Culinarian

Culinarians are food aficionados; battle chefs who travel the world in search of the next best ingredient, technique, or cuisine. They face every challenge with an eye toward developing their skill and use all five of their senses to create edible masterpieces. In the end, every culinarian seeks to bring home a fantastic meal to please their people, kings, and gods alike.

On the shattered worlds, battle chefs have taken on the moniker of culinarian as they seek to build their reputations across different realities while practicing new and savory talents. More than a few culinarians have pooled their resources to open kitchen arenas across the planes where they can compete against each other for fame and glory. Some have even returned to adventuring as a means of finding exotic practices that will give them an edge in culinary battle.

Joining a culinarian brigade can be a challenge for some. It doesn’t pay well to start, and there are few willing to share the secrets they worked so hard to learn themselves. Because of this, new culinarians often focus on one type of cuisine before expanding their repertoire.

Role: Culinarians take advantage of their keen eye, sharp palate, and deft skills with cutlery and other tools to bring enemies low. When their allies are in need of help, culinarians provide aid with morale and health-improving dishes.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d8

Starting Wealth: 1d6 × 10 gp (average 35 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills

The culinarian’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Stealth (Dex), and Swim (Str).

Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Table: Culinarian

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Chef Attacks	Meals per Day
1st	+0	+2	+0	+0	Chef de partie, culinary study, mise en place, recipes	–	2
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+0	Poison resistance +2, woodland stride	–	4
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+1	Mundane food expertise	–	6
4th	+3	+4	+1	+1	Chef de partie	–	8
5th	+3	+4	+1	+1	Mise en place (type I), poison resistance +4	–	10
6th	+4	+5	+2	+2	Sous chef	+2/+2	12
7th	+5	+5	+2	+2	Damage reduction 1/–	+3/+3	14
8th	+6/+1	+6	+2	+2	Chef de partie, poison resistance +6	+4/+4	16
9th	+6/+1	+6	+3	+3	Mundane food mastery	+4/+4	18
10th	+7/+2	+7	+3	+3	Damage reduction 2/–, mise en place (type II)	+5/+5	20
11th	+8/+3	+7	+3	+3	Chef de cuisine	+6/+6/+1	22
12th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+4	Poison immunity	+7/+7/+2	24
13th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+4	Damage reduction 3/–	+7/+7/+2	26
14th	+10/+5	+9	+4	+4	Chef de partie	+8/+8/+3	28
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+5	Mise en place (type III)	+9/+9/+4	30
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Chef de mondiale, damage reduction 4/–	+10/+10/+5/+0	32
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Quarry	+10/+10/+5/+0	34
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Chef de partie	+11/+11/+6/+1	36
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Damage reduction 5/–	+12/+12/+7/+2	38
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Improved quarry, mise en place (type IV)	+13/+13/+8/+3	40

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the culinarian.

Weapon Proficiency

A culinarian is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).

Recipes

A culinarian creates meals drawn from the culinarian recipe list. She much choose and prepare her meals ahead of time.

To learn to prepare or create a meal, the culinarian must have an Intelligence or Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the recipe’s complexity. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a culinarian’s meal is 10 + the meal’s complexity + the culinarian’s Intelligence or Wisdom modifier.

A culinarian can create only a certain number of meals per day. Her base daily allotment of meal slots is given on Table: Culinarian. In addition, she can prepare additional meals as a chef de partie (see below).

A culinarian may know any number of recipes. She must choose and prepare her meals ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying her cookbook. While studying, the culinarian decides which meals to prepare and organizes her ingredients so that she can access them quickly throughout the day.

Cookbook

Full Rules for Cookbooks

Every culinarian begins play with a cookbook containing a number of complexity 1 recipes equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier. A cookbook is identical to a spellbook, except that it contains battle chef or culinarian recipes, rather than spells. At each new level, the culinarian adds two new meals of any complexity that she can create (up to half her culinarian level) to her cookbook.

Chef de Partie (Ex)

A culinarian can choose to specialize in one station within her brigade as a chef de partie, gaining additional recipes and techniques based on that station. This choice must be made at 1st level, and once made, it cannot be changed. A culinarian that does not select a station acts as a roundsman—someone who fills in as needed on all of the stations, rather than having a specific job—instead. A full list of stations can be found here.

A culinarian that chooses to specialize in one station must select two other stations in which she has no training, representing skills sacrificed in one area of food preparation to gain mastery in another. A culinarian who prepares recipes from the stations in which she lacks training must use two meal slots of that level to prepare the recipe. For example, a culinarian without training as a pastry chef must expend two of her available meal slots to prepare a tart. In addition, a chef de partie takes a –4 penalty on any skill checks made when preparing a recipe from a station in which she lacks training. A roundsman can prepare recipes from any station without restriction.

Each station teaches the culinarian a few special techniques. In addition, chefs de partie can prepare 1 additional meal slot per 2 culinarian levels. Each day, a culinarian can prepare a meal from her chosen station in that slot. This recipe must be in the culinarian’s cookbook. A culinarian can select a recipe modified with an exotic ingredient to prepare in her station slot. Roundsmen do not receive additional meal slots.

Culinary Study (Ex)

A culinarian adds her Intelligence modifier to Profession (cook) skill checks in addition to her Wisdom modifier.

Mise en Place (Su)

As battle chefs, culinarians are masters of creating meals in the heat of battle. The culinarian achieves this by keeping everything she needs for her recipes within a magical hot pot that acts as her all-in-one cold box, fryer, oven, pantry, and stove top.

At 1st level, a culinarian’s hot pot can store ingredients as the large pouch of a handy haversack (8 cubic feet or 80 lbs). Beginning at 5th level, it counts as a bag of holding type I instead. At 10th, 15th, and 20th level, the hot pot increases to the next type of bag of holding (II, III, and IV, respectively). Because exotic ingredients can be almost anything, the culinarian knows what constitutes an ingredient for one of her recipes, but the Gamemaster has final say on whether it counts.

Creating a Meal

Cuisine Rules

As a standard action, a culinarian with at least 1 weapon drawn can set down her hot pot and declare what meal she is creating by adding the first of that meal’s flavor profiles to the hot pot. If there is an enemy within range of her weapon, the culinarian can also make an attack against that creature as part of the same action. This does not draw attacks of opportunity.

After a culinarian has started creating a meal, she can use her standard action each round to continue adding the flavor profiles in the order listed with that meal. Once all of a meal’s flavor profiles are added, she can either continue adding additional ingredients in any order for greater effect or declare the meal complete as a free action. For each ingredient she adds to a dish, the culinarian can also make an attack against an enemy within range of the weapon she is wielding.

Completing a Meal

Once a meal is declared complete, the culinarian determines how many servings she has of that meal to consume or distribute. She then has a few options:

• She can consume the meal as part of a move action.
• She can distribute servings to her allies as part of a move action or feed them as a standard action (as if the serving were a potion). Her allies can also take and eat a serving from the culinarian’s hot pot as part of a move action on their turns.
• She can deliver servings to an enemy as a melee touch attack.

Space and Movement

A culinarian must be within reach of her hot pot to add ingredients to it. While creating a meal, she can use a swift action to pick up her hot pot and a move action to move up to half her speed without the risk of ruining the meal.

Concentration

If a culinarian is able to make attacks on her turn, she can add ingredients to her meal instead. If she ends her turn without placing at least 1 ingredient into her hot pot or moves more than half her speed while carrying it, she must succeed at a Profession (cook) check DC 15 + the meal’s complexity to avoid ruining the meal. Vigorous motion requires the same check, while violent motion and violent weather increase the DC by 5.

Poison Resistance (Ex)

At 2nd level, a culinarian gains a +2 bonus on all saving throws against poison because she has been on the receiving end of bad or improperly cooked meals. This bonus increases to +4 at 5th level, and then again to +6 at 8th level. At 10th level, a culinarian becomes completely immune to poison.

Woodland Stride (Ex)

By 2nd level, a culinarian has already traveled far and wide; braving forests, mountains, and swamps in search of the ingredients they use to make masterful meals. The culinarian may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Magically manipulated thorns, briars, and overgrown areas to impede motion, however, still affect her.

Mundane Food Expertise (Ex)

 At 3rd level, a culinarian is so talented at making fine cuisine while also doing battle that normal food preparation becomes increasingly simple. Ordinary meals a culinarian prepares when not in combat are always of good quality, and she can prepare a banquet meal in half the time (around 1 hour instead of 2). For each creature with at least 1 rank in Profession (cook) aiding her, the culinarian can reduce the time to prepare a banquet meal by an additional 5 minutes because those creatures will have already started the meal cooking before the culinarian stepped in. This cannot reduce the preparation time to less than 10 minutes without magical assistance, which a majority of culinarians abhor.

Finally, when using Profession (cook) checks to earn income, the culinarian earns gold pieces equal to the result of her check each week.

Sous Chef (Su)

At 6th level, a culinarian can create her meals with better precision and timing. As a full-round action, she can begin a new meal or continue a meal she has already started, adding 2 ingredients to the meal instead of one. This also allows the culinarian to make up to 2 attacks at her highest attack bonus against creatures within reach of her weapon. If she chooses to make more than one attack, all attacks made in this way are at a –2 penalty. See “chef attacks” on Table: Culinarian for easy reference. The culinarian can take one 5-foot-step at any time during her full-round action.

Damage Reduction (Su)

At 7th level, a culinarian gains damage reduction. Subtract 1 from the damage the barbarian takes each time she is dealt damage from a weapon or a natural attack. At 10th level, and every three culinarian levels thereafter (13th, 16th, and 19th level), this damage reduction rises by 1 point. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.

Mundane Food Mastery (Ex)

At 9th level, a culinarian has surpassed the average chef in matters of ordinary food preparation. Any meal eaten within 50 feet of a culinarian is automatically of good quality if she had any say in its preparation (such as suggesting the inclusion of a spice or stirring technique).

In addition, the culinarian can prepare a banquet meal with the aid of one other creature in 30 minutes (additional creatures still reduce the time by 5 minutes each, to a minimum of 10 minutes). When using Profession (cook) checks to earn income, the culinarian earns gold pieces equal to the result of her check each day, rather than each week

Chef de Cuisine (Su)

At 11th level, a culinarian’s timing when creating meals is nigh perfect. When she uses a full-round action to begin or continue a meal, she can add up to 3 ingredients and make up to 3 attacks at her highest attack bonus. The third attack made in this way is at an additional –5 penalty (–7 total).

Chef de Mondiale (Su)

At 16th level, a culinarian has legendary precision when creating meals during combat. When she uses a full-round action to begin or continue a meal, she can add up to 4 ingredients and make up to 4 attacks at her highest attack bonus. The fourth attack made in this way is at an additional –5 penalty (–12 total).

Quarry (Ex)

 At 17th level, a culinarian knows exactly how to track down a rare creature or ingredient she seeks after getting close to it. She can, as a standard action, denote one target within her line of sight as her quarry. Whenever she is following the tracks of her quarry, a culinarian can take 10 on her Survival skill checks while moving at normal speed, without penalty. In addition, she receives a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls made against her quarry, and all critical threats are automatically confirmed. A culinarian can have no more than one quarry at a time. She can dismiss this effect at any time as a free action, but she cannot select a new quarry for 24 hours. If the culinarian sees proof that her quarry is dead, she can select a new quarry after waiting 1 hour.

Improved Quarry (Su)

At 20th level, the culinarian’s ability to hunt her quarry improves. She can now select a quarry as a free action, and can now take 20 while using Survival to track her quarry, while moving at normal speed without penalty. Her insight bonus to attack her quarry increases to +4. If her quarry is killed or dismissed, she can select a new one after 10 minutes have passed.

Favored Class Bonuses

Instead of receiving an additional skill rank or hit point whenever they gain a level in a favored class, some races have the option of choosing from a number of other bonuses, depending upon their favored classes. The following options are available to the listed race who have culinarian as their favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the listed favored class reward.

Table: Alternate Favored Class Bonuses

Race	Bonus	Source
Paizo
Core Races
Dwarf	The culinarian can add + 1/6 of a salty ingredient when she begins or continues a meal as part of a full-round action. If she does, she can also make an extra attack with a –5 penalty.	BoMT DLC
Elf	The culinarian can add + 1/6 of a sweet ingredient when she begins or continues a meal as part of a full-round action. If she does, she can also make an extra attack with a –5 penalty.	BoMT DLC
Gnome	Add +1 to the culinarian’s Acrobatics check bonus gained by spending a ki pool point. A culinarian must be at least 5th level to select this benefit.	BoMT DLC
Half-Elf	Add a +1/2 circumstance bonus on critical hit confirmation rolls with a weapon of the culinarian’s choice (maximum bonus +4). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.	BoMT DLC
Half-Orc	The culinarian can add + 1/6 of an umami ingredient when she begins or continues a meal as part of a full-round action. If she does, she can also make an extra attack with a –5 penalty.	BoMT DLC
Halfling	The culinarian can add + 1/6 of a sweet ingredient when she begins or continues a meal as part of a full-round action. If she does, she can also make an extra attack with a –5 penalty.	BoMT DLC
Human	The culinarian can add + 1/6 of a texture ingredient when she begins or continues a meal as part of a full-round action. If she does, she can also make an extra attack with a –5 penalty.	BoMT DLC

Archetypes & Alternate Class Features

When a character selects a class, he must choose to use the standard class features found or those listed in one of the archetypes presented here. Each alternate class feature replaces a specific class feature from its parent class. For example, the elemental fist class feature of the culinarian of the four winds replaces the stunning fist class feature of the culinarian. When an archetype includes multiple class features, a character must take all of them—often blocking the character from ever gaining certain familiar class features, but replacing them with equally powerful options. All of the other class features found in the core class and not mentioned among the alternate class features remain unchanged and are acquired normally when the character reaches the appropriate level (unless noted otherwise). A character who takes an alternate class feature does not count as having the class feature that was replaced when meeting any requirements or prerequisites.

A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the core class as another alternate class feature. For example, a paladin could not be both a hospitaler and an undead scourge since they both modify the smite evil class feature and both replace the aura of justice class feature. A paladin could, however, be both an undead scourge and a warrior of the holy light, since none of their new class features replace the same core class feature.

Culinarians are martial mystics. Through mediation and discipline, and sometimes by way of secrets passed down for generations within a monastery, a culinarian progresses toward his perfect self—along the way turning his body into an astonishing fighting machine. But though some masters would lead their students to think otherwise, the path toward the perfect self isn’t set. Different culinarians confront the road to enlightenment in different ways, and sometimes even with different goals, from harmony with the universe to physical perfection and immortality.

The themes and alternate class features presented below introduce not only variations in fighting techniques, but alternate philosophies for culinarians seeking perfection.