The Miracle Worker
As you should know by now, it’s Cleric Week, and so, as you can guess, today’s From the Workshop involves clerics (or at least divine magic) in some way. In fact, it comes in the form of a prestige class, the miracle worker, which, as you might guess, is devoted to performing miracles and winning over the hearts and minds of others, converting them to his way of seeing things.
When designing the class, it felt important to me that the miracle worker should get full spellcasting (it would be a little odd if a cleric specializing in miracles was at a disadvantage when it came to casting, well, miracle), so that didn’t leave a whole lot of room for extra class features. Ultimately, what I settled on boiled down mostly to handing out a small number of big, splashy spells that the miracle worker could get for free (and, when applicable, without paying costly material components).
Miracle Worker
Miracle workers are clerics with a special mission or purpose given to them by their deity, or else who are simply so beloved by their deity that they are given extra gifts of powerful magic spells. While it is rare for a cleric without a deity to become a worker, it isn’t impossible, and clerics with exceptionally strong convictions about their ideals tend to make some of the most formidable miracle workers. Typically speaking, miracle workers are quite free with the gifts they receive, using their extra magic to the benefit of others. They are careful not to waste the magic, however, and refrain from using it when simpler or less precious spells would suffice.
Role: Miracle workers are typically not far removed from other clerics in the role that they serve. Their ability to channel energy, and their attunement with their domains, is less than other clerics, but in exchange they receive access to a handful of miracles and similar abilities, which, used judiciously, can give the miracle worker a strong edge.
Alignment: A miracle worker must have the same alignment as his or her deity. If the miracle worker has no deity, she must have the same alignment as the alignment domains (good, evil, chaos, law) she possesses, if any. Evil miracle workers are typically much rarer than good miracle workers, as evil deities are less inclined to hand out the sorts of boons the miracle worker receives.
Hit Die: d8
Requirements
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks
Feats: Any two metamagic feats
Spells: Must be able to cast 4th-level divine spells
Class Skills
The miracle worker’s class skills are Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (religion) (Int), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int Modifier
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the miracle worker prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The miracle worker gains no additional proficiencies with any weapons, armor, or shields.
Spells per Day: When a new miracle worker level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a miracle worker, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for the purposes of determining spells per day.
Divine Boon (Sp): Immediately upon entering the miracle worker class, a character is granted access to a single, potent, boon from his or her divine patron. This boon comes in the form of a miracle, as the spell, which the character can invoke as a spell-like ability. The character does not need to prepare the miracle, and it is always available to him or her until it is used. Once the character invokes this divine boon, however, it is lost forever, and can’t be used again until the character receives another such boon.
A miracle worker gains additional divine boons at 4th and 7th level. A miracle worker can “store up” his divine boons if he so chooses, and does not automatically lose a previous boon if he has not used it by the time he gains another. At 10th level, the miracle worker gains a renewable source of such boons (see recurring boon, below).
When invoking a divine boon, the character may access the more powerful aspects of the miracle spell without expending the listed 25,000 gp. The boon is still subject to his patron’s discretion, however, and if the miracle worker misuses the boon, it may be denied outright, or even reversed, at the DM’s discretion. If the miracle is used to replicate a spell with expensive components, the miracle worker must pay for those components if they exceed 1,000 gp per miracle worker level.
Convert the Masses (Ex): At 2nd level, a miracle worker gains a bonus on all Diplomacy checks made to convert others to his or her philosophy or religion equal to his miracle worker level.
Miraculous Creation (Sp): At 3rd level, a miracle worker is able to create objects from nothingness. This is a spell-like ability, requires a full-round action, and provokes attacks of opportunity. When the miracle worker uses this ability, he must make a Wisdom check, and compare his result to Table: Miraculous Creation to determine what kind of effects he can produce. He can, if he chooses, create something of a lesser DC (for example, a character who rolled 15 could choose to create food and water, rather than creating wood, cloth, or vegetable matter). He can also divide his created material between several different types, as long as his result was high enough to yield all of those types (for example, something made of base metal but with inlays of precious metal). Use the duration for the highest-valued material.
At the miracle worker’s discretion, anything he creates with this ability can be affected as though by the spell fabricate, and is generated in the desired shape (if the desired shape is complex, or requires a good degree of craftsmanship, a Craft check will still be required).
By expending three uses of this ability (see below), the miracle worker can make his creation permanent. He cannot make permanent in this way any creation whose value is greater than 500 gp per miracle worker level.
At 3rd level, the miracle worker is able to use this ability once per week. At 6th level, he is able to use it an additional time per week, and at 9th level he is able to use it three times per week. These uses are restored on the first day of each week (or another appropriate day of the week, as dictated by the miracle worker’s deity), and any uses from the previous week are lost at this time.
Restore Life (Sp): At 5th level, a miracle worker is able to restore the dead more easily than most clerics. When casting raise dead, resurrection, or similar spells, the subject does not suffer the level loss usually associated with these spells. Additionally, once per week, the miracle worker can ignore the costly material component for a single raise dead spell (but not resurrection or true resurrection).
Prophet’s Step (Su): At 8th level, a miracle worker is constantly affected as though by the air walk and water walk spells.
Recurring Boon (Sp): At 10th level, the miracle worker gains access to a font of miraculous power. Each day, when preparing spells, he may prepare one miracle, in addition to any other spells he is able to prepare. Unlike the divine boon ability, these miracles do not allow the miracle worker to waive any of the costly material components of the spell. However, once per week, the miracle worker may choose to affect a miracle he is casting as though it were a miracle granted by divine boon (allowing him to ignore the 25,000 gp cost for more powerful effects). This is a free action, made as part of casting the spell.
Saint’s Resurrection (Sp): At 10th level, the miracle worker is so dear to his deity that he gains a certain level of special protection. Once per month, when the miracle worker is slain (either through hit point loss or another cause of death), he is immediately affected as though by the spell true resurrection. If, for whatever reason, true resurrection would be unable to resurrect the miracle worker, then he remains dead.
At the DM’s discretion, this ability might also cause a petrified miracle worker to be affected by stone to flesh, or an imprisoned miracle worker to be affected by freedom, as long as a simpler solution isn’t readily available (for example, another cleric on hand and ready to cast stone to flesh). This ability recharges on the first day of each month (or another day of the month, as dictated by the miracle worker’s deity or religion), and the previous month’s use is lost at this time, so the miracle worker can never have more than one saint’s resurrection available to him in a given month.