Natural Philosopher
Natural philosophers make a life of studying the world around them, cataloguing all they see and presenting it for the edification of their peers. Drawn by a love of science and inquiry, natural philosophers see the world a different way from those around them, as a frontier of new experiences and life to discover.
Role: Natural philosophers focus on studying the creatures they encounter and copying their abilities. They can absorb a plethora of skills and abilities from other creatures and put them to use for their own ends.
Alignment: Natural philosophers can be of any alignment.Â
HP Roll: d4+1
Requirements
To qualify to become a natural philosopher, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Appraise and Knowledge (Nature) 5 ranks
Feats: Skill Focus (Appraise or Knowledge [Nature])
Class Skills
The natural philosopher's class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis)
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Primary Attributes: Int, Con
Natural philosophers have a surprising flair to their style, brought about by their understanding of flashy colors in nature.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the natural philosopher prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A natural philosopher gains no proficiencies from this prestige class.
Field Study (Su)
When a natural philosopher observes a creature using an inherent ability, such as a spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary ability, he can attempt to study and learn it. It must be an active ability that has a notable manifestation, such as a dragon's breath weapon, a succubus' energy drain, or a ghoul's diseased touch.
Once per round, when the natural philosopher sees such an ability used, he may make an Appraise check with a DC of 20+2x creature's CR to attempt to learn it. If he was directly targeted by the ability, he receives a +5 bonus to this check. On a success, he is able to commit the ability to memory. He may make this check even if he is slain by the ability that triggered it.
He can have one ability per natural philosopher level committed to memory at a time. If he wishes to learn a new one, he must forget one ability he currently has memorized (a free action) He can copy any abilities in his memory into writing, a process that takes 1 hour and 20 sy in writing materials per ability, and consumes 20 pages in a book. Memorized abilities have the same damage, DC, and use limitations as the original creature did.
The natural philosopher can also recall abilities he has recorded by studying his writings. This process takes 30 minutes per ability he wishes to recall, and if he is at his limit of memorized abilities, he must forget one to make room for the recalled ability.
Replicate Nature (Su)
The true natural philosopher not only learns about the creatures he encounters, but also imitates their unique abilities. He gains a pool of philosophy points, which he can spend to activate his learned abilities. This pool has a number of points equal to the natural philospher's class level + Int mod.
As a swift action, the natural philosopher may activate one of his memorized abilities, enabling him to use it for 1 minute per class level. If the ability has a limited number of uses (such as 1/day), he must follow this limitation; otherwise, he may use it as many times as he likes for the duration.
The natural philosopher can have multiple abilities activated at the same time, so long as he takes a separate swift action and pays the cost for each one.
Naturalist (Ex)
The natural philosopher understands better than anyone that even the most exotic creatures are natural in their own right. Starting at 2nd level, the natural philosopher can use Knowledge (Nature) to identify any creature and recall its abilities. This check takes a -5 penalty if the creature is not normally identified with Knowledge (Nature).
Scan (Su)
At 3rd level, the natural philosopher can use his training to quickly evaluate a foe's condition. By spending a move action studying a creature he can see and spending one philosophy point, he can learn the subject's current HP, maximum HP, AC, and SR, as well as all spell, spell-like, and supernatural effects that are currently affecting the creature.
Nature's Inevitability (Su)
At 4th level, when the natural philosopher uses an ability he has activated with Replicate Nature, he may spend one philosophy point to ignore any SR, energy resistance, damage reduction, or spell reflection the target possesses.
Dual Replication (Su)
At 5th level, when the natural philosopher uses his Replicate Nature ability to activate a memorized ability, he may instead activate two abilities. This still costs only one philosophy point.