Hell Knight Paragon (Apath)
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Not all who join have what it takes to become a Hell Knight, but those who do receive a wide array of abilities as they grow more and more powerful.
Class Information
This is a prestige class archetype.
Prestige Class: hell knight commander.
Build Classes: paladin.
The hell knight is a disciplined warrior in service of unyielding order.
Role: Hell knights stand as a bulwark against the forces of chaos, protecting the status quo and spreading the influence of lawful institutions over new lands. In a team, the hell knight naturally takes to the front, protecting her group and smiting chaotic monsters and rebels.
Alignment: Lawful neutral or lawful evil only. Hell knights are not all evil, in fact these orders strive very hard to protect society and be of service to all who obey its rules. But their inspiration comes from the rigid hierarchies of hell, and many find evil methods most effective.
Hit Die: d10.
Class Skills
The hell knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
These are all the class features of the hell knight.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Hell knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with all shields. They also gain proficiency with the favored weapon of their order if that is an exotic weapon.
Aura of Law (Ex)
The power of a Hell knight’s aura of law (see the detect law spell) is equal to his total character level.
Bonus Languages
A hell knight adept adds Infernal (the language of lawful evil outsiders) to their list of bonus languages. This is an addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
Code of Conduct
A hell knight must be of lawful neutral or lawful evil alignment and loses all supernatural class features if he ever willingly commits a chaotic act.
Additionally, a hell knight's code requires that he follows the dogma of his order, respect lawful authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they are law-abiding members of a recognized social group), and punish those who harm or threaten society or the interests of her order.
Associates: While she may adventure with good or neutral allies, a hell knight avoids working with chaotic characters or with anyone who consistently offends her moral code. Under exceptional circumstances, a hell knight can ally with chaotic associates, but only to defeat what she believes to be a greater treat. A hell knight should seek an atonement spell periodically during such an unusual alliance, and should end the alliance immediately should he feel it is causing chaos. A hell knight may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful.
Detect Chaos (Sp)
This ability functions like a paladin's detect evil ability, save that it detects chaos.
Order
A character must choose one hell knight order to join. The choice of order determines what disciplines the character gains access to. Details for each order are here.
Smite Chaos (Su)
This ability functions as the paladin's smite evil ability, but against chaotic-aligned creatures. This ability is twice as effective against outsiders with the chaotic subtype, chaotic-aligned aberrations, and fey.
Aura of Will (Su)
At 3rd level, a hell knight can expend one uses of her smite chaos ability to grant her force of will ability to all allies within 10 feet, using her bonuses. Using this ability is a free action. Chaotic creatures gain no benefit from this ability.
Fitness of Hell (Ex)
At 3rd level, a hell knight is immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases, including mummy rot. At 9th level, this immunity extends to poison.
Hell Knight Armor (Ex)
At 3rd level, a Hell knight earns the right to wear Hell knight armor (below). While wearing this armor, the Hell knight reduces the armor check penalty by 1, increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by 1, and moves at full speed. For every 4 levels beyond level 3, these effects increase by one point each, to a maximum of 5 at level 20.
Spells
Beginning at 4th level, a hell knight gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells which are drawn from the hell knight spell list. A hell knight must choose and prepare her spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a hell knight must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a hell knight's spell is 10 + the spell level + the hell knight's Charisma modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a hell knight can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Hell knight. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When Table: Hell knight indicates that the hell knight 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 hell knight must spend 1 hour each day in quiet prayer and meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. A hell knight may prepare and cast any spell on the hell knight spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.
Through 3rd level, a hell knight has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is equal to her hell knight level – 3.
Hell knight spell list: The hell knight has the following spell list:
1st level - cause fear, submit weapon, cure light wounds, curse water, detect good, detect poison, detect undead, divine favor, doom, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, misdirection, protection from chaos, read magic, summon monster III.
2nd level - bull's strength, darkness, death knell, desecrate, eagle's splendor, hold person, resist energy, shatter, owl's wisdom, summon monster IV, undetectable alignment.
3rd level - bestow curse, contagion, cure moderate wounds, deeper darkness, dispel magic, inflict moderate wounds, magic circle against chaos, magic weapon (greater), prayer, protection from elements, summon monster V.
4th level - break enchantment, cure serious wounds, dispel chaos, freedom of movement, inflict serious wounds, mark of justice, poison, summon monster VI, axiomatic sword.
Summon monster spells summon only lawful neutral, true neutral, lawful evil, or neutral evil creatures. Submit weapon and axiomatic sword is similar to bless weapon and holy sword respectively but offer benefits against chaotic creatures instead of evil ones.
Discern Lies (Sp)
At 5th level, a Hell knight can use discern lies as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 3 plus his Charisma modifier. His caster level equals his total character level.
Force of Will (Ex)
At 6th level, a Hell knight gains a +2 bonus on Will saves against spells with one of the following descriptors: charm, compulsion, glamer, fear, figment, pattern, or phantasm.
At 10th level, the Hell knight chooses another subschool or descriptor to gain a +2 bonus on his Will save against, and the bonus provided by his first selection increases to +4.
At 14th level, he chooses from the list again, and both previous selections increase by +2, so that he has a +6, a +4, and a +2 bonus, respectively, against the three different effects.
At 18th level, he chooses from the list again, and all previous selections increase by +2, so that he has a +8, a +6, a +4, and a +2 bonus, respectively, against the four different effects.
Disciplines
At 8th-level Hell knight gains access to his first discipline, choosing one that is associated with his specific hell knight order.
At 11th level, the Hell knight gains a second discipline, chosen from any listed as being available to “any order.”
At 14th level, and again at 17th and 20th level, the Hell knight gains another discipline, choosing this one from any of the disciplines listed for any hell knight order, even those not from his own order, with the exception of Pentamic Faith.
When applicable, the save DC to resist a discipline’s effect is equal to DC 10 + ½ the Hellknight’s level + the Hellknight’s Charisma modifier. The Hellknight can use any one discipline a number of times per day equal to the total number of disciplines he has access to, so at 8th level he may use his discipline once per day. At 11th level, he may use both disciplines twice per day each. At 11th level, he may use all three of his disciplines three times per day, and so on.
Aura of Justice (Su)
At 11th level, a hell knight can expend two uses of her smite chaos ability to grant the ability to smite chaos to all allies within 10 feet, using her bonuses. Allies must use this smite chaos ability by the start of the hell knight's next turn and the bonuses last for 1 minute. Using this ability is a free action. Chaotic creatures gain no benefit from this ability.
Lawbringer (Ex)
At 12th level, a Hell knight’s attacks are treated as lawful for overcoming damage reduction.
Infernal Armor (Su)
As long as he wears Hell knight armor, a 15th-level hell knight gains a +2 bonus on all Charisma-related checks made while interacting with nongood lawful creatures. In addition, he gains the ability to see perfectly in darkness of any kind, resistance to fire 30, and resistance to acid 10 and cold 10 as long as he is wearing hell knight armor.
Hell’s Knight (Su)
At 20th level, a hell knight becomes a conduit for the power of hell itself. She gains DR 10/chaotic. Whenever she uses smite chaos and successfully strikes a chaotic outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her hell knight level as the caster level (her weapon and unholy symbol automatically count as objects that the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. The hell knight also becomes immune to fire while wearing hell knight armor.
Table: Hell Knight
| 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 of law, detect chaos, order, smite chaos 1/day | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Force of will 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Aura of will, fitness of hell, Hellknight armor 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Smite chaos 2/day | 0 | — | — | — |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Discern lies, hellbond | 1 | — | — | — |
| 6th | +6/+1 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Force of will 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 7th | +7/+2 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Hellknight armor 2, smite chaos 3/day | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| 8th | +8/+3 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Discipline 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 9th | +9/+4 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Fitness of hell (poison) | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 10th | +10/+5 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Force of will 3, smite chaos 4/day | 2 | 1 | 0 | — |
| 11th | +11/+6/+1 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Aura of justice, Discipline 2, Hellknight armor 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 12th | +12/+7/+2 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Lawbringer, | 2 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 13th | +13/+8/+3 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Smite chaos 5/day | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 14th | +14/+9/+4 | +9 | +4 | +9 | Discipline 3, Force of will 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 15th | +15/+10/+5 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Hellknight armor 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 16th | +16/+11/+6/+1 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Smite chaos 6/day | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 17th | +17/+12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Discipline 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18th | +18/+13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Force of will 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 19th | +19/+14/+9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Smite chaos 7/day | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | +20/+15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Discipline 5, hellknight armor 5, hell’s knight | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Hell Knight Orders
There are numerous orders of hell knights. Each has its own agenda, distinctive style of hell knight armor, a weapon that it favors over others, and a discipline that it regards as most important and teaches first.
The Order of the Chain
“All men lift themselves up upon the backs of others.”
The Order of the Chain enforces the natural order of master and servant, dually punishing rebellious or escaped slaves as well as criminal slave-owners.
Favored weapon: flail.
Shackle (Su; Order of the Chain): When the hell knight uses smite chaos on a creature, he can impede its mobility. The creature can negate this effect with a Will save; otherwise, it is affected as if by a slow spell for 1d4 rounds.
The Order of the Gate
“Judgment in the face of depravity.”
Renowned for the unparalleled number of signifers among its members, the Order of the Gate also specializes in dealing and bargaining with devils and other fiends.
Favored weapon: dagger.
Summon Devil (Sp; Order of the Gate): The hell knight may use summon monster V as a spell-like ability to summon 1 bearded devil.
At 11th level, this spell-like ability is replaced by summon monster VI, allowing him to summon 1d3 bearded devils, or 1 erinyes.
At 14th level, this spell-like ability is replaced by summon monster VII, allowing him to summon 1d4+1 bearded devils, 1d3 erinyes, or 1 bone devil.
At 17th level, this spell-like ability is replaced by summon monster VIII, allowing him to summon 1d4+1 erinyes, 1d3 bone devils, or 1 barbed devil.
At 20th level, this spell-like ability is replaced by summon monster IX, allowing him to summon 1d4+1 bone devils or 1d3 barbed devils.
The Order of the Godclaw
“Righteousness by obedience.”
The leaders of the Order of the Godclaw preach the unique doctrine of the most lawful deities.
Favored weapon: morningstar.
Pentamic Faith (Ex; Order of the God Claw only): This ability allows the hell knight to select one of the following domains: Artifice, Glory, Knowledge, Law, Magic, Nobility, Protection, Rune, Strength, Travel, and War. The hell knight gains all of the granted powers (but not domain spells) of that domain, treating his hell knight levels as Cleric levels to determine what domain abilities he has access to.
The Order of the Nail
“Savagery must be quelled, in the land, home, and mind.”
Hellknights of the Order of the Nail focus their efforts on crushing savages and brigands.
Favored weapon: lance or halberd.
Onslaught (Su; Order of the Nail): Once per day as a free action, a hell knight increases his base speed by +10 feet and gains a +4 bonus to his Strength for 1 round. If the hell knight is mounted, these bonuses also apply to his mount.
The Order of the Pyre
“Reason's flame consumes the shadow of corruption.”
The members of the Order of the Pyre zealously hunt heathen worshipers of false gods.
Favored weapon: glaive.
Brand (Sp; Order of the Pyre): The hell knight can use mark of justice as a spell-like ability.
The Order of the Rack
“The venoms of the mind poison the body.”
Hellknights of the Order of the Rack seek to eradicate revolutionary idealisms.
Favored weapon: longsword or whip.
Censor (Su; Order of the Rack): When the hell knight uses smite chaos on a creature, he can strike the creature mute for 1d4 rounds unless it makes a successful Will save. A mute creature cannot speak, nor can it cast spells that have verbal components or use language-dependent effects
The Order of the Scourge
“Without culpability, chaos reigns.”
The ever-watchful Order of the Scourge seeks to ensure no crime goes unpunished, especially premeditated or more far-reaching acts of organized lawbreaking.
Favored weapon: heavy mace or whip.
Vigilance (Su; Order of the Scourge): The hell knight gains low-light vision (this effect is constant). In addition, as a full-round action, the hell knight can see through up to 5 feet of stone, wood, or similar barriers as if they didn’t exist. Metal or denser barriers block this effect. Each use of this ability lasts as long as the hell knight concentrates, up to a number of rounds equal to the hell knight’s level.
Common Abilities
These abilities can be taken by any hell knight at level 11 and above.
Fearsomeness (Ex; any order): A hell knight who uses the Intimidate skill to cause a creature within 10 feet to become shaken can instead cause that creature to become frightened. .
Tracker (Sp; any order): . The save DC is 10 + ½ the hell knight's level + Charisma modifier.hell knight can summon a creature to aid him, either in battle or to track an enemy, as if using a summon monster spell, save that the summoned creature lingers for 1 hour before vanishing.
An 8th-level hell knight can summon either an eagle, a riding dog, a wolf, or a leopard.
An 11th-level hell knight can summon either a dire wolf or a hell hound.
A 14th-level hell knight can instead opt to summon a pack of 1d4+1 riding dogs or wolves or a single cerberi or dire bat.
A 17th-level hell knight can summon either a pack of 1d4+1 dire wolves or hell hounds, or a single dire lion or shadow mastif.
A 20th-level hell knight can instead opt to summon a pack of cerberi or dire bats, or a single dire tiger or invisible stalker.
Wrack (Su; any order): The hell knight may make a touch attack as a standard action to cause a creature to suffer incredible pain. The creature touched takes 1d6 points of damage + the hell knight’s Charisma modifier, and must make a Will save to avoid being staggered for 1d4 rounds.
Ex-Hell Knight
A hell knight who grossly violates the code of conduct espoused by his order or changes to a forbidden alignment loses all spells and supernatural and spell-like abilities, and his mount, until he atones, but keeps all other class features.
Summary of Lost Class Abilities
These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:
- Aura
- Channel energy
- Domains
- Spontaneous spells