Bands of Binding Ice

**Descriptors:** Cold, Mind-Affecting

**Class:** Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

**Slot:** Wrists, Body

**Saving Throw:** Reflex (see text), Fortitude (see text)

*Cool silvery akasha wraps itself in runed bands around your arms, wrists, and body, granting you powers of binding ice.*

Shaping this veil allows you to conjure walls of ice to hamper your foes. As a standard action, you conjure a wall of ice within Medium range (100 ft. + 10 ft./veilweaver level. This wall has a total length of up to 10 feet, a height of 5 feet, and is 1 foot thick. The entire length of this wall must be within the range of this ability. A vertical wall only needs to be anchored on a floor, while a horizontal or slanting wall must be anchored on two opposite sides. You cannot conjure an ice wall in an area occupied by any objects or creatures, and its surface must be a single smooth, unbroken plane. Your ice wall can slightly alter its height and length to fit snugly along smoothed walls and ceilings. Climbing over the smooth and slippery surface of this wall is nearly impossible without magical assistance (such as the *spider climb* spell), and imposes a +5 increase to the DC of Acrobatics checks made to balance upon or hop up on it. When placed horizontally, such as if it is used as a bridge or floor, creatures make an Acrobatics check to walk upon it as if it were uneven ground with a DC of 5. A slanted ice wall is nearly impossible to walk on without magical assistance.

Any creature who is adjacent to the wall as it is created may attempt to disrupt its creation if they have successfully identified the effects of the veil with a Knowledge (arcana) check, or if they have been informed of the effects by someone who has. A creature can make this Knowledge check as you activate this ability, but before the wall is created. Disrupting the wall requires an adjacent creature to make a Reflex saving throw as an immediate action. A successful save causes this ability to automatically fail.

Each 5-foot square of wall has 3 hit points per veilweaving level, and an AC and CMD of 10 + your veilweaving modifier. If a creature attempts to break a 5-foot square of this wall using sudden force rather than an attack or a sunder attempt, the DC of the Strength check is 15 + your veilweaving level. When a square of the wall is broken, a sheet of freezing air remains in the square. Any creature who enters this square, or ends their turn within the square, takes a number of points of cold damage equal to your veilweaving modifier, with no save. A creature can only suffer this damage once per turn. This sheet of freezing air continues to support the wall as if it were made of solid ice.

Fire can melt your ice walls, dealing full damage to the wall (instead of the normal half damage dealt to objects), and ignores any hardness the wall may have. Melting a square of the ice wall does not produce a sheet of freezing air. If this destroyed square would cause the wall to not be properly supported, such as if it completely severs a horizontal or slanting wall only supported on two opposite sides, the entire wall immediately crumbles and is dispelled.

You may only have a single ice wall created using this veil at a single time, but it has no set duration. Attempting to create a second wall destroys the first. You can choose to dismiss your created ice wall as a standard action, and it is automatically dispelled if you invest essence to or from this veil while a wall is conjured, or if the veil is suppressed, disjointed, or unshaped.

**Essence:** For each point of essence invested in this veil, the maximum length of your wall increases by 10 feet, your wall’s AC, CMD and hardness increases by 1, and the cold damage dealt by moving through a section of broken wall increases by 1d6. For every 3 points of essence invested in this veil, the maximum height of your wall increases by 5 feet. Each 5-foot increase to height counts as a separate 5-foot square for the purposes of breaking through the wall.

**Chakra Bind (Wrist): [N8, St8, Vi8]** Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra allows you to direct the magics of this veil to imprison a creature in an icy stasis. As a standard action you can attempt to conjure a prison of ice around a single creature within 30 feet, dealing 1d8 cold damage + 1d8 cold damage per point of essence invested in this veil to the target. A successful Fortitude save halves this damage. If the creature fails this save, it is entombed by ice and is paralyzed and unconscious, and does not need to eat, drink or breathe while the ice lasts. For every 24 hours spent imprisoned by the ice, the creature only ages as if a single hour has passed and may make a new Fortitude saving throw to break free of the prison.The imprisoned creature can sense the flow of time while imprisoned, but has no other senses available to them.

This icy prison has 20 hit points, and the same AC, CMD, Hardness, and break DC of the ice walls created by this veil. It is also affected by fire damage in the same way. Destroying the prison frees the creature, which is staggered for 1d4 rounds after being released. Whether or not the creature’s initial saving throw against this ability is successful, they become immune to the effects of this ability for 24 hours. Unshaping this veil does not end the effects of this icy imprisonment. You can choose to end a creature’s imprisonment as a standard action if you are within 30 feet of them and have this veil shaped.

**Chakra Bind (Body): [N20, R18, St20, Vi20]** Binding this veil to your Body chakra grants you all of the benefits of the Wrists bind, and also allows you to safely entomb yourself in an icy stasis. Entombing yourself requires a standard action, and places you in a state similar to the ice prison created by this veil’s Wrist bind. You are paralyzed, but remain conscious and can perceive your surroundings. You do not need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe while entombed. For every 24 hours spent entombed in ice, you only perceive time and age as if a single hour had passed. Time imprisoned in ice counts at the normal rate for the purposes of resting to recover your hit points and damaged ability scores, for preparing spells, for shaping new veils, and for any other abilities that require rest. You can choose to end your icy entombment at any time as a free action on your turn, or as an immediate action outside of your turn. When you are freed from your entombment, you are not staggered. This ability otherwise has the same HP, AC, CMD, Hardness, and Break DC of the ice prison created by this veil.