Faerûnian Prestige Class : Doomguide
In a world filled with wise outsiders and magical divination, there's little question about what happens to a being's soul after death. Perhaps surprisingly, this knowledge has done little to assuage the fears of the people of Faerûn, who remain frightened that some demon might carry off their spirits while in transit to the Fugue Plane. Worse, many fear that their bodies will be unearthed and animated by the kind of debased death-obsessed spellcasters who seem common since the fall of Myrkul during the Time of Troubles.
Those who worry about life after death turn to the doomguides of Kelemvor, an elite order of spellcasting warriors in service to the Judge of the Damned, to answer their fears with promises of a painless transition and a fair judgment in the afterlife. When not administering to the needs of those about to die, doomguides halt the spread of necromancy by cleansing Faerûn of the taint of unlife through careful application of faith, spells, and bladecraft. As both compassionate undertakers and vigorous foes of undead, doomguides represent the inherent dualism that defines death in the Realms. Doomguides come exclusively from the ranks of Kelemvor's clergy.
The church teems with clerics who adhere to one side of the death equation over the other. On one side are those who prefer to usher the sick and dying into the next world through peaceful application of kind words and soothing spells. The contrasting philosophy is practiced by those who zealously thrust their maces into the ribcages of animate skeletons and view bedside ministry as a necessary but occasionally boring interlude between great battles against undead adversaries. A doomguide must balance between these two extremes. Further, doomguides serve the church in a less obvious way, often acting as couriers from one temple to another. Seldom attached to a particular temple, doomguides are expected to travel the world, spreading the word of Kelemvor and the lessons of a peaceful, beautiful afterlife across all Faerûn.
While all doomguides are clerics of Kelemvor to some extent, some train as fighters to better destroy undead, some are wizards or sorcerers trying to undermine necromancy from the arcane side of the problem. Few rogues or monks become doomguides, and religion and alignment prevent barbarians, bards, druids, paladins, or rangers from becoming doomguides.
Doomguides often lead bands of adventurers to clear out enclaves of undead or punish a particularly powerful or vile necromancer. Occasionally, they officiate at important funerals - or provide life-restoring magic to those who have served the church in the past and still have important work to conduct in this world. Their requirement for travel makes encountering a doomguide in the wilderness nearly as likely as encountering one in more urban surroundings.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Doomguide, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Alignment: Lawful neutral.
- Skills: Diplomacy 5 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 5 ranks.
- Feats: Extra Turning, Great Fortitude.
- Base Save Bonus: Will +4.
- Spells: Ability to cast speak with dead as a divine spell.
- Patron: Kelemvor.
- Special: The character must have destroyed an undead of at least 5 HD, whether by using weapons, spells, or positive energy. He does not need to have done this alone. The character must be proficient with the bastard sword.
Class Skills
The doomguide's class skills are Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
The following are class features of the doomguide prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A doomguide gains no weapon or armor proficiencies.
Spells per Day: At each doomguide level, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (such as an improved chance of turning undead-however, see the Kelemvor's Boon ability below). If the character had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a doomguide, the player must decide to which class to add each doomguide level for the purpose of determining spells per day and spells known.
Kelemvor's Boon: By grace of the Lord of the Dead, doomguides add their doomguide class levels to their cleric levels for purposes turning or destroying undead, both for the initial turning check and the turning damage roll.
Rite of the Passing (Su): As a standard action, a doomguide may touch a corpse to protect it from those who would seek to animate it. A dead creature for whom the ritual has been performed may not be animated in any way except the direct intervention of a deity. A doomguide may perform the rite of the passing upon one creature per doomguide level per day. Corpses of creatures with four or more Hit Dice more than the doomguide are immune to the ritual.
Converse with Dead (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, the doomguide's study of the process of death has granted him the guile and understanding to coax additional information from corpses when using the speak with dead spell. Instead of the usual one question per two caster levels, doomguides may ask one question per caster level.
Bonus Feat At 3rd, 6th, and 10th level, a doomguide may select a bonus feat from the following list: Divine Vengeance, Empower Turning, Extra Turning, Heighten Turning, and Quicken Turning.
Save Bonus (Ex): At 4th level, doomguides get a +4 bonus on saving throws against death effects and to saving throws to overcome a negative level. Upon reaching 8th level, a doomguide always makes his saving throw to overcome a negative level.
Bond of Fatal Touch (Su): The doomguide's devotion to Kelemvor and dedication to the teachings of the Lord of the Crystal Spire has helped him to establish certain supernatural links to Fatal Touch, Kelemvor's powerful bastard sword. These links manifest in the form of a pale green nimbus around the weapon, representing the ability of the doomguide to increase the power of weapons he wields.
The ability lasts for 1 round each time it is used, and can be invoked as a free action a number of times per day equal to the doomguide's Charisma bonus (minimum one). A doomguide must decide to use the ability before attacking, and if the attack misses that use is wasted.
At 5th level, the bond grants wielded weapons the ghost touch property. At 7th level, weapons wielded by the doomguide gain
both ghost touch and the undead bane properties. At 9th level wielded weapons gain the ghost touch, undead bane, and disruption properties even if they are not bludgeoning weapons. The weapon's normal abilities still apply.
Ethereal Purge (Sp): At 8th level; once per day the doomguide may surround himself with a sphere of power with a radius of 5 feet per class level that forces all ethereal creatures in the area to manifest on or shift themselves to the Material Plane, as appropriate. For example, it forces ghosts to manifest, and ethereal filchers or creatures using an ethereal jaunt spell are forced into the Material Plane. Such creatures may attempt a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 doomguide's class level + doomguide's Wisdom bonus) to resist this effect. Those who fail suffer the above effects and are prevented from returning to the Ethereal Plane for 1 minute per class level.
Kelemvor's Grace (Su): At 10th level, a doomguide gains complete immunity to energy drain and death effects. Furthermore, allies within 10 feet of him gain a +4 bonus on saving throws against death effects and to saving throws to overcome a negative level.
| Doomguide | Hit Die: d6 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Special Spells per Day |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Kelemvor's boon, rite of the passing | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Converse with dead | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Bonus feat | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Save bonus | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Bond of Fatal Touch (ghost touch) | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 6th | +4 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Bonus feat | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 7th | +5 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Bond of Fatal Touch (undead bane) | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 8th | +6 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Save bonus, ethereal purge | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 9th | +6 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Bond of Fatal Touch (disruption) | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
| 10th | +7 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Bonus feat, Kelemvor's grace | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
Source: Faiths & Pantheons