Mornin yall, presenting a little PrC for your explicit enjoyment. Please take care that I have not corrected gramatics on this baby yet, so be nice to my wording. Is it too powerful? Too weak? Some powers poorly explained? Any criticism would be appreciated.
Vile Chemist
In hidden laboratories, deep beneath the ground, the Vile Chemists make their trade. Altering, manipulating and enhancing poisons and diseases, they are often able of making a good amount of money selling their products to evil cults and organisations.
Vile Chemists are often people of intellectual background that were swayed by the promise of money and power. Sages and potion-brewers sometimes stumble upon the ancient lore of manipulating nature. Seeing the possibilities in their discoveries, they take up the study of the secret art of Vile Chemistry. Most Vile Chemists are evil, since there is little good that can come from the practice of altering poisons and diseases. A few neutral Vile Chemists study the subject out of curiosity, but those that actively practice it are always evil.
Of all of the various lines of science, Vile Chemistry is one of the most dangerous. Being around poisons and diseases, its practitioners have a tendency to die in a manner that they originally intended for their enemies. No matter how professionally you behave around the products, contagion is almost inevitable. Most old Vile Chemists have been bent and twisted from constant exposure to their dangerous products.
Hit Die: d6
Requirements
To qualify to become a Vile Chemist, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Alignment: Any non-good
Alchemy: 8 ranks
Profession (Herbalist): 8 Ranks
Heal: 8 ranks
Feats: Brew Potion
Class Skills
The Vile Chemist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Alchemy (Int), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (All) (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int) and Spellcraft (Int). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Vile Chemist prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Vile Chemists gain no proficiency in any weapon or armor. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble.
Exposure: Every time a Vile Chemist takes a level in any class, he has to roll a fortitude save (DC 16) to see if he has been exposed to any diseases and poisons. Should he fail his saving throw, the effect of Exposure varies according to the amount of points by which he failed. Consult table 1-7, Exposure Effects. He has to roll an Exposure check even when gaining levels outside the Vile Chemist PrC.
Expert Alchemist: The Vile Chemist receives a +2 bonus to all Alchemy skill checks.
Disease Alterations: The Vile Chemist can alter all diseases of Extraordinary nature. He doesn’t gain the ability to alter diseases of Supernatural nature until he reaches level four. The Vile Chemist must have a sample of the disease available in order for him to alter the disease. The Vile Chemist can alter a disease in one of the following ways.
Amplified: Disease causes two extra points of Ability Score damage for each failed Fortitude save. This ability cannot change which Ability Score is affected by the disease.
Augmented: The disease has its save DC increased by +3. The disease is stronger and has an easier time penetrating its targets immune system.
Increased Growth: The disease has its Incubation time lowered by one day. If the Incubation time already is one day, it becomes 12 hours instead.
Magically Invigorated: The disease becomes magical in nature and therefore becomes harder to remove by using magical means. Using Remove Disease doesn’t ensure that the disease is removed. Instead, the person casting Remove Disease must roll an a dispel attempt as if though the disease was a magical effect created by the Vile Chemist and the Remove Disease was a Dispel Magic spell instead.
Only one alteration can be done to any given disease. Even if two Vile Chemists take turns on altering a disease, only the last modification will take effect. It takes a full week to modify a disease. Once a disease has been modified, the Vile Chemist can use the modified batch to create as many doses of the disease as he pleases. Each time the Vile Chemist uses the Disease Alterations ability, his suffers a –2 penalty to his next Exposure check. These penalties are cumulative, but are reset after the Vile Chemist has gained a level and rolled his Exposure check. When altering a disease, the Vile Chemist must roll a Alchemy check against a DC of 20. If he fails, his attempt to modify the disease failed and the batch is lost. He still suffer the penalty to his next Exposure check.
Poison Use: The Vile Chemist is highly skilled in using poisons and doesn’t risk poisoning himself when applying poison to a weapon.
Poison Alterations: The Vile Chemist can change and alter the effects of poisons to fit his own means. Most of the time, assassins and rogues seek out the Vile Chemist to buy extra potent poisons. The following alterations can be done to poisons.
Amplified: Poison causes two extra points of Ability Score damage for each failed Fortitude save. This ability cannot change which Ability Score is affected by the poison.
Augmented: The poison has its save DC increased by +3. The poison is stronger and forces its way through its victims bloodstream more easily than an unmodified poison.
Magically Invigorated: The poison becomes magical in nature and therefore becomes harder to remove by using magical means. Using Neutralize Poison doesn’t ensure that the poison is neutralised. Instead, the person casting Neutralize Disease must roll an a dispel attempt as if though the poison was a magical effect created by the Vile Chemist and the Neutralize Poison was a Dispel Magic spell instead.
Modified Application: By changing the way the poison works, the basic type can be changed. Changing a poison from Ingested to Injury or from Injury to Ingested doesn’t alter its save DC. Changing a poison from Injury or Ingested to Contact or Inhaled decreases its save DC by 2. Changing a poison from Contact or Inhaled to Injury or Ingested increases its save DC by 2.
Only one alteration can be done to any given poison. Altering a poison causes the Vile Chemist to suffer a –1 penalty to his next Fortitude save when checking for Exposure. Only one dose of poison can be altered at a time and it takes 6 hour in an Alchymist lab to alter a poison. Unlike diseases, one dose of poison cannot be used to create additional doses that have the similar alteration. When altering a poison, the Vile Chemist must roll a Alchemy check against a DC of 20. If he fails, his attempt to modify the disease failed and the dose of poison is lost. He still suffer the penalty to his next Exposure check.
Disease Immunity: The Vile Chemist has his immune system hardened from the constant exposure to diseases and chemicals. He becomes completely immune to diseases, both mundane and magical.
Improved Alterations: The Vile Chemist can choose to alter any dose of poison or disease twice. He cannot choose to use the same alteration twice (such as Augmenting the poison or disease twice to make the DC increase by +6 instead of +3). When modifying poison, the Vile Chemist only alters one dose of poison at a time. A modified disease can be used to create as many doses of the disease as the Vile Chemist chooses. For each alteration done to a poison, the Vile Chemist suffers a –1 penalty to his next Exposure check. For each alteration done to a disease, the Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to his next Exposure check. The Vile Chemist has to make a Alchemy check for each alteration done to a poison or disease, against a DC of 20. If any of the Alchemy checks fail, the batch of disease or dose of poison is ruined.
Plaque Carrier: The Vile Chemist has gained almost complete control over his own immune system. He can actually order his immune system to allow one disease to infect him. By using one dose of disease, which he either smears on his body, injects into his bloodstream or consumes, the Vile Chemists infects himself with the disease. Depending on the diseases method of infection, the Vile Chemist can use it to make diseased attacks.
Contact: Five times per day, the Vile Chemist can exude diseased matter from his body. This matter can infect anyone the Vile Chemist touches. By making a melee touch attack, the Vile Chemist can infect his target with the chosen disease. Since exuding the disease is a free action, the Vile Chemist can exude it to hit anyone grappling or pinning him. No melee touch attack is required to taint someone grappling the Vile Chemist.
Ingested: Any food or water the Vile Chemist comes in contact with will be tainted with the disease. The chemist can, for example, spit into a well to taint it. If the source of food or water the Vile Chemist is trying to taint is bigger than a full meal or more than a gallon of fluid, then it will take 1d4 days before all of the targeted food or water is tainted.
Inhaled: Three times per day, the Vile Chemist can exhale a large cloud of diseased gas from his infected lungs. This cloud will form a sphere with a radius of 15 ft. in front of the caster. Anyone within the cloud will be exposed to the disease.
Injury: The Vile Chemist can transmit the disease using normal attacks. The disease will transmit to both himself and his weapons and anyone hit by him in melee combat are subject to it.
Expert Chemist: The Vile Chemist doesn’t have to roll Exposure checks when gaining new levels and doesn’t suffer any negative effects from altering poisons and diseases.
Master of Alterations: The Vile Chemist can make as many as three Alterations to both poisons and diseases. He can even choose to make the same Alteration twice (but not three times). Only the Amplified and Augmented Alterations can be done twice. For each Alteration, the Vile Chemist must roll an Alchemy check against a DC of 20. Even one failure means that the batch of disease or dose of poison is ruined.
Class Level BAB Fort Ref Will
1 +0 +2 +0 +2
2 +1 +3 +0 +3
3 +1 +3 +1 +3
4 +2 +4 +1 +4
5 +2 +4 +1 +4
Class Level Special
1 Exposure, Expert Alchemist
2 Exposure, Disease Alterations, Poison Use
3 Exposure, Poison Alterations, Disease Immunity
4 Exposure, Improved Alterations, Plaque Carrier
5 Exposure, Expert Chemist, Master of Alterations
Table 1-11: Exposure
Failed by Effect
1 Minor scars: -1 to all Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform checks.
2 Permanent Odour: Permanently covered by scents that animals dislike. –2 to all Animal Empathy, Handle Animal and Ride checks.
3 Bad Cough: Lungs take damage from fumes, causing Vile Chemist to have a violent cough. –1 to Constitution and –4 to all Move Silently checks.
4 Confused: The brain has taken minor damage from the poisons and diseases. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Wisdom.
5 Suffocation Accident: During his work, the Vile Chemist had an accident that left his brain without oxygen for a prolonged period of time. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Intelligence.
6 Muscle Spasms: Some of the Vile Chemists muscles have taken damage and constantly twitch. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity.
7 Nerve Damage: Some of the nerves in the hand and arm of the Vile Chemist has taken damage. The Vile Chemist has a –2 penalty to Dexterity and a –2 penalty to all Alchemy, Balance, Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Heal, Open Lock, Perform, Pick Pocket, Profession, Swim, Tumble and Use Rope checks.
8 Paralysis: The Vile Chemist has suffered damage to one of his legs that had made it almost completely numb. The Vile Chemist has his movement rate halved and suffers a –4 penalty to all Balance, Climb, Jump, Move Silently, Perform, Swim and Tumble checks. He also suffers a –2 penalty to Dexterity.
9 Bad Health: The exposure to poisons and diseases has permanently damages the Vile Chemists health. He suffers a –4 penalty to Constitution and a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity.
10 Memory Loss: The Vile Chemist has suffered rather massive brain damage and must roll a Will Save (DC 18) for each Feat he knows. Each failure means that the Vile Chemist has forgotten the feat and he permanently removes it. It cannot be regained through any means. The Vile Chemist also suffers a –2 penalty to Intelligence and Wisdom.
11 Massive Damage: The Vile Chemists body has taken massive amounts of damage from the constant exposure. He must roll a Fortitude save (DC 20) or die. If he succeeds at his saving throw, he still suffers a –4 penalty to Constitution, Strength and Dexterity.
12 Permanent Physical Instability: The Vile Chemist becomes permanently ill with a very cruel disease. He must roll a Fortitude save (DC 22) every day. If he fails, he dies. Only divine intervention can cure the disease (a greater deity must intervene directly, not even a Miracle spell can cure the disease). Each day, the Vile Chemist looses one point of Constitution permanently, with no saving throw allowed.
Vile Chemist
In hidden laboratories, deep beneath the ground, the Vile Chemists make their trade. Altering, manipulating and enhancing poisons and diseases, they are often able of making a good amount of money selling their products to evil cults and organisations.
Vile Chemists are often people of intellectual background that were swayed by the promise of money and power. Sages and potion-brewers sometimes stumble upon the ancient lore of manipulating nature. Seeing the possibilities in their discoveries, they take up the study of the secret art of Vile Chemistry. Most Vile Chemists are evil, since there is little good that can come from the practice of altering poisons and diseases. A few neutral Vile Chemists study the subject out of curiosity, but those that actively practice it are always evil.
Of all of the various lines of science, Vile Chemistry is one of the most dangerous. Being around poisons and diseases, its practitioners have a tendency to die in a manner that they originally intended for their enemies. No matter how professionally you behave around the products, contagion is almost inevitable. Most old Vile Chemists have been bent and twisted from constant exposure to their dangerous products.
Hit Die: d6
Requirements
To qualify to become a Vile Chemist, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Alignment: Any non-good
Alchemy: 8 ranks
Profession (Herbalist): 8 Ranks
Heal: 8 ranks
Feats: Brew Potion
Class Skills
The Vile Chemist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Alchemy (Int), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (All) (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int) and Spellcraft (Int). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Vile Chemist prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Vile Chemists gain no proficiency in any weapon or armor. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble.
Exposure: Every time a Vile Chemist takes a level in any class, he has to roll a fortitude save (DC 16) to see if he has been exposed to any diseases and poisons. Should he fail his saving throw, the effect of Exposure varies according to the amount of points by which he failed. Consult table 1-7, Exposure Effects. He has to roll an Exposure check even when gaining levels outside the Vile Chemist PrC.
Expert Alchemist: The Vile Chemist receives a +2 bonus to all Alchemy skill checks.
Disease Alterations: The Vile Chemist can alter all diseases of Extraordinary nature. He doesn’t gain the ability to alter diseases of Supernatural nature until he reaches level four. The Vile Chemist must have a sample of the disease available in order for him to alter the disease. The Vile Chemist can alter a disease in one of the following ways.
Amplified: Disease causes two extra points of Ability Score damage for each failed Fortitude save. This ability cannot change which Ability Score is affected by the disease.
Augmented: The disease has its save DC increased by +3. The disease is stronger and has an easier time penetrating its targets immune system.
Increased Growth: The disease has its Incubation time lowered by one day. If the Incubation time already is one day, it becomes 12 hours instead.
Magically Invigorated: The disease becomes magical in nature and therefore becomes harder to remove by using magical means. Using Remove Disease doesn’t ensure that the disease is removed. Instead, the person casting Remove Disease must roll an a dispel attempt as if though the disease was a magical effect created by the Vile Chemist and the Remove Disease was a Dispel Magic spell instead.
Only one alteration can be done to any given disease. Even if two Vile Chemists take turns on altering a disease, only the last modification will take effect. It takes a full week to modify a disease. Once a disease has been modified, the Vile Chemist can use the modified batch to create as many doses of the disease as he pleases. Each time the Vile Chemist uses the Disease Alterations ability, his suffers a –2 penalty to his next Exposure check. These penalties are cumulative, but are reset after the Vile Chemist has gained a level and rolled his Exposure check. When altering a disease, the Vile Chemist must roll a Alchemy check against a DC of 20. If he fails, his attempt to modify the disease failed and the batch is lost. He still suffer the penalty to his next Exposure check.
Poison Use: The Vile Chemist is highly skilled in using poisons and doesn’t risk poisoning himself when applying poison to a weapon.
Poison Alterations: The Vile Chemist can change and alter the effects of poisons to fit his own means. Most of the time, assassins and rogues seek out the Vile Chemist to buy extra potent poisons. The following alterations can be done to poisons.
Amplified: Poison causes two extra points of Ability Score damage for each failed Fortitude save. This ability cannot change which Ability Score is affected by the poison.
Augmented: The poison has its save DC increased by +3. The poison is stronger and forces its way through its victims bloodstream more easily than an unmodified poison.
Magically Invigorated: The poison becomes magical in nature and therefore becomes harder to remove by using magical means. Using Neutralize Poison doesn’t ensure that the poison is neutralised. Instead, the person casting Neutralize Disease must roll an a dispel attempt as if though the poison was a magical effect created by the Vile Chemist and the Neutralize Poison was a Dispel Magic spell instead.
Modified Application: By changing the way the poison works, the basic type can be changed. Changing a poison from Ingested to Injury or from Injury to Ingested doesn’t alter its save DC. Changing a poison from Injury or Ingested to Contact or Inhaled decreases its save DC by 2. Changing a poison from Contact or Inhaled to Injury or Ingested increases its save DC by 2.
Only one alteration can be done to any given poison. Altering a poison causes the Vile Chemist to suffer a –1 penalty to his next Fortitude save when checking for Exposure. Only one dose of poison can be altered at a time and it takes 6 hour in an Alchymist lab to alter a poison. Unlike diseases, one dose of poison cannot be used to create additional doses that have the similar alteration. When altering a poison, the Vile Chemist must roll a Alchemy check against a DC of 20. If he fails, his attempt to modify the disease failed and the dose of poison is lost. He still suffer the penalty to his next Exposure check.
Disease Immunity: The Vile Chemist has his immune system hardened from the constant exposure to diseases and chemicals. He becomes completely immune to diseases, both mundane and magical.
Improved Alterations: The Vile Chemist can choose to alter any dose of poison or disease twice. He cannot choose to use the same alteration twice (such as Augmenting the poison or disease twice to make the DC increase by +6 instead of +3). When modifying poison, the Vile Chemist only alters one dose of poison at a time. A modified disease can be used to create as many doses of the disease as the Vile Chemist chooses. For each alteration done to a poison, the Vile Chemist suffers a –1 penalty to his next Exposure check. For each alteration done to a disease, the Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to his next Exposure check. The Vile Chemist has to make a Alchemy check for each alteration done to a poison or disease, against a DC of 20. If any of the Alchemy checks fail, the batch of disease or dose of poison is ruined.
Plaque Carrier: The Vile Chemist has gained almost complete control over his own immune system. He can actually order his immune system to allow one disease to infect him. By using one dose of disease, which he either smears on his body, injects into his bloodstream or consumes, the Vile Chemists infects himself with the disease. Depending on the diseases method of infection, the Vile Chemist can use it to make diseased attacks.
Contact: Five times per day, the Vile Chemist can exude diseased matter from his body. This matter can infect anyone the Vile Chemist touches. By making a melee touch attack, the Vile Chemist can infect his target with the chosen disease. Since exuding the disease is a free action, the Vile Chemist can exude it to hit anyone grappling or pinning him. No melee touch attack is required to taint someone grappling the Vile Chemist.
Ingested: Any food or water the Vile Chemist comes in contact with will be tainted with the disease. The chemist can, for example, spit into a well to taint it. If the source of food or water the Vile Chemist is trying to taint is bigger than a full meal or more than a gallon of fluid, then it will take 1d4 days before all of the targeted food or water is tainted.
Inhaled: Three times per day, the Vile Chemist can exhale a large cloud of diseased gas from his infected lungs. This cloud will form a sphere with a radius of 15 ft. in front of the caster. Anyone within the cloud will be exposed to the disease.
Injury: The Vile Chemist can transmit the disease using normal attacks. The disease will transmit to both himself and his weapons and anyone hit by him in melee combat are subject to it.
Expert Chemist: The Vile Chemist doesn’t have to roll Exposure checks when gaining new levels and doesn’t suffer any negative effects from altering poisons and diseases.
Master of Alterations: The Vile Chemist can make as many as three Alterations to both poisons and diseases. He can even choose to make the same Alteration twice (but not three times). Only the Amplified and Augmented Alterations can be done twice. For each Alteration, the Vile Chemist must roll an Alchemy check against a DC of 20. Even one failure means that the batch of disease or dose of poison is ruined.
Class Level BAB Fort Ref Will
1 +0 +2 +0 +2
2 +1 +3 +0 +3
3 +1 +3 +1 +3
4 +2 +4 +1 +4
5 +2 +4 +1 +4
Class Level Special
1 Exposure, Expert Alchemist
2 Exposure, Disease Alterations, Poison Use
3 Exposure, Poison Alterations, Disease Immunity
4 Exposure, Improved Alterations, Plaque Carrier
5 Exposure, Expert Chemist, Master of Alterations
Table 1-11: Exposure
Failed by Effect
1 Minor scars: -1 to all Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform checks.
2 Permanent Odour: Permanently covered by scents that animals dislike. –2 to all Animal Empathy, Handle Animal and Ride checks.
3 Bad Cough: Lungs take damage from fumes, causing Vile Chemist to have a violent cough. –1 to Constitution and –4 to all Move Silently checks.
4 Confused: The brain has taken minor damage from the poisons and diseases. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Wisdom.
5 Suffocation Accident: During his work, the Vile Chemist had an accident that left his brain without oxygen for a prolonged period of time. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Intelligence.
6 Muscle Spasms: Some of the Vile Chemists muscles have taken damage and constantly twitch. The Vile Chemist suffers a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity.
7 Nerve Damage: Some of the nerves in the hand and arm of the Vile Chemist has taken damage. The Vile Chemist has a –2 penalty to Dexterity and a –2 penalty to all Alchemy, Balance, Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Heal, Open Lock, Perform, Pick Pocket, Profession, Swim, Tumble and Use Rope checks.
8 Paralysis: The Vile Chemist has suffered damage to one of his legs that had made it almost completely numb. The Vile Chemist has his movement rate halved and suffers a –4 penalty to all Balance, Climb, Jump, Move Silently, Perform, Swim and Tumble checks. He also suffers a –2 penalty to Dexterity.
9 Bad Health: The exposure to poisons and diseases has permanently damages the Vile Chemists health. He suffers a –4 penalty to Constitution and a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity.
10 Memory Loss: The Vile Chemist has suffered rather massive brain damage and must roll a Will Save (DC 18) for each Feat he knows. Each failure means that the Vile Chemist has forgotten the feat and he permanently removes it. It cannot be regained through any means. The Vile Chemist also suffers a –2 penalty to Intelligence and Wisdom.
11 Massive Damage: The Vile Chemists body has taken massive amounts of damage from the constant exposure. He must roll a Fortitude save (DC 20) or die. If he succeeds at his saving throw, he still suffers a –4 penalty to Constitution, Strength and Dexterity.
12 Permanent Physical Instability: The Vile Chemist becomes permanently ill with a very cruel disease. He must roll a Fortitude save (DC 22) every day. If he fails, he dies. Only divine intervention can cure the disease (a greater deity must intervene directly, not even a Miracle spell can cure the disease). Each day, the Vile Chemist looses one point of Constitution permanently, with no saving throw allowed.
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