Classic Adept

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d6.

Starting Wealth: 3d6 x 10gp (average 105gp).

Class Skills

The adept’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Editor’s Note

To add some flavor to your adept, look at Adept Boons

Table: Adept
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special Spells per Day
0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Adept Lore 3 1
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Summon familiar 3 1
3rd +1 +1 +1 +3   3 2
4th +2 +1 +1 +4   3 2 0
5th +2 +1 +1 +4   3 2 1
6th +3 +2 +2 +5   3 2 1
7th +3 +2 +2 +5   3 3 2
8th +4 +2 +2 +6   3 3 2 0
9th +4 +3 +3 +6   3 3 2 1
10th +5 +3 +3 +7   3 3 2 1
11th +5 +3 +3 +7   3 3 3 2
12th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8   3 3 3 2 0
13th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8   3 3 3 2 1
14th +7/+2 +4 +4 +9   3 3 3 2 1
15th +7/+2 +5 +5 +9   3 3 3 3 2
16th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10   3 3 3 3 2 0
17th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10   3 3 3 3 2 1
18th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11   3 3 3 3 2 1
19th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11   3 3 3 3 3 2
20th +10/+5 +6 +6 +12   3 3 3 3 3 2

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the adept NPC class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Adepts are skilled with all simple weapons. Adepts are not proficient with any type of armor or shield.

Spells

An adept casts divine spells, which are drawn from the adept spell list. Like a cleric, an adept must choose and prepare her spells in advance. Unlike a cleric, an adept cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells.

To prepare or cast a spell, an adept must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an adept’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the adept’s Wisdom modifier.

Adepts, unlike wizards, do not acquire their spells from books or scrolls, nor do they prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them as divine inspiration or through their own strength of faith. Each adept must choose a time each day during which she must spend an hour in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether an adept can prepare spells.

Like other spellcasters, an adept can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Adept. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score.

Where Table: Adept indicates that the adept gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Wisdom score for that spell level.

Each adept has a particular holy symbol (as a divine focus) depending on the adept’s magical tradition.

Adept Lore (Ex)

Adepts often lack formal schooling, but develop deep knowledge of the matters they deal with. Adepts gain bonus skill ranks equal to their Wisdom modifier at each level; these must be spent on Lore skills, usually relating to the land, people and beings around them.

Summon Familiar (Su)

At 2nd level, an adept can call a familiar, just as a wizard can using the arcane bond ability.

Adept Spell List

The following list expands the Adept spell list with thematic spells from other sources; additional spells are marked with an asterisk (*):

0th Level: blisterbalm*, create water, detect magic, ghost sound, guidance, light, lighthousekeeper’s vow*, mending, prestidigitation*, purify food and drink, read magic, stabilize, storm lantern*, touch of fatigue, vigor.

1st Level: bless, burning hands, cause fear, command, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, diagnose disease*, endure elements, face of the devourer, fastidiousness*, hex ward*, hibernate*, instant clot*, obscuring mist, polypurpose panacea*, preserveprotection from chaos, protection from evil, protection from good, protection from law, remove sickness*, scarify, shield companion*, shield the bannersleep.

2nd Level: aid, animal trance, bear’s endurance, bleed for your master*, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, companion life link*, cure moderate wounds, darkness, delay poison, enemy’s heart, familiar figment*, gentle repose*, inner focusinvisibility, life pact*, mirror image, pack empathy*, placebo effect*, resist energy, rumbling furyscorching ray, see invisibility, tremor blast, web, xerophyte*, yeoman’s prophecy*.

3rd Level: animate dead, bestow curse, blood rage, collaborative thaumaturgy*, contagion, continual flame, cure serious wounds, daylight, deeper darkness, hag’s seasoning*, lightning bolt, merge with familiar*, necrostasis*, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, sharesister*, tongues, windblown wisp*.

4th Level: ball lightning*, cure critical wounds, die for your master*, familiar melding*, minor creation, plant growth*, polymorph, repel vermin*, restoration, stoneskin, wall of fire.

5th Level: baleful polymorph, break enchantment, commune, greater windblown wisp*, heal, major creation, major curse*, raise dead, rest eternal*, sessile spirit*, true seeing, wall of stone.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

So You Want To Be An Adept, © 2021, Librarians & Leviathans.

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