This is the basic information thread. Here I will post what your characters need to know. In other words, this thread will be used to stat out custom magic items, minor and major artifacts that occur, NPCs important to the party (villains will not be displayed here).
[spoiler=VennDygrem]Soultouched Elite (Shifter)
Prerequisites: Shifter with the Soultouched Trait.
Benefit: While shifting, you gain a beneficial power based on your ancestry. The benefits of this feat are based on which heritage you picked for the Soultouched trait (Azurin, Skarn, Rilkan, or Duskling).
Azurin: Being descended from the most practiced meldshaping race has a huge benefit. While shifting, you may shape an additional soulmeld that does not count against your daily allotment of soulmelds (up to the maximum number of soulmelds you are able to shape, which is your Constitution score -10). You choose which soulmeld you wish to shape when you shape your soulmelds for the day. You must follow the normal restrictions for shaping your soulmelds.
The soulmeld's effect only manifests while you are shifting. When your shift has expired, the soulmeld goes dormant and has no effect, no matter how much essentia you have invested in it. Any essentia invested in it immediately returns to the original source (essentia invested in the soulmeld through effects such as the Soul Boon spell or the Helm of Essentia magic item dissipate entirely, while essentia from your pool returns to it normally). The soulmeld shaped by this effect cannot be bound to a chakra through any means.
Rilkan: Your Mishtai descent grants you an improved defense against supernatural effects. This protection manifests itself as a variation of Spell Resistance that applies only to Su abilities. This "SR" is an exception to the normal rules for SR and Su effects in that it only applies to Su abilities (despite the fact that they are not normally affected by SR). This "SR" does not negate the effect outright; it merely delays it for a set duration (see below).
The SR is equal to 10+your meldshaper level. If you do not have a meldshaper level through virtue of class levels, treat your meldshaper level as being 1/2 your effective character level. The source of the Su ability must make a level check (1d20+the Challenge Rating of the effect, or 1d20+the creature's initiator level if the effect is a supernatural martial maneuver) in order to bypass this SR. If the check fails, then the SU is delayed for a number of rounds equal to the remaining duration of your shift+your Constitution modifier.
This effect is active only while you are shifting.
Skarn: Like the Rilkan-descended shifters, your Mishtai blood grants you power. Unlike the Rilkan version of this feat, however, your benefit is much more offensive in nature. The spine attack granted by your Soultouched shifter trait increases in damage by two die steps (from 1d6 to 1d10, assuming no other effects increase it's damage die). In addition, you rip through the DR and SR of the opponent with ease. You ignore all forms of damage reduction that require a special material to bypass, and your natural weapons are treated as Lawful-aligned. Each time you hit a target with your spine attack, the target's SR takes a penalty against your soulmelds. This penalty is equal to the essentia invested in the soulmeld that targets the creature struck. These effects last for the duration of your shift, and can only be used while you are shifting.
Duskling: You gain a sturdy resistance to weapons. While shifting, you can deflect an amount of damage to a later time. In effect, this is similar to the Steely Resolve class feature of the Crusader (Tome of Battle page 10), except as noted below.
The differences between the two abilities are drastic. You cannot heal the damage while it is in your delayed damage pool, and Damage Reduction or Regeneration does not apply to the delayed damage. The effect does not have an upward limit to the damage it can delay, but it can only delay an amount of damage each round equal to 1/2 your essentia pool. The damage is delayed until your shift ends, at which point all of the damage delayed by this effect is dealt to you at once. All other effects attached to the damage happens normally (as depicted in the Crusader class feature); effects such as poison damage or the effects of a spell are not delayed with the damage.
For example, a Shifter with this effect active and an essentia pool of 10 can delay 5 hit points of damage each round. Assuming his shift lasts for 8 rounds, he can delay a total of 40 points of damage. Over the course of those 8 rounds, he takes a total of 14 damage. When his shift expires at the start of the 9th round, he takes 14 points of damage, without applying any damage reduction.
If you have the Steely Resolve class feature in addition to this feat, you must choose which effect takes place. Damage delayed from one pool cannot be absorbed by the other (if you would take damage from your Steely Resolve class feature and haven't been dealt damage while this effect is active, you cannot delay the Steely Resolve's damage with this effect, and vice versa). You also do not gain a benefit from your Furious Counterstrike feature for damage delayed by this effect.[/spoiler]
