One of my new players is bringing in his 12th level Cleric PC from another game, and I gave him the option of picking one of my advanced classes(basically a prestige class for Classic D&D, another example is the Hermit) for his PC; he chose prophet which just so happens to be one the classes I hadn't fleshed out, so I had to come up with some rules. Usually I like to see what others have done and just adjust it to fit as an advance class instead of starting at level 1 (such as a fighter going for the advanced class of ranger of paladin), but I couldn't really find anything I liked that anyone had done. There were a couple of Seer or other type of diviner classes in dragon magazine, and there was also some priest of the gods of prophecy in the complete priest handbook for 2e. But it was all pretty vague and unsatisfactory to me, so I had to start pretty much from scratch. I did take some broad brushstroke ideas from those, but had to come up with the actual mechanics myself. I debated adding a divination spell list, like the hermit has the old druid spell list, but most of the AD&D divination spells are pretty poorly written in my opinion and not actually very useful, so I didn't include those either. Now granted what I came up with need to be playtested and all, but I hope it will work like I want.
Prophet
A Prophet is Cleric blessed(or cursed) with a vision of The
Creator, or a Saint, and may often receive direct communication with the Divine. Many
prophets found a new cult or religious order and may often be ostracized by the
mainstream church.
Requirements
·
Name Level(8th) Cleric
·
13 CHA
·
Must learn commune as first 5th level
miracle at level 8
Restrictions
·
For every family member or friendly contact
known before reaching level 8/becoming a Prophet, roll 1d6. Unless a 1 is
rolled the Prophet becomes estranged with these people (shunned, unwelcome,
etc).
·
When 10% of a settlements populace have become
disciples the leaders of the settlement may drive out the prophet. Roll 1d100,
compare to Prophets Level + CHA score, if roll higher then banished from
region, if lower, tolerated. If roll 100 the mob will rise up and try to kill
the prophet. This check must be made again when 50% of the populace become
disciples. If the check fails, a conflict(civil war) ignites among the
disciples and the nonbelievers, if the check succeeds the settlement peacefully
transitions to follow the ways of the Prophet. When banished from a settlement,
the distance the prophet is banished depends on the size of the settlement, if
the prophet ever returns near the settlement in this distance they risk being
mobbed. The banishment distance is as follows: Thorp, small village, or hamlet
= 1 league/3miles(1 hour walk), large village or small town = 2 leagues/6
miles, large town or small city =12 miles, large city = 24 miles, metropolis =
72 miles
Special abilities
·
The Vision – Upon reaching Name Level the
Cleric receives a vision of the Creator or one of his messengers(an angel or a
saint). The message of the vision is left up to the DM and player to decide; it
may be just a manifestation of the creator, ie a message of his ‘realness’; or
it could be a message to reinforce a teaching which the church already espouses;
or it could be a message that the church(or some other organization) has gone
astray and needs to be corrected; or it could be to spread the knowledge of and
teaching of a particular saint.
·
Disciples – When traveling to new places,
may spend downtime preaching Vision which can lead to followers of the vision
called disciples. The potential number of disciples gained depends on the
Prophet’s level and the size of the population settlement. At the end of each
week of downtime, the Prophet must make a CHA check to see if any disciples are
gained, a failure means no disciples. These Disciples generally do not follow
the prophet from place to place, but continue to live their normal lives with a
new fervor of belief in the Prophet. The Prophet may gain devoted followers through
the normal methods of leveling up.
|
Settlement
|
8-14th
Level Prophet
|
15-25th
level
|
26-36th
level
|
|
Thorp
|
0-1(1d2-1)
|
1
|
1-2(1d2)
|
|
Small Village/Hamlet
|
1
|
1-2(1d2)
|
1-6(1d6)
|
|
Large Village
|
1-5(1d5)
|
1-10(1d10)
|
5-30(5d6)
|
|
Small Town
|
1-10(1d10)
|
2-20(2d10)
|
5-50(5d10)
|
|
Large Town/Small
City
|
5-50(1d10x5)
|
10-100(1d10x10)
|
25-250(1d10x25)
|
|
Large City
|
10-120(1d12x10)
|
25-250(1d10x25)
|
50-600(5d12x10)
|
|
Metropolis
|
25-500(1d20x25)
|
50-1000(1d20x50)
|
500-5000(5d10x100)
|
Prophesy Prophets
retain the ability they gained as a Cleric to turn undead, but do not
advance any further on the Turn Undead chart. Instead they may coerce superstitious
crowds to do their bidding through a dramatic impromptu prophesying. This
uses the same chart as Turn Undead; They advance along this chart by HD
and their Prophet level (Count an 8th level Prophet as 1st
level on the chart, 9th level as 2nd, and so on; a 11th
level Prophet is treated as 3rd level and so needs a roll of 7
to coerce people of 3HD). In this chart replace any 'T' with a 'E' for Enthrall,
and 'D' with ‘I’ for Influence. Apply
the Prophets’ CHA bonus to this roll and to the roll for how many HD are
affected.
- An Enthralled audience
must give the prophet their undivided attention for a full Combat round,
the Prophet may maintain their attention each round if he continues to make
a prophecy check each round, gaining the attention of a larger audience
each round (roll 2d6 for how many HD affected each round). The Prophet
must make the check for the person with the highest HD in the audience.
If the Prophesying fails, there’s is a 50% chance they will be ignored, and
a 50% chance they will be jeered at and attacked by a mob if they do not
leave voluntarily.
- For a prophet to exert
Influence over a crowd they must be able to understand the language he is
prophesying in (not strictly necessary for Enthrall) and the individuals
in the crowd may save against Enchantment to avoid the Prophets’
Influence. If the result is a ‘D+’ then there is no saving throw allowed.
A crowd Influenced by a prophet must obey a command he issues, this must
be fairly straightforward command with a single actionable step. This
command cannot lead to self-harm in any way. And if the command is not
completed in a number of hours equal to the level of the Prophet plus
their charisma then the Influence of the Prophet no longer affects the individuals.
·
Interpreting Visions, Dreams, Signs and Portents
Prophets often have dreams or visions from their patron. These visions and
signs are often incomprehensible at first and take a great deal of meditation and
divine guidance to interpret. Each day a Prophet may enter into a trance lasting
1d6 hour. During this trance one piece of desired information may be
discovered. Such as time (past/present/future), location, person, etc. The
success of a trance is a % roll, they must get under their WIS score + Level to
gain any intelligible information.
