Cantor (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

"We're on a mission from God." Elwood Blues, Blues Brothers.

Not all bards are natural arcanists, nor are all skalds gifted in lore and ancient secrets. Some gain their power from divine worship.

In many primitive cultures, the cantor takes the place of spiritual guide of the people's religious beliefs. Some civilized cultures have developed the singing of hymns and chants into an art, but cantors are usually subservient to clerics in a civilized church.

Class Information

This is a bard and skald archetype.

Publisher: Trailseeker Magazine.

Alignment: If a cantor has a patron, his alignment must be within one step of his patron's alignment. Cantors have no other alignment restrictions, and can be lawful if their deity allows it.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The cantor's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (Int), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The cantor has all the standard bard or skald class features, except as noted below.

Armor and Weapon proficiency

A cantor retains his parent class' weapon and armor proficiencies. As a divine spellcaster, a cantor can cast spells in armor.

Spellcasting

A cantor casts divine spells, which are drawn from the bard spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs. As a divine spellcaster, the cantor's ability to cast spells in armor is unrestricted.

Add the following spells to the cantor's class spell list:
0—create water, stabilize;
1st—detect chaos/evil/good/law, lesser restoration, protection from chaos/evil/good/law;
2nd—consecrate, desecrate, gentle repose;
3rd—magic circle against chaos/evil/good/law, prayer;
4th—remove disease, speak with dead, sending;
5th—divination, restoration;
6th—commune, hallow, unhallow, raise dead.

In addition to this, cantors receive spells from their domains (see below).

Orisons Orisons: Cantors learn a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Bard Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again. This replaces cantrips.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A cantor can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Deity, Domain, and Domain Spells

A cantor's deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. A cantor chooses a domain from among those belonging to his deity. A cantor can select an alignment domain (Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law) only if his alignment matches that domain. If a cantor is not devoted to a particular deity, he still selects one domain to represent his spiritual inclinations and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.

The domain gives the cantor access to granted powers and a domain spell at each spell level he can cast, from 1st to 6th level. Unlike clerics, bards simply add these spells to their list of known spells and to their class spell list—there are no special domain slots. The cantor gets the granted powers the domain selected and uses them as a cleric of his cantor level. Any granted powers that would normally be Wisdom-based become Charisma-based for the Cantor.

This ability replaces two skill points per level for the bard and the scribe scroll and spell kenning abilities of the skald.

Ex-Cantors

A cantor who grossly violates the code of conduct required by his god loses all spells and class features, except for weapon and armor proficiencies. He cannot thereafter gain levels as a cantor of that god until he atones (see the atonement spell description).

Table: Cantor

The bard and skald cantor uses different tables.

Bard Cantor

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Bardic knowledge, bardic performance, countersong, distraction, Eschew Material Components, fascinate, inspire courage +1, orisons	1	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Versatile performance, well-versed	2	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Inspire competence +2	3	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	—	3	1	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Inspire courage +2, lore master (1/day)	4	2	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Suggestion, versatile performance	4	3	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Inspire competence +3	4	3	1	—	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	Dirge of doom	4	4	2	—	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	Inspire greatness	5	4	3	—	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	Jack-of-all-trades (unskilled use), versatile performance	5	4	3	1	—	—
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+7	Inspire competence +4, inspire courage +3, lore master (2/day)	5	4	4	2	—	—
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Soothing performance	5	5	4	3	—	—
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	—	5	5	4	3	1	—
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+9	Frightening tune, versatile performance	5	5	4	4	2	—
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+9	Inspire competence +5, inspire heroics	5	5	5	4	3	—
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Jack-of-all-trades (class skills)	5	5	5	4	3	1
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Inspire courage +4, (lore master 3/day)	5	5	5	4	4	2
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+11	Mass suggestion, versatile performance	5	5	5	5	4	3
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+11	Inspire competence +6, jack-of-all-trades (take 10)	5	5	5	5	5	4
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+12	Deadly performance	5	5	5	5	5	5

Table: Skald Cantor

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Bardic knowledge, cantrips, inspired rage (+2 Str/Con), raging song	1	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Versatile performance, well-versed	2	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Rage power, song of marching	3	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Inspired rage, uncanny dodge	3	1	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Lore master (1/day)	4	2	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	Rage power, song of strength	4	3	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Lore master 1/day, versatile performance	4	3	1	—	—	—
8th	+6/ +1	+6	+2	+6	Improved uncanny dodge, inspired rage (+4 Str/Con)	4	4	2	—	—	—
9th	+6/ +1	+6	+3	+6	Rage power, DR 1/—	5	4	3	—	—	—
10th	+7/ +2	+7	+3	+7	Dirge of doom	5	4	3	1	—	—
11th	+8/ +3	+7	+3	+7	Lore master (2/day)	5	4	4	2	—	—
12th	+9/ +4	+8	+4	+8	Inspired rage, rage power, versatile performance	5	5	4	3	—	—
13th	+9/ +4	+8	+4	+8	Lore master 2/day	5	5	4	3	1	—
14th	+10/ +5	+9	+4	+9	DR 2/—, song of the fallen	5	5	4	4	2	—
15th	+11/ +6/ +1	+9	+5	+9	Rage power	5	5	5	4	3	—
16th	+12/ +7/ +2	+10	+5	+10	Inspired rage (+6 Str/Con)	5	5	5	4	3	1
17th	+12/ +7/ +2	+10	+5	+10	Lore master (3/day), versatile performance	5	5	5	4	4	2
18th	+13/ +8/ +3	+11	+6	+11	Rage power	5	5	5	5	4	3
19th	+14/ +9/ +4	+11	+6	+11	DR 3/—, lore master 3/day	5	5	5	5	5	4
20th	+15/ +10/ +5	+12	+6	+12	Inspired rage, master skald	5	5	5	5	5	5

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

Bard

• Class Skills
• Skill Points per Level
• Spellcasting
• Bardic Knowledge
• Lore Master

Skald

• Class Skills
• Scribe Scroll
• Spell Kenning

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