Publication:Renegade Cleric's Tome/Forbidden Teachings

This material is published under the OGL

Domains and Estates

Though all gods are different, virtually all offer their clerics some power in exchange for their obedience and adherence to divine law. For ease of use, these powers and granted abilities are categorised into domains, universal concepts that are used to defi ne the aspects of power that a god represents and the abilities he provides to his clerics. In this book, ways to use the existing and new domains to reinforce the concept of the gods and their relationships to their clerics are presented, along with the new concept of minor domains, or estates.

In general, domains reflect aspects of a god. They provide clerics with abilities and spells in keeping with how the god wishes to be represented to his faithful followers and to outsiders. Unfortunately, domains can be too general to really describe some of the gods who grant them. Estates are an answer to this – each estate provides a handful of spells that exemplify a more focused area of power than the domain from which they are derived. When an estate is chosen, it replaces all odd-level spells above 1st level in the domain from which it is derived. The cleric retains all of the even numbered domain spells, as well as the granted power from the domain itself. A cleric may not choose more than one estate for each domain. The following estate descriptions are provided as building blocks for those Games Masters and players that wish to flesh out the religions in their campaign and offer more choices for clerics.

The concept of estates was first introduced in The Quintessential Cleric with each of the standard domains subdivided into two estates. The new domains presented in the Spell Lists chapter have also been subdivided into two estates each. Spell descriptions that belong to a domain and an estate identify their estate at the bottom of the spell description.

The traditional domains had their estates established in The Quintessential Cleric and have not been reproduced in this book as to save space for a multitude of extra spells. To provide some sense of completion the traditional domains accompanied by their estate are listed below.

Air (Wind, Tempest); Animal (Beast, Estate); Chaos (Chance, Decay); Death (Execution, Graves); Destruction (Murder, Rupture); Earth (Depths, Material); Evil (Crime, Pain); Fire (Conflagration, Purification); Good (Purification, Righteousness); Healing (Antivenom, Cures); Knowledge (Intuition, Secrets); Law (Order, Decree); Luck (Fortune, Ill-Omen); Magic (Augmentation, Weakness); Plant (Cultivation, Nature’s Force), Protection (Avoidance, Deflection), Strength (Might, Power); Sun (Life, Sunset); Travel (Discovery, Pathfinders); Trickery (Lies, Illusion); War (Ambush, Berserk); Water (Blood, Drowning)

The Contingent Descriptor

Some spells introduced in this work have the contingent descriptor, marked as [Contingent - Magic School]. A contingent spell requires that an arcane or divine spellcaster have access to a specific school and not be prohibited from its spells. For example, a spell labelled Enchantment [Contingent – Illusion] is an Enchantment spell that can only be cast by a character that could also cast Illusion spells. This has lead to some spells being unavailable to specialists who are prohibited from contingent schools.

Other Descriptors

Appearing on the same line as the school and subschool, when applicable, is a descriptor that further categorises the spell in some way. Some spells have more than one descriptor. There are four new descriptors (aside from Contingent) used in the Renegade Cleric’s Tome, their descriptions and properties are noted below:

Age

This descriptor denotes any spell that relates to magical aging effects or the rejuvenation of a creature to an earlier age.

Judicial Curse

There are times when a criminal cannot be brought to justice, or when he is simply too powerful for the forces of the law to overcome. But where an evil archmage may be able to resist any minor spell a crusading cleric has in his repertoire, the church can call on the power of the faithful to overcome his resistance. If a spell is identified as a judicial curse, it has the following benefits and restrictions:

Ceremonial Force: The caster can increase the power of the spell by taking additional time to perform the ritual and by receiving support from assistants. This increased effect is measured in ceremonial force. For every two hours he adds to the casting time of the spell, he receives one point of ceremonial force. He can spend a maximum of six hours in order to receive a total of three points of ceremonial force by increasing casting time.

For every two assistants the caster has helping him with the ritual, he receives one point of ceremonial force, to a maximum bonus of three. Assistants must be of at least 2nd level in a class that has the potential to cast the spell in question. To provide him with this benefit, an assistant must perform the verbal and somatic components required by the spell, and he must participate for the full casting time of the spell.

If the spell is divine in nature, the caster can increase its power further through use of a sacred relic of his deity. The nature of the deity will determine the nature of his relics; a goddess of knowledge might have spread the pages of the first book across the world, while a war god would treasure the weapons of his sacred champions. The caster cannot create a relic, and it is ultimately up to the Games Master to decide if his god even has relics. Depending on the holiness of the object, he will gain one to three points of ceremonial force from its presence. Even if he has multiple relics, he cannot gain more that three points of ceremonial force. Arcane casters may be able to mimic this effect by creating esoteric spell amplifiers; this is left up to the Games Master.

Ceremonial force has the following effects:

• Spell formulas (such as spell range) may be modified by the number of points of ceremonial force in the spell. These effects vary, and details can be found in the description of a specific judicial curse.
• The ceremonial force is added to the DC of the spell’s saving throw. This cannot increase the DC by more than five points.
• If the spell effect can be removed with break enchantment, the ceremonial force is added to the caster’s level to determine the effective caster level of the spell.
• Unless otherwise specified, the effects of a judicial curse can be broken with remove curse. Add the ceremonial force of the spell to the caster’s level; the character attempting to break the curse must be of equal or higher level or remove curse will fail.

Restrictions: A judicial curse can only be used on a creature that could normally fall under the jurisdiction of his justice system. Nationality is not an issue, so most societies could target any human; but he cannot excommunicate a dragon. As an optional rule, the Games Master may decide that judicial curses cannot be used unless the target has actually been convicted of a crime (even if he was tried in absentia); alternately, he could receive a +5 bonus to his saving throw if he is innocent of any wrongdoing. These benefits and restrictions only apply to spells that are clearly designated as judicial curses! The caster cannot increase the power of a fireball just because he has a few friends working with him.

Poison

This descriptor does not have any mechanical effect in its own right. However, it interacts with various other mechanics. It represents a spell’s reliance on the magical manipulation of poison. In addition to the spells contained in this book, the following classic spells should have it added to their entry: delay poison, detect poison, neutralize poison and poison.

Temporal

Temporal is a designator applied to all spells to do with the manipulation, perception or investigation of time. A wizard who has learned to cast these spells is often known as a chronomancer. In order to successfully be able to cast spells with the temporal designator an arcane or divine spellcaster must possess at least five ranks in both Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as well as possess the Extend Spell and Quicken Spell feats.

Casting Time

Most spells have a casting time of one standard action. Others take one round or more, while a few require only a free action. A spell that takes one round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of his turn in the round after he began casting the spell. He then act normally after the spell is completed. Recently spells have been researched that can be cast as swift or immediate actions.

Swift Action: A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. The caster can perform one swift action per turn without affecting his ability to perform other actions. In that regard, a swift action is like a free action. However, he can perform only a single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions he takes. He can take a swift action any time he would normally be allowed to take a free action. Swift actions usually involve magic or the activation of magic items; many characters (especially those who do not use magic) never have an opportunity to take a swift action. Casting a quickened spell is a swift action. In addition, casting any spell with a casting time of one swift action is a swift action. Casting a spell with a casting time of one swift action does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Immediate Action: Much like a swift action, an immediate action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time – even if it is not his turn. Using an immediate action on his turn is the same as using a swift action, and counts as his swift action for that turn. The caster cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after his next turn if he has used an immediate action when it is not currently his turn (effectively, using an immediate action before his turn is equivalent to using his swift action for the coming turn). He also cannot use an immediate action if he are currently flat-footed.

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