Niobe Aptos's page

About Niobe Aptos

Niobe Aptos
Female merfolk druid (nature priest, skinshaper) 14
NG medium humanoid (aquatic)
Init +2; Senses Perception +24, low-light vision

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Defense
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AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (+2 Dex, +5 armor, +2 natural armor, +3 natural armor enhancement, +2 deflection)
HP 102 (14d8, +26 Con)
Fort +14 (+9 base, +2 Con, +3 resistance), Ref +9 (+4 base, +2 Dex, +3 resistance), Will +17 (+9 base, +3 Wis, +2 Wis enhancement, +3 resistance)

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Offense
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Speed 5 ft. (swim 50 ft.)
Melee +1 obsidian spear +12/+7 (1d8+2/x2; piercing)
Melee +1 obsidian spear (when shifted) +13/+8 (1d8+4/x2; piercing)
Melee Unarmed strike (when shifted) +12/+7 (1d8+2/x2; bludgeoning)
Ranged Dart +12/+7 (1d4+1/x2; 20 ft.)
Spells Prepared (CL 14th; concentration +20) {+4 while underwater}
• 7th (2+d/day)—animal shapes (aquatic forms only) (d), heal
• 6th (4+d/day)—communal stoneskin, freezing sphere (d)
• 5th (4+d/day)—black tentacles (d), communal air walk, death ward, fire snake
• 4th (5+d/day)—control water, cure serious wounds, flame strike, freedom of movement (d), grove of respite, reach communal resist energy
• 3rd (5+d/day)—call lightning, cure moderate wounds, neutralize poison, remove disease, stone shape, water breathing (d)
• 2nd (6+d/day)—barkskin, burdened thoughts, heat metal, reach cure light wounds, slipstream (d), warp wood
• 1st (6+d/day)—cure light wounds, faerie fire, goodberry, hydraulic push (d), produce flame, thunderstomp, touch of the sea
• 0—guidance, light, mending, stabilize

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Statistics
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Str 12, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 19 (23), Cha 16
Base Atk +10/+5; CMB +10; CMD 22
Languages: Common (Taldane), Aquan; Aboleth, Druidic

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Feats
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Level 1
Eschew Materials: You can cast many spells without needing to utilize minor material components.
Benefit: You can cast any spell with a material component costing 1 gp or less without needing that component. The casting of the spell still provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. If the spell requires a material component that costs more than 1 gp, you must have the material component on hand to cast the spell, as normal.

Level 3
Fast Crawl: You are skilled at moving while prone.
Benefit: While prone, you can move at half speed. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. You can take a 5-foot step while crawling. This benefit does not stack with the rogue crawl talent.
Normal: You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. You cannot take a 5-foot step while crawling.

Level 5
Reach Spell (Metamagic): Your spells go farther than normal.
Benefit: You can alter a spell with a range of touch, close, or medium to increase its range to a higher range category, using the following order: touch, close, medium, and long.
Level Increase: Special. A reach spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level for each increase in range category. For example, a spell with a range of touch increased to long range uses up a spell slot three levels higher.
Spells modified by this feat that require melee touch attacks instead require ranged touch attacks.
Spells that do not have a range of touch, close, or medium do not benefit from this feat.

Level 7
War Blessing: Your fervent call to your deity imbues you with a temporary blessing.
Prerequisite(s): Mystery or domain class feature.
Benefit: Choose two warpriest blessings when you take this feat. Each of these blessings must be tied to a domain granted by your deity or to one of the two domains that represent your spiritual inclination and abilities. Twice per day, you can call upon the minor blessing from one or the other of your chosen blessings. This ability otherwise acts like the warpriest blessings class feature. Your effective warpriest level is the highest level that you have in the class that has the mystery or domain class feature.
Nobility Blessing
Inspiring Word (minor): At 1st level, you can speak a few words to a creature within 30 feet that fill them with inspiration. You can grant that creature a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, or saving throws (your choice). This effect lasts for 1 minute.
Water Blessing
Ice Strike (minor): At 1st level, you can touch one weapon and enhance it with the power of water. For 1 minute, this weapon glows with a blue-white chill and deals an additional 1d4 points of cold damage with each strike. This additional damage doesn’t stack with the additional damage from the frost or icy burst weapon special abilities.

Level 9
Waterway Caster: You’ve learned to cast spells while on a watercraft or even while swimming in turbulent waters.
Benefit: You automatically succeed at concentration checks required to cast a spell while being subjected to vigorous or violent motion while either swimming or on a ship. You gain a +4 bonus on concentration checks to cast spells underwater.

Level 11
Craft Wondrous Item (Item Creation): You can create wondrous items, a type of magic item.
Prerequisite: Caster level 3rd.
Benefit: You can create a wide variety of magic wondrous items. Crafting a wondrous item takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its price. To create a wondrous item, you must use up raw materials costing half of its base price.
You can also mend a broken wondrous item if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the raw materials and half the time it would take to craft that item.

Level 13
Divine Interference: You can convert a spell to interfere with an enemy’s attack.
Prerequisites: Divine spellcaster, caster level 10th.
Benefit: As an immediate action, when an enemy within 30 feet hits an ally with an attack, you can sacrifice a prepared divine spell or (if you are a spontaneous caster) an unused spell slot and make the enemy reroll the attack roll. The second attack roll takes a penalty equal to the level of the spell you sacrifice. You must sacrifice a spell of 1st-level or higher to use this ability. Whether or not the second attack is successful, you cannot use this effect on the same creature again for 1 day.

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Traits
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Natural Born Sailor (Campaign): You were born aboard a ship at sea or down by the docks in a port city on an auspicious day. Old salts and sea dogs nod knowingly and say that the goddess of piracy, sea monsters, and strife, has marked you for a greater destiny. You don’t know anything about that, but you’ve always felt more at home on the sea than on land, and your keen eyes can easily pick out a sail on the distant horizon.
You came to a tavern in port in search of your fate. You’re not sure how many drinks you had, but they quickly went to your head and you passed out on the table before you found your destiny—unless it lay in the bottom of a bottle. Then again, maybe you found your destiny after all…
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Perception and Profession (sailor) checks. In addition, once per week you can reroll a Profession (sailor) check and take the higher result (you must announce that you are using this ability before the results of the check are known).

Talented (Social): You are a virtuoso musician, actor, or storyteller.
Benefits: You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with a single Perform skill (your choice), and all Perform skills are always class skills for you.
Chosen skill: Perform (sing)

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Adventuring Skills
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Total skill ranks: 84/28 (56 druid, +14 Int, +14 favored class; 28 background skills)

Climb +7 (3 ranks, +1 Str, +3 class skill)
Disguise +9 (3 ranks, +3 Cha, +3 class skill)
Heal +23 (14 ranks, +4 Wis, +2 Wis enhancement, +3 class skill)
Knowledge (nature) +18 (14 ranks, +1 Int, +3 class skill)
Knowledge (religion) +10 (4 ranks, +1 Int, +3 class skill, +1 class bonus)
• +13 about Green Faith & Naderi
Perception +24 (14 ranks, +4 Wis, +2 Wis enhancement, +3 class skill, +1 trait)
Spellcraft +18 (14 ranks, +1 Int, +3 class skill)
Survival +12 (3 ranks, +4 Wis, +2 Wis enhancement, +3 class skill)
Swim +26 (14 ranks, +1 Str, +3 class skill, +8 swim speed)

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Background Skills
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Perform (sing) +21 (14 ranks, +3 Cha, +3 class skill, +1 trait)
Profession (fisherwoman) +15 (7 ranks, +4 Wis, +1 Wis enhancement, +3 class skill)
Profession (sailor) +16 (7 ranks, +4 Wis, +1 Wis enhancement, +3 class skill, +1 trait)

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Untrained Skills
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Acrobatics +2 (+2 Dex)
Bluff +3 (+3 Cha)
Diplomacy +3 (+3 Cha)
Escape Artist +2 (+2 Dex)
Intimidate +3 (+3 Cha)
Knowledge (geography) +1 (+1 Int)
Sense Motive +5 (+4 Wis, +1 Wis enhancement)

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Gear
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Total starting wealth: 23,500 gp

Druid's vestment (3,750 gp)
+1 obsidian spear (2,301 gp, 4½ lbs.)
Dagger (2 gp, 1 lb.)
Darts, 12 (5 sp ea., ½ lb. ea.)
+2 eel hide shirt (5,220 gp, 18 lbs.)
Amulet of natural armor +3
Cloak of resistance +3 (1 lb.)
Headband of inspired wisdom +4 (16,000 gp, 1 lb.)
Ring of protection +2
Jewelry (pearl necklace) (500 gp)
Chain belt (15 gp, ¼ lb.)
Waterproof bag (5 sp, ½ lb.) with a handy haversack (5 lb.)
[
• Fishing tackle (20 gp, 5 lbs.)
• Grooming kit (1 gp, 2 lbs.)
• Healer's kit (50 gp, 1 lb.)
• Potion sponge of cure light wounds, 4 (cl 1, 52 gp ea.)
• Potion sponge of remove disease (cl 5, 752 gp)
• 18,272 gp, 5 sp
]

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Special Abilities
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Merfolk

Ability Score Racial Traits: Merfolk are graceful, hale, and beautiful. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, and +2 Charisma.
Size: Merfolk are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed (Slow Speed): Merfolk have a base speed of 5 feet. They have a swim speed of 50 feet.
Type: Merfolk are humanoids with the aquatic subtype.
Languages: Merfolk begin play speaking Common and Aquan. Merfolk with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Aklo, Draconic, Elven, and Sylvan. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Armor: Merfolk have a +2 natural armor bonus.
Legless: Merfolk have no legs, and therefore cannot be tripped.
Low-Light Vision: Merfolk have low-light vision allowing them to see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Amphibious: Merfolk are amphibious, but prefer not to spend long periods out of the water.

Druid (Nature Priest, Skinshaper) 14

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Druids are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, scythe, sickle, shortspear, sling, and spear. They are also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form they assume with wild shape (see below).
Druids are proficient with light and medium armor but are prohibited from wearing metal armor; thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor. A druid may also wear wooden armor that has been altered by the ironwood spell so that it functions as though it were steel. Druids are proficient with shields (except tower shields) but must use only wooden ones.
A druid who wears prohibited armor or uses a prohibited shield is unable to cast druid spells or use any of her supernatural or spell-like class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.
A nature priest is proficient with her deity’s favored weapon in addition to a druid’s typical weapon proficiencies.
This alters the druid’s weapon proficiencies.

Class Skills: A nature priest adds Knowledge (religion) to her list of class skills instead of Knowledge (geography).
A skinshaper adds Disguise to her list of class skills, instead of Ride.
This alters the druid's class skills.

Spells: A druid casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list. Her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells. A druid must choose and prepare her spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, the druid must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a druid can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Druid. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).
A druid must spend 1 hour each day in a trance-like meditation on the mysteries of nature to regain her daily allotment of spells. A druid may prepare and cast any spell on the druid spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

Spontaneous Casting: A druid can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn’t prepared ahead of time. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast any summon nature’s ally spell of the same level or lower.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A druid can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity’s (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Orisons: Druids can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Druid under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

Bonus Languages: A druid’s bonus language options include Sylvan, the language of woodland creatures. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
A druid also knows Druidic, a secret language known only to druids, which she learns upon becoming a 1st-level druid. Druidic is a free language for a druid; that is, she knows it in addition to her regular allotment of languages and it doesn’t take up a language slot. Druids are forbidden to teach this language to nondruids.
Druidic has its own alphabet.

Nature Bond (Ex): At 1st level, a druid forms a bond with nature. This bond can take one of two forms. The first is a close tie to the natural world, granting the druid one of the following cleric domains: Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant, Water, or Weather. Druids also have access to a set of Animal and Terrain Domains. When determining the powers and bonus spells granted by this domain, the druid’s effective cleric level is equal to her druid level. A druid that selects this option also receives additional domain spell slots, just like a cleric. She must prepare the spell from her domain in this slot and this spell cannot be used to cast a spell spontaneously.
Chosen Druid (Ex): If a nature priest chooses a domain for her nature bond, she must choose one of her deity’s domains (or subdomains) in place of those typically available to a druid.
This ability alters nature bond.
Aquatic Domain
You master the deeps of the sea, raging rivers, flowing falls, and relentless tides.
Granted Powers:
Sealord (Su): You can channel energy (as a cleric of your druid level) a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier, but only to heal creatures with the aquatic or water subtype or to command them (similar to using the Command Undead feat against undead). You can take other feats to add to this ability, such as Extra Channel and Improved Channel, but not feats that alter this ability, such as Elemental Channel and Alignment Channel. The DC to save against this ability is equal to 10 + 1/2 your druid level + your Charisma modifier.
Seastrike (Su): At 6th level, as a free action, you may use natural and manufactured weapons in water as if you had continuous freedom of movement. As a standard action, you can throw a weapon underwater without the normal penalties for throwing weapons; if your target is in or under the water, the weapon also acts as a returning weapon for that attack.
Domain Spells: 1st—hydraulic push, 2nd—slipstream, 3rd—water breathing, 4th—freedom of movement, 5th—black tentacles, 6th—freezing sphere, 7th—animal shapes (aquatic creatures only), 8th—seamantle, 9th—tsunami.

Studious Piety (Ex): A nature priest gains a +1 bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks. This bonus increases to +2 when attempting checks that involve knowledge of her deity or her faith.
This ability replaces nature sense.

Wild Empathy (Ex): A druid can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result.
The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
A druid can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Woodland Stride (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a druid may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her.

Trackless Step (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a druid leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Shepherd of the Faithful (Su): At 4th level, a nature priest and all allies within 60 feet that can see or hear her gain a +2 insight bonus on skill checks to notice or avoid natural hazards, difficult terrain, and rough winds or water, as well as on saving throws against natural hazards. This ability offers no protection against the abilities of creatures or the effects of spells or items.
This ability replaces resist nature’s lure.

Skinshaping (Su): At 4th level, a skinshaper gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium humanoid and back again once per day. This ability functions as per alter self, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until the skinshaper changes back. Changing form is a standard action and doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. The skinshaper must be familiar with the form she has chosen. She can use this ability an additional time per day at 6th level and every 2 druid levels thereafter, up to a total of eight times at 18th level. At 20th level, she can use skinshaping at will.
The skinshaper learns to intuitively use her body as a weapon. While skinshaping, she gains the benefit of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and her unarmed strike deals damage as if she were a monk with a monk level equal to her druid level – 3.
At 6th level, a skinshaper gains the ability to channel the versatile nature of humanoids to enhance her body and mind. Whenever she uses skinshaping to assume a humanoid shape other than her own, she gains a +2 enhancement bonus to any one ability score. The bonus persists as long as she remains in that form. At 10th, 14th, and 18th levels, she gains an additional +2 enhancement bonus to one ability score. She can distribute these bonuses as she wishes in increments of +2, but the enhancement bonus on any single ability score cannot exceed +4.
This ability replaces wild shape.

Flashmorph (Su): At 13th level, a skinshaper learns to change her shape extremely quickly. She can use skinshaping as a swift action.
This ability replaces a thousand faces.

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Backstory
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Description: Perhaps her most striking feature is Niobe's long, luxurious black hair. It glistens in sun and never seems to lose its luster or to become tangled or tousled.
She has blue-gray eyes reminiscent of a stormy day over the ocean.
Niobe is usually smiling, typically with wonder at the world at large or simply because she is a generally happy woman.
She has fair-to-olive skin that quickly picks up a bronze tan when exposed to sun for extended periods. In her natural form she has a long, powerful fishlike tail that has a pair of dark blue dorsal and ventral fins and a deep glossy blue-violet color to her scales. (Note that, like all merfolk, she is a water-breathing semi-mammal—her fishlike tail being akin to how a dolphin or whale is a seagoing, swimming mammal.)
While adventuring, she wears a simple aquamarine gown embroidered with stylized fish and seaweed motifs, and over that a thick jerkin of eel skin. She has a thin bronze headband set with three pearls and a simple wooden ring, and a gray cloak that looks like a cloudy day over the sea when worn over her vestments. When swimming at leisure her preference is to wear only jewelry.

Hair: Black, long
Eyes: Blue-gray
Height: 6' 3" (including tail)
Weight: 160 lbs. (including tail)

Background: Niobe comes from a small, bucolic community of merfolk - essentially, the "country folk" of her people. Her community was small and close-knit, with few secrets and a pleasant (but sometimes suspicious) provincial character.
Niobe's family was well-to-do by the standards of merfolk, with plentiful fishing grounds and many treasures from pearls to chests of gold from sunken ships above. She never suffered from want or deprivation and her parents and her older brother were caring and supportive of her in her childhood.
The call of the ocean always ran strong in Niobe, giving her a connection to plants and animals of the waves, but like certain other merfolk of legend she also had a boundless wanderlust and insatiable curiosity. This took her to visit distant shores, islands, and places far below the sea... and also to yearn for the chance to see the strange ways of the land-dwelling world.
As she blossomed from youth to adulthood, Niobe applied herself to the study of the magic arts of the sea, including the ways of shapeshifting. Some part of her always seemed to yearn for the unconventional. With her best friend Callidora, a magician, she sought out ways to expand her reach, to deepen her connection to the natural world, and to internalize the magic of wind and wave and to return that bountiful life to the ocean that had always sustained her.
Niobe's hobbies concerned her family, because adventuring merfolk are not unknown but are always at great risk. The warm waters off Andoran were peaceful and plentiful—why risk one's life swimming to dangerous uncharted seas or, worse still, trying to flop along the land to no good end? Niobe's yearnings distanced her from her family and made relations difficult; though she still cared for her family, she felt that she could not relate to them. Along with her other unconventional feelings, Niobe found that Callidora seemed to be the only one who understood her desire for a more complicated life, one that fulfilled her need for novelty and for answers to questions that were outside the scope of a society that survived on fish and ocean currents. Pushed apart by the combination of social disapproval and their differing social roles because of their divergent talents, the pair still remained as close as possible. Her sense of alienation and distance from her family and dearest friends made her sympathetic to the cult of Naderi (though not to the suicide aspect of that deity).
Restless and unhappy with the mercurial but simplistic life in the sea, Niobe determined to find a way to see more of the world, and perhaps one day to take her companion Callidora with her.
Though Niobe's first encounters with the surface world were comical (and occasionally dangerous), she was adaptable and clever enough to find a way to insinuate herself into society. She spent two years working as a Pathfinder before becoming tired of the constant requests for help with exploring shipwrecks—she came to the surface world to see new things up there, not to just dive back down below!—but retained a few good contacts. Lately she has been at loose ends, using her recently-obtained ability to take on humanoid forms to enjoy new freedoms of exploration, rather than being relegated to riding in a cart with a Pathfinder group en route to various coastal destinations.

Personality Traits: Niobe is best described as "sunny" and "bubbly." By human standards she is naïve, since she comes from a very simple society and has little experience with confining rules, complex politics, and especially with metalworking technology. She sometimes has a wistful mein, longing for things that she doesn't understand or wishing that her past had turned out differently, but never lets these moments lapse into depression or anger.
She can sometimes become frustrated with complicated tools or rules that she perceives as arbitrary. She tends to break social convention, but not maliciously; rather, she wishes to pursue her own personal experiences in the world without harming others—so she is not a criminal or lawbreaker by predilection, she simply does not value conformity for its own sake.
Niobe is used to eating raw fish, mussels, clams, and other seafood, as well as seaweed. "Cooking" is something of a novelty to her, and she is frightened of but fascinated by fire.
She is a generally good-hearted woman, in spite of being fishy.