Clerics

Ability Requirements:
Wisdom 9
Prime Requisite:
Wisdom
Allowed Races:
All

Clerics are the most common type of priest character, and they generally are good-aligned. Clerics are sturdy soldiers in the service of their deity. They can wear any type of armor and carry a shield, but they are restricted to using only blunt, bludgeoning weapons. They can use many magical items, including magical versions of their armor and weapons.

Spells are the cleric’s primary tool. Normally, a cleric spends character points to gain major access to the spheres of all, astral, charm, combat, creation, divination, guardian, healing, necromantic, protection, summoning, and sun, as wall as minor access to the elemental sphere.

A cleric receives 125 character points to spend on skills and abilities from the following list. Skills cost 3 to 15 points. Any unspent points can be used to acquire nonweapon proficiencies or saved for use during the game.

Access to spheres: Access to a sphere of spells costs 3 to 15 character points, as shown on the table below:


Sphere
Minor
Major
Sphere
Minor
Major

All
3
5
Healing
5
10

Animal
5
10
Law
5
10

Astral
3
5
Necromantic
5
10

Chaos
3
5
Numbers
5
10

Charm
5
10
Plant
5
10

Combat
5
10
Protection
5
10

Creation
5
10
Summoning
5
10

Divination
5
10
Sun
3
5

Elemental
10
15
Thought
5
10

Air
3
5
Time
5
10

Earth
3
5
Travelers
3
5

Fire
3
5
War
3
5

Water
3
5
Wards
5
10

Guardian
3
5
Weather
3
5

Casting reduction (5): The cleric’s spell casting time is reduced by 1. All spells still retain a minimum casting time of 1.

Detect evil (10): Clerics with this ability can see emanations of evil from creatures or objects within a path 10 feet wide by 60 feet long. It takes one round to scan a direction, and the cleric cannot be attempting other actions.

Detect undead (10): Clerics can detect all undead within a path 10 feet wide by 60 feet long. It takes one round to scan a direction, and the cleric cannot be attempting other actions. Clerics cannot detect undead through stone or other thick materials.

Expert healer (5): This ability allows the character to cast one cure light wounds spell a day in addition to the number of spells the priest can normally cast.

Followers (5/10): By purchasing this skill, a cleric can gain followers as described in the Player’s Handbook if he establishes a stronghold and is at least 8th level. If this is purchased as a 10-point ability, the cleric can attract followers whenever he establishes a stronghold, regardless of level. Refer to the priest section of the Player’s Handbook for more details on followers.

Hit point bonus (10): Clerics with this ability use 1d10 to determine their hit points rather than 1d8.

Know alignment (10): This ability allows the character to cast the know alignment spell once a day. This is in addition to the number of spells the priest can normally cast.

Resist energy drain (5): Priests with this ability gain a +1 bonus to saving throws vs. the energy drain spell and the level-draining attacks of undead. If the attack does not normally allow a saving throw, this ability has no effect. This ability’s saving throw bonus does apply to characters protected by the negative plane protection spell.

Spell duration increase (10): The duration of all non-instantaneous spells cast by the cleric increases by 1 round for every two experience levels of the cleric. For example, a 6th level cleric has his spells’ durations increased by 3 rounds.

Turn undead (10): The cleric is granted power over undead, such as zombies, skeletons, vampires, and liches. Clerics can drive away these creatures, and as clerics advance in faith and experience levels, they can destroy some forms of undead. Below is the chart for turning undead.

Warrior-priests (10): Priests who select this ability use the warrior Strength and Constitution bonuses for exceptional scores. For example, a priest could have an 18/30 Strength, and he could gain bonus hit points for having a Constitution score greater than 16.

Weapon allowance (5): A priest with this ability can choose a favored edged weapon of his deity. For example, a cleric of the elven deity Corellon Larethian could use a long sword, or a priest of the Norse god, Odin might wield a spear. The character must still purchase proficiency in the allowed weapon.

Weapon specialization (15): This priest can specialize in a particular weapon. The character point cost must be met in addition.

Wizardly priests (15): These priests gain access to one school of wizard spells and can cast them as if they were clerical spells. The priests must continue to observe the number of various level spells they can cast each day.

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