First attempt at a prestige class

[ronpurvis]

Here is my very first attempt at a prestige class. Please take a look at tell me what you think.

Foot Soldier of God

The Foot Soldier of God is a fanatical soldier of their god who fights against real evil. His whole purpose is to fight the source of evil in the world. He doesn’t spend his time worrying about the small time crook or those who commit personal sins. The demons, evil monsters and races, and powerful groups such as thieves’ guilds and followers of the dark arts are what he seeks to eradicate.

While a Paladin or Cavalier is usually from the upper classes, the Foot Soldier of God is usually from the lower and middle classes. Most who take this path in life have suffered at the hands of true evil at an early age and turned to the god of those that saved them. Many sole survivors of Orc or Goblin raids have chosen to devote their lives to wiping out all of the major evils in the world. Those who have lost their families to the undead or demons tend to want others not to suffer the same fate.

A Foot Soldier of God will have spent time training to be a cleric. After seeing the evils in the world, he becomes even more determined to wipe out what they see is the source of evil and suffering. He decides that he must take a far more active role in fighting evil. Acting primarily as a healer and conduit is not enough anymore. He becomes in a sense a jihadist that will take a more central role in the fight or die trying.

Requirements
To qualify to become a Foot Soldier of God, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Alignment
Any Good.
Skills
Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
Spells
Able to cast 2nd level divine spells.
Class Skills
The foot soldier of God’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A foot soldier of God is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and shields.

A foot soldier of God receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category.

Aura (Ex): A foot of soldier of God has a particularly powerful aura of good (see the detect evil spell for details).

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a foot soldier of God can use detect evil, as the spell.

Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): A foot soldier of God can turn or destroy undead creatures by channeling the power of his faith through his holy (or unholy) symbol (see Turn or Rebuke Undead). He may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. A foot soldier of God automatically gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead due to their knowledge (religion).

Extra Turning [General]: The soldier of God gains this bonus feat at first level. It allows him to use his ability to turn or rebuke creatures four more times per day than normal (a number of times per day equal to 3 + his or her Charisma modifier). This feat does stack with previous and future the feat is gained.

Special: You can gain Extra Turning multiple times. Its effects stack. Each time you take the feat, you can use each of your turning or rebuking abilities four additional times per day.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At levels 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 the foot soldier of God gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained one level as a cleric. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of foot soldier of God to the level of cleric the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If the foot soldier of God does not already have the War Domain, he will add it as a third domain. (When adding the War domain they will no longer progress in one of the other domains.)

Special Ability: A foot soldier of God gains the following special abilities at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a foot soldier of God may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per foot soldier of God level. If the foot soldier of God accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the foot soldier of God may smite evil one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Protection from Evil (Su): At 3rd level, a foot soldier of God can call on his God for protection from evil creatures, mental control, and summoned creatures as if using the spell. This spell like ability takes one of his turning attempts but does not require a material component. (Note: The duration is 1 min./level. Only the levels as a foot soldier of God count for this spell like ability, however it can be used multiple times.)

Prayer (Su): At 5th level the foot soldier of God can call on his god for special favor for his self and allies while bringing disfavor on his enemies. Each use of this ability replaces one of his turning attempts and is a free action. It gives a +1 bonus on all rolls of the foot soldier of God and his allies for one round. His enemies take a –1 penalty for one round.

Divination (Su): Starting at 7th level, once per day a foot soldier of God may pray for information from his God. This functions the same as the 4th level Cleric spell except the material component is not needed.

Maximize Spells against Evil (Su): At 9th level, the foot soldier of God can use negative energy spells to their maximum effect on evil creatures. Any spell with a description that involves inflicting or channeling negative energy cast on an evil creature works as if under the effect of a Maximize Spell feat (without using a higher-level spell slot).

Class Base Fort Ref Will
Level Attack Save Save Save Special Spell casting
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Smite Evil

2 +1 +3 +0 +3 +1 level existing divine Cleric

3 +2 +3 +1 +3 Protection from Evil

4 +3 +4 +1 +4 +1 level existing divine Cleric

5 +3 +4 +1 +4 Prayer

6 +4 +5 +2 +5 +1 level existing divine Cleric

7 +4 +5 +2 +5 Divination

8 +5 +6 +2 +6 +1 level existing divine Cleric

9 +5 +6 +3 +6 Maximize Spells against Evil

10 +6/+1 +7 +3 +7 +1 level existing divine Cleric

 

[FireLance]

Hi ronpurvis, hope you won't take offense at my comments. Ready?

I think you have an rough idea of what you want this PrC to be, but I think the abilities could be better streamlined and tied together thematically. It's usually best to start out with an idea of what the PrC is supposed to be. Let's work towards your 9th-level ability of maximizing inflict spells against evil opponents. This is the guy that channels spell power into inflict spells for use against evil creatures. Now, let's look at the elements of the PrC one by one.

Prerequisites
The prerequisites you listed could be met by a 4th-level cleric or an 8th-level paladin. Less intuitively, a druid, ranger or adept could also qualify for the PrC. If you want to limit it to cleric and paladin only, one possibility is to also require the ability to turn undead. Most PrCs are also set up so that PCs can only qualify for them after a minimum of 5 levels in other classes. This is not a requirement, but if you want to maintain parity with the other PrCs, you could increase the required ranks of Knowledge (religion) to 8.

Class skills
You appear to have used the cleric list of class skills. While there is nothing wrong with this, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (the planes) may seem out of place for a footsoldier. On the other hand, Intimidate may be a good addition to the list of skills. You also seem to have left out the number of class skills per level. I'm guessing it should be around 2+Int bonus.

Base Attack Bonus
You've used a non-standard BAB progression, which caps out at +6. Again, while there is nothing wrong with that, a martially-oriented PrC like this one should have at least medium BAB (like a cleric) or good BAB (like a paladin). Since the maximize inflict ability sounds pretty nasty, I guess we could go with medium BAB for now, and ensure it gets good special abilities.

Saving throws
You've given it two good saves, Fortitude and Will, and poor Reflex saves, like a cleric. This sounds fine, and helps to make up for the medium BAB.

Weapon and armor proficiencies
If you expect the character to come into this PrC from the cleric or paladin class, he would already be proficient in all armor and shields (except tower shields) and at least simple weapons. Giving the character proficiency and Weapon Focus in his deity's favored weapon would be sufficient.

Spellcasting
Since there is the possibility of coming into this PrC from both the paladin and cleric classes, the spellcasting progression ought to take this into account and allow the +1 spellcasting level to apply to the divine spellcasting class that qualified the character for this PrC (to rule out applying this to druid, ranger or adept spellcasting). This short-changes paladins relative to clerics, but we can make up for this later. Also, if we want it to be attractive to take all ten levels of this PrC, we should put the maximize inflict ability at level 10, and shift spellcasting level increases to the odd levels.

Other special abilities
Aura: No arguments about this ability, but you should mention how powerful the aura is, e.g. equal to a good cleric of his class level.

Smite Evil: Also a good ability to have, and one that we can use to balance out a paladin's weaker spellcasting progression by stating that if the soldier of God has paladin levels, he gains additional daily attempts to smite evil instead, and soldier of God levels stack with paladin levels to determine the bonus damage.

Turn Undead, Extra Turning, Protection from Evil, Prayer, Divination: These abilities don't really tie in with the PrC concept, in my view. It has no special anti-undead focus, so Turn Undead seems out of place. Extra Turning seems to be there only to give the character extra uses of the Protection from Evil and Prayer abilities. The character is also already likely to have access to Protection from Evil, Prayer and maybe Divination from his spellcasting abilities, so they aren't really as interesting to him. Let's see if we can think of other special abilities that are more useful and thematically linked to the maximize inflict ability.

The thing about inflict spells is that they use negative energy. While negative energy may not be evil in itself, it heals undead and chanelling negative energy is a trait of evil priests. Let's see how we can work around this.

Holy Inflict (Su): At 1st level, a soldier of God's inflict spells acquire the [Good] descriptor and deal divine damage instead of negative energy damage. Good-aligned creatures take no damage from his inflict spells, while neutral creatures take only half damage.

Spontaneous Inflict (Su): At 2nd level, a soldier of God may spontaneously convert prepared spells to inflict spells.

Somatic Substitution (Ex): At 2nd level, a soldier of God may make gestures with his deity's favored weapon in place of the normal somatic components when casting inflict spells, i.e. he does not need to have a hand free while casting such spells, as long as he is holding his deity's favored weapon and is able to move it around freely.

Channel Inflict (Su): At 4th level, a soldier of God may channel inflict spells through his deity's favored weapon. He may make a normal melee attack with his deity's favored weapon in place of a melee touch attack to deliver the spell, and if successful, he deals normal weapon damage in addition to damage from the inflict spell. If he misses, his deity's favored weapon still holds the inflict spell, and discharges it on his next successful hit. He may make a ranged attack instead if his deity's favored weapon is a projectile or thrown weapon, but the inflict spell discharges if he misses. Even if the soldier of God channels an inflict spell that affects multiple targets (e.g. mass inflict light wounds), an inflict spell channeled in this manner only affects the target struck by the weapon.

Empower Inflict (Su): At 6th level, a soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Empower Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time.

Improved Critical (Ex): At 8th level, a soldier of God gains the Improved Critical feat with his deity's favored weapon.

Maximize Inflict (Su): At 10th level, a soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Maximize Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time. A soldier of God may not expend two turn undead attempts to both empower and maximize an inflict spell, but may expend a turn undead attempt to maximize a spell he has empowered normally using a metamagic feat and vice-versa.

Extra domain: I don't really think it's necessary to give the soldier of God an extra domain, but if you want to, I think Good would be just as appropriate as War. In addition, there is no reason why he cannot retain his previous domains should you choose to give him another (this results in less bookkeeping, too).

 

[jaker2003]

I like those suggestions


Also a question and a comment:
If they get the Good Domain, those Inflict[Good] spells get a +1 caster level right?

How about a Supernatural Favored Enemy equivelent against a certain evil deity? Like, if it was Orcs that drove a particular Foot Soldier of God to need rescuing, then he would gain bonuses against Orcs and any other servants of Gruumsh . . . and how about a bonus on saving throws agiants magical effects with the [Evil] descriptor?

 

[ronpurvis]

Thank you both for your comments. I appreciate the suggestions. Hopefully it will become a decent class after all suggestions and revisions are made.

Prerequisites
The prerequisites you listed could be met by a 4th-level cleric or an 8th-level paladin. Less intuitively, a druid, ranger or adept could also qualify for the PrC. If you want to limit it to cleric and paladin only, one possibility is to also require the ability to turn undead. Most PrCs are also set up so that PCs can only qualify for them after a minimum of 5 levels in other classes. This is not a requirement, but if you want to maintain parity with the other PrCs, you could increase the required ranks of Knowledge (religion) to 8.

I actually thought about limiting it to clerics only, but I figured paladins might want to go for this sometimes. My thinking here was that the paladin is more of a knight and would seldom be the type of person who would have the background to become a foot soldier of God. Think more of the the homicide bomber in Palastine who hates Jews (that he thinks iare evil) so much that he will kill himself just for a chance to kill them. Or the anti abortion bomber, who will possibly kill doctors so they won't perform abortions. That was the feel that I was going for and I don't think many Paladins would go for this. Does this make sense?

I will change it to 8 ranks of Knowledge (religion). That was a miscalculation.

Class skills
You appear to have used the cleric list of class skills. While there is nothing wrong with this, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (the planes) may seem out of place for a footsoldier. On the other hand, Intimidate may be a good addition to the list of skills. You also seem to have left out the number of class skills per level. I'm guessing it should be around 2+Int bonus.

I did use the Cleric and Paladin classes to base my class on. I left those three areas of Knowledge in because the character would have not only started off as a cleric, but usually been raised by them. I mentioned in the description that they usually turn to the god of those who saved them. What I should have also mentioned is that many of them will be taken in by the church as orphans. This means that they will have in large part grown up around clerics who have taught them these areas of knowledge. On the other hand they don't have the knowledge of nobility and royalty that a Paladin would have since they are typically from the lower classes.

You are right, I left out that the skill points at each additional level is 2 + Int.

Base Attack Bonus
You've used a non-standard BAB progression, which caps out at +6. Again, while there is nothing wrong with that, a martially-oriented PrC like this one should have at least medium BAB (like a cleric) or good BAB (like a paladin). Since the maximize inflict ability sounds pretty nasty, I guess we could go with medium BAB for now, and ensure it gets good special abilities.

You are right. It should have the same BAB as a cleric. While he is very much oriented towards warfare against evil, his teachers have primarilly been clerics. I was trying to keep the class from being too powerful, but now I think that this was the wrong area to change.

Weapon and armor proficiencies
If you expect the character to come into this PrC from the cleric or paladin class, he would already be proficient in all armor and shields (except tower shields) and at least simple weapons. Giving the character proficiency and Weapon Focus in his deity's favored weapon would be sufficient.

Ok.

Spellcasting
Since there is the possibility of coming into this PrC from both the paladin and cleric classes, the spellcasting progression ought to take this into account and allow the +1 spellcasting level to apply to the divine spellcasting class that qualified the character for this PrC (to rule out applying this to druid, ranger or adept spellcasting). This short-changes paladins relative to clerics, but we can make up for this later. Also, if we want it to be attractive to take all ten levels of this PrC, we should put the maximize inflict ability at level 10, and shift spellcasting level increases to the odd levels.

I really was looking for this type of character to be more of a cleric who was fanatical about going after the major evil that they see as a threat to the world. I really wanted them to have trained as a cleric even if they have levels in a different class. THat is why I put in the description that he will have trained as a cleric. I guess I should have just listed Cleric as a requirement the same way the Incarnate prestige class lists Druid as a requirement.

The question is; does this make the class unusable?

Other special abilities
Aura: No arguments about this ability, but you should mention how powerful the aura is, e.g. equal to a good cleric of his class level.

I can do that.

Smite Evil: Also a good ability to have, and one that we can use to balance out a paladin's weaker spellcasting progression by stating that if the soldier of God has paladin levels, he gains additional daily attempts to smite evil instead, and soldier of God levels stack with paladin levels to determine the bonus damage.

See the the comments above.

Turn Undead, Extra Turning, Protection from Evil, Prayer, Divination: These abilities don't really tie in with the PrC concept, in my view. It has no special anti-undead focus, so Turn Undead seems out of place. Extra Turning seems to be there only to give the character extra uses of the Protection from Evil and Prayer abilities. The character is also already likely to have access to Protection from Evil, Prayer and maybe Divination from his spellcasting abilities, so they aren't really as interesting to him. Let's see if we can think of other special abilities that are more useful and thematically linked to the maximize inflict ability.

I do feel that the extra turning is something I want to give simply because the undead are such an evil presence. I didn't intend for it just to be a mechanism to give extra uses of the other abilities but instead to be a way for them to take the lead if the party come across the undead.

I agree with you on the other abilities mentioned.

The thing about inflict spells is that they use negative energy. While negative energy may not be evil in itself, it heals undead and chanelling negative energy is a trait of evil priests. Let's see how we can work around this.

Holy Inflict (Su): At 1st level, a soldier of God's inflict spells acquire the [Good] descriptor and deal divine damage instead of negative energy damage. Good-aligned creatures take no damage from his inflict spells, while neutral creatures take only half damage.

Spontaneous Inflict (Su): At 2nd level, a soldier of God may spontaneously convert prepared spells to inflict spells.

Somatic Substitution (Ex): At 2nd level, a soldier of God may make gestures with his deity's favored weapon in place of the normal somatic components when casting inflict spells, i.e. he does not need to have a hand free while casting such spells, as long as he is holding his deity's favored weapon and is able to move it around freely.

These sound good.

Channel Inflict (Su): At 4th level, a soldier of God may channel inflict spells through his deity's favored weapon. He may make a normal melee attack with his deity's favored weapon in place of a melee touch attack to deliver the spell, and if successful, he deals normal weapon damage in addition to damage from the inflict spell. If he misses, his deity's favored weapon still holds the inflict spell, and discharges it on his next successful hit. He may make a ranged attack instead if his deity's favored weapon is a projectile or thrown weapon, but the inflict spell discharges if he misses. Even if the soldier of God channels an inflict spell that affects multiple targets (e.g. mass inflict light wounds), an inflict spell channeled in this manner only affects the target struck by the weapon.

This one sound really good.

Empower Inflict (Su): At 6th level, a soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Empower Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time.

I assume that if the PC has the extra turning feat this be usable the additional times. Even if I don't give the feat as a bonus, this would be something the PC would almost certainly take at some point. Most low level clerics take this feat in order to more useful to the party. A PC who really wants to destroy evil everywhere they see it, would likely take it also.

Improved Critical (Ex): At 8th level, a soldier of God gains the Improved Critical feat with his deity's favored weapon.

Maximize Inflict (Su): At 10th level, a soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Maximize Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time. A soldier of God may not expend two turn undead attempts to both empower and maximize an inflict spell, but may expend a turn undead attempt to maximize a spell he has empowered normally using a metamagic feat and vice-versa.

These also sound good. They seem to focus the power more to what I was looking for but didn't know how to do.

Extra domain: I don't really think it's necessary to give the soldier of God an extra domain, but if you want to, I think Good would be just as appropriate as War. In addition, there is no reason why he cannot retain his previous domains should you choose to give him another (this results in less bookkeeping, too).

I really want to use the War domain simply because he is a foot soldier. It also grants the weapon focus feat. I could allow the PC to keep three feats but I thought that make it too powerful or unbalanced. Is that a problem with the changes discussed?

 

[the Jester]

I like FireLance's suggestions too- there are some cool ideas in there! I also like the idea of spending turn attempts to power a prestige class- that's kicked off some ideas for me.

One thing I would point out is that the special abilities should come on the 'off levels' for spellcasting. I think that 1/2 progression is a good approach.

I don't think it's problematic for adepts, at least, to become soldiers of god. Their town was overrun and the adept is the only survivor, he goes for revenge, so on and so forth.

 

[ronpurvis]

One thing I would point out is that the special abilities should come on the 'off levels' for spellcasting. I think that 1/2 progression is a good approach.

I don't think it's problematic for adepts, at least, to become soldiers of god. Their town was overrun and the adept is the only survivor, he goes for revenge, so on and so forth.

I did have the special abilities and spellcasting alternate levels. Otherwise I think the class would be way too unbalanced.

I also think the adept could possibly become a foot soldier of God. Lie you indicate they would certainly have the revenge attitude and they are very related to clerics.

 

[ronpurvis]

I like those suggestions


Also a question and a comment:
If they get the Good Domain, those Inflict[Good] spells get a +1 caster level right?

How about a Supernatural Favored Enemy equivelent against a certain evil deity? Like, if it was Orcs that drove a particular Foot Soldier of God to need rescuing, then he would gain bonuses against Orcs and any other servants of Gruumsh . . . and how about a bonus on saving throws agiants magical effects with the [Evil] descriptor?

Yes they should get the +1 if the PC has the Good domain. I also like your other ideas.

I hope to get some more ideas today and then make revisions and repost it tonight.

 

[FireLance]

Hi all, I'd just like to address a couple of comments that have been raised, in no particular order.

Good and fanaticism
Not to start an alignment discussion, but I think good people (even paladins) can be fanatical, but they have to be very careful. It is all right if they sacrifice themselves to destroy evil, but they should not be willing to sacrifice innocent lives to do so. A good character who makes a habit of sacrificing innocent lives because he feels his cause is right will start drifting towards neutral (or worse), in my view.

Cleric levels
It's alright if you want to restrict entry into the class to clerics only, but it's better to do so via class abilities, spell access, etc. rather than stating a class. Since the PrC is focused towards using inflict spells, you could require the ability to cast inflict light wounds and inflict moderate wounds. By the core rules, you need to have levels of cleric to do so (the good alignment rules out blackguards), and DMs that allow other types of divine spellcasters or PrC that grant access to these spells can give their players alternative routes to this PrC. Unfortunately, adepts don't have access to inflict spells, but maybe it's better (power-wise) for them to take a level of cleric first.

Extra domain
Granting an extra domain is not too powerful. The character still gets only one domain spell per level, so he just gets one additional choice of domain spell per day, and one extra domain ability.

Empower and maximize
I did some calculations yesterday and realised that at higher levels, it is usually better to empower rather than maximize the inflict series of spells, because maximize only increases the variable portion, but empower also increases the level increase added. For example, an inflict critical wounds cast by a 20th-level caster deals 4d8+20 (avg 38) points of damage. Maximized, it deals 52 points of damage. Empowered, it deals an average of 57 points of damage. I'm thinking it might be better to roll the Empower Inflict and Maximize Inflict abilities into a single ability that allows the character to choose which he wants to add to the spell.

Inflict spell power
I also thought this would be a useful ability to have as the character will otherwise be at a disadvantage using inflict spells against spell resistant opponents. This ability increases the character's caster level for inflict spells by the listed amount. I would have this at the odd levels, bump the spellcaster level increases to the even levels, and re-arrange the other abilities.

Inflict specialist, Greater inflict specialist
This increases the damage dealt by inflict spells by +2 and +4 (similar to Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization). I think this will be useful to space out the abilities if we roll the Empower Inflict and Maximize Inflict abilities into one.

So, the progression for special abilities might be as follows (I added Greater Weapon Focus to give it something at each level and it's consistent with the footsoldier theme):

01. Inflict Spell Power +1, Aura, Smite Evil (1/day), Turn Undead, Extra Turning, Holy Inflict, War Domain
02. +1 divine caster level, Somatic Substitution, Channel Inflict
03. Inflict Spell Power +2, Inflict Specialist (+2 damage)
04. +1 divine caster level, Spontaneous Inflict
05. Inflict Spell Power +3, Smite Evil (2/day)
06. +1 divine caster level, Favored Enemy
07. Inflict Spell Power +4, Greater Inflict Specialist (+4 damage)
08. +1 divine caster level, Improved Critical (deity's favored weapon)
09. Inflict Spell Power +5, Greater Weapon Focus (deity's favored weapon)
10. +1 divine caster level, Smite Evil (3/day), Empower/Maximize Inflict

 

[ronpurvis]

Sorry to take so long to get back. I got sick that evening and by the time I was well, I already had my internet service disconnected for the move to our new house.

Anyways, here is the updated info on the class. Please take a look and see if I am headed in the right direction.


Foot Soldier of God

The Foot Soldier of God is a fanatical soldier of their god who fights against real evil. His whole purpose is to fight the source of evil in the world. He doesn’t spend his time worrying about the small time crook or those who commit personal sins. The demons, evil monsters and races, and powerful groups such as thieves’ guilds and followers of the dark arts are what he seeks to eradicate.

While a Paladin or Cavalier is usually from the upper classes, the Foot Soldier of God is usually from the lower and middle classes. Most who take this path in life have suffered at the hands of true evil at an early age and turned to the god of those that saved them. Many sole survivors of Orc or Goblin raids have chosen to devote their lives to wiping out all of the major evils in the world. Those who have lost their families to the undead or demons tend to want others not to suffer the same fate.

A Foot Soldier of God will have spent time training to be a cleric. After seeing the evils in the world, he becomes even more determined to wipe out what they see is the source of evil and suffering. He decides that he must take a far more active role in fighting evil. Acting primarily as a healer and conduit is not enough anymore. He becomes in a sense a jihadist that will take a more central role in the fight or die trying.

Requirements
To qualify to become a Foot Soldier of God, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria.
Alignment
Any Good.
Skills
Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks.
Spells
Able to cast 2nd level divine spells. Also able to cast Inflict Light Wounds.
Class Skills
The foot soldier of God’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A foot soldier of God is proficient with and has Weapon Focus with his deity’s favorite weapon.

Aura (Ex): A foot of soldier of God has a particularly powerful aura of good (see the detect evil spell for details). The aura has the same strength as a good cleric of the same level.

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a foot soldier of God can use detect evil, as the spell.

Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): A foot soldier of God can turn or destroy undead creatures by channeling the power of his faith through his holy (or unholy) symbol (see Turn or Rebuke Undead). He may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. A foot soldier of God automatically gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead due to their knowledge (religion).

Extra Turning [General]: The soldier of God gains this bonus feat at first level. It allows him to use his ability to turn or rebuke creatures four more times per day than normal (a number of times per day equal to 3 + his or her Charisma modifier). This feat does stack with previous and future the feat is gained.

Special: You can gain Extra Turning multiple times. Its effects stack. Each time you take the feat, you can use each of your turning or rebuking abilities four additional times per day.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 the foot soldier of God gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained one level as a divine spell caster. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the additional spell level of foot soldier of God to the level of divine spell caster the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If the foot soldier of God does not already have the War Domain, he will add it as a third domain.

Special Ability: A foot soldier of God gains the following special abilities at levels 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a foot soldier of God may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per foot soldier of God level. If the foot soldier of God accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the foot soldier of God may smite evil one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Spontaneous Inflict (Su): At 2nd level, a foot soldier of God may spontaneously convert prepared spells to inflict spells.

Somatic Substitution (Ex): At 2nd level, a foot soldier of God may make gestures with his deity's favored weapon in place of the normal somatic components when casting inflict spells, i.e. he does not need to have a hand free while casting such spells, as long as he is holding his deity's favored weapon and is able to move it around freely.

Channel Inflict (Su): At 4th level, a foot soldier of God may channel inflict spells through his deity's favored weapon. He may make a normal melee attack with his deity's favored weapon in place of a melee touch attack to deliver the spell, and if successful, he deals normal weapon damage in addition to damage from the inflict spell. If he misses, his deity's favored weapon still holds the inflict spell, and discharges it on his next successful hit. He may make a ranged attack instead if his deity's favored weapon is a projectile or thrown weapon, but the inflict spell discharges if he misses. Even if the foot soldier of God channels an inflict spell that affects multiple targets (e.g. mass inflict light wounds), an inflict spell channeled in this manner only affects the target struck by the weapon.

Empower Inflict (Su): At 6th level, a foot soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Empower Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time. This power may be used as many times as the foot soldier of God has turn attempts available.

Improved Critical (Ex): At 8th level, a foot soldier of God gains the Improved Critical feat with his deity's favored weapon.

Maximize Inflict (Su): At 10th level, a foot soldier of God may expend a turn undead attempt as a free action to apply the Maximize Spell feat to an inflict spell that he casts without increasing the spell's level or casting time. A soldier of God may not expend two turn undead attempts to both empower and maximize an inflict spell, but may expend a turn undead attempt to maximize a spell he has empowered normally using a metamagic feat and vice-versa.


Class Level Base Attack Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special Spell casting
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Smite Evil +1 level existing divine Cleric

2 +1 +3 +0 +3 Spontaneous Inflict
Somatic Substitution

3 +2 +3 +1 +3 +1 level existing divine Cleric

4 +3 +4 +1 +4 Channel Inflict

5 +3 +4 +1 +4 +1 level existing divine Cleric

6 +4 +5 +2 +5 Empower Inflict

7 +5 +5 +2 +5 +1 level existing divine Cleric

8 +6/+1 +6 +2 +6 Improved Critical

9 +6/+1 +6 +3 +6 +1 level existing divine Cleric

10 +7/+2 +7 +3 +7 Maximize Inflict

 

[jayaint]

I think this PrC is very cool, both in concept and execution. Headed in the right direction indeed!!! However, and this is just about as nit-picky as it gets, I have a question for you: There is a stated assumption in the flavor text that Paladins, Cavaliers, etc are "usually" from a higher class than is a "foot soldier". Yet, the class is available to (FAIAP) clerics and divine casters. It would seem to me that most "foot soldiers" in DnD culture would be warrior, expert, or low-level fighter classed??? Am I barking up a wrong tree to assume that most clerics would probably adhere to a "higher level" of class and culture than a mud-slogging foot soldier?

I only bring this up for the issue of naming the PrC. I have some ideas, none of which are probably what you are working towards, as this is probably unwanted criticism. Names such as "Wrath of ____ (insert good-aligned God here)", "Weapon of the Divine" or "Angel of Force/Power/etc" might convey the flavor of this class. "Foot Soldier of God" (at least in my tiny addled little mind) brings up images of paladin-esque warriors bristling with sharp pointy weapons, standing in long rows on a battlefield like Braveheart extras.

The class is great, and very very yoink-able. In fact, I am already playing with the name "standard bearer of god" and using the magic weapon/item XP-growth over time rulesest to make a cleric who gains powers through the use of a reliquary or idol that gets more and more powerful. I just think that the name might be tightened up a bit to conjure a little more adequate feel. That's all. Good work by everyone in the thread, though.