User:Temia Eszteri/Starsinger

To those that can hear it, the song that permeates the Material Plane and maintains natural law is a beautiful melody, but for the longest time, only select powerful magic could harness it. However, a sect of Desna's faith is said to have achieved a way to harness it to other ends, channeling the echoes from the Bell of Mercy through song and emotion to infuse their magic with the Starsong's grace and achieve greater effects.

While Starsingers cannot reach the more conventional pinnacles of power as other mages, they can bide their time to exceed them in other ways, so long as they are well-protected by their allies. While bards are a natural choice, the more evangelical clerics of Desna also fit this class well, and even other spellcasters who've dabbled in the musical arts can become Starsingers with enough work.

This prestige class has been written for the Pathfinder RPG system based on material written for Cutefinder.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Starsinger, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Special: Bardic Performance class feature, worshipper of Desna; must have made a pilgrimage to one of the seven bell towers of Desna

Skills: Perform (sing) 5 ranks

Spells: Able to cast 3rd-level spells

Languages: Celestial

Overview

Hit Die: d6

Class Skills: The Starsinger's class skills (and key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Geography) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: Starsinger

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Spells per day
1st	+0	+0	+0	+1	Belltower, Song Magic, Symphonic Infusion. Primal Sphere	-
2nd	+1	+1	+1	+1	Masterpiece	+1 level of existing class
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+2	Metamusic	+1 level of existing class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+2	Bonus Metamagic Feat	+1 level of existing class
5th	+2	+2	+2	+3	Harmonic Display	-
6th	+3	+2	+2	+3	Masterpiece	+1 level of existing class
7th	+3	+2	+2	+4	Harmonic Linguist	+1 level of existing class
8th	+4	+3	+3	+4	Bonus Metamagic Feat	+1 level of existing class
9th	+4	+3	+3	+5	Greater Metamusic	-
10th	+5	+3	+3	+5	Masterpiece, Cynosure Starfall	+1 level of existing class

Class Features

The following are class features of the Starsinger prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Starsingers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Spells Per Day/Spells Known: When a new starsinger level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class she belonged to before adding the prestige class. She does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if she is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a starsinger, she must decide to which class she adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Belltower: At 1st level, a starsinger attunes herself to a specific tower's Bell of Mercy which will provide her Song Magic. If she is beyond 1000 miles of the tower, or if the tower's Bell of Mercy is broken or destroyed, she will lose access to all class features (including Primal Sphere and Cynosure Starfall, but not spells per day and metamagic feats).

Song Magic (Su): A Starsinger can learn Masterpieces as a bard, even if her Bardic Performance is from a different class. Likewise, she can conjure music alongside her singing when using Masterpieces or bardic performances, allowing her to make a supplemental Perform check as a free action with a bonus of her Cha modifier + Perform (sing) ranks for any audible component without requiring that instrument. This enables her to take Masterpieces she does not formally have relevant skill prerequisites for, if the prerequisite is for an audible performance type and her Perform (sing) skill is high enough.

A Starsinger must sing in Celestial for her performances or masterpieces to benefit from Song Magic, thus limiting the usage of language-dependent abilities or spells. Starsinger levels count towards her base class levels for advancing the Bardic Performance class feature.

Symphonic Infusion (Su): A starsinger can improve a spell by calling on her Bell to draw upon the Song of the Spheres. When casting a spell, she can postpone releasing it and sing to imbue it with song magic; for each full round she sings, she can can increase its save DC (to a maximum bonus of half her Starsinger level, rounded up) or caster level (to an adjusted total of her character level) by 1. She must still concentrate during this time, which can leave her open to attack and risk losing the spell.

Primal Sphere (Su): A starsinger can use her voice to make the Bell of Mercy's echoes entangle with the Song of the Spheres, generating a powerful explosion of sonic energy. She learns, as either a bonus spell known or as a spell she can prepare from memory, a variant of Fireball that deals 1d4/level sonic damage (max 10d4) as a 3rd level spell.

Masterpiece: At 2nd level and every four levels after, a starsinger gains a bonus Masterpiece without expending a feat or spell slot. She must meet the prerequisites for this Masterpiece in accordance with Song Magic.

Metamusic (Su): At 3rd level, a starsinger can select a spell she can cast and begin a performance to spontaneously alter it with any metamagic feat she knows without changing its spell level, to a maximum effective level as she can cast. She must maintain this performance for at least as many rounds as the spell's modified level, and at the end of the performance must cast the spell (though she can use Symphonic Infusion as usual) or lose the benefit of the performance. When casting, she must make a Perform (sing) check against a DC of 10 + any damage she took during the performance + the spell's modified level; failing means the spell is lost as if it had been cast.

Bonus Metamagic Feat: At 4th and 8th level, a starsinger gains a bonus Metamagic feat. She must meet the prerequisites for this feat.

Harmonic Display (Sp/Su): At 5th level, a starsinger's Song Magic can manipulate the Song of the Spheres create vivid phantasmal displays, evoking almost physical imagery with her music alone. She can use Silent Image at will as a spell-like ability, and she can maintain it as a free action during a performance, allowing her to make a supplemental Perform check as a free action with a bonus of her Cha modifier + Perform (sing) ranks for a visual component. This effectively allows her to take any Masterpiece that her Perform (sing) skill is high enough for.

Harmonic Linguist (Su): At 7th level, a starsinger's deepening understanding of the Song of Spheres and her own emotions allows her to convey the meaning of words across any language barrier. She can speak to anyone as if they shared a common language (though she does not necessarily understand the replies) and her language-dependent abilities or spells can affect any target with an Int score.

Greater Metamusic (Su): At 9th level, a starsinger can use metamusic to achiever yet greater songs, no longer bound by normal limitations. When performing to spontaneously apply metamagic to a spell, she can exceed her maximum available spell level, but in doing so, the spell's modified level is added twice to the Perform check DC instead of once.

Additionally, she can choose to begin using Symphonic Infusion during the performance rather than at the end, with the limitation that she must keep using it until the performance is concluded -- if something prevents her from using Symphonic Infusion, the performance and spell are both lost.

Cynosure Starfall (Su): At 10th level, a starsinger is capable of using the Bell of Mercy to call upon Cynosure and shower enemies in a powerful rain of stars. She learns, as either a bonus spell known or a spell she can prepare from memory, a variant of Meteor Swarm that deals holy damage in only a single strike as a 6th level spell. She can cast down additional strikes by preparing it as a higher level spell or increasing its effective spell level with Metamusic, adding another falling star at a point she chooses in range for every spell level above 6th (to a maximum of four strikes at 9th level), though the Save DC remains as that of a 6th level spell.