player's guide to monks and paladins.pdf

I NTRODUCTION

C REDITS

A UTHORS :

C.A. Suleiman (Chapters 1–3)

and Michael Gill (Chapters 4–6)

C OVER A RTIST :

Michael Phillipi

I NTERIOR A RTISTS :

David Day, Jim Nelson, Nate Pride, and Tim Truman

A DDITIONAL M ATERIAL :

Joseph D. Carriker, Jr., James Maliszewski,

John “Jack” Geiger

F RONT &

B ACK C OVER D ESIGN :

Mike Chaney & Matt Milberger

D EVELOPER :

Joseph D. Carriker Jr.

D EDICATION

To all of our fans out there who have made the

Scarred Lands in general, and the Player’s Guide series

in particular the rip-roaring success it is. This one is

for you, folks.

E DITOR :

Anita Hager

M ANAGING E DITOR :

Andrew Bates

G ROVELSOME A POLOGIES

To James Maliszewski , for leaving his name out of

the Additional Materials section of the Player’s Guide

to Wizards, Bards and Sorcerers and the Player’s

Guide to Fighters and Barbarians . Mea culpa, mea

culpa, mea maxima culpa.

A RT D IRECTOR :

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L AYOUT AND T YPESETTING :

Mike Chaney

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This printing of Player’s Guide to Monks and Paladins is published in accordance with the Open Game License. See the Open Game License

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Player’s Guide to Monks and Paladins, Scarred Lands, the Scarred Lands logo, Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Sorcery Studio, the Sword

and Sorcery logo, Creature Collection, Creature Collection 2: Dark Menagerie, Relics & Rituals, and Relics & Rituals 2: Lost Lore are trademarks

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S GUIDE TO MONKS AND PALADINS

PLAYER

P REFACE

I NTRODUCTION

B OOK O NE : M onks

C HAPTER O NE : T HE T ALE OF THE P ERFECTED O NE

C HAPTER T WO : S EEKERS OF K I

C HAPTER T HREE : W AY OF THE W ARRING H AND

B OOK T WO : P ALADINS

C HAPTER F OUR : S CIONS OF C OREAN

C HAPTER F IVE : T HE H OLY O RDERS

C HAPTER S IX : K NIGHTS E RRANT

A PPENDICES

A PPENDIX O NE : T HE W AYS OF D EVOTION

A PPENDIX T WO : T HE M ASTERS OF D EVOTION

126

A PPENDIX T HREE : T HE T OOLS OF D EVOTION

134

L EGAL A PPENDIX

I NTRODUCTION

Welcome to the fifth in the Player’s Guide series.

Our intent with this series is simple: We want to

examine the ways in which players can become a stron-

ger part of the setting in which their characters exist. By

providing ways in which characters may derive a back-

ground from and have a role in the setting’s development,

they become closely tied to the setting. In turn, players

adopt a more vested interest in both their characters and

in the setting as a whole. The more richly a setting is

developed, the more characters can “come to life,” cre-

ating memorable role-playing and exciting adventures.

Thus, our goal is to help your characters become a

living, breathing part of the game world.

More than that, though, we want to see how these

classes might shape and inspire a campaign setting. The

player characters — and characters like them, past and

present — are the movers and shakers in the game world.

Not every character in the setting has levels in the so-

called “PC classes.” In fact, those who do are in the

minority. But from these relatively few individuals come

the events, both heroic and monstrous, that forever

shape their world.

Therefore, this series uses the setting of the Scarred

Lands to help show you how diverse classes weave their

influence into every aspect of the tapestry of a game

world. As with the rest of the book, you can refer to it for

your own Scarred Lands game, or use it as inspiration in

any other campaign.

The Player’s Guide to Monks and Paladins is more

than suggestions and rules on how to play a certain type

of character. This is a book about determining how your

characters, and those like them, have affected the world.

As such, we look at the various disciplines practiced by

these men and women of dedication. Monks and pala-

dins are noteworthy in their staunch dedication to

precepts and philosophies that most people in the cam-

paign setting do not share — it is that devotion that sets

them apart and grants them their power.

Within these pages are the pious, the disciplined,

the warriors in the cause of law.

So, welcome to a book filled with the dedicated and

the devoted, a book on holy warriors and masters of ki ,

knights and wandering mystics.

Welcome to the Player’s Guide to Monks and

Paladins .

J OSEPH D

C ARRIKER ,

J R .

S CARRED L ANDS D EVELOPER

S WORD

S ORCERY S TUDIOS

S GUIDE TO CLERICS AND DRUIDS

PLAYER

While the Player’s Guide to Monks and Pala-

dins is designed for use in any d20 campaign, you’ll

find that it is undeniably focused on the Scarred

Lands. Throughout this book, you will read many

references to that setting, its history and its inhab-

itants.

Yet, it would be a mistake to assume that this

book’s utility is limited to the Scarred Lands. As

explained in the Preface, the purpose of the Player’s

Guide series is show how the various character

classes shape and inspire a campaign setting. The

Scarred Lands is used as a single example of this

process rather than the only one. Any references

to it are meant to inspire your own ideas regardless

of the campaign setting in which they occur.

Adapting material in this book to other set-

tings may require some work. This introduction

should make that easier, since it offers a compre-

hensive overview and plenty of suggestions. Armed

with its advice, players and Game Masters should

have little difficulty tailoring the rest of the book’s

content to campaigns set in other worlds, or even

to other conceptions of the Scarred Lands setting

than the standard one presented in Sword & Sor-

cery products.

As always, the key is for GMs to remember the

oft-quoted — though oft-forgotten — truism: you

are the final arbiter of what is and is not the case

for your campaign, wherever it is set. This book

offers a multitude of options, variants and alter-

nate takes on many aspects of the core classes of

monks and paladins (not to mention an exhaus-

tive discussion of their place in the Scarred Lands

setting). If anything here runs counter to your

conception of things or would do violence to the

established truths of your campaign, feel free to

ignore them! That’s as true for campaigns in the

Scarred Lands as in any other setting. Use only

what appeals to you and is genuinely useful, and

discard the rest.

So long as you bear that in mind, this book is

as valuable to players and GMs alike, regardless of

whether the campaign is set in the Scarred Lands

or in a game world of their own creation.

the game is played and the types of stories that are

told within it. These in turn affect how the char-

acters relate to the setting and the kind of impact

that they can have on it.

It’s important to note that some campaign

settings are broadly enough drawn that they can

allow for multiple types of games depending on the

interests of the GM and the players. The following

sections provide some insight into the benefits

and drawbacks of each type. They also make it

easier for those not playing in the Scarred Lands to

categorize their own campaign by its type, so as to

take fuller advantage of the material presented in

later chapters.

Simply read through the following to see where

your campaign best fits, and you’ll also find assis-

tance of how to adjust the rest of this book’s

contents accordingly.

H IGH F ANTASY

High fantasy is, in many ways, the default type

of fantasy roleplaying setting. Its name derives

from the fact that its fantastical elements — magic,

monsters, heroism — are at the high end of the

scale. High fantasy games are in no way “realistic.”

They pay little heed to notions of plausibility.

Instead, they rely on over the top plotlines, out-

landish locales and larger than life characters to

tell epic stories set in a mythical locale. Most high

fantasy games also consider that good and evil are

more than just ethical principles; they are super-

natural realities. Individuals are called to choose

one side or the other — or remain neutral — and

to fight against those who take up the opposing

belief.

The conflicts of a high fantasy setting are thus

driven largely by the battle between good and evil,

often personified in deities and expressed in the

never-ending struggle of those mortals who act as

their champions. Indeed, mortals often have a key

role to play, for, unlike the gods, they may choose

which ethos to follow.

The Scarred Lands setting is largely a high

fantasy setting, so the majority of information in

this book is well suited to use in other high fantasy

campaigns. High fantasy settings are also strongly

archetypal, which is to say they use characters that

embody certain universal qualities or roles. High

fantasy regularly includes warriors — whether

armed with weapons or with their own physical

T YPES OF G AMES

Fantasy roleplaying games come in many fla-

vors, not all of which operate under the same

“rules.” That is, each type has its own distinct

mood, feel and tone, all of which influence how

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