Male human (Shoanti) Wizard (Shapechange Specialist) 1
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +0, Sense Motive +0
Languages Azlanti, Common, Shoanti
DEFENSE AC 11 (Dex +1), touch 11, flat-footed 10
CMD 16
HP 8 (1d6+1+1)
Fort (0) +1, Ref (0) +1, Will (2) +2 (+1 vs fear)
Defensive Abilities None
Immune None
Resist None
SPECIAL ABILITIES Arcane Bond (Ex) Chaytah’s Rhamphorhynchus familiar Screaming Arrow grants him a +4 bonus on Initiative checks.
Arcane School (Ex) Chaytah specializes in transmutation magic, with evocation and enchantment as his restricted schools.
Battleshaping (Su) As a swift action, you grow a single natural weapon. The natural weapon lasts for 1 round and has a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls for every four wizard levels you possess. You can grow a claw, a bite, or a gore attack. These attacks deal the normal damage for a creature of your size. At 11th level, you can shape two natural weapons. You may not grow additional limbs or a tail with this ability. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Overprotective (Drawback) In your youth, you saw a younger friend or loved one suffer a grievous injury or die, and you blamed yourself for not having been there to help, even if there was nothing you could have done. If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls and skill checks as long as you are farther than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.
Physical Enhancement (Su) You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to one physical ability score (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution). This bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. You can change this bonus to a new ability score when you prepare spells. At 20th level, this bonus applies to two physical ability scores of your choice.
Set Mind (Trait) Once per day when you fail a saving throw against a charm or compulsion effect that would cause you to act differently than you normally would, you can immediately reroll that saving throw as a free action. You must take the second result, even if it’s worse.
Shoanti Tattoo (Trait) Upon reaching adulthood, you received a tribal tattoo, marking you with the symbols of your quah and totem spirits (see the inside back cover for suggestions and designs for Shoanti tattoos). You gain a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Additionally, you are proficient with earth breakers, klars, and Shoanti bolas.
Transmuter of Korada (Trait) You learned the secrets of transmutation from a follower of the empyreal lord Korada. Whenever you cast a spell from the transmutation school, its effects manifest at +1 caster level. Additionally, select one of the following transmutation spells: bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, eagle’s splendor, fox’s cunning, or owl’s wisdom. Once per day when you cast that spell, its duration is doubled. A spell affected by this trait cannot be modified further by the Extend Spell metamagic feat or similar abilities.
Varisian Tattoo (Feat) Select a school of magic (other than divination) in which you have Spell Focus—you cast spells from this school at +1 caster level. Additionally, you gain a single spell-like ability usable up to three times per day. The spell-like ability gained (and its Varisian name) are as follows:
Transmutation (avaria): mage hand
BACKGROUND
As a boy, Chaytah lived peacefully along the Varisian sea cliffs of the Calphiak mountains with his greatfather Speaks as Storm, the village chief. The Shoanti villagers fished the Varisian Bay below, lived in luxurious caves halfway up the cliffs, and traded their catch with passing merchants from Riddleport and the Mierani Forest, or with the nearby Dreamstone Monastery, a small community of ascetics who worship Korada and could often be found meditating on rocks by the water’s edge, ignoring the fountains of cold salt spray for hours on end. Chaytah found the monks fascinating and frequently snuck away from the village to visit with them.
Like all youths in his village, Chaytah was a strong swimmer, though he lacked his peers’ grace when diving from the rocks above, often splashing ignominiously into the waves rather than cutting in cleanly. As he matured, his friends began to refer to him as Dives Like Rock. With any luck, such an honorific would not have stuck into his adult years, had any of his friends survived to give him a better.
As an older teen, the monks at Dreamstone recognized that, along with his impressive musculature, Rock (as he was now colloquially known) had a very keen mind and a natural draw to things magical. While the Shoanti youth would never reach the point of taking Koradan vows, a wizard adherent did volunteer to take the boy under his wing and teach him book magic. Though his greatfather was wary of this outside interference, he desired to help change the perception of his people as backward barbarians, so encouraged his grandson in his studies. Rock moved from his village to the monastery fulltime, providing fish in exchange for magical training.
Several years later, as Rock’s studies were just completed, villagers working to expand one of their sea caves, broke through a rock wall into a large chamber, apparently sealed long ago, and filled with trinkets and treasures from old Azlant. Though they strove to contain this news, word of the find spread into the outside world, and a Chelish scholar of Azlanti history and artifacts out of Riddleport raised a mercenary expedition to explore and loot the chamber. In a coordinated strike against the village from above and from sea, the mercenary’s forces overwhelmed the peaceful fishing village and looted the caves. So quick and complete was their strike, that Rock had no word of it until he, returning in triumph having been declared a full wizard by his master, found his home destroyed and friends and family murdered.
Overcome with grief and a taste for revenge, Rock left the ruins, taking only his greatfather’s earthbreaker. Enough clues were left behind to point Rock to Riddleport, where he just missed the mercenary, recalled to Cheliax, so the young man followed, making port in Corentyn. It was there, skulking around the docks, that Rock encountered a ship from Sargava offloading crates and cages of bizarre creatures from central Garundi. A small, winged lizard, looking miserable in its tiny cage, called out to the wizard, who used one spell to float the creature some food, then another to remotely pop open the door and free it. His efforts were not nearly subtle enough, however, and he was forced to flee Corentyn itself, before he could properly pick up the trail of the Chelish mercenary, learning only that the man had been sent on a Chelish expedition west to explore more locations of Azlanti interest. None of those expeditions would take a Shoanti barbarian, however, so Rock fled east along the coastal highway, through Westcrown, Egorian, and eventually into Andoran.
Along the way, Rock was joined by his reptilian friend. Glad of the company, Rock took care of the lizard, naming him Screaming Arrow from the way the wind would whistle around the creature’s tail as it dove quickly after prey. Once in Andoran, Rock heard the free nation was launching westward expeditions of its own, to a colony known as Talmandor’s Bounty. The application process was hard and highly competitive, especially for one considered a Shoanti barbarian, but Rock found a niche he could exploit. After several weeks spent in a local library and trading manual labour for lessons with a local sage, Rock showed up for his interview with a working knowledge of how to speak and read the Azlanti language. It had been a difficult task, but the Koradan monks had taught their pupil focus and determination. Impressing the interviewers with his initiative, his berth on the second voyage to Talmandor’s Bounty was assured.
DESCRIPTION
Rock stands at 6’3”, with arms the size of tree trunks and a neck the width of a (small) ship’s mast. His head is shaved, and his brown skin bears several tattoos common to the Shoanti people. He wears sturdy clothing, bought in Andoran and not traditional Shoanti garb, but carries a massive earthbreaker over his shoulder. What would appear to be a money pouch at his waist actually contains pulverized spell components and his backpack bulges from his concealed spellbook: most outsiders would assume the hulking man had stolen such things. Of course, the strange winged lizard that frequently suns itself on the man’s broad shoulders draws many stares of his own.
Screaming Arrow:
SCREAMING ARROW
Male Ramphorhyncus (Mascot Familiar) 1
NG Tiny animal (Ramphorhyncus)
Init +3; Senses Scent; Low-Light Vision; Perception +6, Sense Motive +2
Languages Common
DEFENSE AC 16 (Dex +3, Size +2, Natural +1), touch 15, flat-footed 113
CMD 9
HP 4 (1d6)
Fort (2) +2, Ref (2) +5, Will (2) +4
Defensive Abilities None
Immune None
Resist None
SQ
Affinity for my Team, Lucky Mascot, Sudden Swoop
SPECIAL ABILITIES Affinity for my Team (Su) A mascot is the heart and soul of its team. At first, the team consists of only the familiar and its master, but at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, a mascot can add an additional member to its team. A mascot’s empathic link extends to all members of its team. A mascot can add or remove one team member over the course of a day.
Lucky Mascot (Su) Whenever a mascot uses the aid another action to improve a team member’s attack roll or AC, that team member also gains a +1 luck bonus to AC for 1 round.
Sudden Swoop (Ex) If a rhamphorhynchus makes a charge attack while flying, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it enters an opponent’s space to make a melee attack. It also gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls with its bite attack when it makes a sudden swoop.
