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 Paw
Source Advanced Race Guide pg. 64
Only dog- or wolf-riding halflings are eligible to join this order of cavaliers. When they do, they pledge to defend halflings, halfling settlements, and other innocent folks by patrolling the wilderness and seeking out possible threats to both individuals and whole communities. These cavaliers hunt down potential danger with a ruthless efficiency and determination that non-halflings find surprising and even somewhat alarming.
Edicts: The cavalier must strive to protect his community from rampaging monsters and fearsome conquers alike. His first priority is to aid halfling communities, but he also is sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves from such threats in the wild. He must never take any action that would put a halfling community or an innocent creature in jeopardy. An order of the paw cavalier must take either a wolf or a dog as his mount.
Challenge: Whenever an order of the paw cavalier issues a challenge, his mount gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC as long it is threatening the target of the cavalier's challenge and the cavalier is riding the mount. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the cavalier possesses.
Skills: An order of the paw cavalier adds Knowledge (nature) and Survival to his list of class skills. He can make Knowledge (nature) checks untrained. Also, an order of the paw cavalier is adept at following tracks while mounted, using his mount's speed rather than his own to determine the penalty for tracking while moving, whether he is mounted or not.
Order Abilities: A cavalier belonging to the order of the paw gains the following abilities as he increases in level.
Danger Ward (Ex): At 2nd level, the cavalier can ready his allies for impending danger. As a standard action, he can ready all allies within 30 feet of the danger ahead, granting a bonus on a single type of saving throw (Fortitude, Reflex or Will) that he chooses when he grants this boon. At any point in the next minute, when these allies fail a saving throw of that type, they can choose to reroll the saving throw with a +4 competence bonus as an immediate action, but must take the results of the reroll even if it is worse. He can use this ability up to three times per day, once for each type of saving throw.
Canine Ferocity (Ex): At 8th level, when the cavalier uses his wolf or dog mount to perform a bull rush or overrun maneuver, the mount is considered to be one size category larger for the purposes of determining the size of creature it is maneuvering against and the mount's CMB. He also receives a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Skill Focus (Ride), Spirited Charge, Trample (the mount can make a bite attack in place of a hoof attack), or Unseat. He must qualify for the feat selected.
Giant Slayer (Ex): At 15th level, when the cavalier hits the target of his challenge with a melee attack, and that target is at least two size categories larger than the cavalier, he gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to 1/2 his cavalier level. This damage is multiplied on a critical hit.
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