jiriku
2011-10-17, 12:13 AM
AVATAR
http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab24/gallopinggiraffes/warrior-334x409.png
The avatar is a cleric remix intended to offer a simple, direct way to play a primary divine caster in party of T3-T4 characters without overshadowing other PCs. Although it has more class features and more domains, it is less powerful than the cleric described in the Players Handbook.
The avatar was inspired by ideas and suggestions from sonofzeal.
Change Log:
1.0 Original version.
1.1 Removed spontaneous conversion option. Restricted to casting only one avatar spell per round. Now must prepare spells from a prayerbook. Must acquire most new spells from scrolls. Can't take 10 on Spellcraft checks when learning new spells.
1.2 Slowed and reduced the progression of extra domains and domain enhancements.
1.3 Increased base attack from the Poor to the Medium progression.
1.4 Eliminated the restriction on taking 10 and restored the extra domains and domain enhancement to their original progression. Increased Fort save progression from Poor to Good.
1.41 Added a lot more text describing when and how to use avatar empowerment.
1.42 Fixed tables.
Quick Overview:
The avatar is basically a cleric with extra domains and a smaller list of spells known. He lacks the ability to spontaneously convert prepared spells into cure or inflict spells, but his domain enhancement feature more than makes up for the loss. The balancing feature that makes the avatar much less powerful than a cleric is avatar empowerment. When not empowered, the avatar functions more or less like an adept with a few domain powers. When "powered up", he becomes a badass.
Fitting an avatar into a party requires more than ordinary skill from the DM. As the DM, you need to ensure that the avatar has the opportunity to use his domain slots and enjoy his moment in the spotlight, but you don't want to give the player carte blanche in every encounter of every day. As a rule of thumb, the avatar should be able to use avatar empowerment about once for every 3-5 encounters. If you are not confident in your mastery of the rules and the avatar's player has strong powergaming tendencies, be wary of attempts to "hustle" you into giving away avatar empowerment too often.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Avatars have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma determines what spells an avatar can cast, while Wisdom determines the difficulty of resisting his spells. Strength and Constitution are useful for avatars who expect to spend a lot of time in melee combat.
Alignment: Any. Avatars frequently share the same alignment as the deity they worship.
HIT DIE: d8
TABLE: AVATAR
LevelBase AttackFortRefWillSpecial-0--1--2--3--4--5--6--7--8--9-
1st+0+2+0+2Avatar empowerment, domain, turn or rebuke undead31+1
2nd+1+3+0+3Extra domain42+1
3rd+2+3+1+342+10+2
4th+3+4+1+4Domain enhancement52+21+2
5th+3+4+1+452+21+20+2
6th+4+5+2+5Extra domain52+22+21+2
7th+5+5+2+563+22+21+20+2
8th+6/+1+6+2+6Domain enhancement63+22+22+21+2
9th+6/+1+6+3+663+22+32+21+20+2
10th+7/+2+7+3+7Extra domain63+22+32+22+21+2
11th+8/+3+7+3+763+32+32+32+21+20+2
12th+9/+4+8+4+8Domain enhancement63+32+32+32+21+31+2
13th+9/+4+8+4+863+33+32+32+31+31+20+2
14th+10/+5+9+4+9Extra domain63+33+32+32+31+31+30+3
15th+11/+6+9+5+963+33+33+32+32+31+30+30+2
16th+12/+7+10+5+10Domain enhancement63+33+33+32+32+31+31+30+3
17th+12/+7+10+5+1063+33+33+33+32+32+31+30+30+2
18th+13/+8+11+6+11Extra domain63+33+33+33+32+32+31+30+40+3
19th+14/+9+11+6+1163+33+33+33+32+42+31+40+40+3
20th+15/+10/+5+12+6+12Domain enhancement63+33+33+33+32+42+31+40+40+4
CLASS SKILLS (4 + Int mod per level, x4 at 1st level)
An avatar's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The avatar gains proficiency with all simple weapons. He gains proficiency with medium and light armor and with shields.
Spells: An avatar casts divine spells, which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells that are opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs. An avatar must choose and prepare his spells in advance.
To prepare or cast an avatar spell, you must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an avatar's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the avatar's Wisdom modifier. Like other spellcasters, an avatar can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. The base daily spell allotment is given in the table above. For each entry describing your daily spells at a given level, the number on the left is the number of general spell slots available to you, while the number on the right is the number of domain spell slots you possess. Your domain spells can only be cast under certain circumstances (see Avatar Empowerment, below) Unlike some other spellcasters, you receive no bonus spells for a high ability score.
An avatar prepares spells by studying his prayerbook. An avatar may prepare and cast any spell in his prayerbook, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation. An avatar's ability to cast domain spells is limited (see Avatar Empowerment, below). An avatar may not prepare or cast an avatar spell with an alignment descriptor that opposes his own (e.g., a lawful neutral avatar may not cast mantle of chaos).
An avatar's spellcasting is more limited than that of a cleric. You do not gain bonus spells per day for having a high ability score. You may cast no more than one avatar spell per round, even if you would otherwise have enough actions available to cast more than one. Casting a spell with a casting time of 1 immediate action counts as your use of a spell on your next turn. Like an archivist, you can learn additional spells during play, but unlike an archivist, you may only attempt to learn them from scrolls, not from spellbooks.
Prayerbook: Unlike a cleric, an avatar must seek out and collect new spells much as a wizard does, but from such esoteric sources as holy tablets, ancient steles, or other magical scriptures. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his prayerbook except for read magic, which avatars can prepare from memory.
An avatar begins play with a prayerbook containing all 0-level cleric spells plus three 1st-level cleric spells of the players choice. For each point of Wisdom bonus the avatar has, the prayerbook has an additional 1st-level cleric spell. At each new class level, the avatar gains two new cleric spells for his prayerbook; these can be of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new avatar level). At any time, an avatar can also add spells found on scrolls containing cleric spells to his prayerbook, but he must make any rolls and spend the time required (see Adding Spells to a Wizards Spellbook on page 178 of the Players Handbook).
Avatar Empowerment:As a priest and holy man, you are an influential and capable person, gifted with the ability to cast divine spells. However, when your actions align with your deitys direct interests, you can enter an avatar state as a free action (this may be accompanied by an appropriate visual or auditory display, at your discretion, although the display does not have any game effect). In your avatar state, you may cast spells from your domain spell slots. When you are not in your avatar state, you cannot cast the spells in your avatar domain slots. The following situations allow you to access your avatar state:
when fighting favored enemies of the church;
when fighting heretics or enemy churches;
when acting in support of a domain;
when acting in support of a church-sanctioned activity;
when following the direct instruction of your patron deity.
In certain situations, especially if you have domains that do not complement one another, you might gain limited empowerment that allows you to use some, but not all of your domains. For example, if you have the Healing and War domains and are asked to aid the faithful who are suffering, you might be empowered to cast spells of the Healing domain but not the War domain. If you have the Good and Law domains and are fighting opponents who worship Hextor (a LE deity of tyranny), you might be empowered to cast spells of the Good domain but not the Law domain.
Designer's Note:
The DM is the arbiter of whether a specific situation does or does not qualify. It is recommended that the player and DM should work together during character creation to establish a common set of expectations about which types of situations would qualify. In general, the DM should create situations where the avatar can enter avatar empowerment about once every 3-5 encounters.
Avatar empowerment is not available when PCs foolishly or unnecessarily rush into danger, when facing random encounters, or when bringing the fight to passive monsters who are minding their own business within their normal territory. For example, an avatar with the Healing domain doesn't gain avatar empowerment if his friends get hurt in a bar fight that they caused, or if they sustain minor injuries in an encounter that was not otherwise noteworthy. However, if the avatar's friends are gravely wounded and in danger, or if their injuries were sustained while fighting on behalf of his church, empowerment may be appropriate.
Domain: Choose a deity for your avatar. Sample deities are listed on Table 37: Deities in the Players Handbook, and described on page 106-108 of that book. The avatars deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him.
If typical worshipers of a deity include the members of a race, an avatar must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own (the god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not avatars). Some avatars do not receive their spells from a specific deity, but instead worship and gain spells from an entire pantheon, or a universal force or philosophical concept. Work with your DM to select six different domains that are appropriate for the pantheon, force, or concept.
When you have chosen an alignment and a deity for your avatar, choose one domain granted by your deity. You gain the domains granted power, and you may stack your levels in any class that grants a domain when determining the effectiveness of your domain granted powers. At each level of spells you can cast, you have a certain number of domain spell slots. You may only prepare domain spells in these spell slots. You cannot actually cast your domain spells except when in a state of avatar empowerment.
Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): An avatar can turn or rebuke undead just as a cleric does. A good avatar (or a neutral avatar who worships a good deity) can turn or destroy undead creatures. An evil avatar (or a neutral avatar who worships an evil deity) instead rebukes or commands such creatures., forcing them to cower in awe of his power. If your character is a neutral avatar of a neutral deity, you must choose whether his turning ability functions as that of a good avatar or an evil avatar. Once you make this choice, it cannot be reversed. Exceptions: All lawful neutral avatars of Wee Jas (goddess of death and magic) rebuke or command undead. All avatars of St. Cuthbert (god of retribution) and all nonevil avatars of Obad-Hai (god of nature) turn of destroy undead.
An avatar may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. An avatar with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (religion) gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead.
Extra Domain: At 2nd level, and again every four levels thereafter, an avatar gains access to an additional domain within his deitys portfolio, gaining its granted power and domain spells. If your deity has fewer than six domains, work with your DM to select additional thematically appropriate domains to add to your available domain list. Alternately, your character might expand his worship to include the pantheon to which the primary deity belongs, or two deities who are closely linked (depending on the campaign, you might choose two deities who are close siblings, who have complementary or contrasting portfolios, or two deities who work together as a team). Your DM has final authority over which domains can be added or which deities can be worshipped in tandem.
Domain Enhancement: At 4th level, and again every four levels thereafter, you may make one change to one of your domains, selected from the list below.
Replace one spell on one of your domain spell lists with a different, thematically appropriate spell of the same or lower level. For example, if you have the Darkness domain, you might replace blindness/deafness (a 2nd-level spell) with darkvision (also a 2nd-level spell) or ebon eyes (a 1st-level spell). Your DM must approve the new spell. If the spell you choose is available at different levels to members of different classes, consult with your DM to determine what level it should be for you.
Select a domain power that is usable a limited number of times per day. You gain one additional daily use of that power. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.
Select a domain power that improves your caster level when casting a particular type of spell. The caster level bonus increases by +1. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.
Select a one of your domains and one metamagic feat that you know. You can reduce the spell slot adjustment of that metamagic feat by 1 (minimum +0) when you prepare spells from that domains spell list in your domain spell slots. For example, if you select the Healing domain and the Empower feat, you can prepare empowered cure light wounds in a 2nd-level domain slot instead of a 3rd-level domain slot. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.
http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab24/gallopinggiraffes/warrior-334x409.png
The avatar is a cleric remix intended to offer a simple, direct way to play a primary divine caster in party of T3-T4 characters without overshadowing other PCs. Although it has more class features and more domains, it is less powerful than the cleric described in the Players Handbook.
The avatar was inspired by ideas and suggestions from sonofzeal.
Change Log:
1.0 Original version.
1.1 Removed spontaneous conversion option. Restricted to casting only one avatar spell per round. Now must prepare spells from a prayerbook. Must acquire most new spells from scrolls. Can't take 10 on Spellcraft checks when learning new spells.
1.2 Slowed and reduced the progression of extra domains and domain enhancements.
1.3 Increased base attack from the Poor to the Medium progression.
1.4 Eliminated the restriction on taking 10 and restored the extra domains and domain enhancement to their original progression. Increased Fort save progression from Poor to Good.
1.41 Added a lot more text describing when and how to use avatar empowerment.
1.42 Fixed tables.
Quick Overview:
The avatar is basically a cleric with extra domains and a smaller list of spells known. He lacks the ability to spontaneously convert prepared spells into cure or inflict spells, but his domain enhancement feature more than makes up for the loss. The balancing feature that makes the avatar much less powerful than a cleric is avatar empowerment. When not empowered, the avatar functions more or less like an adept with a few domain powers. When "powered up", he becomes a badass.
Fitting an avatar into a party requires more than ordinary skill from the DM. As the DM, you need to ensure that the avatar has the opportunity to use his domain slots and enjoy his moment in the spotlight, but you don't want to give the player carte blanche in every encounter of every day. As a rule of thumb, the avatar should be able to use avatar empowerment about once for every 3-5 encounters. If you are not confident in your mastery of the rules and the avatar's player has strong powergaming tendencies, be wary of attempts to "hustle" you into giving away avatar empowerment too often.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Avatars have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma determines what spells an avatar can cast, while Wisdom determines the difficulty of resisting his spells. Strength and Constitution are useful for avatars who expect to spend a lot of time in melee combat.
Alignment: Any. Avatars frequently share the same alignment as the deity they worship.
HIT DIE: d8
TABLE: AVATAR
LevelBase AttackFortRefWillSpecial-0--1--2--3--4--5--6--7--8--9-
1st+0+2+0+2Avatar empowerment, domain, turn or rebuke undead31+1
2nd+1+3+0+3Extra domain42+1
3rd+2+3+1+342+10+2
4th+3+4+1+4Domain enhancement52+21+2
5th+3+4+1+452+21+20+2
6th+4+5+2+5Extra domain52+22+21+2
7th+5+5+2+563+22+21+20+2
8th+6/+1+6+2+6Domain enhancement63+22+22+21+2
9th+6/+1+6+3+663+22+32+21+20+2
10th+7/+2+7+3+7Extra domain63+22+32+22+21+2
11th+8/+3+7+3+763+32+32+32+21+20+2
12th+9/+4+8+4+8Domain enhancement63+32+32+32+21+31+2
13th+9/+4+8+4+863+33+32+32+31+31+20+2
14th+10/+5+9+4+9Extra domain63+33+32+32+31+31+30+3
15th+11/+6+9+5+963+33+33+32+32+31+30+30+2
16th+12/+7+10+5+10Domain enhancement63+33+33+32+32+31+31+30+3
17th+12/+7+10+5+1063+33+33+33+32+32+31+30+30+2
18th+13/+8+11+6+11Extra domain63+33+33+33+32+32+31+30+40+3
19th+14/+9+11+6+1163+33+33+33+32+42+31+40+40+3
20th+15/+10/+5+12+6+12Domain enhancement63+33+33+33+32+42+31+40+40+4
CLASS SKILLS (4 + Int mod per level, x4 at 1st level)
An avatar's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The avatar gains proficiency with all simple weapons. He gains proficiency with medium and light armor and with shields.
Spells: An avatar casts divine spells, which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells that are opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs. An avatar must choose and prepare his spells in advance.
To prepare or cast an avatar spell, you must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an avatar's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the avatar's Wisdom modifier. Like other spellcasters, an avatar can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. The base daily spell allotment is given in the table above. For each entry describing your daily spells at a given level, the number on the left is the number of general spell slots available to you, while the number on the right is the number of domain spell slots you possess. Your domain spells can only be cast under certain circumstances (see Avatar Empowerment, below) Unlike some other spellcasters, you receive no bonus spells for a high ability score.
An avatar prepares spells by studying his prayerbook. An avatar may prepare and cast any spell in his prayerbook, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation. An avatar's ability to cast domain spells is limited (see Avatar Empowerment, below). An avatar may not prepare or cast an avatar spell with an alignment descriptor that opposes his own (e.g., a lawful neutral avatar may not cast mantle of chaos).
An avatar's spellcasting is more limited than that of a cleric. You do not gain bonus spells per day for having a high ability score. You may cast no more than one avatar spell per round, even if you would otherwise have enough actions available to cast more than one. Casting a spell with a casting time of 1 immediate action counts as your use of a spell on your next turn. Like an archivist, you can learn additional spells during play, but unlike an archivist, you may only attempt to learn them from scrolls, not from spellbooks.
Prayerbook: Unlike a cleric, an avatar must seek out and collect new spells much as a wizard does, but from such esoteric sources as holy tablets, ancient steles, or other magical scriptures. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his prayerbook except for read magic, which avatars can prepare from memory.
An avatar begins play with a prayerbook containing all 0-level cleric spells plus three 1st-level cleric spells of the players choice. For each point of Wisdom bonus the avatar has, the prayerbook has an additional 1st-level cleric spell. At each new class level, the avatar gains two new cleric spells for his prayerbook; these can be of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new avatar level). At any time, an avatar can also add spells found on scrolls containing cleric spells to his prayerbook, but he must make any rolls and spend the time required (see Adding Spells to a Wizards Spellbook on page 178 of the Players Handbook).
Avatar Empowerment:As a priest and holy man, you are an influential and capable person, gifted with the ability to cast divine spells. However, when your actions align with your deitys direct interests, you can enter an avatar state as a free action (this may be accompanied by an appropriate visual or auditory display, at your discretion, although the display does not have any game effect). In your avatar state, you may cast spells from your domain spell slots. When you are not in your avatar state, you cannot cast the spells in your avatar domain slots. The following situations allow you to access your avatar state:
when fighting favored enemies of the church;
when fighting heretics or enemy churches;
when acting in support of a domain;
when acting in support of a church-sanctioned activity;
when following the direct instruction of your patron deity.
In certain situations, especially if you have domains that do not complement one another, you might gain limited empowerment that allows you to use some, but not all of your domains. For example, if you have the Healing and War domains and are asked to aid the faithful who are suffering, you might be empowered to cast spells of the Healing domain but not the War domain. If you have the Good and Law domains and are fighting opponents who worship Hextor (a LE deity of tyranny), you might be empowered to cast spells of the Good domain but not the Law domain.
Designer's Note:
The DM is the arbiter of whether a specific situation does or does not qualify. It is recommended that the player and DM should work together during character creation to establish a common set of expectations about which types of situations would qualify. In general, the DM should create situations where the avatar can enter avatar empowerment about once every 3-5 encounters.
Avatar empowerment is not available when PCs foolishly or unnecessarily rush into danger, when facing random encounters, or when bringing the fight to passive monsters who are minding their own business within their normal territory. For example, an avatar with the Healing domain doesn't gain avatar empowerment if his friends get hurt in a bar fight that they caused, or if they sustain minor injuries in an encounter that was not otherwise noteworthy. However, if the avatar's friends are gravely wounded and in danger, or if their injuries were sustained while fighting on behalf of his church, empowerment may be appropriate.
Domain: Choose a deity for your avatar. Sample deities are listed on Table 37: Deities in the Players Handbook, and described on page 106-108 of that book. The avatars deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him.
If typical worshipers of a deity include the members of a race, an avatar must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own (the god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not avatars). Some avatars do not receive their spells from a specific deity, but instead worship and gain spells from an entire pantheon, or a universal force or philosophical concept. Work with your DM to select six different domains that are appropriate for the pantheon, force, or concept.
When you have chosen an alignment and a deity for your avatar, choose one domain granted by your deity. You gain the domains granted power, and you may stack your levels in any class that grants a domain when determining the effectiveness of your domain granted powers. At each level of spells you can cast, you have a certain number of domain spell slots. You may only prepare domain spells in these spell slots. You cannot actually cast your domain spells except when in a state of avatar empowerment.
Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): An avatar can turn or rebuke undead just as a cleric does. A good avatar (or a neutral avatar who worships a good deity) can turn or destroy undead creatures. An evil avatar (or a neutral avatar who worships an evil deity) instead rebukes or commands such creatures., forcing them to cower in awe of his power. If your character is a neutral avatar of a neutral deity, you must choose whether his turning ability functions as that of a good avatar or an evil avatar. Once you make this choice, it cannot be reversed. Exceptions: All lawful neutral avatars of Wee Jas (goddess of death and magic) rebuke or command undead. All avatars of St. Cuthbert (god of retribution) and all nonevil avatars of Obad-Hai (god of nature) turn of destroy undead.
An avatar may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. An avatar with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (religion) gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead.
Extra Domain: At 2nd level, and again every four levels thereafter, an avatar gains access to an additional domain within his deitys portfolio, gaining its granted power and domain spells. If your deity has fewer than six domains, work with your DM to select additional thematically appropriate domains to add to your available domain list. Alternately, your character might expand his worship to include the pantheon to which the primary deity belongs, or two deities who are closely linked (depending on the campaign, you might choose two deities who are close siblings, who have complementary or contrasting portfolios, or two deities who work together as a team). Your DM has final authority over which domains can be added or which deities can be worshipped in tandem.
Domain Enhancement: At 4th level, and again every four levels thereafter, you may make one change to one of your domains, selected from the list below.
Replace one spell on one of your domain spell lists with a different, thematically appropriate spell of the same or lower level. For example, if you have the Darkness domain, you might replace blindness/deafness (a 2nd-level spell) with darkvision (also a 2nd-level spell) or ebon eyes (a 1st-level spell). Your DM must approve the new spell. If the spell you choose is available at different levels to members of different classes, consult with your DM to determine what level it should be for you.
Select a domain power that is usable a limited number of times per day. You gain one additional daily use of that power. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.
Select a domain power that improves your caster level when casting a particular type of spell. The caster level bonus increases by +1. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.
Select a one of your domains and one metamagic feat that you know. You can reduce the spell slot adjustment of that metamagic feat by 1 (minimum +0) when you prepare spells from that domains spell list in your domain spell slots. For example, if you select the Healing domain and the Empower feat, you can prepare empowered cure light wounds in a 2nd-level domain slot instead of a 3rd-level domain slot. You can select this option multiple times. Its effects stack.