Prestige Classes

ARCANOPATH MONK

A terrible hate burns in the heart of the arcanopath monk. While others might hate with all their hearts, impotently, the arcanopath encompasses his fury and learns to use it. The arcanopath's meditations utilize methods of confronting a spellcaster. Once a monk begins to learn the art of the arcanopath, he can never expect safety in the presence of spellcasters again. The reverse, however, is also true. A monk may take one or more levels of arcanopath monk and later take additional monk levels.

Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become an arcanopath monk, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.

Alignment: Any lawful.

Base Attack Bonus: +4.

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks.

Feats: Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, Mobility.

Special: Must find the Monastery of Finithamon amidst the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, successfully petition the sensei for membership, and have slain an arcane spellcaster.

Class Skills

The arcanopath monk's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Arcanopath Monk

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the arcanopath monk prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Arcanopaths are proficient with the club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, shuriken, siangham, and sling. The arcanopath monk gains the same advantages for using a kama, nunchaku, or siangham as does a monk.

Student of Perfection: Arcanopaths are monks, although they meditate on alternative methods of achieving physical enlightenment. As such, an arcanopath monk gains flurry of blows, unarmed damage, AC bonus, and unarmored speed as if he were a monk whose level equaled his monk level + his arcanopath monk level. For instance, a 6th-level monk/1st-level arcanopath has a base flurry of blows attack bonus of +4/+4 (as if he were a 7th-level monk). Those who manage to meet the requirements for this class who are not monks gain these abilities as if a monk equal to only their arcanopath monk level.

Clap of Deafness (Su): The monk can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the clap of deafness before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to taking damage as normal If the saving throw fails, the opponent is deafened for 1 round. A deafened character has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components (as well as suffering a -4 penalty on initiative checks and an inability to make Listen checks). Unless specified to the contrary, all spell failure penalties stack. Creatures immune to critical hits or sonic attacks cannot be affected by the arcanopath's clap.

Chop of Silence (Su): The arcanopath of at least 2nd level can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The arcanopath must declare he is using the chop of silence attack before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to taking damage as normal. If the saving throw fails, the opponent is rendered mute for 1 round. A mute character is unable to cast spells with a verbal component (and cannot communicate verbally). Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the chop.

Strike of Confusion (Su): The monk of 3rd or higher level can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the strike of confusion before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to taking damage as normal. If the saving throw fails, the opponent has a 50% chance of spell failure when casting any spell (or attempting to use a spell-like ability) for 2d4 rounds. Unless specified to the contrary, all spell failure penalties stack. Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the strike.

Deflect Spell (Su): At 4th level, the arcanopath monk learns to deflect incoming ray and energy missile spells. The arcanopath must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when the arcanopath would normally be hit with a ray or energy missile spell the character can make a DC 20 Reflex saving throw (if the ray or energy missile has a magical bonus to attack, the DC increases by that amount). If the arcanopath succeeds, he deflects the spell. The arcanopath must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Attempting to deflect a ray or energy missile doesn't count as an action.

A ray is a spell that produces a ray effect. An energy missile is a weaponlike spell that produces something physical that the spell projects or the caster can hurl, such as Melf's acid arrow or produce flame. Fireball, magic missile, and the like are not energy missiles.

Ki Strike (Su): Beginning at 5th level, an arcanopath's unarmed attack is empowered with ki and is treated as if it were made of cold iron for the purposes of bypassing damage reduction.

All-Seeing Eye (Su): The 6th-level arcanopath gains the ability to see as if enjoying the effects of a permanent see invisibility spell cast by a 5th-level sorcerer. This supernatural ability functions continuously.

Slap of Forgetfulness (Ex): The arcanopath monk of 7th or higher level can use this extraordinary ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the slap of forgetfulness attack before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to taking damage as normal. If the saving throw fails, the opponent loses 1d4 arcane spells (or 1d4 unused daily arcane spell slots). The lost spells or spell slots are lost first from the highest level spells the spellcaster can cast, but otherwise are determined by the creature struck. If the result indicates more spells lost than are prepared (or unused) at a particular level, spells at the next lower level are lost in the same fashion, and so on. Lost spells (or open spell slots) can be regained normally. Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the slap of forgetfulness.

Empty Hand (Ex): An 8th-level arcanopath monk gains the ability to make melee attacks against ethereal creatures.

Reflect Spell (Su): Starting at 9th level, when an arcanopath monk successfully deflects a spell he can choose to reflect it back at the caster. An arcanopath can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom modifier (minimum once per day). A reflected spell is, in effect, cast back on the original caster, although the monk rerolls any necessary attack roll (associated DCs are unchanged).

Sundering Strike of Oblivion (Ex): When an arcanopath monk of 10th level makes a successful slap of forgetfulness, he can automatically convert it to a sundering strike of oblivion once per day. In addition to taking normal damage and losing 1d4 prepared arcane spells (or 1d4 unused daily arcane spell slots), the foe completely loses knowledge of the lost spells. Spellcasters who lose knowledge of spells may later attempt a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + spell level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier) to regain each one. Failure indicates the spell is unavailable until the next time the spellcaster advances a level, at which time the spellcaster automatically relearns all her forgotten spells (as well as gains knowledge of new spells as normal for the class).