There is a Legacy version
here.
Champion
Source Player Core 2 pg. 86You are an emissary of a deity, a devoted servant who has taken up a weighty mantle, and you devoutly pursue a cause that holds you apart from those around you. You have powerful defenses that you share freely with your allies and innocent bystanders, as well as divine power you use to end the threats your deity opposes.Key Attribute: STRENGTH OR DEXTERITYAt 1st level, your class gives you an attribute boost to your choice of Strength or Dexterity.
Hit Points: 10 plus your Constitution modifierYou increase your maximum number of HP by this number at 1st level and every level thereafter.
Roleplaying the Champion
During Combat Encounters...
You confront enemies in hand-to-hand combat while carefully positioning yourself to protect your allies.
During Social Encounters...
You are a voice of devoted authority, with strong intentions to embody the behaviors your deity encourages.
While Exploring...
You overcome barriers both physical and spiritual, providing inspiration to your allies through your actions and—when your fellow adventurers ask for it—providing guidance with a sure hand.
In Downtime...
You spend much of your time in solemn prayer and contemplation, rigorous training, and fulfilling the edicts of your cause, but that doesn't mean there isn't time to take up a craft or hobby.
You Might...
- Believe the righteousness of your cause will triumph, no matter how grim the odds.
- Explain how the teachings of your deity apply to decisions and actions in everyday life.
- Be a bit overprotective of your allies.
Others Probably...
- See you as a symbol of your deity, and carry over their opinions of that deity to you.
- Worry you secretly despise them for not living up to your impossible standard, or that you are unwilling to compromise when necessary.
- Know that you've sworn divine oaths of service they can trust you to keep.
Initial Proficiencies
At 1st level, you gain the listed proficiency ranks in the following statistics. You are untrained in anything not listed unless you gain a better proficiency rank in some other way.
Perception
Trained in Perception
Saving Throws
Expert in Fortitude
Trained in Reflex
Expert in Will
Skills
Trained in
Religion Trained in one skill determined by your choice of deity
Trained in a number of additional skills equal to 2 plus your Intelligence modifier
Attacks
Trained in simple weapons
Trained in martial weapons
Trained in unarmed attacks
Defenses
Trained in all armor
Trained in unarmored defense
Class DC
Trained in champion class DC
Spells
Trained in spell attack modifier
Trained in spell DC
Class Features
You gain these features as a Champion. Abilities gained at higher levels list the levels at which you gain them next to the features' names.
| Your Level | Class Features |
| 1 | Ancestry and background, attribute boosts, initial proficiencies, deity, cause, devotion spells, champion feat, shield block |
| 2 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 3 | Blessing of the devoted, general feat, skill increase |
| 4 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 5 | Attribute boosts, ancestry feat, skill increase, weapon expertise |
| 6 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 7 | Armor expertise, general feat, skill increase, weapon specialization |
| 8 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 9 | Ancestry feat, champion expertise, reflex expertise, relentless reaction, sacred body, skill increase |
| 10 | Attribute boosts, champion feat, skill feat |
| 11 | Divine will, exalted reaction, general feat, perception expertise, skill increase |
| 12 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 13 | Ancestry feat, armor mastery, skill increase weapon mastery |
| 14 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 15 | Attribute boosts, general feat, greater weapon specialization, skill increase |
| 16 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 17 | Ancestry feat, champion mastery, legendary armor, skill increase |
| 18 | Champion feat, skill feat |
| 19 | General feat, hero’s defiance, skill increase |
| 20 | Attribute boosts, champion feat, skill feat |
Ancestry and Background
In addition to the abilities provided by your class at 1st level, you have the benefits of your selected ancestry and background.
Attribute Boosts
In addition to what you get from your class at 1st level, you have four free boosts to different attribute modifiers.
At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, you get four free boosts to different attribute modifiers. If an attribute modifier is already +4 or higher, it takes two boosts to increase it; you get a partial boost and must boost that attribute again at a later level to increase it by 1.
Initial Proficiencies
At 1st level, you gain a number of proficiencies that represent your basic training, noted at the start of this class.
Deity
As a champion, you are a warrior in the name of a deity you revere above all others. The most common deities in Pathfinder appear on pages 35–39 of Player Core, along with their edicts, areas of concern, and the benefits you get for being a devotee of that deity. Choose one
deity.
Skill
You become trained in the divine skill listed for your deity. As normal, if you're already trained in that skill, you become trained in a different skill of your choice.
Anathema
Champions care deeply about the edicts and anathema they take from their deity, sanctification, and cause. As with any implementation of edicts and anathema in the rules, these are a tool for roleplaying between you, the GM, and the other players at the table—you're still playing a nuanced character, not strictly following a script.
Acts fundamentally opposed to your deity's ideals are anathema to your faith. Learning or casting spells, committing acts, and using items that are anathema to your deity remove you from your deity's good graces.
Similarly, using items, spells, or actions that are anathema to the tenets or goals of your faith could interfere with your connection to your deity. For example, assisting with a ritual that raises undead would be anathema to Pharasma, the goddess of death. Many actions that are anathema don't appear in any deity's formal list. For borderline cases, you and your GM determine which acts are anathema.
If you perform enough acts that are anathema to your deity, you lose the magical abilities that come from your connection to your deity. The class features that you lose are determined by the GM, but they likely include your holy or unholy trait, your focus pool, and your blessing of the devoted. These abilities can be regained only if you repent by conducting an
atone ritual. If your deity doesn't require the specific sanctification you had, your GM might let you retrain your sanctification and cause while still following the same deity.
Sanctification
Depending on your deity, their sanctification can make you
holy or
unholy. This commits you to one side of a struggle over souls. Whether you become holy, unholy, or neither will limit your choice of causes, devotion spells, and feats.
If you “can be” holy or unholy according to your deity's sanctification entry, you make that choice, and if you “must be” holy or unholy, you gain the trait automatically. If the deity lists “none,” you can choose only options that don't require the holy or unholy trait. If you are holy or unholy and gain the opposing trait in some way, you lose the previous trait until you
atone.
Unholy sanctification for a champion can be extremely disruptive to a typical game and should be a player character option only in appropriate adventures or campaigns where the group collectively decides to embrace them. Unholy sanctification and causes are uncommon options.
Holy: You gain the
holy trait and add that trait to any Strikes you make. You gain the edict, “Do not knowingly harm innocents or fail to prevent harm to an innocent if your direct intervention could save them” and the anathema “Commit murder.” Even if your game includes behavior outside the Pathfinder
baseline, the acts listed there are anathema to you.
Unholy: You gain the
unholy trait and add that trait to any Strikes you make. You gain the edict, “Do not put another's needs before your own or those of your deity” and the anathema “Commit an entirely altruistic act, such as giving something away in charity” and “Put anyone's needs before those of your deity.” None of these prevents you from performing acts others might consider helpful, but these acts must be done with the expectation that they ultimately further your own goals or those of your deity.
Deific Weapon
You zealously bear your deity's favored weapon. If it's an unarmed attack with a d4 damage die or a simple weapon, increase the damage die by one step (d4 to d6, d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12). If the weapon is uncommon, you gain access to it, and if it's an advanced weapon, you treat it as a martial weapon for the purposes of proficiency.
Champion's Aura
You're surrounded by an aura in a 15-foot emanation. It has the
aura and
divine traits. Any follower of your deity within the aura immediately knows you're a champion of your deity. This aura is used as the range for your champion's reaction and for various other effects. You can suppress or resume the aura as a single action, which has the
concentrate trait, and it ends if you fall unconscious.
Cause
You devote yourself to a specific cause in your deity’s name. Some causes are limited to certain sanctifications. Your cause adds to your edicts and anathema and grants you a special protective reaction called your champion’s reaction.
Causes can be found
here.
Devotion Spells
Your deity's power grants you special divine spells called devotion spells, which are a type of focus spell. Chooseeither shields of the spirit or a spell based on your deity's divine font (lay on hands if your deity allows heal, touch of the void if your deity allows harm).
It costs 1 Focus Point to cast a focus spell. When you gain your first devotion spell, you also gain a focus pool of 1 Focus Point. You refill your focus pool during your daily preparations, and you regain 1 Focus Point by spending 10 minutes using the
Refocus activity to pray to your deity or do service toward their causes.
Your devotion spells are divine spells. Your spellcasting attribute is Charisma.
Focus spells are automatically heightened to half your level rounded up. Certain feats give you more focus spells. The maximum Focus Points your focus pool can hold is equal to the number of focus spells you have, but can never be more than 3 points.
Champion Feats
At 1st level and every even-numbered level thereafter, you gain a
champion class feat.
Shield Block
You gain the
Shield Block general feat, a reaction that lets you reduce damage with your shield.
Skill FeatsLevel 2
At 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, you gain a skill feat. You must be trained or better in the corresponding skill to select a skill feat.
Blessing of the DevotedLevel 2
Your deity blesses your service with a boon. This might come in the form of a spirit that visits you and inhabits your items or body, a mysterious divine tattoo upon your body, or the like. Choose one of the following blessings, or any other to which you have access.
Blessed Armament: Select one weapon or
handwraps of mighty blows. You gain that armament's critical specialization effect, and you grant the armament a property rune of your choice from the following list:
fearsome,
ghost touch,
returning,
shifting, or
vitalizing. During your daily preparations, you can change the spirit to inhabit a different armament, grant a different rune, or both.
Blessed Shield: In your hands, a shield gains the minor
reinforcing rune. As you go up in level, the shield gains the
reinforcing rune of your level (lesser at 7th level, moderate at 10th level, greater at 13th level, major at 16th level, and supreme at 19th level). If your shield already has the appropriate
reinforcing rune for your level, or if it's a
sturdy shield of the same level as the appropriate
reinforcing rune, the shield's Hardness instead increases by 1.
Blessed Swiftness: You gain a +5-foot status bonus to Speed. If you're mounted, your mount gains the bonus instead. In addition, when the movement of one of your allies triggers an enemy's reaction while the ally is in your champion's aura, the ally gains a +2 status bonus to all defenses against that reaction.
General FeatsLevel 2
At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, you gain a general feat.
Skill IncreasesLevel 2
At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, you gain a skill increase. You can use this increase either to increase your proficiency rank to trained in one skill you’re untrained in, or to increase your proficiency rank in one skill in which you’re already trained to expert.
Ancestry FeatsLevel 5
In addition to the ancestry feat you started with, you gain an ancestry feat at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
Weapon ExpertiseLevel 5
You’ve dedicated yourself to learning the intricacies of your weapons. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to expert.
Armor ExpertiseLevel 7
You have spent so much time in armor that you know how to make the most of its protection. Your proficiency ranks for light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as for unarmored defense, increase to expert. You gain the armor specialization effects of medium and heavy armor.
Weapon SpecializationLevel 7
You’ve learned how to inflict greater injuries with the weapons you know best. You deal 2 additional damage with weapons and unarmed attacks in which you’re an expert. This damage increases to 3 if you’re a master, and to 4 if you’re legendary.
Champion ExpertiseLevel 9
Prayers strengthen your divine power. Your proficiency ranks for your champion class DC, spell attack modifier, and spell DC increase to expert.
Reflex ExpertiseLevel 9
You’ve developed a knack for dodging danger. Your proficiency rank for Reflex saves increases to expert.
Relentless ReactionLevel 9
Your champion’s reaction improves, typically to punish the attacker with spiritual backlash. It gainsthe relentless reaction benefit listed in your cause below your champion’s reaction.
Sacred BodyLevel 9
The power of your deity keeps your body safe from harm, as true an edifice of the faith as a great temple. Your proficiency rank for Fortitude saves increases to master. When you roll a success on a Fortitude save, you get a critical success instead.
Divine WillLevel 11
Your faith grants mastery of your will. Your proficiency rank for Will saves increases to master. When you roll a success on a Will save, you get a critical success instead.
Exalted ReactionLevel 11
Your champion’s reaction exalts nearby allies, allowing them to benefit as well. When you use your champion’s reaction, you also get the effect listed for its exalted reaction.
Perception ExpertiseLevel 11
You remain alert to threats around you. Your proficiency rank for Perception increases to expert.
Armor MasteryLevel 13
Your skill with armor improves, helping you avoid more blows. Your proficiency ranks for light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as for unarmored defense, increase to master.
Weapon MasteryLevel 13
You fully understand your weapons. Your proficiency ranks for simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks increase to master.
Greater Weapon SpecializationLevel 15
Your damage from weapon specialization increases to 4 with weapons and unarmed attacks in which you’re an expert, 6 if you’re a master, and 8 if you’re legendary.
Champion MasteryLevel 17
You’ve mastered your champion techniques and divine spells. Your proficiency ranks for your champion class DC, spell attack modifier, and spell DC increase to master.
Legendary ArmorLevel 17
You shield yourself with steel as easily as with faith. Your proficiency ranks for light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as for unarmored defense, increase to legendary.
Hero's DefianceLevel 19
You can continue fighting as long as you have divine energy. You gain the hero’s defiance devotion spell