Fantasy Core RPG--Divine Magic-Training

Fantasy Core RPG
(c) Jerry Harris, 2013
Published here as Open Game Content.


Divine Spellcasting Training


Some children exhibit certain divine gifts, such as healing, prophecy, languages, and such. These children are referred to the local church authorities. Someone with the divine talent is brought in to assess the child’s abilities. If they are present, the child is brought to a monastery for religious, scholarly, and talent training. Regardless of the useful level of the power, the child receives an excellent education for free, so this offer would seldom be turned down.

Some go on to be charismatic missionaries, diplomats, and healers. Those with the most potential are forwarded on to the Academy for martial training to physically combat the undead, demons, and spellcasters. All told, it is about 10 years of education and training to make a paladin. There is a tremendous amount of prestige (if not glamour) attached to this position, but also much responsibility and oversight by superiors. Given the scarcity of candidates, however, a good deal of latitude in behavior is tolerated as long as they are never lax in their duties.

Paladins often start off assigned to an area that they are responsible for, usually a frontier or backwater territory (though they may be called in for a new assignment or an emergency at any time). As they are a rare commodity, typically only a single paladin may be working a fairly large area (but are always authorized to travel wherever an investigation may lead). As such, they are encouraged to work with local authorities and even reputable freelance companies (ahem, adventurers).

Exceptional work may lead to promotion to (or a successful petition for) a more important or sensitive post (like a capital city). Promising Academy candidates are often paired with experienced paladins for temporary fieldwork. Very trustworthy paladins may even be detached from regular assignment and be free to follow their own assignments. Somewhat untrustworthy ones may be brought back to the Academy and only sent out on explicit assignments with a chaperone. The worst or the failures, are removed from service, even up to excommunication from the church altogether.

Paladins are representatives of the church, though in practice they are more of a military corps. For the most part they are very dedicated to their very serious task of combating supernatural evil. While many work assignments alone or with a group of non-paladins, they are an extremely tight group of brothers and sisters in arms because of their shared training and common task. They are not often the best examples of the faith however. Allowances are made for some excesses of behavior and personality.

There is always contention between the supremacy of the crown and the church. While the paladins are fully subordinate to the church, it is usually the crown and local authorities who call the paladins to action in supernatural matters. As such, and because of their sometimes rough lifestyle, other members of the church hierarchy may look down on them. A small parish priest does still technically outrank even a 9th level paladin. (There are only three ranks: Brother/Sister, who are all considered equals and are the church equivalent to monks and nuns, and Elders, who are equal to church bishops, and the Cardinal Elder, who is a church cardinal.) The brothers and sisters are warned to be on their best behavior with church officials.

Between the paladins and the wizards (and other spellcasters) there is outright suspicion. Paladins’ special martial powers work on wizards the same as undead and demons. Unlike other supernatural foes, a paladin can be held criminally responsible for indiscriminately killing a wizard. For that reason, they will only go after a wizard if sanctioned by legal authorities (not by the church or even the Circle) or if innocents are in immediate danger. It is usually the Wizard Council that will insist on carrying out death sentences on wizards anyway.

Divine Magic Casting
Circle of Elders