Preacher Advanced Class

[MadTinkerer]

I'm working on an advanced class for d20 modern that emulates the average (Protestant) "Preacher" type. I'm aiming for a class that can be taken by a Dedicated Hero ("seminary student") at 2nd level. At the moment, the class has borrowed most of the class features of the Bard, though Preachers Inspire Competance by preaching instead of singing, of course. Quoting the Bible directly gives a bonus, if an appropriate verse is picked.

In addition to encouraging their fellow adventurers, Preachers can alternately "Preach Hellfire" which discourages their enemies. Also, Preachers have a passive resistance to Fear effects and can eventually Rebuke Evil creatures (any intelligent evil non-human creature) at higher levels (though this ability only makes the creatures afraid of the Preacher, not of the other characters). All these class abilities are assuming the Preacher is Good. I'll also be working on variants for Neutral and Evil Preachers (villians can disguise themselves as good people, after all).

It probably won't be "done" until after d20 Modern comes out, but what I've got so far is *almost* usable. The trick is that I'm not sure how "alignment" will be handled in d20 Modern. If it's an optional rule, then there's no problem, of course.

I'd also like to see other people's versions of religious leaders as Advanced Classes when d20 Modern comes out.

 

[JTyranny]

The End (d20) RPG has Preacher class which is fairly modern but less supernatural than you suggest. Check it out.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Charles Ryan has said that d20 Modern doesn't use Alignment, it uses a system of allegiances, Every character chooses 3 things that they believe in and are faithful to. There is no list of allegiances, you simply choose the ones that fits your character. Truth, Justice and The American way, or Me, Myself and I, or Beer, Pizza and Football.

Even thou there is no list, He did mention that Goblins have an allegiance to evil so Good and Evil do exist in D20 Modern (Something I"m unhappy about.)

 

[digitaldark]

Even thou there is no list, He did mention that Goblins have an allegiance to evil so Good and Evil do exist in D20 Modern (Something I"m unhappy about.)

umm...hate to tell ya...but good and evil exists in the real world too.... although most of the time its fairly difficult to distinguish between the two.....which, since d20 modern is pretty much based on modern times, so you could take the modern times view on good and evil and use it for d20 Modern's good & evil...

 

[MadTinkerer]

Less supernatural?

Hmmmm... Well I knew I'd definitely have to make some adjustments. Maybe the Rebuking ability should be adjusted to any non-human creature that has a direct or indirect aleigance to evil. (by the way, when I say "any evil non-human" I mean Outsiders, Undead and probably Aberrations too. I don't neccesarily mean dwarves or goblins. I'm going to narrow the definition later.)

Originally, I was going to make the class purely "persuasion"-based in that it all boiled down to convincing allies that God is with them and convincing enemies that God is against them (unless they repent), since that is more or less what preachers do in real life. However, I wanted some abilities that allowed the class to be played if a campaign has supernatural critters in it.
So I decided that (Good) Preachers are harder to influence by evil creatures and at higher levels, while not neccesarily "casting out demons"(different denominations have different views on this and I am trying to keep the class generic), Preachers are certainly able to scare them. In light of the alleigance thing, maybe it only works for Preachers that have an alleigance with God himself.

I was thinking of, in addition to the preaching and resisting fear abilities, giving Preachers a single Bonus Talent tree that they can pick from. For example, one Preacher may continue to gain a few Charismatic Hero Talents (making Street Preaching easier) while another might pick some Strong Hero Talents (making Kicking Evil Butt easier). However, I'm either limiting it to one tree or to a specific tree they have already started.

I'll have to wait for the final book to make the final version of this class (especially regarding the exact way alleigance works), but isn't everything a work in progress?