Fallen Star



"You say you know no sadness? How can you look at me like that and still say that?"

-Fate, a dark magical girl

The wielders of light are defined by innocence. Their eyes view the world with joy and wonder, seeing every pain and sorrow as something to ease, every evil as a foe to fight. The are the purest crusaders of goodness and light in the world, and for most, that worldview is unshakable. But on those rare and terrible occasions in which that innocence is lost, they fall hard. For most, realizations of the hardships of the world are a fact of life - for the champions of light, each one is another pebble in an avalanche that slowly buries their entire worldview.

Some of these fallen heroes wield a power all their own - the power of their hurt and loss, and their anger at the treason of the world. Lost and uprooted, they are warriors whose reason to fight has been stripped away. Seldom is their new one half so wholesome.

Requirements
To become a Fallen Star, you must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus: +4

Special: Evoker Level 3. Special: Must have the Power of Friendship class feature. Special: When confronted by the 'true' nature of reality, and unable to find a way to keep going, you broke down.

Class Skill List
Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier at each level.

Hit Die
d8

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies
A Fallen Star gains no additional proficiencies.

Memories of Light
The radiance of the light does not forsake its champions, even when they have forgotten all they used to know of hope and innocence. It does not, however, grow more potent.

A Fallen Star retains access to their radiant armaments and to their illuminations, and they continue to enhance in power as she grows. They add their levels in Fallen Star to their evoker level, and to any one of their existing evoking classes to determine their Imbuements. They do not gain additional Illuminations known or readied, personae, or other class-dependent benefits.

Rage of Tears
For a Fallen Star, fury and sadness are one and the same. She put her whole being into protecting the world, into fighting for goodness and light – and the world paid her back with the cruel joke of the impossibility of their task. So she does the only thing she can: lash out, with all her pain and hurt.

As a free action that can only be taken during her turn, a Fallen Star can fly into a rage of tears. While in this state, the corrupted radiance of her anger and pain grants several benefits. Firstly, it provides a +4 bonus to her evoker stat, and a +2 bonus to Strength and to Dexterity. In addition, she may use her evoker stat modifier on attack rolls, instead of Strength or Dexterity, and may add it to her damage rolls. Finally, she may treat her base attack bonus from evoker classes as being equal to her evoker level, including any iterative attacks. However, the depths of negativity that provide the Rage of Tears make it impossible for the Fallen Star to use Illuminations, although they may still make use of an Implement device or a Resplendent Armament Effect.

A Fallen Star’s rage of tears lasts for a number of rounds equal to her (newly improved) evoker stat modifier, although she may end her rage early as a swift action, and her rage automatically ends at the end of an encounter, regardless of how many rounds are remaining, and she may not enter a rage of tears outside of combat.

She may enter her rage only once per encounter, but there is no limit to how many times she can enter it per day. When her rage ends for any reason, there are several effects. Firstly, her mote pool is always returned to its normal maximum size, and it is completely refilled, excepting any currently invested motes. The difference between your mote pool's maximum size and the number of motes it contained before ending your rage is often used to calculate the power of Revelation abilities, which are described in their own section.

Finally, when her fury expends itself, it leaves her a sobbing emotional wreck. For the remainder of the encounter, she takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, and ability and skill checks.

Shining Fragments
While a Fallen Star may still manipulate the power of the light, it is difficult for them, both magically and emotionally. Whenever they use an illumination, they temporarily lower the maximum size of their mote pool by half the Illumination's cost. Their mote pool returns to normal size at a rate of one mote per minute, or through the motegain given by their Rage of Tears. The reduced size of their motepool does not effect the illuminations they can use, except by whether they can afford them, and it has no effect on invested motes, which continue to function.

As a side benefit, a Fallen Star often finds herself with too few motes to use their Illuminations at full power. They may invoke Illuminations with a higher mote cost than their current supply, but must remove components to lower its mote cost to a level they can afford. Their foundation component is also lowered to match the new cost. They may not add new or different ranks.

Suppress Emotions (Ex)
Many Fallen Stars learn to cope with their emotions by suppressing them. While this does temporarily alleviate the pain, it does nothing to help their mental stability and comes with consequences of its own. As a swift action, while in rage of tears, the Fallen Star may choose to suppress her emotions. While doing so she gains none of the normal benefits from being in her rage of tears, instead taking a -2 penalty to their evoker stat and gaining a +1 bonus to will saves.

Each turn she begins while suppressing her emotions increases the number of remaining rounds in her rage of tears by 1, rather than reducing it. While suppressing her emotions, a Fallen Star's motes bleed away - and the seething, bottled feelings amplify the inevitable eruption. If she begins her turn with her emotions suppressed, a Fallen Star loses motes equal to a quarter her evoker level. She may not channel any of her bleak revelations while suppressing her emotions, although she can use her illuminations. Ceasing to suppress her emotions is a swift action.

Bleak Revelation (Ex)
A Fallen Star’s heart is a raw and battered thing – once broken, it now wallows in a torrent of awful realizations. At each even-numbered level, she gains further insight into the depravities of the world she once thought pure. When she enters her Rage of Tears, the Fallen Star can choose to channel any of the revelations she has learned as a part of that rage, though only one revelation may be channeled at a time. Switching to channel a different revelation is a swift action.

The Fallen Star gains the following Bleak Revelations at indicated levels:

Denial

At second level, the Fallen Star learns of the deceit and willful blindness of a world that sees her pain and does nothing to ease it. When channeling the revelation of denial, the Fallen Star may take a 5-foot-step as an immediate action when an enemy she threatens takes a 5-foot-step, so long as the movement would allow her to threaten the target again. Additionally, her melee attacks may ignore an amount of DR up to her evoker stat modifier. Ending her rage of tears while channeling the revelation of denial allows a Fallen Star to pound her broken spirit into the ground itself; a number of spaces within 40 feet up to twice her (raging) evoker stat modifier become difficult terrain until the end of the encounter, and enemies that move through such spaces take damage equal to the number of motes the Fallen Star regained when she ended her rage. She and her allies may move through these spaces as if they were normal terrain.

Anger

At fourth level, the Fallen Star learns that love is fragile, but hate has power all its own – if the world has no justice, she will make her own bloody vengeance. When channeling the revelation of anger, any enemy that damages the Fallen Star in melee takes damage equal to her evoker stat modifier. Ending her rage of tears while channeling anger allows the Fallen Star to make a single melee attack at her highest bonus; if the attack is successful, it is automatically a critical hit, and the critical multiplier increases by one for every ten motes the Fallen Star regained when she ended her rage. If the attack misses, it deals damage as if it had been a normal hit.

Bargaining

At sixth level, the Fallen Star comes to realize that for all the talk of nobility and sacrifice on the wind, the world is driven by fear – people will pay any price, and worship any heroic dupe, for just a little more life. While channeling the revelation of bargaining, any creature hit by one of the Fallen Star’s attacks takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls and AC for one full round. This penalty is cumulative if she makes multiple attacks against the same target. Ending her rage of tears while channeling bargaining forces all enemies within 30 feet to make fortitude save with a DC of [10 + the Fallen Star’s class level + her (improved) evoker stat modifier]; creatures that fail the save are treated as shaken until the end of the encounter, but the penalties inflicted by that condition are increased by one for every eight motes the Fallen Star regained when she ended her rage.

Despair

At eighth level, a Fallen Star finally succumbs to the terrible truth that everything she went through was ultimately pointless – she could have fought on to her very last breath for the light, and it wouldn’t have mattered one bit in the end. While channeling the revelation of despair, the Fallen Star gains a bonus to attack and damage rolls whenever she is not a full health. This bonus is initially +1, and increases by an additional +1 for every ten points by which her current health is lower than her maximum health. Ending her rage of tears while channeling despair deals damage equal to [the Fallen Star’s maximum hit points - her current hit points + twice the number of motes she regained when she ended her rage] to each enemy within 30 feet, allowing a fortitude save with a DC of [10 + the Fallen Star’s class level + her (improved) evoker stat modifier] for half damage.

Acceptance

At tenth level, a Fallen Star takes the final and most difficult step in her journey: learning to accept what she has learned, and to find her place in a world much darker than she had ever imagined. She has tempered her sorrow to a peerless edge, and can wield it as deftly as any master with their weapon. One per encounter, as a standard action, the Fallen Star can generate an effect as if she had ended her rage of tears without actually doing so.

Numbed Body (Ex)
At third level, a Fallen Star has learned to block out physical pain as so much noise. All the cuts and bruises in the world can’t compare to the pain she feels inside. Once per encounter she may gain DR/- equal to her evoker stat modifier for one round, which stacks with any other DR she may possess. She gains an additional use of this ability per encounter at fifth level, and every odd-numbered level thereafter. Expending a use of Numbed Body (on this or any other ability) is an immediate action.

Ravaged Mind (Ex)
At fifth level, the Fallen Star’s mind has become a broken thing, but the lessons etched into it are not soon forgotten. By expending a use of Numbed Body, she may treat a single attack roll, saving throw, or skill check she has just made as if the result had been a 10.

Deadened Heart (Ex)
At seventh level, the Fallen Star feels almost nothing past the pall of her sadness – worldly afflictions mean little to her. By expending a use of Numbed Body, she may purge a single poison or disease (even a magical one) from her system, completely removing its effects. Alternately, she may remove any one of the following conditions if they are afflicting her: Blinded, Dazed, Deafened, Exhausted, Fatigued, Nauseated, or Sickened.

Lost Spirit (Ex)
At ninth level, a Fallen Star’s grief has etched itself so strongly into her that it seems capable at times of overwriting death itself. When the Fallen Star would be slain by a death effect, she may expend two uses of her Numbed Body to instead be reduced to -9 hit points and instantly stabilized.