The Quintessential Elf II
| Author | Shannon Kalvar |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2004 |
| OGL Section 15 | qelfii |
The material below is designated as Open Game Content.
Elves are well known for their unique take on life. They see the world differently and this gives them access to unique feats and skills. Some of these feats and skills may be useful to those of other races but most will never understand them well enough to use them.
Craft (crystal)
This skill is nearly always taken by elves, as few other races have the talent or inclination to learn the art of crafting crystal. At the Games Master’s discretion, those with Craft (gemcutting) may also act as if they have this skill, though they take a –2 penalty to their Craft (gemcutting) checks when doing so. It is primarily used in the creation of the quasi-magical grown crystals of elven renown (see Chapter 5, Elven Ways and Means).
Perform (illusion)
An elf, or other character capable of casting illusionary spells, can take the Perform (illusion) skill. So long as he can work illusions the character may use this Perform skill normally. Additionally the character may choose to make a Perform skill check (DC 20) to increase the DC to disbelieve an illusion he casts by +2. If he fails this check, decrease the DC to disbelieve the illusion by –2 instead.
New Feats
The following new feats are available to elven characters. They represent secrets passed down to the elves through centuries of training.
Feats
| Feat | Type | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Elfin Craftsman | General | Elven blood |
| Elfin Craftsman’s Bounty | General | Elfin Craftsman |
| Elfin Craftsman’s Gift | General | Elfin Craftsman |
| Elfin Master Craftsman | General | Elfin Craftsman |
| Elfin Voice | Bardic | Elven blood, bardic music ability |
| Fey Archer | General | Fey Blood |
| Fey Blood | General | Elven blood |
| Fey Swordsman | General | Fey Blood |
| Fey Touch | General | Fey Blood |
| Fey Voice | Bardic | Fey Blood, bardic music ability |
| Legend’s Call | General | Cha 15+, good alignment |
| Legend’s Price | General | Cha 15+, good alignment |
| Legend’s Pride | General | Cha 15+, good alignment |
| Legerdemain | Metamagic | Int 15+ |
| Memories of Legend | General | Elven blood, ability to cast arcane spells |
| Memories of Light | General | Elven blood, ability to cast divine spells |
| Mountebank | Metamagic | Int 15+ |
| Star’s Child | General | Elven blood |
| Star’s Choice | General | Star’s Child |
| Star’s Destiny | General | Star’s Child |
| Star’s Hope | General | Star’s Child |
| Tinker | Metamagic | Int 15+ |
Elfin Craftsman (General)
You have learned the hidden arts of elfin craft.
Prerequisites: Elven blood.
Benefits: After long study, you have finally learned the near-magical art of elfin craftsmanship. You may create items using the elfin craft rules described in Chapter 5, Elven Ways and Means. Adding qualities follows the same basic rules as adding a masterwork component to an item.
Normal: You cannot add elfin craft qualities to an item.
Elfin Craftsman’s Bounty (General)
You know how to stretch natural materials to reduce material costs.
Prerequisites: Elfin Craftsman.
Benefits: Your long years of training under the masters of your craft has finally paid off. Select any four elfin craft qualities. You can reduce the base cost of these qualities by 50%. If you do so, you must make a Craft skill check (DC 20) using the appropriate skill for the item you wish to make. If you fail this check you make a mistake in material selection causing the base price to increase by 25%.
Normal: You must pay spend one-third the base price for a quality, item or component.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select the feat you must select unique elfin craft qualities to receive this benefit.
Elfin Craftsman’s Gift (General)
You know how to take advantage of the long years of your life to reduce the cost of your crafting.
Prerequisites: Elfin Craftsman.
Benefits: You have finally mastered the art of using natural, unfinished materials in your elfin crafts. You may choose to spend time gathering and refining materials rather than working on an item to reduce its calculated cost. Each week that you spend in this fashion allows you to make a Craft skill check (DC 15). If you succeed, you gather enough materials pay for 30% of the total materials cost. If you succeed in this check three times in a row, you can make the item without paying for the materials.
Elfin Master Craftsman (General)
You have mastered the arts of elfin craft.
Prerequisites: Elfin Craftsman.
Benefits: You have finally mastered all of the esoteric secrets of elfin craft. When you make a Craft check to add an elfin craft quality to an item you may take 10 rather than rolling. Also, if you roll a natural 20 you finish the item that week, regardless of how much work remained.
Normal: You may not take 10 on a Craft skill check.
Elfin Voice (General)
Your voice carries with it the pure, unearthly tones of the elven home.
Prerequisites: Elven blood, bardic music ability.
Benefits: Your voice carries with it subtle harmonies like those of angels or other celestials. Any numeric bonus you give to a good creature through the use of bardic music increases by +1.
Fey Archer (General)
Your skill with the bow seems almost magical.
Prerequisites: Fey Blood.
Benefits: Your fey blood gives you uncanny skill with a longbow. When you use the attack action or full-attack action with a longbow, you can take a penalty of as much as –5 on your attack roll. You may subtract a corresponding amount from the Damage Reduction of any creature you attack that round with arrows from your bow.
Fey Blood (General)
You are closely aligned with the fey spirits.
Prerequisites: Elven blood.
Benefits: Something awakened the fey blood in your ancestry. Their power now flows through your veins, giving you both remarkable powers and some of their weakness. When you cast a spell from the druid spell list (whether you are a druid or not) you may increase the DC to resist the spell by +1.
Special: Any weapon made of cold iron automatically threatens a critical when it strikes you. You always radiate an aura of magic as if you were an outsider.
Fey Swordsman (General)
Your skill with a blade seems almost magical, lending you the grace of the ethereal fey.
Prerequisites: Fey Blood.
Benefits: Your fey blood allows you to move with the fluidity of the wind. In any round in which you make a single attack with a longsword, you gain +10 feet to your base movement rate. Also, during this round you benefit from a +1 dodge bonus to Armour Class, as long as you move at least 30 feet in the round. You only gain this bonus if you are wearing light or no armour.
Fey Touch (General)
Your touch soothes the creatures of the forest.
Prerequisites: Fey Blood.
Benefits: As a standard action you may touch (making a touch attack if necessary) an animal, fey or magical beast suffering from a negative condition (such as being dazzled, dazed or nauseated, including negative levels, but not hit point or ability damage). You then make a saving throw equal to the saving throw the target failed to resist the condition. If you succeed, then the condition transfers from the target to you. You suffer from the condition for the remainder of the condition’s duration. The condition will transfer and be effective even if you are normally immune to its effect.
Fey Voice (General)
Animals respond to you even if they do not understand your words.
Prerequisites: Fey Blood.
Benefits: The magic of your voice makes your intention clear to animals even if they cannot understand your words. You may use language dependant effects on animals, so long as the animals fulfil the other requirements for the effect. Additionally, you receive a +2 bonus to wild empathy checks targeting magical beasts.
Normal: Language dependent effects cannot target creatures that do not share a language with you.
Legend’s Call (General)
You can hear the celestial horns blowing just outside of mortal hearing.
Prerequisites: Cha 15+, must be of good alignment.
Benefits: When things seem at their most hopeless, you can hear the horns of the celestial host urging you forward. When you fail a saving throw against any effect that inflicts fear, you may make a second saving throw with the same DC. If you succeed at this saving throw you ignore the fear effect and gain a sacred bonus to Will saves equal to the penalty the fear effect should have inflicted on you, for the duration of the fear effect.
Normal: A second saving throw is not allowed against fear effects.
Special: Either this feat or a rogue’s slippery mind ability may be used following a failed fear save, not both.
Legend’s Price (General)
You know the cost that good must pay to save the world.
Prerequisites: Cha 15+, must be of good alignment.
Benefits: Your connection to the spirit world allows you to intentionally sacrifice yourself for the greater good. If a good creature within 30 feet of you fails a Will saving throw, you may immediately make a saving throw for them, at the same DC as the original. If you succeed, then you suffer the full results of the effect but the original target is unaffected. You suffer from the full impact of the effect, even if you are normally immune to such damage or conditions.
Legend’s Pride (General)
You carry the honour of celestial blood.
Prerequisites: Cha 15+, must be of good alignment.
Benefits: The glory and honour that comes from the highest heavens strengthens your spirit. When you make your saving throw to resist a compulsion or mind-affecting effect, the spell’s caster must make a saving throw with the same DC. If he fails, you inflict the effect on him instead. This reversed effect only lasts for 1 round per point of your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1 round).
Legerdemain (Metamagic)
You are particularly adept at using minor magic.
Prerequisites: Int 15+.
Benefits: You can spontaneously cast dancing lights, prestidigitation or mage hand 3/day (that is, you may cast any combination of these spells three times per day, not each spell three times per day). Once per day, you may choose to cast one of these spells as a free action, although this prevents you from using any 0 level spells (from this feat or from your standard spell list) for an hour.
Memories of Legend (General)
The ancient knowledge of elven magic lives on in you.
Prerequisites: Elven blood, ability to cast arcane spells.
Benefits: All elves carry a heady mixture of both arcane and divine magic in their blood. You have learned to awaken your innate arcane power, allowing the magic to work its will through you. As a standard action you may choose to allow the magic to ‘do as it wills’. This causes you to randomly cast one arcane spell that you know or have in your spellbook. It need not be currently memorised in order to be cast and the Games Master will make the decision for you. This spell functions as though cast by a spell caster three levels higher than your own, causing all level based effects to scale upwards.
Memories of Light (General)
The ancient knowledge of elven faith lives on in your eyes.
Prerequisites: Elven blood, ability to cast divine spells.
Benefits: Like all elves, you live with a nearly perfect balance of arcane and divine power in your spirit. Unlike the others, you have learned to call upon the divine side of your heritage in times of need. You may sacrifice a divine spell of any level as a standard action. When you do so, you gain an insight bonus to your saving throws equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +1 bonus), for a number of rounds equal to the level of the sacrificed spell.
Mountebank (Metamagic)
You have learned to sustain the small tricks that make elves seem magical to the uninitiated.
Prerequisites: Int 15+.
Benefits: Your casual studies of the magical arts lead you to some trivial but useful knowledge. When you cast a 0 level spell you may choose to sacrifice another 0 level spell as a free action. If you do so, the spell you cast lasts for a number of hours equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum one hour). You cannot use this feat to affect a spell with an Instant duration.
Star’s Child (General)
The blood of the oldest gods flows in your veins.
Prerequisites: Elven blood.
Benefits: Somewhere in the distant past the first elves left you a legacy of power that has finally awakened. When you cast a divination or evocation spell, increase the DC of the save to resist that spell by +1.
Star’s Choice (General)
You have made the choice that leads to the spiritual world.
Prerequisites: Star’s Child.
Benefits: The power of the first elves moves through you. You may sacrifice a divine spell of any level to give yourself ghost touch for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell sacrificed. This ghost touch only affects your body and items that you carry of your choice.
Star’s Destiny (General)
You have accepted the destiny of the ancient gods as your own.
Prerequisites: Star’s Child.
Benefits: The destiny of the first elves seeks fulfilment through your actions. Once per day you may give yourself a +3 insight bonus to one skill check, attack roll or critical threat roll. This bonus is used up regardless of whether or not you succeed.
Star’s Hope (General)
You know the secrets that led the ancient gods to walk away from the world.
Prerequisites: Star’s Child, must be of good alignment.
Benefits: The ancient memories of the first, nearly godlike, elves have come awake in your soul. You know why the elves left and what danger they saw that drove them away. These memories steel your soul, giving you the strength to fight the coming darkness. When you face a creature with evil alignment you gain a +2 insight bonus to your Armour Class and a +1 insight bonus to your saving throws against any spell or spell-like effect they use.
Special: Evil outsiders recognise you as a potential threat on sight.
Tinker (Metamagic)
You are adept at using magic to fix items.
Prerequisite: Int 15+.
Benefits: You know how to use minor magic to refine materials and repair items. When you make a Craft skill check, you may cast any number of 0 level spells, up to your maximum number per day. Each spell either reduces the cost of the materials by 10 gp or gives you a +1 bonus to your Craft skill check for making that item that week.
