Disciple of Ashardalon Dispassionate Watcher

Table 2–4: The Bloodscaled Fury

Class Base Fort Ref Will Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Special

1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Fearsome presence 2nd +2 +3 +0 +0 Draconic fury +2/+1 3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Scales of blood (spell resistance, damage reduction +5) 4th +4 +4 +1 +1 Rend 5th +5 +4 +1 +1 Extended fury 6th +6 +5 +2 +2 Draconic fury +4/+2 7th +7 +5 +2 +2 Scales of blood (damage reduction +0/magic and cold iron) 8th +8 +6 +2 +2 Incite rage 9th +9 +6 +3 +3 Tireless fury 10th +10 +7 +3 +3 Draconic fury +6/+3 11th +11 +7 +3 +3 Scales of blood (damage reduction +0/epic and cold iron) 12th +12 +8 +4 +4 Blinding speed

Class Features

The following are class features of the bloodscaled fury prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A bloodscaled fury gains no proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields.

Fearsome Presence (Ex): A bloodscaled fury is a terror to behold, and the seething fury that churns in its heart inspires terror in all who lay eyes on it. The dragon’s frightful presence becomes more powerful: The saving throw DC to resist the ability is increased by the dragon’s class level. Creatures with Hit Dice equal to or less than 1/2 the dragon’s class level + 4 are panicked if they fail their saving throws, while creatures with more Hit Dice are shaken. Both fear effects last for 6d6 rounds (rather than the usual 4d6).

Draconic Fury (Ex): At 2nd level, a bloodscaled fury’s rage becomes more fearsome. While raging, its Strength and Constitution scores increase by an additional 2 points and it gains an additional +1 morale bonus on its Will saves.

Thus, an 11th-level barbarian/2nd-level bloodscaled fury gains +8 to its Strength and Constitution scores and +4 on its

Will saves. (Its Armor Class penalty remains at –2.)

At 6th level, and again at 10th, these bonuses increase by a similar amount. An 11th-level barbarian/10th-level bloodscaled fury gains +12 to its Strength and Constitution scores and +6 on its Will saves.

Scales of Blood (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a bloodscaled fury earns its name. When it enters a rage, small quantities of blood ooze out around its scales, lining their edges and adding to the dragon’s fearsome appearance.

More important, the blood supernaturally wards the dragon from spells and weapon damage. For the duration of the dragon’s rage, its spell resistance increases by its class level, and its damage reduction improves as well. The number before the slash in the dragon’s damage reduction increases by 5 at 3rd level. In addition, at 7th level a bloodscaled fury’s damage reduction can be overcome only by magic cold iron weapons, and at 11th level only by epic cold iron weapons.

For example, an old white dragon with damage reduction 10/magic who reaches 3rd level as a bloodscaled fury gains damage reduction 15/magic while raging. At 7th level, it gains damage reduction 15/magic and cold iron while raging, and at 11th level it gains damage reduction 15/epic and cold iron while raging.

Rend: At 4th level, a bloodscaled fury gains Rend (see page 73) as a bonus feat, even if it doesn’t have the prerequisites.

Extended Fury (Ex): At 5th level, a bloodscaled fury can remain in a rage for a number of rounds equal to 6 + its Con modifier.

Incite Rage (Ex): At 8th level, a bloodscaled fury gains the ability to incite rage in its allies whenever it enters a rage. The dragon can affect all willing allies within 60 feet, granting them a +4 morale bonus to Strength, a +4 morale bonus to Constitution, a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –2 penalty to Armor Class for as long as the dragon remains raging. This ability is otherwise identical to normal barbarian rage, including the fatigue at the end of the rage.

Tireless Fury (Ex): At 9th level, a bloodscaled fury no longer becomes fatigued at the end of its rage.

Blinding Speed (Ex): A 12th-level bloodscaled fury can act as if under the effects of a haste spell for a total of 12 rounds each day. The duration of the effect need not be consecutive rounds. Activating this power is a free action.

Ex-Bloodscaled Furies

A bloodscaled fury that becomes lawful loses all class features and cannot gain more levels as a bloodscaled fury.

DISCIPLE OF ASHARDALON

The ancient red dragon Ashardalon, when struck a mortal blow by a human druid, replaced his wounded heart with a living demon: a balor of enormous power named Ammet, the Eater of Souls. Inspired by this example, disciples of Ashardalon bind fiendish spirits to their own hearts, eventually taking on the characteristics of demonic spawn themselves. Disciples of Ashardalon do not really worship the ancient dragon, nor do they literally learn directly from him as the word “disciple” implies, but they regard Ashardalon as the great exemplar of their path and seek to emulate him in every way possible.

Dragons of any class or none can qualify for the disciple of Ashardalon prestige class. Those with a religious or arcane leaning who have pursued specialized knowledge are most likely to follow this course. Even the most martially minded evil dragons, though, often find enough to inspire them in Ashardalon’s example that they adopt this class.

Disciples of Ashardalon are members of an organization, loose-knit and secretive though it may be. Of necessity, they have some contact with other members of the order, but their overwhelming personal ambition means they rarely cooperate with one another in pursuit of their various evil schemes. They are likely to make use of various minions, particularly those of a fiendish character, in pursuit of their plans, rather than rely on the cooperation of equals.

Like their evil exemplar, they are often served by deluded cults made up of evil humanoids or even undead. Both they and their cultists contemplate plans of sweeping evil grandeur—seizing power, leveling kingdoms, reclaiming or destroying ancient artifacts, and the like. They are thus particularly well suited for use in campaigns of epic scope and, quite likely, epic level.

Hit Die: d8. Requirements

To qualify to become a disciple of Ashardalon, a dragon must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Any dragon.

Alignment: Any evil.

Base Attack Bonus: +18.

Skills: Knowledge (religion) 18 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 18 ranks.

Feats: Iron Will, Quicken Spell-

Like Ability.

Special: Initiation: Before adopting the prestige class, a dragon must join the loose-knit cult of other disciples and undergo its initiation rites. This process includes the ritual scarring of the dragon’s heart—an extremely dangerous practice that would claim the life of a dragon too weak to qualify for the class, and leaves even those that do robbed of 1 point of Constitution. (Dragons that progress to at least 6th level in this class regain the lost Constitution point eventually.)

Class Skills The disciple of Ashardalon’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions. Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. Class Features The following are class features of the disciple of Ashardalon prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A disciple of Ashardalon gains no proficiency with any weapons, A disciple of Ashardalon armor, or shields. Fiendbond (Su): As part of its initiation, a disciple of Ashardalon binds a demonic spirit to its own heart, emulating the manner in which Ashardalon himself took a balor as his heart. The dragon’s alignment changes to chaotic evil if it was not already of that alignment. The dragon gains bonus sorcerer spells as if its Charisma score were 2 points higher than actual. Resistance (Ex): A disciple of Ashardalon gains resistance to acid, cold, electricity, and fire. This resistance is 5 at 1st level, and increases by 5 at 4th level and every four levels thereafter (10 at 4th level, 15 at 8th level, and 20 at 12th level). Spell-Like Abilities: A disciple of Ashardalon gains spell-like abilities as it increases in level. Its caster level is equal to its class level, and its saving throw DCs are 10 + its Cha modifier + spell level. Once an ability is gained, the disciple can use it a certain number of times per day, as follows: 3/day—darkness, poison, unholy aura; 1/day—

Table 2–5: The Disciple of Ashardalon

Class Base Fort Ref Will Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Special

1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Fiendbond, resistance 5, darkness 2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Desecrate, skill point increase 3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Unholy blight, ability increase (Str, Dex, Int) 4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Resistance 10, poison 5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Contagion 6th +6 +5 +2 +5 Poison immunity, blasphemy, ability increase (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Cha) 7th +7 +5 +2 +5 Unhallow, natural armor increase 8th +8 +6 +2 +6 Resistance 15, unholy aura 9th +9 +6 +3 +6 Horrid wilting, ability increase (Str, Dex, Int) 10th +10 +7 +3 +7 Skill point increase 11th +11 +7 +3 +7 Destruction 12th +12 +8 +4 +8 Resistance 20, ability increase (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Cha), fiendish perfection