Silver Riders of Lunari

Prestige Class

Lunari is the Goddess of water, weather and the Moon. While fishermen and pirates sing her praise or curse her name, seafarers do not hold a monopoly on worship of the Silver Lady. The moon has long been an inspiration to rangers, huntsmen, farmers and the like, and old fables tell that horses were actually born of the sea.

The Silver Riders are devout followers of Lunari who happen to excel at horsemanship. Through training and devotion, these riders learn skills unknown to most mortals, and the Priests of Lunari believe that their skills are boons granted by the Moon Goddess herself. While Rangers, Paladins and clerics are the most common classes to take this road, it is not unheard of for others to become Silver Riders. And while elves, half-elves and humans are the most common races amongst this order, halflings, dwarves and half orcs have also been known to qualify.

Prerequisites:

Special: Devotion to Lunari

Base Attack Bonus: +7

Alignment: Any Good

Race: Any

Skills: Knowledge: Religion (6 ranks), Ride (6 Ranks)

Spellcasting: Ability to cast Divine Spells

Class Features:

Class Skills:

Animal Empathy (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intuit Direction (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge: nature, religion, geography (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Use Rope (Dex), Wilderness Lore (Wis)

Skill Points per level: 2 + Intelligence Modifier

Hit Die: d10

¹ Choose from Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Trample, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge or a mounted feat from a source other than the Player’s Handbook as approved by the DM. All prerequisites still apply. If the character already possesses all mounted feats, a +10 competency bonus to Ride is taken instead.

² There are times to fight and times to flee, to serve Lunari another day. Once per day, a Silver Rider may urge his mount into a defensive ride, doubling the mount’s speed and giving it a +2 bonus on Will saves. The Rider gets a +2 on Dexterity, while both Rider and Mount each receive a +4 dodge bonus to AC. This lasts for 3 rounds, plus the (newly improved) Dex modifier of the rider. Afterwards, the rider and mount each suffer a –2 penalty to Strength until they have rested for no less than ten minutes.

³ This is identical to the Paladin’s Special Mount as it appears on Page 43 of the Player’s Handbook. All references to Paladin that text should be changed to Silver Rider. If the Silver Rider is already a Paladin, his or her special mount gets whatever special abilities it would have at the highest Paladin level achieved plus his or her level in the Silver Rider Prestige Class. For example, an 8^th level Paladin/4^th level Silver Rider has a mount with special abilities equal to the mount of a 12^th level Paladin.

⁴ The Rider can urge his mount into a swim at the rate of ¾ of its normal rate, with a swim modifier of +10, plus the rider’s modified swim skill rating. The Mount, if successful at the check, will keep the rider above water, enabling both rider and mount to breathe normally.

⁵ When your mount is moving no faster than twice its Speed, you can dismount without injury and land adjacent to your mount as a free action, with a successful Ride check (DC 20). If an opponent is in the area you threaten upon dismount, you may make a charge attack as a full attack action.

⁶ Summon Mount. When in need, the Silver Rider may Summon either his own mount, or a mount which he or she is capable of riding. This feature acts like a Summon Nature’s Ally spell, and the mount will obey faithfully for 24 hours multiplied by the level of the Silver Rider.

⁷ Once per month, the Silver Rider may urge his mount into an extraordinary feat. He or she can push his mount to ride for a full 16 hours at double Speed without exhausting the beast. Furthermore, the steed can move across any terrain, except mountains, as if moving over flat open land. This is made possible by the exceptional ability of the rider and high training of the mount, allowing both rider and steed to work together to find the best footing and balance and weight distribution to accomplish this task, along with the high level of focus and concentration the symbiotic team make. After such a ride, the mount must rest for a full week before being able to carry a rider, though it will be able to walk up to eight hours per day, unencumbered, except for its saddle and harness.

⁸ The Silver Rider can ride his or her mount over calm or still waters with no Ride check. Riding over rough waters requires a Ride check (DC 25) for each 10 minutes of riding.

⁹ The Silver Rider can urge his mount to flight, once per day. Distance covered safely is 100 yards per Silver Rider level with no Ride check. Additional distances may be covered with a Ride check for each 100 yards attempted (DC 30). Failure means that both mount and rider suffer applicable falling damage.

¹⁰ A Silver Rider can turn him or herself ethereal and ride across the planes. This can be done once per day, for a single trip.

This Prestige Class was designed and written by Christopher R. Regan, Caer Falken's DM. The initial idea was conceived by the player of Jaskyn, Priest of Lunari, and submitted by the player of Lynliss, the character for whom this class was initially considered for. The player of Einkil provided technical and creative review and critique.