Firekeeper



"Rest ye weary traveler / have no fear this night,

The fire here is warm and kind / and steady in its light.

Fear not the dreadful creatures / who in darkened shadows lie,

For the fire here is guarded / and its guard shall never die."

-From the Lay of the Bonfire Knight

Before the gods rested in their temples, mortals prayed to the open sky. Before great cities stood to guard them, they wandered as tribes across the land, never sure of what the next night might bring. They had no great walls, nor mighty mages or finely-wrought spells to draw upon, and no vast nations to call to their aid. But even still, in the darkness, mortals endured - for mortals had fire. Fire was more than a tool. At the side of the tribal fires, countless generations lived, loved, laughed, perished - to the mortals that relied upon it, fire was a guardian, a watchful protector, a shelter against the cold darkness of the world when the sun and stars themselves were lost to view. A simple element grew into the bearer of the hopes and dreams of entire species.

Those times are now hardly more than a distant, dusty memory to most - something to be unearthed and dusted off from musty ruins and forlorn, long-forgotten trinkets. But there are some who remember that the hearths and candles and campfire flames around them were once something more. Others might call them pyromaniacs, or firebugs, or any number of other derisive terms, but they know better. They know that for all the untold centuries we have allowed them to sleep, the fires of the world remember still the ancient pacts that bound them to the forefathers of mortalkind.

They are the firekeepers, and in an age that in many ways is as dark as any other, they stand fast as a torch against the endless night.

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

Skills: Survival 8 ranks

Illuminations: 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 Firekeeper gains no additional proficiencies.

Illuminations
At each indicated level, a firekeeper 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 firekeeper, she must decide to which class to add each level for the aforementioned purposes.

Kindle Bonfire (Su)
With a ritual requiring ten minutes of focus and meditation, the firekeeper may kindle a single flame (traditionally a hearth or campfire, though any flame will do) within 10’ of her into a primal beacon of sanctuary and protection. This imparts a number of benefits upon the flame itself – the radius of light it casts doubles, and it no longer requires fuel to continue burning. However, the flame may still be quenched by mundane means, such as being doused with a bucket of water or, in the case of extremely small fires, simply blown out by a gust of air. Further, if the flame is moved from its place once the ritual is complete, it immediately regresses to a mundane fire, losing all benefits associated with a kindled flame. A firekeeper may have a number up to her class level of kindled flames at any given time – kindling additional flames beyond this number requires the firekeeper to select one existing kindled flame to allow to fade away. A firekeeper may mentally extinguish one of her kindled flames at any distance as a full-round action.

Additionally, all creatures within 20’ of a kindled flame benefit from a continuous Sanctuary effect. If a creature breaks this effect by attacking, it is unable to benefit from any aspect of a firekeeper’s kindled flames for 24 hours, and attacking it within this duration will not break the sanctuary effect on any other creature. The Will Save DC to overcome this effect is equal to [10 + ½ Evoker Level + Evoker Stat Mod]. Otherwise, this functions identically to the spell Sanctuary, with a caster level equal to the firekeeper’s evoker level.

Beginning at 3rd level, any creature which rests within 20’ of a firekeeper’s kindled flame for at least 10 minutes gains fast healing 1 for as long as they continue resting within that area. Additionally, they are healed of one point of ability damage to each of their ability scores for every ten additional minutes they rest.

Beginning at 5th level, the firekeeper learns to tap into the primal link shared by all fire, using her kindled flames as a shortcut across impossible distances. This functions as the spell Tree Stride with an effective caster level equal to the firekeeper’s evoker level, save that the firekeeper may use any sufficiently large source of flame as a medium of transport, rather than any tree. The maximum transport range for mundane flames is 2,500 feet, but if the firekeeper enters one of her kindled flames, she may exit any other flame she has kindled, regardless of distance or planar boundaries.

Beginning at 7th level, the firekeeper may awaken her kindled flames into powerful guardians. Her kindled flames gain the ability to manifest a Greater Fire Elemental guardian. The firekeeper does not directly control these elementals, but they will never voluntarily attack her, and they devote every effort to protecting those who seek shelter at their kindled flame. These elementals are unable to stray more than 150’ from their associated flame. If the kindled flame is extinguished, its guardian elemental may rekindle it as a swift action – if it fails to do so, the elemental will dissipate one minute after its flame is extinguished.

Beginning at 9th level, so close is a firekeeper’s link to her kindled flames that even her bared soul can find its way back to the warmth and solace they offer. Whenever the firekeeper dies, she may choose to be reborn after a span of 24 hours from one of her kindled flames. If she does so, she emerges from the chosen flame at -9 HP, stabilized and unconscious, and with none of the equipment she possessed at the time of her death. Her dead body (wherever it may be) simply boils away into smoke and ash, leaving behind anything she might have been carrying at the time.

Primal Spark (Su)
Beginning at 2nd level, a firekeeper learns to tap into the eternal, primal flame slumbering within all things – a relic of ages past, when the skies rained fire and the earth was naught but a molten sea. Whenever the firekeeper deals fire damage with an illumination, she may ignore an amount of her target’s fire resistance or hardness equal to [class level * 3]. If the target possesses both fire resistance and hardness, this value is deducted from each of them separately. Creatures with fire immunity are instead treated as having Fire Resist 40, which this ability then reduces as normal. This ability may not reduce a creature’s effective fire resistance or hardness below 0.

Undying Flame (Su)
It is an ancient truth that, however dull and cold they might seem to the naked eye, all things in the mortal world remember how to burn. Whenever a firekeeper of at least 4th level deals fire damage to a target with an illumination, that target is wreathed in primal fire - whenever it takes fire damage from any source, that damage is increased by an amount equal to the firekeeper’s class level. These primal flames last until the beginning of the firekeeper’s next turn. Multiple applications of this effect (even from multiple firekeepers) do not stack - only the strongest effect at any given time applies.

Heart of Flame (Su)
Flame is more than a tool to a firekeeper, or a title to wear – it is an inextricable part of her being, and to be parted from it is as unthinkable as it is impossible. Beginning at 5th level, the firekeeper is considered to have the Primal [Fire 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 firekeeper wishes, she may still manifest the Primal costume effect for other energy types, but she may not use this effect to manifest a second fire attuned Primal effect.

Molten Core (Su)
As a firekeeper grows in power, the smoldering energy she wields infuses her very flesh, and liquid flame courses through her veins. Whenever a creature damages a firekeeper of at least 6th level with a melee attack, the attacker immediately takes 3d4 points of fire damage as retributive damage. At 8th level, and again at 10th level, this damage increases by +1d4.

Fellowship of Flame (Su)
At times, the greatest flame can leap from the smallest of sparks, if one knows how to feed the fire. A firekeeper of 8th level or higher may, as a swift action, briefly imbue the weapons of any of her allies within 100' with the essence of purifying flame. This allows affected weapons to deal fire damage instead of the weapon’s usual damage type – the choice of which damage type to use is made by the wielder of the weapon on a per-attack basis. This effect lasts for one round.

Firelight Apotheosis (Su)
The barrier between the firekeeper and the conflagrant power she channels has all but dissolved. Where others might have been consumed by the force and fury of the ancient flame, she has tamed it, and tempered the eternal pyre into a weapon unlike any other. At 10th level, a firekeeper forevermore becomes a Native Outsider with the Fire subtype and an Augmented subtype pertaining to her previous type, with all the traits that implies. Unlike most creatures with the Fire subtype, however, the firekeeper does not gain vulnerability to cold damage. Further, she can no longer be aged by any means mundane or magical, and will never die of old age.