Celestial Commander

Blessed by the Celestial Gods to fight the forces of evil, the celestial commander has been granted many abilities that allow him to effectively command the forces of good.

Alignment: Any good

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Celestial commanders are proficient with all simple weapons. Inspiring commanders are also proficient with light and medium armor.

Spells

Unlike normal summoners, celestial commanders are divine spellcasters. In all other ways the celestial commander’s spellcasting is like a normal summoner.

Modified Spell List

The celestial commander’s spell list is modified. Remove lesser planar binding, planar binding, and greater planar binding. Remove all spells that affect Eidolons. Add the following spells at the listed spell level:

1strally point
2ndspiritual weapon, tactical acumen
3rdspiritual ally
4thhallow, lesser planar ally
5thbestow grace of the champion, planar ally
6thgreater planar ally, miracle

The celestial commander does not gain these as spells known unless he selects them.

Divine Tongue (Ex)

At first level, a celestial commander learns the celestial language. In addition, every creature they summon can understand, but not necessarily speak, Celestial.

Domain

Like a cleric’s deity, a celestial commander’s deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, and his values. Although not as tied to the tenets of the deity as a cleric, a celestial commander must still hold such guidelines in high regard, despite that fact he can go against them if it serves the greater good of the faith. A celestial commander can select one domain from among those belonging to his deity. In addition, the celestial commander can always select the Tactics subdomain. He may select an alignment domain only if his alignment matches that domain. With the GM’s approval, a celestial commander can be devoted to an ideal instead of a deity, selecting one domain to represent his personal inclination and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.

The celestial commander gains the spells given by the domain as spells known. These spells do not count against his limit of spells known.

Any effect of a domain power that uses Wisdom modifier instead uses your Charisma modifier.

Each domain grants a number of domain powers, depending on the level of the celestial commander. A celestial commander uses his level as his effective cleric level when determining the power and effect of his domain powers. If the celestial commander has cleric levels, one of his two domain selections must be the same domain selected as the celestial commander. The levels of a cleric and a celestial commander stack for the purpose of determining domain powers and abilities, but not for bonus spells.

This ability replaces the eidolon.

Summoning Mastery (Sp)

Starting at 1st level, a celestial commander can cast summon monster I as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 5 + his Charisma modifier. He can cast this spell as a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity and the creatures remain for 1 minute per level (instead of 1 round per level).

At 3rd level, and every 2 levels thereafter, the power of this ability increases by one spell level, allowing him to summon more powerful creatures (to a maximum of summon monster IX at 17th level).

At 19th level, this ability can be used as gate or summon monster IX. If used as gate, the celestial commander must pay any required material components. Like a cleric, a celestial commander can only summon creatures of his alignment. These summon spells are considered to be part of his spell list for the purposes of spell trigger and spell completion items. In addition, he can expend uses of this ability to fulfill the construction requirements of any magic item he creates, so long as he can use this ability to cast the required spell.

This ability replaces summon monster I.

Focused Divine Energy (Su)

Whenever the celestial commander has only one instance of his summon monster spell-like ability in use, those summons become more powerful. These summoned creatures gain a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. At third level and every 3 levels thereafter, this bonus increase by one, to a maximum of +7 at level 18.

At 7th level, for purposes of smite evil, these summoned creatures use the celestial commander’s Charisma modifier.

At 13th level, all allies adjacent to one of these summoned creatures gain half of the summoned creature’s luck bonus as a luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.

If the celestial commander uses his summon monster spell-like ability again, these bonuses immediately end. They resume if all summoned creatures of his are from one use of the summon monster spell-like ability.

Creatures summoned using spells are not affected by this ability and do not count against it as they are drawn from a different source.

Augment Summons (Ex)

At 2nd level, the celestial commander receives the Augment Summoning feat for free, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

This ability replaces eidolon and life link.

Superior Summons (Ex)

At 3rd level, the celestial commander receives the Superior Summoning feat for free, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

This ability replaces bond senses.

Soldiers of the Gods (Su)

Starting at 3rd level, the celestial commander can pray to his deity to grant all creatures he summons with his spell-like ability a teamwork feat. Once per day the celestial commander can spend ten minutes praying to his deity. During this prayer, he asks his deity to grant all creatures he summons with his spell-like ability one teamwork feat. This teamwork feat can be any teamwork feat that the celestial commander qualifies for. For purposes of qualifying for teamwork feats for this ability, treat the celestial commander’s base attack bonus as equal to his class level. In addition, the celestial commander can ignore all skill rank requirements. All creatures summoned by the celestial commander with his spell-like ability have these feats until the celestial commander prays for new ones. Such creatures’ natural attacks count as magic and good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

At 7th level, the celestial commander can pray to his deity to have his summons be granted two teamwork feats. In addition, he can ignore one feat that is a prerequisite for a teamwork feat he prays for.

At 14th level, the celestial commander can pray for three teamwork feats. He can ignore one additional feat that is a prerequisite for a teamwork feat he prays for.

This ability replaces shield ally and greater shield ally.

Bolster the Troops (Su)

At 6th level, the celestial commander can, as a standard action, issue a bolstering command to his allies. The bolstering command affects one ally plus one additional ally for every three summoner levels you possess. All allies must be within 30 feet of you. Affected allies gain a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls, AC, and combat maneuver defense for one round. In addition, they gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier. These temporary hit points last for one minute or until used up. Temporary hit points gained from this ability do not stack with each other, but rather overlap. At 10th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the range of this ability increases by 15 feet. This is a language-dependent, mind-affecting effect.

This ability replaces maker’s call and transposition.

Unleash Glory (Su)

At 10th level, as a standard action, the celestial commander can dismiss one creature he has summoned in a blast of divine light. Creatures within 5 feet of the dismissed creature take divine damage equal to 1d6 for every two hit die the creature possessed. Creatures affected by this must make a successful Will save or be blinded for 1d4 rounds. The DC to avoid being blinded is equal to 10 + ½ his celestial commander level + his Charisma modifier. The celestial commander can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier.

This replaces aspect and greater aspect.

Paragon Summons (Ex)

At 14th level, three times per day you can take the maximum of all hit die of a single creature summoned when determining starting hit points. At 16th level and every 2 levels after, the celestial commander can use this ability one additional time per day.

This ability replaces life bond and merge forms.

Divine Commander (Su)

At 20th level, you become infused with the power of the heavens. You gain:

  • Immunity to acid, cold, and petrification
  • Resist electricity 10
  • Resist fire 10
  • +4 racial bonus on saves against poison
  • Able to sprout feathery wings and gain a fly speed of 60 feet and good maneuverability; you can do this at-will, and it takes a standard action to grow the wings and another standard action to retract them, this functions even through armor and clothing as a polymorph effect.
  • The ability to speak with any creature that has a language (as per the tongues spell).

In addition, all creatures the celestial commander summons do an additional +2d6 holy damage on all attacks.

This ability replaces twin eidolon.

Author’s Note

Much like the Master Summoner, this archetype requires a lot of bookkeeping. GMs are encouraged to ensure that the player of this archetype has the stat blocks of the creatures he is summoning ready before he summons anything. Furthermore, due to their ability to summon many improved creatures, this is a great archetype for solo campaigns.

A GM should carefully consider allowing this in games with more than 4 players, as they should with all classes that can have multiple ‘pets’ out at any given time.

Why buff the summons even more?

The reason for the Focused Divine Energy ability is to give an incentive for not flooding the battlefield with summoned creatures. When that happens, the summoner tends to marginalize the other player’s actions, so battles become less fun for everyone but the summoner. Furthermore, the summoner’s turn takes quite a long time. This ability increases in power as the celestial commander gains levels to keep it relevant versus the higher level summons.

Editor’s Note

This page reflects the most up-to-date version of the archetype.

Official errata for this book has not yet been released as of September, 2012, but it will reflect the text shown on this page (this note was written by the original author of the text.)

Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Secrets of Tactical Archetypes. Copyright 2011, Steven D Russell; Author Will McCardell.

The Secrets of Adventuring. Copyright 2013, Steven D. Russell; Authors: Steven D. Russell, Jonathan McAnulty, Will McCardell, Benjamin Rombeaut and David Mallon.

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