Hallo all! First time poster here. Me and my party will soon move into the pathfinder rules and i was intrigued by the bloodline feature of the sorcerer. While it offers great flavor, strong offences (such as claws and ray attacks), defences (such as immunity to criticals or spell resistance) and variety, i thought it could instead be used to incorporate other powers. So i decided to incorporate the shadow caster from tome of magic into a bloodline for the sorcerer.
In addition, they gain supernatural cantrips called fundamentals as they level up, which they can eventually use at will.
They are hardier than the 3.5 edition sorcerer.
Finally, they gain bonus feats, see in darkness, and eventually ignore metabolic needs.
While the abilities are straight from tome of magic (little have i changed) i decided to drop the bonus feats, the intelligence requirement for the casting of mysteries, the incomparability with arcane magic and the rigid prerequisites for learning them.
So i present you...
The Shadow Magic Bloodline
You are descended from a bloodline of magic users that attuned themselves to the alien nature of the Plane of Shadows. Tapping to the morphic and absolute power of darkness is like as easy as controlling the flows of arcane magic. Shadows always seem to favor you and urge you to be cautious, to take nothing for granted, and always be wary of conspiracies.
Class Skill: Knowledge (The Planes)
Bonus Spells:
Dusk and Dawn (3rd), Shadow Skin (5th), Dancing Shadows (7th), Warp Spell (9th), Echo Spell (11th), Flood of Shadows (13th), Ephemeral Image (15th), Umbral Metamorphosis (17th), Shadow Time (19th)
Bonus Feats:
Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth), Great Fortitude, Line of Shadows Spell (as Line of Shadows Mystery but a metamagic feat that raises the level of the spell by 3 and can be used as often as needed), Shadow Familiar, Shadow Cast, Blind Fight, Improved Counterspell, Improved Initiative, Reactive Counterspell (From Magic of Faerun), Improved Toughness.
Bloodline Powers:
Darkness is the fundamental state of the universe. Where other forces are fleeting, slaves of time, darkness always was, always is and always will be. While it grants you great power, it also tries to consume you and your arcane talents and absorb your body, mind and soul into its eternal mass. Every day is a day of struggling against that fate, of fortifying yourself both bodily and mentally, of hoping than when the final day comes you will be master of your power and not slave to it.
1st Level Power: Secrets of Shadow
You can learn mysteries as spells. They are now arcane spells but gain the mystery descriptor. The following rules apply only for those spells.
At 1st level spells (except from fundamentals, see below) are cast as arcane spells with no verbal components, can be dismissed at will, unless otherwise noted are cast as standard actions, and opposed casters (except those with the shadow blood line or shadow magic using creatures) suffer a -4 penalty on checks to identify or dispel such a spell.
At 7th level spells from 1st to 3rd level become spell like abilities and at 13th level they become supernatural. Also at 13th level, spells from 4th to 6th level become spell like abilities.
You can also learn fundamentals as cantrips. They are cast as spell-like abilities 3/day. At 8th level they become supernatural abilities and at 14th level they are cast at will.
At 19th level all your spells gain the mystery descriptor and all your cantrips become supernatural abilities. This applies also to sorcerer spells gained at later levels or through feats.
Note that even as spell like or supernatural abilities they are treated as arcane spells for purposes of metamagic feat usage and qualification to prestige classes.
Barring bonus mysteries, until 19th level you can have only 2 spells with the mystery descriptor per spell level.
Whenever you cast a spell with the mystery descriptor, observers can make a DC 15 Spot check to note that your shadow is making different gestures from the ones you make while casting the spell.
3rd Level Power: Umbral Sight
Your vision benefits from your link with darkness.
You gain low light vision and dark vision up to 30 ft (these values stack with racial ones but not with any granted by magic)
At 11th level you gain dark vision up to 60 feet (or your existing dark vision increases by 60 ft) and you can see even in magical darkness.
At 18th level your dark vision has range equal to your normal vision and you can see in magical darkness at any range even discerning colors and other small details as though you were under daylight.
9th Level Power: Sustaining Shadow
Your inherent bond into the Plane of shadow nurtures and mitigates most of your biological needs.
At 9th level you don't need to drink or eat.
At 10th level you don't need to sleep, making you immune to sleep effects.
At 15th level you are immune to non magical diseases and poisons.
At 17th level you don't need to breathe, making you immune to all harmful vapors and gases (such as cloudkill and stinking cloud effects, as well as inhaled poisons).
15th Level Power: Dark Fortitude
The constant struggle between shadow and soul strengthens your fortitude.
You gain +1 hit point per Sorcerer level and a +4 bonus on fortitude saves.
This becomes +5 at 16th level and +1 per 4 levels thereafter.
20th Level Power: Dark Apotheosis
At 20th level your arcane talent is overwhelmed by the raw, eternal power of darkness. While your constant struggle has enabled you to resist absorption to the shadows, it has also granted you strong control into the meek and fleeting magical forces around you.
You gain 1 known mystery per spell level (converted to spells with the mystery descriptor). You also gain the following supernatural abilities:
1. When you successfully dispel a spell, you add ½ of its level (round down, minimum 1) to the caster level of any spell you cast in the next round. You cannot gain this benefit while dispelling your own spells.
2. 3/day you can counter a spell as an immediate action by expending a spell slot of equal or higher level as the spell to be countered.
3. When you successfully counter a spell, you regain the use of a spell slot equal to ½ of the countered spell (round down, minimum 1)
4. 3/day a target at 60 feet must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ sorcerer level + charisma modifier) or take a -4 penalty to its caster level for any spells it casts for 1 minute.
5. 1/day all targets suffer a -4 penalty to their caster level for any spells they cast as long as they are 20 feet close to you. This ability lasts for one minute.
6. Whenever you successfully dispel or counter a spell, you cannot be affected by any casting of that spell for 1 minute.
I think that this bloodline is very strong but i would like opinions on how to spread the abilities. First thought is to remove the 10 free mysteries known at 20th level and relocate some abilities from lower levels there. Your thoughts are welcome :)