Ruins of Adventure
Fiend Slayer
Base Requirements
- Races: Any
- Sub-Classes: Any
- Ability Requirements: No ability score lower than 111
- Alignments: Any
- Starting Cash: By class
1 After initial character creation, this does not apply to Willpower.
Weapon Proficiencies
- Weapon Slots: By class
- Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
- Required Weapon Proficiencies: none
- Allowed Weapons: By class
- Allowed Armors: By class
Non-Weapon Proficiencies:
- Non-weapon Slots: By class
- Available Categories: By class
- Bonus Non-weapon Proficiencies: Ancient History, Occult Lore, Netherworld Knowledge, Survival (any plane)
- Required Proficiencies: Ancient Languages, Literacy
- Recommended Proficiencies: Alertness, Ancient Languages, Awareness, Blind-Fighting, Dark Sense, Debate, Genie Lore, Planar Direction Sense, Land-based Riding, Order of the Light, Planar Sense, Planar Survival, Planes Lore, Planology, Portal Feel, Religion, Spellcraft, Spell Recovery, Zeal
- Forbidden Proficiencies: none
Overview: Fiend slayers are characters who have taken it upon themselves to learn about the lower planes and their denizens; and it is fiend slayers who have chosen to combat them. While many characters choose this kit out of sense of duty (perhaps getting involved initially due to curiosity), many more become fiend slayers due to personal loss at the hands of tanar’ri, baatezu, or other fiends, and are not about to let it happen again.
Th fiend slayer also derives his power from the dark forces, which gives him the means to destroy them. Unfortunately, the price for this specialization in long-forgotten summoning, protection, and warding is the fiend slayer’s own sanity.
Some more mercenary fiend slayers find their skills highly sought after by the fiends themselves. These fiend slayers are hired to fight in the Blood War on one side or another. Any blood that’s good with a spell or an axe is useful in the eternal struggle between the Baatezu and Tanar’ri, but those specialized in bringing pain and death to fiendish foes are particularly worthy of the fiends’ respect (and money).
Description: Fiend slayers are usually equipped as warriors. Their armor and clothing is commonly embroidered, painted, or inlaid with sacred verses, holy writings, and religious symbols. They care little for their appearance but maintain their tools devotedly. As they grow progressively wilder and closer to insanity, their eyes become tinged with red or yellow.
Role-Playing: These character know something about the dark forces of the lower planes and the means to destroy them. He may have learned about them as part of religious or magical education, then left on his own to combat these great evils, or he may have been a scholar or mystic of some kind who stumbled upon the knowledge by accident.
Special Abilities:
- The fiend slayer can turn evil extraplanar creatures as a Cleric turns undead, treating the fiends as undead of equivalent hit dice.
- The fiend slayer can communicate with all supernatural creatures as if by a comprehend languages spell.
- Any protective spell cast by a fiend slayer (such as armor, protection from evil, or abjure) reduce damage suffered from attacks by fiends by -1 point of damage per six levels of ability (minimum 0 damage), for the duration of the spell.
- At the beginning of their careers, fiend slayers must choose to concentrate their studies on one plane in particular: the Abyss, Baatezu, Gehenna, etc. By doing so, they gain certain bonuses with regard to that particular plane or its inhabitants. They receive the Planar Survival proficiency for this plane and a +2 on Netherworld Knowledge checks when seeking knowledge about that plane. Fiend slayers also have an easier time learning how to cast magic properly there (fiend slayers know two random spell keys of their choice at the start, and are allowed one Knowledge check to learn another spell key for every two experience levels attained beyond 1st level). At 11th level, a fiend slayer is considered an expert on subjects related to his chosen plane (equal to a sage). He may choose another plane of existence to specialize in at 15th level.
- Because of their expertise, fiend slayers gain certain bonuses when dealing with a specific race. This is often a race that the character holds a grudge against, and one which must be native to or common on the plane the fiend slayer has focused on. In combat with this chosen creature, the fiend slayer receives a +1 bonus on all saving throws against attacks made by the race, and the magic resistance of such creatures is lowered by 10% against magical attacks made by the fiend slayer (including summonings, charming attempts, or other castings that the creature would view in as hostile). Creature types include baatezu, gehreleth, mephit, tanar’ri, etc. At 9th level, fiend slayers receive a +2 bonus (total) on saves when attacked by the creatures in question, and the fiend slayer’s spells operate at maximum effectiveness against the creature (those that successfully penetrate the creature’s magic resistance).
- Fiend Detection: This ability is equal to the 3rd-level priest spell, extra-dimensional detection. This ability can be used once a day for every two levels of experience (round up) and is double-range when the fiend slayer is attempting to detect the type of creature he gets a bonus with.
- A fiend slayer’s personal mission is extremely dangerous, even by the standards of other adventurers, and they seldom are able to succeed alone. At 9th level, the fiend slayer gains a number of followers, in addition to any he would gain by virtue of his class. He gains two 3rd-level fiend slayers (of the same class as the PC) and 10 1st-level fighters as personal guards and helpers. In addition, any followers the fiend slayer attracts serve out of faith in the fiend slayer’s cause, they will arrive without the need of a stronghold, and require no pay.
- A Paladin who becomes a Fiend-Slayer is less restricted by his vow of non-violence than other Paladins. His vow of nonviolence does not apply to the specific sub-category of fiends to which he is opposed. This exception only applies to that specific race of fiends, a Paladin Fiend-Slayer who opposes Baatezu is not free to attack Tanar’ri. The Fiend-Slayer must accurately identify the creature as belonging to his hated class of fiends (usually via a successful Netherworld Knowledge check) before he may engage in violence against it.
Special Disadvantages:
- Fiend slayers suffer from the great expense of their researches, even as compared to other studies. Reference materials are hard to come by, so they must either pay through the nose (at a 200% mark-up) or spend double the time compiling this knowledge. This penalty also applies to any spell research done by a wizard fiend slayer, as well as Training costs and time.
- The fiend slayer travels constantly in his pursuit of his foes, even to other planes. He may never establish a stronghold, temple, or other permanent dwelling.
- In order to keep their ability to Turn Fiends, the fiend slay must never associate with evil-aligned extraplanar creatures (this includes such creatures as evil genies and is not limited to fiends) and must uphold one special vow determined by the player (with the DM’s approval). Examples include fasting twice each week, chastity, silence, poverty, or celibacy. Violating these vows does not cause the fiend slayer to lose any other abilities of the kit or his class. Obviously a fiend slayer who fights in the Blood War regularly violates this and lacks the Turn Fiends ability.
- Fiend slayers are required to slay at least one specimen of their chosen enemy in order to advance each level beyond 7th level (number of Hit Dice equal to the fiend slayer’s level). This
must be done each time the fiend slayer receives enough experience points to advance to another level. - The fiend slayer is both drawn to dark knowledge and repelled by it; part of him is tainted with corruption though he still resists it. For each level a fiend slayer gains, he must make a saving throw versus death magic. If he fails, he loses a point of Willpower. If his Willpower score drops below 3, he becomes permanently insane (generally as per the mindshatter priest spell).
- The stench of fiend blood is nearly impossible to cleanse from a body or spirit. As a result fiend slayers suffer a -3 penalty on NPC reactions when dealing with any evil-aligned extraplanar creature. Further, members of the race chosen as their specific fiendish enemy recognize them on sight (which means generally attacking them on sight).
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