Blood Knight (3.5e Prestige Class)

Blood Knight
"Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight."

Most people who fight have a certain cause that drives them. This cause may be many things, Virtuous or Sinful, Orderly or Randomized, but they are all causes, external reasons to take up arms. The Blood Knight however, is different. To the Blood Knight, the only drive to fight is the act of fighting itself. No more, no less.

Becoming a Blood Knight
Characters pursue this class for one reason: To live and die for the sake of battle itself. Typically a Blood Knight will value her physical stats above her mental, though it is not unheard of one fighting with her mental prowess. It is difficult, but not impossible, for anyone not already devoted to combat to join the ranks of the Blood Knight, so while a Rogue is not unheard of joining, it is more likely that Fighters, Barbarians, and especially Knights would pursue such a career, with the occasional Ranger cropping up.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Blood Knight.

If you did not already have such an ability, you may choose any three Disciplines and gain Maneuvers as a Warblade of your levels in Blood Knight using the Warblade's recovery method for your Maneuvers. If any of your chosen Disciplines' skills is not on the Blood Knight skill list, it is added to your list of Class Skills.

 (Ex): At 1st level, you are considered to be in Combat whenever it would be advantageous for you. As a side effect, any time new creatures enter a situation, you are allowed to consider it a new encounter for any effects that can be used a limited number of times per encounter or which refresh at the start of an encounter.

 (Ex): At 2nd level, you are never considered Flat-Footed for any reason and you act in any surprise round, taking actions as if it were a full round instead. In addition, the amount of time away from a fight to be considered out of the fight is only one round for you, instead of ten.

If you are not using Tome, you may choose a Fighter Bonus Feat that you qualify for, and levels in Blood Knight stack with levels of Fighter to determine if you qualify for a feat.

 (Ex): At 4th level, a roll of a 1 on an Attack Roll or Saving Throw is no longer an automatic failure and is instead treated as a 1. Once per day, you may elect to treat the roll of 1 as a roll of 21 instead. You gain an additional use of this ability per day for every four more levels you have. (8th, 12th, 16th...)

 (Ex): At 5th level, a Blood Knight is Immune to any status effects that would cause her to stop fighting, aside from dying. This does not make her immune to a compulsion that would order her to fight her allies, but it would stop a compulsion with an order to stand down.

 (Ex): At 7th level, a Blood Knight can force open hostilities in all surrounding creatures. All creatures within 60' have their attitudes shifted to hostile towards whomever the Blood Knight designates. A Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 Blood Knight's ECL + STR) negates the effect. However, avoiding mob mentality is tough. If more than half the creatures in range fail their saves, the ones that didn't must make another save with the same DC +2 per each creature that originally failed.

 (Ex): At 10th level, the Blood Knight stops aging and is never completely killed by any effect.

A week after being killed, the Blood Knight is brought back to life within 30' of her killer and must defeat the killer one on one, taking no actions counter to this objective. If the Blood Knight wins, she is free to act as she wishes. If slain in this battle, the Blood Knight returns again in one month to repeat the challenge.

Should her losing streak continue, she will return again in a year, then a decade, then finally once a century. If the killer dies in the intervening time, the Blood Knight challenges the closest living relative instead. When raised in this manner, the Blood Knight takes no penalty for the death(s).

The only other ways a Blood Knight may be revived are with a Wish or Miracle spell, or if the killer is subject to a Remove Curse, Break Enchantment, or Limited Wish to remove the need to be challenged. In this case, the killer and his family are freed from being challenged; the Blood Knight is still revived on the next time she is scheduled, but may act according to her own wishes.

The epic Blood Knight gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Blood Knight feats) starting at 12th and continuing every three levels from then on. (15th, 18th, 21st...)

This is in addition to the +1 Epic bonus for every odd level past ECL 20.

 List: The Blood Knight may choose from the Epic Bonus Feat list of any class she has, adding her levels in Blood Knight to levels in that class to determine qualifications for these feats. She must meet the prerequisites for these Epic Bonus Feats.

Playing a Blood Knight
Combat: In combat, you want to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and your opponents took all the gum. Go get your gum back.

Advancement: Anything that makes you kick more ass is a desirable way to advance, including more levels of Blood Knight.

Resources: Blood Knights are equally likely to fight each other as they are to fight alongside one another, and these situations are not mutually exclusive.

Blood Knights in the World
"Round One. Fight!"

Wherever there is Battle, there are Blood Knights, with almost no exceptions. (Most of said exceptions are pitifully small-scale skirmishes.)

NPC Reactions: NPCs that know what a Blood Knight is will generally attempt to convince the Blood Knight that there is something worth beating up far away from where they are right now. Usually, the NPC is right.

Blood Knight Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (History) or Knowledge (Warfare) can research Blood Knights to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Blood Knights in the Game
Blood Knights fit an Attacker and Striker role in Combat, and if they are not currently doing this, they find a fight and jump in so that they can.

Adaptation: If you can't find a place for guys and gals who go around starting fights because they want to find a good fight, nothing I can write here can really help you.

Sample Encounter: A very archetypal Random Encounter if there was one, just have an unnamed Blood Knight challenge the most visually imposing member of your party to a one on one fight.