FAVORED SOUL

The favored soul follows the path of the cleric but is able tochannel divine power with surprising ease. She is able toperform the same tasks as her fellow divine spellcasters but with virtually no study; to her, it comes naturally. Scholarswonder if favored souls have traces of outsider blood fromunions, holy or unholy, centuries ago and generations removed.

Others suggest that divine training of the propertype awakens the ability, or that favored souls are simplyimbued with their gifts by their gods when they beginthe cleric’s path. In any case, favored souls cast their spellsnaturally, as much through force of personality as through study. Though this gives them extraordinary divine abilitiesno normal person could ever match, they see their gift as a call to action, and so in some ways may lag behind theirmore studious colleagues.

 

Adventures: Favored souls are often loners, wandering the land serving their deities. They are welcomed by their churches but treated as unusual and are sometimes misunderstood.They are emissaries of their deities and outside the church’s command structure—respected mystics notrequiring the support normally crucial to a priest’s success.

This makes them sometimes reveredand sometimes envied by their clericcousins. While favored souls areoccasionally disrespected for theirperceived lack of discipline, devout worshipers know that they are apowerful message from, and indeeda living manifestation of, their deities.

Characteristics: Favored souls castdivine spells by means of an innate connectionrather than through laborious trainingand prayer, so their divine connection is naturalrather than learned. These divine spellcastersknow fewer spells and acquire powerful spellsmore slowly than clerics, but favored souls cancast spells more often, and they have no needto select and prepare them ahead of time.

 

Alignment: Divine magic is intuitive to afavored soul, not a matter of careful prayer.This intuitive nature leads to a freer interpretationof faith and doctrine, and so favoredsouls tend slightly toward chaos over law.A favored soul is often of the samealignment as her deity, though someare one step away. For example, afavored soul could serve a lawfulgood deity and be neutral goodherself. A favored soul may notbe neutral unless her deity is neutral.

 

Religion: A favored soulcan be of any religion.The most common deity worshipedby human favored souls in civilized lands is Pelor,god of the sun. Among nonhuman races, favored souls most commonly worship the chief deity oftheir racial pantheon.Unlike clerics, favored souls are not ableto devote themselves to a cause or asource of divine power insteadof a deity.

Background:Favored souls learnof their connection with thedivine at a young age. Eventually,a young favored soulunderstands the power thatshe has been wielding unintentionally.Favored souls, as naturallyinclined divine channelers,are also born loners. Unlikeclerics in a temple, they gainlittle by sharing their knowledge and have no strong incentiveto work together.

Races: The innate talent of spontaneously channeling divinepower is unpredictable, and it canshow up in any of the common races. Divine spellcasters from savagelands or from among brutalhumanoid tribes (such asorcs or half-orcs) are moreoften favored souls thanclerics.

 

Other Classes: Favored souls have the most incommon with members of other self-taught classes,especially sorcerers, but also druids and rogues. Theysometimes fi nd themselves at odds with members of themore disciplined classes, specifi cally clerics, whom theysometimes view as too wrapped up in doctrine and rigidlydefi ned attitudes.

Role: The favored soul serves as a group’s backup healerand defensive magic specialist. She can hold her own in afi ght, especially if she chooses to focus on powers that aidher in combat.

 

Game Rule InformationFavored souls have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma determines how many spells thefavored soul can cast per day. Wisdom determines howhard the favored soul’s spells are to resist (see Spells, below).In addition to using Charisma and Wisdom for spellcasting,a favored soul also benefi ts from high Dexterity, Strength,and Constitution scores.

 

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d8.

 

Class Skills

The favored soul’s class skills (and the key ability for eachskill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha),Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession(Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). See Chapter4 of the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifi er) × 4.Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intmodifier

 

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the favored soul.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Favored souls areprofi cient with all simple weapons, with light and mediumarmor, and with shields (except tower shields). A favoredsoul is also profi cient with her deity’s favored weapon. Although a favored soul is not profi cient with heavy armor,wearing it does not interfere with her spellcasting.

 

Spells: A favored soul casts divine spells (the same typeof spells available to clerics), which are drawn from thecleric spell list. She can cast any spell she knows withoutpreparing it ahead of time the way a cleric must.

To cast a spell, a favored soul must have a Charisma scoreof 10 + the spell’s level (Cha 10 for 0-level spells, Cha 11for 1st-level spells, and so forth). The Diffi culty Class for asaving throw against a favored soul’s spell is 10 + the spell’slevel + the favored soul’s Wisdom modifi er.

Like other spellcasters, a favored soul can cast only a certainnumber of spells of each spell level per day. Her basedaily spell allotment is given on Table 1–1: The FavoredSoul. In addition, she receives bonus spells for a highCharisma.

Unlike a cleric, a favored soul’s selection of spells islimited. A favored soul begins play knowing four 0-levelspells and three 1st-level spells of your choice. At eachnew favored soul level, she gains one or more new spells,as indicated on Table 1–2: Favored Soul Spells Known.(Unlike spells per day, her Charisma score does not affectthe number of spells a favored soul knows; the numbers onTable 1–2 are fi xed.)

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered favored soul level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a favoredsoul can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the favored soul “loses” the oldspell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s levelmust be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, andit must be at least two levels lower than the highest-levelfavored soul spell the favored soul can cast. A favored soulmay swap only a single spell at any given level, and mustchoose whether or not to swap the spell at the same timethat she gains new spells known for the level.

Unlike a cleric, a favored soul need not prepare herspells in advance. She can cast any spell she knows at anytime, assuming she has not yet used up her spells per dayfor that spell level.

 

Deity’s Weapon Focus: At 3rd level, a favored soulgains the Weapon Focus feat with her deity’s favoredweapon. If the character already has that feat, she canchoose a different one.

 

Energy Resistance (Ex): At 5th level, a favored soulchooses an energy type and gains resistance 10 against thattype. At 10th level and 15th level, the character gains resistance10 against another energy type of her choosing.

 

Deity’s Weapon Specialization: At 12th level, a favoredsoul gains the Weapon Specialization feat with her deity’sfavored weapon. If she already has that feat, she can choosea different one.

Wings (Ex): At 17th level, a favored soul gains wingsand can fl y at a speed of 60 feet (good maneuverability).A good-aligned favored soul grows feathered wings, andan evil-aligned favored soul gains batlike wings. A favoredsoul who is neither good nor evil may choose either type ofwings.

 

Damage Reduction (Su): A 20th-level favored soulgains damage reduction. If the character is lawful-aligned,the damage reduction is 10/silver. If the character is chaotic-aligned, the damage reduction is 10/cold iron. A favoredsoul who is neither lawful nor chaotic may choose eithertype of damage reduction.

 

 

Favored Soul Spell's known