The Prophet: An Advanced Cleric Class

 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 ranger 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  direst 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(8^th) Cleric

·         13 CHA

·         Must learn commune as first 5^th 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 8^th level Prophet as 1^st level on the chart, 9^th level as 2^nd, and so on; a 11th level Prophet is treated as 3^rd 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.