Some tribal societies or less sophisticated regions don’t have the resources to train wizards and clerics. Reflecting a lesser knowledge of magic yet an intriguing combination of arcane and divine skills, the adept serves these cultures as both wise woman (or holy man) and mystical defender.
Adepts can be found in isolated human, elf, dwarf, gnome and halfling communities but are most prevalent among more bestial humanoid and giant species such as orcs, goblins, gnolls, bugbears and ogres.
Adepts have the following game statistics.
The adept’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are:
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.
| NPC Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Summon Familiar |
| 3rd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | |
| 4th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | |
| 5th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | |
| 6th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | |
| 7th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | |
| 8th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +6 | |
| 9th | +4 | +3 | +3 | +6 | |
| 10th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |
| 11th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | |
| 12th | +6/+1 | +4 | +4 | +8 | |
| 13th | +6/+1 | +4 | +4 | +8 | |
| 14th | +7/+2 | +4 | +4 | +9 | |
| 15th | +7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +9 | |
| 16th | +8/+3 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |
| 17th | +8/+3 | +5 | +5 | +10 | |
| 18th | +9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | |
| 19th | +9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | |
| 20th | +10/+5 | +6 | +6 | +12 |
| Level | 0 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | 3 | 2 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 5th | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 6th | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 7th | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 8th | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | — | — |
| 9th | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 10th | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 11th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 12th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | — |
| 13th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 14th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 15th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 16th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 17th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 19th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
All of the following are class features of the adept NPC class.
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Adepts are skilled with all simple weapons. Adepts are not proficient with any type of armour nor with shields.
Spells: An adept casts divine spells (the same type of spells available to the cleric, druid, paladin and ranger), which are drawn from the adept spell list. Like a cleric, an adept must choose and prepare her spells in advance. Unlike a cleric, an adept cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells.
To prepare or cast a spell, an adept must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an adept’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the adept’s Wisdom modifier.
Adepts, unlike wizards, do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor do they prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them as divine inspiration or through their own strength of faith. Each adept must choose a time each day at which she must spend an hour in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether an adept can prepare spells.
Like other spellcasters, an adept can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Adept Spells per Day. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score. When Table: Adept Spells per Day indicates that the adept gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Wisdom score for that spell level.
Each adept has a particular holy symbol (as a divine focus) depending on the adept’s magical tradition.
Summon Familiar: At 2nd level, an adept can call a familiar, just as a sorcerer or wizard can.
2d4 × 10 gp worth of equipment.
Adepts choose their spells from the following list:
Source: Dungeon Master’s Guide (Page 107)
A religious adept is identical to the adept NPC class, with one important exception: The religious adept can select a single cleric domain. A religious adept does not gain bonus domain spells as a cleric does, but she adds the spells of her domain to her regular adept spell list and can prepare these domain spells in place of her usual spells.
If a cleric takes a level in the religious adept class, he does not get to select a new domain, but he can add the spells from one of his current domains to his adept spell list. Likewise, a religious adept who takes cleric levels must use her religious adept domain as one of her two cleric domains.
Source: Eberron Campaign Setting (Page 256)
The adept class is most appropriate for savage humanoids and tiny villages — places and cultures where the opportunity for formal magical training as a cleric or wizard simply isn’t available. The adepts found in Sharn (roughly 2,000 of them) generally do not fall into this category. (Some of them, notably shamanic leaders among the goblinoids and other monstrous inhabitants of the city, perfectly match that description, however). Adepts among the towers are urban adepts, with the same level and spell progression but a unique spell list. These adepts work as healers in House Jorasco’s houses of healing, as fortunetellers and as alchemists. Some of them are religious adepts, adding the spells from their cleric domain to the spell list presented below.
Urban adepts choose their spells from the following list:
0 Level: Create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, light, mending, purify food and drink, read magic, resistance.
1st Level: Bless, charm person, command, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, divine favour, endure elements, identify, obscuring mist, protection from chaos, protection from evil, protection from good, protection from law.
2nd Level: Aid, bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, cure moderate wounds, darkness, delay poison, enthrall, fox’s cunning, locate object, owl’s wisdom, resist energy, see invisibility, whispering wind.
3rd Level: Animate dead, bestow curse, clairaudience/clairvoyance, contagion, continual flame, cure serious wounds, daylight, deeper darkness, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, tongues.
4th Level: Cure critical wounds, legend lore, minor creation, restoration, scrying, stoneskin.
5th Level: Break enchantment, commune, dream, heal, major creation, nightmare, raise dead, true seeing.
Source: Sharn: City of Towers (Page 167)