The bard’s new class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Navigate (Int), Research (Int), Urban Lore (Wis), and Use Device (Int).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: When a bard gains
the Technical Proficiency feat, she automatically becomes proficient with all high-tech simple weapons and light armor. Bards are also proficient in an archaic martial weapon of their choice (PHB 27). If your char- acter receives the Technical Proficiency feat during character creation, this weapon may be of the more tech- nologically advanced versions described in Chapter 6: Equipment (see page 102).
New Equipment: Most imperial bards take full
advantage of technological resources. A variety of instruments and headsets or clip-on microphones with built-in amplifiers are available. These devices greatly improve the range of abilities based on bardic music and voice. These devices allow the bard’s voice and music to be heard at a greater distance, usually up to 300 feet away. Additional range limitations listed for specific bardic abilities are not affected by this equipment. For example, a bard with a headset microphone is able to
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project his voice much further than he can unaided. His fascinate ability, however, is still limited to targets who can hear and see him within 90 feet.
Bardic Knowledge: Until the bard has gained the
Technical Proficiency feat, he is limited to knowledge gathered from his homeworld or planets he has visited personally. Once he has the Technical Proficiency feat, you can assume the bard spends some time absorbing information from worlds far and wide and so improves his storehouse of knowledge. For example, an Outlands bard has no chance to know anything about the Dragon Empire, unless there has been some previous contact. Once the bard has gained the Technical Proficiency feat, he has access to vast storehouses of information and the virtual library of the InfoNet. The bard can easily pick up news, stories, rumors, and legends from planets on the other side of the Empire.
Cleric
The people of the Dragon Empire have long since reached past the heavens and into the stars, but they have not left their gods behind. If anything, their expan- sion into space has only strengthened the bond they have with their deities. Evidence of the work of the gods runs through the galaxy like iron through steel. Even if you can’t always see it perfectly, it’s there lending strength to the whole.
The Dragon Empire is remarkably tolerant of all reli- gions, even those some consider evil. This tolerance lies at the heart of one of the Empire’s founding tenets: No one can be persecuted or prosecuted based solely on moral alignment. The dragons of Asamet insisted on this basic right being written into the Imperial Charter. They knew that, if it were not, they would be persecuted on the basis of their very natures—the very natures given to them by the gods.
While this may frustrate characters of good align- ment—particularly paladins—who want to weed out evil before it takes root, they should realize that the pro- tection extends to them as well. This is particularly rel- evant in the opening decades of the anticipated 5,000 years of rule under the banner of Asamet.
The ascendance of the Unification Church has been the single greatest revolution in religion since people began traveling to the stars. Its theology was a perfect fit for the worldview of an age of exploration, contact between worlds, and cultural, political, and economic unification. The prophet Nasuit, the founder of the Unification Church, was quite literally in the right place at the right time.
There are still dozens, even hundreds, of religions and beliefs that do not fit neatly within the church’s doctrine. While church scholars struggle to reinterpret these faiths
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in ways consistent with that doctrine, millions living on outlying worlds continue to worship their old gods. Some of these traditionalists have simply never heard the Unification Church’s message, while others have ignored it. Missionary clerics often travel the Outlands striving to bring this message to the unconverted.
Game Rule Information
The following new rules apply to clerics.
New Class Skills
The cleric’s new class skill (and its key ability) is Research (Int).
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: When a cleric
takes the Technical Proficiency feat, she automatically becomes proficient with all high-tech simple weapons, light armor, medium armor, and heavy armor.
Unification: If a cleric from an Outlands world wor-
ships a deity that shares at least one domain with one of the deities of the Unification Church and is within a step of that deity’s alignment either way, the character may be worshipping an aspect of that deity. Ideally, the cler-
ic will also be able to find a thematic match between her patron deity and one of the archetypes of the Unification Church. If the character chooses, she can convert to the Unification Church and suffer no penalties or hin- drances for doing so. At the DM’s discretion, this choice can be taken out of the cleric’s hands if her entire reli- gious hierarchy converts. Of course, there could certain- ly be those who rebel against such a conversion, and the character may well be among them.
The Dualist Heresy: Clerics may also convert to the
Dualist Heresy. Good clerics must worship the Creator, evil clerics must worship the Adversary, and most neu- tral clerics honor both, emphasizing the totality of the opposition rather than one side of it.
Druid
One might think that druids would have no place in the Dragon Empire. In an age of star travel, industrial- ization, and urbanization, what room is there for the peace and tranquility of the sacred grove?
Druids nevertheless thrive in the Empire. The vast ocean of space is just as much a part of the natural order as sun, sky, tree, and beast. The ships that sail upon it have opened up new possibilities to explore and learn from countless worlds.
Many druids nonetheless oppose the ascendance of the machine and the spread of great cities across once-
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