Straight from the Canterbury Tales comes The Pardoner, a Cleric sub-class who does something awesome with the Monsters & Magic alignment rules – he pardons sins by removing points of alignment drift. By Ether UK of the Monsters & Magic Google+ community.
Pardoner
Cleric Sub-Class
| Prime Attribute: | Wisdom |
| Secondary Attribute: | Intelligence |
| Starting Money: | 3d8 x 10gp |
Pardoners are clerics who have dedicated themselves to freeing others from the burden of guilt. Ideally they’d like people not to commit sins in the first place, but once the damage is done it’s their job to remove it. Doing so makes a person’s soul healthier, allowing them to go on to do good things rather than dwell on the bad they have done.
The price of this is admitting what they’ve done, and being willing to donate to the church. There will always be those who are guilty and so, thanks to the Pardoners, the various religions are ensured a steady stream of revenue.
Pardoners ease the mind of others by quoting their religious text, showing how the faithful can be saved. This requires the Pardoner to be well-versed in their religious lore and intelligent enough to create a convincing argument that allows the faithful to let go of their guilt.
Not all religions allow their clerics to be Pardoners. There are those who see it as giving the rich permission to carry out whatever sinful act they wish, as long as they are willing to buy forgiveness. There are also those who accuse the Pardoners of complicity as they don’t prevent evil taking place, only absolving it once it happens.
Sub-Class Restrictions: You must be Neutral in alignment; you alignment focus is something like remove the burden of guilt or raise funds for church. You must wear only light armour. You may not wear gauntlets or jewellery of any type (including rings and necklaces).
Pardoner Traits
- Turn Undead: As per Cleric.
- Religious Lore: As per Cleric.
- Devotion to Deity: As per Cleric.
- Confess!: See below.
- Absolve: See below.
- Forget: See below.
Pardoner Advancements
- Wages of Sin: The Pardoner doesn’t need to know the sin that is being absolved as long as they are paid double the usual amount to use the Absolve ability.
- License to Sin: The Absolve ability may be used on a subject before they gain Alignment drift. The Pardoner rolls to determine the maximum amount of Alignment drift point removed from the subject during the day. The subject pays as normal and must also confess their sins by the end of the day or the Alignment Drift points are returned.
- Detect Sin: The Pardoner has a supernatural ability to detect sin. This allows the character to detect both the presence of Alignment Drift point and those of evil alignment using their normal senses.
- Tongue Loosener: Instead of making a mental attack the Pardoner can use their weapons damage to force a confession from a subject. In addition to inflicting Php damage as per their weapon they may place an effect as per the Confess! Ability.
- No One Is Without Sin: A Pardoner can use Absolve to remove their own Alignment drift. In addition to giving money to their church they must inflict Php damage equal to the Alignment drift points removed.
- Doing the Work Of The Divine (heroic scale): The Pardoner may keep half of the money paid for using Absolve as long as they use it to continue their good work.
- Sing From The Same Hymn Sheet (epic scale): When using Forget all those who witnessed the original sin also forget the subjects involvement.
Other Advancements
- Law Lore: You are as knowledgeable about the legal system as you are about religious lore. You can use this information to show where your religious text supersedes the laws of men.
- Symbolic Gesture: You don’t actually have to use your Absolve ability to convince someone that they have been forgiven. Simply burn a piece of paper and let them hand over the coin. You gain 1d6 gold pieces for each hour you spend selling forgiveness, depending on the density and wealth of the nearby population.
- Compassionate: You are a good listener and give the impression that you aren’t judging others, only forgiving them. This makes people more likely to tell you the truth and like you.
Confess!
You may use a person’s guilt against them, promising them divine retribution unless they reveal the nature of their sin. This is a mental attack with a damage bonus of +1d4 if the subject isn’t of the same alignment as you, +1d6 if they are and 1d8 if they are of the same faith. If you display your holy symbol (preventing you from using a weapon this turn) increase this damage by 1 size (to a maximum of +1d10) and if you are in a place of worship dedicated to your faith increase by 2 sizes (to a maximum of +1d12). If the subject is willing add an additional damage dice 1 size smaller (to a minimum of +1d4).
In addition to doing Mph damage effects can be used to make the subject verbalise their sin. A minor effect forces them to reveal small guilty secret (petty theft, a one-night affair, turning a blind eye to the actions of others, etc), a major effect forces them to reveal a serious incident (committing murder, a second family, grave robbing) and a extreme effect forces them to confess every dark secret until there is nothing left to reveal.
This confession overcomes any vow or magical effect that would normally prevent the subject from revealing the truth. For the duration of the confession (how long it takes them to relate the sin) the subject can’t use spells with verbal components.
Confession can only reveal things that actually happened. If a subject had been enchanted to imagine they had committed a sin confession would reveal that it didn’t actually happen.
Absolve
The Pardoner has the ability to remove guilt and sin in the eyes of the divine. The subject must confess their sin (either of their own freewill or using the Confess! Ability) which the Pardoner writes on a piece of paper.
The Pardoner can then burn the piece of paper removing 1d6 (+ Pardoner Level) Alignment drift points. This can be done once per level per day.
A Pardoner is granted this ability only so that their church or temple may receive funds. In order for the effect to take place the Pardoner must be paid the equivalent of 1 coin per point of Alignment drift removed. At levels 1 to 3 this is a copper coin, at levels 4-5 this is a silver piece and for level 6+ it is a gold piece.
Ideally the subject must pay but someone (other than the Pardoner) can pay on their behalf. They can also accept goods of equal value. Pardoners have been known to assign charitable tasks (such as helping the poor or repairing property damage) to the subject but this does not count towards the price of the absolution.
Money gained in this manner must go to the cleric’s church or they will loose the use of this ability.
Forget
Not only does the Pardoner forgive but they forget, or rather the subject does. By laying on hands they can remove the subjects memory of all sins they committed over a set period of time. This period of time is equal to 24 hours x Pardoner level.
This normally extends from the present into the past but if a Pardoner is aware of a particular sin they can use that as the focal point. In this manner a 3rd level Pardoner could cause a subject to forget all sins committed in the last 72 hours or if they knows the subject committed a sin 10 years ago they would forget all sins they committed 10 years ago over a 72 hour period.
The subject retains all of their memories accept either the sin or their part in it. If they stole a sack of gold they would no longer recall this. If they committed a murder they might still remember the victims death but not that they were responsible.
Divination magic will no longer detect the cause of the sin. In the eyes of the gods it never happened.
This ability can only be used on those who have been Absolved (although not necessarily of the sin that is being forgotten). If the subject is unwilling the cleric must place an Extreme effect on them for this ability to take hold.
Mindjammer Press 