“You will yield to the might of our lord—or you will yield to mine!”
Amongst the more militant deities there are followers who are so firm in their beliefs, so strong in their convictions that they themselves become holy…or unholy warriors of their respective faith. The Ordained Champion is a fighting priest bred for divine warfare, taking the fight to their enemies with the fervor of a zealot and the ferocity of one possessed by a demon.
Combatants of the first order, they mesh divine magic with martial prowess to battle in the name of the god they represent.
Ordained Champions of evil deities are typical for these folk; tyrannical and menacing they live for slaughter and battle for their “divine” cause. However, clerics of more righteous deities who choose to walk this path are the most heroic of their caste—fighting shoulder to shoulder with their paladin brothers and sisters against the forces of evil.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any lawful, neutral good, or neutral evil.
Skill: Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
Feat: Weapon Focus with deity's favored weapon.
Spellcasting: Able to cast magic weapon as a divine spell.
Special: Must worship a "martial" deity such as The Morrigan, Bahamut, Moradin, or Gruumsh.
Hit Dice: D8
| Level | B.A.B | Fort Save | Reflex Save | Will Save | Special | Spell Casting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Bonus domain, combat feats, continued advancement, modified spontaneous casting | - |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Diehard, Smite | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Channel spell, divine bulwark | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Fist of the gods, rapid spontaneous casting | - |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Holy warrior, war caster | +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class |
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level): Concentration, Craft, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft.
Clerics make the best and most effective ordained champions. Paladins and paladins of tyranny, as well as favored souls occasionally follow this path as well. None but the cleric can receive the full benefit of the prestige class, however.
CLASS FEATURES
Your entire being is devoted to war—war in the name of your deity, war in the name of your favored cause, even war in the name of war itself. Your focus on warfare has slowed your spellcasting advancement, but the wide variety of martial powers you have gained has more than made up for that lack.
Spellcasting: At 2nd, 3rd, and 5th level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming an ordained champion, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.
Bonus Domain: If you are a cleric, you gain the War domain as a third domain. If you already have the War domain, you can instead choose any other domain granted by your deity as your third domain. If you have no cleric levels, you can add the War domain spells to your class spell list, but you do not gain its domain ability or any extra spell slots for domain spells.
Combat Feats: You can permanently sacrifice one or two] of your domain granted powers to acquire an equal number of feats from the list of fighter bonus feats, as long as you meet I the prerequisites' for them. You may not sacrifice your War domain ability for this purpose. You must choose whether or not to make this exchange when you first become an ordained champion, and you cannot later change your mind.
Continued Advancement: levels in ordained champion stack with levels of other appropriate classes for the purpose of turning or rebuking undead, and for all level-dependent domain granted powers.
Modified Spontaneous Casting (Ex): If you have cleric levels, you lose the ability to spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells. Instead, you can swap out previously prepared cleric spells for any spells of equal or lower level from the War domain. This alteration applies even to levels you gain as a cleric after becoming an ordained champion.
If you are not a cleric, modified spontaneous casting does not apply to you, even if you can spontaneously cast some other kind of spell, such as summon nature's ally.
Diehard: At 2nd level, you gain Diehard as a bonus feat, even if you lack the prerequisites. If you already have Diehard, you can select any other feat for which you meet the prerequisites as your bonus feat.
Diehard [General]
Prerequisite: Endurance feat.
Benefit:
When reduced to between –1 and –9 hit points, you automatically become stable. You don’t have to roll d% to see if you lose 1 hit point each round.
When reduced to negative hit points, you may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn’t your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious.
When using this feat, you can take either a single move or standard action each turn, but not both, and you cannot take a full round action. You can take a move action without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other action deemed as strenuous, including some free actions, such as casting a quickened spell) you take 1 point of damage after completing the act.
Smite (Su): At 2nd level, you can spend one daily use of your turn/rebuke undead ability as a swift action to turn your next melee attack into a smite. You gain a bonus equal to your Charisma modifier on attack rolls, and you deal extra damage equal to your total effective turning or rebuking level. Your smite attack is not limited by alignment or race; you can attempt to smite any foe. Except as noted here, this ability functions like the paladin's smite evil ability.
Channel Spell (Sp): At 3rd level, you can channel any spell you have available to cast into your melee weapon. Doing so requires a move action and uses up a prepared spell or spell slot just as if you had cast the spell. The channeled spell affects the next target you successfully attack with that weapon, though saving throws and spell resistance still apply normally. Even if the spell normally affects an area or is a ray, it still affects only the target in this case. On a successful hit, the spell is discharged from the weapon, which can then hold another spell. You can channel your spells into only one weapon at a time. A spell channeled into a weapon is lost if not used within 8 hours.
Divine Bulwark (Sp): At 3rd level, you can sacrifice a prepared spell or spell slot as a swift action to gain damage reduction. The value of the damage reduction equals 1 + spell level sacrificed, and it can be overcome by a chaotic-aligned strike. Thus, a 3rd-level ordained champion who sacrificed a flame strike spell would gain damage reduction 6/chaotic for 3 rounds. The damage reduction gained from multiple uses of this ability does not stack. This protection lasts for a number of rounds equal to your ordained champion level.
Fist of the Gods (Sp): At 4th level, you can sacrifice a prepared spell or spell slot as a swift action to deal extra damage. Doing so grants you a bonus equal to 1 + spell level sacrificed on your damage rolls for melee attacks. This benefit lasts for a number of rounds equal to your ordained champion level.
Rapid Spontaneous Casting (Ex): When you attain 4th level, any spell from the War domain that you spontaneously cast requires only a swift action if its normal casting time is no more than 1 standard action, or a standard action if its normal casting time is 1 full-round action. A spontaneous spell that you modify with a metamagic feat requires only its normal casting time rather than the extra time such a spell normally requires.
Holy Warrior (Sp): At 5th level, you can spend one daily use of your turn/rebuke undead ability as a swift action to bring your Wisdom into play in combat. For 5 rounds after you activate this ability, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier on attack rolls and damage rolls.
War Caster (Ex): At 5th level, you gain a +2 bonus to your effective caster level when casting spells that appear on the War domain spell list.
