Base Requirements

• Races: Any
• Sub-Classes: Any Priest
• Ability Requirements: Fitness 9, Intuition 12
• Alignments: Any
• Starting Cash: By class

Weapon Proficiencies

• Weapon Slots: -1 slot
• Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
• Required Weapon Proficiencies: Quarterstaff
• Allowed Weapons: By class
• Allowed Armors: Leather armor, no shields

Non-Weapon Proficiencies:

• Non-weapon Slots: +1 slot
• Available Categories: By class
• Bonus Non-weapon Proficiencies: Cartography, Direction Sense, Foraging, Religion
• Required Proficiencies: Modern Languages (any one)
• Recommended Proficiencies: Artistic Ability, Distance Sense, Endurance, Etiquette, Healing, Herbalism, Jumping, Local History, Modern Languages, Running, Spellcraft, Survival, Trail Marking, Weather Sense.
• Forbidden Proficiencies: None

Priest Spheres:

• Major: By class, plus Travelers
• Minor: By class

Overview: Stridesmen are humble 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 gypsies—the stridesman cares little whether he becomes lost. All the world is to be seen, every corner visited at least once. So a stridesman 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 emulate 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.

Description: Stridesmen are usually indistinguishable from any normal traveler. A stridesman will never be found without a sturdy staff or walking stick.

Role-Playing: To become an impartial judge and servant to all communities, the strideman has cut all ties to family and home. A strideman’s life is a hard one, wandering the land giving aid and comfort with only a few possessions carried along, but he accepts this with dedication and good cheer. 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. Typically pacifists, stridemen can be roused into becoming fearsome opponents when protecting their charges.

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.

A stridesman is vigilant against those who would bar passage along any highway or path; thus an enforced toll along a road by the local monarch would seem as blasphemous as a band of brigands 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.

Special Abilities:

• Meeting a stridesman while traveling is considered good luck, so the priest receives a +2 reaction adjustment from bards, rangers, and other traveling folk such as caravan leaders and gypsies.
• A stridesman has a 5% chance per level of lifting curses on any person, place, or item. There is no limit to how often this ability may be used, but the stridesman may attempt this only once for any individual curse.
• A stridesman can focus his internal energies to improve any saving throw by +3. He can do this a number of times per day equal to his level.
• 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 Disadvantages:

• The stridesman’s preferred means of locomotion are his own two feet and he views travel by horse, cart, or boat as sacrilegious (though he suffers no penalties for doing so when he would otherwise be unable to travel by foot). It is a sin, however, for a stridesman to be too lazy simply to walk somewhere.
• Since they are constantly traveling, stridesmen never employ retainers, henchmen, hirelings, or other followers and may never build a stronghold or other permanent dwelling.
• Stridesmen cannot own any more than they could normally carry alone, though they may take pack animals to bear supplies on their journeys.
• Regardless of class, a Stridesman cannot cast any priest spells from the Combat or War spheres.

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