The Knights of Salvation (PrC)

[Shadow of the Sun]

This is my first ever Prestige class, but it is one I have had in my head for a while. It is probably pretty bad, but constructive criticism is just that- constructive. So with no further ado-


The Sin-Eater

There is nothing that exists that does not deserve compassion. And we are the most compassionate people anywhere, ever.
-Andros Gormarkra, founder of the Knights of Salvation


The Knights of Salvation are the ultimate beings of compassion. Known in the vulgar as the Sin-Eaters, they give up everything to save other people- the favour of their gods, their status in their religion, their relationships with other people and their place in the afterlife.

Prestige Class

Requirements: +5 BAB, Chaotic Good/Chaotic Neutral, Knowledge:Religion 5
BAB: +1/1
Skill Points: 4+Int Modifier
Class Skills: Concentration, Knowledge:Religion, Spot, Listen, Ride, Sense Motive, Survival, Intimidate.

Hit Die: D10

Class Features:
1: Eat Sin, Dark Soul
2: Detect Evil
3: Bonus Ability, Bonus Feat
4: Sinful Strike
5: Bonus Feat
6: Demonic Augmentations
7: Bonus Ability, Bonus Feat
8: Instant Karma
9: Bonus Ability
10: Demonic Manifestation

Eat Sin: A Sin-Eater sees it as his duty to save other people from the hells or the Abyss. To do this, he takes on the sins of any being he kills or that dies near him, known as Eating Sin. After combat, or should any creature die near him, he must enter a meditative state for a number of rounds equal to the people or creatures that died near him. For each round he stays like this, he heals 1d6 of damage to himself. An Ex-Sin-Eater has no obligation to perform this ability- he still can, but it is optional.

Dark Soul: At this stage a Sin-Eater has absorbed enough sins off of other beings for him to scan as always evil to Detect Evil effects, no matter what alignment he actually is. He exudes an aura of unpleasantness, which makes other sentient beings avoid him (A -2 to Charisma and a +4 to Intimidate checks)

Sinful Strike: As a Sin-Eater- a being who has absorbed the darkness of other beings, he can call upon the darkness in his soul to empower his attacks. He calls upon his inner darkness, which adds 3d6 to a single attack, while doing 3d6 damage to himself as backlash from his darkness. The damage dealt to enemies increases by 1d6 for every following even level the character takes of Sin-Eater while the damage to himself remains 3d6. This is a spell-like ability, useable 5 times a day. The damage is treated as magical.

Demonic Augmentations: The darkness in the Sin-Eaters soul has begun to give him even more demonic characteristics. He gains 3 Damage reduction, increasing to 6 at the tenth level of Sin Eater.

Instant Karma: The Sin-Eater can detect the sins of another being, and using his powers, cause it to ignite, doing 4d6 damage to Good Enemies, 4d8 damage to Neutral enemies and 4d10 to Evil enemies. Usable 10 times a day. Causes a fort save. Good Outsiders are immune to this ability.

Demonic Manifestation: A Sin Eater can call fully upon the darkness in his soul, causing his body to temporarily warp into a more powerful form. He gains +10 damage to each of his attacks while taking 1d6 damage per round due to the damage the manifested evil does to his body. Lasts 10 rounds or until the player decides to end it. Usable once per day.

Bonus Abilities:

Evil Conditioning: A Sin-Eater has to deal with the effects of evil on his body daily, and as such, can condition himself to it. Taking this ability allows you to re-roll any one die that determines damage due to the abilities Sinful Strike or Demonic Manifestation.

Force of Personality: A Sin-Eater can develop his personality so strongly that he loses the charisma penalty from Dark Soul. As a side effect of his personality being so strong, he may make a Concentration check whenever he is affected by Detect Evil so that it show his true alignment.

Karmic Strike: By training himself well, a Sin-Eater can call upon his own sins while igniting those of his enemy. He may combine the effects of his sinful strike and Instant Karma into one attack, known as Karmic Strike. This attack is usable 5 times a day, replacing Sinful Strike and reducing the number of times Instant Karma can be used to 5 times a day.

Beacon: A Sin-Eater can temporarily highlight his enemies sins, calling forth a fiendish being from the surroundings to attack his foe. Treat this spell as Summon Monster IV which can only summon monsters with a fiendish qualifier. After the opponent has died, the summoned creature will engage battle with the Sin-Eater and his party.

Protection: A Sin-Eater can manifest the evil in his soul to create a barrier that is nigh intolerable to good creatures and beings. Treat this as casting Protection from Good. The backlash from using his evil lie this causes 3d6 of damage to the caster. This effect can be used 3 times a day.

Bonus Feats: As per a fighter

Ex-Sin-Eaters: If a Sin-Eater changes alignment to evil the Knights of Salvation’s diviners will pick up on the fact, and a squad of elite Sin-Eaters will be sent to “redeem” the rogue member.

Lore: The Knights of Salvation are a heretic order founded by Former Paladin Andros Gormarkra when he had an epiphany while observing his fellow Paladins. After observing his fellow Paladins strike down many evil foes, he reasoned that if anything, Paladins should be helping those that are evil redeem themselves. After trying this on some of his missions, he was appalled to see that evil beings, when faced with redemption or death, would often choose death, he reasoned that if they did not choose redemption he could force it upon them. Using his knowledge of religious rituals, he found just what he needed: A ritual that would remove the sins from his enemies and place them into himself. Feeling that his place in the afterlife was a welcome price to pay for redeeming others, he started performing the ritual on every being he killed. Upon doing this, he was cast out by his god by subverting His authority and subverting the orders of nature. Andros did not care- he continued with his spree of salvation, seeking out as many equal minded beings as possible.

After he had gathered 50 like minded people, he taught them the ritual, and started to experiment with the changes that the absorption of vast quantities of sin had done to him. After lengthy research, he understood his abilities and wrote a code for his fellow Sin-Eaters. This code preached compassion to all beings. Thus the Knights of Salvation were formed.

Relations with other classes: Sin-Eaters are generally on good terms with arcane spell casters, and most melee users despite their aura of unpleasantness. However Sin-Eaters are despised by the religious- the clerics for subverting the powers of their god and the druids for breaking the order of nature. However, the Sin-Eater has an incredible hatred of Paladins, which is returned equally, if not more so. Sin-Eaters hate Paladins because that although Paladins have the power too, the do not redeem any being they kill- they are failing in their duty to the people. Paladins hate Sin-Eaters because they perceive them as evil due to their dark souls, their open use of evil abilities and due to the fact they subvert the gods- what is considered to be the ultimate arrogance.

[cferejohn]

This is a pretty cool idea, I think. A couple random things:

* It seems like good outsiders should be immune to Instant Karma. Archons, Planetars, Solars, etc. are kind of the definition of good, and I would think that they would be free of sin by definition.

* Can animals/oozes/vermin and other things with Int 2 or lower "sin"? Seems like sin requires knowledge of right and wrong.

* What happens if someone killed by a sin-eater is raised? Are they reborn without sin? What does that mean, game-wise?

[Shadow of the Sun]

I will add all of those, thanks. I define Sin as an act that is in violation of a god. Intent has nothing to do with it, so oozes will still have some sin. Babies are considered sinful by some religions, so animals will too.

If someone killed by a sin-eater is raised they either 1:do not agree to go back due to the fact they are in as good an afterlife as you can get or 2: Comeback with the same personality, but a clean slate. No sins on them, so they can either continue as they were or become pious- it is up to the person playing the character.

[illathid]

I Like the flavor and mechanics. It seems like it would be a fun type of character to play. I take it you like The Order?

[Tussy the Druid]

I like the flavor of it. Very interesting how good people use evil powers.

Do they lose class features if they become evil? You said they're hunted down, but suppose they trick the trackers or something.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Essentially, once you know how to do it, you keep that knowledge. I have to update it to include something for ex-knights- they are not bound by the code any more, so are not obligated to use the eat sin power.

[Matthew]

I like this idea. Sounds very campaign specific, but in a good way.

[Skydiving_Ninja]

I like this idea too. A sort of "ends-justify-the-means" paladin that will use evil to destroy evil. Nice.

[knightsaline]

Question, can a paladin who takes levels in this class go back to being a paladin?

[Shadow of the Sun]

Nope. This class is subverting the god's judgment, which in turn makes anyone who has this class forsaken by the gods next to permanently. So no more paladin or cleric after you have taken this class- and you lose all of your divine spells after taking it.