Guardians of the Shrines (Character Kit)

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==Guardians of the Shrines==
Scattered like seeds on the wind are the rare shrines of the elementals. Always built over natural features, they usually contain a quantity of an element in its pure form. Clerics say that this helps create a clearer channel of energy to the patron plane. A cleric of the appropriate element, within range of such a shrine, is significantly more powerful than usual.
Role: Clerics who protect and serve a shrine usually do so for one of two reasons: either they are unable to travel due to age or other circumstances, or there is some pressing situation that requires constant vigilance. Water clerics, for instance, may be forced to care for a particular shrine because it rests on the bank of a stream in need of continual surveillance.
Villages and tribal camps are often found near elemental shrines. They reside there, either to exploit the resources of the shrine or to implore its guardian to serve as a kind of holy man for them. The clerics of these shrines are called upon to heal wounds, cure sicknesses, and help destroy whatever threatens the settlement. Some priests help their neighbors willingly, others demand tribute for their services.
Villages sometimes view these clerics as eccentric hermits, though they rarely refuse a healing spell.
Alignment: Those who commit their lives to a particular shrine are usually lawful in alignment. Priests who wandered before settling into a shrine may well change alignment as soon as they become attuned to the order and rhythms of life around them.
Chaotic guardians tend to be loners. They are often reluctant to allow anyone near their shrines and may use violence to maintain their cherished solitude.
Clerics who offer aid and protection to visitors calling on their shrines are usually good-aligned, but neutral priests will often demand some sort of compensation. Evil priests tend to use their shrines as havens from those who would hunt them.
Special Abilities: Those who spend their lives in the shrines of the elements have earned a special place in the ethereal souls of their masters. There are no special awards per se, but a shrine cleric will almost always be in conjunction with his element.
In addition, priests of the shrines often have other skills associated with the local terrain. These proficiencies are free, but are available only if the cleric's shrine is in one of the locations listed below.
* Guardians of mountain shrines, usually earth or air, may take the mountaineering proficiency.
* Air clerics are known to have skills in astrology, and their shrines are always located beneath the starry sky. Others, living on high mountain peaks or windy canyons, may have learned the wind-sailing proficiency.
* A shrine located in a desert or other dry area would force its protector to learn the water-finding skill.
* Any shrine known for tending to the needs of travelers, especially those of the element of water, will have a protector with the healing proficiency.
Players may select a proficiency or the Dungeon Master can assign proficiencies based on a shrine's surroundings or the tasks its priest would have to learn in a particular location.
Suggested Proficiencies: Agriculture, ancient history, astrology, blacksmithing (Earth and Fire), fire-building, healing, mining (Earth), mountaineering (Earth), stonemasonry (Earth), survival.
Category:Character Kit
Category:Character Kit EAFW