Earth Infusion (Mephit Paragon)
Around this time last year, we provided you with a couple of new races and classes to go along with our book The Traveler’s Guide to the Elemental Plane of Fire. One of these, the mephit (and mephit paragon class) had applications far outside the realm of fire. We promised that one day we’d provide new elemental infusions, allowing you to play more types of mephit paragons besides fire and magma. Today is that day, as we bring you the earth elemental infusion, and, as an added bonus, six earth feats they can select as bonus feats.
New Elemental Infusion
Earth
Some mephits are slow and steady as the earth itself. Mocked by others of their kind for being “dumb as rocks,” these mephits aren’t so much unintelligent as they are cautious and slow to act, waiting until they are certain the time is right. Much more patient than their kin, these mephits are no less mischievous, and the payouts from their well-laid and long-term plots can be as momentous as a landslide.
Bonus Spells: rampart (APG) (4th), stone call (APG) (7th), spike stones (10th), stoneskin (13th), hungry earth (MC) (16th), move earth (19th).
Spellcasting Modifiers: Earth mephit paragons cannot cast spells with the air or electricity descriptors. An earth mephit paragon can cast spells with the cold, fire, and water descriptors, but must use two spell slots of the appropriate spell level to cast that spell, similar to a wizard casting a spell from an opposed school.
Bonus Feats: Earth mephit paragons can select any feat with the earth descriptor for which they meet the prerequisites. A sample of such feats are included below. Future products may contain further feats with this descriptor.
Breath Weapon: An earth mephit’s breath weapon consists of a cone of rocks, and deals bludgeoning damage. Additionally, rather than dealing 1d6 points of damage per two class levels, the breath weapon deals 1d6+1 points of damage per two class levels (2d6+2 at 3rd level, 3d6+3 at 5th level, and so on).
Elemental Summons: An earth mephit paragon can summon the following creatures.
Elemental Powers:
Pebble Shot (Sp): As a standard action, an earth mephit paragon can conjure a pebble and fling it through the air at a single creature. Treat this as a ranged attack with a range increment of 60 feet. If the attack hits, it deals an amount of bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + the earth mephit paragon’s mephit paragon level. Alternatively, the earth mephit paragon can use this ability to make an attack roll against a Tiny or smaller unattended object within 60 feet. A Tiny unattended object has an AC of 5, a Diminutive unattended object has an AC of 7, and a Fine unattended object has an AC of 11. On a hit, the object is not damaged, but the earth mephit paragon can move it up to 15 feet farther away from herself. On a miss, she damages the object normally. The earth mephit paragon can use this ability (in either of its applications) 3 times per day.
Enlarge (Sp): Beginning at 4th level, an earth mephit paragon is able to expand her body on command, growing by one size category. This functions as the spell enlarge person, except that it affects the earth mephit paragon regardless of her creature type, and she can only affect herself with this ability. Her caster level is equal to her mephit paragon level. The earth mephit paragon can use this ability 3 times per day.
Freeze (Ex): By 8th level, an earth mephit paragon can hold so still that she appears to be an inanimate object made of stone. She can take 20 on Stealth checks made to hide in plain sight as a statue or statuette.
Healing Soil (Ex): Beginning at 12th level, an earth mephit paragon is healed by immersion in soil. At the end of the earth mephit paragon’s turn each round, if she is underground (including if she is burrowing, or if she is within a cave or cavern), she regains 2 hit points. Any healing in excess of her maximum hit points is wasted.
Harden Skin (Su): Beginning at 16th level, an earth mephit paragon can deliberately harden her body, making herself slower but sturdier. Doing so is a standard action, and causes the earth mephit paragon to increase her natural armor bonus to AC by +6, but leaves her staggered, and halves her movement speed. She can end this effect at any time with another standard action.
Earthquake (Sp): At 20th level, an earth mephit paragon can create earthquakes. This functions as the spell earthquake, except that the earth mephit paragon must be in contact with the ground when she uses this ability. Her caster level for this effect is equal to her mephit paragon level. The earth mephit paragon can use this ability 3 times per day.
New Feats
The following section presents some new feats with the Earth descriptor.
Burrow [Earth]
You are able to dig through earth and soil at an impressive pace.
Prerequisite: Earth subtype.
Benefits: You can tunnel through dirt (but not rock). You gain a burrow speed equal to your base land speed. You cannot charge or run while burrowing. By default, you do not leave behind tunnels other creatures can use when burrowing, but you may choose to do so by moving at half speed and shoring up the tunnel as you pass. If you are burrowing through an area affected by move earth or similar effects, you are moved 30 feet in a random direction and are stunned for 1 round unless you succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save.
Earth Glide [Earth]
You can move through earth and stone like a fish through water.
Prerequisite: Burrow speed, character level 5th.
Benefit: You can burrow through rock and stone, as well as nearly any other sort of earth besides metal. You can also move through lava in a similar fashion, although you are still subject to fire damage while doing so. Unlike normal burrowing, when using earth glide to move through rock and stone, you are not able to leave tunnels or holes behind you as you pass. You can breathe normally while using earth glide.
Mineral Sense [Earth]
You have a keen sense for precious gems and metals.
Prerequisite: Earth subtype.
Benefit: You can discern the presence of nearby metals and minerals. If you pass within 30 feet of a cache of any metal or gemstone, you immediately detect its presence, as though with the scent special quality. If the metal or gemstone weighs less than one ounce, it is too small to be detected passively in this way. Additionally, by concentrating on your mineral senses as a move action, you can pinpoint the location of any metal or mineral that you detect in this way. Any effect that interferes with scent also interferes with your ability to detect metals and minerals. You can use this ability at will.
Shape Stone [Earth]
You can sculpt and manipulate stone and rock as though it were wet clay.
Prerequisite: Earth subtype, character level 7th.
Benefits: You can alter the shape of solid stone, bending and molding it in your hands. The process is slow: it takes 10 minutes per cubic foot of stone altered in this way. You can form the stone into any shape that suits your purpose. It’s even possible to make crude coffers, doors, and so forth, but fine detail is generally not possible without a successful Craft check (with the DC determined by the GM). Particularly complex or detailed projects may take considerably more time than 10 minutes per cubic foot.
Stone Visage [Earth]
You can create an avatar of your face from nearby stone.
Prerequisite: Earth subtype, character level 5th.
Benefits: As a standard action, you can touch a stone surface and transfer your consciousness into it, causing an image of your face to appear on any stone surface that is connected to the one that you are touching. For example, you could touch one side of a stone wall and have your face appear on the other side, or touch the stone wall in one room of a castle and have your face appear in another room of the same castle.
The image that appears bears your consciousness and has a limited form of animation. The image is a perfect representation of your face and head, magnified to three times normal size. You can move the stone representation of your head enough to make gestures like nodding or shaking your head, and can talk normally. You are able to see and hear through the image, but cannot see or hear from your own body, which is considered helpless for as long as you maintain the effect.
You may leave the image at any time, returning you to your body. If someone destroys or damages the stone image of you, you return to your body unharmed. You can otherwise remain in the image indefinitely. Once your consciousness returns to your body, the stone immediately reverts to its previous shape.
Tremorsense [Earth]
You can sense vibrations in the earth that allow you to pinpoint foes.
Prerequisite: Earth subtype, Perception 5 ranks.
Benefit: You gain tremorsense to a range of 60 feet. If you already possessed tremorsense from another source, the range of that tremorsense is increased by 30 feet, instead.