My people are impatient—I shall teach them patience.
My people are cowards—I shall teach them courage.
My people think only of today—I shall teach them to think of tomorrow.
My people lust for elven blood—this requires no teaching.- Early sayings of Dukagsh
From the ashes of their defeat centuries ago at the hands of the Elven Fleet, Dukagsh, the legendary Almighty Leader and prophet of the scro, forged a powerful new nation. At the heart of that new nation was a Church dedicated to his teachings of organization, courage, and hatred for everything elven. War priests are the champions of that Church and leaders of the scro crusade against elvenkind.
Scro war priests are trained to inspire courage in their soldiers and terror in their enemies. Armor is less of an impediment to their spellcasting abilities than normal. Poison is commonly used to augment their weapons. They call upon greater spellcasting abilities, divine or arcane, in carrying out their war against their hated enemy.
Most war priests begin their lives as clerics in the Church of Dukagsh. After mastering a certain level of clerical and arcane ability, they are groomed into war priests. Other routes into the ranks of the war priests are rare, but not unknown. A scro sorcerer is likely to be taken into the Church and encouraged to become a war priest. Scro druids are almost unheard of, and thusly do not become war priests.
NPC scro war priests are usually local leaders, passing down orders and religious edicts to the soldiers. Occasionally a lone, wandering scro war priest can be encountered on some mission, most likely information gathering or sabotage.
Hit Dice: d8.
To qualify to become a scro war priest of Dukagsh, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Scro.
Alignment: Lawful evil.
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 6 ranks.
Feats: Combat Casting.
Spells: Able to cast 2nd-level arcane spells and 2nd-level divine spells.
Special: Rebuke undead, must worship Dukagsh.
The scro war priest of Dukagsh class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). See Chapter 4 of the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
All of the following are class features of the scro war priest of Dukagsh prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Scro war priests are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor.
Spells per Day/Spells Known: A scro war priest continues training in magic and devotion as well as the art of war. Thus, from 2nd level on, when a new scro war priest level is gained, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, turning ability, and so on). This essentially means that he adds one to the level of whatever other arcane or divine spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
If a character had more than one arcane or divine spellcasting class before he became a scro war priest, he must decide to which class he adds each level of sro war priest for the purpose of determining spells per day.
Ignore Spell Failure (Ex): The scro war priest can ignore a portion of the arcane spell failure chance associated with using armor. He subtracts the listed percentage value from his total spell failure chance, if any. For instance, a character with studded leather armor normally has a spell failure chance of 15%, but this drops to 0% for a 1st-level scro war priest.
Poison Use (Ex): Scro war priests are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Inflame Troops (Ex): By giving a stirring speech for at least 5 minutes prior to battle, the scro war priest provides those who listen a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear effects. The bonus increases to +3 at 5th level. This effect lasts for 5 minutes after the speech ends, plus 1 minute per level of the scro war priest. The scro war priest also gains the bonus.
Fear Aura (Su): Once per day the scro war priest can project a fear aura to a radius of 20 feet for 1 round per scro war priest level. Foes must make a Will save (DC 10 + scro war priest level + Cha modifier) or be affected as if by a fear spell.
