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RollynT.Glal
2012-02-08, 12:54 PM
Cleric Variant 3: The Pious Warrior


”I am the sword of my god, I am his light in this dark world. When his wars need waged I lead the holy into battle” Diedrius, Pious Warrior of Pelor

Alignment: Within one step of your deity

HD: d10

Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perform (Oratory) (Cha), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Special: Any skill that would be expected to be utilized by the deity may be class skill of the mystic at the DM’s discretion (i.e. a battle-priest of Olidammarra may take Hide (Dex), Move Silently (Dex) and/or Perform (all taken individually) (Cha) in addition to the base list).

Skill points at first level: (2 + Int mod) x 4
Skill points at every other level: 2 + Int mod

The Pious Warrior
{table]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0-lvl| 1st|2nd|3rd|4th
1|+1|+2|+0|+2|Clerical Power, Turn or Rebuke Undead|1|-|-|-|-
2|+2|+3|+0|+3| Combat Power level 1|2|-|-|-|-
3|+3|+3|+1|+3|General Power 1/day|2|0+1|-|-|-
4|+4|+4|+1|+4| Combat Power level 2|2|0+1|-|-|-
5|+5|+4|+1|+4| |2|1+1|-|-|-
6|+6/+1|+5|+2|+5| Combat Power level 3, General Power 2/day|2|1+1|-|-|-
7|+7/+2|+5|+2|+5||3|2+1|-|-|-
8|+8/+3|+6|+2|+6|Combat Power level 4|3|2+1|0+1|-|-
9|+9/+4|+6|+3|+6| Companion Minor Form, General Power 3/day|3|2+1|0+1|-|-
10|+10/+5|+7|+3|+7| Combat Power level 5|3|2+1|1+1|-|-
11|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+7||3|3+1|1+1|-|-
12|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+8|Combat Power level 6, General Power 4/day|3|3+1|2+1|-|-
13|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+8||3|3+1|2+1|0+1|-
14|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+9| Combat Power level 7, Domain Focus|4|3+1|2+1|0+1|-
15|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+9|General Power 5/day| 4|3+1|2+1|1+1|-
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+10|Combat Power level 8|4|3+1|3+1|1+1|-
17|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+10||4|3+1|3+1|2+1|-
18|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+11| Combat Power level 9, Companion Lesser Form , General Power 6/day|4|4+1|3+1|2+1|0+1
19|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+11| |4|4+1|3+1|3+1|0+1
20|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+12|Combat Power level 10|4|4+1|4+1|3+1|2+1[/table]

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the pious warrior.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A pious warrior is proficient with all simple and martial weapons*. The pious warrior is also proficient with all armor and shields (excluding tower shields).
*Pious Warriors who choose the War domain gain the Weapon Focus (deity’s chosen weapon) feat.

Aura (Ex): A cleric of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment.

Spells: A pious warrior casts divine spells (the same type of spells available to the druid, paladin, and ranger), which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. A pious warrior must choose and prepare his spells in advance (see below).

To prepare or cast a spell, a pious warrior must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level (Wis 10 for 0-level spells, Wis 11 for 1st-level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a pious warrior’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the pious warrior’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a pious warrior can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. A pious warrior also gets one domain spell of each spell level he can cast, starting at 1st level. When a pious warrior prepares a spell in a domain spell slot, it must come from his chosen domain (see Deities, Domains, and Domain Spells, below).

Pious Warriors do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, though they may learn new spells from scrolls of aligned deities. But they do not prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them through their own strength of faith or as divine inspiration. Each pious warrior must choose a time at which he must spend 1 hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain his daily allotment of spells. Typically, this hour is at dawn or noon for good battle-priest s and at dusk or midnight for evil ones. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a pious warrior can prepare spells. He must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

The pious warrior’s spells per day are listed in the table above but the pious warrior’s spells known progression is as follows:
At first level the pious warrior knows 4 0-level spells.
Instead of gaining every spell of every level he can cast the pious warrior instead gains 5+Wis mod new spells at each pious warrior level. The new spells may be chosen from any spell level the battle-priest has the power to cast.
A pious warrior may learn a new spell from a divine scroll, provided it is of an appropriate level and alignment.
A pious warrior may spend Piety Points to learn new spells
Domain spells do not count against this total.

Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: Choose a deity for your mystic. The pious warrior’s deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. If the typical worshipers of a deity include the members of a race, a cleric must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own. (Except for special circumstances that are left at the discretion of the DM).

When you have chosen an alignment and a deity for your pious warrior, choose a domain from among those given for the deity. While the pious warriors of a particular religion are united in their reverence for their deity, each pious warrior emphasizes different aspects of the deity’s interests. You can select an alignment domain (Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law) for your pious warrior only if his alignment matches that domain.

Each domain gives your pious warrior access to a domain spell at each spell level he can cast, from 1st on up, as well as a granted power. Your pious warrior gets the granted power of the domain selected. With access to a domain spell at a given spell level, a pious warrior prepares one each day in his domain spell slot. If a domain spell is not on the cleric spell list, a pious warrior can prepare it only in his domain spell slot.

For example, Jozan is a 1st-level battle-priest of Pelor. He chooses Healing (from Pelor’s domain options) as his domain. He gets the granted power of his selected domain. The Healing domain allows him to cast all healing subschool spells of the conjuration school at +1 caster level as a granted power, and it gives him access to cure light wounds as a 1st level domain spell. When Jozan prepares his spells, he gets two 1st level spells at 3rd-level battle-priest, one bonus 1st-level spell for having a high Wisdom score (15), and one domain spell. The domain spell must be the one to which he has access cure light wounds.

Spontaneous Casting: A good pious warrior (or a neutral pious warrior of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that the pious warrior did not prepare ahead of time. The pious warrior can “lose” any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with “cure” in its name). For example, a good pious warrior who has prepared command (a 1st-level spell) may lose command in order to cast cure light wounds (also a 1st-level spell). Pious warriors of good deities can cast cure spells in this way because they are especially proficient at wielding positive energy.

An evil pious warrior (or a neutral pious warrior of an evil deity), on the other hand, can’t convert prepared spells to cure spells but can convert them to inflict spells (an inflict spell is one with “inflict” in its name). A pious warrior who is neither good nor evil and whose deity is neither good nor evil can convert spells to either cure spells or inflict spells (player’s choice), depending on whether the is more proficient at wielding positive or negative energy. Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed. This choice also determines whether the pious warrior turns or commands undead (see below).

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A pious warrior can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s. For example, a good pious warrior (or a neutral battle-priest of a good deity) cannot cast evil spells. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): Any pious warrior, regardless of alignment, has the power to affect undead creatures (such as skeletons, zombies, ghosts, and vampires) by channeling the power of his faith through his holy (or unholy) symbol.

A good pious warrior (or a neutral pious warrior who worships a good deity) can turn or destroy undead creatures. An evil pious warrior (or a neutral pious warrior who worships an evil deity) instead rebukes or commands such creatures, forcing them to cower in awe of his power. If your character is a neutral pious warrior of a neutral deity, you must choose whether his turning ability functions as that of a good pious warrior or an evil pious warrior. Once you make this choice, it cannot be reversed. This decision also determines whether the cleric can cast spontaneous cure or inflict spells (see above).

A pious warrior may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 5 + his Charisma modifier. A pious warrior with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (religion) gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead.

Clerical Power: A duty or power that is typical for clerics of that particular deity. The power is usually connected to the General Powers. The Clerical Power should be relatively weak, such as sensing spirits in the area (wandering spirits of the recently dead, not ghosts as the monster). Each deity has a special clerical power that is often seen as a sign that the battle-priest has been touched by the deity. Clerical powers are typically usable at will, as a standard action.

General Power: An ability that aids in non-combat situations, frequency scales over time. General power should be relatively weak and based off of the Clerical Power. An example would be to call forth spirits (recently deceased, not ghosts) to converse with them for a short period of time.

Combat Power: Every deity have a chosen sin that it cannot stand in the world. For example Pelor would probably include a light based power to destroy undead. The series of related powers scale in potency over time.


Companion: The battle-priest may conduct a 24 hour ritual requesting the deity’s permission to recall the soul of a long-lost hero from the deity’s realm, and then bind the soul to the battle-priest. The battle-priest may suggest or request the spirit to perform acts for it, but the spirit has a mind of its own.

At ninth level the spirit is only loosely held to the material realm. It embodies a mist-like form and as such cannot manipulate physical substances. The mist may be invisible or opaque, and occupies an area 2 ft in diameter. Once per day the spirit may use the Chill Touch spell to attack foes. The spirit may interact with the battle-priest through an empathic link out to a distance of up 200 ft. The battle-priest cannot see what the spirit sees, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotional content (such as fear, happiness, curiosity) can be communicated.

The spirit, empowered with its own strength, becomes complete as a ghost taking on the appearance it had in life. At eighteenth level it becomes an incorporeal entity. It is still unable to interact with physical objects, but it can now converse with the battle-priest and use a wider array of spell-like abilities.


Domain Focus: The cleric is treated as having +1 CL for certain domains, stacks with 1st level chosen domain.


Summary:
Differences between Pious Warrior & PHB Cleric

Less Spells Known
Although many people would see this as sacrilege, I do have reasons for this. With even just the PHB and Spell Compendium, every cleric would learn roughly 45-60 new spells as soon as they reach third level. Even with their prepared spell style that is pretty ridiculous, especially when the “clerics learn every cleric spell of every level they can cast, except those of opposing alignment” allows a cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun to cast darkness without any special training.

The “Spells Known” allow the cleric access to more than 3 times more spells than a wizard automatically gets at the same level so the versatility is still there, and they may still learn new spells if they so choose, allowing more character hooks and options. As stated in the Piety Points System, every deity has a list of “chosen spells” that coordinate with its divine energies, allowing for a quick creation style if you don’t want to fully customize a character (for those “hmm… what spells should my three clerics of Gruumsh have?” sort of situations).

Less Spells per Day
No 5-9th spells
d10 HD
Full Base Attack Bonus
Combat Power
Companion
1 Domain
Utility Powers
Piety Points System

Eldest
2012-02-09, 11:41 AM
Summary:
Differences between Pious Warrior & PHB Cleric

Less Spells Known
Although many people would see this as sacrilege, I do have reasons for this. With even just the PHB and Spell Compendium, every cleric would learn roughly 45-60 new spells as soon as they reach third level. Even with their prepared spell style that is pretty ridiculous, especially when the “clerics learn every cleric spell of every level they can cast, except those of opposing alignment” allows a cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun to cast darkness without any special training.

The “Spells Known” allow the cleric access to more than 3 times more spells than a wizard automatically gets at the same level so the versatility is still there, and they may still learn new spells if they so choose, allowing more character hooks and options. As stated in the Piety Points System, every deity has a list of “chosen spells” that coordinate with its divine energies, allowing for a quick creation style if you don’t want to fully customize a character (for those “hmm… what spells should my three clerics of Gruumsh have?” sort of situations).

Less Spells per Day
No 5-9th spells
d10 HD
Full Base Attack Bonus
Combat Power
Companion
1 Domain
Utility Powers
Piety Points System

1-4th level spells, less spells per day, more combat potential...
Is this just a paladin? I like how you did it as a variant of a cleric.

RollynT.Glal
2012-02-09, 02:47 PM
Essentially, yes. The idea was to give each religion the option for a largely militant sect of the church. While the Paladins in Unearthed Arcana allow for all the extreme alignments, the Paladins themselves, at least in my opinion, have always been more concerned with being crusaders for their alignments than any one religion. (At least thats my defence for having both)