The Nature's Avenger[D&D Prestige Class]

The Nature's Avenger
Nature's avengers are dedicated to ridding the natural world of what they deem abominations, perversions of nature, and the unnatural – aberrations, constructs, oozes, and undead.

Almost all nature's avengers are rangers. Elves and other races of nature favor this class.



Requirements
To qualify to become a nature's avenger (NtAv), a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any nonchaotic.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Feats: Track.
Race: The character must be native to the Prime Material Plane and cannot be an aberration, construct, ooze, or undead.
Skills: Knowledge (Nature) 8, Spot 8, Survival 4, and a minimum of four ranks in the knowledge skills corresponding to the Favored Enemies that satisfies the Special Requirement (minimum of two ranks per enemy): Arcana (Constructs), Dungeoneering (Aberrations and Oozes), and/or Religion (Undead).
Spells: The character must be able to cast summon nature's ally as a divine spell.
Special: The character must have the Favored Enemy class feature against two of the following: Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, or Undead. These four creature types are considered Unnatural Enemies for the purposes of this prestige class. The character cannot have as a Favored Enemy any of the following: Animal, Fey, Plant, or Vermin.

Game Rule Information
Nature's avengers have the following game statistics.

Base Attack Bonus: Good (as a horizon walker).
Hit Die: d8.
Saves: Good Fortitude and Reflex / Poor Will.
Class Skills: The nature's avenger's class skills are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str). Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Intelligence modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the nature's avenger prestige class.

Weapons and Armor Proficiency: Nature's avengers gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

1. Detect Abominations, The Natural Order, Perverse Lore, Spellcasting [+1 Spellcasting]
   
2. Nature's Wrath [1/day]
   
3. Favored Magic
   
4. Gaea's Blessing [+1 Spellcasting]
   
5. Unnatural Enemy
   
6. Forces of Nature
   
7. Nature's Wrath [2/day] [+1 Spellcasting]
   
8. Nemesis Organica
   
9. Restore the Natural Order
   
10. Unnatural Enemy [+1 Spellcasting]
    

Detect Abominations
The nature's avenger can sense disturbances in the balance of the natural world. She can sense abominations as a paladin detects evil. This spell-like ability functions as the detect undead spell cast by a cleric of her nature's avenger level, except that it detects Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead.

The Natural Order
The nature's avenger follows a credo of preserving the natural world and the natural order. Violating this code causes her to lose her class abilities until she atones (see Ex-Nature's Avengers below):

• She must never animate or create Undead creatures.
  
• She must never craft a Construct.
  
• She must never call or summon an Outsider.
  
• She must never allow herself to be returned from the dead with the raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, or wish spells. The nature's avenger may be returned from the dead normally, however, with reincarnation and a miracle.
  
• She must never suffer an abomination to live. Whenever she is capable and able, the nature's avenger must attempt to destroy Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead that she encounters – unless doing so would mean certain defeat or her death. When she encounters a group of enemies that includes abominations, she must target the abomination first with her attacks.

Perverse Lore
She accumulates lore and knowledge about the creatures to whose destruction she is devoted. The nature's avenger receives a bonus equal to 1 + half her nature's avenger level to all Knowledge (Arcana) checks regarding Constructs, all Knowledge (Dungeoneering) checks regarding Aberrations and Oozes, and all Knowledge (Religion) checks regarding Undead. This is extraordinary.

Spellcasting [1st/4th/7th/10th level]
At the indicated levels, the nature's avenger gains spellcasting ability as if she had also gained a level in whatever class met the Spells requirement of this prestige class. If she had more than one class that met that requirement, she must designate the one class to benefit from this progression, a decision that cannot be later changed.

Nature's Wrath [2nd/7th level]
She can evoke the power of nature itself to smite abominations. Once per day at 2nd level and every 5 levels thereafter, the nature's avenger can smite Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead. She must declare her intention to use Nature's Wrath before she makes her attack rolls, and it applies to all of her strikes that round against these abominations. She adds her Wisdom modifier (if positive) to her melee attack roll and her nature's avenger level to any damage inflicted. This is supernatural.

Favored Magic [3rd level]
The nature's avenger's hatred of abominations empowers her magic. She may apply her Favored Enemy bonuses to the Difficult Class of all spells cast against her Unnatural Enemies. This is extraordinary.

Gaea's Blessing [4th level]
Nature favors its avenger. She receives a bonus to all saving throws equal to her Wisdom modifier (to a minimum of +1) against the supernatural and spell-like abilities of her Unnatural Enemies. This is extraordinary.

Unnatural Enemy [5th/10th level]
Her skill at hunting down and destroying her favored enemies increases. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter, the nature's avenger may select an additional Favored Enemy from the Unnatural Enemy list, until all four creature types are selected. In addition, at each such interval, the bonuses against all her existing Unnatural Enemies increases by 1. This is extraordinary.

Forces of Nature [6th level]
The nature's avenger can enlist the forces of nature. Once per day, she may summon creatures as if she had cast one or more summon nature's ally spells as cast by a druid of her character level. She can opt to summon one or several creatures as if she had simultaneously cast summon nature's ally spells of a combined spell level equal to her nature's avenger level. For example, a 6th-level nature's avenger can summon one creature as if she had cast summon nature's ally VI, two creatures as if she had cast summon nature's ally II and summon nature's ally IV, six creatures as if six summon nature's ally I spells were cast, or any similar combination. This is a spell-like ability.

Nemesis Organica [7th level]
She can use nature itself to destroy abominations. When using any of her natural attacks or using any weapon composed almost entirely of bone, wood, or stone – such as sling stones, quarterstaffs, and greatclubs – the weapon is treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming the damage reduction of Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead. Nemesis Organica only applies to weapons whose damaging edge or facet is composed of bone, wood, or stone; for example, metal-tipped wooden arrows would not be affected, but a wooden club with a metal handle would. This is supernatural.

Restore the Natural Order [9th level]
The nature's avenger can rid her environment of the unnatural. Once per day, she can force all Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead within a 60-foot radius to make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + nature's avenger level + Wisdom modifier). Any such abominations with the Extraplanar type that fail the save are returned to their native planes, as the banishment spell cast by a cleric of her character level. Aberrations and Oozes without the Extraplanar type are plane shifted to a random plane, as the spell cast by a cleric of her character level. Constructs are rendered inanimate and returned to their individual components, as Mordenkainen's disjunction cast by a cleric of her character level. Undead that fail the save are instantly destroyed. This is a spell-like ability.


Ex-Nature's Avenger: Nature's avengers who switch to a chaotic alignment can no longer progress as nature's avengers but do not lose access to any abilities already acquired. Nature's avengers who violate the Natural Order cannot progress as nature's avengers and lose all class features until they receive atonement for their violation. Nature's avengers who take on Animals, Fey, Plants, or Vermin as a favored enemy can never again progress as nature's avengers and lose all class features.

Epic Nature's Avenger: The epic-level nature's avenger continues her Hit Die, skill point, Nature's Wrath, Perverse Lore, and Unnatural Enemies progressions. In addition, she receives bonus epic feats at 14th level and every four levels thereafter (14th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, etc.).

History: Originally posted on the Wizards of the Coast message boards in October of 2003.

Board Link: To feedback on this class posted on the Wizards of the Coast message boards.