Evil / Undead Class : Ur-priest

Ur-priests despise gods. However, a small number of them have learned to rap into divine power and use it for their own needs without praying to or worshiping a god. Instead, each day they go into a trance and mentally steal the power that gods normally channel to devout clerics. Ur-priests are canny and cunning, never stealing too much power from any one god, but instead metaphysically slipping in, drawing our the power they need for their spells, and slipping out again. They learn to be resilient toward divine power and creative with the energies that they steal. The greatest ur-priest commands the level of power of the most powerful cleric, although she does nor have the cleric's variety of spellcasting options.

A member of any class can become an ur-priest, even - and in fact, especially - an ex-cleric.

Ur-priests frequently work alone, although they occasionally find partnerships with members of other classes useful. They do nor congregate into anything resembling temples, for they fear that too many of them in one place might draw unwanted divine attention. And of course they rarely associate with clerics or any other divine spellcasters, whom they see as lackeys and who view them as abominations.

Requirements

To qualify to become an Ur-Priest, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Class Skills

The ur-priest's class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, and Spellcraft.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All the following are Class Features of the ur-priest prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An ur-priest is proficient with simple weapons, but not with armor or shields.

Spells: An ur-priest gains the ability to cast a number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the ur-priest must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level, so an ur-priest with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Ur-priest bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier. When the table below indicates 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 2nd-level spells at 2nd level, the ur-priest gets only bonus spells. An ur-priest without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level.

The ur-priest's spell list is identical to the cleric's spell list. An ur-priest has access to any spell on the list and prepares those spells as a cleric, except that she does nor pray for spells, she just takes them. An ur-priest casts spells as a cleric does, except that unlike a cleric, she does nor have the ability to spontaneously cast inflict or cure spells, nor does she have domain spells or associated domain granted powers. She does not have restrictions on spells with alignments. To determine the caster level of an ur-priest, add the character's ur-priest levels to one-half of her levels in other spellcasting classes. (Any levels gained in the cleric class by an ex-cleric don't count.)

Rebuke Undead: Like an evil cleric, an ur-priest of 2nd level or higher can rebuke undead. She uses her ur-priest level as the cleric level for determining success and damage (see Turn and Rebuke Undead in Chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook).

Divine Spell Resistance (Su): At 4th level, an ur-priest gains spell resistance 15, but only against divine spells and the spell-like abilities of outsiders. At 8th level, the ur-priest's spell resistance increases to 20.

Siphon Spell Power (Ex): Because they steal whatever power they can, ur-priests learn to manipulate their energy in ways that confound other casters. A 6th-level ur-priest can temporarily sacrifice two (or more) lower-level spell slots and use those slots to prepare a higher-level spell. The higher-level spell must be of a level the ur-priest can cast. Only one exchange of this sort can be made each day. The levels of the lower-level slots are totaled, then reduced to three-quarters (round down) to determine the level of the extra higher-level spell slot. For example, an ur-priest who sacrifices a 3rd-level spell and a 5th-level spell can use that spell slot to prepare an additional 6th-level spell (3 + 5 = 8, and 8x 3/4 = 6).

Steal Spell-like Ability (Su): The most powerful ur-priests can use the same techniques that siphon off the gods' spell power to steal the spell-like abilities of another creature. Once each day, when a creature with spell-like abilities is within 50 feet of a 10th-level ur-priest, the ur-priest can choose one of the spell-like abilities of the creature to steal for herself. The ur-priest can use the spell-like ability as often as the creature can, or three times per day, whichever is less. The ur-priest uses the ability as the creature does with regard to caster level and save DCs. This ability only lasts 24 hours. The creature with the spell-like ability does nor lose the ability when the ur-priest steals it. If the ur-priest tries to steal a spell-like ability that the creature doesn't have, or tries to steal an ability that is supernatural rather than spell-like, the attempt automatically fails.

For example, if an ur-priest is near a noble salamander, she can steal fireball and use it three times that day or steal dispel magic and use it once that day. If she is near a pit fiend, she could steal teleport without error (self plus 50 pounds of objects only) and use it three times per day, because the pit fiend can do it at will. She could even steal the pit fiend's wish ability, but because a pit fiend can only use wish once per year, the ur-priest would be similarly limited. She could not steal that power again from any creature for one year.

Ur-priestHit Die: d8
CLBABFortRefWillSpecialSpells per Day
1st+0+0+0+2-42--------
2nd+1+0+0+3Rebuke undead530-------
3rd+2+1+1+3-5310------
4th+3+1+1+4Divine SR 1563210-----
5th+3+1+1+4-633210----
6th+4+2+2+5Siphon spell power6333210---
7th+5+2+2+5-64333210--
8th+6+2+2+6Divine SR 20644333210-
9th+6+3+3+6-6544443210
10th+7+3+3+7Steal spell-like ability6554444321

Source: Book of Vile Darkness
Complete Divine

Older Prestige class adapted to 3.5

[Back]
Evil & Undead Classes