Staffshaper (3.5e Prestige Class)

= Staffshaper =

''The staff is viewed to be a weapon of grace, and of power, and some mages have, thoughout the course of time, taught themselves to wield such a weapon skillfully in battle. Staffs are shaped to the personal attunement of the mage in question, and as such, such a staff reflects its master's magical affinities most soundly. The academies of Shapers and Binders in the lands of Thay possess staff-wielding progidies from which this particular mage caste was born and arisen.''

A staffshaper is a master of the staff. The combination of his ability and his personal staff's enhancement makes a charged staff in the hands of the staffshaper a very dangerous weapon. Some of these staffshapers move themselves fearlessly to the front lines, even though their bodies are not inherently built for close combat. Others prefer to play it safe, and use their highly developed arcanery in order to greatly increase their longevity on the battlefield. A staff has limited different spells at its disposal, but oh, the repetition with which they can be cast... A wise and diligent staffshaper may fall back upon using only his own spellcasting ability when confronted with meagre to moderate challenge, as to make sure that his greatest weapon, his staff, is fully charged and ready when the greatest threats reveal themselves.

Prerequisites
Feats: Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor.

Spells: Must be able to cast 5th level arcane spells.

Special: The character must have crafted a masterwork quarterstaff for his own use, or had a masterwork quarterstaff crafted especially for him by another staffshaper.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Staffshaper:

Weapon Proficiency: Staffshapers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Craft Staff: A staffshaper has the Craft Staff feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

 Staffshaper's Staff : At 1st level, the staffshaper's staff gains its first hints of magic. It becomes a magical quarterstaff with a number of charges equal to the staff's enhancement bonus ×10 (maximum 50). When the staffshaper gets his 1st level, his staff begins with the full 10 charges it has at its disposal. The staff has a caster level equal to the staffshaper's supporting spellcasting class's caster level. The staff's caster level grows as the staffshaper's caster level grows. Its magic aura increases in strength over time, as per its caster level (see detect magic). Its break DC is 20 + the character's staffshaper level + the character's governing spellcasting ability modifier (Intelligence for wizards and Charisma for sorcerers). Casting a spell from a staff goes by spell trigger activation, and provokes no attack of opportunity. Over the course of his advancement, a staffshaper's staff grows in power as he does. A staffshaper's staff gives the staffshaper several special abilities that consume charges.


 * Cast Imparted Spells: A staffshaper can cast spells that he imparted within his staff (see Impart Spell). The cost in charges for a spell of certain level can be found in Table:The Staffshaper's Staff.


 * {| cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" class="d20"

! class="left" colspan="2" | Casting Imparted Spells ! class="left" colspan="3" | Staff Enhancements ! class="left" | Spell Level ! class="left" | Casting Cost ! class="left" | Enhancement Bonus ! class="left" | Extra Hit Points ! class="left" | Extra Hardness
 * + style="text-align: right;" | Table: The Staffshaper's Staff '''
 * class="left" | 1st - 2nd || 1 charge || class="left" | +1 || +10 || +2
 * class="left" | 3rd - 4th || 2 charges || class="left" | +2 || +20 || +4
 * class="left" | 5th - 6th || 3 charges || class="left" | +3 || +30 || +6
 * class="left" | 7th - 8th || 4 charges || class="left" | +4 || +40 || +8
 * class="left" | 9th || 5 charges || class="left" | +5 || +50 || +10
 * }
 * class="left" | 7th - 8th || 4 charges || class="left" | +4 || +40 || +8
 * class="left" | 9th || 5 charges || class="left" | +5 || +50 || +10
 * }
 * class="left" | 9th || 5 charges || class="left" | +5 || +50 || +10
 * }


 * Charge Staff: Charges from a staffshaper's staff can be regained. Spell slots that are not used during the day can be expended at the end of that day to recharge the staff. For every spell slot so expended, the staff regains one charge. To charge the staffshaper's staff by expending unused spell slots of the day requires 1 hour of work (analogous to the 1 hour in prayer for a cleric) during which all remaining spell slots are lost. Charges regained over the maximum of 50 are lost. It is possible for a staffshaper to recharge the staff of another staffshaper.


 * Empowered Strike: Once per round, a staffshaper may expend a number of staff charges up to his staffshaper's staff's current enhancement bonus and channel it into a single melee touch attack made with his staff, dealing 2d6 additional magical damage for every charge so expended. This extra damage doubles on a critical hit.


 *  Metamagic Substitution:  When the staffshaper casts a spell normally, he may choose to apply a metamagic feat that he knows to the spell, without having to give up a higher level spell slot: the staffshaper expends a number of staff charges equal to two times the amount of levels by which the spell would normally increase when the metamagic effect is applied to it, and may further cast the metamagically enhanced spell at its normal level. Metamagic substitution may bestow only a single metamagic enhancement upon a spell, but metamagic substitution can also be applied to a spell that is already metamagically enhanced, gaining a single extra metamagic enhancement.

 Impart Spell : At 1st and every even level of his progression, the staffshaper can choose one of the spells that he knows and can cast, and impart it within his staff. Spells of level 0 can't be imparted. From thence on, he can call upon the spell from his staff at will, provided he has sufficient charges remaining to cast it. Imparted spells with an XP cost cost 1 extra charge per 100 XP to cast (rounded up, to a maximum of 500 XP). Imparted spells with an expensive material component cost 1 extra charge per 200 gp of the component to cast (rounded up, to a maximum of 1000 gp). Spells that exceed these limits in either material cost or XP cannot be imparted. If only a limited application of the spell requires too large a cost (example, the creature calling effect of the gate spell) it can still be imparted, but this special application can not be invoked through the staff. Spells cast through the staff cannot be enhanced by metamagic substitution, although it is possible to impart a spell within the staff complete with its own metamagic enhancement. If a metamagic enhanced spell is imparted within the staff, its effective spell level rises as normal. Metamagic enhancement may not raise the spell to a level that the staffshaper is unable to cast. Every time that a staffshaper imparts one of his spells in his staff, he forever loses one spell slot of same or higher level as the imparted spell.

 Efflux (Su) : At 1st level, a staffshaper may choose a cantrip (0-level spell) that creates a passive effect. The cantrip will exude from the staffshaper's staff like a permanent effect or emanation. The effect or emanation may be suppressed or reactivated at will as a free action. In the case of an effect, anyone holding the staff may benefit from it. He may choose from among the following spells; dancing lights (centered on staff), detect magic, detect poison, light (centered on staff), read magic and resistance.

 Enhancement Bonus (Su) : At 1st level, the staffshaper's staff gains an enhancement bonus of +1. This enhancement bonus increases by +1 every oddnumbered level, to a maximum of +5 at 9th level.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the epic staffshaper:

Enhancement Bonus (Su): The staffshaper continues gaining +1 to its enhancement bonus every other odd level of his progression (+6 at 11th and continuing to increase one point every four levels thereafter). The bonuses to staff hit points and hardness continue to advance at the rate predetermined by Table: The Staffshaper's Staff.

 Impart Spell : Every 6th level after the last level divisible by 10th (16th, 26th, etc.), the epic staffshaper may impart a new spell within his staffshaper's staff. These spells may exceed the usual limits of spellcasting in that they may be of a level above 9th, given that the staffshaper has spell slots above 9th level due to the Improved Spell Capacity feat and a sufficient casting-related ability score. Treat spells above 9th level as per Table: The Staffshaper's Staff. He may still not impart epic spells into his staff.