Flagellant (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

Some mystics take their devotion to such extremes that the only recourse is to give their all for the faith. Punishing their own flesh for failing to live up to the divine ideal, they drive themselves and others into a frenzy where blood becomes the ultimate symbol of purification.

Class Information

This is a prestige archetype. The flagellant is a holy warrior that bleeds for her faith.

Prestige Class: Holy Vindicator from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player's Guide.

Build Class: Inquisitor.

Role: The flagellant is a mystic exemplar and a holy warrior wrapped into one.

Alignment: Flagellants may be of any alignment. Flagellants must have an identical alignment to that of their patron, and mostly worship gods of striving, pain, sacrifice, or conflict.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The flagellant’s class skills are Climb (Str), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Planes) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

These are all the class features of the flagellant:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

The flagellant is proficient with all simple weapons and with the cat-o'-nine-tails, flailpole, scorpion whip, scythe, spiked chain, and whip, as well as with the favoured weapon of their patron. They are proficient with light and medium armor but not with shields.

Spells

An flagellant casts divine spells drawn from the inquisitor spell list. She can cast any spell she knows at any time without preparing it ahead of time, assuming she has not yet used up her allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level. To learn or cast a spell, an flagellant must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an flagellant’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the flagellant’s Wisdom modifier. An flagellant can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level each day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Flagellant. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). An flagellant’s selection of spells is extremely limited. An flagellant begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the flagellant’s choice. At each new flagellant level, she gains one or more new spells as indicated on Table: Flagellant Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells an flagellant knows is not affected by her Wisdom score. The numbers on Table: Flagellant Spells Known are fixed.) Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third flagellant level thereafter (8th, 11th, and so on), an flagellant can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the flagellant “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level flagellant spell she can cast. The flagellant may swap out only a single spell at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.

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

Add and remove the following spells from the flagellant's spell list at the indicated levels:

Spell Level	Removed Spells	Added Spells
1	Disguise self, lend judgement,	Corrosive touch, martyr's bargain, touch of bloodletting
2	Disguise other, invisibility	Marching chant, recentering drone
3	Adjustable disguise, glyph of warding	Blood salvation, force hook charge, mark of obvious ethics
4	Invisibility (greater)	Ancestral gift, blessing of fervor, pain strike
5	Lend greater judgement	Breath of life, caustic blood
6	Glyph of warding (greater)	Pain strike (mass) waves of ecstasy

As he advances in level, a flagellant gains a number of spells added to his list of known spells. If the flagellant already knows the spell in question, he gets to select a new inquisitor spell of the same level as a replacement. The following spells are learned at the indicated levels.

4th level—doom. 7th level—blistering injective. 10th level—terrible remorse. 13th level—chaos hammer, holy smite, order's wrath, unholy blight. 16th level—flame strike. 19th level—arbitrament, blasphemy, dictum, holy word, word of chaos.

Note that the flagellant is unlikely to be able to use all of these spells, due to the restrictions of Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells.

Aura (Ex)

Like a cleric, a flagellant of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity's alignment (see detect evil for details).

Channel Harm (Su)

This is the same as the cleric's channel energy ability, except that the flagellant can only channel energy to inflict damage; either positive energy to damage undead or negative energy to damage living creatures. The flagellant gains an additional use of channel harm at level 2 and every second level thereafter.

Channel Smite

At 1st level, a flagellant gains Channel Smite as a bonus feat.

Domain

This is the same as the inquisitor class feature of the same name.

Flexible Channel (Su)

At 2nd level, when the flagellant channels harm, he can choose to harm undead or harm the living, regardless of if he channels positive or negative energy. He cannot harm both undead and living creatures at the same time, nor can he harm constructs or objects.

Solo Tactics (Ex)

At 3rd level, all of the flagellant’s allies are treated as if they possessed the same teamwork feats as the flagellant for the purpose of determining whether the flagellant receives a bonus from her teamwork feats. Her allies do not receive any bonuses from these feats unless they actually possess the feats themselves. The allies’ positioning and actions must still meet the prerequisites listed in the teamwork feat for the flagellant to receive the listed bonus.

Stigmata (Su)

A flagellant willingly gives his blood in service to his faith, and is marked by scarified wounds appropriate to his faith and personal history. At 4th level, his stigmata start to bleed whenever he takes cutting or piercing damage. He can also stop or start the flow of blood by force of will as a standard action; at 8th level this becomes a move action, and at 12th level it becomes a swift action, and at level 16 a free action. Bleeding stigmata causes bleed damage equal to one-quarter the flagellant’s class level, and this bleed is not halted by curative magic. While the stigmata are bleeding, the flagellant gains a sacred bonus (if he channels positive energy) or profane bonus (if he channels negative energy) equal to one-quarter his class level. The bonus applies to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, Armor Class, and saving throws.

While his stigmata are bleeding, the flagellant ignores blood drain and bleed damage from any other source and can use the spell-like abilities bleed or stabilize at will, using the same type of action he uses to control the flow of blood.

Critical Punishment (Ex)

At 4th level, when a flagellant suffers a critical hit, he may cast doom upon the attacker as an free action that does not trigger an attack of opportunity, even if the attack incapacitates or kills the flagellant. The save DC is the same as for channel harm. The flagellant can also use this ability when he verifies a critical hit, then the save DC increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 damage multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4.

As he advances in level, the flagellant masters the use of other spells as critical punishments; 4th level—doom. 7th level—blistering injective. 10th level—terrible remorse. 13th level—chaos hammer, holy smite, order's wrath, unholy blight. 16th level—flame strike. 19th level—arbitrament, blasphemy, dictum, holy word, word of chaos.

If the chosen spell is an area attacks it targets an intersection of squares in the target's space and expands normally. The flagellant is immune to the effects of spells cast through critical punishment, but his allies are not.

Faith Healing (Su)

At 6th level, any cure wounds spells the flagellant casts on himself are automatically empowered as if by the Empower Spell feat, except they do not use higher spell level slots or an increased casting time. This applies even to spells cast from magic items. If the flagellant targets himself with a cure spell that affects multiple creatures, this ability only applies to himself.

Flagellant’s Raiment (Su)

A 6th level flagellant can channel energy to create a protective aura as a swift action; this consumes one daily use of channel harm. The aura gives the flagellant a sacred bonus (if positive energy) or profane bonus (if negative energy) to his Armor Class equal to the number of dice of the flagellant’s channel harm. This bonus lasts until the beginning of the flagellant's next round. The shield does not provide this bonus to any other wielder.

Bloodfire (Su)

At 10th level, while a flagellant’s stigmata are bleeding, his blood runs down his weapons like sacred or profane liquid energy; when he uses Channel Smite, the damage increases by 1d6, and if the target fails its save, it is sickened and takes 1d6 points of bleed damage each round on its turn. The target can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.

Stalwart (Ex)

At 11th level, an flagellant can use mental and physical resiliency to avoid certain attacks. If she makes a Fortitude or Will saving throw against an attack that has a reduced effect on a successful save, she instead avoids the effect entirely. This ability can only be used if the flagellant is wearing light armor, medium armor, or no armor. A helpless flagellant does not gain the benefit of the stalwart ability.

Versatile Channel (Su)

At 12th level, a flagellant’s channel harm can instead affect a 30-foot cone or a 120-foot line.

Bloodrain (Su)

At 18th level, while his stigmata are bleeding, the flagellant’s harmful channeled energy is accompanied by a burst of sacred or profane liquid energy, increasing the damage by 1d6. Creatures failing their saves against the channeled energy become sickened and take 1d6 points of bleed damage each round. Affected creatures can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.

Table: Flagellant

Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						1	2	3	4
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Aura, channel harm 1d6, Channel Smite	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Flexible channel	—	—	—	—
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Channel harm 2d6	—	—	—	—
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Domains, stigmata 1 (standard)	0	—	—	—
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Channel harm 3d6	1	—	—	—
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Faith healing (empower), flagellant’s shield	1	—	—	—
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	Channel harm 4d6	1	0	—	—
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Doom the infidel, stigmata 2 (move)	1	1	—	—
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Channel harm 5d6	2	1	—	—
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Bloodfire	2	1	0	—
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Channel harm 6d6, divine judgment,	2	1	1	—
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Stigmata 3 (swift), versatile channel	2	2	1	—
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Channel harm 7d6	3	2	1	0
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Curse the infidel	3	2	1	1
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Channel harm 8d6	3	2	2	1
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Stigmata 4 (free)	3	3	2	1
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Channel harm 9d6, Divine vengeance	4	3	2	1
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Bloodrain	4	3	2	2
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Channel harm 10d6	4	3	3	2
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Stigmata 5	4	4	3	3

Ex-Flagellants

A flagellant who changes alignment or violates the code of conduct required by his patron loses all spells and class features, except for weapon, armor and shield proficiencies. He cannot thereafter gain levels as a flagellant of that god until he atones for his deeds (see the atonement spell description). It is common for a flagellant who falls to change his devotion to a new patron, often one opposed to his old creed.

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