D&D 3E/3.5 3E D&D Aurelia setting & houserules material (now with magic items!)

[Arkhandus]

Dragon Knight Prestige Class

The Dragon Knight

On rare occasions, a dragon takes a skilled and agreeable mortal warrior into his or her service as a guardian or an agent of the dragon's will, forging a mystical bond with the mortal through an ancient rite known as the Dragonbond. These mortal warriors are known as dragon knights, and serve their patron dragon in much the same way a human knight would serve his feudal lord, though many are sneakier and less honorable than a royal knight, as befitting the servants of black, brass, copper, red, or white dragons. Dragon knights are extremely durable warriors of significant skill. They receive some draconic powers and physical traits over time, such as scales, energy resistance, and greater strength. Some even gain draconic breath weapons, wings, or teeth and claws.

In exchange the mortal is expected to protect the dragon and its interests, though for some dragon knights, this is a loose duty that can be served by just acting as the dragon would while out adventuring. The Dragonbond was established long ago by the dragon gods for reasons not known to most mortals, allowing true dragons (not their lesser kin, such as wyverns) to reward mortal allies without giving up any of their own power or wealth, instead simply sharing a portion of their power. The Dragonbond cannot be forced upon a creature; the individual must willingly accept it, though the dragon can certainly threaten or torture the mortal into accepting (only evil dragons will do so). Though most dragon knights are mortals, the Dragonbond may be made with a few other creatures as well.

A dragon knight either embraces their bond with a dragon, or tries to hide it. Most come to accept it and try to use it to their advantage, displaying signs of their draconic alliance and draconic boons, boldly stating their affiliation with the dragon when trying to get what they want from others, gloating about the fact that they have a dragon on their side (even though it's more like the dragon has them at its beck and call), or simply bearing a draconic helm or shield design. They might leave some of their colorful scales exposed, display their claws and fangs briefly to scare folks, or display how torches or the like cannot burn them (or vials of acid, or individual shocker lizards, or similar things, as appropriate).

Often, a dragon knight wears the colors of their patron dragon due to its insistence or just out of pride, while some dragon knights wear lots of gold or silver ornamentation just because their patron dragon prefers the sight of precious metals whenever it has to hold an audience with the dragon knight. Those dragon knights who try to hide their Dragonbond tend to wear concealing clothes, gauntlets, and closed-face helms, explaining away their occasional supernatural power or minor transformation as a bit of sorcery or psionics that they had a talent for, though many scholars, mages, and psionicists will know this to be false. A few dragons insist that their dragon knights hide the affiliation, for the sake of the dragon's agenda or personal security.

Dragon knights are more likely than not to be lawfully-aligned, simply because lawful dragons are more likely to make deals with mortals and share a portion of their power with mortals. Still, nonlawful dragons occasionally accept mortal aid or force the Dragonbond upon a mortal they wish to control the talents of, on threat of death if they do not serve. The Dragonbond just serves to make the demand less of a burden by empowering the mortal somewhat.

Dragon knights sometimes reflect the personality of their patron dragon, since it may have been those qualities that made them agreeable allies to begin with. Most, however, just share a simple agreement with the patron dragon and a vaguely similar outlook; many a Neutral Good or Neutral Evil mortal has made the deal purely for the sake of personal gain or protecting their communty, despite the onus of serving a more chaotic or more orderly dragon. Most dragon knights are given some amount of freedom, although a few are forced to stay near their patron dragon and serve in its defense.

The majority of dragon knights are barbarians, fighters, or rangers that have impressed a dragon with their fighting skills and attitude, at least for a mortal, making them fit for service. Dragon knight abilities mesh well with the fighting skills and styles of these warriors. Occasionally a samurai, sohei, rogue, monk, or bard becomes a dragon knight, but these are much less common. Monks may respect a lawful dragon enough to join forces with them. Samurai and sohei are often too devoted to a particular person or place, and will not divide their loyalties, but some find the Dragonbond to be in the best interests of their lord or temple, while some just accept a dragon as their new master after losing their previous master.

Rogues and bards are less trustworthy in general, but quite agreeable with some dragons, such as copper dragons, who may offer to share some adventures and power with the mortal in exchange for some treasure. Paladins and psychic warriors are only rarely dragon knights, though both are reasonably well suited to it. Paladins are strongly devoted to their patron deities or justice in general, but a few find themselves in agreement with a gold or silver dragon as to how best to serve the greater good, particularly those few paladins who venerate a draconic patron deity. Psychic warriors tend to be more enterprising and personally focused, but on rare occasions find their interests to be best served by working with a dragon.

Few other individuals become dragon knights because of the difficulty in meeting the martial demands of a dragon knight, and because it interferes with the advancement of their own abilities, such as spellcasting. The shortest path into this prestige class is with 6 levels of fighter or paladin, for whom the basic requirements are easily attained. Barbarians, rangers, and samurai may also qualify that early if they use a feat or multiclassing to gain heavy armor proficiency, and rangers also need to acquire Intimidate as a class skill or else wait until after 8th-level. Swashbuckler bards, zealot clerics, avenger druids, and similar individuals may also qualify by 6th-level with a bit of effort, though of those, only the swashbuckler variant bard is reasonably well-suited to becoming a dragon knight.

Hit Die: d12.


Requirements
To qualify to become a dragon knight, a character must meet all the following criteria.
Creature Type: Aberration, Beast, Fey, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Outsider, Plant, or Shapechanger.
Alignment: Any within one step of the patron dragon's.
Base Attack Bonus: +6.
Diplomacy: 2 ranks.
Intimidate: 5 ranks.
Knowledge (war): 2 ranks.
Feats: Endurance, Iron Will, Remain Conscious.
Special: Proficiency in all simple and martial weapons, proficiency in all armors, must pledge loyal service to an individual true dragon, must donate an item worth at least 1,000 gold pieces per age category of that patron dragon that it accepts into its hoard, must complete an uninterrupted daylong ritual with their patron dragon to form a magical bond.


Class Skills
The dragon knight’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dragon lore) (Int), Knowledge (war) (Int), Listen (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Wilderness Lore (Wis).
Skill Points Per Level: 2 + Int modifier.


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the dragon knight prestige class.
[sblock]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A dragon knight gains no extra proficiencies.

Free Language: All dragon knights learn to speak the Draconic language if they did not already know it beforehand.

Dauntless (Ex): Dragon knights quickly develop a perseverance and resilience akin to that of their patron dragons, thanks to their special bond. Starting at 1st-level in this prestige class, the dragon knight becomes immune to sleep effects, paralysis, and the Frightful Presence of any creatures with the Dragon type. In addition, the dragon knight receives a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. As normal, this bonus against fear also applies to the difficulty of Intimidate checks made against the dragon knight. Lastly, the dragon knight has no need for sleep, so he can remain ever vigilant. He or she merely spends an equal amount of time undertaking light activity in order to heal or recover anything normally reliant on sleep; in other words, light activity provides them with all the benefits of sleep. If the dragon knight belongs to a race that does not sleep but instead relies on a similar rest period, such as an Elf's trance, then he or she may substitute light activity instead of that rest period.


Dragonbond: The dragon knight shares a powerful bond with his or her patron dragon, and it is this bond which allows the knight to develop draconic traits. The ritual magic woven to create this bond is too primal, and too tightly wrapped around the dragon knight's essence, for anything short of divine intervention to break it (by a deity with divine rank 6 or higher, using Wish, Miracle, or Alter Reality; no mere demigod can break the bond). The bond cannot be suppressed. Each patron dragon may only form such a bond with up to one dragon knight per three age categories of the dragon, rounded up, to a maximum of three dragon knights. Undead dragons cannot have dragon knights. The Dragonbond does not detect as magical, except to Analyze Dweomer, which only determines that it is a powerful magical effect.

As long as the bond remains, the dragon knight can sense the general distance and direction between himself or herself and their patron dragon; in terms of distance, this provides a rough estimate for how many miles distant they are, rounded up. For example, if the dragon is north by northwest, at a higher elevation, and half a mile away, the dragon knight would sense that his or her patron dragon is higher up somewhere northwest and roughly one mile away. The patron dragon may likewise sense the dragon knight's general location in the same manner, and can distinguish which dragon knight it is. This sense ignores planar boundaries, and both the dragon knight and his or her patron dragon can sense when the other is on a different plane of existence, though not which one (of course, across planes that are not coexistent, the sense won't indicate any particular direction or distance).

If the bond is ever broken, the dragon knight loses his or her Draconic Gifts and Dauntless class features, and is incapable of ever advancing further in this class. The dragon knight also suffers 1d6 damage per character level when the bond is broken; as backlash damage this is not subject to any form of damage reduction, conversion, or redirection (such as the Shield Other spell or the Regeneration special quality). The patron dragon who formed the bond may break it with an uninterrupted, hourlong ritual, which does not require the dragon knight's presence, and works even across planar boundaries. Regardless, the bond is broken automatically if the patron dragon dies; however, unlike other scenarios, the patron dragon can restore this bond (as though never broken, except that any damage remains until healed otherwise) if it returns to true life (not undeath) and performs the daylong ritual again.


Natural Armor: A dragon knight starts to grow scales on some parts of his or her body, of the same hue as his or her patron dragon's. As they advance further in this class, the scales become slightly larger, thicker, and more numerous, though there are always at least a few, large patches of normal flesh across the dragon knight's body. At 1st-level in this class, the dragon knight receives a +1 natural armor bonus to Armor Class. This natural armor bonus improves by +1 for every three additional levels gained in the prestige class, so the total is +2 at 4th-level, +3 at 7th-level, and +4 at 10th-level. If the dragon knight already had natural armor, this just increases the bonus of that natural armor.[/sblock]
The remainder of the Dragon Knight's details is in the next post, due to size limits.

 

[Arkhandus]

Dragon Knight Prestige Class, continued

The Dragon Knight, continued

[sblock]Draconic Gifts: The dragon knight gradually acquires a few special traits and powers from his or her patron dragon, thanks to the attunement of their Dragonbond. Each dragon knight acquires one Draconic Gift of his or her choice at 2nd-level in this class, then a second Draconic Gift at 5th-level, and finally a third Draconic Gift at 10th-level. These are chosen from amongst the following options, and each Draconic Gift may only be selected once.

Blindsight (Su): A dragon knight who receives this Draconic Gift may temporarily mimic a dragon's acute senses. Up to once per day per two levels in this class, the dragon knight may use this supernatural ability as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Once activated, this provides the dragon knight with the Blindsight special quality for 1 minute (10 rounds), out to a range of 30 feet. This is a combination of hearing, smell, sensitivity to vibrations, and similar senses, so it does not detect any incorporeal or ethereal creatures if they do not make noise and are not physically manifested (ethereal creatures are detected normally if the dragon knight himself is also ethereal).

Breath Weapon (Su): If the dragon knight acquires this Draconic Gift, he or she gains the capacity to unleash a breath weapon similar to their patron dragon's, though not as often and probably not as powerful. The dragon knight chooses one energy type that his or her patron dragon's breath weapon utilizes, either acid, cold, electricity, fire, sonic, negative energy, positive energy, or force, at the time he or she acquires this ability. If the patron dragon produces none of these energies with its breath weapon, then the dragon knight's breath weapon uses force energy. The energy type chosen must be the same type that is used by (or will be used by) the dragon knight's Energy Resistance class feature, as described further below. Each day, the dragon knight's breath weapon may deal up to 2d8 damage per level in this class, but each use of the breath weapon is limited to no more than 1d8 damage per dragon knight level. The dragon knight chooses before each use of the breath weapon how many dice of damage it will deal, up to these limits.

If the breath weapon uses sonic energy, negative energy, or positive energy, then the damage dice are d6s instead of d8s. If the breath weapon uses force energy, then the damage dice are d4s instead. Negative energy breath weapons only harm living creatures, and heal undead instead of harming them. Positive energy breath weapons only harm undead creatures, and heal living creatures instead of harming them. Force energy breath weapons affect ethereal and incorporeal targets just as easily as corporeal ones, and on the Ethereal Plane they harm corporeal and incorporeal targets just as easily as ethereal ones.

The dragon knight chooses, upon gaining this ability, for his or her breath weapon to be either a line of energy or a cone of energy. The choice cannot be changed. This breath weapon works otherwise exactly like a typical dragon's, except that the line area is 60 feet long, and the cone area is 30 feet long. The DC of Reflex saving throws for half damage from a dragon knight's breath weapon is 10 + the dragon knight's level in this class + the dragon knight's Constitution modifier. In order for the dragon knight to gain this Draconic Gift, his or her patron dragon must naturally possess a breath weapon of some sort.

Damage Reduction (Su): Once the dragon knight gains this Draconic Gift, he or she may call on a dragon's supernatural toughness on occasion to make himself or herself temporarily resilient. Once per day per two levels in this class, the dragon knight may activate this supernatural ability as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. As long as it is active, the dragon knight has Damage Reduction as per a dragon, with DR 5/+2 initially. This improves to DR 5/+3 at 5th-level in the class, then to 10/+4 at 10th-level in the class. The Damage Reduction lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds). In order for the dragon knight to select this Draconic Gift, his or her patron dragon must possess the Damage Reduction quality itself.

Dragon's Endurance (Su): With this Draconic Gift, the dragon knight may draw upon the natural toughness and health of his or her patron dragon to bolster his or her own. As a standard action, the dragon knight may activate this supernatural ability without provoking attacks of opportunity. He or she then gains a +6 enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute (10 rounds) per level in this class. The enhancement improves to +8 at 5th-level in this class, then to +10 at 10th-level in this class. In addition, once the duration ends, the dragon knight naturally heals as though having rested for a day (only normal natural healing takes place from this effect, not Fast Healing or Regeneration, nor does subdual damage heal from this effect). Dragon's Endurance may be used up to three times per day.

Dragon's Strength (Su): With this Draconic Gift, the dragon knight may draw upon the natural strength of his or her patron dragon to bolster his or her own. As a standard action, the dragon knight may activate this supernatural ability without provoking attacks of opportunity. He or she then gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute (10 rounds) per level in this class. The enhancement improves to +6 at 5th-level in this class, then to +8 at 10th-level in this class. Dragon's Strength may be used up to twice per day.

Natural Weapons (Ex/Su): When the dragon knight selects this Draconic Gift, he or she gains a minor shapeshifting ability to grow fangs and claws whenever they like. This extraordinary ability may be activated or deactivated as a full-round action, which does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The effect remains active until the dragon knight loses consciousness, dies, or deactivates it, or until the duration expires. The natural weapons may be active for up to 3 minutes (30 rounds) per day. As long as it is active, the dragon knight's mouth extends into a draconic set of jaws with sharp fangs, granting him or her a powerful bite attack that deals 1d8 points of damage plus one-half his or her Strength modifier, rounded down. This is bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Likewise, his or her hands and feet grow long, draconic claws that each deal 1d6 points of damage plus the dragon knight's full Strength modifier. The claws inflict slashing and piercing damage.

These natural weapons threaten an area within the dragon knight's natural reach, and the dragon knight may attack with one natural weapon (such as a single claw or a bite) as an attack action or with all of them as a full-attack action. When all are used, the claws are primary natural weapons and the bite is secondary, suffering a -5 penalty on its attack roll. Also, note that humans and similar creatures will only be able to effectively use the claws on their hands for attacking, not claws on their feet (whereas a centaur could rear up on its hind legs, and attack with both hands and front legs).

If the dragon knight already has a bite attack or claw attacks, this improves each existing damage die for the appropriate natural weapons by one step along the following path, unless lower than the damage dice this ability normally grants - 1 to 1d2, 1d2 to 1d3, 1d3 to 1d4, 1d4 to 1d6, 1d6 to 1d8, 1d8 to 1d10, 1d10 to 2d6, 1d12 to 2d8, or 1d20 to 3d8. Similarly, once the dragon knight has reached at least 5th-level in this class, these natural weapons improve once along that path in damage dice (or again if they already had such natural weapons otherwise). This is repeated at 10th-level in the class.

Also, as a separate, supernatural quality, as long as these natural weapons are active, they are treated as having a +1 magical enhancement for purposes of bypassing Damage Reduction or being able to damage magic items (and have a 50% chance of harming incorporeal targets, just like magic weapons). At 5th-level onward, this improves to an effective +3 enhancement for those purposes, then to +5 at 10th-level.

Power Resistance (Su): This Draconic Gift grants a dragon knight with exceptional resilience against psionic effects on occasion. This psionic supernatural ability may be activated once per day as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Once activated, it provides the dragon knight with the Power Resistance special quality, at a value of 15 + the dragon knight's level in this class. This benefit lasts for 2 rounds per level in this class, although the dragon knight may suppress it as normal when desired. At 10th-level onward, the dragon knight may choose when activating this ability to make it provide 5 additional points of Power Resistance, but at the cost of reducing its duration to 1 round per dragon knight level. In order for the dragon knight to select this Draconic Gift, his or her patron dragon must possess the Power Resistance racial trait.

Sight (Ex): This Draconic Gift provides the dragon knight with specially-adapted eyesight, if the dragon knight possesses eyes at all. This grants him or her Darkvision out to 60 feet, or increases his or her existing Darkvision range by 60 feet if already possessed. Darkvision allows a creature to see normally out to a certain distance in darkness, but not magical or psionic darkness. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight. This Draconic Gift also grants the dragon knight Low-Light Vision at 5th-level onward, allowing him or her to see up to twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination, or increases the multiplier for the dragon knight's Low-Light Vision by one point if already possessed. Low-Light Vision allows them to discern colors and details as normal in poor lighting. These benefits are extraordinary abilities.

Spell Resistance (Su): This Draconic Gift grants a dragon knight with exceptional resilience against magical effects on occasion. This supernatural ability may be activated once per day as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Once activated, it provides the dragon knight with the Spell Resistance special quality, at a value of 15 + the dragon knight's level in this class. This benefit lasts for 2 rounds per level in this class, although the dragon knight may suppress it as normal when desired. At 10th-level onward, the dragon knight may choose when activating this ability to make it provide 5 additional points of Spell Resistance, but at the cost of reducing its duration to 1 round per dragon knight level. In order for the dragon knight to select this Draconic Gift, his or her patron dragon must possess the Spell Resistance racial trait.

Water Breathing (Ex): With this Draconic Gift, the dragon knight develops a special adaptation to his or her lungs or gills. If the dragon knight is an aquatic race, he or she may now breathe air just as easily as water, for any length of time (regardless of any penalties his or her race may have otherwise incurred), and may speak in an airy environment likewise. If the dragon knight is not an aquatic race, he or she may now breathe water just as easily as air, for any length of time (regardless of any penalties his or her race may have otherwise incurred), and may speak in aquatic or liquid environments likewise. In order for the dragon knight to receive this Draconic Gift, however, his or her patron dragon must naturally possess the Water Breathing special quality, in its natural form (not merely from shapeshifting, items, spells, psionic powers, or class features).

Wings (Su): If the dragon knight obtains this draconic gift, he or she gains the supernatural ability to grow a pair of draconic wings at any time in order to fly like a dragon. He or she may activate this ability as a full-round action, which does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Since this is a magical ability, it temporarily changes the dragon knight's worn gear slightly if necessary, to prevent damage from the growth of the wings. These wings each stretch roughly one-and-a-half-times the dragon knight's body length in span, and require at least that much space around him or her in order to function. They allow the dragon knight to fly at a speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability, or 40 feet at 5th-level in this class, or 60 feet at 10th-level. The wings last for up to 1 minute (10 rounds) per two levels in this class, or until the dragon knight uses a free action to deactivate them. This Draconic Gift may be used up to three times per day. In order for the dragon knight to select it, his or her patron dragon must normally possess wings and a fly speed in its natural form.


Draconic Skills: At 3rd-level the dragon knight develops some heightened senses and increased mobility from their bond with a dragon, as well as becoming more fierce. He or she receives a +1 bonus on all Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, and Swim skill checks. This bonus improves to +3 at 7th-level in the dragon knight class.

Energy Resistance (Ex): Starting at 3rd-level, the dragon knight begins to develop exceptional endurance for withstanding the kind of energy naturally attuned to his or her patron dragon. The dragon knight gains Energy Resistance 5 against the appropriate type of energy, whichever kind his or her patron dragon normally uses in its breath weapon (such as Acid for black dragons, Fire for red dragons, or Cold for silver dragons). This is an extraordinary ability, and it reduces the amount of damage the dragon knight suffers each round from the appropriate energy type by 5 points. It improves to 10 points at 6th-level and then to 20 points at 9th-level. If the patron dragon can normally produce breath weapons of multiple energy types, then the dragon knight must choose a single one of those energy types for this ability. If the patron dragon has no energy type to its breath weapon, or has no breath weapon, then this ability is Force Resistance, reducing damage from force effects (the same goes for dragon knights whose patron dragon is a force dragon). With certain patron dragons, this might be Negative Energy Resistance or Positive Energy Resistance.

Strength Increases: At 5th-level, the dragon knight's bond with his or her patron dragon makes him or her more dragon-like in physical power. The dragon knight's Strength score permanently increases by 1 point, as a natural development. This is repeated at 8th-level.[/sblock]

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Dragon Knight:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+1	+2	+0	+2	Dauntless, Dragonbond, Natural Armor +1
2	+2	+3	+0	+3	Draconic Gift
3	+3	+3	+1	+3	Draconic Skills +1, Energy Resistance 5
4	+4	+4	+1	+4	Natural Armor +2
5	+5	+4	+1	+4	Draconic Gift, Strength +1
6	+6	+5	+2	+5	Energy Resistance 10
7	+7	+5	+2	+5	Draconic Skills +3, Natural Armor +3
8	+8	+6	+2	+6	Strength +2
9	+9	+6	+3	+6	Energy Resistance 20
10	+10	+7	+3	+7	Draconic Gift, Natural Armor +4

 

[Arkhandus]

Well, it took longer to finish the updates than I had expected, due to lots of insomnia, some dog-sitting, and not being able to focus well in my sleep-deprived state each day. I worked on various other stuff too, and will get further updates done this week.

For now, I've posted the Dragon Knight prestige class of Aurelia, in the two posts above this one, and I added the Skirmisher variant Fighter to page 2, in the two posts between the standard Fighter and the Slayer variant, near the lower-middle of the page.

Dragon Knights are a means for martial or kinda-martial characters to gain some minor draconic traits and powers, without being sorcerer-type dragon disciples or whatnot. They pledge services to a dragon, and share a bit of its power through an ancient magic woven by the dragon gods. Unlike a dragon disciple or similar, the Dragon Knight develops almost purely physical abilities; they gain access to a few minor supernatural abilities from their dragon patron if they like, but are still heavily martial and draw primarily upon the strength and resilience of dragonkind.

Of course, unlike a dragon disciple, the Dragon Knight is beholden to a dragon, who can sever the bond and thus permanently remove most of the Dragon Knight's benefits if the guy can't bother to stay at least moderately loyal to the dragon or its goals. Or if he just ticks off the dragon pretty badly. Not so hard for someone trying to get the help of a copper dragon, who'd probably let them go on adventuring as normal, but a red dragon doesn't take failure or disloyalty lightly.

The Dragonbond requires a lot of resilience and martial skill out of Dragon Knights, thus the prerequisites and limitations; the dragon gods wouldn't let young, chaotic dragons go around giving their random "new bestest buddy in the world" special powers left and right. Joe Shmoe need not apply for Dragon Knight status; he'd better be Joe "I can crush a brick with my teeth, spar all day with a dragon, and stay standing while a dragon roars in my face and tears out my innards until it decides to heal me" Shmoe. Or something like that.

 

[Arkhandus]

Fixed a minor error in the bard spell list (Greater Dispelling is 5th-level for them, not both 5th and 6th), added Expeditious Retreat to the ranger spell list, and added Monstrous Humanoids to the favored enemy choices of rangers and archers. Somehow those little things just slipped my mind at some point before, when I was typing them up originally.

My grappling rules will be posted this week, and I might finish the Doom Factor rules at some point soon. Still dunno when I'll get around to finishing the last parts of the Elves' racial description and finally posting the race. Bunch of feats just about ready for posting. And my revision of the turn/rebuke undead (etc.) rules too. Character level advancement chart ready, but waiting until I decide for sure if the Aurelian wealth by level chart is OK as-is. Aurelian epic level rules almost ready, though not the revised epic feats, skills, spells/powers, and class features yet.

Paladin and Samurai revised classes are one background-description away from completion and posting. Still slowly working on getting the Scout variant Ranger finished, likewise the Spellreaver variant Bard and Yojimbo variant Samurai. Duelist prestige class also close to ready, just fleshing out the rough details in my notes to full Dueling Advantage abilities. Arcane Bombardier PrC also nearing completion, one ability and an introduction left to finish. A few more prestige classes in the works as well, more fightey.

Might focus on finishing up a batch of half-done spells though, first, for posting. Other stuff also slowly coming together. Will get around to updating the first two posts sometime this week so the links go to the right post #s again. Another short class preview set for now:

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Auramancer:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Aura, Detect Auras, Project Aura (1st)
2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Aura, Mask Aura
3	+2	+1	+1	+3	Aura, Analyze Auras
4	+3	+1	+1	+4	Aura, Manipulate Aura
5	+3	+1	+1	+4	Aura, Auric Intuition, Project Aura (2nd)
6	+4	+2	+2	+5	Aura, Auric Perception
7	+5	+2	+2	+5	Aura, Project Aura (3rd)

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Boulder Crusher:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0	+2	+0	+0	Focused Power Attack, Pulverize, Strength +1
2	+1	+3	+0	+0	Constitution +1, Ironskin +1
3	+2	+3	+1	+1	Groundpounder, Strength +2
4	+3	+4	+1	+1	Constitution +2, DR 1/-
5	+3	+4	+1	+1	Boulder Buster, Strength +3
6	+4	+5	+2	+2	Burrow, Constitution +3
7	+5	+5	+2	+2	DR 2/-, Strength +4
8	+6	+6	+2	+2	Constitution +4, Ironskin +2
9	+6	+6	+3	+3	Fissure Ripper, Strength +5
10	+7	+7	+3	+3	Constitution +5, DR 3/-, Seismic Strike

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Kamitama Jidanka:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0	+2	+2	+2	Channel Ki, Gather Ki, Yoroi-kido
2	+1	+3	+3	+3	Kitenkai-ha
3	+2	+3	+3	+3	Hado-jutsu, Ki Strike +1
4	+3	+4	+4	+4	Aramitenshokai
5	+3	+4	+4	+4	Hado-jutsu, Strength +1
6	+4	+5	+5	+5	Charisma +1, Ki Strike +2
7	+5	+5	+5	+5	Hado-jutsu
8	+6	+6	+6	+6	Wisdom +1
9	+6	+6	+6	+6	Constitution +1, Hado-jutsu, Ki Strike +3
10	+7	+7	+7	+7	Dexterity +1, Kamitenkai-battou

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Red Sash Knave:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special				Spellcasting Ability[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Deceit, Sneak Attack +1d6
2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Bardic Talent, Red Haze
3	+2	+1	+1	+3	Spiteful Song			+1 level of existing class
4	+3	+1	+1	+4	Bardic Talent, Sneak Attack +2d6
5	+3	+1	+1	+4	Dampening Music, Skill Mastery
6	+4	+2	+2	+5	Bardic Talent			+1 level of existing class
7	+5	+2	+2	+5	Grim Nocturne, Sneak Attack +3d6
8	+6	+2	+2	+6	Bardic Talent, Bonus Feat
9	+6	+3	+3	+6	Dire Requiem			+1 level of existing class
10	+7	+3	+3	+7	Bardic Talent, Fugue Song,
					Sneak Attack +4d6

Wizard base class variant:

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Arcane Artificer:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base		Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack		Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0		+0	+0	+2	Artifice Reserve, Device, Scribe Scroll
2	+1		+0	+0	+3	Energizing Focus, Traps
3	+1		+1	+1	+3	Device
4	+2		+1	+1	+4	Bonus Feat
5	+2		+1	+1	+4	Device, Physical Boost +1
6	+3		+2	+2	+5	Energizing Focus
7	+3		+2	+2	+5	Artifact Insight, Device
8	+4		+2	+2	+6	Bonus Feat, Spell Channel
9	+4		+3	+3	+6	Device
10	+5		+3	+3	+7	Energizing Focus
11	+5		+3	+3	+7	Device
12	+6/+1		+4	+4	+8	Bonus Feat
13	+6/+1		+4	+4	+8	Device, Physical Boost +2
14	+7/+2		+4	+4	+9	Energizing Focus
15	+7/+2		+5	+5	+9	Device
16	+8/+3		+5	+5	+10	Bonus Feat
17	+8/+3		+5	+5	+10	Device
18	+9/+4		+6	+6	+11	Energizing Focus
19	+9/+4		+6	+6	+11	Device, Physical Boost +3
20	+10/+5		+6	+6	+12	Artifact Mastery, Bonus Feat

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]Arcane Artificer Spells:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class				Spells Per Day *
Level	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9[/COLOR][/B]
1	1	0*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	2	1	0*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	2	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	2	2	1	0*	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	3	2	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	3	2	2	1	0*	-	-	-	-	-
8	3	2	2	1	1	-	-	-	-	-
9	3	2	2	2	1	0*	-	-	-	-
10	3	2	2	2	1	1	-	-	-	-
11	3	2	2	2	2	1	0*	-	-	-
12	3	2	2	2	2	1	1	-	-	-
13	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	0*	-	-
14	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	-	-
15	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	0*	-
16	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	-
17	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	0*
18	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1
19	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1
20	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1
[I]* This is the base number of spells the arcane artificer may cast each day,
in addition to any bonus spells for high Intelligence.  Bonus spells per day for
school specialization, if any, are also factored in after this.[/I]

 

[Arkhandus]

Arcane Bombardier Prestige Class

The Arcane Bombardier

The common Fireball spell has been around since the earliest days of wizardry and sorcery, one of the first great spells ever devised, leading the way to even greater destructive spells. It has long fascinated wizards, Red Dragons, Firagi, and the occasional pyromaniac. It is no wonder, then, that someone came to revere this magic so much that they devoted an entire lifetime to perfecting it and exploring every facet of the spell's arcane formula. Whoever this individual was, history has forgotten them, but their work lives on in the tradition of the arcane bombardier.

Countless generations of wizards and sorcerers have passed along the body of lore on how to draw out the full potential of the Fireball spell. Those who study these secrets came at some point to call themselves by the title "arcane bombardier," which other arcanists have speculated comes from some early use of the Fireball spell in combination with Fly spells during wartime, strafing battlefields and dropping Fireballs on enemy soldiers. Historical records seem to indicate the Firagi using such tactics long ago, before they changed focus towards martial arts and single combat.

These days, arcane bombardiers are relatively common (insofar as advanced spellcasters are ever "common") among militaries who utilize battlemages of any sort. They also show up among Firagi communities, a few advanced Orcish tribes, and the occasional lone pyromaniac with some arcane talents. Copies of the original texts describing Fireball mastery have spread fairly widely, so a fair number of arcane guilds and libraries have a copy, though there is a tendency for these tomes to get incinerated by mistake when a spellcaster is working with them and tweaking their Fireball incantations.

This tendency has lead to those who do possess the book to require its study be taken outside, supervised and well away from buildings or bystanders. Which has consequently lead to some copies just being stolen. The original text is long since gone, and only copies written by later arcane bombardiers remain. It is well-known that an arcane bombardier developed the Lesser Fireball and Greater Fireball spells, but their identity has also been lost, on account of having blown themselves up while experimenting. Only the spellbook left behind, bound in Red Dragon hide and apparently impervious to flames, survived; and without any signature by its owner.

Arcane bombardiers are usually flashy and exciteable folks, as likely as not to be pyromaniacs. They are often respected by Firagi and Orc communities, who love the displays of mastery over fire and especially value its application in warfare and raids. Elves, fey, and other nature-loving or peaceable folk usually abhor such fire magic.

An arcane bombardier learns to increase the size and range of their Fireball spells, even those of non-arcane origin, though they are definitely best at utilizing arcane magic. They also learn to enhance the potency and duration of their Fireballs, making them burn hotter, brighter, and longer, even learning to apply metamagic effects more efficiently with Fireballs. They can use Fireballs as torches that are ready to detonate when needed, unleash a spread of weaker Fireballs to cover a more dynamic area, and even resist or avoid the blasts more effectively. However, mastering Fireball magic tends to come at the expense of some general arcane training.

The fastest path into this prestige class is through the wizard, sorcerer, wu jen, or spellreaver variant bard, although members of a few prestige classes can also qualify at upper levels. The most common arcane bombardiers are sorcerers and wu jen who focus on mastering the fire element. Wizardly arcane bombardiers are more common among militaries, however, and some are even multiclassed as fighters, or spellswords as well. Spellreaver bards are the most common sort of Orcish arcane bombardier.

Hit Die: d8.


Requirements
To qualify to become an arcane bombardier, a character must meet all the following criteria.
Knowledge (arcana): 5 ranks.
Knowledge (the planes): 10 ranks.
Spellcraft: 10 ranks.
Feats: Enlarge Spell, Eschew Materials, Spell Focus (Evocation), Widen Spell.
Special: Ability to cast arcane spells of at least 3rd-level, must know and be able to cast Fireball as an arcane spell, must study and experiment with the Fireball spell for at least a month prior to gaining this prestige class.


Class Skills
The arcane bombardier’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Alchemy (Int), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Scry (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).
Skill Points Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the arcane bombardier prestige class.
[sblock]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An arcane bombardier gains no extra proficiencies.

Spells: At each odd-numbered arcane bombardier level, the character’s spellcasting ability (spells per day, spells known, caster level, etc.) increases, as though he had gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class that he already possessed levels in before becoming an arcane bombardier. He does not, however, gain any of the other benefits from advancing a level in that class, such as improved familiar abilities, bonus feats, base attack bonus increases, and so on. When the character first becomes an arcane bombardier, he must choose a single arcane spellcasting class that his arcane bombardier levels will improve spellcasting for. He may not change his choice later. Also, the chosen class must be one that he or she can cast Fireball from.


Fireball Specialization (Ex): At 1st-level in this class, the arcane bombardier masters some of the secrets of Fireball magic and how to manipulate it for greater effect. Whenever he or she casts a Fireball spell (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball), that spell's maximum number of damage dice based on caster level is increased by 1 die per level in this class (thus, a standard Fireball spell's maximum damage increases from 10d6 to 11d6 at 1st-level in this class, and up to 15d6 by 5th-level in this class). He or she still needs a sufficient caster level in order to inflict these extra damage dice, of course.

Furthermore, the spell's base range is increased by an extra 5 feet per caster level, and the base radius for its area of effect is increased by 5 feet (not per level). In addition, the arcane bombardier receives one bonus spell slot of 3rd-level with the class that arcane bombardier levels improve spellcasting for, as though from a higher key ability score, but this bonus slot may only be used to prepare and/or cast Fireball spells. An arcane bombardier also gains an extra +1 bonus to his or her saving throw DCs for Fireball spells (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball), and a +1 bonus on caster level checks to overcome Spell Resistance with such spells.

The arcane bombardier may also counterspell any Fireball spell with another Fireball spell of equal or higher spell level (such as countering a Fireball with a Delayed Blast Fireball, or countering a Greater Fireball with a 5th-level Heightened Lesser Fireball). This still requires an appropriate counterspell action and spell identification. Lastly, he or she is treated as having the Evasion extraordinary ability of the rogue class, but only for purposes of evading Fireball spells (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball). If he or she already has Evasion, or gains it later, then they are treated as having Improved Evasion for this purpose, as per the rogue class feature.


Metamagic Fireballs (Ex): At 2nd-level and 4th-level, the arcane bombardier gains the ability to cast Fireball with the use of metamagic at a reduced cost in spell slot level. Each time this ability is gained, the arcane bombardier reduces the total spell slot level increase from metamagic effects by 1 point, but only when applying metamagic to the Fireball spell. These reductions will not reduce the spell slot level increase below +0 (thus, the spell will always require at least a spell slot of its actual level, as with a normal casting of Fireball).

Thus, for instance, a wizard 11/arcane bombardier 4 could apply the Enlarge Spell, Quicken Spell, and Silent Spell feats once each (if he or she possesses those feats) to a Fireball spell, and it would only use up a 7th-level spell slot instead of a 9th-level spell slot (which they would not even have at that character level, making this ability all the more useful). Heighten Spell metamagic still increases the level of spell slot needed, as normal. These benefits apply with all Fireball spells, including divine versions or variants such as Delayed Blast Fireball. This is an extraordinary ability.


Bombard (Su): Arcane bombardiers learn one of their signature abilities at 2nd-level in this class, the ability to spread out a Fireball's effect to cover multiple areas with several weaker explosions. Whenever he or she casts a Fireball spell (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball), the arcane bombardier may choose to apply Bombard to that spell. This is a supernatural ability, but is activated as a free action just before casting the spell, and Bombard does not provoke attacks of opportunity itself.

If the spell is cast successfully, the arcane bombardier may divide the damage dice of the Fireball spell into multiple batches (applying any damage bonuses only to the first batch, excluding Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, or Intensify Spell metamagic, which is applied to each damage die separately). Each batch of damage dice is launched as a separate Fireball bead and may have a different target or the same target, as desired. Each bead explodes with its own area of effect as normal. You may create up to one bead in this manner for each level attained in this class. The damage dice may only be divided into batches of whole dice, not half a die for example (though Empower Spell applies normally to each die if used).

If the Fireball spell used can melt metals of some sort, then that function only applies with a bead that is assigned more than half of the damage dice (such as 5 dice out of 8 or 9 total). The beads are launched and detonated simultaneously (if the spell is delayed, such as a Delayed Blast Fireball or a standard Fireball with Delay Spell metamagic applied, then all of the beads detonate as soon as one of them does). Despite the separate beads, saving throws and Spell Resistance, along with any other defenses, apply just once against the entire spell. Bombard may be activated at the same time as other arcane bombardier class features.


Fireball Flare (Ex): Starting at 3rd-level in this class, the arcane bombardier's mastery over the Fireball spell allows him or her to freely expand its area of effect and intensify the light it produces when exploding. The arcane bombardier chooses at the time of casting any Fireball spell (including the Delayed Blast Fireball spell) whether or not to apply Fireball Flare to that spell. When this ability is applied to such a spell, that spell's area of effect receives an increase of +10 feet to its base radius. In addition, the spell's base range is increased by 60 feet per level in this class.

Lastly, the spell flares brightly when it explodes, though dimmer outside the blast. This causes all creatures within the spell's area of effect to be blinded for 1 round and then dazzled for 1 round after that, if they fail their Reflex save. If they succeed at the saving throw, the creature is simply dazzled for 1 round. Evasion, Improved Evasion, and similar abilities do not affect the blinding or dazzling result (effects that negate the spell completely on an individual or area, such as Antimagic Field or Spell Resistance, still apply). Fireball Flare may be applied alongside other arcane bombardier class features.


Fire Resistance (Su): At 3rd-level in this prestige class, the arcane bombardier develops the supernatural quality of Fire Resistance 10. He or she suffers 10 points less fire damage per round. This can reduce the damage from a fire effect to 0 but no lower. Unlike other kinds of energy resistance, however, the Fire Resistance granted by this class feature stacks with any other source of Fire Resistance, such as the Resist Elements spell.


Torch (Su): An arcane bombardier of 4th-level or higher learns how to create long-lasting, torch-like lights from their Fireball beads, detonating them later when it's convenient. Whenever he or she casts a Fireball spell (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball), the arcane bombardier may choose to apply Torch to that spell. This is a supernatural ability, but is activated as a free action just before casting the spell, and Torch does not provoke attacks of opportunity itself.

If the spell is cast successfully, and the arcane bombardier is creating only a single Fireball bead with that particular casting, then that bead's detonation is delayed and it remains in hand as a stable, brightly-glowing, reddish-yellow bead. It sheds light as per a torch, and may remain in this state for up to 1 hour per level in this class. The bead may be destroyed as per a magic item in the caster's possession, with its normal caster level, but it does not detonate if destroyed. The bead otherwise disappears harmlessly at the end of the duration noted above, or detonates after the caster launches it.

The caster may launch it as a free action on his or her turn, or as a readied action. Once launched, it has the spell's normal range, as affected by metamagic or class features if appropriate, and it detonates on impact or at the designated range as normal (or, if it is a Delayed Blast Fireball or affected by Delay Spell metamagic, the bead begins its normal delayed countdown to detonation at that time). Torch may be activated at the same time as other arcane bombardier class features, except for Bombard.


Incinerate (Su): Once the arcane bombardier has reached 5th-level, he or she can cast Fireball spells that burn hotter than normal. Whenever he or she casts a Fireball spell (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball), the arcane bombardier may choose to apply Incinerate to that spell. This is a supernatural ability, but is activated as a free action just before casting the spell, and Incinerate does not provoke attacks of opportunity itself. If the spell is cast successfully, the arcane bombardier re-rolls any damage dice results of 1 or 2 (before modifiers). In addition, the spell's level is added to its total damage, after other modifiers. Incinerate may be activated at the same time as other arcane bombardier class features.


Lingering Inferno (Su): The final secret of Fireball magic learned by an arcane bombardier is how to make a Fireball's blast linger after the detonation, starting at 5th-level in this class. Lingering Inferno is a supernatural ability that may be activated as a free action immediately before casting a Fireball spell (including ones such as Delayed Blast Fireball). Lingering Inferno does not provoke attacks of opportunity itself.

If the spell is cast successfully, and the arcane bombardier is creating only a single Fireball bead with that particular casting, then that bead will create a lingering fire after it has detonated. Once it detonates, the spell continues to deal damage in its area of effect for 1 round afterward, to anything that enters that area, and anything which remains there at the end of the round. New Reflex saves apply against the lingering effect, not the original saves. However, the blinding and dazzling effects of the Fireball Flare class feature are not repeated after the initial blast, as the flames grow dimmer.

Anything flammable in the area will continue to burn normally even after the magical flames have burned out. Effects that change durations do not apply to the Lingering Inferno's duration. Lingering Inferno may be activated at the same time as other arcane bombardier class features, except for Bombard.[/sblock]

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Arcane Bombardier:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base	Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack	Save	Save	Save	Special				Spellcasting Ability[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0	+0	+2	+0	Fireball Specialization		+1 level of existing class
2	+1	+0	+3	+0	Metamagic Fireballs, Bombard
3	+1	+1	+3	+1	Fireball Flare, Fire Resistance	+1 level of existing class
4	+2	+1	+4	+1	Metamagic Fireballs, Torch
5	+2	+1	+4	+1	Incinerate, Lingering Inferno	+1 level of existing class

 

[Arkhandus]

Aurelian Paladin

The Paladin

Paladins are the epitome of the noble warrior. Their great virtue and devotion makes them shining examples to all other folk of what a pious, honorable, and righteous individual should be. They fight evil wherever they find it, and strive to protect the innocent, lending a helping hand wherever they are needed. A paladin takes up quests to destroy demons, undead, and other monsters that prey upon the innocent. He or she defends the weak and upholds the law, protecting civilization and punishing criminals. In many lands, paladins are free to dispense justice and judgments upon criminals without challenge by local authorities, if they can prove their paladinhood.

Paladins are chosen by the gods or spirits of good and justice, chosen for their rare purity and virtuousness. This provides them with many divine gifts, though a paladin must remain faithful and true to his or her code lest they lose these gifts. A paladin can heal the injured, sense the presence of evil, and smite evil forces with divine wrath. They learn to destroy the undead and exorcise evil spirits, protect allies from evil influences or destructive magic, cure all manner of afflictions, bolster the courage and strength of allies, and call forth aid from the gods. A paladin fears nothing and can resist nearly any force brought to bear against them.

Paladins are nearly always adventurers of some sort, though a few stay in one city or country, preserving the peace and rooting out any evil forces there. Adventuring paladins seek out any problems that require the intervention of divine justice, be it a ghoul infestation, a demonic cult, a despot usurping the throne, a mysterious plague, or a town suffering famine from barbarian raids. They take up any task that deserves their attention, however minor, and when they can't find a more immediate threat to dispatch, they seek out lost relics that need to be recovered for the church or for use against the forces of evil. Many paladins are knights, and others earn the status of knights-errant from grateful monarchs, enjoying high social status and privelages of the nobility even if born a peasant, thanks to their obvious favor from the gods.

A few paladins, however, fall prey to the vices that can come from wealth and status, losing their way and their powers. Sometimes they are tempted by evil forces to betray their oaths and become blackguards, the so-called anti-paladins. Nothing disgusts or offends a paladin more than seeing one of their own kind fall from grace and turn to evil. Although it is generally the gods and spirits of justice that bestow paladins with their gifts, only a slight majority of paladins venerate a divine patron, while others receive their power from virtue alone. Only lawful good deities and spirits are divine patrons for paladins.

Races: Paladins are rare in general, but most often found among humans, dwarves, halflings, celestri, aasimar, and celestial archons. These races greatly respect paladins, for the most part, and treat them well. Gnomes, elves, half-elves, korobokuru, endari, aquari, zenythri, azers, and cloud giants are occasionally paladins, but less frequently so than humans. Gnomes, elves, and korobokuru appreciate paladins but find them to be kind of odd and unnatural in behavior, not to mention rather annoying sometimes with their proselytizing or stodginess, even though paladins aren't universally so. Endari, aquari, zenythri, and azers respect the dedication and honor of paladins, so they make very steadfast and implacable paladins, but their kind just doesn't often have the virtuousness required, tending towards neutrality.

Cloud giants make fine paladins when they can motivate themselves towards orderly behavior and a strict code, which most would rather just avoid and live simpler lives. Paladins are very uncommon amongst harrow sprites, hengeyokai, half-orcs, firagi, spirit-folk, githzerai, and githrani, but they do show up from time to time. Paladins are exceedingly rare amongst just about every other race, and unknown among the most villainous races, although merfolk, locathah, centaur, vanara, orc, aeragi, or genasi paladins are not unheard of.

Other Classes: A paladin works best with fellow paladins, of course, though there are plenty of rivalries among paladins as well. They just tend to be more subdued than rivalries between other warriors. A paladin works nearly as well with samurai, monks, and sohei of lawful good or lawful neutral alignment, and they often coordinate their efforts perfectly in combat. Many fighters, rangers, and psychic warriors of lawful good or lawful neutral alignment also fight well beside paladins, but tend to share less of a common ground as far as faith, honor, and dedication are concerned.

Clerics of course have an easy time dealing with paladins, if they're of any good alignment or lawful neutral in alignment, although chaotic clerics tend to have rivalries with paladins trying to prove which philosophy is better, chaos or law. Paladins often defer to lawful good clerics on many matters, or neutral good clerics of the same faith, but are wary that clerics have more lenience from their gods and may stray on occasion. Shugenja and shamans are either treated like clerics by paladins, or as rivals of a different faith, since paladins usually adhere to some monotheistic or pantheistic faith, not an animist one.

Psions, wizards, sorcerers, and wu jen are as likely as not to be suspected of witchcraft and thus potentially having connections to evil forces, especially since arcane casters are able to use evil magic without any noticeable taint until they overuse it. Psions are suspected of manipulating others' minds and general untrustworthiness. Still, once a paladin becomes reasonably certain he can trust a mage or psionicist, he's likely to value their general usefulness and their knowledge or social skills. Bards are highly appreciated for their arts and inspirational ability, but nearly always suspect for their chaotic inclinations or potential abuse of mind-affecting magic.


Game Rule Information
Paladins have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma increases the paladin’s healing, self-protective capabilities, smiting power, and undead turning. Strength is important for a paladin because of its role in combat, and Constitution is also important for many paladins so they can fight longer. A Wisdom score of 14 or higher is required to get access to the most powerful paladin spells, and a score of 11 or higher is required to cast any paladin spells at all.
Alignment: Lawful Good.
Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills
The paladin’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nobility & royalty) (Int), Knowledge (outsider lore) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (undead lore) (Int), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the paladin.

[sblock]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A paladin is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all armors, and shields.

Spells: Beginning at 4th-level, a paladin gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the paladin must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a paladin with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Paladin bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier.

When the paladin gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 4th-level, the paladin gets only bonus spells. A paladin without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level. A paladin has access to any spell on the Paladin Spell List and can freely choose which to prepare. A paladin prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does (though the paladin cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells). Through 3rd-level, the paladin has no caster level. Starting at 4th-level, a paladin’s caster level is one-half his class level. Paladins do not count as having any spells from this class until 4th-level.


Detect Evil (Sp): A paladin can Detect Evil at will, as a spell-like ability. This works exactly like a Detect Evil spell cast by a cleric of your paladin level.

Lay on Hands (Sp): A paladin can heal wounds by touch. Each day, he can cure a total number of hit points equal to his paladin level times his Charisma modifier (if positive). The paladin can cure himself or others in this way, and can divide the curing among multiple uses if they wish, rather than applying it all at once. Lay on Hands is a spell-like ability and it takes a standard action to activate, drawing attacks of opportunity. Alternatively, the paladin can use some or all of this healing to deal damage to undead creatures when they want to. When doing so, treat Lay on Hands as a touch spell. The paladin decides how many cure points to use as damage after successfully touching the undead creature. Lay on Hands channels positive energy, and such energy heals the living but harms the undead.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to Smite Evil with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma modifier (if positive) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per level of paladin. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for the day. The paladin may attempt to Smite Evil twice per day after reaching 2nd-level in this class, then up to three times per day once he has reached 20th-level as a paladin. Smite Evil is a supernatural ability.


Divine Health (Su): After achieving 2nd-level, the paladin is immune to all diseases, including magical diseases such as mummy rot and lycanthropy. This benefit is supernatural.

Aura of Courage (Ex/Su): Beginning at 3rd-level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise), as an extraordinary ability. Allies within 10 feet of the paladin gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability.

Turn Undead (Su): When a paladin reaches 3rd-level, he gains the supernatural ability to turn and destroy undead. He may use this ability a number of times each day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. He turns undead as per a cleric of his paladin level -2.

Extra Turning: The paladin may take the Extra Turning feat, though he won’t gain any benefits from it until he has reached at least 3rd-level in this class. He may take the Extra Turning feat multiple times. The Extra Turning feat allows the paladin to Turn Undead four more times per day, each time it is taken for this particular turning ability.


Divine Grace (Su): After achieving 4th-level, the paladin applies his Charisma modifier, if positive, as a bonus to all saving throws. This benefit is supernatural.

Special Mount: Upon or after reaching 5th-level, a paladin can call an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve him in his crusade against evil. This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium-sized paladin) or a warpony (for a Small paladin). Some paladins may acquire a more exotic special mount, but this generally requires undertaking a quest. Should the paladin’s mount die, he may call for another one after a year and a day. The new mount has all the accumulated abilities due a mount of the paladin’s level, but it need not be the same kind of mount.

Calling a special mount is simply an hour-long prayer, which is answered within 24 hours as a suitable mount finds its way to the paladin through divine guidance. If a suitable mount is already present, the paladin's prayer invokes the proper divine blessings upon it. The details of the mount’s abilities are listed below in the section titled The Paladin's Mount.


Remedy (Sp): Beginning at 5th-level, once per week as a spell-like ability the paladin can use Cure Light Wounds, Neutralize Poison, or Remove Disease. These function as per the spells cast by a cleric of your paladin level, with any save DCs based on Charisma since Remedy is a spell-like ability. Using this ability provokes attacks of opportunity. The paladin can use this ability twice per week after achieving 8th-level, three times per week after 11th-level, four times per week after 14th-level, five times per week after 17th-level, and six times per week at 20th-level.

Bastion of Hope (Ex/Su): At 7th-level onward, the paladin's inspiring presence motivates allies and draws others to him. The paladin doubles his or her Charisma modifier to their Leadership Score (if they have the Leadership feat), if positive. In addition, the paladin enjoys a +2 bonus on Diplomacy skill checks and Sense Motive skill checks. These are extraordinary qualities. As a supernatural ability, however, the paladin grants all other allies within his or her Aura of Courage a +2 morale bonus on melee damage with physical attacks.

Turn Fiends: A paladin of 15th-level or higher turns or destroys outsiders with the Evil subtype in addition to undead, whenever he or she uses the Turn Undead feature of this class. Unlike the cleric's turning ability, this does not treat such outsiders as having Turn Resistance.

Divine Alacrity (Sp): Paladins who achieve the lofty heights of 19th-level in this class are blessed with the ability to act with exceptional speed, fighting in a blur of motion. Once per day they may use Greater Haste on themselves as a spell-like ability, as per the 5th-level spell at a caster level equal to their paladin level, but with a duration of 1 round per point of positive Charisma modifier. As a spell-like ability, activating this provokes attacks of opportunity. While Divine Alacrity is active, the paladin also receives a +2 sacred bonus on attack rolls and physical damage rolls against evil creatures.


Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all special class abilities (including spells and the special mount) if he ever willingly commits an act of evil. Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that he respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, not attacking defenseless creatures, staying true to his word, etc.), help those who need it (provided the paladin does not expect that they would use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those that harm or threaten innocents.

Deceptive tactics such as feinting in combat or creating a diversion to hide are fine, but the paladin must be careful in how he uses the Bluff skill. He cannot attack opponents unawares (they do not need to know where he is, they just need to be aware of his intent to fight them there, before he attacks them). The specifics of a paladin’s code may differ slightly from one order of paladins to another, but these are the restrictions for a typical paladin. Only deities and powerful spirits may alter the restrictions for their paladins, and even then the paladin’s code must conform to a lawful good alignment.

Associates: While he may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a paladin will never knowingly associate with evil characters. A paladin will not continue to associate with someone who consistently offends his moral code. Also, a paladin may only hire henchmen or accept followers and cohorts who are lawful good.

Ex-Paladins: A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all special abilities and spells, including the service of the paladin’s special mount. He also may not progress in levels as a paladin. He regains his abilities if he atones for his violations (see the Atonement spell), as appropriate, and may resume advancement as a paladin in that case.

Like a member of any other class, a paladin may be a multiclass character, but paladins face a special restriction. A paladin who gains a new class or, if already multiclassed, raises another class by a level may never again raise his paladin level, though he retains all his paladin abilities. The path of the paladin requires a constant heart. Once you undertake the path, you must pursue it to the exclusion of all other careers. Once you have turned off the path, you may never return.

However, there are a few prestige classes that are extensions of the paladin's path, and which a paladin may multiclass into without penalty. Such prestige classes note this compatibility in their rules descriptions.[/sblock]
The remainder of the paladin's details are in the next post, due to current post-length limits.

 

[Arkhandus]

Aurelian Paladin, continued

The Aurelian Paladin, continued

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Paladin:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Base			Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Attack			Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+1			+2	+0	+0	[I]Detect Evil[/I], [I]Lay On Hands[/I],
							Smite Evil 1/day
2	+2			+3	+0	+0	Divine Health, Smite Evil 2/day
3	+3			+3	+1	+1	Aura Of Courage, Turn Undead
4	+4			+4	+1	+1	Divine Grace
5	+5			+4	+1	+1	Special Mount, [I]Remedy[/I] 1/week
6	+6/+1			+5	+2	+2
7	+7/+2			+5	+2	+2	Bastion Of Hope
8	+8/+3			+6	+2	+2	[I]Remedy[/I] 2/week
9	+9/+4			+6	+3	+3
10	+10/+5			+7	+3	+3
11	+11/+6/+1		+7	+3	+3	[I]Remedy[/I] 3/week
12	+12/+7/+2		+8	+4	+4
13	+13/+8/+3		+8	+4	+4
14	+14/+9/+4		+9	+4	+4	[I]Remedy[/I] 4/week
15	+15/+10/+5		+9	+5	+5	Turn Fiends
16	+16/+11/+6/+1		+10	+5	+5
17	+17/+12/+7/+2		+10	+5	+5	[I]Remedy[/I] 5/week
18	+18/+13/+8/+3		+11	+6	+6
19	+19/+14/+9/+4		+11	+6	+6	[I]Divine Alacrity[/I]
20	+20/+15/+10/+5		+12	+6	+6	[I]Remedy[/I] 6/week, Smite Evil 3/day

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]Paladin Spells Per Day:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class		Spells Per Day By Spell Level
Level		1	2	3	4[/COLOR][/B]
1		-	-	-	-
2		-	-	-	-
3		-	-	-	-
4		0	-	-	-
5		1	-	-	-
6		2	-	-	-
7		2	-	-	-
8		3	0	-	-
9		3	1	-	-
10		3	2	-	-
11		3	2	-	-
12		3	3	0	-
13		3	3	1	-
14		3	3	2	-
15		3	3	2	-
16		3	3	3	0
17		3	3	3	1
18		3	3	3	2
19		3	3	3	2
20		3	3	3	3

Paladin Spell List:
Level 1 - Bless, Bless Water, Bless Weapon, Create Water, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Poison, Detect Undead, Divine Favor, Divine Sacrifice, Endure Elements, Magic Weapon, Protection from Evil, Purify Food and Drink, Read Magic, Remove Fear, Resistance.
Level 2 - Blessed Aim, Bull’s Strength, Cure Moderate Wounds, Curse of the Brute, Delay Poison, Endurance, Lesser Restoration, Magic Vestment, Remove Paralysis, Resist Elements, Shield Other, Spiritual Weapon, Zeal, Zone of Truth.
Level 3 - Cure Serious Wounds, Discern Lies, Dispel Magic, Greater Magic Weapon, Heal Mount, Invisibility Purge, Magic Circle against Evil, Major Resistance, Negative Energy Protection, Prayer, Protection from Elements, Remove Blindness/Deafness.
Level 4 - Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Dispel Evil, Freedom of Movement, Holy Sword, Lesser Aspect of the Deity, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Restoration, Weapon of the Deity.

* No custom Aurelian spells have yet been made for the paladin, but a few will be added later.

The Paladin's Mount:
[sblock]The paladin's special mount is different from a standard animal of its type in many ways. The standard kind of special mount for a Medium-sized paladin is a heavy warhorse, while the standard kind of special mount for a Small paladin is a warpony. Certain other animals of similar hit dice may also be called as special mounts without difficulty, such as a riding dog, a camel, a giant lizard, a bison, a porpoise, a giant turtle, a leopard, a crocodile, a black bear, a wolf, or a medium shark, though these animals are much less likely to respond to a paladin's call. Common mounts for even smaller paladins may be bats, cats, dogs, sea turtles, hawks, owls, eagles, lizards, rats, ravens, weasels, or toads. Common mounts for even larger paladins may be elephants, giant crocodiles, huge sharks, orca whales, or cachalot whales.

For any kind of mount that is more exotic, such as pegasi, griffins, dragonnes, giant owls, cu sith, cait sith, or other non-animals, the paladin must undertake some sort of quest to find and befriend such a creature, or simply perform a quest for their church or divine patron to receive such a special mount in return. These are often rather difficult quests. The details of such quests are up to the DM, and if the paladin cannot manage to acquire a mount in that manner, he or she should consider calling a more typical kind of mount.

The special mount of a paladin is always Lawful Good in alignment. It must be a Neutral, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral, or Lawful Good creature beforehand, otherwise it cannot become a paladin's special mount. Once it does become their special mount, it becomes Lawful Good. A paladin's mount is a magical beast, not an animal or beast (though dragon, fey, or outsider special mounts retain their own creature type instead). It is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers, as described below. The special benefits are cumulative; the improved statistics are not (they replace the earlier increases in those statistics from special mount advancement).

[B][COLOR=Blue]Master's	Bonus	Natural	Str.	Int.
Class Level	HD	Armor	Adj.	Score	Special[/COLOR][/B]
5-7		+2	+2	+1	6	Special mount basics,
						improved evasion,
						empathic link
8-10		+4	+4	+2	7	Share spells
11-13		+6	+6	+3	8	[I]Command[/I]
14-16		+8	+8	+4	9	Share grace
17-19		+10	+10	+5	10	Celestial
20+		+12	+12	+6	11	Bound Immunity

Master's Class Level: This is the level of the paladin (in that particular class; other class levels or Hit Dice of the paladin do not count). If the mount suffers a level drain or other level loss, simply treat it as a mount of an equally lower-level paladin instead, until those levels are restored (if at all).

Hit Dice/Bonus Hit Dice: The mount retains its earlier hit point total, but if its type has changed to magical beast, it gains future hit points as per a magical beast. Magical beast Hit Dice are d10s, and the mount receives bonus Hit Dice added to its total as its paladin master advances in level. These bonus Hit Dice are just like normal Hit Dice, providing all the standard benefits of increased Hit Dice, except that the mount does not advance in size category or age category based on these bonus Hit Dice.


Natural Armor: The number listed here is an improvement to the mount's natural armor AC bonus. If it had no natural armor before, it gains a natural armor bonus equal to this amount.

Strength Adjustment: The mount gains natural improvements to its Strength score, as indicated on the table under the abbreviation "Str. Adj."

Intelligence Score: The mount is typically smarter than others of its kind. The value under "Int. Score" on the table replaces the mount's normal Intelligence score if higher than the mount's normal Intelligence.

Base Attack Bonus: As a magical beast (if appropriate), the mount's base attack bonus equals its number of Hit Dice.

Base Saving Throws: For each base save, the mount uses its own base saving throw bonus or the paladin's, whichever is higher. Magical beasts have high base Fortitude and Reflex saving throws (+2 base, +1 per odd-numbered Hit Die), and low base Will saving throws (+0 base, +1 per three Hit Dice).

Skills: The mount uses its original skills and skill ranks, but gains further skill points for future Hit Dice (such as the bonus HD from special mount benefits) as per a magical beast (if appropriate).

Feats: The mount gains feats as per a magical beast (if appropriate).


Improved Evasion (Ex): A paladin's special mount gains the Evasion and Improved Evasion extraordinary abilities, which function as per the rogue class features but also work in medium or heavy armor and when carrying a medium or heavy load.

Empathic Link (Su): The paladin has an empathic link with the mount out to a distance of up to one mile. The paladin cannot see through the mount's eyes, but they can communicate telepathically. Even intelligent mounts see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible. This is a supernatural ability. Because of the empathic link between the mount and paladin, they share the same connection to any given item or place as one another, for purposes of scrying, teleportation, and other effects.

Share Spells: At the paladin's option, he may have any spell he casts on himself also affect his special mount. The mount must be within 5 feet. If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the spell stops affecting the mount if it moves farther than 5 feet away from the paladin, and will not affect the mount again even if it returns within range. Additionally, the paladin may cast a spell with a target of "You" and range of "Personal" on his special mount as a touch spell instead of casting it on himself, when desired. The paladin and the mount may share spells even if those spells do not normally affect creatures of the mount's type (usually magical beast or outsider).


Command (Sp): The mount's Command ability is a spell-like ability that it can use up to once per day per two levels its master has in the paladin class. This functions as per the 1st-level Command spell cast by a cleric of level equal to its Hit Dice. This ability may only be used on other creatures of the same basic kind as the mount; equines if it is a warhorse, canines if it is a riding dog, lizards if it is a giant lizard, avians if it is a griffin, felines if it is a cait sith, etc.

For purposes of this ability, the mount can be understood by other creatures of the same basic kind as itself, but the mount may only use Command on creatures of fewer Hit Dice than itself. Since this is a spell-like ability, the mount must make a Concentration check (DC 21) if it's being ridden at the time (as in combat). If the check fails, the ability does not work that time, but it still counts against the mount's daily number of uses.

Share Grace: The mount shares some of their paladin's special defenses eventually, gaining the benefits of the paladin's Divine Grace (based on the paladin's Charisma), Divine Health, and fear immunity from the Aura of Courage.


Celestial: The paladin's special mount eventually acquires the Celestial template. This does not apply if the mount is already a dragon, fey, or outsider, in which case, the mount simply learns the Celestial language (whether or not it may speak the language depends on its own mouth and vocal cords). If the special mount does gain the Celestial template in this manner, however, it also learns the Celestial language in the same manner, and acquires all the traits of the Celestial template for its total Hit Dice. This changes the mount's type to Outsider, with the Good subtype. However, there is an exception in that the mount's hit points and skill points do not change; it continues to gain hit points and skill points as per its previous type. If the mount possessed any special qualities that overlap with those of the Celestial template, use whichever version of the quality is superior.

Bound Immunity: The mount eventually becomes immune to spells and effects of the Enchantment school, and to psionic powers and effects of the Telepathy discipline. It also becomes immune to forced alignment changes at that point onward, and to magical or psionic effects that would forcibly remove the mount from the same plane of existence as its master or from remaining within 1 mile of its master (whether against the mount's will or against the paladin's will).[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

Aurelian Hospitaler, Variant Paladin

The Hospitaler, Variant Paladin

A more mercifully-minded paladin, the hospitaler still fights evil wherever they find it, but usually devotes their time to fighting plagues, famine, and other dangers to civilization that can't just be attacked physically. Hospitalers often protect churches, shrines, and other holy sites, as well as protecting religious pilgrims, prophets, and church officials. A hospitaler is blessed with greater healing ability than other paladins, and more protective magic, as well as more battle magic, though hospitalers lack some of the combat training and evil-smiting power of other paladins.

Hospitalers are more wary and knowledgeable on average, but less physically adept and not as tough. Still, they are holy warriors like any other paladin, and only a fool underestimates the power and zeal of a hospitaler confronted by evil forces. Hospitalers can call on greater holy magic than other paladins and can protect their allies more effectively. They gain access to divine magic earlier than other paladins, and can harness this magic more often, but receive other paladin blessings more slowly. A hospitaler is more likely than other paladins to directly serve a church or the collective denominations of their patron deity's faithful, and few hospitalers lack a patron deity.

Races: While paladins are rare, hospitalers are the most common of the variant paladin traditions, and most races that develop paladins also have hospitalers. Most members of this class are humans, halflings, celestri, elves, or half-elves. Many others are aasimar, celestial archons, gnomes, or aquari. A few hospitalers are dwarves, korobokuru, azers, zenythri, harrow sprites, spirit-folk, hengeyokai, githzerai, githrani, merfolk, locathah, centaurs, or vanara, but much fewer than among the aforementioned races. Only rarely are paladins of other races actually hospitalers, as opposed to the more-aggressive paladin archetypes.

Other Classes: Hospitalers generally get along better with other classes than any other type of paladin does, though still not as well as a non-paladin would. Though focused as healers and guardians primarily, hospitalers still have a strict code to follow and are still devoted to the ideals of justice, order, truth, piety, and righteousness. A hospitaler is more accepting of other paladins, though, and rarely gets involved in the rivalries between paladins of different sects, different gods, or just different ranks. They try to temper the violent impulses of others when combat is avoidable, so hospitalers have more trouble dealing with barbarians, rangers, fighters, samurai, psychic warriors, and some druids or clerics, but like any paladin a hospitaler will urge others to join the fight when evil is present. Hospitalers get along better with monks, sohei, shugenja, and shamans than other paladins do, but are still suspicious of arcane casters and psionic manifesters.


Game Rule Information
Hospitalers have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma drastically increases the hospitaler’s healing, self-protective capabilities, and undead turning. Strength is important for a hospitaler because of its role in combat, and Constitution is also important for many hospitalers so they can fight longer, especially since they receive less combat training than other paladins. A Wisdom score of 15 or higher is required to get access to the most powerful hospitaler spells, and a score of 11 or higher is required to cast any hospitaler spells at all. Since hospitalers rely more on their spells than other paladins, Wisdom is a bit more important to hospitalers.
Alignment: Lawful Good.
Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills
The hospitaler’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge (outsider lore) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (undead lore) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the hospitaler.

[sblock]Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A hospitaler is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all armors, and shields.

Spells: Beginning at 2nd-level, a hospitaler gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the hospitaler must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a hospitaler with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Hospitaler bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier.

When the hospitaler gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 2st-level, the hospitaler gets only bonus spells. A hospitaler without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level. A hospitaler has access to any spell on the Hospitaler Spell List and can freely choose which to prepare. A hospitaler prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does (though the hospitaler cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells). At 1st-level, the hospitaler has no caster level. Starting at 2nd-level, a hospitaler’s caster level is one-half his class level. Hospitalers do not count as having any spells from this class until 2nd-level.


Detect Evil (Sp): A hospitaler can Detect Evil at will, as a spell-like ability. This works exactly like the Detect Evil spell cast by a cleric of your hospitaler level.

Determination: The hospitaler learns great determination and patience, for he may have to suffer many difficulties while performing his duties as a guardian. He receives a +1 bonus on Will saving throws, which improves to +2 at 3rd-level, then to +3 at 20th-level.

Guardian Oath (Su): Hospitalers are sworn to protect religious pilgrims and holy men of the same faith or allied, nonevil faiths. They are also blessed with divine boons for protecting allies and members of the faith, so the hospitaler makes for an effective bodyguard. As a supernatural ability, the hospitaler may swear an oath to one willing, living creature within 10 feet. The hospitaler may cast spells from this class with a range of touch as though their range is 10 feet, if casting them on the creature he or she has sworn this oath to, and only when that creature is willing (the subject receives divine insight into the basic nature of these spells when cast, so they know if the spells will be beneficial or not).

Furthermore, the hospitaler receives a +1 sacred bonus on attack rolls when within 10 feet of the creature he or she has sworn this oath to. Lastly, the creature whom this oath is sworn to receives a +1 sacred bonus to Armor Class and saving throws, as long as the hospitaler is within 10 feet of them. The hospitaler's Guardian Oath may only be sworn to one creature at a time, and lasts until the hospitaler or subject dies, or one states an end to the oath, or one enters a different Plane of existence from the other.


Lay on Hands (Sp): A hospitaler can heal wounds by touch. Each day, he can cure a total number of hit points equal to his hospitaler level times double his Charisma modifier (if positive). The hospitaler can cure himself or others in this way, and can divide the curing among multiple uses if they wish, rather than applying it all at once. Lay on Hands is a spell-like ability and it takes a standard action to activate, drawing attacks of opportunity. Alternatively, the hospitaler can use some or all of this healing to deal damage to undead creatures when they want to. When doing so, treat Lay on Hands as a touch spell. The hospitaler decides how many cure points to use as damage after successfully touching the undead creature. Lay on Hands channels positive energy, and such energy heals the living but harms the undead.

Divine Health (Su): After achieving 2nd-level, the hospitaler is immune to all diseases, including magical diseases such as mummy rot and lycanthropy. This benefit is supernatural.

Turn Undead (Su): When a hospitaler reaches 3rd-level, he gains the supernatural ability to turn and destroy undead. He may use this ability a number of times each day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. He turns undead as per a cleric of his hospitaler level -2.

Extra Turning: The hospitaler may take the Extra Turning feat, though he won’t gain any benefits from it until he has reached at least 3rd-level in this class. He may take the Extra Turning feat multiple times. The Extra Turning feat allows the hospitaler to Turn Undead four more times per day, each time it is taken for this particular turning ability.


Divine Endurance (Su): After achieving 4th-level, a hospitaler is immune to all types of poison, magical or otherwise. This benefit is supernatural.

Special Mount: Upon or after reaching 5th-level, a hospitaler can call an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve him in his crusade against evil. This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium-sized hospitaler) or a warpony (for a Small hospitaler). Some hospitalers may acquire a more exotic special mount, but this generally requires undertaking a quest. Should the hospitaler’s mount die, he may call for another one after a year and a day. The new mount has all the accumulated abilities due a mount of the hospitaler’s level, but it need not be the same kind of mount.

Calling a special mount is simply an hour-long prayer, which is answered within 24 hours as a suitable mount finds its way to the hospitaler through divine guidance. If a suitable mount is already present, the hospitaler's prayer invokes the proper divine blessings upon it. The details of the mount’s abilities are listed below in the section titled The Hospitaler's Mount. Hospitalers have slightly weaker special mounts than other paladins, so a hospitaler is treated as 2 levels lower than a basic paladin for purposes of their special mount’s Strength, natural armor, Intelligence, and bonus Hit Dice. This is already factored into the table and description for hospitaler mounts below.


Remedy (Sp): Beginning at 5th-level, once per week as a spell-like ability the hospitaler can use Cure Light Wounds, Neutralize Poison, or Remove Disease. These function as per the spells cast by cleric of your hospitaler level, with any save DCs based on Charisma since Remedy is a spell-like ability. Using this ability provokes attacks of opportunity. The hospitaler can use this ability twice per week after achieving 8th-level, three times per week after 11th-level, four times per week after 14th-level, five times per week after 17th-level, and six times per week at 20th-level.

Aura of Courage (Ex/Su): Beginning at 6th-level, a hospitaler is immune to fear (magical or otherwise), as an extraordinary ability. Allies within 10 feet of the hospitaler gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability.

Divine Grace (Su): After achieving 7th-level, the paladin applies his Charisma modifier, if positive, as a bonus to all saving throws. This benefit is supernatural.

Superior Sanctuary (Su): A hospitaler of 9th-level or higher has a blessing that provides greater power to their efforts in protecting allies. The hospitaler may cast Sanctuary on another creature of nonevil alignment as a touch spell, and the save DC for opponents against this use of the Sanctuary spell is increased by +3 (the touched creature is treated as the caster for purposes of the spell's limitations). The spell fails if the subject to be affected is of evil alignment or has the Evil subtype. Superior Sanctuary is supernatural, and does not grant extra uses of the Sanctuary spell.[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

Aurelian Hospitaler, continued

The Aurelian Hospitaler, continued

[sblock]Code of Conduct: A hospitaler must be of lawful good alignment and loses all special class abilities (including spells and the special mount) if he ever willingly commits an act of evil. Additionally, a hospitaler’s code requires that he respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, not attacking defenseless creatures, staying true to his word, etc.), help those who need it (provided the hospitaler does not expect that they would use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those that harm or threaten innocents.

Deceptive tactics such as feinting in combat or creating a diversion to hide are fine, but the hospitaler must be careful in how he uses the Bluff skill. He cannot attack opponents unawares (they do not need to know where he is, they just need to be aware of his intent to fight them there, before he attacks them). The specifics of a hospitaler’s code may differ slightly from one order of hospitalers to another, but these are the restrictions for a typical hospitaler. Only deities and powerful spirits may alter the restrictions for their hospitalers, and even then the hospitaler’s code must conform to a lawful good alignment.

Associates: While he may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a hospitaler will never knowingly associate with evil characters. A hospitaler will not continue to associate with someone who consistently offends his moral code. Also, a hospitaler may only hire henchmen or accept followers and cohorts who are lawful good.


Ex-Hospitalers: A hospitaler who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all special abilities and spells, including the service of the hospitaler’s special mount. He also may not progress in levels as a hospitaler. He regains his abilities if he atones for his violations (see the Atonement spell), as appropriate, and may resume advancement as a hospitaler in that case.

Like a member of any other class, a hospitaler may be a multiclass character, but hospitalers face a special restriction. A hospitaler who gains a new class or, if already multiclassed, raises another class by a level may never again raise his hospitaler level, though he retains all his hospitaler abilities. The path of the hospitaler requires a constant heart. Once you undertake the path, you must pursue it to the exclusion of all other careers. Once you have turned off the path, you may never return.

However, there are a few prestige classes that are extensions of the hospitaler's path, and which a hospitaler may multiclass into without penalty. Such prestige classes note this compatibility in their rules descriptions. Any such prestige class that describes compatibility with the paladin class is also compatible with the hospitaler variant paladin.[/sblock]

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]The Hospitaler:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class	Attack		Fort.	Ref.	Will
Level	Bonus		Save	Save	Save	Special[/COLOR][/B]
1	+0		+2	+0	+0	[I]Detect Evil[/I], Determination +1,
						Guardian Oath, [I]Lay On Hands[/I]
2	+1		+3	+0	+0	Divine Health
3	+2		+3	+1	+1	Turn Undead, Determination +2
4	+3		+4	+1	+1	Divine Endurance
5	+3		+4	+1	+1	Special Mount, [I]Remedy[/I] 1/week
6	+4		+5	+2	+2	Aura Of Courage
7	+5		+5	+2	+2	Divine Grace
8	+6/+1		+6	+2	+2	[I]Remedy[/I] 2/week
9	+6/+1		+6	+3	+3	Superior [I]Sanctuary[/I]
10	+7/+2		+7	+3	+3
11	+8/+3		+7	+3	+3	[I]Remedy[/I] 3/week
12	+9/+4		+8	+4	+4
13	+9/+4		+8	+4	+4
14	+10/+5		+9	+4	+4	[I]Remedy[/I] 4/week
15	+11/+6/+1	+9	+5	+5
16	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5
17	+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	[I]Remedy[/I] 5/week
18	+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6
19	+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6
20	+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	[I]Remedy[/I] 6/week, Determination +3

[B][COLOR=Red][U][I]Hospitaler Spells Per Day:[/I][/U][/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Class		Spells Per Day By Spell Level
Level		1	2	3	4	5[/COLOR][/B]
1		-	-	-	-	-
2		0	-	-	-	-
3		1	-	-	-	-
4		1	-	-	-	-
5		2	0	-	-	-
6		2	1	-	-	-
7		3	1	-	-	-
8		3	2	0	-	-
9		4	2	1	-	-
10		4	3	1	-	-
11		4	3	2	0	-
12		4	4	2	1	-
13		4	4	3	1	-
14		4	4	3	2	0
15		4	4	4	2	1
16		4	4	4	3	1
17		4	4	4	3	2
18		4	4	4	4	2
19		4	4	4	4	3
20		4	4	4	4	3

Hospitaler Spell List:
Level 1 - Bless, Bless Water, Bless Weapon, Create Water, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Detect Undead, Detect Water, Divine Favor, Divine Sacrifice, Endure Elements, Guidance, Invisibility to Undead, Magic Weapon, Protection from Evil, Purify Food and Drink, Read Magic, Remove Fear, Resistance, Sanctuary.
Level 2 - Aid, Blessed Aim, Bull’s Strength, Calm Emotions, Cure Moderate Wounds, Curse of the Brute, Delay Poison, Endurance, Lesser Restoration, Magic Vestment, Remove Paralysis, Resist Elements, Shield Other, Spiritual Weapon, Zeal, Zone of Truth.
Level 3 - Create Food and Water, Cure Serious Wounds, Discern Lies, Dispel Magic, Greater Magic Weapon, Heal Mount, Invisibility Purge, Magic Circle against Evil, Major Resistance, Negative Energy Protection, Prayer, Protection from Elements, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Status.
Level 4 - Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Dismissal, Dispel Evil, Divine Power, Freedom of Movement, Holy Sword, Lesser Aspect of the Deity, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Restoration, Spell Immunity, Weapon of Energy, Weapon of the Deity.
Level 5 - Break Enchantment, Cure Massive Wounds*, Flame Strike, Forbiddance, Greater Dispelling, Healing Circle, Raise Dead, Righteous Might, Spell Resistance, True Seeing.

* Custom Aurelian spell.

The Hospitaler's Mount:
[sblock]The hospitaler's special mount is different from a standard animal of its type in many ways. The standard kind of special mount for a Medium-sized hospitaler is a heavy warhorse, while the standard kind of special mount for a Small hospitaler is a warpony. Certain other animals of similar hit dice may also be called as special mounts without difficulty, such as a riding dog, a camel, a giant lizard, a bison, a porpoise, a giant turtle, a leopard, a crocodile, a black bear, a wolf, or a medium shark, though these animals are much less likely to respond to a hospitaler's call. Common mounts for even smaller hospitalers may be bats, cats, dogs, sea turtles, hawks, owls, eagles, lizards, rats, ravens, weasels, or toads. Common mounts for even larger hospitalers may be elephants, giant crocodiles, huge sharks, orca whales, or cachalot whales.

For any kind of mount that is more exotic, such as pegasi, griffins, dragonnes, giant owls, cu sith, cait sith, or other non-animals, the hospitaler must undertake some sort of quest to find and befriend such a creature, or simply perform a quest for their church or divine patron to receive such a special mount in return. These are often rather difficult quests. The details of such quests are up to the DM, and if the hospitaler cannot manage to acquire a mount in that manner, he or she should consider calling a more typical kind of mount.

The special mount of a hospitaler is always Lawful Good in alignment. It must be a Neutral, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral, or Lawful Good creature beforehand, otherwise it cannot become a hospitaler's special mount. Once it does become their special mount, it becomes Lawful Good. A hospitaler's mount is a magical beast, not an animal or beast (though dragon, fey, or outsider special mounts retain their own creature type instead). It is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers, as described below. The special benefits are cumulative; the improved statistics are not (they replace the earlier increases in those statistics from special mount advancement). Hospitaler special mounts progress in statistics a bit slower than the special mounts of other paladins.

[B][COLOR=Blue]Master's		Bonus	Natural	Str.	Int.
Class Level	HD	Armor	Adj.	Score	Special[/COLOR][/B]
5-6		+0	+0	+0	2	Special mount basics,
						improved evasion,
						empathic link
7		+2	+2	+1	6
8-9		+2	+2	+1	6	Share spells
10		+4	+4	+2	7
11-12		+4	+4	+2	7	[I]Command[/I]
13		+6	+6	+3	8
14-15		+6	+6	+3	8	Share grace
16		+8	+8	+4	9
17-18		+8	+8	+4	9	Celestial
19		+10	+10	+5	10
20-21		+10	+10	+5	10	Bound Immunity
22+		+12	+12	+6	11

Master's Class Level: This is the level of the hospitaler (in that particular class; other class levels or Hit Dice of the hospitaler do not count). If the mount suffers a level drain or other level loss, simply treat it as a mount of an equally lower-level hospitaler instead, until those levels are restored (if at all).

Hit Dice/Bonus Hit Dice: The mount retains its earlier hit point total, but if its type has changed to magical beast, it gains future hit points as per a magical beast. Magical beast Hit Dice are d10s, and the mount receives bonus Hit Dice added to its total as its hospitaler master advances in level. These bonus Hit Dice are just like normal Hit Dice, providing all the standard benefits of increased Hit Dice, except that the mount does not advance in size category or age category based on these bonus Hit Dice.


Natural Armor: The number listed here is an improvement to the mount's natural armor AC bonus. If it had no natural armor before, it gains a natural armor bonus equal to this amount.

Strength Adjustment: The mount gains natural improvements to its Strength score, as indicated on the table under the abbreviation "Str. Adj."

Intelligence Score: The mount is typically smarter than others of its kind. The value under "Int. Score" on the table replaces the mount's normal Intelligence score if higher than the mount's normal Intelligence.

Base Attack Bonus: As a magical beast (if appropriate), the mount's base attack bonus equals its number of Hit Dice.

Base Saving Throws: For each base save, the mount uses its own base saving throw bonus or the hospitaler's, whichever is higher. Magical beasts have high base Fortitude and Reflex saving throws (+2 base, +1 per odd-numbered Hit Die), and low base Will saving throws (+0 base, +1 per three Hit Dice).

Skills: The mount uses its original skills and skill ranks, but gains further skill points for future Hit Dice (such as the bonus HD from special mount benefits) as per a magical beast (if appropriate).

Feats: The mount gains feats as per a magical beast (if appropriate).


Improved Evasion (Ex): A hospitaler's special mount gains the Evasion and Improved Evasion extraordinary abilities, which function as per the rogue class features but also work in medium or heavy armor and when carrying a medium or heavy load.

Empathic Link (Su): The hospitaler has an empathic link with the mount out to a distance of up to one mile. The hospitaler cannot see through the mount's eyes, but they can communicate telepathically. Even intelligent mounts see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible. This is a supernatural ability. Because of the empathic link between the mount and hospitaler, they share the same connection to any given item or place as one another, for purposes of scrying, teleportation, and other effects.

Share Spells: At the hospitaler's option, he may have any spell he casts on himself also affect his special mount. The mount must be within 5 feet. If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the spell stops affecting the mount if it moves farther than 5 feet away from the hospitaler, and will not affect the mount again even if it returns within range. Additionally, the hospitaler may cast a spell with a target of "You" and range of "Personal" on his special mount as a touch spell instead of casting it on himself, when desired. The hospitaler and the mount may share spells even if those spells do not normally affect creatures of the mount's type (usually magical beast or outsider).


Command (Sp): The mount's Command ability is a spell-like ability that it can use up to once per day per two levels its master has in the hospitaler class. This functions as per the 1st-level Command spell cast by a cleric of level equal to its Hit Dice. This ability may only be used on other creatures of the same basic kind as the mount; equines if it is a warhorse, canines if it is a riding dog, lizards if it is a giant lizard, avians if it is a griffin, felines if it is a cait sith, etc.

For purposes of this ability, the mount can be understood by other creatures of the same basic kind as itself, but the mount may only use Command on creatures of fewer Hit Dice than itself. Since this is a spell-like ability, the mount must make a Concentration check (DC 21) if it's being ridden at the time (as in combat). If the check fails, the ability does not work that time, but it still counts against the mount's daily number of uses.

Share Grace: The mount shares some of their hospitaler's special defenses eventually, gaining the benefits of the hospitaler's Divine Grace (based on the hospitaler's Charisma), Divine Health, and fear immunity from the Aura of Courage.


Celestial: The hospitaler's special mount eventually acquires the Celestial template. This does not apply if the mount is already a dragon, fey, or outsider, in which case, the mount simply learns the Celestial language (whether or not it may speak the language depends on its own mouth and vocal cords). If the special mount does gain the Celestial template in this manner, however, it also learns the Celestial language in the same manner, and acquires all the traits of the Celestial template for its total Hit Dice. This changes the mount's type to Outsider, with the Good subtype. However, there is an exception in that the mount's hit points and skill points do not change; it continues to gain hit points and skill points as per its previous type. If the mount possessed any special qualities that overlap with those of the Celestial template, use whichever version of the quality is superior.

Bound Immunity: The mount eventually becomes immune to spells and effects of the Enchantment school, and to psionic powers and effects of the Telepathy discipline. It also becomes immune to forced alignment changes at that point onward, and to magical or psionic effects that would forcibly remove the mount from the same plane of existence as its master or from remaining within 1 mile of its master (whether against the mount's will or against the hospitaler's will).[/sblock]

 

[Loonook]

I like the work... once had a player who founded a small country named Aurelia in the center of one of my campaign settings so I checked it out...

The Paladin writeup feels sort of 2e, but I don't really mind it. Most of your material has a feeling that this is internally balanced, and I like to see that... if these classes are good for your campaign they are how they should be. I like the work, and hope it continues on... would like to see some of the monsters in the world to get a better feel on everything.

Slainte,

-Loonook.