Divine soul

Divine souls, sometimes called favored souls or invokers, were divine spellcasters who gained their power directly from a divine source. This was unlike avengers, clerics, or paladins, who channeled their prayers carefully through holy symbols. Divine souls, much like sorcerers, drew their powers from their innate connections to their divine ancestry, be it the direct touch of a god, a prophecy, or a celestial ancestor. They used these powers to control the battlefield, smite foes from a distance, or empower their allies, making them quite versatile.

Culture
Invokers are an unusual sort. While most divine agents draw their power through religious rites and careful training, invokers find this power to come with far greater ease than others. The divine equivalent of sorcerers, invokers come naturally, instinctively to their abilities, leading some scholars to believe they perhaps have immortal ancestry hidden in their family bloodline. Others believe invokers are all the results of particular forms of training or perhaps chosen by a god for some divine purpose. Whatever the origin of their abilities, however, invokers are gifted with extraordinary abilities most can never match, making them ideal servants of the gods whom they serve.

Most invokers are lonely, wandering souls, sometimes welcomed by the churches of their deity and sometimes rejected or misunderstood. Generally, invokers are outside of any church's hierarchy, instead serving their god directly as an emissary apart from their other agents who can act in ways that a cleric or paladin could not. Because of this, though invokers must be the same alignment as their god, invokers are more commonly chaotic than lawful, chaotic gods preferring the use of invokers over lawful gods, who generally prefer the more organized paladins or clerics. Though sometimes distrusted for their lack of discipline, the truly devout recognize invokers for what they are - powerful manifestations of the divine.

Invokers cast their prayers through an innate connection to their deity, rather than by study and ceremony. An invoker generally learn of their connection to the divine at an early age. Like sorcerers, they often demonstrate their power unintentionally at first, eventually coming to understand it at a later age. Because of this process of self-discovery invokers rarely, if ever, rely on anyone else and gain comparatively less from cooperation than other divine agents.

Generally, invokers are more common amongst the so-called savage races than the more civilized ones, since civilization generally prefers the rites and organized nature of cleric-run churches. Likewise, more orc or goblinoid divine spellcasters are invokers than clerics. Among the more settled races, devas or dwarves are most commonly invokers. Regardless of cultural origin, most invokers find more common ground with sorcerers, with whom they share a history of personal discovery and innate power, than with other servants of the divine, who they often feel are too bound by church dogma. Invokers also commonly enjoy the company of druids or rangers.

During the war between the gods and the primordials, invokers were the most important mortal servants of the divine, fighting alongside their deities. Much because of this many who take up the invoker's path have a different view of the gods than most other divine agents. Although many see gods based on individual worship and morality invokers see all deities, even those who are the natural enemies of their own patron, as worthy of worship and respect as combatants of the primordials. In spite of this veneration of all gods, invokers have a single patron and must, like paladins, be the same alignment of that deity and old gods are more commonly served by invokers than young ones.

Abilities
Like other divine spellcasters invokers wield powers charged by the power of a god or other immortal known as prayers. However, the prayers of invokers differ in many important ways from the prayers of other divine spellcasters. Unlike most servants of the divine, invokers channel prayers innately and with little need for training or preparation. Invokers do not require holy symbols or rites of investiture to obtain echoes of their patron's power, instead channeling that power directly.

This power offers invokers many abilities, from summoning angelic servitors to empowering nearby allies. Typically, invokers use their prayers to deprive their foes of defenses or smite them from a distance, although most invokers also learn to either heal allies or strike enemies with deadly accuracy. Unlike other divine spellcasters, invokers use rods or staffs as implements to charge this power. Invokers are also skilled in the use of chainmail and lighter armors, as well as virtually all simple weapons.

Invokers, in order to obtain the power they wield, make a covenant with their god, sometimes undergoing years of study and testing in order to seal it. Through this covenant, made most often consciously but sometimes subconsciously, the invoker channels their prayers, henceforth making the nature of the covenant incredibly important to the invoker. Some choose a covenant of preservation, working to defend the faithful, commanding and shielding them from harm. Others take on a covenant of wrath, seeking out the enemies of the divine, empowering their attacks with divine power.

In addition to their common list of prayers, invokers gain other abilities. Like other divine agents, invokers can use channel divinity prayers, each invoker knowing how to rebuke undead. Invokers sometimes pick up channel divinity prayers channeled directly from their deity and invokers also gain a form of channel divinity based on the nature of their covenant, either preserver's rebuke or armor of wrath. Invokers also know how to use rituals and can cast Hand of Fate once per day without the necessary components.

A number of invokers are also well-versed in the use of the favored weapons of their gods, gaining a degree of proficiency in them that exceed that of most warriors. Many invokers are also resistant to various types of energy. Often, experienced invokers gain resistance to the damage caused by silver or cold iron as well, which one based upon whether the god the invoker serves is lawful or chaotic, respectively. Several invokers develop the capacity of flight as well, taking on wings that are either feathered or bat-like, based on whether the god served is good or evil.

Invoker covenants
The prayers and characters of an invoker depend, to some degree, upon the kind of covenant they form with their god. Most invokers are part one of the covenants listed below.

Preserving invoker
Invokers of the "covenant of preservation," preserving invokers are protectors of their god's faithful. These invokers acquire aspects similar to those of a cleric, including an emphasis on self-discipline and empathy over cunning or durability. Preserving invokers still value their intellect, however, and while wisdom is seen by them as more important, most preserving invokers try not to neglect the other side of their mind. Preserving invokers specialize in keeping their allies out of harm's way, while calling down the wrath of their god upon the attackers of the faithful through the preserver's rebuke prayer.

Malediction invoker


Though all invokers draw on the power of the gods with an uncanny degree of efficiency and ease, some draw on power that even other invokers are afraid to dabble with. These invokers are those who swear themselves to the "covenant of malediction," which entrusts the mortal invoker with the very power of thought with which the gods first stabilized the primordial chaos from which the world eventually came. These "words of creation" are unspeakably powerful, so much so that to use them, malediction invokers must pay a physical price with each prayer they cast using them. As a result, many malediction invokers, while still placing wisdom as the most important of their attributes, must train their bodies to a high degree of endurance just to withstand the power they use in the service of the divine, placing the honing of their mind by the wayside in terms of priority. Malediction invokers, in addition to the powerful words of power they learn from their covenant, gain the ability to use the maledictor's doom prayer.

Wrathful invoker
Agents of divine rage, wrathful invokers, rather than emulating the ways of a cleric, take on methods similar to those of an avenger, smiting enemies of their god and his or her faithful with scant mercy. Like other invokers, wrathful invokers favor self-discipline and strong judgment, but also put a high emphasis on physical durability, so that they might survive long enough to fell their god's foes. Wrathful invokers are agents of the "covenant of wrath" and from this oath of allegiance to their god they draw great strength for their own preservation with the armor of wrath prayer as well as additional potency for their attacks.

Notable Divine Souls

 * Belkram, a cursed favored soul who dwelt in Undermountain.
 * Braeden was a well-known invoker of Tiamat.