Arcane devotee (3.5e Prestige Class)

Arcane Devotee

“	“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, just like magic.”	”
—Davnan Taletreader, Grey Elven Wizard/Arcane Devotee, The Olde Lexicon of the Obscene

Arcane devotees often work for the respective church of their deity and are among their most respected members. Devotees also support the church's armies during times of conflict. The churches of Azuth, Mystra, Lliira and Bane attract the highest number of arcane devotees.

Although many deities appeal specifically to certain niche groups, most of the greater gods pull followers from all walks of life. Arcanists in particular hold few solid allegiances to the god other than, formerly, Mystra, and many of those who study and use arcane magic can be found worshiping just about any of the major deities. Although many arcanists, particularly wizards, are not particularly devout in their worship and ally themselves with their church primarily for reasons of caution or convenience, others can be truly pious individuals who are willing to give themselves over fully to their patron god's will. Some of these pious arcanists go on to become arcane devotees. Arcane devotees are useful assets to any church that possesses them because they complement the divine power of clerics or paladins with the arcane power of mages. As a result, many arcane devotees become important and respected members of their god's followers, using their arcane power to both aid the church in times of war or create powerful magic items. In combat, arcane devotees often fight near the front line in order to wreak havoc on enemy forces or destroy the divine spellcasters of opposing gods.

Becoming a Arcane Devotee

Arcane Devotees are arcanists and, for a large part, continue to develop along whatever previous training they had in the Art. Among the most basic of these arcane abilities available to them is the power to enlarge the range of their spells by twofold, an ability arcane devotees learn before taking on any formal training as a devotee. Arcane devotees can enhance their spells in such a way a number of days roughly proportional to their own strength of personality and willpower

Entry Requirements

Alignment:	Must be within 1 step of that of your patron.
Base Attack Bonus:	2.
Skills:	Knowledge (Religion): 5 ranks. Spellcraft: 8 ranks. Knowledge (Arcana): 8 ranks.
Feats:	Sculpt Spell feat.
Spellcasting:	Must be able to cast arcane spells.
Patron:	Must have a patron deity or select one at time of obtaining this prestige class

Table: The Arcane Devotee

Hit Die: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spellcasting
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Turn/Rebuke Undead	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	1st Domain	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Healing Power	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	2nd Domain	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Holy Power	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Divine Intellect Holy Might & Gracious Beauty, Divine Theorist	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Rewarded Devotion	+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level) Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Decipher Script (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Arcane Devotee.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:Arcane Devotee become proficient with all simple weapons, with both types of armor (light, medium), and with shields (except tower shields). An Arcane Devotee who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to his deity’s weapon as a bonus feat. He also receives the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category. You abide by the same armor restrictions that clerics do, and you lose your arcane spellcasting levels awarded from the Arcane Devotee Prestige Class and or spell-like class abilities if you wear prohibited armor or carry a prohibited shield. When casting an arcane spell, you ignore the arcane spell failure chance for any light or medium armor (padded, leather, or hide armor). You learn to cast arcane spells while wearing the types of armor that Arcane Devotees favor.

+1 Level Arcane Spellcasting: An Arcane Devotee continues training in his previous arcane class(es), thus, when a new arcane devotee level is gained, the character gains new spells per day and increased caster level as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved familiar progression, for example). This essentially means that he adds the level of arcane devotee to the level of some other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly. If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before he became an arcane devotee, he must decide to which class he adds each level of arcane devotee for purposes of determining spells per day and caster level when he adds the new level..

Turn/Rebuke Undead: The Arcane Devotee turns/ rebukes undead as a cleric of level equal to his arcane devotee class level. He chooses which method he uses (turning or rebuking) in the same way a cleric of his patron would choose. He gains 3 + CHA modifier in turn/rebuke attempts per day and he may take the Extra Turning feat with his feat slots in the future if he desires. His arcane devotee levels stack with those of any cleric levels he possesses. If he advances in another class with Turn Undead ability, that class must also be able to turn/rebuke undead in the same way he has chosen as an arcane devotee.

1st & 2nd Domain: Arcane Devotee gain access to one of the domains of their patron just as a cleric does at level 2 and then another at level 4. If the arcane devotee already has cleric levels and domains, he does not choose two new ones, but uses these two domains already chosen. The arcane devotee gains the special domain powers (which is based on his arcane devotee level for powers based on cleric levels and these stack with existing cleric levels) and adds the entire list of the domain spells onto his normal spell list, able to learn and/or prepare these as arcane spells. These are special spells in that the arcane devotee need not keep a spellbook (if he prepares spells like a wizard) for these spells if he prepares spells, he is granted them by his patron when he needs them during his daily prayers and spell preparation time just as a cleric would be granted his spells. If the arcane devotee spontaneously casts his spells, he can choose these as some of his spells known if desired. However, because these spells are granted in another way, the arcane devotee cannot use a slot above level 9 to cast them with, so he is limited to metamagic modification in such a way that the final spell is not modified beyond a level 9 slot. Furthermore, the arcane devotee uses his Int score to determine if he can cast such a spell and what modifier it will have to its DC. If the arcane devotee later takes cleric levels, his cleric domains become these, he does not gain two additional domains. If he takes another class that requires or allows a patron, his patron must be the same as that chosen for arcane devotee.

Healing/Corrupting Power:At level 3, A good Arcane Devotee (or a neutral Arcane Devotee of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that the Arcane Devotees did not prepare ahead of time. The Arcane Devotees can "lose" any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with "cure" in its name).
An evil Arcane Devotee (or a neutral Arcane Devotee of an evil deity), can’t convert prepared spells to cure spells but can convert them to inflict spells (an inflict spell is one with "inflict" in its name).
An Arcane Devotee who is neither good nor evil and whose deity is neither good nor evil can convert spells to either cure spells or inflict spells (player’s choice per day). Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed without resting and an hour prayer. This choice also determines whether the cleric turns or commands undead.

Holy/Unholy Power: At level 5, Arcane Devotees can expend a turn/rebuke attempt along with a spell they cast to convert that spell into a holy/unholy spell. Those spells which deal elemental damage have half their damage converted to holy/unholy damage. This half of the spell is no longer considered elemental damage, and it inflicts double damage against creatures with the [Evil] descriptor and undead (if the arcane devotee turns undead) or double damage against [Good] creatures and no damage against undead if the arcane devotee so chooses (if the arcane devotee rebukes undead). If the spell does not inflict elemental damage, it has its DC increased by +4 against the same creatures as above (which stacks with Spell Focus).

Divine Intellect Holy Might & Gracious Beauty: At 6th level, you gain your Intelligence bonus as a modifier on Strength checks, Dexterity checks, Charisma checks, and checks involving skills based on Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma, such as Climb, Hide, and Perform.

Divine Theorist: Through Prayer & Study you gauge your opponents and learn to anticipate their attacks, At 6th level, you can expend 1 turn/rebuke attempt to gain your Intelligence bonus as a dodge bonus to Armor Class against one opponent for 1 round. Using this ability is a free action. You gain this benefit even while wearing light or medium armor. You can use this ability multiple times to gain a bonus against different opponents, but you cannot use it more than once during your turn against a single foe.

Rewarded Devotion: An Arcane Devotee at level 7, can use one of his arcane spell slots to permanently prepare one of her arcane spells as a spell-like ability that can be used twice per day. The Arcane Devotee does not use any components when casting the spell, although a spell that costs XP to cast still does so and a spell with a costly material component instead costs her 5 times that amount in XP. This ability costs one 4th-level spell slot.
The spell-like ability normally uses a spell slot of the spell’s level, although the Arcane Devotee can choose to make a spell modified by a metamagic feat into a spell-like ability at the appropriate spell level. The Arcane Devotee may use an available higher-level spell slot in order to use the spell-like ability more often. Using a slot three levels higher than the chosen spell allows her to use the spell-like ability four times per day, and a slot six levels higher lets her use it six times per day. If the Arcane devotee has a spell-like ability already and selected more than one time as a rewarded devotion choice, this ability can be apply to the same spell chosen the first time (increasing the number of times per day it can be used).

Playing an Arcane Devotee

Combat: The Arcane Devotee is adept at casting spells or using the divine gifts of their patron deity defend their beliefs.

Resources: Arcane Devotee are rare, and look down upon other arcane classes. There aren't enough of them to form any organizations outside of a church or temple.

Arcane Devotee in the World

Arcane Devotee tend to wander about, looking for new challenges that they can direct their abilities towards.

NPC Reactions: Most people are somewhat intimidated by the Smite of Arcane Devotee, as well as by their incredible unpredictability.

Arcane Devotee Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge(Arcana or Religion) can research Arcane Devotee to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge(Arcana), or Knowledge (Religion)

DC	Result
5	Arcane Devotees use magic.
10	The attendance rate of Arcane Devotees in church or temple isn't very good when you look at how much the read alone.
15	Arcane Devotees are useful members to any church or temple that possesses them because they complement the divine power.
20	There are great Arcane Devotees, but there are no Arcane Devotees that have mastered all flows of magic.

Arcane Devotees in the Game

Adaptation: Arcane Devotee are merely casters who have reached a state of enlightenment finding balance in Arcane & Divine Casters. While rare, they can occur virtually anywhere.

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