Revered Matrons Requested by Debra Jean Raff Monajati during our Kickstarter Thank you! Like the Pythia, the Revered Matrons was an order of females who ruled their realm in conjunction with another, more governmental force With psychic gifts at their disposal, they could draw the truth from others’ words and actions, detect and destroy poisons with a touch, and even hold their own in direct combat When an ancient prophecy threw their world into chaos, the matrons were forced to adapt What had long been a process that only a properly trained female’s body could survive was suddenly accessible to a few select members of the opposite gender as well Already feeling out of place, these new and unlikely members of the order were the first to volunteer to travel through the rifts created by the shattered worlds Sometimes accompanied by one or more matrons, they would explore the new reality, hoping to find a place in it Benegess Hopeful (Pythia Archetype) 180 A benegess hopeful (pronounced benny jess) is a pythia trained by the revered matrons in matters of combat, preservation, and psychic talents Most will attempt diplomacy before resorting to their other skills, but few hesitate to what they must when called upon Spells: A benegess hopeful learns and casts psychic spells, drawn from the mesmerist spell list She can also learn and cast abjuration, conjuration (healing only), divination, enchantment, and illusion spells from the witch spell list These spells are considered psychic spells that require an emotion component and a thought component, instead of the components they normally require Expensive components and foci (anything not covered by Eschew Materials) must still be provided A benegess hopeful can undercast spells from either of the lists from which she draws spells Spells shared by both lists can be learned at the lower spell level This alters the pythia’s spells Cantrips and Knacks: A benegess hopeful learns 0-level spells from the witch and mesmerist classes This replaces orisons Practiced Strikes (Ex): At 1st level, a benegess hopeful gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat Her attacks may be with fist, elbows, knees, and feet This means that a benegess hopeful may make unarmed strikes with her hands full There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a benegess hopeful striking unarmed A benegess hopeful may also apply her full Intelligence bonus, instead of Strength, on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes This otherwise functions and counts as a monk’s unarmed strike class feature At 1st level, a medium benegess deals 1d6 points of damage with her unarmed strikes This damage increases by step (1d8, 1d10, 2d6, 2d8, 2d10) at 4th level, and every levels thereafter, to a maximum of 2d10 at 20th level This replaces naturalist Trials: Starting at 4th level, a benegess hopeful enters a period where she must undergo several trials on her path toward becoming a revered matron The benegess must either seek out these trials during downtime, or meet their goals through active adventuring and equivalent challenges There is no time limit to these trials, and a benegess hopeful can continue to gain levels as she completes them, but she cannot begin the next trial until she has completed any previous trials Acts that would qualify for one trial cannot also be used to qualify for another At 4th level, a benegess hopeful goes through the trial of poison She must allow herself to become afflicted with a poison with a saving throw DC no less than 10 + her pythia level She must then fight off the poison for its full duration (she is not cured after the required number of saves) At the end of the poison’s duration, the benegess becomes immune to poison and may regain any damage dealt to her ability scores normally (even if the poison normally drains those scores) Most benegess hopefuls use belladonna or blue whinnis for this trial because they are so common, but any appropriate poison will At 7th level, a benegess hopeful goes through the trial of abomination She must allow herself to become afflicted with multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder) with no less than personalities (DC 20) and succeed in fighting back against that madness This madness is easiest to gain by reducing the hopeful’s Wisdom score to 0, then recovering naturally As with the trial of poison, the DC of this save can also be no less than 10 + her pythia level When she has recovered from the madness, the benegess regains her senses, but also retains the personalities she gained (she can willingly trigger personality changes as a situation calls for it) This also grants the benegess an AC bonus, which functions as the monk AC bonus except that she adds her Intelligence bonus (if any) instead of Wisdom The bonus increases by +1 for every levels of pythia the benegess has attained At 11th level, a benegess hopeful goes through the trial of suffering She must allow herself to become afflicted with a curse with a saving throw DC no less than 10 + her pythia level She can attempt to save against this curse each day to hold off the effects, but not to cure them, nor can she accept a remove curse without failing the trial After successful saving throws, the curse can be cured as normal, and the benegess adds her Charisma modifier to all of her saving throws, as the paladin’s divine grace class feature At 15th level, a benegess hopeful goes through the trial of agony She must complete a level’s worth of encounters without the use of her spells, in or out of combat She can still accept the effects of spells granted by other creatures, and many hopefuls often learn how to scribe scrolls beforehand that they can use once they begin the trial At the end of the trial, the benegess gains a metamagic feat of her choice as a bonus feat The level adjustment of this metamagic feat is reduced by for the benegess, to a minimum of +0 At 19th level, a benegess hopeful goes through the trial of control She must allow herself to become dominated by a stronger creature and live under its control for no less than day per pythia level At any time, the benegess can end this domination with a successful saving throw (DC 10 + half the creature’s hit dice + its Charisma modifier, or the creature’s own DC; whichever is higher), but doing so fails the trial She can only attempt such a save once per day As with any trial, the save DC cannot be less than 10 + the hopeful’s pythia level At the end of her domination, the benegess becomes immune to all mind-affecting effects and grants allies within 30 feet of her a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects This replaces wild shape