Editing Avangion (section)

==3.5 Avangions==
The basically-official Athas.org has released a plethora of free 3.5 content for Dark Sun, and in their Legends of Athas book, basically their version of the Epic Level Handbook, they included full writeups for both Athasian Dragons and Avangions.  An Avangion is both a race and an epic prestige class - in that order.  The Metamorphosis spells are now epic spells, with DCs starting at 50 and ending at 80, using the new Metamorphosis epic spell seed (Transmutation, obviously).

The first such spell makes you an immortal Aberration - which is really easy to do with the Metamorphosis seed.  And to think, some dummies become [[Lich|liches]] instead.  The second one gives you DR 5/- and both spell resistance and power resistance that scales with your HD.  The third one bumps that up, and gives you a permanent fly speed of 60 (Good).  This isn't even mentioning the at-will spell-likes or the deflection bonus to AC, which starts off kind of meager but hits 12 by the end.

As in previous editions, you can only cast the first three spells in a prepared ritual area that is free from defilement, and decorated with the remains of defilers and other enemies of life, and the next three require a vast, green, undefiled area and gifts from powerful good beings.  Casting them requires you to expend your psionic focus and large number of power points, double the Spellcraft DC, so starting at 100 and ending at 160.

The Avangion prestige class has about the same entry requirements as before: Knowledge Arcana and Psionics at 24, four feats, 9th-level arcane spells and sixth-level powers, and you need to have cast Preserver Metamorphosis I.  A character [[Prestige_Class#Cerebremancer|built for the purpose]] can take their first level of Avangion at level 22.  You get a d4 hit die and 2+int skill points, and you'll like it, buster, because at first level you get immunity to defiling, including an Athasian Dragon's beefed-up version, and Avangion Magic, which lets you cast spells as if you were in a better terrain than you are (which incidentally lets you cast arcane spells in places like the Obsidian Flats, or even in other planes like the Black, where it's normally impossible), and you have the option to take Con damage to lower the xp cost of epic spells, both of which get stronger as you cast further Preserver Metamorphosis spells.

After that, you get a level of arcane casting plus an increase to manifester level on all the even levels, and a level of manifesting plus an increase to caster level plus the same powerful Psionic Enchantment powers that the otherkin do on all the odds levels except the first, where you only get the Psionic Enchantment.  Oh, and bonus feats at levels 4 and 8.  All told, it's very similar to the dragon prestige class, mostly exchanging a free feat and an auto-researched epic spell for a little extra casting and manifesting power.

It's interesting how the class and the epic spells are joined at the toe.  You need to cast the first spell to qualify for the class, and all the spells after the first specifically need to be cast using Avangion Magic, but there's no reason you can't or shouldn't just cast the first spell and run through all ten levels of the prestige class, or just take the first level of the class and go right back to Archmage or Veiled One or something.  

[[File:3.5 Avangion.png]]