Pious Templar

Description
Sworn to the defense of a temple site, the pious templar is a holy warrior blessed by her deity with combat prowess and great endurance. She bears her deity's favored weapon into battle and fights her deity's enemies without question or hesitation. In addition to defending the temple itself, a pious templar may be charged with additional duties, including a campaign to attack foes on their own home ground.

Faithful people of all professions can enter the ranks of the pious templars; clerics and paladins are especially likely to do so. Some temples (such as those of Mystra or Azuth) welcome wizards and sorcerers to become pious templars, valuing the ability to use arcane magic combined with the martial training of a pious templar. Likewise, Mask's temples are often guarded by rogue/pious templars, who combine combat training with sneak attack tactics. Ranger/pious templars serve in temples of Mielikki and Malar, while barbarian/pious templars not unknown in the temples of Uthgar. Only monks, with their own specialized combat training, are unlikely to adopt the pious templar class.

Requirements
Race: Any

Alignment: Any

Base Attack Bonus: +5

Skills: Lore 4 ranks

Feats: True Believer

Deity: Any

Class Features
- Hit Die: d10

- Base Attack Bonus: High

- High Saves: Fortitude, NO will save progression

- Weapon Proficiencies: A Pious Templar gains no weapon proficiencies.

- Armor Proficiencies: A Pious Templar gains no armor proficiencies.

- Skill Points: 2 + Int Modifier.

- Class Skills: Lore, Heal, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, Concentration, Survival.

- Spells per Day/Spells Known: A pious templar has the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the pious templar must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a pious templar with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Pious templar bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + spell level + the pious templar’s Wisdom modifier. When the pious templar gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 1st level, she gets only bonus spells. (A pious templar without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level.) A pious templar has access to any spell on the list and can freely choose which to prepare, just like a cleric. A pious templar prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does (though the pious templar cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells).

- Class Feats

1: Bonus Feat 2: Smite 2 / day 3: Damage Reduction 1/- 4: Bonus Feat 5: Smite 4 / day, 6: 7: Damage Reduction 2/- 8: Bonus Feat 9: Smite every 30 seconds 10: Mettle

Bonus Feat: Bonus feats are drawn from the fighter list.The pious templar may still need fighter levels to qualify for some such feats.

Abilities
Smite

Type of Feat: Class Prerequisites: Pious Templar 2 Specifics: Twice per day, a pious templar of 2nd level or higher may make a single melee attack with a +4 attack bonus and a damage bonus equal to her pious templar level (if she hits). The pious templar must declare the smite before making the attack. Starting at 6th level, a pious templar can smite four times per day and finally at 9th level every half turn at will. Use: Selected

Damage Reduction

Type of Feat: Class Prerequisites: Pious Templar 3 Specifics: Starting at 3rd level, pious templars have the ability to shrug off some amount of injury from each blow or attack. A pious templar gains damage reduction 1/-. At 7th level, this damage reduction rises to 2/-. Use: Automatic

Mettle

Type of Feat: Class Prerequisites: Pious Templar 10 Specifics: A pious templar's special blessing allows her to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise harm her. If a pious templar makes a successful Will or Fortitude saving throw that would normally reduce the spell's effect, she suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a Saving Throw entry of "Will partial", "Fortitude half," or similar entries can be negated through this ability. Use: Automatic

Good and Neutral aligned Spell Selection A good or neutral pious Templar uses the paladin spell list.

Evil aligned Spell Selection

Level 1: Blessed Aim, Bull's Strength, Cure light wounds, Desecrate, Doom, Lesser Energized Shield, Protection from Good, Protection from Evil, Magical Weapon, Negative Energy Ray, Resistance, Second Wind, Strategic Charge Level 2: Cure moderate wounds, Eagle's Splendor, Owls Wisdom, Death Knell, Inflict Serious Wounds, Remove Paralysis, Resist Energy, Strength of Stone, Zeal Level 3: Cure Serious Wounds, Circle against Alignment, Contagion, Dispel Magic, Greater Magic Weapon, Prayer, Protection from Energy, Remove Blindness & Deafness, Remove Curse, Summon Monster III Level 4: Castigation, Cure critical wounds, Deathward, Freedom of Movement, Inflict Critical Wounds, Lesser Visage of the Deity, Poison, Restoration, Weapon of the Deity.

''Class courtesy of Rasael and thorough testing by the Quality Control Team. Would be Implementation on the server by Luna. This class is an adaptation from "Complete Divine", page 50.''