Storm Knight Prestige Class

Cuiraécen is a chaotic god of heroes, wars and storms. His followers seek battle to prove themselves, fight evil and gain fame. Many warriors follow Cuiraécen when young and switch to more stable gods as they grow up. But some devote themselves wholeheartedly to the ideals of life as a test, fighting as a sport and war as a way of life. Those may aspire to become storm knights.

Most storm knights were paladins of Cuiraécen, fighters, or barbarians before joining the order, though clerics of Cuiraécen, bards, rangers, and rogues are not unknown. Calling the storm knights an order seems to be a misapplication of the term; it is more a lose fellowship, free spirits that often fight among themselves for sheer love of battle, and sometimes cooperate to defeat some common enemy.

Storm knights love challenges, especially if they are associated with love, life, beauty or air. They climb mountains and challenge all comers over their lady's honour. They seek out ferocious beasts and tame animals for the queen's gardens. They provide escort for travellers, but are unreliable and may abandon their charges for an adventure at the drop of a hat. They are rarely rich, but all like good living and ostentatious displays which quickly puts most of them in debts they promptly ignore. In short, they are the epitome of the chaotic knight.

The storm knight must adhere to a loose code of honor. There are few actual prohibitions, but the spirit of the code must be upheld, and deviators are mercilessly taunted and finally hunted down. The code is not a codified law that must be obeyed, but rather certain core virtues.

• Never refuse a fair challenge.
• Never refuse a battle for love (see below).
• Never let a slight go unchallenged.
• Uphold not only your own honor, but also that of those who are unable to do so themselves.
• Champion love, joy and beauty.

A storm knight that stops being chaotic, turns evil or stops honoring Cuiraécen lose all the special abilities of the class. A storm knight that does not honor the code or is not chaotic good cannot advance further in the class. The powers of darkness love to currupt storm knights. Storm knight levels are treated as paladin levels for the purpose of the blackguard prestige class.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

Skills:
Know (religion) 2 ranks
Diplomacy: 4 ranks

Base Attack Bonus: +6
Feats: Leadership.
Alignment: A Storm Knight must be of chaotic good alignment.
Patron Deity: Must have Cuiraécen as a patron deity.

Skill points at each level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the storm knight class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Storm knights are proficient with all simple weapons and martial melee weapons as well as all armor and with shields.

Smite Evil: You can smite evil, as the paladin ability smite evil described in Player's Handbook, page 42. However, in a Battle for Love, you can smite anyone for subdual damage, not just evil opponents. This ability stacks with the paladin ability; if you are also a paladin, add your levels in both classes to find your effective smite evil ability. A paladin - storm knight can use his full smite evil ability in a Battle for Love.

Cuiraécen is a diety from the Birthright setting, whose paladins are all chaotic good. In most settings, paladins cannot be of chaotic good alignment, so the overlap between the storm knight and paladin abilities is irrelevant.

Battle for Love: A storm knight can offer an opponent to fight a 'battle for love', meaning a battle solely for the love of battle. There can be no prize but prestige in such a battle. If the opponent agrees, the battle is on. All damage from either participant is subdual, except on a critical hit. Any special ability with a limited number of uses used in a battle for love does not count against the daily limit. Spells do normal lethal damage and are not restored after a battle for love. Either side may stop fighting for love at any time, and the fight immediately turns into a normal battle.

Storm Shield: You gain a damage resistance of 10/- to cold, electricity, sonic and wind attacks.

Aura of Courage: This is the same as the paladin's Aura of Courage, described in PH, page 42. If you already have this ability as a paladin, your Aura of Courage now has a radius of 100 ft.

Birthright only: This makes your card battle unit immune to fallbacks and treats routs as hits.

War for Sport: This is the same as Battle for Love, but you can invoke the ability for a battle in which the total number of companies (units of approximately 200 men) does not exceed the total level of all participating storm knights.

Storm Rider: You can cast the spell wind walk once per day. Your spellcasting level is your charcter level. Followers of Cuiraécen do not count against the normal limit on targets, you can take along up to two hundred devoted followers of Cuiraécen when storm riding.