The Idolater (old school PC class)

 The Idolater

Not quite a cleric class for old school fantasy gaming. Idolaters make use of religious spaces, symbols, and tools to work magic by beseeching, cajoling, and tricking a host of deities and their underlings.  The Idolater may be a member of an active priesthood, a freelance theurgist, a travelling mendicant of sorts, or a virtual fraud.

The chief powers of the Idolater is their capacity to use religious devices to invoke magical powers and to keep ready a supply of spells they wrest from divine agents. This requires a knowledge on how to contact a host of entities whether they be spirits, ancestors, angels, demons, or gods along with continued negotiations with these entities.  The idolater does so by visiting shrines as altars dedicated to the entities and making use of unguents, votives, charms, and relics as able.

Idolater

Prime Attribute: Charisma

Hit Dice: 1d6

Armor/Shield: May wear any armor. Not trained in shield use (not prohibited but will suffer penalties to attack is using a shield).

Weapons permitted: Any culturally appropriate weapons. Fight as well as Magic-users otherwise.

Saving Throws: use the simple progression here or otherwise saves as clerics.

Magic Item Use: Idolaters may use magical devices and scrolls as clerics.

Races: Any.

Level	Experience  Pts.	Hit Dice	Saving Throw	Highest Level Spell	Maximum Levels of Spells*	Supplication Limit**
1	0	1d6	15	1	1	1
2	1,400	2d6	14	2	2	2
3	2,800	3d6	13	2	4	3
4	5,600	4d6	12	3	6	4
5	12,000	5d6	11	3	8	5
6	25,000	6d6	10	4	10	7
7	50,000	7d6	9	4	12	9
8	100,000	8d6	8	5	14	11
9	200,000	9d6	7	5	16	13
10	400,000	9d6+1	6	5	18	15
11	600,000	9d6+2	5	6	21	17
12	800,000	9d6+3	5	6	24	19
13	1,000,000	9d6+4	5	6	27	21
14	1,200,000	9d6+5	5	7	30	24

Highest Level Spell: The highest level spell an Idolater is able to retain.

Maximum Levels of Spells*: The total of all spell levels in spells the idolater may retain at one time. An idolater with a CHA score of 13-15 is able to retain 1 extra level worth of spells, CHA score of 16-17 allow 2 extra level of spells, CHA 18+ allows for 3 extra levels of spells. The CHA bonus is applied once.

Supplication Limit: this sets a limit to how often an Idolater may request spells from divine agents and deities. These points are spent depending upon the rank and reactions of the entities contacted. A bonus identical to that mentioned above for Maximum spell levels is added to this score.

Rank of Entity	Supplication Cost	Maximum Spell Level
Minor Servitor	1	2
Lesser Servitor	2	3
Greater Servitor	3	4
Demi Gods and Petty Gods	4	5
Major Servitors	5	6
Lesser God	7	6
Intermediate God	9	7
Greater God	11	7

 

Regrettably for the Idolater supplication is not always successful. Each appeal has a variable chance of reward and punishment. When attempting to gain spells from a divine entity an Idolater must roll 3d6 (modified by CHA modifier) of the table below.

Idolater Level	Minor Servitor	Lesser Servitor	Greater Servitor	Petty or Demigod	Major Servitor	Lesser God	Intermdte. God	Greater God
1	4/12-17/18	5/13-17/18	6/14-17/18	--	--	--	--	--
2	3/12-17/18	4/12-17/18	5/13-17/18	6/14-17/18	--	--	--	--
3	3/12-17/18	3/12-17/18	4/12-17/18	6/13-17/18	--	--	-	--
4	3/12-17/18	3/12-17/18	3/12-17/18	5/12-17/18	7/15-17/18	--	--	--
5	3/11-17/18	3/12-17/18	3/12-17/18	4/12-17/18	6/15-17/18	--	--	--
6	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	3/12-17/18	4/12-17/18	6/14-17/18	8/15-17/18	--	--
7	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	3/12-17/18	6/13-17/18	7/15-17/18	9/15-17/18	--
8	3/11-16/17	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	6/12-17/18	6/15-17/18	8/15-17/18	10/15-17/18
9	3/10-16/17	3/11-16/17	3/11-17/18	3/11-17/18	6/12-16/17	6/14-17/18	7/15-17/18	9/15-17/18
10	3/9-16/17	3/10-16/17	3/11-16/17	3/11-17/18	6/11-16/17	6/13-17/18	6/15-17/18	9/14-17/18
11	3/8-16/17	3/9-16/17	3/10-16/17	3/11-16/17	5/11-16/17	6/12-17/18	6/14-17/18	8/14-17/18
12	3/7-16/17	3/8-16/17	3/9-16/17	3/10-16/17	5/11-16/16	6/12-16/17	6/13-17/18	8/13-17/18
13	3/6-16/17	3/7-16/17	3/8-16/17	3/9-16/17	4/10-16/16	6/11-16/17	6/12-17/18	7/13-17/18
14	3/5-16/17	3/6-16/17	3/7-16/17	3/8-16/17	3/9-16/16	5/11-16/17	6/12-16/17	7/12-17/18

#’s above are scores for Retribution/Supplication Approved/Supplicant Favored.

A Roll of 3- 1’s always draw retribution regardless of modifiers. If the modified roll would have been adequate to grant the spell normally however a saving throw is allowed to dodge the retribution of the entity in question (in this case only).

Retribution: The entity contacted is unhappy with the supplicant and will act unkindly towards them. GM’s should tailor response appropriate to their campaign and the power involved. It can be as simple as -4 to supplications of the entity and related entities for a following week and a minor curse causes all saves or attack rolls to be made at -2.

Supplication Approved: a number in this range indicates the supplicants request is approved and the Idolater may retain the spells requested.

Supplicant Favored: the entity loos upon the request with considerable approval. Any other request made to this entity or lesser entities under it’s influence are made at +1 for the next week. The supplication cost (this request only) is halved as well, but always at least 1.

 

Adjustments to Supplicants roll

 

No sacrifice	-2
No relevant Holy Symbol	-2
Outside sanctified space relevant to Entity	-2
At Shrine Dedicated to entity	+1
At Altar Dedicated to entity	+2
At working Altar dedicated to task.	+2
Using a Charm	+1 (only one allowed)
Using an Unguent or Votive	+1 (may use up to 3 at a time)
Asking for spell outside normal sphere of influence.	-3
Making more than 3 supplications to a specific Minor-Greater servitor in day.	-2
Making more than 3 supplications to a specific Petty God, Demi-God or Major Servitor in a Week	-3
Making more than 3 supplications to a specific Lesser, Intermediate, or Greater God in a Month	-4
Bearing a relevant Icon	+1
In possession of a relevant Idol	+2
In the presence of a relevant Relic	+3
Bearing a relevant Relic	+4
Offering a sacrifice in value to Idolater level x100	+2
Offering a sacrifice in value to Idolater   level x1000	+3
Assisted by 1 or more ordained priests dedicated to the entity.	+2
If deploying a specific Rite.	+1
If of opposite alignment to entity	-3
If entity is bound by Magic or Device	+2
If idolater has made a pact with the entity	+2
If the Idolater has robbed a site relevant to the entity.	-4   (this penalty is removed following the third successful roll after the offense)
If the idolater Desecrated a Shrine or Altar relevant to the entity, or allowed it to happen in their presence.	-4 (This penalty remains until a pact is made with the entity)

 

Each attempted supplication takes 10 minutes unless involvement of others and specific rituals increases the time (recommend a cap of 10 minutes per spell level).

 

Limits to Supplication:

As per the above an Idolater is limited by success as shown above but is also limited by it’s knowledge of the entities themselves. An Idolater will begin play knowing how to contact 2 Minor Entities. Thereafter an idolater must acquire the proper knowledge from other idolaters, scrolls, and texts. Each such attempt takes a day of dedicated study and meditation equivalent to the highest level spell the entity may grant and requires a successful saving throw modified with CHA and INT modifiers to determine success. Some devices may vanish after use so there is some bother and risk to these attempts. If an idolater is consulting another Idolater or Sage with appropriate knowledge they gains a bonus of +2 to this roll.

GMs are encouraged to add specific spells, items , and rituals to their campaigns related to contacnt knowledge and Supplication.

Unguents and Votives are consumed when a supplication is made.

An Idolater may never exceed the limit set in their supplications per day nor may they retain more levels in spells at one time than indicated above, it is possible for an idolater to make , multiple requests and gain multiple spells as often as possible within these guidelines.

 

Creation and Use of Charms:

Idolaters of 3^rd level or higher are able to craft charms relevant to the entities they have knowledge of. These charms must be fashioned so they are tied to a specific entity allowing any spell asked for from that entity to be stored within or they must be dedicated to specific spell which may be empowered by any entity willing to do so.

Charms may hold only 1 spell each regardless of level and are required to make use of the spell in question. A charm is always shattered if the entity deliver retribution upon the supplicant. When a spell is released using a cham there is also a 10% chance per spell level that the charm is shattered or consumed in the process.

Idolaters may give these charms to others to use as they wish but the power locked up in the charm is not regained until the charm is used. Other Spellcasters may use these charms as they wish, non-spell casters must roll a successful saving throw modified by their highest primer requisite modifier relevant to their character to sue the charm (it isn’t consumed by the attempt unless a 1 is rolled on the d20)

A charm will take a day of work and typically cost 50 x the maximum spell it may hold.