Arcane Devotee, Unchained
Source: Player’s Guide to Faerun, based on conversion from Giant in the Playground.
Every major faith numbers sorcerers and wizards among it’s fervent followers. While some wizards ally themselves with churches close to their own beliefs out of caution and convenience, others are devout representatives of their faith and willingly subordinate their own causes to those of their patron deity, becoming arcane devotees.
Arcane devotees complement the divine magic of a church’s clerical leaders and are among the most important and respected members of a deity’s following. They provide much of the magical firepower of their faith and collaborate with the church’s clerics in the creation of magic items requiring both arcane and divine spells. Arcane devotees provide support for the church’s armies in time of war, divine the intentions of the enemies of the faith, and often take the front line to decimate enemy troops or destroy spellcasters of rival faiths.
Naturally, arcane devotees are always arcane spellcasters. Sorcerers and wizards are the most common type, but some music-oriented deities tend to have more bard devotees, and a rare few of the more evil deities have been known to have assassin devotees that focus on cruel and terrible forms of death magic.
Requirements
To become an arcane devotee, the character must meet the following requirements:
- Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks
- Feats: Deific Obedience, Enlarge Spell
- Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells.
- Patron Deity: Must have a patron deity, and it must be the deity of which she is a devotee.
- Alignment: She must be within one step of her patron deity’s alignment.
Hit die d6
Class Skills: The arcane devotee’s class skills are Craft, Knowledge (Any), Liguistics, Profession, Spellcraft and Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Advancement
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Arcane Channel, Arcane Focus, Divine Secret | – |
| 2nd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Bonus Feat, Sacred Defense +1 | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 3rd | +1 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Deific Boons, Divine Secret | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 4th | +2 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Bonus Feat, Sacred Defense +2 | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
| 5th | +2 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Divine Secret, Divine Shroud | +1 level of existing arcane spellcasting class |
Class Features
Aura (Ex): An Arcane Devotee of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment (see detect evil for details).
Arcane Channel (Su): The arcane devotee can channel energy as a cleric equal to her effective arcane caster level, except that it uses her primary casting ability of the aligned casting class to determine the DC and other stat related affects of the channeling, and she must expend a spell slot of at least 1st level in order to use this ability. She can channel positive energy if she’s good aligned, or a follower of a good aligned deity, and negative energy if she’s evil or a follower of an evil aligned deity, or may choose one or the other if both she and her deity are neutral. She channels 1d6 of energy for every level of the spell sacrificed. This counts as the channel energy ability for the purpose of qualifying for other feats, with any prerequisite number of channeling dice for the feat determined by the maximum spell level the arcane devotee can sacrifice for the channel (and requires a sacrifice of that level spell to activate the feat if activating the feat requires a use of channel energy). Characters that already possess channel energy from another class instead stack their arcane devotee level with their base class for the purpose of determining the power of the channel energy of their base class, but may choose to use the better of their divine or arcane casting ability to determine effects.
Arcane Focus: The arcane devotee chooses one feature from her arcane casting class that qualified her for this class, from among the following: arcane/eldritch pool, arcane reservoir, arcane school, bardic performance, bloodline powers, eidolon, or familiar. The arcane devotee’s levels stack with the class granting this chosen feature to determine the benefits and progression of the ability.
Further, if the arcane devotee had an item as an arcane bond, that bonded item can be used as a holy symbol for the purpose of her arcane channel ability, and her arcane devotee levels stack with her arcane caster level to determine the progression of the bonded item.
Spellcasting: Starting at 2nd level, each arcane devotee level is considered to be one additional level of the devotee’s qualifying arcane spellcasting class for purposes of determining total spells per day, spells known, granted spells by class features (such as the Sorcerer’s bloodline spells), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If the character had more than one qualifying arcane casting class before adding levels of arcane devotee, she must choose at 1st level which class advances. She does not gain any other class features or bonus feats (such as the sorcerer’s bloodline feats or abilities, or the wizard’s arcane school abilities).
Divine Secret: At 1st level and again and 3rd and 5th level, the Arcane Devotee gains a divine secret selected from the list below. Unless otherwise noted, unless otherwise noted, a divine secret can only selected once.
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Arcane Domain: The arcane devotee gains a single cleric domain as a cleric equal to her arcane devotee level, gaining the associated powers. At 1st level she gains the 1st and 2nd level domain spells on her spell list or as bonus spells known, and may cast them using the spell slots of her aligned casting class. She must respect any alignment restrictions of these spells as if she were a cleric. At 3rd level she gains the 3rd level domain spell in a similar fashion, and at 5th level gains the 4th level domain spell. Any effects or powers keyed off of wisdom can instead be keyed off the primary casting ability for the aligned casting class. Characters that have levels in a class that grant a cleric domain can instead stack their arcane devotee levels with the levels in the domain-granting class to determine progression and power of their domain powers, but may use the better of their arcane or divine casting stat to determine effects.
- Blessed Familiar (Su): An arcane devotee with a familiar who chooses this secret adds her arcane devotee level to her wizard level to determine the progression of her familiar; if she also has the arcane channel energy secret, she can channel energy through her familiar as a conduit, using the familiar’s line of sight and line of effect.
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Blessings of the Faithful (Su) An arcane devotee learns to harmonize their magical energies with divine casters that share their faith. Once per day per arcane devotee level, whenever a devotee is a target of a harmless or otherwise helpful divine spell, or spell-like ability of an outsider aligned with her deity, the effect is improved as though it were enhanced by the extend spell and empower spell metamagic feats if the spell could otherwise benefit from these metamagic feats. This effect only benefits the devotee and cannot be applied to spells the devotee casts upon herself.
- Divine Bloodline (Su): An arcane devotee with sorcerer levels adds her arcane devotee level to determine the level-dependent effects of her bloodline powers. and the level at which she gains a new power.
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Divine Mantle: The arcane devotee gains two 0-level spells known selected from the cleric/oracle spell list, and adds them to her spell list and spells known. At each arcane devotee level above 1st, she selects two additional spells known from the cleric/oracle spell list of a spell level equal to her arcane devotee level -1 to add to her spell list, and she gets to add one of these as a bonus spell known. She can learn the additional spell of each level as she normally would as a prepared or spontaneous caster; both spells of each level are treated as being on the wizard/sorcerer spell list for purposes of spell-completion and spell-trigger items. The spells chosen must be spells that are not already be on the wizard/sorcerer spell list. Specialist wizards must select at least one of these two spells gained each level from their school of specialization, and they cannot select a spell from their opposition school.
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Divine Reach (Ex): The arcane devotee can, as a swift action, increase the range or the area of effect of any spell cast as though it applied the enlarge spell, reach spell, or widen spell metamagic feat, with no alteration in casting time or spell level. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to her arcane devotee level. Widening an area requires three uses instead of one use of this ability. She can combine two of these metamagic effects by spending the appropriate cost in number of uses.
Bonus Feat: At 2nd level, and again at 4th level, the devotee may select as a bonus feat any metamagic, item creation, or channeling feat for which she qualifies, or Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Penetration.
Sacred Defense (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, the arcane devotee may add her charisma bonus (minimum +1) to a maximum of her arcane devotee level, to her saving throws; at 4th level, the minimum bonus increases to +2. This saving throw bonus does not stack with the bonus from a paladin’s divine grace, or any similar ability.
Deific Boons: At 3rd level, the levels at which the arcane devotee gains her deific boons is reduced by 2. If she is at, or past a level which she gains a boon, then she receives her boon(s) when she completes her obedience. This ability cannot stack with another class ability that reduces the level gain of deific boons. Consult the On Deific Obedience article for details and house rules on divine boons. When a divine boon grants a spell-like ability, the devotee’s caster level for the spell-like ability equals her total character level. The arcane devotee is still expected to perform the act of obedience every day needed to gain the benefits of the boon.
Divine Shroud (Sp): At 5th-level as an immediate action, an arcane devotee may surround herself with a shroud of glowing divine power that protects her against hostile spells. This ability functions like the Spell Resistance spell with the arcane devotee’s level stacking with her arcane caster level to determine the ability’s caster level and lasts until the end of the devotee’s next turn. The divine shroud is of a color appropriate to the arcane devotee’s patron. An arcane devotee of Tyr, for example, is surrounded by a steady, rose-purple glow, while an arcane devotee of Cyric is wrapped in a pulsating cloud of purple and black. This ability may be used a total number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma bonus (minimum +1).