Getting Travel Devotion as a Ruby Knight Vindicator?

Question

The Travel Devotion feat (Complete Champion, p. 62) is recommend for most melee builds: moving as a Swift Action allows positioning one's character before unleashing a Full Attack.

The Ruby Knight Vindicator class (Tome of Battle, p. 122) is an Initiator class (and therefore a melee class) and requires Wee Jas as a patron deity.

Furthermore, at level 7th, the Ruby Knight Vindicator class gains the Divine Impetus (Su) class feature, allowing a character to expend one Turn or Rebuke Undead attempt to gain one additional Swift Action.

All in all, this seems like a match in heaven.

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Unfortunately, getting the Travel Devotion feat as a Ruby Knight Vindicator seems complicated.

The traditional way for a Cleric-based character to obtain Domain feats is to trade one¹ of their domains for the equivalent Domain feat; Wee Jas, however, offers neither Celerity² nor Travel as her domains³.

Since this trade does not appear possible, this leaves the possibility to select Travel Devotion as a feat like other classes do. However, even when selecting feats, a Cleric is still bound to the list of Domains offered by their deity⁴ and as noted above Wee Jas offers neither the Celerity domain nor the Travel domain.

How can a Ruby Knight Vindicator, venerating Wee Jas, gain access to the Travel Devotion feat?

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¹ As per Clerics and Domain Feats (Complete Champion, p. 53), a Cleric can trade away a Domain to obtain a Domain Feat. This allows Clerics to have 3 Domain Feats instead of only 2.

² As per the table Domain Equivalencies (Complete Champion, p. 53), only Celerity is equivalent to the Travel Devotion feat.

³ Compilation of Wee Jas domains, for the curious: Death, Destruction, Inquisition, Law, Magic, Mind, Pride, Repose.

⁴ As per Clerics and Domain Feats (Complete Champion, p. 53):

If you are a Cleric (or any other character class who gains access to a Domain), you can choose any Domain feat corresponding to the list of Domains offered by your deity, even if you do not have access to those particular Domains.

Answer 1

It appears there is a single option (the first) which will not require working together with the DM. Otherwise, I have heard that some DMs are partial to pizzas, beers, or car-washing.

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Extra Domain

Certain classes, such Seeker of the Misty Isles (Complete Divine, p. 61) gain the Travel Domain as an extra Domain even if the deity of the character does not offer it¹.

There is no restriction in the rules for converting a Domain:

In addition, you can choose to give up access to a Domain in exchange for the corresponding domain feat. Doing so allows you to select up to three Domain feats, but you cannot prepare Domain spells or use the granted power of the sacrificed Domain. In essence, you trade in a Domain for an extra feat slot that you can spend only on a specific Domain feat.

Of course, becoming a Seeker of the Misty Isles comes with its own restrictions, notably being an Elf, which may not fit a particular character.

¹ This is unlike a Contemplative who gains an extra Domain from the ones offered by their deity.

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Conversion

A character not following a specific deity can select Travel Devotion as a first Domain feat with little restrictions as per Domain Feats (Complete Champion, p. 52):

For characters who do not worship a particular deity, use the following guidelines for which Domain feats allow or preclude the selection of others. This should be done in concert with the DM.

and

If you do not follow any specific deity, your basic system of beliefs should support your Domain feat choices. A good rule of thumb is to designate one to three Domains (in addition to that corresponding to your first Domain feat) that are important to you. These beliefs must also be consistent with your alignment.

Furthermore, the case of converting into a follower of a particular deity is not covered. There is no mention of losing, or having to convert, any pre-existent Domain feat when becoming a follower of a deity who does not offer the specific Domain.

This is a case of your DM stepping in. Still, following the above, a character could first pick Travel Devotion, for example starting with a few levels of Crusader, and only afterwards become a Cleric of Wee Jas.

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No Domain.

Only characters with levels in classes with access to Domains, such as Cleric, are strictly limited to the Domains offered by their deity.

A Domain feat usually corresponds to one of the domains to which a particular deity grants access, or those representing a set of ideals.

Avoiding character classes who gain access to a Domain therefore makes it possible to avoid the restriction above, although picking Travel Devotion will limit the selection of any other Domain feat as per Domain Feats (Complete Champion, p. 52):

You can select a Domain feat at any level. Once you have chosen one, however, you cannot select another unless the second fits thematically with the first.

and

Usually, domain feats go together only if they correspond to the domains offered by the deity you follow.

Obtaining Turn or Rebuke Undead to satisfy the Ruby Knight Vindicator and Divine spellcasting to benefit from its spellcasting progression without gaining access to domains is left as an exercise to the reader.

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Be an heretic.

The Heretic of the Faith feat (Power of Faerûn, p. 46) allows, among other things, exchanging any one Domain you have access to for one you do not normally have access to.

The first issue is that this a Forgotten Realms feat, while Wee Jas is a Greyhawk deity, so there is a conflict of settings.

Furthermore, taking the feat implies being judged as one of the False (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, p. 250) in most cases:

Moreover upon your death you are judged one of the False unless your deity specifically intervenes on your behalf with Kelemvor. Without the use of the Miracle or Wish spell, this does not happen unless your heresies are adopted by the deity and the faith as a whole. It is theoretically possible that such intervention could occur long after your death, but such cases are vanishingly rare.

And being judged as one of the False, apart from the eternal torment one soul's endures after death, also has the mechanical consequence described in The City of Judgment (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, p. 250):

There is no respite for the False unless Kelemvor wills it, and in this tenure he has not been known to change his mind. Furthermore once Kelemvor has made his judgement, the sould cannot be raised or resurrected without the intervention of a deity (represented by at least the use of a Miracle or Wish spell), who will almost certainly have to negotiate with Kelemvor.

Where the conflict of setting is evident, since both Wee Jas (in Greyhawk) and Kelemvor (in the Forgotten Realms) are described as having dominions over funeral rites and the faithless dead. Though given Wee Jas fiery temper, maybe being judged by Kelemvor is preferable to being brought in front of her as an heretic.

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Adapt the Ruby Knight Vindicator

Toward the end of the Ruby Knight Vindicator entry is an Adaptation section (Tome of Battle, p. 125):

Although this prestige class is specific to a single crusader order — the Ruby Knights of Wee Jas — you could easily adapt it to crusaders devoted to almost any other deity. For example, the faiths of Hextor, Vecna, or St. Cuthbert could easily support secret vindicator organizations.

For example, keeping in with the death theme, Kelemvor offers both the Law and Travel domains. Also, Kelemvor's favored weapon is a Bastard Sword, instead of a Dagger.

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At this point, though, it may well be that Travel Devotion is simply not worth the expenditure; especially when considering that Initiators have many Strikes working off a Standard Action, thereby allowing moving and initiating a Strike.

Answer 2

Note: This fine answer covers in detail many methods by which a traditional ruby knight vindicator can acquire the feat Travel Devotion. This reader recommends in particular its Conversion method: the noncleric and future vindicator that hasn't yet taken Wee Jas as a patron deity takes the feat Travel Devotion; later, the same character who's now a cleric takes Wee Jas as his patron deity then enters the prestige class. This method allows the character to keep—and use—the feat Travel Devotion throughout his career. However, although it requires negotiating with the DM, there is another relatively easy and largely painless option.

Ask the DM about a magic item that grants the feat

With the DM's permission, the character may be able to realize the benefit of the feat Travel Devotion (Complete Champion 62–3) by acquiring a new magic item that uses the Arms and Equipment Guide's rules for Magic Items that Grant Feats:

A general guideline for [determining the market price of] other kinds of [items that grant] feats is that they cost 10,000 gp, plus another 5,000 gp to 10,000 gp per prerequisite. (128)

Thus a magic item that grants the wearer the feat Travel Devotion—probably occupying the feet magic item slot—would, by this estimate, typically have a price of 10,000 gp. However, the DM could raise the price to as high as 20,000 gp by ruling that the Travel Devotion feat's domain type is close enough to a prerequisite to count as a prerequisite. Of course, the DM can also place whatever price he wants on such an item. (Also see the Dungeon Master's Guide on Variant: New Magic Items (214).)

A DM considering allowing such an item into the campaign should keep in mind that for most creatures a magic item that grants the feat Travel Devotion isn't much better than a belt of battle (Magic Item Compendium 73) (12,000 gp; 0 lbs.). In fact, in most respects, the boots of Travel Devotion are significantly worse.

The belt of battle has 3 charges per day, but the wearer can take a swift action to spend 1, 2, or 3 charges to take immediately a move, standard, or full-round action, respectively. The boots of Travel Devotion, however, would have for most creatures only 1 charge per day, and a wearer that takes a swift action to activate the boots can immediately move up to the wearer's speed and for the next 9 rounds take a swift action only to move up to the wearer's speed.

Turn and rebuke undead attempts can serve as boot fuel so that an appropriate wearer can employ the boots multiple times per day, but at the levels either item is readily available, an adventurer's workday is usually down to 15 min. anyway, making it so PCs should be able to avoid a second fight in a single day with minimal effort if they so desire.

(The belt of battle is used here only for comparison and in the abstract. In truth, this reader believes that the belt of battle is generally the most unbalanced magic item published for D&D 3.5, and when this reader is DM the belt is one of only about 20 specific and unique game elements his house rules outright ban. For instance, after spending 12,000 gp on a belt of battle, it's perfectly reasonable for a creature to spend every subsequent 18,000 gp it earns incorporating an additional belt of battle into its existing belt of battle, such is the value of being able to, every turn, take, essentially, two turns. (The only other magic item the creature may want is one that lets it initiate the 3rd-level martial maneuver White Raven tactics [special] (ToB 95).) While this DM thinks that other magic items can be even more unbalanced, those magic items are typically only more unbalanced in the hands of specific creatures, yet the belt is unbalanced for everyone.)

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On Travel Devotion and divine impetus

The feat Travel Devotion may be underwritten for what seems to be the question's goals, as may be the supernatural ability divine impetus of the prestige class ruby knight vindicator (Tome of Battle 122–6).

• The benefit of the feat Travel Devotion says, in part, that "you can activate this ability to move up to your speed as a swift action each round. Thus, you can move your speed and then take a full-round action, or move and take two." It will be up to the DM to determine if that each round language allows a creature that's already realized this benefit once during a round to spend a second swift action to move up to its speed again.

• The supernatural ability divine impetus says, "You can expend a turn or rebuke undead attempt to gain one additional swift action this round" (ToB 123). While the example is clear about how the ability should work—i.e. it allows a creature to take a free action during the round to spend one turn undead attempt to gain one swift action—, the ability is less clear about whether the divine impetus ability can be activated two or more times per round.

  Further, the Monster Manual in its Glossary entry on special abilities says, "Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise" (315), and, again, while the divine impetus ability in its example strongly implies that activating the ability should be a free action, the divine impetus ability isn't otherwise noted as saying it takes a free action to activate. This—much to the disappointment of LN Wee Jas devotees everywhere, I'm sure—makes activating the supernatural ability divine impetus technically a standard action by default.

To be clear, this reader doesn't completely support either of these strict readings. (He has seen these arguments made seriously on forums, though, so they are supported by a segment of the player base.) Really, if a PC in this DM's campaign can take multiple swift actions during its turn, this DM would be comfortable allowing the PC to use those swift actions to move up to his speed multiple times if the PC had already realized the benefit of the feat Travel Devotion.

Likewise, this DM is okay with a ruby knight vindicator taking a free action to activate the divine impetus ability. However, this DM does make it clear to players who are considering the ruby knight vindicator prestige class that he reads the divine impetus ability being usable only once per round. (That this hasn't hurt the prestige class's popularity is a testament to the power of the supernatural ability divine impetus!)

In short, ask the DM how he reads the abilities instead of assuming they work a certain way.