Scourge of Avani Prestige Class

The Scourge of Avani is a disciplinarian and caretaker of the creed of Avani. Hunting down mages that practice forbidden arts and policing the faithful are two of the many tasks of the scourge.

Avani is a lawful neutral goddess of the sun, civilization and magic from the Birthright setting. As a sun goddess, she is a relentless enemy of undead and necromancers. Her clergy see it as their duty to maintain civilization and uphold the law, but also have a special responsibility to police the use of arcane magic. They forbid the destruction of knowledge, combat between mages outside of a legitimate war, and the practice of necromantic magic. Most of her clergy are lawful good or lawful neutral and lead by example or act as judges and adjudicators.

The Scourge of Avani takes this a step further. They all belong to the moralistic sect known as the Zinkhalan Church of Avani. Not content to lead by example, they make it their duty to set things right by force. The letter of the law is more important than the spirit. They see other branches of the church of Avani as soft and corrupt, and actively proselytize their sect, seeking to gain dominance over all other churches. They see arcane magic users that are not in the service of the church as dangerous rogues who are to be brought into line at all costs. While may scourges are of good alignment, and some are paladins, the sect tolerates evil members and ruthless methods as long as they channel their efforts to benefit the church. A paladin sect member can work with an evil sect member, as long as the later is working for the cause and restricts his evil acts to unbelievers. This makes the scourge respected, but also feared. When one arrives, people can expect to have their problems resolved, but also to have their morals and devotion judged.

A Scourge of Avani is usually a fighter, paladin or ranger that wishes to serve Avani more directly, but some rogues and wizards also serve in this capacity. In this class, they learn to fight better, to lead others in battle and to detect and police spell users of all kinds. They study magic extensively in order to be able to police it, and are expected to be scholars and judges as well as warriors.

The scourge of Avani must live by a very strict code.

• Never do anything lewd, disorderly or rude
• Do not tolerate excessive lewdness, disorderliness or rudeness
• Respect customs, laws and traditions, unless they contradict the faith
• Never tolerate corrupt use of magic
• Seek out and destroy monsters and undead to the best of your ability
• Seek always to prove the superiority of your creed and gain converts

Hit Die: d10

Requirements

Skills: Know (religion) 4 ranks
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Feats: Mounted Combat, Weapon Focus (any one weapon), Leadership.
Alignment: A Scourge of Avani must be of lawful alignment (lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful evil).
Patron Deity: Must have Avani as a patron deity.

Skill points at each level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Scourge of Avani class. The War Card Rules refered to in some abilities is a system for resolving large battles in the Birthright setting. All references to this system can be safely ignored if you do not use it.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Scourges of Avani are proficient with all simple weapons and martial weapons as well as light and medium armor and with shields.

Turn Undead (su): You can turn undead as a cleric of your Scourge of Avani level. If you already have the ability to turn undead, add your level as a Scourge of Avani to your effective level as a paladin or cleric for the purpose of turning undead. Even evil Scourges of Avani turn undead. This is a supernatural ability.

Weapon Specialization (ex): Free weapon specialization in a weapon that you already have Weapon Focus for. If you are already specialized in all the weapons for which you have Weapon Focus, you will have to wait until you learn Weapon Focus for a new weapon to use this ability.

Detect Magic (sp): You can detect magic as the spell, at will, with a range of 60 ft. If you are also a paladin, you can detect evil and magic at the same time.

Lead by Example (ex): Anyone within 100' and under your direct command can chose not to make an initiative roll, and instead go on your initiative. Of course, this requires that they obey all orders that you give them without question, which often excludes other PCs from this ability. Optional War Card use: This adds one to the charge combat strength of your unit in card battles.

Aura of Courage (su): This is the same as the paladin's Aura of Courage, described in PH, page 42. If you already have this ability as a paladin, your Aura of Courage now has a radius of 100 ft. Optional War Card use: Makes your card battle unit immune to fallbacks and treats routs as hits.

Aura of Light (su): At will, you can surround yourself with an aura of sunlight that works like a daylight spell. When this aura is active, you turn undead at +2 levels.