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 Tome
Source Ultimate Combat pg. 35
Knowledge is the stepping stone of both truth and power. The members of this order devote themselves to the preservation of knowledge. Most would protect written knowledge at all costs, but there are members that believe there is such thing as knowledge too dangerous to be allowed to exist, and seek to destroy it.
Edicts: An order of the tome cavalier must protect written knowledge (or at least approved knowledge) at all costs. Some are also devoted to the destruction of proscribed knowledge and are equally zealous in the pursuit of its destruction. Most of these cavaliers believe that the preservation of a written work is more important than a single life, even their own, as it ensures future generations benefit from its wisdom.
Challenge: Whenever an order of the tome cavalier issues a challenge, he receives a +2 bonus on all saving throws against spells or spell-like abilities cast by the subject of his challenge and a +2 bonus on all Bluff and Sense motive checks involving the subject of his challenge.
Skills: An order of the tome cavalier adds Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), and Linguistics to his list of class skills. Furthermore, he can use Linguistics untrained. If he has ranks in Linguistics, he receives a bonus on the check equal to 1/2 his cavalier level (minimum +1).
Order Abilities: A cavalier belonging to the order of the tome gains the following abilities as he increases in level.
Specialized Knowledge (Ex): At 2nd level, an order of the tome cavalier chooses either Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (religion). He can make the chosen skill checks untrained. He cannot change his chosen skill later. If he has ranks in his chosen skill, he receives a bonus on the check equal to 1/2 his cavalier level (minimum +1) as long as that check involves a book, tome, scroll, or any other form of written knowledge.
Powerful Knowledge (Ex): At 8th level, the cavalier gains the ability to read scrolls and cast arcane or divine spells from a scroll as if he had a caster level of his cavalier level –4. He can decipher all scrolls, using his Linguistics skill in place of Spellcraft, and does not need to cast read magic in order to decipher a scroll. Which type of spell the cavalier can cast is based on the Knowledge skill he chose for specialized knowledge. If he chose Knowledge (arcana), he can cast any arcane spells from a scroll. If he chose Knowledge (religion), he can cast any divine spells from a scroll. Furthermore, he gains a +1 bonus to an ability score for purposes of determining the level of spells he can cast from a scroll, and this bonus increases by +1 at 10th level and every 5 levels thereafter (to a maximum of +4 at 20th level). The ability score that gains the bonus is dependent on which skill the cavalier picked for his specialized knowledge ability. If the cavalier picked Knowledge (arcana), he gains the bonus to Intelligence. If he picked Knowledge (religion), he gains the bonus to Wisdom.
Defensive Knowledge (Ex): At 15th level, an order of the tome cavalier can grant nearby allies some of the boons of his cavalier challenge. While allies are adjacent to the cavalier, they gain a +2 bonus on all saving throws against spells or spell-like abilities cast by the subject of the cavalier's challenge. In addition, as an immediate action, a number of times per day equal to the cavalier's Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) or Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), the cavalier can allow an ally adjacent to him to reroll a single failed saving throw against a spell or spell-like ability from the target of his challenge. The ally must be able to see and hear the cavalier in order to gain this reroll. The ability score that determines how many times per day a cavalier can use this ability depends on which Knowledge skill the cavalier picked for specialized knowledge. If the cavalier picked Knowledge (arcana), the number of times per day this ability can be used is based on Intelligence. If he picked Knowledge (religion) it is based on Wisdom.
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