Requirements

Alignment: Any Lawful

Base Attack Bonus: +6

Feats: Iron Will, Kiai Shout

Special: Must be female, and must be accepted by the Lion's Pride

Summary

The armies of the Lion are feared for two reasons — the unstoppable tactical minds of the Akodo and the unbreakable fury of the Matsu Lion's Pride. The Lion's Pride are often the front line of a large conflict involving the Lion, a position the elite unit relishes. The Lion's Pride are all women, usually taken from the Matsu family. Membership in this group proclaims both skill in combat and an absolute lack of fear of death. Ten Lion's Pride have stood against hundreds of samurai, the last Matsu finally sent to her death after the enemy had been reduced to less than half their number. Few can hear the screams of the Lion's Pride on the other side of the battlefield and not know the touch of fear on their hearts.

Role: DPS

Characteristics: Terrifying warriors that gain extra attacks at a cost

Source: Rokugan Campaign Setting

Game Rule Information

The Lion's Pride has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Strength and Dexterity to fight off enemies, and Charisma to improve your class abilities.

Alignment: Any Lawful

Hit Die: d10

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Lion's Pride's class skills are Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Lion's Pride.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Lion's Pride is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light, medium, and heavy armor.

No Man's BrideEx: The Lion's Pride are known for their indomitable will, even in the face of overwhelming odds. A member of the Lion's Pride gains resistance to mind-affecting spells, granting her a +1 morale bonus to all rolls to save against such spells. This bonus increases by one point each time the character gains a Lion's Pride level, and the character may save against the spell every time it would cause her to do something contrary to her alignment or duty.

Ancestral FavorEx: At 2nd level and above a Lion's Pride member applies her Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws.

Bonus Feat: At second level, the Lion's Pride member gets a bonus feat. She gains an additional bonus feat at 4th, 7th, and 10th levels. These bonus feats must be drawn from the following list Endurance, Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Whirlwind Attack, Improved Initiative, Greater Kiai Shout, Remain Conscious, Toughness, Weapon Focus (katana).

Matsu's EyesEx: At 5th level, when taking the full attack action in melee, the character may make one attack per encounter per level in this class with such speed that it strikes her opponent as if they were flat-footed.

Matsu's FuryEx: An 8th level Lion's Pride character can sacrifice her ability to defend herself in order to gain extra attacks for the round. In order to gain an extra attack, the character chooses to completely negate her Dexterity bonuses to AC (she is considered flat-footed) for the rest of the turn. The extra attack is made with the character's highest attack modifier. This may only be done when taking the full attack action in melee combat.

Table 1-1: Lion's Pride Progression

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	No man's bride
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Ancestral favor, bonus feat
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	—
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Bonus feat
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Matsu's eyes
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	—
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Bonus feat
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Matsu's fury
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	—
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Bonus feat