Devoted Warsinger (3.5e Prestige Class)

Devoted Warsinger

“

Swords in their hands, they kill each and every man, who dares to invade their sacred land. Victory songs are rising through the night, telling all of the men to have strength and fight. Victory Song by Ensiferum

”

Songs of war have inspired countless people for hundreds of generations. the Devoted Warsinger follow this tradition but takes it to a new level. Rather than writing epics of wars past, he sings songs of past wars to encourage fellow soldiers to fight harder and to keep hope. A Devoted Warsinger with a few allies is a formidable opponent indeed. With the ability to bolster his allies against fear with Aura of Courage, and the ability to enhance their fighting capabilities with inspire courage, a Devoted Warsinger in a group is almost unstoppable.

Becoming a Devoted Warsinger

This is the class to pursue if you want to be a shining knight in armor and also do well with the ladies. Essentially a paladin and a bard mashed into one. The only way to enter this class is with at least five levels of paladin because of the special mount class feature requirement. After that two levels of bard for the require 1st level bard spell. The main stat is charisma. It is used for almost every ability and for spells. The rest is typical strength for damage and constitution for hit points. Due to the heavy armor proficiency dexterity is not very important, but if you take a level of an arcane spellcaster to enter this class then heavy armor is not much of an option anymore.

Entry Requirements

Alignment:	Lawful good.
Spellcasting:	Able to cast 1st level bard spells.
Special:	Special Mount class feature.

Table: The Devoted Warsinger

Hit Die: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spellcasting
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Aura of Good, Code of Conduct, Lay on Hands, Special Mount, Armored Mage (shield)
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Bardic Music	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Smite Evil, Aura of Courage	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Knight's Glory	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Armored Mage (Medium)	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Song of Glory	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	Regal Knighthood	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Knight of War	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Armored Mage (Heavy)	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Aura of Heroes	+1 level of bard spellcasting ability
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level) Appraise(Int), Climb(Str), Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Decipher Script(Int), Diplomacy(Cha), Gather Information(Cha), Jump(Str), Knowledge(all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently(Dex), Perform(Cha), Profession(Wis), Sense Motive(Wis), Sleight of Hand(Dex), Spellcraft(Int), Swim(Str), and Use Magic Device(Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Devoted Warsinger.

Code of Conduct): A Devoted Warsinger can never perform an act of evil, or retreat from battle. If a Devoted Warsinger ever does either of these things, she loses all class abilities and cannot advance further until receiving an atonement spell (see Ex-Devoted Warsingers below).

Aura of Good (Ex): The power of a Devoted Warsinger’s aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her Devoted Warsinger level, just like the aura of a cleric of a good deity.

Lay on hands (Su): A Devoted Warsinger with a Charisma score of 12 or higher can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by touch. Each day she can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her Devoted Warsinger level × her Charisma bonus. Her paladin levels stack with her Devoted Warsinger levels to determine the amount of hit points that can be healed by Lay on hands. For example, a 5th-level paladin/1st-level bard/2nd-level Devoted Warsinger with a 16 Charisma (+3 bonus) can heal 21 points of damage per day. A Devoted Warsinger may choose to divide her healing among multiple recipients, and she doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using lay on hands is a standard action. Alternatively, a Devoted Warsinger can use any or all of this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures. Using lay on hands in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The Devoted Warsinger decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.

Special Mount (Sp): Levels of Devoted Warsinger stack with classes that have the Special Mount class feature, but Devoted Warsinger does not provide the ability Special Mount.

Armored Mage: A Devoted Warsinger gains the ability to ignore arcane spell failure when casting a bard spell, while wearing a shield. This applies to bucklers, light shields and heavy shields (but not tower shields). At 5th level, this ability increases to remove the arcane spell failure chance from medium armor, when a bard spell is cast. At 9th level, the arcane spell failure chance from heavy armor is also ignored.

Spellcasting: At 2nd, and each level after, you gain new spells per day, and an increase in caster level (and spells known) as if you had also gained a level in the bard class. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a bard would have gained.

Bardic Music: Beginning at second level, each level of Devoted Warsinger, from second level onwards, increases your daily uses of bardic music by one each day, and your levels of Devoted Warsinger stack with your bard levels for determining songs known and and the strength of bard songs.

Smite Evil (Su): From third level onwards, whenever a devoted warsinger strikes a creature with and evil alignment, the attack deals 1d6 extra damage per level of devoted warsinger.

Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at third level, devoted warsingers and all allies within 30 feet are immune to fear.

Knight's Glory: At 4th level, a Devoted Warsinger has become so competent in his ability to inspire troops, that allies withing 30 feet gain a +2 sacred bonus to their armor class.

Song of Glory: Beginning at 6th level, a devoted warsinger and all allies within 30 feet gain DR5/- when charging.

Regal Knighthood: At 7th level, the Devoted Warsinger has built a reputation that he is the greatest, and that following him is the only path to victory. He gains Leadership as a bonus feat. If leadership isn't being used in the campaign, he instead grants allies within 30 feet of him a +4 sacred bonus to attack and damage rolls.

Knight of War: At 8th level, a Devoted Warsinger's desire to see the front lines of war, and to sing of the glory of it is so great that he and all allies withing 30 feet gain a +6 bonus to initiative checks.

Aura of Heroes (Su):From 10th level onward the devoted warsinger and all allies within 30 feet can continue taking actions without penalty at 0 or lower hit points for a number of rounds equal to the devoted warsinger's Cha modifier. They cannot die during this time, and cannot exceed -10. They die when the turns run out if they do not receive healing.

Ex-Devoted Warsingers

A Devoted Warsinger who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all Devoted Warsinger spells and abilities (not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any farther in levels as a Devoted Warsinger. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see the atonement spell description), as appropriate. Like a member of any other class, a Devoted Warsinger may be a multiclass character, but multiclass Devoted Warsingers face a special restriction. A Devoted Warsinger who gains a level in any class other than Devoted Warsinger, paladin or bard may never again raise her Devoted Warsinger level, though she retains all her Devoted Warsinger abilities. A Devoted Warsinger may progress as a bard despite being lawful, and may multiclass freely between the paladin, bard and Devoted Warsinger.

Campaign Information

Playing a Devoted Warsinger

Combat: The role of a Devoted Warsinger is frontline fighting. At first its best to stand back and detect evil. This establishes who would be the best target for you to attack. Bolster yourself, or your allies with a few bard spells, and head for the closest evil creature, all the while singing whatever bard song is appropriate for the situation.

Advancement: The Devoted Warsinger allows a character to multiclass freely between bard, paladin, and devoted warsinger. It also lifts the restriction of alignment on the bard class. The best advancement would be to multiclass bard and paladin, continuing to gain uses of smite evil, empower your special mount, and also a few levels of bard to increase the benefits to your allies. This depends on the type of party you are with. If you have another heavy fighter in tow, it is probably best to advance as a bard, but if you are the toughest of your party, its probably best to continue as a paladin and just use the levels of bard abilities that you already have.

Resources: Most Devoted Warsingers are members of the temple of Heironeus of St. Cuthbert. Either temple will gladly fund a campaign against evil. Devoted Warsingers are usually willing to help others of their kind and paladins they meet on the wayside, as they feel a kindred spirit towards others who feel the love of battle and the hatred of evil.

Devoted Warsingers in the World

“

Hold fast men! They shan't have this day!

”

It is easy to fit Devoted Warsingers into any campaign. After all, it is just a paladin that sings for his allies. An organization could exist where the Devoted Warsingers are trained, or even a special branch of a temple to Heironeus.

NPC Reactions: NPCs usually get a long very well with Devoted Warsingers because they fight for good and to protect NPCs. As a result, its not uncommon for a Devoted Warsinger to be penniless and want for nothing.

Devoted Warsinger Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge Religion can research Devoted Warsingers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge Religion

DC	Result
11	They are knights that cast spells and sing.
16	They bolster their allies with songs and spells.
21	A bard with a lawful streak that melded with a paladin. They inspire courage and remove all fear from their allies.
30	A character that rolls this high can get the name and whereabouts of a specific Devoted Warsinger.

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