Cavalier/Samurai Orders
Description Source:
Advanced Player's Guide
At 1st level, a cavalier must pledge himself to a specific order. The order grants the cavalier a number of bonuses, class skills, and special abilities. In addition, each order includes a number of edicts that the cavalier must follow. If he violates any of these edicts, he loses the benefits from his order's challenge ability for 24 hours. The violation of an edict is subject to GM interpretation.
A cavalier cannot change his order without undertaking a lengthy process to dedicate himself to a new cause. When this choice is made, he immediately loses all of the benefits from his old order. He must then follow the edicts of his new order for one entire level without gaining any benefits from that order. Once accomplished, he gains all of the bonuses from his new order. Note that the names of these orders might vary depending upon the campaign setting or GM's preference.
Description Source:
Ultimate Combat
The following orders can be chosen by both samurai and cavaliers, although the former are far more likely to do so. Samurai can also select any of the cavalier orders presented in the
Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide.
Order of the WhipSource Villain Codex pg. 20
A cavalier who belongs to this order has pledged himself to cruelty and malice, serving only those who grant him free rein to cause suffering. Cavaliers of this order inflict pain upon those they engage and capture those who submit.
Edicts: The cavalier must seek out those weaker than himself to punish and torture. He must force others to obey his commands without question. He must strive to cause pain and suffering wherever possible. Since these edicts are evil, he must be of an evil alignment.
Challenge: Whenever an order of the whip cavalier issues a challenge, he receives a +1 morale bonus on all melee damage rolls against the target of his challenge as long as he damaged the creature in the previous round. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 levels the cavalier has (to a maximum of +5 at 17th level).
Skills: An order of the whip cavalier adds Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (nobility) to his list of class skills. Whenever an order of the whip cavalier uses Intimidate to force another creature to do what he says, he receives a bonus on the check equal to 1/2 his cavalier level (minimum +1).
Order Abilities: A cavalier who belongs to the order of the whip gains the following abilities as he increases in level.
Whip Crack (Ex): At 2nd level, the cavalier becomes proficient with a whip and gains Whip Mastery as a bonus feat. When a creature whose number of Hit Dice is less than or equal to 1/2 the cavalier’s level takes nonlethal damage from the cavalier’s whip, it is shaken for 1 round. This does not stack with other fear effects.
Inspiring Pain (Ex): At 8th level, the cavalier can inspire brutal malice among his allies. As a swift action, the cavalier can allow allies within 30 feet to deal nonlethal damage with their weapons without taking the usual –4 penalty (the weapon must still be capable of dealing nonlethal damage). Affected allies gain a +2 bonus on nonlethal weapon damage rolls. This effect lasts for 1 round and can be used once every 5 minutes.
Assert Authority (Ex): At 15th level, the cavalier demonstrates his ruthlessness against those who strike the cavalier or his slaves. Whenever an enemy makes a melee attack against the cavalier or one of his adjacent slaves or servants, that enemy provokes an attack of opportunity from the cavalier, and the cavalier gains a +2 morale bonus on this attack of opportunity. If the enemy’s attack was a confirmed critical hit, the cavalier counts the enemy as if it were the target of his challenge for this attack of opportunity.
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