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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1988689" data-attributes="member: 3424">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.PrerequisitesThe 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 skillsYou 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 BonusYou'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 throwsYou'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 proficienciesIf 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.SpellcastingSince 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 abilitiesAura: 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).</blockquote>

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