Class: Priest

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The Priest
  Prayers
Level Special Petition Max Prayer Grade Prayers Known
1 Channel +1 Syllable 4
2 Patron Power +2 Syllable 6
3   +3 Syllable 7
4 Patron Power +4 Word 8
5   +5 Word 10
6 Patron Power +6 Word 11
7   +7 Phrase 12
8 Patron Power +8 Phrase 14
9   +9 Phrase 15
10 Priest Talent +10 Verse 16
11   +11 Verse 18
12 Priest Talent +12 Verse 19
13   +13 Psalm 20
14 Priest Talent +14 Psalm 22
15   +15 Psalm 23
16 Priest Talent +16 Hymn 24
17   +17 Hymn 26
18 Priest Talent +18 Hymn 27
19   +19 Hymn 28
20 Priest Talent +20 Hymn 30

 

Priest

Tony, iconic priest
"Through faith, all things are possible."

In the worlds of Trinity, the Divine is both simultaneously a singular entity and a host of unique individuals. While the Divine Spark itself has been sealed away into a metaphysical plane in ages now long past, its power transcends such boundaries, using the divine entities known as the Saints and Lucavi to channel its power and exert its will on reality itself. However, such access requires channels, places or individuals who recognize the power of such entities and whose faith empowers them. Thus the act of being a petitioner is beneficial both to the mortal and the Divine: the Divine gains the raw spiritual power necessary to continue its Divine existence, and the mortal is granted a fraction of the power that the worshiped entity wields, allowing the priest - and through that priest, the Divine entity - to enforce her will upon the world.

Of all the sparks, priests vary the most, for their power is intimately connected with the Divine hosts, and the powers they wield are granted directly by them. As such, the power a priest wields is entirely dependent upon the worshiped entity: a Saint of fire and smithing will grant an entirely different set of prayers than a Lucavi of filth and disease. However, there is a consistency about these powers, as they do come from the same source - as such, two priests who follow entities both of whom have fire as a concept they are concerned with will invoke the same prayers. That said, each Divine entity has a set of boons it can grant unique to it, and rarely do two Divine entities wield power over the exact same domain; as such, even two priests of the same entity may have two rather different sets of abilities at their disposal.

Priests are welcomed throughout almost all of the worlds of Trinity; only in places where a strong Natural or Void bent in the populace exist are priests looked down upon, their ability to change the world simply through force of will and applied Divine power something to be feared or reviled rather than respected. The nature of the priest's patron also vastly changes society's outlook upon them: while Saints are commonly accepted, nearly every region of the world - and even race - has its own pantheon it reveres, and priests of other "faiths" may not be well-accepted; meanwhile, the Lucavi are almost universally reviled by civilization, but some cultures see them as a necessary evil and will tolerate the presence of a Lucavic priest if only to avoid offending their patron.

Because of the diversity of patrons available, priests come from all walks of life and are difficult to classify as a whole.

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 Points at 1st Level: 5 + Con score.

Hit Points at Each Additional Level: 5 + Con modifier.

Healing Surges: 6 + Con modifier.

Defenses: Fort +0; Ref +0; Will +4; Det +2.

Starting Age: Moderate.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the priest.

Proficiencies

Weapons: Any three. In addition, a priest is proficient with his patron's favored weapon.

Armor: Cloth.

Implements: Icons, verses.

Prayers

Priests are petitioners, which means that they make use of prayers, words of power reminiscent of the original tongue in which the Divine named all of creation, which are given power by the priest's connection to a Divine patron.

Sidebar: Priests in Trinity
Priests in Trinity require some special attention, due to the various scales of "deities" we have. In particular, it matters if you are a petitioner of a saint, lucavi, or god.
Saint: Because there are so many more Saints than either of the other two categories, each individual Saint has a significantly smaller portfolio, as well as smaller following. This means, however, that Saints have more available time to answer prayers to them, and as an overwhelming majority of Saints were once mortal, they usually have a keen interest in mortal affairs. In Trinity, priests of Saints gain a +2 bonus to petition checks.
Lucavi: The Lucavi are much fewer in number than Saints and have larger portfolios. Because of their nature, they are willing to exchange fractions of their divine power for worship, so they do pay attention to their priests, but due to their larger portfolios - and thus, larger number of petitioners - they have less time to answer individual prayers. In Trinity, priests of Lucavi gain no bonus and suffer no penalty to petition checks.
God: Gods are even fewer in number than Lucavi, and their portfolios are expansive. In Trinity, the gulf between Gods and mortals is immense - while Saints were almost universally once mortal, and Lucavi have an active interest in dealing with mortals to accrue more worship, Gods were never mortal and have no need of worship, their essences tied directly to the Divine. As such, while the Gods do answer prayers, they are far more distant: in Trinity, priests of Gods suffer a -2 penalty to petition checks.

Unlike most other Forces, the Divine has significant diversity in the powers that its followers can wield - divided into domains - and as such no reasonable summary of them can be given here. Unlike most other sparks - who gain access to more areas of expertise within their force over time - a priest has immediate access to all domains his patron offers.

To gain access to this divine power, however, the priest must petition his patron for it. While immensely powerful, patrons have many demands on their time, and as such are not able to intercede on behalf of every petitioner who requests their aid. Making a petition requires 1 round, and the priest must make a petition check, which is equal to d20 + his petition bonus + his Wisdom modifier; you make this roll as you declare your intent to make a petition, and if the result is not to your liking, you can cease the attempt and expend only a move action. If the result is at least a 15, the priest's patron grants him a number of blessings, according to the table below.

 

Petition and Blessings
  Petition Check
Prayer Grade 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45+
Syllable 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Word - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Phrase - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 - - - - - - -
Verse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 - -
Psalm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2
Hymn - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3
Canticle - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1

 

Prayer Grades
Grade Minimum Wisdom
Syllable 11
Word 13
Phrase 15
Verse 17
Psalm 19
Hymn 21
Canticle 23

You can utter any prayer you know, of any grade you have access to, and for which you have at least one blessing; patrons do not grant specific prayers, but instead the ability to utter any prayer the priest knows. You must expend a blessing to utter a prayer of that grade or lower; expending a blessing is part of the utterance time of a prayer. If you gain a blessing for a prayer grade you cannot access, you cannot use prayers of that grade, but can still use that blessing for any lower grade, or to enhance your prayers with [Metaprayer] feats.

If you have blessings remaining from a previous petition, any petition attempt you make suffers a -2 penalty for each blessing you have remaining. Even if such a second petition is successful, you can have no more than three blessings for a given prayer grade at any one time, and no more than six blessings in total (if a petition would bring you over six after the limit of three per grade, you lose blessings from highest grade to lowest).

You can willingly discharge any blessings you have as a free action on your turn.

At any time, you can spend ten minutes in prayer and meditation, focusing your spiritual energy on attending to your patron. If you do so, you are treated as having taken 20 on your petition check.

To use prayers, you must be able to speak clearly, and effects that modify your ability to speak languages or otherwise communicate clearly can disrupt your ability to use prayers.

The priest begins with four known prayers. He gains knowledge of additional prayers each level, as per the class table, above. At fourth level and every four levels after, he can trade out up to two prayers for new prayers from any domain he can access, of any grade he can access.

The priest's key ability for his divine attacks is his Wisdom.

Channel

As a priest, while you are devoted to a patron, your connection to that patron also connects you - however distantly - to the Divine itself. You can concentrate your spiritual power and unleash the raw power of the Divine, using it to fuel some of your abilities. Doing so is taxing, however, and you can only do so a limited number of times between long rests.

You gain a number of channel uses per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

You can use your channels to activate your patron's domain abilities, if you have any.

In addition, all priests can use channel to gain their patron's immediate attention, if just for a moment. When you make a petition, you can spend a channel use to take 20 on the roll.

Ethos

Because the priest draws heir power directly from a patron, who can rescind that power at any time, the priest is expected to behave in a certain fashion, in accordance with the tenets of the patron in question.

In general, you must maintain an ethos acceptable to your patron. Because patrons rely on their petitioners for their own power, most patrons are rather lax about the specifics of their priests' ethos. However, taking actions that are directly detrimental to the goals of your patron can result in your patron rescinding your access to your prayers, though this is usually preceded by an omen of some sort.

More powerful priests find that they have significantly more leeway than less powerful ones, as the personal power accrued by the priest translates into their faith having that much more weight to the patron. While many patrons would prefer their more powerful priests to act in accordance with their own ethics and help guide their church, most patrons also recognize that adventuring priests are not the best choice for such positions, and - as such - adventuring priests have more leeway than non-adventuring ones (meaning that a powerful, adventuring priest can essentially do almost anything they want, short of drastically harming the patron's faith in some fashion, before the patron will rescind their prayers).

Prayers

Because of how Domains work, it would simply be too much to list every Domain's prayer list here. This section lists a variety of navigational templates for domains and patrons.

 

Divine Prayers
Prayer Index | Air · Animal · Artifice · Balance · Bestial · Celerity · Celestial · Chaos · Charm · City · Community · Competition · Corruption · Courage · Craft · Creation · Darkness · Death · Destiny · Destruction · Dream · Earth · Endurance · Fate · Family · Feast · Fire · Glory · Hatred · Healing · Heaven · Hunger · Ice · Illusion · Inquisition · Joy · Knowledge · Liberation · Life · Lightning · Luck · Lust · Madness · Magic · Meditation · Memory · Metal · Mind · Moon · Nature · Nobility · Ocean · Oracle · Passion · Planning · Plant · Pleasure · Portal · Power · Prophecy · Protection · Psionics · Purification · Renewal · Repose · Retribution · Rune · Secrets · Shadow · Sky · Sorrow · Strength · Storm · Suffering · Sun · Technology · Thirst · Time · Trade · Transformation · Travel · Trickery · Truth · Tyranny · Void · Water · Wealth · Wrath

   

Divine Patrons: Lucavi
Lucavi Index | Adrammalech · Ajora · Crusader · Cúchulainn · Elidibs · Falriox · Hashmalum · Sko'veyux · Teniel · Velius · Yothoth · Zalera

   

Divine Patrons: Deities
Deity Index | Anachronism · Edena · ??? · Kevaan · Kolaita · ??? · ??? · Tethys · Viraxis

 

Feats

The following are a selection of feats that are relevant to priests.

 

CLERIC [Job]
You have devoted yourself to a patron, and heard an answer.
Prerequisites: No levels in a petitioner class.
Benefit: Choose a patron; you learn two minor prayers of your choice from that patron's domains. Your petition bonus is +0, plus one-half your Wisdom modifier, rounded down.
Special: If you take a level in any petitioner class, you must immediately retrain this feat; the new feat cannot be a [Job] feat.

 

COMBAT MASTERY [General]
You fight to win.
Benefit: Your BAB increases by +1, but cannot increase to greater than your character level. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

EXTRA CHANNEL [Divine]
You can call upon the strength of your patron in times of need.
Prerequisites: Petitioner.
Benefit: You gain an additional channel per day. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

EXTRA DOMAIN [Divine]
You have more access to areas of control with which your patron is concerned.
Prerequisites: Petitioner, access to five or fewer domains.
Benefit: You gain access to another divine domain of your choice; the domain chosen must be one your patron grants access to. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

EXTRAORDINARY TALENT [Epic]
You are more talented than your experience would otherwise suggest.
Prerequisites: Character level 21st+.
Benefit: You gain a talent from the talent list of one of your classes.

 

JOURNEYMAN [General]
You are a being of many talents.
Benefit: Your SKL increases by +1, but cannot increase to greater than your character level. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

PRAYER FOCUS [Divine]
You have studied one aspect of your patron's dogma intently, and can wield powers related to it with greater intensity.
Prerequisites: Petitioner.
Benefit: Choose a divine domain you can access. You gain a +2 feat bonus on divine attacks with prayers of that domain. You can take this feat multiple times; each time you do, select a domain you can access for which you have not taken this feat.

 

PRAYER KNOWLEDGE [Divine]
Your knowledge of the divine is deeper than your experience suggests.
Prerequisites: Petitioner.
Benefit: You gain knowledge of two additional prayers of any grade you can access, of any domain you can access. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

STRONG FAITH [Divine]
Your personal power is not representative of the strength of your faith.
Prerequisites: Petitioner.
Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to your petition checks. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

VERSED IN THE FORCE [General]
Your knowledge of the Forces is expansive, as is your ability to wield them.
Benefit: Your FRC increases by +1, but cannot increase to greater than your character level. You can take this feat multiple times; its effect stacks.

 

Design Notes

June 15, 2016: Full rewrite. Inspired by this discussion.

If you can refresh your prayers at will out of combat, then the number you can have available in combat needs to be significantly fewer: otherwise, the refresh mechanic is pointless. To that end, I have halved the number of blessings each for each petition check value, from a max of 10 to a max of 5. This is the original table, maxing at 10.

 

Petition and Blessings
  Petition Check
Prayer Grade 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45+
Minor 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 - - - - - - - - - - -
Lesser - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 - - - - - -
Moderate - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 -
Greater - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Major - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Miracle - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 2 2 3 3
Salient - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1

 


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