General Prestige Class : Astral Dancer
The Astral Plane is a place of no gravity; moving through it is more like flying with perfect maneuverability, like walking on air. Travelers quickly learn to change directions by mentally visualizing solid footing and pivoting on it. To longtime inhabitants of the Astral Plane, ignoring the lack of gravity eventually becomes second nature. But a few skilled combatants learn to take advantage of that situation.
Some fighters, barbarians, and rangers make decent astral dancers, but the best begin as monks or rogues. Their practiced grace enables them to leap from vantage to vantage quickly, and to shift balance instinctively. Spellcasters can eventually master the art of the astral dancer, but for them it pays off only in a certain improvement in their ability to deliver melee touch spells.
Astral dancers work quite well alone, but they are truly formidable in numbers. The art is sometimes found among githzerai monks, and githzerai rrakkma (hunting parties that seek out and kill mind flayers) occasionally include astral dancers. The most common practitioners are githyanki and buommans, natives of the Astral Plane who learn to take every advantage that the environment provides them.
Requirements
To qualify to become an Astral Dancer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Balance 8 ranks, Jump 8 ranks, Tumble 8 ranks
- Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack.
Class Skills
The astral dancer's class skills are Balance, Bluff, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble, and Use Rope.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the astral dancer prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Astral dancers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Relative Altitude (Ex): An astral dancer is experienced at combating foes in no-gravity environments. While on the Astral Plane (or any other plane or region without gravity), she is always considered to have "higher ground" over her opponent and thus gains a +1 bonus on melee attack rolls.
Evasion (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, an astral dancer can avoid damage from certain attacks with a successful Reflex save. See the monk class feature. Initially, an astral dancer's evasion ability is only effective while she is on a plane with no gravity. At 4th level and higher, an astral dancer can use her evasion ability in all environments, regardless of gravity.
Improved Maneuverability (Ex): At 3rd level, an astral dancer begins developing more control over her "flight" in no-gravity situations. When she makes a double move on a plane with the "no gravity" trait (such as the Astral Plane), an astral dancer's maneuverability drops to good (rather than to average). When she moves four times her speed on the Astral Plane (running, essentially), her maneuverability drops to poor (rather than to clumsy).
At 9th level, an astral dancer retains her perfect maneuverability even when she makes a double move, and her maneuverability drops only to average when she moves at up to four times her speed.
Astral Dodge (Ex): At 5th level, an astral dancer becomes so adept at reacting to attacks that she gains a +2 dodge bonus to her Armor Class when in a no-gravity environment (or a +1 dodge bonus to her Armor Class when in an environment with gravity). At 10th level, this bonus increases to +4 in a no-gravity environment (or +2 in an environment with gravity).
Improved Evasion (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, an astral dancer can avoid damage from certain attacks with a successful Reflex save and take only half damage on a failed save. See the monk class feature. Initially, an astral dancer's improved evasion ability is only effective while she is on a plane with no gravity.
At 8th level and higher, an astral dancer can use her improved evasion ability all environments, regardless of gravity.
Astral Agility (Ex): At 7th level and higher. An astral dancer's can use her agility and athleticism to adjust her opponent's position while in a no-gravity environment. Once per round as a move action, an astral dancer can attempt to switch places with an adjacent creature. The adjacent creature must be the same size as or smaller than the astral dancer, and it can resist the attempt by succeeding on an opposed Intelligence check against the astral dancer. The astral dancer adds her class level to her roll (if the target creature is also an astral dancer, it adds its class level as well); if she wins, she moves into the target's space, and the target moves into her now-vacated space. The movement caused by this ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Lightning Speed (Ex): At 10th level, an astral dancer's ability to move through the Astral Plane with but a thought becomes so finely tuned that those observing her cannot react as she passes by. The character's movement while on the Astral Plane (or a similar no-gravity environment) never provokes attacks of opportunity.
| Astral Dancer | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +2 | +0 | Relative altitude |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +3 | +0 | Evasion (no-gravity) |
| 3rd | +2 | +1 | +3 | +1 | Improved maneuverability |
| 4th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Evasion |
| 5th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Astral dodge +2 (+1) |
| 6th | +4 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Improved evasion (no gravity) |
| 7th | +5 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Astral agility |
| 8th | +6 | +2 | +6 | +2 | Improved evasion |
| 9th | +6 | +3 | +6 | +3 | Improved maneuverability |
| 10th | +7 | +3 | +7 | +3 | Astral dodge +4 (+2), lightning speed |
Source: Planar Handbook