D&D Classes

An astrologer seeks the truth in the study of the heavens and celestial charts. A believer in destiny, he seeks to find the most auspicious times to do things, and tries to predict the result of actions and the events of the future.

Any class with an inclination for the hard work required to learn astrology can practice this class; the obvious exceptions are fighters and barbarians.

Astrology runs as an undercurrent in all schools of magic, and astrologers are on friendly terms with the regular spell user classes. They are often held in even higher esteem by mundanes, their powers are more mystical and more difficult to grasp than the spells of a regular cleric or wizard.

For the right player and in the right group, an astrologer can be great fun. Play up the mystery and feeling of inevitability inherent in predicting the future. But the astrologer is not your typical adventurer and the powers of the astrologer lend themselves to abuse.The DM must be very careful with what he allows astrologers to learn using their powers. It is probably best to use astrologers only as NPCs: their action potential is slight, while their powers are prone to misuse by ambitious players.

Hit Die: d4

Requirements

To qualify as an astrologer, the character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Spot: 4 ranks
Profession (astrologer): 8 ranks

Class Skills

Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Intuit Direction (Wis), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Scry (Int, restricted skill), Spot (Wis).

Skill points at each level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the astrologer prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The astrologer gains no new ability to use weapons and armor.

Warning: When an astrologer is preparing for a mission or expedition, he may make a horoscope, scanning the future for danger. The prime danger is death. In the case that an adventurer dies, the astrologer can provide a vision with a warning, and the party can take some other course of action. In this case, part of the evenings gaming happened only in the astrologer's predictions. The story is rewound back to some earlier point in the nights gaming session of the astrologer's choosing, and play is resumed from that point. This is very taxing for everyone involved; half of all damage taken remains, and all spells, abilities, charged magic items used-up or equipment lost are still gone and you gain no treasure and kill no monsters. The good part is that you avoid the death of the party member (unless half of the damage taken was sufficient to kill him). Everyone partakes of the vision and remembers what would have happened quite vividly, so you do gain experience. The usual response to such a dire vision is simply to go away and come back later.

Spell-like Powers: The astrologer gets certain spell-like powers as he progresses in level. These powers work much like the spells they are named after, but they require the astrologer to make a quick consultation of the sky or of his charts and/or astrolabes. Each use takes a number of minutes equal to the level at which the astrologer learns the power, and the astrologer can only make one prediction in a certain situation. So, if you have used augury to determine if it is wise to move through a door and received an inconclusive answer, you cannot then use divination in the same situation.

Auspicious Moment: An astrologer is not only a man of dire predictions; sometimes he can give practical advice as well. With this ability, you can try to determine the proper moment in which to do something, increasing the chance of success. A person acting on this advice then receives an insight bonus to his action of +1 per astrologer level. The advised time will be in 1d10 melee rounds for combat actions, 1d10 minutes for most adventure actions and skill tasks, 1d10 days for minor events like holding a party or starting a voyage and 1d10 months for major events such as fighting a battle. Exactly what this bonus means for events has to be judged by the DM. Using auspicious moment is a standard action for the astrologer and functions as a spell-like ability.

Sense Event: An astrologer may sense important events before they occur. Small, personal events are easy to miss; world-spanning events are easy to see in the stars, but hard to undestand. Major events are pre-planned campaign events, such as wars, epidemics, the birth of children, famine and such. How far ahead of the event the astrologer can provide warning depends on the gamemaster's degree of planning, the impact of the event and how closely the astrologer was watching the stars for this kind of event.

Make a Scry check against a DC of 25. On a success, the astrologer can tell approximately what is going to happen and who will be most involved. An astrologer can sense events that will affect him personally, his country, ruler, employer, loved ones or friends.

The DM is advised to shamelessly exploit this ability for adventure hooks. Other than that, it can give the results of rolls for disease, childbirth, spell research and other long-time projects in advance; if the result is unfavourable, the astrologer can advice some other course of action.

Find Involvement: You can make a horoscope and find out who is involved in a certain situation or with a certain person. The DM makes a secret a Scry roll for each person who is involved as an opposed roll if that person knows the Scry skill. The minimum difficulty is 20 in any case. On a success, the astrologer learns that the person is somehow involved, but not how. Using Find involvement takes on hour.

Clue: This lets the astrologer point out some clue that the party might otherwise have missed. Just before leaving the scene, the astrologer can consult the stars or his charts (a standard action) to find if 'something is missing'. Make a Scry roll against DC 20; on a success, the DM points out the overlooked clue, secret door, interesting NPC or whatever that the party has missed during the current scene. The astrologer is looking for ways in which actual events are separated from the 'ideal' events, as described in the scenario. Thus, this ability can only be used to find things that will get the party 'back on track', it will not locate secret doors, clues and such that the party was not expected to find.

Analyze Involvement: After using Find Involvement to find that someone is involved in an event, it is possible to do further scryig to determine in which way he is involved. This works just like find involvement, a success indicates that the astrologer roughly understands the role the person he is divining about is playing for this event.

Find Weakness: By making a horoscope about some person or (more commonly) monster, the astrologer can find out any flaws that creature might have. Weaknesses can be character flaws, special vulnerabilities, handicaps or anything else that can be used against the target. Find weakness is a standard action with a DC equal to 20 plus the creature's Will Saving throw modifier. The creature must be present for this ability to work.

Find Problem: This essentially a scenario hook generator. The astrologer specifies what type of problem he is looking for; the DM decides if he wants to play a scenario on these lines, and if he does, gives the astrologer a lead to it.

Find Strength: As find weakness, but detects any particular strengths the creature might have; exceptional attributes, movement powers, attacks or defences.

Analyze Problem: A great game breaker, this ability gives the astrologer a gist of the scenario he is about to play, a short summary akin to what is found on the back of a book.

Astrologer Prestige Class

Requirements

Class Skills

Class Features