Water Clerics (EAFW)

Among the elemental brotherhood, none are more desperate than the lords of the Elemental Plane of Water. Millennia ago, these beings were happy, babbling through brooks and floating leisurely in the vast, blue seas. Now they are claustrophobic, screaming for each drop lost to the parched earth.
They know that they must quench the thirst of the land before their streams and rivers can return, but every spilled drop of water is yielded grudgingly. It must be so, for the Plane of Water has nearly perished.
The champions of the dying Plane of Water are few; their lords barely able to empower them. But those who underestimate them are mistaken, for although the champions of water are given less power than most, they are far more desperate, and far more vengeful.
Still, they perform the age-old functions of water as healer and bringer of life. Since their creation, the patient water lords poured their very souls over the land, knowing that the land would eventually be saturated with their life giving liquids. They had not counted on the mass destruction caused by the defilers. Their evil spells turned everything to ash, and all ambient moisture was lost And this was new. Water had evaporated, frozen, boiled, and passed through the systems of a billion beings, but it had never before been destroyed.
==Initiation==
When a mentor feels that a student is ready, they begin the long journey to the nearest large body of water. Athas has few such places, and these long treks are dangerous and almost futile. Lake Island and the Lake of the Golden Dreams are the most commonly used for the purpose of initiation.
When they reach the shores of the lake, they sit and discuss what the student has learned during his apprenticeship. As dusk falls, the student enters the water and surrenders to its depths. The mentor's spell protects the acolyte from any creatures that might happen by, and it allows the candidate to breathe in the murky depths as if breathing air.
The initiate spends the rest of the night in the dark water, forging a pact with desperate water spirits who babble continually. This process continues until dawn, at which point the water elementals will either accept or reject the petitioner. If accepted, a 1st-level Cleric of Water emerges from the depths and rejoins the mentor for the long trip home. If rejected, the student is left alone, and must swim to safety or drown. The magical protection from creatures that dwell in the depths is lost—no longer at bay, they may attack freely.
==The Pact of Water==
Water is the giver of life, but the elemental lords now perform their sacred tasks grudgingly. Still, it is the duty of water clerics to give water and aid to any in need, of any alignment, of any nature. The only exceptions are those who criminally waste water. In this case, the water clerics are known to be meticulous in the cruelty of their vengeance. This specifically applies to defilers.
The second demand of the Plane of Water is that clerics preserve and protect the water that remains. Water clerics should never allow a defiler to cast a spell near a water source, nor permit a forest or any other moisture producing area be destroyed. They must teach these ideas to any who will listen. Typically, this involves irrigation, conservation, and the cleansing of existing water supplies. Unfortunately, it also means frequent conflict with defilers and the lackeys of the sorcerer-kings.
==Armor and Weapons==
Since water is the beginning of life and of all living things, clerics of water may use any weapon of organic origin. This usually includes wooden or bone weapons, as well as bows, clubs, maces, javelins, quarterstaffs, spears, and warhammers.
Leather or bone armor is preferred by water clerics since these also came from organic material, though they may wear metal if seriously threatened.
==Granted Powers: Major==
At the 5th level, the cleric gains the ability to ignore the element of water for a number of rounds equal to his level. Water clerics can breathe under water, are not affected by most water spells, and can even move through water as if it wasn't there. When the ability expires, the cleric is subject to the usual and appropriate affects.
The cleric can gate in water from the elemental plane when he reaches the 7th level: 1 cubic foot for every level above the 6th. The water will be pure, and can only materialize in a spot that the cleric can see, within 50 feet. This can mean multiple locations, but he must be able to see all of them. The water does not arrive under pressure, and no damage can be inflicted with this ability.
==Granted Powers: Minor==
In addition to the major powers listed above, the cleric may choose one of the following minor powers at levels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Only the priest may directly benefit from these powers.
* Quench Thirst: The cleric can chew on almost anything and extract moisture from it Mud, plant matter, even rock will yield up to one-third of the character's daily water requirement.
* Healing Draft: Before he can use this ability, the priest must have carried a skin of water on his person for at least an hour. After that, anyone who drinks from the skin will be cured of light bleeding, and regain 1 to 2 hit points. Enough water may be enchanted to heal 10 people. An individual may drink as much of the water as he desires, but it will have no additional effect other than to quench his thirst. The priest may only carry one such skin.
* Resistance to Water: A priest with this power gains a +2 to saving throws vs. water. As a side effect, he must take a —2 saving throw vs. spells of fire or sun.
* Body of Water: Upon reaching the 5th level, water clerics' bodies are partially transformed. Impurities, even toxins, are constantly filtered out of the body to emerge as harmless sweat. This gives the priest a +4 to any saving throw vs. poison.
* Spark of Life: Only water priests of the 7th level and above may select this power, and it may only be used in conjunction with a healing draft When invoked, the priest can give a healing draft to any creature of flesh and blood that has died in the last three rounds, and who still has hit points (—9 minimum). A small amount of the priest's life is used to spark the creature's, and this costs the priest 1 hit point for as long as the creature remains alive.The healing draft brings the character back to life with 1 hit point. After healing, the character retains the extra hit point, a tiny part of the priest who healed him. When he dies, the tiny bit of life essence magically returns to its rightful owner.
==Water Clerics as Wanderers==
Wandering water clerics fulfil several roles in the tribes, villages, and nomads they visit, water priests perform healing and purify polluted water sources. In times of severe drought they will provide drinking water until the water supply has recovered.
==Water Clerics of the Shrines==
Unlike the shrines of the other elements, those dedicated to water almost always have a protector. Water clerics seize the rare pools that form the shrines in order to protect them from settlers, defilers, or the simple, natural hazards of nature.
A priest who has attached himself to a shrine has related duties that may require his absence for short periods of time. The surrounding region is the foundation of the water table, and the cleric must insure that the land has not been polluted or otherwise tampered with. Tampering could include actual organized attacks, damming, or poisoning—anything that threatens the water supply.
==Water Clerics in the Cities==
Water priests are the least threatened elemental clerics residing in the cities. Their safety lies in the fact that they provide water for the poor and desperate, and are frequently called upon for healing.
Occasionally, templars even recruit water clerics to accompany them on particularly dangerous missions, and water clerics do not believe that the Elemental Plane of Water is a purely pacifist sphere. That which serves water, serves them.
==Water Shamans==
Tribal peoples that support water shamans are usually located on the shores of one of Athas's rare lakes, or else they are people of passive dispositions. Usually less protective than shamans of other elements, they give water and healing to any friendly beings passing through tribal territories.
Most shamans share a passive nature, but there are a few who display the more desperate nature of their elemental patrons. Some have told tales of the green-skinned creatures that live beneath the surface of Lake Pit. These are neither friendly nor tolerant, and they are rumored to have a shaman who casts terrible curses from the depths of the lake on anyone caught peering into their underwater world.