Storm SentryPrerequisites: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Storm), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark, +5 BAB
Hit Die: d10
Skill Points: 4+Int
Class Skills: The storm sentry's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Chr), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Jump (Str), Intimidate (Chr), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Profession (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex) and Use Rope (Dex)
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Heir to the House, Lesser Dragonmark, Gale Force (1 size) |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Lyrandar's Shield, Blade of Wind |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | Endure the Storm, Lightning Storm (1d6) |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Greater Dragonmark, Bonus Feat, Gale Force (2 sizes, +1 line) |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Blade of Turbulent Winds |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +5 | +2 | Lightning Storm (2d6) |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +5 | +2 | Endure the Storm (pernament) |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +6 | +2 | Blade of Storms, Bonus Feat |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +6 | +3 | Gale Force (3 sizes, +2 lines), Lightning Storm (3d6) |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +7 | +3 | Sibeyrs Dragonmark |
Heir to the House: As the Heir to the House, your Dragonmark is far stronger than most, and you can draw on its power most often. Add your class level to your Dragon Pool, the Save DC of your Dragonmark SLAs, and Caster Level checks related to your Dragonmark SLAs.
Special: If you have the 'Heir to the House' class feature multiple times, it does not stack, you only apply the highest-levelled class as a bonus.
Lesser Dragonmark: At 1st level, you gain the
Lesser Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Gale Force: At 1st level, you start to learn how to make the most out of their
Gust of Wind, pushing it to extremes that others cannot match. You add 5ft per class level its range, and can treat all creatures as being one size category lower for the purpose of its effects. At level 4 and level 9, this ability improves further, allowing you to treat all creatures as two, then three size categories lower for the purposes of
Gust of Wind.
Finally, at level 4, you no longer create a single line of wind. Instead, when you use
Gust of Wind, you can choose to create two different lines instead of one and can select a square adjacent to you to be the origin of one or both of these
Gust of Wind effects. These
Gust of Wind lines can be sent in different directions, but cannot overlap with one another. At level 9, you gain the ability to create a 3rd line of Wind with
Gust of Wind, and can select up to two squares adjacent to you to serve as an original for these
Gust of Wind effects.
So, the previous capstone of the Storm Sentry has been dragged down to a level 1 class feature and seriously upgraded. Why is this? ... Well, because Gust of Wind is a niche SLA, and without some serious, serious upgrades, it would remain extremely niche. Now though, a 10th Level Storm Sentry, which yes, will be a 16th-level character, can stop Gargantuan Creatures from moving closer, knock prone Huge Creatures, and Large creatures can be blown away. This, combined with the extra lines for 3x the amount of area affected (and the extra length, though that's more because I don't think it'll be that potent of an addition) and you have some serious crowd-control potential now. Still not the strongest SLA in the Storm Sentry's aresnal, and not an option in every situation (especially as dreaded Colossal Creatures), but a useful tool to have all the way up to ECL 20.
: At 2nd level, you learn how to harness your Dragonmark to shield yourself from harm, allowing them to cast
Shield as a Least Dragonmark SLA. Additionally, a you can choose to spend 3 dragon points to cast
Shield as an SLA with its duration increased to 1 hour/level.
You also add
Feather Fall as a Least SLA.
Similar to the Storm Sentry class feature of the same name, this has mostly been modernised to the new dragon point format. The main change is a slight SoL update. Instead of having to spend 2 dragon points to gain a 10-minute/level effect, I decided to just bump it up to 3 points for 1 hour/level instead, which is far more convenient and easier to remember. Oh and Feather Fall is added in, rather than its own class feature.
: At 2nd level, you learn the defining feature of their class, the ability to create a blade out of nothing but the wind itself. As a swift action, you can create one or two blades of wind by spending 1 dragon point. The blades of wind are one-handed weapons with a 19-20/x2 critical profile that can be treated as a light weapon when it would be beneficial. If a single blade was created it does 2d6 base damage on a Medium Creature, if two are created, it does 1d8 base damage on a Medium creature instead. This damage is piercing and slashing damage. A blade of wind lasts for 1 hour per class level, or until it leaves your hand.
Additionally, the
Blade of Wind is treated as having an enchantment bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to 1/3 your character level, After acquiring a special handle used to channel the weapon with a cost of 100gp, the
Blade of Wind can be enchanted with weapon special abilities. You must be holding this handle to apply the weapon special abilities. Count the
Blade of Wind as having a +1 enchantment bonus when doing so. Finally, the
Blade of Wind can be treated as a shortsword, a longsword, a bastard sword, a greatsword and a rapier for the purpose of feats, but only one at a time.
Okay, this is also stolen. Specifically from Prime32's
Stormblade PrC, though I've made a few tweaks to it. Storm Sentrys are primarily a melee class, so having a super-special weapon meant out of the winds themselves isn't just a power boost, its also
cool. Between the enchantment bonus and the ability to add WSAs, you should be able to use the Blade of Wind as your primary weapon. Hitting harder than most weapons, but still using feats for those weapons, rather than needing Weapon Focus (Blade of Wind) and the like.
Overall, this will be a decent bump to your damage as a martial character, but it will hardly be game-breaking.
: At 3rd level, you learn how to shrug off the effects of the storm and lend this bonus to their allies. When they use
Endure Elements, they can spend a dragon point to upgrade it. Now, those under the effect of your
Endure Elements ignores any movement and sight restrictions from fog, rain, sleet and similar weather effects and can ignore wind effects when making ranged attacks (except for the
Wind Wall of another Storm Sentry). They also gain Cold and Electricity Resistance equal to your Caster Level.
At 7th level, you are constantly under the effects of
Endure Elements as an extraordinary ability as though you had cast it yourself and upgraded it using your Endure the Storm ability. Additionally, you no longer need to spend an extra dragon point to upgrade
Endure Elements.
Why should Gust of Winds be the only SLA that gets love from a Storm Sentry? Consider this a sign of what the other Dragonmark PrCs are going to be like. While I am not going to augment every SLA a Mark grants, I'm not going to take just a singular SLA and empower it, I'm interested going to augment several SLAs of the Mark.
And this, this is pretty powerful. Niche perhaps, but this means that whoever the Storm Sentry uses Endure Elements on can now wander through their Fog Clouds and Sleet Storms with no difficulty, giving an indirect but significant boost to party cohesion and battlefield control. Admittedly, some magic items and spells allowed it already, but now a Storm Sentry can hand it out all by themselves. The Energy Resistance is just the cherry on top, as many weather-like effects deal cold or electricity damage, so this helps you and your party fight against them. Then at level 7, you have the buff up all the time and can use the upgraded Endure Elements with only one dragon point. A minor bump to make it easier for you to work with a party and still have dragon points available for other effects.
: At the 3rd level, you learn how to add an electircal charge to the mist and rain so they can more easily defeat their enemies. When you use
Fog Cloud,
Sleet Storm, or a similar effect (such as
Obscuring Mist,
Solid Fog,
Storm of Vengence, etc), they can spend a dragon point to empower it. The SLA gains the (electricity) tag, and all creatures currently in its area of effect take 1d6 electric damage per 3 Storm Sentry levels. Afterwards, if a creature starts its turn inside the area of effect or enters it during the round, it takes this damage. A creature can only take this damage once per round.
So, remember the electricity resistance Endure Elements grants? Sure coming in useful here, isn't it? Now, don't get me wrong, the damage of this ability is low, and that's on purpose. I don't want this to be a super-powerful damage option, it's meant to be a little additional damage on top of the BFC of the abilities to help cut down the enemy faster. If the damage is too low, I am willing to give it a slight bump, probably up to 1d6 damage per 2 Sentry Levels instead, but again, it's not about being a raw damage ability. It's about softening up the enemy while they are in your BFC effect or making it even more dangerous to fight you in your Fog Clouds.
Oh, and it also opens up some fun shenanigans with metamagic if you want to invest in it, but none of those shenanigans should be overpowered.
: At 4th Level, you gain the
Greater Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Bonus Feats: At 4th and 8th level, a you gain a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be a feat with Least, Lesser or Greater Dragonmark as a prequisite, or a fighter bonus feat. You must meet the Prerequisites of the feat to choose that feat.
Greater Dragonmark like normal, and the Storm Sentry is a martial class, so gets a couple of bonus feats to help them along, though not as many as the Dragonmark Heir does.
: At 5th level, when you create a
Blade of Wind, you can spend an additional dragon point to transform it into a
Blade of Trublent Winds. A Blade of Turbulent Winds functions like a Blade of Winds, except it increases your reach by 5ft, and each time you strike a creature with it, they must make a Fortitude Save, DC 10+your Storm Sentry Level+your Charisma modifier, or be moved 5ft per Storm Sentry level in a direction you chose and knocked prone. Every 5ft upwards counts as 10ft of movement. On a success, this attempt is treated as a successful trip and bull rush. A creature can only be moved by this effect once per round.
Again, borrowed from the
Stormblade, though gained several levels later and tweaked. This effectively gives you Knockback and Knockdown as bonus feats, though it switches out the combat manuever check for a Fortitude Save. And yes, I am aware that Fortitude is generally the highest save, especially for enemy melee fighters, but Gust of Wind is Fortitude-based, and it feels thematic for the Blade of Turbulent Winds to function similarly. And you do get to potentially trigger it multiple times a turn, even if they can only be moved once, so I think that balances it out.
If people think the save is too weak, I'm willing to switch it to a Reflex save.
: At 8th level, when you create a
Blade of Wind, they can spend an additional 2 dragon points to transform it into a
Blade of Storms. A
Blade of Storms functions like a
Blade of Turbulent Winds, except it is a 17-20/x2 weapon and gains the
Shocking Burst and
Icy Burst weapon special abilities as additional bonuses for free.
And the final upgrade to a Stormy Sentry's blade is taking the Storm Strike they gain from the original class, and upgrading it. Shocking Burst is nice and all, but let's throw in Icy Burst and make it more likely to land a crit too. A free 2d6 damage and potentially more on crit is another decent damage boost. But at 8 levels in Storm Sentry, you're going to be a level 14 character, so maneuvers such as Avalanche of Blades and Rabid Bear Strike are available, with Diamond Nightmare Blade available next level. I think the damage bonus of Blade of Storms is going to be acceptable in comparison.
: At 10th Level, you unlock the power of the Sibeyrs Dragonmark. This grants you access to the Sibeyrs SLA, which you can cast by spending 8 dragon points. Unless otherwise modified, the time it takes to use an SLA from a Dragonmark is the same amount of time it takes to cast the spell it is replicating.
Storm Sentry ACF: Storm BladePrerequisites: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Storm), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark. +5 BAB.
Additionally, you must have 1 maneuver and stance in a martial discipline that predominately deals elemental damage with its boosts and strikes (e.g. Desert Wind).
| Maneuvers Known | Maneuvers
Readied | Stances
Known[ |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
Maneuvers: When you take your first level in Storm Blade, you select 3 disciplines you already have access to, one of which must be a discipline that predominately deals elemental damage with its boosts and strikes (e.g. Desert Wind). When you gain a Maneuver or Stance as per the table above, it must be from 1 of the selected disciplines.
This replaces
Blade of Winds,
Blade of Turbulent Winds,
Blade of Storms and the
Bonus Feats class feature of the Storm Sentry class.
Lightning Warrior: When you would deal elemental damage thanks to a Strike or a Boost, you can change that damage to electricity damage. If it was already electricity damage, you deal extra damage equal to 2x the level of the Maneuver if a strike, or the level of the maneuver if it is a boost.
Once more inspired by the
Stormblade, I present to you a Tome of Battle alternative to the Storm Sentry. A decent maneuver progression and the ability to do electrical damage instead of fire damage with Desert Wind, or other homebrew disciplines. At the cost of the fancy wind blade and the bonus feats of the Storm Blade. I feel like that's a fair trade, as a maneuver user, you don't need a stronger weapon or the extra feats, the maneuvers fill in that slot. But you still gain the SLA boosts, as that is what I consider the
core of the Storm Sentry.
And yes, this does mean I am potentially open to doing ACFs of the other Dragonmark PrCs, we'll see how that goes.
: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Passage), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark, +5 BAB
Hit Die: d10
Skill Points: 4+Int
Class Skills: The Blade of Orien's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Chr), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Geography) (Int), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex)
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Heir to the House, Lesser Dragonmark, Rapid Leap |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Korran's Strength, Herd of Mounts |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | Orien's Grasp, Fast Movement (+10ft) |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Greater Dragonmark, Bonus Feat, |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Orien's Fury (Single Attack) |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +5 | +2 | Olladra's Twist, Fast Movement (+20ft) |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +5 | +2 | Orien's Cloak |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +6 | +2 | Orien's Wrath, Bonus Feat |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +6 | +3 | Orien's Fury (Full-Attack), Fast Movement (+30ft) |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +7 | +3 | Sibeyrs Dragonmark |
Heir to the House: As the Heir to the House, your Dragonmark is far stronger than most, and you can draw on its power most often. Add your class level to your Dragon Pool, the Save DC of your Dragonmark SLAs, and Caster Level checks related to your Dragonmark SLAs.
Special: If you have the 'Heir to the House' class feature multiple times, it does not stack, you only apply the highest-levelled class as a bonus.
Lesser Dragonmark: At 1st level, you gain the
Lesser Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Rapid Leap: At first level, you learn how to jump through space faster than others in your House. You can use the
Dimension Leap and
Dimension Door SLAs as a Move Action, doing so however, reduces their distance. A
Dimension Leap used this way has its range halved, while a
Dimension Door has its range reduced by one range category (Long > Medium > Close). Additionally, you can use
Dimension Leap in 5-ft increments instead of 10-ft increments, and no longer provoke attacks of opportunity for using
Dimension Leap and
Dimension Door Alright, standard start, similar basic stats as the Storm Sentry, and dragging the original's Swift Leap to level 1 and updating it. Dimension Leap as a move action and 5-ft increments is a pretty big update, so it is a power boost for sure. As is Dimension Door being a move action option too. Going from Long Range to Medium is a big loss of range, don't get me wrong, far more than Dimension Leap's half. But as we're looking at a range of 600ft currently on DD, reducing it to 150ft instead of 300ft feels like it'll be more impactful. Don't get me wrong, 600ft to 300ft is pretty big, but that's still 2.5 turns of doing nothing more than running at 30ft speed and light armour, while 150ft is 1 turn of running and 1 turn of normal movement, so far more limited in distance.
Oh and the Shadow Shift class feature is bundled in. As it was kinda ridiculous as a level 8 class feature.
: At 2nd level, you learn how to better transport other creatures with your powers. When using
Dimension Leap you can now transport other willing creatures, similar to how
Dimension Door functions, except you can only transport a number of creatures equal to 1+1 per 5 CL. Additionally, the number of creatures you can affect with
Dimension Door increases to 1+1 per 2 CL. This same increase applies to
Teleport and
Greater Teleport when you can use them.
Again, a slight update to the Blade's old class feature. Thanks to how Dragonmark CL works, you should be able to transport 2 creatures with Dimension Leap when you pick this up, but have that increased to 3 when you pick up Greater Dragonmark, and it scales to a total of 5 by level 20. A bit better scaling than what the class had originally.
The changes to DD, Teleport and G.Teleport are more flavour than off actual use. But it felt fitting to me. If you learn how to carry additional people with DL, then you get better at whisking people along with DD, Teleport and G.Teleport as well.
: At 2nd level, you learn the importance of transporting a party instead of just yourself. When you use
Mount or
Phantom Steed, you can spend 1 dragon point to instead summon up to 1 mount or phantom steed per CL, rather than just a single creature.
Bit of a ribbon ability, but I wanted to do something when the non-teleporting SLAs of Mark of Passage, and this was basically all I could come up with as a good option. So, here it is. Please do not try and abuse this to have a million and one horses in combat without riders. If you do, your DM has my blessing to drop a meteor on your PCs head.
: At 3rd level, you gain
Mage Hand as an At-Will SLA except its movement speed is doubled, and the
Mage Hand can attempt to grab attended objects. If used this way, the object can make a Will Save (DC 10+Heir to the House+Cha) to ignore the attempted grab. Finally, you can spend 1 dragon point as a swift action to teleport the
Mage Hand a distance equal to its speed
Considering how close the effect was to Mage Hand already, I figured it would be easier to just give the Blade of Orien the cantrip with some small buffs and the ability to spend a dragon point to teleport it around. The save DC is exactly what any other Dragonmark Cantrip would be by the by, just spell it out so that people don't start asking for it.
: At 3rd level, you gain an extra 10ft to all speeds you possess. This increases by an additional 10ft for every 3 Blade of Orien levels after the 3rd.
Instead of directly upgrading Overland Flight and Expeditious Retreat, I figured this would be an acceptable compromise. Considering your teleporting is unaffected by your base speeds, I don't think this would be the most powerful class feature, but its a solid improvement to your turn-by-turn mobility that doesn't cost any extra dragon points to make use off
: At 4th Level, you gain the
Greater Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Bonus Feats: At 4th and 8th level, you gain a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be a feat with Least, Lesser or Greater Dragonmark as a prerequisite, or a fighter bonus feat. You must meet the Prerequisites of the feat to choose that feat.
Orien's Fury: At 5th level, you learn to unleash lightning-swift attacks even as you shift through space. Whenever you teleport, you can make a single attack with any 1 melee weapon you are wielding, or one natural weapon you possess. This only functions once per teleport effect.
At 9th level, once per round, you can make a full-attack action instead.
Orien's Fury is a fantastic capstone for the original class, don't get me wrong. But it is kinda annoying that you have to trudge through the full ten levels to pick it up and it only works when you use the Swift Leap class feature. So I've tweaked it a little. The 5th level use is weaker, more akin to the Sun School tactical feat. But even so, free attacks are free attacks, and this is nothing to sneeze at. Because I have updated the class feature to work more often however, I have firmly restricted the feature to only apply once per round at 9th level. I don't want to create overpowered shadow pounce-esque shenanigans with this ability thank you. Same reason why you only get 1 attack per teleport effect. If you use an ability that lets say, make a full-attack but teleport between each attack, this only gives you a single extra attack, rather than basically doubling the amount of attacks you can use.
: At 6th level, you can now use
Dimension Leap on your allies to switch them with one another. As a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you can spend 1 dragon point and select 2 willing allies within 5ft per Dragonmark CL and have them switch places. By spending 2 dragon points, you can instead select up to 4 willing allies and teleport them into a space where one of the select allies was previously.
Originally a level 5 class feature, this has been bumped up to 6th level, but in return, you get far, far more range than before. At this level, you'll have a CL of 15, so you can target people who are 75ft away from you and switch them around. And now you have an upgraded version too to truly gain the ability to move your party around! No Move Action upgrades with Swift Leap, though it was tempting to allow it to happen. Switching allies around as a standard action is still pretty strong action economy, so it doesn't need that much of an upgrade
: At 7th level, you gain the ability to use
Blink as a Lesser Dragonmark ability. Additionally, you can spend 2 dragon points when using
Blink to ignore the 20% miss chance that applies to your spells and attacks when under the effects of
Blink.
Blink is good, but not that good, and we're looking at level 13 by the time we get this, Sorcs and Wizards have had this spell since level 5/6 to play around with. 4 dragon points means it costs almost as much as Greater Dragonmark ability, but ignoring the main downside on Blink would make it an extremely powerful defensive tool in the Blade of Oiren's arsenal, something I am more than fine to grant them.
: At 8th level, you gain a truly fearsome power: the ability to teleport your foes. When you use
Dimension Leap, you can spend 1 dragon point to allow it to target one unwilling creature in range. They can make a Will Save to resist (DC 12+Heir to the House+Cha), and if they fail, they are teleported as per
Dimension Leap, except the range is halved. If this would place the target in a solid object, the effect automatically fails.
And another upgrade to the class feature. We're looking at far, far more flexibility, as you can target creatures at much further range and move them further. Plus, the Save is likely higher thanks to Heir to the House. Oh, and while you can target only one unwilling creature with it, you can still use this ability with Rapid Leap. It cuts the teleport speed to 2.5ft/CL, but you still have CL 17 at this point, so that's still 40ft of movement to an enemy as move action if they fail the Will Save. A very powerful addition to the arnel, so is it no surprise its a level 8 feature now?
: At 10th Level, you unlock the power of the Sibeyrs Dragonmark. This grants you access to the Sibeyrs SLA, which you can cast by spending 8 dragon points. Unless otherwise modified, the time it takes to use an SLA from a Dragonmark is the same amount of time it takes to cast the spell it is replicating.
Blade of Orien ACF: Nine Swords OrienPrerequisites: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Passage), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark. +5 BAB.
Additionally, you must know 1 manuever that allows you to teleport (e.g. Shadow Hand's Shadow Jaunt).
| Maneuvers Known | Maneuvers
Readied | Stances
Known[ |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
Maneuvers: When you take your first level in Nine Swords Orien, you select 3 disciplines you already have access to, one of which must be a discipline which has the maneuver that allows you to teleport (e.g. Shadow Hand's Shadow Jaunt). When you gain a Maneuver or Stance as per the table above, it must be from 1 of the selected disciplines.
This replaces
Korran's Strength,
Olladra's Twist,
Orien's Cloak and the
Bonus Feats class feature of the Blade of Orien class.
Additionally, the Orien's Fury's class feature is changed as follows:
At 9th level, once per round after you teleport, you can initiate 1 Strike as a free action instead, as long as that Strike takes a standard action or faster to initiate.
Well, I said I'll be making other ACFs, didn't I? So here is Nine Swords Oiren. A lot more of a selfish class thanks to the loss of Korran's Strength as well as Olladra's Twist, as well as the defensive abilities of Orien's Cloak. Tome of Battle users already have a heightened level of damage and mobility as well, so I figured that they didn't need the full-attack power from Orien's Fury. One could argue that the free-action Strike is as a stronger option admittedly, but I'm hoping the general power loss of some pretty powerful class features make up for the potential bump this change might provide.
: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Finding), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark.
You must also meet one of the following:
Capable of casting 1st level Ranger Only Spells
The
Knowledge Devotion Feat
Hit Die: d8
Skill Points: 6+Int
Class Skills: The Medani Investigator's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (All) (Int), (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex)
Level | Base
Attack Bonus | Fort
Save | Ref
Save | Will
Save |
Special | Spells Per Day |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Heir to the House, Lesser Dragonmark, Spellcasting | 1 | - | - | - |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Favoured Enemy, Swift Tracker | 2 | - | - | - |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Sharpened Senses | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Greater Dragonmark, Bonus Feat, | 3 | 1 | - | - |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Favoured Enemy | 3 | 2 | - | - |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Track the Trackless | 4 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Free Movement | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Bonus Feat, Favoured Enemy | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Perfect Awareness | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Sibeyrs Dragonmark | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: If you weren't already, you gain proficiency with all martial weapons as well as light armour and shields (but not tower shields).
Heir to the House: As the Heir to the House, your Dragonmark is far stronger than most, and you can draw on its power most often. Add your class level to your Dragon Pool, the Save DC of your Dragonmark SLAs, and Caster Level checks related to your Dragonmark SLAs.
Special: If you have the 'Heir to the House' class feature multiple times, it does not stack, you only apply the highest-levelled class as a bonus.
Lesser Dragonmark: At 1st level, you gain the
Lesser Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Spellcasting: You gain access to Divine Spellcasting as shown in the table above, using the Ranger's Spell List to select your spells known. You prepare and cast spells like a Ranger does, and must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level to prepare and cast a spell, and the save DC of the spells is 10 + the spell level + your Wisdom modifier. Your caster level for these spells and any other Ranger spells you cast, is calculated as follows: Your Levels in Duraak’ash + Your Levels in any other Caster Class (including Prestige Classes that increase caster progression) + 1/2 Your levels in non-Caster Classes.
So, the original Duraak’ash is a bit of a Ranger-Lite Prestige Class, while the Ranger itself is generally considered a Tier 4 class, upgraded to Tier 3 with the Wildshape Variant. Considering I am upgrading PrCs to about Tier 3, I figure that making the Duraak’ash a Ranger+ in some areas is a fitting balance point. Hence the spellcasting, where you get a better caster level and quicker spell progression. The only advantage Rangers get in spellcasting is the extra 4th-level spell at max level.
Oh and Sword of the Arcane Order for Wizard spells. But that's a fair trade-off I would say.
: At 2nd, 5th and every 3 Duraak’ash levels after, you gain the Favoured Enemy class feature like the Ranger, allowing you to select a new Favoured Enemy and increase your bonuses against one Favoured Enemy (including the one you just gained) by +2. Additionally, for each Favoured Enemy you have, you gain Skill Ranks to an appropriate Knowledge Skill equal to their Character Level +3. e.g, a 9th Level Duraak’ash with Favoured Enemy: Aberration has 12 ranks in Knowledge (Dungeeoning). If this would select a Knowledge skill twice (such as the previous Duraak’ash picking up Favoured enemy: Oozes), they instead gain ranks in a different Knowledge skill of their choice. If you already possessed skill ranks in the selected skills before gaining this class feature, then those skill ranks are refunded.
Finally, you can spend 2 dragon points as a swift action and select a creature within Close (25ft +2.5ft per character level) Range that is now a Favoured Enemy. For 1 minute per class level, that creature is treated as being a Favoured Enemy of your choice. This does not give you any extra skill ranks.
And now, Favoured Enemy+. It always bugged me that the Rangers, who study how to fight against a creature and have bonuses against them, aren't able to tell you their strengths and vulnerabilities. So I changed that, free skill ranks for you! Plus, this scales much faster than a Traditional Ranger, allowing a Ranger 10/Duraak’ash 10 to have 6 Favoured Enemies and a +12 bonus against one of them, though I suspect most people going this route will only have one Favoured Enemy, if that. Oh, and you also get Pathfinder's Instant Enemy to make it easier to leverage your Favoured Enemy bonuses. You are welcome!
You can move at your normal speed while following tracks. (See the ranger class feature, PH 48.). Additionally, you always know where North is, as if you were under a permanent
Know Direction effect.
Bit of a ribbon ability, but the original Duraak’ash got this, so why not? Plus a slight upgrade to your SLAs. A permanent Know Direction isn't exactly powerful, but it could be useful every now and again, especially as you don't have to spend standard actions on it anymore.
: At 3rd level, you double the range of all divination abilities associated with your Mark of Finding, and can add your
Heir to the House bonus to Will Saves against
Mislead.
Look, you got super-ranger Spellcasting and super-favoured enemy at levels 1 and 2. Taking a ribbon ability borrowed directly from the original Duraak’ash is the least you can do for 3rd level.
: At 4th Level, you gain the
Greater Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Bonus Feats: At 4th and 8th level, a you gain a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be a feat with Least, Lesser or Greater Dragonmark as a prerequisite, or a fighter bonus feat. You must meet the Prerequisites of the feat to choose that feat.
Track the Trackless: At 6th level, you gain the ability to track creatures under the effect of pass without trace, trackless step, or similar abilities, though you take a -15 penalty on your Survival check when doing so.
Again, a bit of a ribbon ability, but the Duraak’ash is meant to be the ultimate tracker, so this is a genuinely fitting ability for them to have. Also a slight bump, a -20 penalty was a bit harsh, so I upgraded it to -15, still a pretty strong penalty, but gives you a better chance at actually being able to track people without having a +10 Competence item for Survival or something silly like that
: At 7th level, you learn how to move through the world with ease. You can ignore all forms of difficult terrain, wind, and crowds when moving, and you take no physical damage from terrain-based hazards, whenever they are natural (e.g. thorns), manufactured (e.g. caltrops) or magical (e.g.
Spike Growth). energy damage, such as from Acid or Fire, still applies.
We have super spellcasting and super-favoured enemy, so why not a super Woodland Stride? Yes, we are getting this class feature at a much higher level, but it is also quite a bit more powerful. Whenever you are on foot or in the air, you have completely unrestricted movement, and can even ignore physical hazards! Elemental hazards still hurt though, as I did not want to make you immune to lava, that is just asking for trouble. This ability won't come up all the time, I am aware of that, but when it does, you'll be glad to have it.
At 9th level, you have learned how to always be aware of your surroundings, you gain 60ft Blindsense, but Favoured Enemies treat it as Blindsight.
Being able to ignore miss chances against a Locate Creature target is just so... inelegant. This feels much better and more usable as a class feature. It does have a limited range, but 60ft is plenty of distance to work with, even for archers. And yes, 60ft Blindsense is further than most PCs can get, but in my personal experience, battles can be fought at longer ranges than people assume, so the extra range boost can be quite useful without being overpowered.
: At 10th Level, you unlock the power of the Sibeyrs Dragonmark. This grants you access to the Sibeyrs SLA, which you can cast by spending 8 dragon points. Unless otherwise modified, the time it takes to use an SLA from a Dragonmark is the same amount of time it takes to cast the spell it is replicating.
Vadalis BeastkeeperPrerequisites: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Handling), 9 ranks in at least two associated skills of your Mark.
You must either have an Animal Companion or a Special Mount
Hit Die: d8
Skill Points: 6+Int
Class Skills: The Medani Investigator's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (All) (Int), (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex)
Level | Base
Attack Bonus | Fort
Save | Ref
Save | Will
Save |
Special | Spells Per Day |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Heir to the House, Lesser Dragonmark, Spellcasting, Wild Empathy | 1 | - | - | - |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Improved Companion, Magebred Companion | 2 | - | - | - |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Magebred Summoning | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Greater Dragonmark, Bonus Feat, | 3 | 1 | - | - |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Bestial Empathy | 3 | 2 | - | - |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Superior Magic Fang | 4 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Animal Tongue | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Bonus Feat | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Magebred Transformation | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Sibeyrs Dragonmark | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
Heir to the House: As the Heir to the House, your Dragonmark is far stronger than most, and you can draw on its power most often. Add your class level to your Dragon Pool, the Save DC of your Dragonmark SLAs, and Caster Level checks related to your Dragonmark SLAs.
Special: If you have the 'Heir to the House' class feature multiple times, it does not stack, you only apply the highest-levelled class as a bonus.
Lesser Dragonmark: At 1st level, you gain the
Lesser Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Spellcasting: You gain access to Divine Spellcasting as shown on the table above, using the Ranger's Spell List to select your spells known. You prepare and cast spells like a Ranger does, and must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level to prepare and cast a spell, and the save DC of the spells is 10 + the spell level + your Wisdom modifier. Your caster level for these spells, and any other Ranger spells you cast is calculated as follows: Your Levels in Vadalis Beastkeeper + Your Levels in any other Caster Class (including Prestige Classes that increase caster progression) + 1/2 Your levels in non-Caster Classes.
Wild Empathy: You can improve the attitude of an animal. (See the druid class feature, PH 35.)
If you already have wild empathy from another class, levels in the classes that grant wild empathy stack to determine your total effective wild empathy level.
So if the Duraak’ash took the tracking abilities of the Ranger with Favoured Enemy, the Vadalis Beastkeeper is the Animal Companion Ranger. They even have Ranger Spellcasting in its original form, so this tweaked, upgraded version of the spellcasting is a fitting addition for them. Plus Wild Empathy
: At 2nd level, your levels in Vadalis beastkeeper stack with levels in the class that grants you your animal companion or special mount for the purpose of determining the functional strength and level of that companion or mount. If you had more than one class that granted you an animal companion or special mount before becoming a beastkeeper, you must decide which class to add to each level for the purpose of determining the functional strength and level of your companion or mount.
Magebred Companion: At 2nd level, your animal companion or special mount gains the magebred template, even though it is a magical creature, not an animal. Your companion or mount's Intelligence is not reduced by this ability. If your companion already possesses the magebred template, it is instead treated as being one level higher for the purposes of your animal companion or special mount progression.
With all the goodies you get at 1st level, it didn't feel right to give you the Improved Companion right away, but it does apply retroactively, no problems there. And why should we wait until 5th level to get the Magebred Companion? Nah, we're getting that right away thank you! And a minor buff for people who want a Magebred Ghost Tiger or Magebred Brown Bear. Not the biggest buff mind you, but it allows you to access the next break level in AC progression that little bit earlier, which I feel is a fair trade.
: At 3rd level, you learn how to infuse your knowledge of Magebred creatures into your magic. Whenever you summon an animal with
Summon Nature's Ally, it is automatically augmented with the magebred template.
Applying a template on the fly can slow down gameplay. Consider applying the magebred template to your favourite animals before play begins.
Similar to the original Beastkeeper class feature, except you aren't restricted by Levels. The Magebred template isn't that strong, so having such a restriction doesn't make sense to me. Works better with the new Mark of Handling too.
: At 4th Level, you gain the
Greater Dragonmark feat as a bonus feat.
Bonus Feats: At 4th and 8th level, you gain a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be a feat with Least, Lesser or Greater Dragonmark as a prerequisite, or a fighter bonus feat. You must meet the Prerequisites of the feat to choose that feat.
Bestial Empathy: At 5th level, you no longer take a penalty when attempting to influence magical beasts with wild empathy. Additionally, your Dragonmark SLAs can now affect magical beasts as if they were animals (this applies even if you are using the spells from a non-dragonmark source).
Mostly a ribbon ability from the original Beastkeeper, it has a little tweak to allow your SLAs to work on Magical Beasts as well as Animals to give them a touch more flexibility. Still niche, but it can help at times
: At 6th level, you learn how to better harness the power you can grant to animal allies. When you use
Greater Magic Fang, you can spend 2 dragon points to also grant the target a total amount of weapon special abilities equal to the flat enhancement bonus of the spell.
GMF is solid, but there are a lot of fun WSAs out there that you just can't get access to in 3.5. Can you imagine a Fleshraker with the Assassination WSA to increase its poison DCs and gain sneak attack? And yes, this does potentially let you flex Bane, though as it'll cost 4 dragon points each time, it would get expensive fast. Overall, a solid upgrade to your GMF that any and all natural attackers in your party will appreciate
: At 7th level, the lingering magic of your mark permanently infuses your flesh. You are treated as being under a constant
Speak with Animals effect.
Yeah, it's a ribbon ability. But it is a cool ribbon ability. So I'm happy with making this the level 7 class feature
: At 9th level your constant exposure to the arcane essence of magebred animals and magical beasts causes a transformation within your own form that mimics the magebred template. You gain a +2 bonus to one physical ability score of your choice (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution), your base speed increases by 10 feet, and you gain a +2 natural armor bonus (a creature without natural armor has an effective natural armor bonus of +0). These changes are permanent. Additionally, you can count as having the animal type whenever it would be beneficial.
It was a fine capstone to the original PrC, and it is a fine capstone here as well. Just making a slight addition to it as well so you can now use Animal Growth on yourself, and Charm/Dominate/Hold person no longer affect you. Cuz sure, +2 to a physical ability score, +2 to NA and +10ft speed is nice and all, but at level 15, that's just not going to cut it. So let's add in a little bit more fun by making you an Animal whenever it would be beneficial~
: At 10th Level, you unlock the power of the Sibeyrs Dragonmark. This grants you access to the Sibeyrs SLA, which you can cast by spending 8 dragon points. Unless otherwise modified, the time it takes to use an SLA from a Dragonmark is the same amount of time it takes to cast the spell it is replicating.
