The Shining Light of Pelor

Affiliation

Rank Score Title: Benefits and Duties

0 3 or lower None. 1 4-12 Marshal: Cain a+1 bonus on Climb and Jump checks. 2 13-21 Justice: Cain a+1 bonus on saves against chaotic spells and effects. 3 22-29 Lawbringer: Caster level +1 when casting inflict spells or harm. 4 30 or higher Wielder of the Cudgel: Once per day, use a bludgeoning weapon to stun and daze a foe. The foe struck must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wis modifier) or be stunned for 1 round and dazed for ld4 rounds thereafter. Declare use of this ability before making the attack roll.

ROLEPLAYING APPLICATIONS

Favored Feats: Taking a weapon from the hand of an enemy is considered an ideal tactic in the Scales of Balance, so Improved Disarm and Improved Sunder are favorite feats of its members. Paladins of St. Cuthbert and clerics with the Destruction domain also favor Extra Smiting™.

Favored Adventure Types: St. Cuthbert's followers can't abide the guilty escaping punishment. If a Lawbreaker manages to avoid just retribution, the church sends out adventurers to see that justice is done. The Scales of Balance might also send a group on behalf of a local government to bring in a criminal who has evaded the conventional legal authorities.

Favored Oaths: Followers of St. Cuthbert often exclaim "Lawbreaker!" or "By the cudgel!" in the heat of battle. "His justice be done" is a phrase often delivered in conjunction with a smite attack.

T HE S H I N I NG LIGHT OF PELOR

The sun is the source of light, warmth, and life, and all living creatures embody some degree of its energy. If you embrace that light and make it part of yourself, you can use it to illuminate the dark corners of the world, where evil and death lurk.

Known on the Material Plane as the Shining Light, the Church of Pelor is one of the most altruistic and welcoming of the established religions. The primary goal of Pelor's church is to ensure the well-being of its members, as well as all the people who live in the vicinity of its temples. Often a temple to Pelor functions both as a center of spirituality and a place of sanctuary. Followers of Pelor believe that protecting those who cannot protect themselves is one of their deity's most important values, and they go out of their way to help the needy in his name. The church, though not warlike, builds many remote temples in the style of small fortresses to defend nearby residents in the event of attack.

The Shining Light considers all living beings to be manifestations of Pelor's light, and its members welcome all equally. Undead, however, are abominations in the sight of the Shining One—the antithesis of light, life, and warmth, and incapable of redemption. Therefore, members of Pelor's church seek out and destroy these creatures of negative energy without hesitation.

Clerics of the Shining Light preach that the cycle of light and darkness is Pelor's way of sparing the world. If the sun burned both day and night, all living creatures would be consumed by the god's holy radiance. Thus, each day begins cool in the morning and warms as it progresses. The holiest of times is the afternoon, when Pelor is closest to the world and his divinity is most clear.

The Shining One is almost universally respected, if not worshiped, on the surface of the earth, but is reviled in the dark places beneath the ground. The church views the wild and lightless Underdark as an unholy place, despite the fact that many good-aligned races call it home. The church sends many "missionaries" to bring Pelor's shining wisdom to the underbelly of the world. Though such campaigns seem noble to most surface dwellers, they usually involve wielding a heavy mace in one hand and Pelor's holy fire in the other.

Enemies and Allies: While members of the Shining Light loathe the undead, such creatures typically do not present an organized threat—they are numerous but scattered. However, in the blackest depths lurks a much greater danger to the Pelorites: the illithids. These creatures seek to extinguish the sun—a deed tantamount, in the minds of the Pelorites, to assassinating the deity. Only a few of the Shining Light's most powerful leaders are aware of this threat, but it is the primary reasons that clerics and paladins of Pelor venture into the Underdark.

The Shining Light of Pelor maintains close ties with many other good-aligned churches, and has organized joint ventures with the clergy of Heironeous, such as the formation of Pelor's Shadow Guard (see page 75). Members of Pelor's church also share many goals with the churches of nature, such as those of Ehlonna and Obad-Hai, which also despise the foul undead.

Scale: 16 (multicontinental).

Affiliation Score Criteria: Church membership is open to anyone, although denizens of the Underdark are viewed with distrust and interviewed intensely before their membership is approved. Suspicious-seeming individuals might be asked to perform some sort of task appropriate to their rank and abilities to demonstrate their commitment to Pelor.

Criterion Affiliation Score Modifier

One-Time Character level +1/2 levels Cleric or paladin +1 Knowledge (religion) 5-9 ranks +1 Knowledge (religion) 10 or more ranks +2 Heal 5-9 ranks +1 Heal 10 or more ranks +2 Will save bonus +10 or higher +1 Strength score of 20 or higher +1 Can cast heal +3 Has been undead -6