PrC: The Christ

[Visigani]

NOTE: This is meant to be a base class, not a prestige class. I misspoke above and called it the wrong thing.

In the ancient greek meaning of "The Annointed One", not the Christian deity.


Christ
Must be Good
Simple weapons, no armor proficiency
d6
6 Skill Points per Level x4 at Creation
Skills: Concentration, Craft (Any), Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Profession (Any), Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device
All Good Saves
Poor BAB



Unearthly Grace: The Christ adds her Charisma modifier as an armor bonus to her AC and as a celestial bonus to their saving throws.

Holiness: The Christ is immune to charm and compulsion effects or other abilities that deprive the Christ of her moral autonomy. The Christ's alignment cannot be magically altered by any means. Should the Christ ever choose to become non-good or commit an evil act it must be of her own volition.

Bonus Domains: At first level the Christ gains the Good domain and a domain of her choice. At every odd level thereafter the Christ gains a bonus domain. She gains the granted power of the domain and gains access to higher level spells as a cleric of the equivalent level. However, the Christ does not cast spells but instead manifests the spells on the domain list as spell-like abilities. The DC for these abilities is Charisma + Spell level based. She may not choose a new domain if she already has its natural opposite. A Christ with the Chaos domain could not choose the Law domain, a Christ with the Water domain may not choose the Fire domain. Any granted power that normally improves spellcasting (such as improved caster level) instead improves the Christ's spell-like abilities in a similar manner. The caster level of these spell-like abilities is equal to her class level.

The Christ may access each spell level three times per day. The Christ gains additional uses of each spell level per day as though she gained bonus spells for having high charisma.


Channel Divinity: The Christ channels divinity in much the same way a Cleric turns undead, and Channel Divinity effectively duplicates the Clerics signature ability. However, the channeling of divinity may also be used to censure fiends. She may Channel Divinity once per day per class level + her Charisma bonus. Channel Divinity does not stack with Turn Undead or other similar abilities.

Great Devotion: At fourth level and every even level after that the Christ gains a bonus Devotion or Divine Feat. She must have the corresponding domain if she chooses a devotion feat, and must meet the prerequisites for any of these feats regardless.

True Heart: The path of the Christ requires a true heart. Should the Christ become non-good or leave her path and become a different class she immediately and irrevocably loses all bonus domains, unearthly grace, and channel divinity. She retains any bonus feats from Great Devotion.

 

[the Jester]

What are the prerequisites?

What are the base attack and save values?

How many levels is this class?

It's too hard to evaluate without all that.

 

[Vegepygmy]

In the ancient greek meaning of "The Annointed One", not the Christian deity.

Then I suggest you call this class "anointed one" instead, and avoid the obvious issue.

 

[Dandu]

Great job. I, sir, applaud you.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I like the idea of the spell-like ability, limited spell list concept. The build has merit.

Why a good-only version? surely deity's of all alignments would have anointed ones.

 

[Visigani]

Why a good-only version? surely deity's of all alignments would have anointed ones.

Because I'm brave... but I'm not THAT brave. =)

 

[Empirate]

Looks very good on paper, I'd like to play one. However, a little bit of clarification is still needed. For example:

Supernatural abilities usually can't be dispelled, don't draw AoOs etc. Is that what you want this guy to do, or might you be persuaded to confine the pseudo-casting to spell-like abilities? That way, it would be easier to handle for the DM. Some loopholes might also crop up where a particular spell might benefit immensely from being a supernatural ability instead, haven't thought about that too deeply.

What's your caster level for domain pseudo-casting? I'm assuming class level, but your text doesn't say. Can your caster level be improved via feats etc.?

What are "natural opposites"? Chaos and Law I understand, but what about the Fire and Water domains?

You gain bonus devotion and reserve feats. Are you prohibited from taking naturally opposed devotion feats as well (chaos and law devo)? And can you even use reserve feats, when you don't cast spells at all? I'd recommend changing reserve feats to divine feats instead.

I'm assuming Channel Divinity takes the place of Turn Undead for the sake of spending turning uses to fuel devotion and divine feats etc. That correct? If so, you might want to spell it out.


Notes on balance: I expect this class will be the new number one dip class. With Cha to saves and unarmored AC at first level, plus a bonus domain, whose 1st level spell is usable 4+/day as an (Su) ability, and whose power you gain, combined with all good saves... that's A LOT you gain from dipping just one level.
No Craft skill? And Use Magic Device, while obviously very useful for a Cha-based class, doesn't seem to make much sense flavour-wise.

 

[Hassassin]

Skills: Concentration, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Profession (Any), Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device

You'll probably want to add Craft there, since all base classes tend to have it.

Bonus Domains: At first level the Christ gains the Good domain and a domain of her choice. At every odd level thereafter the Christ gains a bonus domain. She gains the granted power of the domain and gains access to higher level spells as a cleric of the equivalent level. However, the Christ does not cast spells but instead manifests the spells on the domain list as supernatural abilities. The DC for these abilities is Charisma + Spell level based. She may not choose a new domain if she already has its natural opposite. A Christ with the Chaos domain could not choose the Law domain. Any granted power that normally improves spellcasting (such as improved caster level) instead improves the Christ's supernatural abilities in a similar manner.

The Christ may access each spell level three times per day. Further she gains bonus uses of each spell level per day as though she gained bonus spells for having high charisma.

You are really just reinventing Bard/Sorcerer spellcasting with domain spells as spells known. Phrasing it that way would make explaining it simpler, if you were ok with them being spells. You could have a custom spells/day chart that would give something at even levels. All the caster level problems would go away and it might make balancing simpler.

If you think it would be thematically inappropriate to have them be (divine) spells (I don't think so), you could say they are treated as spell-like or supernatural abilities instead.

(Making the ability spell casting would add interactions with all sorts of PrC's of course.)

There should also be clarification about "natural opposites" and probably a restriction that a CG Christ cannot select the Law domain and vice versa. In fact, I would do away with the opposites thing and only prohibit a Christ from taking a domain of an opposed alignment. Or maybe require the Christ to have the alignment of the domain instead.

Channel Divinity: The Christ channels divinity in much the same way a Cleric turns undead, and Channel Divinity effectively duplicates the Clerics signature ability. However, the channeling of divinity may also be used to censure fiends. She may Channel Divinity once per day per class level + her Charisma bonus. Channel Divinity does not stack with Turn Undead or other similar abilities.

I'd probably add some fluff on what the ability does to fiends. E.g. that fiends that would be "destroyed" are sent to their native plane for 100 years or whatever. Also, it might be a good idea to let the Christ take Turning feats like Extra Turning that would apply to this ability.

 

[Hassassin]

You are really just reinventing Bard/Sorcerer spellcasting with domain spells as spells known. Phrasing it that way would make explaining it simpler, if you were ok with them being spells. You could have a custom spells/day chart that would give something at even levels. All the caster level problems would go away and it might make balancing simpler.

Here are simple spell tables you might want to consider with that idea:

Spells/day of level 1/2/3/etc.:
1: 2
2: 3
3: 3/2
4: 3/3
5: 3/3/2
...

Spells know (domains selected):
1: 2
2: 3
3: 3
4: 4
5: 4
...

So every even level the Christ would gain a new domain and one more highest level spell/day. Every odd she would gain a new spell level at 2/day. 19th would be an empty level, but 20th with +1 BAB, +1 Saves, (+1 ability), +1 domain, and +1 Great Devotion should make up for it.

 

[Visigani]

Made some modifications.