Ki Mage (Ninja/Sorcerer)

While most ninja’s focus primarily on perfecting their skills of stealth and subterfuge, some seek to harness their ki energy for the soul purpose of casting spells and enhancing their attacks. Ki mages are practitioners of ki magic who can trace their bloodline back to a powerful ancestor. By honing body and mind, they are able to tap into their reservoir of power to cast spells and accomplish amazing feats. (Original Concept by Byrdology and +5 Toaster)

Primary: Ninja.

Secondary: Sorcerer.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Dice: d8.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The ki mage selects three sorcerer skills to add to her class skills in addition to the normal ninja class skills. The ki mage gains a number of ranks at each level equal to +4 Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The ki mage is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the kama, katana, kusarigama, nunchaku, sai, shortbow, short sword, shuriken, siangham, and wakizashi. The ki mage is also proficient with light armor, but not with shields.

Bloodline: At 1st level, a ki mage gains the sorcerer’s bloodline ability. She can choose any bloodline listed in the sorcerer class description, and adds her bloodline skill to her list of class skills.

At 2nd level, and every four levels thereafter, a ki mage learns an additional spell, derived from her bloodline. These spells are in addition to the ki spells she learns at each interval. These spells cannot be exchanged for different spells at higher levels.

At 3rd level, a ki mage gains her 1st–level bloodline power. At 5th level and every six levels thereafter, she gains each subsequent level of bloodline power, up to her 15th–level bloodline power at 17th level.

A ki mage treats her ki mage level as her sorcerer level for the purpose of determining the effects of her bloodline powers and spells. This ability replaces sneak attack +3d6, +5d6 and +8d6, no trace, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge,

Cantrips: At 1st level, a ki mage learns 4 cantrips, or 0–levels from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. As long as she has at least 1 ki point, she can cast these spells like any other ki spell she knows, but they do not consume any ki points and may be used again. This ability and ki spells replace the ninja tricks gained at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.

Sneak Attack (Ex): This is exactly like the ninja’s ability of the same name, except that the ki mage’s extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and increases by 1d6 at 3rd, 7th, 9th, 13th, 15th and 19th level.

Ki Pool (Su): This is exactly like the ninja’s ability of the same name, except that the ki mage gains it at 1st level. A ki mage also uses her ki pool to power her cantrips, ki spells and her toxic infusion abilities.

Ki Spells: Starting at 2nd level, a ki mage casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. She can cast any spell she knows by expending points from her ki pool. To learn or cast a spell, a ki mage must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ki mage’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the ki mage’s Charisma modifier. When casting a spell, a ki mage must expend a number of ki points equal to 1/2 the level of the spell rounded up (minimum 1). Thus, a ki mage must expend 1 ki point to cast a 1st– or 2nd–level spell, 2 ki points to cast a 3rd– or 4th–level spell, and 3 ki points to cast a 5th level spell.

A ki mage’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A ki mage begins play knowing four 0-level spells and one 1st-level spells of her choice. She also adds her 1st–level bloodline spell to her list of spells known. At 6th level and every four levels thereafter, a ki mage gains one new spell of the level indicated on Table: Ki Mage, and adds her bloodline spell of the appropriate spell level at each interval.

Upon reaching 6th level, and at every four ki mage levels after that (10th, 14th, and 18th), a ki mage can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows (but not bloodline spells). In effect, the ki mage 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. A ki mage may swap 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. She can cast any spell she knows at any time, assuming she has not yet used up her ki points for the day.

Poison Use (Ex): This is exactly like the ninja ability of the same name, except that the ki mage gains it at 2nd level.

Toxic Infusion (Su): At 6th level, a ki mage can manipulate the nature of her spells. Whenever the ki mage casts a spell that deals damage, she can replace that spell’s normal damage with acid damage or split the spell’s damage, so that half is of acid damage and half is of its normal type. The target of a toxic infusion spell must make a successful Fortitude save or become exposed to ki toxin.

Alternatively, a ki mage can expend 1 ki point as a swift action to apply a dose of ki toxin to her weapon. Ki toxin has the following statistics.

Ki Toxin—injury; save Fort DC 10 + 1/2 the ki mage’s level + the ki mage’s Charisma modifier; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1 Condamage; cure 1 save.

This ability replaces light steps.

Master Tricks: At 12th level, whenever the ki mage could select a ninja trick or when she selects the Extra Rogue Talent feat, she can select a master trick instead. The ki mage adds the following ninja abilities to the list of master tricks she may select: No Trace, Uncanny Dodge, Light steps, and Improved Uncanny Dodge. A ki mage must select uncanny dodge before selecting improved uncanny dodge. A ki mage treats her level as her ninja level for the purpose of qualifying for tricks with level-dependent requirements and calculating the effects of any trick or ninja ability she's chosen.

Ki Master (Su): At 20th level, a ki mage adds her 6th level bloodline spell to her list of spells known. She can cast this spell by expending 3 ki points. In addition, whenever the ki mage deals sneak attack damage, she can expend points from her ki pool to deal additional damage dice. Whenever a ki mage makes a successful sneak attack, she can expend up to 3 ki points as an immediate action to increase her sneak attack damage by 1d6 per ki point expended, up to a maximum sneak attack damage of 10d6. This ability replaces hidden master.

Table: Ki Mage