Bombardment Mage



Come forth, the wind of snow, and become the fletching which falls from the heavens. - Hayate, a Bombardment Mage

Many evokers, even if their personal abilities do not fully allow it, prefer the intimacy of close combat. Their Light shines brightest the closer they are to the one they are trying to save, as a sun shines in the sky, or a torch in the dark of night. When they are right before their opponent, their wills meeting in radiant fury, that is where they shine. But that isn’t all there is.

There are others, others whose lambent fire reaches far beyond their person, blazing forth in great blasts of radiant power. These evokers manipulate the Light from afar, granting their blasts range and power far beyond that of their comrades. Against a Bombardment Mage, the question is not ‘how are they going to hit me’, it is when.

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

Special: Evoker Level 5

Class Skill List
Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier at each level.

Hit Die
d6

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies
A Bombardment Mage gains no additional proficiencies.

Illuminations
A Bombardment Mage loses none of her power as an evoker, continuing to advance her access to Illuminations from her Evoking Class, as well as her Evoker Level, as shown. If she has more than one Evoking Class, then she must choose one of them when she takes her first level in Bombardment Mage. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.

Radiant Costume (Su)
A Bombardment Mage’s costume is wreathed in its own unique manifestation of power. In some cases this takes the appearance of drifting motes of light, in others it manifests as shapes of light around the Mage and her device, appearing to focus and concentrate their power. But in all cases, it is something not so much a part of the Mage’s costume as it is a part of her being.

At 1st level, a Bombardment Mage gains a special costume effect that is always active and gained in addition to all others. Furthermore, she automatically has (class level) motes invested into it, without lowering her mote pool and bypassing normal investment limits. This costume effect, however, does not have a base effect more than functioning in conjunction with Blast Weaving. Its Essence and Cartridge Boost effects are described below

Essence Boost: Every 6m invested into this effect increases the dice step of her blasts by one (to a maximum of d12 with 18 invested motes). If 12 motes are invested, she ignores penalties for shooting in or into melee.

Cartridge Boost: When a Cartridge is used to fuel this effect, the motes invested within this effect automatically refresh as if at the start of the Evoker’s next turn.

Blast Weaving (Su)
This is the great power of a Bombardment Mage, allowing them to expend motes from their Radiant Costume to enhance the range, size, and shape of their blasts. At level one, a Bombardment Mage gains the ability to drain motes from their Radiant Costume to enhance the Shape Component of the blast as standard, bypassing the standard maximum mote cost restriction. These motes return at the start of the Bombardment Mage’s next turn. The Foundation effect of the blast is not affected by these additional motes.

At level four, they may also drain motes to apply the Horizon Secondary Component to their blasts. In addition, they gain the ability to shift the Shape Component of any of their blasts to any other Shape they have access to as they evoke it, so long as Radiant Costume would have motes in excess of those automatically granted invested in it after the blast is evoked, as a move action. Finally, motes equal to half the Bombardment Mage’s class level added to blasts via Blast Weaving and Radiant Costume count for the purposes of the blast’s Foundation Effect (for a maximum bonus of +5dx where x is the dice size for the blast as modified by Radiant Costume’s Essence Boost effect).

At level six, the Bombardment Mage gains access to every Shape component in the Blast Shape list for the purposes of both crafting their Illuminations and changing their Shape with Blast Weaving. In addition, adding ranks of Shape Component using Blast Weaving now costs one mote less (to a minimum cost of 1 mote per rank).

At tenth level, a Bombardment Mage’s understanding of Blasts and how to manipulate them has reached such height that they may freely manipulate their Blast Illuminations to a degree that all envy. The cost of their ability to shift the Shape Component of their blasts is reduced to a free action, and every mote invested into their Radiant Costume grants two motes for the purposes of Blast Weaving and other effects based on it. The cost of additional ranks of all Shape Components for the purposes of Blast Weaving is reduced again by 1, for a -2 reduction (to a minimum cost of 1 mote per rank). In addition, the maximum possible bonus to a blast’s Foundation Effect is increased to class level.

Blaster's Armament (Ex)
The Device of a Bombardment Mage resonates with the power of her radiant costume, burning with power in an extension of the Mage’s own Light.

At 3rd level, a Bombardment Mage always carries the Resplendent Device effect, ignoring Device restrictions and in addition to all others.

Blaster System (Su)
Bombardment Mages are the masters of the ‘carpet the area with fire until they fall over’ battle philosophy and it shows none better than in their ability to compress actual blasts into something very similar to cartridges.

At level five, a Bombardment Mage gains the ability to select any blast on her Illuminations Known list (except for Complex Formula and the Champion’s special Illumination granted by Sunlight Apotheosis) and compress it into a Blaster Cartridge. She may create a number of Blaster Cartridges equal to half her class level. These are loaded into her Device as a swift action and can be loaded at the same time as those of a Champion. Triggering one, and releasing the blast within it, is a free action that can only be taken on her turn.

At level ten, she gains the ability to load two Blaster Cartridges into her device - although she may not do so in one swift action. She may, however, trigger both in the same round.

These Blaster Cartridges may be created during the same ritual that the Bombardment Mage uses to change her Illuminations, as with the Cartridges utilised by Champions.

Synchronized Targeting (Su)
Where other evokers are left forced to choose their targets, Bombardment Mages soon attain a level of control over their blasts such that they can unleash a spray of lesser attacks in the place of one

At level nine, a Bombardment Mage may split her blasts into multiple less powerful ones, each doing a portion of the full blast’s damage. She may launch a number of additional blasts identical to the original equal to (class level/3) times, and divides her damage for each blast by the number of blasts launched, including the original blast. All other affects apply as normal.