Faith as a weapon. Sermons, relics, zeal, holy fury, martyrdom, morale, fire, and keeping doomed people fighting through pure religious violence.
Faith is not gentle. Faith is a weapon that also bandages.
The Ministorum Priest is a battlefield preacher, confessor, healer, executioner of doubt, and keeper of sacred fury.
A Priest does not mend wounds with clean miracles. They bind flesh, roar hymns over gunfire, press relics into shaking hands, burn heretics from cover, and convince the dying that standing up one more time is an act of holy defiance.
The class fantasy is simple:
A Ministorum Priest survives through Presence, Willpower, sacred rage, ritual medicine, fire, relics, martyrdom, and the power to make despair feel like heresy.
The Ministorum Priest should not play like a clean divine caster. The Priest should create moments like:
The Priest should provide more healing than most classes, but healing should still feel grim, costly, limited, and battlefield-facing.
Litanies are the Ministorum Priest's signature class mechanic.
A Litany is a battlefield prayer, shouted sermon, relic rite, confession, curse, blessing, or sacred command. A Priest uses Litanies to strengthen allies, shame fear, restore the wounded, burn enemies, resist corruption, and turn suffering into momentum.
Litanies are not spells. They do not use spell slots or spell levels.
A Litany has a base effect. Some Litanies may be empowered by spending Fervor or improved through Doctrine Trees.
Litany DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Presence modifier
If a Litany is primarily about endurance, resisting corruption, or personal sacrifice, the GM may allow Willpower instead of Presence.
Litanies are special. Priests do not gain a new Litany every level.
Fervor represents holy momentum: the rising heat of belief, pain, panic, rage, and witnessed sacrifice.
A Priest does not calmly spend divine power. They build Fervor when the battlefield becomes desperate and then spend it to make Litanies hit harder, heal deeper, or carry farther.
Fervor is a working draft and may be simplified later. For now, it gives the Priest a unique rhythm without using spell slots.
Faith is quiet until the screaming starts.
| Ministorum Priest Level | Litanies Known |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 13 | 6 |
| 17 | 7 |
This progression is a working draft. Litanies should remain meaningful and powerful, not become a bloated list of minor tricks.
Target: One ally within 30 feet who can hear you, or one ally you can touch.
The target regains Vitality equal to 1d6 + your Proficiency Bonus. If the target is at 0 Vitality, they become conscious and may crawl, speak, grip an object, or make one save before the end of their next turn.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to add an additional 1d6 Vitality restored.
You are not done. The war has not dismissed you.
Target: Self or one ally within 30 feet who can hear you.
The target gains temporary Vitality equal to your Proficiency Bonus + your Presence modifier. Until the start of your next turn, the target also gains Advantage on their next Toughness Save or Willpower Save.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to affect a second ally within range.
Pain means the soul has not fled.
Target: One visible enemy within 30 feet, or one enemy within range of your flame weapon.
The target must make a Willpower Save against your Litany DC. On failure, it becomes Exposed until the start of your next turn. If the target is corrupted, heretical, daemonic, or visibly tainted, it also takes fire or radiant-style faith damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to impose Disadvantage on the save.
Purity is a temperature.
Target: All allies within 15 feet who can hear you.
Targets gain Advantage on their next Willpower Save against fear, Pinned, possession, daemonic dread, morale-breaking effects, or psychic terror before the start of your next turn.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to also end Pinned on one affected ally.
The hymn is louder than the thing in the dark.
Target: Self.
When an ally within 30 feet would take damage, you may use your Reaction to take damage equal to your level or less on their behalf, if the GM agrees the positioning and fiction allow it. After you take this damage, the ally gains temporary Vitality equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Fervor: Gain 1 Fervor after using this Litany, even if you already gained Fervor this round.
A wound carried willingly becomes scripture.
Target: One visible enemy within 60 feet who can hear you or perceive your condemnation.
The target must make a Willpower Save against your Litany DC. On failure, the target has Disadvantage on its next attack, check, or save before the end of its next turn. If the target is corrupted, heretical, daemonic, or actively leading enemies, it also cannot benefit from Advantage until the start of your next turn.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to make the target lose its Reaction until the start of your next turn.
A guilty soul flinches before the blade falls.
Target: One ally within touch range who is Downed, dying, or making death saves.
The target immediately cancels one failed death save or becomes stable. If the target spends Fate before the end of the scene, they regain additional Vitality equal to your Priest level.
Fervor: Spend 1 Fervor to let the target immediately make a death save with Advantage or regain 1 Vitality.
Death can wait outside the chapel.
Ministorum Priest progression uses Doctrine Trees.
Doctrine Trees replace the idea of a locked subclass plus scattered feature choices. A Priest does not choose one permanent subclass and then receive a random pile of features. Instead, they earn Doctrine Points and spend them across Ministorum Priest Doctrine Trees.
A player may specialize deeply in one tree or spread points across several to become a broader healer, preacher, firebrand, martyr, exorcist, or relic-bearing zealot.
Doctrine Trees represent the kind of faith the Priest has weaponized and the kind of suffering they have learned to sanctify.
Each rank costs 1 Doctrine Point and requires the previous rank in that tree unless future rules say otherwise.
Ministorum Priests gain 1 Doctrine Point at every even level.
| Priest Level | Doctrine Points Gained |
|---|---|
| 2 | +1 |
| 4 | +1 |
| 6 | +1 |
| 8 | +1 |
| 10 | +1 |
| 12 | +1 |
| 14 | +1 |
| 16 | +1 |
| 18 | +1 |
| 20 | +1 |
This progression is a working draft. Final class balance may change after the other classes are designed.
Battlefield Confessors do not ask soldiers if they are afraid. They ask what they plan to do with the fear.
Your Litany range increases from 30 feet to 45 feet for allies who can hear you.
When you use a Litany on an ally who is Pinned or Frightened, that ally gains +2 on the save to end that condition. If the Litany is Hymn Against Fear, the ally gains Advantage instead.
When an ally within 45 feet fails a Willpower Save, you may use your Reaction to let them reroll. If the reroll succeeds, gain 1 Fervor.
Once per safe rest, when you use a Litany that targets one ally, you may affect a second eligible ally within range. If both allies can hear each other, each also gains temporary Vitality equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Once per safe rest, as an Action, all allies within 30 feet who can hear you gain Advantage on Willpower Saves and cannot become Frightened until the start of your next turn. The first time each affected ally hits before the effect ends, they deal additional damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Confession is faster under artillery.
Design note: Battlefield Confessor should be the Priest's broad buff and morale tree.