NPC Equipment
Wealth by Level Sucks
Let's be upfront about this: the wealth-by-level system doesn't work. It's broken forwards, backwards, sideways, and a few other directions no one's given a name to. Consider some of the ways:
- Infinite Money Loops. These exist in many different levels and forms, from balor-mining to iterated walls of iron to simply exploiting price differentials in raw materials and finished goods.
- Farming. This ranges from literal farming to various other money-making schemes, but the basic idea is that if the PCs can arrange to have free time on their hands, they can gain money, often ridiculous amounts of money, without gaining levels or even roleplaying. ("Ok, what would you like to do?" "We're going to go off for two hundred years and farm, because we're all elves, then purchase magical gear with the proceeds." "Ok then.")
- XP Manipulations. These range from minor manipulations, such as riding a level behind the rest of the party and putting the extra XP gained into crafted items, to major ones, such as using a difference engine with artificer to avoid having to spend any XP on items at all.
- Stealing the Shirts Off Enemies' Backs. Like PCs, many classed NPCs belonging to low CR races need equipment to perform at their rated CRs. When PCs kill these NPCs, though, they get their equipment, and too many of these result in the PCs having far more items than they should according to wealth-by-level.
- Sunders, Disarms, and Captures. Sundering weapons is actually really easy, and against an opponent reliant on a weapon to do damage, often quite devastating; it makes even more sense when a henchmen executes to deprive a PC of it before the fight with the BBEG. Disarming small items is also easy, to the point of stupidity if you're using the core rules rather than RoW, and so grabbing things and running away is a great tactic not only for thieves, but for weakening opponents while strengthening oneself. Finally, in D&D being captured at higher levels is literally a fate worse than death: losing all one's equipment is considerably more expensive, in gold and equivalent experience, than dying and being raised, and some characters can't fight opponents even near their CR without that equipment.
Maybe it's possible to balance systems where PCs acquire money and experience separately (e.g., Shadowrun's karma and nuyen), but D&D is not such a system: casters often don't need any equipment at all to do level-appropriate things, while noncasters can't do level-appropriate things at all without equipment. (Using the core noncasters, this is almost an absolute truth, but it's less true for Tome series noncasters.)
Fixing the entirety of these problems is beyond the scope of this short piece, so again, I'll focus on cheap hacks to make a more manageable section of the game, NPCs, work better.
NPC Wealth by Level Sucks More
In any event, just like PCs, NPCs need basic numeric bonuses to compete as challenges of their supposed level/CR. While they don't have much trouble with this at low levels, by higher levels they have serious trouble purchasing the basics with NPC wealth at higher levels. This is particularly true for noncasters, who can't afford the essential non-numeric abilities like flying on PC wealth, but meeting the essentials even with casters requires crafting and buffs, introducing much more complexity into character creation. Thus, I'm going to use PC wealth to estimate when NPCs should have certain numeric bonuses, to give them a fighting chance.
Weapon and armor bonuses in the following table are enhancement bonuses to equipment; specific equipment varies by class and character, and armor applies to both body armor and shields. Save bonuses are resistance.
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Lvl Weapon AC Saves
Enhancement Natural Deflection
1st
2nd
3rd
4th +1 +1
5th +1
6th +1 +1 +2
7th
8th +2
9th +2 +3
10th +3
11th +2 +4
12th +3 +2
13th +4 +5
14th +4 +5
15th +5 +3 +3
16th +4 +4
17th +5 +5
18th
19th
20th
What's the source of these bonuses? There are essentially three choices.
Option 1: NPCs Have Equipment Like PCs
In this, the standard approach, every NPC comes equipped with certain standard items appropriate for their level: magic weapons and armor, cloak or vest of resistance, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and ability-boosting items. The big disadvantage with this is that when the PCs kill the NPCs, they get to loot all these items, and then sell them (or retain essence them) to turn them into a pile of more useful items. (The wish economy limits the benefit to high-level characters without retain essence or similar abilities who strip equipment off mooks, but by the time the PCs participate in the wish economy, their NPC enemies must have wish-economy-quality gear or they won't threaten the PCs.)
Option 2: NPCs are Special
Rather than having equipment that gives these bonuses, NPCs just
get them. Mechanically, they can be class features of the NPC classes, special spells
permanencied on NPCs, or just arbitrary abilities. The big disadvantage of this approach is that it creates a blatant and obvious distinction between PCs and NPCs and raises issues if an NPC becomes a PC or vice versa. (Players might wonder how NPCs with nonmagical equipment, which they strip off the bodies after they kill the NPCs, can compete with the PCs.)
Option 3: Everyone Gets Basic Numeric Bonuses
This requires a more significant overhaul of the game than either of the previous options. As a rough draft, it's possible to use the above table for NPCs
and PCs. However, this frees up a lot of PC cash for other items, which is a good thing for noncasters, since in most cases they need the help, but may unbalance casters, because they can use spells to cover essential abilities, then dump all their cash into powerful caster-improvement items like beads of karma and rods of metamagic.
NPC Abilities
Ability scores are a bad idea. To get from a raw ability score to the derived numbers used in combat requires two separate steps, which doesn't sound like much, but is annoying to do for lots of NPCs and takes too long in combat. Unfortunately, it's not possible to eliminate ability scores without revamping the system altogether, so instead I'm going to create a simplified system for handling NPC ability scores.
NPCs have three kinds of abillities, primary, secondary, and tertiary, according to their class. Each NPC class has one primary ability, two secondary abilities, and three tertiary abilities, listed in their entries. The chart below lists scores and bonuses (or penalties), according to the kind and the NPC's level; this incorporates all normal sources of ability bonuses, including starting stats, level-based bonuses, enhancement bonuses from equipment, and inherent bonuses from magic. (Note that I have not assumed the wish economy, but rather used the wealth-by-level guidelines to estimate what stats NPCs ought to have. The wish economy has serious problems and destroys the CR tables once it comes into play, so the magic item system and D&D's economic model requires an overhaul.) The combat statistics given in the NPC class tables themselves already incorporate these values, so you shouldn't need to look these up unless you need to know an ability bonus for an unusual check, to evaluate the effects of ability damage, or something similar.
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Level Ability Score Ability Bonus
Primary Secondary Tertiary Primary Secondary Tertiary
1st-5th 16 14 10 +3 +2 +0
6th-7th 18 14 10 +4 +2 +0
8th-11th 20 16 10 +5 +3 +0
12th-13th 22 16 10 +6 +3 +0
14th-15th 24 18 12 +7 +4 +1
16th-17th 28 20 12 +9 +5 +1
18th-19th 30 20 12 +10 +5 +1
20th 32 20 12 +11 +5 +1
NPC Skills
One of the few worthwhile things from Unearthed Arcana is the [COUNTURL=
http://http://www.d20srd.org/srd/varian ... tedChoices]Maximum ranks, limited choices[/COUNTURL] skill system: while not suitable for PCs, it works well for NPCs. I'm going to use this system for the NPC classes and pre-pick the class skills they have; multiclassed NPCs, if anyone is so crazy as to want such a thing, use the multiclassing rules as normal.
Customizing NPCs
NPC Races
In my campaigns, and other campaigns I've played in and observed, the default race is human. Conveniently, human NPCs are easy to throw together: one only need select a feat and a skill. While all of the NPC classes have a simplified set of bonuses that replace the normal feats characters get from levels, I suggest that instead of using those bonuses for the human extra feat, one should select a Combat [or fighter, for those not using RoW rules], Skill, or metamagic feat. The reasons for this are two-fold: first, good feat choice minimizes required numerical recalculation, and second, having one feat gives each NPC some individuality. I've included with each NPC class some suggested feats and skills for the human extra feat and skill points.
Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid some recalculation when using other races, since most D&D races package substantive numerical bonuses with nonnumerical and flavor abilities. I've tried to simplify the process of recalculation as much as possible, but the need for it is irremovable.
Since most races don't get selectable abilities like humans, and I've tried to reduce the number of selectable abilities for the classes, this method creates a problem: all NPCs of the same race, class, and level can be identical. If I wanted more flavor for an NPC, I'd probably remove the numerical bonuses from the 1st-level feat and give them abilities from an actual feat instead.
Customizing Equipment
I designed the following NPC classes so that it's easy to add weapons to them: each class gives a damage bonus to which one adds the weapon dice. Other weapon abilities, like reach and threat range, don't require recalculation, so are easy to handle. Meanwhile, armor under the standard rules is boring, because there's an obvious right choice. RoW armors are more interesting, but use different rules, so converting isn't a simple process.
Weapons and armor are the most salient features for most characters, since they're visible and offer cues to a character's combat abilities. I've already covered the basic equipment that offers numerical bonuses. Generally, other NPC items should add abilities rather than bonuses: e.g., for an underwater combat, the NPCs might need helms of underwater action to compete with PCs who have similar items, spells, or abilities.
Guard
"
Guards! Seize them!"
Guards are found anywhere there's something to protect, and their charges range from treasure vaults to the king's person to the lich's phylactery. As usual, level represents a guard's power: the king's bodyguards may all be 10th level and perfectly capable of beating down a 5th-level party single-handedly, while the same party might walk all over the local thug's 1st-level mooks.
[a]Class Abilities:[/b] Primary: Strength, Secondary: Dexterity and Constitution.
Class Skills: Balance, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot.
Suggested Bonus Skill for Humans: Escape Artist or Tumble.
Feats: Guards gain a +1 bonus to attack, +1 dodge bonus to AC, +1 bonus to all saves, +2 damage with weapons, +1 bonus to initiative, and +1 HP per HD instead of a feat.
Equipment: The statistics below assume that guards of 3rd-level or lower are equipped with breastplates, those of 4th-level to 7th-level with full plate, and those of 8th-level or higher with mithral full plate. (ACPs are taken into account for Balance.) These are clearly optimal using the basic armor rules.
Since Frank and K neglected to give us cost guidelines for the RoW armors, it's impossible to know when they should be available, and because BAB modifies the ACP and maximum Dex bonus of the armor, it's hard to write out a simple conversation table.
Guards fight with weapon and shield or a bow. Guards always use heavy steel shields, upgrading to heavy mithral shields at 8th level. Converting to RoW shields is simple, since it only requires the addition of the difference in AC and the subtraction of the difference in the armor check penalty.
Base Attack Bonus: Good.
The following table lists by level, in the following order, a guard's hit points, melee attack bonus, ranged attack bonus, damage bonus (with one-handed melee weapons and bows), normal AC, touch AC, AC against incorporeal attacks, extra AC from dodge bonuses and Dex (if a guard loses their Dex bonus to AC for some reason, subtract this value from the normal AC against that attack), saves, initiative bonus, number of attacks of opportunity a round, the DC for their halt movement and dazing blow abilities, their Dex-based skill checks with armor-check penalty included, and their Wis-based skill checks with the Halt! Who goes there? bonus included.
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Lvl HP Atk Dmg AC Saves Init AoOs DC Skills
M R Tch Inc Ddg Fort Ref Will Dex Wis
1 15 +5 +4 +5 20 13 13 +3 +5 +5 +3 +3 3 13 +0 +5
2 24 +6 +5 +5 20 13 13 +3 +6 +6 +4 +3 3 14 +1 +7
3 37 +9 +8 +8 21 14 14 +4 +7 +7 +5 +4 3 14 +2 +9
4 47 +10 +9 +8 24 14 14 +4 +8 +8 +6 +4 3 15 +1 +11
5 58 +11 +10 +8 26 14 14 +3 +8 +8 +6 +4 3 15 +2 +13
6 74 +15 +13 +12 29 16 16 +4 +10 +10 +8 +5 4 17 +3 +15
7 86 +16 +14 +12 29 16 16 +4 +10 +10 +8 +5 4 17 +4 +17
8 105 +18 +16 +18 33 17 17 +6 +12 +12 +9 +6 5 19 +11 +19
9 127 +21 +19 +21 35 18 18 +7 +13 +13 +10 +7 5 19 +12 +21
10 140 +23 +21 +21 38 19 19 +8 +14 +15 +11 +7 5 20 +13 +23
11 154 +24 +22 +21 40 20 20 +8 +14 +15 +11 +7 6 20 +14 +25
12 179 +28 +25 +26 41 21 21 +9 +16 +17 +13 +8 6 22 +15 +27
13 194 +29 +26 +26 44 21 21 +9 +16 +17 +13 +8 6 22 +16 +29
14 222 +31 +28 +28 46 29 22 +9 +18 +19 +14 +9 7 24 +18 +32
15 253 +34 +31 +31 48 31 24 +10 +19 +20 +15 +10 7 24 +19 +34
16 285 +37 +33 +35 49 32 25 +10 +21 +22 +16 +11 9 27 +21 +36
17 303 +38 +34 +35 50 33 45 +10 +21 +22 +16 +11 9 27 +22 +38
18 338 +41 +36 +49 51 34 46 +11 +23 +24 +18 +12 9 29 +23 +40
19 357 +42 +37 +49 51 34 46 +11 +23 +24 +18 +12 9 29 +24 +42
20 375 +44 +38 +52 51 34 46 +11 +24 +25 +19 +12 9 31 +25 +44
Level, Abilities:
1 Halt! Who goes there?, quick reactions
2 Damage reduction, uncanny dodge
3 Halt movement, magic weapons
4 Maneuver mastery +4, spell resistance
5 Active assault, improved uncanny dodge
6 Block charge, threaten spellcasters
7 Dazing blow, energy resistance
8 Ignore damage reduction, strong blows
9 Flying 40' (good), sacrifice
10 Ghost sight,
hasted
11 Dimension jump, increased reach
12 Ignore concealment and cover, blindsense 120'
13 Freedom of movement, maneuver mastery +8
14 Block touch, death and energy drain immunity
15 Mind-affecting immunity, slow movement
16 Fortification, rapid attacks
17 Ghost slayer, ignore debilitation
18 Stronger blows, true sight
19 Status immunities, divination immunity
20 Sure blow, sure save
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Guards are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as any exotic weapons peculiar to their race; light, medium, and heavy armor; and shields and great shields [or tower shields, for those not using RoW].
Halt! Who Goes There? (Ex): Guards gain a competence bonus equal to their class level on Listen, Sense Motive, and Spot checks, and may always take 10 with those skills.
Quick Reactions (Ex): Guards may make extra attacks of opportunity per round equal to their Dex bonuses, and they may make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.
Damage Reduction (Ex): Guards of 2nd-level or higher gain damage reduction equal to their class level divided by half. Nothing penetrates this damage reduction.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A guard of 2nd-level or higher retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she's flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If she already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Halt Movement (Ex): A guard of 3rd-level or higher who receives an attack of opportunity from an opponent moving out of her threatened area can forgo the attack of opportunity to attempt to stop her opponent's movement in that square. The opponent's movement stops there, as if they'd used up their movement for the turn, if they fail a Reflex save (DC equal to 10 + ½ the guard's character level + her Strength modifier).
Magic Weapons (Su): Guards of 3rd-level or higher always have level-appropriate bonuses on their weapons, giving them a +1 enhancement bonus per three class levels with any weapon they wield (already figured into the statistics above).
Maneuver Mastery (Ex): Guards of 4th-level or higher gain a +4 competence bonus on trip, disarm, sunder, bull-rush, and grapple checks. Starting at 13th level, this bonus improves to +8.
Spell Resistance (Ex): Guards of 4th-level or higher have spell resistance equal to their class level + their character level (thus twice their character level, for a single-classed guard).
Active Assault (Ex): Guards of 5th-level or higher may take a 5 foot step as an immediate action, in addition to any other movement they take during their turn, even another 5 foot step.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Guards of 5th-level or higher can't be flanked except by characters with at least four levels more in classes that grant sneak attack than a guard has in classes that give uncanny dodge.
Block Charge (Ex): Charging a guard of 6th-level or higher provokes an attack of opportunity from that guard; this attack is considered a "readied attack" if it matters for purposes like setting against a charge.
Threaten Spellcasters (Ex): Creatures may not cast defensively in the threat ranges of guards of 6th-level or higher.
Dazing Blow (Ex): The first melee attack in a round from a guard of 7th-level or higher dazes opponents who fail a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ her character level + her Strength modifier).
Energy Resistance (Ex): Guards of 7th-level or higher have energy resistance equal to their character level plus 10 to acid, cold, electricity, fire, negative energy, and sonic damage.
Ignore Damage Reduction (Ex): The weapons of guards of 8th-level or higher bypass all material- and alignment-based damage reduction.
Strong Blows (Ex): Guards of 8th-level or higher deal twice their Strength bonus in damage while wielding one-handed melee weapons or using bows. Starting at 18th level, guards deal thrice their Strength bonus in damage.
Sacrifice (Ex): As an immediate action, a guard of 9th-level or higher may make herself the target of an attack or targeted effect that targets any creature within her reach.
Flying (Su): Guards of 9th-level or higher can fly at 40 feet per round (60 feet, if for some reason they aren't wearing their
Ghost Sight (Su): Guards of 10th-level or higher can see invisible and ethereal creatures.
Hasted (Su): Guards of 10th-level or higher are always under the effects of
haste (the bonuses to attacks, AC, and Reflex saves already figured into the statistics above).
Dimension Jump (Su): As a swift action, a guard of 11th-level or higher may teleport herself and anything she's physically carrying 60 feet in any direction.
Increased Reach (Ex): Guards of 11th-level or higher gain 5 feet of reach with their weapons, and if already using a reach weapon, may strike adjacent targets with it.
Ignore Cover and Concealment (Ex): Guards of 12th-level or higher ignore miss chances and other effects from any cover or concealment less than total.
Blindsense (Ex): Guards of 12th-level or higher have blindsense to 120 feet.
Freedom of Movement (Su): Guards of 13th-level or higher act as if always under the effects of
freedom of movement.
Block Touch (Ex): A guard of 14th-level or higher may apply their shield bonus to their touch AC.
Death Immunity (Su): Guards of 14th-level or higher are immune to death effects and negative levels.
Mind-Affecting Immunity (Su): Guards of 15th-level or higher are immune to mind-affecting effects.
Slow Movement (Ex): With a swift action, a guard of 15th-level or higher can make all 5-foot squares adjacent to themselves into difficult ground.
Fortification (Ex): Guards of 16th-level or higher are immune to critical hits.
Rapid Attacks (Ex): Guards of 16th-level or higher can make a full attack as a standard action.
Ghost Warrior (Su): The weapons and armor of guards of 17th-level or higher act as if they have the ghost touch property.
Ignore Debilitation (Ex): As a swift action, a guard of 17th-level or higher can ignore one spell or status effect on her for one round.
True Sight (Su): Guards of 18th-level or higher see as if always under the effects of
true seeing.
Divination Immunity (Su): Divinations cast on or about guards of 19th-level or higher fail to yield any information about them.
Status Immunities (Ex): Guards of 19th-level or higher are immune to ability damage and drain, blindness, dazing, deafness, fatigue and exhaustion, nauseation, paralysis, sickening, staggering, stunning, and any transmutation they are unwilling to accept.
Sure Blow (Ex): As an immediate action, a guard of 20th-level or higher may take 20 on a single attack roll.
Sure Save (Ex): As an immediate action, a guard of 20th-level or higher may take 20 on a single save.
Priest
"
You don't believe me? When I'm done with you, you will be a true believer."
Class Abilities: Primary: Wisdom, Secondary: Strength and Constitution.
Class Skills: Concentration, Spellcraft.
Suggested Bonus Skill for Humans:
Feats: Guards gain a +1 bonus to attack, +1 dodge bonus to AC, +1 bonus to all saves, +2 damage with weapons, +1 bonus to initiative, and +1 HP per HD instead of a feat.
Equipment: The statistics below assume that guards of 3rd-level or lower are equipped with breastplates, those of 4th-level to 7th-level with full plate, and those of 8th-level or higher with mithral full plate. (ACPs are taken into account for Balance.) These are clearly optimal using the basic armor rules.
Since Frank and K neglected to give us cost guidelines for the RoW armors, it's impossible to know when they should be available, and because BAB modifies the ACP and maximum Dex bonus of the armor, it's hard to write out a simple conversation table.
Guards fight with weapon and shield or a bow. Guards always use heavy steel shields, upgrading to heavy mithral shields at 8th level. Converting to RoW shields is simple, since it only requires the addition of the difference in AC and the subtraction of the difference in the armor check penalty.
Base Attack Bonus: Good.
Level, Abilities:
1 Cleric mimic,
cure/inflict touch 1d8, devoted insight, remove fear
2 Expanded knowledge
3 Cure/inflict touch 2d8, magic gear, remove paralysis/fatigue/ability penalties
4 Health sense
5 Cure/inflict touch 3d8, remove blindness/curse/deafness/disease
6 Darkness
7 Cure/inflict touch 4d8,
neutralize poison,
poison immunity, restoration
8 Spell immunity
9 Cure/inflict touch 5d8, tenacious spell-likes,
magic circle
10 Hasted
11 Air walk,
energy resistance 30,
freedom of movement,
mass cure/inflict 1d8, greater restoration
12
13 mass cure/inflict 2d8
14
15 Antimagic field,
mass cure/inflict 3d8, mind-affecting immunity
16 Fortification,
greater spell immunity
17 mass cure/inflict 4d8
18
19 mass cure/inflict 5d8
20
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Priests are proficient with all simple weapons; light, medium, and heavy armor; and shields.
Spells: Priests cast divine spells which are drawn from the priest spell list. Priests automatically know all the spells on the priest spell list for all the spell levels they can cast; essentially, their spell list is the same as their spells known list. Priests can cast any spell they know without preparing it ahead of time.
To cast a priest spell, a priest must have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class of the saving throw against a priest's spells are 10 + the spell's level + their Wis modifier. Priests can cast the same number of spells per day as sorcerers, minus two each day, and gain bonus spells for a high Wisdom (already figured into the spells/day figures above).
Priests' caster levels are equal to their class levels.
0 Level (Orisons): create water,
detect magic,
detect poison,
light,
mending,
purify food and drink,
read magic
1st Level: detect chaos/evil/good/law,
entropic shield,
magic weapon,
obscuring mist,
protection from chaos/evil/good/law,
sanctuary,
summon monster I
2nd Level: align weapon,
hold person,
make whole,
shatter,
silence,
shield other,
summon monster II
3rd Level: bestow curse,
create food and water,
daylight,
dispel magic,
invisibility purge,
meld into stone,
protection from energy,
speak with dead,
stone shape,
summon monster III,
wind wall
4th Level: death ward,
discern lies,
dimensional anchor,
dismissal,
,
,
poison,
sending,
spell immunity?,
summon monster IV
5th Level: break enchantment,
dispel chaos/evil/good/law,
disrupting weapon,
greater dispel magic,
flame strike,
righteous might,
slay living,
spell resistance,
summon monster V,
wall of stone
6th Level: antilife shell,
banishment,
blade barrier,
greater dispel magic,
find the path,
harm,
heal,
heroes' feast?,
summon monster VI,
wind walk,
word of recall
7th Level: blasphemy,
control weather,
destruction,
dictum,
ethereal jaunt,
greater scrying,
holy word,
regenerate,
repulsion,
summon monster VII,
word of chaos
8th Level: cloak of chaos,
dimensional lock,
discern location,
earthquake,
holy aura,
greater spell immunity,
summon monster VIII
9th Level: astral projection,
etherealness,
gate,
mass heal,
implosion,
miracle,
soul bind,
summon monster IX
Powers: Each priest has some additional powers related to their divine patron's or ideal's portfolio.
Death: Death priests like killing things and bring them back as undead. They channel negative energy and thus may only be neutral or evil.
- 1st: Once per day, with a melee touch attack, a death priest may roll 1d6 per priest level, and if the total at least equals the creature's current hit points, it dies. This death touch is a death effect and a supernatural ability.
- 5th: Four times their priest level in HD of zombies and skeletons follow a death priest around, in addition to the undead they control with their rebuking ability.
- 9th: Slay living 1/day.
- 13th: Destruction 1/day.
- 17th: Wail of the banshee 1/day.
Good: Good priests season their days of helping the weak and needy with the occasional smiting of evil. They, obviously, must be good, so channel positive energy.
- 1st: Once per day, a good priest can perform a greater turning against undead in place of a normal turning, destroying any undead that would normally be turned.
- 5th:
- 9th: Heal 1/day.
- 13th: Blade barrier 1/day. A special type of antimagic field that does not affect them or their equipment surrounds mage-priests constantly. A good priest may raise or lower this field, or restore it if it's disjoined, as a standard action; this is a spell-like ability.
- 17th: Prismatic sphere 1/day.
Itinerant Priests: Intinerant priests wander around, usually promoting their religion, but sometimes just for kicks.
- 1st: Itinerant priests have a 10-foot enhancement bonus to their land speed. Also, itinerant priests act as if always under the effects of freedom of movement; this effect may be dispelled, but an itinerant priest may restore it as a standard action.
- 5th: Fly 1/day.
- 9th: Teleport 1/day.
- 13th: Greater teleport 1/day.
- 17th: Timestop 1/day.
Mage: Mage-priests follow deities and ideals of magic and share some abilities with wizards.
- 1st: Mage-priests can use spell completion and spell trigger items as if they had a wizard level equal to half their priest level.
- 5th: Clairaudience/clairvoyance 1/day.
- 9th: Mage-priests benefit from arcane sight and see invisibility constantly. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action; this is a spell-like ability.
- 13th: A special type of antimagic field that does not affect them or their equipment surrounds mage-priests constantly. A mage-priest may raise or lower this field, or restore it if it's disjoined, as a standard action. In addition, nine levels of spell turning always protect mage-priests. While turning spells depletes this protection as usual, they may restore it with a standard action, even if it was dispelled. Both abilities are spell-like abilities.
- 17th: Mordenkainen's disjunction 1/day.
Nature:
- 1st: Entangle 1/day.
- 5th: Nature priests can rebuke and command plant creatures as evil clerics can rebuke and command undead. As a consequence, nature priests always have their class level in HD of plant creatures following them around.
- 9th: Wall of thorns 1/day.
- 13th: Antilife shell 1/day.
- 17th: Nature priests have shapechange always active with caster level equal to their priest level + 5. A nature priest may change forms as a swift action, and if their shapechange is dispelled, restore it as a standard action; this effect is a spell-like ability.
War:
- 1st: War priests are proficient with all martial weapons.
- 5th:
- 9th: War priests have DR 10/adamantine.
- 13th:
- 17th:
Blank:
- 1st:
- 5th:
- 9th:
- 13th:
- 17th:
Cleric Mimic (Ex): Priests may use spell completion and spell trigger items as if they had any spell on the cleric list. Their effective cleric levels are equal to their priest levels.
Cure/Inflict Touch (Sp): With a touch, priests may heal or inflict 1d8+their class levels in damage. As usual, curing hurts undead and inflicting heals them. At every odd level before 10th, cure/inflict touch the amount of healing or damage increases by an extra d8. Priests who channel positive energy may use cure touch at will, inflict touch one per day, and a special version of inflict touch that only does 1d8+1 damage at will. Priests who channel negative energy can use inflict touch at will, cure touch once per day, and a special version of cure touch that only heals 1d8+1 damage at will.
Devoted Insight (Ex): Priests may use their Wisdom modifiers in place of Strength or Dexterity for melee or ranged attack rolls, respectively.
Remove Afflictions (Sp): With a touch, priests may remove status ailments, the type dependent on their levels. A priest may usually only remove one type of status effects with each use of this ability.
All priests can remove fear effects, ending them as if their duration expired. Priests of 3rd-level or higher can, in addition, remove paralysis and
slowing effects; fatigue and exhaustion; or magical ability penalties and 1d4 points of ability damage. Priests of 5th-level or higher can remove blindness, deafness, diseases, or a curse. Priests of 7th-level or higher can detoxify all poisons; dispel all negative levels and restore one lost level (provided it was lost to level drain); or cure all ability damage and restore all points drained from a single ability score. Priests of 11th-level can restore all lost levels (provided they were lost to level drain); heal all ability damage and drain; or remove insanity, confusion, and similar mental effects.
Expanded Knowledge: While the basic spell list is fine for core priests, priests in campaigns where other casters get noncore spells should have access to them too. At every even level, a priest adds a noncore spell of the highest level they can cast to their spells known (and thus their spell list).
Magic Gear (Su): Priests of 3rd-level or higher always have level-appropriate bonuses on their weapons and armor, giving them a +1 enhancement bonus per three class levels with any weapon they wield and armor or shield they wear (already figured into the statistics above).
Health Sense (Sp): Priests of 4th-level or higher instantly know whether each creature within 30 feet is dead, unharmed, wounded, fragile (alive and wounded with one-tenth or fewer hit points left than its maximum), undead, or neither alive nor dead (such as a construct); and any conditions affecting each creature: disabled, staggered, unconscious, dying, nauseated, panicked, stunned, poisoned, diseased, confused, or the like. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Darkness (Sp): Priests of 6th-level or higher radiate darkness out to 60 feet, granting concealment in that area; as usual for magical darkness, this affects creatures with darkvision too. This ability is the equivalent of a 3rd-level spell; a priest may raise or lower it, or restore it if it's dispelled, as a standard action.
Poison Immunity (Sp): Priests of 7th-level or higher are immune to poisons. This ability may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Spell Immunity (Sp): Priests of 8th-level or higher are immune (as if they had unbeatable spell resistance) to a number of spells equal to their class level divided by four plus one; all such spells must be 4th-level or lower, unless a priest is 16th-level or higher, in which case they may be 8th-level or lower. They may change which spells they're immune to as a standard action; this ability may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Sample lists of spell immunities by level:
8th:
fear,
phantasmal killer,
scrying
12th:
bestow curse,
hold person,
phantasmal killer,
scrying
16th:
blasphemy (unless evil, then
dimensional lock),
greater scrying,
maze,
polymorph any object,
trap the soul
20th:
blasphemy (unless evil, then
dimensional lock),
greater scrying,
maze,
polymorph any object,
trap the soul
Tenacious Spell-Likes (Su): The spell-like abilities of priests of 9th-level or higher have a +5 bonus to DCs to dispel them.
Magic Circle (Sp): Priests of 9th-level or higher radiate a
magic circle effect against all alignments they do not have. (Thus, a lawful good priest would have
magic circle against evil and
chaos, while a neutral priest would have it against all alignments.) This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Hasted (Su): Priests of 10th-level or higher are always under the effects of
haste (the bonuses to attacks, AC, and Reflex saves already figured into the statistics above).
Air Walk (Sp): Priests of 11th-level or higher move as if always under the effects of
air walk. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Freedom of Movement (Sp): Priests of 11th-level or higher act as if always under the effects of
freedom of movement. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Energy Resistance (Sp): Priests of 11th-level or higher have energy resistance 30 against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Mass Cure/Inflict (Sp): Priests of 11th-level or higher can heal or inflict 1d8+their class levels in damage on a number of creatures equal to their class level, as long all the targets are within close range and no two of which are more than 30 feet apart. Every odd level above 10th, mass cure/inflict heals or inflicts an extra d8 of damage. Priests who channel positive energy may use mass cure at will and mass inflict touch one per day, while those who channel negative energy can use mass inflict at will and mass cure touch once per day.
Death Immunity (Su): Priests of 12th-level or higher are immune to death and negative energy effects.
]Antimagic Field (Sp): A special type of
antimagic field that does not affect them or their equipment surrounds priests of 15th-level or higher constantly. A priest may raise or lower this field, or restore it if it's disjoined, as a standard action.
Mind-Affecting Immunity (Su): Priests of 15th-level or higher are immune to mind-affecting effects.
Fortification (Ex): Priests of 16th-level or higher are immune to critical hits.
True Seeing (Sp): Priests of 16th-level or higher see as if always under the effects of
true seeing. This effect may be dispelled, but a priest may restore it as a standard action.
Sage
"
Huh, where am I? Who am I? Wait, I remember—I have the spell you need right here."
Level, Abilities:
1 Scribe Scroll, spells
2
3 Brew Potion, Craft Wondrous Item
4
5 Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wand
6 Sculpt Spell
7
8
9 Craft Rod
10 Extend Spell
11
12 Craft Staff, Forge Ring
13
14
15 Quicken Spell
16
17
18
19
20
Spells: Sages cast arcane spells which are drawn the cleric, druid, or sorcerer/wizard spell lists; if a spell appears at different levels on these lists, the sage may cast it at the lowest level it appears on any of them. (If there are other full casters in a campaign, sages should gain spells from those lists as well.) Sages automatically know all the spells on their spell list for all the spell levels they can cast; essentially, their spell list is the same as their spells known list. Sages can cast any spell they know without preparing it ahead of time. However, sages take longer to cast their highest-level spells than usual: if a spell's casting time is less than one round and is the highest-level a sage is allowed to cast, its casting time increases to one round.
To cast a sage spell, a sage must have an Intelligence score of 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class of the saving throw against a sage's spells is 10 + the spell's level + their Int modifier. Sages can cast one-half the spells per day available to an unspecialized wizard, and gain bonus spells for a high Intelligence (already figured into the spells/day figures above). (If a wizard can cast one spell of a given level per day, then a sage can cast zero spells of that level before bonus spells for a high Int, but can still cast spells of that level provided they have a high enough Int.)
Sages' caster levels are equal to their class levels.