Publication:Unearthed Arcana/Tainted Warrior

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Tainted Warrior

When a character's taint threathens to exceed the capacity of his body and soul to contain it, he may become possessed by its evil power and transformed into a creature of taint. Such characters feel an irresistible urge to travel to regions of taint, often walking until their feet bleed, slaughtering anyone in the way. The lucky ones are killed by adventurers, militias, or monsters. The unlucky ones are guided by evil cults of evil deities and become transformed into living servant of evil.

Most tainted warriors were barbarians, fighters, or rangers before their taint overcame them, although a member of any race or character class can adopt this prestige class. Clerics, druids, sorcerers, and wizards are usually seduced by the tainted sorcerer class instead.

NPC tainted warriors are found near regions of taint, often serving as commanders for small groups of evil humanoids.

Hit Die: d12.

Requirements

To qualify to become a tainted warrior, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any nongood.

Base Attack Bonus: +5.

Taint: Character's taint score must be10 or more.

Special: Character must locate and join a temple devoted to an evil deity.

Class Skills

The tainted warrior's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table 6-4: The Tainted Warrior

	Base Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Taint Suppression
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Damage reduction 1/good
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Tainted strike 1/day
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Damage reduction 2/good
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	-
6th	+6	+5	+2	+2	Damage reduction 3/good
7th	+7	+5	+2	+2	Tainted strike 3/day
8th	+8	+6	+3	+2	Damage reduction 4/good
9th	+9	+6	+3	+3	-
10th	+10	+7	+3	+3	Damage reduction 5/good

Class Features

The following are class features of the tainted warrior.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Tainted warriors do not gain any additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Taint Suppression: By definitoin, a tainted warrior is overwhelmed with taint, but this taint is not immediately obvious to onlookers. A tainted sorcerer's taint manifests in mental effects-delirium, anger, and cruelty- and in internal physical effects. If a tainted warrior is split open, the internal corruptioin is obvious: His body is full of vile liquids and distored growths, even internal limbs. If a tainted warrior enters a tainted area, his corruption immediately manifests externally as well. Barring these two conditions, it is impossible to detect a tainted warrior based on appearance.

A tainted warrior no longer applies his taint score as a penalty to his Constitution, and only applies one-half his taint score as a penalty to his Wisdom.

Damage Reduction (Ex): At 2nd level, a tainted warrior gains damage reduction 1/good. The value of the character's damage reduction increases by 1 point at every even-numbered level thereafter.

Tainted Strike (Ex): A tainted warrior of 3rd level or higher can infuse a melee attack with the power of his taint. The character adds his taint score to the damage dealt by the melee attack, and the target's taint score increases by 1.

If a tainted warrior strikes a creature immune to the effects of taint (such as an undead creature or a creature with the evil subtype), the tainted strike has no effect.

A tainted warrior can use this ability once per day upon attaing 3rd level and one additional time per day for every four levels gained thereafter.

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