Orb Ponderer (3.5e Prestige Class)

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Spellcasters pondering the orb

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3

Prepared Arcane Spellcasting, Spontaneous Arcane Spellcasting, Prepared Divine Spellcasting, Spontaneous Divine Spellcasting Full

An Orb Ponderer, pondering The Orb.

Orb Ponderer

Orb Ponderers are contemplative users of magic who spend a substantial part of their waking hours thinking about spheres.

Becoming an Orb Ponderer

Orb Ponderers need to be spellcasters with prior experience in scrying and/or spherical spells. An unusually keen eye to reflect about the subtleties of the orb is also needed. Finally but not least important, the prospective Ponderer must be a contemplative type willing to spend substantial time pondering the orb.

Entry Requirements  

Skills:	Spot 4 ranks.
Spellcasting:	Ability to cast 2nd level spells, including at least one scrying spell and/or at least one spell with the keyword "orb" and/or at least one spell with the keyword "sphere".
Special:	Must have spent one week pondering a crystal orb

Table: The Orb Ponderer

Hit Die: d4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spellcasting
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	The Orb I, Pondering the Orb I	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	The Orb II, Pondering the Orb II	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	The Orb III, Pondering the Orb III	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	The Orb IV, Pondering the Orb IV	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	The Orb V, Pondering the Orb V	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level) Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Orb Ponderer.

Spellcasting: At each level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one spellcasting class before becoming an Orb Ponderer, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

The Orb (Su): The Orb Ponderer imbues a crystal orb with the magical power to make it worth pondering over.

The process for imbuing an orb with power is a simple one. The character must find a quiet, safe spot to ponder the orb for 24 hours. At the end of this meditation, the Orb Ponderer sacrifices ritual materials worth at least 100 gold pieces. If the ritual is interrupted, it can be begun again at any time, but it must run for a full 24 hours for The Orb to be imbued. The Orb Ponderer pays the gold cost as soon as the ritual has been completed.

The crystal orb then becomes The Orb, gaining the abilities of a Crystal Ball when used by the Orb Ponderer. An Orb Ponderer can only ever possess one The Orb. If an Orb Ponderer creates a new The Orb while the old one still exists, the old one loses all powers and becomes a non-magical crystal orb again.

The Orb gains additional powers cumulatively depending on the Orb Ponderer level:

1. Crystal Ball
2. Crystal Ball with see invisibility
3. Crystal Ball with detect thoughts
4. Crystal Ball with telepathy (per footnote)
5. Crystal Ball with true seeing

All save DCs for the crystal ball abilities of The Orb are increased by your Orb Ponderer level.

Losing The Orb: If someone destroys an Orb Ponderer's Orb, only the Orb Ponderer can repair it. If enough is left of the orb to salvage, the ponderer can reforge The Orb by pondering the remains for 24 hours and sacrificing ritual materials worth 100gp (just as if he were to bind the original Orb). Should nothing remain of The Orb, the ponderer must begin anew with a crystal orb that has never before been imbued.

Pondering the Orb (Su): An Orb Ponderer can ponder their orb to prepare spells that were not prepared ahead of time. You can sacrifice any prepared spell (or, for a spontaneous caster, a spell slot) to prepare a particular spell of the same spell level or lower. You gain access to these spontaneous spell options by level. Access to a pondered spell does not grant the ability to cast it if you do not have a prepared spell or spell slot of appropriately high level to lose in exchange.

Additionally, you can only access spells of a spell level up to your class level in the Orb Ponderer prestige class.

Pondering your Orb works in the same way as a wizard would prepare spells, except that you use your orb in place of a spellbook, and except that you use your spellcasting ability.

These spells are not considered to be part of your class spell list, so this feature doesn't grant you the ability to activate spell trigger or spell completion items using these spells.

0th - detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, detect magic, message, read magic
1st - lesser orb of acid^SpC, lesser orb of cold^SpC, lesser orb of electricity^SpC, lesser orb of fire^SpC, lesser orb of sound^SpC, pressure sphere^Storm
2nd - detect thoughts, flaming sphere, numbing sphere^Frost, see invisibility
3rd - clairaudience/clairvoyance, forest eyes^CC, glowing orb^SpC, invisibility sphere, listening coin^SpC, scintillating sphere^SpC, suggestion, tongues, weather eye^SpC
4th - arcane eye, defenestrating sphere^SpC, energy spheres^SpC, orb of acid^SpC, orb of cold^SpC, orb of electricity^SpC, orb of fire^SpC, orb of force^SpC, orb of sound^SpC, portal view^Under, resilient sphere, scrying, stone sphere^SpC
5th - anticold sphere^SpC, antifire sphere^Sand, flowsight^Storm, greater scrying, orb of dancing death^MoE, scry location^CS, vitriolic sphere^SpC

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