Oriental Prestige Class : Kishi Charger
Kishi chargers are cavalry soldiers trained to make the greatest possible use of a horse's speed and a rider's agility. Kishi chargers share a special bond with their mounts - though not to the extent that battle maidens do - and are capable of truly devastating attacks when charging.
Kishi chargers tend to come from the samurai and barbarian character classes. In Rokugan, they are drawn exclusively from the Unicorn clan, where they are trained in the Shinjo school.
NPC kishi chargers like to seek out new places and experiences, and their penchant for exploration makes them especially suited for scouting and hunting. They do not like to be contained and would rather sleep under the stars than in a tent or a castle.
Class Requirements
To qualify to become a Kishi Charger, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Ride 9 ranks
- Feats: Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge,
- Base Attack Bonus: +6.
Class Skills
The kishi charger's class skills are Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Iaijutsu Focus, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Perform, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, and Swim.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
The following are class features of the kishi charger.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Kishi chargers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light and medium armor.
Ride Bonus (Ex): A kishi charger gains a competence bonus on all Ride checks. The bonus is +2 at 1st level and increases by +2 every three levels thereafter (+4 at 4th level, +6 at 7th level, and +8 at 10th level).
Expertise: At 1st level, a kishi charger learns the "Shinjo parry," giving him the Expertise feat for free, even if he doesn't have the prerequisite Intelligence score.
Deadly Charge (Ex): When mounted and using the charge action, a kishi charger of 2nd level or higher deals triple damage with a melee weapon (or quadruple damage with a lance), up to the number of times per day indicated. This ability supersedes the Spirited Charge feat.
Burst of Speed (Ex): At 3rd level, the kishi charger can urge his mount to greater than normal speeds. This ability doubles the distance of the mount's normal charge movement. This ability can be used once per day without penalty to the mount. Each additional use of the ability in a single day requires the mount to make a Will save (DC 20) immediately after the conclusion of the additional charge; failure results in the mount taking 2d6 points of damage.
One Spirit (Su): A kishi charger of 5th level or higher has a spiritual bond with his mount. Once per day, while mounted, the kishi charger can make any one attack roll, saving throw, or skill check using his Ride skill modifier in place of all other modifiers. For example, he could roll a melee attack roll using only his Ride skill modifier instead of his total attack bonus (including Strength modifier, weapon enhancement bonus, Weapon Focus bonus, and all other bonuses to the attack roll).
Full Mounted Attack (Ex): At 6th level, a kishi charger gains the ability to make a full attack from horseback, even if his mount has moved more than 5 feet in the round.
Dancing with the Fortunes (Su): A kishi charger of 9th level or higher can, once per day, reroll one roll he has just made. He must take the result of the reroll, even if it's worse than the original roll.
| Kishi Charger | Hit Die: d10 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Ride bonus +2, Expertise |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Deadly charge 1/day |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Burst of speed |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Deadly charge 2/day, Ride bonus +4 |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | One spirit |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Deadly charge 3/day, full mounted attack |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Ride bonus +6 |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 | Deadly charge 4/day |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +3 | Dancing with the Fortunes |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Deadly charge 5/day, Ride bonus +8 |
Source: Oriental Adventures
Older Prestige class adapted to 3.5