General Prestige Class : Windsinger
by David W. Noonan, Dragon #294
Songs and sea-shanties have always had their place on the open ocean, where superstitious sailors found comfort, solace, and relief from boredom in hundreds of ballads, jigs, and other songs. But in D&D, such songs have real power, and sometimes a singer in desperate straits finds the wind rising at his back whenever a tune escapes his lips. Thus is a windsinger born.
Almost all windsingers have at least one level of bard, because the arcane connection between melody and power is key to a windsinger's prowess. Rogues and fighters sometimes become windsingers after dabbling in the arcane arts. Druids are sometimes attracted by a windsinger's command of the weather.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Windsinger, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Perform (must include song, ballad or chant) 10 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks.
- Spells: Able to cast 0-level spells
- Special: The character must have survived a great trial at sea. Examples of events that qualify as a great trial:
- Taking part in or quashing a mutiny aboard a major ship.
- Reduction to 0 hit points from drowning (see Drowning Rule).
- Being marooned on a small island or other isolated share for three months or more.
- Surviving a ship sinking.
Class Skills
The windsinger's class skills are Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Jump, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), Perform, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Use Rope.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are features of the windsinger prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A windsinger is proficient with martial weapons and light armor.
Windsong: By singing the right melody, a windsinger can create an array of effects useful to life aboard a ship. Ordinarily the windsinger can sing a windsong once per windsinger level per day. The windsinger's windsong class feature works like bardic music, and if the windsinger has bard levels, windsong uses and bardic music uses are interchangeable. Many windsong effects require more than one of the ability's allotted daily uses (that's why almost all windsingers were once bards - without the extra uses per day, they're powerless at low levels).
Many windsongs last as long as the music does, so windsingers sometimes sing for hours on end to extend the effect. A windsinger can sing for one hour without a problem. Singing for a second hour in between sleep cycles causes 1 point of subdual damage, and each additional hour causes twice the damage taken during the previous hour.
As with bardic music, the windsinger can fight while using this ability but cannot cast spells or activate magic items by either spell completion or command word.
Bolster the Wind (Su): A 1st-level windsinger with at least 11 ranks in Perform can change the wind to make it more favorable for sailing. After a full round of singing, the wind speed picks up by one category (light winds become moderate, moderate winds become strong, and so on). Furthermore, the windsinger can alter the direction of the wind by 90 degrees in either direction. If the wind is coming from the south, for example, a windsinger who bolsters the wind can change it so it blows from the south-east, east, southwest, or west. Bolstering the wind requires three uses of windsong. This windsong affects all winds within 1,000 feet centered on the windsinger and lasts as long as the windsinger continues to sing, plus an additional 30 minutes.
Sailor's Fate (Su): A 2nd-level windsinger with at least 12 ranks in Perform can ask the wind a question about a fellow sailor. This functions exactly like the divination spell, except that the subject of the question must be someone aboard a ship. The caster level of the effect is the sum of the character's windsinger and bard levels. Sailor's fate takes 10 minutes of singing, requires three uses of windsong, and is usable only once per day.
Calm the Waves (Su): A 3rd-level windsinger with at least 13 ranks in Perform can reduce the severity of weather effects. (See Wind Effects.) The windsinger can reduce wind strength by one or two categories (from severe to strong or moderate, for example), waves by one or two categories (thus making control checks for ships easier), and overall weather by one or two categories (from inclement weather to normal, for example). Furthermore, calm the waves can dissipate any mists or fogs within 1,000 feet in a single round. This windsong affects all winds within 1,000 feet centered on the windsinger and lasts as long as the windsinger continues to sing, plus an additional 30 minutes.
Calm the waves requires two uses of windsong if it improves the weather by one category and four uses of windsong if it improves the weather by two categories.
Rower's Chant (Su): A 4th-level windsinger with at least 14 ranks in Perform can use music to stave off the effects of fatigue and exhaustion. Characters do not suffer the penalties from being fatigued or exhausted while they hear the rower's chant. Rower's chant lasts as long as the windsinger continues to sing, and any penalties from fatigue or exhaustion return at the point that the song ends. Additionally, anyone who can hear the rower's chant is immune to subdual damage from exertion effects such as forced marches and hustling for more than one hour. The windsinger still takes subdual damage from singing for hours on end, however.
Ocean Mist (Su): A 5th-level windsinger with at least 15 ranks in Perform can conjure forth misty fog, often to obscure his ship from pursuers. By expending a single use of windsong, the windsinger can fill a 1,000-foot radius with obscuring mist (as the spell). By expending three uses of windsong, a solid fog emerges (as the spell). The mist appears to expand outward from the general vicinity of the windsinger, billowing outward at 100 feet per round. If the windsinger stops singing before the full radius is reached, the mist stops expanding when the singing does.
Ocean mist lasts as long as the windsinger continues to sing, plus an additional 30 minutes, although moderate winds will dissipate it in 4 rounds and strong winds 1 in round.
Dead Reckoning (Su): A 6th-level windsinger with at least 16 ranks in Perform can entice the breezes to reveal the best route to any destination, This functions exactly like the find the path spell, except that the destination must be somewhere touched by normal winds (almost anywhere outdoors and almost nowhere indoors). The caster level of the effect is the sum of the character's windsinger and bard levels. Dead reckoning requires a single use of the windsong ability.
Favorable Winds (Su): A 7th-level windsinger with at least 17 ranks in Perform can create a weather pattern that affects only his ship. This functions as the control winds spell except that it changes the winds in a 100-foot emanation around the windsinger only and lasts as long as he maintains the song. The caster level of the effect is the sum of the character's windsinger and bard levels. The windsinger must expend one windsong use each hour he continues to sing a windsong of favorable winds.
Angry Seas (Su): An 8th-level windsinger with at least 18 ranks in Perform can increase the severity of storms and other inclement weather. When the song begins, the windsinger picks a point within 1000 feet. Weather within a 100-foot radius of that point becomes up to two categories worse, according to Random weather. Roll randomly for specific effects as directed by the table.
The weather lasts as long as the windsinger continues to sing. The windsinger can change the center-point of the effect as a free action once per turn. Angry seas takes three uses of windsong to invoke.
Becalm (Su): A 9th-level windsinger with at least 19 ranks in Perform can steal the wind from another ship's sails, stopping it completely. When the song begins, the windsinger picks a point within 1000 feet. No wind blows within a 100-foot radius of that point, although the prevailing winds elsewhere are unaffected. The windsinger can also target an object with this effect, in which case the becalmed area is centered on the object (usually an enemy ship) and moves as it does. The becalm windsong lasts for 30 minutes and expends two uses of windsong.
Control Weather (Sp): A 10th-level windsinger with at least 20 ranks in Perform can command the clouds and winds. This functions exactly like the druid spell of the same name. The caster level of the effect is the sum of the character's windsinger and bard levels. Control weather requires a single use of the windsong ability to activate, and another every time the windsinger wishes to change the weather during the duration.
Opposing Windsongs
If two windsingers are trying to create contradictory effects (one is using bolster the wind while an enemy windsinger is trying to becalm it), an opposed Perform check determines whose windsong works in the overlap between their areas of effect.
Parts of the area of effect that don't overlap another windsong function normally, regardless of the outcome of the Perform check.
| Windsinger | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Windsong (bolster the wind) |
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Windsong (sailor's fate) |
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Windsong (calm the waves) |
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Windsong (rower's chant) |
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Windsong (ocean mist) |
| 6th | +6 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Windsong (dead reckoning) |
| 7th | +7 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Windsong (favorable winds) |
| 8th | +8 | +2 | +2 | +6 | Windsong (Angry seas) |
| 9th | +9 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Windsong (becalm) |
| 10th | +10 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Windsong (control weather) |
Source: Dragon #294