Prestige Class Spotlight 14: Chernasardo Warden
(art by Brett-Neufeld on DeviantArt)
Fantasy is full of specialists, those whose skills and talents lend themselves towards being able to handle different problems. This is the base premise of the entire class system that Pathfinder and many other RPGs use, to both its benefit and detriment.
However, when it comes to being a freedom fighter or a guerilla warrior, sometimes it helps to have a little bit of everything in your playbook for those times when you are alone and away from your comrades.
Which is the base premise of today’s prestige class, the Chernasardo Wardens!
Named for the southern region of the Fangwood in Nirmathas, the rangers and other specialists among this group fight to keep the region safe from threats the civilized parts of the nation will never know. Mostly this is monsters, but more and more their hunts involve Molthune scouts and the like testing the borders of the nation, and soon, will include hobgoblin forces in the coming Ironfang Invasion!
That’s right, this prestige class was introduced in the Ironfang Invasion AP, but I’ll try to keep things spoiler-lite if you plan on running through that storyline.
Essentially, this archetype is all about injecting a bit of ranger vibes into theoretically any character, no matter their class. It also offers some flexible “stances” and an experimental ability to recoup some of the abilities from your previous class at certain levels.
I’ve said it before, but I do like how a lot of the non-hardback prestige classes in Pathfinder (i.e., those that weren’t carry-overs from 3.5 or featured in one of the hardback books) are heavily tied into the lore of various organizations in the game setting, and these commandos are no exception.
And with that, let’s take a look at what makes them special!
The prerequisites of this prestige class are somewhat weird, because while it is possible to get into it as early as 5th level if you’re playing a full base attack class and spend your skill points well, it also has a very tall special condition. Your character has to defeat a foe that is overwhelmingly stronger than you (a CR of 5 higher than your level). Now if you read that and sucked in your breath through your teeth, you’re not alone but luckily, you don’t have to fight such a foe alone. Whether you lure a superior foe into a clever ambush that negates it’s advantages or participate in a larger scale battle and bravely contribute against it, that qualifies you to be trained in this prestige class as long as there is a Chernasardo ranger nearby to witness the deed.
In any case, these wardens learn what amounts to a crash course in primal magic, gaining limited use spell-like abilities rather than actual spells periodically as they grow in power. These star simple, with options like sensing danger, surviving in the wild or boosting physical abilities, but later improve with choices like creating fog cover and hazardous terrain, enchanting weapons to hit harder, healing magic, tree disguises, and even magical hideaways.
They also cultivate the stubborn bravery that caught the attention of their mentor in the first place, making it harder to affect them with enchantment spells, as well as drive to visit deadly reprisal against those that try such tactics against them.
One of the biggest boons of the prestige class, however, is their ability to choose a single other class you have and periodically gain the benefits as if you had taken another level in that class (sans the purely numerical increases to saves and attack)
They also gain bonus feats from a small selection ranging from increasing the number of held actions they can prepare to shoot to learning ranger traps, to improvements to dirty tricks, those that benefit hit and run tactics, and so on. All together it makes for an arsenal of techniques perfect for ambushing foes from cover and ending fights quickly.
And this brings us to the other big ability of the class, their guerilla tactics, a serious of abilities they can switch to on the fly as long as their resolve isn’t disrupted. These include getting free combat maneuvers by exploiting weaknesses in their foe’s style, sneak attack damage, being able to be more stealthy while sniping, and moving quickly and without fear of being vulnerable while climbing. Later on, this expands to include more actions when attacking from surprise and performing ranged dirty tricks with a bow.
They even learn to implement two of these tactics at once eventually.
Finally, their prowess is perfected so they move with agility through all mundane difficult terrain, and they can either add extra precision damage or strike fear into foes when they strike from ambush a few times per day.
This prestige class has a lot of good options for a base class to go into, but obviously those that focus even a little bit on survival and physical ability are the best choices (though a spellcaster could be very fun). The ability to shift between useful abilities on the fly and gain a few level’s worth of abilities from your original class can make for some fun builds. I personally recommend a versatile build that can do a bit of ranged and a bit of close combat as well, making full use of those guerilla tactics.
While the group this prestige class is associated with is very “border guard meets classic actual Lord of the Rings ranger”, it can just as easily be used with any group in your setting that aims to master the wild, from ranger groups to bandits, all depending on how you want it to be used.
The drow and dwarves have been at war for about 100 years now, a silent conflict occurring deep below ground that occasionally flares up, and the dwarves are slowly losing. However, they won’t go without a fight, for their territory is guarded by their wardens, who use the subtle tactics of their foes against them, striking from ambush and striking fear into them with bow and axe and hammer.
The party’s warden guide vanishes in the middle of the night, but surprisingly, he left behind a trail. However, if the party follows it, they find a recently opened barrow hill that has an ill aura about it. Further investigation reveals a slew of undead, including the reanimated organs known as a tekenu that strangled the guide. However, no sign of the creature that lured him away.
A powerful wish-granting artifact has been shattered, and the wild magic of the event transformed the shattered pieces into powerful unnatural monsters that now roam the wilds with their own agendas. With no way to track them on their own, the party must ask for aid from the Ghosts of the Forest, an enclave of rangers and survivalists who know the forest and it’s surrounding wilds better than anyone.