Benly
2011-03-24, 08:04 PM
Divine Soul
If there is one thing that gods have in common, it is that they move in mysterious ways. Their full depths transcend mortal understanding, and sometimes the strictures of religion that mortals have built around their worship will fail to fulfill the deity's needs from its mortal agents. It is then, or so scholars believe, that divine souls are created. Divine souls are mortals who have been empowered by the gods for their own mysterious reasons. While they are usually at least lay worshippers of the god who has empowered them, they often have beliefs or understanding of the deity that are somewhat askew of the orthodox teachings, and sometimes they are chosen from among those who did not previously worship that deity at all. It is presumed that the divine soul's empowerment is intended to inspire it to deeds or conclusions that the deity's normal worshippers might not reach on their own, and the acts of such individuals often spark schisms or new understandings of their patron deity.
Divine souls often possess powers that the deity does not grant to most of its worshippers, but these strange talents come with their own disadvantage; the divine soul might, in turn, lack miracles that are granted commonly to other worshippers. They represent an unusual position within the relationship of mortals and divinities, and no two are entirely alike.
Class Skills
The divine soul's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int
Alignment: A divine soul's alignment must not be opposed to her patron deity's. For example, a divine soul of a lawful good deity could be of any non-evil, non-chaotic alignment.
Hit Dice: d8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st| +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 |Domains, Deity's Weapon, Divine Channel| 3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2nd| +1 | +0| +0 | +3 | |4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3rd| +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 |Domain|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4th| +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | |6|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5th| +3 | +1 | +1| +4 | | 6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
6th| +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 |Domain|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-
7th| +5 | +2 | +2 | +5 | |6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-
8th| +6/+1 | +2 | +2 | +6 | |6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-
9th| +6/+1 | +3 | +3 | +6 |Domain|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-
10th| +7/+2 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-
11th| +8/+3 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-
12th| +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 |Domain|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-
13th| +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 | |6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-
14th| +10/+5 | +4 | +4 | +9 | |6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-
15th| +11/+6/+1 | +5 | +5 | +9 |Domain|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-
16th| +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-
17th| +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-
18th| +13/+8/+3 | +6 | +6 | +11 |Domain|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3
19th| +14/+9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4
20th| +15/+10/+5 | +6 | +6 | +12 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A divine soul is proficient with light and medium armor (but not shields) and simple weapons. A divine soul may also gain an additional proficiency from the Deity's Weapon class ability (below).
Deity's Weapon: The divine soul gains proficiency with a single additional weapon. Normally, this is her deity's favored weapon. However, a divine soul may instead choose a weapon type based on her alignment: warhammer for good alignment, longsword for lawful alignment, flail for evil alignment, or battleaxe for chaotic alignment. A divine soul who qualifies for more than one possible Deity's Weapon type must choose only one to treat as her Deity's Weapon.
The divine soul may use her Deity's Weapon as a divine focus and treats it as her deity's favored weapon for purposes of abilities or features that specifically refer to a deity's favored weapon, such as the War domain ability.
Spellcasting: The divine soul casts divine spells using Charisma to determine maximum level of spells known, save DCs, and bonus spells per day. She may cast a number of spells per day as shown on the table above. A divine soul casts spells spontaneously, and may cast any spell she knows at any time without preparation if an unexpended slot of appropriate level is available.
The divine soul does not gain spells known in the usual sense. Instead, she is considered to know all spells from the domains to which she has access if she has slots of high enough level to cast the spell. The divine soul may cast any such spell freely as a spell known, and is not considered to have any special domain slots.
Domains: The divine soul starts with access to three domains, and gains access to an additional domain at third level and every three levels thereafter. The spells of these domains are added to her spells known, and she gains the domain ability of each domain. She may use her divine soul level instead of cleric level for any domain abilities which are based on cleric level, and domain abilities which add skills to the cleric skill list add to her divine soul skill list instead.
The domains chosen do not have to be domains normally granted by her deity, and may include racial domains of races not the divine soul's own. However, a given deity will consider certain domains anathema. These domains may not be selected to be gained. Alignment domains representing alignments directly opposed to the deity's own alignment are always considered anathema. Other domains may be anathema depending on the deity's personal preferences and hatreds. For example, a deity who hates elves would consider the Elf domain anathema, while a deity of humility might consider the Pride domain anathema. The divine soul's player and GM should work out what domains are anathema to her deity. Any worshipper of a deity will know what domains would be anathema to that deity, as will anyone reasonably familiar with the precepts of the deity in question.
The domains granted in this way may not be exchanged for devotion feats, although the divine soul may choose devotion feats for her normal feat selections as anyone else might. A divine soul who multiclasses as a cleric or other base class that grants domains does not add those domains to her domains known for divine soul spellcasting, nor does she use her divine soul domains when preparing spells in cleric domain slots. Bonus domains from prestige classes are added to all spellcasting progressions normally, however.
Divine Channel: The divine soul may channel divine energy into her deity's weapon a number of times per day equal to 3 plus her Charisma bonus. For one minute, the weapon is treated as magical and aligned identically to her deity. Once during that duration, she may automatically confirm a threatened critical hit with that weapon against an enemy whose alignment is opposed to her deity's. Thus, a divine soul of a lawful good deity treats her weapon as both lawful and good, regardless of her own alignment, and could automatically confirm one hit against a chaotic or evil opponent.
This ability counts as Turn Undead for purposes of qualifying for feats that require Turn Undead as a prerequisite. If such a feat requires the expenditure of Turn Undead uses to activate it, Divine Channel uses may be used instead. A Divine Soul who takes the Extra Turning feat may instead apply its effects to her daily pool of Divine Channel uses. A Divine Soul who gains the ability to turn or rebuke undead from another class may add her Divine Soul levels to her levels in that other class for purposes of turning, and both abilities are drawn from the same pool of daily uses.
Changelog:
3/25/11: Moved Divine Channel to level 2 to make things a little less frontloaded.
3/25/11 (2): Reconsidered, changed Divine Channel back to 1. Clarified regarding devotion feats.
3/25/11 (3): Clarified wording of Divine Channel.
3/26/11: Clarified Divine Channel/Rebuke stacking. Clarified divine soul/cleric multiclass domain interactions.
If there is one thing that gods have in common, it is that they move in mysterious ways. Their full depths transcend mortal understanding, and sometimes the strictures of religion that mortals have built around their worship will fail to fulfill the deity's needs from its mortal agents. It is then, or so scholars believe, that divine souls are created. Divine souls are mortals who have been empowered by the gods for their own mysterious reasons. While they are usually at least lay worshippers of the god who has empowered them, they often have beliefs or understanding of the deity that are somewhat askew of the orthodox teachings, and sometimes they are chosen from among those who did not previously worship that deity at all. It is presumed that the divine soul's empowerment is intended to inspire it to deeds or conclusions that the deity's normal worshippers might not reach on their own, and the acts of such individuals often spark schisms or new understandings of their patron deity.
Divine souls often possess powers that the deity does not grant to most of its worshippers, but these strange talents come with their own disadvantage; the divine soul might, in turn, lack miracles that are granted commonly to other worshippers. They represent an unusual position within the relationship of mortals and divinities, and no two are entirely alike.
Class Skills
The divine soul's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int
Alignment: A divine soul's alignment must not be opposed to her patron deity's. For example, a divine soul of a lawful good deity could be of any non-evil, non-chaotic alignment.
Hit Dice: d8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st| +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 |Domains, Deity's Weapon, Divine Channel| 3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2nd| +1 | +0| +0 | +3 | |4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3rd| +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 |Domain|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4th| +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | |6|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5th| +3 | +1 | +1| +4 | | 6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
6th| +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 |Domain|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-
7th| +5 | +2 | +2 | +5 | |6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-
8th| +6/+1 | +2 | +2 | +6 | |6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-
9th| +6/+1 | +3 | +3 | +6 |Domain|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-
10th| +7/+2 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-
11th| +8/+3 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-
12th| +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 |Domain|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-
13th| +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 | |6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-
14th| +10/+5 | +4 | +4 | +9 | |6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-
15th| +11/+6/+1 | +5 | +5 | +9 |Domain|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-
16th| +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-
17th| +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-
18th| +13/+8/+3 | +6 | +6 | +11 |Domain|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3
19th| +14/+9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4
20th| +15/+10/+5 | +6 | +6 | +12 | |6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A divine soul is proficient with light and medium armor (but not shields) and simple weapons. A divine soul may also gain an additional proficiency from the Deity's Weapon class ability (below).
Deity's Weapon: The divine soul gains proficiency with a single additional weapon. Normally, this is her deity's favored weapon. However, a divine soul may instead choose a weapon type based on her alignment: warhammer for good alignment, longsword for lawful alignment, flail for evil alignment, or battleaxe for chaotic alignment. A divine soul who qualifies for more than one possible Deity's Weapon type must choose only one to treat as her Deity's Weapon.
The divine soul may use her Deity's Weapon as a divine focus and treats it as her deity's favored weapon for purposes of abilities or features that specifically refer to a deity's favored weapon, such as the War domain ability.
Spellcasting: The divine soul casts divine spells using Charisma to determine maximum level of spells known, save DCs, and bonus spells per day. She may cast a number of spells per day as shown on the table above. A divine soul casts spells spontaneously, and may cast any spell she knows at any time without preparation if an unexpended slot of appropriate level is available.
The divine soul does not gain spells known in the usual sense. Instead, she is considered to know all spells from the domains to which she has access if she has slots of high enough level to cast the spell. The divine soul may cast any such spell freely as a spell known, and is not considered to have any special domain slots.
Domains: The divine soul starts with access to three domains, and gains access to an additional domain at third level and every three levels thereafter. The spells of these domains are added to her spells known, and she gains the domain ability of each domain. She may use her divine soul level instead of cleric level for any domain abilities which are based on cleric level, and domain abilities which add skills to the cleric skill list add to her divine soul skill list instead.
The domains chosen do not have to be domains normally granted by her deity, and may include racial domains of races not the divine soul's own. However, a given deity will consider certain domains anathema. These domains may not be selected to be gained. Alignment domains representing alignments directly opposed to the deity's own alignment are always considered anathema. Other domains may be anathema depending on the deity's personal preferences and hatreds. For example, a deity who hates elves would consider the Elf domain anathema, while a deity of humility might consider the Pride domain anathema. The divine soul's player and GM should work out what domains are anathema to her deity. Any worshipper of a deity will know what domains would be anathema to that deity, as will anyone reasonably familiar with the precepts of the deity in question.
The domains granted in this way may not be exchanged for devotion feats, although the divine soul may choose devotion feats for her normal feat selections as anyone else might. A divine soul who multiclasses as a cleric or other base class that grants domains does not add those domains to her domains known for divine soul spellcasting, nor does she use her divine soul domains when preparing spells in cleric domain slots. Bonus domains from prestige classes are added to all spellcasting progressions normally, however.
Divine Channel: The divine soul may channel divine energy into her deity's weapon a number of times per day equal to 3 plus her Charisma bonus. For one minute, the weapon is treated as magical and aligned identically to her deity. Once during that duration, she may automatically confirm a threatened critical hit with that weapon against an enemy whose alignment is opposed to her deity's. Thus, a divine soul of a lawful good deity treats her weapon as both lawful and good, regardless of her own alignment, and could automatically confirm one hit against a chaotic or evil opponent.
This ability counts as Turn Undead for purposes of qualifying for feats that require Turn Undead as a prerequisite. If such a feat requires the expenditure of Turn Undead uses to activate it, Divine Channel uses may be used instead. A Divine Soul who takes the Extra Turning feat may instead apply its effects to her daily pool of Divine Channel uses. A Divine Soul who gains the ability to turn or rebuke undead from another class may add her Divine Soul levels to her levels in that other class for purposes of turning, and both abilities are drawn from the same pool of daily uses.
Changelog:
3/25/11: Moved Divine Channel to level 2 to make things a little less frontloaded.
3/25/11 (2): Reconsidered, changed Divine Channel back to 1. Clarified regarding devotion feats.
3/25/11 (3): Clarified wording of Divine Channel.
3/26/11: Clarified Divine Channel/Rebuke stacking. Clarified divine soul/cleric multiclass domain interactions.