Templar (Cleric)

The handiwork of the regents is everywhere, in remote villages and in mighty crusades, in soaring temples, and on the bodies of worshipers. Like people, the regents run the gamut from benevolent to malicious, reserved to intrusive, simple to inscrutable. The regents, however, work mostly through intermediaries, their templars. The templar is a regimented priest devoted to a single regent. Such disciples work within the hierarchy of that particular regent’s clergy, advancing in power and position. Templars guide, protect, and avenge those who are aligned to their regent. Equally, templars pillage, destroy, and sabotage those who are not aligned to their regent. A templar draws his magical energy from his regent through a symbol of authority, using the might of his power to make his regent’s will manifest. And if a templar uses his regent’s might to improve his own lot, that's to be expected, too.

Adventures: A templar’s adventures support the causes of his Regent, increase his influence, and make his order stronger. Templars often receive orders from the regents, directing them to undertake missions for the order. They are usually compensated fairly for these missions, and the order is usually generous in providing for the templars needs in these endeavors. Of course, templars are people, too, and they may have all the more common motivations for adventuring.

Characteristics: Templars are clergymen devoted to one of the twelve regents. They are granted spells in return for their worship. Templars tap into the magical forces of their regent. When a templar beseeches his deity for a spell, the Regent grants the request by employing his own mystical energy to power the templar's magic. Because of the strain this places on both the Regent and the aligned flock, young templars do not ask for (or receive) many spells. As close personal servants of the Regent, however, high-ranking templars have greater access to magic than one might expect.

Alignment: Templars must be the same alignment as their regent. If they ever change alignment they lose all abilities and powers, and possibly their lives.

Regents: Like all of the peoples of the world, templars can be aligned to any of the regents and they always serve the regent whose baenrahl they are branded with.

Every regent has templars devoted to him or her. The most common regent followed by human templars in civilized lands is Eabilus. Among the other species, templars most commonly follow the regent responsible for the creation of their species. All templars must belong to the order of one of the twelve regents.

Background: Templars are commonly recruited from the offspring of other templars, or from the ranks of freemen. Technically, a member of the nobility may also join the regent’s bureaucracy, but most aristocrats consider such positions beneath their honor.

Templars are initially trained as soldiers and, at lower levels, are forced to garrison outposts, temples, strongholds, and palaces of their regent. Templars are not restricted as to weaponry or armor worn, but some regents do impose restrictions. In times of war, the templars are commonly called upon to act as recruiters and officers for the armies of their regent.

Races: Templars include members of all the common species. The templars of most species, however, are too focused on their duties to undertake an adventurer's life. Crusading, adventuring templars most often come from the human, giak, muirhaut, and minotaur species.

Other Classes: Templars clash with heralds, druids, and rangers since these classes represent a direct threat to the order that the regents have established, and that the templar supports. Mostly, though, the alignment of a templar determines how he gets along with others. A templar can generally find use for any of the other classes.

Game Rule Information

Templars have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Wisdom determines how powerful a spell a templar can cast, how many spells the templar can cast per day, and how hard those spells are to resist. To cast a spell, a templar must have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level. A templar gets bonus spells based on Wisdom. The Difficulty Class of a saving throw against a templar's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the templar's Wisdom modifier. A high Constitution improves a templar's hit points, and a high Charisma improves his ability to control undead.

Alignment: A templar’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful–chaotic axis or the good–evil axis, but not both). A templar may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The templar’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana/history/religion/the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Domains and Class Skills: A templar who chooses the Animal or Plant domain adds Knowledge (nature) (Int) to the templar class skills listed above. A templar who chooses the Knowledge domain adds all Knowledge (Int) skills to the list. A templar who chooses the Travel domain adds Survival (Wis) to the list. A templar who chooses the Trickery domain adds Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), and Hide (Dex) to the list. See Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells, below, for more information.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the templar.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: templars are proficient with all simple weapons, with all types of armor (light, medium, and heavy), and with shields (except tower shields).

Each Regent has a symbol of power, usually a staff or rod, that it uses as a weapon and a focus, and templars are required to, and consider it a point of pride, to wield them. A templar receives the Weapon Proficiency feat related to that weapon for free.

A templar who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category.

Aura (Ex): A templar of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful regent has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the regent’s alignment (see the detect evil spell for details).

Spells: A templar casts divine spells, which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. A templar must choose and prepare his spells in advance (see below).

To prepare or cast a spell, a templar must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a templar’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the templar’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a templar can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Templar. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. A templar also gets one domain spell of each spell level he can cast, starting at 1st level. When a templar prepares a spell in a domain spell slot, it must come from one of his two domains (see Deities, Domains, and Domain Spells, below).

Templars do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor prepare them through study. Instead, they receive them through their Holy Symbol. Each templar must choose a time at which he must spend 1 hour each day in quiet communion with his regent to recharge his Holy Symbol and regain his daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a templar can restore spells. A templar may prepare and cast any spell on the cleric spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily communion.

Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: A templar’s regent influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. A templar chooses two domains from among those belonging to his regent. A templar can select an alignment domain (Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law) only if his alignment matches that domain.

Each domain gives the templar access to a domain spell at each spell level he can cast, from 1st on up, as well as a granted power. The templar gets the granted powers of both the domains selected. With access to two domain spells at a given spell level, a templar prepares one or the other each day in his domain spell slot. If a domain spell is not on the templar spell list, a templar can prepare it only in his domain spell slot.

Spontaneous Casting: A good templar (or a neutral templar of a good regent) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that the templar did not prepare ahead of time. The templar can “lose” any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with “cure” in its name).

An evil templar (or a neutral templar of an evil regent), can’t convert prepared spells to cure spells but can convert them to inflict spells (an inflict spell is one with “inflict” in its name).

A templar who is neither good nor evil and whose regent is neither good nor evil can convert spells to either cure spells or inflict spells (player’s choice). Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed. This choice also determines whether the templar turns or commands undead (see below).

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A templar can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his regent’s. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Commandment (Su): Any templar has the power to affect bearers by channeling the power of his faith through his holy symbol (see Commandment).

A templar may attempt to issue a commandment a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. A templar with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (religion) gets a +2 bonus on commandment checks against bearers.

Extra Commandment: As a feat, a templar may take Extra Commandment. This feat allows the templar to issue Commandments four more times per day than normal. A templar can take this feat multiple times, gaining four extra daily commandment attempts each time.

Bonus Languages: Due to the vastness of knowledge held in the libraries of the templars a templar's list of bonus languages includes all languages, including Celestial, Abyss, Infernal, and all species languages available to the people of Kirrac both past and present.

Starting Gold: A 1st-level templar starts play with 5d4 x 10 gp

Table: Templars and Regents
Lord Regent	Spell Domains	Align	Favored Weapon	Typical Raiment
Agryn	Fire, Sun, War	N	Greatsword	Crested brass helm and armor with a scarlet cloak
Brae	Good, Healing, Repose	NG	Longsword	Silver halo and sparkling gossamer robes over white leather
Casoar	Air, Knowledge, Trickery	N	Quarterstaff	laurel wreath with a feathered cloak or blue shift
Dalik	Death, Evil, Strength	NE	Falchion	Black turban and black leather vest
Eabilus	Knowledge, Magic, Sun	CG	Kukri and Mace	Blue cap with blue and yellow robes all with gold tracery
Erda	Animal, Earth, Plant	N	Urgrosh	Brown hood and green robe
Kaedara	Chaos, Luck, Madness	CN	Whip	Paline wreath and a saffron shift
Lythia	Charm, Magic, Trickery	LE	Dagger	Three tear eye tattoo, gossamer robes or a loincloth
Mahrut	Chaos, Destruction, Evil	CE	Morningstar	Shaved bald, headcloth, tattoos, pierciings, and spiked armor
Naliad	Destruction, Healing, Water	N	Trident	Skullcap, scale mail, and blue or green robes
Praethos	Law, Strength, Travel	LN	Halberd	Steel circlet, grey and black clothes, with a short green cape
Reolus	Good, Law, Protection	LG	Longsword	Winged helm, yellow tabard, and shining armor

EX TEMPLARS

A templar who grossly violates the code of conduct expected by his regent (generally acting in ways opposed to the regent’s edicts or purposes) loses all spells and class features, except for armor and shield proficiencies and proficiency with simple weapons. He cannot thereafter gain levels as a templar of that regent until he atones (see the atonement spell description).

If the regent is particularly displeased, he might kill the offending templar, rather than allow him to attempt to atone for his actions.