Defender of Life (PrC)

[Kai-Palin]

Okay, this is my first publically displayed PrC, so please be gentle, but honest. I can take constructive criticism, just word it nicely.

Cadeucic Life Warder

Fluff and Stuff

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The Cadeucic Life Warder is a divine caster who has dedicated himself wholly and totally to life. He or she forsakes any allegiance to the gods, but gains instead a rapport with all life, and divine power beyond the average cleric's ken. He or she takes vows to protect and defend life and those who live in all the worlds and planes. The physical manifestation of thier duty is the Grand Caduceus that each Life Warder carries (yes, I know that the caduceus isn't really the medical symbol, but two snakes are cooler than the single snake on the Staff of Asklepios), and they tap into life energy inherent in the worlds. to As the Life Warder advances, their connection to the life powers develops on their Caduceus, manifesting as a pair of serpents that twine themselves up the staff.
Crunch-wise (Purpose): This PrC allows divine casters (and a bard, with the right spells) other than the cleric to become powerful main party healers. This is intended to end the cleric domination of the healing industry, giving a way to spontaneously cast various powerful healing abilities (negating the main drawback of the healer base class: preparation).

Requirements

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Alignment: Any nonevil
Skills: Concentration: 8 ranks; Heal: 8 ranks; Knowledge (Religion): 4 ranks; Knowledge (Nature): 4 ranks; Spellcraft: 4 ranks
Feats: Combat Casting; Empower Spell OR Extend Spell
Spells: Able to cast "Cure Minor Wounds" "Cure Light Wounds" "Cure Moderate Wounds" and Any "Vigor" (lesser, greater, mass, regular, etc.) with any class other than cleric
Special: Must obtain a staff of Juniper, Maple, Blue Spruce, Purpleheart, or Eucalyptus worth at least 500gp
Special: Must take an oath of preservation of life

Hit Die: d4
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Caster level

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Code of Conduct; Totem Tree of Life|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Mobility; Domain Branches|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

3rd|

+1

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|Foundation Stone; Channel Ouroboros|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

4th|

+2

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Natural Healer|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

5th|

+2

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Capstone; Preserver's Shield|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

6th|

+3

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Foundation Adept; Channel élan vital|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

7th|

+3

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Ouroboros Master|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

8th|

+4

|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|Capstone Adept|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

9th|

+4

|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|Foundation Master|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class

10th|

+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Snakestone; 2/day Preserver's Shield|+1 level of existing eligible spellcasting class[/table]

Skill points/level: 4+Int modifier
Class skills: Autohypnosis, Concentration, Craft (all), Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (All except Architecture and Engineering, Dungeoneering, Nobility and Royalty), Profession, Spellcraft, Truespeak
__________________________________________________ _______________

Class Abilities

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Code of Conduct: At 1st level, the Life Warder takes an oath to preserve life:
In Life's name and for Life's sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so-- till Universe's end.

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I've taken this from the publicly printed Oath of Wizardry in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. To make it perfectly clear, THIS IS NOT MY OWN WORK. She was and remains much, much smarter and better with words than I am.

If a Life Warder violates his or her oath (by attacking a creature not already attacking the warder or their allies, by delivering a coup-de-gras attack, or by killing a living creature) ((A living creature being defined as anything that can be sneak-attacked)), the Warder loses all abilities and spells (but not saving throws, hp, or BAB) gained from this class until he or she repents with an "atonement" spell.

Totem Tree of Life (Su): The staff that the Warder uses to obtain access to the class becomes their totem tree. This staff determines which extra spells the Warder casts, which Domain powers and spells the Warder learns, and which Preserver's Shield they can access.

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{table=head]Tree|Extra Spells|Domains|Preserver's Shield

Juniper|

Healing

|Protection, Healing|

Save Bonus

Maple|Regeneration|Protection, Purification|

Save Bonus

Blue Spruce|Regeneration|Purification, Healing|

Close Wounds

Purpleheart|

Healing

|Protection, Purification|

Close Wounds

Eucalyptus|

Healing

|Purification, Healing|

Close Wounds

[/table]

Starting with 1st level and increasing with class level, the table below gives the Warder a number of extra spells the Warder can cast per day, according to his tree of life. In a matter totally relating to fluff, the serpents grow up from the base of the staff, entwined around it, as the Warder gains class levels, until there are two fully formed snakes entwined around the staff at 10th level.

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{table=head]Class lvl|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th

1|1|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--

2|1|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--

3|1|1|--|--|--|--|--|--|--

4|1|1|1|--|--|--|--|--|--

5|2|1|1|1|--|--|--|--|--

6|2|2|1|1|1|--|--|--|--

7|2|2|2|1|1|1|--|--|--

8|3|2|2|2|1|1|1|--|--

9|3|3|2|2|2|1|1|1|1|--

10|3|3|3|2|2|2|2|1|1|1[/table]

Healing; Regeneration
I'll put these up soon
0th:
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
4th:
5th:
6th:
7th:
8th:

Mobility (Ex): At 2nd level, the Warder realizes that all the healing in the world can't help someone if the Warder can't reach them. The Warder gains Mobility as a bonus feat, even if he or she doesn't meet the prerequisites.

Domain Branches (Su): Beginning at second level, the Warder gains both of the domain abilities and adds the spells of the domains of his/her Totem Tree of Life to his/her spells known list. This does not allow a Warder to cast spells of a higher level than he/she normally can, however, if the Warder is a spontaneous caster, these two spells known/level may give the Warder more spells known per level than normally allowed. These domains act exactly as domains for clerics, allowing the Warder to benefit from the "Imbued Healing" metamagic feat and all applicable Domain Feats

Foundation Stone (Sp): At 3rd level, the Warder gains the ability to embed a foundation stone into the foot of his/her staff, gaining a spell-like ability usable once per day at the Warder's caster level depending on the stone chosen (the list is at the end of the descriptions). The ability granted by the stone is not usable if the Warder is without his caduceus This foundation stone must be worth 3000gp.
Foundation Adept At 6th level, the Warder can use his foundation stone's ability twice per day
Foundation Master At 9th level and higher, the Warder can use his foundation stone's ability three times per day

Channel Ouroboros (Su): At 3rd level, the Warder's insight into the constant renewal of the universe allows them to use the healing energy latent in their Caduceus' stones to help alleviate the cost of bringing people back to life. The Warder may expend a use of any of the stones on his caduceus (Foundation, Capstone, and/or Snakestone) in any combination to serve as a focus of equal cost for any raise dead, resurrection, reincarnation, or true ressurection spell he casts. For example, if a Warder expends his daily use of his Foundation Stone while casting a raise dead spell, the 2000gp gem would function as 2000gp worth of diamonds (meaning you would only need 3000gp of diamonds to cast the spell). The warder may only expend one use of each stone while casting this spell, and the stones on the staff are not used up when the spell is cast.

Natural Healer (Ex): At 4th level and higher, the Warder can apply his/her knowledge of natural remedies to make his non-magical healing abilities much more effective against poisons and diseases. The Warder may make a Knowledge (Nature) check of DC equal to the poison or disease currently affecting an adjacent subject the Warder is examining. This examination and Knowledge check requires 1 full-round action. If the check succeeds, the Warder can make a heal check against the same DC reduced by 1/3 (rounded up) and cure the disease or neutralize the poison. This curing requires one use of a healing kit (or take the normal penalty for working without a healer's kit, plus an additional -4 penalty for lack of the augmented materials in a Natural Healer's kit.) and three consecutive full-round actions.

Capstone (Sp): At 5th level, the Warder gains the ability to embed a capstone into the top of his/her staff, gaining a spell like ability usable (usually) once per day at the Warder's caster level depending on the stone chosen (the list is at the end of the descriptions). The ability granted by the stone is not usable if the Warder is without his caduceus This capstone must be worth 6000gp.
Capstone Adept: At 8th level, the Warder can use his Capstone's ability twice per day

Preserver's Shield (Su): At 5th level, the Warder gains an ability usable once per day as an immediate action. At tenth level, this ability is usable twicer per day. Depending on the Totem Tree of the Warder, he or she can either:
a. Grant one ally within medium range the effect of a "Close Wounds" spell and DR 5/-- until the end of the target's next turn
b. Grant one ally withing medium range a bonus on all saving throws equal to the Warder's caster level. This effect also doubles the bonus to each saving throw the target gains from their attributes (for example, a target with a Wis of 14 would have a +4 bonus for his Wis bonus to his Will saves).
These abilities are usable as immediate actions, so they are predominantly used to save an ally who has just bin hit a blow that would normally kill him, or who has just failed a save against a save-or-die effect. The Warder cannot grant himself this bonus.

Channel élan vital (Su): At 6th level and beyond, the Life Warder learns to tap both his Tree of Life's and his Lifestones' energy, manifesting this chi, qi, élan vital, or life force to improve his healing and warding abilities. The Warder's cadeuceus gains a number of charges equal to his/her class level.
These charges function in any of three ways:
a. As a free action incorporated with the casting, the Warder may make a conjuration (healing) or Abjuration spell with a range of Touch into a Short range spell by expending one charge.
b. As a standard action, the Life Warder can expend a charge to activate any divine feat he/she knows. In this way, a charge of élan vital functions identically to a use of turn undead (and will expend two or more charges for any feat requiring the expenditure of two or more uses of Turn Undead). This is usually used to activate the Divine Feat "Sacred Healing."
c. As whatever action the domain feat specifies, the Warder can expend a charge to activate any Domain feat the Warder possess.

Ouroboros Master (Su): At 7th level and higher, the Life Warder has learned how to recycle life energy into new forms. He or she gains the ability to cast "Reincarnation" once per week with no material cost, and "True Reincarnation" (If there is such a spell, I heard it mentioned) once a week at half its material cost (Which can be further negated by the Channel Ouroboros ability, see above).

Snakestone (Sp): At 10th level, the Life Warder's Grand Caduceus is complete. The snakes are fully grown, and the Warder gains the ability to embed a pair of Snakestones into the snake heads on his/her staff, gaining a spell like ability usable once per day. (the list is at the end of the descriptions). The ability granted by the stone is not usable if the Warder is without his caduceus These snakestones must be worth 4250gp each (8500 total) and both must be embedded into the staff for the granted ability to function.

Stones

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{table=head]Stone|Stone Level|Ability|Uses|Adept Uses|Master Uses

Amber|Foundation|Remove Disease|1/day|2/day|3/day

Amethyst|Foundation|Remove Blind/Deaf|1/day|2/day|3/day

Citrine|Foundation|Break Enchantment|2/week|4/week|1/day

Crystal|Capstone|Bonus on Heal Check|Bonus=1/2 Class lvl|Bonus=1 per class lvl|--

Peridot|Capstone|Bonus to AC to ally=Warder lvl|1/day|2/day|--

Ruby|Capstone|Neutralize Poison|1/day|2/day|--

Gold-Rutilated Quartz|Snakestone|1 conj(heal) spell Emp/Maxed|1/day|--|--

Turquoise|Snakestone|1 conj(heal) spell Quick/Extended|1/day|--|--[/table]

So there it is. Thanks for getting to this point. I would love any constructive criticism you have to offer. Especially with the abilities of the stones, coming up with new ones and/or balancing the existing ones.

[DracoDei]

I take it the snakes actually grow? This is implied, but the rate of growth with leveling up is never specified.

Seems they should somehow get access to True Ressurection (and maybe True Reincarnate)...

And especially if so:
MAYBE allow diamonds for snake-stones... these are allowed to be of any total value equal to or greater than 8,500 gp and provide no new ability... but their full value counts toward the Channel Ouroboros total.

[Kai-Palin]

Well, the thing about the stones on the staff is that even though they aren't diamonds, they can be used as diamonds for the resurrection (and reincarnate, true, raise dead, etc.) cost, just without using up the actual stones.

[DracoDei]

But without this, you can't get up to the 25,000 gp value needed for True Res. as I read it... or CAN you put overvalued stone in anyway for just such a purpose?

[martyboy74]

• Why does the chart say +1 existing eligible spellcasting class?
• 'Except' (in the skills) doesn't need to be in all caps.
• The class abilities need to have (Ex), (Su), or (Sp) after them, to indicate what they are.

Nice class, and good fluff.

[SCPRedMage]

But without this, you can't get up to the 25,000 gp value needed for True Res. as I read it... or CAN you put overvalued stone in anyway for just such a purpose?

No, you can't get the 25,000 GP needed for True Res, but you DO get a discount for each of the "stones" you use in the spell. At tenth level, if you use ALL the stones, you can subtract 15,500gp from the cost, allowing you to cast a True Ressurection for the low, low cost of 9,500gp worth of diamonds. If you allowed people to put in overpriced stones, that would just mean the players would end up putting in a 25,000gp diamond at level 5, and being able to True Res for free from then on out, which is more than a little broken, IMO.

[Kai-Palin]

No, you can't get the 25,000 GP needed for True Res, but you DO get a discount for each of the "stones" you use in the spell. At tenth level, if you use ALL the stones, you can subtract 15,500gp from the cost, allowing you to cast a True Ressurection for the low, low cost of 9,500gp worth of diamonds. If you allowed people to put in overpriced stones, that would just mean the players would end up putting in a 25,000gp diamond at level 5, and being able to True Res for free from then on out, which is more than a little broken, IMO.

Exactly. Although I think I may have done my math a bit off, because I intended to have it contribute 17,500gp to the cost.

Could you help me out with the (Ex), (Su), and (Sp) abilities? I don't quite know a good definition, and so what to make each class ability.

[SCPRedMage]

Could you help me out with the (Ex), (Su), and (Sp) abilities? I don't quite know a good definition, and so what to make each class ability.

Extraordinary ability (Ex): A nonmagical special ability (as opposed to a spell-like or supernatural ability).

Spell-like ability (Sp): A special ability with effects that resemble those of a spell. In most cases, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of the same name.

Supernatural ability (Su): A magical power that produces a particular effect, as opposed to a natural, extraordinary, or spell-like ability. Using a supernatural ability generally does not provoke an attack or opportunity. Supernatural abilities are not subject to dispelling, disruption or spell resistance. However, they do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated, such as inside an antimagic field.

Judging by the class's flavor, I'm betting this class's abilities all would be Supernatural; nothing that could be dispelled, but something that couldn't function in anti-magic fields.

[Kai-Palin]

((Just because I'd like some more opinions... bump))

Also, any additional stones for the staff, I'd love your ideas. The idea is to have the foundation and capstones allow the user to cast a useful (if rather obscure, think neutralize poison or remove curse) spell that might not otherwise be on their class spell list.

[paddyfool]

I really like the tone of this class. Some rough stone ideas for you:

Sapphire: Some kind of protective effect would seem suitable for this. Resist elements, perhaps.

Emerald: Restoration?

Jade: Thoroughly in keeping with this class, given the association with healing/immortality. Some kind of bonus to avoiding problems with resurrection/reincarnation spells?

Topaz Some harmless combat ability, like a Fear or sleep effect?

Stones could have automatic metamagics to get to the intended level, such as Extended Aid, or similar.