Keeper of the Secret Light

The Quintessential Paladin II

Author Gareth Hanrahan

Series Quintessential Series

Publisher Mongoose Publishing

Publish date 2004

Although both draw from the same source, paladins and clerics have very different styles of spellcasting. Clerical magic stems from devotion and prayer; a cleric must spend long years in a seminary, studying holy texts and learning the catechisms of the faith. paladins, on the other hand, receive their spells as a reward for their deeds and as a tool to accomplish even greater deeds the paladin may know almost nothing of the deity or ethos that has chosen him. His magic is as instinctive and unthinking as a sword-parry or desperate thrust of a blade in the midst of battle he may have practised and trained through prayer but the attack or the spell is still, fundamentally, an instinctive act.

Some paladins learn the methodology of clerics. Instead of being blind to the nature and mysteries of their spellcasting abilities, they study paladin magic. They delve into abstruse topics such as metamagic and planar theory, studying and refining their spellcasting ability. These mystics often form secret orders or monasteries where they can work together, building their holy power.

Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a keeper of the secret light, a character must fulfil all the following criteria:
Skills: Concentration 9 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 9 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks.
Feats: Any two of the following: Any metamagic or item creation feat, Extra Turning, Improved Turning, Improved Spell Focus, Skill Focus (Knowledge – religion), Spell Focus.
Special: Able to cast paladin spells.

The Keeper of the Secret Light
Class Level	Base Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2		1	–	–	–	–
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Domain	2+1	–	–	–	–
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3		2+1	1+1	–	–	–
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4		3+1	2+1	–	–	–
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Bonus feat	3+1	2+1	1+1	–	–
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5		3+1	3+1	2+1	–	–
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5		3+1	3+1	2+1	1+1	–
8th	+6	+2	+2	+6		3+1	3+1	3+1	2+1	–
9th	+6	+3	+3	+6		3+1	3+1	3+1	3+1	1+1
10th	+7	+3	+3	+7	Bonus feat	3+1	3+1	3+1	3+1	2+1

Class Skills

The keeper of the secret light’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Constitution), Heal (Wisdom), Knowledge (Arcana) (Intelligence), Knowledge (religion) (Intelligence), Knowledge (the planes) (Intelligence), Listen (Wisdom), Spellcraft (Intelligence) and Spot (Wisdom).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.

Class Features

Armour and Weapon Proficiency: Keepers of the secret light gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Spells per day: Keepers of the secret light gain spells as listed below. They draw their spells from the paladin spell list and their caster level is equal to the total of the keeper of the secret light and paladin levels. They use this caster level for all paladin spells they cast.

Bonus Feat: At 5th and 10th level, the keeper gains a bonus feat, which can be taken from the item creation or metamagic feat lists

Domain (Su): At 2nd level, the keeper of the secret light gains a Domain, just like a cleric. He may now prepare a bonus spell of each level from that Domain. He also gets the Domain special ability.

5th level paladin spells: The keeper of the secret light gains access to 5th level spells. These count as paladin spells for him and are drawn from the following list: dictum, Holy word, mount growth, perfection, planar ally, wind walk.

Epic Keeper of the Secret Light

Hit Die: d8.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.
Spells: The epic keeper of the secret light’s caster level is equal to his class level. The epic keeper of the secret light’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level.
Bonus Feats: The epic keeper of the secret light gains a bonus feat every four levels higher than 20th.