Kensai

Arelith Requirements

• Base Class: Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, or Monk
• The kensai path can only be selected at character creation.

General Information

The kensai masters body, mind, weapon, and will. He devotes his strength and his life to the service of a master or an ideal he accepts as greater than himself. Some kensai become masters in their own right, but even one who becomes an emperor sees himself as a servant of some higher power.

Most characters who become kensai aspire to the class from the beginning of their careers. Often, other kensai or elite military organizations train likely young men and women in the principles of service, the arts of war, and the purity of mind and body necessary to become a kensai. Even those who do not qualify at the end often become powerful adventurers.

A kensai can be a lone adventurer, serving an ideal or attempting to fulfill a lifetime goal. Some kensai swear fealty to great lords and rise to become trusted bodyguards, warlords, or leaders in the lord's service. Monks and paladins know the strenuous road a kensai must travel, and some tread that path. Fighters value the might of the kensai, and some clerics have been known to join their ranks. Few wizards or sorcerers ever achieve kensai status, and bards and barbarians find themselves particularly unsuited to service as a kensai. While it might be thought that a rogue would make a poor kensai, such characters are not unheard of and can be deadly adversaries.

Mechanical Information

• A kensai has permanent Haste (coupled with a speed reduction effect of -30%, meaning that they move at 120% normal speed, along with an extra attack per round and +4 AC from haste)
  • If they receive another Haste, they lose the movement speed penalty and move at the standard 150% that a normal Hasted character has.
• They are prevented from equipping any ranged weapons; however, they can use throwing weapons (darts, shurikens, throwing axes).
• They receive +1 saves against spells each 5 levels.
• They cannot use spells from any source. Potions, scrolls, even feats that replicate spells are all unavailable for the kensai.
  • They can, however, be affected by other character's magic. So be it positively or negatively.
• The kensai receives +10 discipline. (likely counting towards the +50 skill cap)
• The assassin and blackguard prestige classes can be selected by a kensai, but their spell-like abilities may not function.