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I'm currently DM-ing a game, and I came up with this idea for a cavalier order. I envision cavaliers of this order as somewhat of a cross between French freedom-fighters from WWII and conductors from the Underground Railroad pre-civil war era (and dudes who run people over on horses :P). In my head this order was founded by a half-orc with a personal vendetta against slavers and species-ists, if that matters.
Order of the Eagle. In-game I'm going to use a different name, but this is the generic one.
Edict: Take any opportunity to fight slavery, tyranny, and oppression. A cavalier of this order values life's intrinsic value, but will kill to defend his/herself and others. A cavalier of the eagle does not actively try to break just laws, but holds the cause of liberty to be higher than the law if needs be.
--This is a bit more vague than some of the other edicts, but I feel the RP challenge of this can be just as great/rewarding as the others.--
Challenge: All allies of the cavalier gain +1 AC circumstance bonus against the target of the cavalier's challenge so long as it is threatened by the cavalier. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the cavalier possesses. --This is basically the same as the order of the dragons, just switched from offense to defense--
Skills: Survival and Stealth are class skills. The Cavalier gains 1/2 his/her level (minimum 1) to stealth while he is mounted.
--I thought this might be OP at first, so I changed it to a "mounted only" bonus. At max level this barely cancels out the armor check and size penalty of the mount to stealth.--
~~Edit~~This bonus should apply regardless of whether you have the cavalier or mount roll the stealth check. I run it that the PC makes one skill check for the PC and the mount when they are both doing the same thing, because it's way easier than trying to muddle through the iffy mounted rules.
Order powers:
The pattern for these seem to be:
1. Small, boring but practical thing
2. Something about a feat strength, plus another very specific limited cool thing.
3. Something awesome but with veeeeeery short duration. More of a "tipping point" or a strategy thing than a buff.
Lvl 2 power: Swift Steed. The Cavalier gains 10 ft to his/her base speed while mounted. this increases by 5 ft at 6th lvl and every four levels after 6th.
--Mounts are usually pretty fast, so if I need to scale something back, I can just make this a flat bonus of just 10 to match Barbarians. A lot of orders and archetypes have surges of speed, but this fits better thematically--
Lvl 8 power: Reckless tactics. The Cavalier gains Mobility as a bonus feat, ignoring prereq's. In addition, whenever the cavalier is subjected to an Attack of Opportunity, the cavalier can retaliate in kind (the cavalier's AoO is resolved after the opponents). This ability does not allow the cavalier to make more than one AoO per round. The Cavalier can choose to forego Mobility's bonus to AC for a +4 circumstantial bonus to attack on the cavalier's retaliatory strike.
--This is a bit of fun little YOLO strat. It's a bit similar to the Panther style feat, but it's a little easier to trigger at the cost of always being resolved second--
Lvl 15 power: Daring Escape. As a swift action, the cavalier can grant his/her allies (including him/herself) immunity to damage and damage-based effects from Attacks of Opportunity for one round. Allies must be able to see or hear the cavalier for this to have effect. No one can benefit from this more than once per combat. The cavalier can use this ability once per day.
--This would be horrendously broken if someone could benefit from it multiple times or for more than one round, but the action economy makes it awesome instead of awesome but broken. I also have a variant in mind that makes allies simply not provoke AoO at all, but there are lots of cool abilities and feats based off of AoO's and I didn't want to take those away from ppl who decided to specialize in them. It also makes sense thematically, as *~Daring Escapes~* are less about removing obstacles and more about overcoming them. It would also not stack with the level 8 bonus, which is a possible balance to it being stronger.--
I think this order is kind of cool because it conjures up rather different images of derring-do than your typical dude in armor who runs over people. It also allows for Chaotic Good-types to have fun with cavaliers which I feel can otherwise be difficult. Mechanically speaking, its focus on AoO's and stealth is unique for cavaliers.
What do you think?
Hrmm. I like it for the most part, but the level 15 power seems a bit unclear. It seems more like an ambush tactic to me. Fight a giant, use Daring Escape to charge in and trap the giant, then rip him to pieces. Feel free to blast him with point-blank spells and such, removing the need for concentration checks.
Perhaps a rework is in order? Or include a bit that says "Enemies cannot make attacks of opportunity against the Cavalier or his allies in response to movement for one round."
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Hrmm. I like it for the most part, but the level 15 power seems a bit unclear. It seems more like an ambush tactic to me. Fight a giant, use Daring Escape to charge in and trap the giant, then rip him to pieces. Feel free to blast him with point-blank spells and such, removing the need for concentration checks.
Perhaps a rework is in order? Or include a bit that says "Enemies cannot make attacks of opportunity against the Cavalier or his allies in response to movement for one round."
Or perhaps, "the Cavalier and their allies may move as if using the Withdraw action, as a normal move".
Specifically which part seems unclear?
First off, I like this Order. Seems like it would fit in very well for any cavalier from Andoran. However, the description of the Order and some of the abilities you picked for don't seem to mesh well. I understand the whole 'run people over with horses' aspect, but it doesn't fit well with the theme of the Order you stated. Throwing an ability in just because it is 'cool' doesn't mean it fits well.
Let us look at the aspects of this order and see what fits and what doesn't, shall we?
Order of the Eagle. In-game I'm going to use a different name, but this is the generic one.
Perfect choice. Again, brings to mind Andoran, which is all about stopping slavery. Definite keeper.
Edict: Take any opportunity to fight slavery, tyranny, and oppression. A cavalier of this order values life's intrinsic value, but will kill to defend his/herself and others. A cavalier of the eagle does not actively try to break just laws, but holds the cause of liberty to be higher than the law if needs be.
--This is a bit more vague than some of the other edicts, but I feel the RP challenge of this can be just as great/rewarding as the others.--
This edict, to me, sounds solid. Keep this.
Challenge: All allies of the cavalier gain +1 AC circumstance bonus against the target of the cavalier's challenge so long as it is threatened by the cavalier. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the cavalier possesses. --This is basically the same as the order of the dragons, just switched from offense to defense--
Keep this. It reminds me of someone who's distracting the slaver and standing in the way so the slaves can escape. Fits the theme perfectly.
Lvl 2 power: Swift Steed. The Cavalier gains 10 ft to his/her base speed while mounted. this increases by 5 ft at 6th lvl and every four levels after 6th.
--Mounts are usually pretty fast, so if I need to scale something back, I can just make this a flat bonus of just 10 to match Barbarians. A lot of orders and archetypes have surges of speed, but this fits better thematically--
This is where I have a bit of an issue with the order. Up to this point everything screams 'FREEDOM!" Then, you have this ability to increase your mount speed. How would that help the oppressed, the slaves, the refugees? If you want to keep the speed increase, perhaps we could use something like this:
Swift Escape: So long as his allies remain within 30 feet, the cavalier and his/her allies gain a +5 bonus to their base speed a number of rounds per day equal to the cavalier's level. This bonus increases by +5 at 6th level, and another +5 every four levels thereafter.
Lvl 8 power: Reckless tactics. The Cavalier gains Mobility as a bonus feat, ignoring prereq's. In addition, whenever the cavalier is subjected to an Attack of Opportunity, the cavalier can retaliate in kind (the cavalier's AoO is resolved after the opponents). This ability does not allow the cavalier to make more than one AoO per round. The Cavalier can choose to forego Mobility's bonus to AC for a +4 circumstantial bonus to attack on the cavalier's retaliatory strike.
--This is a bit of fun little YOLO strat. It's a bit similar to the Panther style feat, but it's a little easier to trigger at the cost of always being resolved second--
I see no issue with this one. It seems to fit well with the theme.
Lvl 15 power: Daring Escape. As a swift action, the cavalier can grant his/her allies (including him/herself) immunity to damage and damage-based effects from Attacks of Opportunity for one round. Allies must be able to see or hear the cavalier for this to have effect. No one can benefit from this more than once per combat. The cavalier can use this ability once per day.
--This would be horrendously broken if someone could benefit from it multiple times or for more than one round, but the action economy makes it awesome instead of awesome but broken. I also have a variant in mind that makes allies simply not provoke AoO at all, but there are lots of cool abilities and feats based off of AoO's and I didn't want to take those away from ppl who decided to specialize in them. It also makes sense thematically, as *~Daring Escapes~* are less about removing obstacles and more about overcoming them. It would also not stack with the level 8 bonus, which is a possible balance to it being stronger.--
I agree with the general sentiment that this ability is a tad bit unclear. If we take TheShoveller’s idea, we can get this:
Daring Escape: Once per day as a swift action, the cavalier and his/her allies can use the Withdraw action as a standard action, rather than a full-round action. Additionally, whenever the cavalier and his/her allies withdraw from combat while using this ability, they do not provoke an attack of opportunity.This makes it situational, but fits thematically.
Overall, this is an excellent Order that fills a niche in cavalier Orders that was missing, and it doesn’t really step on the toes of any other Order. What do you guys think?
Keep this. It reminds me of someone who's distracting the slaver and standing in the way so the slaves can escape. Fits the theme perfectly.
Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking :)
Swift Escape: So long as his allies remain within 30 feet, the cavalier and his/her allies gain a +5 bonus to their base speed a number of rounds per day equal to the cavalier's level. This bonus increases by +5 at 6th level, and another +5 every four levels thereafter.
Hmm...yeah, shared movement bonuses does work better thematically. It's also a bit harder to replicate with magic which is nice (I am very much in favor of giving martial characters cool things special to them). It'd probably be used a lot more as well, especially with parties including short people. I'm not sure how I feel the name change though. Swift escape and daring escape sound too similar. It's not a big deal though.
Daring Escape: Once per day as a swift action, the cavalier and his/her allies can use the Withdraw action as a standard action, rather than a full-round action. Additionally, whenever the cavalier and his/her allies withdraw from combat while using this ability, they do not provoke an attack of opportunity.
I don't know. I'm still deliberating. I'm currently favoring Westbrook's idea. I mean, what happens if the baddies are in front of the group of escaping slaves? lol
Lots of good feedback. I'm going to have to think some more.
The mount should have the stealth bonus too. Being large hurts their skill.
I run it that the mounted person makes the skill checks for him/herself AND the mount for my sanity. :P If you notice, I mentioned the mount's size penalty in my notes immediately following. But sure, I'll add that in. :)
I have nothing constructive to add, but I really like this. FB