Realms of Chaos
2014-03-10, 02:48 PM
The Champion
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“I vow to rest in time, my friend, but not so long as I draw breath."
-Arrizak the Bold, Champion of Pelor
In service of the gods and godlike beings, there are all manner of offerings that one could give in return for divine favor. The laity provide small material offering and prayers as clerics devote their life in service and supplication. A rare few, however, are driven by a divine calling to devote their existences to acting on behalf of their god. Driven by deep belief in the aims of their god, these divine champions are pressed on by devotion to their cause, becoming the eyes and hands of their otherworldly lord and patrons. Fighting in the name of a sacred cause, these entities are known simply as champions.
Game Rule Information:
Abilities: As the martial arm of your faith, Constitution allows you to take more hits while strength enables strong attacks in melee and dexterity allows for strong attacks from range and allows less restrictive armor. The power of your raw faith, shining through to attack your foes, manifest minor divine miracles, and warding you from harm, is represented by your Charisma score.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: A champion’s class skills are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentrate (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str)
Skill Points Per Level: 4 + Int Modifier (x4 at 1st level)
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+1|+2|+0|+2|Combat Blessings (Acolyte), Divine Scrutiny (Alignment)
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+3|Aura of Devotion (1), Divine Grace
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+3|Gift of Faith, Request Intercession
4th|+4|+4|+1|+4|Favored Blessing (1) , Turn/Rebuke Undead
5th|+5|+4|+1|+4| Combat Blessings (Zealot)
6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+5|Divine Scrutiny (Truth)
7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+5|Aura of Devotion (2)
8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+6|Gift of Faith
9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+6|Favored Blessing (2)
10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+7|Combat Blessings (Templar)
11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+7|Divine Scrutiny (Form)
12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+8|Aura of Devotion (3)
13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+8|Gift of Faith
14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+9|Favored Blessing (3)
15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+9| Combat Blessings (Crusader)
16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+10|Divine Scrutiny (Actions)
17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+10|Aura of Devotion (4)
18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+11|Gift of Faith
19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+11|Favored Blessing (4)
20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+12|Chosen Avatar
[/table]
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You are proficient with simple and martial weapons, as well as with all forms of armor and with shields (but not tower shields).
Divine Patron: Each and every champion gains their power from an otherworldly patron they worship. While some worship powerful outsiders such as demon lords in place of true deities, there are no equivalents to clerics that choose to worship an ideal. You are granted divine might on behalf of your patron to fight on their behalf, though your worthiness as a champion is ever-judged.
In day to day matters, a champion is granted a level of freedom and trust with their powers to use them in the greater interest of their patron, even if specific actions violate their dogma (a champion of Pelor would not be overly punished by his god for a “necessary theft”, for example). Your alignment, however, must exactly match that of your patron at all times. Should your alignment shift, you lose all supernatural class features this class provides until you receive the benefits of an atonement spell (see atonement and conversion, below).
To help you further the interests of your patron, you are granted certain benefits against those your deity deems to be potential enemies. At 1st level, you may select good, evil, lawful, or chaotic (you may not select an alignment that you possess). For the purpose of your class features, creatures with the chosen alignment are considered forsaken. Despite these powers, you are not limited in aiding or befriending such targets except insofar as it may alter your alignment.
Atonement and Conversion:While a champion works to meet the lofty ideals of their deity and the process of regaining their daily power includes a degree of daily atonement, infractions large enough to taint (or purify) the soul of the champion are harder to wash away, requiring the aid of an Atonement spell as outlined above. In such a condition, a champion is placed with two potential options, to turn to the service of a new deity of their current alignment or to return to the faith of their previous patron. Either use of Atonement in this way requires a quest of the champion and requires a cleric of the faith that you wish to belong to or remain within.
If more than a month has passed since you have last pledged yourself to a new patron, you may dedicate yourself to a new patron of your alignment without first losing the powers of your former patron, transitioning to a new leader with ideals that suit your own. This transition requires an atonement cast by a cleric of the new religion and always entails a quest to test your dedication and commitment to the new patron.
Whenever you pledge yourself to a new patron, you must select a new alignment to determine forsaken opponents (though you may select the same alignment if still applicable) and may switch your gifts of faith for an equal number of new gifts. Once you have left the faith of a patron, you may never again become a champion in their name.
Combat Blessing (Su): The power of the divine runs through your veins, empowering you to act as an agent of your deity’s judgment. A moment’s prayer is all that you require for your raw religious fervor to awaken your divine gifts. At the start of each day, you may spend an hour praying and requesting atonement for minor transgressions from the past day to memorize a number of combat blessings up to your class level + your charisma modifier (minimum 1), replacing any remaining blessings you had selected the previous day. You may only select Acolyte blessings at 1st level but may select Zealot blessings at 5th level, Templar blessings at 10th level, and Crusader blessings at 15th level. You may select a single blessing more than once.
As an immediate action, you may utter a brief prayer and select one or more combat blessings that you have memorized, expending them to claim their benefits. The chosen blessings are each immediately activated for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier, as noted under their description. Combat Blessings that allow for saving throws possess a Save DC of 10 + 1/2 champion level + Cha modifier. The effects of a combat blessing never stack with itself, even if different decisions are made (a new recitation replaces an old one).
If addition to the benefits of your specific blessings, you are empowered to fight on behalf of your god while under the effects of other blessing. While you possess at least one active blessing, you may add your Charisma bonus (if any) to attack rolls against forsaken targets. Further, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against forsaken foes equal to the number of active blessings you possess.
Combat Blessings:
Acolyte Blessings
Canny Inspiration: Upon reciting this blessing, select a bonus fighter feat, a divine feat, or a devotion feat (complete champion). If you meet all of its prerequisites, you gain the benefits of that feat.
Censuring Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select fatigued, sickened, or shaken. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creature with an attack, that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round (multiple hits fail to worsen the condition). A creature that succeeds on its save gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Divine Shield: You gain a deflection bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma modifier (if positive) against the attacks of forsaken creatures.
Flawless Guard: Your reach is increased by +5 feet for the purpose of attacks of opportunity and tumble checks made through your threatened area take a -5 penalty.
Guardian: Whenever an ally within 10 feet or within your reach (whichever is greater) would take hit point damage, you may elect to take half of all such damage the ally would take from that source in their place(this requires no action).
Insights from Beyond: You can see invisible and ethereal creatures as see invisibility, gain a +5 bonus on knowledge checks made to identify creatures, and can make such checks untrained.
Minor Invigoration: You healed 2 hit points at the start of each round. As a standard action, you may grant yourself 5 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Lesser Revitalization: You gain immunity to the fatigued, sickened, and shaken conditions. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you
Unyielding: At the start of each round, you heal a single point of ability damage to an ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round).
Zeal: You gain a +10 foot enhancement bonus to your speed for all modes of movement and mental control may not be exercised of your, much as protection from evil.
Zealot Blessings
Castigating Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select exhausted, nauseated, or frightened. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creauture with an attack, that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round (multiple hits fail to worsen the condition). A creature that succeeds on its save is gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Divine Boon: Upon reciting this blessing, select a single ability score. You gain a +4 sacred bonus to the chosen ability score.
Energy Aegis Upon reciting this blessing, select a single form of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic). You gain energy resistance 20 against the chosen form of energy.
Lesser Invigoration: You are healed 4 hit points at the start of each round. As a move action, you may grant yourself 15 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Piercing Smite: Your attacks with manufactured weapons ignore any Damage Reduction that your forsaken foes may possess.
Revitalization: You gain immunity to the fatigued, exhausted, sickened, and nauseated condition as well as all fear effects. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Sacred Body: You gain immunity to disease and poisons (even if magical or supernatural). You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Unrelenting: At the start of each round, you heal up to two points of ability damage or one point of ability drain to a single ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round).
Versatile Charge: Whenever you charge, you provoke no attacks of opportunity for your movement and may make your attack(s) at any point in your movement.
Witchslayer: Casters within your threatened area may not cast defensively. Your attacks ignore miss chances and bonuses to AC from spells and spell-like abilities.
Templar Blessings
Annul Dweomer: You gain immunity to all targeted baneful effects that a dispel magic or remove curse spell could remove. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already affecting you.
Divine Alacrity: Your speed for all modes of movement is doubled and you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Whenever you make a full attack, you may make an extra attack at your full base attack bonus. This effect does not stack with those granted by haste and similar effects.
Greater Revitalization: You gain immunity to the blinded, deafened, paralyzed, staggered, and stunned conditions. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Invigoration: You are healed 6 hit points at the start of each round. As a swift action, you may grant yourself 25 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Penetrating Smite: Whenever you successfully damage a forsaken creature, it loses the ability to heal hit points for 1 round. Further, all attacks you make ignore the regeneration of such foes.
Rebuking Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select blinded, deafened, or stunned. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creature with an attack (if you selected blinded or deafened) or with a successful critical hit (if you selected stunned), that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round. A creature that succeeds on its save gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours.
Spirit Slayer: You apply your full AC against touch attacks and your attacks can harm incorporeal and ethereal targets as though made of force.
Templar’s Charge: When charging, you may make any number of turns and can cross difficult terrain and occupied squares, though your destination must be at least 20 feet away. Further, you may make a full attack at the end of a charge.
Unbreakable At the start of each round, you heal up to four points of ability damage or two points of ability drain to a single ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round) or remove a single negative level (permanent level loss may not be removed in this way).
Vanquishing Smite: Whenever you attack a forsaken creature, your threat range is doubled and you automatically confirm all critical hits (this effect doesn’t stack with other effects that increase threat range such as the keen weapon quality).
Crusader Blessings
Annul Affliction: You gain immunity to all targeted baneful effects that a break enchantment spell could remove. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already affecting you.
Cosmic Flesh: You are difficult to harm, gaining DR 20/adamantine.
Dimensional Smite: Once per round, when you successfully attack a forsaken creature, you may subject the target to a dimensional anchor effect for 1 round. If the target is extraplanar, you may instead return them to their home plane and prevent them from leaving once more for 24 hours. Either way, a successful will save negates this effect and grants the target a +4 bonus on future saves against this ability for 24 hours.
Eternal Returns: As a full-round action, you may select an ally (other than yourself) that has been reduced below -9 hit points within the past round. That target’s hit points are increased to -9 and the target stabilized. If the target was dead, they return to life without any loss in levels, Constitution, or spells prepared. The target’s body must be mostly intact to target them and death through sources other than hit point damage can’t be undone in this manner.
Felling Blow: Once per round, when you score a critical hit against a forsaken creature, they must make a Fortitude save or perish (even if normally immune to death effects). Once a creature has succeeded on its save, the target gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Greater Invigoration: You are healed 8 hit points and gain 40 temporary hit points at the start of each round. These temporary hit points vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Loyal Beyond Death: You are not disabled at 0 hp, are not knocked unconscious at negative hit points, and cannot be slain through hit point damage. When this combat blessing ends, you suffer according to your hit point total as normal.
Righteous Might: You benefit from an effect much like Righteous Might. Instead of gaining personal defense from this effect in the form of damage reduction, you gain the ability to guard those around you with your form, granting a +4 shield bonus to all creatures within your reach.
Vital Protection: You gain immunity against critical hits and death from massive damage. Further, you no longer automatically fail saving throws on a natural 1.
Ward of Life: You gain the benefits of a death ward effect.
Divine Scrutiny (Su): Acting as an agent of your deity’s will, you are entrusted with the ability to peer into the souls of creatures you deal with. Using this ability requires a full-round action, or a swift action if you sacrifice a combat blessing. At 1st level, this ability allows you to select a single creature you can see within 60 feet and discern its alignment. This effect (including later improvements) is blocked by any effect that blocks detect evil, as if cast with a caster level equal to your class level.
Starting at 6th level, you can detect their alignment and discern the truth of their words (and only their words) for 1 round, functioning as discern lies.
Starting at 11th level, you can see the target as if through a true seeing effect for 1 round (in addition to the above benefits). You must be aware of and be able to pinpoint a target in order to select them.
Starting at 16th level, subjecting a creature to divine scrutiny allows you to search and scrutinize their past actions. In addition to the above benefits, you can name a single general action (such as murder or spellcasting, but not killing Judge Wayzen or casting fireball), learning how many times that action had been performed by the target within the past 24 hours and at what times in the past day. No other information about these actions is learned.
Aura of Devotion (Su): Projecting the ideals of your chosen patron, you can share the blessings of your faith with nearby allies. Starting at 2nd level, whenever you recite one or more blessings, you may choose to project one as an aura (replacing any aura previously in place). Projecting a combat blessing as an aura doubles its duration and allows all allies within 30 feet to benefit from the aura as well. You may possess a single aura at a time at 2nd level, two at 7th level, three at 12th level, and four at 17th level.
As you radiate more and more of your faith, you gain other benefits as well. As long as you radiate at least one such aura, you gain immunity to Charisma damage and drain. As long as you radiate at least two such auras, all bonus damage against forsaken targets from your combat blessings are doubled. As long as you radiate at least three such auras, allies within 30 feet gain the same benefit to attack and damage rolls against forsaken foes from your active combat blessings. As long as you radiate four such auras, forsaken foes (but not allies) within 30 feet take damage equal to twice the number of active combat blessings you possess at the start of each round (no save).
Divine Grace (Su): You are protected by your divine patron, granting you protection from harm. Starting at 2nd level, you may add your Charisma bonus (if any) to all saving throws.
Gift of Faith (Su): As you grow in strength and experience, you are entrusted by your deity with a limited number of special divine gifts. You receive one such gift at 3rd level and another every 5 levels afterwards (8th, 13th, 18th). At each interval, you may select from the list below. With few exceptions (see atonement and conversion, above), a Gift of Faith may not be changed once it has been selected.
Gifts of Faith
Avatar’s Wings: You sprout great celestial or fiendish wings, granting a +10 bonus on jump checks and allowing you to glide 20 feet horizontally for every 5 feet you descend while negating falling damage. Your wings fold outwards to spiral down safely if knocked unconscious or paralyzed in mid-air but your wings cannot support a heavy load.
Starting at 5th level, you gain the ability to properly fly with these wings, gaining a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with average maneuverability.
Starting at 10th level, your maneuverability increases to good and your wings have strengthened enough to fly even while holding a heavy load (but no more).
Starting at 15th level, your fly speed increases to your land speed times 4 and your maneuverability increases to perfect.
Blessed Mount: You gain the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve in your crusades. For a medium creature, this mount can be a bison, camel, heavy warhorse, large shark, or manta ray. For a small creature, this mount can be a black bear, cheetah, porpoise, riding dog, warpony, or wolf. New to the service of mortals, these mounts suffer a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws if your class level is 5th or lower.
As a full-round action, you can magically call your mount from the outer plane in which it resides. This effect is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third of your class level. The mount appears adjacent to you and remains until it is slain or you dismiss it as a free action. The same mount is summoned each time, though a particular mount can be released for service.
Once dismissed, a blessed mount requires 24 hours to heal all wounds that it may have taken (it retains all wounds and afflictions if called sooner). When called, the mount appears wearing or carrying it had when last dismissed. Calling the mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.
Should your mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. You may not summon another mount for 30 days or until you gain a new class level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. If a mount is simply released, only one week must be waited before a new one can be called.
The Champion’s Mount: The champion’s mount is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers. A mount normally of the animal type has its type treated as magical beast, gaining your alignment and an intelligence score equal to half of your class level (unless it would otherwise be higher). The mount gains bonus HD and additional natural armor equal to half of your class level and a bonus to Strength and Constitution equal to a fourth of your class level.
Starting at 5th level, your mount gains an empathic link with you while within 1 mile of your position and gains the benefits of improved evasion (as the rogue ability). Starting at 10th level, your mount’s speed increases by 20 feet and you may grant it Energy Resistance 10 against two forms of energy of your choice. Starting at 15th level, your mount gains spell resistance equal to your class level + 11 and gains Damage Reduction 10/magic.
At 10th level, and again at 15th level, you can access more powerful mounts to ride, though they function as if you possessed a lower champion level for all purposes. Starting at 10th level, you may obtain a dire wolf, displacer beast, hippogriff, lion, tiger, rhinoceros, sea cat, or unicorn that functions as a the mount of a champion 4 levels lower. Starting at 15th level, you may obtain a dire lion, huge shark, megaraptor (dinosaur), orca whale, winter wolf, or wyvern that functions as the mount of a champion 8 levels lower.
Canny Zealot: You are inspired by your devotion in all things, gaining great insight into the world around you. You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Intelligence modifier to grant skill points at each champion level (recalculate skill points from previous champion levels) and may add any four skills of your choice to the champion skill list.
You may choose a single class skill at 5th level and another at 10th level and 15th level. You may take 10 on skill checks made using those skills, even if rushed or under pressure.
Forge Spiritual Bond: You can infuse your equipment with divine energy, binding it to your quest and to your god. You may spend 24 hours and 100 gp in materials to imbue a single weapon, shield or suit of armor with divine energy. You may only possess one such item at a time (imbuing a new one removes all benefits from a previous one), plus one at 5th, 10th, and 15th level (to a maximum of 4).
As a standard action, you may call upon your bond with the blessed item to temporarily enchant it. The item gains a +1 enhancement bonus/4 class levels. This bonus stacks with any enhancement bonus on the chosen item up to a maximum of +5 and all remaining point of enhancements must be spent on special abilities worth the remaining number of enhancement bonuses. One you have activated a spiritual bond, you may not change which benefits it grants a specific item until you next gain a class level in champion (even if you lose a bond with an item and form a new bond with the same item). The divine energies remain active for 1 minute (10 rounds). A shield or suit of armor with armor spikes can be enchanted as armor/a shield or as weaponry but not as both.
Leader of Men: You are granted with the skill to lead others in the name of your deity or patron. You recognize all worshippers of your patron by sight, learning their allegiance and their name. As a full-round action, you may send a single telepathic message of up to one word/class level to all followers of your deity within a 1-mile radius.
Starting at 5th level, all worshippers of your deity start one category closer to helpful towards you and charge you only half of any normal costs for nonmagical services rendered. As a full-round action, you may sense the general direction and distance to the nearest active temple or shrine to your deity.
Starting at 10th level, you can hallow or unhallow an area (as appropriate) in the name of your patron up to once per week in a ritual requiring one hour. Further, while in an area that has been hallowed or unhallowed to your patron, all allies within the affected area benefit from your aura of devotion class feature even if beyond the normal range.
Starting at 15th level, you are found worthy in the eyes of your god of rulership. With 24 hours of prayer, you can request that your deity place a stone keep up to 400 feet in diameter in an unoccupied area capable of supporting it that you can observe. The castle includes 5-foot- thick crenelated outer walls up to 20 feet tall, a single main gate with a salley port and wooden drawbridge, and up to 4 towers up to 30 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall with foot-thick walls. Once this ability has been used, you cannot use it again until a year after your previous castle has been destroyed.
Invoke Planar Ally: You can conjure an extraplanar creature to stay alongside you as an ally. At the start of each day, you may spend 10 minutes in prayer to use an effect similar to Summon Monster II, summoning a single creature that must shares your alignment. Unlike the normal spell, however, the ally remains for 24 hours, until you dismiss it as a free action, or until it is slain. Unlike a normal summoned creature, the planar ally can persist up to one mile away from you. At 5th level and each odd level afterwards, you may summon a creature from the next highest list, to a maximum of Summon monster VIII at 15th level.
Starting at 5th level, any summon through this class feature gains a +4 bonus to its Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity scores.
Starting at 10th level, you may summon multiple creature in a single day, though you are limited to a single creature at a time and each summoning requires one hour.
Starting at 15th level, you may summon up to 2 creatures with each use of this ability and may possess up to two planar allies at a time.
Mercurial Templar: you can move with surprising alacrity, allowing you to traverse great distances. You ignore all penalties to speed from armor and heavy (but not heavier) loads. Further, you gain a +5 foot enhancement bonus to speed/2 class levels you possess
Starting at 5th level, your movement is doubled for the purpose of overland movement and you and allies within 20 feet are no longer at risk of harm from forced marches.
Starting at 10th level, you can physically fade into raw light or shadow as you move, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain and physical barriers no more than a foot thick (though you are still subject to attacks of opportunity).
Starting at 15th level, you gain an extra move action each round that you can only use to move yourself (instead of performing other actions such as drawing a weapon).
Planar Crusader: You are trusted to travel the planes to support the goals of your patron wherever you may travel. You are protected against the harmful planar qualities of other planes, as avoid planar effects (planar handbook), albeit with a range of personal.
Starting at 5th level, you can automatically detect the alignment subtypes of any outsiders you see (even if currently disguised) and can discern the planar (but not locational) destination of any portal with but a glance. Finally, you can automatically detect when you are entering or leaving to divine domain of a deity (and which deity).
Starting at 10th level, you can perform an hour of specialized prayer to call upon your patron to transport yourself (and allies) from one plane to another as the planeshift spell. While you arrive off-target as normal, you never risk arriving in an immediately hostile environment unless making an effort to reach one.
Starting at 15th level, you have mastered the art of dimensional travel. With 4 hours of prayer, you can open a gate onto another plane that lasts for 8 hours or until you dismiss it as a standard action. This gate can only be used for transport and the other end is placed off-target as a planeshif spell.
Quester: Never content to laze around, you know how to task yourself with the accomplishment of a task in the name of your patron. Once per week, you may spend a minute in prayer requesting that your deity to support you in completing a specific task. If the deity sees the merit of the task, you are targeted by a special Quest effect to complete that task. While on such quest, you may treat all enemies who seek to halt the completion of your task as forsaken regardless of their alignment and you gain a +2 insight bonus into all skill checks necessary for completing the quest. You may not gain a new quest while still working on a previous one and you cannot select a new one for a full month if you should fail at such a quest.
Starting at 5th level, all skill checks made against you to dissuade you from completing your quest or to fool you about its nature (such as a bluff check to pass on a false destination or disguise check to take the place of a creature to be protected) automatically fail against you. Likewise, you automatically succeed on will saves against enchantment effects made to force you to abandon your quest and on illusions made to fool you regarding their nature (you need not interact with illusions).
Starting at 10th level, you can gain divine insight into your task. Once during each quest you gain through this class feature, you may spend 10 minutes in prayer to gain the benefits of a Commune spell (Caster Level equals Class Level). All questions asked must relate directly to the quest at hand.
Starting at 15th level, you suffer no level loss or constitution loss from being returned to life if you were in the midst of a quest, so eager is your soul to return to the land of the living and complete its duty. Further, you may use this ability more than once per week, though you must complete one quest before you become eligible to pursue another.
Seakeeper: You are bound to the sea or to other large bodies of water. No armor check penalty you possess applies to swim checks you make and you gain a swim speed equal to your land speed.
Starting at 5th level, you gain the ability to speak underwater and can communicate to aquatic animals at will as if under the continual benefits of speak with animals.
Starting at 10th level, you gain immunity from the effects of pressure and are unmoved by underwater tides and currents. Further, you benefit continually from a freedom of movement effect while completely submerged.
Starting at 15th level, you become bound with the ocean in its entirety. With one hour of prayer, you can teleport (as greater teleport) to anywhere you have seen, so long as the travel can be made entirely by water. You may bring up to 8 other creatures with you.
Request Intercession: Starting at 3rd level, you may go beyond the blessings you use to sustain yourself to request a magical boon from your deity. As a swift action, you may sacrifice a memorized combat blessing and select a single spell from the paladin or blackguard spell list of a spell level determined by the type of combat blessing sacrificed. 1d4-2 rounds later, the chosen spell is manifested on your behalf with a caster level equal to your champion level. If a save DC is requires, it equals 10 + spell level + your Charisma modifier. If a 1 or 2 is rolled when determining the delay, the spell comes into effect immediately. Otherwise, all decisions for the spell must be made when requesting it and the spell fails if it is no longer able to act in this way (such as if the target has left range) when it activates. You need not provide any components that the spell normally requires beyond a verbal supplication to your patron. You may not request a spell with an alignment descriptor opposed to your own alignment. An acolyte blessing provides a 1st level spell, a zealot blessing provides a 2nd level spell, a templar blessing provides a 3rd level spell, and a crusader blessing provides a 4th level spell. No single spell may be requested more than once per day.
Favored Blessing (Su): Starting at 4th level, you may favor certain divine passages, parables, and blessings over others, gaining superior benefits from their use. At 4th level, you may select a single acolyte combat blessing to become a favored blessing. You may further select a zealot combat blessing at 9th level, a templar combat blessing at 14th level, and a crusader combat blessing at 19th level.
Each favored blessing can be used once per encounter without needing to memorize it at the start of each day (though additional uses of it must be memorized as normal). These uses per encounter may not be sacrificed for the request intercession class features. Further, the bonus to damage rolls against forsaken targets that favored blessings provide are increased by +2 (this damage is multiplied by the aura of devotion class feature normally).
Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): Starting at 4th level, a champion gains special influence over the undead, gaining the ability to turn them (if good) or rebuke them (if evil) as a cleric of your class level. A Neutral champion must choose whether to turn or rebuke and cannot change this decision unless they dedicate themselves to a new deity (see atonement and conversion, above).
Chosen Avatar (Su): Starting at 20th level, you become a vital instrument of your patron’s will. At the end of each encounter, you may select up to two combat blessings you had recited within the encounter and regain their use (ending their effect early if still active). Further, the area of your auras of devotion are doubled to 60 feet in radius. Finally, once per week, you may use Miracle as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your class level (the save DC is charisma-based).
How I Destroyed the Fluff (AKA: Why I’ve Never Understood the Paladin):
Yes, this is one of those “paladin fixes”. That rare errant paladin fix that tries to allow for beings of all alignments to enter and that underplays the code of conduct. That type of fix. Before you bite off my head for gutting the flavor of a class that “can only be an Arthurian Knight strong and true”, however, I ask that you hear me out on why I made the changes to the fluff.
I think that the changed in the fluff for this class came in large part from how I’ve always interpreted the fluff of the paladin. Reading through the class, I don’t see it as one that gets its strength through righteousness in and of itself. Rather, I have seen it as a martial representative of a deity whose access to divine power is contingent upon their behavior. This may look like a small distinction but its implications are positively enormous. Instead of being the exemplar of Lawful-Goodness, this means that you are the exemplar of Pelor or the exemplar of Heironeous, both of which just happen to be Lawful Good.
Now, I can certainly understand why embracing Arthurian Ideals, Knightly codes, and heroic archetypes are certainly appealing when making a paladin. It’s what the class was put there to do and the word paladin can roughly be defined as “heroic knight” (making “paladin of slaughter” an oxymoron). On the other hand, I view this this pointed focus on morality over divinity to be a perfectly wasted opportunity.
Right now, every new Paladin Fix (including the PF paladin) feels compelled to fill in all of those dead levels with abilities specifically linked with goodness and righteousness instead of faith and (un)holiness, meaning that making a paladin-equivalent for a new alignment like the antipaladin or paladin of tyranny requires what is nearly an entirely different class. Even most homebrew “consolidated” paladins trying to allow all alignments frequently feel like four classes crushed into one chassis.
If, on the other hand, you focus on paladin as being a holy warrior (as it kind of is what you’d expect from the concept), you can easily create a single class that can dedicate itself to any alignment, achieving a good deal of parsimony while allowing all deities to have their own martial champions without remaking it a bunch of times and you can afford to pay less attention to the vows that have led to so many horror stories. Even better, these changes do nothing to prevent “proper paladins” from existing beyond failing to punish them (which I hardly see as a flaw). Of course, I’m a bit of a hypocrite in this regard as different deities don’t really give you different class features as my approach might suggest (though I’d counter that even clerics only really differ in domains). Even so, this is the line of thought that led me to treating the flavor of the paladin in this way.
How I Destroyed The Crunch (AKA: You Mad Man! You Blew It All to Hell!)
Regarding the crunch of this class, there are two very important lines of thought that really have to be carried through to explain what I’ve done here. First of all, this class is most definitely a re-imagining of the paladin (much as it says on the tin). It has no ability named “smite evil”, gains access to spells in a roundabout manner, and relies on an entirely new mini-system in combat. As such, this class lacks the incredible mountains of support that the normal paladin possesses and can’t access certain PrCs for paladins without adjustment. Even so, I tried my best to give it a good assortment of options (even if they aren’t all equal) and the class can still use its auto-confirmed 360+ damage charging lance critical hit at least 4/day at high levels so everything should still function in its own right. In the unlikely chance that I’m right about that, I can consider the paladin considerably consolidate from the half-dozen sources you need to patch together to normally provide a decent paladin. It’s unlikely, of course, but a homebrewer can dream.
Secondly, I must address the giant elephant in the room. This is a class that is built to go nova. On purpose. A level 1 paladin with 18 Cha can grab +4 to attacks and AC, +5 damage, power attack, +10 speed, fast healing 2, and a debuffing attack and go nuts. As I see it, going nova is pretty much how the paladin was always intended to work, however. The paladin’s main offensive ability gains a puny number of uses per day and the main way that it’s used involves charges that are hard to set up again within a single encounter. Seeing as a fighter without bonus feats is FAR more playable than a wizard without spells (at least until 4th level when the paladin starts getting some resources per encounter), however, I don’t expect that this would lead to a martial “15-minute-workday” as casters going nova does (especially as the champion gains no rope-trick equivalent) and have no problem with the paladin saving their goodies to face “the boss monster”. Unleashing all Celestia upon the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon seems entirely in line with what a paladin should do, at least IMHO.
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/825202/825202,1320988407,1/stock-vector-medieval-knight-wearing-armor-vector-holding-a-shield-and-pointing-a-sword-88558000.jpg
“I vow to rest in time, my friend, but not so long as I draw breath."
-Arrizak the Bold, Champion of Pelor
In service of the gods and godlike beings, there are all manner of offerings that one could give in return for divine favor. The laity provide small material offering and prayers as clerics devote their life in service and supplication. A rare few, however, are driven by a divine calling to devote their existences to acting on behalf of their god. Driven by deep belief in the aims of their god, these divine champions are pressed on by devotion to their cause, becoming the eyes and hands of their otherworldly lord and patrons. Fighting in the name of a sacred cause, these entities are known simply as champions.
Game Rule Information:
Abilities: As the martial arm of your faith, Constitution allows you to take more hits while strength enables strong attacks in melee and dexterity allows for strong attacks from range and allows less restrictive armor. The power of your raw faith, shining through to attack your foes, manifest minor divine miracles, and warding you from harm, is represented by your Charisma score.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: A champion’s class skills are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentrate (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Knowledge (The Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str)
Skill Points Per Level: 4 + Int Modifier (x4 at 1st level)
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+1|+2|+0|+2|Combat Blessings (Acolyte), Divine Scrutiny (Alignment)
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+3|Aura of Devotion (1), Divine Grace
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+3|Gift of Faith, Request Intercession
4th|+4|+4|+1|+4|Favored Blessing (1) , Turn/Rebuke Undead
5th|+5|+4|+1|+4| Combat Blessings (Zealot)
6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+5|Divine Scrutiny (Truth)
7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+5|Aura of Devotion (2)
8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+6|Gift of Faith
9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+6|Favored Blessing (2)
10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+7|Combat Blessings (Templar)
11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+7|Divine Scrutiny (Form)
12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+8|Aura of Devotion (3)
13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+8|Gift of Faith
14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+9|Favored Blessing (3)
15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+9| Combat Blessings (Crusader)
16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+10|Divine Scrutiny (Actions)
17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+10|Aura of Devotion (4)
18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+11|Gift of Faith
19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+11|Favored Blessing (4)
20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+12|Chosen Avatar
[/table]
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You are proficient with simple and martial weapons, as well as with all forms of armor and with shields (but not tower shields).
Divine Patron: Each and every champion gains their power from an otherworldly patron they worship. While some worship powerful outsiders such as demon lords in place of true deities, there are no equivalents to clerics that choose to worship an ideal. You are granted divine might on behalf of your patron to fight on their behalf, though your worthiness as a champion is ever-judged.
In day to day matters, a champion is granted a level of freedom and trust with their powers to use them in the greater interest of their patron, even if specific actions violate their dogma (a champion of Pelor would not be overly punished by his god for a “necessary theft”, for example). Your alignment, however, must exactly match that of your patron at all times. Should your alignment shift, you lose all supernatural class features this class provides until you receive the benefits of an atonement spell (see atonement and conversion, below).
To help you further the interests of your patron, you are granted certain benefits against those your deity deems to be potential enemies. At 1st level, you may select good, evil, lawful, or chaotic (you may not select an alignment that you possess). For the purpose of your class features, creatures with the chosen alignment are considered forsaken. Despite these powers, you are not limited in aiding or befriending such targets except insofar as it may alter your alignment.
Atonement and Conversion:While a champion works to meet the lofty ideals of their deity and the process of regaining their daily power includes a degree of daily atonement, infractions large enough to taint (or purify) the soul of the champion are harder to wash away, requiring the aid of an Atonement spell as outlined above. In such a condition, a champion is placed with two potential options, to turn to the service of a new deity of their current alignment or to return to the faith of their previous patron. Either use of Atonement in this way requires a quest of the champion and requires a cleric of the faith that you wish to belong to or remain within.
If more than a month has passed since you have last pledged yourself to a new patron, you may dedicate yourself to a new patron of your alignment without first losing the powers of your former patron, transitioning to a new leader with ideals that suit your own. This transition requires an atonement cast by a cleric of the new religion and always entails a quest to test your dedication and commitment to the new patron.
Whenever you pledge yourself to a new patron, you must select a new alignment to determine forsaken opponents (though you may select the same alignment if still applicable) and may switch your gifts of faith for an equal number of new gifts. Once you have left the faith of a patron, you may never again become a champion in their name.
Combat Blessing (Su): The power of the divine runs through your veins, empowering you to act as an agent of your deity’s judgment. A moment’s prayer is all that you require for your raw religious fervor to awaken your divine gifts. At the start of each day, you may spend an hour praying and requesting atonement for minor transgressions from the past day to memorize a number of combat blessings up to your class level + your charisma modifier (minimum 1), replacing any remaining blessings you had selected the previous day. You may only select Acolyte blessings at 1st level but may select Zealot blessings at 5th level, Templar blessings at 10th level, and Crusader blessings at 15th level. You may select a single blessing more than once.
As an immediate action, you may utter a brief prayer and select one or more combat blessings that you have memorized, expending them to claim their benefits. The chosen blessings are each immediately activated for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier, as noted under their description. Combat Blessings that allow for saving throws possess a Save DC of 10 + 1/2 champion level + Cha modifier. The effects of a combat blessing never stack with itself, even if different decisions are made (a new recitation replaces an old one).
If addition to the benefits of your specific blessings, you are empowered to fight on behalf of your god while under the effects of other blessing. While you possess at least one active blessing, you may add your Charisma bonus (if any) to attack rolls against forsaken targets. Further, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against forsaken foes equal to the number of active blessings you possess.
Combat Blessings:
Acolyte Blessings
Canny Inspiration: Upon reciting this blessing, select a bonus fighter feat, a divine feat, or a devotion feat (complete champion). If you meet all of its prerequisites, you gain the benefits of that feat.
Censuring Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select fatigued, sickened, or shaken. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creature with an attack, that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round (multiple hits fail to worsen the condition). A creature that succeeds on its save gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Divine Shield: You gain a deflection bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma modifier (if positive) against the attacks of forsaken creatures.
Flawless Guard: Your reach is increased by +5 feet for the purpose of attacks of opportunity and tumble checks made through your threatened area take a -5 penalty.
Guardian: Whenever an ally within 10 feet or within your reach (whichever is greater) would take hit point damage, you may elect to take half of all such damage the ally would take from that source in their place(this requires no action).
Insights from Beyond: You can see invisible and ethereal creatures as see invisibility, gain a +5 bonus on knowledge checks made to identify creatures, and can make such checks untrained.
Minor Invigoration: You healed 2 hit points at the start of each round. As a standard action, you may grant yourself 5 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Lesser Revitalization: You gain immunity to the fatigued, sickened, and shaken conditions. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you
Unyielding: At the start of each round, you heal a single point of ability damage to an ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round).
Zeal: You gain a +10 foot enhancement bonus to your speed for all modes of movement and mental control may not be exercised of your, much as protection from evil.
Zealot Blessings
Castigating Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select exhausted, nauseated, or frightened. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creauture with an attack, that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round (multiple hits fail to worsen the condition). A creature that succeeds on its save is gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Divine Boon: Upon reciting this blessing, select a single ability score. You gain a +4 sacred bonus to the chosen ability score.
Energy Aegis Upon reciting this blessing, select a single form of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic). You gain energy resistance 20 against the chosen form of energy.
Lesser Invigoration: You are healed 4 hit points at the start of each round. As a move action, you may grant yourself 15 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Piercing Smite: Your attacks with manufactured weapons ignore any Damage Reduction that your forsaken foes may possess.
Revitalization: You gain immunity to the fatigued, exhausted, sickened, and nauseated condition as well as all fear effects. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Sacred Body: You gain immunity to disease and poisons (even if magical or supernatural). You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Unrelenting: At the start of each round, you heal up to two points of ability damage or one point of ability drain to a single ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round).
Versatile Charge: Whenever you charge, you provoke no attacks of opportunity for your movement and may make your attack(s) at any point in your movement.
Witchslayer: Casters within your threatened area may not cast defensively. Your attacks ignore miss chances and bonuses to AC from spells and spell-like abilities.
Templar Blessings
Annul Dweomer: You gain immunity to all targeted baneful effects that a dispel magic or remove curse spell could remove. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already affecting you.
Divine Alacrity: Your speed for all modes of movement is doubled and you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Whenever you make a full attack, you may make an extra attack at your full base attack bonus. This effect does not stack with those granted by haste and similar effects.
Greater Revitalization: You gain immunity to the blinded, deafened, paralyzed, staggered, and stunned conditions. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already afflicting you.
Invigoration: You are healed 6 hit points at the start of each round. As a swift action, you may grant yourself 25 temporary hit points that vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Penetrating Smite: Whenever you successfully damage a forsaken creature, it loses the ability to heal hit points for 1 round. Further, all attacks you make ignore the regeneration of such foes.
Rebuking Smite: Upon reciting this blessing, select blinded, deafened, or stunned. Once per round, when you hit a forsaken creature with an attack (if you selected blinded or deafened) or with a successful critical hit (if you selected stunned), that foe must make a Fortitude save or gain the chosen condition for 1 round. A creature that succeeds on its save gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours.
Spirit Slayer: You apply your full AC against touch attacks and your attacks can harm incorporeal and ethereal targets as though made of force.
Templar’s Charge: When charging, you may make any number of turns and can cross difficult terrain and occupied squares, though your destination must be at least 20 feet away. Further, you may make a full attack at the end of a charge.
Unbreakable At the start of each round, you heal up to four points of ability damage or two points of ability drain to a single ability score of your choice (you may change your choice each round) or remove a single negative level (permanent level loss may not be removed in this way).
Vanquishing Smite: Whenever you attack a forsaken creature, your threat range is doubled and you automatically confirm all critical hits (this effect doesn’t stack with other effects that increase threat range such as the keen weapon quality).
Crusader Blessings
Annul Affliction: You gain immunity to all targeted baneful effects that a break enchantment spell could remove. You may purge yourself of any such conditions already affecting you.
Cosmic Flesh: You are difficult to harm, gaining DR 20/adamantine.
Dimensional Smite: Once per round, when you successfully attack a forsaken creature, you may subject the target to a dimensional anchor effect for 1 round. If the target is extraplanar, you may instead return them to their home plane and prevent them from leaving once more for 24 hours. Either way, a successful will save negates this effect and grants the target a +4 bonus on future saves against this ability for 24 hours.
Eternal Returns: As a full-round action, you may select an ally (other than yourself) that has been reduced below -9 hit points within the past round. That target’s hit points are increased to -9 and the target stabilized. If the target was dead, they return to life without any loss in levels, Constitution, or spells prepared. The target’s body must be mostly intact to target them and death through sources other than hit point damage can’t be undone in this manner.
Felling Blow: Once per round, when you score a critical hit against a forsaken creature, they must make a Fortitude save or perish (even if normally immune to death effects). Once a creature has succeeded on its save, the target gains a +4 bonus on future saves made against this ability for 24 hours
Greater Invigoration: You are healed 8 hit points and gain 40 temporary hit points at the start of each round. These temporary hit points vanish at the end of the blessing's duration.
Loyal Beyond Death: You are not disabled at 0 hp, are not knocked unconscious at negative hit points, and cannot be slain through hit point damage. When this combat blessing ends, you suffer according to your hit point total as normal.
Righteous Might: You benefit from an effect much like Righteous Might. Instead of gaining personal defense from this effect in the form of damage reduction, you gain the ability to guard those around you with your form, granting a +4 shield bonus to all creatures within your reach.
Vital Protection: You gain immunity against critical hits and death from massive damage. Further, you no longer automatically fail saving throws on a natural 1.
Ward of Life: You gain the benefits of a death ward effect.
Divine Scrutiny (Su): Acting as an agent of your deity’s will, you are entrusted with the ability to peer into the souls of creatures you deal with. Using this ability requires a full-round action, or a swift action if you sacrifice a combat blessing. At 1st level, this ability allows you to select a single creature you can see within 60 feet and discern its alignment. This effect (including later improvements) is blocked by any effect that blocks detect evil, as if cast with a caster level equal to your class level.
Starting at 6th level, you can detect their alignment and discern the truth of their words (and only their words) for 1 round, functioning as discern lies.
Starting at 11th level, you can see the target as if through a true seeing effect for 1 round (in addition to the above benefits). You must be aware of and be able to pinpoint a target in order to select them.
Starting at 16th level, subjecting a creature to divine scrutiny allows you to search and scrutinize their past actions. In addition to the above benefits, you can name a single general action (such as murder or spellcasting, but not killing Judge Wayzen or casting fireball), learning how many times that action had been performed by the target within the past 24 hours and at what times in the past day. No other information about these actions is learned.
Aura of Devotion (Su): Projecting the ideals of your chosen patron, you can share the blessings of your faith with nearby allies. Starting at 2nd level, whenever you recite one or more blessings, you may choose to project one as an aura (replacing any aura previously in place). Projecting a combat blessing as an aura doubles its duration and allows all allies within 30 feet to benefit from the aura as well. You may possess a single aura at a time at 2nd level, two at 7th level, three at 12th level, and four at 17th level.
As you radiate more and more of your faith, you gain other benefits as well. As long as you radiate at least one such aura, you gain immunity to Charisma damage and drain. As long as you radiate at least two such auras, all bonus damage against forsaken targets from your combat blessings are doubled. As long as you radiate at least three such auras, allies within 30 feet gain the same benefit to attack and damage rolls against forsaken foes from your active combat blessings. As long as you radiate four such auras, forsaken foes (but not allies) within 30 feet take damage equal to twice the number of active combat blessings you possess at the start of each round (no save).
Divine Grace (Su): You are protected by your divine patron, granting you protection from harm. Starting at 2nd level, you may add your Charisma bonus (if any) to all saving throws.
Gift of Faith (Su): As you grow in strength and experience, you are entrusted by your deity with a limited number of special divine gifts. You receive one such gift at 3rd level and another every 5 levels afterwards (8th, 13th, 18th). At each interval, you may select from the list below. With few exceptions (see atonement and conversion, above), a Gift of Faith may not be changed once it has been selected.
Gifts of Faith
Avatar’s Wings: You sprout great celestial or fiendish wings, granting a +10 bonus on jump checks and allowing you to glide 20 feet horizontally for every 5 feet you descend while negating falling damage. Your wings fold outwards to spiral down safely if knocked unconscious or paralyzed in mid-air but your wings cannot support a heavy load.
Starting at 5th level, you gain the ability to properly fly with these wings, gaining a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with average maneuverability.
Starting at 10th level, your maneuverability increases to good and your wings have strengthened enough to fly even while holding a heavy load (but no more).
Starting at 15th level, your fly speed increases to your land speed times 4 and your maneuverability increases to perfect.
Blessed Mount: You gain the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve in your crusades. For a medium creature, this mount can be a bison, camel, heavy warhorse, large shark, or manta ray. For a small creature, this mount can be a black bear, cheetah, porpoise, riding dog, warpony, or wolf. New to the service of mortals, these mounts suffer a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws if your class level is 5th or lower.
As a full-round action, you can magically call your mount from the outer plane in which it resides. This effect is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third of your class level. The mount appears adjacent to you and remains until it is slain or you dismiss it as a free action. The same mount is summoned each time, though a particular mount can be released for service.
Once dismissed, a blessed mount requires 24 hours to heal all wounds that it may have taken (it retains all wounds and afflictions if called sooner). When called, the mount appears wearing or carrying it had when last dismissed. Calling the mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.
Should your mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. You may not summon another mount for 30 days or until you gain a new class level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. If a mount is simply released, only one week must be waited before a new one can be called.
The Champion’s Mount: The champion’s mount is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers. A mount normally of the animal type has its type treated as magical beast, gaining your alignment and an intelligence score equal to half of your class level (unless it would otherwise be higher). The mount gains bonus HD and additional natural armor equal to half of your class level and a bonus to Strength and Constitution equal to a fourth of your class level.
Starting at 5th level, your mount gains an empathic link with you while within 1 mile of your position and gains the benefits of improved evasion (as the rogue ability). Starting at 10th level, your mount’s speed increases by 20 feet and you may grant it Energy Resistance 10 against two forms of energy of your choice. Starting at 15th level, your mount gains spell resistance equal to your class level + 11 and gains Damage Reduction 10/magic.
At 10th level, and again at 15th level, you can access more powerful mounts to ride, though they function as if you possessed a lower champion level for all purposes. Starting at 10th level, you may obtain a dire wolf, displacer beast, hippogriff, lion, tiger, rhinoceros, sea cat, or unicorn that functions as a the mount of a champion 4 levels lower. Starting at 15th level, you may obtain a dire lion, huge shark, megaraptor (dinosaur), orca whale, winter wolf, or wyvern that functions as the mount of a champion 8 levels lower.
Canny Zealot: You are inspired by your devotion in all things, gaining great insight into the world around you. You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Intelligence modifier to grant skill points at each champion level (recalculate skill points from previous champion levels) and may add any four skills of your choice to the champion skill list.
You may choose a single class skill at 5th level and another at 10th level and 15th level. You may take 10 on skill checks made using those skills, even if rushed or under pressure.
Forge Spiritual Bond: You can infuse your equipment with divine energy, binding it to your quest and to your god. You may spend 24 hours and 100 gp in materials to imbue a single weapon, shield or suit of armor with divine energy. You may only possess one such item at a time (imbuing a new one removes all benefits from a previous one), plus one at 5th, 10th, and 15th level (to a maximum of 4).
As a standard action, you may call upon your bond with the blessed item to temporarily enchant it. The item gains a +1 enhancement bonus/4 class levels. This bonus stacks with any enhancement bonus on the chosen item up to a maximum of +5 and all remaining point of enhancements must be spent on special abilities worth the remaining number of enhancement bonuses. One you have activated a spiritual bond, you may not change which benefits it grants a specific item until you next gain a class level in champion (even if you lose a bond with an item and form a new bond with the same item). The divine energies remain active for 1 minute (10 rounds). A shield or suit of armor with armor spikes can be enchanted as armor/a shield or as weaponry but not as both.
Leader of Men: You are granted with the skill to lead others in the name of your deity or patron. You recognize all worshippers of your patron by sight, learning their allegiance and their name. As a full-round action, you may send a single telepathic message of up to one word/class level to all followers of your deity within a 1-mile radius.
Starting at 5th level, all worshippers of your deity start one category closer to helpful towards you and charge you only half of any normal costs for nonmagical services rendered. As a full-round action, you may sense the general direction and distance to the nearest active temple or shrine to your deity.
Starting at 10th level, you can hallow or unhallow an area (as appropriate) in the name of your patron up to once per week in a ritual requiring one hour. Further, while in an area that has been hallowed or unhallowed to your patron, all allies within the affected area benefit from your aura of devotion class feature even if beyond the normal range.
Starting at 15th level, you are found worthy in the eyes of your god of rulership. With 24 hours of prayer, you can request that your deity place a stone keep up to 400 feet in diameter in an unoccupied area capable of supporting it that you can observe. The castle includes 5-foot- thick crenelated outer walls up to 20 feet tall, a single main gate with a salley port and wooden drawbridge, and up to 4 towers up to 30 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall with foot-thick walls. Once this ability has been used, you cannot use it again until a year after your previous castle has been destroyed.
Invoke Planar Ally: You can conjure an extraplanar creature to stay alongside you as an ally. At the start of each day, you may spend 10 minutes in prayer to use an effect similar to Summon Monster II, summoning a single creature that must shares your alignment. Unlike the normal spell, however, the ally remains for 24 hours, until you dismiss it as a free action, or until it is slain. Unlike a normal summoned creature, the planar ally can persist up to one mile away from you. At 5th level and each odd level afterwards, you may summon a creature from the next highest list, to a maximum of Summon monster VIII at 15th level.
Starting at 5th level, any summon through this class feature gains a +4 bonus to its Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity scores.
Starting at 10th level, you may summon multiple creature in a single day, though you are limited to a single creature at a time and each summoning requires one hour.
Starting at 15th level, you may summon up to 2 creatures with each use of this ability and may possess up to two planar allies at a time.
Mercurial Templar: you can move with surprising alacrity, allowing you to traverse great distances. You ignore all penalties to speed from armor and heavy (but not heavier) loads. Further, you gain a +5 foot enhancement bonus to speed/2 class levels you possess
Starting at 5th level, your movement is doubled for the purpose of overland movement and you and allies within 20 feet are no longer at risk of harm from forced marches.
Starting at 10th level, you can physically fade into raw light or shadow as you move, allowing you to ignore difficult terrain and physical barriers no more than a foot thick (though you are still subject to attacks of opportunity).
Starting at 15th level, you gain an extra move action each round that you can only use to move yourself (instead of performing other actions such as drawing a weapon).
Planar Crusader: You are trusted to travel the planes to support the goals of your patron wherever you may travel. You are protected against the harmful planar qualities of other planes, as avoid planar effects (planar handbook), albeit with a range of personal.
Starting at 5th level, you can automatically detect the alignment subtypes of any outsiders you see (even if currently disguised) and can discern the planar (but not locational) destination of any portal with but a glance. Finally, you can automatically detect when you are entering or leaving to divine domain of a deity (and which deity).
Starting at 10th level, you can perform an hour of specialized prayer to call upon your patron to transport yourself (and allies) from one plane to another as the planeshift spell. While you arrive off-target as normal, you never risk arriving in an immediately hostile environment unless making an effort to reach one.
Starting at 15th level, you have mastered the art of dimensional travel. With 4 hours of prayer, you can open a gate onto another plane that lasts for 8 hours or until you dismiss it as a standard action. This gate can only be used for transport and the other end is placed off-target as a planeshif spell.
Quester: Never content to laze around, you know how to task yourself with the accomplishment of a task in the name of your patron. Once per week, you may spend a minute in prayer requesting that your deity to support you in completing a specific task. If the deity sees the merit of the task, you are targeted by a special Quest effect to complete that task. While on such quest, you may treat all enemies who seek to halt the completion of your task as forsaken regardless of their alignment and you gain a +2 insight bonus into all skill checks necessary for completing the quest. You may not gain a new quest while still working on a previous one and you cannot select a new one for a full month if you should fail at such a quest.
Starting at 5th level, all skill checks made against you to dissuade you from completing your quest or to fool you about its nature (such as a bluff check to pass on a false destination or disguise check to take the place of a creature to be protected) automatically fail against you. Likewise, you automatically succeed on will saves against enchantment effects made to force you to abandon your quest and on illusions made to fool you regarding their nature (you need not interact with illusions).
Starting at 10th level, you can gain divine insight into your task. Once during each quest you gain through this class feature, you may spend 10 minutes in prayer to gain the benefits of a Commune spell (Caster Level equals Class Level). All questions asked must relate directly to the quest at hand.
Starting at 15th level, you suffer no level loss or constitution loss from being returned to life if you were in the midst of a quest, so eager is your soul to return to the land of the living and complete its duty. Further, you may use this ability more than once per week, though you must complete one quest before you become eligible to pursue another.
Seakeeper: You are bound to the sea or to other large bodies of water. No armor check penalty you possess applies to swim checks you make and you gain a swim speed equal to your land speed.
Starting at 5th level, you gain the ability to speak underwater and can communicate to aquatic animals at will as if under the continual benefits of speak with animals.
Starting at 10th level, you gain immunity from the effects of pressure and are unmoved by underwater tides and currents. Further, you benefit continually from a freedom of movement effect while completely submerged.
Starting at 15th level, you become bound with the ocean in its entirety. With one hour of prayer, you can teleport (as greater teleport) to anywhere you have seen, so long as the travel can be made entirely by water. You may bring up to 8 other creatures with you.
Request Intercession: Starting at 3rd level, you may go beyond the blessings you use to sustain yourself to request a magical boon from your deity. As a swift action, you may sacrifice a memorized combat blessing and select a single spell from the paladin or blackguard spell list of a spell level determined by the type of combat blessing sacrificed. 1d4-2 rounds later, the chosen spell is manifested on your behalf with a caster level equal to your champion level. If a save DC is requires, it equals 10 + spell level + your Charisma modifier. If a 1 or 2 is rolled when determining the delay, the spell comes into effect immediately. Otherwise, all decisions for the spell must be made when requesting it and the spell fails if it is no longer able to act in this way (such as if the target has left range) when it activates. You need not provide any components that the spell normally requires beyond a verbal supplication to your patron. You may not request a spell with an alignment descriptor opposed to your own alignment. An acolyte blessing provides a 1st level spell, a zealot blessing provides a 2nd level spell, a templar blessing provides a 3rd level spell, and a crusader blessing provides a 4th level spell. No single spell may be requested more than once per day.
Favored Blessing (Su): Starting at 4th level, you may favor certain divine passages, parables, and blessings over others, gaining superior benefits from their use. At 4th level, you may select a single acolyte combat blessing to become a favored blessing. You may further select a zealot combat blessing at 9th level, a templar combat blessing at 14th level, and a crusader combat blessing at 19th level.
Each favored blessing can be used once per encounter without needing to memorize it at the start of each day (though additional uses of it must be memorized as normal). These uses per encounter may not be sacrificed for the request intercession class features. Further, the bonus to damage rolls against forsaken targets that favored blessings provide are increased by +2 (this damage is multiplied by the aura of devotion class feature normally).
Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): Starting at 4th level, a champion gains special influence over the undead, gaining the ability to turn them (if good) or rebuke them (if evil) as a cleric of your class level. A Neutral champion must choose whether to turn or rebuke and cannot change this decision unless they dedicate themselves to a new deity (see atonement and conversion, above).
Chosen Avatar (Su): Starting at 20th level, you become a vital instrument of your patron’s will. At the end of each encounter, you may select up to two combat blessings you had recited within the encounter and regain their use (ending their effect early if still active). Further, the area of your auras of devotion are doubled to 60 feet in radius. Finally, once per week, you may use Miracle as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your class level (the save DC is charisma-based).
How I Destroyed the Fluff (AKA: Why I’ve Never Understood the Paladin):
Yes, this is one of those “paladin fixes”. That rare errant paladin fix that tries to allow for beings of all alignments to enter and that underplays the code of conduct. That type of fix. Before you bite off my head for gutting the flavor of a class that “can only be an Arthurian Knight strong and true”, however, I ask that you hear me out on why I made the changes to the fluff.
I think that the changed in the fluff for this class came in large part from how I’ve always interpreted the fluff of the paladin. Reading through the class, I don’t see it as one that gets its strength through righteousness in and of itself. Rather, I have seen it as a martial representative of a deity whose access to divine power is contingent upon their behavior. This may look like a small distinction but its implications are positively enormous. Instead of being the exemplar of Lawful-Goodness, this means that you are the exemplar of Pelor or the exemplar of Heironeous, both of which just happen to be Lawful Good.
Now, I can certainly understand why embracing Arthurian Ideals, Knightly codes, and heroic archetypes are certainly appealing when making a paladin. It’s what the class was put there to do and the word paladin can roughly be defined as “heroic knight” (making “paladin of slaughter” an oxymoron). On the other hand, I view this this pointed focus on morality over divinity to be a perfectly wasted opportunity.
Right now, every new Paladin Fix (including the PF paladin) feels compelled to fill in all of those dead levels with abilities specifically linked with goodness and righteousness instead of faith and (un)holiness, meaning that making a paladin-equivalent for a new alignment like the antipaladin or paladin of tyranny requires what is nearly an entirely different class. Even most homebrew “consolidated” paladins trying to allow all alignments frequently feel like four classes crushed into one chassis.
If, on the other hand, you focus on paladin as being a holy warrior (as it kind of is what you’d expect from the concept), you can easily create a single class that can dedicate itself to any alignment, achieving a good deal of parsimony while allowing all deities to have their own martial champions without remaking it a bunch of times and you can afford to pay less attention to the vows that have led to so many horror stories. Even better, these changes do nothing to prevent “proper paladins” from existing beyond failing to punish them (which I hardly see as a flaw). Of course, I’m a bit of a hypocrite in this regard as different deities don’t really give you different class features as my approach might suggest (though I’d counter that even clerics only really differ in domains). Even so, this is the line of thought that led me to treating the flavor of the paladin in this way.
How I Destroyed The Crunch (AKA: You Mad Man! You Blew It All to Hell!)
Regarding the crunch of this class, there are two very important lines of thought that really have to be carried through to explain what I’ve done here. First of all, this class is most definitely a re-imagining of the paladin (much as it says on the tin). It has no ability named “smite evil”, gains access to spells in a roundabout manner, and relies on an entirely new mini-system in combat. As such, this class lacks the incredible mountains of support that the normal paladin possesses and can’t access certain PrCs for paladins without adjustment. Even so, I tried my best to give it a good assortment of options (even if they aren’t all equal) and the class can still use its auto-confirmed 360+ damage charging lance critical hit at least 4/day at high levels so everything should still function in its own right. In the unlikely chance that I’m right about that, I can consider the paladin considerably consolidate from the half-dozen sources you need to patch together to normally provide a decent paladin. It’s unlikely, of course, but a homebrewer can dream.
Secondly, I must address the giant elephant in the room. This is a class that is built to go nova. On purpose. A level 1 paladin with 18 Cha can grab +4 to attacks and AC, +5 damage, power attack, +10 speed, fast healing 2, and a debuffing attack and go nuts. As I see it, going nova is pretty much how the paladin was always intended to work, however. The paladin’s main offensive ability gains a puny number of uses per day and the main way that it’s used involves charges that are hard to set up again within a single encounter. Seeing as a fighter without bonus feats is FAR more playable than a wizard without spells (at least until 4th level when the paladin starts getting some resources per encounter), however, I don’t expect that this would lead to a martial “15-minute-workday” as casters going nova does (especially as the champion gains no rope-trick equivalent) and have no problem with the paladin saving their goodies to face “the boss monster”. Unleashing all Celestia upon the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon seems entirely in line with what a paladin should do, at least IMHO.