Guiding Blade

While some swashbucklers are loners or glory hounds, always trying to take the credit for finishing off a foe with little regard for their allies, guiding blades focus their swordplay and panache on helping their allies.

For a guiding blade, anything is possible when the right team comes together, and she learns how to protect and bolster her allies to ensure the team’s victory. Instead of parrying attacks against her, a guiding blade redirects her enemies’ ire away from her allies, interfering with enemies who attack her allies, whether that attack comes by blade or by spell.

Daring Teamwork (Ex)

A guiding blade uses her panache to inspire her allies to heights of teamwork they could never reach alone. At 1st level, a guiding blade gains a bonus teamwork feat. She gains an additional teamwork feat at 4th level and every 4 swashbuckler levels thereafter.

As a standard action, she can spend 1 panache point to grant a teamwork feat she gained from this ability to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear her. They do not need to meet the feat’s prerequisites. She can use this ability multiple times to grant multiple teamwork feats.

This ability lasts for 3 rounds + 1 round for every 2 swashbuckler levels she has, but if the guiding blade ever fails to have at least 1 panache point, all of these durations end immediately. At 7th level, the guiding blade can activate this ability as a swift action. At 15th level, she can grant two teamwork feats each time she activates this ability, and she can grant any teamwork feats she possesses, not just the teamwork feats she gained from this ability.

A guiding blade regains panache whenever an ally reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, instead of when she herself does so. She still doesn’t regain panache from unattended objects, helpless or unaware creatures, or opponents with low Hit Dice.

This ability replaces bonus feats and the swashbuckler’s 1st-, 7th-, and 15th-level deeds, and it alters panache.

Charmed Guardian (Ex)

At 2nd level, the fortunate nature of a guiding blade’s charmed life extends to protect her allies as well. She can use her charmed life ability on a saving throw attempted by any ally within 30 feet, including herself.

This ability alters charmed life.

Interfering Blade (Ex)

At 3rd level, a guiding blade learns how to use her weapon to interfere with enemies’ attacks, protecting her allies from peril. As long as the guiding blade is wearing light or no armor, whenever she is aware of an attack against an adjacent ally and would not herself be denied her Dexterity bonus against that attack, the guiding blade grants that ally a +1 bonus to AC against that attack.

For example, if an invisible enemy attacks a guiding blade’s ally and the guiding blade can’t see that enemy, she would not grant the bonus from interfering blade unless she had the uncanny dodge ability. This bonus does not stack with any bonus to AC the guiding blade provides with the aid another action. The bonus increases by 1 for every 4 swashbuckler levels beyond 3rd, to a maximum of +5 at 19th level.

This ability replaces nimble.

Deeds

A guiding blade receives the following deed.

Opportune Redirection and Riposte (Ex): At 3rd level, when an opponent threatening both the guiding blade and an adjacent ally attacks that ally, the guiding blade can spend 1 point of panache and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to redirect the attack to herself.

The guiding blade makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity; for each size category the attacking creature is larger than the guiding blade, the guiding blade takes a –2 penalty on this roll. If her result is greater than the attacking creature’s attack result, the creature’s attack is redirected to the guiding blade instead of the guiding blade’s adjacent ally. The guiding blade must declare the use of this ability after the creature’s attack is announced but before its attack roll is made.

Upon performing a successful redirection, if the guiding blade has at least 1 panache point, the guiding blade can, as an immediate action, make an attack against the creature whose attack she redirected, provided that creature is within reach. A guiding blade can’t select opportune redirection and riposte as a signature deed.

This deed replaces the kip-up deed.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Intrigue © 2016, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Jesse Benner, John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Robert Brookes, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, Robert N. Emerson, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Steven Helt, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Mikko Kallio, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Alexander Riggs, David N. Ross, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Linda Zayas-Palmer.