Paladin of Slaying (3.5e Class)

Paladin of Slaying

A paladin of slaying, generally known as a slayer, is a warrior with spellcasting ability who is devoted to killing his enemies. A good aligned paladin of slaying generally seeks to kill his enemies to protect others whereas an evil aligned paladin of slaying may simply be interested in killing others to advance his own cause. A neutral aligned paladin of slaying is most likely motivated by the preservation of some balance he perceives such as the natural world or prevention of planar incursions onto the material plane.

Making a Paladin of Slaying

A paladin of slaying is versatile in combat with spells useful for dealing with a wide variety of foes but this causes them to be less effective in social situations and outside of combat in general. A paladin of slaying is best put to work on the front lines but can assist in other endeavors at high levels.

Abilities: Strength is the foremost ability for a paladin of slaying given their presence on the front lines but many of his abilities are driven by Charisma. Constitution allows a paladin of slaying to survive in close combat.

Races: Races that produce outcasts from society such as half-orcs and half-elves are most likely to produce members of this class though any race may choose to be a paladin of slaying.

Alignment: Neutral good, true neutral, and neutral evil.

Starting Gold: 4d6×10 gp (140 gp).

Starting Age: Complex.

Table: The Paladin of Slaying

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day
		Fort	Ref	Will		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Slayer's Fervor, Track	1	—	—	—
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Slayer's Vanguard	2	—	—	—
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Slayer's Courage, Slayer's Health	2	1	—	—
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1		3	2	—	—
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Slayer's Dispelling	3	2	1	—
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2		3	3	2	—
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Smite 1/day	4	3	2	1
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2		4	3	3	2
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Slayer's Emulation 1/day	4	4	3	2
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3		5	4	3	3
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3		5	4	4	3
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Smite 2/day	5	5	4	3
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4		6	5	4	4
14th	+14/+9/+5	+9	+4	+4	Slayer's Emulation 2/day	6	5	5	4
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Slayer's Spite	6	6	5	4
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5		7	6	5	5
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Smite 3/day	7	6	6	5
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6		7	7	6	5
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Slayer's Emulation 3/day	7	7	6	6
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6		7	7	7	6
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) The class skills for a paladin of slaying (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the paladin of slaying hereafter referred to as a slayer or paladin of slaying interchangeably.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:

Slayers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Slayer's Fervor (Su):

At 1st level, a slayer adds his charisma modifier as a sacred bonus to his attack and damage rolls.

Spells: A slayer has the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the slayer spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a slayer must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a slayer’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the slayer’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a slayer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Paladin of Slaying. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

A slayer need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level. He does not have to decide ahead of time which spells he’ll cast.

A slayer must meditate or pray for their ability to cast spells. Each slayer must choose a time at which he must spend 1 hour each day in quiet contemplation to regain his daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a slayer can prepare spells. Unlike most paladins a slayer's caster level is equal to his class level. Slayers cast their spells from the following list:

1st— Endure Elements, Entropic Shield, Protection vs Evil/Good/Law/Chaos, Remove Fear

2nd— Align Weapon, Delay Poison, Spider Climb, Resist Energy

3rd— Darkvision, Fly, Protection from Energy, Water Breathing

4th— Death Ward, Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement, Neutralize Poison

Track

A slayer gains Track as a bonus feat.

Slayer's Vanguard (Su):

At 2nd level, a slayer gains a bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws and as a deflection bonus to AC.

Slayer's Courage (Ex):

Beginning at 3rd level, a slayer is immune to fear (magical or otherwise).

Slayer's Health (Ex):

At 3rd level, a slayer gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

Slayer's Dispelling (Su):

At 5th level, as an immediate action, a slayer may choose to expend spell slots totalling 3 spell levels to attempt to dispel magical effects. This ability functions like dispel magic except it has no caster level limit and can potentially affect any spell that has a non-instantaneous duration. The slayer may also use this ability to counterspell spells in a manner similar to using dispel magic as a counterspell but given the immediate action requirement he may do this without readying an action.

Smite (Ex):

At 7th level, Once per day, a slayer may attempt to smite with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per slayer level. At 12th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the slayer may smite one additional time per day.

Slayer's Emulation (Su):

At 9th level, once per day as a standard action, a slayer may choose to emulate spells not on his existing spell list or even higher than 4th level using a combination of his existing spell slots. To do this the slayer must have a scroll (the scroll need not be a divine spell but the result is a divine spell) with a caster level no higher than his own and a charisma score of at least 10 + the level of the spell. The slayer must then expend spell slots at least equal to the level of the spell on the scroll after which the spell is successfully cast at the slayer's caster level without expending the scroll (thus the slayer may use the same scroll again at a later time by repeating this process). Spells with an XP or expensive material component (greater than 1 gp) require the slayer to provide that component. At 14th level and every 5 levels thereafter the slayer may use this ability an additional time per day. This ability qualifies a slayer for prerequisites requiring the ability to cast spells of up to the level of which he can emulate through a scroll.

Slayer's Spite (Su):

At 15th level, as a free action, a slayer may choose to expend spell slots totalling 8 spell levels to attempt to gain the effects of a mantle of pure spite spell except that it automatically overcomes any damage reduction (even DR/-) and your attacks are treated as bane (+2 to attack and damage rolls and dealing an extra 2d6 damage) against enemies you strike (though if an enemy has multiple types you must choose one for that given enemy).

Code of Conduct

A slayer must be of non lawful and non chaotic alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever changes to a prohibited alignment until he regains a non lawful and non chaotic alignment. The alignment of a slayer is resilient and he is willing to work with law or chaos to achieve his goals but he should not completely embrace them.

Like a member of any other class, a slayer may be a multiclass character, but multiclass slayers face a special restriction. A slayer who gains a level in any class other than slayer may never again raise his slayer level, though he retains all his slayer abilities.

Epic Paladin of Slaying

Table: The Epic Paladin of Slaying

Hit Die: d10

Level	Special
21st
22nd	Smite 4/day
23rd	Bonus Feat
24th	Slayer's Emulation 4/day
25th
26th	Bonus Feat
27th	Smite 5/day
28th
29th	Bonus Feat, Slayer's Emulation 5/day
30th
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Spells: The epic slayer’s caster level is equal to his or her class level. The slayer’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level.

Slayer's Dispelling: The epic slayer continues to add his caster level to dispel checks made with this ability as normal.

Slayer's Emulation: The epic slayer may choose to emulate spells with levels above 9th provided he expends the requisite number of spell slots and has the scroll containing the spell available. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every five levels higher than 19th.

Smite: The epic slayer adds his class level to damage with any smite attack, as normal. He can smite one additional time per day for every five levels higher than 17th.

Bonus Feats: The epic paladin of slaying gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic paladin of slaying bonus feats) every 3 levels after 20th.

Epic Paladin of Slaying Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Devastating Critical, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Great Smiting*, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Spell Capacity, Legendary Commander, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Health, Permanent Emanation, Spectral Strike*.

The * means he does not meet the prerequisites to select these feats.

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