Cleric Archetype: Egoist

[Giegue]

While most Clerics draw their divine magic from a connection to a deity, there are a rare few who believes themselves above worship and supplication to a higher power. Arrogant in the extreme, these pompous acolytes believe so strongly in their own inherent greatness that they can draw magic from the sheer force of that belief and conviction. Whereas other clerics believe divinity comes from without, these individuals instead believe it comes from within. They view themselves as being divine beings, and the sheer force of their passion and belief in this idea is so strong that it warps reality to conform to their worldview. Often called “egoists” due to their larger than life and often pompous personalities, these clerics are known most for their ability to command and lead those they travel with, often with a bit of help from their magic.

While most egoists are of evil alignments due to the arrogance and selfishness that often come with the idea that they are their own god, one does not have to be evil to take up this path to clerichood. Those egoists who lean towards the good end of the alignment spectrum often believe that all people have the same potential for greatness and godliness that they do, and dedicate themselves to bringing it out through leading by example and living an exemplary life.

An egoist has the following class features:

Alignment: Due to not serving a deity, an Egoist has no alignment restrictions. This alters the alignment restrictions of the Cleric.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Due to not worshping a deity, the Egoist does not gain proficiency with their deity’s favored weapon. This alters the weapon and armor proficiencies of the Cleric.

Divine Ego

While Clerics traditionally draw their magic from a connection to their deity, the Egoist instead draws hers from the sheer strength of her belief in her own greatness and inheirent divinity. She uses Charisma instead of Wisdom as her key spellcasting ability score (to determine her spell DCs, bonus spells per-day, what spell levels she can access, bonus on concentration checks, and so on.), and to determine the effects of cleric spells that would specifically use her wisdom score or wisdom modifier. Additionally, the Egoist loses the Aura class feature due to not serving a deity.

This alters the Cleric’s spellcasting and Aura feature.

Single-Minded

As a worshiper of her own greatness rather than a servant of a god, the Egoist only gains one domain instead of two at 1st level. However, unlike a standard cleric this can be any domain that is not an alignment domain which is opposed to her own alignment (So for example, a lawful evil Egoist could not select the Good or Chaos domain, but could still select the Healing domain.). Any Domain power that would normally use the Egoist’s Wisdom modifier or Wisdom score for any purpose (such as determining uses/day or setting a DC) instead uses her Charisma modifier or Charisma score for those purposes.

Flexible Chaneler

Due to her powers coming from within rather than from a deity, the Egoist can choose which energy type she channels instead of that choice being decided by her alignment and the god she serves. When the Egoist gains her Channel Energy feature at 1st level, she can choose whether she channels positive or negative energy, ignoring the normal alignment and deity restrictions tied to this choice. However, once the choice is made, it cannot be changed. If the Egoist chose to channel positive energy, she spontaneously casts Cure spells, regardless of her alignment. If the Egoist chose to channel negative energy, she spontaneously casts Inflict spells, regardless of her alignment. However, the Egoist pays a price for this freedom of choice; she reduces the number of times she can channel energy per-day to 1 + her Charisma modifier.

This alers the Cleric’s Channel Energy and Spontaneous Casting features.

Imperious Command [Su]

As a person utterly convinced that she possesses inherent greatness and divinity, the Egoist expects others to naturally follow her. Thus at 1st level learns to harness her magic to push them to do so if needed. As a standard action, the Egoist can let a friendly creature that shares a language with her within close range that can hear her voice make an attack on a hostile target of her choice as-if that target had provoked an attack of opportunity from them, if they wish to do so. (meaning one of that creature’s opportunity attacks is consumed). This is a language-dependent effect with a verbal component. The Egoist can use this ability a number of times per-day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.

Potent Commands [Su]

As the Egoist grows in power, she masters the art of using magic to compel temporary obedience from those under her. Starting at 8th level, when the Egoist uses her Imperious Command feature, she may also expend a move action to let the targeted friendly creature move their up to their speed in a direction of her choice if they choose to do so, using any movement mode available to them. This can be done before or after they make the attack (allowing you to let them them move to move to a normally out of range target and then attack it with that use of Imperious Command.) Any move taken as a result of this feature does not provoke attacks of opportunity if it would normally. This is a language-dependent effect with a verbal component.