Prepare to Raise Hell

Friday, June 24, 2016

In this final preview of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight, I figured I'd touch on the Hellknight arsenal—rules-wise the book's meatiest chapter—and wrap things up with glimpses of the remaining three major Hellknight orders. So let's dive right in!

Hellknight Arsenal

The most rules dense section of Path of the Hellknight comes at the very end. While there's certainly plenty of content in here for GMs planning to pit their PCs against Hellknight foes, in truth, this section is designed to give players a ton of new options for their Hellknight characters. A host of new traits, feats, spells, and equipment provide a spectrum of new ways to make your character feel more like a driven and entrenched Hellknight, while details on existing cavalier orders and inquisitor inquisitions recast existing options to further the Hellknights' agendas. You'll also find new options for those taking the Hellknight prestige class, the Order of the Ennead Star cavalier order, and more. There is a ton of super cool content in this chapter worth showing off...

So, moving right along to our final three major Hellknight orders!

Illustrations by Damien Mammoliti and Richard Suwono

Order of the Pyre

Symbol tower rising from flames

Headquarters Citadel Krane, near Ostenso

Leader Lictor Rouen Stought (LN female human ranger 6/Hellknight^ISWG 4)

Members atheists, former cultists, members of mainstream religions, victims of dangerous radicals

Armor Features bladed armor, horned and skull-like helm

Favored Weapon glaive

Reckoning Burn yourself over an open flame. Once per day as an immediate action, you can gain fire resistance 10 for 10 minutes. This does not stack with resist energy or any other abilities that provide fire resistance and overlaps with protection from energy.

Whether unhealthy beliefs take root in the minds of religious fanatics, practitioners of strange mystical arts, or students of radical philosophies, the Order of the Pyre strives to stamp out all outlandish convictions. This philosophy has given these Hellknights a well-earned reputation as cultist hunters who are intolerant of religion. Yet the Order of the Pyre also seeks to thwart philosophical revolutions and the insidious spread of dangerous ways of thinking. The order uses the faiths and mores of Chelish society as the standard of acceptable beliefs. The Inner Sea region's most common deities are acceptable to them, as are orderly philosophies such as diabolism and the Prophecies of Kalistrade. However, the order views whatever doesn't mesh with Chelish thinking or doesn't have an existing role within society as dangerous.

Followers of the Pyre can expect to learn more about the group's witch-hunting methods, their costal citadel and black armored fleet of ships, and a variety of feats and magic items perfect for hunting down practitioners of dark faiths an traditions.

Illustrations by Damien Mammoliti and Richard Suwono

Order of the Rack

Symbol a spiked wheel

Headquarters Citadel Rivad, near Westcrown

Leader Lictor Darcyne Wrens (LN female human sorcerer 10/Hellknight^ISWG 1)

Members denigrators of art and poetry, patriots, technology-haters, traditionalists

Armor Features muscular design, sleek helm, flayed cloak

Favored Weapon longsword or whip

Reckoning Endure internal burns. Gain a +4 bonus on Fortitude saving throws to resist poison. This increases to +6 against ingested poisons.

The Order of the Rack numbers among the Hellknight orders that the public most loathes. The order has a reputation for raiding the homes of those who speak out against the status quo, and for breaking up groups of malcontents before they become guilds, unions, or revolutionaries. They are the enemies of foreign ideals and innovations, not because they lack merit, but because they detract from what these Hellknights perceive to be the traditional values of southern Avistan. Art and technology are viewed as wasteful or dangerous, especially when they meet in union. None can say how many valuable printing presses Hellknights of the Rack have destroyed, or how many thousands of pages of unique stories, songs, and philosophies they have burned in the shadow of Citadel Rivad. All of this is summarized in the Order of the Rack's symbol, the torturer's wheel, which the order sees as the embodiment of wayward thinking and the suffering manifested by those permitted to indulge their ideas.

Those seeking to join the Order of the Rack can expect to learn more about this groups strict hierarchy, their hazing traditions, technologies and texts targeted for destruction, the Hellknight's first citadel, dozens of character options, a new poison, and a variety of crippling feats. Developments within the order also see the rise of a new commander, Lictor Darcyne Wrens, and the full story associated with that power shift.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Scourge

Symbol star of bleeding lashes

Headquarters Citadel Demain, near Egorian

Leader Lictor Toulon Vidoc (LN male human rogue 2/fighter 4/Hellknight^ISWG 10)

Members constables, informants, the poor, victims of organized crime

Armor Features serrated breastplate, horned helm

Favored Weapon heavy mace, scourge (see page 48), or whip

Reckoning Lash yourself with a scourge or whip. Take 1 fewer point of bleed damage per round when you are affected by an ability or effect that causes bleed damage and gain a +4 bonus on Heal checks to stop bleeding.

The oldest organization of Hellknights, the Order of the Scourge seeks to root out corruption in any form. Its members hunt for political manipulation and abuses of power, but their efforts also include an endless war against organized crime. At the fringes of its influence, the Order of the Scourge might hunt gangs of burglars or cutpurses, but in the heart of Cheliax these Hellknights crusade against faceless guilds of thieves, sprawling criminal organizations, and nobles for whom crime has become a family business. This regularly pits the Order of the Scourge against some of the most dangerous powers in Cheliax, including members of the nation's government.

Illustration by Mariusz Gandzel

Members of the Order of the Scourge can also expect much more on their particularly urban group's methods, Citadel Demain—the de facto headquarters of all Hellknight orders—tenets, characters options, the new faceless enforcer vigilante archetype, and more!

That's it for glimpses into Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight! Look for it on your local game store's shelves soon or snag it right now here on paizo.com. I'm already looking forward to hearing about all the new Hellknight characters the book spawns, not to mention how all these merciless tools finally let you stamp out the forces of chaos in your campaign.

Best of luck lawbringers!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief