Divine Guardians

A divine guardian is a creature chosen by the gods to guard a certain sacred site of the faith. Blessed with eternal life (or damned, some might say), a divine guardian spends untold centuries in the service of its deity, tirelessly and deathlessly defending its charge from any who would seek to desecrate it.

A divine guardian may have an aura as if it were an aligned outsider.

A divine guardian does not age or breathe. It does not require food, drink, or sleep.

Typically such a creature is transformed into a form more regal than its mortal one, setting it apart from a typical member of its race or species. A divine guardian is spiritually connected to the one site that it must guard for eternity. As long as a divine guardian remains within that site, it does not hunger, thirst, get sick, or even age. Within the bounds of its sacred site, a divine guardian possesses numerous defensive powers to ward it from intruders, but it can never leave the area or the long years of its service will finally catch up to it. A divine guardian must weigh the power and prestige of its endless responsibility against the freedom death might inevitably bring.

A divine guardian is gifted with incredible speed. A divine guardian may fly, burrow, or swim.

Each divine guardian is assigned to guard a specific site sacred to the deity that invested it with power. This area may be a structure, a series of structures, or a natural site with clearly defined borders. It can be as large as a city, but in most cases it’s a single temple or sacred grove. Gods don’t waste their powers on places that their worshipers can protect, so most divine guardians keep watch over abandoned burial grounds or lost temples. The divine guardian of such a site is charged with protecting it from harm and preventing incursions by those not of the faith. It must keep its vigil until the god deems the guardian’s task done.

If the divine guardian ever moves out of the area defined as a sacred site, it immediately loses the divine guardian template and any spellcasting ability the deity might have granted. It cannot regain the template unless it atones for its failure (usually by completing some quest or via an atonement spell) and reenters the site within 1 week. Otherwise, it loses the template permanently, with its health deteriorating as the years of lost food, drink, and sleep return to it tenfold. Even if it survives, the creature can never regain the template.

Most divine guardians are chosen servants who agree to willingly serve their gods for all eternity, but some have been cursed with their duty in response for some harm to the god’s faithful or as atonement for some great sin. Whatever the nature of its creation, a divine guardian is still beholden to the god that granted it its power, and to the followers of that god as well.

Divine guardians have spell-like abilities.

A divine guardian is immune to disease, poison, and all mind-affecting effects. It also gains fast healing and ability healing.

A cleric or paladin of the deity that created a divine guardian can issue the guardian commands. This does not give the cleric or paladin complete control over the creature, but the guardian does respond favorably to those requests. For example, a cleric could ask it to not attack her companions, or to help her defend the guardian’s sacred site from attackers. A cleric or paladin of the same faith may convince a divine guardian to do something it wouldn’t ordinarily do. A divine guardian can never be ordered to abandon its sacred site or to go against the tenets of its deity’s faith.

A divine guardian gains darkvision and low-light vision.

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