LEGATEE — ESSENCER BASE CLASS
Salorras Path: Legatee (the asaar’adins) · 3.5e base class: Legatee (a Salorras essencer class) The legatee is Salorras’s living wellspring of inborn power — one whose gift sleeps in the blood itself and wakes, often through some fierce or wounding ordeal, into something the world mistakes for a sorcerer or bard but which is stranger than either. Unlike the other Paths, the legatee has no Open-Game equivalent: its power is not magic but a bloodborne mastery of the body’s own essence. It is therefore preserved here as a Salorras essencer class, written to standard 3.5e conventions (Hit Dice, base attack, saves, skills) around its unique essence subsystem. The elite traditions a legatee may rise into (the Echoe, the Grafted Agent) are prestige classes entered once the character meets their requirements.
Note on scope. Everything except the essence subsystem follows the standard D&D 3.5e SRD — standard proficiencies and Armor Class throughout.
The Legatee in the World
Legatees, known in the Free Cities of South as asaar’adins, can reshape the essences that underlie a living body. Through meditation and self-hypnosis they master these essences, weakening and then empowering their own flesh, senses, and mind by methods only a legatee understands. The gift lives in the blood. Legend traces it to the Era of the Second Moon, when the starborn Abdri received the boon of the goddess Orya; his blood became the inheritance of the generations after him, and many humans are born marked as legatees still. In the last fifty years the gift ceased to be the sole province of Abdri’s line: the Citadel Researchers, through their experiments, propagated the legatee strain into the other peoples of Salorras, even the monstrous ones.
A legatee is usually unaware of the power at first; the gifted blood ignites and releases its strength after some intense or traumatic experience. Legatees tend to be strong-willed, with a flair for leadership and an exotic beauty, and are easily mistaken for sorcerers or bards — yet those who know recognize something far stranger than the expected mystic magic. Their abilities are extraordinarily flexible, improving nearly any physical, sensory, or vital trait, which makes them superb warriors, spies, or both. Most are humans of the dark-skinned peoples of Asmeda, where the gifted blood first took root, though the Citadel Researchers’ work has since spread it across nearly every kindred.
Game Rule Information
Abilities. Charisma is the legatee’s most important ability: it sets the number (and sometimes the strength) of the essences they can command and governs their save DCs and storage capacity. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution all matter, since many essences enhance one of these.
Alignment. Any. A legatee’s superhuman power tends to push them away from neutrality toward a definite moral stance.
Hit Die. d8.
Class Skills
The legatee’s class skills (and the key ability for each) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (history) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4. Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.
The Legatee
| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Essences, thalamus, reactor |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Essential grace |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Tough body (Toughness) |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Essential aura (faint, 10 ft.) |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Enlarged thalamus +1 |
| 6th | +4 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Catalytic combustion |
| 7th | +5 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Body restoration 1/day |
| 8th | +6/+1 | +6 | +2 | +2 | Bonus feat |
| 9th | +6/+1 | +6 | +3 | +3 | Purity of body, essential aura (moderate, 15 ft.) |
| 10th | +7/+2 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Enlarged thalamus +2 |
| 11th | +8/+3 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Wholeness of body |
| 12th | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +4 | Catalytic combustion (improve) |
| 13th | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +4 | Body restoration 2/day |
| 14th | +10/+5 | +9 | +4 | +4 | Diamond body, essential aura (strong, 20 ft.) |
| 15th | +11/+6/+1 | +9 | +5 | +5 | Enlarged thalamus +3 |
| 16th | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +5 | Bonus feat |
| 17th | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +5 | Exponential combustion |
| 18th | +13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +6 | Catalytic combustion (perfect) |
| 19th | +14/+9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +6 | Body restoration 3/day, essential aura (overwhelming, 25 ft.) |
| 20th | +15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +6 | Enlarged thalamus +4, immortality |
Essences Known
The legatee starts knowing one 1st-level Physical essence and unlocks more essences as they gain levels (no new essences are learned at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, or 20th level). Columns show how many essences of each level the legatee knows within each essential core. To learn or use an essence, the legatee must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the essence’s level.
| Level | Phys 1st | Phys 2nd | Phys 3rd | Sens 1st | Sens 2nd | Sens 3rd | Vital 1st | Vital 2nd | Vital 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2nd | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 3rd | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| 4th | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| 5th | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| 6th | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – |
| 7th | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| 8th | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| 9th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| 10th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – |
| 11th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 12th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 13th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 14th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 15th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 16th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 17th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 18th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 19th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 20th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the legatee.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency. The legatee is proficient with all simple weapons and with light and medium armor and shields (except tower shields). Essences are not spells and carry no risk of arcane spell failure, so a legatee suffers no penalty to their essences for wearing armor with which they are proficient.
Essences (Ex). A legatee does not prepare or cast spells. Instead they produce essences and burn them in their reactor to enhance body, senses, and vital traits. Most essences function passively while burning; a few act actively. The save DC for an essence that allows a save is 10 + ½ the legatee’s class level + the legatee’s Charisma modifier. Because essences are extraordinary, not magical, they are unaffected by dispel magic, antimagic field, spell resistance, and the like. (See How Essences Work below; the full essence catalogue — every essence and what it does — is in the essence catalogue.)
The essences are grouped into three great families, the essential cores — Physical, Sensorial, and Vital — each with five subcores of related essences. Physical essences improve strength and combat (strength subcore), agility (dexterity), health and stamina (constitution), travel (speed), or toughness against blows (harden). Sensorial essences sharpen sight and pierce the unseen (ocular), hearing (auricular), taste and the mouth (taste), touch and danger-sense (touch), or smell (olfactory). Vital essences reshape the organs (physiology), bend gravity (gravity), expand the mind (mind), or warp space and time (space, time).
Essences Known. As shown on the table above. An essence may have alternate modes of use; learning the essence grants all of its modes, and the legatee chooses which mode to use at the moment of burning.
Thalamus (Ex). At 1st level the legatee’s body grows an internal organ, the thalamus, beside the liver, where produced essences are stored. Its capacity is 3 + class level + Charisma modifier produced essences (minimum 4).
Reactor (Ex). Also at 1st level, the legatee’s stomach develops the reactor, a “burner” in which essences are produced and then combusted. (See How Essences Work below.)
Essential Grace (Ex). At 2nd level, the legatee adds their Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus on all saving throws.
Tough Body. At 3rd level, the legatee gains Toughness as a bonus feat.
Essential Aura (Su). Each essential core has an associated aura — physical, sensorial, or vital. At 4th level the legatee chooses one (the choice is permanent). The aura is normally dormant; the legatee wakes it by sacrificing one produced essence of the appropriate core, a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, usable once per 8 hours and lasting 2 hours (dismissible as a free action). Like essences, the aura is not magical (though it is a supernatural ability) and is not subject to dispel magic or antimagic field. The aura strengthens as the legatee gains levels but demands higher-level essences to wake:
| Class Level | Aura Power | Radius | Bonus | Essence Level Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4–8 | Faint | 10 ft. | +1 | 1st |
| 9–13 | Moderate | 15 ft. | +2 | 2nd |
| 14–18 | Strong | 20 ft. | +3 | 3rd |
| 19+ | Overwhelming | 25 ft. | +4 | 3rd plus 1st |
The aura affects the legatee and allies within its radius. The physical aura grants its bonus on Fortitude saves and on Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based skill checks. The sensorial aura grants its bonus on initiative checks and on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. The vital aura grants its bonus on Will saves and lets the legatee link telepathically with a number of willing creatures equal to the bonus within the aura (an unwilling creature resists with a Will save, DC 10 + ½ the legatee’s class level + Charisma modifier).
Enlarged Thalamus (Ex). At 5th level the thalamus expands, granting room for 1 additional stored essence, and again by +1 for every five levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, +4 at 20th).
Catalytic Combustion (Ex). At 6th level the legatee chooses one essential core; they can increase all bonuses of essences of that core by one-half (round down) while halving their duration. The choice to apply catalytic combustion must be declared before burning begins, and it doesn’t alter an essence’s starting time unless the essence says so. Catalytic combustion can’t be combined with exponential combustion. At 12th level the legatee gains this feature again — choosing a new second core, or improving the first (improved: bonuses doubled, duration cut to one-quarter). At 18th level they gain it a third time — a new third core, improving a second, or perfecting one already improved (perfected: bonuses ×2½, duration cut to one-eighth).
Body Restoration (Ex). At 7th level, once per day, the legatee can restore 1d4 + Charisma modifier points of temporary ability damage to a single ability score (requires Charisma 10+). They gain an additional daily use for every six levels beyond 6th (2/day at 13th, 3/day at 19th).
Bonus Feats. At 8th and 16th level the legatee gains a bonus feat, chosen from the essencer feat list (or any feat for which they qualify), provided they meet its prerequisites.
Purity of Body (Ex). At 9th level the legatee gains immunity to all nonmagical diseases.
Wholeness of Body (Ex). At 11th level the legatee can heal their own wounds as a standard action, a total of current class level × Charisma modifier hit points per day, divisible among several uses.
Diamond Body (Ex). At 14th level the legatee gains immunity to poison.
Exponential Combustion (Ex). At 17th level the legatee can violently accelerate an essence’s combustion for tremendous power: the ratio of bonus to duration scales exponentially (the increased bonus and reduced duration of each essence are given in its description). When the new, shortened duration ends, the strain may inflict a side effect unless the legatee succeeds on a Fortitude save (DC and effect vary by essence). Exponential combustion doesn’t alter an essence’s starting time unless the essence says so, and can’t be combined with catalytic combustion.
Immortality. At 20th level the legatee’s body and mind become untouched by the flow of time. They no longer age and are immune to aging (any existing aging effects remain). This is an extraordinary trait of their unchanging physiology, not a magical one.
How Essences Work
Essences grant powers often similar to spells but, almost always, passive and harmless to the user. They require no verbal, somatic, or material components, can’t be made into potions, scrolls, or magic items, gain nothing from metamagic or item-creation feats, and are unaffected by dispel magic, antimagic field, spell resistance, or similar effects. The legatee’s essencer level equals their legatee class level and governs any level-dependent essence variables, exactly as caster level governs spells.
Producing essences. Essences are not granted by a deity or other source — they are produced within the legatee’s own body. Essence production is the legatee’s daily preparation, taking 8 hours and possible only once per 24 hours. It demands a temporary production penalty — a sacrifice of some ability, sense, or trait for those 8 hours — and the legatee chooses in advance which and how many of their known essences to produce, up to the free capacity of the thalamus. The legatee can act normally while producing, though a steep production penalty may hinder them. Production can be aborted as a free action, but the essences in production are wasted and a new production can’t begin for 24 hours. Production penalties stack even when of the same type, but can never reduce a statistic to nothing.
Burning essences. Burning an essence takes a starting time (usually a free action up to a full-round action, longer for higher-level essences) during which the legatee must concentrate; interruption can be resisted with a Concentration check, as with spells. A burning essence with a starting time of one standard action or longer provokes attacks of opportunity unless noted otherwise. Bonuses from essences stack (even from the same essence burned more than once) unless noted, and a legatee can dismiss a burning essence as an immediate action (ending it permanently). The maximum number of essences a legatee can burn per day depends on essencer level and Charisma modifier.
Paragon Prestige Classes (the legatee’s elite traditions)
A legatee who meets the requirements may enter one of these prestige classes:
- Echoe — the foresight-touched legatee (or arcane diviner) whose mind reads the moments just ahead; drawn from the Golden Thread of prophecy.
- Grafted Agent — the pure-blood asaar’adin remade by the Citadel Researchers and the Abominable Brigade, their innate gift fused with grafted monstrous and extraplanar flesh.