Air Clerics (EAFW)

Clerics who make pacts with the denizens of the Plane of Air are perhaps the most misunderstood of all the elemental clerics. They are wanderers, diviners, travelers, and mystics. There are those who even call them frauds, but not to their faces.
Villagers and nomads often ask the air clerics to peer into the future and tell of the success or failure of crops, marriages, and fate. Though their answers are often difficult to understand, careful listeners may well be forearmed against potential disaster.
Like the winds, their minds are constantly wandering, and they rarely seem focused on a current problem or situation. Some say that is because they are empowered by flighty patrons, and others say that repetitive viewing of the future drives one mad.
Strangely, the one question they don't seem able to answer is whether Athas will recover from the devastation that the defilers have inflicted upon her. Clerics of the air say that the answer is beyond the scope of their abilities, but others say they are simply afraid to seek the answer.
==Initiation==
The test of the air cleric is perhaps the most terrifying of the elemental initiations. A cleric begins the ordeal by spending two weeks in the highest mountains he and his mentor can find, usually a peak within the Ringing or Mekillot Mountains. The mountain trek is often as arduous and dangerous as the test itself.
During this two-week period, the candidate and his mentor scale the high peaks and spend hours in meditation on windy ledges. When the initiate feels he is ready, he walks to an overhang where his mentor casts a protective spell over him. Then, the student leaps from the precipice, throwing off the shackling chains of the earth and giving himself completely to the wind.
As the petitioner falls, the air spirits will speak with him and attempt to forge the pact of air. If the student agrees and the air spirits accept him, he is gently lowered to the ground, now a lst-level Cleric of Air. If the spirits don't accept the candidate, he is dropped the remaining distance to the earth—typically 10 to 60 feet
==The Pact of Air==
The single most important principle of the lords of the air and their initiates is freedom. They loathe restriction in their movements, personalities, beliefs, practices, and clothing, and they rebel against any attempts to impose limitations.
This makes them enemies of all forms of bondage, and they are required do what they can to fight slavery whenever possible. A cleric of the air who frees a slave should receive a 10% bonus to the experience points earned during the adventure. Criminals may be similarly freed if the cleric honestly believes the felon was unjustly imprisoned. Political prisoners in particular, are often grateful to see a priest of the air take notice of their plight
The growing power of the sun has also angered the air elementals; its constant heat stills the earth and turns it dry and lifeless, and the air hangs in hot pockets of lethargy. Tken too, where once mighty oceans gave birth to terrible hurricanes and typhoons, the winds must now be content to scream weakly in the barren wastes. Because of this, air elementals require their clerics to protect and preserve earth and water. By doing this, the elementals hope that the mighty forests will return to shelter the planet from the harsh sun, and that the raging oceans will once again fill the great silt basins. Only then will they regain the unbridled freedom they once knew.
==Weapons and Armor==
Clerics of the air rarely engage in physical combat with more powerful opponents. Instead, they prefer to stand at a distance and let the wind carry deadly missiles to the enemy.
Missile weapons of any sort can be used by priests of the air. This includes bows, crossbows, slings, javelins, and spears. Spears may be used in melees.
Air clerics don't like restrictive bonds, so they rarely wear anything heavier than leather armor. They are not restricted to leather, this is a matter of personal taste. Regardless, they usually wear long flowing robes over any other protection. The breezy flutter of their loose garments is a particularly gratifying symbol for air clerics.
==Granted Powers: Major==
At the 5th level, air clerics may ignore the presence of air for a number of rounds equal to their level. Air priests are not affected by spells that attack with wind or air, and the cleric does not have to breathe. A 5th-level air cleric is unaffected by poison gas or by spells such as stinking cloud. Should his power be expended while the cleric is subjected to a spell or condition, he is affected normally.
Like all elemental priests, air clerics may gate in material directly from the Plane of Air upon reaching the 7th level. In this case the "material' is a terrific wind capable of knocking down all creatures sized huge or less for one round.
A sheet of wind, 2 feet wide for every level above the 6th,
whips about at his command for one round, moving at gale speed. This means the priest can affect ld4 individuals for every level above the 6th before the wind finally subsides. Anyone hit must make a saving throw vs. paralyzation or be knocked to the ground for the rest of the round. This prevents opponents from making magical, missile, or melee attacks.
The wind must start at a point no more than 50 feet from the cleric, but can be directed farther once it is set in motion. In a single round, a gale force wind can travel about 1,000 yards.
While the wind is much less destructive than the materials gated in by other clerics, its advantage is its terrific range.
==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 receives the direct benefits of these powers.
* Clean Air: This power automatically transforms unhealthy air or vapor into clean, breathable oxygen as it enters the cleric's nose or mouth. The duration is equal to the priest's level, and this power can only be invoked once per day.
* Refreshing Breeze: A constant breeze will caress the cleric's skin whenever he is outdoors. The cooling this provides will reduce his water requirements by one-half, and that grants him a +1 reaction bonus because of his relaxed composure. The priest will hardly sweat when others are drenched, but can sunburn and suffer other such effects normally.
* Missile Stream: The spirits of the air help compensate for their champions' poor melee ability by guiding their missiles to their targets. This gives the cleric a +1 to hit with any missile that might logically be affected by slight winds. The guidance includes arrows, bolts, and darts, but not boulders or flaming pitch from catapults. This power will work continuously as long as the priest remains outdoors.
* Missile Deflection: The reverse of missile stream, this power will help steer incoming missile weapons away from the cleric, effectively subtracting 1 from the enemy's attack roll. It is always considered to be active while outdoors and can only be used indoors if there is an adequate source of wind. A priest must be at least 5th level to choose this power.
* Control Winds: This power functions the same as the 5th level-priest spell of the same name.
* Protection from Wind: With this power, a cleric always has a +2 saving throw vs. any wind based attack.
* Feather Fall: At the 3rd level, a cleric of air may choose to invoke feather fall once per day. The duration of this ability is the extent of the fall. If the priest should happen to fall a second time, he had best have a spell of the same name prepared.
==Wandering Air Clerics==
It is almost redundant to call them "wandering" air clerics, for travel has been ingrained into the spirits of these roving prophets since birth.
Typically, they wander from settlement to settlement sharing prophecies, telling fortunes, and teaching conservation and the manufacture of wind-powered devices.
Visiting air clerics are seen as eccentric but beneficent madmen with a unique gift for telling the future. Because of this, most people are reluctant to invite them into their homes, but they are more than willing to take advantage of their divinatory talents.
==Air Clerics of the Shrines==
The shrines of air are located only on the highest peaks of Athas's mountains, or at the ends of deep valleys where the rushing winds break against the cliffs that confine them.
Because of the wandering nature of these priests, the shrines are visited but rarely, and are usually tended by those who have become physically unable to travel in any sense but the spiritual.
==Air Clerics in the Cities==
Air clerics are reluctant to spend much time in the cities of the sorcerer-kings. The people of the cities seem to be shackled to their everyday concerns, and the constant surveillance of the templars chains the spirits of these unfettered wanderers.
When air clerics are found in a city, it is usually in connection with an underground caravan. These organizations attempt to free slaves by smuggling, disguise, bribery, or any other means necessary.
==Air Shamans==
Nomadic tribes are almost always accompanied by shamans of the air. The shaman represents their wandering nature and their ideal of living free of the yokes imposed by owning land.
Though all clerics of the air tend to be mysterious and elusive, the shamans of the air are even stranger. Rarely seen among their tribesmen, they have an uncanny knack for appearing during times of need, when their council is desperately required. Healing is a role they disdain and perform only if the afflicted individual is deemed "worthy.' It is not wise to get on the wrong side of the tribal shaman.
Their primary functions are as advisors and seers, but even these tasks are performed grudgingly. Petty or personal questions are almost always ignored, and draw disfavor. In some clans, only the senior elder is allowed to speak with the shaman.