Sacred Sentinel

Known as sacred sentinels, these holy warriors view themselves as mortal shields of defense, and seek to place themselves where defenders are most needed. Many speak of themselves as pillars, strong structures that can hold up a vast building but only by supporting the other beams and supports needed. Sacred sentinels are always front-line combatants, and value mobility to ensure they can reach the places they are most needed. As a result they are most often cavaliers (especially of the order of the dragon, the order of the guard, or the order of the shield) or paladins with a mount as a divine bond.

The majority of sacred sentinels are dwarves, but other races are sometimes called to serve.

Hit Die: d10.

Requirements

To qualify to become a sacred sentinel, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

• Base Attack Bonus: +6.
• Alignment: Lawful good.
• Deity: Must worship associated Deity.
• Feats: Endurance, Toughness.
• Special: Proficiency with light, medium, and heavy armor and all shields (other than tower shields).

Class Skills

The sacred sentinel’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Table: Sacred Sentinel

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+1	+0	+1	Code of the Creator, strategic protection (+3/30 feet)
2nd	+2	+1	+1	+1	Renewed bonds
3rd	+3	+2	+1	+2	Healing touch (3d8), tempering touch +1
4th	+4	+2	+1	+2	Strategic protection (+4/40 feet)
5th	+5	+3	+2	+3	Uncanny dodge
6th	+6	+3	+2	+3	Healing touch (4d8), tempering touch +2
7th	+7	+4	+2	+4	Strategic protection (+5/50 feet)
8th	+8	+4	+3	+4	Swift shield other
9th	+9	+5	+3	+5	Healing touch (5d8),tempering touch +3
10th	+10	+5	+3	+5	Strategic protection (+6/60 feet), unyielding

Class Features

The following are the class features of the sacred sentinel prestige class.

Code of the Creator (Su)

A sacred sentinel has dedicated her life to serving as a protective shield of the Creator, and this is her first and highest calling. Though not all sacred sentinels are paladins, they all must follow the paladin’s code of the Creator. Cavaliers who become sacred sentinels are given special dispensation by their cavalier orders to act as agents of the Creator within their orders, and treat the Creator’s paladin code of conduct as their cavalier’s edict (replacing the normal edicts for their orders).

A sacred sentinel who violates this code loses all class features of this prestige class other than skill points and class skills for 24 hours.

Strategic Protection (Su)

As a move action, a sacred sentinel can establish a magic aura that protects one or more of her allies. When she establishes her aura, she selects a number of allies up to her Charisma bonus that she can see and that are within 20 feet. As long as these allies remain within 30 feet of the sacred sentinel, they gain a +3 bonus to their CMDs and on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying. The bonus increases to +4 at 4th level, to +5 at 7th level, and to +6 at 10th level. The radius of this aura increases by 10 feet at each of these levels. The bonuses from strategic protection last until the beginning of the sacred sentinel’s next turn.

Renewed Bonds (Ex)

At 2nd level, a sacred sentinel is able to maintain strong bonds from her life before becoming a divine guardian. If the sacred sentinel has levels in a class with an animal companion, familiar, or a class feature with “bond” in the name (such as arcane bond, divine bond, or sacred bond), she selects one such class upon gaining her 1st level of sacred sentinel.

Sacred sentinel levels stack with levels in the selected class when determining the effectiveness of her familiar, animal companion, or bond class feature. Whenever the sacred sentinel uses strategic protection, her familiar, animal companion, or bonded companion is automatically included in its protection if in range, without counting toward the maximum number of creatures the sacred sentinel can affect.

A sacred sentinel without an appropriate class feature from another class instead increases the number of creatures she can protect with her bastion of protection by 1 upon gaining this class feature, and by another 1 at 6th level.

If the sacred sentinel has cavalier, paladin, or warpriest class levels, she selects one of those classes and adds half her sacred sentinel level to those class levels to determine her effective class level for a specific class feature. For cavaliers, this determines the effectiveness of her challenge class feature. For paladins, this determines the effectiveness of her smite evil class feature. For warpriests, this determines how many times per day she can use her blessings.

Editor’s Note: sacred bond is probably meant to be sacred weapon or the combination of sacred weapon and sacred armor.

Healing Touch (Su)

At 3rd level, a sacred sentinel can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by her touch.

Each day, she can use this ability a number of times equal to 1 + 1/2 her sacred sentinel level. If she has established her strategic protection, she can use this ability on a selected ally within range of the aura without having to successfully touch the ally. This ability restores 3d8 hit points, increasing to 4d8 at 6th level, and 5d8 at 9th level.

Healing touch qualifies as the lay on hands ability for the purpose of prerequisites requiring lay on hands, and abilities that work with lay on hands (such as mercies).

Tempering Touch (Su)

A sacred sentinel knows that the best way to defend allies is to temper them to be stronger.

At 3rd level, when a sacred sentinel uses a spell or class feature (but not a magic item or the Heal skill) to heal an ally, the ally gains a defensive bonus. For a number of rounds equal to the sacred sentinel’s class level, whenever the ally fights defensively, uses the full defense action, or uses Combat Expertise, the ally gains a +1 deflection bonus to AC and a +1 sacred bonus on saving throws. These bonuses increase to +2 at 6th level and to +3 at 9th level.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex)

At 5th level, a sacred sentinel gains the ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She gains uncanny dodge, as per the rogue class feature. If the character gains uncanny dodge from another class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (as per the rogue talent).

Swift Shield Other (Sp)

At 8th level, a sacred sentinel can use shield other as a quickened spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to her Charisma bonus (minimum once per day).

Unyielding (Su)

At 10th level, a sacred sentinel’s devotion to protecting those under her charge is great enough to temporarily hold off death. If the sacred sentinel has her strategic protection active and is killed through any means, she does not immediately die. Instead she remains alive and active until the beginning of her next turn, at which point she dies normally. Breath of life, if applied before this time runs out, can save the sacred sentinel, but other healing effects that restore hit points cannot hold off death.