Spelleater

Requirements

Feats: Endurance, Iron Will, Toughness

Skills: Spellcraft (8 ranks), Knowledge (Arcana) (8 ranks)

Spellcasting: Ability to cast arcane spells of 3rd level

Special: Complete a quest on behalf of a cabal of spelleaters. This task typically involves tracking down and recovering a magical item worth at least 5000 gp and presenting it to the cabal. After completing this task, the character is considered to be a trusted member of the cabal and gains access to its secrets.

Summary

Lurking at the edges of accepted magical research, the spelleaters are the bane of wizards across the world. These cabals of power-hungry, ambitious mages congregate out of sight of the established wizards’ guilds and academies. In many areas, particularly those ruled by spellcasters, the spelleaters are banned, the use of their art punishable by execution. This fear and hatred of the spelleaters derives from the exotic, brutal methods they use to expand their magical abilities. The art of spelleating teaches its practitioners how to rip into the mind of another wizard and tear away his prepared incantations. Beginning spelleaters can literally knock spells out of an opponent’s mind, crippling his ability to work magic. Experienced spelleaters learn to harness the energies unleashed when they destroy their enemies spells, turning them against their foes or storing them for later study. Experienced wizards fear spelleaters for their ability to steal spells from them, sapping their energy while boosting their own.

Spelleating comes with a price. While a person must be schooled in the arcane arts in order to master the basic spelleating techniques, spelleaters delay their mastery of traditional arcane casting in favour of studying spelleater lore. A great stigma surrounds spelleating, as traditionally only the ambitious, selfcentred and malevolent would stoop so low as to steal another wizard’s skills straight from his mind. Spelleaters congregate in cells and cabals, usually founded by a powerful spelleater who draws ambitious young apprentices into his inner circle. These groups meet under a thick veil of secrecy, for fear of the backlash their art may provoke. Most spelleaters use their art in secret, selecting isolated wizards or sages to attack, plunder, and destroy. Whenever a minor apprentice suddenly displays a mastery of powerful spells, the elders and archmages soon dispatch agents in search of spelleater activity.

Role: Spell DPS

Characteristics: Consumers of magic that eat the spell slots of others.

Source: Quintessential Wizard

Game Rule Information

The Spelleater has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Constitution for concentration checks and staying alive, whatever your casting stat and dexterity should be your top priorities.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d4

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Spelleater's class skills are e Alchemy (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Spelleater.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Spelleater is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with prior to taking levels in this class.

Spelleating Ex: The spelleater can reach into a spellcaster’s mind and steal spells from him. He establishes a mystic bridge to his victim and forces a spike of arcane energy into his mind, shattering one of his prepared spells or sapping his energy. The victim of this ability experiences the odd sensation of savage teeth gnawing on his mind, hence the term spelleater. The spelleater activates this ability with a standard action. He must be able to see his target, and the ability has a maximum range of 60 ft. The spelleater decides what level spell he wishes to attack and makes a spelleating check by rolling a d20 and adding his Charisma modifer and his level in this prestige class. The DC for this check equals 10 plus the victim’s Charisma modifier plus the level of the spell targeted. If the check succeeds, the victim loses a random spell of the targeted level from his list of prepared spells. Casters that do not prepare spells lose one casting slot of the appropriate level. If the spelleater selects a level that the victim cannot cast, either because he lacks the skill or he has no spells remaining for that level, he automatically targets the next lowest level. If the victim has no spells of the chosen level or lower available, the spelleater wastes his action but does not expend a use of the spelleating ability.

For example, Lorrek the Foul has three levels in spelleating. He chooses to eat one his enemy’s 3rdlevel spells. If his foe had not spells of that level, Lorrek’s attempt would automatically resolve against his foe’s 2nd-level spells. If he also lack spells of that level, the attack would target 1st-level spells, and then 0-level spells.

Once a spelleater has devoured a spell, he may attempt to scribe it into his spellbook. Treat this as an attempt to add a spell to a book from a scroll or another spellbook. However, the base DC to decipher the spell is 30 the spell’s level. The spelleater retains a basic understanding of the magical patterns the spell evokes. By drawing on these memories and impressions, he recreates the spell in his book. The spelleater may use this ability with any and all spells he consumes, but he may not add spells to his book if they are higher than the maximum spell level he can cast. If the spelleater fails to understand the spell, he must either eat the spell again or find it by more traditional means to gain another chance to decipher it. Obviously, casters that do no prepare spells or use spellbooks gain no benefit from this ability. Spelleaters may only add spells to their books that appear on their class lists. The spelleater can use this ability once per day at 1st level. At each odd-numbered level in this prestige class, he gains an additional daily use of spelleating.

+1 Caster Level: At every even-numbered level of this prestige class, the spelleater gains an additional level of spellcasting ability. When a character gains a level of spellcasting ability, he gains more spells per day and his spells become more powerful. He does not gain any of the other class features that normally come with gaining a level in a spellcasting class. For example, an 8th-level wizard/4th level spelleater prepares and casts spells as a 10th-level wizard. However, he does not gain the bonus feat or other special abilities a wizard gains at 10th level.

Spellripper Ex: At 6th level, the spelleater becomes a much more dangerous foe to spellcasters of all types. After successfully eating a spell, the spelleater may use it against his opponent. Spelleaters who prepare spells may replace a prepared spell with the eaten spell. The prepared spell he chooses to replace must be at least the level of the eaten one. If the spell is higher than his top spell level, he may drop a number of levels of prepared spells equal to the eaten spell’s level. The spelleater may cast the spell at any time, though it occupies the slots allocated to it. For example, a spelleater who drops 6th and 3rd level spells to rip a 9th-level one may not prepare new spells to take their place until he casts or drops the 9th level spell. A spellcaster who does not prepare spells temporarily adds the ripped spell to his list of known enchantments. Unlike spelleaters who prepare spells, casters who do not prepare spells, such as sorcerers, cannot rip spells that are too high level to cast. A spelleater may rip any spell, including those that do not appear on his class’s spell lists. The spelleater casts the spell at his caster level, not the level of his victim.

A spelleater may attempt to add ripped spells to his spellbook as per the spelleater ability, even if he uses the spell during the course of the day.

Spell-Devourer Ex: At 10th level, the spelleater masters the art of plundering his enemies’ minds for enchantments. He may now eat and/or rip multiple spells with one spelleating attempt. Add together the total levels of the spells the eater wishes to devour. If the spelleating check succeeds, the spelleater successfully attacks one spell per each chosen level. A spelleater may choose to devour multiple spells of the same level.

For example, a spelleater could target a 1st, 3rd, and 4th level spell at once. His spelleating check would be 10 + 1 + 3 + 4 the target’s Charisma modifier. If the attack succeeds, resolve it as three separate spelleating attacks against the chosen levels. A spelleater who wants to devour two 3rd level spells would have a DC equal to 10 + 3 + 3 the target’s Charisma modifier.

A spelleater may attempt to add devoured spells to his spellbook as per the spelleater ability, even if he uses the spells during the course of the day.

Table 1-1: Spelleater Progression

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Spelleating (1/day)
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	+1 caster level
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Spelleating (2/day)
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	+1 caster level
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Spelleating (3/day)
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Spell ripper, +1 caster level
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Spelleating (4/day)
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	+1 caster level
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Spelleating (5/day)
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Spell-devourer, +1 caster level