Essence Drinker (Sorcerer/Ranger)

The essence drinkers are a cabal of arcanists who have discovered the means of drawing power from the blood of various creatures. (Original Concept by Browman)

Primary: Sorcerer.

Secondary: Ranger.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Dice: d8.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The essence drinker selects six ranger skills to add to her class skills in addition to the normal sorcerer class skills. The essence drinker gains a number of ranks at each level equal to +4 Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The essence drinker is proficient with all simple and light or one-handed martial weapons. An essence drinker is also proficient with light armor. She can cast sorcerer spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, an essence drinker wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass essence drinker still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spellcasting: An essence drinker casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, and adds the following spells to that list at the indicated levels: 1st–call animal, call weapon, calm animals, charm animal, detect animals and poison, detect poison, hide from animals, horn of pursuit, hunter’s howl, know the enemy, longstrider, pass without trace, summon nature’s ally I, tireless pursuit; 2nd–acute senses, aspect of the bear, barkskin, chameleon stride, delay poison, forest friend, hold animal, hunter’s lore, speak with animal, summon nature’s ally II; 3rd–blessing of the mole, bloodhound, burst of speed, diminish plants, hunter’s eye, instant enemy, reduce animal, remove disease, summon nature’s ally III; 4th–aspect of the stag, command plants, find quarry, freedom of movement, neutralize poison, summon nature’s ally IV, tireless pursuers; 5th–animal growth, aspect of the wolf, commune with nature, raise animal companion, summon nature’s ally V, tree stride; 6th–bloodsworn retribution, summon nature’s ally VI.

An essence drinker can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time, assuming she has not yet used up her allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

To learn or cast a spell, an essence drinker must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an essence drinker’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the essence drinker’s Charisma modifier.

An essence drinker can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level each day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Essence Drinker. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

An essence drinker’s selection of spells is extremely limited. An essence drinker begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the essence drinker’s choice. At each new essence drinker level, she gains one or more new spells as indicated on Table: Essence Drinker Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells an essence drinker knows is not affected by his Charisma score. The numbers on Table: Essence Drinker Spells Known are fixed.)

Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third essence drinker level thereafter (8th, 11th, and so on), an essence drinker can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the essence drinker “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level essence drinker spell she can cast. An essence drinker may swap out only a single spell at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.

Bloodline: This is exactly like the sorcerer ability of the same name, except that the essence drinker only gains her bloodline powers. She does not gain her bloodline arcana, feats, or spells.

Blood Enemy (Ex): At 2nd level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s favored enemy ability, except that she can select one favored enemy at 2nd level and an additional favored enemy every five levels thereafter, up to her fourth favored enemy at 17th level. An essence drinker can choose any creature listed on Table: Ranger Favored Enemies. An essence drinker’s chosen blood enemies determine the effects of her steal bloodline ability. This ability, track, swift tracker, evasion, quarry, and improve quarry replace bloodline arcana, bloodline spells, and bloodline feats.

Track (Ex): At 2nd level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s track ability.

Drink Essence (Su): Starting at 2nd level, an essence drinker can assume certain aspects of an animal. As a standard action, an essence drinker can make a ranged touch attack against an animal. If the attack is successful, the essence drinker gains the abilities of that animal for 1 minute per essence drinker level. The essence drinker can use this ability once per day at 2nd level, plus an additional time per day every three levels thereafter.

An essence drinker gains the following abilities as determined by the animal she touches.

Amphibian: The essence drinker’s hands and feet gain webbing, and her lungs gain capacity, allowing her to move through the water with ease. She also gains a Swim speed equal to half her speed, and all the benefits of having a swim speed. Additionally, she can hold her breath for 4 rounds per point of Constitution before being forced to make Constitution checks to keep holding her breath.

Avian: The essence drinker gains a +4 bonus on Perception and Fly checks, low-light vision, and can see as if she had the Eagle Eyes feat.

Canine: The essence drinker gains a +4 competence bonus on combat maneuver checks when making the trip or reposition combat maneuver, and is able to jump a distance equal to half her speed with a running start. She can also move up to five times her normal movement as if she had the Run feat.

Feline: The essence drinker gains a +4 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks, always jump as if she had a running start, and she gains a climb speed equal to half her normal speed and all the benefits of having a natural climb speed.

Large Mammal (Elephant, Rhino, etc.): The essence drinker is treated as one size larger when subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for a Combat Maneuver Bonus or Combat Maneuver Defense (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), and when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size (such as grab or swallow whole) can affect her.

Primate: The essence drinker gains a +4 competence bonus on Climb checks and on combat maneuver checks when making the grapple or reposition combat maneuver. She can also throw objects as if she had the Throw Anything feat.

Reptile: The essence drinker gains a +4 competence bonus on Escape Artist checks, darkvision out to 30 feet, and increasing her land speed by 10 feet for 1 round once per minute.

Ursine: The essence drinker gains a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks when making or defending against a bull rush, grapple, or overrun combat maneuver. She can also exert herself as if she had the Endurance feat.

Steal Bloodline (Su): Starting at 4th level, an essence drinker can temporarily gain the powers of an alternate bloodline by consuming the blood of her blood enemies. As a standard action, an essence drinker can consume one dose of blood (or essence) of a blood enemy of her choice.

Upon being consumed, the blood grants the essence drinker the powers of the bloodline associated with her blood enemy, as show on Table: Blood Enemy Bloodlines. This effect lasts for 1 minute per essence drinker level. Once the blood is consumed, the essence drinker’s own bloodline is suppressed in favor of the new bloodline. In effect, she loses her own bloodline in exchange for the new one. The old bloodline does not reassert itself until the effects of the new bloodline ends. The effects of an enemy’s blood do not stack. Whenever an essence drinker consumes a dose of an enemy’s blood, the effects of any previous dose of blood immediately end. For the purpose of determining the powers granted by her alternate bloodline, the essence drinker’s sorcerer level is equal to her essence drinker level –3. An essence drinker never gains the 20th level power from an alternate bloodline.

The essence drinker can extract one dose of blood from a dead, dying, or living blood enemy using a slashing or piercing weapon as a full-round action. Extracting blood in this way deals 2 points of hit points of damage to the creature. The essence drinker can store extracted blood in special vials and remains potent for 1 day, after which time it becomes spoiled. The essence drinker can store a number of doses of blood each day equal to her Charisma modifier.

An essence drinker gains the one of the following bloodlines, as determined by the consumed blood of her blood enemy. The Animal or Construct favored enemy grants no bloodline.

Table: Blood Enemy Bloodlines

Preservation (Su): Starting at 5th level, an essence drinker can preserve the blood of her enemies she has stored in her flasks. It takes 1 hour to preserve a dose of blood. Once preserved, it remains potent until it is consumed or otherwise removed from its flask. An essence drinker can have one dose of blood preserved at a time. At 8th level and every three levels thereafter, she can have one additional dose of blood preserved, up to a maximum of six doses at 20th level. The number of preserved blood doses an essence drinker preserves counts against an essence drinker’s stored doses of blood, and cannot exceed her Charisma modifier. This ability only works on blood, not other fluids, such as a potion.

Swift Tracker (Ex): At 8th level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s swift tracker ability.

Evasion (Ex): At 11th level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s evasion ability.

Quarry (Ex): At 13th level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s quarry ability.

Master of the Blood (Su): At 16th level, the essence drinker’s own bloodline is no longer fully suppressed when the blood of an enemy is consumed. Whenever an essence drinker consumes the blood of one of his blood enemies, he can choose to suppress either his own bloodline powers or those granted by his enemy’s blood, as a swift action. Only the powers of the unsuppressed bloodline are accessible. In addition, the number of doses of blood an essence drinker can store is equal to twice his Charisma modifier. This ability replaces the 20th level bloodline power.

Improved Quarry (Ex): At 19th level, an essence drinker gains the ranger’s improved quarry ability.

Table: Essence Drinker

Table: Essence Drinker Spells Known