War Weaver

“On my count, climb out of the trench and charge toward that hill. Don’t worry about the fire raining from the sky—I’ve got you covered.”

—Arvena, war weaver

By weaving together strands of pure arcane power, the war weaver becomes a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. A war weaver can establish an eldritch tapestry among her comrades and quickly aid them with her magic. BECOMING A WAR WEAVER

Entering this prestige class is a relatively straightforward matter: The class is open to any 5th-level wizard who has made the appropriate feat and skill point choices. It’s a little harder for sorcerers and bards to get into the class. Sorcerers don’t have as many feats as wizards, and bards don’t get access to 3rd-level spells until 7th level.

Entry Requirements

Skills: Craft (weaving) 6 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks

Feats: Enlarge Spell

Spells: Ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells

CLASS FEATURES

As a war weaver, you gain abilities that allow your spells to affect multiple allies at once. Eldritch Tapestry (Su): Upon entering the class, you gain an understanding of the rudiments of the war weaver’s craft. You can thread together unseen strands of life force to connect willing allies in a magically resonant network known as an eldritch tapestry. Doing so takes 10 minutes and requires a DC 15 Craft (weaving) check. (Most war weavers take 10 on the check.) When you weave an eldritch tapestry, you can connect a number of allies equal to your bonus in your arcane spellcasting ability score (Intelligence for wizards, Charisma for sorcerers and bards). Creatures must be within line of sight to have their life force woven into an eldritch tapestry, and they must be living creatures. An eldritch tapestry lasts for 24 hours or until you weave a new one. You’re always connected to your own eldritch tapestry, and you don’t count against the limit of allies that can be connected. Once you have woven an eldritch tapestry, you can send your spells across the life-force strands to your allies. Although you cast but a single spell, you can have it affect every creature in your eldritch tapestry as if the group were a single creature. The maximum level of spell you can cast into an eldritch tapestry is equal to your class level. For example, a 5th-level wizard/2nd-level war weaver with an Intelligence of 16 could cast a 2nd-level spell such as bull’s strength and have it affect herself and the three allies connected to her eldritch tapestry. Each of the four characters would gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength—at the cost of a single spell, not four separate castings. Only spells with the “harmless” designation in their saving throw entry or ones requiring willing targets can be cast into an eldritch tapestry. In addition, spells with a range of personal cannot be cast through an eldritch tapestry. If a spell has a costly material component or an XP cost, you must expend one casting’s worth of the material component or pay the XP cost for each creature targeted by the spell (including yourself). For example, sharing a stoneskin spell with four allies requires the expenditure of diamond dust worth a total of 1,250 gp. An eldritch tapestry doesn’t change the range of a spell. To cast bull’s strength, for example, you must touch all your allies. You can touch as many willing targets as you can reach as part of the casting, but all targets must be touched in the same round you finish casting the spell. You can exclude specific creatures connected to an eldritch tapestry from a spell if you like. If the spell requires decision-making on your part, you must make the same decision for everyone the spell is meant to affect. For instance, if you cast protection from energy through the eldritch tapestry, you must choose the same energy type for everyone affected by the spell. An eldritch tapestry doesn’t allow your spells to affect illegal targets. You can’t affect objects with spells cast into your eldritch tapestry, even if those objects are held by your allies (for instance, you can’t use eldritch tapestry to deliver a greater magic weapon spell). Quiescent Weaving (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can weave a single spell into your eldritch tapestry for later use. For each level you gain beyond 2nd, you can store one additional spell as a quiescent weaving in your eldritch tapestry. The maximum level of spell that you can weave into your eldritch tapestry with this ability is equal to your class level. Quiescent weaving enables you to prepare beneficial spells you know your allies will need in a crisis. You can release the quiescent spells right away at the beginning of a fight, then commence with more offensive spellcasting.

Table 5–5: The War Weaver Hit Die: d4 Base Attack Fort Ref Will

Level Bonus Save Save Save Special 1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Eldritch tapestry 2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Quiescent weaving 1 Spellcasting — +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

3rd +1 +1 +1 +3 Quiescent weaving 2

+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class 4th +2 +1 +1 +4 Quiescent weaving 3 +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class 5th +2 +1 +1 +4 Enlarged tapestry, quiescent weaving 4 +1 level of existing arcane class

Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level): Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Profession, Spellcraft.

To make a quiescent weave, you must designate the eldritch tapestry as the target for the spell as you cast it (regardless of what the spell’s normal target is). The spell is now woven into the eldritch tapestry in a dormant state; it doesn’t use up its duration or affect targets in any way. As a move action, you can release all the spells in your quiescent weaving. They immediately and instantaneously take effect in the order they were cast. The same restrictions apply to a quiescent weaving that apply to any other spell woven into an eldritch tapestry (they must be

“harmless,” cannot have a range of personal, and require separate expenditures of material components or XP for each target). The quiescent spells affect only legal targets at the time you release them. For example, if you have bull’s strength and protection from energy in your eldritch tapestry as quiescent weavings, you still have to touch your allies during the move action to target them with the spells.

Spellcasting: At each level other than 1st level, you gain new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) and an increase in caster level as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level.

You do not, however, gain any other class feature a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a war weaver, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, spells known, and caster level.

Enlarged Tapestry (Su):

At 5th level, you can stretch your magic across your eldritch tapestry beyond normal distances. Spells you cast through an eldritch Arvena, a war weaver tapestry have their range category increased: touch spells become close range, close-range spells become medium range, and medium-range spells become long range. Long-range spells and spells with fixed ranges are unaffected. PLAYING A WAR WEAVER

esoteric techniques of the eldritch tapestry so you can channel helpful magic to your comrades as efficiently as possible. Your magical assistance doesn’t necessarily make you any less effective at blasting the enemy, however. Because a single bull’s strength from you can affect multiple allies, you have more spell slots available for offensive magic. The theory behind eldritch tapestries is well understood by most powerful arcane spellcasters, but few take up the mantle of the war weaver because it requires familiarity with real-world textile weaving. Your techniques don’t get a lot of respect from wizards who crave personal power at all costs, because you’re at your best when you have allies to connect to your eldritch tapestry. Selfish wielders of arcane magic would rather learn new spells for themselves than spend time studying techniques that help only others. Combat In the early rounds of a typical fight, you’ll use your eldritch tapestry to cast beneficial spells on your allies while relying on them to protect you from enemy attacks. Once your allies have received your magical boosts and protections, you’re free to let fly with the attack spells in your repertoire. Your ability to “buff” your allies gets even stronger once you gain the quiescent weaving ability. Quiescent weaving is ideal for spells with short durations, because the clock won’t start ticking until battle is imminent. Rather than spending multiple rounds casting beneficial spells, then charging the enemy, your team can charge right away, relying on the spells in the quiescent weaving to aid them. You’re effectively packing multiple rounds of spellcasting into a single move action (potentially dozens of rounds of spellcasting once you attain higher levels). While you might often want beneficial spells in effect at the beginning of a fight, you can instead save the spells in a quiescent weaving until a critical point in the battle. Just when your enemies think they have you and your allies figured out, you can release a quiescent weaving and turn all your friends invisible while giving them the ability to fly.

The stereotypical battlefield wizard blasts his enemies with fireballs and lightning bolts, and so do you. However, you spend a round or two caring for your comrades first, making them stronger, faster, and better able to survive the rigors of war. That willingness to help others is what separates you from your fellow arcane spellcasters. You have mastered the Advancement

No globe-spanning organization of war weavers exists. You probably learned the rudiments of eldritch weaving from one of countless arcane texts or from a helpful mentor.

Through self-experimentation, you eventually learned to twist the unseen strands of eldritch power into a tapestry that would accept your spells.

Illus. by W. Reynolds

As you attain more levels in the prestige class, you learn to manipulate those strands in more complex ways and eventually stretch them across greater distances. You also start to collect spells (in your spellbook or your spells known list) that work with an eldritch tapestry. In time, you become a repository of arcane knowledge about beneficial spells of all sorts. For wizards, gaining access to tapestry-friendly spells is relatively easy—it’s just a matter of paying the inking costs to have the spells put in your spellbook. However, if you were a bard or a sorcerer before you became a war weaver, spell choice becomes a trickier task. You must carefully balance the “buff” spells on your spells known list with the usual staples of a sorcerer or bard’s repertoire—evocations and enchantments that affect enemies, not allies.

Resources

You might be able to cast beneficial spells much faster than other spellcasters, but many of those spells have a range of touch. Until you become a 5th-level war weaver, you’ll have to stay within a few paces of your allies to use your beneficial spells effectively. Accordingly, you’ll want to invest in items that improve your maneuverability on the battlefield (such as boots of striding and springing) and ones that protect you from enemy attack (anything that improves your Armor Class, for example). WAR WEAVERS IN THE WORLD

“Arvena, our war weaver, is too clever by half, and that cleverness keeps us alive. I just wish she’d tell us what’s in the weaving ahead of time. It’s disconcerting when you’re suddenly 20 feet up in the air.” —Grumaik, sergeant in Von Hault’s Sabers

War weavers are a good addition to a warfare-based campaign because their key power—the ability to benefit multiple allies at once—is extremely useful on the battlefield. Organization

There’s no cabal of war weavers anywhere in the world, but individual war weavers are keen to join organizations of other kinds. They know firsthand that they’re at their best when they have allies (or minions, at least) on whom they can cast beneficial spells. Many war weavers can be found attached to elite squads within a national army—especially if such squads are specialized for infiltration or fast-response missions. The size of the squad is often tailored to the war weaver’s relevant ability bonus. A war weaver who can include five people in her eldritch tapestry, for example, is almost always put in a squad with five soldiers. NPC Reactions

War weavers keep rank-and-file soldiers alive, so they’re accorded great respect in most armies. NPCs in the same army as a war weaver have a starting attitude of friendly (see page 72 of the Player’s Handbook) so long as they’re aware of a character’s status as a war weaver.

In general, the war weaver’s techniques are too esoteric to draw much attention, good or bad, from other spellcasters and those outside the military structures. Even enemy soldiers don’t have any particular ire for war weavers beyond the “get the wizard” attitude prevalent among soldiers everywhere. WAR WEAVER LORE

Characters with Knowledge (arcana) can research the war weavers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

DC 10: “War weavers are adept at quickly casting beneficial spells on their comrades.”

DC 15: “War weavers can create something called an eldritch tapestry that can store spells. It lets them cast a single spell on multiple allies at once.”

DC 20: “The eldritch tapestry works only on beneficial spells. They’re called war weavers because multiple-cast beneficial spells are more useful on the battlefield than anywhere else.” Knowledge (history) checks can yield similar information, but because the war weavers are relatively obscure, the DCs are 5 higher than those given above. WAR WEAVERS IN THE GAME

War weavers are easy to work into an ongoing battlefield adventures campaign. A would-be war weaver might unearth the eldritch weaving techniques during training between battles. Or perhaps an enemy war weaver surrenders rather than fighting to the death, offering to teach a PC the secrets of war weaving in exchange for her life. Once she has joined the prestige class, that war weaver is ready to add members of her unit to her eldritch tapestry. Over time, the DM should enable a PC war weaver to gain access to enough beneficial spells to allow for multiple clever combinations. The player of a war weaver will enjoy the class more if she’s not casting the same spells into the eldritch tapestry each time. Encounters in which the PCs can gain an advantage (such as higher ground or cover) if they act quickly make a war weaver feel important. The other characters can rush headlong toward the objective, confident that the war weaver is already covering them with beneficial spells. Adaptation

It’s easy to invent an organization of war weavers—perhaps arcane spellcasters who venerate a god of war. Such an organization would have two faces: the war weavers who direct affairs and the minions that benefit from the war weavers’ spells. The war weavers might have rank-and-file soldiers at their command, or they might be monster collectors with strange creatures attached to their eldritch tapestries. One potential adaptation deserves a caution. The war weaver isn’t balanced if you simply replace the arcane magic requirement with a divine magic requirement.

Divine spellcasting war weavers can cast cure spells too efficiently for the class to be balanced with respect to