Hellknight Signifer

Hellknight signifers form the spellcasting arm of the Hellknight orders. They serve as faceless enforcers of order and use their magical powers to relentlessly root out and punish criminals to the letter of the law. They wear masks— often featureless—to mark themselves as impersonal agents of order, unswayed by empathy, detached from emotion, and dedicated to passing impartial judgment upon all lawbreakers. A signifer’s distinctive mask is a symbol of his devotion to the precepts of law and exacting justice, and it serves as the focus for several of his signifer powers. Traditionally, signifers are arcane or divine spellcasters. As a signifer must be lawful, clerics who take this prestige class generally worship lawful deities, with the majority being worshipers of Abadar or Asmodeus. Despite trends toward diabolism, overall a signifer’s views of good and evil are defined by his Hellknight order first and everything else second. While it’s certainly possible for a psychic spellcaster to become a Hellknight signifer, to date, such examples are relatively rare among the various Hellknight orders. Yet in time, as such magic spreads and gains acceptance, psychic Hellknight signifers may well grow more common.

A Hellknight signifer’s lawful aura (see the detect law spell) functions as that of a cleric whose level is equal to the Hellknight signifer’s character level.

If a Hellknight signifer has the Warrior Priest feat, his class level stacks with other divine spellcasting classes for determining the effects of those classes’ domain powers, inquisitions, and mysteries. This doesn’t grant any new powers or abilities. In addition, a Hellknight signifer with the Warrior Priest feat gains Alignment Channel (chaos) as a bonus feat, and treats his Hellknight signifer levels as cleric levels when determining the amount of damage healed or dealt and saving throw DCs of his channeled energy.

A Hellknight signifer chooses a Hellknight order to join at 1st level. The most common Hellknight orders (and their favored weapon or weapons) are: Chain (flail), Gate (dagger), Godclaw (morningstar), Nail (halberd or lance), Pyre (glaive), Rack (longsword or whip), and Scourge (heavy mace or whip).

Upon initiation, a Hellknight signifer receives a mask, often devoid of eyeholes or other personal features. This mask doesn’t obscure the Hellknight signifer’s vision, and while wearing it he gains a +2 competence bonus on Sense Motive checks and on saving throws against spells and abilities that rely on visual effects.

A Hellknight signifer with a bonded object from the arcane bond class feature can perform a special ritual that costs 500 gp and takes 8 hours to complete. This ritual converts the Hellknight signifer’s mask into his new bonded object, which takes up the head slot. In this case, his Hellknight signifer levels stack with levels from the class that grants the arcane bond for determining what additional magical abilities can be added to the bonded object.

At 2nd level, if a Hellknight signifer has the Arcane Armor Training feat, he gains Arcane Armor Mastery as a bonus feat. At 5th level, the action required to use this feat changes from a swift action to a free action.

At 3rd level, while a Hellknight signifer wears Hellknight armor, he reduces the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0), and reduces the arcane spell failure chance by 5%. At 8th level, he reduces his armor check penalty by an additional 1, and reduces his arcane spell failure by an additional 5%. Additionally, at 8th level, when a Hellknight signifer’s speed is reduced by wearing medium or heavy armor, his unique training decreases the speed reduction by 5 feet.

At 4th level and again at 7th level, a Hellknight signifer gains an assiduous gaze ability chosen from the list below. A Hellknight signifer can use each assiduous gaze ability he has for a number of rounds per Hellknights Hellknights day equal to half his class level. These rounds need not be consecutive. A Hellknight signifer can activate an assiduous gaze ability as a swift action to examine a single creature, object, or 5-foot square within 30 feet. A Hellknight signifer must be wearing his signifer mask to use these abilities, and his caster level while using the ability is equal to his character level.

At 6th level, a Hellknight signifer can use discern lies as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. His caster level is equal to his total character level.

At 9th level, a Hellknight signifer gains DR 5/chaotic and becomes immune to poison.

At 10th level, as long as a Hellknight signifer wears his signifer mask, he gains telepathy with a range of 100 feet and can see perfectly in both magical and mundane darkness. While wearing his signifer mask, he is immune to blindness and dazzling effects, and gains a +2 bonus on all Charisma-based checks when interacting with lawful creatures. This bonus increases to +4 if the creature is also an outsider.

A Hellknight signifer gains proficiency with heavy armor and with one of his order’s favored weapons (see Order on page 93).