Weapon Shaman

Many fighters and other warriors prize their weapons highly. Some of whom grow to understand that their weapons are not just weapons but something special that hold something even more unique inside. All weapons or at least all the good ones are merely vessels for real creature that have been bonded to them.

Weapon Shamans have found a way to tap into those creatures and have found ways to release them for limited times

REQUIREMENTS

To qualify to be a Weapon Shaman one must fulfill the following criteria

Base Attack Bonus: 6

Feats: Leadership; Power Attack for Melee Weapons, Combat Reflexes for Ranged and/or Thrown Weapons

Special: Any weapon chosen to utilize for this Prestige class must be an intelligent item

Class Skills

The Weapon Shaman’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), and Survival (Wis).

Skills Points at each Level: 4 + (Int modifier)

Hit Die d8

CLASS FEATURES

All of the following are class features of the Weapon Shaman Prestige Class

Call Weapon (Su): If you and your weapon are ever separated you can summon it back to you. As long as you and it are on the same plane you can call it back to you (as a free action) regardless of intervening distance. In the next round, the weapon will appear in your hands. If your hands are occupied it will appear in an adjacent square you designate. At fifth level, you can call your weapon even if it is on a different plane of existence.

Channeled Creature (Su): Only one creature can be bonded to any given item, and once chosen it cannot be changed. The ECL of the channeled creature must be three levels lower than that of the Weapon Shaman.

Summoning the Creature In order to summon the creature from your weapon you must hold the weapon for one round prior to summoning. Summoning takes a full round action. (At fifth level, you can summon the creature as a move action.) At the start of your next turn, the weapon polymorphs into the summoned creature. The creature remains for at most one round per character level of the Weapon Shaman, and then reverts to weapon form. If the creature reverts while in a square adjacent to you and you have a free hand, you are holding the weapon when it reverts. You may cause the creature to revert to weapon form before the duration expires as a free action.

Once the creature has reverted to weapon form, it cannot be summoned again for five minutes. If you use the weapon in the interim, the creature cannot be summoned for ten minutes.

Dweomered Claw (Su): At second level, any enhancement made to the weapon will become an enhancement to the summoned creature’s natural attacks.

Long Claw (Su): At third level, the channeled creature can use special weapon enhancements as minor ranged attacks. If the weapon has an enhancement which deals extra damange (e.g. flaming, for +1d6), the creature may make a standard attack (ranged touch) at a range of up to 20’. If the attack hits, roll damage as you would for the enhancement. At fourth level, the range increases to 40’. At fifth level, it increases to 60’.

Iron Coffin: If the summoned creature is dropped below 0 hit points, it does not die. Instead, it converts back into the original weapon. Any additional HP loss will come out of the weapon’s hit points. In this circumstance, the channeled creature cannot be summoned again until the weapon’s hit points are replenished to full. Additionally, the consciousness of the creature/intellegent weapon is suspended (and cannot be summoned) for 24 hours as well as any Intellegent abilities.

If the weapon should ever be destroyed, the Weapon Shaman loses access to all class abilities until he atones.

Detect Weapon (Sp): At first level, the Weapon Shaman can use Detect Weaponry, as the spell from Cityscape (p.66) at will. The caster level is the Weapon Shaman’s class level. At third level, the Weapon Shaman can Detect Magic (as the spell) on weapons as part of this ability. At fifth level, the Weapon Shaman can also use Identify (as the spell, no material component necessary) on weapons as part of this ability.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	(+2)	(+2)	(+0)	Call Weapon, Channeled Creature, Detect Weapon
2nd	+2	(+3)	(+3)	(+0)	Dweomered Claw
3rd	+3	(+3)	(+3)	(+1)	Long Claw (20’), Detect Magic Weapon
4th	+4	(+4)	(+4)	(+1)	Long Claw (40’)
5th	+5	(+4)	(+4)	(+1)	Long Claw (60’), Call Weapon (off-plane), Identify Magic Weapon

return to Prestige Classes

Note on use of this class in this campaign

As Camus enters this class, his magic item’s inhabiting spirit Mareko, the Obscenity (a canisphinx) technically has an ECL too high to be eligible. As a work-around, Mareko’s roar ability is modified as per the following table:

Camus’s class level	Mareko’s Roar
1st	none
2nd	once per day
3rd	twice per day
4th	three times per day

all other aspects of the roar ability are as per the description in Sandstorm p.186