The Bishop is a class which has been much disputed, especially by my own gaming group. Some approve, some do not. It is adapted from the Wizardry* role-playing game by Sir-Tech. It is a Wizard/Cleric class for humans. It is not meant to be a straight multi-class combination, and will have different limitations than a demi-human. Consider bishops to be holy men who have a talent for non-divine magic. Being somewhat less devout than clerics who specialize in their calling, bishops suffer in the number of spells available to them in both class types.
Stat requirements for this class are; Intelligence not less than 13, Wisdom not less than 14, and Constitution not less than 12. While bishops do learn both types of spells at the same time, progression of spells is much slower, and training may cost quite a bit more. Unless a high enough level bishop of the same deity is available to provide training, the training will have to be done separately, in magic-user and cleric. Bishops may attain a maximum of sixth level spells in either class, and do not get bonus cleric spells for high wisdom. A table delineating the spell progression will be shown later in this document.
This class has 6 sided hit dice, but use the combat and saving throw matrices of clerics. They are limited to leather armor or magical protections, and may only train in blunt weapons. The buckler is the only shield available to bishops. They may not wear helms, except the leathern cap associated with leather armor, or magical helms with properties other than that of protection (i.e. helm of teleportation, underwater action, etc.). They may use all magic items associated with either magic users or clerics.
While most bishops are humans, demi-humans may take it, but as a stand-alone class only, not in combination with other classes. The Unearthed Arcana rolls to generate a human bishop is the same as for the Illusionist.
Bishops have the special ability at higher levels to identify magic items. This ability starts at 5th level, at which time they have a 5% chance to successfully evaluate the magic functions of an item. For every subsequent level the ability increases by 5%, up to a maximum of 70%. Only 1 attempt may be made for any given item. The only drawback to this ability is that the item must be held, worn, or employed as it normally would by the bishop attempting to identify it, and cursed items may affect the bishop.
Experience
Points Level
d6 Hit Dice
0-3000
1
1
3001-6000
2
2
6001-12500
3
3
12501-24000
4
4
24001-45000
5
5
45001-75000
6
6
75001-100000
7
7
100001-150000
8
8
150001-300000
9
9
300001-600000
10
9+2
600001-1000000
11
9+4
400000 experience points
per level beyond 11th.
Level
Cleric spells by level
Magic User spells by level
Spell Level
Spell Level
1 2
3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
5 6
1
2
1
2
3
2
3
4 1
2
4
4 1
3 1
5
5 2
3 2
6
5 2 1
3 2 1
7
5 3 1
4 3 1
8
6 3 2
4 3 2
9
6 3 2 1
4 3 3
10
6 3 3 2
5 3 3 1
11
7 4 3 3
5 4 4 2
12
7 4 4 3
1
5 4 4 2
1
13
8 5 4 3
2
6 5 4 2
2
14
8 5 4 3
3 1
6 5 4 3
3
15
8 6 5 4
3 2
6 5 4 3
3 1
16
9 7 6 5
5 3
7 5 5 4
3 2
17
9 7 6 6
5 3
7 5 5 4
4 3
18
9 8 6 6
6 4
7 6 5 5
4 4
No spell beyond these can be gained except by magical means such as a Ring of Wizardry.
