Revision as of 14:40, 26 September 2010

Priest

An Ajoran priest

"Through faith, all things are possible."

The divine is not a Force to be trifled with. While Magic may claim to rewrite the laws of the world, and Psionics may claim to find loopholes in the rules, the Divine does not meddle with such pedestrian affairs - no, he merely commands the world, and it bends to his will. There is no modification, no manipulation: the priest speaks, and the world obeys.

The priest taps into the Divine itself for the inspiration and power to bend the world to his will. However, such power is not readily attained by mortals - only beings that are actively worshipped may grant this power to their followers, and so the priest is greatly tied to his patron Saint or Lucavi, for to fall out of favor means to lose the power to alter reality at will.

Game Rule Information

Priests have the following game statistics.

Force Alignment: Divine.

Force Resistances: NI 5 + level, VI 5 + level.

Abilities: Wisdom, above all, is paramount to the priest. Without personal insight and understanding, he cannot begin to fathom how his words can alter reality.

Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills: The priest's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (The Forces) (Int), Search (Per), Speak Language, and Prayercraft (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Age: Moderate.

Starting Gold: 5d4 x 10gp.

Favored By: None.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the priest core class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The priest is proficient with simple weapons and light armor, but not shields. The priest will also gain an additional weapon or armor proficiency, based upon his patron Saint or Lucavi.

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.
• 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.
• Utterances and incantations can be reversed, producing a thematically opposite effect.
• Prayers are a level-based system, from 1st to 6th.
• 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.
• With any prayer, you can target a creature within line of sight, regardless of distance.
• Prayers do not stack with themselves or other prayers.

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.

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 Wisdom modifier. You can never take 10 or take 20 on a Truespeak check. 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.

As a priest, your absolute limit begins at 3 + your Charisma modifier, and increases by 3 + your Charisma modifier each priest level. Improving your petitioner level (through feats such as Versed in the Force) improves your absolute limit as though they were priest levels. If your Wisdom or Charisma modifiers improve, they improve your absolute limit retroactively.

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 access to additional prayers.

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

Prayers

The following prayers are available to all priests. Note that your domain will give you access to other prayers, dependent on the domain.

Design Notes

When in doubt, refer to The Way Words Work, a modification of the Truename system found in WotC's Tome of Magic.