Speaker of the Stars

A few elven legends tell that the gods live in the sky, and they can be reached by reading the messages they leave in the stars.

The Quintessential Elf

Author Alejandro Melchor
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2002

Few elves put this to the test, but those who do become speakers of the stars, a special kind of arcane priest who heeds the voice of the elven pantheon by staring at their constellations and gleaning his conclusions from a mix of divine inspiration and analytical thought. Speakers are, in practice, soothsayers and oracles, astrologers who chart their fellows’ destinies as they are written in the night sky.

Speakers of the stars come eminently from Spellcasting classes, especially the wizard and cleric who approach the messages in the stars from different perspectives, but eventually reach the same point. bards, sorcerers and druids may become speakers, but the way they do magic or their beliefs keep most of them from the serious study of the stars that the speaker must perform. A few select paladins become speakers to add the knowledge of destiny to bolster their chances in their fight against evil, and even fewer rangers have the mental discipline to add the heavens’ designs to their lore about the species they pursue. The first speakers of the stars were grey elves, but high and wood elves learned the art quickly. Wild elves take no interest in reading the sky that way. Sea elves do not look at the stars too often, and drow never do it at all.

Speakers of the stars found as Non-Player Characters might be a settlement’s wise old man or the hermit who may know the answer to what the adventurers are looking for. A speaker can even be the clichéd shadowy stranger at the tavern’s dark corner, who has seen a great event in the stars and is looking for adventurers to face it or study it for him.

Hit Die: d4

Requirements

Race: Elf.
Skill: Scry 10 ranks.
Feat: Spell Focus (divination).
Spells: Must know at least four spells from the Divination school.

Class Skills

The speaker of the stars’ class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Intuit Direction (Wisdom), Knowledge (all, taken individually) (Intelligence), Profession (Wisdom), Scry (Intelligence), Search (Wisdom), Spellcraft (Intelligence) and Spot (Wisdom).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Speaker of the Stars
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per day
1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Chart destiny	+1 level of existing class
2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Eyes of the stars	+1 level of existing class
3	+1	+1	+1	+3	Voice of the stars	+1 level of existing class
4	+2	+1	+1	+4	Call upon the heavens	+1 level of existing class
5	+2	+1	+1	+4	Change destiny	+1 level of existing class

Class Features

• Armour and Weapon Proficiency: Speakers of the stars are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any kind of armour nor with shields. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble. Also, Swim checks suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armour, equipment, or loot carried.
• Spells: At every level, the speaker of the stars gains additional spell slots as if he had gained a level in the spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. However, he does not gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained with level advancement (hit points, feats, special abilities, etc.) beyond an effective level of spellcasting. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a speaker, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.
• Chart Destiny (Su): If a speaker spends most of the previous night studying the stars, he can make a prediction for a number of persons equal to half his Intelligence modifier (minimum of one). By warning others about what may befall them during the day, the speaker gives them a pool of bonus points equal to his speaker of the stars level, which the recipients may apply to any roll made for actions during the following day as an insight bonus. For example, a 7th level cleric/2nd level speaker of the stars with Intelligence 18 can chart the destiny of two people for the following day, giving them two bonus points which they can use for attack or damage rolls, skill checks or saving throws. The recipient in this example could gain a +2 insight bonus to a single roll or a +1 insight bonus to two rolls. If the recipient has not used his pool by the end of the day, he loses the bonus points. The speaker can make a prediction for himself by considering that he is one of the persons he can chart destiny for during the night. The speaker cannot use this ability on the same night as other abilities that depend on studying the stars.
• Eyes of the Stars (Sp): The speaker can use the stars as a scrying instrument and cast the scrying and Greater Scrying spells once per night, provided he is of sufficient level to cast them in the first place. The speaker does not need to actually know the spells or have them prepared in order to use this ability, he just needs to be able to cast 4th and 7th level spells respectively (3rd and 6th for bards, 5th and 7th or clerics).
• Voice of the Stars (Su): If a speaker spends most of the previous night studying the stars, he can learn the possible outcomes of a number of future encounters equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). The player chooses to which encounters he applies this knowledge. By using a standard action advising or directing another character, the speaker grants him a +2 insight bonus to a single roll that character makes in the same round. The speaker can apply this to different characters every round until the end of the encounter, and doing this does not attract an attack of opportunity. It also applies to non-combat encounters if the player so chooses. The bonus does not stack with the bonus from Chart Destiny, and the speaker cannot use this ability again until he has predicted the actions for the last encounter from his previous use. He cannot grant the insight bonus to himself. The speaker cannot use this ability on the same night as other abilities that depend on studying the stars.
• Call Upon the Heavens (Su): The speaker of the stars listens to the voices of the gods etched in the sky, and benefits from it. He must spend the previous night studying the constellations and, when preparing his spells or readying his mind (in the case of sorcerers and bards), he can sacrifice a spell slot in order to gain the use of a granted power from a Domain granted by an elven deity. The effects of the borrowed Domain power last for an hour per speaker level after the character activates it at any point in the day, and it can only be a Domain from an elven deity. A speakers with cleric levels can choose other deities’ Domains rather than his own with no consequences, and if he chooses one of his deity’s Domains that he does not follow, the effects last one hour longer. The speaker can only choose a maximum of three Domain powers, and they are lost at the end of the day if he did not activate them. The speaker cannot use this ability on the same night as other abilities that depend on studying the stars.
• Change Destiny (Su): The same as Chart Destiny, except that the speaker can grant two bonus points per level to one person, instead of one point per level to more than one person.