General Prestige Class : Shadowmind

Specter in the thoughts of the unwary, the shadowmind moves through the twisting pathways of the mind as easily as she slides through the dark alleyways of the city. A shadowmind blends psionic powers and uncanny stealth into an effective whole. Although they can be capable spies or thieves, shadowminds view themselves as much more. Shadowminds see their training and psychic powers as an extension of a deep self-examination process that requires the knowledge of the innermost goals and motivations of others.

While a few shadowminds are trained in secret by governments, covert cabals, and the like, most train at a distant monastery. These ascetics forsake many of the worldly goals they had before joining the shadowmind monastery, instead devoting themselves to peering inside the minds and secrets of others. The rigorous training stresses the need to see the faults and secrets of others as extensions of the shadowmind's own experiences. To a shadowmind, enlightenment and true undemanding come from using the secret motivations of others as a means of self-awareness.

Most shadowminds begin their careers as psions and later diversify their skills and abilities by taking a level of rogue. Psychic warriors also find the class appealing, although they are more likely to multiclass as a ranger or ninja than as a rogue. Although wilders can qualify for the class as easily as psions, few wilders become shadowminds.

Adaptation: With their excellent skill selection and steady progression of psionic powers, shadowminds can be recast easily to fill almost any niche. Simply change the powers that a shadowmind learns for free to match the desired flavor of the class. Two examples appear below. The powers noted in the examples replace the shadow mind's 1st-level ability read thoughts, the 3rd-level ability cloud mind, and the 9th-level ability mass cloud mind.

Cerebral infiltrator (psionic spy): 1st-distract, 3rd- forced sense link, 9th-mind probe.

Thought killer (psionic assassin): 1st-conceal thoughts, 3rd-energy stun, 9th-personal mind blank.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Shadowmind, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Class Skills

The shadowmind's class skills are Autohypnosis, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (psionics), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Psicraft, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, and Tumble.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shadowminds gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Powers Known: At every level indicated on the accompanying table, a shadowmind gains additional power points per day and access to new discovered powers as if she had also gained a level in whatever psionic manifesting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, if a character had more than one psionic class before becoming a shadowmind, she must decide to which class to add the new level of shadowmind for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Read Thoughts (Ps): At 1st level, a shadowmind adds read thoughts to her repertoire (it she doesn't already know it). Once per day, she can manifest read thoughts at a reduced power point cost. The cost of read thoughts is reduced by the shadowmind's class level, to a minimum of 1 power point. The effect of this power is still restricted by the shadowmind's manifester level.

Sneak Attack (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, a shadowmind deals an extra 1d6 points of damage when flanking an opponent or any time the target would be denied its Dexterity bonus. This extra damage applies to ranged attacks only if the target is within 30 feet. It increases to 2d6 points at 5th level and 3d6 points at 8th level. See the rogue class feature, page 50 or the Player's Handbook. If a shadowmind gets a sneak attack bonus from another source (such as levels of rogue), the bonuses on damage stack.

Cloud Mind (Ps): At 3rd level, a shadowmind adds cloud mind to her repertoire (if she doesn't already know it). Once per day, she can manifest cloud mind at a reduced power point cost. The cost of cloud mind is reduced by the shadowmind's class level, to a minimum of 1 power point. The effect of this power is still restricted by the shadowmind's manifester level.

Mass Cloud Mind (Ps): At 9th level, a shadowmind adds mass cloud mind to her repertoire (if she doesn't already know it). Once per day, she can manifest mass cloud mind at a reduced power point cost. The cost of mass cloud mind is reduced by the shadowmind's level, to a minimum of 1 power point. The effect of this power is still restricted by the shadowmind's manifester level.

Mind Stab (Su): A 10th-level shadowmind can combine a precise blow with a burst of mental energy, removing her presence from, the mind and memory of her victim even as she stabs him. Once per round as a free action, immediately after successfully dealing sneak attack damage to an opponent, a shadowmind can manifest cloud mind against that opponent.

ShadowmindHit Die: d8
CLBABFortRefWillSpecialPowers
1st+0+0+2+2Read thoughts+1 level of existing manifesting class
2nd+1+0+3+3Sneak attack +1d6-
3rd+2+1+3+3Cloud mind+1 level of existing manifesting class
4th+3+1+4+4-+1 level of existing manifesting class
5th+3+1+4+4Sneak attack +2d6-
6th+4+2+5+5-+1 level of existing manifesting class
7th+5+2+5+5-+1 level of existing manifesting class
8th+6+2+6+6Sneak attack +3d6-
9th+6+3+6+6Mass cloud mind+1 level of existing manifesting class
10th+7+3+7+7Mind stab+1 level of existing manifesting class

Source: Complete Adventurer

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General Prestige Classes