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 Flame
Source Blood of the Elements pg. 7
A cavalier of the order of the flame devotes his life to the pursuit of personal glory. Even if such pursuit puts his own life on the line, the cavalier pursues legendary status and the fame and glory associated with such renown.
Edicts: The cavalier must pursue glory for himself and those with whom he associates. He must strive to heap glory upon his name, no matter the costs. He must challenge and defeat an ever-increasing host of rivals to further cement his illustrious reputation.
Challenge: A cavalier of the order of the flame becomes ever more emboldened with each glorious victory. As an immediate action after reducing the target of his challenge to 0 hit points or fewer, the cavalier can elect to issue a glorious challenge to an opponent within 15 feet.
Glorious Challenge: A glorious challenge does not count against the cavalier’s number of challenges per day, but otherwise acts like a cavalier’s challenge class feature. When he issues a glorious challenge, the cavalier takes a –2 penalty to AC for the duration of the glorious challenge (this penalty stacks with the usual –2 AC penalty against opponents other than the target of the cavalier’s challenge). The cavalier gains a morale bonus on melee damage rolls against the target of his glorious challenge equal to 2 × the number of consecutive glorious challenges he has issued thus far. As long as he continues to defeat targets of his glorious challenges and there are more opponents in range, the cavalier can continue to issue glorious challenges indefinitely, with the penalty to AC and the bonus on damage rolls increasing with each subsequent foe. For example, a 5th-level cavalier that has just issued his third glorious challenge after defeating the original target of his challenge takes a –6 penalty to AC (–8 against creatures other than the target of his glorious challenge) and gains a +11 bonus on melee damage rolls (a +5 bonus from his base challenge ability plus a +6 morale bonus for three consecutive glorious challenges).
Skills: A cavalier of the order of the flame adds Knowledge (local) and Survival to his class skills. Whenever the cavalier’s current hit point total matches or exceeds his maximum hit point total, he gains a bonus on Intimidate checks equal to 1/2 his cavalier level (minimum +1).
Order Abilities: A cavalier of the order of the flame gains the following abilities as he increases in level.
Foolhardy Rush: At 2nd level, the cavalier can charge across the battlefield at a moment’s notice. Whenever the cavalier attempts an initiative check, as long as he rolls an 11 or higher on the die, he can move up to his base speed as an immediate action and he is not considered flat-footed. If the cavalier takes an action to move during his next turn, he subtracts the number of feet moved during the initiative check from his total movement.
Daunting Success: At 8th level, whenever the cavalier confirms a critical hit with a melee weapon, as an immediate action he can attempt an Intimidate check to demoralize all foes within 15 feet who can see him. This ability can be used only once per combat.
Blaze of Glory: At 15th level, the cavalier can declare a blaze of glory as a standard action. For a number of rounds equal to his Charisma modifier, the cavalier increases his base speed by 10 feet, can ignore difficult terrain while charging, and gains a +4 bonus on his attack rolls (instead of +2). A cavalier can use this ability only once per combat.
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