General Prestige Class : Divine Agent
God's Strong Right Hand. The Goddess's Voice. Servant of the Greater Powers. The divine agent is a specially selected agent of her deity, and she acts in the service of that power or deity. Divine agents are unrestricted by dogma or hierarchy, other than their accountability to their immediate (and highest) superior.
Clerics and paladins make excellent divine agents, but the class is not limited to them. The deities have need for a variety of abilities and a variety of viewpoints. A divine agent is often sent across the planes by her deity to attend to a crucial or delicate matter. On such occasions, she is, usually welcome to bring comrades along.
A low-level divine agent is often found on her native plane or the plane of her deity. As divine agents progress in level, they are more common on other planes, where they perform missions at the behest of their deity.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Divine Agent, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
- Base Attack Bonus: +4
- Spells:
- Able to cast 2nd-level divine spells.
- Special: The divine agent must have made peaceful contact with her deity or its direct agents (sometimes other divine agents acting on the deity's behalf). Further more, a potential divine agent must have completed specific task assigned by her deity in order to become divine agent. Once the task is completed, the character can become a divine agent at any point thereafter.
Class Skills
The divine agent's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, and Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All the following are features of the divine agent prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Divine agents are proficient with all simple weapons, and with all types of armor. Furthermore, a divine agent gains proficiency with her deity's favored weapon, if she does not already have at.
Granted Domain: A divine agent gains access to one domain chosen from among those her deity offers, and with it the granted power of that domain. Divine agents who were once clerics essentially gain a third domain this way and can prepare their domain spells at each level from the new domain's list if they wish. No matter what their prior class was, divine agents gain the granted power of the domain they choose. In cases where the granted ability relies on cleric levels or allows turning or rebuking, use the sum of a character's cleric and divine agent levels to determine the ability's effect.
Contact (Su): A divine agent of 2nd level or higher may be contacted mentally by her deity or its agents, usually to impart particular knowledge and orders to the divine agent. This contact only functions one way; the divine agent cannot initiate the contact, question the orders, or ask for clarifications. The nature of the contact depends on the deity: Dreams, ghostly visions, and illuminations from above are all possibilities. Contact from the deity rarely interrupts the divine agent's normal actions.
Spells per Day: A divine agent continues training in magic as well as gaining power from her deity. At 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th level, the divine agent gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in whatever 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. This essentially means that she adds the level of divine agent to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day accordingly.
If a character had more than one spellcasting class before she became a divine agent, she must decide to which class she adds each level of divine agent for the purposes of determining spells per day when she adds the new level.
Menacing Aura (Ex): At 3rd level, a divine agent gains the ability to generate an intangible, invisible aura of menace that weakens hostile creatures within a 20-foot radius. Anyone about to attack the divine agent must attempt a Will save (DC the divine agent's character level). Those who fail the saving throw suffer a -2 morale penalty on attacks, checks, and saves for one full day or until they successfully damage the divine agent generating the aura. A creature that made its initial save or damaged the divine agent is immune to that divine agent's aura for one day.
Godly Gift: At 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, the deity bestows on the divine agent a gift. Each deity's gift varies, but it is usually the ability to use a spell from one of the divine agent's domains as a spell-like ability. The deity offers a spell of the divine agent's level or lower. In other words, a 3rd-level divine agent would gain one of her 1st-level, 2nd-level, or 3rd-level domain spells as a spell-like ability The divine agent may use this ability once per day. The spell-like ability functions as a spell cast by a cleric of a level equal to the divine agent's character level.
Altered Appearance (Ex): At 4th level, a divine agent begins to show prominent physical modification to match the desires of her deity. For good-aligned deities, this often takes the form of golden skin, hair, or eyes. Divine agents of evil-aligned deities might gain horns, antlers, or a pointed tail. Neutral deities may provide a copper or silver tone to the skin, while nature deities may cause a greenish pallor and barklike hair. Elemental powers may alter their divine agents' appearance by giving a texture to the skin reflecting the element involved. All such alterations are permanent, though disguise or spells may hide them.
Commune (Sp): A divine agent of 5th level or higher can activate this spell-like ability (as the spell of the same name) once per week. This spell-like ability functions as a spell cast by a cleric of a level equal to the divine agent's character level.
Plane Shift to Deity's Plane (Sp): A divine agent of 5th level or higher may plane shift to her deity's home plane once per day, and from that plane to the divine agent's native plane. This spell-like ability functions as the spell cast by a cleric of a level equal to the divine agent's character level.
Plane Shift to Any Plane (Sp): Upon reaching 7th level, a divine agent may plane shift to any plane of existence, as per the spell, once per day. This spell-like ability functions as the spell cast by a cleric of a level equal to the divine agent's character level.
Audience (Sp): Up to twice per year a divine agent of 8th level or higher may request an audience with her deity, which functions as a double-duration commune spell allowing a number of questions equal to double the divine agent's character level.
Alignment Shift: If a divine agent is not the same alignment as her deity, then her alignment shifts to match it as soon as the divine agent reaches 8th level.
Mystic Union: At 9th level, a divine agent becomes a magical creature. She is treated as an outsider of the deity's home plane rather than as a humanoid. For instance, charm person does not affect her. Additionally, the divine agent gains damage reduction 20/+1. This damage reduction does not stack with other forms of damage reduction. Despite this outsider status, a divine agent may still be brought back from the dead if slain.
Gate (Sp): A 10th-level divine agent can activate this spell-like ability (as the spell of the same name, except it only reaches the home plane of the divine agent's deity) once per day This spell-like ability functions as the spell cast by a cleric of a level equal to the divine agent's character level.
| Divine Agent | Hit Die: d8 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Granted domain | - |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Contact | +1 spellcaster level |
| 3rd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Menacing aura, godly gift | - |
| 4th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Altered appearance | +1 spellcaster level |
| 5th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Commune, plane shift to deity's plane | - |
| 6th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Godly gift | +1 spellcaster level |
| 7th | +5 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Plane shift to any plane | - |
| 8th | +6 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Audience, alignment shift | +1 spellcaster level |
| 9th | +6 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Mystic union, godly gift | - |
| 10th | +7 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Gate | +1 spellcaster level |
Fallen Divine Agents
Not all who follow a deity achieve that deity's goals. It is possible to be cast out from (or to walk out on) service to one's deity. The effects of being a fallen divine agent are as follows:
- The character loses all commune, gate, and audience abilities.
- The former divine agent retains her mystic union properties, altered appearance, and any godly gifts.
- Depending on the circumstances of the departure, the divine agent may or may not be hunted by agents of the deity in question.
- The divine agent class is forbidden to the character. Another deity will not sponsor a former divine agent.
- The divine agent may be reinstated by the deity only upon completing some great quest determined by the DM. Often the deity makes the entire process more difficult, just to test the devotion of the fallen divine agent.
Source: Expanded Psionics Handbook