Sword Dancer Prestige Class

Conversion of the 2nd edition speciality priest class, included in the Forgotten Realms “Demihuman Deities” accessory.

 

By Axel Hartmann

any comments on this conversion should be sent to: hartmann.acki@t-online.de

 

Converting a 2nd edition speciality priest is not the easiest thing to do, and to be honest: this is my first attempt on a 2nd edition conversion at all. I really liked the possibilities that the original offered in terms of mixing different class characteristics. Some parts have to remain patchwork until the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting reveals more on spells and cleric domains. I took the Living City FR_Guidelines to get a better picture of 3rd edition Eilistraee and some of her domain spells mentioned therein are so far unconverted. Using the original cleric spells spellsong and greater spellsong in conjunction with bardic music seemed like a fitting way to set the theme for this prestige class. I hope you like the conversion, but be warned: I have so far not acquired any balancing experience, so don’t take this as a playbalanced work, munchkinism might be lurking around the next corner! But hey, I’ll be glad to take your comments. Oh, right! I limited the alignment to NG and CG, because of the bardic element.

 

 

Description

Sword dancers are speciality priests of Eilistraee, goddess of the good aligned dark elves in the Forgotten Realms. Eilistraee is a favored deity for all elves and the regions of Waterdeep, the High Forest and Silverymoon. Worship of the Dark Maiden is mostly done through song and dance, though hunting and feasts have a part as well, and takes ideally place in deep forests on moonlit nights. Sword dancers help those in need, try to convince drow to abandon their evil ways and live a peaceful life on the surface, try to contact surface dwellers by actively seeking them out, bringing them song and joy. Sword dancers hone their battle skills with swordplay, as Eilistraee’s favored weapon is the sword. Though the followers of Lady Silverhair try to solve problems by avoiding unnecessary bloodshed, they do answer violence with swift violence and many of them are known for holding a grudge against the yochlols, the handmaidens of Lloth.  

Hit Die: d6

 

Requirements

 

Must be female of neutral good or chaotic good alignment

Base Attack: +5

Craft (Swords): +4

Diplomacy ranks: +6

Knowledge (Nature): +4

Knowledge (Religion): +4

Perform ranks: +4

Wilderness Lore ranks: +4

Feats: Dodge

Feats: Weapon Focus (any sword)

Patron Deity: Eilistraee

Special: Bardic Music

 

Class Skills

Skill points at each level: 4+Int modifier

The Sword Dancer’s class skills (and the key abilities for each skill) are:

Animal Empathy (Cha)

Balance (Dex)

Concentration (Con)

Craft (Swords) (Int)

Diplomacy (Cha)

Handle Animal (Cha)

Heal (Wis)

Hide (Dex)

Intuit Direction (Wis)

Jump (Str)

Knowledge (Nature, Religion) (Int)

Listen (Wis)

Move Silently (Dex)

Perform (Cha)

Search (Int)

Sense Motive (Wis)

Speak Language (Drow Sign Language)

Spellcraft (Int)

Spot (Wis)

Tumble (Dex)

Wilderness Lore (Wis)

 

Class Features

 

#Weapon and Armor Proficiency:

A sword dancer is proficient with all simple weapons and swords, and with light armor and medium of either drow (treat as magical) or magical make. Wearing armor heavier than that or nonmagical armor of any kind will interfere with the sword dancer´s abilities to call the powers of the spellsong and the dancing sword.

 

#Spellsong:

A sword dancer casts divine spells in the same way as a bard casts arcane spells, though she may cast these spells while wearing armor in which a sword dancer is proficient in. Sword dancers receive bonus spells for high charisma. To cast a spell, a sword dancer must have a Charisma score of 10 + the level of the spell. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a sword dancer´s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the sword dancer´s Charisma modifier. The sword dancer´s effective casting level is equal to her sword dancer class level. The ability to cast her spells in this way is granted to the sword dancer as a divine favor to the worshiper. The sword dancer must be able to move (hands and shoulders at least) and sing free of magical silencing. Sword dancers are trained to dodge a single opponent in combat while singing.

 

#Dancing Sword:

A sword dancer can animate her sword to act as a dancing sword (see DMG p. 186). The sword will fight on its own for 1 round per level of the sword dancer. To animate the sword, the sword dancer has to perform her song for 1 round, which does count against her daily limit in bardic music.

 

#Eilistraee’s Moonfire

Sword dancers can cast Eilistraee’s moonfire at will, once per day for every level of sword dancer they possess (treat as faerie fire, silvery lights only).

 

#Smite Corruptor

 Ever vigilant against further corruption of the peaceful living dark elves on the surface of Faerun, the sword dancer is graced with a potent offensive power. Once per day, a sword dancer of 2nd lvl or higher may attempt an alternate form of the paladin’s smite evil ability. She may add her charisma modifier, if positive, to a single attack and the resulting damage roll against any evil aligned priest of Lloth or Vhaeraun or any evil outsider in either deity’s service. As with smite evil, the attempt will fail and be used up for the day, if the intended target is not of evil alignment. Smite corruption is a supernatural ability.

 

#Evensong

A new song for bardic music, which is available at 4th level. Worshipers of Eilistraee try to let out all of the gathered emotions of the day with an evensong. An evensong is a personal thing, often wordless and done in private. From her personal experience with the original evensong comes the sword dancer´s ability to perform the bardic music equivalent of the 2nd lvl cleric spell Calm Emotions (see PHB p. 182). The evensong is absolutely identical to the mentioned spell, with the notable exception, that the will save is rolled against the sword dancer´s perform check instead of the usual caster’s DC.

 

#Magic Missile

At 6th level sword dancers can cast magic missile twice per day as a sorcerer of 7th level (4 missiles). This is a supernatural ability.

 

#Turn Lycanthropes

At 8th lvl the sword dancer’s song can turn lycanthropes, as a paladin of the same level can turn undead. This does not require the sword dancer to make a perform check, though she has to sing, which does count against her count against her daily limit in bardic music.

 

#Sword Dance

From 9th lvl on, whenever a sword is finished or first taken into use by a worshiper of the Dark Maiden, a sword dancer tries to call down the blessing of the goddess upon it. This is done by planting the blade point-down on the ground, out of doors and by night and dancing. The sword dance circles the blade and involves the sword dancer drawing blood from each of her limbs by dancing momentarily against the blade. If successful (perform check against DC 25, repeatable), the blade glows with a silvery radiance. For three month it is considered blessed (see bless weapon, PHB p. 180). The attempt counts against the sword dancer’s daily limit for bardic music.

 

#Greater Spellsong

When two sword dancers sing and dance they may each swap a spell of identical level against a single spell of one level higher. This enables two sword dancers to cast a single 5th lvl spell. The 5th lvl spell must be one of their deity’s domain spells: dispel law, charm monster, commune with nature, dispel evil, dispel law, teleport. Only one of the sword dancers will act as the actual caster of the spell, while interrupting or silencing either of them will lead to the failure of the spell. Both lower level spells are lost in the casting of the higher level spell.

 

 

 

Class

Level

Base

Attack Bonus

Fort

Save

Ref

Save

Will

Save

 

Special

Lvl

0

Lvl

1

Lvl

2

Lvl

3

Lvl

4

 1

+0

+0

+2

+2

Spellsong lvl 1, dancing sword,

 Eilistraee’s moonfire

2

0

-

-

-

 2

+1

+0

+3

+2

Smite corruptor

3

1

-

-

-

 3

+2

+1

+3

+3

Spellsong lvl 2

3

1

0

-

-

 4

+3

+1

+4

+4

Evensong

3

2

1

-

-

 5

+3

+1

+4

+4

Spellsong lvl 3

4

2

1

0

-

 6

+4

+2

+5

+5

Magic Missile

4

2

2

1

-

 7

+5

+2

+5

+5

Spellsong lvl 4

4

3

2

1

0

 8

+6/+1

+2

+6

+6

Turn Lycanthropes

4

3

2

2

1

 9

+6/+1

+3

+6

+6

Sword dance

4

3

3

2

1

10

+7/+2

+3

+7

+7

Greater spellsong

4

4

3

2

2

 

 

Sword Dancer’s Spells:

The sword dancer has full access to Eilistraee’s domain spells, as well as to the ranger spells and all druid orisons. As sword dancer are divine spellcasters there is no limit to the spells they know. Eilistraee’s domains are: charm, chaos, elf, good, moon and portal. The domain spells in ascending order:

 

Charm: charm person, calm emotion, suggestion, emotion

Chaos: see PHB p.163

Elf: true strike, cat’s grace, snare, tree stride

Good: see PHB p. 164

Moon: Eilistraee’s moonfire, moonbeam, moonblade, emotion

Portal: summon monster 1, analyze portal, dimensional anchor, dimension door