The warding eyes are members of the Order of Vigilance who use arcane magic to protect their charges. Unlike most spellcasters, they are also proficient in a wide range of weapons and armor (though many eschew armor because of its deleterious effects on their spellcasting). The warding eye’s powers focus on the detection of and protection from evil forces. After all, if you can spot the evil in the world around you and keep it at bay, it is very difficult for that evil to do harm to you or your charge.

Role: Most warding eyes started their careers as wizards, but a significant number of them also began as sorcerers and bards. Warding eyes combine arcane spellcasting abilities with considerable martial prowess. They are able to attune themselves with certain individuals and target them with spells that spellcasters can usually only cast on themselves. As they go up in level, they also gain the ability to use other members of the Order of Vigilance as vessels through which they can cast short-range spells.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To qualify to become a warding eye, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Alignment: Any non-evil.

Base Attack Bonus: +4.

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks, Sense Motive 2 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks.

Spells: The ability to cast 1st-level arcane spells.

Special: The warding eye needs an instructor who is member of the Order of Vigilance in order to take the first level of this class. After that, he may gain levels normally, even if there is no instructor to teach him.

Class Skills

The warding eye's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (alchemy) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Warding Eye

Class Features

The following are class features of the warding eye prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Warding eyes are proficient all simple weapons, plus short bow and short sword. They are proficient with light and medium armor, but not with shields. A warding eye can cast warding eye spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a warding eye wearing medium or heavy armor incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. The warding eye still incurs the normal spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spells

A warding eyes casts arcane spells. He can cast any spell from the Warding Eye Spell List without preparing it ahead of time. To cast a spell, the warding eye must have an Intelligence of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a warding eye with an Intelligence of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Warding eye bonus spells are based on Intelligence, and saving throws against these spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Intelligence modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a warding eye can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Warding Eye. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table 1–3 in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game).

The caster level of a warding eye’s arcane spells is equal to his total levels in all classes which grant him the ability to cast arcane spells. Thus a wizard 8/warding eye 3 has a caster level of 11 for spells from both classes.

If the warding eye also has levels in a class that grants arcane spells, he gains some additional spells from that class. At 2nd level, and every even level afterward, the warding eye gains additional spells known and spell slots as if he had gained a level in his previous arcane spellcasting class. (If the warding eye has levels in more than one other arcane spellcasting class, he must decide which class he gains additional spells known and spell slots in at each even level. Once made, this decision cannot be changed.) Thus a wizard 8/warding eye 4 has access to spells as if he were a 10th level wizard, in additional to the spellcasting ability of a 4th level warding eye. The warding eye does not gain any other abilities of his previous arcane class, including no bonus spells or abilities from sorcerous bloodlines or wizard specialties.

Detect Evil (Sp)

A warding eye is able to detect evil once per day. This functions exactly as the detect evil spell. At 3rd level and every other level thereafter, the warding eye gains one additional daily use of this ability.

Spell Resistance

A warding eye has limited spell resistance, which works only against spells from the illusion and enchantment schools. This spell resistance is equal to 5 + warding eye level + Wisdom bonus. Additionally, a warding eye gains a bonus to saving throws against enchantment and illusions spells. This bonus is equal to his class level.

Dispel Evil (Sp)

Beginning at 2nd level, a warding eye can dispel evil once per day. This functions exactly as the dispel evil spell. The caster level is equal to the warding eye’s total character level. At 4th level and every other level thereafter, the warding eye gains one additional daily use of this ability.

Detect Lies (Ex)

Beginning at 2nd level, the warding eye may attempt to tell whether an individual is telling the truth. In order to use this ability, he must make a Sense Motive check with a bonus equal to his class level. The DC of this check is equal to 15 + the Wisdom bonus of the subject. If the warding eye succeeds, he can discern whether or not that individual is lying to him. He does not have to be able to understand the language being spoken to sense of truth or falsehood of a statement, but he must be able to hear and see the speaker. If the warding eye fails the check, no information is gained. The warding eye may use detect likes a number of times per day equal to his class level.

Second Self (Su)

As a free action, a warding eye may select a target ally to be the charge that he is particularly attempting to protect. Once this decision is made, the warding eye cannot change his charge until there is no obvious threat to that charge (normally after a combat encounter ends), or an hour has passed (if the charge has the misfortune to suffer obvious threats for more than an hour). Any other character that has levels in an Order of Vigilance prestige class is also considered a charge of the warding eye.

A warding eye can increase the range of a spell when the target is his charge. At 3rd level, the warding eye can treat spells that normally have a range of personal as if their range is touch. At 6th level, the warding eye can treat spells that normally have a range of touch as if their range is 15 ft. At 8th level, this increases to 30 ft. In all cases, this extended range is only useable if the target of the warding eye’s spell is a charge.

Armored Spellcasting

At 5th level, a warding eye learns how to reduce the penalty caused by wearing armor. He treats the arcane spell failure chance of any armor he wears as if it were 5% lower than normal. At 8th level, he treats the arcane spell failure chance as if were 10% lower. This applies to any arcane spell the warding eye casts, regardless of what class the spell comes form.

Protection from Evil (Sp)

Beginning at 5th level. a warding eye is able to protect himself against attacks by evil creatures, mind control, and summoned creatures once per day. This functions exactly as the protection from evil spell. At 8th level the warding eye can use this ability two times per day, and at 10th level this increases to three times per day.