Black Abbot

A black abbot is spiritually marked as an enemy of the gods. This has several effects on the black abbot.

Blocked from Divine Spellcasting

First, a black abbot is forever barred from acquiring divine spellcasting granted by any deity or higher power, and he can never gain levels in cleric, druid, or other divine spellcasting classes. If he already has levels in any of these classes, he loses all spellcasting and class features of that class (but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies).

Any divine spellcaster who identifies a black abbot spell being cast recognizes it as being unusual for a divine spell. If they beat the Spellcraft DC by 10 or more, they recognize it as being cast by a black abbot and will react accordingly.

Barred from Worship

If the black abbot prayed to or had a patron deity prior to becoming a black abbot, that deity irrevocably turns its back on the black abbot and ignores his prayers. If the black abbot was a member of a church, that organization may mark him as a heretic, drive him out, or attempt to kill him, depending on the organization.

Smite Vulnerability

Regardless of his actual alignment, a black abbot is always susceptible to smite attacks based on alignment—such as smite evil or smite good—as if he were of the target alignment. This doesn’t apply to smite attacks based on creature type, such as smite undead.

Impeded Divine Benefit

Any beneficial divine spell granted by a higher power that is cast on a black abbot has its caster level reduced by the black abbot’s class level, which affects all effects based on caster level. If this reduces the caster level below the minimum required to cast the spell, the spell simply fails, but the spell is still lost as if it had been cast. This affects beneficial divine spells that affect the black abbot, whether they target him directly or merely include him in their area of effect.

For example, a 7th-level cleric who casts cure light wounds on a 2nd-level black abbot would cast the spell as if she had a caster level of 5. If she attempted to cast cure critical wounds, a 4th-level cleric spell, it would completely fail, because the effective caster level is too low to cast the spell.

Denied Faith

A black abbot loses access to Faith Points and immediately loses any Faith Points he possesses. He cannot gain Faith feats and cannot use any such feats he might already possess.

A black abbot casts divine spells, which are drawn from the cleric spell list. A black abbot must choose and prepare his spells in advance. To prepare or cast a spell, the black abbot must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level.

The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a black abbot’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the black abbot’s Wisdom modifier.

A black abbot can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.

Black Abbot Caster Level

A black abbot’s caster level is equal to his class level + 1/2 his class level in any other spellcasting classes, rounded down. For example, a black abbot with 5 class levels who also possesses 3 wizard levels, 2 sorcerer levels, and 2 levels in a prestige class that advanced his wizard spellcasting would have a caster level of 8 for his black abbot class, because 5 + (3+2+2)/2 = 5 + 7/2 = 5 + 3.5 = 8.5, rounded down to 8.

A black abbot who has levels in a divine spellcasting class to which he has lost access due to divine judgement (cleric, druid, etc.) instead adds the full class level to his caster level. For example, a wizard 6 / cleric 4 / black abbot 5 would have a caster level of 12 for his black abbot class, because 6/2 + 4 + 5 = 3 + 4 + 5 = 12.

Despite having accelerated access to spellcasting, a black abbot cannot cast a spell unless his caster level would be high enough for a similarly leveled cleric to cast the same spell. This means, for example, that a black abbot must have a caster level of at least 13 to be able to cast 7th-level spells. This includes spells with an increased effective spell level due to adding metamagic.

If the black abbot gains spell slots of a spell level he cannot use due to his caster level, he may still use those slots to prepare and cast spells of a lower level. For instance, our example black abbot above with a class level of 5 and a caster level of 8 has access to 5th-level spell slots but can only cast spells of up to 4th level. He could use any 5th-level slots he gains to prepare and cast spells of 4th-level and lower.

Spell Access

A black abbot’s access to divine spells is limited to what he can grasp at one time. A black abbot begins play with access to five 0-level spells and three 1st-level spells of your choice. At each new black abbot level, you gain one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Black Abbot Spell Access. When preparing spells for the day, you may choose to prepare any spell to which you have access.

A black abbot cannot access spells of a level higher than he can cast due to his caster level. These may not be used to access lower level spells and are simply unavailable until the black abbot’s caster level increases.

Once per week, a black abbot may conduct a ritual during his daily meditation to replace one of his accessed spells with a new cleric spell. In effect, the black abbot “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. A black abbot may swap up to one spell per spell level in any given week and must wait a full week between rituals to change spell access.

Starting at 2nd level, a black abbot druid gains the Channel Divinity ability of Divine Conduit. He may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier.

A 3rd-level black abbot gains resistance to divine energy equal to twice his class level. This energy resistance is effective against Sacred and Profane damage as well as any damage specifically defined as being divine in nature.

For example, a 5th-level black abbot would have Divine Resistance 10 and would reduce the divine damage from a flame strike spell by 10, although this wouldn’t affect the fire damage dealt by the same spell.

When a black abbot of at least 5th level prepares spells for the day, he may sacrifice spell slots to gain a bonus spell slot one level higher, to a maximum of the highest level spell he can cast. For example, a 5th-level black abbot could sacrifice two 3rd-level spell slots to gain an additional 4th-level slot; however, at 5th-level when he gains this ability, he could not sacrifice two 5th-level spell slots to gain a 6th-level slot, because he does not yet have access to 6th-level spells.

A black abbot cannot exchange a newly acquired slot using this ability, meaning he can’t convert four 1st-level spell slots into two 2nd-level spell slots and then further convert those 2nd-level spell slots into a single 3rd-level spell slot.

Each use of this ability while preparing spells consumes one daily use of his channel divinity ability.

At 6th level, a black abbot can spend a use of his channel divinity ability to counter a divine spell as if he had readied an action to counterspell. He must still identify the spell being cast and cast the appropriate counter or use dispel magic as normal for countering a spell.

When a black abbot reaches 7th level, he becomes highly resistant to divine magics. He gains spell resistance equal to 15 + his total Hit Dice against divine spells. This does not stack with other sources of spell resistance.

When a 10th-level black abbot successfully counters a divine spell, he nullifies the spell’s effect and absorbs its potential, storing it until he releases this energy in the form of spells of his own. The black abbot can expend captured spell energy to cast any spell he has prepared, without expending the preparation itself. The black abbot must have a number of stored spell levels equal to or greater than the level of the spell he wants to cast and have any material or focus components required for the spell.

A black abbot can store a maximum of ten spell levels at one time, though there is no limit to the number of spell levels he can absorb throughout the day beyond the number of spells he can counterspell. Any excess energy from countered spells beyond this limit is simply lost.

Any stored spell energy not used to cast spells is lost the next time the black abbot prepares spells.