Priest King

Many kingdoms have adopted a system of government wherein the ruling monarch is considered to be semidivine.

The Quintessential Aristocrat
Author Martin R. Thomas
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2004

Many of these priest-kings, also called god emperors, are egomaniacal, power-hungry individuals who delight in nothing more than perpetuating this theory. Others truly may have the potential for extraordinary blood flowing through their veins, and their kingship simply acts as a trigger to bring supernatural abilities to the forefront. Either way, a priest-king literally holds the power of life and death over everyone in his kingdom. A priest-king is an imposing individual, using his natural Charisma along with guile, ingenuity and cunning to get things done, or more likely to get others to do things for him. Priest kings have even
been known to join the adventuring life, leading their followers on crusades to recover sacred relics or to recapture holy cities that have fallen into the hands of the unbelievers.

The majority of priest-kings lead a short life, as their egos and eccentric personalities make them ripe targets for betrayal and assassinations. Those priest-kings who manage to rule for long periods of time are sure to become part of history.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify as a priest-king, a character must fulfil the following requirements:
Skills: Knowledge (nobility & royalty) 10 Ranks, Knowledge (religion) 10 Ranks, Intimidate 6 Ranks
Feats: Leadership
Spells: Must be able to cast divine spells
Special: The state priests must ordain the character as the new priest-king, usually because he is heir to the royal throne or the handpicked successor of the previous priest-king. The character must also host an elaborate funeral for the recently deceased priest-king in the amount of 25,000 GP (this includes a very expensive banquet for 1,000 guests and payment for labourers, cooks, and entertainers as well as for spell-use by sorcerers, wizards, or clerics to mystify the crowd).

Class Skills

Bluff (Charisma), Diplomacy (Charisma), Heal (Wisdom), Intimidate (Charisma), Knowledge (all) (Intelligence), Listen (Wisdom), Perform (Wisdom), Sense Motive (Wisdom), Speak Language (Intelligence)
Skill points at each level: 4 + Intelligence Modifier

Priest King
Class Level	Base Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Magical Bloodline 1, Improved Status
2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Hands of the Gods	+1 level of existing class
3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Magical Bloodline 2
4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Terrifying Manner	+1 level of existing class
5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Magical Bloodline 3

Class Features

All the following are class features of the priest-king prestige class:

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The priest-king gains no additional proficiencies with weapons, armour, or shields.

Magical Bloodline: The priest-king’s subjects begin making sacrifices to his genius or ‘family spirit’ which awakens a Magical Bloodline, as per the Magical Bloodlines feat-group (see Chapter 5). He does not have to meet the pre-requisites of the feats in order to gain these abilities. The priest-king may use his total character level in place of his Aristocrat level for abilities from the Magical Bloodline that require DCs based on ‘Aristocrat Level’. If the priest-king has already taken any feats from a Magical Bloodline he may not take feats from a second Magical Bloodline with this ability. He may, however, increase the times per day that he performs his Magical Bloodline abilities by a number equal to the number of levels he has in the priest-king prestige class.

Improved Status (Ex): The priest-king is probably the most influential person in the realm. He gains a +4 bonus to his Status score.

Hands of the Gods (Sp): Once per day as a standard action, the priest-king may channel his divine abilities to do one of the following, as per the spell named as though cast by a sorcerer of the priest-king’s total character level: bestow curse, Remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, Remove Disease.

Spells per Day: The priest-king continues to gain ability as a divine spellcaster, albeit at a slower rate. At 2nd and 4th levels in the priest-king prestige class, the character gains new divine spells as if he had also gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class he belonged to before becoming a priest-king. The priest-king does not, however, gain any other benefit of his former divine class, such as improved chance of turning or rebuking undead. In other words, to determine the number of spells that a priest-king can cast per day, simply add one (for priest-king levels 1st – 3rd) or two (for priestking levels 4th and 5th) levels to the character’s previous divine spellcasting class. Characters with more than one divine spellcasting class must decide which class to assign the two spellcasting levels he gains from the priest-king class to for purposes of determining spells per day.

Terrifying Manner (Sp): The Priest-King’’s ego and unpredictable mood creates an aura of fear among those who do not follow his commands. This ability is identical to the spell greater command as though cast by a cleric of a level equal to the priest-king’s character level, except that the DC to save against this ability is 10 + the priest-king’s Charisma bonus + ½ the priestking’s character level. This spell-like ability is cast as a standard action and does not require a material component. The priest-king may use this ability a number of times per day equal to the number of levels he has taken in the priest-king prestige class.