Bedreven

A bedreven is a master sage and scholar, who has studied the powers of sorcerers as wizards study spells or clerics study their own religions. As a result of her extensive research into sorcerous powers and bloodlines, collectively referred to as “sorcery,” a bedreven has learned to emulate the spontaneous spellcasting of a sorcerer, and can even duplicate the powers of a specific bloodline. Rather than prepare spells as a wizard does, a bedreven learns to make spells a permanent part of herself, and readies her mind to pour arcane power into the spells she has conquered in this manner. However a bedreven’s power over sorcery is not exactly the same as a sorcerer’s natural talent, granting a bedreven considerable flexibility over what spells she casts each day at the cost of lacking the full power of a true sorcerer.

The Bedreven is an archetype of the sorcerer class.

Class Skills

A bedreven’s class skills are Appraise, Craft, Fly, Knowledge (all), Linguistics, Professions, and Spellcraft. A bedreven also gains additional skills based on her bloodline. If one or more of a bedreven’s bloodline skills duplicate one of her starting class skills, she instead gains Use Magic Device as a class skill.

Spells

A bedreven casts spells drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, a bredreven must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficult Class for a saving throw against a bedreven’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the bedreven’s Intelligence modifier.

A bedreven knows the same number of spells as a sorcerer of the same level. However, rather than have a limited number of spells per day, a bedreven has a number of points in a spell pool. To cast a 1st level or higher spell, a bedreven must expend a number of points from her spell pool equal to the spell’s level +1. Thus to cast a 1st level spell a bedreven must expend 2 points from her spell pool, and casting a 5th level spell the bedreven must expend 6 points from her spell pool.

Because bedreven do not prepare spells in advance, they must make last-second preparations every time they cast a spell. This is essentially the same kind of on-the-spot adjustment other spontaneous spellcasters must make when adding a metamagic feat to a spell known. As a result, bedreven must take more time when casting any spell with a casting time of a standard action. These spells require a full- round action for a bedreven to cast. This has no effect on the casting time of spells that take more or less time than 1 standard action. Because they are already making adjustments with every spell cast, a bedreven does not require any further additional time when adding a metamagic feat to a spell.

When adding metamagic to a spell, a bedreven must expend one additional point from her spell pool for each level higher spell slot the metamagic requires. For example, a bedreven uses 2 points from her spell pool to cast magic missile, a 1st level spell. A bedreven who has the Empower Spell feat can cast an empowered magic missile by expending 4 points from her spell pool (two points for the magic missile, two more to pay for the empowered metamagic effect). A bedreven can never expend more points from her spell pool in a single casting than her maximum output, as listed on Table: Bedreven Spell Pool.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered bedreven level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a bedreven can choose to learn a new spell in place of an old one. In effect, the bedreven loses the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. A bedreven may only swap a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.

Cantrips

Bedreven learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, equal to a sorcerer of the same level. These spells are cast like any other spells, but they do not require the bedreven to expend any points from her spell pool and may be used again.

Hereditary Lore (Ex)

Like a sorcerer, a bedreven selects a sorcerous bloodline when she gains her first bedreven level. This represents the sorcerous heritage that was the primary focus of the bedreven’s study into sorcery. The most common bloodlines selected by bedreven are arcane, draconic, and elemental, but this is a tendency, not a limitation of the class. A GM may decide to exclude some bloodlines from the bedreven’s list of possible choices as being beyond study, such as the destined bloodline.

The bedreven gains all the benefits of her sorcerous bloodline. She uses her Intelligence, rather than Charisma, for any calculations regarding her bloodline’s powers.

Table: Bedreven Spell Pool
Bedreven Level Spell Pool Maximum Output
1 6 2
2 8 2
3 10 2
4 16 3
5 20 3
6 30 4
7 40 4
8 52 5
9 66 5
10 82 6
11 100 6
12 120 7
13 140 7
14 160 8
15 180 8
16 200 9
17 220 9
18 240 10
19 260 10
20 280 10
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Sorcerer’s Options: Beyond Bloodlines. Copyright 2011, Super Genius Games; Author: Owen K.C. Stephens

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