Blade Caster

For some arcanists, the pinnacle of magic is not in its final result, but its expression. To those, mostly residents of the city of Caminus, that expression lies in the path of the blade caster. Using their magic, the blade caster uses their magic to forge aspects of reality. These aspects are used as tools to achieve the blade caster's aspiration as an expression to a final result. Blade casters recreate works of art, forge empowered weapons, and defend with fortified shields and armor.

Role: Blade casters find themselves most often in the thick of melee combat. Using their magic as their weapon of choice, they have the option to forge arcane blades and armor or grant themselves and their allies magical buffs to fight.

Alignment: Blade casters may be of any alignment, although they are typically any non-evil.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements
To qualify to become a blade caster, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus:  +4

Feats: Arcane Strike, Dodge, Spell Penetration

Spells: Ability to cast 2nd-level arcane spells.

Special: Employed at some point in the armed forces of Caminus.

Class Skills
The blade caster adds Appraise (Int), Knowledge (Int), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Spellcraft (Int), and Stealth (Dex).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: Blade Caster

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the blade caster prestige class.

Armor Proficiency: A blade caster is proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields. A blade caster does not gain profiency for any type of weapons naturally. At 1st level, the blade caster attunes her soul to steel, gaining proficiency with all weapons. If she would have a profiency with an exotic weapon from another source, that weapon deals additional damage equal to her intelligence modifier. This bonus damage does not stack with itself. At 1st level, the blade caster gains a reserve of magical energy devoted to crafting and empowering temporary weapons the user has seen before. She can spend phantasm points to fuel abilities gained from her blade caster class levels. The blade caster's phantasm pool can hold a maximum amount of magical energy equal to her intelligence modifier plus two times the blade caster's level. Each day, when preparing spells, the blade caster's phantasm pool refreshes with powerful magic, refilling completely.

At 1st level, a blade caster is able to sketch any object, including weapons and magical artifacts, that she is able to see, essentially committing the object to memory for as long as she has class levels in blade caster. A blade caster can spend a phantasm point as a full-round action to sketch an object. Weapons that the blade caster has sketched get +1 to damage rolls when she wields them and armor she sketches add +1 to her AC. A blade caster may dispel any phantasm she has created as an immediate action.

A blade caster is able to cast spells with somatic components while wielding one-handed weapons or any shields, except tower shields, as if she weren't wielding them. At 2nd level, the blade caster can spend a phantasm point as a move action to craft a weapon, shield, or armor piece called a phantasm that she has previously sketched. Phantasms are recreations of the specific object that the blade caster sketched. Beings that have intimate knowledge of the object are able to innately sense that the phantasm is not the object itself, but a flawless replication of it. She can only craft phantasms that have an enhancement bonus of +2 or less, and doing so requires a number of phantasm points equal to the weapon's enhancement bonus. If the phantasm is an item that uses charges, it is crafted without any charges.

Phantasms that use ammunition are crafted with a supply of mundane ammunition that lasts as long as the weapon. Armor phantasms do not have arcane spell failure chance. Only a blade caster may make use of her phantasms. All phantasms made for the purpose of combat last for a number of rounds equal to the blade caster's level, but she may dispel any phantasm she has created as an swift action. At 2nd level, a blade caster can spend a phantasm point as a swift action to empower a phantasm she has created for a number of rounds equal to her intelligence modifier. If her chosen phantasm is a weapon, she gets a +1 bonus to damage rolls made with that weapon and may use Spell Strike as the magus class feature. This damage is multiplied on a critical hit. If her chosen phantasm is armor or a shield, she enhances that phantasm's AC bonus by +1. This bonus increases by +1 every 2 levels to a maximum of +5 at level 9. At 3rd level, a blade caster may choose a bonus combat or metamagic feat that she meets the prerequisites for. This is in addition to the feats that a character of any class normally gets from advancing levels. A blade caster gains an additional combat or metamagic feat at levels 6 and 9. At 4th level, a blade caster gains the ability to utilize her magic to strengthen her phantasms. As a swift action, a blade caster can spend a number of phantasm points to grant one of her phantasms an applicable magical quality equal to or less than the number of points she spends. A blade caster cannot grant a magical quality with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater to her phantasm nor can she increase a phantasm's enhancement bonus to greater than how many levels she has in blade caster this way. The quality of the phantasms that the blade caster can craft increases to the point where she can craft powerful magical objects. This class feature functions as Phantasm Crafting except the blade caster gains the ability to craft phantasms of all the objects that she has sketched. At 9th level, a blade caster improves on her ability to enhance her phantasms' magical might. This feature functions as Spell Forge, except she can now grant her phantasms a magical quality with an enhancement bonus of +4 or less of her choosing. She also gains the ability to sacrifice a spell slot to gain a number of phantasm points equal to twice the spell slot's level as an immediate action. At 10th level, a blade caster reaches the pinnacle of her power and gains the ability to overload a phantasm she is wielding with magical might once per day. She can spend a full-round action by spending 5 phantasm points to temporarily improve a phantasm of her choice that she is wielding. Her phantasm has an additional effect depending on its type:

Weapon: The phantasm's damage dice by 2 steps and grants it a magical weapon quality with an enhancement bonus of +3 or less of her choice. If a magical weapon is improved this way, it does not gain the benefits as if it were classified as a magical item.

Armor: The phantasm grants the blade caster an additional +3 to her AC and a magical armor or shield quality with an enhancement bonus of +4 or less of her choice. If a shield is improved, you gain partial concealment in addition.

Magical Item: The blade caster may increase any DCs this phantasm has by 2 and increase any dice dealing with hit points (such as healing or damage) by one step. The phantasm lasts for a number of minutes equal to double the blade caster's levels. If the item requires charges to be used, it is granted a number of charges equal to what the original item had when the blade caster sketched it up to 2 charges. Any item made from a special material counts as a magical item for the purpose of this feature.

Mundane Item: The phantasm lasts for a number of days equal to the blade caster's level and adds 10 to its hardness and doubles its hitpoints.

This phantasm lasts for a number of rounds equal to the blade caster's caster levels, afterwhich it shatters. Any phantasm she overloads this way cannot be crafted again for the next 3 days.