Forge Priest (Character Kit)

The forge-priest is a mature or elderly dwarf who maintains and passes on the dwarven traditions of craftsmanship and worship. However, a dwarven PC can never begin as a member of the forge-priest kit; membership in the society of forge-priests is only offered to settled or legendary smiths with long years of practice at the forge. When membership is offered, a tempering vigil must be withstood by the candidate. If the tempering is successful, any previous kit benefits, status, and hindrances are lost, and the new kit is adopted.
Role: The forge-priest makes metal items, teaches chants and the art of ironwork to younger dwarves, and arranges the affairs of the stronghold’s forge and temple. They are invariably the most capable smiths at any dwarven stronghold.
Secondary Skills: Blacksmith Weapon     
Proficiencies: Warhammer, throwing hammer
Bonus Nonweapon Proficiencies: Singing, access to Chants
Recommended Non weapon Proficiencies: Armorer, Blacksmith, Leather- worker, Weaponsmithing
Equipment: Smith’s hammer, tongs, forge
Distinctive Appearance: Leather apron, beard and hair tied back away from embers, sparks and flame. Usually smeared with soot, coal-dust, and sweat.
Special Benefits: All forge-priests may use the chants described in this article and may lead other dwarves in their use. A dwarven priest with the forge-priest kit gains access to these spells as if they were regular priest spells. Members of any other class gain access to these spells as if they were a priest three levels lower than their actual level; that is, a 9th- level fighter could access as many chants as a 6th-level priest. If this drops the forge-priest to below first level, the dwarf must conduct a ham- mer chant with enough helpers to gain the effective level required for a given chant. Forge-priests also gain a +1 bonus to saves vs. fire.
Special Hindrances: Forge-priests are forbidden from casually destroying metalwork of any kind, even cursed, evil, or broken metal. Instead, they must either repair, sanctify, or purify any such metalwork. In addition, forge-priests must serve as leaders of their community, shepherding other dwarves through the world’s trials.
Wealth Options: Forge priests gain no additional money when they are accepted into the society that this kit represents. In many cases, they are asked to donate money to build or refurbish a shrine, forge, or temple when they join the brotherhood of forge-priests, but this is not necessary for impoverished dwarves or those who do not seek fame or status as forge-priests.
Hammer Chants
Though the blacksmith’s tools are similar to those humans use, the sacred side of the dwarven forge is readily apparent to even a casual visitor: dwarves are very noisy when they work. The songs they sing are songs of praise for the keeper of the first forge, lusty work songs, or even incantations in the Old High Church Dwarvish that only the priests fully understand. The chants keep the rhythm steady when a team of smiths is using multiple hammers on a single piece of iron. When combined with the chant of a dwarven priest or mas- ter smith, the hammer chants used every day at the forge are themselves magical. In fact, blacksmiths are often double as bards among the dwarves.
The most basic of these chants functions much like combine, the first level priest spell that adds effective levels to the priest. The dwarven version is the basic hammer chant, after which all the others are named. Other dwarven chants resemble the cooperative magic spells from the Tome of Magic. The listings below are just a sample of the diversity of hammer 27 chants; many more are commonly found in dwarven strongholds, including spells that mimic the functions of fortify, unearthly choir, and focus from the Tome of Magic. These spells are not granted to nondwarves, despite per- sistent rumors that the steelskin chant was originally part of the worship of Flandal Steelskin of the gnomes.
Casting these spells takes much longer than ordinary spellcasting, and hammer chants are rarely employed effectively in combat (though the dwarves argue that the priest spell chant is simply a corruption of the magic the first dwarves found). These spells all belong to a special school of their own, that of Chants. They include a few zero-level spells, which can be cast be a 0-level caster. See the Forge-priest sidebar for more details.
== Hammer (Chant) ==
Level: 0
Sphere: All
Range: Touch Components: V, S, M Duration: Special Casting Time: 1 turn Area of Effect: One dwarf
Saving Throw: None
Using this chant, up to seven dwarven priests and/or dwarven black smiths, armorers, or weaponsmiths may combine their abilities so that one of them casts other chants at an enhanced level. If no priest is present, the chant may still be completed successfully, but the casting time doubles. The target of the spell is usually the master smith (granting him the power to lead other magical chants) or the highest-ranking priest. All dwarves taking part in the hammer chant must have the Singing non weapon proficiency.
The highest ranking priest or master smith stands at the forge, hammering out time on the anvil, while the others work the bellows and tend to other forging tasks. The dwarf who keeps time is the leader of the chant and becomes the focus of the chant’s magic. The leader gains one effective level for each three levels or Hit Dice of the dwarven smiths chanting at their work, to a maximum gain of six levels. While the priest gains no additional memorized priest spells, the priest may gain access to additional chants that were previously unavailable to him. Upon completing the hammer chant, the group can immediately begin another chant, which then gains the benefit of the increased effective level provided by the hammer chant.
If a hammer chant is attempted during battle, the chanting dwarves lose all Armor Class bonuses for shield or Dexterity while chanting. If any of them loses his concentration (when struck a blow, or distracted by noise or magic), the hammer chant ends immediately.
The material components of the hammer chant are a hammer, an anvil, and a forge’s fire. Hammer chants must be conducted in a forge consecrated to the dwarven gods; human or elven smithies, makeshift forges, and abandoned holdings are unsuited to the successful completion of this chant.
== Miner’s Chant (Chant) ==
Level: 0
Sphere: Elemental (Earth)
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 12 hours
Casting Time: 1d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1d6 dwarves
Saving Throw: None
While not strictly a smith’s chant, the miner’s chant is often conducted at the forge by a forge-priest before a group of miners goes off to the tunnels and begins a day’s work. The chant is an invocation of blessings and protection, but it also hardens and improves the miner’s tools, increasing their effectiveness and decreasing the chance of their becoming blunted. Miners operating under the influence of the miner’s chant can operate without fatigue and dig 50% faster while they do so.
The material component of the miner’s chant is a chunk of ore for any metal.
== Stainless (Chant) ==
Level: 1
Sphere: Protection
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 3d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1 lb. metal
Saving Throw: None
This chant grants any metal an
enduring bright shine, (akin to chrome) and protects the metal against corrosion and decay. However, it is rarely used because of its cost. Imbuing metal with a stainless chant requires the sacrifice of a weight of platinum equal to the weight of metal to be protected. Thus, a 4 lb. long sword requires the sacrifice of 1,000 gp worth of platinum (100 pp) to protect the blade. Once protected, no rust, acid, or decay, even that produced by a rust monster or black pudding, can destroy the weapon. Even the strange black metals of the drow are rumored to gain greater resistance to sunlight when treated with this chant.
In the FORGOTTEN REALMS® setting, this spell is a requirement for the successful application of the everbright treatment  (everbright  and other smithing secrets are described in Volo’s Guide to All Things Magical), which is a secret of the dwarves of Faerûn. Other races of the Realms have attempted to reproduce the secret but have failed because they lack the secret of dwarven chants.
The use of this chant is generally reserved for clan heirlooms, chieftain’s weapons, and other important metalwork. Naturally, metals not normally subject to corrosion such as gold, mithril, and platinum are not treated with this spell.
The material component of the stainless chant is simply the sacrificed platinum.
== Suregrip (Chant) ==
Level: 1
Sphere: Guardian
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 3d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1 lb. metal
Saving Throw: None
This chant makes a weapon or shield stick to its wielder’s hand until he voluntarily releases it, making it impossible for the wielder to be disarmed by an opponent or to drop the weapon. Even spells like fumble have no effect against a hero using a weapon protected by the suregrip chant.
The suregrip chant’s material components are a scrap of spiderweb from any sort of spider and a thin ribbon of zinc/tin alloy.
== Eversharp (Chant) ==
Level: 2
Sphere: Alteration
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1 hour
Area of Effect: 1 weapon
Saving Throw: None
This chant magically enhances and maintains the sharpness of a single edged weapon, which must be kept on the anvil for the entire duration of the spell’s casting. However, the spell does not provide any other benefit; the weapon can still rust, break, pit, crack, and melt, and eversharp chants do not grant any bonuses to attack or damage rolls. Once protected, the weapon need never be sharpened.
The material component is a pin made of silver (10 gp value).
== Moradins Metal (Chant) ==
Level: 2
Sphere: Elemental (Earth)
Range: 10 yards
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1 turn/oz.
Area of Effect: 1 oz./level
Saving Throw: None
This chant creates a mass of unworked metal from nothing. The metal appears on top of the forge, and most dwarven smiths believe that the metal is a direct gift from Moradin or Verdagain, the Keeper of Secrets under the Mountain. The chant works only once each year, during the dwar- ven High Holidays. It is usually employed to create a small quantity of adamantite or mithril, which is used at the dwarfhold during the course of the year. In many dwarfholds, the metal created by this chant is used only to create sacred objects, and it may not be given to outsiders in any form.
The material component is a strand of hair from the beard of the eldest dwarf of the clan.
== Steelskin (Chant) ==
Level: 2
Sphere: Protection Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: Special Casting Time: 1d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1 dwarf
Saving Throw: None
When this chant is completed, the affected dwarf gains complete immunity to any normal attack by cut, blow, projectile, or similar impact. Magical weapons and spells still have their normal effect, but all mundane weapons are turned aside.
According to some dwarves, objects can also be protected by steel skin chants of longer duration (4d6 hours casting time), but this protection does not apply to an object’s wearer or owner. Armor protected by steelskin does not melt in a dragon’s breath or crack under a giant’s blow, but it provides no additional protection to its wearer.
The chant blocks 1d3 attacks, plus one attack per three effective levels of the caster. This limit applies regardless of attack rolls; whether the attack would have hit or not, the spell’s potency is reduced by one for each possible attack in a round. These attacks inflict no damage on the chant’s recipient. The chant’s effects last until the chant’s recipient is attacked and the magic is invoked. No more than a single steelskin can ever be active on a single dwarf at the same time; repeated castings have no additional effect.
Repeated rumors that a dwarven armorer somewhere has enchanted armor with steelskin have proven false time and again, but the story persists among the gullible. Less scrupulous smiths sometimes sell armor that they claim is protected by this magic. Dwarven priests and smiths seldom employ this chant for the benefit of anyone but dwarves of their own clan.
The material component of this chant is a pouch of steel filings, which must be scattered over the recipient.
== Stokers Chant (Chant) ==
Level: 2
Sphere: Elemental (Air)
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 round/level
Casting Time: 1-3 turns
Area of Effect: 1 dwarf
Saving Throw: None
The stoker’s chant is just as often used among smelters as among smiths, but is included here as an example of another type of dwarven chant. The stokers are dwarves who feed the fires that release metal from ore. This chant allows them to double the heat in their smelter, increasing the speed with which they process ore. All functions of the smelter happen twice as quickly.
When used by a cantor of 9th level or higher, the stoker’s chant creates a
special metal called forge gold, which a knowledgeable smith can alloy with mithril or even adamantite to make it workable at lower temperatures. Mithril or adamantite alloyed with forge gold can be worked in an ordinary forge without the need for dragon bellows, silver tongs, or the other specialized tools required for high temperature metalwork.
The material component is a dragon’s firesac, the portion of its lungs that generates its breath weapon, shaped into a set of bellows. The component is not consumed by the casting of the chant.
== Bellows Breath (Chant) ==
Level: 3
Sphere: Elemental (Fire)
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 8 hours
Casting Time: 1-6 turns
Area of Effect: 1 fire
Saving Throw: Special
By creating a wind to fan the flames, this chant dramatically increases the size of any existing fire.
Bellows breath also enhances any other fire spell, increasing that spell’s damage by +1 point per die.
The chant’s magical wind scatters ashes and might put out a fire or dispel the target fire spell, as determined by a turning attempt against “Special” rolled by the highest level priest participating in the chant. (If only smiths are using the chant, they have no chance to succeed.) If the check succeeds (turn or destroy), the fire stays lit and its heat increases to the level required to forge mithril and adamantite. If the check fails, the fire is blown out.
The material components of this chant are a raven’s feather and a small leather set of bellows.
== Bloodiron (Chant) ==
Level: 3
Sphere: Necromantic, Charm
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 3d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1 lb. metal
Saving Throw: None
This spell creates a magical thirst for blood in a weapon, giving it the ability to inflict great wounds on any creature it strikes. Whenever a blow is struck
with a bloodiron blade, it inflicts an additional +2 hp damage by keeping the wounds it causes from closing properly. The spell lasts until the weapon is blooded in combat and then resheathed; if not resheathed after a battle, the bloodiron weapon requires the user to make a Wisdom check every round it is held. If the check fails, the wielder is compelled to attack the nearest living creature, friend or foe.
Wounds caused by bloodiron do not regenerate (giving the chant its other name, “trollsbane”). Bloodiron chants have no effect on blunt weapons or on magical weapons of any kind. Dwarves often cast bloodiron on crossbow bolts, creating deep wounds that are difficult to heal. The spell is especially popular among warriors of Abbathor, the dwarven god of greed.
The material component is the iron to be affected, plus the blood of the lead chanter. Casting bloodiron requires that the forge-priest to cut himself with the weaponed to be enchanted; giving his blood to the bloodiron magic causes 2d8 hp damage to the forge-priest. This damage
== Dark Alloy (Chant) ==
Level: 3
Sphere: Sun
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 3d4 turns
Area of Effect: 1 oz. metal
Saving Throw: None
This spell transforms an ordinary piece of iron into metal with a number of unusual properties. The material becomes invisible in sunlight and glows when unsheathed in conditions of darkness, whether that darkness is magical or natural. The metal created by a dark alloy chant, called dunchalcor (and known simply as “dark steel” in the FORGOTTEN REALMS® setting), is often used to make secret runes for dwarven shrines. The metal is also used as filligree in special weapons, denoting a weapon’s maker, its bearer, or even its special powers. Dunchalcor is a necessary material component in the pech chant
The material component of the dark alloy chant is an ounce of mithril
== Ashen Steed (Chant) ==
Level: 4
Sphere: Summoning
Range: 0
Components: V, M
Duration: 1 day/level
Casting Time: 2d6 turns
Area of Effect: 1
Saving Throw: None
This chant captures and forms the forge’s smoke into a magical steed. The caster(s) must prepare a smoking fire source to create a plume of smoke, which is then captured in a bottle or other sealable vessel. This vessel must be opened within 24 hours per effective level of the chanting group.
When the vessel is opened, the smoke pours out and forms a smoky steed, which takes a form depending on the caster’s effective level. The type of steed depends on the level of the caster: 
Caster Level Steed
1-3 Pony 
4-6 Donkey 
7-9 Giant Lizard 
10-12 Smoke Wyvern 
Each form has an AC of 5 and 7 hp plus 1 hp per level of the caster. If an ashen steed ever loses all its hit points, it disappears. The smoke wyvern flies at a speed of 24, and the smoke dragon flies at 36. None of the ashen steed creatures can attack, and none has any special abilities; the wyvern cannot sting and the dragon cannot employ a breath weapon. The pony and donkey can carry only the holder of the bottle, but the lizard, wyvern, and dragon can carry a number of additional creatures equal to the number of chanting smiths and priests who help cast the chant. Once it arrives, the ashen steed lasts for a full day or until dispelled.
The material component for ashen steed chants vary, but all include a stone vessel inscribed with the chants runes. In addition, the chant requires a pony’s shoe, a donkey’s halter, a giant lizard scale, a wyvern’s stinger, or a dragon’s scale.
== Pech Chant (Chant) ==
Level: 4
Sphere: Elemental (Earth), Summoning Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 2d6 turns
Area of Effect: 1 mine
Saving Throw: None
The chant is favored by miners far more than by smiths, for it summons a group of pech pale-eyed miners from the Elemental Plane of Earth into a dwarven mine to assist the workers there. The pech chant summons as many pech as there are miners chanting: no more, and no fewer. The pech triple the mine’s output as long as they remain working, and because they are expert miners, no unexpected explosion, flooding, or collapse occurs while the pech assist the dwarves. However, the pech can create a siege tunnel, breach a dam, or engage in combat, if so commanded by the lead cantor. As soon as they finish any destructive stonework, the chant ends and the pech return to the Plane of Earth.
If the pech are asked to perform only peaceful work, the chant only lasts as long as at least one of the dwarven miners is still chanting; as soon as a dwarf stops chanting he falls asleep. The pech remain by the dwarves’ side, working steadily and
silently, until the last of the dwarves who chanted them into the mine has fallen asleep. Then they return, unseen, to the Plane of Elemental Earth.
The material component for a pech chant is a pick-axe made of finest steel and inscribed with runes of dark alloy metal (200 gp).
== Secrets of Stone (Chant) ==
Level: 5
Sphere: Elemental (Earth), Summoning Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 3d6 turns
Area of Effect: 1 stone
Saving Throw: None
This spell hastens the slow-moving spirits of the earth to provide information about an underground area.
When chanted successfully, secrets of stone allows the cantor(s) to learn who or what has recently passed through a tunnel, pass, or mountain range. Since stone has no concept of time, it cannot relate how recently the creatures have passed, but it can provide complete descriptions and numbers. In areas where the spirits have encountered dwarves before, they pass along their information by covering a nearby wall or stone with dwarven runes describing recent activities. In areas where the spirits have never met dwarves, they form pictures instead of runes.
The spell’s duration is a single day, or until the bound spirits answer three questions, whichever comes first. The material component for secrets of stone is a geode, a type of hollow stone filled with a crystalline lining.
== Tempering (Chant) ==
Level: 5
Sphere: Necromantic
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1d12 hours
Area of Effect: 1 dwarf
Saving Throw: None
This chant tempers the soul of a single dwarf, making him a forge- priest and initiating him into the greater mysteries of the societies among dwarves. The ceremony of the tempering chant itself requires a vigil held in a temple of Moradin, and the
words must be chanted both by the initiate and by a single master forge- priest; that is, a dwarven priest of 9th level or higher or a smith with at least nine slots of smithing nonweapon proficiencies. If the saving throw is successful, the tempering succeeds and the initiate becomes a forge- priest. In addition, completion of the chant grants an additional slot of smithing proficiency and a +1 bonus to all saving throws against fiery attacks. If the chant fails, the initiate loses a point of Strength permanently and may not attempt the chant again until at least 10 years have passed.
The material components are a silver axe (100 gp), a flawless iron hammer (25 gp), and a small golden anvil (500 gp), all of which must be melted down during the course of the vigil.
== Anneal Clan Spirit (Chant) ==
Level: 6
Sphere: Guardian, Summoning Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1d4 days
Area of Effect: 1 item
Saving Throw: None
This chant calls up an ancestor of the dwarven clan to give an item intelligence and possibly magical power. Each ancestor can be annealed to an item only once, and dwarven forge-priests keep careful records of which spirits have been called upon, and which clan has the right to call upon the next available spirit.
If the chant is completed, the summoned spirit enters the item and grants it the ability to answer questions (as per a speak with dead spell). Once all questions have been answered, the spirit is free to leave the item at any time. If it has been well- treated, a successful Charisma check by a dwarf of the spirit’s clan indicates that the spirit remains in the item for another year. If the spirit is mistreated, it leaves at once. The longer it stays, the more likely it is that the item will display additional powers. For each decade that the item is inhabited, the DM either chooses an ability or rolls on the accompanying table to determine what ability the item gains. If the same result appears more than once, the effect is cumulative. If the item is abandoned, it neither gains nor loses abilities until it is again used.Records describing the use of the anneal clan spirit chant indicate that annealed spirits have created other effects as well; the preceding table is only a guide.
Each time an item transfers ownership, the new owner must make a Charisma check. If the check succeeds, the item retains both the annealed spirit and its powers. If the check fails, the annealed spirit leaves the item forever, sometimes leaving behind a single minor power as a sign of its long habitation. Items whose spirits have been bound for long periods of time are revered as holy relics by many dwarves, and a clan will go to great lengths to keep such precious objects in the family. They are never sold or bartered away.
Summoning the spirit of a clan ancestor and chanting it into an item requires the cantor(s) to add a bone of the ancestor to the forge’s fire.
== Purifying Fire (Chant) ==
Level: 6
Sphere: Elemental
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1d4 hours
Area of Effect: 1 item
Saving Throw: None
This chant destroys the magical power of a metal item by bathing it in cleansing flame. The chant alters the color of the forge-fire from orange to an odd mix of orange and purple; this change indicates that the chant has succeeded. No matter how flammable an item might be, it does not burn while held in the purifying fire.
The chant functions just as a dispel magic does, but it disenchants the affected item completely and without the need for a percentage die roll to determine success. A purifying fire chant always removes all charges or enchantments from an item; it cannot selectively remove harmful powers while retaining beneficial ones.
The material components for purifying fire are coke and phlogiston
(from the Plane of Fire) or fire elemental essence, both of which are consumed as fuel for the spell’s fire.
== Masterwork (Chant) ==
Level: 7
Sphere: Creation
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1d6 months
Area of Effect: 1 forge
Saving Throw: None
The masterwork chant represents an enormous effort by a team of smiths, working in shifts for months under the direction of a master smith to create an item of such perfection that it becomes imbued by magical power, as if the masterwork item had been enchanted. This chant permits the creation of magical metal items of up to +1 per two extra slots of the relevant nonweapon proficiency of the master smith. Thus, an armorer with only the base proficiency or one extra slot of proficiency cannot create a masterwork at all. However, an armorer with three slots (two for the base level of skill, plus one extra) of the armorer proficiency can create a suit of chain mail +1, plate mail +1, and so on. For items without “pluses,” a masterwork can yield an item of 1,000 XP value per two extra slots of the relevant nonweapon proficiency (usually blacksmithing). Magical spells that nullify or destroy a normal magical item (wand of negation, Mordenkainen’s disjunction, etc.) have no effect on items produced by a masterwork chant.
When the months of effort are finished, the master smith must make a nonweapon proficiency check using his blacksmithing, armorer, or weaponsmith proficiency score, as appropriate. If the check succeeds, the masterwork is a success; if the check fails, the work is fatally flawed and must be started over. In either case, the attempt is so exhausting that the master smith cannot attempt another masterwork chant for 10 years.
The material component for a masterwork chant are a miniature hammer and anvil made of mithril (worth 1,000 gp).
Magical Smith’s Tools
Blacksmiths generally forge and reforge their own tools, reworking them when they wear out or when they need strengthening. Some of these magical tools have become
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