Flagellant (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

Some mystics take their devotion to such extremes that the only recourse is to bleed 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 purity.

The flagellant is conceptually quite different form the inquisitor. Where the inquisitor is a trickster with a wide repertoire and allowed some lassitude as long as her heart is in the right place, the flagellant is a fanatic that adheres to every part of her creed to absurd lengths.

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 holy warrior.

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 favored weapon of their patron. They are proficient with light and medium armor but not with shields.

Table: Flagellant
Spells Known

Level	Spells Known
	Zero	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1	4	2	—	—	—	—	—
2	5	3	—	—	—	—	—
3	6	4	—	—	—	—	—
4	6	4	2	—	—	—	—
5	6	4	3	—	—	—	—
6	6	4	3	—	—	—	—
7	6	5	4	2	—	—	—
8	6	5	4	3	—	—	—
9	6	5	4	4	—	—	—
10	6	5	4	4	2	—	—
11	6	6	4	4	3	—	—
12	6	6	4	4	4	—	—
13	6	6	4	5	4	2	—
14	6	6	4	5	4	3	—
15	6	6	4	5	4	4	—
16	6	6	4	5	5	4	2
17	6	6	5	6	5	4	3
18	6	6	5	6	5	4	4
19	6	6	5	6	5	5	4
20	6	6	5	5	5	5	5

Spells

A 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, a flagellant must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a flagellant’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the flagellant’s Charisma modifier.

A 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 Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

A flagellant’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A 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 a flagellant knows is not affected by her Charisma score. The numbers on Table: Flagellant Spells Known are fixed.)

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every third flagellant level thereafter (7th, 10th, and so on), a 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. 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.

Aligned Spells A flagellant can't cast spells of an alignment unless she shares that alignment. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Orisons Flagellants learn a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Flagellant Spells Known. These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again. Orisons prepared using other spell slots, such as those due to metamagic feats, are expended normally.

Add and remove the following spells from the flagellant's spell list at the indicated levels. The added spells are part of her spell list, but are not automatically known; they must be added to her known spells in the normal fashion.

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, telekinetic charge
6	Glyph of warding (greater)	Pain strike (mass) waves of ecstasy

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)

A flagellant can release a wave of energy by channeling the power of her faith through her holy (or unholy) symbol. This energy can be used to cause or heal damage, depending on the type of energy channeled and the creatures targeted. A good flagellant channels positive energy to deal damage to undead creatures. An evil flagellant channels negative energy and can deal damage to living creatures. A neutral flagellant must choose whether she channels positive or negative energy. Once this choice is made, it cannot be reversed.

Channeling energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the flagellant. The amount of damage dealt is equal to 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of damage for every two flagellant levels beyond 1st (2d6 at 3rd, 3d6 at 5th, and so on). Creatures that take damage from channeled energy receive a Will save to halve the damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the flagellant's level + the flagellant's Charisma modifier. A flagellant may channel energy a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier and gains an additional daily use of the ability at level 2 and every 2 levels after level 2. This is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Channel harm is a modified version of the cleric's channel energy class ability. Channel harm works with feats that that affect channel energy of the type the flagellant can use.

Channel Smite

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

Domain

Like a cleric’s deity, an flagellant’s deity influences her alignment, what magic she can perform, and her values. A flagellant can select one domain from among those belonging to her deity. She can select an alignment domain only if her alignment matches that domain. With the GM’s approval, an flagellant can be devoted to an ideal instead of a deity, selecting one domain to represent her personal inclination and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.

A flagellant adds the bonus spells listed for each domain to her list of known spells as soon as she can cast them, but unlike a cleric she has no domain spell slots. Unlike an inquisitor, the flagellant does not gain any domain powers from her domain and cannot select an inquisition. If the flagellant has levels in another class that offers a domain, her domain selection must match as far as possible.

Stigmata (Su)

A flagellant willingly gives her blood in service to her faith, and is marked by scarified wounds appropriate to her faith and personal history. Her stigmata start to bleed whenever she takes cutting or piercing damage. She can also stop or start the flow of blood by force of will as a standard action; at 4th level this becomes a move action, at 8th level it becomes a swift action, at level 12 a free action and at level 16 it is no longer an action and can be done at any time. While the stigmata are bleeding, the flagellant gains a sacred bonus (if she channels positive energy) or profane bonus (if she channels negative energy) of +1 to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, Armor Class, and saving throws. At level 4, and every 4 levels thereafter, this bonus increases by one.

Bleeding stigmata causes bleed damage equal to the bonus granted, and this bleed cannot be halted. While her 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 she uses to control the flow of blood.

Channeling Feat

At 2nd level, fifth level and every six levels thereafter (level 2, 5, 11, and 17), the flagellant gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as channeling feats. The flagellant must meet the prerequisites of the selected bonus feat.

As a standard action, the flagellant can choose to learn a new bonus channeling feat in place of the most recent bonus channeling feat she has already learned. In effect, the flagellant loses the bonus feat in exchange for the new one. She can only change the most recent channeling feat gained. Whenever she gains a new channeling feat, the previous channeling feat becomes set and cannot be changed again. An flagellant can change her most recent channeling feat a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier.

Flexible Channel (Su)

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

Critical Punishment (Ex)

At 4th level, when a flagellant adds omen to her list of spells known. If she already knows this spell, she gets to select a new inquisitor spell of the same level as a replacement. When she suffers a critical hit, she may cast this spell 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 she verifies a critical hit, then the save DC increases by +2 if her weapon has a ×3 damage multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4.

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

If the spell cast as a critical punishment affects an area it originates in an intersection of squares in the target's space and expands normally. The flagellant is immune to the effects of spells cast through her own critical punishment, but her allies are not.

Note that the flagellant will be unable to use all of these spells, due to the restrictions of Aligned Spells (above), but at each level there is always at least one spell she can use.

Faith Healing (Su)

At 6th level, any cure wounds spells the flagellant casts on herself 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 herself with a cure spell that affects multiple creatures, this ability only applies to herself.

Flagellant's Shield (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 shield bonus to her Armor Class equal to the number of dice of the flagellant’s channel harm. This bonus lasts until the flagellant's next round.

Benign Channel

At 8th level, the flagellant can channel energy to heal either living or undead creatures, decided each time the ability is used. Creatures who would normally take damage from channel harm are instead healed for the same amount. Benign channel consumes two daily uses of channel harm.

Stalwart (Ex)

At 9th level, a 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.

Bloodfire (Su)

At 10th level, while a flagellant’s stigmata are bleeding, her blood runs down her weapons like sacred or profane liquid energy; when she 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.

Versatile Channel (Su)

At 12th level, a flagellant’s channel harm can instead affect a 50-foot cone or a 120-foot line.

Dual Channel

At 14th level, the flagellant can either heal living creatures and harm undead (if she channels positive energy) or harm living creatures and heal undead (if she channels negative energy). Each use of dual channel consumes two daily uses of channel harm.

Bloodrain (Su)

At 18th level, while her 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	5	6
1st	+0	+2	+0	+2	Aura, channel harm 1d6, domain, Channel Smite, orisons, stigmata	1	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+3	Channeling feat, flexible channel	2	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+3	+1	+3	Channel harm 2d6	3	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Critical punishment (doom), stigmata 2 (move)	3	1	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+4	+1	+4	Channel harm 3d6, channeling feat	4	2	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+5	+2	+5	Faith healing (empower), flagellant's shield	4	3	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+5	+2	+5	Channel harm 4d6, critical punishment (blistering injective)	4	3	1	—	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+6	+2	+6	Benign channel, stigmata 3 (swift)	4	4	2	—	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+6	+3	+6	Channel harm 5d6, stalwart	5	4	3	—	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+7	+3	+7	Bloodfire, critical punishment (terrible remorse)	5	4	3	1	—	—
11th	+8/+3	+7	+3	+7	Channel harm 6d6, channeling feat	5	4	4	2	—	—
12th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Stigmata 4 (free), versatile channel	5	5	4	3	—	—
13th	+9/+4	+8	+4	+8	Channel harm 7d6, critical punishment (holy smite)	5	5	4	3	1	—
14th	+10/+5	+9	+4	+9	Dual channel	5	5	4	4	2	—
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+9	Channel harm 8d6	5	5	5	4	3	—
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Critical punishment (flame strike), stigmata 5 (no action)	5	5	5	4	3	1
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Channel harm 9d6, channeling feat	5	5	5	4	4	2
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Bloodrain	5	5	5	5	4	3
19th	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Channel harm 10d6, critical punishment (holy word)	5	5	5	5	5	4
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Stigmata 6	5	5	5	5	5	5

Ex-Flagellants

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

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