Arcane Duelist


The arcane duelist is a tricky, evasive opponent who relies on her foe's perceptions of her abilities as much as her actual abilities. Through magic, the arcane duelist can appear to be as dangerous as a duelist, but in general she does not do as much damage to her opponents. She prefers to win by cowing her opponent into defeating himself. Thus, Dexterity and Charisma are the arcane duelist's most valuable ability scores.

- Hit Die: d8
- Proficiencies: Arcane Duelists gain no proficiencies.
- Skill Points at Each Level: 4+ Int modifier.

REQUIREMENTS
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Perform 5 ranks, Tumble 5 ranks.
Feats: Weapon Proficiency Martial, Dodge, Mobility
Spellcasting: Level 1 Arcane spells.

ABILITIES:

Level
1: Chosen Weapon: Since much of the arcane duelist's apparent ability is tied to magic, the arcane duelist can imbue a specific melee weapon with powers to make herself appear more skilled. The arcane duelist must choose a specific melee weapon to be her chosen weapon.

2: Enchant Chosen Weapon: The arcane duelist's chosen melee weapon acts as if it has an enhancement bonus, even if it does not. If it does have an enhancement bonus, the arcane duelist adds this bonus to the weapon as an effective bonus. This can bring a weapon's effective enhancement bonus above +5. However, no weapon can have more than a +10 total effective bonus, so this class-granted effective bonus cannot be added to a weapon if the addition would increase the weapon's total effective bonus above +10. This class-granted bonus works only for the arcane duelist when wielding her chosen melee weapon. The enhancement bonus is +1 at 1st level, and rises to +2 at 4th level, +3 at 6th level, and +4 at 8th level.

2: Apparent Defense: Due to trickery and force of personality, the arcane duelist adds her Charisma bonus to her Armor Class, in addition to her Dexterity bonus.

3: Dexterous Attack: Because the arcane duelist values successful hits over actual damage dealt, she can subtract damage from her chosen melee weapon's potential damage and add the same amount to her attack bonus. However, the weapon must do a minimum 1 point of damage.

5: Blur: The arcane duelist can activate a blur effect, as the spell cast by a caster of her arcane duelist level. She can use this power once per day per arcane duelist level.

7: False Keenness: To create the idea that she is more effective than she really is, the arcane duelist can make her chosen melee weapon keen once per day per arcane duelist level. To activate the keen effect, she must subtract the weapon's normal threat range for critical hits from her attack bonus. For example, if the arcane duelist wields a rapier, she must subtract 3 from her attack bonus, since the rapier has a threat range of 18-20, to make it keen. The keen effect lasts for 1 round per arcane duelist level, and it does not stack with the keen edge spell or other magical effects that make a weapon keen.

9: Mirror Image: The arcane duelist can activate mirror image effect as the spell cast by a caster of her arcane duelist level. The images last one minute per level.

10: Flurry of Swords 1/day: The pinnacle of the arcane duelist's power is to create a flurry of sword attacks against a single target. When this power is activated, the arcane duelist makes one additional attack each round at her highest base attack bonus, but each attack that round suffers a -2 penalty. All attacks must be made on the same opponent. Further, the arcane duelist creates 1d4 quasi-real images plus 1 additional image per three levels of arcane duelist. Each image attacks the same opponent as the arcane duelist herself using the same bonuses as the arcane duelist. The images last for 1 minute per Arcane Duelist Level or the demise of their target, whichever lasts longest. You may target any given enemy only once per day with this ability.

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