Guard Maid (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

A guard maid is the bodyguard of a worthy master, but not necessarily a good-aligned one. She acts as a servant to always be close to her ward. The guard maid is a martial artist of the Way of Force.

Alignment

The guard maid must always be of lawful alignment, but can be lawful neutral, good or evil. If she ever willfully places her ward in danger or discomfort, she loses all spells, spell-like, and supernatural abilities of the paladin class and guard maid archetype until she re-bonds, either with her old ward or a new one. This is done in the same manner as creating a new ward bond. This restriction replaces the paladin's alignment restriction. If she ever changes to a non-lawful alignment, she loses all these abilities until she becomes lawful again.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Guard maids are proficient with all simple and martial weapons. They are not proficient in any armor or shields.

Aura of Law (Ex)

The power of a guard maid's aura of lawfulness (see the detect law spell) is equal to her guard maid level. This replaces Aura of Good.

Aura of Protection (Su)

Guard maids can project a powerful protective aura and are experts at using bracers of armor. The armor created by guard maids is subtle and can only be seen with a DC 15 Perception check. It does not stack with regular armor. Aura of protection can be activated at will as a swift action, and the protection stays up until deactivated or as long as the guard maid is conscious. It provides a +6 armor bonus, and this can be used alongside bracers of armor, with stacking benefits. It does not otherwise stack with armor, either normal or force.

Guard Maid Block (Su)

While under aura of protection, the guard maid adds a +2 shield bonus to armor class. This is considered force armor, and improves by +1 for every 4 levels (+2 at levels up to 3, +3 at levels 4-7, +4 at levels 8-11 and so on). The maid guard must have one hand free, she cannot carry a shield or two weapons when using this ability, not can she use a weapon in two hands. She may momentarily use the off hand for things like somatic components or drawing and throwing a weapon in the same round. This ability counts as a shield to abilities that require a shield.

Ward Bond (Ex)

A guard maid can have a ward. This is one specific creature the guard maid is dedicated to protecting, and whose safety and comfort is her prime objective. The guard maid is free to pick her own ward, but often the choice is influenced by other people from her background, such as family or trainers. It is generally a lawful authority figure. A player maid guard generally has another player as her ward. It is possible to have your own cohort as your ward.

To form a bond, the maid guard must not already have an active ward bond. She offers her service as a full-round action and must be adjacent to the prospective ward. The ward must accept the guard maid within the next minute, this also requires a full action. Once the relationship is accepted, it immediately kicks in.

The bond between maid guard and ward is normally permanent. Not even death negates it. When the maid guard advances in level, she can choose to renounce her bond, meaning she has no ward and is free to dedicate her services to another. She must inform her ward as soon as possible. It is also possible for the ward to ask the maid guard to transfer her services to another creature. All three must be adjacent, and all must accept - this is a full-round action for each.

Several abilities below trigger on the ward bond.

Protective Attention (Ex)

The guard maid adds half her level to all Profession (servant) checks. She can use Profession (Servant) in place of Perception checks as long as her ward is present or could possibly be in danger. A guard maid without a ward cannot use protective attention. This ability replaces detect evil.

Smite Threat (Su)

This is a variant of the normal paladin's smite evil ability. Rather than activating the smite herself, the guard maid has a smite ability that triggers when her ward is threatened. The following things trigger the smite threat ability:

• A creature attacking, intimidating, or otherwise harming the ward without first having been attacked or otherwise harmed by the ward. When the ward orders the maid to attack a creature, that is not considered an attack and does not let that creature attack the ward without suffering from smite threat.
• As a standard action, the ward can order the guard maid to attack a creature, marking that creature as a treat. This must be an open, bold statement and is not possible to do while hiding.

Smite threat lasts for 15 minutes and can be used any number of times per day. The target need not be evil. It otherwise functions as the paladin's smite evil ability.

This replaces the smite evil ability.

Lay on Hands (Su)

At 2nd level, the guard maid learns to lay on hands. She can use lay on hands on her ward as a swift action. This is otherwise identical to the paladin ability of the same name.

Weapon Cache (Su)

At 4th level, the maid guard gains access to a personal extra-dimensional space. This space can hold weapons and personal gear with a total weight of 10 lbs. per level of the guard maid, and weight carried in the weapon cache does not count against her encumbrance. Drawing an item from the weapon cache is a free action, and it can be done outside the maid guard's turn as an immediate action. It is possible for others to reach into this extra-dimensional space to steal what is in there, this is about as hard as stealing something out of a hidden inside pocket.

This ability replaces the channel energy ability normally gained at level 4.

Spellcasting

Spells vs. Threats (Ex)

When a guard maid casts a paladin spell that normally has a special effect on evil creatures, she instead affects any creature that is under her smite threat ability or that has attacked her or her ward in the last 15 minutes. Note that a target that emerges as a new threat can suddenly begin to suffer the effects of spells cast earlier, when he was not a threat.

Divine Focus (Ex)

The guard maid uses her symbol of office as her divine focus. This can be a maid's cap, apron, badge, her ward's coat of arms, or some other small symbol that can be worn as a pin or medallion.

Divine Bond (Su)

At 5th level, the guard maid always forms a divine bond with weapons, never a mount.

Aura of Order (Su)

At 14th level, a guard maid's weapons are treated as lawful-aligned for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction. Any attack made against an enemy within 10 feet of her is treated as lawful-aligned for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.

This ability functions only while the guard maid is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead. It replaces Aura of Faith.

Aura of Loyalty (Su)

At 17th level, a guard maid gains DR 5/chaos and immunity to compulsion spells and spell-like abilities. Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against compulsion effects.

This ability functions only while the guard maid is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

This ability replaces Aura of Righteousness.

Champion Maid (Su)

At 20th level, a guard maid becomes a conduit of law. Her DR increases to 10/chaos. Whenever she uses smite threat and successfully strikes an outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her guard maid level as the caster level (her weapon and her ward automatically count as objects that the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. In addition, whenever she uses lay on hands to heal a creature, she heals the maximum possible amount.

This ability replaces Holy Champion.

Summary of Lost Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

• Alignment
• Aura of Good
• Detect Evil
• Smite Evil
• Lay on Hands
• Channel Energy
• Spellcasting
• Divine Bond
• Holy Champion
• Aura of Faith
• Aura of Righteousness