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Soren_of_Chains 07-10-07, 11:23 AM

Righteous Lord Whether on a large battlefield, a small skirmish, or a futile charge, an honorable leader stays with his men. There are some lords who stay in the back of their company in order to protect themselves, and there are others who use their troops as disposable decoys in order to escape danger. The Righteous Lord scoffs at such cowardly tactics as he leads his men from his post right by their sides. A Righteous Lord has a way with words and with people that can embolden any who willingly follow him. The Righteous Lord respects and protects his men, and his men in turn respect and protect him. It is commonly said that there is no more frightful sight than a leader of this caliber and his men making their final stand, as they seem to become more and more powerful as the odds become more and more stacked against them. A few levels of Paladin are required to gain entrance into the Righteous Lord prestige class, but multiclass paladin-barbarians, paladin-monks and paladin-fighters are common pursuers of the class. The rogue and ranger classes, with their focus on stealth, make poor Righteous Lords even with levels in paladin to offset them. Sorcerer-paladins and bard-paladins, with their spell casting abilities and traditionally high charismas, are rare, but make excellent Righteous Lords when they do come around. Cleric-paladins and wizard-paladins are even more rare, but their followers tend to be even more devoted due to their position of authority in a church or school. Druids tend to shun the titles of society, and therefore seldom follow the path of the Righteous Lord, even when they posses the heart of a strong paladin. Righteous Lord NPCs are few and far between, due to the authority that comes with the position, and the cowardice of most who manage to ascertain such authority, but those NPCs who do have levels in this class tend to be strong and benevolent leaders who would sooner die than do their country ill. A Baron who wishes to dethrone the evil tyrant, a warrior king who wishes for nothing more than adequate defense of the boarders of his country, or the disowned prince who wanders the world in search of a way to clear his name, aided only by his most loyal retainers, are all suitable Righteous Lords. Hit Die: d10 Requirements: To qualify to become a Righteous Lord, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Alignment: Lawful Good BAB: +9 Skills: Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 5 ranks., Perform (Oratory) 6 ranks, Ride 5 ranks Feats: Leadership Special: Aura of Courage, Smite Evil 2/day Class Skills The Righteous Lord’s class skills, and the key ability for each, are: Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Perform (Cha), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis). Skill Points at Each Level: 4+Int modifier. Level BAB Fort. Save Ref. Save Will Save Special 1st +1 +2 +0 +2 For The Men (+2, 1d4), Inspiring Strike (+1), Paladin Smiting 2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Tactical Aid (Terrain), Irrepressible Advance 3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Impressive Fortitude (d2), Inspiring Strike (+1d3) 4th +4 +4 +1 +4 For The Men (+4, 1d4+1), Tactical Aid (Awareness) 5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Inspiring Strike (+1d6) 6th +6 +5 +2 +5 Impressive Fortitude (d4), Tactical Aid (Teamwork) 7th +7 +5 +2 +5 For The Men (+4, +1 Ex. Attack, 1d4+lv.), Inspiring Strike (+1d8) 8th +8 +6 +2 +6 Last defense, Tactical Aid (Traps) 9th +9 +6 +3 +6 Inspiring Strike (+1d10), Impressive Fortitude (d6) 10th +10 +7 +3 +7 Futile Charge, Improved Last defense For The Men (+6, +1 Ex Attack, 1d6+level) Class Features All the following are class features of the Righteous Lord prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Righteous Lords gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor. For The Men: A Righteous Lord is a master of inspirational pep talks, and can, as a full-round action, or as a free action if done as part of a charge in which the attack hit it's intended target, deliver a short but powerful speech to his men. By doing so, he raises their morale, and makes them more capable of aiding him in the battle. The Righteous Lord makes a Perform (Oratory) check against a DC of 20. If he succeeds, then for the next 1d4 rounds after the speech is delivered, all allies within the range of his Aura of Courage gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls. At 4th level, and every three levels thereafter, the ability improves. At 4th level, the Righteous Lord’s speech delivers a +4 morale bonus to attack rolls that lasts for 1d4+1 rounds assuming the success of a DC 25 perform (Oratory) check. If the roll exceeds 20, but not 25, the 1st level ability of the same name comes into effect. At 7th level, the Righteous Lords mastery of language improves, allowing the opportunity for a speech to give a +4 morale bonus to attack rolls and allow one extra attack to be made in a full attack action, these effects last for a number of rounds after the speech equal to 1d4+ class level of the Righteous Lord. This requires the success of a DC 30 Perform (Oratory) check. At 10th level, with a successful DC 35 Perform (Oratory) check, the Righteous Lord can inspire his allies to a greater extent, granting them a +6 morale bonus on attack rolls, and an extra attack in each full attack. This ability lasts for 1d6+Class Level rounds after the speech. Inspiring Strike: A Righteous Lord’s skill and righteous fury on a battlefield are truly a sight to behold. Due to the conviction of a Righteous Lord, and the trust in that conviction that the Lord’s allies have, a Lord is capable of weeding out enemies who deserve nothing less than the swiftest death, and allowing their allies access to strength they didn’t even know they had. A Righteous Lord who succeeds in dealing damage with a Smite Evil attempt {Weapon damage doesn’t count.} illuminates the creatures heartless nature to all allies of the Righteous Lord present. Through this illumination, the Righteous Lord alleviates the subconscious concerns of all non-evil allies that they might be snuffing out innocent life, and allows them to bring their full strength to bear, without subconsciously holding back. For 1d3 rounds after the Smite Evil damage is dealt, all allies of the Righteous Lord who have a non-evil alignment gain a +1 morale bonus to their damage rolls against this specific enemy. At 3rd level, and every two levels thereafter, this ability improves, allowing more hidden strength to be brought to bear by each ally. At 3rd level, allies do an additional 1d3 points of damage to this enemy, at 5th, the bonus damage improves to 1d6, at 7th level, it increases to 1d8, and at 9th, it improves to 1d10. Paladin Smiting: A Righteous Lord’s class level stacks with his paladin level for the purposes of determining the damage caused by his smite evil ability, and the frequency with which it can be used. Tactical Aid: At second level and higher, as a standard action during combat, a Righteous Lord can make a DC 15 perform (Oratory) check in order to deliver suggestions and sage advice to his men, allowing them a specific advantage in combat. The advantages listed here are all provided to all allies within 15 feet of the Righteous Lord, and last for 1d8 rounds. Terrain: The Righteous Lord shouts encouragement and advice for using the land and halls around the battle to their greatest advantage. Any cover an affected unit may have is treated as one category better. {½ becomes ¾, ¾ becomes 9/10ths, and so on.} Available at level 2 Awareness: The Righteous Lord reminds his men of the perils of a surprise attack, and the need to keep their guard up. Units gain a +4 bonus to listen and spot checks to notice enemies trying to sneak around. Additionally, if one is noticed, the spotting character is allowed an immediate action to signal the rest of his squad, verbally or otherwise. Available at level 4 Teamwork: The Righteous Lord cries out tips for effectively playing off of your teammates during battle. All affected allies gain a +4 morale bonus to their AC {Touch and Flat-footed as well} when fighting within ten feet of another ally, and the +2 bonus for flanking is improved to +4. Available at level 6 Traps: The Righteous Lord yells out ideas for taking advantage of traps effectively. A successful reflex save, DC 15 or equal to the trap’s DC, whichever is higher, allows any affected ally to switch places with an adjacent enemy as a trap is springing on them, thus using it against the enemy. Available at level 8. Irrepressible Advance: By taking a standard action to prepare and a full round action to initiate, a Righteous Lord of level 2 or higher can lead his men on a charge path that need not be straight, and can go over and around debris up to half their height without penalty, but otherwise acts as a normal charge. By taking a full round action each turn continuously, he can lead his men for extended periods of time, increasing their overland speed to 1.5 times normal. All allies led in such a fashion must end their charges within fifteen feet of where the Righteous Lord ends his, and even if they do not attack at this point, they take the -2 AC penalty for charging. This ability can be used mounted as long as the allies are all on horseback, and the Righteous Lord does not exceed twice the slowest other mount’s base speed in one round. Impressive Fortitude: Not only can a Righteous Lord survive hits that would drop lesser opponents, he can also use these moments to inspire his troops. A Righteous Lord of 3rd level or higher can prepare a standard action to receive a hit. If damage is dealt to him before his next turn, the hit deals 5 extra damage to him due to the opening he provided it. However, if he remain conscious after being hit, he can use an immediate action to make a comment, usually a smart-alack remark or sarcastic joke, which displays that he is still ‘all there.’ If he chooses to do this, his men are inspired by his toughness to the point where their ability to survive attacks improves. Roll 1d2 and multiply the result by their level, and add that number of hit points to their current hit point count. If the Righteous Lord survived a massive damage roll in the process, double the bonus hit points. These are temporary hit points and are lost first when damage is taken. If not lost, they go away at the end of the combat. At 6th level this ability improves to 1d4, and at 9th, it improves to 1d6. Last Defense: Sometimes the curtain has already closed on a Righteous Lord, and they have nothing left to do but defend themselves as long as possible. Assuming that a location or person (this can be the Lord themselves) that a Righteous Lord of level 8 or higher wants defended is being threatened, the Righteous Lord can take 10 minutes before the battle to give a truly inspiring speech to his troops. In this way he can improve a number of his allies, of his choice, one level in their highest level class equal to twice his Charisma modifier, minimum two. At tenth level, this ability improves those allies by two levels. This bonus lasts a number of hours equal to the Righteous Lord’s Charisma modifier, and only works if the lord and his chosen allies do not retreat from the battle. This requires a Perform (Oratory) check with a DC of 40. This ability cannot be used on the Lord himself. Futile Charge: When a Righteous Lord’s last charge comes, it is a truly frightful experience for all involved. By speaking in front of his men for 2 minutes, the Righteous Lord can accept that he will die before the battle he is in is over, and make a perform (Oratory) check. The result of this check, divided by 10, rounded down, is the number of allies who are truly inspired, and receive the benefit of this ability. Assuming all allies who were given this ability are mounted, and participate in a mounted charge behind the Righteous Lord, they temporarily become three levels higher than they actually are, and ignore all penalties for doing things that they aren’t supposed to {spells, archery, etc.} while mounted. The charge can, and often does, meander around the entire battlefield, but it cannot last more than a number of minutes equal to three times the Lord’s charisma modifier, and at the end of it’s effect, regardless of hit point count, the Lord is slain, so it is often best to cut straight through to the enemy leader. The effect ends if the Lord or any of his chosen allies dismounts, or moves less than 20 feet during a round. A Lord killed by using this ability cannot be brought back to life by anything short of the direct assistance of his deity {NOT a miracle spell, an actual side quest, if it is even allowed.} and must seek out an atonement spell from a specialist cleric {1000000 gp plus a side quest to get him to cast it on you, so good luck.} before he can use this ability or his Last Defense ability again. All other class features are retained.