Votary

You feel it before you see it: the current under every heartbeat, the warmth in a wound that wants to close. You reach for it, and the god you serve answers. At least, that's what the Covenant taught you. Lately you've started to wonder who is really doing the answering.

Adventures. Votaries go where the hurt is: battlefields, plague towns, the starving towns Gilirak has taxed into ruin. The Covenant sends them to tend its faithful, consecrate new temples and accompany its Wardens. Heretics, who have learned that flux needs no god, adventure because staying in one place lets the Wardens find them.

Characteristics. Votaries are Eldriloch's flux users and priests, taking the place of the cleric. They prepare divine spells drawn from the flow of life: healing, protection, strength, courage and the restoration of what was lost. Through their patron's domains, they bring Aostre's light and growth or Khareus's hunt. Every votary can release a Flux Surge that heals everyone nearby. Votaries can't open portals, shape matter or work illusions. That belongs to the aether. Votaries are ordained in one of two ways:

• Covenant votaries serve a patron deity and obey the Covenant's Restraint.
• Heretic votaries, who call themselves the Unbound, know better, wield flux as a weapon, and are hunted for it (see The Heretic).

Outlook. A Covenant votary serves the Covenant and their patron's teachings, and the Covenant decides what those teachings mean. Heretics serve themselves, their people or a cause of their own.

Religion. Covenant votaries serve one of the ten gods of the Celestial Covenant, most often Aostre, Itira or Selphail for healers and Kendaunt or Solcharr for those who work with the Wardens. Many Usmon votaries belong to the Custodians of the Living Light. Heretics serve no god, though many still use the old prayers out of habit.

Background. Most votaries are found young, when a temple notices a child who heals too fast or whose bruises fade overnight. The monastery at Peltragow trains more than anywhere else. Some are raised and trained by a single mentor, far from any monastery.

Races. Only humans can use flux, and only humans born with the gift. Every votary is human.

Other Classes. Votaries work naturally with wardens, who protect them. They distrust aetherians, whose magic the Covenant blames for the Dark Sunder. Engineers are tolerated, since the Covenant accepts engineered equipment. They regard fleshgrafters as heretics. Fighters and runners adore them for obvious reasons.

Role. The votary is the party's healer and protector, and a capable fighter in medium armor. A Covenant votary can rarely use flux to harm, so their offense comes from strengthening allies, not from casting at enemies.

Abilities. Wisdom determines how powerful a spell a votary can cast, how many spells they can cast per day and how hard those spells are to resist. Charisma powers Flux Surge. Constitution and Strength help in melee.

Race: Human, born with the gift for flux.

Hit Die: d8.

Starting Wealth: 5d4 × 10 gl (125 gl).

Class Skills

The votary's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int). Domains may add more.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

All of the following are class features of the votary.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Votaries are proficient with all simple weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields). A Covenant votary is also proficient with their patron deity's favored weapon.

Ordination: At 1st level, a votary is ordained by the Covenant or becomes a heretic. The choice can change later, but rarely without a story.

• Covenant: The votary chooses one of the Covenant's deities as patron, takes two of that deity's domains and is proficient with the deity's favored weapon. They are bound by the Covenant's Restraint. In return they gain:
  • Blessed Surge (Su): When the votary uses Flux Surge to heal, each die heals 1 extra point.
  • Temple Support: The votary can buy divine scrolls and potions at any Covenant temple at cost (half the listed price), and once per character level they can receive atonement without charge.
• Heretic: The votary has no patron, never makes Restraint saves and can cast forbidden spells freely. The heretic is a subclass with its own domain and features, described in The Heretic. The Wardens hunt heretics, and being found out in a Covenant city can mean imprisonment or death.

There is no middle ground. A votary who is not ordained by the Covenant is a heretic, whether they wield the forbidden spells or not.

Spells: A votary casts divine spells drawn from the votary spell list. They prepare spells in advance, as a cleric does, after an hour of quiet prayer or meditation at a set time each day. To prepare or cast a spell, a votary must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level. The save DC is 10 + the spell's level + the votary's Wisdom modifier. A votary gets bonus spells for a high Wisdom score. Flux spells never need fibrolite, and they can't be combined with aether. Every votary and domain spell by level is in Spells by Class.

Domains: A votary chooses two flux domains, gaining each domain's granted power and access to its spells. Each day, the votary prepares one domain spell of each level they can cast, from either domain, in their domain slot.

Spontaneous Healing: A votary can lose any prepared spell other than a domain spell to cast a cure spell of the same level or lower (a spell with "cure" in its name).

Flux Surge (Su): A number of times per day equal to 3 + their Charisma modifier, a votary can release a pulse of flux as a standard action. Every living creature the votary chooses within 30 feet heals 1d6 points of damage per two votary levels (minimum 1d6). Alternatively, the votary can turn the surge outward and deal that much damage to living creatures they choose (Will half, DC 10 + ½ votary level + Charisma modifier). The damaging surge is forbidden, and Covenant votaries must make a Restraint save after using it. Flux Surge doesn't affect constructs, undead or creatures with no flux in them. Feats that add uses of turn undead, such as Extra Turning, add uses of Flux Surge instead.

Sense the Flow (Sp): At 5th level, a votary can use sense the flow at will.

Steady Current (Su): At 10th level, the votary's own flux never fails them. They gain a +4 bonus on Restraint saves and on saves against effects that would cut them off from flux, such as sever the flow. Heretics gain Hidden Current instead (see The Heretic).

Living Current (Su): At 20th level, the votary's Flux Surge heals 1d8 per two levels instead of 1d6, and the votary can use it as a swift action once per round.

Ex-Votaries: A Covenant votary who grossly violates the Covenant's teachings, or who fails a Restraint save, loses all spells and supernatural class features until they receive atonement. Heretics follow different rules (see Ex-Heretics).

Some votaries learn what the Covenant hides: flux needs no god, and the Restraint is a rule written by people, not by heaven. A votary who reaches the flow directly is a heretic. Heretics call themselves the Unbound. They heal like any votary, but they also wield flux as a weapon, and the Wardens hunt them for it.

A votary chooses the heretic path at 1st level, in place of Covenant ordination. The heretic uses every votary rule and the votary table, with the changes below.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A heretic has no patron and gains no favored-weapon proficiency.

Unsanctioned: A heretic gets neither Blessed Surge nor Temple Support. No temple will sell to them, so divine scrolls and potions come from the under-market at one and a half times the listed price, when they can be found at all, and nobody will cast atonement for them.

Unbound Current (Su): A heretic never makes Restraint saves. They can prepare and cast forbidden (†) spells freely, and they can turn Flux Surge outward to deal damage whenever they like. Nothing a heretic casts can cost them flux, except their own doubt (see Ex-Heretics, below).

Domains: A heretic chooses any two flux domains, regardless of deity. One of them can be the Ruin domain, which only heretics can take.

Spontaneous Casting: At 1st level, a heretic chooses healing or harm. A heretic who chooses healing converts prepared spells into cure spells, as any votary does. A heretic who chooses harm converts them into inflict spells (spells with "inflict" in the name) instead. The choice is permanent.

Hidden Current (Su): At 10th level, in place of Steady Current, the heretic gains a +4 bonus on saves against effects that would cut them off from flux, such as sever the flow, and a +4 bonus on Bluff and Disguise checks to pass as Covenant-ordained. Once per day, as a free action, the heretic can hide their flux from sense the flow and similar detection for 10 minutes. During that time, they read as an ordinary human with no gift.

Raw Torrent (Su): At 20th level, in place of Living Current, the heretic's Flux Surge heals or deals 1d8 per two levels instead of 1d6, and they can use it as a swift action once per round.

Ex-Heretics: A heretic can't lose flux by breaking a rule, because they follow none. They lose it only by believing they've lost it. A heretic who suffers a true crisis of faith, such as being convinced by a Warden that their power was stolen from the gods, must make a Will save (DC 15) or lose all spells and supernatural class features. They regain them after a week of meditation and a successful DC 15 Will save, or at once if another heretic helps them reach the flow again. A heretic who chooses to be ordained into the Covenant becomes a Covenant votary, and must receive atonement first.

Covenant or Heretic? A Covenant votary has a home, a hierarchy and a rule they can't break without consequences. A heretic has freedom, forbidden spells and a target on their back. Either makes a good story, and a votary who changes from one to the other in play makes a great one.

Heal, Then Protect. Flux Surge restores the whole party at once, so save your spell slots for protection, strength and the restorations nothing else can manage. Spontaneous healing turns any spare slot into a cure when things go wrong.

Harm Has a Price. For a Covenant votary, every forbidden spell is a Will save away from losing everything. Know which spells are forbidden before you prepare them.