Cleric

"Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness; for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the finder of lost children."

The gods are many, and the gods are powerful, but the gods are also distant. They generally need mortals to act upon their behalf when they want something done. Some mortals do this because a church is paying them them, others do it out of blind faith. Those with the strongest faith stand at the head of the church, and they are known as clerics.

As with the real world, there are many churches of many sizes, and even lone individuals with beliefs that only they can understand. Little can be said about clerics in general, other than their uncanny ability to take almost any situation as "a sign" of some sort.

Playing a Cleric

At low levels, being covered in armor and holding a weapon is enough to make you a help on the battle field. As you gain levels, most of your power shifts from being useful in melee towards having various spells that can help turn the tide of battle. Cleric spells are more often of a defensive nature, and the fact that you can memorize any spell on the cleric spell list means that it's easy to change your focus from day to day.

Alignment: If your group is playing with any sort of alignment rules (which I suggest that you don't, but whatever), then a Cleric must have an alignment within 1 step of their deity's. If a Detect Alignment spell is used upon them, a cleric has an alignment aura equal to their level. A cleric cannot use spells with an alignment descriptor in opposition to their own.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills: Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (Planes), Profession, Spellcraft. Some domain selections grant additional class skills.

Skill Points Per Level: 4 + Intelligence Modifier

BAB: Medium

Saves: Fortitude and Will Good, Reflex Poor

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, as well as with Light, Medium, and Heavy armor, and Shields.

Spells: A cleric casts divine spells from the cleric spell list. A cleric's Wisdom score determines all aspects of their spellcasting, such as Saving Throw DC, Bonus spells, and so forth. A cleric's base number of spell slots per day is given on the chart below. As with most divine casters, clerics can memorize any spell on the cleric spell list.

Many think that a cleric's spells are granted by their deity, but in truth a cleric's spells are made manifest from their own absolute faith in their deity, along with their faith in their cause in general. The difference is subtle, but it mostly means that a cleric's spells work even if their deity isn't real, or even if they're in a dimensionally sealed space that their deity cannot access.

A cleric regains their spells by spending an hour in prayer, contemplating the nature of whatever it is that they believe in. This must be performed each day at a time determined by the cleric's belief system; generally at a time of mystical significance, such as dawn, dusk, midday, or midnight. If a cleric misses the opportunity, they must stop and pray at the first chance, or they cannot regain spells that day.

A cleric gets access to 3 Orisons (0th level spells) per day, and can use any prepared orison at will.

Spontaneous Conversion (Ex): At any time, a cleric can convert a prepared spell into raw positive or negative energy. This has the same effect as casting either a Cure spell (positive energy) or an Inflict spell (negative energy) of the appropriate level (including the Mass version, if the spell slot is of the correct level).

Turn/ Rebuke Undead (Su): A cleric has the ability to either turn or rebuke undead. This ability is linked to their Spontaneous Conversion ability: A cleric that can convert spell energy into positive energy turns undead, and a cleric that converts spell energy into negative energy rebukes undead. A cleric can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + their Charisma Modifier.

Domains (Ex): Even among clerics of the same faith, each cleric interprets that faith a little differently. This gives a cleric two domain selections. Each domain has a granted ability and a spell list. In addition to their normal allotment of spells from the Cleric Spell List, at each spell level the cleric has available they can prepare a domain spell from one of their two domains. Domain spells can't be converted with spontaneous conversion, but are otherwise the same as the rest of the cleric's spells.

Code of Conduct

A cleric who grossly violates the codes of their deity can have their faith shaken, which prevents them from preparing any new spells. However, since clerics can venerate deities that don't really exist, and because they also tend to take just about everything as a sign of their own god's true power, this rarely actually happens. Some clerics, even when given a vision directly from the actual deity that they claim to worship, have rejected the individual as a false vision, or an impostor, and continued down whatever path they were already on. Many a schism has started this way.

Alternate Class Feature: Domain Conversion

A cleric that isn't interested in Cure or Inflict spells can instead select one of their domains. Instead of sacrificing prepared spells to convert into Cure or Inflict spells, the spell slot becomes whatever the spell of the same level from the selected domain is.

Class Variant: Cloistered Cleric

Some clerics spend even more time with meditation and contemplation than most, and have the following changes to their class:

Hit Die: d6

BAB: Low

Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Intelligence Modifier

Weapons and Armor: A cloistered cleric is proficient with simple weapons and light armor only.

Cloistered Lore (Ex): A cloistered cleric has many bits of knowledge on many subjects. This is like the Bardic Lore class feature, using the Cleric's level.

Domains: A cloistered cleric gets the Knowledge domain as a bonus domain, in addition to their two other domains.

Spell List: Add the following spells to the cloistered cleric's class spell list:

• 0th: Message
• 1st: Erase, Identify, Unseen Servant
• 2nd: Fox's Cunning
• 3rd: Illusory Script, Secret Page, Tongues (reduced from 4th level)
• 4th: Detect Scrying
• 6th: Analyze Dweomer
• 7th: Sequester
• 9th: Vision