False Priest (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

False priests have a knack for disguising their arcane or psychic magic as god-given divine magic, and in the use of divine scrolls, staves, and wands. They roam the lands as prophets of a new faith, using their power to convince the unfaithful of their misplaced loyalties in other gods and governments and to defeat those who oppose them.

Class Information

This is a prestige archetype. The false priest is an arcane or psychic spellcaster that fakes divine magic.

Prestige Class: Razmiran priest from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige, along with the razmiran priest sorcerer archetype and False Casting and False Focus from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Magic.

Build Classes: Arcanist, psychic, sorcerer, witch, or wizard.

Role: The false priest brings a message to the masses. She can sway onlookers in her favor and discredit divine authority.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d6.

Starting Wealth: 2d6 × 10 gp (average 70 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills

The false priest's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

These are all the class features of the false priest. The prestige archetype is open to many classes, with slight modifications. Because the archetype has so many abilities, it replaces all of the class features of whatever class it is taken with, except as noted under spells and build class, below.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A false priest is proficient in simple weapons, but not with any armor or shields. A false priest that casts arcane spells with somatic components in armor risks arcane spell failure.

Spells

The false priest learns and casts spells exactly like the build class, including the effect of ability scores on spellcasting and cantrips or knacks. Since the number of spells per day, spell slots, and known spells depend on the build class, these numbers are not given in Table: False Priest.

Build Class

The false priest inherits just a few class features from the build class, as follows.

Arcanist The arcanist gains an arcane reservoir with a number of points equal to 2 + half her class level and an arcanist exploit at level 4, 8, and 12. She cannot choose greater exploits. She can spend uses of false channel as if it was arcane pool to power arcane exploits.

Psychic The psychic false priest gains the psychic's psychic discipline class feature, including discipline spells and discipline powers. When using her psychic discipline, she gains and spends uses of false channel as if it was phrenic pool.

Sorcerer The sorcerer false priest gains Eschew Materials as a bonus feat at level 1 and adds the spells gained from false ritual to her list of known spells. Many sorcerer false priests delude themselves into believing in their false creed, this might even be responsible for awakening their power.

Witch A witch false priest keeps the patron spells and witch's familiar class features. She can chose to not use illusory healing when casting spells to restore hit point damage. Spells on the witch spell list learned from the false ritual class feature are learned at their witch spell level.

Wizard The wizard keeps the arcane bond class feature, and can choose a divine focus item as her bonded item if she picks that option.

Domain

A false priest may select one cleric domain. She may not select an alignment domain. In the case of an organized cabal of false priests, they have a group of 3-5 domains they must all choose from. A false priest gains the granted powers of that domain, using her arcane spellcaster level as her cleric level. She adds any domain spells to her spell list, but these spells must still be learned normally.

Illusory Healing (Ex)

Whenever a false priest spell would heal hit point damage, that spell is modified. The spell becomes an illusion (shadow) spell with a duration of 10 minutes/level. Any hit points healed are illusory healing, temporary hit points that stack with other illusory healing but cannot exceed the damage the creature has currently taken. Illusory healing does not stack with normal temporary hit points.

False Casting

When a false priest uses a magic item or a spell-like ability to create a magical effect, she may add additional magic-seeming words and hand gestures to trick onlookers into believing she cast the spell herself. If using an item that is recognizable as a magical implement (such as a wand or ring), she can trick viewers into thinking she is just using the item as a focus component.

Onlookers who have no ranks in Spellcraft have no knowledge of what is genuine spellcasting, and automatically believe the false priest is casting a spell. If an onlooker attempts a Spellcraft check to identify the “casting,” her check is opposed by the false priest's Bluff check. If she succeeds, she realizes the deception. If she fails, she believes the false priest cast the spell. Regardless of the result of that opposed check, she uses the result of that Spellcraft check to identify the “spell” cast, except the DC is 20 + the spell’s level instead of 15 + the spell’s level.

When using false casting to cast a spell on the cleric spell list with a spell level she can cast, she receives a +10 circumstance bonus on the Bluff check made when casting the spell.

False Ritual (Su)

A false priest adds a number of spells what are normally divine spell list to her spell list and to her spell book, familiar, or list of known spells, as appropriate. She gains each spell as soon as she can cast spells of that level.

1st— Bless, cure light wounds.
2nd— Aid, spiritual weapon.
3rd— Cure moderate wounds, prayer.
4th— Cure serious wounds, remove disease.
5th— Cure critical wounds, neutralize poison.
6th— Cure light wounds (mass), flame strike.
7th— Cure moderate wounds (mass), heroe's feast.
8th— Cure serious wounds (mass), heal.
9th— Cure critical wounds (mass), miracle.

Master of Lies (Ex)

At 2nd level a false priest adds half her class level to any Bluff check made as part of a lie or deception. In addition, whenever she is subject to a spell or special ability that can discern whether or not she is telling the truth, she is automatically aware of such magic. She is not immune to such spells or abilities, but she can choose to remain silent or avoid answering questions.

False Channel (Su)

Starting at 3rd level, a false priest can channel illusory energy to give illusory healing (see above) to all living creatures within 30 ft., healing 1d6 points of damage. The amount healed increased to 2d6 at level 7 and by another d6 for every four levels after level seven. This looks and feels just like a cleric channeling positive energy to heal, excspt that the effect ends after 10 minutes/level. She can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.

False Piety (Ex)

At 5th level a false priest adds half her class level to Use Magic Device checks.

False Focus (Ex)

At 5th level, using a divine focus as part of casting, the false priest can cast any spell with a material component costing the value of that divine focus (maximum 100 gp) or less without needing that component. For example, if she uses a silver holy symbol worth 25 gp, she does not have to provide material components for an arcane spell if its components are worth 25 gp or less. If the spell requires a material component that costs more than the value of the divine focus, the false priest must have the material component on hand to cast the spell, as normal.

Replacement Channel (Su)

At 9th level, the false priest can use her own magic to power spell completion and spell trigger items that uses divine spells. She expends a spell slot or prepared spell that is at least 1 level higher than the level of the spell she’s trying to activate, then makes a Use Magic Device check. If she succeeds, the item’s spell occurs and the item or charge is not expended. If she fails, the item fails to activate but the spell or spell slot is still spent.

Conversion (Su)

At 13th level, whenever a false priest heals herself using false channel, the effect heals damage instead of granting temporary hit points. False channel still gives illusory healing to others in the area of effect.

False Spell List (Su)

At 17th level, when determining what spell trigger and spell completion magic items she can use, the false priest acts as though all cleric spells were on her spell list. This makes it so that she does not need to make a Use Magic Device skill check when using such items, but she must still make Bluff skill checks when using False Casting with such spells.

True Pretender (Su)

At 20th level, a false priest attains true power. Whenever she uses false channel, she can spend two uses of that ability to heal damage to all living creatures in the area, instead of granting temporary hit points.

Table: False Priest

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Build class, domain, illusory healing, false casting, false ritual
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Master of lies
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	False channel 1d6
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	False piety
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	False channel 2d6
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Replacement channel
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	False channel 3d6
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Conversion
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	False channel 4d6
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	False spell list
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	—
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	False channel 5d6
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	True pretender

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Section 15 Addendum

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Magic. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Jesse Benner, Jason Nelson, Sean K Reynolds, Owen K.C. Stephens, Russ Taylor.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Matt Goodall, and Jason Nelson.