Ranger/Cleric of Kelemvor

[brian333]

Sounds like an odd combination, right?

I was thinking undead hunter, dual-wielding maces, holy-water traps, mastery of infiltration and information-gathering techniques.

Such a character would be inclined to spy out strongholds of undead or to seek out and assassinate individual undead monsters. He would particularly wish to gather information on necromancers and suspected necromancers for future reference.

Question: Does an order of such devoted undead hunters exist within Faerun? (Anyone who makes Buffy references will be classed as Undead and added to his list!)

Question: Would such an order have racial restrictions? (No half-orc undead hunters, for example?)

Question: Would roleplay as a member of such an order, (assuming it's existence,) require DM intervention, as is necessary for other FR organizations such as the Harpers?

Question: Would devotion to "Death" as an aspect of nature satisfy the requirements for a ranger's devotion to nature?

[Munroe]

Apr 6, 2007 13:41:55 GMT -5 ShadowCatJen said:

Rangers and Druids are required to have a patron diety if they are planning to cast divine spells. Druids must worship a nature deity, or a deity that would include Druids amongst their followers. Druids are required to take a Druidic Oath and this oath can often supercede thier commitments to their selected deity, as Druids are to "preserve the balance over all else".

Rangers on FRC are required to have a patron deity if they plan to cast divine spells. They are not required to have a Nature deity. Rangers of Kelemvor are acceptable and in fact many of Kelemvor's paladins leave the paladinhood to pursue careers as rangers with undead as a favored enemy. (Note that Kelemvor paladins CANNOT multiclass freely so a paladin of Kelemvor that becomes a ranger can no longer advance as a paladin.)

Of course we're not talking about paladins, we're talking about clerics. There's no reason you can't have a multi-class ranger/cleric of Kelemvor. The ranger does not have to worship death as an aspect of Nature, just worshiping Kelemvor should suffice.

As for specific orders of Kelemvorites, I'm not aware of any Kelemvor organizations off the top of my head. Kelemvor is a young deity and his religion is a young religion. It may be that not many organizations have sprung-up yet. (Or that I just haven't read about them.)

There is a paladin order for Kelemvor listed in Deity Do's and Don'ts (that even allows multiclassing freely as a cleric--I need to update the paladin multiclassing rules) called the Knights of the Eternal Order. That is a paladin order though, not a ranger/cleric order. However, it's possible that a ranger/cleric could be associated with a paladin order.

[brian333]

Thanks, Munroe, this is what I found:

Eternal Order (Paladin)

The primary duty of the Knights of the Eternal Order -- Kelemvor's main order of paladins -- is to hunt and destroy powerful undead. They develop powerful undead-fighting powers by sacrificing other paladin abilities.

Hit Die: d10.

REQUIREMENTS

To take an Eternal Order substitution level, a character must have Kelemvor as her patron deity and be about to take her 1st, 3rd, or 6th level of paladin.

CLASS SKILLS

Eternal Order substitution levels have the class skills of the standard paladin class.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

TABLE 2-8: ETERNAL ORDER SUBSTITUTION LEVELS

Level Base
Attack
Bonus Fort
Save Ref
Save Will
Save Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Aura of good, detect evil, corpsestrike 1/day, undead knowledge
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Aura of courage, eternal vigor, undead knowledge
6th +6/1 +5 +2 +2 Greater turning, undead knowledge

CLASS FEATURES

All of the following are features of the Eternal Order substitution levels.

Corpsestrike (Su): An Eternal Order paladin can, as a swift action, surround her weapon with a visible gray aura of holy power that sheds light equal to a candle. Any weapon so affected can ignore any damage reduction (other than DR #/epic) possessed by an undead creature, regardless of its source. This aura lasts for a number of minutes equal to the paladin's class level.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's smite evil class feature. Any time an Eternal Order paladin would later gain an extra smite evil attempt (such as at 5th level), she can instead use this ability one extra time per day.

Undead Knowledge (Ex): Each time an Eternal Order substitution level is taken, the character gains a cumulative +2 competence bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks concerning undead.

Eternal Vigor (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, an Eternal Order paladin can ignore the effects of negative levels bestowed upon her by an undead creature.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's divine health class feature.

Greater Turning (Su): At 6th level, an Eternal Order paladin gains the ability to perform a greater turning once per day in place of a regular turning, just as if she had access to the Sun domain.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's remove disease class feature normally gained at 6th level. At any level where a standard paladin gains an extra daily use of remove disease, an Eternal Order paladin instead gains another daily use of her greater turning ability.

It really doesn't give much more than skeletal information: no history, famous founders, inspirational legends, and such. Anyone with more info please direct me to the source!

So, to question one: such an organization does exist.

Question two: No racial restrictions, but Paladin-only class restriction.

Question three: Membership being limited to paladins, there is still the question of association. How much would be proper without DM intervention? Since the organization does not exist in FRC, does it matter?

Question four answered too.

By the nature of Kelemvor and his worshipers I'd expect his church to be rigidly controlled by a central bureaucracy with each temple, shrine, and monastery linked. The Knights would be an elite organization within the church.

I assume the knighthood, being new, is rather thinly spread, perhaps with a central fortification near a former undead threat serving as home base. More commonly, individual knights, served by squires and pages, with Men-at-Arms if needed, occupy some temple near an undead threat.

P.S. I seriously want that power that cuts through all but epic DR!

[Munroe]

Sept 10, 2008 13:20:49 GMT -5 brian333 said:

Thanks, Munroe, this is what I found:

Eternal Order (Paladin)

The primary duty of the Knights of the Eternal Order -- Kelemvor's main order of paladins -- is to hunt and destroy powerful undead. They develop powerful undead-fighting powers by sacrificing other paladin abilities.

Hit Die: d10.

REQUIREMENTS

To take an Eternal Order substitution level, a character must have Kelemvor as her patron deity and be about to take her 1st, 3rd, or 6th level of paladin.

CLASS SKILLS

Eternal Order substitution levels have the class skills of the standard paladin class.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

TABLE 2-8: ETERNAL ORDER SUBSTITUTION LEVELS

Level Base
Attack
Bonus Fort
Save Ref
Save Will
Save Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Aura of good, detect evil, corpsestrike 1/day, undead knowledge
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Aura of courage, eternal vigor, undead knowledge
6th +6/1 +5 +2 +2 Greater turning, undead knowledge

CLASS FEATURES

All of the following are features of the Eternal Order substitution levels.

Corpsestrike (Su): An Eternal Order paladin can, as a swift action, surround her weapon with a visible gray aura of holy power that sheds light equal to a candle. Any weapon so affected can ignore any damage reduction (other than DR #/epic) possessed by an undead creature, regardless of its source. This aura lasts for a number of minutes equal to the paladin's class level.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's smite evil class feature. Any time an Eternal Order paladin would later gain an extra smite evil attempt (such as at 5th level), she can instead use this ability one extra time per day.

Undead Knowledge (Ex): Each time an Eternal Order substitution level is taken, the character gains a cumulative +2 competence bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks concerning undead.

Eternal Vigor (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, an Eternal Order paladin can ignore the effects of negative levels bestowed upon her by an undead creature.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's divine health class feature.

Greater Turning (Su): At 6th level, an Eternal Order paladin gains the ability to perform a greater turning once per day in place of a regular turning, just as if she had access to the Sun domain.

This benefit replaces the standard paladin's remove disease class feature normally gained at 6th level. At any level where a standard paladin gains an extra daily use of remove disease, an Eternal Order paladin instead gains another daily use of her greater turning ability.

It really doesn't give much more than skeletal information: no history, famous founders, inspirational legends, and such. Anyone with more info please direct me to the source!

So, to question one: such an organization does exist.

Question two: No racial restrictions, but Paladin-only class restriction.

Question three: Membership being limited to paladins, there is still the question of association. How much would be proper without DM intervention? Since the organization does not exist in FRC, does it matter?

Question four answered too.

By the nature of Kelemvor and his worshipers I'd expect his church to be rigidly controlled by a central bureaucracy with each temple, shrine, and monastery linked. The Knights would be an elite organization within the church.

I assume the knighthood, being new, is rather thinly spread, perhaps with a central fortification near a former undead threat serving as home base. More commonly, individual knights, served by squires and pages, with Men-at-Arms if needed, occupy some temple near an undead threat.

P.S. I seriously want that power that cuts through all but epic DR!

The information you provided was for a set of paladin substitution levels. What source did that come from? That's probably where you would also find information about the order. It may or may not be paladin-only. Most organizations are not strictly one-class organizations. (Druid circles being the rare exception.)

[Munroe]

OK, I found it.

Knights of the Eternal Order is detailed (barely!) in Champions of Valor.

In addition to the substitution levels (in Brian's post above), this is the information on
Knights of the Eternal Order from Champions of Valor (page 101-102):

Knights of the Eternal Order: The church of Kelemvor recently created this order to seek out and destroy powerful undead that tax the powers of the normal branches of the church. Its stronghold, a small fortified keep outside Iriaebor, can house all thirty-five members of the order plus support staff, though at any time approximately half of the members are away from home, in search of undead to slay. Paladins of this order can multiclass freely as clerics or doomguides (see page 186 of Faiths and Pantheons).

So they're very small (35 members is very small) and apparently are entirely a paladin order.