Avenger

Heroes of Fantasy

Author August Hahn, Tim Hitchcock, Joseph Miller, Ian Sturrock, John Thompson, Paul Tucker & Patrick Younts

Series Power Classes

Publisher Mongoose Publishing

Publish date 2005

Avengers are the armour of the innocent and the swords of justice, whirlwinds of righteous wrath born of a desire to right wrongs and free others from the chains of oppression. The mantle of an avenger is laden with responsibilities and is heavy to bear, but those few who accept the calling are transformed into crusaders against
cruelty and bastions of freedom from fear. The avenger is a catalyst of change wherever he goes, ridding the lands of his sworn enemies and giving hope to those who have none.

The Avenger

Adventurers: The avenger adventures in order to bring punishment to wrongdoers and salvation to the innocent. He has little desire for loot beyond seeking objects and items, which can help him in his quest against the minions of evil. Every day is a constant trial of the avenger’s principles as he walks the fine line between righteous anger and revenge. From righting a wrong to freeing others from oppression, or just helping those in need, the avenger quests, not for personal gain, but for the cause of freedom and justice. The avenger’s life is a constant search for perfection through the living of his ideals and he is most effective when adventuring to punish the guilty and guard the guiltless.

Characteristics: The avenger’s divine wrath is legendary amongst both friends and foes alike and his tenacity in pursuing his sworn enemies is renowned. Avengers, unlike most divine agents, are not granted healing powers, instead they are dealers of divine retribution and as such their powers revolve around bringing about the final judgement of their foes. As they grow in experience avengers gain the power to turn undead, cast divine spells, and acquire abilities that guard them from those impeding their goals. So too does the intensity of their wrath increase as they become adept at bringing retribution to their sworn enemies. To aid the avenger in his quest for righteous revenge his powers can draw forth an intelligent weapon sworn to strike down the avenger’s enemies.

Alignment: Avengers must be chaotic good and lose their powers if they ever change their alignment. Avengers also have a code of conduct they must follow, which embodies the principles by which they live.

Religion: The avengers are a faith unto themselves, answering only to their deity, if they have one, as an avenging deity Horus is popular. Avengers need not worship specific deities, instead committing themselves to the path of retribution and righteous anger. If an avenger does belong to a church it has some influence over him and his actions, but he is under no formal obligation to abide by the church’s requests. In fact, an avenger might at times find himself at odds with his religious superiors, though such cases are rare.

Background: Avengers are called, not trained. Usually they experience some sort of grave injustice or cruelty in their youth, which galvanises their soul and sets their feet upon the path of righteous anger. Of course, not all who experience such pain in their adolescence become avengers, but there are a chosen few who experience the spark of divine wrath and who nurture it into a flame that consumes their very being. Some are called to the path of divine retribution later in life through an experience of great sorrow in their lives caused by evil deeds. No matter how they come to accept the call they all become avengers of the innocent and punishers of evil.

Few avengers are fortunate enough to train under the tutelage of another avenger as they rarely stay in one place for long. Many young avengers perish before their time as they are much more daring in their deeds facing foes who wield more power than they can possibly hope to overcome. Still those avengers who survive their impetuous youth become adept at bringing their sworn enemies to judgement and freeing others from tyranny. Few things strike fear in evil more than knowing an experienced avenger is walking their lands.

Races: Humans, half-elves, half-orcs and elves make excellent avengers due to their inborn diligence once they pour their spirits into a purpose. Dwarves and Halflings who
become avengers rarely remain with their clan as they find it difficult to serve both their code and their kith and kin. Gnomes rarely take up the mantle of the avenger. Good-aligned humanoid races are known to have avengers among them, but among evil-aligned humanoids there are virtually none.

Other Classes: Avengers work well with each other and have been known to form bands against common sworn enemies. They have relatively good relations with good clerics
and paladins, though they often differ in their approach and can sometimes find themselves at odds with each other’s methods. They prefer working with daring, passionate
and freedom loving individuals, though honour and honesty are important as well. They enjoy the company of good bards, rangers and rogues and recognise them as kindred spirits in their ardour for life and recognition that sometimes one must bend the rules in order to protect others. Avengers also feel a common bond with good barbarian, as they understand their inner rage and preference for intuition rather than reasoned logic.

Game Rule Information

Abilities: Charisma is the most important ability an avenger has. It determines how long an avenger’s divine wrath lasts, it influences the divine grace that guards the avenger from harm, enhances the avenger’s ability to turn undead, and affects many of the avenger’s skills. Strength and Constitution are also important due to the avenger’s central function in combat. A Wisdom score of 14 or higher is required to gain access to the most powerful avenger spells, and a score of 11 or higher is required to cast any avenger spells at all.

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Hit Die: d10

Class Skills

The avenger’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Charisma), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Diplomacy (Charisma), Gather Information (Charisma), Handle Animal (Charisma), Intimidate (Charisma), Knowledge (religion) (Intelligence), Profession (Wisdom), Ride (Dexterity) and Sense Motive (Wisdom).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

The Avenger
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Aura of chaos and good, detect evil, divine wrath1/day, 1st sworn enemy
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Divine grace
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Aura of courage
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Turn undead
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Sworn weapon
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Divine freedom
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Divine wrath 2/day
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	2nd sworn enemy
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	–
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	break enchantment 1/week
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	Improved divine freedom
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Greater divine wrath
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Divine wrath 3/day
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	break enchantment 2/week
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	3rd sworn enemy
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	–
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Tireless wrath
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	break enchantment 3/week
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Divine wrath 4/day
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Mighty divine wrath

Spells per Day
Level	1	2	3	4
1st	–	–	–	–
2nd	–	–	–	–
3rd	–	–	–	–
4th	0	–	–	–
5th	0	–	–	–
6th	1	–	–	–
7th	1	–	–	–
8th	1	0	–	–
9th	1	0	–	–
10th	1	1	–	–
11th	1	1	0	–
12th	1	1	1	–
13th	1	1	1	–
14th	2	1	1	0
15th	2	1	1	1
16th	2	2	1	1
17th	2	2	2	1
18th	3	2	2	1
19th	3	3	3	2
20th	3	3	3	3

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the avenger:

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Avengers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armour (heavy, medium and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Aura of Chaos and Good (Ex): The power of an avenger’s Aura of Chaos and Good (see the detect chaos and detect good spells) is equal to his avenger level.

Detect evil (Sp): At will, an avenger can use detect evil, as the spell.

Divine Wrath (Su): An avenger can fly into a Divine Wrath a certain number of times per day when within 60 feet of a sworn enemy. While in Divine Wrath, the avenger temporarily gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Charisma and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but he takes a -2 penalty to Armour Class. While in wrath, an avenger cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity– or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or Concentration , such as turning undead, nor can he cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. He can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

While within divine wrath, an avenger must attack his sworn enemies and those immediately protecting them to the exclusion of all others. Divine Wrath lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s (newly improved) Charisma modifier or until all sworn enemies in line of sight are slain or have fled from view (invisible enemies are still considered in line of sight until they have fled), whichever comes first. An avenger may not prematurely end his Divine Wrath. At the end of the Divine Wrath, the avenger loses the Divine Wrath modifiers and restrictions and becomes fatigued (-2 penalty to Strength, -2 penalty to Dexterity, cannot charge or Run) for the duration of the current encounter (unless he is a 17th level avenger, at which point this limitation no longer applies; see below).

An avenger can fly into a divine wrath only once per encounter. At 1st level he can use his divine wrath ability once per day. At 7th level and every six levels thereafter, he can use it one additional time per day (to a maximum of four times per day at 19th level).

Sworn Enemy (Su): An avenger may swear vengeance against anyone he has witnessed committing an evil act (the detect evil ability does not count for this purpose), oppressing others, or harming or threatening innocents. He may only have one sworn enemy at a time. The avenger swears vengeance in regards to a specific evil deed he has witnessed. The individual or group most culpable for the evil act becomes the sworn enemy of the avenger, this is not necessarily the person who the avenger witnessed committing the crime as they may not have performed the act willingly. In such a case the avenger’s sworn enemy becomes the individual or group that coerced the person. If the avenger swears vengeance for an act that was, in fact, an unfortunate accident or misunderstanding the avenger loses his powers for one day because of his hasty rush to judgement.

Avengers know when they pass within 60 feet of a sworn enemy and are considered to know their sworn enemy even if they have not met them before (such as when an avenger casts the locate creature spell). If the avenger has slain or destroyed the individual or group that was his sworn enemy, he may name a new sworn enemy to take its place as a free action.

Should the avenger ever discover that his sworn enemy is innocent of his crimes, then he may freely renounce him and seek a new sworn enemy.

An avenger knows when a sworn enemy atones for his evil deeds (e.g. through the use of the Atonement spell) and immediately gains the ability to swear vengeance for another evil deed.

No matter whether an avenger slays or renounces a sworn enemy, or his sworn enemy atones, he must replace the ‘lost’ sworn enemy within one week with a new one or lose his avenger powers until he chooses a new sworn enemy. It is encouraged that both player and Games Master work together to make sure an avenger’s starting sworn enemy plays some role in any campaign the avenger participates in.

At 8th and 15th levels, an avenger may have an additional sworn enemy. The avenger does not have to swear vengeance and gain a new sworn enemy immediately upon acquiring these levels, but must do so within one month. Failing to do so does not cause the avenger to lose his avenger powers (unless he has had no sworn enemy for over a week), but does cause the avenger to suffer a -1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls for each sworn enemy not declared for over a month.

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, an avenger gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.

Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, an avenger is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of his gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions while the avenger is conscious, but not if he is unconscious or dead.

Turn Undead (Su): When an avenger reaches 4th level, he gains the supernatural ability to turn undead. He may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. He turns undead as a cleric of three levels lower would.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, an avenger gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the avenger spell list. An avenger must choose and prepare his spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, an avenger must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an avenger’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the avenger’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, an avenger can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the Spells per Day table. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. When the Spells per Day table indicates that the avenger gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level The avenger does not have access to any Domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.

An avenger prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though he cannot lose a prepared spell to spontaneously cast a cure spell in its place. An avenger may prepare and cast any spell on the avenger spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

Up to 3rd level, an avenger has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is one-half his avenger level.

Sworn Weapon (Sp): Upon reaching 5th level, an avenger gains the service of an unusually intelligent melee weapon to serve him in his crusade against evil (see below). This weapon can be any simple or martial melee weapon.

Once per day, as a full-round action, an avenger may magically call his weapon from the celestial realms in which it resides. The weapon immediately appears within the hands of the avenger and remains for two hours per avenger level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. Only the avenger may wield the weapon and if it is disarmed or taken away from the avenger by another it returns to the celestial realms where it will await the call of its master. The weapon is the same weapon each time it is summoned, though the avenger may release a particular weapon from service.

Each time the weapon is called, it appears undamaged, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. Calling a weapon is a conjuration (calling) effect. Should the avenger’s weapon be destroyed, it immediately disappears. The avenger may not summon another weapon for 30 days or until he gains an avenger level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the avenger takes a -1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.

Divine Freedom (Su): At 6th level, an avenger gains immunity to all charm, compulsion, or impeding spells or effects, such as Paralysis, charm animal, dominate person, Hold Person, slow and web while within divine wrath.

Break enchantment (Sp): At 10th level, an avenger can produce a break enchantment effect, as the spell, once per week. He can use this ability one additional time per week for every four levels after 10th (twice per week at 14th, and three times at 18th).

Improved Divine Freedom (Su): At 11th level, an avenger’s divine freedom improves beyond his divine wrath. Whenever he comes under the effects of a charm, compulsion, or impeding spell or effect and fails his saving throw he can attempt a new saving throw one round later at the same DC. He only gets this one extra chance to succeed at his saving throw.

Greater Divine Wrath (Su): At 12th level, an avenger’s bonuses to Strength and Charisma during his Divine Wrath each increase to +6, and his morale bonus on Will saves increases to +3. The penalty to AC remains at -2.

Tireless Wrath (Ex): At 17th level, an avenger no longer becomes fatigued at the end of his Divine Wrath.

Mighty Divine Wrath (Su): At 20th level, an avenger’s bonuses to Strength and Charisma during his Divine Wrath each increase to +8, and his morale bonus on Will saves increases to +4. The penalty to AC remains at -2.

Code of Conduct: An avenger must be of chaotic good alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits an evil act.

Additionally, an avenger’s code requires that he help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil ends), protect people from oppression (especially slavery), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents. Unlike paladins, they can and oft times do act outside of the laws of the land and do not have to act honourably (except in the regards to the use of poison, which is forbidden) towards those they know are evil, oppressive or harming or threatening innocents. They must act with honour (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), in regards to all others whom they meet, until it is known that they are evil.

Associates: While he may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, an avenger will never knowingly associate with evil characters, nor will he continue an association with someone who consistently offends his moral code. An avenger may accept only henchmen, followers or cohorts who are chaotic good.

Like a member of any other class, an avenger may be a multiclass character, but multiclass avengers face a special restriction. An avenger who gains a level in any class other than avenger may never again raise his avenger level, though he retains all his avenger abilities.

The Avenger’s Weapon

Avenger Level	Bonus Hit Points	Hardness Adj.	Intelligence	Sense Enemy	Special
5th-7th	+5	+5	6	70 ft.	Empathic link,magic, uncanny dodge, unwavering grip
8th-10th	+10	+10	7	80 ft.	Automatic critical vs. evil and sworn enemies
11th-15th	+15	+15	8	90 ft.	Good, improved uncanny dodge
16th-20th	+20	+20	9	100 ft.	Adamantine, Spell Resistance

Bonus Hit Points: Add these bonus hit points to the normal hit points a weapon of the chosen type would have.

Hardness Adj.: Add this adjustment to the normal hardness a weapon of the chosen type would have. Intelligence: The weapon’s Intelligence score.

Sense Enemy: The weapon senses its master’s sworn enemies when they come within the indicated radius and informs its master of their number and direction. The weapon also ignores concealment when used against a sworn enemy as it guides its master’s hand in striking such creatures.

Empathic Link (Su): The avenger has an empathic link with his weapon and can communicate empathically with it, while wielding it.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): As long as the avenger is wielding this weapon, he retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilised.

Magic: The weapon is treated as a magic weapon for purposes of dealing damage to evil creatures and sworn enemies with damage reduction.

Unwavering Grip: The weapon provides a bonus equal to the avenger’s class level on any roll made to keep it from being disarmed in combat.

Automatic Critical vs. Evil and Sworn Enemies: All critical hit rolls against evil foes and sworn enemies are automatically successful, so every threat is a critical hit.

Good: The weapon is treated as a good weapon for purposes of dealing damage to evil creatures and sworn enemies with damage reduction.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): As long as the avenger is wielding this weapon, he can no longer be flanked. This defence denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the avenger by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has avenger levels.

Adamantine: The weapon is treated as an adamantine weapon for purposes of dealing damage to evil creatures and sworn enemies with damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

Spell Resistance (Ex): A weapon’s Spell Resistance equals its master’s avenger level + 5. To affect the weapon with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the weapon’s spell Resistance.

Avenger Spell List

• 1st LEVEL AVENGER SPELLS
  bless, bless water, bless weapon, create water, cure minor wounds, detect undead, divine favour, endure elements, entropic shield, magic weapon, protection from evil, read magic, resistance, shield of faith, virtue.
• 2nd LEVEL AVENGER SPELLS
  align weapon, bull’s strength, eagle’s splendour, owl’s wisdom, remove paralysis, resist energy, shield other, undetectable alignment, zone of truth.
• 3rd LEVEL AVENGER SPELLS
  cure moderate wounds, daylight, discern lies, dispel magic, magic circle against evil, magic vestment, magic weapon greater, Greater Prayer, remove blindness/deafness , remove curse.
• 4th LEVEL AVENGER SPELLS
  break enchantment, death ward, dispel evil, divine power, freedom of movement, holy sword, locate creature, mark of justice, righteous might.

Ex-Avengers

An avenger who ceases to be chaotic good, who wilfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all avenger spells and abilities (including the avenger’s weapon, but not weapon, armour, and shield proficiencies). He may not progress any further in levels as an avenger. He regains his abilities and advancement potential if he atones for his violations (see the Atonement spell description), as appropriate.