no ashes or other remains (even equipment), but 1d4 minutes afterward, as long as you are still performing, the ally is reborn as if by a
true resurrection spell, except that the ally also takes 2 points of Constitution burn. Constitution burn dealt by this ability is not even restored by magic powerful enough to bring a soul back from beyond death, such as
true resurrection or even another use of this ability. If you cease your performance before your ally returns to life, a smoldering pile of ash (the remains of your ally, and any flammable equipment that ally carried) appears in the last square the ally occupied instead, along with any non-flammable equipment the ally had.
Rouse the Buried Flame (Ex): At 9th level, the poetic depth of your song can penetrate even the coldest heart. Your bardic music effects can affect even creatures immune to morale effects or mind-affecting effects as if they lacked that immunity. Mindless creatures are, however, still immune.
Dis’ko Inferno (Su): At 10th level, you learn the purest expression of fire’s song. This technique, originally devised by a cornered group of succubi and eladrins attempting to escape a prison in the depths of the 2nd layer of Baator, allows you to concentrate all your emotional power into a raw blaze.
This is a new bardic music ability. Whenever you are using another bardic music ability, you can expend another use of your bardic music as a free action once per round. If you do, any enemies within range of that ability, to a maximum of 500 feet, take damage as if from your Dragonfire Inspiration ability. You can use your Fireshaped Song ability in conjunction with this ability, as well as your Passionate Fire ability or any other ability that could be applied to your Dragonfire Inspiration.
PLAYING A SOULKINDLED You’re at your best when you’re in a large party. Your class features grant benefits to lots of party members, so each one you add improves your own effectiveness. You’re likely to be effective in social situations, due to your class skills and likely high Charisma, but since a high Charisma score isn’t actually necessary to excel in this class (if your original spellshaping class used another ability score), you might prefer to focus on other areas.
Combat: Your relatively low hit points mean you should avoid the front lines, in most cases, although a Spellshape Champion with a high Constitution score might not suffer too badly. You use more uses of bardic music than other bards, and so you should maximize your effective bard level and look into sources of bonus uses of that ability. You should rarely enter combat alone – maximize the number of frontline combatants available to you, who benefit the most from your abilities. Summoning or necromancy make good sources of such creatures, even if you don’t have other such characters in your party; at higher levels, even weak creatures can provide an effective source of area damage, and you later gain the ability to grant bonuses even to undead creatures.
Advancement: Any spellshaping class that grants access to
searing flame makes a good entry for this class, and you would do well to pursue it. Alternatively, you could pursue more strongly the path of the bard, emphasizing your bardic music. Finally, many prestige classes already exist for spellshapers preferring the element of fire, and members of this class would be likely candidates for most of these.
Resources: The Soulkindled rarely have organizations, instead passing their teachings on from master to apprentice or discovering their talents on their own. However, individual members of this class are often personable and tend to attract a number of close and devoted friends, and can count on their goodwill.
SOULKINDLED IN THE GAME A Soulkindled will improve the resiliency of your party significantly as they acquire the new bardic music abilities offered by the class, and their other abilities allow them significant synergies between their bardic powers and their spellshaping, and allow more efficient use of both. At 10th level, they also acquire the ability to significantly increase their damage output.
Adaptation: You can have Soulkindled in any campaign setting that includes spellshaping already. Because of their lack of fixed roots or strict organization, it's easy to believe that the PCs simply haven't met a member of the class yet, or maybe the character who takes a level is the first.
Encounters: Soulkindled make excellent companions to a party, but they are also effective antagonists. An evil Soulkindled would have little trouble treating minions as expendable shields, knowing that more fuel for their plans can always be found (and, at higher levels, that even in death their thugs can create damaging explosions). A good-aligned Soulkindled would seek to protect allies above all else, empowering them to survive more. A lawful Soulkindled might use these class features to enhance a military unit on the battlefield, while a chaotic member of the class could perform much the same task for a resistance group.
