All types of
beings may serve deities. In general, a deity only accepts minions who have
accomplished some great deed in service to the deity. Such minions usually have
the same alignment as the deity. No minion’s alignment is opposed to the patron
deity’s alignment on either the law–chaos axis or the good–evil axis.
A divine proxy
speaks and acts on behalf of the divine being. When the demand for a deity’s
presence is too high, the deity may use proxies.
Proxies are divine
minions invested with a small portion of the deity’s power. A deity may invest
1 rank of its power (reducing its divine rank accordingly) in a single servant
for as long as the deity chooses. The minion must be physically present for the
deity to perform the investiture. While so invested, the proxy gains any
salient divine abilities held by the patron deity as well as the powers and
abilities of a rank 1 demigod. Without the requisite ability scores or divine
ranks, the proxy may not be able to use all those powers and abilities. A deity
may have more than one proxy, but it must lose 1 divine rank for each proxy it
invests. A deity can retrieve a single divine rank as a standard action, and
doing so it does not require the physical presence of the proxy.
Some spirits
demonstrate their devotion to their deity by traveling to the deity’s home
plane. Those that survive the journey across the planes become servants of
their deity. While a few may remain disembodied spirits, most become
petitioners through the divine will of their patron deity.
In general,
petitioners appear in the form that they had when they died, though they may be
remade by deities to fit the nature of their particular afterlife. In general,
petitioners who become divine servants are creatures that originally had at
least 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom.
The following
creature types may become petitioners depending on the deity: aberrations,
animals, dragons, fey, giants, humanoids, magical beasts, monstrous humanoids,
and plants, oozes, and vermin with sufficient ability scores. Constructs and
undead are not usually made into petitioners, though the spirits of their
original forms may be. Elementals and outsiders tend to meld with their native
planes, and as such do not become petitioners. Their spirits may still be
called back from the dead, however.
The template
presented below is for NPCs, not player characters. If dead characters who are
petitioners are later restored to life (once again becoming player characters),
they forget any of their experiences as petitioners.
“Petitioner” is a
template that may be added to any creature as determined by the nature of the
campaign (referred to hereafter as the base creature). The creature’s type
changes to outsider, and the creature uses all the base creature’s statistics
and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Change to 2d8. Retain bonus hit points.
AC: Natural Armor Class, Dexterity, and size
bonuses or penalties apply. Armor bonuses are not applicable.
Attacks: Base attack bonus is reduced to +2,
subject to modifications for size and Strength.
Special
Attacks: A petitioner
loses all supernatural and spell-like attacks, but retains normal and
exceptional attacks.
Special
Qualities: A petitioner
loses all supernatural and spell-like abilities, but retains exceptional
abilities. In addition, it gains the following qualities.
Mental
Immunity: All petitioners
are immune to mind-affecting effects.
Other
Immunities: Depending on
its nature, the petitioner is immune to two of the following effects: acid,
cold, electricity, fire, poison, petrifaction, or polymorphing. These
immunities are applied similarly to all petitioners of a particular plane or
deity.
Resistances: Depending on the nature of the
petitioner’s plane, the petitioner gains resistance 20 against two of the
following effects: acid, cold, electricity, or fire.
Planar
Commitment: Petitioners
cannot leave the plane they inhabit. They are teleported one hundred miles in a
random direction if an attempt is made to force them to leave.
Additional
Special Qualities: Particular
planes may provide additional benefits for petitioners of those planes. Typical
additional special qualities may include any one of the following.
• Damage reduction
5/silver and spell resistance 5.
• Continuous magic
circle against evil.
• Fast healing 1.
• Damage reduction
10/magic.
• Spell resistance
10.
• Additional 2d8
Hit Dice.
• Remove all
immunities and resistances except immunity to mind-affecting effects. Add acid,
cold, electricity, fire, and poison resistance 5.
Such modifications
are the result of the nature of the plane or the powerful beings within it.
Saves: Base saving throw bonuses are +3.
Abilities: Same as the base creature. Some
cosmologies or deities may set a maximum of 18 for petitioner ability scores.
Abilities higher than that are reduced to the maximum.
Skills: Petitioners have no skills. Previous skills
are lost.
Feats: Petitioners have no feats. Previous feats
are lost.
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground (within the same
plane).
Organization: Same as the base creature.
Challenge
Rating: 1.
Treasure: None.
Alignment: Same as the native plane.
Advancement: None.
The deities may
choose particular servants for specific tasks that may retain the knowledge of
their previous selves. These exceptional petitioners retain the feats and
skills they had in life, but are otherwise limited as for the petitioners of
their plane.