Anyform Savant

Psychometabolism teaches those who have learned to change their physical structure that the body is but a vessel. Those who go beyond this understanding become what others term anyform savants. For an anyform savant, the physical body is as mutable as one’s attitude or beliefs. While others may draw upon the forms of a few beasts to serve as a shapechanging basis, an anyform savant draws upon the vast diversity of the world she lives in – she is as far ahead of other shapechangers in this field as the average egoist is ahead of a commoner.

Hemanyaliz the pathos dragon was an avid trickster and rogue philosopher fond of humiliating thinkers he felt were too stuffy and strict. In his rivalry with the logos dragon Karvamanius, he developed most of the metamorphic techniques that mark the anyform savant’s abilities today. He admitted that he might not be the first, although his insights into the nature of existence and of form remain essentially incomprehensible to modern scholars, so his claim is difficult to verify.

Entry Requirements:

To qualify to become an anyform savant, a character must fulfill the following criteria.

Skills: Heal 5 ranks, Knowledge (psionics) 8 ranks Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks
Feats: Formbinder UT, Psionic Body
Manifesting: Able to manifest assume form and at least 2 other powers of the (Shapechanging) subdiscipline.

GAME RULE INFORMATION

Class Skills:

The anyform savant’s class skills are Autohypnosis, Concentration, Craft, Disguise, Heal, Knowledge (Psionics), Knowledge (Nature), Profession, and Psicraft. Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the anyform savant.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Anyform savants are proficient with the natural attacks of the forms they assume. They do not gain any proficiency with armor.

Manifesting: At every level indicated on the table, the anyform savant gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if she had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of anyform savant to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, and then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly. If a character had more than one manifesting class before she became a anyform savant, she must decide to which class she adds the new level of anyform savant for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Additional Imprint (Ex): Anyform savants can imprint more forms than others with the Formbinder feat. At 1st level and every three levels thereafter, an anyform savant adds one to his maximum limit on stored forms. (For more information on this process, see the [Formbound] descriptor).

Abandon Limits (Su): The anyform savant starts to ignore her body’s limitations. When manifesting powers from the (Shapechanging) subdiscipline, her manifester level is treated as one higher than normal for every two class levels she has (minimum 1).

Expanded Shapechanging (Su): At 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter (5th and 8th), the anyform savant may add any one power of the (Shapechanging) subdiscipline to her list of powers known, regardless of whether or not it appears on the normal list of powers available to her. The power cannot be a higher level than the highest level of powers she can currently manifest.

Superior Assume Form (Su): At 3rd level, the anyform savant can manifest the assume form power with the following additional augments:

  1. If you spend an additional 6 power points, this power’s duration becomes “1 hour (D)”.
  2. If you spend an additional 2 power points, you gain all the natural and extraordinary senses of the form you assume, including blindsense, blindsight, darkvision, lowlight vision, scent, and tremorsense, as applicable. You also gain the creature’s racial bonuses on skill checks.

Superior Animal Affinity: At 6th level, the anyform savant can manifest the animal affinity power with the following additional augments:

  1. For an additional 6 power points, this power’s duration becomes “1 hour (D)”.
  2. If you spend one additional power point, you gain a +2 competence bonus to whichever physical ability score(s) animal affinity is providing an enhancement bonus to. Every additional power point spent increases this bonus by 2. This competence bonus cannot increase an ability score beyond the norm for whatever form you are in. For instance, this augment provides no additional benefit if you are in your normal form. If you assume the form of a stronger creature, this augment may allow you to increase your Strength to any value up to that form’s strength. This benefit is redetermined each time you change shape.

If the savant does not know the animal affinity power, this ability has no effect until she learns it.

Superior Assume Ability: At 9th level, the anyform savant can manifest the assume ability power with thefollowing additional augments.

  1. For an additional 6 power points, this power’s duration becomes “1 hour (D)”
  2. For every additional power point you spend, you may assume an additional extraordinary ability of the imprinted creature. This augment supersedes assume ability’s existing augment.

If the savant does not know the assume ability power, this ability has no effect until he learns it.

Infinite Variety (Ex): At 10th level, the anyform savant is no longer restricted to adopting the abilities of a single creature at a time. When manifesting [Formbound] powers of the (Shapechanging) subdiscipline while under an effect that grants another creature’s form, the savant can choose a different imprinted creature than the one that she is currently transformed into, ignoring the restrictions of the power.

Evershifting Soul (Ex): While any shapechanger can assume the body of another being, it takes an experienced anyform savant to copy the soul. At 10th level, an anyform savant adds fluidic form and borrow essence to her list of powers known, even if she cannot manifest them. At any point when her manifester level (including the increase from Abandon Limits, above) is at least 17, she may manifest these powers normally, even if she is not normally capable of manifesting other 9th level powers at the time. The borrow essence power is not available to members of other classes except through the use of the feats Expanded Knowledge and Epic Expanded Knowledge.

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