Loremaster

The loremaster is a gatherer and keeper of secrets. He is often obsessed by the written word, with cryptic and arcane lore serving as his devoted mistress. Holding to the adage that knowledge is power, the loremaster often forsakes material wealth and personal glory for rare or unusual information, an endless quest that brings him ever closer to his unattainable goal: perfection through edification. Often rejecting what he views as the pointless affectations and transitory pleasures of his short-sighted neighbors, the loremaster believes that the only worthwhile goal in life is the acquisition of intellectual might. After all, wealth is spent, passions fade, and the power of the body is limited by age, while the mind's capacity to grow greater with time is infinite.

The loremaster class holds little appeal for non-spellcasters—indeed, before one can devote a life to the studies and traditions of the loremaster, a character must first master several spells of the school of divination. Most loremasters begin their paths as clerics or wizards, but any character capable of casting enough divination spells can, eventually, become a loremaster.

Role: Loremasters' lives are spent in study, research, and fieldwork. While the first two lend themselves to the loremaster's reputation as a bookish recluse, the latter oftentimes forces a loremaster to seek out the aid of adventurers who, through a mutually beneficial arrangement, might provide a degree of protection to the scholar while he seeks whatever knowledge he is after. For his part, the loremaster provides a wealth of information and arcane firepower to a party. Some loremasters actively deride those of their kind who fear to leave the safety of the temple or library, pointing out that only old lore can be discovered in books—new lore must be sought out in the world. These more active loremasters might join up with an adventuring party for the benefit of the journey, content with whatever knowledge might be picked up along the way.

Alignment: Most loremasters cannot be bothered with distracting and pointless philosophies such as ethics, and so tend to be neutral, neutral good, or neutral evil.

Hit Die: d6.

Requirements

To qualify to become a loremaster, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Knowledge (any two) 7 ranks in each.

Feats: Any three metamagic or item creation feats, plus Skill Focus (Knowledge [any individual Knowledge skill]).

Spells: Able to cast seven different divination spells, one of which must be 3rd level or higher.

Class Skills

The loremaster's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animals (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perform (Cha), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are Class Features of the loremaster prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Loremasters gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: When a new loremaster level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a loremaster, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Secret: At 1st level and every two levels higher than 1st (3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th), the loremaster chooses one secret from the Loremaster Secrets table. His level plus Intelligence modifier determines which secrets he can choose. He can't choose the same secret twice.

Loremaster Secrets

Level + Int Modifier	Secret	Effect
1	Instant mastery	4 ranks of a skill in which the character has no ranks
2	Secret health	Toughness bonus feat
3	Secrets of inner strength	+2 bonus on Will saves
4	The lore of true stamina	+2 bonus on Fortitude saves
5	Secret knowledge of avoidance	+2 bonus on Reflex saves
6	Weapon trick	+1 bonus on attack rolls
7	Dodge trick	+1 dodge bonus to AC
8	Applicable knowledge	Any one feat
9	Newfound arcana	1 bonus 1st-level spell*
10	More newfound arcana	1 bonus 2nd-level spell*
* As if gained through having a high ability score.

Lore: At 2nd level, a loremaster adds half his level to all Knowledge skill checks and may make such checks untrained. The bonuses gained from this ability stack with those gained from Bardic Knowledge.

Bonus Languages: A loremaster can learn any new language at 4th and 8th level.

Greater Lore (Ex): At 6th level, a loremaster gains the ability to understand magic items. Whenever a loremaster examines a magic item to determine its properties, he gains a +10 circumstance bonus on his Spellcraft skill check.

True Lore (Ex): At 10th level, a loremaster's knowledge becomes vast indeed. Once per day a loremaster can use his knowledge to gain the effect of a legend lore spell or an analyze dweomer spell. If used to create a legend lore effect, this ability has a casting time of 1 minute, regardless of how much information is already known about the subject in question.