WARRIOR-PALADIN KIT

Aquarian

Description:  There are those Paladins who realize that simply bringing the word 
of the faith and fighting for the cause of law and goodness and the goal of a 
just society cannot and should not end at the water's surface.  These Aquarians 
seek to expand the faith of their deities but also to promote the goal of peace, 
harmony, and cooperation between marine races and land-dwellers.  They use their 
extensive contacts on land and beneath the sea to safeguard the freedom and 
livelihood of aquatic and land-dwelling races alike, sniffing out and preventing 
coastal raids by hostile sea creatures and working to prevent exploitation or 
pollution of marine resources by land-dwellers.  Aquarians are mediators and 
befrienders between these folk, and they interact regularly with the dolphins 
who swim the seas and who are generally sympathetic to their goals.  In fact, 
senior Aquarians are almost always accompanied by dolphins when they are in the 
sea.  Aquarians love beauty and expend a great deal of effort on the creation of 
beautiful works of art in honor of their divine patrons.  Individual Aquarians 
often create fabulous sculptures of living coral in and around underwater 
communities where they may live or perform their ministerial work.  Others will 
sculpt extraordinary jeweled and pearled living coral works of art or even train 
fish or dolphins to perform spectacular and delightful maneuvers and aquatic 
dances.  In short, Aquarians promote the use of the seas by all reasonable folk 
both for the present and for all time to come (preserving the beauty and health 
of the sea for the future), though they will fight to their last breath of air 
or water against those who would hoard its riches or pollute its depths.

Requirements:  Aquarians must be of absolute lawful good alignment and must be 
humans, aasimar, or half-elves of aquatic elven bloodlines.  An Aquarian must 
have at least a 13 Dexterity in addition to normal Paladin ability score 
requirements.

Weapons & Armor:  Aquarians can wear armor up to studded leather (generally 
studded with shells, hard coral, or similar aquatic mineral) and can use only 
bucklers and medium shields.  An Aquarian can become proficient only in the 
following weapons:  crossbow (any--usually modified for underwater use), dagger, 
harpoon, knife, net, spear, trident.

Special Benefits:  As might be guessed, Aquarians have an array of special 
abilities that deal with the sea and the creatures that dwell therein, including 
many unique variations of standard Paladin abilities.

Aura of Holiness:  As a standard Paladin.

Call Mount:  An Aquarian has a rather different variation of this ability.  He 
or she does not summon a single creature to serve as a bonded mount and 
companion.  Instead, any time he or she is at the shore of a large body of water 
he or she can attempt to summon an aquatic creature to serve him or her, either 
as a mount or an assistant.  Use of this power requires one turn of 
concentration, and the chance of success depends on the type of mount being 
called.  An Aquarian can always summon a dolphin to assist him or her (and if 
relatively light to serve as a mount) because of the special relationship they 
have with those creatures.  Attempts to summon other marine creatures to serve 
as mounts (e.g., giant sea horse, sea lion, giant eel, hippocampus) may or may 
not succeed, based on the Aquarian's level relative to the power of the creature 
he or she attempts to summon (DM's discretion).

If an Aquarian attempts to use Call Mount to call a sea creature other than a 
dolphin and the attempt is unsuccessful, he or she cannot attempt to call a 
mount from that body of water again until he or she gains a level.  If the body 
of water is very large, the DM may allow another attempt from a different area 
that borders the same body of water (e.g., if an Aquarian tries and fails to 
summon a sea lion from Impiltur on the Sea of Fallen Stars, he or she would 
likely have to travel to the Dragon Reach or perhaps Thesk on the same Sea in 
order to try again with any chance of success).

Charismatic Appeal:  As a standard Paladin, but in addition an Aquarian's 
Charismatic Appeal applies to any non-evil aquatic race or seafaring character.  
Any such creature who remains in contact with an Aquarian for more than a turn 
in a non-hostile situation must save vs. spells (at +4 if not of good alignment) 
or come under the effects of a charm person spell (even if not technically a 
'person'), with a duration as the spell.  Note that this charm is not magical 
and cannot be dispelled or detected as magical, and normal resistance to charm 
does not apply, save that mindless creatures, undead, and extraplanar creatures 
cannot be affected.  This charm ability can also affect land-dwelling creatures 
of lawful good, lawful neutral, and neutral good alignment, though creatures who 
are not lawful good gain a +4 bonus to their saving throw.

This special charm ability can only be broken by the passage of time, abuse or 
neglect by the Aquarian or his or her friends, or a remove curse, exorcism, or 
similar spell.  It can only affect characters who have a Friendly reaction with 
the Aquarian, and only creatures of the Aquarian's level or lower (up to a 
maximum of 8+ hit dice or levels) can be charmed.

Chosen Foe:  As a standard Paladin, but an Aquarian must choose an aquatic or 
amphibious creature as his or her Chosen Foe, though this can include exotic 
creatures such as hezrou tanar'ri, piscoloths, marid, water elementals, and the 
like.  An Aquarian gains a +1 bonus to hit and damage against all aquatic or 
amphibious creatures, even including creatures such as giant toads, bullywugs, 
and lizard men.

Essence of Virtue:  As a standard Paladin.

Faith Healing:  As a standard Paladin, save that an Aquarian cannot cure disease 
and is not resistant to disease as other Paladins are.  Aquarians are, however, 
immune to all natural poisons of aquatic and amphibious creatures (e.g., 
dragonfish, giant anemone, masher, poisonous toad, portuguese man o'war, weed 
eel), and he or she can neutralize poison (aquatic/amphibious poisons only) once 
per week for every five levels of experience.

In addition to healing physical injuries through Faith Healing, Aquarians have 
the ability to heal mental or spiritual anguish in those around them.  All 
Aquarians can remove fear once per day for every five levels of experience 
(rounding up), operating at double effect (double the number of recipients or 
double the normal save bonus, at the Aquarian's option) vs. fear effects 
generated by aquatic or amphibious creatures.

An Aquarian of 5th level can instead use this ability to remove charm, identical 
in effect to the remove fear ability (including doubled effect vs. charm powers 
of aquatic or amphibious creatures) except that it breaks the effects of 
charming.  An Aquarian of 5th level or above also gains personal immunity to 
hypnotic or charm-type effects caused by aquatic creatures (e.g., sirines, 
nixies, morkoth).

Finally, an Aquarian of 9th level or above can use this power to remove 
confusion, again identical in effect to the remove fear power but effective 
against any sort of effect that produces rage, insanity, discord, and the like.  
An Aquarian of 9th level or above gains the effect of a permanent sanctuary 
spell, and he or she always gains a saving throw vs. any insanity- or confusion 
producing effect, even if a save is not normally allowed.

Priestly Powers:  As a standard Paladin, but with the following modifications.  
An Aquarian can turn any aquatic undead as a priest of equal level, but non-
aquatic undead are turned as a priest five levels lower than his or her actual 
level.  Aquarians gain access to the spheres of Elemental (Water) and Charm, 
plus all Travelers spells that apply to sea travel.  Finally, an Aquarian can 
make use of any water- or sea-related magical item, regardless of normal class 
restrictions.

Sea Lore:  Aquarians possess a basic understanding of the sea and its denizens.  
With a successful Intelligence check, an Aquarian can identify various forms of 
marine animal and plant life (including monsters native to the deeps or to 
swamps and marshes) or to determine whether water is safe to drink for humans 
(or other races).  He or she can also predict tides, currents, and even storms 
at sea with a successful Intelligence check (with a -5 penalty when predicting 
storms).  Aquarians also learn to speak the tongues of sentient sea creatures, 
gaining Modern Language (Dolphin) free at 1st level and being able to select 
another aquatic language at 3rd level and every three levels thereafter.  
Finally, an Aquarian's familiarity with underwater environments allows them to 
use all non-weapon proficiencies without penalty while underwater (e.g., 
Herbalism, Tumbling). 

Sense Evil:  As a standard Paladin, but when immersed in water his or her 
ability to Sense Evil extends to 60' in all directions, rather than a selected 
arc.  An Aquarian can also detect the presence of sharks and sahuagin within 
this radius.

Sojourn:  Aquarians have a unique ability that allows themselves or another 
creature to survive underwater or can allow an aquatic creature to survive out 
of water.  An Aquarian can provide him- or herself or another air-breathing 
creature with a Sea Sojourn, allowing the recipient to breathe and see 
underwater for up to three hours per level of the Aquarian, up to a maximum of 
24 hours.  This ability can also be used to provide a water-breathing creature 
with a Surface Sojourn, allowing it to exist without harm out of the water for a 
like amount of time.  In either case, the Sojourn can be undertaken only once 
per day.

An Aquarian of 9th level or above can automatically breathe water and also gains 
the power of free action (as the spell) when immersed in water.  An Aquarian of 
this level need not use his or her Sojourn ability to travel beneath the waves 
and can bring along another air-breathing companion for a Sea Sojourn if he or 
she desires.

Special Hindrances:  Aquarians conform generally to the normal strictures for 
Paladins.  In addition, compared to other Paladins, Aquarians are somewhat 
pacifistic in their outlook, always seeking to mediate or avoid conflict rather 
than initiating it.  An Aquarian can defend him- or herself or those traveling 
with him or her, but they cannot initiate combat nor undertake retributive 
activity.  In addition, Aquarians may not ever slay any aquatic creature of the 
sea except to prevent it from slaying themselves or others under their 
protection; where possible to end conflict without death, that goal should be 
sought.  Violation of this stricture results in a loss of all powers until 
suitable atonement has been undertaken.  Note that this reservation about 
violence and conflict does not apply vs. an Aquarian's Chosen Foe, and he or she 
can always initiate conflict with that creature type without hesitation.

In keeping with an Aquarian's peace-loving philosophy, they gain only half the 
normal number of weapon proficiency slots (i.e., 2 at 1st level, and another 
every 6 levels thereafter) and they cannot ever make use of weapon 
specialization.  Likewise, they cannot cast spells from the Combat sphere.  
Aquarians also cannot ever gain multiple attacks with a weapon except when 
battling their Chosen Foe, in which case their multiple attacks operate normally 
for their level.

Aquarians often wear no armor, even when entering dangerous situations.  This is 
done in part because armor encumbers them when swimming or moving in water, but 
also because Aquarians feel that walking about in armor implies a lack of trust 
about others and their intentions.  Armor is also easily ruined by exposure to 
sea water, and Aquarians will seek to gain magical armor whenever possible in 
order to avoid this problem.  The sole exception to an Aquarian's normal armor 
restrictions is that they may wear sea elven scale mail, which is similar in 
most respects to elven chain mail but is even more rare.  Generally only an 
Aquarian who has performed a great service for an aquatic elf community will be 
gifted with a set of such armor.

Finally, in addition to his or her normal tithe an Aquarian must personally 
craft at least one art object at each experience level that celebrates the sea 
and the intimate connection that exists between life in the sea and on land.  
This piece of art must be given freely to an aquatic or coastal community as a 
token of friendship between land-dwelling and sea-dwelling races.  The art 
object will require at least 1d6 days plus one day per level of the Aquarian and 
requires at least 100 g.p. worth of materials per level of the Aquarian.  Until 
this art project has been completed and given away, an Aquarian cannot advance 
to the next level of experience.  An Aquarian must spread these gifts around, 
and no community can be given more than one gift by an Aquarian.

Bonus Proficiencies:  Language (Modern--Dolphin)
Required Proficiencies:  Artistic Ability (usually sculpture), Swimming
Preferred Proficiencies:  Blind-fighting, Close Quarter Fighting, Cartography, 
Dancing, Diplomacy, Direction Sense, Distance Sense, Endurance, Gem Cutting, 
Healing, Herbalism, Jumping, Medicine, Navigation, Riding (Sea-based), Rope Use, 
Seamstress/Tailor, Signaling, Survival (aquatic), Tumbling, Weather Sense