ANIMIST

The animist studies an arcane art long since lost to many wizard schools and practices - the strange and wondrous ability to bestow the inanimate with a semblance of life.

 

Arcane School: An animist must choose the transmutation arcane school.

 

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:

An animist gains proficiency with all simple melee weapons.

 

Hand of the Animist (Su):

The animist can cause a held melee weapon to fly from his grasp and strike a foe before instantly returning. As a standard action, the animist can make a single attack using a melee weapon at a range of 30 feet. This attack is treated as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, except that the animist adds his Intelligence modifier to the attack roll instead of his Dexterity modifier (damage still relies on Strength). This ability cannot be used to perform a combat maneuver. An animist can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Intelligence modifier. This ability replaces the battleshaping arcane school ability.

 

Object Familiar (Ex):

An animist gains the service of a tiny animated object (as if animated by an animate objects spell) which functions in many ways like a familiar. The object may be any Tiny object and has 1 Construction Point. The hit points, effective Hit Die, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and natural armor adjustments of the object familiar are determined in the same way as a traditional familiar, though the object familiar confers no special bonus to its master. The object also gains the Alertness, improved evasion, and share spells special features at 1st level, the deliver touch spells feature at 3rd level, the spell resistance feature at 11th level, and the scry on familiar feature at 13th level. An object familiar does not gain an Intelligence score, and obeys spoken commands as an animated object normally would. This ability replaces arcane bond.

 

Empower Familiar (Su):

At 8th level, when the animist’s object familiar is within arm’s reach, he can advance and reshape the familiar into any Small- or Medium-sized animated object. This process takes ten minutes and confers extra Construction Points normally. At 12th level, the object familiar may be advanced to Large size in this way. This ability replaces the change shape arcane school ability.

 

Animate Objects (Ex or Su):

At 10th level, an animist adds animate objects to his wizard spell list as a 6th-level spell, and may scribe the spell to his spellbook for free. Furthermore, when the animist animates one or more objects with this spell, or whenever he uses the empower objects class feature to reshape his object familiar, the animist may reduce the number of Construction Points the object would be entitled to by some number in order to bestow the objects’ natural attacks with a stacking +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, or with any one of the following weapon properties: flaming, frost, ghost touch, mighty cleaving, shock, spell storing, or thundering. Each bonus or weapon property requires the forfeiture of 1 Construction Point. At 20th level, the wizard may apply one of the above properties without expending a Construction Point. This ability replaces the 10th level and 20th level arcane discoveries.