path of the Exemplar

exemplars are humans who have taken up a monastistic lifestyle to perfect themselves through training in combat arts and meditation techniques. Exemplars revere the god Hedrada, who watches over them as they seek perfection. Rather than keep the souls of dead exemplars with him, Hedrada allows the souls to reincarnate on the physical plane in a human form to continue their pursuit of the ideal state they possessed prior to the attack of the wizard Tarkun centuries ago. Only those exemplars who attain their perfect self (20 HD exemplars), remain with Hedrada in the afterworld when they die. Exemplars maintain a few monasteries in the Desert of Onn, where they live and train. They venture forth from their temples to find the new incarnations of their deceased comrades wherever those souls appear in the world. The reborn exemplars are brought back to the monasteries and are awakened to their true natures through meditation so that they may return to training and perhaps one day find and defeat their ancient enemy. Exemplars also serve rotating four-year duties as bodyguards to the high priests in mighty Hedrad, across the Blood Sea, and they may be found guarding the temples in the city, traveling with the priests or journeying back and forth from Onn when their rotations begin or end. The exemplars' recurring lifetimes have allowed them to master many special abilities largely un-known to even other monks. The exemplars share some of these secrets with other lawful neutral monks who come and train with the order for a sufficient amount of time, or who serve Hedrada or the exemplars in some exceptional way. Exemplars live an ascetic lifestyle. They sleep on stone floors, eat the simplest raw foods, wear plain clothing and forgo all sexual activity. They even eschew the use of all weapons save their own body. They are reserved in manner but not taciturn if the situation calls for speech. Likewise, they are peaceful unless threatened or they learn the location of a sandmasker

elixer of Life

Exemplars  who  master  this  feat  need  only  five  percent  as  much  food  and  water  as  a  normal  human. 

Moving meditation

Mastering   this   feat   requires  the  exemplar  to  master  his  thoughts.  By  quieting his stream of consciousness and maintaining a calm and meditative mind throughout his activities, an    exemplar    removes    his  need  for  sleep  entirely

Cloud Running

Exemplars practice running over fragile surfaces while using their Ki to lighten their body. Through progressive prac-tice on rice-paper floors, then sand, then water, and then the thinnest of ribbons stretched between poles, the exemplars master the ability to run so lightly they seem to levitate over the ground. Bards speak of exemplars running off cliffs to race across the clouds themselves. As long as the exemplar has some surface other than empty air to run upon, he may pass over it without falling. He can run over thick clouds, thin ribbons or water, but he must be running at full speed to use the feat. While using this ability, the exemplar has expertise on stealth check and anyone attempting to track his passage has a +15 DC modifier to such attempts.

Ten Animal Style Nerve strike

— By modeling their fighting style after the natural techniques employed by 10 different animals, the exemplars have mas-tered an arsenal of frightful hand and foot strikes. Any exemplar with this feat has 19-20 to his critical threat range for open-hand attacks. (If the exemplar normally threatens a critical hit on a roll of 20, he would threaten a critical on 19-20 with this feat.) This feat stacks with other effects or feats that expand the critical threat range, but it is applied after any effect that increases the critical threat (champion ability)

-Through careful study of the anatomy and endless practice delivering the correct Ki strike to pressure points on an opponent's body, the exemplar masters the ability to incapacitate his opponents quickly with one well-placed blow. Exemplars who possess this feat and attack an opponent to cause unarmed damage score x 4 damage on critical hits

increase unarmed crit range

when using unarmed critical range is 19-20

Ki projection

Master  exemplars  are  able  to  project  their  Ki  force  over  a  distance  to  effectively  make open-hand attacks against a remote foe as if the foe were within melee range. This effect has a range of  the  exemplar's  HD  (or  monk's  level)  x3  in  feet.  The  exemplar  may  not  make  more  than  one  of  his  hand  strikes  into  a  Ki  Projection  attack  each  round,  but  he  could  still  take  a  move  action  or  use  other  attacks  on  foes  within  normal  melee  range  if  he  is  using  a  full  action  attack.  Using  Ki  Projection  does  invite  attacks  of  opportunity,  however,  just  as  any  other  ranged  attack  made  from  melee.  Ki  Projection  can  also  be  used  as  a  very  limited  form  of  linear  telekinesis  to  push  small  objects  in  a  straight  line  away from the exemplar or to draw a small object to-ward   the   exemplar.   

Ironbone

The  exemplar  hardens  the  bones  in  his hands, feet, shins, forearms, elbows and forehead through  years  of  smashing  these  body  parts  into  wooden  beams.  Exemplars  use  secret  herbal  com-pounds  to  heal  their  bruised  flesh  during  training.  They  also  infuse  their  skin  and  bones  with  elixirs  to  strengthen them

Ironskin

The exemplar furthers his invulner-ability training by having his entire body routinely pummeled and then soaked in a secret herbal prepa-ration. At the end of years of such training, the exemplar's flesh is toughened, and his vital points are desensitized to injury and pain. The exemplar gains Constitution profficency and Resistence to bludgening (cumulative with Ironbone, the -4 taken from damage first). The Ironbone feat is a prereq-uisite to Ironskin.