Each character class has defining mechanical and role-playing characteristics, while feats, skills, spells and other choices provide ways to customize a character within that basic framework. Alternative class features replace class features of the original class description, changing its very nature. Each alternative class feature presented here provides a new divine theme for that particular class. If a character has already passed the level at which the alternative feature is available, you can use the retraining option described in Player’s Handbook II to acquire it retroactively.
The format for alternative class features is as follows.
This section provides a general description of the alternative class feature, including some role-playing suggestions for each
variant of the standard class.
Level: You can select the alternative class feature only at the indicated level.
Replaces: This line identifies the ability you must sacrifice to gain the alternative class feature.
Benefit: This section describes the mechanical effects of the alternative class feature.
Barbarians who follow a spiritual path are often tied at some deep level to the wildlands that gave them birth. Such characters feel a kinship with the spirits of nature — especially animal spirits — and draw their power from these essences. Divine barbarians are viewed with awe and sometimes fear by their tribes, and some such characters are considered holy people in the absence of any organized religion.
Choose a spiritual totem: bear, eagle, fox, lion or wolf. Once you do so, you are forever bound to that animal spirit. Your connection grants you special abilities based on the totem you have chosen (or that has chosen you, as some see it).
The DM can add more totems to the above list as desired, using those presented here as guidelines.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the fast movement class feature.
Benefit: You gain one of the abilities described below, depending on the chosen totem. Each of these effects is a supernatural ability.
Bear Totem: The mighty bear is known for her crushing embrace, if you adopt her as your spiritual totem, you gain the improved grab ability.
Eagle Totem: The eagle can see clearly over great distances and often notices details that are not obvious. If you embrace him as your spiritual totem, you gain a +4 bonus on Search and Spot checks.
Fox Totem: The cunning fox uses stealth to gain the upper hand. Should you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain a +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
Lion Totem: Regal and intimidating, the powerful lion is a symbol of nobility among the races of the wild. By selecting him as your spiritual totem, you gain the pounce ability.
Wolf Totem: The wolf is a loyal ally who uses pack tactics to subdue her foes. If you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain an additional +2 bonus on attack rolls when flanking an opponent.
As the bond between you and your totem grows closer, the spirit of your chosen animal reveals itself more strongly.
Level: 7th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the damage reduction class feature, including all damage reduction increases gained at higher levels of the barbarian class.
Benefit: When you select this ability, your connection to your spiritual totem intensifies. If you have not yet chosen a spiritual totem, you must do so now, but you gain only those abilities described here, not those for the spiritual totem alternative class feature. Each of these effects is a supernatural ability.
Bear Totem: The powerful bear rewards your loyalty. If you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain 1 extra hit point per barbarian level.
Eagle Totem: The keen-eyed eagle grants you low-light vision if you adopt him as your spiritual totem. If you have previously chosen the eagle as your spiritual totem, the bonus on Search and Spotchecks increases by 1 at each level at which your damage reduction would increase (10th, 13th, 16th and 19th levels).
Fox Totem: The quick fox grants you a +1 dodge bonus to Armour Class if you choose her as your spiritual totem. This bonus increases by 1 at each level at which your damage reduction would increase (10th, 13th, 16th and 19th levels). Any condition that causes you to lose your Dexterity bonus to Armour Class (if any) also negates this dodge bonus.
Lion Totem: If you select the lion as your spiritual totem, he rewards you with the ability to loose a powerful and intimidating roar. As a standard action, you can roar, requiring every creature within a 30-foot radius to succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ your barbarian level + your Strength modifier) or be shaken for a number of rounds equal to your barbarian level. This ability can be used once per day, and you gain an additional use per day at each level at which your damage reduction would increase (10th, 13th, 16th and 19th levels).
Wolf Totem: The wolf is an intelligent hunter who can track her prey with uncanny accuracy and insight. If you choose her as your spiritual totem, you gain Track as a bonus feat. In addition, you gain a +2 sacred bonus on Survival checks.
Your link to the divine gives you an uncanny insight into the intricacies of the spirit world. This unique perception lets you expand your senses into realms that few mortals can perceive.
Level: 5th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the improved uncanny dodge class feature.
Benefit: Once per day as a swift action, you can peer into the spirit world for a number of rounds equal to one-half your barbarian level (rounded down). While doing so, you gain darkvision out to 60 feet, can see invisible creatures, and gain a +2 bonus on Search and Spot checks. This is a supernatural ability.
You use music to entertain, to enlighten, and to boost the morale and abilities of those around you. By using your special insight into the divine, you can tap into the very essence of the universe, bringing forth positive energy and channeling it to your allies through your songs. Those who listen to your music become more capable of healing others and recovering from injury themselves.
When you play your healing hymn, your allies can cast curative spells more effectively. Furthermore, everyone around you feels rejuvenated and more fully rested when your hymn becomes a lullaby.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the fascinate bardic music ability.
Benefit: If you have 3 or more ranks in a Perform skill, you can use your music or poetics to create an area conducive to healing.
To be affected, an ally must be able to see and hear you perform. The effect lasts as long as you continue performing and for 5 rounds thereafter. An affected ally who casts any conjuration (healing) spell gains a +1 sacred (if you’re good or neutral) or profane (if you’re evil) bonus on the roll for each rank you have in the Perform skill. This ability has no effect on spells cast from wands, scrolls or other magic items. This bonus is limited by the maximum caster level bonus of a curing spell. For example, if a level 10 cleric cast cure serious while under the effect of healing hymn used by a bard with 10 ranks in perform, the cure serious spell would only cure 3d8+15 instead of 3d8+20.
In addition, if you use this ability for at least 1 minute before you and your allies retire for the night, everyone in the group heals naturally at the end of the rest as if he had completed 24 hours of bed rest (thus recovering twice his character level in hit points). If the music is interrupted, the magic of the song is lost.
Either use of healing hymn counts as one daily use of your bardic music ability. This is a spell-like ability. Healing hymn lasts as long as you concentrate up to a maximum of 2 minutes.
By singing praises to the holy powers, you can cloak yourself or an ally in a protective sheath of sound. This effect protects the subject from supernatural creatures, as well as their malign powers.
Level: 3rd.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the inspire competence bardic music ability.
Benefit: If you are a 3rd-level or higher bard with 6 or more ranks in Perform (Oratory) or Perform (Sing), you can grant protection from supernatural creatures. This effect fortifies you or a single chosen ally within 30 feet against mental control and attacks from evil-aligned or summoned creatures. In most respects, hymn of fortification mirrors the effects of the protection from evil spell. If you wish to protect an ally with this ability, the two of you must be able to see and hear each other. The effect lasts as long as you concentrate, up to a maximum of 2 minutes.
Each use of hymn of fortification counts as one daily use of your bardic music ability. This is a spell-like ability.
Many clerics have a special gift for healing, but you have found ways to use that gift more precisely. In your hands, no positive energy is ever wasted, and your touch provides the gift of healing to those around you.
By sacrificing some of your personal power, you permanently establish a link to the Positive Energy Plane through your deity or belief system. The energy you draw from that plane obeys your direct command, and you can dispense it in the form of healing with a simple touch.
Level: 7th.
Replaces: To select this class feature, you must permanently sacrifice one of your 4th-level spell slots.
Benefit: You establish a pool of positive energy that you can use to heal yourself or others. This pool contains enough positive energy to heal an amount of damage equal to 5 × (1 + your divine caster level) hit points per day. As a standard action, you can dole it out with a touch, expending as much or as little of the pool at a time as you wish in much the same way as a paladin does with her lay on hands ability. The pool automatically replenishes every time you prepare spells for the day.
You can also deal out this positive energy with a melee touch attack against any creature vulnerable to positive energy (such as undead), damaging it as if you had cast a cure spell upon it.
For example, Jozan, a 7th-level cleric of Pelor, gives up one of his 4th-level spell slots to set up his pool of healing. Every day, he can heal up to 5 × (1 + 7) = 40 points of damage, or deal that amount of damage to creatures powered by negative energy, or use the energy for a combination of those effects, up to the maximum available. At 10th level, he can heal up to 55 points of damage using this ability.
Pool of healing is a spell-like ability.
Not all those who take up arms in the name of their faith are clerics or paladins. Many are ordinary fighters, knights and mercenaries who have placed their souls in the hands of the almighty gods. Few who fight on the front lines are unbelievers, and those with true faith can perform astounding feats of bravery in the names of their deities.
As a holy warrior, you can channel your faith into your attacks.
Level: 4th or any even-numbered higher level.
Replaces: This benefit replaces one of your fighter bonus feats.
Benefit: As a free action, you can orient your weapon along one alignment component that you possess. For example, if you are chaotic good, you can make your weapon either chaotic- or good-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. This effect lasts until you choose to end it or change it (as a free action) to the other alignment component, or until you no longer wield the weapon.
Ammunition or a thrown weapon affected by this ability remains aligned until it either strikes a target or misses. Aligned strike is a supernatural ability.
Your belief protects you from attacks.
Level: 8th or any even-numbered higher level.
Replaces: This benefit replaces one of your fighter bonus feats.
Benefit: As an immediate action, you can reduce your base Will save to +0 and gain a bonus to your Armour Class equal to the amount of the reduction. This effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn. Armour of god is a supernatural ability.
Your faith bolsters your resolve, allowing you to stand firm against all foes.
Level: Any even-numbered level.
Replaces: This benefit replaces one of your fighter bonus feats.
Benefit: As an immediate action, you can reduce your base attack bonus by one-half and gain a bonus on your Will save equal to the amount of the reduction. This effect lasts until the end of your next action. This is a supernatural ability.
A monk treats her body as her temple, subscribing to her own ascetic code or to that of her order. Though the path of the monk is spiritual in nature, and some monasteries are tied to churches, most monks distance themselves from the sectarian pursuits of the various divine orders. Those who shift their focus from the perfection of their bodies and minds toward the service of a deity gain a new clarity of spirit.
Your fists and monk weapons gain the power of your beliefs and can strike your opponents for extra damage.
Level: 4th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the ki strike (magic) class feature.
Benefit: When you hit an evil creature with your unarmed strike attack or with a monk melee weapon, your attack is considered good-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and deals an extra ld6 points of damage. Holy strike is a supernatural ability.
Special: Evil monks can select this ability, but their attacks are considered evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Your religious convictions protect you from the spells and magical abilities of those who oppose your beliefs.
Level: 3rd.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the still mind class feature.
Benefit: Your adherence to a religious path has developed in you a resistance to antithetical magic. You gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from chaotic-aligned creatures and creatures with a moral (good/evil) alignment component opposite to yours. This is a supernatural ability.
Clerics serve as priests, healers and evangelists for their religions, while paladins are their deities’ armed champions, imbued with some magical ability. Some paladins, though, dedicate themselves more directly to serving their deity through strength of arms.
By giving up your spellcasting ability, you gain access to bonus feats much as a fighter does. This choice does not, however, close you off from divine influence — in fact, several of these feats actually increase your divine power.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: To select this class feature, you must sacrifice your spellcasting ability.
Benefit: You no longer gain spells as a paladin, but you can now select a bonus feat at 4th, 8th, 11th and 14th levels. You can select any feat from the following list for which you meet the prerequisites: any divine feat, Cleave, Extra Smiting, Extra Turning, Great Cleave, Improved Smiting, Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Power Attack, Ride-By Attack, Skill Focus (Ride), Spirited Charge and Trample. This is an extraordinary ability.
Special: A paladin who selects this path can no longer use scrolls, wands or other magic items that require access to a spell list, unless she has another spellcasting class that grants access to the appropriate spells.
If you dedicate yourself to overcoming evil in the Underdark, you might find little use for the paladin’s most prized ally, the special mount. By giving up the ability to call this devoted creature, you become a more mobile and effective fighter underground.
Level: 5th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the special mount class feature.
Benefit: Whenever you are underground, you can draw upon the earth to gain the following abilities. At 5th level, your base speed increases by 10 feet, and you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Balance, Climb and Jump checks. You also gain low-light vision that functions as long as you remain underground. If you already had low-light vision, you instead gain darkvision out to 60 feet while underground; if you already had darkvision, add 30 feet to its range.
At 7th level, you can use spike stones once per day, as the spell. This is a spell-like ability with caster level equal to your character level.
At 12th level, you gain the earth glide extraordinary ability, which enables you to move through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish moves through water (MM 98). If you end your movement inside earth or stone, however, you begin to suffocate.
At 15th level, you can use dimension door, as the spell, once per day for every five paladin levels you possess. You must begin and end any such movement in contact with stone or earth. This is a spell-like ability with caster level equal to your character level.
While all rangers are attuned to nature, not all seek intimate contact with the divine. Some find that intense weapon training lets them defend their natural domains more effectively.
By surrendering your spellcasting ability, you focus your energies on becoming a weapon master. You gain access to bonus feats much as a fighter does, but focused on your mastery of your chosen combat style.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: To select this class feature, you must sacrifice your spellcasting ability.
Benefit: You no longer gain spells as a ranger, but you can now select a bonus feat at 4th, 8th, 11th and 14th levels. You can choose any feat from the following list for which you meet the prerequisites: Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Improved Disarm, Improved Favoured Enemy, Improved Feint and Improved Trip, as well as from one of the following lists, depending on your combat style.
Archery: Far Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Improved Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Ranged Disarm, Ranged Pin, Ranged Sunder, Sharp-Shooting and Shot on the Run.
Two-Weapon Combat: Greater Two-Weapon Defence, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Defence, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Defence, Weapon Finesse.
Special: A ranger who selects this path can no longer use scrolls, wands, or other magic items that require access to a spell list, unless he has another spellcasting class that grants access to the appropriate spells.
You learn to speak with the spirits of the wild places. Although this ability does not automatically make such spirits well disposed towards you, it does provide several benefits.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the wild empathy class feature.
Benefit: You can use speak with animals and speak with plants, as the spells (caster level equals your ranger level). You can use any combination of these effects up to three times per day. These are spell-like abilities with caster level equal to your character level.
You are befriended by a spiritual guide that speaks to you and aids you as long as you remain in the wilderness.
Level: 4th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the animal companion class feature.
Benefit: You gain a spiritual guide. As long as you remain in natural surroundings (including underground caverns), this guide is a constant companion. Once you enter any civilized area larger than a hamlet, however, your spiritual guide leaves your side, returning only when you return to the wilds.
Although it cannot protect you from harm, your spiritual guide can warn you of impending danger. As long as your spiritual guide is with you, you gain a divine bonus equal to one-quarter your ranger level (rounded down) on Handle Animal, Knowledge (Nature), Listen, Search, Spot and Survival checks. In addition, you can use commune with nature, as the spell, once per day as a full round action (as a spell-like ability with caster level equals your ranger level). You can also prepare and cast this spell normally from your ranger spell list.
Few characters are more secular in nature than rogues. But when one of these masters of subterfuge devotes herself to a religion, she looks for ways to turn her assets toward her cause.
You are incredibly knowledgeable about artifacts, relics and antiques — especially those that are religious in nature.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the trapfinding class feature.
Benefit: When examining divine items and religious relics, you gain a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier on all Appraise checks as an extraordinary ability.
In addition, if you examine a magic item created using a spell from the cleric or paladin list, or an item with special religious significance, you can attempt a Knowledge (Religion) check (DC 10 + the item’s caster level) to identify it exactly as a spell-like ability. This works like the identify spell (caster level equals your rogue level) but requires no material component and can be performed as a full round action. You can use this ability on only one item per day.
You can channel the power of your faith when making sneak attacks against undead.
Level: 3rd.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the trap sense class feature, including trap sense bonuses gained at higher levels of the rogue class.
Benefit: You can make sneak attacks against undead creatures. However, you roll only one-half your normal sneak attack dice (rounded down) when determining bonus damage for such attacks. This is an extraordinary ability.
By giving up one of your high-level special abilities, you’ve learned to protect others by using your own skills and abilities.
Levels: 10th, 13th, 16th or 19th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces improved evasion as one of the rogue’s special ability choices.
Benefit: When you select friend’s evasion as a special ability, every ally adjacent to you gains evasion. This is an extraordinary ability.
When you give up one of your high-level special abilities, you gain a link to divine power that helps you destroy undead. This divine energy comes to you through your religious beliefs but is tied to your own natural abilities in subterfuge.
Levels: 10th, 13th, 16th or 19th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces crippling strike as one of the rogue’s special ability choices. Only non-evil rogues can select this class feature.
Benefit: When you select holy stalker as a special ability, you can channel positive energy into your sneak attacks to damage undead creatures.
When you successfully damage an undead creature in a situation in which you would normally apply sneak attack damage, you add 2 points of positive energy damage per sneak attack die you would normally roll. This ability can be used in conjunction with death’s ruin. This is a supernatural ability.
Some believe that sorcerers gain their link to arcane energy through draconic heritage. If true, such a connection might seem to cut off divine influence, but perhaps it actually helps a sorcerer open a channel to a new reservoir of energy.
By sacrificing a possible link to an earthly creature, you gain the ability to store arcane energy in a divine reservoir that takes the form of a spirit creature. Linked to you through your own life essence, this divine companion can then transform that energy into beneficial effects.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the summon familiar class feature.
Benefit: You can spend 100 gp to perform a ritual dedicated to the deity of your choice and summon forth a spirit creature to aid you in your adventures. This creature is both invisible and intangible, but it provides you with real benefits.
The divine companion stores arcane energy and redirects it to you according to your level and your needs. To fill this reservoir, you must cast one or more targeted spells at this creature. A spell so cast does not produce its normal effect; the companion simply absorbs the spell’s energy. It can store a number of spell levels equal to your arcane caster level. You can cast spells into it at any time, but after you rest and recover your spell slots for the day, the divine companion loses any stored energy.
The divine companion exists outside reality and cannot be affected by spells, spell-like abilities, or any sort of antimagic effect or dispel check. It cannot, however, release its arcane energy within an antimagk field or similar effect. It uses your caster level for any checks required, and when it releases arcane energy, the level of the effect created equals the number of spell levels released.
The divine companion can release its stored spell energy in either of the following ways, at your command. You can use each effect as often as you wish, until the companion’s stored energy is depleted.
Healing (Su): As a standard action, you can order your divine companion to convert the energy it has stored into healing power. This is the equivalent of a conjuration (healing) spell. This effect heals you for 1d6 points of damage per stored spell level, or as many levels as you designate (up to the maximum currently stored).
Shielding (Su): As a swift action, you can order the creature to convert the energy it has stored into protecting you. This is the equivalent of an abjuration spell that provides you with a deflection bonus to AC and a resistance bonus on saves each equal to the number of stored spell levels, or as many levels as you designate (up to the maximum currently stored). This effect lasts for 1 round per arcane caster level you possess.
Your depth of belief allows you to channel divine power the way a cleric does. By doing so, you gain access to a single cleric domain.
Level: 5th.
Replaces: To gain this benefit, you do not learn a new 1st-level sorcerer spell and a new 2nd-level sorcerer spell at 5th level. From now on, you know one less sorcerer spell that you can cast at each subsequent level (not counting the domain spells from this alternative class feature).
Benefit: Choose one cleric domain. If you worship a specific deity, the domain you choose must be one to which your deity grants access. You gain the granted power of the chosen domain. In addition, you can cast one domain spell of each spell level available to you per day from that domain.
It is a little-known fact that wizards can also gain power from their faith. Though the majority of their power is drawn from formula and rote, some wizards enhance their spells with a touch of the divine. Divine wizards combine their religious devotion with their discipline in the arcane arts.
So great is the extent of your study and the depth of your faith that you can call upon the power of one of your deity’s domains.
Level: 5th, 10th, 15th or 20th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the bonus feat gained by a wizard at 5th, 10th, 15th or 20th level.
Benefit: Choose one cleric domain. If you worship a specific deity, the domain you choose must be one to which your deity grants access. You now can use that domain’s granted power as a cleric does, but you do not gain access to its spells or extra spell slots. If the granted power is based upon cleric level, it becomes instead based upon your wizard level.
Special: If you take levels in a class that grants you a domain choice (such as cleric), you gain the full benefits of the domain in addition to the other domains available to you from that class.
You can use your connection to the divine to inquire about mysteries beyond mortal ken.
Level: 5th, 10th, 15th or 20th.
Replaces: This benefit replaces the bonus feat gained by a wizard at 5th, 10th, 15th or 20th level.
Benefit: You can spontaneously cast any spell you know from the divination school by sacrificing a prepared spell of equal or greater level. For example, if you suddenly have need of the 2nd-level spell locate object, you can sacrifice a prepared 2nd-level spell (such as mirror image) or any prepared spell of a higher level to cast it on the spot.
Source: Complete Champion (Page 45)