General Prestige Class : War Weaver
"On my count, climb out of the trench and charge toward that hill. Don't worry about the fire raining from the sky - I've got you covered." - Arvena, war weaver
By weaving together strands of pure arcane power, the war weaver becomes a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. A war weaver can establish an eldritch tapestry among her comrades and quickly aid them with her magic.
Entering this prestige class is a relatively straightforward matter: The class is open to any 5th-level wizard who has made the appropriate feat and skill point choices. It's a little harder for sorcerers and bards to get into the class. Sorcerers don't have as many feats as wizards, and bards don't get access to 3rd-level spells until 7th level.
Requirements
To qualify to become a War Weaver, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Craft (weaving) 6 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks
- Feats: Enlarge Spell,
- Spells: Ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells
Class Skills
The war weaver's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Profession, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
As a war weaver, you gain abilities that allow your spells to affect multiple allies at once.
Eldritch Tapestry (Su): Upon entering the class, you gain an understanding of the rudiments of the war weaver's craft. You can thread together unseen strands of life force to connect willing allies in a magically resonant network known as an eldritch tapestry. Doing so takes 10 minutes and requires a DC 15 Craft (weaving) check. (Most war weavers take 10 on the check.) When you weave an eldritch tapestry, you can connect a number of allies equal to your bonus in your arcane spellcasting ability score (Intelligence for wizards, Charisma for sorcerers and bards). Creatures must be within line of sight to have their life force woven into an eldritch tapestry, and they must be living creatures. An eldritch tapestry lasts for 24 hours or until you weave a new one. You're always connected to your own eldritch tapestry, and you don't count against the limit of allies that can be connected.
Once you have woven an eldritch tapestry, you can send your spells across the life-force strands to your allies. Although you cast but a single spell, you can have it affect every creature in your eldritch tapestry as if the group were a single creature. The maximum level of spell you can cast into an eldritch tapestry is equal to your class level. For example, a 5th-level wizard/2nd-level war weaver with an Intelligence of 16 could cast a 2nd-level spell such as bull's strength and have it affect herself and the three allies connected to her eldritch tapestry. Each of the four characters would gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength - at the cost of a single spell, not four separate castings.
Only spells with the "harmless" designation in their saving throw entry or ones requiring willing targets can be cast into an eldritch tapestry. In addition, spells with a range of personal cannot be cast through an eldritch tapestry. If a spell has a costly material component or an XP cost, you must expend one casting's worth of the material component or pay the XP cost for each creature targeted by the spell (including yourself). For example, sharing a stoneskin spell with four allies requires the expenditure of diamond dust worth a total of 1,250 gp.
An eldritch tapestry doesn't change the range of a spell. To cast bull's strength, for example, you must touch all your allies. You can touch as many willing targets as you can reach as part of the casting, but all targets must be touched in the same round you finish casting the spell. You can exclude specific creatures connected to an eldritch tapestry from a spell if you like.
If the spell requires decision-making on your part, you must make the same decision for everyone the spell is meant to affect. For instance, if you cast protection from energy through the eldritch tapestry, you must choose the same energy type for everyone affected by the spell.
An eldritch tapestry doesn't allow your spells to affect illegal targets. You can't affect objects with spells cast into our eldritch tapestry, even if those objects are held by your allies (for instance, you can't use eldritch tapestry to deliver a greater magic weapon spell).
Quiescent Weaving (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can weave a single spell into your eldritch tapestry for later use. For each level you gain beyond 2nd, you can store one additional spell as a quiescent weaving in your eldritch tapestry. The maximum level of spell that you can weave into your eldritch tapestry with this ability is equal to your class level.
Quiescent weaving enables you to prepare beneficial spells you know your allies will need in a crisis. You can release the quiescent spells right away at the beginning of a fight, then commence with more offensive spellcasting.
To make a quiescent weave, you must designate the eldritch tapestry as the target for the spell as you cast it (regardless of what the spell's normal target is). The spell is now woven into the eldritch tapestry in a dormant state; it doesn't use up its duration or affect targets in any way.
As a move action, you can release all the spells in your quiescent weaving. They immediately and instantaneously take effect in the order they were cast. The same restrictions apply to a quiescent weaving that apply to any other spell woven into an eldritch tapestry (they must be "harmless," cannot have a range of personal, and require separate expenditures of material components or XP for each target). The quiescent spells affect only legal targets at the time you release them. For example, if you have bull's strength and protection from energy in your eldritch tapestry as quiescent weavings, you still have to touch your allies during the move action to target them with the spells.
Spellcasting: At each level other than 1st level, you gain new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) and an increase in caster level as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other class feature a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a war weaver, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, spells known, and caster level.
Enlarged Tapestry (Su): At 5th level, you can stretch your magic across your eldritch tapestry beyond normal distances. Spells you cast through an eldritch tapestry have their range category increased: touch spells become close range, close-range spells become medium range, and medium-range spells become long range. long-range spells and spells with fixed ranges are unaffected.
| War Weaver | Hit Die: d4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells pr Day |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Eldritch tapestry | - |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Quiescent weaving 1 | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 3rd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Quiescent weaving 2 | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 4th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Quiescent weaving 3 | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 5th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Enlarged tapestry, quiescent weaving 4 | +1 level of existing arcane class |
War Weaver Lore
Characters with Knowledge (arcana) can research the war weavers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.
- DC 10: "War weavers are adept at quickly casting beneficial spells on their comrades."
- DC 15: "War weavers can create something called an eldritch tapestry that can store spells. It lets them cast a single spell on multiple allies at once."
- DC 20: "The eldritch tapestry works only on beneficial spells. They're called war weavers because multiple-cast beneficial spells are more useful on the battlefield than anywhere else."
Knowledge (history) checks can yield similar information, but because the war weavers are relatively obscure, the DCs are 5 higher than those given above.
Source: Heroes of Battle