Veklim
2012-03-13, 06:03 PM
When they're a Bastion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254199).
This feat is with a view to a PrC, accessable by all and sundry (although with a spellcaster it's less likely to be worth it...) and it all started with my friend (and long-term player of all my campaigns) Kale. He wanted a PrC to allow him to pilot a mecha, I told him 'Stop mixing your genres and start that BESM campaign of yours, that one HAS MECHA IN IT!'....but it got me thinking. The Bastion will eventually be a PrC with lists of sweet, snacky and eventually downright outrageous abilities, for which you may cherry-pick your likes throughout the class (allowing for a hopefully highly customisable PrC). For the timebeing, you need a basis, i.e. the armour. This is how you get it, what I'll let you do with it is yet to come.
First things first, check out the feat, and tell me if it seems waaaay too much, I have tried to use Soul Forge as a balancing point, unsure of the wisdom in such actions, but that's another debate in itself...without further ado, I give you:
Forge Bastion
There exists an obscure ritual whose origins have been lost to the flow of time (a library or other such repository of knowledge and a DC 25 Knowledge (Arcana, Psionic or History) check required to research the ritual). Some say it came from the dwarves in their first great war, others believe it to be a twisted perversion of the already dark rituals surrounding the creation of a lich, others still hold to the idea that halflings first created the ritual to defend their humble farmsteads and communities from far larger enemies. Regardless of the origins, the ritual known simply as 'Forging The Bastion' is an oddity amongst similar magics. It requires the participant to instil a portion of their very soul and being inside a set of armour, which forever more functions as if it were a part of them. This armour is neither arcane or psionic in nature, but behaves as if such in many ways, using the power of it's wearer's soul to weave it's own defences.
Requirements: Masterwork suit of armour with which you are proficient, Craft (appropriate for chosen armour) 8 ranks, Knowledge (Aranca, Psionic or History) 4 ranks
Benefits: When the character takes this feat, they must don the required masterwork suit of armour and perform a ritual lasting 8 hours whilst wearing it. This requires 500gp in materials and the expenditure of 250xp upon completion of the ritual, at which time a small part of the character's soul is transferred to the armour giving the following benefits;
The armour gains an enhancement bonus equal to +1/4 character levels. This bonus is treated as both psionic and magic for all purposes, but may be supressed equally well by applicable anti-magic and anti-psionic effects.
The armour check penalty for wearing your bastion armour is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0.
You no longer suffer fatigue, exhaustion, or any other mundane negative effects (besides encumberance) for wearing your bastion armour.
These qualities are in addition to the masterwork or special material qualities the armour already had.
Your bastion armour only functions whilst you are wearing it, at any other time it appears and functions simply as masterwork armour. If the armour is ever lost, stolen or destroyed, you may complete a 10 minute version of the ritual and expend another 250xp (no materials are required for this) to summon it intact directly onto you as if you had donned it, displacing any clothing you may be wearing already and leaving them in a pile in front of you. This ability functions between planes and even inside anti-magic/psionic effects (although the armour itself will still be supressed inside such effects).
Special: Your bastion armour may be enchanted (either psionically, magically, or even both) as long as you remain present for the entire process of enchanting. The armour only ever counts as a +1 item for this purpose, but half of all xp costs for the enchanting must be paid by the wearer (unless you are the one enchanting the bastion, in which case you still pay all of the cost). You are still limited to a maximum of a +5 equivalent bonus from armour abilities, but these may be a mixture of arcane and psionic abilities.
This feat is with a view to a PrC, accessable by all and sundry (although with a spellcaster it's less likely to be worth it...) and it all started with my friend (and long-term player of all my campaigns) Kale. He wanted a PrC to allow him to pilot a mecha, I told him 'Stop mixing your genres and start that BESM campaign of yours, that one HAS MECHA IN IT!'....but it got me thinking. The Bastion will eventually be a PrC with lists of sweet, snacky and eventually downright outrageous abilities, for which you may cherry-pick your likes throughout the class (allowing for a hopefully highly customisable PrC). For the timebeing, you need a basis, i.e. the armour. This is how you get it, what I'll let you do with it is yet to come.
First things first, check out the feat, and tell me if it seems waaaay too much, I have tried to use Soul Forge as a balancing point, unsure of the wisdom in such actions, but that's another debate in itself...without further ado, I give you:
Forge Bastion
There exists an obscure ritual whose origins have been lost to the flow of time (a library or other such repository of knowledge and a DC 25 Knowledge (Arcana, Psionic or History) check required to research the ritual). Some say it came from the dwarves in their first great war, others believe it to be a twisted perversion of the already dark rituals surrounding the creation of a lich, others still hold to the idea that halflings first created the ritual to defend their humble farmsteads and communities from far larger enemies. Regardless of the origins, the ritual known simply as 'Forging The Bastion' is an oddity amongst similar magics. It requires the participant to instil a portion of their very soul and being inside a set of armour, which forever more functions as if it were a part of them. This armour is neither arcane or psionic in nature, but behaves as if such in many ways, using the power of it's wearer's soul to weave it's own defences.
Requirements: Masterwork suit of armour with which you are proficient, Craft (appropriate for chosen armour) 8 ranks, Knowledge (Aranca, Psionic or History) 4 ranks
Benefits: When the character takes this feat, they must don the required masterwork suit of armour and perform a ritual lasting 8 hours whilst wearing it. This requires 500gp in materials and the expenditure of 250xp upon completion of the ritual, at which time a small part of the character's soul is transferred to the armour giving the following benefits;
The armour gains an enhancement bonus equal to +1/4 character levels. This bonus is treated as both psionic and magic for all purposes, but may be supressed equally well by applicable anti-magic and anti-psionic effects.
The armour check penalty for wearing your bastion armour is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0.
You no longer suffer fatigue, exhaustion, or any other mundane negative effects (besides encumberance) for wearing your bastion armour.
These qualities are in addition to the masterwork or special material qualities the armour already had.
Your bastion armour only functions whilst you are wearing it, at any other time it appears and functions simply as masterwork armour. If the armour is ever lost, stolen or destroyed, you may complete a 10 minute version of the ritual and expend another 250xp (no materials are required for this) to summon it intact directly onto you as if you had donned it, displacing any clothing you may be wearing already and leaving them in a pile in front of you. This ability functions between planes and even inside anti-magic/psionic effects (although the armour itself will still be supressed inside such effects).
Special: Your bastion armour may be enchanted (either psionically, magically, or even both) as long as you remain present for the entire process of enchanting. The armour only ever counts as a +1 item for this purpose, but half of all xp costs for the enchanting must be paid by the wearer (unless you are the one enchanting the bastion, in which case you still pay all of the cost). You are still limited to a maximum of a +5 equivalent bonus from armour abilities, but these may be a mixture of arcane and psionic abilities.