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Hellseeker
2006-08-13, 12:29 AM
Fist of St. Cuthbert
A Fist of St. Cuthbert is an elite inquisitor of the Church of St. Cuthbert, charged with tracking down and eliminating illegal mages. Motivated by an extreme sense of duty to both their country and their priestly order, the Fist of St. Cuthbert has few qualms about executing an accused mage.

Hit Die: 1d8
Requirements
To qualify to become a Fist of St. Cuthbert, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Any
Base Attack Bonus: +4
Alignment: Any Lawful
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 9 ranks, Gather Information 5 ranks
Domain: Arcane Hunt*
Spells: Able to cast Dispel Magic as a Divine spell

Class Features
BAB: Average
Fort: Poor
Ref: Good
Will: Good

Class Skills
The Fist of St. Cuthbert's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Chr), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

All the following are class features of the Fist of St. Cuthbert prestige class.

Spells per Day: A Fist of St. Cuthbert continues to cast divine spells as his class at every even level.

Spell Resistance: At 1st level, a Fist of St. Cuthbert gains arcane spell resistance equal to 10 plus 1/2 his Fist of St. Cuthbert level.
Detect Arcana: A Fist of St. Cuthbert can detect arcane any arcane spellcasters within range (20 ft. at 2nd level, 40 ft. at 6th level, and 60 ft. at 9th level.)

Dispelling Strike: 1/day, a Fist of St. Cuthbert of 3rd level or higher can attempt a dispelling strike with one normal melee attack. If he hits, he deals normal damage, and the victim may be affected by the dispelling strike. The Fist of Saint Cuthbert rolls a d20 and adds his Fist levels to the result, opposed by a caster level check by the mage. If the Fist of Saint Cuthbert’s check result is equal to or higher than that of the mages, the mage loses one spell-slot of his highest level. If he prepares spells, the lost spell is determined randomly. If the Fist makes a dispelling strike against a creature with no spell slots remaining the day or none at all, the dispelling strike has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day. At 7th level, a Fist can make a Dispelling Strike 2/day, and at 10th he can use it 3/day.

Arcane Foe: At 4th level, a Fist of Saint Cuthbert effectively gains the Ranger class ability of Favored Enemy against all mages. He gains +2 on attack and damage rolls against any of the True Mages (wizards or sorcerers.) Likewise, he gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and survival checks against mages.

Arcane Hunt
Deity: St. Cuthbert
Granted power: +3 to caster level checks when casting Dispel Magic or using similar effects.

*Arcane Hunt Domain Spell List
1 Incite
2 Silence
3 Dispel Magic
4 Block Arcana**
5 Feeblemind
6 Dispel Magic, Greater
7 Antimagic Field
8 Spell Immunity, Geater
9 Mordenkainen’s Disjunction

**Block Arcana
Abjuration
Level: Arcane Hunt 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Close (25 ft +5 ft/2 levels)
Target: One arcane spellcaster
Duration: Concentration + 2 rounds
Saving Throw: Will Negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

Block Arcana temporarily cuts one mage off from the Arcanic power which courses through his veins.
The target arcane spellcaster who fails it’s will save is suddenly and inexplicably cut from the arcana. He can no longer cast any spells or use any spell-like abilities for the duration of the spell.

The target mage must be of caster level one. For every two caster levels above first of the caster, the caster level of the target may increase by one.
The mage gets an additional saving throw every round.

Winged One
2006-08-13, 12:49 AM
From the flavor, it seems that this would only work if clerics of St. Cuthbert may be evil, which, considering the nature of the god himself, is a quite resonable houserule. It is, however, a houserule, and killing people for no reason other than being a mage is an evil act. Doing so on a regular basis almost certianly causes an alignment shift toward evil.

Oh, and have you looked at the Witch Slayer class from ToM?

knightsaline
2006-08-14, 01:41 AM
I cvan picture this in a dragonlance setting set before the war of souls. why? this is why, wizards that pass the Test must swear to bring any "wild mages" in to the closest tower of magic to be put on trial. afrter the summer of chaos, chaoses energies were released, making sorcerers. wild mages are defined as wizards who refuse to take the Test.

make it that the Fists must swear a code to only hunt down those who abuse their magic for evil ends (eg, using mage hand to steal things, fireball to destroy houses and using lightning to make people beleve in dark gods). should they break the code, they lose all abilities from this class and possibly their cleric powers

Hellseeker
2006-08-14, 08:08 AM
make it that the Fists must swear a code to only hunt down those who abuse their magic for evil ends

I was aiming more for a slightly darker organization that hunts all mages, despite alignment. (In the history of my game, something much like what happened to the Male side of the One Power in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series happened to most mages. The Fists are sort of a reaction to that which never went away.)