Sound of Azure
Contemplative Soul
Greetings and Salutations!
I've been kicking around this idea for a while now, and as I'm playing in a new campaign soon, I thought I'd create a Prestige Class that would suit my PC, and the role she plays in the campaign world. I'm working closely with another player for our shared background (she's playing an exiled daughter of an emperor, I'm playing her bodyguard/retainer/best friend).
I was inspired by a "Class Acts" in Dragon Magazine, which detailed an order of mostly Lawful Good female rogues who act as bodyguards for important female personages.
Anyhow, here is my effort. I'm looking for a bit of help with the Code of Conduct, as well as their Oath of Service to the Order of Unseen Sister as mine doesn't seem very fleshed out yet.
Unseen Sister
Unfailingly, sovereigns, nobles, courtiers, and other important dignitaries depend on strong sword arms for protection. While most bodyguards are heavily armoured fighters who rely on intimidation and skill in battle to protect their charges, some use more subtle tactics. Among the latter are members of the Unseen Sisterhood, a divinely mandated sorority whose skills of deception and surprise know no peer.
The Unseen Sisters dedicate themselves to protecting noble ladies and other women holding power or prestige who promote goals supported by the Order. The sisterhood trains its members in a variety of fields, from personal unarmed combat tactics to good manners. The most important skills taught by the Unseen Sisters, however, relate to deceitfulness. Members act as servants, chambermaids, teachers, chaperones, babysitters, nannies, and simple companions to the noblewomen they protect. As such, most people fail to realize they are lethal combatants able to defend those in their care.
The Unseen Sisterhood hand picks its members from among the most skilful female rogues of the world who also exhibit some degree of expertise in Diplomacy and Disguise. On occasion, the sisterhood accepts a warrior or spell caster, but such members are rare. Because of the cause it serves the sisterhood mostly chooses lawful and good members, using magical tests to weed out chaotic and evil candidates.
Most Unseen Sisters were single classed rogues or multiclassed rogue/monks, though some paladins, samurai, and swashbucklers take up the cause, often multiclassed with rogue or monk levels.
Those who are exemplars of this path may take the Unseen Sister Prestige Class.
Oath of Service
Unseen Sisters swear an oath to uphold the laws of their organisation, and to obey the laws of the nation or kingdom their charge belongs to. She swears to defend her charge for as long as the charge needs defending, and to obey their charge’s commands, but also to obey the ideals of her organisation. Her Oath to join the Unseen Sisters must be observed by witnesses, as must her Oath taken when she swears to protect a charge.
If she ever violates her Oath of Service or Code of Conduct, she must receive an atonement spell from a Lawful Good divine spell caster to get her powers back and to continue advancing in the Unseen Sister class. An Unseen Sister with no charge does not benefit from Divine Health, Divine Body, Divine Loyalty, or Mettle. An Unseen Sister who has violated her Oath or ceases to be Lawful Good also loses her AC bonus, Detect Evil, and Divine Grace abilities.
Fulfilment of the Oath of Service
If the Unseen Sister’s Oath of service no longer applies (for example if her charge dies of old age, or dismisses her from the Oath), the Sister must return to the Order and gain a new charge. If “in between” charges, an adventuring Unseen Sister has a grace period of 1 week per class level to return to the Order and swear a new Oath. An Unseen Sister who does not swear a new Oath before the grace period expires has violated her Oath of Service to the Order.
Code of Conduct
Display courage and enterprise in obedience to the Order.
Defence of your charge unto death against all threats
Respect for all peers and equals; courtesy to all lesser.
Death before dishonour.
Respect the authority of your charge.
An Unseen Sister must be Lawful Good alignment and loses her all class abilities except for Sneak Attack, Unarmed Strike, Defensive Strike, and the Diehard feat if she ceases to be Lawful Good.
Hit Die: d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become an Unseen Sister, a character must fulfil all the following criteria.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Gender: Female
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Bluff 9 ranks, Diplomacy 12 ranks, Disguise 9 ranks, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 6 ranks, Listen 6 ranks, Sense Motive 12 ranks, Spot 6 Ranks
Feats: Alertness, Improved Unarmed Strike, Sacred Vow, Vow of Obedience
Special: You must swear an oath of service to the Order of Unseen Sisters, and declare your Vow of Obedience to the Order, and to your charge.
Class skills
The Unseen Sister’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: An Unseen Sister gains no proficiency with any weapon or armour.
AC Bonus (Ex): Unseen Sisters are highly trained at dodging blows and have a sixth sense that allows them to avoid even unanticipated attacks. When unarmoured and unencumbered, the sister adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC.
In addition, an Unseen sister gains a bonus to AC at 2nd level. This bonus increases by 1 for every 2 Unseen Sister levels thereafter.
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the Unseen Sister is flat footed. She loses these bonuses whenever she is immobilised or helpless, when she wears any armour, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.
Finally, an Unseen Sister may grant up to this entire bonus to their charge as a deflection bonus whenever they are within 5 feet of their charge.
Aura of Good (Ex): The power of an Unseen Sister’s aura of good (see detect good spell, page 219 of the Player’s Handbook) is equal to her Unseen Sister level, just like the aura of a cleric of a good deity.
Charge: An Unseen Sister’s Code is to protect her charge at all costs and to obey her charge in all things as long as their commands do not conflict with the ideals of the Order. An Unseen Sister may only use the Harm’s Way, Deflect Attack, Defensive Strike and Deflect Arrows class abilities to actively protect her charge.
Detect Evil (Sp): At will, as the spell of the same name. An Unseen Sister’s caster level for detect evil is her Character Level.
Harm’s Way (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, an Unseen Sister may elect to place herself in the path of danger in order to protect her single charge. Any time that she is within 5 feet of her charge, and your charge suffers an attack, she may switch places with her charge and receive the attack in their place. You must declare this before the attack roll is made. Your charge is the person you swore to protect when you took your Oath.
Unarmed Strike: Unseen Sisters are well trained in the arts of unarmed fighting, giving her considerable advantages when doing so. An Unseen Sister’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees and feet. This means an Unseen Sister may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for an Unseen Sister striking unarmed. An Unseen sister may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes. If the Unseen sister has monk levels, Unseens sister levels stack with monk levels for determining unarmed damage for which ever class gives the best benefit.
Usually an Unseen Sister’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal non-lethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or non-lethal damage while grappling.
An Unseen Sister’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured or natural weapons.
An Unseen Sister also deals more damage with an unarmed strike than a normal person would, as shown on table 1-1 The Unseen Sister. The unarmed damage on Table 1-1 is for Medium Unseen Sisters. A Small Unseen Sister deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large Unseen Sister deals more damage; see table 1-2 Small or Large Unseen Sister Unarmed Damage.
Ki Strike (Su): From first level, an Unseen Sister’s unarmed strikes are empowered by their divine oath. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purposes for overcoming damage reduction. Ki Strike improves with the Unseen Sister’s level. At fourth level, they are treated as good weapons. At 7th level, they are treated as lawful weapons. Finally, at 10th level, an Unseen sister may treat her unarmed strikes as Cold Iron or Silver, which ever is more beneficial, for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Defensive Strike (Ex): From second level, an Unseen Sister can make an attack of opportunity against any adjacent opponent who attacks her charge in melee. An Unseen Sister gains a +1 competence bonus to this attack for every 2 levels after 2nd. An Unseen Sister cannot exceed her normal amount of attacks of opportunity with this ability
Divine Grace (Su): A 2nd level Unseen Sister applies her Charisma bonus as a bonus on all saving throws.
Sneak Attack (Ex): If an Unseen Sister can catch an opponent when they are unable to defend themselves effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage. Any time an Unseen Sister’s target would be denied their Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), the Unseen Sister’s attack deals an extra 1d6 points of damage at 2nd level, and an additional 1d6 at every 4 Unseen Sister levels thereafter (6th and 10th). Should an Unseen Sister score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied.
It takes precision and penetration to hit a vital spot, and ranged attacks can only count as sneak attacks if the tar is within 30 feet.
With a sap or unarmed strike, an Unseen Sister can make a sneak attack that deals non-lethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal non-lethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual -4 penalty, because she must make optimal use of her weapon in order to execute the sneak attack.
An Unseen Sister can only sneak attack living creatures with discernible anatomies- undead, constructs, oozes, plants, and incorporeal creatures lack vital areas to attack. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to sneak attacks. The Sister must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. An Unseen Sister cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment or striking the limbs of a creature whose vitals are beyond reach.
If an Unseen Sister gets a sneak attack bonus from another source (such as rogue levels), the extra damage stacks.
Deflect Attack (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, the Unseen Sister can parry a melee attack against her charge. She must be within 5 feet of her charge to attempt this and must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when your charge would normally be hit with a melee weapon, you may deflect it so that your charge takes no damage from it. Deflecting an attack does not count as an action. You must be aware of the attack before-hand and not flat-footed.
Diehard (Ex): At 3rd level, an Unseen Sister gains the Diehard feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
Divine Health (Ex): At 5th level, an Unseen Sister gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases (such as mummy rot and lycanthropy).
Divine Body (Ex): At 7th level, an Unseen Sister gains immunity to drugs and poisons of all kinds.
Deflect Arrows (Ex): Beginning at 8th Level, an Unseen sister can parry a ranged attack against her charge. She must be within 5 feet of her charge to attempt this and must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when your charge would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, you may deflect it so that your charge takes no damage from it. Deflecting an attack does not count as an action. You must be aware of the attack before-hand and not flat-footed. Unusually massive ranged weapons, such as boulders hurled by giants, and ranged attacks generated by spell effects, such as Melf’s acid arrow, can’t be deflected.
Unlike the feat, the Unseen Sister cannot benefit from this defence personally. She may use it only to defend her charge.
Mettle (Su): From 9th level, an Unseen Sister gains a special blessing that allows her to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise harm her. If an Unseen Sister makes a successful Will or Fortitude saving throw that would normally reduce the spell’s effect, she suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a Saving Throw entry of “Will partial”, “Fortitude half”, or similar entries can be negated through this ability.
Divine Loyalty (Su): At 10th level, an Unseen Sister’s is completely immune to charm and compulsion spells and effects. Her loyalty is absolute.
Multiclass Note: A samurai, monk, or paladin who becomes an Unseen Sister can continue advancing in her original class.
Special Rules (Optional)
Focusing
As an optional rule, an Unseen Sister’s AC Bonuses, Ki Strike, Divine Grace, Divine Health, Divine Body, Divine Loyalty, and Mettle abilities only work when the Unseen Sister focuses her Ki. Focusing her Ki is a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, and requires a DC 20 Concentration check. If using this rule, add Concentration to the class skills of the Unseen Sister, and add Concentration 4 ranks to the skill requirements.
Using the Defensive Strike, Deflect attack, or Deflect Arrows class abilities expends Ki Focus. As in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, you may expend your Ki Focus to treat a Concentration Check as 15 + your ranks and Constitution modifier.
You lose Ki Focus when you go to sleep, enter a trance state (in the case of elves), or fall unconscious.
Add the Following feat.
Ki Meditation (General)
You focus your Ki faster than normal, even under duress.
Requirements: Wis 13, Concentration 7 ranks
Benefit: You can take a move action to focus your Ki.
Normal: A character without this feat must take a full-round action to focus their Ki.
You may also choose to require Ki Focus to be expended to use the Stunning Fist feat, and other feats that use Stunning Fist attacks as their basis. I would suggest retaining the uses per day, but you could remove it. Levels in the Unseen Sister class count as Monk levels for determining uses per day of Stunning Fist, if they have that feat. They must satisfy the requirements for Stunning Fist, as normal.
Ki Fist
Another option is to change the sneak attack class feature to one similar to the Soulknife’s Psychic Strike, requiring a Concentration check (DC 20) to charge their unarmed strike as a move action, and then expending Ki focus to deal extra damage (d8s, not d6s). This would have the advantage of not requiring the target to be flat footed. The Unseen Sister needs to have gained Ki Focus already to use Ki Fist. I’m requiring the extra effort because Ki affects creatures immune to mind-affecting effects, unlike Psychic Strike.
Retributive attack
Instead of Sneak Attack, the Unseen Sister could gain this damage any time she uses her Defensive Strike class feature (gained at the same level). In this case, I would convert the die type to d8. If using the Ki Focus rules above, I would require only Retributive attack to require expending focus, and not the normal defensive strike, or have it work every time defensive strike is used (by expending focus). This would enable the character to make a tactical decision on whether to make a punishing attack, and lose their focus until they refocus, or keep it and maintain their impressive defences.
Uncanny Dodge
I considered adding this ability to the class at 5th level, but I thought the class is already powerful enough at this stage. Also, if the character was a rogue before entering this class (likely), they already have the class ability. As normal, if the character already has Uncanny Dodge, they gain Improved Uncanny Dodge instead, and their Unseen Sister class levels stack with the class that granted Uncanny dodge to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Knowledge (Religion)
I used this as a requirement, because the Order I envisaged was of a subdivision of Holy defenders who not only shape events to further the goals of Good and Law, but of their religion as well. If you’d prefer that not to be the case, you can remove the requirement.
Charges’ Alignment
While the Order of the Unseen Sisterhood are primarily good and Lawful (those in the prestige class must be both), their charges do not need to be so. The Sister is charged with the goal of promoting good and Lawful acts, however. They are also expected to guide their charge away from evil acts.
Notes
This is a powerful class, but it also comes with a lot of responsibilities and restrictions. I hope it makes it both challenging and fun to play a defensive character based on the rogue archetype. I also ensured that it was impossible to enter the class before 10th level. The skill and feat requirements are also fairly stringent.
The Code of Conduct is also a limiting factor of the class. It’s not designed to punish a player, just be a challenge.
The charge could be an NPC, or another of the PCs. This could create some interesting role-playing situations if the Order’s requirements come into conflict with the PC charge’s commands. It must also be stated that it can be fairly tricky when one PC is subordinate to another PC.
I've been kicking around this idea for a while now, and as I'm playing in a new campaign soon, I thought I'd create a Prestige Class that would suit my PC, and the role she plays in the campaign world. I'm working closely with another player for our shared background (she's playing an exiled daughter of an emperor, I'm playing her bodyguard/retainer/best friend).
I was inspired by a "Class Acts" in Dragon Magazine, which detailed an order of mostly Lawful Good female rogues who act as bodyguards for important female personages.
Anyhow, here is my effort. I'm looking for a bit of help with the Code of Conduct, as well as their Oath of Service to the Order of Unseen Sister as mine doesn't seem very fleshed out yet.
Unseen Sister
Unfailingly, sovereigns, nobles, courtiers, and other important dignitaries depend on strong sword arms for protection. While most bodyguards are heavily armoured fighters who rely on intimidation and skill in battle to protect their charges, some use more subtle tactics. Among the latter are members of the Unseen Sisterhood, a divinely mandated sorority whose skills of deception and surprise know no peer.
The Unseen Sisters dedicate themselves to protecting noble ladies and other women holding power or prestige who promote goals supported by the Order. The sisterhood trains its members in a variety of fields, from personal unarmed combat tactics to good manners. The most important skills taught by the Unseen Sisters, however, relate to deceitfulness. Members act as servants, chambermaids, teachers, chaperones, babysitters, nannies, and simple companions to the noblewomen they protect. As such, most people fail to realize they are lethal combatants able to defend those in their care.
The Unseen Sisterhood hand picks its members from among the most skilful female rogues of the world who also exhibit some degree of expertise in Diplomacy and Disguise. On occasion, the sisterhood accepts a warrior or spell caster, but such members are rare. Because of the cause it serves the sisterhood mostly chooses lawful and good members, using magical tests to weed out chaotic and evil candidates.
Most Unseen Sisters were single classed rogues or multiclassed rogue/monks, though some paladins, samurai, and swashbucklers take up the cause, often multiclassed with rogue or monk levels.
Those who are exemplars of this path may take the Unseen Sister Prestige Class.
Oath of Service
Unseen Sisters swear an oath to uphold the laws of their organisation, and to obey the laws of the nation or kingdom their charge belongs to. She swears to defend her charge for as long as the charge needs defending, and to obey their charge’s commands, but also to obey the ideals of her organisation. Her Oath to join the Unseen Sisters must be observed by witnesses, as must her Oath taken when she swears to protect a charge.
If she ever violates her Oath of Service or Code of Conduct, she must receive an atonement spell from a Lawful Good divine spell caster to get her powers back and to continue advancing in the Unseen Sister class. An Unseen Sister with no charge does not benefit from Divine Health, Divine Body, Divine Loyalty, or Mettle. An Unseen Sister who has violated her Oath or ceases to be Lawful Good also loses her AC bonus, Detect Evil, and Divine Grace abilities.
Fulfilment of the Oath of Service
If the Unseen Sister’s Oath of service no longer applies (for example if her charge dies of old age, or dismisses her from the Oath), the Sister must return to the Order and gain a new charge. If “in between” charges, an adventuring Unseen Sister has a grace period of 1 week per class level to return to the Order and swear a new Oath. An Unseen Sister who does not swear a new Oath before the grace period expires has violated her Oath of Service to the Order.
Code of Conduct
Display courage and enterprise in obedience to the Order.
Defence of your charge unto death against all threats
Respect for all peers and equals; courtesy to all lesser.
Death before dishonour.
Respect the authority of your charge.
An Unseen Sister must be Lawful Good alignment and loses her all class abilities except for Sneak Attack, Unarmed Strike, Defensive Strike, and the Diehard feat if she ceases to be Lawful Good.
Hit Die: d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become an Unseen Sister, a character must fulfil all the following criteria.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Gender: Female
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Bluff 9 ranks, Diplomacy 12 ranks, Disguise 9 ranks, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 6 ranks, Listen 6 ranks, Sense Motive 12 ranks, Spot 6 Ranks
Feats: Alertness, Improved Unarmed Strike, Sacred Vow, Vow of Obedience
Special: You must swear an oath of service to the Order of Unseen Sisters, and declare your Vow of Obedience to the Order, and to your charge.
Class skills
The Unseen Sister’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Code:
Table 1-1: The Unseen Sister
Level BAB Saves AC Bonus Special
1 +0 +2/+2/+0 +0 Aura of Good, Charge, Detect Evil, Harm’s Way, Unarmed Strike 1d6, Ki Strike (magic)
2 +1 +3/+3/+0 +1 Defensive Strike, Divine Grace, Sneak attack +1d6
3 +2 +3/+3/+1 +1 Deflect Attack, Diehard
4 +3 +4/+4/+1 +2 Defensive Strike +1, Unarmed Strike 1d8, Ki Strike (good)
5 +3 +4/+4/+1 +2 Divine Health
6 +4 +5/+5/+2 +3 Defensive Strike +2, Sneak Attack +2d6
7 +5 +5/+5/+2 +3 Divine Body, Unarmed Strike 1d10, Ki Strike (lawful)
8 +6 +6/+6/+2 +4 Defensive Strike +3, Deflect Arrows
9 +6 +6/+6/+3 +4 Mettle
10 +7 +7/+7/+3 +5 Defensive Strike +4, Sneak Attack +3d6, Divine Loyalty, Unarmed
- - - Strike 2d6, Ki Strike (cold iron or silver)
Table 1-2: Small or Large Unseen Sister Unarmed Damage
Level Damage (Small) Damage (Large)
1st-3rd 1d4 1d8
4th-6th 1d6 2d6
7th-9th 1d8 2d8
10th 1d10 3d6Weapon and Armour Proficiency: An Unseen Sister gains no proficiency with any weapon or armour.
AC Bonus (Ex): Unseen Sisters are highly trained at dodging blows and have a sixth sense that allows them to avoid even unanticipated attacks. When unarmoured and unencumbered, the sister adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC.
In addition, an Unseen sister gains a bonus to AC at 2nd level. This bonus increases by 1 for every 2 Unseen Sister levels thereafter.
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the Unseen Sister is flat footed. She loses these bonuses whenever she is immobilised or helpless, when she wears any armour, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.
Finally, an Unseen Sister may grant up to this entire bonus to their charge as a deflection bonus whenever they are within 5 feet of their charge.
Aura of Good (Ex): The power of an Unseen Sister’s aura of good (see detect good spell, page 219 of the Player’s Handbook) is equal to her Unseen Sister level, just like the aura of a cleric of a good deity.
Charge: An Unseen Sister’s Code is to protect her charge at all costs and to obey her charge in all things as long as their commands do not conflict with the ideals of the Order. An Unseen Sister may only use the Harm’s Way, Deflect Attack, Defensive Strike and Deflect Arrows class abilities to actively protect her charge.
Detect Evil (Sp): At will, as the spell of the same name. An Unseen Sister’s caster level for detect evil is her Character Level.
Harm’s Way (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, an Unseen Sister may elect to place herself in the path of danger in order to protect her single charge. Any time that she is within 5 feet of her charge, and your charge suffers an attack, she may switch places with her charge and receive the attack in their place. You must declare this before the attack roll is made. Your charge is the person you swore to protect when you took your Oath.
Unarmed Strike: Unseen Sisters are well trained in the arts of unarmed fighting, giving her considerable advantages when doing so. An Unseen Sister’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees and feet. This means an Unseen Sister may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for an Unseen Sister striking unarmed. An Unseen sister may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes. If the Unseen sister has monk levels, Unseens sister levels stack with monk levels for determining unarmed damage for which ever class gives the best benefit.
Usually an Unseen Sister’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal non-lethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or non-lethal damage while grappling.
An Unseen Sister’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured or natural weapons.
An Unseen Sister also deals more damage with an unarmed strike than a normal person would, as shown on table 1-1 The Unseen Sister. The unarmed damage on Table 1-1 is for Medium Unseen Sisters. A Small Unseen Sister deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large Unseen Sister deals more damage; see table 1-2 Small or Large Unseen Sister Unarmed Damage.
Ki Strike (Su): From first level, an Unseen Sister’s unarmed strikes are empowered by their divine oath. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purposes for overcoming damage reduction. Ki Strike improves with the Unseen Sister’s level. At fourth level, they are treated as good weapons. At 7th level, they are treated as lawful weapons. Finally, at 10th level, an Unseen sister may treat her unarmed strikes as Cold Iron or Silver, which ever is more beneficial, for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Defensive Strike (Ex): From second level, an Unseen Sister can make an attack of opportunity against any adjacent opponent who attacks her charge in melee. An Unseen Sister gains a +1 competence bonus to this attack for every 2 levels after 2nd. An Unseen Sister cannot exceed her normal amount of attacks of opportunity with this ability
Divine Grace (Su): A 2nd level Unseen Sister applies her Charisma bonus as a bonus on all saving throws.
Sneak Attack (Ex): If an Unseen Sister can catch an opponent when they are unable to defend themselves effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage. Any time an Unseen Sister’s target would be denied their Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), the Unseen Sister’s attack deals an extra 1d6 points of damage at 2nd level, and an additional 1d6 at every 4 Unseen Sister levels thereafter (6th and 10th). Should an Unseen Sister score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied.
It takes precision and penetration to hit a vital spot, and ranged attacks can only count as sneak attacks if the tar is within 30 feet.
With a sap or unarmed strike, an Unseen Sister can make a sneak attack that deals non-lethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal non-lethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual -4 penalty, because she must make optimal use of her weapon in order to execute the sneak attack.
An Unseen Sister can only sneak attack living creatures with discernible anatomies- undead, constructs, oozes, plants, and incorporeal creatures lack vital areas to attack. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to sneak attacks. The Sister must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. An Unseen Sister cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment or striking the limbs of a creature whose vitals are beyond reach.
If an Unseen Sister gets a sneak attack bonus from another source (such as rogue levels), the extra damage stacks.
Deflect Attack (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, the Unseen Sister can parry a melee attack against her charge. She must be within 5 feet of her charge to attempt this and must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when your charge would normally be hit with a melee weapon, you may deflect it so that your charge takes no damage from it. Deflecting an attack does not count as an action. You must be aware of the attack before-hand and not flat-footed.
Diehard (Ex): At 3rd level, an Unseen Sister gains the Diehard feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
Divine Health (Ex): At 5th level, an Unseen Sister gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases (such as mummy rot and lycanthropy).
Divine Body (Ex): At 7th level, an Unseen Sister gains immunity to drugs and poisons of all kinds.
Deflect Arrows (Ex): Beginning at 8th Level, an Unseen sister can parry a ranged attack against her charge. She must be within 5 feet of her charge to attempt this and must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when your charge would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, you may deflect it so that your charge takes no damage from it. Deflecting an attack does not count as an action. You must be aware of the attack before-hand and not flat-footed. Unusually massive ranged weapons, such as boulders hurled by giants, and ranged attacks generated by spell effects, such as Melf’s acid arrow, can’t be deflected.
Unlike the feat, the Unseen Sister cannot benefit from this defence personally. She may use it only to defend her charge.
Mettle (Su): From 9th level, an Unseen Sister gains a special blessing that allows her to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise harm her. If an Unseen Sister makes a successful Will or Fortitude saving throw that would normally reduce the spell’s effect, she suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a Saving Throw entry of “Will partial”, “Fortitude half”, or similar entries can be negated through this ability.
Divine Loyalty (Su): At 10th level, an Unseen Sister’s is completely immune to charm and compulsion spells and effects. Her loyalty is absolute.
Multiclass Note: A samurai, monk, or paladin who becomes an Unseen Sister can continue advancing in her original class.
Special Rules (Optional)
Focusing
As an optional rule, an Unseen Sister’s AC Bonuses, Ki Strike, Divine Grace, Divine Health, Divine Body, Divine Loyalty, and Mettle abilities only work when the Unseen Sister focuses her Ki. Focusing her Ki is a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, and requires a DC 20 Concentration check. If using this rule, add Concentration to the class skills of the Unseen Sister, and add Concentration 4 ranks to the skill requirements.
Using the Defensive Strike, Deflect attack, or Deflect Arrows class abilities expends Ki Focus. As in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, you may expend your Ki Focus to treat a Concentration Check as 15 + your ranks and Constitution modifier.
You lose Ki Focus when you go to sleep, enter a trance state (in the case of elves), or fall unconscious.
Add the Following feat.
Ki Meditation (General)
You focus your Ki faster than normal, even under duress.
Requirements: Wis 13, Concentration 7 ranks
Benefit: You can take a move action to focus your Ki.
Normal: A character without this feat must take a full-round action to focus their Ki.
You may also choose to require Ki Focus to be expended to use the Stunning Fist feat, and other feats that use Stunning Fist attacks as their basis. I would suggest retaining the uses per day, but you could remove it. Levels in the Unseen Sister class count as Monk levels for determining uses per day of Stunning Fist, if they have that feat. They must satisfy the requirements for Stunning Fist, as normal.
Ki Fist
Another option is to change the sneak attack class feature to one similar to the Soulknife’s Psychic Strike, requiring a Concentration check (DC 20) to charge their unarmed strike as a move action, and then expending Ki focus to deal extra damage (d8s, not d6s). This would have the advantage of not requiring the target to be flat footed. The Unseen Sister needs to have gained Ki Focus already to use Ki Fist. I’m requiring the extra effort because Ki affects creatures immune to mind-affecting effects, unlike Psychic Strike.
Retributive attack
Instead of Sneak Attack, the Unseen Sister could gain this damage any time she uses her Defensive Strike class feature (gained at the same level). In this case, I would convert the die type to d8. If using the Ki Focus rules above, I would require only Retributive attack to require expending focus, and not the normal defensive strike, or have it work every time defensive strike is used (by expending focus). This would enable the character to make a tactical decision on whether to make a punishing attack, and lose their focus until they refocus, or keep it and maintain their impressive defences.
Uncanny Dodge
I considered adding this ability to the class at 5th level, but I thought the class is already powerful enough at this stage. Also, if the character was a rogue before entering this class (likely), they already have the class ability. As normal, if the character already has Uncanny Dodge, they gain Improved Uncanny Dodge instead, and their Unseen Sister class levels stack with the class that granted Uncanny dodge to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Knowledge (Religion)
I used this as a requirement, because the Order I envisaged was of a subdivision of Holy defenders who not only shape events to further the goals of Good and Law, but of their religion as well. If you’d prefer that not to be the case, you can remove the requirement.
Charges’ Alignment
While the Order of the Unseen Sisterhood are primarily good and Lawful (those in the prestige class must be both), their charges do not need to be so. The Sister is charged with the goal of promoting good and Lawful acts, however. They are also expected to guide their charge away from evil acts.
Notes
This is a powerful class, but it also comes with a lot of responsibilities and restrictions. I hope it makes it both challenging and fun to play a defensive character based on the rogue archetype. I also ensured that it was impossible to enter the class before 10th level. The skill and feat requirements are also fairly stringent.
The Code of Conduct is also a limiting factor of the class. It’s not designed to punish a player, just be a challenge.
The charge could be an NPC, or another of the PCs. This could create some interesting role-playing situations if the Order’s requirements come into conflict with the PC charge’s commands. It must also be stated that it can be fairly tricky when one PC is subordinate to another PC.
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