Heart of Earth (3.5e Equipment)

Heart of Earth

The heart of earth is born from great cataclysms of earth and seismic activity, be it a massive portal to the elemental plane of earth, the death of a deific earth god or elemental being, or other shocks to the fabric of the universe. Though it resembles a smooth polished crystal sphere no larger than a large softball, it is space wrapped up tightly around a torn off fragment of the elemental plane itself. Born of great earth powers, it is treasured by elemental mages.

Upon touching a heart of earth you feel as if it is supernaturally heavy and dense, with a rough surface in spite of its apparent smoothness and faintly rumbling as hidden plates and tumblers slowly rearrange themselves deep inside. If a subject spends 3 full round actions focusing on the sphere, they will be able to draw out some of its power. It may bestow one of these Blessings of Earth once a month per person. Once drawn, they gain one of the supernatural abilities below, and cannot change it until at least 1 month has past. If they so which after, they may attune with the sphere again and gain a new benefit, losing their old benefit. These powers can be suppressed in an antimagic field, or suppressed for 1d4 rounds if successfully dispelled (CL equals to subject's HD). A disjunction may destroy the effect, but the subject can attune and re-gain their power if 1 month has already passed. Select from below.

Blessings of Earth

• Cloak of Acid: Your body is wrapped in a constant dusty aura which corrodes what it touches, allowing you to deal 2d6 acid damage on all your physical attacks. Those striking you with natural weapons or grappling also take this damage. It may be suppressed or activated as a free action once per round, and does not function if you are unconscious.
• Soul Bastion: You gain the earth subtype, and your body becomes hard as stone, granting damage reduction 1/- for every two HD you possess (for example a 10 HD creature gets DR 5/-). In addition simply being in contact with unworked, natural earth, soil, or rock surface is enough to grant you fast healing 1 so long as you remain in contact. Your skin turns rocky hued, rough and pebbly, or perhaps scaled.
• Earth Affinity: Your spells rumble and cause small tremors, and your caster level for earth or acid spells rises by 4. In addition any metamagic applied to a earth or acid spell has its metamagic cost reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1). When casting your magic effects often shake the earth and the effects take on crystalline shapes.
• Deeprunner: Your body can slip through the ground as easily as a fish swims in water. You gain the earth glide ability of earth elementals, up to your land speed. When traveling through earth you have effective sight out to 60 ft. through stone and can breath and act normally (although your voice will be muffled to anyone outside of the rock's surface). The earth's surface acts as an opaque barrier, so you cannot see what goes on outside the earth but you can hear them. Even on the surface you retain tremorsense out to 30 ft. Once every minute, you may employ Stone Shape as a spell-like ability.
• Elemental Servant: An earth elemental is bound into your soul, allowing you to call (or dismiss) an elemental cohort as a standard action. The elemental's size and level is based on your HD, and is the same elemental each time. This elemental is 1-3 HD (Small), 4-6 HD (Medium), 7-9 HD (Large), 10-12 HD (Huge), 13-15 HD (Greater), 16-18 HD (Elder), 19-20 HD (Elder +3 HD added). In addition you learn the associated elemental language, Terran. If your elemental dies, it cannot be returned until a raise dead or similar spell is cast, which functions normally in spite of the elemental traits.
• Stalwart Rook: You push your body and mind to the limits, entering a sort of "defensive rage". Succeed on a concentration check DC 15, and gain +4 to Con and Wis, +2 on all opposed checks, and -2 Reflex saves as your body plants itself into the ground and braces for impact. You also gain mettle. If you already possess mettle you no longer fail saving throws on a natural 1. This defensive rage lasts for 3+your newly modified constitution modifier rounds, and is often accompanied by impacts against you sounding as if you were made of iron and strange subtle tremors. When it ends you are fatigued for 1 minute as your body reels from the effort. You can only enter stalwart rook 1/encounter, but there is no literal limit to the number of times it may be entered. However, each time it is successfully entered, the DC on all future concentration checks will rise by +5. This count can be reset by receiving a new blessing, although the normal requirements still apply (i.e. at least 1 month must have passed since the last blessing)

If the heart of earth is held in hand, it grants its user several spell-like abilities. A heart of earth has 20 charges and recovers them at 1 charge per day. Each spell level consumes that many charges (a 8th level spell is 8 charges, a 3rd level spell is 3 charges, a 0th level spell is 0 charges and thus can be used at will). It uses its current wielder's HD as its caster level and its wielder's primary casting score (default Cha for non-casters). A user can only use spells up to a level available as a wizard of his level. So, a 13 HD character can only cast up to 7th level spells.

• 0th-Acid Splash
• 1st-Magic Stone
• 2nd-Soften Earth and Stone
• 3rd-Stone Shape
• 4th-Spike Stones
• 5th-Wall of Stone
• 6th-Io's Tears
• 7th-Earthquake
• 8th-Iron Body
• 9th-Gorgon's Glare

The heart of earth may be recharged quicker by any spellcaster, by expending spell slots as a standard action. The sphere absorbs its spell level worth of charges into the sphere.

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