dspeyer
2011-09-09, 11:44 PM
Divine Ascendant
Godhood doesn't just happen. It's the result of long effort to refine your powers as a thinking being.
The gods are awesome and majestic, of unknowable power. Unless you make sufficient effort to know it. Broken down, ability by ability, the powers of the gods can be understood -- and duplicated. A divine ascendant makes a diligent effort to do this. And while he does not technically obtain divine rank, it may be hard to tell the difference.
BECOMING A DIVINE ASCENDANT
Most divine ascendants begin as psions who deliberately chose this path well before taking their first level in the class. Some are wilders who multiclass in something more studious or take the education feat. Very few have levels in divine classes such as cleric, but it is not strictly forbidden.
Some Divine Ascendants are simply seeking power or self-betterment, but most (and the most successful of them) have some cause they believe requires a divine champion.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Ranks: Concentration 24, Psicraft 24, Knowledge(religion) 24
Powers: Reality Revision, Mindlink
Note: anyone pursuing this path will come to the attention of existing deities and overdeities. While a plan to survive this is not strictly a requirement, anyone who is permanently destroyed in these encounters will not progress in the class.
Class Skills
The Divine Ascendant's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Concentration (con), Knowledge (any) (int), Psicraft (int) and any skills associated with the ascendant's portfolio.
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int
Hit Dice: d4
NAME OF CLASS
LevelBABFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveSpecialMax Worshippers
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2Genesis, know worshippers, speak to worshippers, continued manifesting, portfolio sense2
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+2healing and harming3
3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3receive sacrifice5
4th
+2
+1
+1
+3domains9
5th
+2
+1
+1
+4sense through worshippers, act through worshippers14
6th
+3
+2
+2
+4divide attention23
7th
+3
+2
+2
+5receive prayer38
8th
+4
+2
+2
+5cleric manifesting61
9th
+4
+3
+3
+6empower clerics100
10th
+5
+3
+3
+6salient divine ability, receive deadunlimited
Worshippers: Many of your class abilities involve worshippers. Worshippers must look up to you with awe, and must perform a simple ritual in your honor daily (such as reciting a four-line poem to you each morning upon waking). They must do this completely of their own free will, and you can offer no specific reward (though you can generally look after your worshippers).
genesis: Gain genesis (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/genesis.htm) as a known power. If you already know genesis, gain any power (it need not be from your list).
know worshippers: Your worshippers can speak to you at any time and you hear them, and you always know their general welfare.
speak to worshippers: For one power point, as a swift action, you may send a worshipper a one-sentence message.
continued manifesting: levels in this class stack with your existing class for manifestor level and power points from abilities, but for no other purpose.
portfolio sense: Pick a concept you wish to champion or embody (such as friendship or springtime). This is your portfolio. You cannot change your choice. Whenever something effects your portfolio in a massive way, you are aware of it.
healing and harming: Add all spells with the healing descriptor, or which act like spells with the healing discriptor when cast on undead, to your powers known list. The pp cost is twice the spell level plus one, and they have visual display. Any material or XP cost remains as normal. They cannot be augmented.
receive sacrifice: Your worshippers can give you power points by sacrificing to you. Each worshiper can only sacrifice once a day. This can never put your total power points above twice your normal maximum. The worshippers must do all the work of obtaining and destroying the sacrifice -- it is from that effort rather than the item itself that you draw power. If you are good, you can only accept sacrifices from legitimate owners. If you are evil, you can only accept sacrifices which are not from legitimate owners. If you are neither, you can accept either. The only legitimate owner of an intelligent being is itself.
Sacrificepp if stolenpp if legitimately owned
inanimate object1pp/100gp1pp/50gp
life form int<31pp/hd2pp/hd
intelligent being3pp/hd10pp/hd
domains: Pick three domains associated with your portfolio. Also take the domains corresponding to your alignment. You gain the powers of these domains (use your divine ascendant level as your cleric level if needed) and add the spells to your powers known (as with healing and harming)
sense through worshippers: You may use a worshipper's senses. Doing so replaces your own, so you become unaware of things close to you (unless you have a way to observe those things without senses).
act through worshippers: You may manifest any power with range greater than personal starting from a worshiper instead of yourself.
divide attention: You can split off a shard of your attention to attend to a worshipper. Make a concentration check with dc 10 per active shard (you may take 10). If you fail, your attention all snaps back to yourself for the round. If you succeed, the shard can take actions just as you can, but its manifester level is 16 and it can only use senses of and activate powers from that worshiper.
receive prayer: like receive sacrifice, but you gain 1pp for every hour a worshiper spends concentrating on how awesome you are. This requires a dc 15 concentration check on their part. If someone nearby is making a perform check on the subject, they add the result of that check to their own (even if it is negative). There is no per-day limit (though normal human stamina fails after 16 hours of prayer).
cleric manifesting: add all cleric spells to your powers known.
empower clerics: your worshippers may become clerics of you according to the normal cleric rules.
salient divine ability: select one salient divine ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#salientDivineAbilities). You must meet the prerequisites. For purposes of this ability treat your divine level as 1 (but not for other purposes). Also, if the ability has a prerequisite of charisma, you may substitute your manifesting ability.
receive dead: when your worshippers die, you may gather their souls in any plane you control. They lose all racial hit dice and abilities, but gain a single die of outsider and keep their class levels. They can no longer qualify as your worshippers, but can assist you in ordinary ways.
Godhood doesn't just happen. It's the result of long effort to refine your powers as a thinking being.
The gods are awesome and majestic, of unknowable power. Unless you make sufficient effort to know it. Broken down, ability by ability, the powers of the gods can be understood -- and duplicated. A divine ascendant makes a diligent effort to do this. And while he does not technically obtain divine rank, it may be hard to tell the difference.
BECOMING A DIVINE ASCENDANT
Most divine ascendants begin as psions who deliberately chose this path well before taking their first level in the class. Some are wilders who multiclass in something more studious or take the education feat. Very few have levels in divine classes such as cleric, but it is not strictly forbidden.
Some Divine Ascendants are simply seeking power or self-betterment, but most (and the most successful of them) have some cause they believe requires a divine champion.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Ranks: Concentration 24, Psicraft 24, Knowledge(religion) 24
Powers: Reality Revision, Mindlink
Note: anyone pursuing this path will come to the attention of existing deities and overdeities. While a plan to survive this is not strictly a requirement, anyone who is permanently destroyed in these encounters will not progress in the class.
Class Skills
The Divine Ascendant's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Concentration (con), Knowledge (any) (int), Psicraft (int) and any skills associated with the ascendant's portfolio.
Skills Points at Each Level: 2 + int
Hit Dice: d4
NAME OF CLASS
LevelBABFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveSpecialMax Worshippers
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2Genesis, know worshippers, speak to worshippers, continued manifesting, portfolio sense2
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+2healing and harming3
3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3receive sacrifice5
4th
+2
+1
+1
+3domains9
5th
+2
+1
+1
+4sense through worshippers, act through worshippers14
6th
+3
+2
+2
+4divide attention23
7th
+3
+2
+2
+5receive prayer38
8th
+4
+2
+2
+5cleric manifesting61
9th
+4
+3
+3
+6empower clerics100
10th
+5
+3
+3
+6salient divine ability, receive deadunlimited
Worshippers: Many of your class abilities involve worshippers. Worshippers must look up to you with awe, and must perform a simple ritual in your honor daily (such as reciting a four-line poem to you each morning upon waking). They must do this completely of their own free will, and you can offer no specific reward (though you can generally look after your worshippers).
genesis: Gain genesis (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/genesis.htm) as a known power. If you already know genesis, gain any power (it need not be from your list).
know worshippers: Your worshippers can speak to you at any time and you hear them, and you always know their general welfare.
speak to worshippers: For one power point, as a swift action, you may send a worshipper a one-sentence message.
continued manifesting: levels in this class stack with your existing class for manifestor level and power points from abilities, but for no other purpose.
portfolio sense: Pick a concept you wish to champion or embody (such as friendship or springtime). This is your portfolio. You cannot change your choice. Whenever something effects your portfolio in a massive way, you are aware of it.
healing and harming: Add all spells with the healing descriptor, or which act like spells with the healing discriptor when cast on undead, to your powers known list. The pp cost is twice the spell level plus one, and they have visual display. Any material or XP cost remains as normal. They cannot be augmented.
receive sacrifice: Your worshippers can give you power points by sacrificing to you. Each worshiper can only sacrifice once a day. This can never put your total power points above twice your normal maximum. The worshippers must do all the work of obtaining and destroying the sacrifice -- it is from that effort rather than the item itself that you draw power. If you are good, you can only accept sacrifices from legitimate owners. If you are evil, you can only accept sacrifices which are not from legitimate owners. If you are neither, you can accept either. The only legitimate owner of an intelligent being is itself.
Sacrificepp if stolenpp if legitimately owned
inanimate object1pp/100gp1pp/50gp
life form int<31pp/hd2pp/hd
intelligent being3pp/hd10pp/hd
domains: Pick three domains associated with your portfolio. Also take the domains corresponding to your alignment. You gain the powers of these domains (use your divine ascendant level as your cleric level if needed) and add the spells to your powers known (as with healing and harming)
sense through worshippers: You may use a worshipper's senses. Doing so replaces your own, so you become unaware of things close to you (unless you have a way to observe those things without senses).
act through worshippers: You may manifest any power with range greater than personal starting from a worshiper instead of yourself.
divide attention: You can split off a shard of your attention to attend to a worshipper. Make a concentration check with dc 10 per active shard (you may take 10). If you fail, your attention all snaps back to yourself for the round. If you succeed, the shard can take actions just as you can, but its manifester level is 16 and it can only use senses of and activate powers from that worshiper.
receive prayer: like receive sacrifice, but you gain 1pp for every hour a worshiper spends concentrating on how awesome you are. This requires a dc 15 concentration check on their part. If someone nearby is making a perform check on the subject, they add the result of that check to their own (even if it is negative). There is no per-day limit (though normal human stamina fails after 16 hours of prayer).
cleric manifesting: add all cleric spells to your powers known.
empower clerics: your worshippers may become clerics of you according to the normal cleric rules.
salient divine ability: select one salient divine ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#salientDivineAbilities). You must meet the prerequisites. For purposes of this ability treat your divine level as 1 (but not for other purposes). Also, if the ability has a prerequisite of charisma, you may substitute your manifesting ability.
receive dead: when your worshippers die, you may gather their souls in any plane you control. They lose all racial hit dice and abilities, but gain a single die of outsider and keep their class levels. They can no longer qualify as your worshippers, but can assist you in ordinary ways.