Puppeteer

Requirements

Base Stats: CHA 16, WIS 14

Feats: Spell Focus (Enchantment), Iron Will, Skill Focus (Any CHA based skill)

Skills: Bluff (5 ranks), Diplomacy (5 ranks), and Sense Motive (5 ranks)

Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3rd level spells. Must be able to cast at least three compulsion designator spells.

Summary

Any mage can dominate someone with enchantment magic, but the puppeteer is a master of manipulation. The mind and body are playthings to a puppeteer, each bending to his absolutely mastery in whatever dance he wishes them to perform.

A strong will and talent for the enchanting arts is vital to a puppeteer since without the willpower and spells to enforce his edicts, a charmed subject can break free of his control. Unlike more subtle enchantment magic, domination is all but impossible to hide. Former mindslaves and their allies are likely to seek recourse for their treatment, restitution in blood.

A puppeteer is less likely to suffer that fate than most enchanters. Early in his career as a premiere manipulator, he learns how to keep his control a secret. With practice and proficiency, he can even conceal his control from his victims allowing him to pull strings without ever leaving the shadows.

Sometimes the best spell is one you are never seen casting. A puppeteer who lives long enough to reach the pinaccle of his powers could not agree more.

Role: Spell Utility

Characteristics: Subtle specialists of enchantment magic that can remain undetectable

Source: Encyclopedia Arcane: Enchantment

Game Rule Information

The Puppeteer has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma to weave the strings of your puppetry around the minds of others and Intelligence to remain one step ahead and give you enough points to pump up your skills

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d4

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Puppeteer's class skills are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Innuendo (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), 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 Puppeteer.

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

Spells per Day: A puppeteer continues training in magic while he practices the art of sensing and shaping emotions. Thus, every other level gained in the prestige class, gives the spellcaster new spells per day as if a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before had also been gained.

If the character belongs to more than one spellcasting class, he must choose which one is improved upon by this ability.

Compel Sp: The first power learned by a puppeteer is also the most direct, the ability to cast Command 3 times per day. This is an arcane spell-like ability and is considered enchantment, mind-affecting and a compulsion.

All the normal limitations of the divine Command spell apply, with one important exception. If the puppeteer can make a successful melee touch attack, the target suffers a penalty to its Will save equal to the puppeteer's Charisma bonus.

Improved Enchantment Ex: A puppeteer specializes in one form of enchantment magic, compulsions. His ability with enchantments of this designator is unparalleled, resulting in a +1 bonus to the DC of any such spell he casts.

At 4th level the Improved Enchantment bonus stacks, increasing to +2 for all compulsion-designator spells he casts. This bonus also stacks with Spell Focus: Enchantment and other spell bonuses to DC.

As an additional bonus any enchantment spell cast by a puppeteer can be dispelled by him automatically at any time during its effect.

Silent Strings Su: When giving a command to a target the puppeteer is affecting with a charm, or compulsion based spell, he may make an Innuendo roll (DC 20 minus the target's Intelligence Score) to transmit the command silently.

The target does not need to have the Innuendo skill personally; this power essentially grants free use of it to interpret the puppeteer's intentions. If the target does have the Innuendo skill, its base rank is also subtracted from the DC to use this power.

Using this power requires the charmed or compelled target to have line of sight with the puppeteer. Line of effect is not required, nor does the target actually have to be visible to the puppeteer at all.

If the puppeteer is being observed while sending a command in this way, he can attempt a Bluff check against those watching him. If successful the commands are not obvious and will be overlooked as normal gestures.

Subtle Puppetry Su: Any time someone attempts to detect the magic affecting one of the targets of the puppeteer's enchantment spells, the puppeteer can make a Bluff check opposed by the detector's spellcraft.

If successful, the detection does not see the enchantment magic in question. Anything short of the direct attention of a deity can be deceived in this way, with a new roll required for each full minute of scrutiny.

If the opposed roll fails the enchantment magic is detected as it normally would by the observer. The puppeteer has no direct way to know this has occurred.

Each enchantment spell cast by the puppeteer must be hidden with a separate roll. Even if the detector succeeds in seeing one spell, others may still remain obscured.

This ability comes into play any time the puppeteer's spells come under scrutiny. Proximity is not required. Indeed, the puppeteer does not even need to know the detection has occurred. However, only the puppeteer's base skill (ranks + Charisma bonus) applies to this roll; no enchantments to the skill are considered.

Dominion Su: At this level the puppeteer comes into the true powers of this prestige class, mastery over others. The powers of Dominion define what the puppeteer does and is.

At its first level, gained at 3rd level, the puppeteer gains the ability to force an opponent to reroll its saving throws against his compulsion designator spells. This power can be used as many times a day as the puppeteer's Charisma bonus, but each saving throw can be forced to reroll only once. The second roll stands unless the target has some ability to reroll it again.

Dominion II, at 6th level, demonstrates the growing power of the puppeteer's mastery over others. If the puppeteer already has a target under the effect of one of his personally cast compulsion designator spells within line of sight of an opponent of the same species and type, he can force that opponent to suffer a penalty to its Will saving throw equal to his Charisma bonus.

Dominion II the power gained at 9th level is an extension of Dominion II. The puppeteer has grown so powerful in bending the will of others, he no longer needs to have examples of his mastery nearby to cripple resistance. Once per day he can designate a target to dominate. This victim has its Will save reduced by half for as many rounds as the Charisma bonus of the puppeteer. Spell resistance applies to this ability, and no bonuses the puppeteer normally enjoys to defeat SR can be used (the feat Spell Penetration, for example.

Willing Slaves Su: If a target successfully affected by one of the puppeteer's compulsion designator spells is released within a number of rounds of effect equal to the puppeteer's caster level, it will assume any actions taken because of the spell were logical and natural.

External means of information the target has reason to trust ('Ummm...Kalee? That guy cast a spell and you smashed Vortan's familiar with your greatclub. I think maybe you were charmed?') can convince it otherwise but, without such evidence, the target will rationalize any behavior.

This power becomes an automatic feature of any compulsion spell the puppeteer casts. Whenever a victim of such a spell is released, its effect occurs. However, the rationalization does not happen if the spell's duration ends normally, or it is dispelled by an outside source.

Unwitting Pawns Su: This ability gained by Willing Slaves becomes even more powerful at 7th level. If the conditions for Willing Slaves are met, the target can be forced to simply forget any actions taken (at the puppeteer's discretion).

If the target of one of the puppeteer's compulsion or charm spells suffers the entire duration, the Willing Slave power occurs and the target assumes its actions to be natural as per that ability. The save DC for this ability is 10 + the puppeteer's Charisma modifier + the puppeteer's class level.

Lastly, any memories lost (or actions rationalized away) through use of Willing Slaves or Unwitting Pawns can be instantly restored if the puppeteer touches the target and wills it to occur. This ability is not selective and returns everything lost (or rationalized) by all the uses of these powers on the target, regardless of length of time involved.

Invisible Strings Ex: The puppeteer can now completely hide any trace of his power over a target. He takes 20 on any check required by Subtle Puppetry and if there are multiple spells on one target he can choose to defend them all with a single roll.

The puppeteer also becomes adept at hiding his silent commands. No Bluff checks are required to use SIlent Strings although line of sight is still necessary on the part of the target.

Lord and Master Ex: The height of a puppeteer's ability, Lord and Master gives him absolute control over a single target. While it comes with several disadvantages, this power places the victim forever under the puppeteer's power.

This power allows the puppeteer to make Thralls. Thralls made using this power cannot be freed with Break Enchantment. Without divine intervention a puppeteer's Thralls are his forever.

Table 1-1: Puppeteer Progressions

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spellcasting
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Compel, improved enchantment	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Silent strings, subtle puppetry	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Dominion I	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Improved enchantment	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Willing slaves	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Dominion II	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Unwitting pawns	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Invisible strings	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Dominion III	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Lord and master	—