Spellbinder (3.5e Prestige Class)

By Claudio Pozas

The spellbinder is a magician who seeks to gain mastery over the finer details of his spellwork.  Able to craft a personal focus that allows him greater control over his magic, he shapes, contorts, and manipulates the forces of magic with the greatest of ease.

Becoming a Spellbinder

Entry Requirements

Skills:	Concentration 12 ranks, Decipher Script 6 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 8 ranks, Spellcraft 12 ranks
Feats:	Craft Wondrous Item, Eschew Materials, Spell Mastery
Spellcasting:	Able to cast 5th level arcane spells

Table: The Spellbinder

Hit Die: d4

Level	BAB	Saving Throws			Special	Spellcasting
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Aligned Magic, Forsaken Words, Personal Focus	—
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Bonus Metamagic Feat, Metaphysical Sacrifice	+1 in an existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd	+1	+3	+1	+3	Spellbinding	—
4th	+2	+4	+1	+4	Bonus Metamagic Feat	+1 in an existing arcane spellcasting class
5th	+2	+4	+1	+4	Unleashed Arcana	—
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level) Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (any) (Int), Profession (Wis), Perform (Cha), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha)

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the spellbinder.

Weapons & Armor Proficiency:  The spellbinder gains no additional proficiencies beyond those they already possess.

Spellcasting:  At the indicated levels, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level.  You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained.  If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a spellbinder, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Aligned Magic (Su):  When using your personal focus (see below) to cast a spell, you can cast your spells in such a way that they take on any nonneutral alignment you have (chaotic, evil, good, or lawful).  For example, a lawful neutral spellbinder can use his personal focus to cast any of his spells as if they were lawful spells.  A true neutral spellbinder must choose for his bone spurs to be chaotic, evil, good, or lawful for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction; once chosen, this alignment component cannot be changed.  When casting a spell, you can choose to have it aligned in the chosen way or leave it unaffected, casting it as normal.

If such a spell is cast upon a creature of the opposite alignment, you gain a +2 bonus to your effective caster level in addition to any other effects that may occur due to the alignment of the spell.

If your personal focus can also serve as a weapon, its attacks are treated as if they were of the same alignment for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance. Unlike your spellcasting, you cannot turn this on and off at will; the focus is always aligned in the chosen way.

Forsaken Words:  You have mastered the art of casting spells without need of a verbal component.  You gain both the Rapid Metamagic and Silent Spell feats as bonus feats even if you don't meet the prerequisites.  When applied to your spells, Silent Spell has a +0 adjustment to that spell's level, and you may apply it spontaneously to any spell you cast even if you are a prepared spellcaster.

You also gain a bonus ton Decipher Script and Spellcraft checks equal to your class level.

Personal Focus:  You can use the Craft Wondrous Item feat to craft a personal focus.  A personal focus replaces any need for a focus, material component, or expensive material component equal to its market value or less.  You can determine the market value of the focus at the time of its creation.  For example, if you craft a personal focus worth 5,000gp (costing 2,500gp and 200xp to craft, plus the cost of whatever form the focus takes), it can be used in the place of any focus or material components your spells require up to 5,000gp.  Anything more expensive than that will require its normal component or focus.  If using your personal focus in place of a material component, the personal focus is not consumed upon completion of the spell.

You may only ever posses one personal focus at any given time.  The personal focus is an active magic item and behaves appropriately in any situation where that nature may come into play, such as entering an antimagic field or being targeted by dispel magic.  If you already possess a personal focus and wish to craft a new one, you must first destroy your original, regaining 50% of its market value in raw materials that can only be used to craft a new one.

Your personal focus is protected by your saving throws, spell resistance, and other similar traits—if better than its own—even when not in your direct possession, and you always know its general direction and condition regardless of distance or what plane it is currently on. Only divine intervention can interrupt this supernatural sense, as it is effectively a part of you.

Your personal focus can also be a magic item, such as a magic ring, staff, or rod. In such a case, simply add the market price of both the magic item and your personal focus together and use that total to determine the cost to craft the item.

Bonus Metamagic Feat:  You gain one [Metamagic] feat of choice as a bonus feat.

Metaphysical Sacrifice (Su):  You gain the ability to cast metamagic spells spontaneously (even if you normally must prepare your spells) by taking ability damage instead of increasing the level of the spell.  To do so, you suffer one point of ability damage for each spell level by which you are increasing the spell through metamagic.  You choose which of his ability scores to damage at this time, but all damage from casting of a single spell must go to the same ability.  In this manner, you can increase a spell’s level beyond your normal capabilities.  You must still have a sufficient ability score to cast a spell of the level to which metamagic enhanced it.  Heighten Spell is unaffected by this class feature.

Ability damage taken from metamagic manipulation is also resistant to magical restoratives.  Should any character attempt to cast a spell that restores ability damage (such as lesser restoration) lost by this ability, they must succeed on a DC (15 + amount of ability damage suffered) caster level check or the spell has no effect on the injured spellbinder, but additional attempts to restore the damage can still be made.  Ability damage returns at the normal rate with rest and time.

Only spells cast through your personal focus can be affected by metaphysical sacrifice. If it is lost, stolen, destroyed, or otherwise unusable, you cannot benefit from this class feature.

Spellbinding (Su):  By weaving strands of ambient mana into your spells, you can power them with the very essence of magic itself rather than your personal reserves.  Whenever one of your spells or spell-like abilities has an experience point cost associated with it, you can lower that XP cost by 10% per class level, to a maximum of 50% at 5th level.  Note that this is a supernatural ability, and it can be suppressed in an antimagic field, dead magic zone, or other similar phenomena, irrelevant as that is in most cases.  Only spells cast through your personal focus can be affected by spellbinding.

Unleashed Arcana (Su):  When casting a spell, that spell no longer has a maximum limit based upon your caster level. For example, a spellbinder can cast dispel magic and add their full caster level to the d20 roll even if their caster level is over 10 (normally dispel magic has a maximum bonus of +10). This applies to arcane spells that have a limit to any aspect of their spell effect, such as the number of missiles created with magic missile, the maximum number of damage dice for a fireball, or the enhancement bonus granted by greater magic weapon.

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