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Lysander
2010-03-23, 11:21 AM
Who doesn't like to play an inflexible religious fanatic? Want something a little more martial than the cleric though? A little more magical than the fighter? Try on the Zealot for size.

The Zealot is essentially an educated barbarian with a religious bent. They retain a barbarian's rage ability, and gain a single cleric domain to which they devote themselves fully, body and soul. It pretty much goes without saying that a Zealot is an unbalanced individual.

Zealot

Alignment
A zealot’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful-chaotic axis or the good-evil axis, but not both). Additionally they must be neutral on one, but not not both alignment axises.

Domain Restriction
A cleric that becomes a zealot must give up one domain. A zealot that becomes a cleric does not gain a second domain. A character with levels in both classes stacks his zealot and cleric levels for determining the benefits granted by the domain power, and which spells from that domain (but not other cleric spells) he can cast.

Hit Die
d10

Class Skills
The zealot’s class skills are Concentration, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (religion), Ride, Swim

Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.

{table="head"]Level|Bab|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1|1|2|0|2|rage 1/day, 1st level domain spell, zealotry
2|2|3|0|3|Fearless
3|3|3|1|3|2nd level domain spell
4|4|4|1|4|rage 2/day
5|5|5|1|4|3rd level domain spell
6|6/1|5|2|5|
7|7/2|5|2|5|4th level domain spell
8|8/3|6|2|6|rage 3/day
9|9/4|6|3|6|5th level domain spell
10|10/5|7|3|7|
11|11/6/1|7|3|7|Greater Rage, 6th level domain spell
12|12/7/2|8|4|8|rage 4/day
13|13/8/3|8|4|8|7th level domain spell
14|14/9/4|9|4|9|
15|15/10/5|9|5|9|8th level domain spell
16|16/11/6/1|10|5|10|rage 5/day
17|17/12/7/2|10|5|10|Tireless Rage, 9th level domain spell
18|18/13/8/3|11|6|11|
19|19/14/9/4|11|6|11|
20|20/15/10/5|12|6|12|rage 6/day, Mighty Rage
[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Zealots are proficient with all simple weapons, martial weapons, with all types of armor (light, medium, and heavy), and with shields (except tower shields).

A zealot who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category.

Aura (Ex)
A zealot of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment (see the detect evil spell for details). Zealots who don’t worship a specific deity but choose the Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law domain have a similarly powerful aura of the corresponding alignment.

Domain Zealotry
A zealot’s deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. A zealot chooses one cleric domain from among those belonging to his deity. A zealot can select an alignment domain (Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law) only if his alignment matches that domain.

If a zealot is not devoted to a particular deity, he still selects one domain to represent the goal. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.

The domain gives the zealot a granted power as if they were a cleric, and to nine domain spells as they progress in level, which they can each cast once every 24 hours. To prepare or cast a spell, a zealot must have a charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a cleric’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the cleric’s charisma modifier. A zealot need not prepare their spells, and does not even need a good night's sleep to replenish their spell slots. They cannot cast a given spell more than once in a 24 hour period however.

More importantly than magic, the domain represents the ultimate focus of the zealot's life. He exists simply to promote or protect that domain and what it represents. An evil zealot may try to unbalance nature in favor of his domain while a good zealot is more inclined to preserve its function in the natural order. All zealots, of any alignment, tend to come off as cold and inflexible religious fanatics, but can cooperate well within parties as long as their mission at least indirectly protects their domain.

A few domains grant zealots additional abilities. If a zealot takes the sun domain they gain the ability to perform a greater turning once per day, even if they have no prexisting ability to turn undead. A zealot who takes the community domain gains diplomacy as a class skill. A zealot who takes the glory domain gains the ability to turn undead as a cleric if they cannot turn dead already. A zealot who takes the rune domain gains decipher script and spellcraft as a class skills.

Rage (Ex)
This ability functions as the barbarian ability of the same name.

Zealotry (Ex)
Diplomacy checks always fail against the zealot if it would lead them to act against their domain or compromise their mission to protect their domain. It is also impossible to change a zealot's alignment through mortal magic or psionics, such as a helm of opposite alignment.

Fearless (Ex)
A zealot is immune to non-magical fear effects, and gains a morale bonus on saving throws against magical fear effects equal to their zealot level.

Greater Rage (Ex)
This ability functions as the barbarian ability of the same name.

Tireless Rage (Ex)
This ability functions as the barbarian ability of the same name.

Mighty Rage (Ex)
This ability functions as the barbarian ability of the same name.

Ex-Zealot
A zealot who stops being loyal to their deity or their domain loses their rage ability and supernatural abilities until they make amends and have an atonement spell cast upon them.

Lappy9000
2010-03-23, 11:23 AM
You must construct additional pylons! aka filler until table gets finished :p

Lysander
2010-03-23, 11:26 AM
You must construct additional pylons! aka filler until table gets finished :p

har har. you know, "zealot" does pre-date starcraft. It's not like I called it the Ultralisk Enchanter or something.

So, do you think it's overpowered? Underpowered? Rage + high level magic could be a potent mix.

DragoonWraith
2010-03-23, 12:33 PM
My first thought was Diablo II. Heh.

Anyway...
Domain Restriction - Why? I just don't see it. Why not let them have 2, or even 3, Domains? OK, I know, they have that fluff thing about focusing on one Domain - but that's fluff. The character could easily have 3 Domains and just focus on one of them, while using the powers from the other two. Why not?

Armor and Weapon Proficiency - a martial character without proficiency in martial weapons? Why? Just have the War Domain stick with Weapon Focus, or something.

Domain Zealotry - Shouldn't that be Domain Zeal? Is Zealotry a word?

Anyway, you have a copy pasta error there, where it says "If a cleric is not devoted to a particular deity..."

Is that last paragraph about the Sun, Community, Glory, and Rune Domains supposed to just be examples, or is that an exhaustive list of bonuses?

Rage - K. I like it, seems fitting.

Zealotry - again, shouldn't this be Zeal? Nice feature, in any case, though I'm not a big fan of 'no' buttons.

Fearless
Makes sense.

improved Rage features - of course.

Ex-Zealot - What??? "They have no capacity to change their ways..." - WHAT?! That's just insulting to anyone who actually wants to play this class. You're telling them how their character thinks?

Lysander
2010-03-23, 12:53 PM
The idea is to make an insanely obsessive class. Which is why I only gave them one domain, and only let them have one non-neutral alignment. I suppose it could also work with two domains. Think that would work better, letting them choose which spell they want to cast in their daily slot? Should it be spontaneous you think?

Good point about weapon proficiency. Change made.

Zealotry is a word.

The last paragraph that refers to specific domains is meant to alter domains that aren't useful to the zealot in their normal form. For example, the Sun Domain allows you to "perform a greater turning against undead in place of a regular turning." But if you don't have the ability to turn dead regularly it doesn't provide any benefit. So now I made the Sun domain grant a zealot one daily use of the greater turning ability.

I guess I could see how the ex-zealot stuff could be annoying since it dictates how the character acts. But there's really no good reason to deliberately change...it causes the zealot to lose almost all their class abilities...and this protects a zealot from losing class abilities if say dominated and forced to do something. But I guess I could change it as a principle kind of thing. Maybe a player will want to give up all their power for some roleplaying reason.

Yora
2010-03-23, 01:27 PM
I'd say this class is of a power level similar to the fighter at best, but probably even weaker. Could use much more offensive special abilities than rage and domain spells.

Lysander
2010-03-23, 01:56 PM
Is it really that weak though? It pretty much has the same offensive abilities as a barbarian. And some of the spells it can get can really boost its power. For example a Death domain zealot with undead minions. Or an animal domain zealot who uses shapechange and rage simultaneously.

the obvious weakness is that none of their abilities are at will. unlike a fighter they can run out of rages and spells. but while they have them... and they have good BaB, good hit die, good fort/will saves

Yora
2010-03-23, 03:07 PM
It has only half as many skills and lacks some useful class skills like Climb and Survival.

There's no Fast Movement and Uncanny Dodge. Trap Sense and Damage reduction probably don't make much of a difference, though.

However it has a much higher Will save.

The real problem with the spells is, that it's tied to Charisma. To get the 9th level spell, the character would need a Charisma score of 19, which would be plain unaffordable if you want to put Strength and Constitution at similar levels as for a barbarian build. And most domain spells aren't even offensive in nature.

At 10th level with Charisma 15, a Death zealot would have Cause Fear 1/day (which works only against creatures with 4 HD or less), and 1/day slay living. This isn't really that much.

It's not so much that the abilities aren't usefully by themselves, but they make it very difficult to find one role for the character to occupy, and do that job well.
The spellcasting is not much worth mentioning, andexcept for that it's pretty much the offensive capability of the barbarian with less points to spend on Strength and Charisma, while the defensive abilities are noticeably worse.

Lysander
2010-03-24, 08:19 AM
Should the spells just not be tied to a stat? They merely get them at that level?

imp_fireball
2010-03-24, 08:46 PM
They should have other benefits granted while in a rage, otherwise there's less point to raging.

- Ability to cast while raging
- Maybe gain temporary meta-magic affects when casting divine spells while raging?
- Channel uses of rage into other things?


The real problem with the spells is, that it's tied to Charisma. To get the 9th level spell, the character would need a Charisma score of 19, which would be plain unaffordable if you want to put Strength and Constitution at similar levels as for a barbarian build. And most domain spells aren't even offensive in nature.

This is fixable by making it even more offensive then the barbarian (using the additional rage stuff I detailed above). Or use strength or constitution as the casting stat instead of charisma (which would be a first, not that it matters).


The idea is to make an insanely obsessive class. Which is why I only gave them one domain

So in fluff they could worship a deity that represents multiple domains, but only follow one domain in mechanics?

Lappy9000
2010-03-24, 09:25 PM
har har. you know, "zealot" does pre-date starcraft. It's not like I called it the Ultralisk Enchanter or something.Madness! Next thing, you'll tell me that Squaresoft didn't create dragoons :smalltongue:

Overall, it's an interesting combination of the barbarian and cleric, if not particularly colorful. One suggestion I can offer is to switch a few class abilities around, so that if you have to leave in dead levels, it falls on a level where the character can qualify for a feat. Moving Greater Rage down to 10th level for example, would fix this as well as fitting more naturally into the Rage progression (halfway between 3/day and 4/day).

Balance-wise, my gut reaction is that the class is somewhat underpowered, but I can't really wish to specify, since I've learned never to underestimate Cleric spells. The fact that they can't cast while in rage, well, leads me to this estimation.

Adding in a bit of polish can make this class really shine, no pun intended. Bold the table head, add the +'s to the BAB progression, and for Celestia's sake at least copy paste in the Greater Rage, Timeless Rage, and Mighty Rage features.