The Sexton – The Prestige Class That Tolls the Bell [Peach?]

[Metastachydium]

Years ago, I've visited a 15th century walled church, well-preserved, if with the usual modifications reflecting the passage of ages. In a lesser belltower, I found a tidy bronze plaque, quite evidently much more recent than the rest of the structure, bearing the following inscription:

Vivos voco,
Mortuos plango,
Fulgura frango!

It would translate to something like

I call the living,
I mourn the dead,
I break the lightning!

It stuck with me, this little snippet succintly summarizing some major, traditional functions of the church bell – including its widespread apotropaic use. It is a tightly knit theme, existing in close association with the sphere of the clerical. I figured I might as well make a class out of it. And here it comes!

The Sexton

Hit Die
d6.

Requirements
To qualify to become a sexton, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment
Any nonchaotic.

Skills
Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks, Perform (bell) 4 ranks

Special
A cleric with access to the Air, Destruction, Storm or Weather domains cannot become a sexton.

Class Skills
The sexton's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level
2+Int modifier

Table: The Sexton

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Spells
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Sound the bell	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Call the living	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Mourn the dead	–
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Break the lightning	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the sexton prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency
Sextons gain no proficiency with any weapons or armour.


Sound the Bell (Su)
All sextons possess a special divine focus, a handbell, usually made of bronze with a wooden handle. A sexton carrying such a bell casts all abjuration spells at a caster level one higher than normal and receives a +1 sacred bonus on caster level checks made to penetrate spell resistence. Additionally, a sexton of 2nd level or higher may ring his bell a number of times per day equal to his character level plus his Charisma modifier to produce various effect.


Spellcasting
At each level excepting the 1st, a sexton new spells per day and an increase in caster level (as well as spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class level. A sexton does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a sexton, he must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.


Call the Living (Su)
A sexton of 2nd level or higher gains the ability to duplicate the effect of a Rouse spell^PHB2 cast by a wizard of the sexton's character level through ringing his bell once as a free action. Furthermore, once per encounter, he can expend a use of his Sound the Bell ability as an immediate action to duplicate the effect of a Regroup spell^PHB2 cast by a wizard of the sexton's character level.


Mourn the Dead (Su)
A sexton of 3rd level or higher can expend a use of Sound the Bell to rebuke (but not command or bolster) undead and deathless creatures as an Evil cleric of his character level. Moreover, once per round as a standard action he can ring his bell to target a single undead or deathless creature within 40'. If the creature's number of HD equals or is lower than the sexton's character level, it must make a Will save or be destroyed immediately. The save DC is Wisdom-based.


Break the Lightning (Su)
Once per round, a 4th level sexton can ring his bell as an immediate action to disrupt a spell or spell-like ability that produces a weather-based effect (such as Fog Cloud, Sleet Storm or Whirlwind) or which has the Air, Electricity or Water descriptor as if counterspelling it. Once per day, he can also expend five uses of his Sound the Bell ability spaced out evenly in the span of twenty rounds to duplicate the effect of a Control Weather spell as cast by a druid of his character level.

♣

I'm kind of happy with it overall; what I'm not sure about is the prerequisites. Is level 6 to early for an entry? Should I add tighter thematic restrictions?

Comments on other aspects, needless to say, are also more than welcome (especially given my track record with PrC design).

[pi4t]

The first level of this class is extremely lackluster. The only thing you get is +1 to caster level for some very limited situations. And in exchange, you've given up actually gaining a level of spellcasting. I realise that with this sort of prestige class the first level will intentionally be a bit weak to make up for the powerful abilities later on, but is there any reason to make it basically a dead level?

I'd suggest making this a three level prestige class which gives spellcasting at levels 2 and 3, and then put both Sound the Bell and Call the Living at level 1.

As for the other abilities, you're basically giving up a level of casting in return for 4+cha spells per day. That might be worth it, assuming the spells are pretty good. Are they?

Call the Living: Rouse is a 1st level spell, and highly situational one at that. Especially at high levels. Magic sleep effects fall off a lot after you outgrow sleep, which you will have done by the time you take this prestige class. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where this would have been useful.
Regroup is a lot more useful, though.

Mourn the Dead: Rebuke undead is good.
I'm not sure how the undeath to death effect is supposed to work. Undeath to Death is an AoE spell which kills level d4 many hit dice of enemies, i.e. at least 8d4 many. And there's a cap of 9HD per enemy. So does this just kill one undead enemy of at most 9HD unless you're at least level 8 and roll 8 natural 1's? If so, this is both complicated and kind of useless a couple of levels after you get it, since your enemies will be too high level.

Break the Lightning: Immediate action counterspells are nice, but this is very specific. You can also cast control weather, but it's costing you most of your uses per day. Control weather is a high level spell, but it's pretty situational and both clerics and druids have it on their spell lists.

So overall, you're giving up a level of spellcasting in exchange for rebuke undead and regroup, plus a handful of occasionaly-useful utility abilities. I don't think this is worthwhile, unless you're looking for extra fuel for turn undead shenanigans. Which is probably not what you had in mind when making the class.

[Tzardok]

Why do I suddenly feel like quoting Poe?

Is it intentional that Mourn the dead allows you to use undeath to death at will? That strikes me as a bit too powerful for a level 8 character. Maybe cast undeath to death using your daily usages of Sound the bell and instead add something gentle repose as the at-will ability? (Gentle repose was my first thought for a spell when hearing Mourn the dead, anyway).

Edit: I suddenly thought of a Sexton going up against one of those necromancers from the Abhorsen novels, who also use bells to raise and control their undead. A bell duel to burn the heretic.

[Metastachydium]

The first level of this class is extremely lackluster. The only thing you get is +1 to caster level for some very limited situations. And in exchange, you've given up actually gaining a level of spellcasting. I realise that with this sort of prestige class the first level will intentionally be a bit weak to make up for the powerful abilities later on, but is there any reason to make it basically a dead level?

…
No, there isn't.

I'd suggest making this a three level prestige class which gives spellcasting at levels 2 and 3, and then put both Sound the Bell and Call the Living at level 1.

Hm. What if I left it as is, except moving the no-spells level to 3, the level most folks might be interested in? Would that work?

As for the other abilities, you're basically giving up a level of casting in return for 4+cha spells per day.

It's character level, rather than class level, so 9+ before CHA.

That might be worth it, assuming the spells are pretty good. Are they?

Call the Living: Rouse is a 1st level spell, and highly situational one at that. Especially at high levels. Magic sleep effects fall off a lot after you outgrow sleep, which you will have done by the time you take this prestige class. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where this would have been useful.

Huh. I didn't even consider sleep effects; I was thinking "stupid gotcha nighttime ambush countermeasure", mostly. Still, it's a fair point, although I'd like to point out that while immunity to sleep is handed out like candy, the world of sleep effects doesn't end at lame little Deep Slumber! Melf's Slumber Arrow^CM, Sleep Mote^Sand, Hiss of Sleep^Drac, idiotic stuff like Dreaded Form of the Eye Tyrant^CM and even actually good ones like Endless Slumber^CM exist and no one ever sees them coming! Plus, beholderkin. Let's not forget beholderkin. Or brass dragons, for that matter. Or pixie arrows. Or knockout poison with jacked up DCs.

Regroup is a lot more useful, though.

Yeah, that was supposed to be the main feature here. Tactical teleportation is tactical teleportation, after all.

Mourn the Dead: Rebuke undead is good.
I'm not sure how the undeath to death effect is supposed to work. Undeath to Death is an AoE spell which kills level d4 many hit dice of enemies, i.e. at least 8d4 many. And there's a cap of 9HD per enemy. So does this just kill one undead enemy of at most 9HD unless you're at least level 8 and roll 8 natural 1's? If so, this is both complicated and kind of useless a couple of levels after you get it, since your enemies will be too high level.

That's, um, that's just me being sloppy and working from memory. I forgot the 9 HD cap. Would a clause to the effect that the HD of the target to be affected is keyed to character level (equal to, +2, you name it) fix the issue or should I drop the reference to the spell and say "it kills an undead target dead, 'nough said"?

Break the Lightning: Immediate action counterspells are nice, but this is very specific. You can also cast control weather, but it's costing you most of your uses per day. Control weather is a high level spell, but it's pretty situational and both clerics and druids have it on their spell lists.

Don't forget that for five uses of the bell, the pesky casting time is cut down to two minutes! But yeah. Should I make the counterspelling broader? Extend it to Air and Water spells maybe?

So overall, you're giving up a level of spellcasting in exchange for rebuke undead and regroup, plus a handful of occasionaly-useful utility abilities. I don't think this is worthwhile, unless you're looking for extra fuel for turn undead shenanigans. Which is probably not what you had in mind when making the class.

Well, thanks for the very thorough readthrough! You have a fair point there. Anything else I could do to make it worth the hassle, barring making it full-progression?

Why do I suddenly feel like quoting Poe?

[Whistles innocently.] No idea!

Is it intentional that Mourn the dead allows you to use undeath to death at will? That strikes me as a bit too powerful for a level 8 character. Maybe cast undeath to death using your daily usages of Sound the bell and instead add something gentle repose as the at-will ability? (Gentle repose was my first thought for a spell when hearing Mourn the dead, anyway).

No, no, no, no, no. Sound the Bell establishes (or, at any rate, that was my intention) that ringing the bell to produce magical effects is the same thing as expending a use of Sound the Bell. Should I make that more obvious?

Edit: I suddenly thought of a Sexton going up against one of those necromancers from the Abhorsen novels, who also use bells to raise and control their undead. A bell duel to burn the heretic.

EPIC handbell duels! Hells, yeah!

[Tzardok]

No, no, no, no, no. Sound the Bell establishes (or, at any rate, that was my intention) that ringing the bell to produce magical effects is the same thing as expending a use of Sound the Bell. Should I make that more obvious?!

Ah. No, that's on me for skim reading while listening to audiobooks.

[Metastachydium]

Ah. No, that's on me for skim reading while listening to audiobooks.

Whew. Cool.

♣

Anyhow, I made a few tentative edits based on the feedback. Mourn the Dead's now a WIS-based Save or Bye tied to character level; level 1 progresses casting and level 3 doesn't; while Air and Water spells are now free game for Break the Lightning. Does it look better now?

[Tzardok]

Yup. By the way, if he can rebuke deathless in addition to undead, wouldn't it make sense to be able to destroy deathless too?

[Metastachydium]

Yup. By the way, if he can rebuke deathless in addition to undead, wouldn't it make sense to be able to destroy deathless too?

With the other use, right? Fair point. I'll make the tweak.