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Raum
2006-09-04, 08:52 PM
Friar

“Strike hard my brothers! For god is with us!”
--The exhortation of Friar Karlo as the battle of Two Springs began.

The old man paused as he came upon Patcham and rested his hand upon Eric's shoulder to stop him. The village below burned as bandits looted and pillaged, few villagers were still fighting. “Wait here lad, I'll chase them off.” Chanting a blessing of health, he readied his staff and headed down the hill.

Friars are country priests and healers. They serve their deity in out of the way locations and often support themselves with a craft in poorer communities. Friars gain intuitive knowledge of the power they serve and leverage that knowledge in a variety of ways. In many ways friars can be thought of as a cross between a monk and a cleric however their abilities are significantly different. In combat they usually act as support to the front line combatants or as a secondary combatant using farm tools and simple weapons in battle.

Adventures: A friar usually takes the role of healer and buffer or light fighter.
Characteristics: Friars are lightly armored and rely on quickness and speed in both offense and defense. They augment their normal abilities with spells, blessings, and aspects of their god's power.
Alignment: Friars can be of any alignment except true neutral. They must be within one alignment of the deity they worship.
Religion: Friars often follow gods of nature and travel, but any god may call a friar to service.
Background: Few friars have much formal training, most are simply apprenticed to the friar in their community.
Races: Most friars are human however dwarves, gnomes, and half-orcs are common. Elf, half-elf, and halfling friars are rare but sometimes may be found.
Classes: Friars get along well with most fighters and to some extent monks. They respect clerics but consider them too out of touch with common man. Wizards, bards, and rogues often irritate friars because of their presumed selfishness.
Role: The friar's best role is that of a versatile support character providing secondary healing and combat capability. Without the heavier armors or staying power of primary fighting classes the friar should focus on striking quickly while avoiding slug-fests, assisting front line combatants and healing the injured.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Friars have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma, Dexterity, and Wisdom are important for a friar both for skills and for use in combat. Wisdom is a friar's primary casting ability while his blessings rely on Charisma.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills
The friar's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge - Nature (Int), Knowledge - Religion (Int), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumbling (Dex). See Player's Handbook Chapter 4: Skills for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) * 4.
Skill Points at each additional level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the friar.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A friar is proficient with all simple weapons, flails, picks, and the scythe. They are also proficient with light armors but not with medium armors, heavy armors, or shields.

Spells per Level | Spells Known
{TABLE]


[BR]
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
|
0
1
2
3
4
5
6



1
2
0
-
-
-
-
-
|
2
1
-
-
-
-
-


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


3
3
2
0
-
-
-
-
|
3
3
1
-
-
-
-


4
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
|
3
3
2
-
-
-
-


5
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
|
3
3
2
-
-
-
-


6
3
3
3
0
-
-
-
|
3
3
2
1
-
-
-


7
4
3
3
1
-
-
-
|
4
4
3
2
-
-
-


8
4
4
3
2
-
-
-
|
4
4
3
3
-
-
-


9
4
4
3
3
0
-
-
|
4
4
3
3
1
-
-


10
4
4
3
3
1
-
-
|
4
4
4
3
2
-
-


11
4
4
4
3
2
-
-
|
4
5
4
4
3
-
-


12
4
4
4
3
3
0
-
|
4
5
4
4
3
1
-


13
4
4
4
4
3
1
-
|
4
5
5
4
4
2
-


14
5
4
4
4
3
2
-
|
6
5
5
5
4
3
-


15
5
5
4
4
4
3
0
|
6
6
5
5
5
4
1


16
5
5
5
4
4
3
1
|
6
6
6
5
5
4
2


17
5
5
5
5
4
4
2
|
6
6
6
6
5
5
3


18
5
5
5
5
5
4
3
|
6
6
6
6
6
5
4


19
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
|
6
6
6
6
6
6
5


20
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
|
6
6
6
6
6
6
6

[/TABLE]

Spells: A friar casts divine spells which are drawn from the cleric spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn to cast a spell, the friar must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The difficulty class for a saving throw against a friar's spell is 10 + the spell level + the friar's Wisdom modifier unless the spell description specifies differently.
Like other spell casters, a friar can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. When the table indicates that the friar gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level.
The friar's selection of spells is extremely limited. A friar begins play knowing two zero level and one first level spells of your choice. At most new friar levels, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on the table above. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a friar knows is not affected by his Wisdom score; the numbers on the table are fixed.)
Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third friar level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), a friar can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the friar "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level friar spell the friar can cast. A friar may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.
As noted above, a friar need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

{TABLE]

Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special



1
0
0
2
2
Smite Heretic


2
1
0
3
3
Blessing 1


3
2
1
3
3
[BR]


4
3
1
4
4
Armor of Faith


5
3
1
4
4
[BR]


6
4
2
5
5
Blessing 2


7
5
2
5
5
[BR]


8
6
2
6
6
Evasion, Faith's Power


9
6
3
6
6
[BR]


10
7
3
7
7
Blessing 3


11
8
3
7
7
[BR]


12
9
4
8
8
Divine Smite


13
9
4
8
8
[BR]


14
10
4
9
9
Blessing 4


15
11
5
9
9
[BR]


16
12
5
10
10
Improved Evasion, Path of Faith


17
12
5
10
10
[BR]


18
13
6
11
11
Blessing 5


19
14
6
11
11
[BR]


20
15
6
12
12
Aura of Faith

[/TABLE]

Smite Heretic (Su): At 1st level, a friar may attempt to smite those of differing alignments with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per friar level. If the friar accidentally smites a creature that is the same alignment, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the friar may smite heretics one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Blessings (Sp): A friar may bless allies within 60' of himself granting a variety of bonuses. Blessings also affect the friar himself. Blessings may be used once per day per three friar levels plus once per day per point of the friar's Charisma modifier. Each blessing lasts one minute per level of the friar. Beginning at 2nd level and every four levels afterwards the friar learns one blessing from the following list. Activating a blessing is a standard action.
Cooled – Grants a divine bonus to Fire Resistance equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Athleticism – Grants a divine bonus to Balance, Climb, Jump, and Swim equal to one per three levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Awareness – Grants a divine bonus to Listen, Search, and Spot equal to one per three levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Fortitude – Grants a divine bonus to Fortitude saves equal to one per four levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Persuasion – Grants a divine bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Sense Motive equal to one per three levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Reflexes – Grants a divine bonus to Reflex saves equal to one per four levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed the friar's Charisma modifier.
Divine Will – Grants a divine bonus to Will saves equal to one per four levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed the friar's Charisma modifier.
Grounded – Grants a divine bonus to Electricity Resistance equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Health – Grants fast healing equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Invulnerability (prerequisite: Divine Fortitude) – Grants a divine bonus to damage resistance of one per four levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed the friar's Charisma modifier. This stacks with most other sources of damage resistance.
Resistance – (prerequisite: Divine Will) Grants a divine bonus to Spell Resistance equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier. This stacks with most other sources of spell resistance.
Shielded – Grants a divine bonus to Acid Resistance equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.
Speed (prerequisite: Divine Reflexes) – Grants a divine bonus to movement equal to five feet per five levels of the friar. The total bonus granted cannot exceed five feet per point of the friar's Charisma bonus.
Warmed – Grants a divine bonus to Cold Resistance equal to one per two levels of the friar. The bonus granted cannot exceed twice the friar's Charisma modifier.

Armor of Faith (Ex): A 4th level friar learns to cloak himself in faith. The friar adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his armor class. This does not stack with a monk's AC bonus or with any other bonus to armor class based on Wisdom..
This bonus to armor class applies against touch attacks or when the friar is flat-footed. The friar loses this bonus when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armors other than light, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Evasion (Ex): At 8th level or higher if a friar makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage.
Evasion can be used only if a friar is wearing no armor, light armor, hide, or scale. A helpless friar does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Faith's Power (Su): At 16th level, a friar's faith sustains him and makes him stronger. As an immediate action, he may add his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his Strength. This is an enhancement bonus and lasts for one round.

Divine Smite (Su): At 12th level, a friar's smite damage increases. He still adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and now deals 2 extra points of damage per friar level. His smite ability is unchanged otherwise.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 16th level, a friar's evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save.
Improved Evasion can be used only if a friar is wearing no armor, light armor, hide, or scale. A helpless friar does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Path of Faith (Su): A 16th level friar's path is laid out before him by divine grace. This grants the friar an enhancement bonus to his movement equal to half his Wisdom modifier (rounded down) times five feet.
The friar loses this bonus when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armors other than light, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Aura of Faith (Su): A 20th level friar is cloaked in an aura of divine grace. At will, as a move equivalent action, he may extend his aura to affect all opponents within 30' of the friar. The friar may use any aura which is not aligned opposite his alignment. (For example, a neutral good friar may use any aura except Evil.) As a move equivalent action, the friar can turn on an aura, switch between auras, or turn off his aura. A friar may activate both an aura and a blessing in the same round.
Law – All opponents within 30' must make a Will save DC 10 + half the friar's level + the friar's Charisma modifier in order to strike or otherwise directly attack the friar. Anyone the friar attacks gains an additional save with a +10 bonus every time the friar takes an offensive action. An entity can only be affected by this once within a 24 hour period.
Chaos – All opponents within 30' must make a Will save DC 10 + half the friar's level + the friar's Charisma modifier or become frightened (A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. A frightened creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.). This is a mind affecting power. An entity can only be affected by this once within a 24 hour period.
Evil – All opponents within 30' must make a Fort save DC 10 + half the friar's level + the friar's Wisdom modifier or take 1d4 Constitution damage. An entity can only be affected by this once within a 24 hour period.
Good – All undead within 30' must make a Will save DC 10 + half the friar's level + the friar's Wisdom modifier or flee as if turned. Living opponents within 30' who fail the save become dazzled for one minute.

Eighth_Seraph
2006-09-04, 09:16 PM
Hrm...This looks to me to be one of those classes that will end up overpowered and underpowered depending on the user. The healer and fighter template was done rather well, with one rather gigantic problem. That problem is that the Friar will not be able to do both in any given encounter, and whicherver one she does will be done in a sub-par fashion. For example, The friar will either be in the back, healing and blessing, or as a secondary fighter finishing off opponents so the other fighters can move on. The two roles are incompatible and the friar cannot be even close to a frontline healer because of her mediocre hit dice and low armor proficiencies. There is a similar result when it comes to healing spells at higher levels; she'll be a sub-par healer and many of the blessings could just as easily be replaced by bull's strength, etc. spells. The spontaneous spellcasting might offset this to a large extent, but the nerfed spells per day will leave this a subpar healer and inferior to a cleric in almost every way.

martyboy74
2006-09-04, 09:21 PM
For the alignment requirement, you may want toi change it to no True Neutral, unless you're god is True Neutral. That's standard IIRC.

Raum
2006-09-04, 09:36 PM
Hrm...This looks to me to be one of those classes that will end up overpowered and underpowered depending on the user.
Out of curiosity, when do you see it being over powered?


The healer and fighter template was done rather well, with one rather gigantic problem. That problem is that the Friar will not be able to do both in any given encounter, and whicherver one she does will be done in a sub-par fashion. For example, The friar will either be in the back, healing and blessing, or as a secondary fighter finishing off opponents so the other fighters can move on. The two roles are incompatible and the friar cannot be even close to a frontline healer because of her mediocre hit dice and low armor proficiencies.
Hmm, I understand what you're saying and it's something I attempted to overcome. The Armor of Faith ability (Wis to AC) and some of the Blessings (Health and Invulnerability) were meant to allow the Friar to stand up front both healing and attacking. If that's not enough, do you think it's fixable or simply too flawed a concept?


There is a similar result when it comes to healing spells at higher levels; she'll be a sub-par healer and many of the blessings could just as easily be replaced by bull's strength, etc. spells. The spontaneous spellcasting might offset this to a large extent, but the nerfed spells per day will leave this a subpar healer and inferior to a cleric in almost every way.
Friar's will definitely miss out on the higher level mass heals and resurrections, but I didn't really want another cleric.


For the alignment requirement, you may want toi change it to no True Neutral, unless you're god is True Neutral. That's standard IIRC.
The restriction is there specifically to prevent Friars from being able to use all four of the Aura of Faith abilities.

Matthew
2006-09-05, 03:38 PM
The mechanics of the Class are interesting enough and not incompatable with a D&D 'Friar', just a thought about the fluff:

Why the name 'Friar', for this class [etymological root: Lat. Frater; Fren. Frere; Eng. 'Brother'].

Friar generally denotes a member of the Mendicant orders. As I understand it, a great deal of formal training was involved, the principal purpose being so that they were versed in combating heresy and debating with accurately with clergy of other faiths.

Just a query.

Raum
2006-09-05, 05:51 PM
Name choice was more reminiscent of Friar Tuck from the Robin Hood legends than any relation to real world religious practices or titles. Though I did try to pay some amount of lip service to the mendicant orders in the background text. Just not much since few real world friars were the adventuresome type.

Matthew
2006-09-05, 06:37 PM
You should check into William of Rubruck and his adventures amongst the Mongols. Friar, Diplomat, Spy... and he wasn't the only one!

Friar Tuck's name probaly means "Brother Blow", the period in which his story is set predates Mendicant Friars. Going on the literay evidence, he appears to be depicted as a rogue Monk (a runaway), but I have heard many different variants...

paddyfool
2006-09-06, 04:07 AM
First out, I really like the tone of this class. Why should divinely empowered heroes be clanking around in full plate and whatnot? And I particularly like the characterful set of weapon proficiencies.

However, although I'm no expert, I think it could be better in a couple of ways. Firstly, the skill list - Knowledge (Geography) and Knowledge (Local) would seem to fit the character well, and probably better than Jump and Balance. Secondly, it might be more playable if you gave the character a few more spell slots and instead restricted the spell list more - several of the ordinary Clerical spells (such as Inflict ... wounds, Shatter, and Sound Burst) wouldn't seem to me to fit this character all that well. In other cases, the druidic equivalent might fit better (such as Summon Nature's Ally rather than Summon Monster). Of course, it takes a bit of work to create a more individualised spell list, but it's just a thought.

Generally, though, keep up the good work!