Beholder of Wonder

Your curiosity *drives* you. While the secrets arcane were the obvious starting point, inasmuch as one could call them such, you've eventually found yourself a connisour of art in all its forms.

**Hit Die:** d8

**Skill Points:** 6 + Int

## Requirements

**Skills:** Perform (Any) 9 ranks, Knowledge (History) 4 ranks, Knowledge (Planes) *or* Knowledge (Arcana) 4 ranks

**Spells:** Ability to cast 1st-level arcane spells

**Race:** Sane beholder-kin

**Special:** Bardic Music special ability

## Class Skills

Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (All) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

## Class Features

**Spellcasting:** A Beholder of Wonder gains the ability to cast a number of arcane spells, and spells per day as per the table bellow. He learns and prepares spells like a Wizard, but may also learn spells from the Bard list, in addition to the wizard's.

Unlike most classes, he may chose to key his spellcasting either off his Intelligence or his Charisma, and calculates save DCs and bonus spells per day as normal, after making his choice.

To determine the Beholder's caster level, add half his levels in other spellcasting classes to his levels in Beholder of Wonder.

**Bardic Knowledge:** As per the Bard ability, the aggregate knowledge a Beholder tends to accrue makes it so this class' levels stack with any other that provide the same or similar abilities.

**Bardic Music:** The Beholder's unique approach to learning means that only a few of the traditional Bardic Music abilities are progressed, those being **Inspire Courage** and **Inspire Greatness**, those benefits being gained from the Beholder's recitation of an epic poem or the balad about a grand battle and the like. This focus, however, means those abilities are stronger than usual, as indicated in the table bellow. Those abilities otherwise function as normal.

**Innate Ocular Spell:** You can cast a spell with a casting time of 1 full round or less as an ocular spell. An ocular spell does not take effect immediately, but is instead held in one of your eyes for up to 8 hours. A number of spells equal to either the number of eyes you possess, or the modifier of your spellcasting stat, whichever is lower. Only ray spells and spells with a target other than personal can be cast as ocular spells. When you choose, you can then cast any number, up to your maximum, of ocular spells as a full-round action; the spells become brilliant blasts that shoot out from your eyes. You can choose different targets for each spell, as long as you are able each relevant eye at the same time. When you release an ocular spell, its effect changes to a ray with a range of up to (your class level x 20ft). If the spell previously would have affected multiple creatures, it now affects only the creature struck by the ray. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike your target with an ocular spell, and the target is still permitted any saving throw allowed by the spell. Spells stored in this manner use the same spell slot level as their original forms.

The maximum level of spell he is able to store in such manner is equal to the maximum level of spell granted by this class.

**Questing Essentials:** To travel around in search of wondrous knowledge is often a perilous proposition. As such, the Beholder of Wonder gains certain abilities in order to facilitate the survival (and, consequentially, the re-telling) of such trips. At first level, and every two levels thereafter (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th), his Natural Armour bonus improves by +1. At second level, and every two levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th), his Damage Reduction improves by 3. If he didn't previously have any DR, treat him as having DR 0, much like Natural Armour bonuses. This DR, in such case, is bypassed by Adamantine.

At first level, he becomes immune to vagaries of extreme enviroments, as per the *Endure Elements* spell. At sixth level, such protection is upgraded to that provided by a permanent *Planar Adaptation*, as to better shield him from the more exotic places his travels might take him.

**Elephant in the Room**: It's a known fact that most, if not all, beholder-kin do not, in fact, possess hands. As one might gather, such can be problematic. As to avoid this, the Beholder of Wonder has a rather unique ability, and a much needed one: The Unseen Retinue. He has a horde of permanent *Unseen Servants* bound by his will, one for every level in this class. Each can exert strenght equivalent to half his own score, and he may control any number of them directly, allowing for as much finesse as normal hands, if not more.

Those Servants are rather handy when the performance requires more than one player to reach it's full potential. He is able to project his voice, changed if he so desires, through each Servant, whom can be animating costumes themselves. At third level, he may even speak with multiple voices simultaneously.

At level 5, the Beholder figures out the supreme improvisation trick, as to always convey the full magnificence of his piece, each Servant is capable of minor tricks, such as those provided by *Prestidigitation*, and may thus, for example, craft simple masks and costumes for themselves, which look remarkably more refined than the aforementioned spells.

At tenth level, this gentleman adventurer has his retinue doubled.

**Legendary:** From his vast knowledge of legends and tales, he draws inspiration. He may use his Knowledge (History) to remember great deeds done where he currently stands, and draw the inherent power such acts generate to improve his performance. Add the corresponding bonus, per the table bellow, to his Inspire Courage.

 16—25
 26—30
 31—35
 36 or higher