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Nostri
2007-11-02, 12:29 AM
Templar
Often found acting as crusaders and temple guards these holy warriors are servants of their respective gods and churches and will serve them unwaveringly. Put through rigorous physical and martial training and blessed with divine powers like those of a priest, templars are powerful combatants.
Adventures: Templars are often found adventuring in support of their patron’s ideals. Good templars can be seen providing help to the sick and weak, or warring against those who would destroy good things. On the other hand evil templars are usually not seen at all unless there are acting as the champions of a dark god in battle, instead they use subterfuge and deceit to accomplish their patron’s goals. Both evil and good templars can be found guarding holy sites dedicated to their patron. Some even guard places unrecognized by the church of their deity due to their close connection to their deity.
Characteristics: Templars are holy (or unholy) warriors dedicated to their deity’s cause in the mortal world. They are trained in the use of divine magic and in the use of a large assortment of weapons.
They can even channel divine energy to turn undead if their good, or to wrest control of undead from their creators if evil. Aother use of this ability to channel divine energy is to use it to lay on hands. With this power they can either heal themselves or allies or cause wounds to form on a body with only a touch.
Alignment: Because of the wide assortment of deities with templars serving them, members of this class can be found of any alignment. However because lawful religions tend to have more active recruiting policies then chaotic ones there are generally more lawful templars then chaotic templars.
A templar’s alignment must be within one step of their patron deity’s. A templar with a neutral patron must have a neutral component to their alignment.
Religion: Every religion has at least one group of templars that serve their church as guards of various relics and the less combative members of the religion. Most templars are officially ordained members of their church, often they have a separate hierarchy from the regular priesthood. If their patron doesn’t have an organized church it is still likely that they will have templars serving them as crusaders and guards of holy site, often these sites are unknown to all but the most well versed historian or bard.
Background: In organized religions most templars join the church’s trainees as young adults. This isn’t always the case though as some older soldiers will retire and join their ranks as initiates, or younger children will join the church as orphans or as the children of priests if their religion allows such things.
The other way a templar can become what he is is by being called. A calling is an older way of becoming a templar then being trained, some say templars like this even predate the priesthood. In this manner of training a person will receive a dream calling him into the service of their patron. Some choose to ignore this call though those that do often regret that choice for a long time, though they may not know what it is they regret. This type of templar is more often found in more chaotic religions or in the service of patrons that are not well known.
Races: All races can be found serving various patrons as templars. Most often they serve their patrons in non-adventuring capacities.
Other Classes: A templar gets along with members of most other classes, being partial to the more martial classes due to the common interests they often share. Priests and templars of the same religion often get along very well, though if they are of separate sects there may be unforeseen tension between them. The only classes that templars do not normally get along with are those that cast arcane spells because most templars view them as cheats who give nothing in return for the power they wield. Though this is not even a hard and fast rule for this diverse bunch as templars with deities who serve as patrons to arcane casters can be very genial towards magisters.
Role: The templar is a front line fighter on par with the warrior and should be at the fore front of any battle. They are well served by casting healing spells on themselves and allies in combat but allowing a priest to be the main healers. Also using their magic to augment their combat prowess is a good tactic.
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills: The templar’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana, history, religion, the planes, tactics) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points:
At first level: (4+Int modifier)x4. For each additional level: 4+Int modifier.

Tables
The Templar
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th

1st|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Turn or Rebuke Undead, Domain|2

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|-|3|0

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|Lay on Hands|3|1

4th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|-|3|2|0

5th|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Bonus Feat|3|2|1

6th|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|-|3|3|2

7th|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+5|-|3|3|2|0

8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+2|
+6|-|3|3|3|1

9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+3|
+6|-|3|3|3|2

10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+3|
+7|Bonus Feat|3|3|3|2|0

11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+3|
+7|-|3|3|3|3|1

12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+4|
+8|-|3|3|3|3|2

13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+4|
+8|-|3|3|3|3|2|0

14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+4|
+9|-|4|3|3|3|3|1

15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+5|
+9|Bonus Feat|4|4|3|3|3|2

16th|
+12/7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+10|-|4|4|4|3|3|2|0

17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+10|-|4|4|4|4|3|3|1

18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+6|
+11|-|4|4|4|4|4|3|2

19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+11|-|4|4|4|4|4|4|3

20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+12|Apotheosis|4|4|4|4|4|4|4[/table]

Spells Known
{table=head] Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th

1|4+1|-|-|-|-|-|-

2|5+1|2+1|-|-|-|-|-

3|6+1|3+1|-|-|-|-|-

4|6+1|3+1|2+1|-|-|-|-

5|6+1|4+1|3+1|-|-|-|-

6|6+1|4+1|3+1|-|-|-|-

7|6+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-|-

8|6+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-|-|-

9|6+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-|-|-

10|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-

11|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-|-

12|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-|-

13|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-

14|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-

15|6+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|-

16|6+1|5+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1

17|6+1|5+1|5+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1

18|6+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|4+1|4+1|3+1

19|6+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|4+1|4+1

20|6+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|5+1|4+1[/table]

Class Features:
All of the following are class features of the templar.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Templars are proficient with all simple weapons, light, medium and heavy armors and shields. In addition a templar may choose any 3 martial weapons and gain proficiency with them. A templar is expected to face the enemies of their patron in combat and show their loyalty in the glory of personal combat.

Aura (Ex): A templar of a chaotic, evil, good or lawful has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment. Templars who don’t serve a specific deity but who choose Chaos, Evil, Good or Law as one of their domains have a similar aura corresponding to their domains.

Spells: A templar casts divine spells, which are drawn from the cleric spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a templar must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a templar's spell is 10 + the spell level + the templar’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a templar can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Templar. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score. When Table: The Templar indicates that the templar gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level.

The templar’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A templar begins play knowing four 0-level spells of your choice. At most new templar levels, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: The Templar. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a templar knows is not affected by his Wisdom score; the numbers on Table: The Templar are fixed.)

Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third templar level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), a templar can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the templar "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level cleric spell the templar can cast. A templar may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

As noted above, a templar need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

Domain: The templar can choose one of his deities domains and access all of it's powers as a cleric of their level. The domain spell is added to the list of spells known for the templar.

Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): Templars turn or rebuke undead as a cleric of their level.

Lay on Hands (Su): A templar can lay on hands as a paladin equal to their level beginning at level 3. When they do this they can choose to either have it work as a cure effect or an inflict effect. This is affected by their choice of whether to turn or rebuke undead. If the templar turns undead they may Lay on Hands to cure damage as normal, if he chooses to cause damage each point of damage caused counts as if the templar had healed 2 points of damage. The reverse is true for a character that rebukes undead.

To effect an unwilling target with the Lay on Hands ability you must make an unarmed touch attack on the target.


Bonus Feat: A templar gains a bonus feat beginning at level 5 and gets another one at level 10 and level 15. They choose these feats from any fighter feat (except weapon specialization) or any Divine feat.

Apotheosis: At 20th level a templar becomes a true embodiment of his ideals and/or patron deity. Their creature type changes to outsider (native), they gain darkvision out to 60’, immunity to disease and poison and a +2 bonus to their Constitution and Charisma. In addition their appearance changes to take on a minor aspect of their patron (ie: the templar of a sun god may gain shining golden eyes or an adherent to a deity of earth may have their skin gain a metallic sheen). This change in appearance should never have an in-game effect.

Alright this is what I'm thinking of replacing the warrior priest position that the current version of the cleric holds. I'm going to be doing something else with the normal priest for the game I'm going to run. Thoughts?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT1: Added the inflict use to the Lay on Hands ability. Noted the number of domains that the Templar gets. Fixed a couple of types I found...
EDIT2: Added more fluff.

Khoran
2007-11-02, 07:17 AM
Looks pretty solid, nice middle ground between something like Paladin and Cleric and I'm guessing inspired by The Bard And/Or the Duskblade (Though it does have a lower BAB, which does not invalidate the Paladin completely).

However, bonus feats are boring and I'd suggest real class features. Perhaps Weapon Focus/Weapon Specialization with deity's favored weapon (as per Favored Soul) as one of the things you could put in place of that. Just a though.

Finerty
2007-11-02, 10:50 AM
Or if you want to keep bonus feats, at least make them bonus divine feats, to take advantage of the fact you've got turn undead.

Magnor Criol
2007-11-02, 11:04 AM
Also, if you're actually trying to replace the cleric, you need to account for at least some of the role he fills, most notably that of healer. I'm not quite sure how to best do this; a Lay On Hands ability would fit the class well but makes it even closer to Paladin, while spontaneous Cure/Inflict casting doesn't really sit well since it's not a strong spellcaster.

Perhaps giving him Lay On Hands, then adding in other class features to distinguish\ it more from the Pally.

Other than that, it looks good, if a bit bland; it feels like a watered down or "NPC class-ified" paladin, sort of, at the moment.

You don't specify how many domains they get. I assume two, but it should be clarified. (This could be a good way to keep him still distinct from the spellcaster cleric's role - what if a Templar only gets one domain? They spend more time focusing on martial activities and less time on their priestly ones than clerics, so they only have one domain.)

EvilElitest
2007-11-02, 12:14 PM
More fluff would be nice, to make the distingtion clear between a pladin, cerlic and Templar
from,
EE

Nostri
2007-11-03, 11:18 PM
@Finerty- I say in the description of the Bonus Feat class ability that the feats they get are any fighter bonus feat (except specialization) and any Divine Feat.

@Magnor Criol- He's not really supposed to replace everything the cleric does in a party, just the "divine warrior" schtick that gets assigned to them alot of the time when the person doesn't want to walk around with a limp because of the stick up their bum (also known as playing a paladin for most people, not that I agree with that view of them but that's another post....) To replace the healer and spellcaster function of the cleric I'm making another class called a priest that will have full casting, less armor proficiencies and few weapon proficiencies, things like that.
Also I thought I had listed the number of Domains they got, thanks for pointing out I hadn't.

For everyone: I changed some things in the class, look at the original post for a list...

Hazkali
2007-11-04, 06:29 AM
Hmm, not too shoddy. I might even try playing one, as I've always liked the idea of Lay on Hands and Cleric spells together...:smallbiggrin:

Ossian
2007-11-04, 07:13 AM
Wow, nice work you did!

Perhaps adding a "Skill Emphasis - Heal" to account for a decent medical preparation? (you know, herbs, ointments, diseases, hygene, first aid, fractures and ugly looking war wounds recomposition and disinfection). This could happen at one of the dead-levels (say, 2nd, 5th etc.). Or maybe just a special quality "healing" that gets better with experience (and stacks with the heal skill). a bit like the sneak atack progression. Perhaps at levels 4-8-12-16 and 20 (thus giving you a massive +5 by the end of your career). Or maybe just a Skill Mastery - Heal (i.e. you can take 10 even under duress) by level 10.

Or perhaps another SQ at level 6, 12, 18
Improved Healing : if you succed in Spellcraft check, DC 15) you can Double the amount of HP restored by a "cure light wounds" or "lay on hands". At levels 12 and 18 you can double even a cure Serious (DC 20) and a Cure Critical (DC 25) respectively.

I'd probably leave open only the WAR domain, given the martial characterization of this class. Not sure about the "evil" Templar (chaoitc, maybe). Perhgaps it's just the "Templar" word which influences my stance though.

O.

Nostri
2007-11-04, 04:01 PM
@Ossian: I thought about just giving them all the War domain at first level and then either the Strength or Destruction domains at a later level but thought that it would be better if they got to choose a domain from the list of their deity's. Just felt better, it also means that they won't be just the paladin's poor cousin. I like the idea for the various healing abilities and I might use them for the Priest class I'm building but the templars aren't supposed to healers. Closer to guards and soldiers. The first name for them was actually crusader but then I remembered the class from ToB and I didn't want to hear about how the class already exists, thus their current name.

To All: I'll be adding more fluff soon which should help to distinguish it from the paladin for everyone. Which is good since paladin is a PrC in most of my games...