Base Class - Spellshape Champion

[DonQuixote]

Spellshape Champion               
“This is no mere weapon, barbarian.  Through this blade, I shape powers that you cannot hope to understand.”
—Allayana Sunborn, spellshape champion

One who turns innate magical potential to the warrior’s art is known as a spellshape champion.  Blurring the line between spellshaper and fighter, a spellshape champion emphasizes the union of physical and magical prowess.  Unlike a spellsage, a spellshape champion believes that true perfection is found in the balance between the mind and the body, and he views the two paths as equally important.

   Spellshape champions draw on their magical energies in a manner unlike other spellshapers.  Instead of relying on quick thinking or force of personality, he trusts in his intuition and presence of mind.  Rather than shape his magic from afar, the spellshape champion fights on the front lines, channeling his powers through his weapon.

Making a Spellshape Champion
The spellshape champion is a quintessential hybrid character, simultaneously a potent spellshaper and an effective melee combatant.  His arcane formulae grant him more tactical versatility than a fighter, and his abilities with a blade allow him to wade into combat when a wizard would be endangered.  The spellshape champion is a good choice for players who know they want a sword-wielding magic-user from the beginning, but prefer using arcane formulae to traditional spells.

   Abilities: Your Wisdom and Strength scores should be as high as possible, since your spellshaping and melee combat depend upon them.  Your Constitution is also important, because you need all the hit points you can get.

   Races: The innate magical gift required for spellshaping can show up in many of the common races, but a spellshape champion needs a strong body as well.  As such, spellshape champions can be found most commonly among those races that possess both magical and martial talents.

   Alignment: The combination of magic and steel is the art of combining polar opposites, but the successful implementation of that art requires discipline and a steady mind.  The chaotic nature of the combination, tempered by this necessity for discipline, leads many spellshape champions to adopt a neutral outlook.  However, both lawful and chaotic spellshape champions exist, just as good and evil ones do.

   Starting Gold: 6d4x10 gp (150 gp).
   Starting Age: As paladin.



Class Features
All the following are the class features of the spellshape champion.

   Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As a spellshape champion, you are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as all armors and shields (except tower shields).
   As a spellshape champion, you can shape formulae while wearing any armor or while carrying a shield without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.  This only applies to the formulae you know as a spellshape champion, and you might incur arcane spell failure chance for formulae received from other spellshaper classes.

   Formulae: You begin your career with knowledge of three arcane formulae.  You have access to three circles of your choice, which you select at 1st level.

   Once you know a formula, you must prepare it before you can use it (see Formulae Prepared, below).  A formula usable by a spellshape champion is considered a spell-like ability unless otherwise noted in its description.  Unlike most other spell-like abilities, arcane formulae are subject to arcane spell failure chance, as described in Weapon and Armor Proficiency above.  The save DC for a formula that allows a save is 10 + formula level + your Wisdom modifier.

   You learn additional formulae at higher levels, as shown on Table 1-4.  To learn or shape a formula, you must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the formula, as well as meeting the formula's prerequisite.  See Table 3-1, page 30, to determine the highest-level formulae you can learn.

   Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered spellshape champion level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new formula in place of one you already know.  In effect, you lose the old formula in exchange for the new one.  You can choose a new formula of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest-level formulae you know; you need not replace the old formula with a formula of the same level.  For example, upon reaching 10th level, you could trade in a single 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, or 4th-level formula for a formula of 5th level or lower, as long as you meet the prerequisite of the new formula.  You can only swap a single formula at any given level.

   Formulae Prepared: You can prepare all three of the formulae you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more formulae, you must choose which formulae to prepare.  You ready your formulae by meditating and exercising for 5 minutes.  The formulae you choose remain prepared until you decide to meditate again and change them.  You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to prepare your formulae; any time you spend 5 minutes in meditation and exercise, you can change your prepared formulae.

   You begin an encounter with all of your prepared formulae unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them.  When you shape a formula, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your prepared formulae can be used once per encounter (unless you recover them, as described below).

   You can recover your expended formulae by using a move action to quickly meditate.  Doing this does not provoke attacks of opportunity.  If you complete your meditation, you recover all of your expended formulae, with the exception of any that you shaped in the current round.  If you have not shaped any formulae in the current round, you instead recover all of your expended formulae with the exception of any that you shaped in the previous round.

   In addition, once per encounter, you can change your prepared formulae as a swift action.  However, changing your prepared formulae in this way leaves all of your formulae expended--even those that had already been prepared.


   Champion's Resolve (Ex): Your dedication to perfection and magical talent allow you to temporarily set aside the pain and hindering effects of injuries.  Whenever an opponent strikes you, the injury does not immediately affect you.

   You have a delayed damage pool that allows you to forestall the effects of many injuries.  This pool begins at 0 with each encounter.  When you are attacked, any hit point damage the blow deals is added to your delayed damage pool.  At the end of your next turn, you take damage equal to the total stored in your delayed damage pool, which then resets to 0.  Any healing you receive can either increase your current hit point total as normal or reduce the total damage in your delayed damage pool.  When you would be healed, you choose whether the healing affects your damage pool, your hit points, or both (you can split the amount of healing as you wish).  Many spellshape champions opt to keep as much damage in their delayed damage pool as possible to maximize the benefit of their shaper's focus ability (see below).

   Special effects tied to an attack, such as energy drain, stun, and so forth, still affect you as normal, and their effects are not delayed by this ability.  By the same token, any other special attack that imposes a condition, such as a medusa's petrifying gaze, takes immediate effect on you.

   At 1st level, your delayed damage pool can hold up to 5 points of damage.  Any damage beyond that comes off your hit points as normal.  The maximum damage your pool holds increases by 5 at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level.


   Shaper's Focus (Ex): You can channel the pain of injury into an intense focus that improves your defenses and empowers your magic.  Each attack that strikes you only pushes you further into this meditative state.
   As long as your delayed damage pool is not empty (see champion's resolve, above), you gain a bonus to your shaper level equal to the current value of your damage pool divided by 5, rounded down (minimum +1).  In addition, you also gain a bonus to your AC equal to twice that value.
   You can only gain a maximum bonus to your shaper level of +6 from this ability, and the maximum bonus that this ability can grant to your Armor Class is +12.  This ability's benefits last until your delayed damage pool empties at the end of your turn.


   Spellshape Channeling (Sp): As a spellshape champion, you have the ability to shape magical energy into attacks.  You learn to use the three spellshape attacks associated with the circles to which you have access.  However, unlike other spellshapers, you cannot simply blast foes from afar.  Instead, you channel this energy into your weapon and shape your formulae from the front lines.

    Once per round during your turn, you can channel a spellshape attack into a melee weapon as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.  This can be a manufactured weapon, a natural weapon, or an unarmed strike (in which case your attacks with that unarmed strike are treated as armed for the duration of the effect).  Until the end of your turn, your melee attacks with that weapon deal their damage as the damage type of the spellshape attack of your choice.  This damage is equal to your normal melee damage, and you still gain all the normal benefits from a high Strength score, feats, and other effects that increase your melee damage.  If the spellshape attack you are channeling normally allows spell resistance, you much succeed on a shaper level check in order to damage a creature with spell resistance with your attack.  If you fail to overcome a creature's spell resistance, your attack deals normal weapon damage, but any channeled formula fails to affect your target.  You otherwise attack with your weapon as normal, and you do not gain any bonuses on your attack roll from the channeled spellshape attack.

   When channeling a spellshape attack through a melee weapon, you may treat attacks with that weapon as though they were made with the spellshape attack for the purpose of shaping major and minor formulae.  Shaping a formula in this way does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and you are immune to the harmful effects of formulae that you shape in this way.  When shaping a formula in this way, you can use your weapon to complete the formula’s somatic components.

   Though you do not shape them in the same way as other spellshapers, you still possess a basic knowledge of your spellshape attacks, and are treated accordingly for the purposes of learning formulae and qualifying for feats or prestige classes.  If an ability refers to the damage that you would deal with a spellshape attack, it refers to the damage that you would deal with that spellshape attack according to your shaper level and any feats or class features that increase a spellshape attack's damage, such as the Spellshape Focus feat.  Additionally, if a feat or class feature would add damage or an effect to one of your spellshape attacks, you deal that extra damage or apply that effect with any attack that channels that spellshape attack.

   If you learn a new spellshape attack, such as from a prestige class, you can shape that spellshape attack normally or channel it through your weapon as you choose.


   Daunting Presence (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, your presence on the battlefield provides a threat that enemies find difficult to ignore.  Any creature that you threaten takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls against your allies.  This penalty does not apply to attacks made against you.  An enemy incurring this penalty is aware of the effect.  You can suppress or resume this effect as a swift action.

   Mettle (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, your magical training allows you to resist magical attacks with greater effectiveness than other warriors.  If you succeed on a Fortitude or Will save against an attack that would normally produce a lesser effect on a successful save (such as a spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), you instead negate the effect.  You do not gain the benefit of mettle when you are unconscious or sleeping.

   Familiar: Beginning at 4th level, you can obtain a familiar in the same manner that a sorcerer can (see the sorcerer, page 51 of the Player's Handbook).  Your familiar gains powers and abilities as though you were a sorcerer of three levels lower than your shaper level.
   A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

   Retaliatory Shaping (Su): Once per day beginning at 5th level, when a creature successfully strikes you in melee, you can take an immediate action to channel the energies of a spellshape attack through your weapon and use a melee attack to deliver an arcane formula, as with your spellshape channeling ability.  You may only shape a single formula, and it must be directed against the creature that struck you.
   You can use this ability twice per day at 10th level, three times per day at 15th level, and four times per day at 20th level.

   Armor Mastery (Ex): At 7th level, you learn to compensate for the weight of armor and ignore the standard speed reduction for wearing medium or heavy armor.

   Vigilant Combatant (Ex): Beginning at 14th level, you are so acutely aware of the battlefield around you that you can respond to the slightest shifts in your opponents’ stances.  Any creature you threaten that takes any sort of movement, including a 5-foot step, provokes an attack of opportunity from you.  Your foes provoke this attack before leaving the area you threaten.  Your opponents also cannot use the withdraw action (see page 143 of the Player's Handbook) to treat the square they start in as no longer threatened by you.

   Enduring Champion (Ex): Starting at 18th level, your training allows you to avoid the effects of enemies’ abilities with practiced ease.  You no longer automatically fail a saving throw on a roll of 1.  You might still fail the save if your result fails to equal or beat the DC.

Playing a Spellshape Champion
Mastering the techniques of battle and magic is important to you, and you strive to ensure that neither overtakes the other.  In the hour of danger, the balance between magical and physical abilities that characterizes your training allows you to remain calm and focused.  Moreover, your training allows you to take the warrior's place at the front lines of battle, defending your allies as you bring your might to bear against the enemy.

   Choosing the path of the spellshape champion means you don’t have to choose between being a combat specialist and a magic-user.  You enjoy the best of both worlds, and you’ll undertake any quest that promises to improve either your spellshaping or your melee prowess.  Some spellshape champions seek out battle as a source of glory and fame, while others view it as a way to hone their abilities.

Religion
As a spellshape champion, the demands of martial and arcane discipline don’t leave much room in your life for religion.  Those spellshape champions who do venerate gods typically give their faith to Wee Jas, Boccob, or Vecna, the gods of magic.

Other Classes
You get along well with members of other classes who share a devotion to a chosen path, such as paladins and monks.  You also deal well with bards, as you share the ability to both fight well and use magic.  Fighters and wizards may view you with disdain, or they may be fascinated by your unique meld of melee combat and spellshaping.  Barbarians may distrust you, while rogues, rangers, and druids might view you with indifference.

Combat
As a spellshape champion, you have a great many options in any given situation.  This flexibility is your greatest advantage: even when fighting foes that resist your magic, you can rely on your martial training to carry the day.

   You are most effective when you single out and focus upon defeating a single opponent, rather than attempting to engage multiple foes at once.  While you can choose to shape your formulae against multiple foes at once, it is important to remember that you can have only one instance of a given major formula in effect at a time.

Advancement
Becoming a spellshape champion requires only the will to do so—while you can train under masters of the art, it is not a difficult path to walk on one’s own.  As spellshape champions do not develop as wide a variety of abilities as other spellshapers, it is very possible for them to advance without any formal training, relying on their own intuition to grant them abilities.

   You should assign as many skill points as possible to Concentration, Knowledge (arcana), and Spellcraft.  Do not neglect to put some thought into your gear as well: invest heavily in armor and weapons, as you spend much of your time on the front lines of combat.  When selecting formulae, try not to choose any in isolation.  Instead, pick two or three that work well in synergy so that one formula can set up another.

Spellshape Champions in the World
“If there’s one thing I learned during the last few decades, it’s that you should never assume that a man in armor isn’t also a magic-user.”
—Aerathi Coluran, veteran warrior

Spellshape champions rely on steel and magic in combat, but they do not falter in situations where neither their swords nor their formulae can aid them.  The importance that most spellshape champions place on balance means that they are perfectly comfortable in situations where they must bow to the expertise of others.  The clarity and level-headedness of a spellshape champion also means that he makes a good party leader, as he can scrutinize a situation without being blinded by considerations of honor and social standing.
   The spellshape champion combines the best features of the fighter and a spellshaper.  Spellshape champions make dangerous foes because they have so many options, magical and martial, available to them every round, and their ability to deliver formulae through magical attacks is particularly potent.

Daily Life
The life of a spellshape champion is one of constant training.  Each spellshape champion must simultaneously be a weapon master, a deft spellshaper, and an expert in the esoteric techniques of spellshape channeling.  Each of those elements requires years to master.  Put them together, and you have a training regimen that only the most driven characters can maintain.  The typical spellshape champion is practicing with his weapon before the other characters eat breakfast, and is rehearsing his formulae long after everyone else has fallen asleep.  While exceptions do exist, most spellshape champions are fiercely dedicated to their training.

Notables
As spellshape champions are few and far between, they are natural loners, wandering far and wide in search of adventures that will prove a suitable challenge for their unique combination of abilities.  Allayana Sunborn, for example, was a half-elf spellshape champion who roamed the world for years, dispensing justice as she saw fit.
   Other spellshape champions seek out like-minded adventurers, believing that true balance can only come from varied experiences.  The brilliant general Filbert Bladesong, for instance, was an accomplished spellshape champion who turned his abilities to leading armies in a crusade against evil.

Organizations
The individualistic nature of most spellshape champions means that no centralized body exists to regulate the practice of their art.  While the Conclave of the Tower likes to keep a few spellshape champions on hand to act as guards, they never advance in the main hierarchy of the collective.  Though some small schools of spellshape champions exist, these spring up only rarely, and they do not represent any large-scale trend.

NPC Reactions
Few common folk understand who or what spellshape champions truly are, and most assume that any spellshape champions they happen to meet are simply fighters with a bit of spellshaping ability, or spellshapers who dabble in melee training.  Most adventurers react to spellshape champions with some wariness, as the combination of melee and magic capabilities makes it very hard to judge how powerful or capable such a character is in any situation.

Spellshape Champion Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can research spellshape champions to learn more about them.  When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.
   DC 10: Those individuals who possess the capacity for shaping arcane powers through their weapons are known as spellshape champions.
   DC 15: A spellshape champion possesses the unique ability of shaping his formulae through a weapon strike.  This ability makes him dangerous and versatile in combat, as he can wield his magic even in the midst of a pitched battle.
   DC 20: The intense focus and training of spellshape champions grants them many martial abilities that supplement their spellshaping powers.  A well-trained spellshape champion is capable of shrugging off deadly blows, retaliating to attacks with blinding speed, and resisting the most potent spells.

Spellshape Champions in the Game
Spellshape champions fit easily into an ongoing game that incorporates spellshaping rules because of their enigmatic mix of abilities.  The presence of the class is easily explained as your players explore more of the world—they simply hadn’t encountered any spellshape champions until now, or had mistaken those they did encounter for multiclass fighter/impulse mages.  Now that they’ve discovered this aspect of the setting, however, they’re free to multiclass into the spellshape champion class or to begin a new character with levels only in the new class.

Adaptation
One of the more interesting ways to adapt this class into a campaign setting is to keep the class abilities more or less the same, but to change the flavor of the class.  Spellshape champions would be a good fit for divine-minded warriors, like paladins or crusaders, that use their abilities to uphold a belief or faith that defines them.  Alternatively, spellshape champions could represent a forbidden course of study in a universe where magic-users are prohibited from taking up arms and armor.

[DonQuixote]

Idiosyncratic Shaper
Most spellshapers of a given path tend to draw upon the same sources of power.  Impulse mages rely on the force of their personalities, while spellsages learn their formulae through careful, regimented study.  However, there are idiosyncratic shapers who shape their powers in other ways.  There are tales of elemental adepts who call out to the elements the same way that a cleric calls out to a god, or spellshape champions who study their power in the same way that a wizard does.  Though rare, these shapers are no less powerful than their more conventional brethren.

   Class: Any spellshaper
   Level: 1st
   Cost: The number of formulae you can prepare is reduced by one.  (If you are an impulse mage, the number of formulae that occur to you at the beginning of an encounter is also reduced by one.)

   Benefit: At 1st level, you choose a mental ability score (Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom) to use in place of what your class would normally use as its spellshaping ability.  You use this ability score for determining the highest-level formulae that you can learn, and in order to set the save DCs (if any) of formulae that you shape.  For example, an idiosyncratic spellsage who chose to use Charisma as his spellshaping ability modifier would use it in place of his Intelligence score when learning and shaping formulae.
   In addition, if your class has other features that would be modified or determined by what that class normally uses as its spellshaping ability score, those features also use your chosen ability in place of the normal ability score.  However, if your class has features that would be modified or determined by your chosen ability score, those features use the ability that your class would normally use as its spellshaping ability score.

[DonQuixote]

Primal Champion
Possessing an unmatched capacity for shaping formulae in armor, spellshape champions usually wade into battle clad in heavy plate and bearing shields.  However, not all who possess the talents of a spellshape champion choose to follow this path.  Instead, some champions eschew armor and shields in order to tap into the same savage force that drives a barbarian's rage.  Unhindered by armor, these primal champions move with baffling speed and are capable of dodging even the most well-placed attacks.

   Class: Spellshape Champion
   Level: 1st
   Cost: You lose proficiency with medium and heavy armor and shields.  In addition, you do not gain the daunting presence, armor mastery, and vigilant combatant class features.

   Benefit: You add Survival to your list of class skills as a spellshape champion.  In addition, you gain the following class features at the listed class levels.

   Dodge Bonus (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC.  This bonus increases by 1 for every four class levels thereafter (to +2 at 5th level, +3 at 9th level, +4 at 13th level, and +5 at 17th level).  If you wear medium or heavy armor or carry a medium or heavy load, you lose this benefit.

   Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, you retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), even if you are caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker.  However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if you are immobilized.  If you already have uncanny dodge from a different class, you automatically gain improved uncanny dodge instead.

   Fast Movement (Ex): When you reach 7th level, your base land speed increases by 15 feet.  This benefit stacks with all other speed increases.  If you wear medium or heavy armor or carry a medium or heavy load, you lose this benefit.  At 14th level, this increase to your base land speed increases to 30 feet.

[DonQuixote]

Spellshape Paragon
Most spellshape champions devote themselves to a cause, pursuing their goal with the same intensity as a paladin or crusader.  Some spellshape champions devote themselves instead to a single circle of spellshaping, seeing it as the basis of their personal philosophies.  While they give up the versatility of access to multiple types of formulae, these champions gain augmented abilities with their chosen circle that make them forces to be reckoned with.

   Class: Spellshape Champion
   Level: 1st
   Cost: You do not choose three circles of formulae to access at 1st level.  In addition, you do not learn a new formula at 2nd level.

   Benefit: You gain access to one circle of your choice, and you learn the spellshape attack associated with that circle.  In addition, you gain the following class features at the listed class levels.

   Detect Magic (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can use detect magic, as the spell, at will.

   Project Numen (Su): At 1st level, you gain the ability to project the numen associated with your chosen circle.

   Incantation Knowledge (Sp): When you reach 2nd level, you gain the ability to shape the incantations of your chosen circle.

   Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, you are immune to fear (magical or otherwise), and project an aura of courage that grants a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects to all allies within 10 feet of you.  You project this aura of courage while conscious, but not while unconscious or dead.

   Paragon's Health (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical disease (such as mummy rot and lycanthropy).

   Rebuke Spell (Su): When you reach 4th level, you gain the supernatural ability to counter another spellcaster's magic through pure force of will.  This ability functions just as if you were using dispel magic to counter the spell, except that you add your shaper level (instead of your caster level) to the d20 roll and the maximum bonus on your dispel check is +20 (instead of +10).  You don't need to identify the spell the opposing spellcaster is casting to make the attempt.  Countering a spell in this way is an immediate action.  You can attempt to counterspell a number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier.

   Devoted Paragon (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, your mastery of your chosen circle allows you to wield its energies against those who might otherwise be unaffected.  When you shape spellshape attacks and arcane formulae from your chosen circle, they ignore the energy resistance of creatures affected by them, and they still deal half damage to creatures with immunity to their damage types.  This benefit applies equally to spellshape attacks and formulae channeled through a weapon or shaped normally.

   Strength of the Devoted (Ex): At 10th level, you gain resistance or immunity to the type of attacks associated with your chosen circle. If your circle's spellshape attack deals exactly one type of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic), you gain immunity to that type of energy. If your circle's spellshape attack deals a type of weapon damage (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing), you gain DR 10/-. If your circle's spellshape attack deals any other sort of damage or deals multiple types of damage, you gain spell resistance equal to 10 + your shaper level. If your circle qualifies for more than one of the above, you only gain one of these benefits, chosen when you first gain this ability.

   Master Paragon (Ex): When you reach 15th level, any spellshape attacks and formulae that you shape from your chosen circle completely ignore the energy resistances and damage immunities of creatures affected by them.

[DonQuixote]

Spellsoul Weapon
Just as arcane spellcasters often create magical weapons, skilled spellshapers can create spellheart weapons by imbuing normal weapons with arcane formulae.  However, there are tales of an even greater class of weapon, created by spellshapers so powerful that their creations gained sentience.  Known as spellsoul weapons, these armaments sometimes appear in the hands of spellshape champions who forego the companionship of a familiar.  Some gain these weapons through right of birth, some win them in combat, and some simply find them in the world.  No matter the source, a spellsoul weapon is always a deadly tool in the hands of its master.

   Class: Spellshape Champion
   Level: 4th
   Cost: You do not gain a familiar.

   Benefit: You gain a powerful sentient weapon called a spellsoul weapon.  You choose the weapon type of your spellsoul weapon, and it becomes more powerful as you advance in shaper level (see the Spellsoul Weapon sidebar).
   If a spellsoul weapon is destroyed, it can be reforged 1 week later through a special ritual that costs 200 gp per shaper level.  The ritual takes 24 hours to complete.

Spellsoul Weapon (Sidebar)

(click to show/hide)

A spellsoul weapon is a particular form of intelligent weapon wielded by some spellshapers.  There are several ways that a spellshaper might gain this weapon.  Sometimes it just appears among the character's possessions, and its origin is a mystery.  Other times, the spellshaper finds a spellsoul weapon during an adventure or event of some kind.  Sometimes, a spellsoul weapon is passed down from generation to generation as a powerful heirloom that represents the honor or might of a family, clan, or tribe.
   A spellsoul weapon can be any type of melee weapon, from a rapier to a scythe.  The spellshaper chooses the weapon's type upon gaining the weapon, and once chosen, it can't be changed.  As the master of a spellsoul weapon increases in shaper level, her spellsoul weapon becomes more powerful and gains new abilities.
   A spellsoul weapon is independently conscious, but features some personality traits reflecting its wielder.  A spellsoul weapon always has the same alignment as its master and even changes its alignment if its master does.  The weapon typically works towards its wielder's goals, but not always without argument or backlash.  In some cases, a spellsoul weapon might have a mission or goals of its own.  In such a case, the spellsoul weapon might be either open or secretive about its goals.

Spellsoul Weapon Basics: Use the statistics for a normal weapon of the spellsoul weapon's kind, but make the following changes.
   Saving Throws: A spellsoul weapon uses its master's base saving throw bonuses and ability modifiers on saves, as well as any other bonuses she might have (from magic items or feats, for example).  It uses her saving throws even if she is not currently wielding the spellsoul weapon.
   Abilities: As an object, a spellsoul weapon has no Strength score, Constitution score, or Dexterity score.  However, it does have mental ability scores, which increase as you advance in shaper level (see below).
   Languages and Skills: A spellsoul weapon starts with Common as a language.  As it increases in Intelligence, it manifests knowledge of languages and arcane lore.  Upon reaching an Intelligence score of 12, it gains a bonus language of your choice, and gains 1 rank in Knowledge (arcana).  Each time the weapon gains a bonus to Intelligence, it gains another language and another rank in Knowledge (arcana).

Shaper Level	Lamen Bonus	Int	Wis/Cha	Ego	Special
4th	+2	11	7	5	Alertness, channeled manifestation, personality, sighted, telepathic speech
5th-6th	+3	12	8	8	Spellsoul strike
7th-8th	+4	13	9	10	--
9th-10th	+5	14	10	12	Arcane parry, call weapon
11th-12th	+6	15	11	14	--
13th-14th	+7	16	12	16	Spellsoul focus
15th-16th	+8	17	13	18	--
17th-18th	+9	18	14	22	Spellreaving weapon
19th-20th	+10	19	15	24	Dolorous blow

Spellsoul Weapon Ability Descriptions: All spellsoul weapons have special abilities (or impart abilities to their owners) depending on the shaper level of the owner, as shown on the table above.  The abilities on the table are cumulative.  A spellsoul weapon normally refuses to use any of its abilities when wielded by anyone other than its master, and acts as a masterwork weapon of its type.

   Lamen Bonus: A spellsoul weapon has an innate connection to the power of its master, granting it an unassigned lamen bonus equal to the value shown on the table.  As the weapon's master increases in shaper level, this bonus increases accordingly.  The master of a spellsoul weapon can use this unassigned bonus to enhance the weapon as though she possessed the Craft Spellshape Items feat, except that the process takes only one minute for every 1,000 gp in the base price of the applied enhancement and the weapon's master need not know the prerequisite formulae (if any) to apply a lamen property to her spellsoul weapon.  Similarly, it takes only one minute for the weapon's master to convert existing bonuses or properties to unassigned bonuses.
   Any enhancement bonus granted to the spellsoul weapon in this way applies both to attack rolls and to shaper level checks made to overcome spell resistance.  Unlike a spellheart weapon, lamen enhancements possessed by a spellsoul weapon are constantly in effect, even when the weapon is not being used to shape a spellshape attack.
   A spellsoul weapon's lamen bonus represents its attunement to spellshaping magic and the powers of its master, and it prevents the weapon from being enchanted in any other way.

   Int: The spellsoul weapon's Intelligence score.

   Wis/Cha: The spellsoul weapon's Wisdom and Charisma scores.

   Ego: A spellsoul weapon starts with an ego of 5, and that ego increases as the weapon becomes more powerful, as shown on the table above.  In cases where a wielder and the spellsoul weapon come into conflict, like any intelligent item, a spellsoul weapon can attempt to exert its dominance.  Due to its flexible and powerful nature, a spellsoul weapon has a nonstandard ego progression.

   Alertness (Ex): While the weapon's master is wielding her spellsoul weapon, she gains the Alertness feat.

   Channeled Manifestation (Ex): A spellsoul weapon's attunement to its wielder allows it to act as a perfect conduit for its master's magical attacks.  Whenever its master channels a spellshape attack through the weapon, she can choose to fully manifest that spellshape attack.
   Channeled attacks with a fully-manifested spellshape attack do not use the weapon's normal properties.  Instead, such an attack is a melee attack that deals damage equal to that normally dealt by the spellshape attack (including extra damage or effects from class features or feats), and it has the same critical threat range as the spellshape attack does.  The weapon's lamen enhancements apply normally to the spellshape attack, and the attack benefits from any feats or effects that would normally affect the manifested spellshape attack (except for effects that apply only to spellshape attacks made as ranged attacks).
   A spellsoul weapon represents a perfect balance between weapon and magic.  The wielder of a spellsoul weapon adds her Strength bonus to damage rolls with the weapon normally, even when using it to channel a fully-manifested spellshape attack.

   Personality (Ex): Like a psicrystal, every spellsoul weapon has a personality.  See Psicrystal Personality, page 23 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

   Sighted (Ex): Although it has no physical sensory organs, a spellsoul weapon can telepathically sense its environment as well as a creature with normal vision and hearing would.  Darkness (even supernatural darkness) is irrelevant, as are areas of supernatural silence, though a spellsoul weapon still can't discern invisible or ethereal beings.  A spellsoul weapon's sighted range is 40 feet.

   Telepathic Speech (Su): A spellsoul weapon can communicate telepathically with any creature within 30 feet.  The spellsoul weapon must share a language with a creature in order to communicate with it in this way.

   Spellsoul Strike (Ex): Upon reaching 5th level, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon learns to channel her arcane energies into her attacks.  As a swift action, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon can expend one of her prepared formulae in order to gain a competence bonus on attack and damage rolls with her spellsoul weapon equal to the expended formula's level.  This bonus lasts until the end of the wielder's turn.  Once the spellsoul weapon's wielder has used this ability, she must wait 5 rounds before doing so again.

   Arcane Parry (Ex): At 9th level, a spellsoul weapon gains the ability to use the arcane powers of its master to defend her against attacks.  As an immediate action, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon can expend one of her prepared formulae to gain a competence bonus to AC against a single attack equal to the expended formula's level.  The wielder can choose to use this ability after an opponent resolves his attack but before he determines damage.  Once the spellsoul weapon's wielder has used this ability, she must wait 5 rounds before doing so again.

   Call Weapon (Sp): Starting at 9th level, as a standard action, a spellsoul weapon's master can call her spellsoul weapon from as far as 1 mile away, causing it to instantly teleport to her hand.

   Spellsoul Focus (Ex): At 13th level, a spellsoul weapon gains the ability to focus its wielder's magic, drawing on more of her resources in order to produce a more potent formula.  As a swift action, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon can expend one of her prepared formulae in order to increase the save DCs (if any) of any formulae that she shapes during her turn.  Expending a 1st- to 3rd-level formula increases the save DCs of the wielder's formulae by 1, expending a 4th- to 6th-level formula increases the save DCs of her formulae by 2, and expending a 7th- to 9th-level formula increases the save DCs of her formulae by 3.  This bonus lasts until the end of the wielder's turn, and it stacks with the benefits of Circle Focus and similar effects.  Once the spellsoul weapon's wielder has used this ability, she must wait 5 rounds before doing so again.

   Spellreaving Weapon (Su): Starting at 17th level, a spellsoul weapon gains the ability to cut through magic directed at its master.  While the weapon's master is wielding or carrying her spellsoul weapon, she gains spell resistance equal to 10 + her shaper level.

   Dolorous Blow (Su): Upon reaching 19th level, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon gains the ability to make devastating attacks with her weapon, rendering enemies unable to defend themselves.  As a swift action, the wielder of a spellsoul weapon can expend one of her prepared formulae in order to ready a dolorous blow.  For the rest of her turn, any opponent she hits with her spellsoul weapon takes a penalty to AC equal to the expended formula's level.  This penalty lasts until the end of the wielder's next turn.  Once the spellsoul weapon's wielder has used this ability, she must wait 5 rounds before doing so again.