Vindicator (Apath)
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Many faiths have within their membership an order of the church militant, be they holy knights or dark warriors, who put their lives and immortal souls on the line for their faith. They are paragons of battle, eschewing sermons for steel. These men and women are living conduits of divine power, down to their very blood, which they happily shed in a moment if it brings greater glory to their deity or judgment upon heretics, infidels, and enemies of the faith.
Class Information
This is a prestige class archetype.
Prestige Class: holy vindicator.
The holy vindicator is a holy warrior that develops an amazing ability to channel energy
Role: The holy vindicator has substantial combat skills and his channeling powers are prodigious. Those whose religious views align well with the vindicator will find a ready ally.
Alignment: While lawful holy vindicators are somewhat more common, vindicators may be of any alignment. Vindicators must have an identical alignment to that of their patron, and mostly worship gods of sacrifice, striving, renewal, and conflict.
Hit Die: d12.
Class Features
These are all the class features of the holy vindicator.
Class Skills
The vindicator’s class skills are Climb (Str), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str).
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A vindicator is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and all armor and shields (except tower shields).
Aura (Ex)
Like a cleric, a vindicator of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity's alignment (see detect evil for details).
Channel Energy (Su)
This is the same as the cleric ability of the same name, except that the holy vindicator gains an additional use of channel energy at level 2 and every second level thereafter.
Channel Smite
At 1st level, a vindicator gains Channel Smite as a bonus feat.
Orisons
At level 1, 2, 3, and 13, a holy vindicator learns one orison taken from the list of zero-level cleric spells. These spells are cast like any other spell (see spells below), but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.
Vindicator’s Shield (Su)
A 2nd level vindicator can channel energy into his shield as a standard action; when worn, the shield gives the vindicator a sacred bonus (if positive energy) or profane bonus (if negative energy) to his Armor Class equal to the number of dice of the vindicator’s channel energy. This bonus lasts for 24 hours or until the vindicator is struck in combat, whichever comes first. The shield does not provide this bonus to any other wielder, but the vindicator does not need to be holding the shield for it to retain this power.
Spells
Beginning at 4th level, a holy vindicator gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells which are drawn from the cleric spell list. A holy vindicator must choose and prepare his spells in advance. A holy vindicator can only cast cleric spells of levels up to four and has no access to cleric spells of level 5 or higher - these are not on his spell list.
To prepare or cast a spell, a holy vindicator must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a holy vindicator's spell is 10 + the spell level + the holy vindicator's Charisma modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a holy vindicator can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Holy Vindicator. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When Table: Holy Vindicator indicates that the holy vindicator gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Charisma score for that spell level.
A holy vindicator must spend 1 hour each day in quiet prayer and meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. A holy vindicator may prepare and cast any spell on her spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.
Spontaneous Casting
A holy vindicator can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. The holy vindicator can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison or domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with “cure” in its name).
Stigmata (Su)
A vindicator willingly gives his blood in service to his faith, and is marked by scarified wounds appropriate to his deity. At 4th level, he may stop or start the flow of blood by force of will as a standard action; at 8th level it becomes a move action, and at 12th level it becomes a swift action. Activating stigmata causes bleed damage equal to one-quarter the vindicator’s class level, and this bleed damage is not halted by curative magic. While the stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator gains a sacred bonus (if he channels positive energy) or profane bonus (if he channels negative energy) equal to one-quarter his class level. Each time he activates his stigmata, the vindicator decides if the bonus applies to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, Armor Class, caster level checks, or saving throws; to change what the bonus applies to, the vindicator must deactivate and reactivate his stigmata.
While his stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator ignores blood drain and bleed damage from any other source and can use the spell-like abilities bleed] or stabilize at will, using the same type of action he uses to control the flow of blood.
Faith Healing (Su)
At 6th level, any cure wounds spells the vindicator casts on himself are automatically empowered as if by the Empower Spell feat, except they do not use higher spell level slots or an increased casting time. If the vindicator targets himself with a cure spell that affects multiple creatures, this ability only applies to himself. At 16th level, these healing spells are Maximized rather than empowered.
Flexible Channel (Su)
At 6th level, when the holy vindicator channels energy, he can choose to heal undead, harm undead, heal the living, or harm the living, regardless of if he channels positive or negative energy.
Divine Wrath (Sp)
At 8th level, when a vindicator confirms a critical hit, he may sacrifice a prepared 1st-level spell or available 1st-level spell slot to invoke doom upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator’s caster level). The save DC is the same as for channel energy, and increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 damage multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4. The vindicator can also use this ability in response to being critically hit, even if the attack incapacitates or kills the vindicator.
Bloodfire (Su)
At 10th level, while a vindicator’s stigmata are bleeding, his blood runs down his weapons like sacred or profane liquid energy; when he uses Channel Smite, the damage increases by 1d6, and if the target fails its save, it is sickened and takes 1d6 points of bleed damage each round on its turn. The target can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.
Universal Channel (Su)
At 12th level, when the holy vindicator channels energy, he can choose to heal or harm all types of creatures, regardless of what type of energy he channels. This is in addition to his previous options.
Versatile Channel (Su)
At 12th level, a vindicator’s channel energy can instead affect a 30-foot cone or a 120-foot line.
Divine Judgment (Sp)
At 14th level, when a vindicator’s melee attack reduces a creature to –1 or fewer hit points, he may sacrifice a prepared 2nd-level spell or available 2ndlevel spell slot to invoke death knell upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator’s caster level). As vindicators mete out divine judgment, this is not an evil act. The save DC is the same as for channel energy, and increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 critical multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4.
Bloodrain (Su)
At 18th level, while his stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator’s harmful channeled energy is accompanied by a burst of sacred or profane liquid energy, increasing the damage by 1d6. Creatures failing their saves against the channeled energy become sickened and take 1d6 points of bleed damage each round. Affected creatures can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.
Divine Retribution (Sp)
At 20th level, when a vindicator confirms a critical hit, he may sacrifice a prepared 3rd level spell or available 3rd-level spell slot to invoke bestow curse upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator’s caster level). The save DC is the same as for channel energy, and increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 critical multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4. The vindicator can also use this ability in response to being critically hit, even if the attack incapacitates or kills the vindicator.
Table: Holy Vindicator
| Class Level |
Base Attack Bonus |
Fort Save |
Ref Save |
Will Save |
Special | Spells per Day | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Aura, channel energy 1d6, Channel Smite, orison | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Orison, vindicator’s shield | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Channel energy 2d6, orison | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Stigmata 1 (standard), spontaneous casting | 0 | — | — | — |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Channel energy 3d6 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 6th | +6/+1 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Faith healing (empower), flexible channel | 1 | — | — | — |
| 7th | +7/+2 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Channel energy 4d6 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| 8th | +8/+3 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Divine wrath, stigmata 2 (move) | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 9th | +9/+4 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Channel energy 5d6 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 10th | +10/+5 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Bloodfire | 2 | 1 | 0 | — |
| 11th | +11/+6/+1 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Channel energy 6d6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 12th | +12/+7/+2 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Stigmata 3 (swift), versatile channel, universal channel | 2 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 13th | +13/+8/+3 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Channel energy 7d6, orison | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 14th | +14/+9/+4 | +9 | +4 | +9 | Divine judgment | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 15th | +15/+10/+5 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Channel energy 8d6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 16th | +16/+11/+6/+1 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Faith healing (maximize) , stigmata 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 17th | +17/+12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Channel energy 9d6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18th | +18/+13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Bloodrain | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 19th | +19/+14/+9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Channel energy 10d6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | +20/+15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Divine retribution, stigmata 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |