General Prestige Class : Athar
by Christopher Campbell, Dragon #287
The Athar work tirelessly to discredit the gods, interfering with their clerics and attempting to sway the faith of their congregations. They preach the supremacy of a force they call the Great Unknown, which transcends the gods and grants athars the ability to resist divine magic. Ex-paladins and disillusioned clerics are obvious choices for this prestige class, but self-reliant classes like the monk and rogue, as well as those that worship natural forces, like the druid and ranger, are also attracted to the philosophy.
Requirements
To qualify to become an Athar, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Knowledge (religion) 10 ranks.
- Base Attack: +7.
- Base Will Save: +3.
- Spellcasting: Ability to cast divine spells.
- Special: The character must abandon the worship of gods and refuse to acknowledge them as beings worthy of praise. Clerics devoted to a god who join the Athar become ex-clerics, lose all cleric spells and class features, and cannot gain levels as clerics. Athars who pray to or call upon a deity for aid become ex-athars and lose all spells and class features provided by the athar prestige class.
Class Skills
The athar's class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Intimidate, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Listen, Profession, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the athar prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Characters who take a level of athar gain no special proficiency with armor, shields, or weapons.
Spell Immunity: All athars are immune to the following spells: bestow curse, blasphemy, doom, holy word, and geas/quest.
Divine Resistance: At 2nd level, the athar gains a +2 resistance bonus to saves against divine spells.
Divine and Holy Damage Immunity: Athars are immune to damage from divine power, such as that from half the damage of a flamestrike spell. They are also immune to holy damage, such as the extra damage done by a weapon with the holy special ability.
Banishment: Once per day, an athar of 4th level or higher can send away an extraplanar creature as per the banishment spell as cast by a cleric of a level equal to the athar's class level. This is a spell-like ability.
Divine Prevention: Once per day, an athar of 5th level or higher can bestow a saving throw bonus equal to her athar class level upon a recipient. The resistance bonus applies against the next divine spell to which the recipient is subjected, even beneficial spells such as bless and cure light wounds. If the recipient is unwilling, the athar must make a successful touch attack as a standard action and the target must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC 10 + the athar's class level + the athar's Wisdom modifier) or be subject to the bonus. Use of this supernatural ability is a standard action.
Divine Cancellation: At 6th level, the athar can counterspell a divine spell by casting any spell of an equal level; it need not be the same spell. The athar must choose a target, ready an action, and make a Spellcraft check to determine the spell as normal.
Divine Retribution: At 7th level, the athar can reflect a divine spell back at the caster. When using divine cancellation, the athar can cause a spell to rebound at the original caster instead of causing it to fail. The athar can use divine retribution only on divine spells that target the athar, not area-affecting spells or those targeting another creature.
Divine Interference: At 8th level, the athar generates a field that interferes with all divine spellcasting (except his own). Any divine spellcaster within 10 feet of the athar must make a caster level check (DC 10 + athar's class level + athar's Wisdom modifier) in order to successfully cast a spell. Failure indicates that the spell does not take effect but is lost as though cast. This supernatural ability can be consciously suppressed as a free action.
Nondetection: At 9th level, the athar gains the continuous benefits of a non-detection spell as though cast by a sorcerer of the athar's class level (DC 15 + athar's class level). This supernatural ability can be suppressed or resumed as a free action.
Divine Disavowal: At 10th level, the athar gains spell resistance against divine spells equal to 10 plus the athar's character level. Divine disavowal doesn't stack with regular spell resistance. If an athar is subject to two spell resistance effects, use the better value.
Spells per Day: An athar of 3rd level or higher gains access to the Great Unknown. The Athar believe everything springs from the Great Unknown and that the gods are just pretenders. Fueled by this belief, the athar advances in spellcasting ability as a divine class she held previously, but now draws power from the Great Unknown. When a new athar level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved chance of controlling or rebuking undead, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of athar (minus two) to the level of some other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level, accordingly.
If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became an athar, she must decide to which class she adds an athar level for purposes of determining spells per day when she adds each new level.
Ex-clerics regain their spellcasting ability up to the level they had attained before becoming ex-clerics. They can pick two domains to replace the domains they had access to before they lost their spellcasting ability.
| Athar | Hit Die: d8 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells per Day |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Spell immunity | - |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Divine resistance | - |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Divine and holy damage immunity | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Banishment | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Divine prevention | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 6th | +4 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Divine cancellation | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 7th | +5 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Divine retribution | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 8th | +6 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Divine interference | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 9th | +6 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Nondetection | +1 level of existing divine class |
| 1010 | +7 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Divine disavowal | +1 level of existing divine class |
Source: Dragon #287