Avenger

An avenger, sometimes also called a dark knight, was an agent of one or more gods who sought to bring divine wrath unto the enemies of their divine patron. It was also the name given to paladins who followed the Oath of Vengeance, swearing to hunt down and punish those who had committed grievous sins.

Activities
Some avengers served as well-crafted weapons of their deity. Invested with traditions both ancient and quite often secret, they hunted the enemies of their faith and struck them down. Of all a god's agents, they were the most deadly, marked and empowered by rituals of investiture similar but not identical to those that which marked the training of a cleric or paladin. They were most often tasked with the duty of being an instrument of divine justice, wielding it to root out enemies and to defend the innocent.

Other paladins took up the oath of an avenger in response to witnessing great evils or injustices, committing themselves to punishing those responsible even at the expense of their own purity or righteousness. The tenants to which these vengeful knights ascribed varied, but they always swore to exterminate the targets of their oath of vengeance without mercy and by any means necessary. These paladins often believed that evil deeds only occurred because warriors like them had failed to stop the evildoers, and as such, they tended to keep their focus always on the greatest evil that they could thwart.

The nature of the targets of an avenger's enmity varied based on their religion or their oath.

Culture
Most avengers were sworn to the service of a god, but some were known to serve multiple gods or none at all, instead drawing power from their divinely-inspired mission of vengeance.

Organized groups of avengers were not a part of every faith. This was for the simple reason that the work of an avenger was abhorrent to pacifists as they were often seen as mere killers who simply happened to serve on behalf of the divine. Members of their own religion might be as likely to view avengers as heretics as champions, or perhaps only as an unpleasant necessity. As a result, many avenger traditions were so secretive that they were largely forgotten by the uninitiated. This was not a problem for avengers, whose methodology required a degree of focus that made outside distractions unwanted. Most avengers were, in fact, trained in monasteries akin to those used by monks. Avenger traditions were most common among humans, but elves, or shifters were also known to train avengers.

Given that their duties were contrary at times to the mandate of a god with a forgiving or compassionate nature, avengers most commonly served deities that were neutral or unaligned or even evil rather than those that were outwardly good. Avenger orders dedicated to Bahamut, Corellon, Moradin, and Sehanine Moonbow were said to exist, and it was not unusual for paladins of Helm, Hoar, or Tyr to follow the Oath of Vengeance and become avengers. Meanwhile, orders of evil avengers dedicated to the likes of Asmodeus, Lolth, or Zehir were also said to exist. Avengers were often also aligned along the lines of ancient feuds between the gods, seeking out the worshipers of their patron's rival or enemy.

The mightiest of avengers might seek to pursue more lofty paths, such as that of the Hammer of Judgment&mdash;dedicated to making oneself a more well-rounded tool for their god rather than a mere weapon &mdash;or the Unveiled Visage&mdash;in which the avenger would come to slowly take on the face and aspect of their divine patron. Additionally, more powerful and sinister sects of avengers were said to exist, such as the Oathsworn&mdash;whose mere words carried divine weight &mdash;and the so-called Zealous Assassins&mdash;who embraced stealth and secrecy to eliminate their god's enemies.

Abilities
Avengers were trained to devastate their foes by methodically by eliminating one target at a time.

Like other divine spellcasters, cast prayers, also known as divine spells. Avengers, like clerics and paladins but unlike invokers, drew on the power of their god through rituals of investiture and sophisticated training, rather than by innate talent. However, avengers so internalized these rites that it could be said that they cast prayers instinctively, rather than with conscious purpose.

Monastically-trained avengers needed no heavy armor and could be content with the use of only simple weapons. This was because an avenger's god warded them with divine magic, and an avenger's prayers were deadly enough that there was little need a weapon more deadly than a dagger or spear. For example, they could swear an oath of enmity against a foe, which would give them deadly accuracy in their attacks and allowed them to magically censure their opponents. Avengers commonly used holy symbols as implements.

Avengers could additionally channel divinity, such as to adjure enemies&mdash;to denounce, terrify, and slow their foes, particularly fiends &mdash;to abjure undead&mdash;with which they blasted an undead creature with radiant energy and drew it closer to be struck again&mdash;and to offer divine guidance&mdash;which enabled them to imbue an ally with their god’s power, giving them the chance to attack a foe against whom the avenger had directed their oath of enmity.

Avenger Variants
All avengers were trained to focus their mind, body, and soul towards the goal of eliminating the foes of their god. However, how they did this varied from avenger to avenger, though most followed one of the following paths:

Commanding avenger
While most avengers preferred to hunt the enemies of their faith as a solitary hunter, some preferred to work in packs. Such avengers were most often commanding avengers, who learned the censure of unity prayer, which enabled an avenger to take advantage of their allies' positioning to corner an enemy. Like other avengers, practitioners of the censure of unity valued a high degree of perceptiveness in their line of work, but commanding avengers also encouraged intellectual growth and, to a lesser degree, nimble reflexes.

Isolating avenger
Isolating avengers aimed in battle to corner their foes and cut them off from potential allies, skewing the situation against them. As such, isolating avengers focused on taking down one enemy and one enemy alone at a time, often learning the censure of retribution variety of oath of enmity, which made it dangerous for other enemies to intervene in an avenger's fight. Focused even compared to other avengers isolating avengers were both wise and intelligent, having a tactical awareness of the battlefield that made them challenging enemies.

Oath of Vengeance
Not necessarily bound to a deity, these avengers nevertheless embodied the righteousness of an avenging angel, so much so that the greatest among them could assume an angelic form in battle. They could channel divinity to frighten their enemies or transform their enmity into heightened combat prowess against a hated enemy, and they were adept at running down their foes with relentless attacks. Paladins that dedicated themselves to the tenets of this oath were granted access to an additional set of spells that included bane, hunter's mark, hold person, misty step, haste, protection from energy, banishment, dimension door, hold monster, and scrying.

Pursuing avenger
Agile and dexterous pursuing avengers took the approach of earnest persistence as their methodology. Although pursuing avengers were less capable than other avengers of manipulating the battlefield to their benefit, they had a dogged tenacity about them that made it difficult for their target to escape, no matter how or where they fled. Often learning to use oath of enmity through the censure of pursuit prayer, pursuing avengers learned to exploit the stumbles and mistakes a fleeing enemy makes, using this in conjunction with divine magic to reap attacks that were even more deadly on escaping foes than those who turned and fought upfront. As one might expect, pursuing avengers valued both awareness of one’s environment as well as a high degree of dexterity.

Relationships
Avengers were largely defined by their enemies. While those who swore their own Oaths of Vengeance defined these enemies for themselves, those who belonged to a god's church had their enemies defined for them. For example:
 * Avengers of Bahamut were said to hunt chromatic dragons and followers of Tiamat, but also to oppose unjust leaders and even everyday liars and bullies.
 * Avengers of Corellon were said to hunt drow followers of Lolth as well as fomorians and any who would threaten or destroy beauty or magic.
 * Avengers of Moradin were said to hunt cultists dedicated to evil primordials, traditional dwarven enemies such as azers and duergar, as well as traitors or those who would leach off dwarven society.

History
In the late 15 century DR, the Harpers were known to recruit avengers as agents.

Following the Second Sundering, a few paladins of the Order of the Gilded Eye followed the Oath of Vengeance. The order safeguarded Helm's Hold at the edge of Neverwinter Wood.