ARMORIST
Armorists are among the most direct masters of the Spheres, and indeed, tend to see magic as only the first step in resolving a situation. Their ability to call forth whatever equipment a situation requires makes them more flexible than many of their opponents realize.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: The Armorist’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Craft (Int), Influence (Cha), Knowledge (arcane; Int), Knowledge (civilization; Int), Knowledge (engineering; Int), Knowledge (martial; Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Table: The Armorist
CLASS FEATURES
The following are the class features of the armorist
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
An armorist is proficient with all simple weapons, as well as light armor and bucklers. In addition, if this is the character's first level in any class, they may select a Martial Tradition of their choice.
Casting
An armorist may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. An armorist is considered a Low-Caster and uses Wisdom as her casting ability modifier. (Note: All casters gain 2 bonus talents and may select a casting tradition the first time they gain the casting class feature.)
Spell Pool
An armorist gains a small reservoir of energy she can call on to create truly wondrous effects, called a spell pool. This pool contains a number of spell points equal to her level + her Wisdom modifier (minimum: 1). This pool replenishes once per day after roughly 8 hours of rest.
Blended Training
An armorist gains a combat or magic talent at 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, according to Table: Armorist.
Summon Equipment (Su)
An armorist may spend a spell point as a swift action or a move action to conjure a weapon, suit of armor, or shield into her hands or directly onto her body, which stays for 1 minute per level before disappearing. The armorist must be proficient with the weapon or type of shield or armor to summon it, and in the case of exotic weapons, she must have studied a pre-existing version of the weapon for at least 1 week. This weapon, suit of armor, or shield is masterwork quality, and while antimagic barriers may prevent the armorist from summoning these items, the items themselves are not considered magical creations and so may not be dispelled. Ranged weapons come with 50 pieces of basic ammunition.
When summoning armor, the armorist may also summon the suit directly onto a willing touched creature's body as a standard action. This causes any armor the target is wearing to disappear in favor of the new armor until the duration is over and the old armor returns. Dismissing a piece of summoned equipment is a free action.
At 3rd level, summoned equipment is considered magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction. At 6th level, summoned equipment gains special abilities from Table: Bound Equipment that have an equivalent enhancement bonus less than or equal to 1 for every 6 armorist levels the creator possesses (to a maximum bonus of +3 at 18th level).
Table: Bound Equipment
Bound Equipment (Su)
An armorist gains a bond with a specific weapon, suit of armor, or shield that is far greater than with her other summoned equipment. Bound equipment is summoned and treated just like summoned equipment, except it does not cost a spell point to summon, cannot be used by anyone other than the armorist herself (the item’s magic does not function in another’s hands), comes with limitless ammunition, and disappears 1 round after leaving the armorist’s hands. She gains another piece of bound equipment at 5th level, 9th level, 13th level, and 17th level and may select a staff beginning at 5th level.
Bound equipment is masterwork quality, and grants a single sphere or talent. A piece of bound equipment must possess a base sphere before additional talents of that sphere may be added unless the armorist possesses that sphere, such as through the bonus talents gained from possessing the combat training class feature, from the Extra Combat Talent feat, or levels in another class. The armorist may not use talents gained from her bound equipment to qualify for feats or to meet other prerequisites unless otherwise noted. Spheres and talents that grant skill retraining never grant it when gained via a piece of bound equipment. If the armorist possesses a sphere-specific drawback, she may use a talent granted by a piece of bound equipment to buy off that drawback. If the armorist gains a base sphere from a piece of bound equipment, with the GM's permission she may apply a drawback to that sphere to gain a bonus talent as normal for a drawback. The drawback and bonus talent must be set at the time the equipment is gained. Each time the armorist gains a new piece of bound equipment, one of her existing pieces grants an additional sphere or talent.
At 3rd level, an armorist may give her bound equipment special properties from Table: Bound Equipment that have an equivalent enhancement bonus less than or equal to 1 for every 4 armorist levels possessed (to a maximum bonus of +5 at 18th level). Bound equipment cannot be enchanted through any other means than gaining armorist levels. Bound staves grant the armorist enhancement bonuses to her caster level with one sphere, chosen when the staff is created.
Once a piece of bound equipment has been selected, or once its special qualities have been chosen, they may only be changed if the armorist spends 8 hours (1 day) meditating to dismiss the old piece of bound equipment and create a new piece of bound equipment to take its place. The armorist’s bound equipment can be damaged and sundered, but always returns to full health the following day. A bound double-weapon must divide its weapon qualities between the two ends. Alternately, the armorist may bind each end of the double weapon as a separate piece of bound equipment, thus granting full bonuses to each half. If one end of the double weapon has no bonuses, it is still considered masterwork.
Arsenal Trick
At second level and every even-numbered level thereafter the armorist gains an arsenal trick, representing the ways she has chosen to focus her study of equipment and its uses. Unless otherwise specified, an individual arsenal trick can only be gained once.
All of the available arsenal tricks can be found HERE.
Armor Training (Ex)
Starting at 3rd level, an armorist learns to be more maneuverable while wearing armor. Whenever she is wearing armor, she reduces the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by her armor by 1. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th) these bonuses increase by +1, to a maximum –5 reduction of the armor check penalty and a +5 increase of the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed. In addition, an armorist can also move at her normal speed while wearing medium armor. At 7th level, an armorist can move at her normal speed while wearing heavy armor.
Boost Equipment (Su)
Beginning at 10th level, instead of summoning equipment, the armorist may touch a piece of magical equipment and spend a spell point to grant it special abilities as if it was a piece of summoned equipment. This has the same duration as summoned equipment and causes the item to count as summoned equipment for the purpose of arsenal tricks. This requires a standard action to boost equipment being wielded by another, but can be done with the same action cost as summoning equipment if the armorist is already touching or wielding the piece of equipment. The armorist must be able to summon a type of equipment (weapons, shields, or armor) in order to boost a piece of similar equipment. Boosting an item a second time replaces the first boosting, and pieces of bound equipment cannot be boosted.
Quick Summons
At 15th level, the armorist may summon or switch equipment onto herself as an immediate action or free action.
Infinite Arsenal (Su)
At level 20, the armorist no longer needs to spend a spell point to summon equipment, and the duration of summoned equipment and boosted equipment increases to 1 hour per class level.
ARCHETYPES
The following archetypes are available to the armorist