Dervish of Dawn

The dervish sect is a group of combat-oriented clerics working towards the destruction of evil. They wander the world to bring dawn’s light to its darkest corners.

The first of the dervishes were desert nomads who spread the faith through their beautiful sword dances. Eventually other priests saw not only the beauty, but also the martial prowess that these dances conferred in combat. They shared this with the head church, which gave the dervishes official sanction and status.

A dervish of dawn uses dance as a beautiful but deadly martial art. As the dervish dances, she channels a fragment of her patron goddess. In this way, a devout dervish becomes a burning whirlwind of divine justice.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a dervish, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Class Skills

The dervish’s class skills (and the key ability for each) are Acrobatics (Dex), Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (religion), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Dervish of Dawn
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special Spell Progression
1st +0 +0 +1 +1 AC bonus +1, channel energy, dance 1/day, light scimitars
2nd +1 +1 +1 +1 Domain dance, fast movement +5 ft +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
3rd +2 +1 +2 +2 Dance mastery, dance 2/day +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
4th +3 +1 +2 +2 Domain dance +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
5th +3 +2 +3 +3 AC bonus +2, dance 3/day, fast movement +10 ft
6th +4 +2 +3 +3 Domain dance +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
7th +5 +2 +4 +4 dance 4/day, elaborate parry, +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
8th +6 +3 +4 +4 Domain dance, fast movement +15 ft +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
9th +6 +3 +5 +5 AC bonus +3, dance 5/day, Tireless dance
10th +7 +3 +5 +5 blossom +1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

Class Features

The following are class features of the dervish prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Dervishes gain no proficiencies with any armor or weapons.

AC Bonus (Ex)

A dervish gains a +1 bonus to armor class. This bonus to AC applies even to touch attacks or when she is flat-footed. She loses this bonus whenever she is helpless or immobile, wearing medium or heavy armor, carrying a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level and +3 at 9th.

Channel Energy (Su)

The dervish’s class level stacks with levels in any other class that grants the channel energy ability.

Dance of Dawn (Ex)

Once per encounter, a dervish can use a swift action to enter an ecstatic dance. She must be wielding a scimitar, and her other hand must hold a scimitar or be empty.

In this state, the dervish adds her Wisdom modifier or half her class level (whichever is lower) to all scimitar attack and damage rolls. In addition, if the dervish charges a foe, she can make a full attack (instead of a single attack).

While dancing, the dervish cannot cast spells (except as described under domain dance) or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or a spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. She can use bardic performances that utilize Perform (dance).

The dance lasts a number of rounds equal to 4 + half her dervish level. A dervish may prematurely end the dance. At the end of the dance, the dervish loses the dance’s benefits and restrictions, and becomes fatigued for the remainder of the encounter.

A dervish can use this ability once per day at 1st level. At 3rd level, and every odd level after that, she can use dance an additional time per day.

Light Scimitars (Ex)

A dervish learns to move with the grace of fire. She may treat scimitars as light weapons.

Domain Dance (Su)

At every even level, a dervish may choose one of her god or goddesses domains. The dervish may cast divine spells from the chosen domain (whether as domain spells or from her regular slots) during a dance. This ability does not give access to the domain’s spells or granted powers; just the ability to cast those spells during a dance.

In addition, whenever a dervish casts a spell from a chosen domain during a dance, she gains magical effect related to the spell’s domain. This effect lasts until the end of her next turn, until she is disarmed, or the dance ends. While any of these effects are active, the dervish’s scimitar attacks are treated as good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Fire: The dervish’s scimitar(s) ignites with fire, gaining the flaming weapon quality.

Glory: Golden runes appear along the scimitar(s) blade. It deals an extra 1d6 points of damage to evil outsiders.

Good: The dervish’s scimitar(s) glows with golden light, radiating a magic circle against evil.

Healing: The scimitar(s) loses its luster. The dervish may choose to deal nonlethal damage with the weapon without penalty.

Sun: The dervish’s scimitar(s) trails sunlight, which inflicts an extra 1d6 points of damage to undead.

Multiple instances of the same effect do not stack.

Fast Movement (Ex)

At 2nd level, a dervish gains a 5-feet enhancement bonus to her speed. At 5th level this becomes 10-feet and at 8th level this becomes 15-feet. A dervish loses this bonus if she is wearing medium or heavy armor, carrying a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load.

Spells per Day

At each level (except 1st, 5th, and 9th), the dervish gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in any one divine spellcasting class she belonged to previously. She does not gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a dervish, she must decide to which class she adds each level of dervish for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Dance Mastery (Ex)

At 3rd level, a dervish may take 10 on any Acrobatics or Perform (dance) skill checks at any time, even in times of stress.

Elaborate Parry (Ex)

At 7th level, a dervish gains an extra +4 bonus to Armor Class when she fights defensively or uses total defense.

Tireless Dance (Ex)

At 9th level, a dervish is no longer fatigued after a dance.

Blossom (Su)

At 10th level, while performing a dance, a dervish can gain the magical effects of domain dance by expending one or more turn attempts as a swift action. The dervish may activate any number of domain dance effects of her choice. These effects last for two rounds per turn attempt expended, until she is disarmed, or the dance ends. For example, a dervish can expend two turn attempts to keep the Fire, Sun, and Good domain effects up for four rounds.

In addition, while these effects are active, a dervish radiates daylight as the spell, except that it dispels spells with the darkness descriptor of 6th level or lower.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Wayfinder #1. © 2009, Paizo Fans United. Author: Adam Daigle, Charles Evans, Clinton J. Boomer, Colter “Dreamweaver” Guthrie, Craig “flash_cxxi” Johnston, Cristian “Cicattrix” Bodea, Dennis “daOgre” Baker, Eric “Epic Meepo” Morton, Ernesto “Montalve” Ramirez, Guy Humual, Hal Maclean, Ian “cappadocious” Cunningham, Kelly “Gotrek22” Gragg, Jeff “Shadowborn” Lee, Jonathan “Wicht” McAnulty, Joshua “Zynete” Blazej, Justin “Black Fang” Sluder, Larry “Larcifer” Wilhelm, Lissa “SunshineGrrrl” Guillet, Matthew “The Twitching King” Stinson, Michael “Ask a Shoanti” Kortes, Mike “taig” Welham, Neil Spicer, Ross Byers, Russ Taylor, Paris Crenshaw, Tae-Bin “Nerrat Dei” Gulliver, Theodore “Zuxius” Thompson, Troy E. Taylor.

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