Avenger Week, Part 3

Oaths Fulfilled

With this short week of Avenger-themed posts, I hope that it has become clear that I love the Avenger class. It appealed to me in a way that only a handful of the 4th edition classes could and it sparked my imagination. I could clearly see the oath-driven, single-minded warrior cloaked in the nimbus of divine power.

What separates an Avenger from a cleric or a paladin? Not much, truth be told. By the weight of their words, the Avenger will carry out the will of their god. He is no priest and no bringer of light to the people. The Avenger is the fierce mortal blade serving their churches and temples in the dark and terrible places. Why does an Avenger need divine guidance at all? I suppose they do not. Let’s say that some Avengers take up a course of vengeance and receive support from a greater magical source: a devil, arch-fey, or cosmic source. Different source, same powers: the Oath-Sworn.

Avenger/Oath-Sworn

Avengers are the zealots, the partisans and the bloody blades of religious orders. They sometimes serve as assassins and interrogators. They are the brutal, aggressive and unyielding in their pursuit of enemies, using the words of their gods to gain insight in battle and deal death.

The Oath-Sworn are different. They are driven by vengeance. Men and women who have suffered. They are granted their power by an unknown source; some greater power has taken an interest in your oaths and bestowed the knowledge to mete justice or sow destruction among your enemies.

Prerequisite: Str 9, Wis 9.

Prime Requisites: Str; Str 13, Wis 13 +5%xp; Str 16, Wis 16 +10%xp.

Weapons: Any.

Armour: cloth only.

Spells: as below, cleric spell list.

Hit Dice: 1d6, +1d6/level.

Saves: as cleric.

Attack: as fighter.

Level	XP	Smite	Smite dice	Spells I	II	III	IV
1	0	1	+1d6	0
2	1,565	2	+1d6	0
3	3,125	2	+1d8	1
4	6,251	3	+1d8	2
5	1,2501	3	+2d4	2	1
6	25,001	4	+2d4	3	2
7	50,001	4	+1d10	3	2	1
8	100,001	5	+1d12	3	3	2
9+	+100,000	5	+2d6	4	3	2	1

Weapons: Avengers and Oath-Sworn favour brutal two-handed weapons, but they may wield any weapon like fighters.

Armour: none. Avengers are cloaked in their faith (or trained to evade danger), but can not wear armour at all. If an avenger dons armour, he is unable to cast spells and -2 to hit and damage.

Armour of Faith: add your Wisdom modifier to AC (this is in addition to any Dexterity bonus to AC).

Aeofel Elhromanë, sufferer of chronic uvulitis

Oath of Enmity: Swear your Oath of Enmity upon one enemy and gain a deadly insight to defeat that foe. Roll twice to attack the target of your Oath, use the better roll.

The Avenger will pursue this target with relentless abandon and he can not swear another Oath until this target is defeated or killed. Attacks made against other targets deal -2 damage.

Smite: The Avenger can Smite his Enmity target for +1d6 additional “divine” damage (holy, unholy, thunder, fire... whatever the domain of their god, this must be chosen at the time of character creation). The Avenger can perform this Smite a number of times based upon his level and noted in the chart above. The damage also increases as noted in the chart.

Divine Guidance: When an ally attacks and misses the Oath of Enmity target, the Avenger can call to that ally to redouble his efforts. Once per day, an ally can reroll a miss against the Avengers Oath of Enmity target.

Spells: Avengers can cast spells from the cleric spell list. They advance as a cleric 2 levels lower and can not learn spells above 4th level. Avengers can not turn undead and perform healing poorly (-1 effect/die on healing spells).