New Project! Beastly Fusionist, 17-level PrC [3.5, WIP]

[Morph Bark]

BEASTLY FUSIONIST

Spoiler

*[insert fitting picture]*

“Familiars? Pfeh, they are a caster's weak point.
Animal companions? Pfeh, a well-charmed Fighter does the job better.
Psicrystals? Pfeh, a weak imitation of familiars.
Soulspark familiars? Pfeh, one can spend one's time better if one wants to mutilate souls into a ball shape.
Spirit guides? Don't get me started.

Hi, I'm Myrrowel Flicckarchanel, and I'm a beastly fusionist. I've found the forgotten tomes, the ancient lore and they were useless. Spells and powers are nothing by themselves. But they can control the greatest things, I give 'em that. I once looked at the people usin' all those abilities and thought them magnificent, but the truth is that they aren't used well. Familiars, animal companions, psicrystals, soulspark familiars and so on all stick to them because hey, they loves 'em some magicks. But they are weak, they cannot see they could do better! At least mine realized the truth and abandoned me for some Warrior Lightening guy. Worst day of my life, but it made me realize somethin'... those companions are an integral part of magic, of power. So why not focus on it? You say magic can summon the greatest beasts known in the world? Screw that, I got the greatest beast in the whole world! The whole multiverse! Sure I had to force a magic ritual on her to turn her into a ragin' robo-panther with spiky crystal skin, but that's just life, y'know? That's how we do in a world so full of this ****. And it doesn't matter how powerful another guy is with whatever powers he has. When I'm gunnin' for him, Rezzemar's got 'em and his whole army of goons down, beat. Full stop.

Come at me, bro.”
~ Myrrowel Flicckarchanel, epic-level beastly fusionist

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Feats: Psicrystal Affinity, Shape Soulmeld (soulspark familiar).
Manifesting: Must be able to manifest 1st-level powers.
Skills: Handle Animal 6 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank, Knowledge (nature) 1 rank, Knowledge (psionics) 1 rank, Knowledge (the planes) 1 rank, Spellcraft 6 ranks.
Special: Must have an animal companion and a familiar (either through class features or feats).

Class Skills
The beastly fusionist's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Knowledge (All; Int), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int) and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + Int
Hit Dice: d4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort / Will Save	Ref Save	Special	Essentia Pool
1st	+0	+2	+0	Bonus feats, druidic mage, fusion beast, essential companion	1
2nd	+1	+3	+0	Empowering soul, expanded spell knowledge	2
3rd	+1	+3	+1	Chakra bind (crown), expanded soulmeld capacity, extra chakra bind, extra soulmelds	3
4th	+2	+4	+1	Animal affinity (share senses), defensive ball curl	3
5th	+2	+4	+1	Animal affinity (personal spells)	3
6th	+3	+5	+2	Chakra bind (feet, hands), channel fusion beast 2/day	4
7th	+3	+5	+2	Extra soulmelds, spell-to-spell	4
8th	+4	+6	+2	Extra chakra bind, power-to-spell, spell-to-power	4
9th	+4	+6	+3	Chakra bind (brow)	5
10th	+5	+7	+3	Beastly fission, channel fusion beast 4/day	5
11th	+5	+7	+3	Defensive ball curl, extra soulmelds	5
12th	+6	+8	+4	Animal affinity (animal enhancing), beastly fusion, chakra bind (arms, shoulders)	6
13th	+6	+8	+4	Extra chakra bind	6
14th	+7	+9	+4	Channel fusion beast 6/day	6
15th	+7	+9	+5	Chakra bind (throat), expanded soulmeld capacity, extra soulmelds	7
16th	+8	+10	+5	Animal affinity (improved animal enhancing), empowering mind	7
17th	+8	+10	+5	Chakra bind (waist), extra chakra bind, greater beastly fusion	7

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A beastly fusionist does not gain any armor proficiencies.

Arcane Spellcasting: At level 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17, a beastly fusionist gains spells per day and access to new spells as if he had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on; familiar abilities are determined seperately). This essentially means that he adds the increased caster levels of beastly fusionist to the level of whatever arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before he became a beastly fusionist, he must decide to which class he adds the new level of beastly fusionist for the purpose of determining spells per day, spells known, and caster level.

Divine Spellcasting: At level 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17, a beastly fusionist gains spells per day and access to new spells as if he had also gained a level in druid or ranger (or whichever other class granted him his animal companion). He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, wildshape, and so on; animal companion abilities are determined seperately). This essentially means that he adds the increased caster levels of beastly fusionist to the level of druid or ranger that the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one spellcasting class that qualifies for this before he became a beastly fusionist (e.g. a Wilder 1/Sorcerer 1/Druid 1/Ranger 4/Beastly Fusionist 1), he must decide to which class he adds the new level of beastly fusionist for the purpose of determining spells per day, spells known, and caster level.

Manifesting: At level 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17, a beastly fusionist gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if he had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, and so on; psicrystal abilities are determined seperately). This essentially means that he adds the increased manifester levels of beastly fusionist to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.

If a character had more than one manifesting class before he became a beastly fusionist, he must decide to which class he adds the new level of beastly fusionist for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Bonus feats: At 1st level a beastly fusionist gains Incarnum Spellshaping (MoI 38) and Share Soulmeld (MoI 41) as bonus feats.

Druidic mage: A beastly fusionist ignores arcane spell failure from non-metal armor.

Fusion beast: Upon becoming a beastly fusionist, you must dismiss your familiar and psicrystal, if you have one or both. (You do not risk losing XP for doing so.) You may retain any one animal companion you already possess. You add your beastly fusionist level to your druid or ranger level for purposes of determining your animal companion's bonus Hit Dice, natural armor adjustment and Strength and Dexterity adjustments. In addition, your animal companion gains many of the abilities that a familiar or psicrystal would normally possess. You add your beastly fusionist class level to your arcane spellcasting class level to determine its Intelligence score and the special abilities of your animal companion as if it were your familiar. You add your beastly fusionist class level to your psionic class levels to determine the Intelligence bonus and special abilities of your animal companion as if it were your psicrystal. You add the Intelligence bonus of your fusion beast's effective psicrystal level to the Intelligence score of its effective familiar level to determine its actual Intelligence score.

Furthermore, your animal companion's type changes to Construct, it gains the Living Construct subtype, it gains its Charisma bonus to saves (minimum 1) and damage reduction 1/alignment. (Replace "alignment" with one of your non-neutral alignment components.) Otherwise the Hit Dice, hit points, attack bonus, saving throws, feats and skills of the fusion beast are determined as normal for an animal companion. Due to the fusion beast's unusual Intelligence score, it will have more skill points than other animals of its kind. You can still bestow harmless spells on your fusion beast as if it were an animal instead of a construct.

If your fusion beast is killed or dismissed, you do not lose XP. You can summon a new fusion beast by performing a ceremony requiring 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer. When your fusion beast first arrives, it will most likely respond in surprise due to suddenly having magic flux through its body and turn it into an entirely different kind of creature.

Essential companion (Su): You permanently lose the ability to shape the Soulspark Familiar soulmeld. Instead, you gain the ability to invest essentia in your fusion beast as if it were a permanently shaped Soulspark Familiar soulmeld. You can even bind it to your crown, brow or throat chakra slots once gain the ability to bind soulmelds to those chakras.

Modes
A fusion beast has several modes that it can change as a free action.

Offensive Mode: The fusion beast gains a bonus to its attack and damage rolls equal to the amount of essentia invested in it.

Defensive Mode: The fusion beast gains a bonus to its AC and saving throws equal to the amount of essentia invested in it.

Healing Mode: The fusion beast gains fast healing equal to twice the essentia invested in it. Increases to four times the invested essentia if bound to crown chakra. Increases to six times the invested essentia if bound to the brow chakra. Increases to eight times the invested essentia if bound to the throat chakra. Its master (you) also gains this fast healing if he is within 5 ft at the start of the psyspark companion.

Chakra binds
Improved fusion beast: If you bind your fusion beast to your crown chakra, it gains 2 HD, +1 natural armor, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma and its damage reduction improves to DR 3/alignment.

Greater fusion beast: If you bind your fusion beast to your crown chakra, it gains 4 HD, +2 natural armor, +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Charisma and its damage reduction improves to DR 5/alignment.

Perfect fusion beast: If you bind your fusion beast to your crown chakra, it gains 6 HD, +3 natural armor, +2 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +8 Charisma and its damage reduction improves to DR 10/alignment.

Empowering soul (Su): At the start of each day, you may sacrifice a number of essentia from your essentia pool. Those essentia are not available to you for the rest of the day, but you gain a number of power points equal to twice the amount of essentia sacrificed. The gained power points last for 24 hours.

Expanded spell knowledge: You gain all familiar-targeted spells to your arcane list of spells known and all ranger and druid spells of up to level 4 to your divine list of spells known.

Chakra binds: At 3rd level the beastly fusionist becomes capable of binding soulmelds to his crown chakra. At 6th level he can also bind soulmelds to his feet and hands chakras. At 9th level he can also bind soulmelds to his brow chakra. At 12th level he can also bind soulmelds to his arms and shoulders chakras. At 15th level he can also bind soulmelds to his throat chakra and finally, at 17th level, he can bind soulmelds to his waist chakra.

Expanded Soulmeld Capacity (Ex): At 3rd level and again at 15th level, the essentia capacity of your soulmelds increases by 1. This ability only applies to soulmelds, not to feats, class features or other abilities that allow essentia investment.

Extra chakra binds: At 3rd level, and again at 8th, 13th and 17th, you can bind one extra soulmeld to one of your accessible chakras.

Extra soulmelds: At 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th and 15th, you may choose any two soulmelds. You become able to shape those soulmelds as if you had gained them through the Shape Soulmeld feat.

Animal affinity (Su): From 4th level onwards you gain greater insight in how your fusion beast sees the world and understand how your fusion beast's magical nature works.

Share senses (Su): At 4th level, you can share the senses of your fusion beast. As a standard action you may concentrate and close your eyes. For as long as you keep concentrating and the fusion beast remains within 1 mile of you, you may look through its eyes and hear through its ears, using its ranks in Listen and Spot or your own, whichever are better. You still use your own Wisdom modifier.

Personal spells: At 5th level, you can cast spells with a range of "personal" or a target of "you" on your fusion beast. Furthermore, if you cast a spell directly on your fusion beast rather than on yourself and it (through the share spells special ability of the animal companion and familiar) the spell lasts twice as long as if affected by the Extend Spell feat.

Animal enhancing (Ps): At 12th level, your link with your fusion beast has become so intimate that you can place your own mind completely inside of it and enhance it with the power of your mind. While sharing the senses of your fusion beast you may expend 9 power points to grant all of your fusion beast's ability scores an enhancement bonus of +4 for as long as you remain concentrating, but only for ability scores in which you have at least a 14. The round after you use this ability you must make a DC 23 Concentration check. You must maintain concentration by using a standard action every round, making a Concentration check every round, of which the DC increases by 1 every round (23 -> 24 -> 25, etc.) until you fail the check. Once this happens, you and your fusion beast both are dazed for 1 round. You may end this ability before that happens to prevent the daze.

At 16th level this ability improves, allowing you to augment it. For every 4 extra power points spent, the enhancement bonuses and the Concentration DC increase by 2. At no point may you grant your fusion beast a bonus to an ability score greater than 2 x your ability modifier of that ability score. (If you entered this class with only a manifester level of 1 and don't have Wild Surge or Overchannel, you won't be able to use this augmentation until you gain one more manifester level.)

Defensive ball curl (Ex): At 4th level your fusion beast gains the ability to curl itself up in a defensive ball as a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. It retains its normal size, but it gains a bonus to its natural armor bonus equal to your class level and its damage reduction now requires adamantine to pierce it and also quadruples (to DR 4/adamantine and alignment, or DR 12/adamantine and alignment if bound to your crown chakra, or DR 20/adamantine and alignment if bound to your brow chakra, or DR 40/adamantine and alignment if bound to your throat chakra). While using this ability, it is effectively blinded and deafened and it cannot perform any actions other than purely mental ones. It can still end its defensive ball curl as a 1-round action.

Channel fusion beast (Sp): Starting at 6th level, twice per day, you can cast a spell and have it originate from your fusion beast instead of from you as long as you have line of sight to your fusion beast. At 10th level you can use this ability four times per day and at 14th level you can use it six times per day.

Spell-to-spell (Su): Starting at 7th level you may cast arcane spells from the class you chose to advance with your beastly fusionist spellcasting from the divine spell slots from the class you chose to advance with your beastly fusionist spellcasting, and vice versa (or prepare them in this manner if you are a prepared caster), except you must use a spell slot of one level higher.

If one of the two classes is a prepared caster and the other is a spontaneous caster, you must chose which prepared spell to lose if you wish to spontaneously cast a spell from your other class' list or you must prepare the spell in a spell slot beforehand as normal, disabling you from using that spell slot to cast a prepared spell from until you've either expended the spell and rest for 8 hours, or rest for 8 hours and re-prepare your spells without using that slot.

Power-to-spell (Su): Starting at 8th level you may expend power points to cast a spell. The power point cost of the spell is equal to twice its level + 1.

Spell-to-power (Su): Starting at 8th level you may burn spell slots, expending their use until you recover them, and gain temporary power points in return that last until you rest and recover your spells and power points. The amount of power points you get is equal to twice its level - 3. You may burn two level 1 or four level 0 spell slots simultaneously to gain 1 power point. This ability requires a free action to use and can be done as long as you can think properly.

Beastly fission (Sp): You become capable of using fission as a spell-like ability useable once per day, except the target can only be your fusion beast and the range changes to 400 ft + 40 ft per class level.

Beastly fusion (Sp): You become capable of using fusion as a spell-like ability useable once per day, except you may only target your fusion beast, even though it normally is not a viable target for fusion.

At level 17, whenever you fuse with your fusion beast, the fused entity gains +4 Strength and +4 Constitution.

Empowering mind (Su): At 16th level you may burn power points to gain temporary essentia. You may burn 4 power points for each 1 essentia you wish to gain and the essentia lasts for 1 hour. This ability requires a standard action to use.

[Eurus]

So, I've got to ask. Have you considered making it a base class, instead of a PrC? It'd probably be more elegant, at this point.

[EdroGrimshell]

Is this based on the arcane heirophant's Companion Familiar class feature? If so then i am going to love this thing. I may just love it because you make awesome classes anyway.

[Ziegander]

I assume you messed up the table somehow, but what's up with the radically low base attack, saving throws, and essentia pool?

[Osagasu]

He also doesn't have any features described. Just looks like he's not done putting it up.

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by Eurus

So, I've got to ask. Have you considered making it a base class, instead of a PrC? It'd probably be more elegant, at this point.

I have, but I figured that if I did that, the first level class feature Fusion Beast would end up being too powerful at that point. (Also it couldn't be called Fusion Beast since it wasn't really fused out of anything!)

Furthermore, duoing up on systems in a base class tends to put the power level quite high already. Originally I conceived of this as a 9- or 10-level PrC, but then came up with more class feature ideas and in the end figured I might as well make it a 17-level PrC since you need 3 levels minimum to get into it.

Originally Posted by EdroGrimshell

Is this based on the arcane heirophant's Companion Familiar class feature? If so then i am going to love this thing. I may just love it because you make awesome classes anyway.

Why yes it is, my dear EdroGrimshell.

Originally Posted by Ziegander

I assume you messed up the table somehow, but what's up with the radically low base attack, saving throws, and essentia pool?

BAB and saves are so low because I copied this from one of my 10-level PrCs, then copy-pasted the 10th level 7 times over and changed everything but those. Fixing those now.

The essentia pool remains rather small, yes, but this class will also advance spellcasting and manifesting. About 2/3rds or so.

Originally Posted by Osagasu

He also doesn't have any features described. Just looks like he's not done putting it up.

Hence the WIP in the title.

[Cieyrin]

Holy Omnitheurge, Batman! @_@

...will be following to see whether this train can stay on the tracks...

[EdroGrimshell]

I'm actually working on something similar to this which i call the fusionist. I'll be posting it in the next couple of weeks. Any similarities will be completely coincidental. Though i may snag that essential companion ability only fit better for what i intend to do with it (You essentially the animal companion, psicrystal, soulspark familiar, and normal familiar but they are fused into a single entity rather than just having the animal companion gain all the abilities of the others).

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by Cieyrin

Holy Omnitheurge, Batman! @_@

Oh nonono, the Omnitheurge is a different project I got lying in the works.

Originally Posted by EdroGrimshell

I'm actually working on something similar to this which i call the fusionist. I'll be posting it in the next couple of weeks. Any similarities will be completely coincidental. Though i may snag that essential companion ability only fit better for what i intend to do with it (You essentially the animal companion, psicrystal, soulspark familiar, and normal familiar but they are fused into a single entity rather than just having the animal companion gain all the abilities of the others).

So an entity that is a unique creature then? That sounds interesting.

Though the way you say it makes me think of a ball of incarnum with two heads and a crystal spike sticking out, flying about harassing people.


Anyway, I updated it with some more abilities and a little introduction.

EDIT: Also, to clarify, when I started out with this it was basically a way to give a bit of a link and possibly an origin story to my Fimalaire monster, though it obviously is rather different from it.

[EdroGrimshell]

Think about it this way, a character has a leopard animal companion, a raven familiar, a badger animal cohort, a standard psicrystal, a soulspark familiar, and the ability to manifest an astral construct and when taking their first level of familiarist these creatures fuse together into an entirely new creature with the traits of all the component creatures including the astral construct.

It'd have the rage of a badger, the form and power of a leopard, the wings of a raven (increased in size to fit the leopard's body), a crystal in the forehead or chest, a ball of blue flames at the tail or head (acting like a crown in that case), and the added abilities from an astral construct that can be changed periodically by spending power points. And one feature i'd add is that it's base form could be anywhere from the size of a raven to the size of a full leopard.

The crown would represent the soulspark familiar and would increase in intensity and elegance depending on how much essentia is invested and which chakra it is bound to. It'd still have all the features of a familiar, psicrystal, animal companion, and all those features but it'd have the traits of the other creatures.

What do you think of the idea?

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by EdroGrimshell

What do you think of the idea?

Frankly, I think that idea sounds awesome.
And I will murder you and steal it if you don't use it.
It'd prolly have slightly higher requirements than this PrC I figure, and you'd have to permanently give up power points (or at least for as long as you want the creature to retain its astral construct-derived abilities).

[EdroGrimshell]

Quick question on your class, how would it interact with this class?

Originally Posted by Morph Bark

Frankly, I think that idea sounds awesome.
And I will murder you and steal it if you don't use it.
It'd prolly have slightly higher requirements than this PrC I figure, and you'd have to permanently give up power points (or at least for as long as you want the creature to retain its astral construct-derived abilities).

Firstly, thanks.

And you are correct, it's a 15 level PrC still though, the requirements are pretty straightforward. It's a lot like yours only with different class features.

It doesn't even get a standard spell/power/incarnum progression, instead gaining an ability called Theurgic Casting to increase the caster, manifester, and meldshaper levels while also progressing them at a slightly slowed rate. And it's actually a rather slow fusion, the one i gave in my previous post is an unrefined fusion, as it progresses the abilities merge more closely and evolve in a way that leaves the entire companion greater than it once was represented by Refinements which allow the fusion companion to gain other abilities, including spellcasting, psionics, and/or meldshaping of it's own.

[Morph Bark]

Added a number of abilities. Stuck on Expanded spell knowledge, since I want it to grant all Familiar-related spells on your arcane list, but I have no clue where those are all at exactly.

Originally Posted by EdroGrimshell

Quick question on your class, how would it interact with this class?

Considering that class seems to be meant to be used with your Familiar being a seperate player rather than a class feature, I figure it would not be useable that way.

Alternatively, I figure it's better to ask Pyromancer that. (Maybe he'd like to create Familiar Companion and Fusion Beast PrCs for his Familiar class? )

[Cieyrin]

The familiar spells are for the most part in Spell Compendium, at least from what I can gather. They first popped up in Complete Warrior and Complete Arcane (Hexblades needed spells, I guess...).

[Dralnu]

I don't know anything about Incarnum and little about Psionics so I can't give a true critique. However, eyeballing the abilities that I do understand and seeing how the class progresses, it looks good.

I think it would be nice to have a seperate table showing spellcasting / manifesting progression at each level. "At level 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17" is fine, but a more visual approach helps too.