Panther Clan Warchief

“You won’t know you are being stalked until it is too late.”

The panther clan warchief is a barbarian who venerates great cats such as panthers, cougars, lions and tigers and seeks to emulate them. He is in tune with the great cat spirit and gains extraordinary powers. The panther clan warchief’s fearsome weapons, speed, grace, and stealth is legendary among barbarian tribes.

Hit Die: d12

Requirements

To qualify to become a panther clan warchief, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

• Level: Barbarian 5
• Alignment: any non-lawful
• Ability Scores: Dex 17, Wis 12
• Skills: Handle Animal 3 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 3 ranks, Survival 3 ranks
• Feats: Lightning Reflexes, Two-Weapon Fighting
• Special: Must have been a member of a barbarian tribe that venerates panthers or similar great cats.

Class Skills

The class skills for this class (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Table: The Panther Clan Warchief

Class Level	BAB	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+1	+1	+1	Wild Empathy (Great Cats), Cat’s Claws
2nd	+2	+1	+1	+1	Darkvision
3rd	+3	+1	+2	+1	Cat-like Skill
4th	+4	+2	+2	+2	Rage Improvement, Improved Dodge
5th	+5	+2	+3	+2	Evasion
6th	+6	+3	+3	+2	Scent 1/day
7th	+7	+3	+4	+3	Panther Charge (one extra attack)
8th	+8	+4	+4	+3	Rage Improvement, Indomitable Will
9th	+9	+4	+5	+3	Damage Reduction 2/-
10th	+10	+4	+5	+4	Greater Rage, Panther Charge (two extra attacks)

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the panther clan warchief prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Panther clan warchiefs are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, cat’s claws (see below), light armor, medium armor, and shields.

Wild Empathy (Great Cats) (Ex)

At 1st level, the panther clan warchief can improve the attitude of any panther or similar great cat, such as a cougar, cheetah, leopard, lion or tiger. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The panther clan warchief rolls 1d20 and adds his panther clan warchief level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical cat has a starting attitude of unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the panther clan warchief and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

The panther clan warchief can also use this ability to influence a magical cat-like beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a –2 penalty on the check.

Cat’s Claws (Ex)

At 1st level, the panther clan warchief learns to use exotic, cestus-like gauntlets with metal claws. The gauntlets, called “cat’s claws,” have the following statistics:

Cat’s claws: exotic light melee weapon; cost: 75 gp, dmg: 1d6, critical: 19-20/x2, weight: 2lb., type: piercing or slashing.

Panther clan warchiefs also know how to use cat’s claws to gain a +2 enhancement bonus to Climb checks and a +1 competence bonus when attempting to trip an opponent. A character wielding cat’s claws cannot hold another item in the same hand at the same time.

The panther clan warchief must purchase his own cat’s claws from his clan for the listed price.

Using cat’s claws takes intense, dedicated training and the knowledge is considered sacred to the panther clan tribe. The panther clan warchief is forbidden from teaching non-panther clan warchiefs how to use them, or even allowing others to touch them.

Darkvision (Ex)

At 2nd level, the panther clan warchief gains darkvision, 60 feet. If he already has darkvision, the range increases by 30 feet. Furthermore, the panther clan warchief can see up to 10 ft. away even in magical darkness.

Cat-like Skill (Ex)

At 3rd level, the panther clan warchief gains a +2 bonus to his Dexterity when wearing no armor or light armor and not carrying a heavy load. He also gains a +4 competence bonus to Climb and Acrobatics checks, and is always considered to have a running start when making jump checks.

Rage Improvement

At 4th and 8th level, the panther clan warchief can either choose a new barbarian rage power, or he can use his barbarian rage four additional rounds per day. Once the choice is made, it cannot be changed.

Improved Dodge: At 4th level, the panther clan warchief gains Dodge as a bonus feat. If he already has the Dodge feat, the AC bonus is +2, instead of +1.

Evasion (Ex)

At 5th level, the panther clan warchief gains the evasion ability, identical to a rogue’s.

Scent (Ex)

At 6th level, once per day as a free action the panther clan warchief can call upon the spirit of the great cat to lend him the scent ability. This ability lasts for 1d4 hours.

Panther Charge (Ex)

At 7th level, the panther clan warchief learns to charge and pounce like a hunting cat, allowing him to make one extra attack with his cat’s claws when charging, but at a -3 penalty on his attack roll. Normally, you only get one attack when charging. This ability may only be used with cat’s claws, never with other weapons. At 10th level, this ability improves to two extra attacks when charging, but the second extra attack suffers a –5 penalty to hit.

Indomitable Will (Ex)

At 8th level, the panther clan warchief gains the barbarian’s Indomitable Will ability.

Damage Reduction (Ex)

At 9th level the panther clan warchief gains the extraordinary ability to shrug off some amount of injury from each blow or attack. This ability is identical to and stacks with a barbarian’s damage reduction.

Greater Rage

At 10th level, the panther clan warchief gains the greater rage ability identical to that of a barbarian’s.