Nosomatic Chirurgeon

Description:

House Jorasco has always held the Mark of Healing and have been known for generations as healers, nurses and those that care for the sick and injured. However, there is a limit to the sanity of even this kindhearted souls and the events of the Last War caused many of them to snap. Faced with so much death, suffering and pain, the healers in the front lines began to seek other methods of battling the afflictions that they saw. And more than one decided that the best to way to defeat such an elusive opponent as infection is better understand it. Officially, and unofficially, House Jorasco bans any of their healers from pursuing the path of a nosomatic chirurgeon and the presence of one is one of the few things that will cause this peaceful House to take up arms.

In the field, nosomatic chirurgeons act much as normal healers, travelling from town to town, seeing to the sick, the injured and the dying. In areas where such affliction is minimal, they pass through, doing more good than harm. But in areas that are already on the brink, it is often of these plague-doctors that pushes the poor community over the edge.

Role: Nosomatic chirurgeons are meddlers in the lives of ordinary people. While alchemists, wizards and the occasional cleric might be attracted to the prestige class, most nosomatic chirurgeons arise from those that have seen too much of death and suffering.

Source: DGM, pg. 114

Alignment: Nosomatic chirurgeons are usually evil, although occasionally one will be neutral, seeking to understand the nature of disease, rather than simply spread it.

Hit Dice: d8

Requirements:

To qualify to become a nosomatic chirurgeon, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any non-good.

Race: Halfling.

Skills: Heal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks.

Feats: Least True Dragonmark (Mark of Healing, Cure Light Wounds option), Lesser True Dragonmark (Mark of Healing, Remove Disease option).

Special: Able to cast 3rd level spells, including at least three necromancy spells. Someone with the Siberys dragonmark of the Mark of Healing can qualify for this prestige class without the Least or Lesser True Dragonmark of the Mark of Healing.

Class Skills:

The nosomatic chirurgeon's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Bluff (Chr), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Chr), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex) and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: The Nosomatic Chirurgeon

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the nosomatic chirurgeon prestige class.

Weapons and Armor Proficiency: Nosomatic chirurgeons do not gain any new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spells per Day / Spells Known: At the indicated levels, a nosomatic chirurgeon gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous caster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If he had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a nosomatic chirurgeon, he must decide to which class she adds the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day. Once this decision is made, it cannot be changed.

Improved Dragonmark (Su): At 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th levels, the caster level of your dragonmark spell-like abilities increases by +1. This stacks with other sources that increase the caster level of your dragonmark spell-like abilities.

Nosomatic Chirurgy (Ex): Starting at 1st level, the nosomatic chirurgeon learns how to better protect himself and others against disease. This translates to an insight bonus to saving throws against disease and to Heal checks equal to his class level. He is also immune to the sickened condition.

Pestilential Touch (Su): At 2nd level, the nosomatic chirurgeon learns how to twist the powers of healing to inflict damage, rather than to repair it. Any time he uses one of his dragonmark spell-like abilities that would normally heal damage to living creatures (such as Cure Light Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, Heal, etc), he can instead decide to use to inflict damage. The target(s) get a Will save, DC 10 + spell level + Chr mod, to halve the damage, but all other aspects of the spell remains the same (school, descriptor, range, etc.). This specifically means that the nosomatic chirurgeon cannot use this ability to heal damage to undead creatures or harm deathless creatures. Attempts to identify or counter the effect use the original spell for comparison. This ability does not apply to any other method of healing damage, only those provided by his dragonmark spell-like abilities.

Plague Bearer (Su): At 4th level, the nosomatic chirurgeon learns how to twist the powers of healing even further. First, he becomes immune to the nauseated condition. Second, any time he uses one of his dragonmark spell-like abilities, he can swap the desired effect with the following options. The nosomatic chirurgeon must already have Greater or Siberys dragonmark spell-like abilities in order to swap out for those options. If he does not have Greater or Siberys dragonmark spell-like abilities, the associated options are not available until he does.

Least: Pox Pustules

Lesser: Contagion

Greater: Greater Contagion

Siberys: Plague Storm

Isolate Pathogen (Su): At 6th level, nosomatic chirurgeon is now able to isolate and channel diseases. This means that he is now immune to the effects of all diseases, including magical ones. He can still be infected, but only for the purposes of spreading the disease. If he was already infected, gaining this class feature immediately cures him of the effects of any disease, although now the disease itself.

He also gains the ability take 10 on Heal checks to diagnose or treat diseases. But more importantly, should the nosomatic chirurgeon encounter a creature that is infected with a disease, he can attempt to infect himself with it. This requires a Heal check, with a DC 10 + the DC of the disease and 1 hour of work with the infected creature. This check cannot be retried without another creature to attempt with, nor can the nosomatic take 10 on this check.

If successful, the nosomatic chirurgeon is now carrying that disease and is capable of spreading that disease indefinitely. Normally, this requires exposure over hours or days among intended targets, but the nosomatic chirurgeon can expend the entire infection as a single melee touch attack to attempt to infect someone immediately (meaning that there is no onset time). Fortitude saves are allowed to resist the disease at the normal DCs. A nosomatic chirurgeon can only spread one disease in this manner at a time, but he can intentionally infect someone else with the Contagion, Greater Contagion or Plague Storm options of Plague Bearer class ability and then harvest from them.

Nosomatic Touch (Su): At 8th level, if the nosomatic chirurgeon is currently carrying a disease as per his Isolate Pathogen class ability and uses a standard action to infect someone else, he can spend one use of his Remove Disease dragonmark spell-like ability or the Mass Heal dragonmark spell-like ability as an immediate action to retain the infection for later use.

Overload Immunity (Su): At 10 level, the nosomatic chirurgeon's mastery of disease is complete; now capable of guaranteeing infection among those he strikes. Any time the nosomatic chirurgeon uses his Plague Bearer class ability to cast Pox Pustules, Contagion, Greater Contagion or Plague Storm as dragonmark spell-like abilities, or any time he uses his Isolate Pathogen class ability to intentional infect someone with a melee touch attack, the first Fortitude save to resist the disease automatically fails.

This ability bypasses any immunity to diseases, like that from paladins or other nosomatic chirurgeons, but those that would normally be immune to disease are allowed to roll their first Fortitude save to resist normally.