Hussars are masters of mounted combat. These mobile and ferocious warriors first appeared among light
cavalry units, where they began to spread across the
world as their effectiveness led to more and more nations
adopting light cavalry tactics. Hussar adventurers bring
their military skills to bear in aiding their allies through
the use of formations, tactical insight and discipline.
Converting Your Character to a Hussar
The hussar is a class template suitable for use with the warlord and warder classes. When converting a character to a hussar, the character loses or changes the following class features:
Warlord
• The warlord gives up all bonus feats.
• The warlord gives up the tactical presence, dual presence, and warlord’s presence class features.
Warder
• The warder gives up all bonus feats.
• The warder gives up proficiency with heavy armor.
• The warder gives up the clad in steel, steel defense, and born of steel class features.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Hussars are
proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with
light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower
shields).
This replaces the base class’s standard weapon
proficiencies.
Class Skills
A hussar gains
Handle Animal as a class
skill.
Maneuvers
The disciplines available to a hussar are
Golden Lion, Iron Tortoise, Piercing Thunder, Primal
Fury, and Solar Wind. If the hussar does not have these
discipline’s associated skills as class skills, he gains them
as class skills. He otherwise learns, readies, initiates
maneuvers as a standard member of his base class.
This ability alters maneuvers.
Maneuvers Readied
In addition to his base class’ normal maneuver recovery, a hussar recovers one
expended maneuver every time he successfully
negates an attack using the Mounted Combat feat.
This ability alters maneuvers readied.
Mount (Ex)
At 1st level, a hussar gains the service of a loyal and trusty steed to carry him
into battle. This mount functions as a druid’s
animal companion, using the hussar’s level
as his effective druid level. The creature
must be one that he is capable of riding and
is suitable as a mount. A Medium-sized
hussar can select a camel or a horse. A
Small-sized hussar can select a pony or
wolf, but can also select a boar or a dog if
he is at least 4th level. At the GM’s options,
other animals may be suitable mounts for
a hussar to select.
A hussar’s bond with his mount is strong, with
the pair learning to anticipate each other’s moods
and moves. A hussar does not take an armor check
penalty on Ride checks while riding his mount. The
mount is always considered combat trained and begins
play with Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat.
Should a hussar’s mount die, he may find another
mount to serve him after 1 week of mourning.
Mounted Combat (Ex)
At 1st level, a hussar gains
Mounted Combat as a bonus feat, even if he does not
meet the prerequisites.
Mounted Maneuver Expertise (Ex)
Mounted Maneuver Expertise (Ex): Starting at 1st
level, a hussar and his trusty steed are so in tune with
each other that they can work as one when performing
maneuvers. Whenever a hussar is mounted and uses
a maneuver with a movement component (such as
making a charge attack, or taking an extra move action),
the hussar can have his mount take the appropriate
movement in his place. If the maneuver allows the
hussar to make a charge attack, both him and his mount are considered to be charging. This replaces the share
spells ability that normal animal companions gain.
Formations (Ex)
As the hussar levels, he learns
a number of formations that assist both himself and
his allies. Adopting a formation is a move action for
the hussar, and allies within range of someone in the
formation can enter the formation as a free action.
Formations have a limited range, as noted in the
formation’s description. In order for a hussar’s ally to
participate in a formation and gain its benefits, they
must start their turn within range of another ally who
is participating in the formation. Allies participating
in a formation do not necessarily have to be within
range of the hussar; they merely must be within range
of another ally within the formation. A hussar may only
have one formation active at a time, and if the hussar
leaves a formation, all allies in the formation also leave
that formation. A creature can only gain the benefits
of one formation at any given time. The hussar selects
one formation from the following list to learn at 5th, 8th,
11th, 14th, and 17th levels:
Guerrilla: Allies in the Guerrilla formation gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against creatures
they
flank. At 7th level, allies in the formation can take
a 5-foot step once per round as a
free action (even if it
isn’t their turn) as long as that 5-foot step would place
them in a position to
flank an opponent. At 15th level,
as long as two allies in the formation are adjacent to the
same opponent, they are considered to be
flanking that
opponent. Range: 15 feet.
Marching: Allies in the Marching formation allies gain a +10-foot bonus to their movement speeds. At 7th level,
allies in the formation gain the benefits of the Endurance
and Diehard Feats. At 15th level, allies in the formation
cannot become fatigued or exhausted for as long as they
remain in this formation. If an ally is already fatigued
or exhausted when they join the formation, they ignore
the effects of the condition while they remain in the
formation. Range: 10 feet.
Phalanx: Allies in the Phalanx formation gain a +1 bonus to their AC and to Reflex Saves. At 10th level, these
bonuses increase to +2, and allies in the formation gain
evasion (as the rogue class feature). At 15th level, this
bonus to AC increases to +2 for each ally in the formation
(up to a maximum of +10) and the bonus to Reflex saves
increases to +1 for each ally in the formation (up to a
maximum of +5). Range: 5 feet.
Siegebreaker: Allies in the Siegebreaker formation gain a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks when making
bull rush, disarm, and sunder attempts. At 10th level,
this bonus increases to +8. At 15th level, allies in the
formation ignore an amount of hardness an object has
equal to 5 times the number of allies in the formation,
and can perform disarm and sunder combat maneuvers
on opponents as if they were two size categories larger.
This stacks with other effects that increase effective size. Range: 15 feet.
Surge: Allies in the Surge formation gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls while charging. At 10th
level, whenever an ally in the formation charges a
creature, they may make one turn of up to 90 degrees
when charging. At 15th level, whenever an ally in the
formation makes a charge attack, one other ally in the
formation can make a charge attack against the same
target as an immediate action. The ally making this
charge attack must be able to charge the target in order
to activate this ability, and cannot make a charge on
their following turn afterwards. Only one ally in the
formation can use this ability per round, regardless of
how many allies are in the formation. Range: 10 feet.
Terror: Allies in the Terror formation gain a +4 bonus on Intimidate checks to demoralize opponents. At 7th
level, allies in the formation gain the benefits of the
Dazzling Display feat, except that they may use it with
any weapon they wield, not just ones with which they
have Weapon Focus. At 15th level, whenever an ally in
the formation successfully demoralizes an opponent,
that opponent takes an additional –2 penalty on attack
rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks for
as long as it is shaken. Range: 10 feet.
Volley: Allies in the Volley formation gain a +2 bonus
on ranged attack rolls. At 10th level, ranged attacks
made by these allies ignore all concealment less than
total concealment. At 15th level, allies in the formation
gain the ability to launch a hail of deadly bolts or arrows
that affects a 5-foot-radius burst within their weapon’s
first range increment as a standard action. This attack
deals 1d6 points of damage per character level of the ally
to any creature in the area. Creatures in the area may
make a Reflex Save (DC 10 + 1/2 that ally’s character level
+ that ally’s Dexterity modifier) to halve this damage.
Damage Reduction applies as normal to this damage,
although it is treated as if it had been dealt by the ally’s
weapon for the purposes of overcoming it. Range: 5 feet.
