JoeOutside's page

I have done exactly what you are suggesting in the past, and it works better than you would think, although a few house rules dealing with magic, finances and armor had to be cobbled together.

Because I was still going for a fairly high-fantasy feel, I had my players start at 4th level so that they could have their first advanced class level. If you want something grittier, starting them lower would definitely do that. For finances I reverse engineered the d20 modern system where 1 dollar worth of value was equivalent to one silver piece, but using pathfinder's equipment setup would probably be easier at this point. For AC I kept the defense rating of the classes, then took the piecemeal armor and armor as DR rules from unearthed arcana. My magic system was skill based, but that was as much because I wanted to play around with magic systems as any need to fix the rules. We played that campaign for a year and a half and I still occasionally get requests to go back to it.

So yeah, d20 modern is quite doable for what you want. It's just going to take some work.

Remember that in order for the Bishop (a Cleric)'s powers to function, he must remain within one alignment step of his Patron Deity. In this case he must be LG/NG/LN.

If he becomes evil (such as preaching / inciting / actively participating in acts of genocide) he will lose all his powers, as will clerics / paladins who follow those instructions.

However, if he's just taken a bump to the noggin or otherwise truly misguided or deceived (alternatively replaced by doppleganger or other illusion/shapeshifting), it is possible that he may misinterpret the cause of the loss of his powers. eg "We're being tested by Iomedae, we must eradicate all of these beasts of evil to regain our Lady's blessings!" He's still lost the powers, but he might ramp up the genocide rhetoric.

There may be some insanity/madness related traits & feats that allow you to fake an alignment or otherwise gain cleric powers without the proper alignment. Haven't got my source books on hand ;) But another trope from literature is that if the deceit is coming from a suitably powerful evil outsider or Deity, they may grant the powers to the cleric/bishop once Iomedae ceases (often without the cleric's immediate knowledge).

Does the bishop have to be a cleric? The office of Bishop is a rank within an ecclesiastical system rather than a rank within a class. The bishop could be a wizard, summoner or even monk or bard (or even an adept!) with ranks in Knowledge: Religion and Profession: Clergy, using diplomacy and manipulation to get his way a la Cardinal Richelieu. With the cult of Razmir extant there are feats and options to help pull this off even more cleanly.