#nightskulk

(art by jocarra on DeviantArt)

 Deities and their worshippers come in all shapes and forms, but truly even among the priests of a deity, only the Exalted can be truly called the true exemplars of a deity’s teachings, though other clerics and oracles try.

The 5th Obedience-focused prestige class we’ve covered, and the 2nd of the traditional Deific Obedience group, today we are looking at the Exalted.

While Evangelists could belong to any class in theory, willing to tie their very ability to their deity and gain many more besides, today we are focusing on a class specifically for divine casters, offering them greater divine powers as they become avatars of their deity, or at the very least, among the most favored of their servants.

Much like other obedience prestige classes, the sheer variety of options means that each exalted is different, even if they must still be divine casters. We’ll see exactly how that is below.

 Like many other prestige classes, this one lets divine casters keep developing their spellcasting as part of their training, but no other such abilities.

Like other obedience prestige classes, this one also requires they perform their daily rituals to keep gaining the benefits of the prestige class, though it isn’t as harsh as evangelist requiring daily obediences for all class abilities.

Literally marked by their deity, these priests sport a perfect replica of their deity’s holy symbol on their skin, always giving them a divine focus to cast with as long as it is openly displayed.

Being part of the upper echelons of the clergy means a somewhat better education, adding a new branch of knowledge to their class skills.

Imbued as they are with divine power, these mystics sport strong vitality, making it easier to fend off assaults on their fortitude and to stabilize when heavily injured.

Much like other prestige classes of this type, these individuals gain divine boons from their obedience feat at an accelerated rate, though obviously they only have access to the exalted path.

Their position also gives them plenty of practice being public speakers.

They also eventually gain a wider control over the divine portfolio that their deity holds sway over, gaining a third domain (or second or first depending on what divine class they previously were), gaining not only it’s ordinary abilities, but also access to a reserve of power for casting the domain spells of this granted domain.

More powerful exalted are actually transformed by their faith, gaining an otherworldly feature that reflects their deity. While this makes it difficult to disguise their true nature, they also gain protection from an alignment that the deity opposes.

They can also learn to sense one of these opposing alignments, making noticing the enemies of their faith all the easier.

The most powerful among these mystics can regularly work minor miracles once a day, either replicating the effects of high-level cleric spells, slightly lower-level spells of any discipline, Undoing harsh magic that would normally require a proper miracle spell to do, and even offering up a sacrifice of wealth to beseech their deity to perform a true miracle. However, like the miracle spell, it must be in line with the desires and philosophy of the deity in question.

As you can see, this prestige class offers not just a fast track into the obedience abilities that share a name with it, but also provide great boons for all parts of their role as priests, ministering to their followers, granting additional divine abilities, and so on. So if you want to go whole-hog into the sort of abilities associated with your deity, you have plenty of opportunity to do so. The sheer customization makes it impossible for me to give advice here, so have fun!

 These priests might be shining paragons of righteousness, or they might be foul mother-of-monsters types, but what truly unifies them is that they have made the choice to become one with their deity’s teachings in an ultimate act of devotion. Of course, since such teachings can vary, there is still plenty of room for variation, and in fact these discussions on the nature of faith can be a lot of how their character is defined, be they interested in hearing different teachings or viewing other interpretations as heresy.

  Unlike true ratfolk, were-rats are by nature vicious and filthy creatures. However, their beastkin brethren, the nightskulks, are not imprisoned by their curse. Indeed, Young Ilfida decided to devote herself completely to the God of Medicine, and is particularly eager to find new answers to illness and disease. Her were-rat relatives are less than enthused, and are prepared to take violent action to either return her to the fold, or destroy her as a heretic.

 The church of the Clock Man is about to unveil their latest wonder, a mighty clockwork goliath to be gifted to the king as a mighty defender of the realm. However, no one realizes that among the priest-smiths working on the machine is an exalted member of the Life-Supplanter, a heretical splinter faith devoted to helping mechanical life replace that of flesh and blood, through violence if necessary.

 One of the most dynamic thing you can do when shooting a martial arts scene is incorporate the set, the environment. Sure an open floor is fine, but we all love when the heroes and villains are bouncing off walls, leaping from tree to tree, or even grabbing improvised weapons from the environment.

The brawlers called turfers train themselves to master their environments, moving swifter and more freely than others, as well as fighting harder.

They might be defenders of particular environments, or they might believe in a philosophy of oneness or mastery of their surroundings. Is it also an excuse to give brawlers a modified version of favored terrain? Also true.

 As they train, these martial artists learn the tells of their environment, and how to use it to their advantage. This allows them to react quicker to combat and to gain leverage when performing various maneuvers.

What’s more, their mobility is vastly improved, ignoring natural difficult terrain and outright moving faster in their favored terrain. They are also extremely hardened against the weather and conditions of such places, ignoring all but the most extreme.

A basic archetype, but a fun one. I would recommend an acrobatic or athletic build that makes use of dirty tricks and improvised weapons, taking appropriate feats to make those viable options.

 Much like archetypes that focus on improvised weapons, this sort of archetype highly encourages you to get lots of detail about your environment to know what sort of attacks to describe, such as throwing a prickly desert plant into a foe’s eyes, grabbing a tree branch to spin and change direction into a strike, and more.

  Getting extremely lucky, Erbfar managed to slay the chaneque fey who stole his soul, but the skull containing it was nowhere to be found. He’s been searching for it ever since, the hollow-eyed wanderer of the forest, honing his fighting craft and woodcraft in hopes of discovering it.

 Utterly at home in both sewers and the back alleys, the nightskulk moonkin Rein learned early on to fend for herself with both a knife and anything handy, be it garbage or a street food vendor’s fry pot. If there’s anyone that can guide you to hidden locations in the underbelly of the city, it is her.

 When living out in the wild, one does not have the luxury of an apothecary or doctor, let alone magical healing.

As such, a knowledge of the healing properties of local plants becomes essential to survival. However, some who live like that take things a bit further, mastering such plants not only to heal, but also to harm as well, for many more plants, including those aforementioned herbs, can be quite toxic as well.

These so-called toxic herbalists can offer much as guides or members of adventuring parties, making sure that their allies stay healthy, and that their foes and prey die quickly, or at least, cannot bring their full might to bear.

There are plenty of other archetypes that deal with herbalism out there, but this on in particular does evoke the ideal of the survivalist, should that appeal to you.

 Given the plants and substances they work with, these rangers know how to handle poisons without exposing themselves.

By spending an hour gathering plants from nearby, these herbalists can craft a poultice which can promote healing, and as they improve, can even counteract poison and disease thanks to a little bit of magic. While they can eventually make multiple doses at a time, these remedies rely on the freshness of ingredients, so they are not exactly potable.

Whether it be their poutice or a poison, they can apply either with a flick of the wrist. What’s more, these survivalists learn several spells that give them many supernatural toxins to deliver at range or at a touch.

Like their poultices, toxic herbalists can also craft poisons from local ingredients, replicating most any poison if they have enough skill, but like their remedies, they have a very limited shelf life.

When they use such poisons, the favored enemies of these rangers should be rare, for their training against them lets the ranger know where the best places to strike are so that the poison takes hold.

Normally weapon poisons get ruined after a single strike, but these herbalists know how to alter the formula so it remains for a brief few seconds longer, enough for multiple strikes.

Looking to make a poison-focused ranger that also makes good use of the expansion to the herbalism skill? This archetype might be for you. The fact they also get some nasty poison-based debuff spells is a nice icing on the cake as well. Don’t forget their poultices though, which in addition to the minor healing, can deal with poison and disease in one stroke.

 Given their dependency on having a wide variety of plants nearby, this archetype certainly lends itself to the classic image of the forest-dwelling ranger. However, I can imagine that they can be found anywhere where plants are found, even if they are sparse, such as deserts and tundras. Only in places almost utterly devoid of plant life will you likely not see them.

  The so-called “wererat-kin”, known as nightskulks are well known for their communal instincts, so exile is generally seen as the worst possible punishment, so when rumors surface of a man who isn’t quite man or rat living in the forest, and hunting with poison arrows, some wonder if he is part of an enclave of the race, or someone who did a terrible deed.

 Nujani Atoll is well known for its rare medicinal plant life that seems to only thrive in the volcanic soil. However, the waters surrounding the island are also swarming with sea scourge oozes, making the trip perilous. Even then, the natives know how to defend the island’s bounty from despoilers.