Rae ArdGaoth
Explorer
History: 600 years ago, a noble elven family fell from grace. The nobles had been known for two things: their wisdom and their inherited blindness, but inbreeding and politics tore the family apart. The last heir, reduced to a blind beggar, left the city of his birth to find enlightenment. He traveled east, into the massive Silverwood, where he used his skills of scent and taste to forage fruit and roots. As a shelter, he used a large natural hollow made of soft but sturdy material. Unbeknownst to him, his shelter was actually part of a huge fungus, with many caps, hollows, and a vast network of roots that spread for miles around. In the forest, the elf used his innate wisdom and lack of sight to his advantage, focusing on non-visual senses and physical prowess. He trained his body and mind in methods not unlike those of the monastic monks, though he was not held back or helped by tradition and his blindness guided him to focus on different skills.
During his time in the forest, the blind elf planted many trees and fed animals. His quiet deeds and intense dedication attracted a small, young circle of druids. The druids made contact, and a friendship was formed.
After a century of seclusion, the elf decided to return to the cities and find individuals like him: blind in the eyes but keen of mind and body. It took him decades, but he found two candidates, an elf and a human. The three returned to the elf's mushroom home and honed their skills together. The human had been a musician in the city, and he brought his string instrument with him to the forest. United, the three could spend less time on survival and more time on study and practice. The human taught the others to play music, and the druids offered them wood from one of their trees to make new instruments. After a few decades, the human became restless and felt the need to spread their teachings before he passed on. He returned, like the first elf before him, to the cities to find promising blind candidates. Again he found two, and three became five. The size of the group grew as the decades passed, as did their skills and methods. The druid circle also grew more powerful. The sundering of the Silverwood barely affected the region in which the mushroom and the blind ones live.
Today, the local humans call the ancient forest the Wyrwood, in part because of the mystical, ghostly protection it seems to have. The blind trio has grown into a sizable school of martial, musical, and philosophical training. They now call the giant mushroom in which they live "the Wyrwood Monastery", and they are known for their heightened senses, musical prowess, and physical form. The druids and the monks are still friendly. The druids have given the monks a magical goodberry tree, which provides the monks with most of their sustenance, and yearly the druids supply a single tree to the monks for crafting into instruments in return for the planting of new trees throughout the Wyrwood.
Membership: All Wyrwood Monks are called "Brother", regardless of gender. The monastic order currently has 28 brothers of both genders and several races. Every brother wears a dyed leather blindfold, of any color, across his useless eyes. The vast majority of brothers have been blind, most from birth, but a few rare exceptions have worn blindfolds for years at a time to become voluntarily blind. No such monks exist today. Of the original three founders, only the second elf remains. He is now Grandmaester Vagrant, abbot of the Wyrwood Brothers.
The Monastery: The Wyrwood Monastery fungus complex has countless hollows which serve as rooms. Living quarters are mostly above ground, in hollows with many perforations for light and ease of breathing. There is one large teaching room, located above ground, completely covered by a humongous cap. It has a large, gaping entrance to the outside and entrances to several subterranean tunnels leading to other rooms. Certain areas are accessible only by smaller monks, like gnomes, due to the narrow tunnels leading to them. Only a few of the rooms are in recent use by the current monks. Recruitment has been dry for many years, the attitude of the world has changed since the founding of the Monastery, and the resident monks no longer need as many rooms as they did centuries ago. No current Wyrwood monk knows the entire layout of the Monastery, not even Grandmaester Vagrant.
Wyrwood Oak: The liveoaks of the Wyrwood are incredibly ancient, but they have recently been under the close watch of a druidic circle. Wyrwood Oaks, having spent centuries practically saturated in druidic magic, now have special properties unlike the trees of any other forest. When a great oak's life comes to an end, the druids cut down the tree and use its supple wood for many purposes. One in particular is the construction of instruments. Wyrwood Oak is magnificent for resonating rich tones, and Wyrwood instruments are coveted for their unique sound. A musical instrument made out of Wyrwood Oak from a tree felled by druids grants its user a +1 alchemical bonus on all Perform checks made with that instrument.
Brother of the Wyrwood Order
A blind order of monks dedicated to improving their senses and their bodies, brothers of the Wyrwood Order learn to react almost instantaneously to events, sometimes even before they seem to happen. They can hear impossibly quiet sounds and detect movement just by changes in the air. Their dexterous hands are equally adept at combat and music. A brother of the Wyrwood Order has trained his movements and focused his senses to near perfection.
Hit Die: d8
Requirements
To qualify to become a Brother of the Wyrwood Order, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
*Skills: 6 ranks in Perform and Listen, and 6 ranks in any 1 of the following: Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Move Silently, Tumble.
*Feats: Blind-Fight, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Skill Focus in any 1 of the skills listed above.
*Special: Must be blind-born or be blinded by some other cause (blindfold, magic, injury, etc.) perpetually for at least 1 year.
Class Skills
The Brother of Form’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), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are features of the Brother of the Wyrwood Order prestige class.
Enhanced Perception (Ex): Using nonvisual senses, such as acute smell and hearing, the brother gains blindsense out to 30’. No Spot or Listen checks are required to pinpoint the location of a creature within range of his blindsense ability, provided that he has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent the brother cannot see still has total concealment against the brother, and he still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects his movements. He is still denied his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures he cannot see.
Special: Blind-born brothers' blindsense range increases by 30'.
Monk Progression (Ex): A brother's class levels stack with his monk levels for the purpose of determining his unarmed damage, flurry of blows, bonuses to Armor Class, and unarmored speed. His class levels do not apply to other monk abilities such as slow fall. If the brother has no monk levels, he gains these abilities as a first level monk does and advances them.
Sonorous Sensation (Su): Denied sight, brothers meditate and focus their inner energy on non-visual senses, especially hearing. The brother's ears, now his primary source of sensation, have been honed with supernatural energy and improved dramatically. Not only can he hear more clearly, he can avoid some types of sonic damage. He gains a +5 bonus to any fortitude save to resist being deafened. If a brother makes a successful saving throw against a sonic attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Also, he gains a +2 competency bonus to his Listen and Perform skills.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Woodland Stride (Ex): Thanks to his constant connection with nature, a brother may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at his normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion still affect him.
Hyper Awareness (Ex): The brother is so aware of his surroundings that he can sometimes predict attacks before they come. He gains a +1 insight bonus to his AC, even when flatfooted. He gains blindsight out to 5'. He maneuvers and fights as well as a sighted creature within his blindsight’s effect. Invisibility, darkness, and most kinds of concealment are irrelevant, though he must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object.
Additionally, the brother gains the Deflect Arrows feat with the notable exception that he can deflect the projectile weapon even if he is unaware of the attack or is flatfooted. He makes a Listen or Spot check (whichever has the highest bonus) opposed by the attack roll of the attacker. If he succeeds, he can deflect the ranged attack as if he was aware of it and was not flatfooted (though he is still flatfooted for all other purposes). This ability is usable only once per round, along with the Deflect Arrows feat. Attempting to detect a ranged weapon doesn’t count as an action, not even a free action. The brother must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this Discipline, as per the Deflect Arrows feat.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Music in the Grain (Su): The brother's ear for music has become truly magical. His +2 competence bonus to Perform increases to +5. He gains a +5 competence bonus to his Craft (Musical Instrument) skill, and any musical instrument he crafts grants its user a +1 bonus to Perform checks made with that instrument. He can use the Bardic Music fascinate ability twice per day.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Sighted (Ex): By further improving his nonvisual senses, the brother's blindsight range increases by 25' and his insight bonus to AC increases to +2. Also, by sensing vibrations in the ground made by his feet, the brother can now move and even run at his full move speed without penalty. Finally, he can use his improved Deflect Arrows ability an infinite number of times per round.
The Deflect Arrows feature granted by this ability is temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
The blindsight range granted by this ability is reduced to 5' while the brother is deafened.
Multi-Classing: Monks who take this prestige class may continue in their original class’s progression without penalty. Paladins who take this prestige class can remain faithful to their god and retain all paladin abilities, but can no longer gain any levels in the paladin class.
Brothers with Sight: A brother who is no longer permanently blind cannot gain levels as a Brother of the Wyrwood Order and loses all class features except Monk Progression. This effect is instantaneous. When a brother gains his sight for any reason, he is extremely sensitive to light after being blind for so long: He gains light blindness, as the Drow racial trait, for one week. A seeing ex-brother may voluntarily blind himself (with a blindfold or otherwise) for at least a week to regain his abilities and continue gaining levels as a Brother of the Wyrwood Order.
During his time in the forest, the blind elf planted many trees and fed animals. His quiet deeds and intense dedication attracted a small, young circle of druids. The druids made contact, and a friendship was formed.
After a century of seclusion, the elf decided to return to the cities and find individuals like him: blind in the eyes but keen of mind and body. It took him decades, but he found two candidates, an elf and a human. The three returned to the elf's mushroom home and honed their skills together. The human had been a musician in the city, and he brought his string instrument with him to the forest. United, the three could spend less time on survival and more time on study and practice. The human taught the others to play music, and the druids offered them wood from one of their trees to make new instruments. After a few decades, the human became restless and felt the need to spread their teachings before he passed on. He returned, like the first elf before him, to the cities to find promising blind candidates. Again he found two, and three became five. The size of the group grew as the decades passed, as did their skills and methods. The druid circle also grew more powerful. The sundering of the Silverwood barely affected the region in which the mushroom and the blind ones live.
Today, the local humans call the ancient forest the Wyrwood, in part because of the mystical, ghostly protection it seems to have. The blind trio has grown into a sizable school of martial, musical, and philosophical training. They now call the giant mushroom in which they live "the Wyrwood Monastery", and they are known for their heightened senses, musical prowess, and physical form. The druids and the monks are still friendly. The druids have given the monks a magical goodberry tree, which provides the monks with most of their sustenance, and yearly the druids supply a single tree to the monks for crafting into instruments in return for the planting of new trees throughout the Wyrwood.
Membership: All Wyrwood Monks are called "Brother", regardless of gender. The monastic order currently has 28 brothers of both genders and several races. Every brother wears a dyed leather blindfold, of any color, across his useless eyes. The vast majority of brothers have been blind, most from birth, but a few rare exceptions have worn blindfolds for years at a time to become voluntarily blind. No such monks exist today. Of the original three founders, only the second elf remains. He is now Grandmaester Vagrant, abbot of the Wyrwood Brothers.
The Monastery: The Wyrwood Monastery fungus complex has countless hollows which serve as rooms. Living quarters are mostly above ground, in hollows with many perforations for light and ease of breathing. There is one large teaching room, located above ground, completely covered by a humongous cap. It has a large, gaping entrance to the outside and entrances to several subterranean tunnels leading to other rooms. Certain areas are accessible only by smaller monks, like gnomes, due to the narrow tunnels leading to them. Only a few of the rooms are in recent use by the current monks. Recruitment has been dry for many years, the attitude of the world has changed since the founding of the Monastery, and the resident monks no longer need as many rooms as they did centuries ago. No current Wyrwood monk knows the entire layout of the Monastery, not even Grandmaester Vagrant.
Wyrwood Oak: The liveoaks of the Wyrwood are incredibly ancient, but they have recently been under the close watch of a druidic circle. Wyrwood Oaks, having spent centuries practically saturated in druidic magic, now have special properties unlike the trees of any other forest. When a great oak's life comes to an end, the druids cut down the tree and use its supple wood for many purposes. One in particular is the construction of instruments. Wyrwood Oak is magnificent for resonating rich tones, and Wyrwood instruments are coveted for their unique sound. A musical instrument made out of Wyrwood Oak from a tree felled by druids grants its user a +1 alchemical bonus on all Perform checks made with that instrument.
Brother of the Wyrwood Order
A blind order of monks dedicated to improving their senses and their bodies, brothers of the Wyrwood Order learn to react almost instantaneously to events, sometimes even before they seem to happen. They can hear impossibly quiet sounds and detect movement just by changes in the air. Their dexterous hands are equally adept at combat and music. A brother of the Wyrwood Order has trained his movements and focused his senses to near perfection.
Hit Die: d8
Requirements
To qualify to become a Brother of the Wyrwood Order, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
*Skills: 6 ranks in Perform and Listen, and 6 ranks in any 1 of the following: Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Move Silently, Tumble.
*Feats: Blind-Fight, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Skill Focus in any 1 of the skills listed above.
*Special: Must be blind-born or be blinded by some other cause (blindfold, magic, injury, etc.) perpetually for at least 1 year.
Class Skills
The Brother of Form’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), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Code:
[B]Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special[/B]
1 +0 +0 +2 +2 Enhanced Perception, Monk Progression
2 +1 +0 +3 +3 Sonorous Sensation, Woodland Stride
3 +2 +1 +3 +3 Hyper Awareness
4 +3 +1 +4 +4 Music in the Grain
5 +3 +1 +4 +4 SightedClass Features
All of the following are features of the Brother of the Wyrwood Order prestige class.
Enhanced Perception (Ex): Using nonvisual senses, such as acute smell and hearing, the brother gains blindsense out to 30’. No Spot or Listen checks are required to pinpoint the location of a creature within range of his blindsense ability, provided that he has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent the brother cannot see still has total concealment against the brother, and he still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects his movements. He is still denied his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures he cannot see.
Special: Blind-born brothers' blindsense range increases by 30'.
Monk Progression (Ex): A brother's class levels stack with his monk levels for the purpose of determining his unarmed damage, flurry of blows, bonuses to Armor Class, and unarmored speed. His class levels do not apply to other monk abilities such as slow fall. If the brother has no monk levels, he gains these abilities as a first level monk does and advances them.
Sonorous Sensation (Su): Denied sight, brothers meditate and focus their inner energy on non-visual senses, especially hearing. The brother's ears, now his primary source of sensation, have been honed with supernatural energy and improved dramatically. Not only can he hear more clearly, he can avoid some types of sonic damage. He gains a +5 bonus to any fortitude save to resist being deafened. If a brother makes a successful saving throw against a sonic attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Also, he gains a +2 competency bonus to his Listen and Perform skills.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Woodland Stride (Ex): Thanks to his constant connection with nature, a brother may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at his normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion still affect him.
Hyper Awareness (Ex): The brother is so aware of his surroundings that he can sometimes predict attacks before they come. He gains a +1 insight bonus to his AC, even when flatfooted. He gains blindsight out to 5'. He maneuvers and fights as well as a sighted creature within his blindsight’s effect. Invisibility, darkness, and most kinds of concealment are irrelevant, though he must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object.
Additionally, the brother gains the Deflect Arrows feat with the notable exception that he can deflect the projectile weapon even if he is unaware of the attack or is flatfooted. He makes a Listen or Spot check (whichever has the highest bonus) opposed by the attack roll of the attacker. If he succeeds, he can deflect the ranged attack as if he was aware of it and was not flatfooted (though he is still flatfooted for all other purposes). This ability is usable only once per round, along with the Deflect Arrows feat. Attempting to detect a ranged weapon doesn’t count as an action, not even a free action. The brother must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this Discipline, as per the Deflect Arrows feat.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Music in the Grain (Su): The brother's ear for music has become truly magical. His +2 competence bonus to Perform increases to +5. He gains a +5 competence bonus to his Craft (Musical Instrument) skill, and any musical instrument he crafts grants its user a +1 bonus to Perform checks made with that instrument. He can use the Bardic Music fascinate ability twice per day.
The benefits of this ability are temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
Sighted (Ex): By further improving his nonvisual senses, the brother's blindsight range increases by 25' and his insight bonus to AC increases to +2. Also, by sensing vibrations in the ground made by his feet, the brother can now move and even run at his full move speed without penalty. Finally, he can use his improved Deflect Arrows ability an infinite number of times per round.
The Deflect Arrows feature granted by this ability is temporarily lost while the brother is deafened.
The blindsight range granted by this ability is reduced to 5' while the brother is deafened.
Multi-Classing: Monks who take this prestige class may continue in their original class’s progression without penalty. Paladins who take this prestige class can remain faithful to their god and retain all paladin abilities, but can no longer gain any levels in the paladin class.
Brothers with Sight: A brother who is no longer permanently blind cannot gain levels as a Brother of the Wyrwood Order and loses all class features except Monk Progression. This effect is instantaneous. When a brother gains his sight for any reason, he is extremely sensitive to light after being blind for so long: He gains light blindness, as the Drow racial trait, for one week. A seeing ex-brother may voluntarily blind himself (with a blindfold or otherwise) for at least a week to regain his abilities and continue gaining levels as a Brother of the Wyrwood Order.
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