Avenger

In secret temples far from bustling cities and priestly hierarchies, orders of esoteric warriors train their initiates in ancient traditions now forgotten or forbidden by most religious organizations. The champions of these orders are avengers—deadly weapons in the hands of their gods, imbued with divine power through secret rites of initiation. In battle, avengers swear to execute divine vengeance, entering a mental state that gives them unerring focus on a single enemy.

As an avenger, you were trained in a monastery, initiated through secret rites, and imbued with the power to smite your god's foes. You might be a disciple of Corellon, sworn to hunt and exterminate the minions of Lolth until you one day face the Spider Queen. You could be an agent of Shar, bringing death to those who would defy your mistress. Or perhaps you serve Torm as an agent of justice, bringing ruin to tyrants and oppressors. The organizations devoted to your god might view you as a heretic or a hero, but you answer only to your god and to the vows you swore upon your initiation as an avenger.

Where will those vows lead you? One thing is certain: Doing the will of your god is never easy and never free of peril.

Class Traits

Role: Striker. Your oaths bring divine wrath upon the enemies of your god. With methodical devastation, you eliminate one foe at a time. You lean toward controller as a secondary role.
Power Source: Divine. You practice mysteries forgotten or forbidden by most religious orders, yet the power you wield is a gift from your god.
Key Abilities: Wisdom, Dexterity, Intelligence

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged
Implements: Holy symbols
Bonus to Defense: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will

Hit Points at 1st Level: 14 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Religion. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Religion (Int), Stealth (Dex), Streetwise (Cha)
Class Features: Armor of Faith, Avenger's Censure, Channel Divinity, oath of enmity

Creating an Avenger

The three key ability scores for an avenger are Wisdom, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Avengers typically choose feats, skills, and powers to complement the ability score related to their choice of Divine Censure.

Isolating Avenger

After you swear an oath of enmity, you keep your enemy beside you and drive other foes away. Your powers help you isolate one creature at a time and bring it down quickly and let you take vengeance when that creature’s allies get past your defenses. Your attacks use Wisdom, so it should be your best ability score. Choose Intelligence for your second-best score, reflecting your keen tactical awareness. Select powers that help you sequester your foe from
its allies.
Suggested Class Feature: Censure of Retribution
Suggested Feat: Toughness
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Religion, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: bond of retribution, overwhelming strike
Suggested Encounter Power: avenging echo
Suggested Daily Power: temple of light

Pursuing Avenger

Once you swear an oath of enmity against an enemy, you pursue that creature wherever it goes. As much as it might try to escape your wrath, your powers let you follow it and punish it for trying to flee. Make Wisdom your highest ability score, and make Dexterity your second-best score to help you nimbly pursue your foe. Select powers that prevent your foe from moving away from you or that let you shift or teleport to the foe's side.

Suggested Class Feature: Censure of Pursuit
Suggested Feat: Invigorating Pursuit
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Perception, Religion, Stealth
Suggested At-Will Powers: bond of pursuit, radiant vengeance
Suggested Encounter Power: angelic alacrity
Suggested Daily Power: oath of the final duel

Avenger Class Features

Avengers have the following class features.

Armor of Faith

The favor of your deity wards you from harm. While you are neither wearing heavy armor nor using a shield, you gain a +3 bonus to AC.

Avenger's Censure

As an avenger, you train your mind, body, and soul toward one purpose: destroying the enemies of your faith. To that end, you gain divine aid in pursuing a single target, though the way you eliminate that enemy varies. Do you pin your foe down and keep other enemies away, or do you pursue your foe across the field of battle?

Choose one of these options. Your choice provides bonuses to certain avenger powers, as detailed in those powers.

Censure of Pursuit: If your oath of enmity target moves away from you willingly, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against the target equal to 2 + your Dexterity modifier until the end of your next turn. The bonus increases to 4 + your Dexterity modifier at 11th level and 6 + your Dexterity modifier at 21st level.

Censure of Retribution: When any enemy other than your oath of enmity target hits you, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against your oath of enmity target equal to your Intelligence modifier until the end of your next turn. This bonus is cumulative.

Channel Divinity

Once per encounter, you can use a Channel Divinity power. You start with two Channel Divinity powers: abjure undead and divine guidance. You can gain additional Channel Divinity powers by taking divinity feats.

Oath of Enmity

Your god gives you the power to strike down your chosen prey. You gain the oath of enmity power.

Avengers and Deities

Choice of Deity

Each avenger chooses a single deity from the pantheon and gives his or her exclusive service to that deity (see "Deities of Toril", Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, page 150). Most avengers are trained at secret temples or monasteries where they learn esoteric doctrines and hidden legends that often suggest the superiority of their deity over all others.

A ceremony of investiture at your home temple, which culminated in an experience that seemed like a manifestation of your deity, granted you the ability to wield your divine powers. Your investiture complete, you left your temple to travel the world in the service of your deity and your order—or perhaps you fled your order and now seek a way to serve your god beyond the order's strictures. Whatever relationship you have with your order, nothing can remove the spark of divine power within you. What you do with that power is yours to decide.

Choice of Alignment

You must choose an alignment compatible with the deity you serve. Good avengers serve good deities, lawful good avengers serve lawful good deities, and so on. However,if you are unaligned, you can serve any deity, for avengers' work often leads to a certain level of disillusionment and detachment that prompts them to be unaligned.

Implements

Like clerics and paladins, avengers use holy symbols to help channel and direct their divine powers. When they make their own holy symbols, the symbols are often different in some detail from the symbols used by other characters, yet avengers can use the same holy symbols used by clerics and paladins.

When you wear or hold a magic holy symbol, you can add its enhancement bonus to the attack rolls and the damage rolls of avenger powers and avenger paragon path powers that have the implement keyword. Without a holy symbol, you can still use these powers.

Character Classes
Player's Handbook ClericFighterPaladinRangerRogueWarlockWarlordWizard
Player's Handbook 2 AvengerBarbarianBardDruidInvokerShamanSorcererWarden
Player's Handbook 3 ArdentBattlemindMonkPsionRunepriestSeeker
Setting-Specific Artificer (Eberron Player's Guide) ✦ Swordmage (Forgotten Realms Player's Guide)
Character Classes

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