General Prestige Class : Contemplative
For any servant of a deity, no joy is greater than at those rare moments when the presence of her patron deity is a real, tangible force, sending shivers of power through her body and sending her soul soaring. For some, the taste for this experience is such a powerful attraction that they begin devoting their lives to cultivating it, hoping to attain greater closeness to their deity through a life of contemplation. Spending hours in prayer and meditation, these devoted followers purify their souls, fitting them for closer contact with the divine. While some contemplatives withdraw from the world into private retreats, others remain active, even adventuring, finding that true nearness to their deity comes from living out the deity's will in the world. In return, they find their minds, bodies, and souls purified, perfected, and finally brought close to union with their deity
Some contemplatives, rather than devoting their lives to a deity, strive to conform themselves to an some other abstract principle such as an alignment. Their mission is no less divine than that of contemplatives devoted to a deity, and their methods substantially the same. Many such contemplatives live as itinerant philosophers, teaching their doctrines in schools or in the marketplace as they travel from city to city, hoping to enlighten the masses.
Most contemplatives are clerics, though paladins are also often drawn to the mystic's journey. Members of other classes rarely have sufficient devotion to a deity or philosophy to choose this course.
An NPC contemplative might be a reclusive hermit, a church leader, or a passionate champion of her deity. Such a character might have something a group of player characters needs - a holy relic, a bit of sacred lore, or simply a higher-level spell than the clerics in town can cast.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Contemplative, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Knowledge (religion) 13 ranks.
- Spellcasting: Able to cast 1st-level divine spells.
- Special: Must have had direct contact with one's patron deity or a direct servant of that deity, or with an enlightened being embodying the highest principles of an alignment (a solar, for example).
Class Skills
The contemplative's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Survival.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the contemplative prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Contemplatives are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any armor or with shields, but sometimes carry these proficiencies from their previous class.
Prestige Domain (Ex): Upon adopting the contemplative class, and again at 6th level, a character gains access to a prestige domain of her choice. The character can choose any domain made available by her deity or alignment - either a new prestige domain or a standard domain listed in the Player's Handbook. The character gains the granted power associated with the domain she chooses, and can select the spells in that domain as her daily domain spells.
Divine Health (Ex): A contemplative is immune to all diseases, including magical diseases such as mummy rot and lycanthropy.
Spells per Day: A contemplative who was previously a divine spellcaster continues to gain access to more powerful divine magic while following the contemplative path. Thus, when a new contemplative level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in the 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, more frequent remove disease, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of contemplative to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day accordingly. For example, if Theresa, an 11th-level cleric, gains a level as a contemplative, she gains new spells as if she had risen to 12th level as a cleric, but uses the other contemplative aspects of level progression such as base attack bonus and save bonus. If she next gains a level as a cleric, making her a 12th-level cleric/1st-level contemplative, she gains spells as if she had risen to 13th level as a cleric.
If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a contemplative, the player must decide which class to assign each level of contemplative for the purpose of determining divine spells per day.
If the contemplative did not previously belong to a divine spellcasting class, she gains the ability to cast divine spells exactly as a cleric of her patron deity. Her spell progression is the same as that of a cleric.
Slippery Mind (Ex): At 2nd level, a contemplative gains the ability to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If a contemplative with resistant mind is affected by an enchantment and fails her saving throw, one round later she can attempt her saving throw again. She only gets this one extra chance to succeed at her saving throw.
Divine Wholeness (Su): At 3rd level, a contemplative can cure her own wounds, in addition to any other healing ability she may have. She can cure up to twice her current level in hit points each day, and she can spread this healing out among several uses.
Divine Body (Su): At 5th level, a contemplative becomes immune to poisons of all kinds.
Divine Soul (Su): At 7th level, a contemplative gains spell resistance. Her spell resistance equals her class level + 10. In order to affect the contemplative with a spell, a spellcaster must roll the contemplative's spell resistance or higher on 1d20 + the spellcaster's level.
Eternal Body (Ex): After achieving 9th level, a contemplative no longer suffers ability penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. (Penalties she has already suffered remain in place.) Bonuses still accrue, and the contemplative still dies of old age when her time is up.
Mystic Union (Su): At 10th level, a contemplative becomes a magical creature. She is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid. For instance, charm person does not affect her. Additionally, the contemplative gains damage resistance 20/+1. This means that the contemplative ignores (instantly regenerates) the first 20 points of damage from any attack unless the damage is dealt by a weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, by a spell, or by a form of energy (fire, cold, electricity, and so forth). As an outsider, a 10th-level contemplative is subject to spells that repel enchanted creatures, such as protection from good.
| Contemplative | Hit Die: d6 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells per Day |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | 0 | +2 | First prestige domain, divine health | +1 level of existing class |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | 0 | +3 | Slippery mind | +1 level of existing class |
| 3rd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Divine wholeness | +1 level of existing class |
| 4th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | - | +1 level of existing class |
| 5th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Divine body | +1 level of existing class |
| 6th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Second prestige domain | +1 level of existing class |
| 7th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Divine soul | +1 level of existing class |
| 8th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +6 | - | +1 level of existing class |
| 9th | +4 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Eternal body | +1 level of existing class |
| 10th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Mystic union | +1 level of existing class |
Source: Complete Divine
Defenders of the Faith