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Within the Spirit Wood are the Arboreal Guardians, men and women dedicated to protecting and ministering the living repositories of elf and half-elf spirits.

Requirements

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Arboreal Guardians gain proficiency with shortbows (but not composite shortbows). A druid who becomes an Arboreal Guardian can use a shortbow without violating her spiritual oaths. Arboreal Guardians gain no proficiency with any armor or shields.

Spellcasting: An Arboreal Guardian continues training in magic. Thus, at every other Arboreal Guardian level starting at 2nd, the character gains new spells known and spells per day as if she had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of the class would have gained (improved chance of controlling or rebuking undead, additional uses of wild shape, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of Arboreal Guardian to the level of some other divine spellcasting class she has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

Bond's Call (Su): An Arboreal Guardian may male an Intuit Direction check (DC 15) to determine the direction to her spirit tree. This can be done once per round.

Forestwalk (Su): When an Arboreal Guardian is within the Spirit Wood, her land speed increases by 10 feet. This benefit stacks with any other bonuses to speed the character may have.

Nature's Water (Ex): An Arboreal Guardian of 2nd level or higher can acquire potions from her bonded spirit tree if she provides the necessary herbs and ingredients. Essentially this means she can purchase potions from her tree for the cost to create instead of the market price.

Natural Armor (Ex): At 2nd level, an Arboreal Guardian gains a natural armor bonus to her Armor Class. When this bonus improves to +3 (at 6th level), her skin gains the coloration of her spirit tree, although this does not provide any additional benefit.

Unhindered Charge (Ex) When making a charge or taking an action, an Arboreal Guardian of 3rd level or higher can pass unhindered through normal inanimate living plants, similar to a druid's woodland stride, she can also pass unhindered through larger plants such as trees, including her own spirit tree, when using this ability.

Wood Speech (Su): An Arboreal Guardian of 3rd level or higher can telepathically communicate with her spirit tree or with any of its other Arboreal Guardians at a range of 1 mile. This allows the Guardian to initiate the telepathic contact (previously she could be contacted by her spirit tree, but could not initiate this contact).

Hunter's Mercy (Su): Once per day as a standard action, a Guardian of 5th level or higher can focus her concentration so her first successful attack with a bow in the next round is automatically a critical hit. This works like the hunter's mercy spell, except that activating this ability does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Blindsight (Su): Like her bonded spirit tree, a Guardian of 5th level or higher can sense creatures without using her eyes, giving her the blindsight ability with a range of 30 feet. She can activate this ability once per day as a free action, lasting a number of rounds equal to her class level.

Nature's Defender (Ex): A Guardian of 7th level or higher gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage, checks, and saving throws when within 500 feet of her bonded tree.

Quench (Sp): A Guardian of 7th level or higher can use the quench ability (as the spell) once per day.

Tree Stride (Sp): A Guardian of 9th level or higher can use the tree stride ability (as the spell) once per day.

Advancement