The Cainites were once the favored people of Magus, and them he gave a special rune script they called the Divine Jade Script. It was a script that largely had to do with weapon transmutation, allowing the weapons it enchanted to take on mutable properties and channel various types of energy into attacks. Those who perfected the art of using Divine Jade script became known as Heraldic Fencers. After Cainis opened its borders, the Heralds of the Arcanum helped to expand and modernize Divine Jade script, and knowledge of Heraldic Fencing spread throughout the land.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

The following are all required to become a Heraldic Fencer.

Base Attack Bonus: +6
Spells:> Able to cast 1st level arcane spells
Feats: Combat Expertise

Table: The Heraldic Fencer

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Heraldic Weaponry +1	--
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Spellstrike	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Heraldic Weaponry +2	--
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	--	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Heraldic Weaponry +3, Greater Heraldic Weaponry	--
6th	+6	+5	+2	+2	--	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
7th	+7	+5	+2	+2	Heraldic Weaponry +4	--
8th	+8	+6	+2	+2	--	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class
9th	+9	+6	+3	+3	Heraldic Weaponry +5	--
10th	+10	+7	+3	+3	Spell Critical	+1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class

Class Skills

The war mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Dex), Move Silently (Dex), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str). Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are features of the Heraldic Fencer prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A Heraldic Fencer gains no proficiency with any weapons or armor.

Heraldic Weaponry (Su)

At 1st level, the Heraldic Fencer gains a small number of exclusive matrixes that he can draw upon to fuel his powers and enhance his weapon. This Fencing pool has a number of points equal to his Heraldic Fencer level + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the Heraldic Fencer prepares his spells.

At 1st level, a Heraldic Fencer can expend 1 point from his Fencing pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. For every two levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 9th level. These bonuses can be added to already enchanted weapons, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.

These bonuses do not function if the weapon is wielded by anyone other than the Heraldic Fencer. A Heraldic Fencer can only enhance one weapon in this way at one time. If he uses this ability again, the first use immediately ends.

Spellstrike

At 2nd level, whenever a Heraldic Fencer casts a spell with a range of “touch” from his arcane spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a Heraldic Fencer can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. This attack uses the weapon’s critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.

Spells

At second level, and again at every even numbered level thereafter (4,6,8, and 10), the Heraldic Fencer gains new spells per day or umbra points as if he had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of war mage to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before she became a war mage, he must decide to which class he adds each level of Heraldic Fencer for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Greater Heraldic Weaponry (Su)

At 5th level, the Heraldic Fencer can use his Fencing pool to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.

Adding these properties consumes an amount of Fencing pool equal to the property’s base price modifier, as shown on Table: Greater Heraldic Weaponry Costs. These properties are added to any the weapon already has, but duplicates do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added. These bonuses and properties are decided when the Fencing pool point is spent and cannot be changed until the next time the Heraldic Fencer uses this ability.

Table: Greater Heraldic Weaponry Costs

Effect	Cost
Dancing	4
Flaming	1
Flaming Burst	2
Frost	1
Icy Burst	2
Keen	1
Shock	1
Shocking Burst	2
Speed	3
Vorpal	5

Spell Critical (Su)

At 10th level, whenever a Heraldic Fencer successfully confirms a critical hit, he can cast an arcane spell as a swift action. The spell must include the target of the attack as one of its targets or in its area of effect. Casting this spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The caster must still meet all of the spell's requirements and must roll for arcane spell failure if necessary.