The Divine Knight

The divine knight is similar to the cavalier. He or she has chosen to pursue the path of the mounted knight rather than the foot soldier. The divine knight is second only to the cavalier as a mounted warrior. Unlike the cavalier the divine warrior is beholden to a single code of conduct and ethos rather than the petty whims of royalty and nobility. The divine knight is expected to champion the cause of good above all else. Many divine knights are paladins though some warriors and clerics choose to heed the call and take up the battle for good.

Hit Dice: d10

Requirements

Alignment: Lawful Good

Base Attack Bonus: +8

Feats: Spirited Charge, Weapon Focus (One handed martial/exotic Weapon), Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Divine Might

Skills: Handle Animal: 4 Ranks, Ride: 6 Ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 4 Ranks

Equipment: Masterwork Heavy Armor and Master Work Large Shield

Class Skills: Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Ride (Dex)

Skill Points per Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Divine Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium and light), and with shields. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble. Swim checks suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armor and equipment carried.

Detect Evil: At will the divine knight can detect evil as a spell-like ability. This ability duplicates the effects of the spell detect evil.

Aura of Courage: Beginning at 3rd level a divine knight is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Allies within 10 feet of the knight gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability. The Aura of Courage of the divine knight does not stack with that of the paladin class.

Special Mount: The divine knight can call an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve him in his crusade against evil. This mount is similar to the Paladin's steed and follows the same progression of abilities as the knight gains levels. If the knight already has the paladin's ability to call for a special mount his divine knight levels stack with paladin levels for the purpose of tracking the mount's abilities. Thus a 5th level paladin who had gained three levels in the divine knight prestige class would be able to call a for a special mount as if he were an 8th level paladin. Should the knight's mount die, he may call for another one in after a year and a day. The new mount has all of the accumulated abilities due a mount of the knight's level.

Deadly Charge: When mounted and using the charge action you deal triple damage with a melee weapon (or quadruple damage with a lance), up to the number of times per day indicated. This ability supercedes the spirited charge feat.

Ride Bonus: The divine knight gets a competance bonus to Ride checks.

Greater Divine Might Starting at 5th level, the divine knight gains the greater divine might feat. This feat is similar to the divine might feat defined in defenders of the faith. It differs in the following ways: Using this feat uses up two undead turning attempts rather than one. Furthermore, the duration of this feat's effects is equal to the knight's charisma bonus +2 rounds. Finally, while the effect of this feat lasts, the divine knight receives a bonus on all to-hit rolls made in melee combat equal to one half of his charisma bonus rounded down. in addition to the damage bonus he or she receives from the normal divine might feat.

Full Mounted Attack: At 8th level, the divine knight may attack as a standard action when his mount moves more than 5 feet (assuming an opponent exists to be attacked), rather than a partial action.

Code of Conduct: The divine knight must be of lawful good alignment and loses all special class abilities if he ever willingly commits an act of evil. Additionally, a divine knight's code requires that he respect legitimate authority, act with honor, help those who need help (provided they do not use that help for chaotic or evil ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.

Table X-1: The Divine Knight

Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Ride Bonus +2, Special Mount, Detect Evil
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Deadly Charge 1/day
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Aura of Courage
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Ride Bonus +4
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Greater Divine Might
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Deadly Charge 2/day
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	Ride Bonus +6
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Full Mounted Attack
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Ride Bonus +8
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Deadly Charge 3/Day

Basis for this Class:

The purpose of this class is to provide a prestige class that takes advantage of the paladin's special mount. I also like the idea of a more martially oriented divine prestige class. Most of the existing (non-evil) ones are slanted more towards the cleric side. Finally, I wanted to provide a mounted combat based class that did not require ranks in a skill that is cross class to nearly anybody who would want to take this class. (knowledge/nobility and royalty)

This prestige class is a modified version of the Cavalier prestige class from Sword and Fist. The following modifications have been made:

Weapon focus (sword) and knowledge (nobility and royalty) are no longer required.

Four ranks of knowledge (religion) are now required.

Weapon Focus (lance) has been replaced with weapon focus (any one handed martial/exotic weapon) as a requirement.

You are now required to have the divine might feat from Defenders of the Faith.

The alignment requirement is now extended to lawful good rather than just lawful.

The class shares the paladin's code of conduct.

The class features Tall in the Saddle, Mounted Lance Bonus, Mounted Weapon Bonus and Burst of Speed have been removed.

The Class Features Detect Evil, Aura of Courage, and Special Mount have been added. (All taken from the paladin class)

The class skill list is taken from the paladin class.

The class features Deadly Charge and Full Mounted Attack are gained more slowly than they are in the regular cavalier class.

The class feature Greater Divine Might has been added.

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