Order of the Unicorn – Cavalier Order

The Knights of the Unicorn began as a fad of romantically minded sons and daughters of patriar families in Baldur’s Gate. On a lark, they took the unicorn goddess Lurue as their mascot and went on various adventures for fun. The reality of the dangers they faced eventually sank in, as did Lurue’s tenets, to the point that it gained the attention of Lurue herself and she appeared to them along with her Silver Herd to show her favor and declare her sponsorship. Over time the small group grew and spread, gaining a following in places as far as Cormyr.

Alignment: Any good.

Edicts: The Knights of the Unicorn are chivalric adventurers who follow romantic ideals: life is to be relished and lived with laughter, quests should be taken on a dare, impossible dreams should be pursued for the sheer wonder of their completion, and everyone should be praised for their strengths and comforted in their weaknesses.

Challenge: Whenever an order of the unicorn cavalier issues a challenge, she receives a +1 sacred bonus to all attack rolls made against the target of her challenge if the target is evil. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the cavalier possesses. Also during her challenge, she gains this bonus as a sacred bonus to her saves against fear, charm and compulsion effects from the target of her challenge.

Skills: An order of the unicorn cavalier adds Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), and Survival (Wis) to her list of class skills. If she has ranks in any of these skills, she receives a bonus on the check equal to one-half her cavalier level (minimum +1). An order of the unicorn cavalier’s bonus language options includes Sylvan, the language of woodland creatures.

Order Abilities: A cavalier belonging to the order of the unicorn gains the following abilities as she increases in level.

• Wild Empathy (Ex): At 2nd level, the cavalier gains wild empathy. This works like the druid’s wild empathy class feature, except that both domestic animals and wild animals typically have a starting attitude of indifferent. At 10th level, the connection between the Knight of the Unicorn and Lurue is so strong that even intelligent magical beasts can be affected by this ability, though the check is still at -4 as it is with animal-intelligent magical beasts. Cavaliers with levels in another class with this ability can stack these levels to their wild empathy checks.
• Call Celestial Steed (Ex): At 8th level, the cavalier can call a magical mount to serve as her faithful mount, guardian, and protector. To call her steed, the cavalier must first voluntarily dismiss her current mount. For a female cavalier, the steed is a unicorn; for a male, it is a pegasus. The steed is always considered helpful toward the cavalier, and it can immediately serve as the cavalier’s mount. The cavalier and unicorn receive all benefits granted from the cavalier’s mount class feature.
• Champion of Virtue (Ex): At 15th level, the order of the unicorn cavalier’s deep bond with Lurue’s unbounded virtue and zeal leads the cavalier to intercede for her allies and loved ones without second thought. Whenever an evil enemy makes a successful melee attack against the cavalier’s mount or a good ally adjacent to the cavalier, the enemy provokes an attack of opportunity from the cavalier; whenever the cavalier is the target of this attack, her steed gets this attack of opportunity (or if the steed is not present, then an adjacent ally with the highest base attack bonus gets the attack). The attack of opportunity is made with a +4 sacred bonus. If the attack made by the evil enemy was a critical hit, the cavalier can treat the enemy as the target of her challenge as an immediate action. The cavalier can use this ability once per round. In addition, the cavalier gains a morale bonus equal to one half her cavalier level on saving throws vs. fear, charm, compulsion.