Campaign Design - Prestige Class: Shining Blade of Yng

Shining Blade of Yng (adapted from Dragon 283)

Yng’s teachings focus on promoting good through the use of armed force. Those among Yng’s servants, both clerics and favored souls, who aspire to become mighty weapons in their deity’s unending war against evil hope one day to enter the shining blades. The shining blades of Yng are an order of warriors dedicated to prowess in melee combat, which is achieved through prayer, devotion and asceticism. Members of the shining blades have an austere and simple lifestyle, forsaking all worldly wealth and many earthly pleasures in their quest to become but a blade in the hand of Yng.

Most shining blades of Yng are clerics or favored souls. Some members of the order believe that a minimum of training as a cleric, combined with the intense martial discipline of the fighter or the skirmish training of a scout is ideal to achieve the goal the shining blades seek, while others follow a single class exclusively. Very few multiclass arcane spell casters, rogues, or monks feel drawn to the shining blades. Members of the shining blades are among the most devout, single-minded, and driven crusaders in the world. Consumed with passion for the path they have chosen, they have little patience for those who are “blinded” by desire for material goods or personal power. All that matters, they believe and preach, is the fight against evil; as long as evil remains strong, there is important work to be done.

Hit Die: d10.
Luck Die: d4.

Requirements
To become a shining blade of Yng, one must meet the following criteria:

• Alignment: Neutral good.
• Base Attack Bonus: +7.
• Base Will Save: +3.
• Skills: Knowledge: Religion 7+ ranks.
• Spell Casting: Must be able to cast divine spells.
• Special: Must have Yng as their patron deity.

Class Skills

• The shining blades of Yng have the following class skills (listed with the key ability for each skill): Concentration (Con), Craft: Any (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge: Religion (Int), Profession: Any (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
• Note: Because the Three Worlds campaign uses the Skills by Character house rule, the list of class skills given here is only included for the sake of completeness, and is not used by characters in the campaign setting.
• Skill Points at each level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the shining blade of Yng prestige class:

• Base Attack Bonus: Average. A shining blade of Yng gains +¾ base attack bonus per class level.
• Base Fortitude Save Bonus: Good. A shining blade of Yng gains a +½ base Fortitude save bonus per class level.
• Base Reflex Save Bonus: Poor. A shining blade of Yng gains a +¹⁄₃ base Reflex save bonus per class level.
• Base Will Save Bonus: Good. A shining blade of Yng gains a +½ base Will save bonus per class level.
• Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Shining blades are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor and all types of shields.
• Spells: The shining blades continue their magical training as a divine spell caster. For every two levels gained as a shining blade (2^nd, 4^th, 6^th, 8^th, and 10^th), he gains new spells per day as if he had also gained one level in a divine spell casting class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit of the spell casting class. If he has more than one divine spell casting class, the shining blade must decide which to assign his new level of spell casting ability to. This essentially means that he adds half his shining blade levels to the level of some other divine spell casting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.
• Detect Evil (Sp): A shining blade may detect evil as the spell of the same name as if it was cast by a cleric of the same level as his shining blade class level.
• Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a shining blade of Yng may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. He may add his Charisma modifier (if positive) to his attack roll and, on a successful hit, deals one extra point of damage per shining blade level. If the shining blade accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but that use is still counted against the number of smite attacks per day that the shining blade may make. At 4^th level, the shining blade can smite evil twice per day. At 7^th level, the shining blade can smite evil three times per day. At 10^th level, the shining blade can smite evil four times per day. The smite attacks gained from this class are in addition to any that are gained through any other class (such as the paladin’s ability of the same name).
• Shock Blade (Su): Once per day, a shining blade of Yng may, as a standard action, cause a slashing or piercing weapon he is holding to become a shock weapon, dealing +1d6 points of bonus electricity damage on a successful hit. The weapon may be enhanced this way for a number of rounds up to the shining blade’s level in this class plus his Charisma bonus (if positive), but only so long as the shining blade is holding the weapon. If he is disarmed or gives the weapon to another character, the magical effect ends.
• Holy Blade (Su): At 5^th level, the shining blade may bestow two magical enhancements upon his weapon. This ability replaces the shock blade ability, and may be used twice per day. With each use of the ability, he may choose to make the weapon a shock weapon dealing +1d6 points of bonus electricity damage, or a holy weapon dealing +2d6 points of bonus holy (good) damage against evil creatures. The two uses of this ability may overlap, so in a given combat a shining blade may spend one standard action to make his blade holy, and another to make it a shock weapon. A weapon may not be made to be doubly holy or doubly shocking. The weapon may be enhanced this way for a number of rounds up to the shining blade’s level in this class plus his Charisma bonus (if positive), but only so long as the shining blade is holding the weapon. If he is disarmed or gives the weapon to another character, the magical effect ends.
• Radiant Blade (Su): At 9^th level, a shining blade may bestow three magical enhancements upon his weapon. This supernatural ability replaces the holy blade ability and can be used three times per day. With each use of the ability, he may choose to make the weapon a shock weapon dealing +1d6 points of bonus electricity damage, a holy weapon dealing +2d6 points of bonus holy (good) damage against evil creatures, or a brilliant energy weapon that sheds light as a torch and ignores nonliving matter (including armor, undead, constructs, and objects). The three uses of this ability may overlap, so in a given combat a shining blade may spend one standard action to make his blade holy, and another to make it a shock weapon and another to make it a brilliant energy weapon. A weapon may not be made to be doubly holy, doubly shocking, or doubly brilliant. The weapon may be enhanced this way for a number of rounds up to the shining blade’s level in this class plus his Charisma bonus (if positive), but only so long as the shining blade is holding the weapon. If he is disarmed or gives the weapon to another character, the magical effect ends.
• Celestial Transformation (Su): A 10^th level shining blade of Yng actually becomes a celestial creature, taking on a shining metallic appearance and adopting the celestial creature template detailed in the Monster Manual.

Shining Blade of Yng

Level	Special	Spells per Day
1st	Detect evil, smite evil once per day
2nd	Shock blade once per day	+1 level of existing class
3rd	-
4th	Smite evil twice per day	+1 level of existing class
5th	Holy blade twice per day
6th	-	+1 level of existing class
7th	Smite evil three times per day
8th	-	+1 level of existing class
9th	Radiant blade three times per day
10th	Celestial transformation, smite evil four times per day	+1 level of existing class

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