Stormcaller



"There was a time when the sound of thunder made me hide inside too. Now it’s my instrument."

-A Stormcaller, to a scared young evoker

For countless years, mortals have worked under the sway of the weather, hoping that sun, wind, and rain will obey their whims. Even as civilisations rise and fall, people are always subject to the primal forces of nature. They can develop ways to cope with the world around them, but always they seek to rule them.

Now, with magic rampant throughout the world, their wish is achieved. The world dances to their tune. Some call it unnatural. Others do it as if they were born to it, shaping the forces of the wind, rain, and the very storm itself like a maestro shapes a symphony.

Greatest of them are the Stormcallers, confident heroes who shape the weather with their desires. Entire nations will call to them for their skills.

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

Skills: Survival 8 ranks

Special: Must know at least one Illumination with at least one rank in the Prisms component

Class Skill List
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge [Geography] (Int), Knowledge [Nature] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magical Device (Cha)

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier at each level.

Hit Die
d8

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies
A stormcaller gains no proficiency with any weapons or armor.

Illuminations
At each indicated level, a stormcaller gains an increase in evoker level, illuminations known, illuminations readied, innate illuminations, and personas known as if they had gained a level in an illumination-using class to which they belonged before adding the prestige class level. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If she had more than one illumination-using class before becoming a stormcaller, she must decide to which class to add each level for the aforementioned purposes.

Stormcalling (Su)
With a highly personalised ritual, generally involving furious movement, the Stormcaller can shape clouds from nowhere. This ritual usually requires five minutes, and creates an area with radius 10ft/Evoker level, centred over any ground location you can see, in which clouds ripe with static electricity obscure the sky and rain patters down, causing a -1 penalty to apply to all spot, listen, and search checks. Being on the other side of these clouds is full cover. This penalty increases by one at each odd Stormcaller level. In addition, the radiant static of the clouds energizes those beneath. Characters engaging in strenuous activity within the area of this effect count the time as half it's actual time for the purposes of fatigue. This downpour, and the clouds that cause it, remain under your control for a number of hours equal to your evoker level, during which you can make it start and stop raining, or control the shape of the clouds (such as to open a gap for a dramatic ray of sunlight). Minor changes are enacted with only a swift action’s concentration, while filling the entire radius with cloud would require a full round action. Making complex shapes with clouds requires the normal craft skills. After this duration, they react as clouds normally would, depending on the conditions, but performing the ritual anew renews the duration.

A Stormcaller can only control a single cloud with this ability at once.

At third level, the Stormcaller can affect a far larger area, and the energizing effect of the cloud is greater. The area's radius increases to 25ft/Evoker level. As well as reducing the effect of strenuous activity, it reduces the strain of everyday life. Under the raincloud, the need for sleep (or similar effects, such as trance), is halved, and gentle activity is considered full bed rest. If the Stormcaller wishes, they may now lower the clouds to the ground, forming a sort of fog, which grants 20% concealment to all within, friend or foe.

Changing clouds on this scale requires two rounds of concentration.

A fifth level Stormcaller creates a raincloud of up to 50ft/evoker level in radius, and retains control for one day per evoker level. The most strenuous of activity under this cloud is considered no more difficult than a gentle stroll. In addition, resting there for five minutes removes the fatigued condition, or downgrades exhaustion to fatigue. The boundless energy within the cloud grants all of the Stormcaller’s allies under it a +10ft bonus to speed, and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and reflex saves. To enact changes in the cloud over this entire area takes five rounds of continuous concentration.

A seventh level Stormcaller's cloud is up to 100ft/evoker level in size, and remains under their control for one week per evoker level. Even strenuous activity under this cloud is considered bedrest. As a move action once per round, the Stormcaller may call down lightning dealing 1d6 per two evoker levels electricity damage from the cloud. Apart from where described here, this functions as if they had cast the Call Lightning spell. Allies of the Stormcaller find the energy of the cloud granting them a +20ft bonus to speed, and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and reflex saves. At this point, a Stormcaller can do strange things to the clouds they control, making them as tough as stone, with a texture and the properties of anything from their natural state of vapour, through something soft, bouncy and fluffy, to something as tough as stone, despite of its appearance and position high in the air. They can continue to sculpt this cloudstone as they desire, using the same action as sculpting clouds normally. All forms of cloudstone are tied to the conditions in the sky, and revert to fog if lowered to the ground. Like sculpting clouds, using this ability to make complex shapes with cloudstone requires the normal craft checks. Sculpting the entire area of a cloud this size requires one continuous minute of concentration.

A ninth level Stormcaller has absolute control over the weather in their area, and does not have to renew this control. Strenuous activity under their clouds is considered bedrest, and everyone beneath the cloud is considered immune to fatigue, and no longer requires sleep. In addition, allies of the Stormcaller receive benefits equal to that of a haste spell, except that bonus to AC and reflex saves is +3. Allies with less than half the HD of the Stormcaller receive only the numerical bonuses, and not the additional attack. The lightning they summon from this cloud now deals 1d10 damage per two evoker levels, rather than 1d6. Finally, a Stormcaller who is amongst their clouds extends their radiance throughout them. When they evoke an illumination, or use another class feature from an evoking class, they may measure range from any position in the cloud. This does not enhance their senses - they must still know where their target is. Blast illuminations used in this way may always target the ground directly beneath the cloud, even if the cloud is further than the blast’s normal range away from the ground.

Eye of the Storm (Su)
Beginning at 2nd level, a stormcaller learns to harness the overwhelming raw power of the storm. Whenever the stormcaller deals electricity or sonic damage with an illumination or Stormcaller class feature, she may ignore an amount of her target’s electricity resistance, sonic resistance or hardness equal to [class level * 3]. If the target possesses both electricity/sonic resistance and hardness, this value is deducted from each of them separately. Creatures with electricity/sonic immunity are instead treated as having Electricity/Sonic Resist 40, which this ability then reduces as normal. This ability may not reduce a creature’s effective electricity/sonic resistance or hardness below 0.

That Which Follows (Su)
While lightning is the most visible danger of the storm, only a fool fights a stormcaller without watching for other dangers. Whenever a stormcaller of 4th level or higher evokes a blast illumination with an electricity-attuned prism component, the storm ripples with power, the potential for a destructive peal of thunder growing. After this effect triggers, any allied effect that deals electricity damage under the Stormcaller’s cloud, including the triggering illumination, is followed by a peal of thunder. Any foe dealt electricity damage way suffers 1d4 sonic damage per Stormcaller level one round later, unless they move 15ft or further in that time. For all purposes, this damage is treated as being dealt by one of the Stormcaller’s illuminations. Multiple applications of this ability do not stack, even from multiple Stormcallers. Only the most powerful thunder occurs.

Stormborn (Su)
In time, a Stormcaller becomes so attuned to her element that it suffuses her, giving her life and motion. It no longer harms her. Beginning at 5th level, the stormcaller is considered to have the Primal [Electricity Attuned] costume effect active at all times – even when she does not have her costume manifested. This does not count against her normal costume effect limit, and may have motes invested in it as usual. If the stormcaller wishes, she may still manifest the Primal costume effect for other energy types, but she may not use this effect to manifest a second electricity attuned Primal effect.

Lightning Jump (Su)
Lightning is always moving, ever changing. More than not striking the same place twice, it never acts the same way. All that can be known is that destruction lies in its path. The same is true of Stormcallers. Whenever a foe strikes a Stormcaller of at least 6th level with a melee attack, the Stormcaller may, immediately after taking the damage, teleport 5ft per two class levels in any direction, measured from the foe’s space. Any creature located in a line between the stormcaller's starting location and her destination takes one electricity damage. If the triggering attack was part of a full attack, the teleportation does not occur until all attacks in the full attack are resolved.

Static Charge (Su)
They say lightning never strikes the same place twice. Generally, this is because the place doesn’t exist the second time. Beginning at 8th level, whenever the stormcaller strikes a foe with an attack dealing electricity damage, they are marked with an overabundance of electricity, which discharges when struck. Whenever an ally strikes this foe, they may choose to convert any amount of their damage into electricity damage. This effect lasts for one minute, or until an ally successfully uses it to convert one or more points of damage to electricity damage.

Apotheosis of the Storm (Su)
By this point, the difference between the Stormcaller and an elemental of lightning is largely academic. Where others might have been overwhelmed by the power she wields, she has remained sane(ish), and it has changed her. At 10th level, a stormcaller forevermore becomes a Native Outsider with the Air subtype and an Augmented subtype pertaining to her previous type, with all the traits that implies. Unlike most creatures with the Air subtype, the stormcaller does not gain a fly speed. She does however become Immune to electricity. Further, she can no longer be aged by any means mundane or magical, and will never die of old age.