Phosphate
2012-05-03, 05:46 PM
So here I wanted to do 2 things mainly:
1. Make a kind of evil and offer a kind of god that, say, would be tolerable for a PC divine caster to take up without the DM banning him at once, while STILL being actually evil and not just refluffed neutral at its core.
2. Make an evil god that offers positive energy channeling for the sake of it.
Lord Xanetum
Lesser Deity (rank 8)
Symbol: A golden plate glove holding a shard of light, with a pentagon shaped wooden shield behind.
Home Plane: Material
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Selfishness, Prosperity, Power, Success, Survival, Self-defense, Longevity, Brightness, Freedom
Clergy Alignments: Any evil
Domains: Evil*, Healing, Liberation, Life, Protection, Sun
Favored Weapon: Longsword
*Clerics of Xanetum almost never take the evil domain. The ones that do, though, do for very pragmatic reasons, such as the need to battle strictly good opponents on a daily basis. Overall, however, it is discouraged.
Lord Xanetum appears as a solidly built 6'4" feet tall gray elf donning a golden armor made of a peculiar combination of force, positive energy, and actual gold. Naturally, he has gray skin and black long hair stretching all the way to his torso. His eyes are blindingly bright and can see through any barrier or deception. An incredible entity to look at, he overwhelms both his foes and worshipers with his nigh impossible to resist frightful presence and an intriguing emanation of both a strong evil and a strong good aura.
Xanetum walks the earth, having forever established himself on a far away and not well known island, where he sometimes brings his most devout worshipers to train them into Selfguards.
Dogma
Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is whether you're still alive. The next most important, naturally, is whether everything happened according to plan.
Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples to always follow their desires and selfish needs, as long as they don't put themselves in needless danger in the process. If there are people in the way, then to hell with them.
The disciples of Xanetum are also taught to enjoy the beauty of life and always be in good health. His temples are generally near or within plantations or other large patches of greenery. A character that has Xanetum as his patron deity must not cause himself pain, undersleep, exert himself, use drugs or engage in dangerous activities with little to no reward.
Also, a disciple of Xanetum is to respect life in general. Sure, he must not let others stand between him and his goals, he can steal as much as he needs, he might plunder and pillage for other's resources, and he is not required to have any mercy for opponents if they attacked first, but it generally stops there. Most disciples would be hard pressed to deride pleasure in the suffering of others (torture for anything but intel being strictly banned by the Lord himself). Also, they would most likely make conscious efforts to minimize the collateral damage caused by their battles, unless such precautions would prevent them from aptly defending themselves. Another form of needless suffering a disciple would never cause is that of retribution or vengeance. When a foe is no longer a threat, regardless however horrible his actions were in the past, it would be just wasteful and straight out dangerous to go after him in the present (especially since he has everything to lose, and you, nothing to gain). Suffice to say, things like going on a murder spree in a dwarf settlement because once one dwarf hunter happened to shoot you in the leg from afar are strictly forbidden.
Another thing that is important for a disciple of Xanetum is success in his undertakings. Lying, cheating, fighting dirty, and rigging competitions are second nature to those people, although they do tend to act more honorably when around each other.
There's no martyrdom for a disciple of the Lord. You die, you lose.
The last, and probably most important lesson Lord Xanetum teaches, one that he has always applied himself, is that of pragmatism. Truth is, good magic and magic that channels positive energy are simply BETTER at keeping you alive and well protected than some debuffing, raising dead critters, soul damage or cannibalism.
Clergy and Temples
Temples of Lord Xanetum are usually hidden in the woods, as he is frowned upon by the general population as all evil gods are. If a temple is done well, over 100 feet wide and long with a bolted roof and hard rock pillars, clerics of Xanetum call their master to arrive himself at the location and create a shrine for them. Those shrines are always glittering of precious metals, and no two shrines are really alike.
The clerics of Lord Xanetum wear long robes of various colors and models, don't spend much time on actual prayer and generally have a pretty diverse and erudite knowledge.
What a Xanetum ceremony actually looks like is as such: everyone comes with a glass of wine and line in a circle, and then take turns. When it is somebody's turn, he drinks all his wine at once, stands while touching the altar, and then talks about his life experience and whatever in the recent period made him proud of himself. In truth, disciples of Xanetum wouldn't waste anything aside from words, but the deity itself actively refuses material sacrifices of any kind.
Tipping the Balance of Good and Evil, Questing, Positive Energy
For those who worship Lord Xanetum, self-absorption is absolute. They care mostly or only for their well being, and in game terms this translates to, in addition to other things, a complete disregard for the balance of good and evil in the world, which is extremely unusual for those who pray to divine evil. A cleric, paladin, or selfguard of Xanetum may very well slaughter scores of evil dragons, banish fiends, free slaves, heal wounded children, consecrate grounds, summon celestials and fight for the greater good, and all of it wouldn't matter. As long as they personally are rewarded or just generally better off when all is said and done, no matter how much the world is improved and the balance is tipped in favor of good, they are still considered to be upholding the doctrine of Lord Xanetum exquisitely.
And now for the PrC:
Xanetum's Selfguard
Hit Die: d10
Requirements
To qualify to become a Selfguard, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Survival 4 ranks, Heal 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks
Spells: Must be able to cast 2nd level divine spells, must have at least one method of healing damage magically
Proficiency: Must be proficient with the longsword
Religion: Must have Lord Xanetum as a patron deity. Must have served him for more than 6 months already.
Alignment: Any evil
Special: Must have never sacrificed himself to protect someone else, attempted suicide, taken drugs, or cast Corrupt magic.
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Spells
1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Egoism, Dual Channel, Superficial Affinity|
2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Ally Shield, Light Shard (1d4, 1)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
3rd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Golden Aegis, Fast Healing 1|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
4th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Divine Aid, Light shard (2d4, 2)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
5th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Meat Shield, Fast Healing 2|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
6th|+4|+5|+2|+5|Moderate Affinity, Light shard (3d4, 3)|
7th|+5|+5|+2|+5|Divine Condition, Fast Healing 3|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
8th|+6|+6|+2|+6|Greater Divine Aid, Light shard (4d4, 4)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
9th|+6|+6|+3|+6|Death Avoidance, Fast Healing 4|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
10th|+7|+7|+3|+7|Greater Affinity, Light shard (5d4, 5)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Xanetum's Selfguard prestige class.
Weapon Proficiency: Selfguards gain proficiency with all shields (including tower shields).
Spells: When a new selfguard level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of selfguard to the level of whatever other divine spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a selfguard, she must decide to which class she adds each level of selfguard for the purpose of determining spells per day.
Egoism (Ex): Once per day, as a free action, choose a percentage between 0% and 50%. Healing effects you use on yourself heal x% more, and healing effects you use on others heal x% less.
Dual Channel (Su): If you have a cleric level, and thus can spontaneously cast inflict spells, you automatically gain the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells as well. If you have no cleric levels, choose one of the two.
Superficial Affinity (Su): Being surrounded by light and positive energy made you resistant to it. For 1 minute per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Neutral for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede Evil targets more (spells that only give information, however, are not affected: you still read as evil). Closing and activating this ability are full round actions.
Ally Shield (Ex): At level 2 or higher, you may use this ability as a nonaction or immediate action when you are attacked in melee or at range with a weapon or projectile.
If nonaction: select an ally within reach+5ft. You gain +2 to shield AC, or +4 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, you receive 75% of the damage and your ally receives 25%.
If immediate action: select an ally within reach+10ft. You gain +4 to shield AC, or +6 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, both you and your ally receive half damage.
Light Shard (Su): Starting at level 2, whenever you make a melee attack or melee touch attack, but only once per round, you may choose to deal holy damage to the target, equal to 1d4*class level/2 (this damage cannot be prevented as long as your initial melee or melee touch attack hits). Then, until your next round, you receive a sacred bonus to AC equal to your class level/2 against everyone except the target you attacked, which treats you as having a bonus to AC equal to your class level.
Golden Aegis (Su): At level 3, as long as you carry a shield, gain DR/evil equal to your class level*1,5 (rounded down), and your shield cannot be sundered or disarmed.
Fast Healing (Ex): At level 3, you gain Fast Healing 1. This advances to 2 at level 5, 3 at level 7, and 4 at level 9.
Divine Aid (Su): At level 4, you may cast Commune as a spell like ability up to charisma times per day (minimum 1).
Meat Shield (Ex): Like Ally Shield, except you may use any creature, and unwilling ones get to make a Dex roll against a modified check where you roll 1d20 and add both your wisdom and strength modifiers.
While using Meat Shield on allies, extend range by 5.
Moderate Affinity (Su): Growing even more fond of positive energy, you can further mitigate its annoyances. Aside from the benefits provided by Superficial, from level 6, for 2 rounds per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Good for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede nongood targets more. During the time you are treated as Good, you may wield good-aligned weapons with no penalty. Closing and activating both abilities are full round actions.
Divine Condition (Ex): A level 7 or higher Selfguard has been truly blessed by Xanetum - he no longer ages, no longer has a maximum age, and becomes immune to diseases of any kind. Furthermore, he becomes immune to nonlethal damage.
Greater Divine Aid (Ex): A level 8 Selfguard may use Limited Wish as a spell-like ability once per day. If he dies during a day in which he has not used his Limited Wish, any attempts at raising him back to life succeed without consuming any material components.
Death Avoidance (Su): A level 9 Selfguard is treated as having a permanent Surelife effect on himself. He may change the effect of the spell once per day.
Greater Affinity (Su): A level 10 Selfguard is infused with just as much holy energy as any paladin out there. He may treat himself as being Good for 1 minute per class level per day and Neutral for 5 minutes per class level per day, and during both periods he detects as Neutral instead of evil. Also, as a free action he may voluntarily hide or resurface his evil aura.
1. Make a kind of evil and offer a kind of god that, say, would be tolerable for a PC divine caster to take up without the DM banning him at once, while STILL being actually evil and not just refluffed neutral at its core.
2. Make an evil god that offers positive energy channeling for the sake of it.
Lord Xanetum
Lesser Deity (rank 8)
Symbol: A golden plate glove holding a shard of light, with a pentagon shaped wooden shield behind.
Home Plane: Material
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Selfishness, Prosperity, Power, Success, Survival, Self-defense, Longevity, Brightness, Freedom
Clergy Alignments: Any evil
Domains: Evil*, Healing, Liberation, Life, Protection, Sun
Favored Weapon: Longsword
*Clerics of Xanetum almost never take the evil domain. The ones that do, though, do for very pragmatic reasons, such as the need to battle strictly good opponents on a daily basis. Overall, however, it is discouraged.
Lord Xanetum appears as a solidly built 6'4" feet tall gray elf donning a golden armor made of a peculiar combination of force, positive energy, and actual gold. Naturally, he has gray skin and black long hair stretching all the way to his torso. His eyes are blindingly bright and can see through any barrier or deception. An incredible entity to look at, he overwhelms both his foes and worshipers with his nigh impossible to resist frightful presence and an intriguing emanation of both a strong evil and a strong good aura.
Xanetum walks the earth, having forever established himself on a far away and not well known island, where he sometimes brings his most devout worshipers to train them into Selfguards.
Dogma
Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is whether you're still alive. The next most important, naturally, is whether everything happened according to plan.
Lord Xanetum teaches his disciples to always follow their desires and selfish needs, as long as they don't put themselves in needless danger in the process. If there are people in the way, then to hell with them.
The disciples of Xanetum are also taught to enjoy the beauty of life and always be in good health. His temples are generally near or within plantations or other large patches of greenery. A character that has Xanetum as his patron deity must not cause himself pain, undersleep, exert himself, use drugs or engage in dangerous activities with little to no reward.
Also, a disciple of Xanetum is to respect life in general. Sure, he must not let others stand between him and his goals, he can steal as much as he needs, he might plunder and pillage for other's resources, and he is not required to have any mercy for opponents if they attacked first, but it generally stops there. Most disciples would be hard pressed to deride pleasure in the suffering of others (torture for anything but intel being strictly banned by the Lord himself). Also, they would most likely make conscious efforts to minimize the collateral damage caused by their battles, unless such precautions would prevent them from aptly defending themselves. Another form of needless suffering a disciple would never cause is that of retribution or vengeance. When a foe is no longer a threat, regardless however horrible his actions were in the past, it would be just wasteful and straight out dangerous to go after him in the present (especially since he has everything to lose, and you, nothing to gain). Suffice to say, things like going on a murder spree in a dwarf settlement because once one dwarf hunter happened to shoot you in the leg from afar are strictly forbidden.
Another thing that is important for a disciple of Xanetum is success in his undertakings. Lying, cheating, fighting dirty, and rigging competitions are second nature to those people, although they do tend to act more honorably when around each other.
There's no martyrdom for a disciple of the Lord. You die, you lose.
The last, and probably most important lesson Lord Xanetum teaches, one that he has always applied himself, is that of pragmatism. Truth is, good magic and magic that channels positive energy are simply BETTER at keeping you alive and well protected than some debuffing, raising dead critters, soul damage or cannibalism.
Clergy and Temples
Temples of Lord Xanetum are usually hidden in the woods, as he is frowned upon by the general population as all evil gods are. If a temple is done well, over 100 feet wide and long with a bolted roof and hard rock pillars, clerics of Xanetum call their master to arrive himself at the location and create a shrine for them. Those shrines are always glittering of precious metals, and no two shrines are really alike.
The clerics of Lord Xanetum wear long robes of various colors and models, don't spend much time on actual prayer and generally have a pretty diverse and erudite knowledge.
What a Xanetum ceremony actually looks like is as such: everyone comes with a glass of wine and line in a circle, and then take turns. When it is somebody's turn, he drinks all his wine at once, stands while touching the altar, and then talks about his life experience and whatever in the recent period made him proud of himself. In truth, disciples of Xanetum wouldn't waste anything aside from words, but the deity itself actively refuses material sacrifices of any kind.
Tipping the Balance of Good and Evil, Questing, Positive Energy
For those who worship Lord Xanetum, self-absorption is absolute. They care mostly or only for their well being, and in game terms this translates to, in addition to other things, a complete disregard for the balance of good and evil in the world, which is extremely unusual for those who pray to divine evil. A cleric, paladin, or selfguard of Xanetum may very well slaughter scores of evil dragons, banish fiends, free slaves, heal wounded children, consecrate grounds, summon celestials and fight for the greater good, and all of it wouldn't matter. As long as they personally are rewarded or just generally better off when all is said and done, no matter how much the world is improved and the balance is tipped in favor of good, they are still considered to be upholding the doctrine of Lord Xanetum exquisitely.
And now for the PrC:
Xanetum's Selfguard
Hit Die: d10
Requirements
To qualify to become a Selfguard, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Survival 4 ranks, Heal 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks
Spells: Must be able to cast 2nd level divine spells, must have at least one method of healing damage magically
Proficiency: Must be proficient with the longsword
Religion: Must have Lord Xanetum as a patron deity. Must have served him for more than 6 months already.
Alignment: Any evil
Special: Must have never sacrificed himself to protect someone else, attempted suicide, taken drugs, or cast Corrupt magic.
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Spells
1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Egoism, Dual Channel, Superficial Affinity|
2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Ally Shield, Light Shard (1d4, 1)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
3rd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Golden Aegis, Fast Healing 1|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
4th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Divine Aid, Light shard (2d4, 2)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
5th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Meat Shield, Fast Healing 2|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
6th|+4|+5|+2|+5|Moderate Affinity, Light shard (3d4, 3)|
7th|+5|+5|+2|+5|Divine Condition, Fast Healing 3|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
8th|+6|+6|+2|+6|Greater Divine Aid, Light shard (4d4, 4)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
9th|+6|+6|+3|+6|Death Avoidance, Fast Healing 4|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
10th|+7|+7|+3|+7|Greater Affinity, Light shard (5d4, 5)|
+1 level to existing divine caster class
[/table]
Class Features
All the following are class features of the Xanetum's Selfguard prestige class.
Weapon Proficiency: Selfguards gain proficiency with all shields (including tower shields).
Spells: When a new selfguard level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of selfguard to the level of whatever other divine spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a selfguard, she must decide to which class she adds each level of selfguard for the purpose of determining spells per day.
Egoism (Ex): Once per day, as a free action, choose a percentage between 0% and 50%. Healing effects you use on yourself heal x% more, and healing effects you use on others heal x% less.
Dual Channel (Su): If you have a cleric level, and thus can spontaneously cast inflict spells, you automatically gain the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells as well. If you have no cleric levels, choose one of the two.
Superficial Affinity (Su): Being surrounded by light and positive energy made you resistant to it. For 1 minute per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Neutral for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede Evil targets more (spells that only give information, however, are not affected: you still read as evil). Closing and activating this ability are full round actions.
Ally Shield (Ex): At level 2 or higher, you may use this ability as a nonaction or immediate action when you are attacked in melee or at range with a weapon or projectile.
If nonaction: select an ally within reach+5ft. You gain +2 to shield AC, or +4 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, you receive 75% of the damage and your ally receives 25%.
If immediate action: select an ally within reach+10ft. You gain +4 to shield AC, or +6 if the ally is at least one size category larger than you. If the opponent's attack still defeats your AC, however, both you and your ally receive half damage.
Light Shard (Su): Starting at level 2, whenever you make a melee attack or melee touch attack, but only once per round, you may choose to deal holy damage to the target, equal to 1d4*class level/2 (this damage cannot be prevented as long as your initial melee or melee touch attack hits). Then, until your next round, you receive a sacred bonus to AC equal to your class level/2 against everyone except the target you attacked, which treats you as having a bonus to AC equal to your class level.
Golden Aegis (Su): At level 3, as long as you carry a shield, gain DR/evil equal to your class level*1,5 (rounded down), and your shield cannot be sundered or disarmed.
Fast Healing (Ex): At level 3, you gain Fast Healing 1. This advances to 2 at level 5, 3 at level 7, and 4 at level 9.
Divine Aid (Su): At level 4, you may cast Commune as a spell like ability up to charisma times per day (minimum 1).
Meat Shield (Ex): Like Ally Shield, except you may use any creature, and unwilling ones get to make a Dex roll against a modified check where you roll 1d20 and add both your wisdom and strength modifiers.
While using Meat Shield on allies, extend range by 5.
Moderate Affinity (Su): Growing even more fond of positive energy, you can further mitigate its annoyances. Aside from the benefits provided by Superficial, from level 6, for 2 rounds per day per class level you may treat yourself as being Good for the purpose of all effects that harm or impede nongood targets more. During the time you are treated as Good, you may wield good-aligned weapons with no penalty. Closing and activating both abilities are full round actions.
Divine Condition (Ex): A level 7 or higher Selfguard has been truly blessed by Xanetum - he no longer ages, no longer has a maximum age, and becomes immune to diseases of any kind. Furthermore, he becomes immune to nonlethal damage.
Greater Divine Aid (Ex): A level 8 Selfguard may use Limited Wish as a spell-like ability once per day. If he dies during a day in which he has not used his Limited Wish, any attempts at raising him back to life succeed without consuming any material components.
Death Avoidance (Su): A level 9 Selfguard is treated as having a permanent Surelife effect on himself. He may change the effect of the spell once per day.
Greater Affinity (Su): A level 10 Selfguard is infused with just as much holy energy as any paladin out there. He may treat himself as being Good for 1 minute per class level per day and Neutral for 5 minutes per class level per day, and during both periods he detects as Neutral instead of evil. Also, as a free action he may voluntarily hide or resurface his evil aura.