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).

Avenger Week, Part 2

Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya...

Kick-ass Avenger and Rumoured Dread Pirate

Oaths. All we got out of 4e was some Enmity. How about some other oaths? I've done my prerequisite twenty minutes of googling. Oaths abound! After all well-known oaths of allegiance, citizenship and fealty are put aside, there are still a few left over.

• The Oath of the Horatii: you shall go forth with your brothers to defend the honour of Rome against three brothers from Alba Longa. This oath is fairly situational - you need 2 brothers, first of all. Probably a time machine wouldn’t hurt.
• The Oath of Tyndaeus: you shall protect the fella that marries Helen of Troy. This oath sucks.
• The Hippocratic Oath: you shall do no harm. Mechanically, zero fun. May be a heal-venger. That sounds especially crap-tastic.
• The Oath of Inigo: “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!” (Greatest. Oath. Ever.)

Avenger Oaths should be as varied as the oaths spoken in the vastness of history, art and film. What follows are a few ideas about Avenger Oaths; homebrewed ideas. While I have tried to think about balance and measuring the cost versus reward for these Oaths, I also have to take into account that I don't actually care about balance and if you do - don't use these powers. It is all just homebrew, after all.

At the cost of a feat, an Avenger can acquire a second Oath option. I recommend that an Avenger only be permitted one type of Oath (and use the complementing Channel Divinity power once) per encounter. I would only encourage this to reduce confusion.

At no cost, an Avenger can replace Oath of Enmity and Divine Guidance with another paired Oath and Channel Divinity effect. These alternate Oaths behave as the Oath of Enmity (unless otherwise noted); targeting a single enemy target until it is defeated and the Oath can be sworn upon an new enemy.

Gods of war and destruction (Kord, Bane, Gruumsh) encourage followers to inflict devastating damage on their enemies. Avengers of these deities wield massive two-handed weapons to maximize effect.

Oath of Onslaught, roll one additional damage die, drop the lowest result. Level 16, 2 additional dice, drop the lowest.

• Channel Divinity, Incur the Onslaught: when an ally rolls 1 on a damage roll against your Oath target, reroll the damage die and add Int mod or Dex mod to the damage.

Gods concerned with justice, freedom or vengeance (Avandra, Bahamut, Melora, Tiamat) seek to set right that which is wrong.

Oath of Justice/Vengeance, deal additional damage to target when it deals damage to allies. [+1W] on next hit, target is marked.

• Channel Divinity, Make Vengeful the Meek: when an ally is struck by the Oath target, that ally makes a basic attack in retaliation with +Wis mod to hit.

Gods of darkness, trickery and secrecy (Sehanine, Lolth, Vecna, Zehir)  make great assassins of their avengers. They attack from the shadows and wrap themselves in defensive blackness.

Oath of Secrecy/Shadow, gain concealment from target on successful hit or partial concealment on miss.

• Channel Divinity, In Shadow We Prevail: target ally misses Oath target with an attack, ally gains partial concealment and combat advantage against Oath target until end of their next turn.

Gods of the dead and undying (Vecna) convey upon their avengers the power to raise new allies from their fallen enemies.

Oath of Ghouls, attacks against the target deal necrotic damage and the target can be raised as a ghoul once it has been slain (as a standard action). This oath can not be sworn again while the ghoul is risen - however, the avenger has gained an ally for the day. Good-aligned avengers don't tend to take this oath.

• Channel Divinity, Growl of the Grave: target ally hits your Oath target, Oath target takes necrotic damage equal to Wisdom mod and suffers -2 to attack rolls until end of its next turn.

Gods of madness, fear and tyranny (Asmodeus, Torog) show their faithful how to invoke fear and menace their enemies with hellish visions.

Oath of Insanity/Fear, the avenger attacks against Oath target menace psyche; avenger attacks gain the psychic OR fear keyword and target Will defense, on a hit the target can be pushed 1 square.

• Channel Divinity, Eye of the Mad Gods: when an ally misses the Oath target with an attack, the attack is rerolled and affects the targets Will defense instead, the target is pushed 1 square.

The Horatii, Brothers in Arms 

Some Oaths require only the bonds of friendship or love to fuel them; unlike the above Oaths, these Oaths are sworn to aid allies. The Oath lasts the length of the encounter and can not be re-sworn as the Oath of Enmity.

Oath of Blood, deep brotherly Oath that forges a connection with an ally rather than an enemy; you can split damage and healing (50/50) between yourself and one ally (range 10).

• Channel Divinity, Band of Brothers: when your Oath ally is bloodied by an enemy, you may make a free charge attack (+Wisdom Mod to hit/damage) against the target if it is within 5 squares.

Oath of the Brave, the avenger speaks the Oath and his allies are emboldened; all allies within 5 squares gain +1 on saving throws. 

• Channel Divinity, Raise the Banner: an ally becomes bloodied, all allies in the zone gain temporary hit points equal to Wisdom modifier.

Oath of Chivalrous Protection, protect one ally in 5 squares. Granting a nimbus of protection, +1 to defenses until the end of encounter. When you hit any enemy, you grant temporary HP to your Oath ally equal to Wisdom modifier. If your Oath target falls, you suffer -2 to attacks until the Oath ally is raised above 0 HP. 

• Channel Divinity, Intervening Vengeance: an attack targets your Oath ally, the avenger can choose to intervene by teleporting adjacent to the Oath ally and taking the damage. The avenger then deals damage to the triggering enemy equal to half the damage taken.

Avenger Week, Part 1

Lo there do I see my Father...

Buliwyf sees the line of his people back to the beginning.  

In The 13th Warrior, while defending the shattered village the Northmen call to their ancestors for strength in battle. There is a decent bit of prose with some epic slow motion imagery and that plucks my very sensitive heart-strings every damn time. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. I've been talking about the words that drive characters a lot lately and that has got me thinking about my favourite 4th Edition class: the Avenger.

In 4e D&D, the Avenger uses oaths as its core mechanic. Their power is called the Oath of Enmity (which is fucking wicked) and they draw upon divine might from their gods to smite the infidels in their path. Mechanically, the Oath of Enmity is totally mint: roll twice to hit the object of your ire. Confer a reroll on an ally attacking your Enmity target. Yes! YES! Gimme more! Unfortunately, there's the final word on oaths from 4e. This, to my mind, is a colossal failure to capitalize on a game mechanic that could go absolutely bananas and slam dunk some role-play on the roll-play.

The oaths of D&D (at my home table) can often be boiled down to: "Hey muthafucka! I'm gunna tear yer head off and shit down yer neckhole!" Terrifying and amusing, to be certain. Stay tuned, the Avenger is getting some chirurgeon treatment this week: new Oaths, new Oath-sworn Channel Divinity powers and a Labyrinth Lord compatible class. It's Avenger Week.

The Avengers of Comedic Blaxploitation