Gelatinous Cube Wizard (PrC)
Normal gelatinous cubes are content to stay as they are, absorbing whatever food happens their way. Many Awakened cubes feel the same way, though most aspire to greatness. Some achieve this through purity of body and spirit, such as the Uber-Cube. Others still, against all expectations, achieve mastery over the arcane. Rare as they may be, these Gelatinous Cube Wizards tend to be perfect examples of great power coming in the strangest of forms.
Prerequisites:-Must have taken all three levels of Awakened Gelatinous Cube
-Must have at least one rank in both Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft
Hit Dice: d8
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Spells, Ooze casting |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Bud Familiar, +1 Int |
| 3rd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Dissolve Spell |
| 4th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Extra School,+1 Int |
| 5th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Sacrifice Familiar |
| 6th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Absorb Dissolved Spell, +1 Int |
| 7th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Extra School |
| 8th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +6 | Improved Sacrifice Familiar, +1 Int |
| 9th | +4 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Cast Absorbed Spell |
| 10th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | 'Yer a Wizard, Cubey!', Familiar Reconstitution |
Class SkillsThe Gelatinous Cube Wizard's class skills are Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Move Silently, Profession, Search, and Spellcraft.
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Gelatinous Cube Wizards gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Class Features:Spells: Beginning at 1st level, a Gelatinous Cube Wizard can cast spells as though it were a Wizard two levels lower than its combined levels in Awakened Gelatinous Cube and Gelatinous Cube Wizard, though its Caster Level is equal to its HD. Just as the Wizard class, the Gelatinous Cube Wizard uses Intelligence to determine the highest level Wizard spell it can cast; however, it uses its Constitution in place of Intelligence to determine the Saving Throws of its spells and its bonus spells per day.
To start, the Gelatinous Cube Wizard is limited to two schools of magic to cast spells from (though it may transcribe spells of any school into its spellbook). At 4th and 7th levels, it may select an additional school of magic to cast from.
Like a Wizard, the Gelatinous Cube Wizard must prepare its spells from a spellbook each day, and it receives a special, acid-resistant spellbook in which to study and prepare spells. This follows the same rules as the Wizard's spellbook.
If you choose to take levels in the Wizard class, you may choose to continue advancing the spellcasting gained from Gelatinous Cube Wizard, and those levels stack to determine new spells known, spells per day, and caster level.
Ooze casting (Ex): Gelatinous Cube Wizards are flexible casters in more ways than one. Unlike most spellcasters, Gelatinous Cube Wizards do not provoke Attacks of Opportunity for casting spells within a threatened square.
Furthermore, Gelatinous Cube Wizards need to learn to cast spells without the use of common spell components, as most dissolve immediately within their acid. You gain the Eschew Materials feat as a bonus feat. If you already possess Eschew Materials, you may instead select any metamagic feat in its place.
Bud Familiar (Ex): At 2nd level a Gelatinous Cube Wizard gains the ability to sprout a familiar from its body in place of one of its stub cubes by expending a use of its Bud special ability. This follows all of the rules for familiars granted to a Sorcerer or Wizard, except as follows:
- When a Stub Familiar is killed, the Gelatinous Cube Wizard does not suffer any penalities besides the loss of the familiar
- The Stub Familiar can be replaced by expending a new use of the Bud ability
- Stub Familiars look like gelatinous versions of the animal they are emulating; like stub cubes formed from the Bud special ability, Stub familiars are oozes, rather than magical beasts; unlike stub cubes, stub familiars share the same stats as a familiar-version of the animal they are emulating and do not gain extra HD (and thus do not get abilities from the list of abilities Budded stub cubes can gain)
- Since Stub Familiars are part of the Cube Wizard rather than animals or magical beasts, they do not gain all of the same abilities a normal familiar gets. Stub Familiars do not grant the alertness feat while within 5 feet of the Cube Wizard, nor do they gain the improved evasion ability or the ability to speak with animals of their kind. Instead, a Cube Wizard may treat their Stub Familiar as the source of any spell they cast, and may use the Familiar's senses to determine whether they can target a creature. Spells cast from the Familiar's space provoke attacks of opportunity as normal, as this requires greater concentration beyond the Cube Wizard's normal spellcasting.
- Each time a new familiar is budded, the Gelatinous Cube Wizard may select a different animal from the list of standard familiars for the stub familiar to emulate
- Only one Stub Familiar can be sprouted from the Gelatinous Cube Wizard at a time, though there are no restrictions on the normal uses of Bud
- Stub Familiars take 24 hours to melt on their own, though just like Stub cubes, they can be dissolved by their creator as a free action
Use your effective Wizard level to determine the abilities of your Stub Familiar; Unlike other prestige classes, Gelatinous Cube Wizard levels count toward the special abilities of your Stub Familiar.
Stat boosts: The Gelatinous Cube Wizard becomes increasingly smarter as it continues its unique studies. It gains a +1 to its Intelligence score at levels 2, 4, 6, and 8 of this class, for a total bonus of +4 Int at tenth level.
Dissolve Spell (Su): At 3rd level, when you are engulfing an enemy spellcaster, you may spend a standard action to make a special attack against the target. If the target fails a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your HD + Int mod), one randomly-selected spell or spell-like ability that the target possesses is automatically expended without effect. This ability can be used 1/day per 3 HD you have.
Sacrifice Familiar (Su): At 5th level, a Gelatinous Cube Wizard may dissolve its Stub Familiar as a free action during spellcasting to increase the potency of a single spell you are casting. When sacrificing a Stub Familiar in this way, select one of the following options to apply to the spell:
- Increase the Spell's saving throw DC by +1
- If the spell deals damage, increase the damage by +50%
- If the spell's duration is not Instantaneous, double its duration (as though with the Extend Spell metamagic feat)
- Gain +2 on caster level checks made to overcome a creature’s spell resistance.
- Cast the spell either without verbal components or without somatic components (as though with the Silent Spell or Still Spell metamagic feats, respectively)
- If the spell affects a single target and has a range greater than touch touch, it now affects a second target as well; if the second target is successfully hit by the spell and/or fails its saving throws against it, it suffers half of the effect (ie: it suffers 50% of the damage, is affected for half as long, takes only half the penalties, etc.); the secondary target is granted a reflex save to reduce damage down to 25%, or if the spell does not deal damage, reduce any saving throws for spell effects by 4.
A Stub Familiar can only be sacrificed once per round. Options that emulate metamagic feats do not increase the spell slot required to cast the selected spell.
Absorb Dissolved Spell (Su): At 6th level, when you succeed in the use of your Dissolve Spell ability, if the spell is on your spell list you may make a Spellcraft check (DC = 20 + Spell Level) to instantly learn the dissolved spell. A successful check means the spell magically scribes itself into your spellbook, and you can prepare it along with your other spells as long as you are capable of casting spells of that level. Failure means the spell dissolves and is expended from the target normally. This ability has no effect if the target spell is divine in origin or if you have already learned the spell. You cannot take 10 on this check, even if a feat or ability would normally allow you to do so.
Improved Sacrifice Familiar (Su): At 8th level, a Gelatinous Cube Wizard gains extra benefits to choose from when choosing to dissolve its Stub Familiar. When sacrificing a Stub Familiar as a free action during spellcasting, you may now select one of the options from the previous list, or one of the following options:
- Increase the Spell's saving throw DC by +2
- If the spell deals damage, you may deal maximum damage for all damage dice you would roll (as though with the Maximize Spell metamagic feat)
- Ignore immunity to mind-affecting effects
- Ignore resistance to the energy type of the spell, or treat immunity to the energy type of the spell as resistance 25
- Gain +4 on caster level checks made to overcome a creature’s spell resistance.
- If the spell affects a single target and has a range greater than touch, you may cast it as a chained spell, affecting a number of secondary targets equal to your Intelligence modifier. All secondary targets must be within 30 feet of the primary target, and no target can be affected more than once. Each secondary target that is succesfully affected by the spell suffers only half of the effect (ie: it suffers 50% of the damage, is affected for half as long, takes only half the penalties, etc.); secondary targets are granted a reflex save to reduce damage down to 25%, or if the spell does not deal damage, reduce any saving throws for spell effects by 4.
Cast Absorbed Spell (Sp): At 9th level, when you successfully use your Dissolve Spell ability, you may attempt to cast the dissolved spell yourself if you are unable or unwilling to absorb it (such as if it is a divine spell, is too high a level for you to learn and prepare, or if it is already scribed into your spellbook). Make a caster level check against the target spellcaster. Success means you are able to store the spell for a number of rounds equal to your Intelligence modifier. In any subsequent round in which you are storing the spell, you may cast it using the same action it would normally take to cast; treat the spell as though it were cast by the original spellcaster for the purpose of determining caster level, save DCs, and so forth, except that you choose the spell's target. You must supply any required somatic, verbal, or XP components for the spell, though you may use material or focus components from the original owner of the spell if you are still engulfing them and they possess the appropriate items. You may only have one spell stored in this way at any given time.
Failure on your caster level check means the spell dissolves and is expended normally.
Furthermore, you may now choose which spell you are attempting to Dissolve, Absorb, or Cast through this class feature.
'Yer a Wizard, Cubey! (Ex):' Upon reaching 10th level, your awesome arcane might and suite of unique skills mark you as a full-fledged mage... even if it took you a little longer to get there. You may now cast spells from two more schools of magic. Furthermore, choose one school of magic that you have access to; You may prepare one extra spell per day from your chosen school for each spell level. This does not allow you to cast spells of a level you do not have access to.
Familiar Reconstitution (Ex):Finally, when you sacrifice a stub familiar, it reconstitutes after 2d4 rounds. You may still only have one stub familiar formed at any given time, so if a sacrificed familiar begins to reconstitute while you have another formed, it remains dissolved; likewise, if you sacrificed two or more familiars in one encounter, only one reconstitutes while the other remains dissolved. Any given familiar still dissolves 24 hours after it was originally budded from you.
This sprouted (pun intended) from a character concept by Mixster for the monster campaign that Oslecamo is currently running over at the PbP forum. Sadly, the character did not make it into the game, but I loved the concept. Also, when I told everyone I was going to make it into a Prestige Class here, everyone's brains sort of melted, so there's that.
The goal was to make a class the gave the Gelatinous cube some very basic Wizardly magical abilities to start, while amping those abilities up in the mid-to-later levels to give some incentive to complete the class rather than dipping and PrC-ing out. I also wanted abilities that meshed both the Wizard and Gelatinous Cube sides of such a character.
