Phoenix
HD:d8
Level BAB Fort Ref Will Feature
1 +1 +2 +2 +2 Phoenix body, Sun sparck
2 +2 +3 +3 +3 Wings, +1 Cha, +1 Str
3 +3 +3 +3 +3 Sun soul, lesser
4 +4 +4 +4 +4 Shriek, +1 Cha, +1 Str
5 +5 +4 +4 +4 Sun soul
6 +6 +5 +5 +5 Growth, Spell-like metamagic,
7 +7 +5 +5 +5 Sun soul, advanced
8 +8 +6 +6 +5 Immolation
9 +9 +6 +6 +6 Sun soul, greater, Bonus feat.
10 +10 +7 +7 +7 Defensive aura, +1 Cha, +1 Str
11 +11 +7 +7 +7 Sun soul, adept
12 +12 +8 +8 +8 Ritual, Bonus feat
13 +13 +8 +8 +8 Sun soul, master
14 +14 +9 +9 +9 Uncanny dodge, Bonus feat +1 Str, +1 Cha
15 +15 +9 +9 +9 Sun prophet
16 +16 +10 +10 +10 Planar travel, Bonus feat, +1 Str, +1 Cha
17 +17 +10 +10 +10 Sun avatar
18 +18 +11 +11 +11 Burning metamagic, +1 Str, +1 Cha
19 +19 +11 +11 +11 Sun incarnation
20 +20 +12 +12 +12 New Dawn
21 +20 +12 +12 +12 Nova, +1 Str, +1Cha
22 +21 +13 +13 +13 Great Phoenix,
23 +21 +13 +13 +13 Mighty Phoenix, +1 Str, +1 Cha
24 +22 +14 +14 +14 Elder Phoenix
Skills: 4+int modifier per level, class skills are Spot, Listen, diplomacy, Knowledge (any), concentration, heal.
Proficiencies: it's own natural weapons.
Features:Phoenix body: The phoenix loses all other racial bonus and gains magical beast traits (basically darkvision 60 feet and lowlight vision). It's a medium sized magical beast with base speed 30 feet. It has two claw attacks dealing 1d6 +str damage each and one bite attack dealing 1d8 +str damage. A phoenix doesn't have limbs capable of fine manipulation. It has telepathy 5 feet per HD.
The phoenix has a bonus to Nat armor equal to it's Cha modifier.
Sun spark: The phoenix is filled with the fiery energy of creation, which grant it several SLAs. Unless otherwise noticed, the save DC for a phoenix SLA is 10+1/2HD+Cha modifier.
In addition, at 1st level the phoenix can use detect evil, detect magic, produce flame and color spray 2/day for each HD it has.
Wings:The phoenix can fly at a speed of 10 feets per HD with average maneuverability.
Ability increase:The phoenix gains +1 Str and +1 Cha at levels 2, 4, 10, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23
Sun soul, lesser:The phoenix can now use dancing lights, blur, blindness/deafness, find traps, neutralize poison1/day for each HD it has.
Shriek:Every 10 minutes, the phoenix can unleash a scream which slows as the spell all enemies (only enemies) within 5 feet for phoenix HD. Caster level equal to phoenix HD, except that it may affect any number of targets within the area. Save=10+1/2HD+Cha modifier.
Sun soul:The phoenix can now use protection from evil, remove fear, invisibility and cure light wounds 1/day for each HD it has.
Growth:The phoenix increases one size category. Notice this is a long creature.
Spell-like metamagic:The phoenix may use any spell-like metamagic it has (like empower SLA) combined with any of her SLAs, instead of just 1. For example, if she picked extend SLA(cure light wounds), she may empower any other SLA it has now. She's still limited to 3 uses of metamagic per day for each feat. Applying the metamagic doesn't increase the casting time of the SLA.
Sun soul, advanced:the phoenix can now use Pyrotechnics, see invisibility, remove curse 1/day for each 2 HD it has.
Immolation:1/day for each 4 HD it has, as a full round action, a phoenix may immolate itself. This produces a column of flame up to 5 feet wide and 10 feet high per HD of the phoenix (may choose to make a smaller column than the maximum size).
Creatures inside the column take 1d6 fire damage and 1d6 divine damage for HD of the phoenix, reflex save 10+1/2HD+Con modifier for half.
The phoenix is reduced to a small pile of ash. Next turn, the phoenix is reborn from those ashes with full HP, ability scores restored and all extra special effects like spells removed, but keeping any previous equipment held. This ability doesn't recover any phoenix SLAs or other abilities limited per day.
Notice the phoenix must be able to take a full round action to use this ability.
At 12 HD it may use immolation as a standard action. At 16 HD it may use immolation as a move action. At 20 HD it may use immolation as a swift action.
Sun soul, greater:greater dispel magic, dispel evil, blink, wall of fire as SLA 1/day for each 3HD it has.
Bonus feat:The phoenix receives a meta-SLA feat of it's choice, like empower SLA or maximize SLA.
Defensive aura:The phoenix gains a deflection bonus to it's AC equal to it's Cha. It also gains SR equal to HD+11 and DR/magic equal to half HD.
Sun soul, adept:The phoenix can now use fire seeds, veil and death ward as SLAs 1/day for each 4 HD it has. The fire seeds ability uses drops of the own phoenix's blood, but it doesn't damage the phoenix. The phoenix can throw them despite not having hands.
Ritual:If the phoenix spends one or more rounds of concentration as a standard action before using a SLA, the caster level for that SLA increases by 2 for each round spent concentrating. Maximum 10 rounds.
Sun soul, master:The phoenix can now use Mislead, heal, find the path as SLAs 1/day for each 3HD it has.
Uncanny dodge: as the rogue ability.
Sun prophet:the phoenix can now use reincarnation, incendiary cloud 1/day for each 4HD it has.
Planar travel:The phoenix can travel to the ethereal and astral planes and back to the material planes as a move action 1/day for each 2HD it has. She never gets lost in either the Astral Plane or the Material Plane and can use this to travel to any plane in 1d4 hours. The phoenix can guide other creatures, providing they have their own means of passing from plane to plane.
Sun avatar:The phoenix can now use Summon Nature's ally IX, dismissal 1/day for every HD it has.
Burning metamagic:Every metamagic SLA the phoenix has can be used a number of extra times per day equal to it's Cha modifier.
Sun incarnation:the phoenix can now use polymorph and polymorph any object as a SLA 1/day for every 4HD it has.
New Dawn:the phoenix can now use miracle as a SLA 1/day for every 5HD it has. If the miracle is used to create/improve a lasting effect, the phoenix must pay the full exp price.
Nova:The phoenix's SLAs have no limit on their caster level. Ritual may still only be used up to 10 turns.
Great Phoenix:After using immolation, the phoenix adds her Cha modifier to all saves, skills, attacks and damage rolls for 1 turn/HD.
Mighty Phoenix:The phoenix can now use immolation as a free action, even if it isn't it's turn.
Elder Phoenix:the phoenix may use immolation any number of times per day it wishes. Notice that it still needs 1 turn to return, so it can't choose to immolate itself an infinite number of times in a single turn.
Comments
Well, my first epic progression.
The original phoenix is quite under CRd, so I buffed it a bit by giving it miracle and polymorph any object as it aproaches epic and allowing it to use immolation faster than normal.
The remaining SLAs are scattered along the levels, in the positions where I believed they would be more balanced, but since there were over 30 SLAs to organize, it may have ended up somewhat wonky.
Anyway, the phoenix is mainly a flying SLA machine with a good of mix of defensive, offensive and support SLAs, making it some kind of jack of all trades, master of none. The metamagic special bonus give it some very nice versatility. And then it gets to blow itself up on the enemy to heal itself. Should be quite interesting to play. One barely notices the lack of hands.
The phoenix gets +6 str and +6 Cha pre epic (and then an extra +2 to each after epic). All good saves and good BAB make it durable enough since it lacks SLAs that actualy buff your combat abilities besides the polymorph at 19th level, and then 4 skill points per level and 8HD to round it up.
