Dinosaur Cultist

The dinosaur cultist is a divine spellcaster who has devoted his life to the cause of the dinosaur god. There is no organized religion devoted to the dinosaur god, its faithful are merely loners who wander the wildlands seeking to aid dinosaurs wherever they can. Dinosaur cultist druids often spend long hours in dinosaur form themselves, and many eventually never revert to their true form at all. Good aligned dinosaur cultists often try to seek ways to encourage those who live near dinosaur infested lands to live at peace with the great saurians, and in many ways serve as ambassadors between the civilized world and the lost world. Unfortunately, evil dinosaur cultists seem to be much more common. These terrible figures live to organize their dinosaur minions into bloody crusades against civilization, leading throngs of beasts into frontier towns and causing much mayhem and devastation.

Most dinosaur cultists are druids, although there are a fair amount of clerics and rangers. It is theoretically possible for a paladin to become a dinosaur cultist, but since they must convert to a non-lawful alignment upon becoming a dinosaur cultist, and thus lose their paladin abilities, such dinosaur cultists are rare indeed.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a dinosaur cultist, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Alignment: Any non-lawful.
Feats: Great Fortitude.
Spells: Ability to cast 3rd level divine spells.
Special: Wild Empathy class feature.
Special: The character must survive the test of meat by allowing a tyrannosaurus (or similar large dinosaur) to swallow him whole. The prospective cultist must then begin praying to the dinosaur god for acceptance. Each round the cultist remains inside the dinosaur’s gizzard, he suffers normal gizzard damage and must make a level check (modified by his Wisdom modifier, DC 20) to be heard by the dinosaur god. Failure indicates nothing happens but the prospective cultist may attempt the level check again next round. Success indicates that the dinosaur god has heard the cultist’s pleas and accepts him as a new cultist; the tyrannosaurus immediately regurgitates the new cultist, cleans him off with its tongue, then leaves him in peace to serve the dinosaur god.

Class Skills

The dinosaur cultist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Dinosaur Cultist

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
1st	+0	+1	+0	+0	Dinosaur focus	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd	+1	+1	+1	+1	Gift of the saurian	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd	+2	+2	+1	+1	Dinosaur magic	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th	+3	+2	+1	+1	Gift of the saurian	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th	+3	+3	+2	+2	Savagery	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
6th	+4	+3	+2	+2	Gift of the saurian	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
7th	+5	+4	+2	+2	Thunderous roar	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
8th	+6	+4	+3	+3	Gift of the saurian	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
9th	+6	+5	+3	+3	Improved savagery	+1 level of existing spellcasting class
10th	+7	+5	+3	+3	Gift of the saurian	+1 level of existing spellcasting class

Class Features

The following are class features of the dinosaur cultist prestige class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A dinosaur cultist is only proficient in a fairly narrow range of simple and martial weapons that are similar in shape to the teeth of carnivorous dinosaurs and the horns or tails of herbivorous dinosaurs. Dinosaur cultists are proficient with the falchion, halfspear, heavy mace, light mace, longspear, morning star, punching dagger, scimitar, scythe, shortspear, and sickle. Their spiritual oaths prevent them from using weapons other than these. They are also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any dinosaur form they assume with wild shape (see below).

They are proficient with light and medium armors but are prohibited from wearing metal armor (thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor). A dinosaur cultist may also wear wooden armor that has been altered by the ironwood spell so that it functions as though it were steel. See the ironwood spell description. They are skilled with shields but must use only wooden ones.

A dinosaur cultist who wears prohibited armor or wields a prohibited weapon is unable to cast any of his spells or use any of his supernatural or spell-like class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.

A druid who becomes a dinosaur cultist no longer has to abide by the druidic spiritual oaths regarding weapons that can be used, but must abide by those allowed to dinosaur cultists.

Spells per Day

When a new dinosaur cultist level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a dinosaur cultist, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Dinosaur Focus (Ex)

Upon becoming a dinosaur cultist, the when using the Ride skill the character does not take a -5 penalty for riding a creature ill suited to be a mount, even if they normally would.

Gift of the Saurian (Su)

At every even numbered level, the dinosaur cultist is granted a special supernatural gift from the dinosaur gods. The dinosaur cultist can choose his gift from the list below; he may select a gift more than once and its effects stack with identical gifts, but not with bonuses the dinosaur cultist might receive from other abilities. For example, a 10th level dinosaur cultist might have selected Skin of the Saurian five times as his gifts, granting a total natural armor bonus of +5; but, this would not stack with the bonus he receives from the barkskin spell.

• Skin of the Saurian: The dinosaur cultist gains a +1 natural armor bonus. This stacks with any natural armor bonus the dinosaur cultist gains from wildshape.
• Frenzy of the Saurian: The dinosaur cultist gains a +2 morale bonus to damage with unarmed or natural attacks.
• Vigor of the Saurian: The dinosaur cultist’s Constitution modifier is doubled when determining hit points for the level when he gains this gift.
• Scent of the Saurian: The dinosaur cultist gains the Scent ability.
• Enhance Wild shape: The dinosaur cultist can use his wild shape ability one additional time each day, or can assume a new form that is one size category larger than his prior limit (maximum of Gargantuan). If the cultist does not possess the wild shape ability, he cannot select this gift.

Dinosaur Magic (Su)

At 3rd level, all of the dinosaur cultist’s spells gain a +2 to their DC when you target dinosaurs.

Savagery (Su)

At 5th level, the dinosaur cultist has drifted far from civilization and has started to take on some of the more bestial personality traits of his beloved dinosaur friends. He suffers a –2 circumstance penalty to Diplomacy, and Perform checks, but gains a +2 circumstance bonus to wild empathy checks against dinosaurs and to all Intimidate checks.

Savagery grants a +2 competence bonus to any damage the cultist deals with unarmed or natural attacks.

A druid dinosaur cultist with savagery who wild shapes into dinosaur form becomes a stronger and more savage dinosaur than normal, gaining a +2 enhancement bonus to one of the following: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, or natural armor. This is in addition to the +2 morale bonus to damage with natural attacks.

Thunderous Roar (Su)

At 7th level, the dinosaur cultist gains the ability to unleash a deafening roar as a move action once per day. All creatures within a radius of 5 ft. per dinosaur cultist level are affected as if by a sound burst spell. Additionally, all adjacent targets are affected by a shout spell. The caster level for both these spells equals the character’s dinosaur cultist level.

Improved Savagery (Su)

At 9th level, all bonuses gained from savagery are doubled. Additionally, the dinosaur cultist is no longer rendered unconscious when reduced to negative hit points; rather, he can make one swift action per round until he dies or is healed back to positive hit points. The dinosaur cultist does continue to bleed at the rate of one hit point per round until his wounds are stabilized. If the character is stabilized but remains at negative hit points, taking anything more than a swift action aggravates the wounds, and the character begins dying again.