Proficiencies

Weapons: All simple weapons.

Armor: Light armor, no shields.

Implements: Icons.

Prayers (Di): The priest uses the power of words, the manifestation of the Divine. When he speaks words in the tongue of creation, he may reshape the world to his liking. There are three types of such manifestations - utterances, incantations, and recitations - which are collectively referred to simply as prayers. All prayers share the following qualities.

• You may vocalize a prayer as a move action. You are not limited to vocalizing one prayer each round.
• Vocalizing a prayer provokes attacks of opportunity.
• Prayers are subject to Divine Inhibition (DI).
• Prayers do not allow saving throws.
• Prayers can be prevented by namelessness, a condition that some Forces can cause.
• Prayers are prevented by innocence, a condition that causes a creature's effective hit points to always be treated as higher than a priest's absolute limit.
• A creature affected by faith can always be affected by a priest's prayers, even if their current hit points are above their absolute limit.
• Utterances and incantations can be reversed, producing a thematically opposite effect.
• You must make a Truespeak check to vocalize a prayer; you can intensify a prayer by voluntarily increasing the Truespeak DC.
• You must be able to speak to use prayers, but silence and other similar effects do not stop prayers.
• The mute and babel status effects prevent the usage of prayers.
• With any prayer, you can target a creature within line of sight, regardless of distance.
• Prayers do not stack with themselves or other prayers.

Prayers also interact with the Faith ability score, as follows.

• Creatures with a negative Faith modifier are harder to affect with prayers, treating their effective hit points as higher for purposes of the absolute limit (see below).
• Creatures with a positive Faith modifier are easier to affect with prayers, treating their effective hit points as lower for purposes of the absolute limit (see below).
• A creature with a 0 Faith is immune to utterances.

If you choose to improve a prayer's Truespeak DC by intensifying it, you may only increase the DC by a maximum of your petitioner level.

To use a prayer, you must have a Wisdom score of 9 + [(prayer's level) x 2].

You gain additional prayers known, if your Wisdom score is sufficiently high. Consult the table on the right to determine additional prayers known (Note: Unlike other priest abilities based on Faith, if the Faith score is used, you still use Wisdom to determine bonus prayers known).

At 4th level, and every four levels after, you may choose to swap out prayers you know for new ones. For each type of prayer - utterance, incantation, and recitation - you may swap out a prayer you know for one you do not, of the appropriate type. You cannot swap out bonus prayers from a high Wisdom in this fashion.

Truespeech (Di): As a petitioner, priests are trained in the language of the Divine itself, which it used to give names to everything that existed, exists, and will exist. Though mortal tongues are not made to form such speech, the divine languages - Saigue and Lucavic - are similar enough facsimiles that priests can use them to alter reality.

Using these languages in this manner is difficult, however: in order to successfully use prayers, a priest must make a Truespeak check. A priest's bonus on a truespeak check is 3 + his petitioner level + his Wisdom modifier. You can never take 20 on a Truespeak check, and can only take 10 if you expend a channel divine use (see below). Truespeak checks are further modified by how you refer to a creature; if you know a creature's truename - that is, the name the Divine itself gave to it - you gain a +4 bonus to your truename check. If you must refer to a creature by a nickname (such as referring to a monster by a physical description, rather than the name of it), you suffer a -2 penalty to your truename check.

Learning Truenames: Learning a truename of a creature requires meditation, study, and research. A priest must make a Knowledge check relevant to the creature's creature type with a DC of at least 25, and spend at least one week in research with access to a library or similar institution. You must have a creature's given name in order to find its truename. The base DC of this check is 25, further modified by the creature's notoriety, age, and measures taken to prevent its truename from being learned.

Utterances (Pr): Utterances are the most powerful form of prayer a priest can vocalize. These are words and phrases that cause some kind of hindering or harmful effect to foes, or a helpful effect to allies. All utterances are subject to a priest's absolute limit: an utterance vocalized by a priest cannot affect an unwilling creature whose current hit points is greater than the priest's absolute limit. A willing creature can be affected by an utterance regardless of its current hit points.

At each priest level, your base absolute limit is as shown on the table above. You gain a bonus to your absolute limit equal to your petitioner level x your Wisdom modifier. Improving your petitioner level (through feats such as Versed in the Force) improves your absolute limit as though they were priest levels.

Example: A 9th-level priest has a Wisdom of 17 (so a +3 modifier). At 9th level, a priest has a base absolute limit of 36. The priest adds 27 to this (9 x 3), for a total of 63. The priest's absolute limit is 63 hit points.

If the Faith ability score is being used, creatures with a Faith modifier - either positive or negative - modify their effective hit points for purposes of the absolute limit.

A creature with a positive Faith modifier subtracts their Faith modifier × their Hit Die from their current hit points to determine their effective hit points for purposes of the absolute limit.

A creature with a negative Faith modifier adds their Faith modifier × their Hit Die to their current hit points to determine their effective hit points for purposes of the absolute limit.

A creature with a Faith score of 0 is immune to utterances; in effect, their effective hit points are considered above the priest's absolute limit, regardless of how many hit points the creature actually has.

Incantations (Pr): Incantations are a weaker form of prayer that priests can use. Unlike utterances, incantations have no limit on the sort of creature they can affect.

Recitations (Pr): Recitations are prayers a priest can use to modify his own existence, by reciting his own truename continually with slight variations. A recitation can be maintained on your turn by expending a swift action. While using a recitation, you cannot use other prayers. Maintaining a recitation does not require a Truespeech check - once you have made the initial check, you can continue maintaining the recitation indefinitely.

Domain (Di): When you take your first level in priest, you must select a Saint or Lucavi as your patron. You gain access to your patron's domain, which grants you an additional priest class skill, an additional weapon or armor proficiency, and a number of additional powers (dependent upon the domain). In addition, your patron's domain automatically adds new prayers to your prayers known upon gaining access to the appropriate prayer level.

Know Thyself: Upon taking your first level in priest, you gain knowledge of your own truename.

Channel Divine (Di): As a priest, you are able to tap into the power of the Divine, though diluted by the separation between the Divine itself and the world. You gain a number of channel divine uses per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

For purposes of Divine feats from other sources, channel divine uses count as turn undead attempts (and so you can use them to fuel Divine feats that require their expenditure).

Most patron's domains grant a power that allows you to expend a channel divine use for a purpose relevant to the patron.

In addition, all priests can use channel divine uses to focus their prayers, imbuing their words with just a touch of Divine power that enables their will to be understood, even if their words are not. When you use a prayer, you may expend a channel divine use to take 10 on the Truespeak check to use the prayer.

Priest Talent: At 10th level, and every two levels thereafter, the priest learns a new ability. He may select one of the following special features; unless otherwise specified, each ability can be selected only once.

• Chosen Faithful: You may select another priest ability granted by your patron's domain.
• Deific Providence: Through your connection to a deity, your ability to call upon the Divine is greater than that of other priests. You can expend two uses of channel divine to take 20 on a Truespeech check to vocalize a prayer. Doing so requires no additional time, and can be done under stress. (Prerequisites: Patron must be a Deity)
  • Soulsight (Di): Your connection to the Divine through your patron allows you to see the world in terms of the Divine, allowing you to sense the Truenames of creatures and objects near you as they change. When you look at a creature or object within 120 feet whose Truename you know, you treat them as though you had specified such a creature as a subject of the status spell, but can also access "meta" information regarding them (such as hit points, non-obvious status conditions, precise alignment information, and similar information that would not necessarily be available to a character through normal methods). This effect is automatic and does not allow for DI, but disabling your access to the Divine negates it (it reactivates immediately and automatically as soon as it is able). (Prerequisites: Deific Providence)
• Gaze into the Soul (Di): While you have true seeing or similar effects active, you can attempt to gaze through a creature's eyes into their soul, learning their Truename. To do so, you must take a full-round action to make a Sense Motive check against DC 15 + the creature's Hit Die + the creature's Charisma modifier. If you succeed, you learn the creature's Truename. The target is always aware that you are taking this action (though may not be aware of what it means), and any creature with at least 1 rank in Prayercraft immediately who witneses this action recognizes what you are doing. Creatures with Divine Inhibition add their DI to the DC of the Sense Motive check. Creatures without eyes are immune to this effect.
• One Voice, Two Words: When you vocalize a recitation, you can instead choose to vocalize two at once. To do so, add half the Truespeech DC of the lower-level recitation to the DC of the higher: this is the DC to vocalize both simultaneously.
  • Choir of the Soul: When vocalizing a single recitation, you can now vocalize other prayers while doing so. Vocalizing prayers with a recitation active is a standard action. (Prerequisites: One Voice, Two Words)
• Overwhelming Soul: Increase your base absolute limit by +5. You can take this talent multiple times; each time you do, its effect stacks.
• Rewrite the World (Pr): You gain knowledge of the rewrite the world prayer. (Prerequisites: Petitioner level 16th+, must be able to access 6th level prayers)
• Words of Power: You gain knowledge of one additional utterance, incantation, or recitation of your choice. You can take this talent multiple times.
• Feat: The priest may select a bonus feat in place of a talent.

Ex-Priests

A priest who grossly violates his patron's code of conduct, fails to maintain and observe his patron's dogma, or fails to keep his alignment/ethos within acceptable bounds loses access to his domain and all powers associated with it. He can still attempt to use prayers, but suffers a -10 penalty to all Truespeech checks, his effective petitioner level for all prayers is halved, and his absolute limit is quartered.

A priest ignores these penalties if he has innate Divine alignment (indicated by innate Nature and Void Inhibitions), but still loses access to his patron's domain and associated powers.

Patron Saint: If you have a Saint as your patron, you may either attempt to atone for your transgressions and regain your good standing as a petitioner (moderate difficulty), attempt to acquire patronage from a different Saint (hard difficulty), or attempt to acquire patronage from a Lucavi (easy difficulty).

Patron Lucavi: If you have a Lucavi as your patron, you may either attempt to atone for your transgressions and regain your good standing as a petitioner (hard difficulty), attempt to acquire patronage from a different Lucavi (easy difficulty), or attempt to acquire patronage from a Saint (medium difficulty).

Prayers

Because of how Domains work, it would simply be too much to list every Domain's prayer list here.

As such, refer to the Domains page for the prayer lists... however, I need a test template, so I'll do that here.

Pain Domain
Level	Type	Prayer Name	Action	Effect
1	Utterance	Relentless Itch	Standard	Target suffers penalties to all d20 rolls; dealing damage to self negates.
1	Utterance	Inflict Wounds	Standard	Deal potency 2 shadow damage to a creature.
1	Incantation	Bloodletting	Standard	For 5 rounds, the potency of all bleed effects on the target increases by 1.
1	Incantation	Seize Muscle	Standard	Target gains str down; successful Fortitude save negates, but failed saves deal damage.
2	Utterance	Weaken Heart	Standard	Target gains con down; successful Fortitude save negates, but failed saves sicken for 1 round.
2	Utterance	Wrack	Standard	Target gains slag for 5 rounds.
2	Incantation	Agonize	Standard	You can concentrate on a creature to stun it for 1 round.
2	Incantation	Seize Muscle	Standard	Target gains str down; successful Fortitude save negates, but failed saves deal damage.
3	Utterance	Razor Blood	Standard	Change a portion of the target's blood into minute razors, dealing potency 2 ongoing slashing damage and stunning the target for 5 rounds.
3	Incantation		Standard	Does some stuff.
4	Utterance	Harm	Standard	Reduce a creature to very few hit points.
4	Incantation		Standard	Does some stuff.
5	Utterance		Standard	Does some stuff.
5	Incantation		Standard	Does some stuff.
6	Utterance	Enervation	Standard	Target gains 2d4 negative levels.

 

Design Notes

While the Truename system we utilized (The Way Words Work) was mostly functional, there are still issues with skill-based casting that cannot be resolved in d20. Even in removing the majority of the skill-based aspects, the Divine casting system has always had its warts.

This redesign has a few majors goals:

• Rebalance absolute limit, with an eye for new HP progressions.
• Examine the prayer types, simplify and streamline their mechanics.
• Modify how domains work, returning to the original 3.5 model of each patron having multiple domains.
  • Redesign how priests access prayers, removing the central list.

Also... maybe make Esuna functional.

So the important thing here is that the augmentations are going away; and chances are good that reversals are going to go, as well (or be simplified; their presentation, at the very least, needs to be fixed). Divine casting is going to be purely by absolute limit and nothing else (as this particular Trinity has moved to a "hard limits" type of casting, and Divine needs to reflect that).