Riftwalker - Project Atrea (3.5e Class)

Author: Zhenra-Khal (talk) Date Created: 8/31/2017 Status: Thinking with portals. Possibly Unquantifiable. Editing: Clarity edits only please

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A warrior who trains in high gravity and can compress gravity around his weapon, allowing him to rip holes in space as he attacks. 2 1 Moderate Good Good Poor Alternate Magic, Other Other

Riftwalker

Normal warriors will train with weighted weapons to improve their strength, speed and accuracy with their attacks, and they typically also undergo grueling training to turn learned techniques into primal instinct. A certain few take this even farther, training in areas where gravity is stronger and meditating in between sessions. These are known as the Riftwalkers, highly-mobile fighters who can cross a battlefield in a single slash, or cut through multiple foes with each swing, a blur flashing into existence only long enough to end a life.

Making a Riftwalker

Riftwalkers are strong and highly-mobile melee fighters. They can be almost anywhere in an instant, but they're not as heavily-armored or durable as other fighters.

Abilities: Strength is very important, as it affects you ability to tear open rifts, carry your equipment and deal damage to your foes. Constitution is important as those of weak fortitude are often shredded into fine powder when they try to pass through their own rifts.

Races: The race who invented the path has been lost to obscurity, and at current, anyone can choose to take up the mantle of Riftwalker.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 3d6×10 gp (105 gp).

Starting Age: Complex. It takes years of training and constant devotion to maintain and grow the talents of the Riftwalker.

Table: The Riftwalker

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Flicker Miss Chance
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+2	+2	+0	High-Gravity Training, Gravity Field (Heavy), Rift Slash (Full-round action), Realm Cutter Boost	—
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+0	Gravity Ripple, Flicker	5%
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+1	Gravity Field (Light), Rift Slash (Standard Action)	5%
4th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Baleful Rift (+1 [W]), Evasion	5%
5th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Gravity Field (Zero Gravity), Scorn Earth	5%
6th	+4	+5	+5	+2	Rift Slash (DR 1/-) Uncanny Dodge	5%
7th	+5	+5	+5	+2	Gravity Field (Subjective Directional Gravity), Rift Slash (Dimensional Anchor/Dimension Door)	10%
8th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+2	Improved Gravity Training, Rift Slash (Rift Fling)	10%
9th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+3	Rift Slash (Swift Action/Full Attack; DR 2/-)	10%
10th	+7/+2	+7	+7	+3	Baleful Rift (+2 [W]), Improved Uncanny Dodge	10%
11th	+8/+3	+7	+7	+3	Rift Slash (Teleport)	10%
12th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+4	Rift Slash (Immediate Action/Improved Full Attack; DR 3/-)	15%
13th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+4	Improved Evasion	15%
14th	+10/+5	+9	+9	+4	Rift Slash (Greater Teleport)	15%
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+9	+5	Rift Slash (Any Attack/Plane Shift; DR 4/-)	15%
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+5	Baleful Rift (+3 [W])	15%
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+5	Bloodbath	20%
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+6	Rift Slash (Gate)	20%
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+6	—	20%
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+6	Rift Slash (Implosion)	20%
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Jump (Str), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Riftwalker.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Riftwalkers are proficient with all light and medium armor, and with all simple and martial weapons, but not with shields.

High-Gravity Training (Ex): Due to their training, a Riftwalker is physically strong in many ways than most of their kin. A Riftwalker adds his class level to Climb, Swim, Jump and Grapple checks, and to his Strength score for the purposes of determining his carrying capacity. Furthermore, a Riftwalker's jump height isn't limited by his height. Riftwalkers must train in an area of heavy gravity at least 12 hours a week to maintain their powers.

At 8th level, your training improves, allowing you to ignore the penalties of Light gravity, and adding your class level as a bonus to your Wisdom check made to change the direction of your movement in an area with the subjective directional gravity trait.

Gravity Field (Su): From their earliest training, Riftwalkers are taught a ritual that allows them to increase gravity in an area so they can train. This requires ten minutes of uninterrupted work and a DC 15 Concentration check, and it creates a 30ft sphere where the gravity is heavy gravity, known as a Gravity Field. The difference in gravity can be detected with a Spot check (DC 15 + Riftwalker's Wisdom modifier), as the Field creates ripples in the area similar to a heat haze where the Field borders normal gravity. The Gravity Field lasts for one hour per point of the Riftwalker's Wisdom modifier as long as the Riftwalker remains inside it. Otherwise, it only lasts 1 minute. A Riftwalker can only have one active Gravity Field at a time; Creating a new one ends the old one.

At level 3, the Riftwalker can create a Gravity Field that instead gives the area the light gravity trait, or the no gravity trait at 5th level. Finally, at 7th level they can create a Gravity Field with the subjective directional gravity trait.

Rift Slash (Su): This is the Riftwalker's signature ability, allowing them to attack and move seamlessly by ripping open a hole in reality as they attack, teleporting them a short distance. The range of the teleport is equal to the Riftwalker's class level + their Strength modifier, multiplied by 5ft, and the Riftwalker must make a melee touch attack with a manufactured melee weapon either before or after the attack - Either attacking the creature and teleporting, or teleporting and then attacking a creature adjacent to the target location. In either case, the attack need not be successful to initiate teleportation (And can indeed be a slash at empty air; You must only hit the AC of the target square to initiate the teleport, which is typically AC 5), but missing the attack results in not damaging the target creature, as normal for an attack. The melee touch attack is with whatever melee weapon the Riftwalker was using, and deals normal damage, though as they grow in power, a Riftwalker learns how to use their ability to manipulate gravitational energy to increase the effectiveness of their attacks. However, each time they teleport, the primitive manner in which they do it harms them, dealing 1d4 damage that bypasses almost all forms of damage reduction. A Dimensional Anchor effect or similar prevents the Riftwalker from using Rift Slash.

• At first level, the Riftwalker may spend a full-round action to teleport once. At 3rd level, they can teleport once as a standard action.

• At 6th level, the Riftwalker learns to improve their rifts, causing them to gain DR 1/- against the self-damage dealt as part of a Rift Slash. This DR/- increases by 1 every 3 levels thereafter, to a maximum of DR 4/- at 15th level.

• At 7th level, the Riftwalker can choose to Rift Slash a single target as a standard action; If the attack is successful, the target is subject to the effects of the Dimensional Anchor spell for 1 round/class level. Additionally, the Riftwalker can replicate the effects of the Dimension Door spell as a full-round action, with a caster level equal to his class level.

• At 8th level, when you use Rift Slash and choose to attack a creature before teleporting, you may cause the creature you struck to teleport to the target location instead of yourself. A Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Strength modifier negates), and if the save fails, the creature takes 1d4 damage from the teleportation, as well as suffering any effects of the destination. A Dimensional Anchor effect prevents this teleportation.

• At 9th level, the Riftwalker can teleport once as a Swift action. Alternatively, they can make a full attack using Rift Slashes, but this prevents them from using the swift-action teleport. The touch attacks are, of course, made with increasingly poorer Base Attack Bonuses.

• At 11th level, the Riftwalker can spend a full-round action to replicate the effects of the Teleport spell, with a caster level equal to their class level.

• At 12th level, the Riftwalker can teleport up to 1/4 their Rift Slash distance as an Immediate action, consuming their Attack of Opportunity for the round. Furthermore, when they use Rift Slashes as a full attack, their additional attacks are made at every +4 rather than every +5. So for example, a Riftwalker with BAB +9/+4 would instead attack at +9/+5/+1, gaining a third attack.

• At 14th level, the Riftwalker can spend a full-round action to replicate the effects of the Greater Teleport spell, with a caster level equal to their class level.

• At 15th level, the Riftwalker can use Rift Slash as a part of any melee attack they make with a manufactured weapon, including Cleave attacks and attacks granted by maneuvers (Such as the Time Stands Still strike). They can also spend a full minute of continual slashes to break the barrier between planes, traveling as if they had used the Plane Shift spell at a caster level equal to their class level.

• At 18th level, the Riftwalker can spend 10 minutes of continually Rift Slashing a single square to open a Gate spell in that square (Travel version only).

• At 20th level, you can affect a struck creature with an unstable rift that collapses in on itself. This has no effect on gaseous or incorporeal creatures, but once per round, you can designate a single creature upon striking it with your Rift Slash. The creature must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Strength modifier) or be destroyed instantly, as if by the Implosion spell. A successful save makes the creature immune to the effects of this ability for 24 hours.

Realm Cutter Boost (Su): At the start of each battle, you have a +5 effective level for the purposes of determining your Rift Slash, Baleful Rift and Flicker class features. At the end of each round in which you use Rift Slash or Bloodbath, this bonus drops by 1, to a minimum of 0. The bonus resets to +5 after 10 consecutive rounds of not using Rift Slash or Bloodbath.

Gravity Ripple (Su): Beginning at second level, the Riftwalker learns how to cause their melee attacks to travel in a ripple through space instead of opening a rift. This allows them to turn any attack they make with a manufactured melee weapon into a ranged touch attack with a range increment equal to the range of their Rift Slash (Max of 5 increments).

Flicker (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, the Riftwalker's teleport lingers, leaving his form blurry for a short period after he teleports. When you use Rift Slash, attacks made against you suffer a 5% miss chance until the beginning of your next turn. This miss chance is due to partial incorporeality - Thus True Seeing and similar effects will not negate the miss chance, but Ghost Touch weaponry will. This miss chance grows by 5% every 5 levels after 2nd - To 10% at 7th level, 15% at 12th level and a maximum of 20% at 17th level.

Baleful Rift (Su): Beginning at 4th level, your Rift Slash deals an additional +1[W] to targets struck, where [W] is equal to the weapon's base damage. For example, a Greatsword normally deals 2d6 damage, plus Strength x1.5 and enhancements. At 4th level, the same Greatsword, if used to make a Rift Slash, would deal 4d6 damage, plus Strength x1.5 and enhancements. This extra damage increases by an additional +1[W] every 6 levels thereafter (+2[W] at 10th level, +3[W] at 16th level, etc).

Evasion (Ex): At 4th level, the Riftwalker gains Evasion, as the Rogue class feature of the same name. At 13th level, this is replaced with Improved Evasion. Unlike normal Evasion, it functions while wearing armor heavier than Light, but your Armor Check Penalty applies to Reflex saving throws to which Evasion applies while wearing armor heavier than Light. So if you wear Medium or Heavy armor, and you attempt to use Evasion, you suffer a penalty on that Reflex saving throw equal to your ACP - But by foregoing Evasion for that save, you can negate the penalty.

Scorn Earth (Su): Beginning at 5th level, while in an area of normal gravity, the Riftwalker can choose to float a foot above the ground. They move normally when doing so, ignoring difficult terrain, as long as they remain within 1ft of any flat solid or liquid surface. At heights above 1ft, the Riftwalker's speed diminishes to 10ft per round, and his attacks suffer penalties as if under the effects of the Levitate spell. While using this class feature in heavy gravity, the feature simply allows the Riftwalker to ignore all penalties associated with heavy gravity. While using this class feature in an area of light gravity, you may act normally so long as you remain within 10ft of a flat solid or liquid surface, and your speed at higher altitudes is reduced to 20ft rather than 10ft, and the penalties from the Levitate effect are halved.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 6th level, the Riftwalker gains Uncanny Dodge, as the Barbarian class feature of the same name. At 10th level, this is replaced with Improved Uncanny Dodge.

Bloodbath (Su): Beginning at 17th level, once per encounter, the Riftwalker can spend a full-round action to preform a Bloodbath. During this Bloodbath, the Riftwalker executes one Rift Slash per class level at his highest BAB, but each one after the first suffers a cumulative -1 penalty on the attack roll. Once the Bloodbath is finished, the Riftwalker is Fatigued until the end of the encounter, and left partially out-of-phase for 2d6+4 rounds - While in this phased-out state, the Riftwalker is stuck under effects identical to the Blink spell, with no save. Using Rift Slash in any of its forms in this state ignores the damage reduction you've gained against the self-damage of Rift Slash, and prolongs the duration of the Blink effect by 1d4 rounds, so this is typically used as a last-ditch effort to kill the Riftwalker's foes.

Ex-Riftwalker

If a Riftwalker goes for an entire month without training in Heavy gravity, he loses all non-chassis abilities of the class except his Gravity Field, BAB, saves, HD, skills and proficiencies until he's spent 8 hours training in Heavy gravity every day for an entire month.

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