Stridesman (Character Kit)

Stridesman
Description:  Stridesmen are priests who travel the countryside, never resting, as they make their way through the world. Often this life of wandering takes them into the wilderness, far from civilization.
As opposed to most wanderers like bards, rangers, and tinkers the strides man cares little whether he becomes lost. All the world is to be seen, every corner visited at least once. So a strides man never truly understands the notion of being lost; his god obviously meant for him to visit the place he ends up. If the deity had not, the stridesman would not be there. This sort of thinking tends to exasperate other travelers.
Most of these priests worship a god of travel, who they feel they must emu- late from the time they wake to when they lay down to sleep. A few pay homage to deities of healing or comfort, and these are the stridesman who travel from village to village bringing relief to the suffering.
Role: Most stridesmen are of either good or neutral alignment. Due to their constant roaming, they rarely care about something so transient as regional politics or conflicts; after all, they spend so little time in one area that they cannot bring themselves to worry about what tomorrow might bring. A rare lot of these priests are actually evil, and these are the condemned few who are doomed by their god to wander forever, their presence hated in many villages for what bitterness they sow.
Weapon Proficiencies:
* Required: Staff. Secondary Skills: Farmer, forester, trader/barterer.
Duties of Priest: Guidance, Marriage. A stridesman is vigilant against those who would bar passage along any high- way or path; thus an enforced toll along a road by the local monarch would seem as blasphemous as a band of brig- ands ambushing merchants along their way. Though they are not a violent order, they will do what it takes to ensure that free passage is available to any traveler.
Nonweapon Proficiencies:
* Required: Cartography, directional sense, foraging.
* Recommended: Distance sense, endur- ance, herbalism, local history, survival, trail marking, weather sense.
Spheres of Influence: Major: All, Healing, Protection, Travel, Weather. Minor: Animal, Elemental, Plant.
Special Benefits: Meeting a stridesman while traveling is considered good luck, so the priest receives a +2 reaction adjustment from bards, rangers, and traveling folk such as caravan leaders and gypsies.
The stridesman, when walking, adopts a trancelike state of relaxation. Thus, the character needs less sleep. At 1st level, the stridesman needs only six hours of sleep to function normally. This amount drops to five hours at 5th level and falls to only four hours of sleep daily at 10th level.
Special Hindrances: Stridesman care little for conflict and thus begin the game with only a single weapon proficiency with a walking staff (quarterstaff). However, in their travels they learn new cultures and languages much more readily than others. So stridesmen begin with an additional nonweapon proficiency that must be spent on either a local history or additional language.
Because they are constantly traveling a stridesman wears armor only when he knows his path passes through dangerous territory and he might encounter someone or something hostile. Even then, the stridesman would wear nothing more encumbering than leather armor, depending on the climate.
The stridesman’s preferred means of locomotion are his own two feet. The DM can decide whether the character’s patron deity views travel by horse, cart, or boat as sacrilegious or merely as a necessity under certain conditions. It is a sin, however, for a stridesman to be too lazy simply to walk somewhere, and the offending priest will suffer such penance as spells withheld, ill luck, or poor weather conditions.
Since they are constantly traveling, stridesmen never employ retainers, hirelings, or other followers, though it is certainly not unheard of for them to take acolytes along and train them in their ways. Stridesmen cannot own any more than they could normally carry alone, though they may take pack animals to bear supplies on their journeys.
Wealth Options: 3d6 × 10 gp.
== New priest spells ==
== Journeys Orison ==
(Conjuration/Summoning, Abjuration) Reversible
Level: 1
Sphere: Travel
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 week/level of caster Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 1 individual or object Saving Throw: None
Using this spell, a stridesman can bless an individual about to embark upon a long trip, or he can bless an object that is being transported over a long distance. The caster places his hands on the person or object, intones the spell, and states the destination of the journey. For the duration of the trip to a specific site which must be one that can be reached in a number of weeks equal to the level of the caster the blessed person receives +2 on all saves from natural mishaps and a +1 on reaction rolls for any fellow wanderer. A blessed object gains a +2 on all saves as well.
The reverse of the spell, journey’s malison, is rarely cast by good and neutral stridesman, though they may use it to punish brigands or unscrupulous merchants. Evil stridesmen might cast the spell and then demand that the only way for the affected person/object to survive is to have the priest accompany the traveler as a well-paid guide.
== Easy Road ==
(Alteration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Travel
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 hour/level of caster Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 1 mile stretch/level Saving Throw: None
This spell is used to ensure that passage along one path or road is quick and without mishap. The stridesman can enchant up to 1 mile per caster level, causing all all movement rates along the path to be increased by 50% without any noticeable spell effect. In poor weather conditions, this spell simply removes the movement penalty. In addition, for the spell’s duration, minor accidents, such as stones caught in a horse’s hoof or a broken axle on a wagon, do not occur while traveling on an easy road. The material components are the priest’s holy symbol and a handful of dirt from the road, both of which are held in one hand a moment before the dirt is sprinkled at the feet of the priest.
== Pass without Notice (Enchantment) ==
Level: 2
Sphere: Protection Range: Touch Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 round/level of caster
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 1 individual or object Saving Throw: None
A stridesman makes use of this spell to avoid confrontations with brigands or other hostile characters while he makes his way along the road. The spell allows the caster to go unnoticed by any human, demi-human, or humanoid in the immediate area (up to 40’). While not invisible, the stridesman can walk past a person without being perceived.
For the spell to work, the priest must maintain a steady slow pace and cannot make any sudden movements. Thus such activities as running and engaging in melee are impossible. Also, the priest cannot make any sound louder than a whisper, so while passing without notice, the priest can cast no other spell.
For every three levels of experience, the priest can include an additional person under the affects of the spell, but all those to be affected must link hands for the duration of the spell. Any who releases his grip from the others is immediately revealed.
The material component is the priest’s holy symbol. The spell is also cast with the stridesman’s eyes closed.
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