Adaptationist Obsession

A desire to overcome the failings of the mortal form has drawn you down a path of suffering and mutation as you forcibly alter your body into a state far beyond that of a mortal being.

## Weapon Adaptations (Su)

*Toxic elixirs, forbidden surgeries, and strange rituals have allowed you to shape your body into a weapon more versatile and useful than any crafted by men.*

At 1st level, you gain the ability to warp and adapt parts of your body into natural weapons. As part of investing your essence, you may choose to gain two natural weapons types detailed in **Table 1-2: Weapon Adaptations.** You can change your selected natural weapons every time you invest your essence. When using these natural weapons you treat your base attack bonus gained from promethean levels as equal to your class level. When attacking using only natural weapons provided by this ability, you treat each of them as primary natural attacks. You cannot select a single natural weapon more than once. This is a [polymorph] effect.

At 9th and 17th level, you may select an additional natural weapon each time you use this ability.

## Bodily Enhancements (Ex)

*Constant experimentation has rendered your body more durable and better able to survive injuries that would otherwise kill or maim another mortal.*

At 1st level, you gain a +1 bonus to your natural armor. This stacks with other sources of natural armor. In addition, you gain +2 Hit Points at every promethean level. At 3rd level, and every 4 levels thereafter, your bonus to natural armor increases by +1.

## Bodily Adaptations (Su)

*Further improvements to your body have granted you the ability to survive in all manner of environments and conditions that would otherwise prove dangerous or fatal.*

At 5th level, you can adapt your body to survive in a single extreme condition from the following list. This process requires a ten minute of uninterrupted meditation. While using this ability, your body shifts and changes in noticeable and unsettling ways. Each time you use this ability you can choose to remove your adaptation, or replace it with a new bodily adaptation. This is a [polymorph] effect, however it can also be used alongside your weapon adaptations ability.

At 9th level, and again at 13th, 17th, and 20th level, the time required to change your bodily adaptation is reduced. It takes 7 minutes at 9th level, 4 minutes at 13th level, 1 minute at 17th level, and 1 standard action at 20th level.

* **Aerial Adaptation:** Your body adapts itself for flying, granting you wings, flight sacks, or another organ that allows you to glide. You can make a DC 15 Fly check to fall safely from any height without taking fall damage, as if using *feather fall*. When falling safely, you can make an additional DC 15 Fly check to glide, moving 5 feet laterally for every 20 feet you fall. At 9th level this ability improves, granting you a fly speed of 30 feet (20 feet if you are small) with Poor maneuverability. At 13th level, and again at 17th and 20th level, your fly speed increases by 10 feet and your maneuverability increases by one step (from Poor to Average to Good to Perfect). At 20th level, your fly speed allows you to travel through the void of space at incredible speeds. Although exact travel times vary, a trip within a single solar system takes you 3d20 months and a trip beyond takes 3d20 years (or more, at your GM’s discretion) — provided you know the way to your destination. However, this ability alone does not grant you the ability to survive in space.
* **Arboreal Adaptation:** Your body becomes particularly adapted to climbing, granting you a climb speed of 30 feet (20 feet if you are small or smaller). Unlike a normal climb speed, this only grants you a +2 racial bonus to Climb checks. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, your climb speed increases by 10 feet and your racial bonus to Climb checks increases by +2. At 13th level, you gain the ability to climb perfectly vertical surfaces and ceiling, do not need free hands to climb, you retain your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class while climbing, and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against you while climbing.
* **Aquatic Adaptation:** You grow a set of gills, allowing you to breathe in water as well as air. Additionally, your body becomes adapted for swimming, granting you a swim speed of 30 feet. Unlike a normal swim speed, this only grants you a +2 racial bonus to Swim checks. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, your swim speed increases by 10 feet and your racial bonus to Swim checks increases by +2. Starting at 13th level, you also gain tremorsense out to a range equal to your swim speed while you are swimming.
* **Compression Adaptation:** Your body adapts to allow you to squeeze through tight spaces, allowing you to move through an area as small as one-quarter your space without squeezing, or one-eighth your space when squeezing.
* **Disease Resistant Adaptation:** Your body better adapts itself to fight off diseases. This ability functions as the poison resistant adaptation, save that it applies to diseases instead of poisons. You can still contract diseases and spread them to others while using this adaptation.
* **Elemental Adaptation:** Your skin shifts in makeup to grant you 5 resistance to one of the following damage types: acid, cold, electricity, fire. This resistance increases by 5 points at 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. This stacks with other forms of elemental resistance. This bodily adaptation can be selected multiple times starting at 13th level, allowing you to select an additional element to resist for each additional selection.
* **Extreme Weather Adaptation:** Your body becomes denser and your eyes alter, allowing you to exist and thrive in extreme weather. You can exist comfortably in conditions between -50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves. Additionally, you are not slowed by snow, treat wind affecting you as one category weaker, and ignore penalties on Perception checks from hail, rain, sleet, and snow.
* **Fossorial Adaptation:** Your body adapts to burrowing through the earth. You gain a burrow speed of 20 feet (15 feet if you are small or smaller) and can burrow through sand, loose soil, or gravel. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, your burrow speed increases by 10 feet and you can burrow through more solid materials: dense soil and clay at 9th level, soft or brittle stone at 13th level, and any sort of earth except metal at 17th level. Starting at 13th level, you also gain tremorsense out to a range equal to your burrow speed while you are burrowing underground.
* **Poison Resistant Adaptation:** Your blood changes in form to protect you from poisons. While this adaptation is active, you do not take any damage or suffer any penalties from poisons, and you gain a +1 bonus to your Fortitude saving throws against poison. This bonus increases by an additional +1 at 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. Activating this ability does not cure any damage previously dealt by a poison, but does negate other effects. While using this adaptation, you still make saving throws against poisons you are afflicted with, durations of negated conditions continue to expire, and poisons remain in your system until you are cured of them. If you lose this adaptation while still inflicted with a poison, you begin suffering its effects again.
* **Terrestrial Adaptation:** You grow a set of lungs, allowing you to breathe air. If you lack legs, you can choose for your fins, flippers, or tail to be reshaped into legs as part of this adaptation, granting you a base land speed of 30 feet (20 feet if you are small or smaller). You do not lose your swim speed, and these legs function just as well as your normal limbs for swimming.

## Improved Weapon Adaptations (Su)

*Your continued experimentation on your body has further improved your ability to weaponize it.*

At 9th level, each of your natural weapons created by your weapon adaptations ability are enhanced, improving them in a unique way.

* **Bite:** When you successfully deal damage to a living creature with your bite attack, you can tear and consume their flesh, invigorating you and granting you temporary hit points equal to 3 + your promethean level until the beginning of your next turn.
* **Claws:** Your claws deal an additional 1d6 points of bleed damage on a successful hit. This bleed damage stacks with itself, to a maximum of 12 damage.
* **Gore:** Your gore attack now adds 2x your Strength modifier to its damage rolls, or 1x your Strength modifier if used as a secondary natural attack.
* **Hooves:** When you hit a creature with your hooves, you can make an Overrun attempt against them as a free action. Any bonuses or penalties applied to your hooves are also applied to this bull-rush. You can move up to half of your speed as part of this overrun, and it does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
* **Pincers:** If you hit a single creature with both of your pincers in a single turn, you tear away parts of their defenses, reducing their armor, natural, or shield bonus to their armor class by 2. This reduction stacks with itself, but cannot reduce a bonus below 0. For natural armor, this reduction is healed at a rate of 1 point per hour, or 1 per round for creatures with regeneration. For armor and shields, they must be repaired by spending 1 hour and making a Craft (armor) check with a DC equal to 15 + the total reduction in armor bonus. Using an ability that repairs objects immediately restores the armor bonus of armors and shields to their normal amount, casting a spell that allows a creature to instantly regenerate broken body parts (such as the regenerate spell) restores natural armor to its normal amount.
* **Slam:** When you hit a creature with your slam, you can make a bull rush against that creature as a free action. Any bonuses or penalties applied to your slam attack are also applied to this bull-rush. This bull rush does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
* **Sting:** When you hit a creature with your sting you inject them with a virulent venom. This functions as a poison with a DC of 10 + ½ your promethean level + your Intelligence modifier, deals 2 Constitution damage on a failed save, has a frequency of 1/round for 10 rounds, and is cured with 1 saving throw. You cannot use this poison to coat weapons, and you cannot harvest or milk this venom from yourself.
* **Talons:** If you hit a single creature with both of your talons in a single turn, you deal additional damage to the creature equal to one of your talon attacks.
* **Tentacles:** If you hit a single creature with both of your tentacles in a single turn, you can make a disarm or trip attempt against that creature as a free action. Any bonuses or penalties applied to your tentacles are also applied to this disarm or trip attempt. This disarm or trip does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

## Instinctual Adaptation (Su)

*Continuous experimentation on your body has caused it to react instinctively to danger, allowing you to change your adaptations with but a thought in response to stimuli.*

At 13th level, your ability to adapt to external forces improves, allowing you to select two bodily adaptations each time you use that ability. Additionally, you can choose to adapt your body as an immediate action a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier, granting you the effects of a single bodily adaptation. If you already have your maximum number of adaptations, you must replace one of them with this new adaptation. This adaptation can be gained in response to outside stimulus, allowing you to lessen or negate the harm you would experience.

For example, if you begin to fall you could gain the *aerial adaptation* to catch yourself, or if you are exposed to elemental damage you could take the *elemental adaptation* to reduce the damage.

In addition, your ability to adapt your body to danger improves, granting you access to the following bodily adaptations in addition to those available at 5th level:

* **Ageless Adaptation:** Your body adapts to better conserve your energy, causing you to no longer age. You maintain any bonuses or penalties gained by aging while using this adaptation, but otherwise no longer naturally age and gain immunity to effects that cause you to age while using this adaptation.
* **Breathless Adaptation:** You adapt away from the need to breathe, granting you immunity to any breathing based effects and allowing you to survive in locations without breathable air.
* **Hungerless Adaptation:** You can adapt your body into a state that no longer requires you to have to consume water or food to survive. When you lose this adaptation, your need to eat and drink returns to the exact state it was before you took this adaptation.
* **Predator’s Adaptation:** Your body adapts itself to allow you to perform sudden bursts of vicious speed to close gaps with your prey. You gain the pounce ability, allowing you to make a full attack as part of a charge.
* **Radiation Adaptation:** Your body adapts to survive amidst the most extreme of energy emissions, making you completely immune to the effects of radiation. If you already suffered damage from radiation, taking this adaptation immediately purges any harmful radiation remaining in your system, curing any Constitution drain or Strength drain caused by radiation..
* **Sightless Adaptation:** Your eyes are adapted away, replaced with specialized organs for perceiving your surrounding without sight. You gain blindsight 60 feet, but are blind past that range.

## Monstrous Adaptation (Su)

*Your adaptations have further improved in efficacy, increasing their deadliness but permanently warping your body, giving you an alien, dangerous, or monstrous appearance.*

At 17th level, each of your natural weapons created by your weapon adaptations ability deal damage as if you were 1 size category larger, and have their critical threat range increased to 19-20 x3. This stacks with other abilities that increase your size or effective size, and increase your critical range.

Your body has been permanently warped by your transformations, giving you an appearance that is incredibly unsettling to most sentient beings. Your starting attitude with most sentient creatures is reduced by 1 step, to a minimum of hostile. You can hide your transformations using magic, such as the *disguise self* or through mundane means using the disguise skill, but you suffer a -10 penalty to your disguise checks. Certain creatures, at your GM’s discretion, may not be put off by your monstrous appearance (such as some outsiders, sentient aberrations, or people who often deal with the monstrous) and do not suffer a penalty to their starting attitude.

## Adapationist’s Pinnacle

*You have reached the pinnacle of your art, your adaptations truly becoming a part of your form.*

At 20th level, you gain the shapechanger subtype. If you are a humanoid creature, your type changes to aberration, granting you Darkvision 60 feet (or increasing your existing Darkvision by 30 feet). All of your features gained from the adaptationist promethean obsession become extraordinary abilities rather than supernatural abilities. You gain the ability to select a third adaptation with your bodily adaptations ability. You may use your instinctual adaptation ability an unlimited number of times per day, and may change any of your active adaptations when you use it instead of only one.