Malar

  • Name: Malar
  • Allegiance: Gods of the Wild
  • Portfolio: Hunting, Stalking, Carnivores, Marauding Beasts, Bloodlust, Strife
  • Titles: The Beastlord, Lord of Beasts, The Black-Blooded Pard, The Ravaging Bear, The Stalker, The Render, The Marrow-Gnawer
  • Symbols: Any animal claw; A bestial claw dripping with blood; A stone disk marked by a beast’s claws
  • Worshipper Alignments: LE, TN, NE, CN, CE
  • Core Doctrine: Survival of the fittest.
    • Edicts:
      • Indulge in the hunt as often as possible.
      • Walk the wilderness without trepidation or fear.
      • Winnow the weak, that the strong may thrive.
      • Protect the young, so that game will always be plentiful.
      • Strong emotions defeat reason and planning in all things.
      • Always close in the for kill, and taste the blood of that which you you slay.
      • Work against all who would attempt to tame and domesticate society.
    • Anathema:
      • Killing an enemy from a distance.
      • Killing a pregnant creature or the young.
      • Refusing to eat something that you have killed.
      • Delaying ones actions or taking purely defensive actions in battle.
  • Allied Faiths: Armok, Auril, Lolth, Mielikki, Silvanus, Talos, Umberlee
  • Enemy Faiths: Chauntea, Eldath, Sune, The Mog
  • Pseudonyms: Blue Bear (in the Barbarian Kingdoms), Gorellik (among Gnolls), Grolantor (among Firbolgs), Herne (in the High Forest), Hruggek (among Goblins and Bugbears), Sebek (in Mulhorand), Urdlen (among Gnomes)

Base Requirements

Proficiencies

  • Weapon Slots: By class
  • Allowed Weapons: Any Weapons
  • Allowed Armor: Any Non-metal Armor
  • Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
  • Required Weapon Proficiencies: none
  • Non-weapon Slots: By class
  • Available Groups: Spiritual, Survival, and Martial
  • Bonus Proficiencies: Animal Lore, Hunting, Tracking, Religion
  • Required Proficiencies: none
  • Recommended Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Animal Rending, Animal Training, Heart Feast, Natural Fighting, Weapon Improvisation, Wild Fighting
  • Forbidden Proficiencies: none

Priest Spheres:

  • Major: All, Air, Animal, Charm, Combat, Guardian, Summoning, Water
  • Minor: Divination, Necromantic

Overview: Malar the Beastlord is the god of marauding beasts, savagery, bloodlust, and the hunt. His clerics seek to emulate their god, immersing themselves in the blood and frenzy of the hunt and very often losing their humanity in the process.

Description: Clerics of Malar wear rough-spun clothing or animal skins and a headpiece of a bear, wolf, or great cat that the cleric killed with his bare hands. They all wear flat stone disks on leather thongs around their necks with Malar’s holy symbol scratched into the disks. Most clerics of Malar use spears, battle-axes, or two-handed swords. They favor hide or leather armor. These clerics carry a scent that seems to be a mixture of human sweat, animal musk, and spilled blood.

Role-Playing: Clerics of Malar seek to release the animals within themselves and submerge their human natures. They love living out in the wilderness, running through forests and grasslands, howling at the moon, and killing prey with their bare hands.

Most clerics of Malar waver between savagery and the challenge of a difficult hunt. In the latter case, they are more lucid and reasonable, as appreciation for a fine chase and the strategies of the hunt are more human qualities than animal attributes.

Special Abilities:

  • When a cleric of Malar begins his First Hunt (first level), he must select an animal species to empathize with (Almost any mammalian predator will do). This empathy to a beast;s species is known as the blood bond. From this point on, the cleric will never raise a hand or weapon to any animal of his blood bond, nor will those animals attack him. This does not mean the animal is like a friend or familiar—both animal and cleric respect the other, as if they were members of the same pack.
  • When a cleric of Malar reaches 7th level, he can talk to any representative of his blood-bonded species once a day. He can use this ability for one round per level of the priest.
  • Once per day, the cleric of Malar can transform into a clawed, fanged beast-man and attack with a feral fury. While in this form, the cleric gains three attacks per round: two claws for 1d6 damage and a bite for 1d8 damage. In this form, the cleric also gains a +4 on saving throws against all mind-affecting spells. The change lasts for one round per level of the cleric.
  • When in battle, a cleric of Malar can go into a special berserker rage. The cleric gains double his normal number of attacks and a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls. The berserk priest can remain conscious and fight to a negative hit point total equal to his level. Thus, a 3rd-level cleric can fight until he reaches -3 hit points and then he falls unconscious. The rage lasts for one round per level and can be used no more than once per combat encounter. This berserker state can be combined with the cleric’s beast-man transformation.

Special Disadvantages:

  • Clerics of Malar cannot turn undead.
  • Clerics of Malar must hail from a homeland that is at least semi-rural. They may not claim any city or urban area as their place of origin (see above).
  • Cities and towns make clerics of Malar feel uncomfortable. They suffer a -2 penalty to attack and damage rolls in urban settings, and cannot go into a berserk rage within such settings.
  • Clerics of Malar risk a regression into savagery. Each time the cleric goes berserk, there is a 20% chance that he will think he is actually an animal. This savage effect lasts for 2d4+2 hours. During this time, the priest loses all additional abilities and powers and is compelled to savagely attack opponents with his bare hands and teeth.

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Malar

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