Cleric (Legendary)

Whether a trained priest or a particularly devoted layperson, clerics are often respected figures in their communities, spiritual leaders to their fellow faithful and acknowledged for their wisdom by those outside their beliefs. Moreso than any other kind of spellcaster, one is likely to encounter clerics anywhere they might go, though the kinds of clerics and the level of their importance in a town or city will vary greatly. Adventuring clerics typically travel because their faith demands it, whether to spread the word of their religion, fulfill its tenets, or complete a quest important to their beliefs.

**Role:** Clerics fulfill supportive roles in adventuring parties. Their magic is naturally suited towards spells that heal, empower, and protect. That isn’t to say that clerics cannot take more proactive, offensive, or violent routes; the wide variety of training and powers they can derive from their faith allow a wide variety of clerics in the world with many approaches, including self-empowered warriors, explosive battle mages, and masters of battlefield control. Regardless of their chosen specialty, very few parties will reject a cleric seeking to join them.

**Legendary Class:** The legendary cleric’s component elements are similar in nature to the base version of the class, but have been heavily adjusted to offer advancements at every level beyond spellcasting, give domains more prominence as a feature, and offer more choices throughout character progression.

**Alignment:** Any (see Faith)

**Hit Die:** d8

**Starting Wealth:** 4d6 x 10 gp (average 140 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

**Class Skills:** The cleric’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

**Skill Ranks Per Level:** 4 + Int Modifier

### **Weapon and Armor Proficiencies**

Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields). Clerics are also proficient with one weapon based on their faith, typically the favored weapon of a deity or a thematically appropriate weapon to their nontheistic beliefs.

### **Faith (Su)**

A cleric’s power is drawn from their faith, a deep and powerful belief in a greater power or meaning. This may take the form of a deity or pantheon, spirits, ancestor worship, a deep reverence of nature, or any other religious or spiritual belief. A cleric’s alignment must be appropriate to their religion; if they worship a deity, their alignment must be within one step of that deity’s. Otherwise, they should choose an alignment which reflects the values of their faith.

At 1st level, the cleric’s faith manifests itself in a pool of points which fuel their domain powers. The cleric’s faith pool is equal to 1/2 their level plus their Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). When casting a spell, they can expend 1 point of faith to increase their effective caster level by 1 or increase the DC of the spell by 1. The cleric regains all expended faith when they regain spells each day.

### **Aura (Ex)**

A cleric treats their level as 5 higher when determining the strength of their alignment aura. If they worship a deity or an aligned faith, they gain a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment (see *detect evil* for details).

### **Spellcasting**

A cleric casts divine spells which are drawn from the cleric spell list (additional cleric spells can be found here). They cannot cast spells whose alignments oppose theirs or their faith’s. A cleric must choose and prepare their spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a cleric must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a cleric’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a cleric can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Their base daily spell allotment is given on **Table 1-1: Legendary Cleric Class Features.** In addition, they receive bonus spells per day if they have a high Wisdom score (see **Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells**).

Clerics must meditate, pray, or otherwise focus to gain their spells. A cleric must spend 1 hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain their daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a cleric can prepare spells, but they must wait at least 24 hours to regain their spells again.

### **Orisons**

Clerics can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day as noted on **Table 1-1: Legendary Cleric Class Features** under “Spells per day.” These spells are treated like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

### **Knowledge of the Faith (Ex)**

A cleric automatically gains a number of ranks in Knowledge (religion) equal to their class level and may use Wisdom in place of Intelligence for Knowledge (religion) checks. In addition, they automatically succeed at any Knowledge check related to their faith, though if it isn’t about their faith specifically (for instance, a story about a different deity that theirs is involved in), they only know the parts that involve their faith.

### **Channel Energy (Su)**

A cleric can release a wave of energy by channeling the power of their faith through a divine focus, typically a holy symbol. This energy can be used to cause or heal damage, depending on the type of energy channeled and the creatures targeted. At 1st level, the cleric must choose whether they channel positive or negative energy.

A cleric who channels positive energy can choose to deal damage to undead creatures or to heal living creatures. A cleric who channels negative energy can choose to deal damage to living creatures or to heal undead creatures. Channeling energy creates a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the cleric. When channeling, they can select a number of targets in the area of up their Wisdom modifier. These targets are unaffected by the channel (this counts as having the Selective Channeling feat as well as 13 Charisma for the purpose of meeting prerequisites).

The amount of damage dealt or healed is equal to 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of damage for every two cleric levels beyond 1st. Creatures that take damage from channeled energy receive a Will save to halve the damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the cleric’s level + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier. A cleric may channel energy a number of times per day equal to 3 + their Wisdom modifier. This is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. A cleric can choose whether or not to include themselves in this effect.

### **Domains**

The power of a given faith is not all-encompassing. Regardless of how powerful a deity is or how wide-reaching a faith may be, a cleric can only contain so much of that power and scope within themselves. At 1st level, the cleric chooses one domain based on their faith; though the setting may include set domains for a deity or religion, at the GM’s discretion the cleric may choose any domain that is appropriate.

Each domain has an associated skill known as a divine skill. When a domain is selected, the cleric immediately gains that skill as a class skills.

At 10th level, the cleric gains a secondary domain, treating their cleric level as 10 lower when determining what abilities they gain from it (minimum 1). They still may use Wisdom as their ability score for that skill.

At 12th level, the cleric selects one of two doctrines for their primary domain. The chosen doctrine determines the abilities which the cleric gains at 12th and 16th levels.

(Domains can be found here)

### **Spontaneous Casting**

Each domain has one spell at each spell level. A cleric can channel stored spell energy to cast these spells any time. The cleric can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison in order to cast any domain spell of the same spell level or lower.

### **Blessing of the Faith (Su)**

At 2nd level, the cleric gains one of the following feats as a bonus feat: Celestial Obedience, Deific Obedience, Fey Obedience, Fiendish Obedience, Monitor Obedience. They need not meet the skill prerequisites but must worship the requisite entity. At 6th level (or 8th level if they select a feat other than Deific Obedience), they gain the benefits of the first boon offered by their faith, selecting between the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel boons at this level (these determine all other boons the cleric receives). At 10th level (or 12th level if they select a feat other than Deific Obedience), they gain the benefits of the second boon, and at 14th level (or 16th level if they select a feat other than Deific Obedience) they gain the third boon.

If the cleric does not worship an entity or worships an entity without listed bonuses for one of these feats (or if they don’t like any of the presented options for their deity), they may instead choose to receive a +1 sacred bonus to skill checks with a single skill at 2nd level. This bonus improves by 1 at 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter. At 6th level, 10th level, and 14th level, the cleric chooses one of the following types of rolls for this sacred bonus to also apply to: attack rolls, concentration checks, caster level checks, or skill checks with a different skill.

### **Devoted Skill (Ex)**

At 5th level, the cleric gains the skill unlocks for Knowledge (religion) and for their first domain’s divine skill.

### **True Faith (Su)**

At 20th level, the cleric chooses a third domain. They gain the benefits of all domain powers offered by all of their domains as if they had selected them as primary domains, although they only gain the benefit of one doctrine per domain.

## **Ex-Clerics**

A cleric who violates the tenets of their faith or their domain, or whose alignment is no longer appropriate to their faith, loses all spells and class features, except for armor, shield and weapon proficiencies. They cannot thereafter gain levels as a cleric of that faith until they atone for their deeds (see the *atonement* spell description). They can, however, join a new faith that supports the actions that made them lose their powers or exchange their cleric levels for levels in cleric with the faithless archetype, in which case they cease to be an ex-cleric.

## **Favored Class Options**

The following favored class bonuses are available to all characters, regardless of race:

* **Any:** +1/2 faith point
* **Any:** +1/2 damage and healing whenever you use channel energy
* **Any:** +1 on Knowledge (religion or planes) checks
* **Any:** +1/4 caster level on domain spells
* **Any:** +1/5 saving throw DC of domain abilities and domain spells
* **Any:** +1 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome the spell resistance of outsiders
* **Any:** +1 bonus on concentration checks made to cast a cleric spell

## **Archetypes**

Cleric Alternate Class Features

Channeling Adept

Cloistered Cleric

Evangelist

Faithless

Generalist Disciple

Machinist Priest

Planar Envoy

Primordial Disciple

Prophet

Undead Lord