They say everyone has his faith shaken now and then. Maybe a beloved family member dies mysteriously or a war tears apart homes and ideals. Even the most pious of a deity’s worshippers are sometimes left shaken by tragedy. Usually, though, these feelings of unease pass and faith is restored, if not strengthened.
But not always.
Those who wander the world, looking for answers to questions pertaining to gods and men, are known as “lost ones”. Paladins, clerics, favoured souls and even druids and rangers can all succumb to hopelessness and doubt. Despite their misgivings, only rarely do lost ones completely renounce their former deities. Typically lost ones only seek explanations to their questions. Once they have their answers they want nothing more than to regain their deities’ good graces.
Some lost ones band together, and these groups frequently house wide arrays of alignments and beliefs. A lost one of Obad-Hai, for example, might work with a lost one of Ehlonna in order to discover the truc path together; and once they find what they seek they might discover the uselessness of their rivalry. Other outcasts and lost ones occasionally search for these bands in hopes of finding acceptance and camaraderie, but they rarely suecccd. If such folk are worthy, a group of lost ones find them first. Lost ones watch taverns, adventuring guild houses, temples, and other places where discouraged souls who need some reassurnaces of faith might dwell.
A lost one worships every day, almost always in a loose and informal style. He finds himself free of the strict codes of his church. enabling him to contemplate his deity’s workings in the world. This practice puts a lost one in danger of never returning to the comforting embrace of his deity. Frequently, such a lost one begins to worship a more ideal version of his deity, losing sight of the true being revered in the first place. Sometimes, a lost one goes as far as refuting the existence of the actual deity. It is then that the lost one becomes truly lost. A truly lost character loses all class features of the divine spellcasting classes he had until he finds a way to return to his deity’s good graces (this usually requires a quest of some sort and is never as easy as just casting atonement). Alternatively, other, more sinister deities might work to convert the character to their worship, often through subtlety and subterfuge.
Regardless of the deity he worships, the class features of a lost one’s abilities frequently change — a signal of his new-found status. A lost one’s alignment cannot match that of his deity, nor can it be diametrically opposed. This might cause the lost one to change his alignment, which might make the lost one lose access to his class features (such as a paladin taking a level of lost one).
Becoming a lost one might cause a character to change his alignment.
When a character begins to doubt his owm faith, his abilities change to reflect his newfound status. The following variant class features list the lowest level at which they may be taken. Variant class features first appeared in Player’s Handbook II.
Clerics lose their way the most easily, especially at lower levels. Even more experienced clerics sometimes become shaken by unexpected tragedies. When a cleric loses his way and sees only the “pure” version of his deity, he focuses on a single aspect of his deity to the exclusion of all others.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you lose the ability to spontaneously convert prepared spells into cure or inflict spells. You also lost access to one of your domains and all spells on that domain spell list are permanently removed from all your spell lists.
Benefit: You gain many of the benefits of your remaining domain as if you had taken it twice.
You gain double the benefit from your remaining domain’s granted power, if applicable. If your remaining domain granted power has a limited number of uses per day, you may use the domoin granted power twice as many times per day. If your remaining domain granted power offers a bonus, the bonus is doubled. If your remaining domain granted power has limited uses and also grants a bonus (such as the granted power of the Destruction domain), you must choose which to double; the number of times per day you can use it or double the bonus. You do not gain both. The number of uses per day that doubles does not count additional uses based on ability scores. For example, domain granted powers that grant you the ability to turn or rebuke elemental creatures grant you that ability a number of times per day equal to 6 + your Charisma modifier, and not 6 + double your Charisma modifier.
Those allied with nature are perhaps the hardest to distemper, but even druids can lose their faith. When a druid no longer reveres the entirety of nature, he sometimes learns to communicate with his closest ally; his animal companion.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain trackless step, wild shape or woodland stride.
Benefit: You gain the effects of a continuous speak with animals spell, but you may only use it to speak with your animal companion. In addition, for the purpose of determining your animal companion’s bonus Hit Dice, natural armour adjustment, Strength and Dexterity adjustment, bonus tricks and special abilities, you are treated as a druid two levels higher than you actually are. This does not allow you to gain a more powerful alternative animal companion at an earlier level.
Paladins are hardest hit by becoming lost ones. They lose the strict rigidity of their knightly nature and are cast out into the world without a moral guide or a strong sense of who they are. Lost one paladins lose many of the blessings bestowed upon them by their deities, and must adapt to a life where their personal skills are more important than their divine gifts.
Level: 4th.
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain divine grace, divine health or your special mount. If you have already gained one or more of these abilities before becoming a lost one, you immediately lose access to them upon becoming a lost one.
Benefit: At 4th level and every four levels thereafter (8th, 12th, 16th and 20th), you gain a fighter bonus feat, just as if you had taken levels in fighter.
A ranger who loses his faith also loses his most obvious blessing of nature; his animal companion. In return, though, he becomes even more self-reliant.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain your animal companion. If you already have an animal companion, it abandons you immediately.
Benefit: Your favoured enemy bonus also applies to your attack rolls.
Variant class features require you to acquire them at specific levels. But what happens if your character loses his faith at a higher level? If you have already reached or passed the level at which you can take the feature, you can use the retraining option described on page 192 of Player’s Handbook II to gain an alternative class feature in place of the normal feature gained at that level.
As described in Player’s Handbook II, retraining is similar to attaining a new level, and in fact the option can only be chosen during level advancement.
You can trade the necessary class features of one of your character’s classes for a variant class feature of that class. If the variant class feature gained has prerequisites, not only must the character meet them in his current state, but you must also be able to show that he met them when you could have chosen the level originally.
The new option must represent a choice that you could have made at the same level as you made the original choice. Also, the new choice can’t make any of your later decisions illegal — although it might automatically change class features acquired lattr if they are based on the initial choice.
Page 193 of Player’s Handbook II also has rules to allow a cleric to willingly change his deity. The retraining rules can’t be used to accomplish this task.
Source: Dragon Magazine #347 (Page 90)