Enlightened Paladin

Enlightened paladins meditate on self-perfection and train relentlessly, knowing that their example can inspire others to excel. Enlightened paladins follow no universal paladin code—each paladin in his service creates his own code as part of his spiritual journey, seeing the adherence to such a self-formulated creed as one of the many tests one must face to reach perfection.

Skills: An Enlightened paladin gains Acrobatics, Climb, and Swim as class skills.

Confident Defense (Ex)

At 1st level, when wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, an Enlightened paladin adds 1 point of his Charisma bonus (if any) per class level to his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class. If he is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied his Dexterity bonus, he also loses this bonus.

This ability replaces his proficiency with medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.

Unarmed Strike

At 1st level, an Enlightened paladin gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. In addition, he gains the unarmed strike monk ability, treating his monk level as half his paladin level (minimum 1) for calculating his unarmed strike damage.

Aura of Law (Su)

The power of an enlightened paladin’s aura of law is equal to his class level.

This ability replaces aura of good.

Sense Perfection (Su)

At 1st level, at will, an enlightened paladin can detect life forces as if he were using a paladin’s detect evil class ability; however, instead of sensing evil creatures, he senses creatures that have a ki pool. Each such creature has an aura like a cleric of an aligned deity, and treats its current number of ki points as its Hit Dice for the purposes of this ability.

This ability replaces detect evil.

Personal Trial (Su)

Once per day, an enlightened paladin can as a swift action declare one target within line of sight as his personal trial. The Enlightened paladin gains a +1 insight bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against that creature, to his AC against attacks made by the target, and on saving throws against the target’s spells and special abilities. This bonus increases by 1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, to a maximum bonus of +6 at 20th level. The personal trial effect remains until the target of the trial is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains daily uses of this ability. At 4th level and every three levels thereafter, the Enlightened paladin can use personal trial one additional time per day.

This ability replaces smite evil.

Aura of Excellence (Su)

At 3rd level, an enlightened paladin is immune to any effect that would force him to reroll a die against his will or roll twice and take the lower result. Whenever an ally within 10 feet of him would reroll a die against her will, she can roll twice and take the higher result. Whenever an ally within 10 feet would be forced to roll twice and take the lower result, she can instead roll three times and take the second-lowest result. This ability functions only while the Enlightened paladin is conscious, and replaces aura of courage.

Ki Pool (Su)

At 4th level, an enlightened paladin gains a ki pool with an effective monk level equal to his class level. The number of points in an Enlightened paladin’s ki pool is equal to 1/2 his class level + his Charisma modifier. By spending 1 point from his ki pool, he can ignore any damage reduction possessed by the target of his personal trial ability for 1 round. This ability otherwise functions as the monk ability of the same name and replaces channel positive energy.

Divine Body (Su)

Upon reaching 5th level, an enlightened paladin must form a bond with a weapon, except he can only choose to enhance his unarmed strike. This ability otherwise functions as and replaces divine bond.

Aura of Perfection (Su)

At 11th level, whenever an enlightened paladin or ally within 10 feet would reroll a die and take the second result even if it is lower (via the good fortune ability of the Luck domain, for example), he can roll an additional die as part of the reroll and use the higher of the two as the result of the reroll. This ability functions only while the Enlightened paladin is conscious, and replaces aura of justice.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Combat © 2014, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, John Compton, and Thurston Hillman.

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