General Prestige Class : Vengeance Sworn
by Keith Strohm with Dragon Staff, Dragon #296
Born from the aftermath of dragon-wrought tragedy, death and destruction, the vengeance sworn focus their hatred of dragons and desire for revenge into a divinely sealed oath that drives them beyond the limits of mortal endurance. Battle-hardened and tested by the harsh environments in which they live, vengeance sword characters travel through rugged mountains and across trackless seas to sate their burning desire for dragon blood.
In battle, the vengeance sworn are relentless, implacable foes, hurling themselves against the gleaming scales of their draconic enemies armed only with steel weapons and their bitter fury. Among the close-knit brotherhood of warriors, vengeance sworn are given wide berth, as their often single-minded purpose sets them at odds with their more mercenary brethren. Still, their reputation for ferocity and true skill in battle wins them a place among many adventuring groups.
The vengeance sworn are far from common, but multi-classed characters with levels in barbarian and either cleric or druid from more primitive cultures are the most likely characters to become members of the prestige class. Rogues, monks, wizards, sorcerers, and other arcane spellcasters, however, rarely take the single-minded oath that fuels the hearts and limbs of the vengeance sworn.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Vengeance Sworn, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Intimidate 5 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Survival 5 ranks
- Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting
- Base Attack Bonus: +6
- Spellcasting: Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells.
- Special: Ability to rage.
- Special: Must have been killed by a dragon or had a loved one killed by a dragon.
Class Skills
The vengeance sworn's class skills are Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (all skills taken individually), Listen, Ride, Survival, and Swim.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the vengeance sworn prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Vengeance sworn characters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light and medium armor.
Spells Per Day: Because a vengeance sworn character continues in her worship of the divine, she increases her caster level and continues to gain new spells per day at 2nd, 6th, and 10th level. If a character possessed more than one divine spellcasting class before she became vengeance sworn, she must decide which class will receive the additional spellcasting level for purposes of determining spells per day.
Blood of Heroes (Su): Bathed in the radiance of their deity's power, the vengeance sworn are immune to a dragon's frightful presence. In addition, all allies within 10 feet of the vengeance sworn receive a +4 morale bonus to their Will saves against this fear-generating effect. In the unlikely event that the vengeance sworn also possesses a paladins aura of courage, her protective emanation improves, extending her personal immunity to the frightful presence ability to all allies within 10 feet. Any protected companion who moves beyond the range of this protective field must immediately make a Will save to resist the effects of the dragon's frightful presence.
Might of Heroes (Ex): At 3rd level, anytime the vengeance sworn is inside the radius of a dragon's frightful presence ability, she gains a +2 sacred bonus to attacks, saves and skill checks. This bonus applies only to rolls made against a creature with the dragon type, including attack rolls to his the dragon, saving throws against the dragon's spells and abilities, and similar checks. In addition, the vengeance sworn must be fighting against the dragon; in the rare instance where a vengeance sworn might be allied with a dragon, the allied dragon's frightful presence ability does not trigger the might of heroes ability.
Rage (Ex): The oath-stirred fires of a vengeance sworn's anger allows her to rage one additional time per day. This ability functions exactly like the rage ability from the barbarian class (a prerequisite for this class). At 8th level, the vengeance sworn gains another daily use of the rage ability.
Shield of Fury (Su): At 5th level, the vengeance sworn receives a +2 sacred bonus to all saves against breath weapons. spells, and other abilities that originate with a creature with the dragon type. At 9th level, this bonus increases to +4.
Will of Heroes (Su): At 7th level, whenever the vengeance sworn is within the radius of an opposing dragon's frightful presence ability, she becomes immune to all Enchantment and Illusion effects.
Dragonslayer (Su): At 10th level, because of their passion and experience at fighting dragons, as well as their divinely inspired skills, vengeance sworn are more likely to inflict a critical hit whenever they battle a creature with the dragon type. This supernatural ability doubles the effective threat range of each of the vengeance sworn's attacks against a creature with the dragon type. This increase stacks with the Improved Critical feat and the keen weapon enhancement just like those effects stack with themselves (the increase affects the base threat range only, not the modified threat range). For example, a +1 keen longsword wielded by a vengeance sworn with the Improved Critical (longsword) feat and the dragonslayer ability would have a threat range of 13-20.
| Vengeance Sworn | Hit Die: d10 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells per Day |
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Blood of Heroes | - |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | - | +1 level of existing class |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Might of heroes | - |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Rage | - |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Shield of fury +2 | - |
| 6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +2 | - | +1 level of existing class |
| 7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Will of heroes | - |
| 8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 | Rage | - |
| 9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +3 | Shield of fury +4 | - |
| 10th | +10 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Dragonslayer | +1 level of existing class |
Source: Dragon #296