|
The Spiritualist A Psionic Priest Class (v. 28-Aug-2004) Updated to use the Dungeons & Dragons Expanded Psionics Handbook It has long been argued that one can be intensely spiritual without worshipping petty gods. The same level of spiritual devotion that produces divinely granted clerical powers can also be turned to a more reflective and contemplative path of self-enlightenment. The person who does this through psionic methods is a Spiritualist. In some cultures and regions, the dedicated treading of a spiritual path unlocks mysteries of the Divine Mind that bring new understandings. The powers thus discovered are manifested through acts of will and discipline, though they are mastered through study of the divine. Spiritualists may be organized into a religion or found as loosely affiliated students of a particular teacher. Good spiritualists heal, protect, and administer justice as clerics do. Evil spiritualists pillage, destroy, and defile what is good and beautiful in the world. In truth, spiritualists serve the same role as clerics, but do so through psionics instead of divine magic. The primary distinction between the cleric and the spiritualist is the different sources of their powers--spiritualists unlock power within, rather than channeling the power of external divinities. Adventures: Many spiritualists view life as a constant struggle between forces of opposing natures. To achieve enlightenment is to understand the true nature of these conflicts and one's own place in relation to them. To gain this understanding and to test their abilities, spiritualists may wander or engage in quests and challenges. Those who are faithful and dedicated to principles of good often travel to teach and heal. Others seek only their own personal advancement, heedless of any cost to others. A few ally themselves with powers of evil, seeking to discover paths that lead to domination and subjugation of their fellow creatures. Most spiritualists follow an individual path that no other person can truly walk in exactly the same way. They may receive instructions, assignments, or requests from their teachers, but they usually are free to find their own adventures. Spiritualists are typically not as interested in accumulating wealth, treasure, or power as most adventurers, but they will seldom turn down opportunities to acquire things that will make their path easier to tread. Characteristics: Spiritualists are masters of the power that comes from within. This power is used to heal, protect, defend, and discover. They do not have the same wide selection of magical spells as clerics, but they have more individual freedom to select and use their powers with fewer limits. They are not masters of psychic combat, as are psions, nor are they as powerful in combat as psychic warriors. In fact, they do not learn to use any armor or shields and have only a limited selection of weapons. Instead, they have an expanded array of powers dedicated to spiritual ends that approach clerical abilities in some aspects and surpass them in others. Alignment: The alignment of a spiritualist depends upon the faith or discipline she follows. As might be expected, more spiritualists are of good alignment and beliefs than evil. They tend toward law, rather than chaos, due to the personal discipline required to follow a strict personal code. Even so, there are many adherents of chaotic individualism numbered among the spiritualists. Religion: Any religion that promotes a strong personal path to enlightenment might serve as the basis for spiritualists, although most religions give rise to clerics instead of the psionically active spiritualist. Spiritualists and their teachers and schools may be on good or extremely poor terms with local religions, depending upon factors of similarity of beliefs, tolerance, alignment, and the personalities involved. Background: Spiritualists are often learned people, but a person of any class might learn the teachings and ways of this class. Spiritualists are often associated with monasteries, and training at such locations may include aspects of both classes. At the DM's option, characters may continue to gain levels in the monk class after multi-classing in the spiritualist class without violating their ordinary restrictions. Races: Prrexi and humans are the predominant followers of the spiritualist path. Prrex culture reviles arcane magic and regards divine magic with indifference. Prrexi prefer the more certain path of personal discipline, and thus their worship centers around a personal path to enlightenment. Elves have a much stronger connection to magic than the inner power of psionics. Dwarves prefer their own magical traditions and place less emphasis on self-reflection. Gnomes, halfings, half-elves, half-orcs have more connection to other religious traditions, but individuals might follow the spiritualist path. Kzinti have a culture that, like dwarves, places little emphasis on reflection--despite their tradition of psionic study. Other Classes: Spiritualists get along well with most other classes, and have a particular feeling of fellowship with monks, psions, and psychic warriors. They may be cautious around clerics or paladins until they determine how tolerant they are toward other faiths. Often, spiritualists may not even distinguish themselves from clerics and other workers of divine power. They are often regarded as priests, just the same as clerics, and may simply accept the titles (such as cleric, priest, etc.) common to the lands they visit. Once other adventurers understand the things that spiritualists can do for them in healing, protection, and divination, they typically welcome the spiritualist into the party. Class Features Abilities: Wisdom is essential for a spiritualist. It governs his manifesting abilities and reinforces his Will saves. Constitution is helpful for tasks involving Concentration and for improving the spiritualist's toughness. Dexterity helps the character on defense and with ranged attacks. Strength and Intelligence are helpful for the melee bonuses and skill points they provide. Charisma is often least important, as the typical spiritualist seeks mastery over himself, and is not concerned with influence over others. Alignment: Any. Hit Die: d8. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Spiritualists have proficiency in all simple weapons and do not have proficiency with any armor or shields. Armor does not, however, interfere with the manifestation of psionic powers. Power Points/Day: Spiritualists gain power points as psions, including bonus power points for Wisdom from Table 2-1 in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Powers Known: Spiritualists gain powers at the same rate psions do. A spiritualist starts with three powers of her choice from the spiritualist class list. She gains additional powers each level according to the table, below (this duplicates the psion progression, Table 2-3). Unless the character takes the Expanded Knowledge feat, she is restricted to powers from the spiritualist class list and has no access to other classes' or disciplines' powers. This also restricts the character from using power completion or power trigger devices that manifest powers not in her class list. Bonus Feats: A spiritualist gains a bonus feat at 1st level, 5th level, 10th level, 15th level, and 20th level. This feat must be a psionic feat, a metapsionic feat, or a psionic item creation feat. A spiritualist might choose to take the Psicrystal Affinity feat at 1st level in order to hold up a part of his personality as a constant reminder of his spiritual journey. Many spiritualists forgo this "ritual of the pet rock." Class Skills The spiritualist's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex). Skill Points at each level: 4 + Int modifier.
Spiritualist Powers 1st Level Powers: Biofeedback, body adjustment, burst, call to mind, catfall, conceal thoughts, daze-psionic, deja vu, demoralize, detect psionics, disable, distract, elfsight, empathic transfer, empathy, empty mind, far hand, float, force screen, grip of iron, hammer, inertial armor, know direction and location, metaphysical weapon, mind thrust, missive, precognition, precognition-defensive, precognition-offensive, prescience-offensive, sense link, synthesete, thicken skin. 2nd Level Powers: Align weapon-psionic, animal affinity, body equilibrium, body purification, clairvoyant sense, cloud mind, darkvision-psionic, detect hostile intent, ego whip, energy adaptation-specified, hustle, id insinuation, identify-psionic, inflict pain, levitate-psionic, mental disruption, missive-mass, object reading, painful strike, prowess, recall agony, sensitivity to psychic impressions, share pain, sustenance, thought shield, tongues-psionic, wall walker. 3rd Level Powers: Concussion blast, danger sense, dimension slide, dispel psionics, eradicate invisibility, escape detection, evade burst, false sensory input, keen edge-psionic, mental barrier, mind trap, psionic blast, remove disease-psionic, solicit psicrystal, telekinetic force, telekinetic thrust, time hop, touchsight, ubiquitous vision. 4th Level Powers: Aura sight, correspond, detect remote viewing, dimension door-psionic, divination-psionic, empathic feedback, energy adaptation, freedom of movement-psionic, inertial barrier, fly-psionic, intellect fortress, psychic reformation, remote viewing, steadfast perception, telekinetic maneuver. 5th Level Powers: Adapt body, break enchantment-psionic, catapsi, clairtangent hand, incarnate, oak body, plane shift-psionic, power resistance, psionic revivify, psychic crush, psychofeedback, restoration-psionic, second chance, shatter mind blank, teleport-psionic, tower of iron will, true seeing-psionic. 6th Level Powers: Aura alteration, banishment-psionic, cloud mind-mass, heal-psionic, mind blank-personal, null psionics field, overland flight-psionic, precognition-greater, repulsion-psionic, retrieve, suspend life, temporal acceleration. 7th Level Powers: Crisis of life, energy conversion, moment of prescience-psionic, phase door-psionic, resurrection-psionic, sequester-psionic, ultrablast. 8th Level Powers: Bend reality, hypercognition, iron body-psionic, mind blank-psionic, shadow body, teleport-greater psionic, true metabolism, telekinetic sphere-psionic. 9th Level Powers: Affinity field, etherealness-psionic, metafaculty, microcosm, psychic chirurgery, reality revision, timeless body, teleportation circle-psionic, time regression, transcend body. Powers Align
Weapon , Psionic As align
weapon (p. 197 PHB), except as noted above. Break
Enchantment, Psionic As break enchantment (p. 207 PHB), except as noted above. Heal,
Psionic As heal
(p. 239 PHB), except as noted above. Remove
Disease, Psionic As remove
disease (p. 271 PHB), except as noted above. Transcend
Body You free
yourself from the restrictions of a material existence, turning yourself
and your equipment incorporeal. You are subject to all of the advantages
and limitations inherent to incorporeality while the power is in effect. Repulsion,
Psionic As repulsion (p. 271 PHB), except as noted here. Resurrection,
Psionic As resurrection
(p. 272 PHB), except that there is no material component required. Last updated
28-Aug-2004 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||