The Bastion “Unyielding Guardian of the Realm!”

“Unstoppable Guardian: Enter the Prestige Class of The Bastion!”

The Quintessential Cleric II
Author Patrick Younts
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2004

Every church has need of strong-armed men of faith, valour and skill to defend it from the worst of its enemies. Oftentimes it is the ranks of the clerics who are called upon to fulfil this role. With their skill at arms and the blessings of their gods backing them, they are staunch protectors of the flock, far more able to protect themselves than non-empowered priests and far more loyal to the faith than even the best paid mercenaries or conscripts.

Some clerics take to this role especially well, the siren song of valourous combat and the call of glory awakening something with them, the martial spirit which slumbers in all men. These clerics become the war leaders of their faith, the champions of their bishops and of their gods. These are the clerics most spoken of in legend and honoured in song, the stout-hearted few who stand firm against the worst terrors of the mortal world and the planes beyond.

And then there are the bastions.

The bastion is to the war cleric as the war cleric is to the altar boy. He is the very embodiment of war and the martial spirit. When he steps, the sound is like the thunder of cavalry, when he speaks, his voice is the slam of the slung boulder and where he passes, carrion crows and the screams of the dying follow in his wake.

The bastion’s absolute focus on martial pursuits and his divinely granted powers make him one of the most deadly forces on any battlefield, capable of slaying with spell or mace with equal skill. The bastion is also a natural, gifted general, inspiring his troops with both word and deed. In battle, the bastion fights with a potent mix of precisely honed technique and raw, righteous fury. At the highest levels of power, he is almost a match for a dedicated barbarian or fighter, especially when pitting his strength against the traditional enemies of his church.

Bastions are most often found in churches dedicated to war, destruction and strength, as might be expected, but clerics of other gods can be called to serve as bastions as well. In fact, only the most pacifistic gods and churches do not normally permit bastions within their ranks but even they will elevate a priest to the position if faced with absolute destruction at the hands of their enemies.

Non-Player Character bastions tend to stay near the centre of their gods’ earthly power base, the better to stay Appraised of important events and react accordingly. Most Non-Player Character bastions hold positions of great influence within their church, since it is they who organise and command the faith’s legions; in faiths dedicated to gods of war, valour and destruction, bastions are often the highest ranking members of their church, second only to their god in authority.

Hit Die: d10.

Requirements

To qualify to become a bastion, a character must meet all the following criteria:
Base Attack Bonus: +7 or higher.
Skills: Concentration 10 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 6 ranks.
Feats: Leadership, Weapon Focus (deity’s favoured weapon).
Spells: Ability to cast 5th level divine spells and must have cleric Domain abilities.
Domains: Must count Destruction, Protection, Strength or War among his Domains.

Class Skills

The bastion’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are; Climb (Strength), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Intimidation (Charisma), Jump (Strength), Knowledge (religion) (Intelligence), Ride (Strength), Spellcraft (Intelligence) and Swim (Strength).

Skill Points At Each Level: 2 + Intelligence bonus

The Bastion
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spellcasting
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Faithful servant	+1 cleric level
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Bonus feat	+1 cleric level
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Raging defender 1/day
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Leader of men	+1 cleric level
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Weapon Specialisation
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5		+1 cleric level
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Raging defender 2/day
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Bonus feat	+1 cleric level
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Tower of faith	+1 cleric level

Class Features

All the following are class features of the bastion prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The bastion gains proficiency with all martial weapons, but gains no new proficiency with armour or shields.

Spells: The bastion continues to gain spell power, albeit more slowly than other, less martially inclined clerics do. At every level except 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th, the bastion gains new spells as though he had also gained a level in the cleric class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This means that he adds his bastion levels (except 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th) to his cleric levels to determine both how many spells he can cast and ow powerful those spells are.

Faithful Servant: The bastion is fanatically loyal to his church and to his god and this absolute, undying loyalty serves him well on the battlefield. He is indomitable in battle when fighting for his god and implacable in his commitment to destroying the enemies of his church.

At 1st level, the bastion gains a favoured enemy, which must be one of the traditional enemies of his church. This enemy can be the members of a rival faith, or a type of creature which his church is dedicated to eradicating. He selects a favoured enemy from the ranger class’ favoured enemy list. When engaged in battle against his favoured enemy, the bastion receives a +2 sacred or profane bonus to damage rolls against that enemy, a +2 sacred or profane bonus to caster level checks made to pierce any Spell Resistance the enemy might possess and a +2 sacred or profane bonus to all saving throws against spells, spell-like effects and supernatural abilities used by that opponent.

At 7th level, the bastion can select a second favoured enemy from the ranger’s list. He may not select the same favoured enemy as he selected at 1st level.

Bonus Feat: The bastion spends all his waking hours training for the day when he will be able to bring the weapons of his faith to bear against his god’s sworn enemies. Thanks to this fanatical devotion to his training, the bastion learns far more about combat than any other cleric. At 3rd level and then again at 9th level, the bastion gains a bonus feat.

The feat must be selected from the following list: Athletic, Augment Summoning, Blind Fight, Cleave, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Endurance, Eschew Materials, Extra Turning, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Greater Spell Focus, Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Counterspell, Improved Critical, Improved Overrun, Improved Shield Bash, Improved Sunder, Improved Turning, Iron Will, Mounted Archery, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-By Attack, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Spirited Charge, Toughness or Trample.

Alternately, the bastion can select one of the following meta-magic feats: Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Maximise Spell or Still
Spell.

Raging Defender (Su): When battling in defence of his church and his god, the bastion is unstoppable and filled with righteous anger. His fury is sufficient to quail even the boldest heart and his skill at arms unmatched. Once a day, beginning at 4th level, the bastion can enter a state of righteous zeal, filling his body with divine power that shields him and allows him to perform almost superhuman feats.

For a number of rounds equal to his class level, the bastion may enhance himself as though by the spells Righteous Might and freedom of movement, doubling his size, greatly increasing his Strength and endurance and allowing him to become, almost literally, an unstoppable force. The bastion can activate this supernatural ability with a standard action.

At 8th level, the bastion gains a second daily use of the raging defender ability and in addition, he may now activate it as a move action, allowing him to enter his divine state and still attack nearby enemies.

Leader of Men (Su): In addition to being a powerful warrior, the bastion is also a skilled general, able to guide his troops with Wisdom and capable of inspiring them to perform heroic deeds worthy of bardic song. Beginning at 5th level, the bastion’s faith and courage is so inspirational that he literally radiates holy authority; all his allies and troops under his command (those selected with the Leadership feat) are affected as though by the bless spell, so long as they are with a 100 feet + 20 feet per point of Charisma bonus radius of him.

If the bastion chooses to do nothing but inspire his troops, the bonuses from bless are doubled. To inspire his troops in this fashion, the bastion must dedicate a full-round action to speaking inspirational words, generally in the form of a prayer or religious themed war chant. The ability will then last for the remainder of the encounter.

For the leader of men class feature to take effect, the bastion’s allies and troops must be able to hear him, meaning the ability will not work in areas under the effects of silence or other, similar spells and spelllike abilities. Leader of men is a supernatural, mindaffecting ability.

Weapon Specialisation: The bastion is a skilled warrior, well versed in all the deadliest forms of armed combat. He is especially proficient with the use of his deity’s favoured weapon and will choose to wield it above all other weapons. At 6th level, the bastion gains the Weapon Specialisation feat with his deity’s favoured weapon. If the bastion already possesses this feat, then he gains the Greater Weapon Specialisation feat instead, even if he does not already possess the Greater Weapon Focus feat.

Tower of Faith (Su): When a bastion reaches 10th level, he has become the living incarnation of righteous warfare, a true titan of his church. When fighting against his favoured enemy, or any time he fights in direct defence of his church, his god, or his god’s followers, he gains the following abilities:

• A +2 sacred or profane bonus to attack rolls (which will stack with any other sacred or profane bonuses).
• A +2 sacred or profane bonus to all saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities used by his enemies (which stacks with that gained from faithful servant).
• Fast healing equal to half his Wisdom bonus (rounded up).

In addition, when fighting within 100 feet + 20 feet per point of Charisma bonus of the bastion, all his followers gain immunity to fear effects and spells.

Tower of faith is a supernatural ability and the immunity to fear is a mind-affecting ability.

Epic Bastion

Hit Die: d10.

Skill Points At Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Turn or Rebuke undead: The epic bastion gains no new ability to turn undead. He continues to use only his cleric levels to determine the most powerful undead he may turn, rebuke or destroy.

Spellcasting: The epic bastion gains new cleric caster levels at every odd level (21st, 23rd, 25th, etc). He does not gain any new spells per day after 20th level.

Bonus Feats: The epic bastion gains an additional feat every three levels higher than 20th. In addition, he gains a new bastion bonus feat at 22nd level and another one at 27th, but gains no extra bastion bonus feats after that.