The following article is a copy of a message posted at Scarred Lands forums.

Prestige Class; Bloodbinder of Fiends

author: Nightfall_Sage
email: nighttfall@yahoo.com
date: 2003-02-24
status: test

While there are some sorcerers that claim to be masters of fiends, few can often claim to be born with their blood. Bloodbinder of Fiends are a rare bloodline as they have so thoroughly channeled the power of their family's progenitor, they find themselves drawn closer and more innately to both summoning fiends as well as using many of their same powers. While some demonologists consider themselves masters of the craft, even they must bow to the might of these sorcerers. For in these sorcerers reign the might of all fiends, regardless of which realm they hail from. Most Bloodbinders have learned, through their careful craft, to use their blood in many ways. Most though have yet to reach their ultimate dream, that of truly becoming a fiend of some sort. Many of the demons, devils or whatever evil outsiders they summon view them with a mixture of awe and loathing. Still those that gain their power and continue to understand such insights are most welcome in the ranks of any evil. After all, with powers such as these, most any fiend would welcome them to help in what ever plot they might have in the mortal world.

Hit Die: d4

Requirements:

To qualify to become a Bloodbinder of Fiends (BlFi), a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Alignment: Any evil

Feats: Fiendspawn, Skill Focus: Knowledge (the planes), Iron Will

Skills: Diplomacy 3 ranks, Intimidate 3 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 4 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks,

Special: Must be able to speak Infernal or Abyssal

Special: Must swear a pact with a powerful fiend, to be his/her servant, and there by send his/her soul to that creature when he/she dies.

Special: Must also sacrifice a goodly aligned outsider on a special handmade altar that costs 1,000 gold per HD of the creature sacrificed. This material must be something of value to particular fiend.

Class Skills

The Bloodbinder of Fiends' class skills are: Alchemy (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (Wis), Ritual Casting (Con), Scry (Int), Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Blood Binder of Fiends prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Bloodbinder of Fiends are proficient with all simple weapons and no armors.

Spells per Day: Bloodbinder of Fiends continue to advance in spellcasting ability for each level in this class. When a new Bloodbinder of Fiends level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved familiar, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of Bloodbinder of Fiends to the level of some other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spell per day and caster level accordingly. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a Bloodbinder of Fiends, he must decide to which class he adds each level of Bloodbinder of Fiends for purposes of determining spells per day when he adds the new level. Levels in this class do not stack for the purposes of familiar advancement and so on.

Fiendish Insight (Su): Because of their bloodlines, Bloodbinders have built insight to all fiends. This ability allows them to access great power in their spellcasting. At 1st level, they now gain bonus spells per day using their Wisdom modifier (if any). This also stacks with their existing Cha bonuses for spells per day. However they can only use bonuses with spells they receive from their bloodline feat.

Skin of Evil (Ex): As the Bloodbinder taps into greater power of his fiendish ancestry, he starts to become more fiendish. At 2nd level the skin of the Bloodbinder hardens, granting him a +2 natural AC bonus. Also he now gains a +2 bonus to all intimidate and bluff checks. This natural armor bonus improves to an additional +2 at 8th level.

Fiendish Lore (Su): Part of understanding his fiendish ancestry is also understanding the power evil magic has. Thus, at he gains access to spells that would normally be reserved for clerics of evil gods and thus inaccessible to most sorcerers. These spells are added to the spell list of the Bloodbinder's primary spellcasting class, though they still must be gained in the normal fashion for that class. Additionally, the Bloodbinder is treated as having the Spell Penetration feat for the purposes of casting spells with the Evil descriptor.

The spells that are added to the Bloodbinder's spell list (but not necessarily Spells Known) are listed in the Fiendish Lore section. He gains access to the first Fiendish Lore at 3rd level, and gains access to the new spells at every other level (save 10th) thereafter.

The spells of the Fiendish Lore are:

Fiendish Lore, 1st: bane, detect good, doom, grim feast*.
These spells, gained at 3rd level, are added to the 1st level spell list of the bloodbinder.

Fiendish Lore, 2nd: death knell, desecrate, rend the sovereign soul*, spiritual weapon.
These spells, gained at 5th level, are added to the 2nd level spell list of the bloodbinder.

Fiendish Lore, 3rd: animate dead, Chardun's torments*, contagion.
These spells, gained at 7th level, are added to the 3rd level spell list of the bloodbinder.

Fiendish Lore, 4th: blood water***, condemned, unholy blight, Vangal's Dogs of War**.
These spells, gained at 9th level, are added to the 4th level spell list of the bloodbinder.

Fiendish Lore, 5th: dispel good, profane stare***, slay living, unhallow.
These spells, gained at 10th level, are added to the 5th level spell list of the bloodbinder.

Bloodbinding of Fiends (Su): Because of his link to fiends of all stripes and greater knowledge of the planes, at 4th level, the Bloodbinder can now summon and retain the services of many fiends for much longer periods of time. What this means in game terms is, by sacrificing 3 hit points per level of the spell to be affected, and rolling a successful knowledge (planes check) (DC 10+the spell level), he can summon a greater number of fiends and keep them on the material plane. This means that the spell cast is now under the effect of an Extend spell, without raising the level of the spell. Also this effect now doubles the amount of creatures he can use through summon spell. For example if the Bloodbinder uses a summon V to summon fiends from the 3rd level table, he now summons 2d4+1 of those types. It should be noted here that you must also add in the effect of the extend spell to determine the spell's level. If he fails the roll, the spell still works however with none of the benefits.

At 8th level this ability improves so that now all fiends used through summons spells (with a successful check at DC 15+spell level), now remain for one full day, have maximum HP and gain an additional +2 to their Str, Dex and Con.

Also the number of fiends summoned is now tripled. However the cost to use the ability is now doubled so that he must now sacrifice 6 hit points.

Fiendish Companion (Su): At 5th level, because of the Bloodbinder's connection to fiends, his familiar now gains the fiendish template. If he already has an evil outsider as a familiar, that outsider now gains a +2 to Str, Dex and Con scores.

Fiendish Aura (Su): At 6th level now gains a wholesome aura. This improves his ability to converse with mortals and fiends, granting him a +4 circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks with non-fiends, and +4 circumstance bonus to his Diplomacy checks with fiends. Also he can now project a "fear" aura once per day, caster level equal 10+half his level in Bloodbinder + his Cha modifier.

Fiendish Channeling (Su): At 7th level, the Bloodbinder's fiendish nature influences his spellcasting ability. Any spells that he casts with the [Evil] descriptor are treated as though they were enhanced with Maximize feat, with no increase in spell level or casting time. Additionally, half of the damage inflicted by any spell with the [Fire] descriptor or [Acid], cast by the Bloodbinder, is considered to be unholy damage, rather than fire damage. They channel the rage and fury of the fires of the unholy. Fiendish Aid (Su): At 9th level, a Bloodbinder gains +2 bonus to his Wisdom and Intelligence scores.

Fiendish Metamorphosis (Su): At 8th level the Bloodbinder's transformation is complete and he become a true child of the fiends. His type changes to "Outsider (Evil)". He is now immune to those spells which only affect humanoids (such as charm person), but is now affected by spells that target outsiders, such as dismissal (should the character be banished by such spells, he is sent to the godly plane that matches his own alignment). The character also gains a damage reduction of 15/+1, spell resistance 20, as well as bat like wings. These allow him to fly with maneuverability good.