((Currently exhausted and depressed. Posting this because my hard drive MIGHT be failing. Feel free to post replies! Other parts of the class will be in separate threads.))
Starting Age: As per Sorcerer.
Starting Wealth: 6d4x5 GP
Hit Die: d12
Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence Modifier + 1 for each [Skillful Protector] tag you have from Excellencies and/or Mythoi (Quadrupled at 1st level except in Pathfinder)
Class Skills: Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Diplomacy(Cha), Heal(Wis), Knowledge[Religion] (Int), Profession(Wis), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive(Wis), Speak Language(N/A), Spellcraft(Int), Tumble(Dex), and Use Rope(Dex)
Additional class skills are added by several excellencies. This includes (but is not necessarily limited to):
Full use of the following(some may also be available from different excellencies for partial use/access): Balance, Bluff, Climb, Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge[Dungeoneering], Knowledge[Geography], Knowledge[Local], Knowledge[Nature], Knowledge[Nobility and Royalty], Listen, Move Silently, Perform (via an Exceptional Mythos), Ride, Sleight of Hand Spot, Swim, and Survival
And partial use of these: Disable Device, Knowledge[Arcana], Knowledge[History], Knowledge[The Planes], and Search.
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Mythos | Excellencies |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Aura, Divine Protection, Hands of the Healer, Healing Item Use, Swift Protection, Mythos Known, The Mythos of Sacrifice, Exceptional Mythos, Excellence in Sacrifice, Sacrifice, Whatever Needs Doing | +2 | +1 |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +3 | | ?+1?* | +1 |
| 3rd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Hands of the Healer(Blindness, Deafness, and Corpse Preservation) | +1 | +0 |
| 4th | +2 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Hands of the Healer(Poison and Disease) | +0 | +1 |
| 5th | +2 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Divine Protection(Charisma Bonus +1) | +1 | +0 |
| 6th | +3 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Hands of the Healer(Negative Levels, Level Drain, and Ability Score Drain) | +0 | +1 |
| 7th | +3 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Fantastic Mythos, Gift of Life (Last Breath), Hands of the Healer(Minor Effects ((Needs better name!)) ) | +1 | +1 |
| 8th | +4 | +6 | +6 | +6 | | +0 | +1 |
| 9th | +4 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Gift of Life(Raise Dead and Revivify) | +1 | +0 |
| 10th | +5 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Divine Protection(Charisma Bonus +2) | +0 | +1 |
| 11th | +5 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Hands of the Healer[Time Limit on Level Drain Increases] | +1 | +0 |
| 12th | +6/+1 | +8 | +8 | +8 | | +0 | +1 |
| 13th | +6/+1 | +8 | +8 | +8 | Legendary Mythos, Gift of Life(Resurrection), Hands of the Healer[Take 10 on all uses] | +1 | +1 |
| 14th | +7/+2 | +9 | +9 | +9 | | +0 | +1 |
| 15th | +7/+2 | +9 | +9 | +9 | Divine Protection(Charisma Bonus +3) | +1 | +0 |
| 16th | +8/+3 | +10 | +10 | +10 | | +0 | +1 |
| 17th | +8/+3 | +10 | +10 | +10 | Gift of Life(True Resurrection) | +1 | +0 |
| 18th | +9/+4 | +11 | +11 | +11 | | +0 | +1 |
| 19th | +9/+4 | +11 | +11 | +11 | Exalted Mythos | +1 | +1 |
| 20th | +10/+5 | +12 | +12 | +12 | Divine Protection(Charisma Bonus +4) | +1 | +1 |
*This divergence from the standard Mythos advancement may be necessary to deal with the "I ANTICIPATE and PREVENT what the ENEMY is trying to do." focused schtick of the class.
Weapon and Armor ProficiencyYou are proficient with one type of simple melee weapon OR with one type of melee weapon that naturally deals subdual damage(such as a whip or sap, or one-handed/two-handed versions of a sap) OR with nets. You are also proficient with Bolas, but ONLY when making trip attacks with them rather than attempting to deal damage.
If you pick "unarmed strike", then you gain the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for free.
If you pick nets, then, for purpose of threatened areas for attacks of opportunity you treat nets as a melee weapon with reach. Thus you can strike opponents 10 feet away with it. In addition, unlike most other weapons with reach, it can be used against an adjacent foe. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity when making an attack of opportunity of their own with a net. You use the better of your strength and dexterity modifiers when calculating to-hit with such attacks.
You are proficient with light armor but not with shields.
Too much protection, especially protection that slows the ability to reach those in need of your aid stifles the spirit of Sacrifice. All uses of mythos that do not inherently involve a skill check and require a swift, move, standard, or full-round action suffer from arcane spell failure if you are wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield . A multi-class Phileotheysia still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from levels in other classes.
The Mythos of Sacrifice: A Phileotheysia's power is expressed in terms of one or more "Mythos", the building blocks of the legend that they are, and the stories that they have told and will tell. While any given Mythos varies from the rest, they share some similar traits. They are always Extraordinary abilities[COLOR="#0000FF"]*[/COLOR], and in the rare cases when reference a difficulty class for an imposed saving throw, that saving throw is always calculated as (10 + 1/2 class level + Charisma modifier, unless otherwise stated). When a Mythos references a "level" that is not clearly defined in some other way, such as "character level", it refers to "class level" as in the number of levels one has in the Phileotheysia class. When a Mythos references "allies", it specifically does not refer to the Phileotheysia using it. When a Mythos or Excellency grants a feat as a bonus feat, it is regardless of whether the character meets the prerequisites for that feat (unless otherwise stated), and if the character already possesses that feat (in some permanent fashion - via the normal allotment gained by leveling up, or through another Mythos, and so on, but not those gained temporarily, such as via a "Heroics" spell), they must replace the prior instance of that feat with another feat that they qualify for.
[COLOR="#0000FF"]*Although they have certain similarities to arcane spells and warlock invocations such as often provoking AoOs (although not being subject to disruption from damage while “casting”) and suffer from arcane spell failure for armor heavier than light.[/COLOR]
If a mythos or excellency requires an action to use and grants a bonus or ability to an ally or if it alters the type of a bonus to yourself it provokes attacks of opportunity and requires the usual concentration checks for a "spell" with no components, except for when being damaged. HOWEVER, it is still NOT subject to being disrupted by damage from said attacks of opportunity (nor from ongoing damage). Such abilities may be used on the defensive at the usual DC(s).
Every Mythos has a Tier. The Tier of a Mythos ranges from 1 to 4, typically referred to as Exceptional, Fantastic, Legendary, and Exalted.
Some Mythos, in addition to their initial stated effect, have Basic and Advanced manifestations. When a Phileotheysia gains access to a Mythos with a list of Basic manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit immediately as well. This choice may not be changed later. When a Phileotheysia gains access to a Mythos with a list of Advanced manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit upon achieving their next level of Phileotheysia. This choice may be changed at any point before receiving the chosen manifestation itself, but not after (choosing beforehand is just an easy way to mark it down on your character sheet so you don't forget that you'll be getting something later).
Mythos Known: A 1st level Phileotheysia begins play with two Exceptional Mythos that he qualifies for if this is his first level in a PC character class. At higher levels, he gains additional Mythos as noted on the Phileotheysia class table.
For characters that multiclass into Phileotheysia after having taken levels in another PC character class, the 1st level of Phileotheysia grants only a single Exceptional Mythos, rather than two.
A Phileotheysia also has the ability to learn more Mythos, above the ones automatically allotted to him by leveling up - by destroying part of his selfhood and personal possessions to make room for more selflessness. At any time, a phileotheysia may donate one of his own possessions (something that has been in his possession for at least a week's time) to a cause he approves of, but has no personal involvement in or means of materially benefiting from the success of. Alternately, at the GM's discretion, the object may simply be destroyed (most common for devout worshipers, or when destroying objects with no use that the phileotheysia would approve of them, such as a Good phileotheysia who takes an unholy weapon from a fallen enemy), in any case the annihilation must be complete enough that the item could never be repaired. The donated or destroyed item's value in gold pieces is recouped by the Phileotheysia as an equal amount of Mythos Points.
At the GMs discretion services/labor of a "non-adventuring" sort may also be donated to similar causes at their fair market value.
Anthols gain mythos points by expending economic value to better match up with the story they embody. However, in the case of a Phileotheysia it is especially important that the GM and/or player consider the following question: If a mythos is a story, then who is the audience?
If the answer is: The Universe, The Players Plus GM, The Titans, or even The Gods, then it may be desirable to allow, or even require a Phileotheysia's activities to gain mythos points to be performed reasonably anonymously, in keeping with the theme of humility with most or all Phileotheysia have to their Stories.
If it is the general public, or even a specific demographic of non-trivial size then a conflict may arise, and it MAY be decided that these activities MUST be publicized to the same degree as any other anthol's.
One seed of an idea for a compromise between these two options may be that the deeds must be attempted in such a way that they will accrue their fame in a way that will not benefit this Phileotheysia. One such options might be using an alias (or more than one?) that is ONLY used for these purposes, and thus inspires others without accruing any benefit to the Phileotheysia. Another would be for the Phileotheysia to instruct his compatriots to tell of his deeds only after his permanent death, or keep a diary to be published in such cases.
Regardless of the case, only "due diligence" is required, not actual success. For instance if a diary was kept, its destruction or discovery (or even publication against the Phileotheysia's wishes) would not cause any penalty to the Phileotheysia*, but would require them to recreate the diary over their free time, and/or take appropriate measures (in keeping with their alignment) to discourage the further spread of the information when this was discovered.
*If the GM wants to not need to make judgement calls about "due diligence" then this could result in the temporary loss of the mythos points in question, including those already invested in mythoi, manifestations, and excellencies (which would be rendered temporarily inactive). It is recommended that the GM not be picky about which of these things were gained through mythos points rather than leveling up etc. As long as the resulting build is legal with the remaining number of mythos points expended then it should be close enough.
Assuming a new identity, travelling beyond the reach of the stories, and/or an Atonement spell without XP cost from a caster whose god or concept is in accordance with the Phileotheysia's cause(s) would all be reasonable conditions that could be imposed to recover these expenditures.
Points from this pool may also be converted into mythos points at any time at a ratio of 1 XP to 5 mythos points, although the reverse is NOT possible.
*Most “standard” adventuring deaths will qualify, even getting killed by a trap that someone else set off by accident since the default assumption was that the Phileotheysia wouldn’t even have been around unless it was for the purposes described.
By spending 1,000 Mythos Points, and 250xp, he may learn an Exceptional Mythos. A Fantastic Mythos requires 5,000 Mythos Points and 500xp. A Legendary Mythos takes 10,000 Mythos Points, and 1,000xp. And an Exalted Mythos takes 20,000 Mythos Points and 2,000xp.
For half the listed price for a given Tier, a Phileotheysia may learn a Basic or Advanced manifestation of a Mythos they already know of that Tier.
Learning Mythos, manifestations, or excellencies above the standard amount requires astounding, nearly single-minded devotion to a mentality of self-sacrifice. A Phileotheysia may only utilize this ability while more than half of his effective character level (ECL) is devoted to levels in the Phileotheysia class.
Excellence in Sacrifice: As denoted on their class table, a Phileotheysia gains a certain number of abilities known as "Excellencies". These tend to be more general, generic, and passive than a Mythos, but are useful nonetheless, and are drawn from their own separate list, unsegregated by Tiers. Like a Mythos, a Phileotheysia may learn more Excellencies above their allotted amount (provided at least half their ECL comes from levels of Phileotheysia). Each one costs 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp, plus an additional 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp for each time a new Excellency is innovated beyond the first. (So, 2,000mp and 200xp for the second, 3,000mp and 300xp for the third, etc.)
Aura(Ex): You have a particularly powerful aura corresponding to their chosen
alignment(s) (see the
detect evil spell for details). For example if you are chaotic good you have powerful auras of good and chaos, while if you are neutral good you have only a powerful aura of good and if you are lawful neutral you only have a powerful aura of law. These auras otherwise function like a cleric's aura.
Divine Protection(Su):You add your Charisma bonus (if any) to your AC as a deflection bonus. In addition, you increase this bonus by 1 at the 5th level of Phileotheysia. This bonus increases by a further 1 for every five Phileotheysia levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level). If you do not have a charisma bonus, the level-based bonus still applies. If you have levels in any other class then the total AC bonus after combining these two sources is capped at your Phileotheysia class level.
At 12th level the you may take a full round action to change the/all* AC bonus(es) from this ability to (an) insight bonus(es). All bonuses* granted by this ability must be of the same type at any given point in time.
At 18th level a third option is gained. If you are Good aligned you can change it to a sacred bonus. If you are Evil you can change it to a profane bonus. If you are neither Good nor Evil you may pick which you will be able to change it to, but, like a neutral cleric choosing whether to channel positive or negative energy the path can not be altered after the fact for the rest of the character's existence. HOWEVER this choice ONLY applies when you are neither Good nor Evil. When Good or Evil, your actual alignment determines the type of bonus provided by this option. In any case this change of bonus type lasts until the you spends another full-round action to switch it again. Changing from any one of the three types to another is still a full-round action and all bonuses* from this ability must still be of the same type.
*See the
Gift of Protection Exceptional Mythos for details on why this sentence is necessary.
Swift Protection(Ex): When acting during a surprise round you may take a swift action instead of a standard or move action. This swift action may only be used for Phileotheysia mythos and excellencies.
Hands of the Healer(Ex): http://ladymondegreen.com/batya/healercry.htmlTitan of Sacrifice: “Oh, whoa is me! Giving now means I have less to give later! I must risk the future to help in the present!”
Titan of Healing: “Oh, whoa is me! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”
Both: “We should fuse into one being, it would much better for both of us!”
You may always take 10 on heal checks to stabilize another character, treat bleeding wounds, provide long-term care, or treat foot wounds of the sort resulting from caltrops, spike growth, spike stones, and similar spells and effects regardless of stress or distractions. A number of times per day equal to your Phileotheysia level they may instead take 20 on such a check, without increasing the amount of time required, and still regardless of stress or distractions.
In addition, to spare others the burden of caring for you, you have learned to provide long-term care for yourself and gain full benefit from this despite the level of activity required to do so provided it is only yourself that you are providing this care. This also applies to the later applications of this class ability that require bed rest (the others you can use on yourself, but the level of activity is irrelevant to the benefits you gain from doing so).
Nota Bene: Despite referring to treating a variety of conditions as if they were diseases, all uses of this ability require only one successful roll to have the listed effect, not two in a row.
At Phileotheysia level 2 you may provide long-term care or disease treatment for a number of additional patients equal to half of his Phileotheysia level. Using this ability causes the eight hours per day required to use those uses of the skill to count as strenuous activity rather than light activity.
At Phileotheysia level 3 your healing abilities transcend the limits of mundane medicine. They may treat most blindness or deafness, or any magical effects reducing one of the patient's(or more than one patient if master of the healing-ward is used) ability scores as diseases for the purposes of the heal skill. In any of the above three cases this requires 24 hours of bedrest for the patient(s), and you must treat them for the first 8 hours of this time. Roll at the end of the 24 hours, and retries (with another 24 hours of bedrest starting with 8 hours of treatment) are allowed, and only one success required to cure the condition. For blindness or deafness the DC is a flat 22. However, this ability does not restore ears or eyes that have been lost, but it repairs them if they are damaged or magically impaired by means that do not remove them. For a magical penalty to one ability score (effects reducing more than one ability score must have each ability score be treated separately) the DC is equal to that of the effect that caused the penalty in the first place, or 10+1/2 inflictor's hit-dice(or caster level as appropriate) + constitution(or casting ability) modifier if no save was initially allowed. The patient rolls no saving throw, your heal check is always substituted. You MAY take 10 on all checks described in this paragraph.
At this level you may also spend 1 hour tending to a corpse. At the end of this time they roll a heal check. If the result is higher than 20 then they cause the corpse to be affected by Gentle Repose with a caster level equal to their own or the amount by which the check beat DC 20 whichever is lower. Note that the normal minimum caster level to cast this spell does not apply. If the check result is exactly 20 then decay is suspended for 12 hours. If the result is 16 to 20 then there is no effect. If the result is 15 or lower then they actually accelerate the decay of the corpse by 1 day, reducing the window of opportunity for revivification magic. They may take 10 (but not 20) on this check, and may also fail it intentionally (although burning the corpse and scattering the ashes is generally more efficient).
At Phileotheysia level 4 you may take 10 on heal checks made to treat poison and disease regardless of stress or distractions. This does not apply to things you can only treat because of this class feature (but see 13th level ability).
At Phileotheysia level 6 you may treat negative levels, level drain, and ability score drain as if they were diseases save that the time required is generally much longer (see below), and only one successful check is required to have some effect. Each level drained or point of ability drain is considered a separate disease and requires a SEPARATE treatment period. in contrast to this, treating all negative levels on a given character counts as treating a single patient for a single disease. More than one patient may be treated at one time freely mixing and matching between the options described in this paragraph, but in this case the treatment is considered to be strenuous activity (rather than light activity) for you. In no case may this ability work against something that Greater Restoration could not. Examples include the negative level imposed on a Good-aligned person wielding an Unholy weapon or the constitution penalty imposed by the The Sun Shall Not Burn Thee, Nor the North Wind Freeze Thee, Nor the Flood Drown Thee mythos on another Phileotheysia (doubly true for treating yourself). As with most uses of this class ability, only one success is needed to have an effect.
To dispel negative levels, the patient(s) must take 8 hours of total bedrest while you tend to them. If this time is completed before the time for the secondary fortitude saves to remove the negative levels comes around, then when those secondary saves are rolled (or immediately if secondary saves are not relevant), then you make a heal check paired with each fortitude save. If the heal check is higher than the matching fortitude save then it is used in place of that fortitude save. This may not be retried for any given negative level (so spending two 8 hour sessions before the 24 hour limit on the re-reroll is up does NOT allow two heal checks with each fortitude save).
If restoring ability drain then you must select the ability score you will be restoring drain to, then the patient (or patients if you are willing to have this count as strenuous activity for yourself), must take complete bed rest for at least 24 hours continuously, and you must devote your full attention to them for at least 8 hours of that time. At the end of this period make a heal check against DC 25. If this check is successful a single point of drain to that ability score is converted to ability damage plus one additional point for each 5 points you beat the DC by.
If attempting to restore a drained level then it functions as per removing a point of ability score drain, with the caveats that success removes the drained level completely, more than one level may not be restored at once regardless of the check result, and that the process must be completed before a number of days equal to the phileotheysia's class level have passed from when the drained level in question was inflicted. Note that this process may be repeated multiple times in that time-period if initial attempts fail, and/or if more than one negative level was inflicted. A character who has a level restored in this way has exactly the minimum number of experience points necessary to restore him or her to his or her previous level. This ability can not restore levels or Constitution points lost due to death.
At level 7 you may spend 1 minute treating a single subject. If you succeed on a DC 20 heal check you may remove any ONE of the following condition on a single subject: confused, dazed, dazzled, exhausted, fatigued, frightened ((Allow DIPLOMACY check to remove this, and/or move to lower level?)), nauseated((Move this to 5th level because Remove Nausea exists?)), panicked ((Allow DIPLOMACY check to remove this, and/or move to lower level?)), paralyzed ((Move this to 3rd level?)) , shaken ((Allow DIPLOMACY check to remove this, and/or move to lower level?)), sickened ((Move this to 5th level because Remove Nausea exists?)), and stunned. It negates sleep effects and the effect of the feeblemind spell, and ends any additional effects from poison, as the neutralize poison spell.
This check may be retried, and may be repeated for multiple effects.
At Phileotheysia level 11 the time limit for removing drained levels increases to one week per phileotheysia level.
At Phileotheysia level 13 you may take 10 on all heal checks made as part of this ability.
Just as Sacrifice’s mergence with Healing allows you to treat things on your own, it also allows you to call forth the power of physical vessels for magics that set things right with a person or persons.
You may use certain clerical spells from scrolls, wands, staves, etc. as if you were a cleric of equal level to your phileotheysia level plus any actual levels of cleric OR favored soul you have. You may substitute your charisma score for your wisdom score for this purpose. The spell must target one or more individuals (including individuals in a given area), must allow a Fortitude or Will Save, and must have the [Harmless] descriptor. It must also either be instantaneous or be one of the specified in the list found below. Any saving throw against such a spell that is not voluntarily failed is automatically successful and the spell has no effect on such individuals, even if it would normally have some effect even on a successful save.
The following non-instantaneous spells are allowed, however their duration changes to Concentration, capped at the duration of the original spell:
Any spell with
Vigor or
Vigorous in the name that grants fast healing.
Neutralize PoisonRegeneration Sacrifice:The [Sacrifice] tag means that some part of that mythos or excellency requires taking harm or giving up a bonus. These losses usually bypass all resistances, immunities, saving throws, spell resistance, etc etc. The major exceptions to this are for reductions (usually
burn) to an ability score that the specific character does not have. If no other specific penalty is provided in the text of the specific mythos, excellency, or class feature (and it usually will be) then apply ability score reduction to charisma instead.
Whatever Needs Doing(Ex):Increase the skill-base of this class by 1 point for each [Skillful Protector] tag. Thus if you had the
Singing Songs to Gladden the Heart Mythos and the
Quiet Mother Betrays Not Her Brood excellency, you would get 8+Int Mod skill points per Phileotheysia level, quadrupled for first level unless playing Pathfinder. This increase is retroactive, and recalculated based on your current intelligence score from all permanent effects* each time you take another mythos or excellency with this tag.
*So the bonuses from a
Headband of Intellect and a
Tome of Clear Thought would count, but that from
Foxes Cunning would not.
You must always have at least as many skill ranks invested in skills granted by things with this tag as they grant you.
((Idea April 2022: If the fact that this can become such a good skill-monkey is imbalanced, reduce maximum ranks in all class skills by FLOOR([Skillful Protector] instances/2) to a minimum of the normal cross-class skill maximum? If so, make sure this works with the "dabbler" type excellency, especially since I think it grants [Skillful Protector] twice. Note that while the class is currently better than the normal skill-maxing Excellencies, and does add NEW skills, it is still inferior to, say
Peerless Parkour Athleticism... although that is an Exceptional-grade MYTHOS.))
Gift of Life (Su):
All uses of this ability require
half the material components but have the same casting times as the spells they duplicate. In all cases if the you do not have a constitution score you must substitute an equal amount of
burn to strength AND half that amount of burn to charisma. If you also do not have a strength score, then that requirement is waived but you still take the charisma burn.
At 7th level you may take 2 points of constitution
burn to duplicate the effects of
Last Breath. The version of this spell on pages 167-8 of
Complete Divine is preferable, however if you don't have that book or find the level loss burdensome to use on the fly* then the version on page 130 of
Spell Compendium may be substituted.
- If using the Compete Divine version apply the constitution burn AFTER the hit-point damage, and this constitution loss can not reduce the Phileotheysia below 1 hitpoint. No such protection exists for the preceding hitpoint damage. Also note that this version has no material component.
- If using the Spell Compendium option the material component for a Phileotheysia is 250 gp of diamonds, rather than 500 gp worth of rare oils and uguents. Note that there appears to be a typo that omits the material component notation from the "Components" line of the spell header in that version.
*One idea would be to say that the level loss doesn't take effect until a later time. One minute would get you out of the fight in most cases, with progressively longer times allowing more breathing room. If mechanical rigor is not required, a GM could even use "until the end of the session" or "until the end of the adventure".
At 9th level you may take 4 points of constitution
burn to duplicate the effects of either
Raise Dead or
Revivify (Spell Compendium p. 176). They can mix and match as they choose, but must take the burn, provide material components, etc for each individual effect.
At 13th level you may take 6 points of constitution
burn to duplicate the effects of
Resurrection.
At 17th level of Phileotheysia you may take 8 points of constitution
burn to duplicate the effects of
True Resurrection.
