Spellcarved Soldier

Description:

Spellcarved soldiers were once the highest honor that warforged could achieve. In the years before the warforged gained their freedom, individual warforged that distinguished themselves in battle and had aptitude with magic were trained to become spellcarved soldiers. The dedication it takes to be part of this elite division showed most commonly in intelligent fighters that took to arcane magic after seeing first hand how it can be useful on the field of battle. In the years since the end of the Last War, spellcarved soldiers are something of an oddity. Many still serve their former masters, now as free-thinking enlisted instead of slaves, but a few took the opportunity to turn on their former masters.

Regardless of their individual personalities, one aspect unites all spellcarved soldiers. That is their spellcarved runes that have been stamped throughout and across their outer shell. These runes are far more detailed that what warforged might have as causal decoration and it is clear to anyone skilled in magic that this runes are used as part of their abilities.

Role: Spellcarved soldiers are usually combatants first and spellcasters second. They know the benefit of having magic available on the front line, but often, this achieved with more levels in fighter than in wizard or artificer. That said, having a fighter that knows exactly how to counter a wizard's onslaught is a powerful ally.

Source: RoE, pg. 166

Alignment: Spellcarved soldiers can be of any alignment, although all of them have had extensive military training

Hit Dice: d10

Requirements:

To qualify to become a spellcarved soldier, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Warforged.

Base Attack Bonus: +6.

Skills: Spellcraft 1 rank.

Feats: Cold Iron Tracery or Silver Tracery.

Special: Ability to cast 1st level arcane spells or 1st level infusions.

Class Skills:

The spellcarved soldier's class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Chr), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Magic Device (Chr).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Spellcarved Soldier

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the spellcarved soldier prestige class.

Weapons and Armor Proficiency: Spellcarved soldiers do not gain any new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spellcarved Runes (Su): Starting at 1st level, and at each level thereafter, a spellcarved soldier gains a spellcarved rune (detailed below). A spellcarved soldier can only have one rune active at a time. Activating or deactivating a spellcarved rune is a swift action that does not provoke, but can be done any number of times per day. A spellcarved rune last until the spellcarved soldier deactivates the rune or until he goes unconscious.

Rune of Extension (Su): The spellcarved soldier's first spellcarved rune is the Rune of Extension. If this rune is active when the spellcarved soldier receives a beneficial spell effect that only targets him and lasts for a duration longer than instantaneous, that duration is doubled, as per the Extend Spell spell. If the original spell effect is already doubled from an Extend Spell metamagic feat, this doubling stacks. The spell effect is now kept in this specific rune, which raises the DC for attempts to dispel it by +5. If this rune is deactivated while holding a spell, it cannot be re-extended by reactivating later.

This rune can only hold one spell effect at a time, although the spellcarved soldier can choose to prematurely end one spell effect stored in the spellcarved rune to allow room for a new spell effect as an immediate action that does not provoke. The spellcarved rune cannot store effects that do not come from spells, even psionic powers, despite the normal magic-psionic transparency rule.

Rune of Resistance (Su): At 2nd level, the spellcarved soldier gains his next spellcarved rune, the Rune of Resistance. While active, the rune provides an untyped bonus equal to his class level to all saves vs mind-affecting effects and effects that target the material based portions of the spellcarved soldier's body (wood, metal, stone, crystal, etc).

Rune of Fortification (Su): At 3rd level, the spellcarved soldier gains his next spellcarved rune, the Rune of Fortification. While active, the rune provides 50% chance to negate extra damage from a critical hit or precision damage as per the Moderate Fortification special armor quality. At 4th level, this improves to 75%, as per the Heavy Fortification special armor quality. At 5th level, the spellcarved soldier is immune to extra damage from critical hits or precision damage while this rune is active.

Rune of Warding (Su): At 4th level, the spellcarved soldier gains his next spellcarved rune, the Rune of Warding. While active, the rune provides damage reduction of either 5 / magic and cold iron, if you have the Cold Iron Tracery feat, or 5 / magic and silver, if you have the Silver Tracery feat. If you have both feats, you can choose which type of damage reduction applies when you activate this rune. This does not stack with any other sources of damage reduction of the same type.

Rune of the Archmage (Su): At 5th level, the spellcarved soldier gains his final spellcarved rune, the Rune of the Archmage. While active, the rune increases your caster level by your class level (or, simply, by +5). This does not affect the number of spells known or able to be cast per day, nor does it give access to new spell levels. It only applies to the caster level dependent variables of individual spells or infusions cast.