Champion



'' "Miracles happen! We can make them, with our own hands! Just look at me - what more proof do you need?" ''

   -Sayaka, a Champion



 Each individual has things they treasure. People or places or things they wish to protect. For some, the power of light is simply a tool to stand up and fight the battles they had always wished they were strong enough to fight. For others, the realization comes more gradually, a slow revelation of the precious world they have been charged with protecting. Regardless of how or when they understand their role, these are the champions of the light.

 Such individuals often do not understand the power their wield. They know that they are stronger, and faster, and that when they call for aid they are answered by a mighty torrent of illumination, but they ultimately do not care. Their power is their own, and how they use it is all that concerns them. They are the guardians of light, its stalwart wardens, and its vanguard against the darkness of the world. With unshakable courage and boundless hope, champions forge a bright new sunrise with every ounce of sweat and tears they have to offer.

Abilities
A champion harnesses the power of the light through burning passion and force of personality, and Charisma is arguably their most important ability. It determines the save DCs of her illuminations, as well as the effects of many of her cartridge-based abilities. However, a champion's bond with the light inside her grants her a martial prowess to rival trained warriors - a melee-oriented champion would do well to focus on Strength, while one favored a ranged device will likely find Dexterity more useful.

Role
A champion is, as with all evokers, a flexible and powerful combatant. More so than any of her peers, a champion's radiance imbues her with the strength and will to do battle with blade and bow, but it is ultimately her martial skill and luminous magic working in harmony that give the champion her power. While she will never match more focused classes for raw power, champions know full well that the most fleeting of effects, used well, can shift the tide of battle.

Races
Members of any race can rise to the role of champion, but they most commonly hail from those known for their short lifespans. None can say for certain why - perhaps their brief lives are simply more prone to the wild and passionate flares that give birth to a champion's brand of radiance.

Alignment
Without innocence: without goodness and purity beyond what many would consider possible, the light of a champion cannot be kindled. As such, freshly awakened champions are invariably good, their alignment an intrinsic part of their essence. However, those who devote their lives to fighting darkness, no matter their purity, cannot always resist being touched by it. Fallen champions are thankfully comparatively rare, but they can prove terrifying foes. Love warped to megalomania, and justice to bloodthirst, lose none of their radiant power - and the sweet whispers of a fallen champion can corrupt others with an efficiency devils would envy.

Starting Gold
As bard

Starting Age
 Most champions come into their power early, perhaps out of the innocence of childhood. When rolling for age, roll as a Bard - but subtract the total from adult age rather than adding it (to a minimum of half an adult’s age). If rules are in place that would reduce the statistics of child characters, the champion is exempt from them.

Class Skill List
 Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge [Local] (Int), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magical Device (Cha)

Skill Points
 (4 + Int modifier) x4 at 1st level.

 4 + Int modifier at each additional level.

Hit Die
d10

Champion abilities
 Weapon and Armor Proficiency

 A champion is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (but not tower shields).

 Illuminations (Su)

 Infused as they are with the power of light, a champion is capable of crafting and calling upon powerful manifestations of radiant energy known as Illuminations. A champion knows a fixed number of illuminations, and may change any number of her known illuminations freely each time she gains a level in this class. A champion's illuminations are a fundamental element of her being, and she may evoke any illumination she knows without need for preparation of any sort. A champion’s Evoker Attribute is Charisma.

 Illuminations are explained more completely in their own section.

 Radiant Armaments (Su)

 Upon awakening to the radiance within her soul, a champion establishes a bond with a particular weapon and suit of armor – respectively referred to as her Device and her Costume. How a champion finds the armaments that are hers by right varies widely; she may stumble upon them in a dream, only to awake clutching them in hand, or she might find them in the crater left behind by a falling star, but they always appear within a week of attaining her first level in this class. As she advances in level, the champion may imbue her armaments with an ever greater number of powerful modifications, as indicated above.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Radiant Armaments and Imbuements are described more completely in their own section.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Merciful (Ex)

<p class="MsoNormal"> Whenever a champion deals damage with an attack or an Illumination, she may choose to deal non-lethal damage instead with no penalty to attack or damage rolls.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> The Power of Friendship (Ex)

<p class="MsoNormal"> A champion is capable of swaying the alignment of captured foes, as described in the Power of Friendship section below.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Additionally, a champion may hasten the conversion process through the brutal honesty that lies in the language of battle. A champion may challenge a captive to fair and single combat in place of a session of conversation. This combat may follow any rules the champion dictates, but it must be reasonably fair, and the captive must be fully willing - no benefit is gleaned from simply shoving a helpless captive into an arena and beating her senseless. Should the champion emerge victorious from the duel, she immediately gains 5 successes towards that captive's total, and reduces the DC of all future redemption checks with them by 3. Win or lose, a champion can only duel a given captive once.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Cartridges (Su)

While all evokers wield weapons and armor of light, champions possess a bond far stronger than most. Beginning at 3rd level, by storing quantities of condensed power within some physical receptacle, a champion can create a potent trinket known as a Cartridge. Despite the name, these can take any form imaginable, from metal-cased shells to glimmering gemstones to carefully-scribed prayer strips.

A champion may load a cartridge into her device and activate it as a single free action that can only be taken on her turn. A champion can create cartridges with a small, personalized ritual lasting at least five minutes. If she wishes, she may create cartridges in the same ritual in which she readies her illuminations. A champion may initially carry only one cartridge at a time: at fifth level, and every five levels thereafter, she may carry an additional cartridge. There is no limit to the number of cartridges a champion can create in a day, but any cartridge that leaves its creator's possession fades back into nothingness in one round. It is impossible for one champion to use the cartridges of another.

A champion may not expend more than one cartridge in a single turn. When a cartridge is expended, the champion selects one of her active imbuements, with the outcome of the cartridge expenditure varying based on the effect it is being used to fuel. If she wishes, the champion may instead forgo activating any of her cartridge effects to instead cause all her imbuements to yield benefits as if they were charged with the maximum number of motes until the end of her next turn. A more complete explanation of various cartridge effects may be found below, in the section devoted to Radiant Armaments. A champion may prematurely end a cartridge effect as a free action.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Limit Boost (Su)

At 2nd level, the champion's growing mastery of her radiant power allows her to more efficiently harness the surging energy that empowers her signature armaments. The champion's armaments gain 3 charges of radiant power, which may be restored with a personalized ritual requiring five minutes of concentration. By expending one of these charges, which requires a free action that may only be taken on the champion's turn, she may empower one of her active imbuements with a surge of pure energy. The associated armament effect is charged with pure radiant energy until the end of the champion's next turn, yielding benefits as if it was charged with a number of motes equal to the champion's class level (unless it is already imbued with a greater number of motes).

At 4th level, and every even-numbered level therafter, the champion's radiant armaments may store an additional charge.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Force of Personality (Su)

<p class="MsoNormal"> Beginning at 6th level, a champion’s body is fundamentally fused with radiant energy, blurring the lines between spirit and flesh. The champion may add her Charisma modifier to any of her Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity checks, checks with skills based in Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity, and her effective Strength score for the purpose of determining carrying capacity. Additionally, she may use her Charisma modifier in place of her Constitution modifier to determine her hit points and bonus to fortitude saving throws.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> The Meaning of Courage (Ex)

Beginning at 10th level, whenever a champion is subject to a fear effect, she draws from her reserves of courage and faces it. A shaken champion negates the penalties and actually gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks against the source of fear; a frightened champion furthermore ignores the compulsion to run away and ignores difficult terrain and other natural impediments when drawing near the enemy; a panicked champion gains a +2 bonus to Armor Class. Penalties to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks still apply on the champion for any creature of object that is not the source of fear. If the champion manages to defeat or destroy the source of fear, she is healed from the condition.

Additionally, if the champion is compelled to make an attack against her allies for any reason, such as the influence of mind-affecting magic, she may force that attack to automatically miss, regardless of roll. If she is suffering from the effects of a spell or ability which allowed for a save, she may make another saving throw against the original DC of that ability, ending the effect prematurely should her new saving throw succeed. For the purposes of this ability, a champion may recognize her allies regardless of what other effects might be influencing her perception, even up to the total obliteration of her memories.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Mettle (Ex)

<p class="MsoNormal"> Beginning at 14th level, if a champion makes a successful Will or Fortitude save that would normally reduce the save’s effect, she suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a saving throw entry of “partial” or “half” are affected by this ability, and only for purposes of Will and/or Fortitude saves with these descriptors.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Font of Life (Ex)

<p class="MsoNormal"> At 18th level, a champion lives and breathes luminous energy – it floods her veins, and keeps her standing when anyone else would have been felled by their wounds. She is never considered disabled or staggered, even if she has less than 0 hit points or her nonlethal damage exceeds her current hit point total, and gains a bonus equal to her Charisma modifier on saving throws against death effects.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Furthermore, she may continue to fight even if she has less than -10 hit points, but only to an amount of negative hit points equal to 10 plus her character level plus her Constitution modifier. Instant death effects and attacks that destroy the body still affect the champion if successful. Lastly, should a champion be slain despite all her protections, she may continue to act normally until the end of her next turn. At that point she will perish at last - no amount of healing or curative effects may prevent this.

<h3 class="MsoNormal"> Sunlight Apotheosis (Su)

<p class="MsoNormal"> The barrier between the champion and the radiant power she channels has all but dissolved. She is likely a very different person from the one who first set foot on her long adventure, but her blazing spirit has preserved against all odds in the darkness of the world, beaming forth with a fury that angels and demons might envy. At 20th level, a champion forevermore becomes a Native Outsider with one alignment subtype of her choice, with all the traits that implies. Further, she can no longer be aged by any means mundane or magical, and will never die of old age.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Additionally, the champion may craft a single, special illumination, binding it to the unfathomable wellspring of radiance that she has become. This illumination calculates the effect of its Foundation component as if it possessed a mote cost of (the champion's evoker level * 1.5), rounding down. The champion may evoke this illumination once per encounter, and invariably pays 20m for it, regardless of its actual cost. The champion may alter or replace this illumination whenever she gains a permanent evoker level.