When most people envision a diviner, the seer is what they most likely imagine. Studious, insightful and learned, the seer is a paragon of wisdom and lore. What sets him apart from a sage is his gift for prophecy and his ability to use scrying devices with uncanny ease. What a seer cannot uncover in ancient texts, he can often discover with his mastery of divination magic and a crystal ball.

Another thing that separates sages from seers is the sage’s focus on the past and present. While a seer can have an excellent grasp on history or politics, the future is his primary field of study. The seer is a precognitive being; often gaining flashes of what will be when he least expects them. The future is forever changing but its most probable forms are often clearly visible to a seer. As might be imagined, this is not always a blessing.

Seers are not always enviable people. Knowing what is to come does not begin to prepare you for it. Seeing the deaths of loved ones, the fall of one’s nation or the impending destruction of everything one holds dear can be a maddening thing. Fortunately, a seer also develops the ability to alter the future he sees. This is far from a certainty, even at the highest level of ability but it can offer solace in the fact that, if the future is not what a seer wishes it to be, something might be done about it.

It is for this reason that seers often study the same lore as sages. Being doomed to relive the past is not a great burden if the past holds answers to the problems of today and tomorrow. Prophecies can act as guides, old lore can offer clues to current riddles and the actions of an ancestor may hold the key to what a seer should or should not do in the present. If knowledge is power and forewarned is forearmed, a seer might well be one of the most powerful and well-armed men in the world.

Role: Spell Utility

Characteristics: Oracles that can see the future laid out in front of them.

Source: Encyclopedia Arcane: Divination

Game Rule Information

The Seer has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Intelligence for your scrying abilities and checks, Constitution is needed for your sustained concentration check.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d4

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Seer's class skills are Alchemy (Int), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Scry (Int) Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis)

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Seer.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Seer is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with prior to taking levels in this class.

Spells per Day/Spells Known: At every seer level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class. At every seer level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he belonged before adding the prestige class.

Visions Su: The seer occasionally has glimpses of the future. This happens more often when he is asleep but they may occur at any time. He has no control over these visions at first and they seem to occur at random. The Games Master may, at his discretion, give the seer hints about upcoming events that impact the seer’s life or the lives of those he cares about. At a minimum, these should happen at least once per adventure but the exact frequency is entirely up to the Games Master.

Upon reaching sixth level, the seer gets his visions more clearly and more often. The frequency and form are still under the Games Master’s control but the power should prove more useful and should grant a vision at least twice per adventure.

The Gift of Prophecy Ex: Not content with random glimpses of destiny, the seer begins to develop his ability to foretell. As long as he has access to an item capable of being used to scry (the mirror used in a scrying spell, a crystal ball or any other tool deemed appropriate), the seer can attempt to provoke a prophetic vision once per day. The seer must make a Scry check (DC 25) to successfully obtain such a vision.

Using this power takes at least an hour and may, at the Games Master’s discretion, take much longer. The Gift of Prophecy can be notoriously vague, providing clues and omens without any clear answers. There is one thing the seer can be certain of, however; if the vision comes at all, it will be accurate. The vision may be cryptic and hard to understand but it will not lie.

Eyes of Crystal Ex: Seers have a singular talent for using crystal balls as scrying foci. Seers gain a +2 competence bonus to all Scry checks when using one, including the check required to use their Gift of Prophecy. In addition, any crystal ball gains the clairaudience power when used by a seer.

Clairsentient Sp: While a seer may focus on the future, his psychic senses also become attuned to the present all around him. Once per day for every three full class levels, a seer can invoke Clairaudience/Clairvoyance as the spell, except that the seer is able to both see and hear the target location. The duration of the Clairsentient ability is up to one hour but a Concentration check (DC 10 +2 per previous check) must be made every five minutes. Failure ends the effect.

Fortunate Soul Su: Exposure to his visions eventually gives a seer an innate sense of danger. This moment’s warning is not strong enough to identify the source of such peril but it often lets the seer react before others even know they are in jeopardy. The seer gains Evasion, as the rogue ability of the same name, and cannot be caught flat-footed. He can still be surprised but he retains his Dexterity bonus even if he has not yet acted in a combat.

Clear Sighted: The gaze of a seer is very difficult to ward off. At sixth level, a seer gains the ability to ignore any one factor that would keep a subject hidden from his Divination spells. The factor, be it a thickness of lead, a nondetection spell or some other protection, is completely negated by this power. Only one factor is ignored, so a given subject might still avoid the seer if it is protected by multiple conditions. This power cannot pierce the protection offered by direct divine intervention.

Fate's Advocate Ex: By now, the seer is becoming well known to the forces of destiny. He may be a champion of light or a black-hearted villain but his relationship with the impartial forces of fate allow him to alter the future through sheer force of will. Even subconsciously, the future will bend slightly to protect him and shield him from the ravages of random chance.

Fate’s Advocate grants the seer a +1 luck bonus on all dice rolls. If a lower result would be preferable, this can be a –1 at the seer’s option. The seer can transfer this luck bonus to any one person he can see for as long as he can maintain line of sight. In this case, line of sight can be traced through a scrying effect of any sort.

Knowing Gaze Sp: A seer with this level of ability can look at a creature and know the general impact it may have on the future. This ability works constantly, cannot be suspended by the seer and essentially grants him Know Alignment. This sight is not entirely accurate and, if the target succeeds at a Will save (DC 20), the seer only gets the law/chaos part of their alignment. The target is unaware of this ability being used. Knowing Gaze also warns the seer if a creature he sees will be of importance to him. This facet of the power is also entirely under the Games Master’s control and, in general, it will let the seer know that someone is important to him but not how they are important. Line of sight with this power can also be achieved through scrying.

True Prescience: The seer’s constant ability to sense the future becomes much more potent when True Prescience is gained. He gains Improved Evasion and is constantly under the effect of a Foresight spell. This forewarning is extremely powerful and will even awaken the seer from a sound sleep to protect him from danger.