The Unholy Warrior

The Unholy Warrior
From The Unholy Warrior's Handbook by Green Ronin Publishing:

At the most basic level, unholy warriors serve evil. These characters channel the foul energies provided by dark gods, demons, devils, daemons, and many other wicked masters. Their belief in the concept of evil allows unholy warriors to cast divine spells. In many ways, the unholy warrior is an inversion of the holy warrior class, as he too chooses domains granting him various powers. As he grows in power, he accumulates gifts of darkness that buttress his already formidable skills. Even his spell abilities echo those of the champions of light. Yet the unholy warrior is unique. He is the champion of evil, lording over the weak, despoiling the righteous, and reveling in their destruction.

Adventures
The unholy warrior undertakes adventuring for many of the same reasons as other classes. She seeks out wealth, conquest, and pride in her achievements. What makes her different are her choices of foes and the types of quests she seeks. She spreads mayhem and woe. Instead of saving the brow-mopping mayor and his frontier town, she readily slaughters him before his people and drains the town's coffers to her own benefit. She kills for pleasure in ways that make the most stalwart barbarian cringe. She adventures, but never for honor, integrity, or the benefit of the good.

Characteristics
Forces of evil empower these characters. Unholy warriors are offensive powerhouses that champion the cause of wickedness. As leaders of the diabolic, they employ weapons and armor that instill fear in their foes. They employ a number of savage techniques aimed at maiming their enemies and spreading the chill hand of fear among the good.

Reinforcing their formidable combat skills are supernatural abilities determined by their own particular lord of darkness. These powers manifest themselves in the form of domains similar to clerical domains, except that they provide distinct bonuses, feats, or unusual options for use in and out of combat. Each domain confers two tiers of abilities. Most abilities granted from these domains improve as the character grows in power, while others are front-ended, giving quick reward with no long-term benefit. In addition to these powers, unholy warriors gain gifts of darkness, spells, and servants to round out their abilities.

Unfortunately, evil masters are fickle. The unholy warrior must consistently prove his worth to his lord, whether by slaying entire villages or simply sacrificing powerful magic relics stolen from temples devoted to good deities. While each domain provides distinct and powerful benefits, it also includes requirements that must be met in order to receive these advantages. The dedicated unholy warrior may grow mighty indeed, but must be vigilant against his rivals, for each seeks the status of his better while reviling his lesser.

Alignment
Unholy warriors are evil without exception. Their chosen master determines the law-chaos axis of their alignment. Demons engender chaotic evil champions, while daemons create neutral evil servants and devils spawn lawful evil ones. Those unholy warriors espousing the heretical faiths of evil gods may have lawful or chaotic evil alignments within one step of their masters.

Religion
If a power is evil, offering satiation for mortal desires and rewards for service, in all likelihood there is an unholy warrior in service to it. Unlike other classes, unholy warriors uniformly uphold the particular edicts associated with whatever foul religion they follow. It matters not if the power they uphold originated from any of the fiends of the lower planes, or even a fallen god. Some might simply embrace a philosophy celebrating hedonistic vice.

Background
While some deviants may be born to be unholy warriors, evil manufactures most of them. Rigorous desensitization, indoctrination into the path of darkness, or sudden acts of violence against those people the character loves can all chisel away the innate defenses against corruption. The agents that create such beasts reward vile acts; they encourage action without thought for the consequences and abuse the would-be unholy warrior to instill hatred, violence, and psychotic behavior. Makers of unholy warriors may kidnap prospective warriors or purchase them as slaves. In some truly dark instances, the master corrupts the prospective unholy warrior within the child's own home, having gained trust as a parent, guardian, relative, or family friend.

Races
As the most prolific race in the lands, humans make ideal unholy warriors. Human versatility also draws some deviant half-elves to this kind of work. Other common holy warrior races include drow, orcs, bugbears, duergar, and more. The normal PC races are not naturally drawn to this class; they are seduced, tainted, and corrupted into it. Of all the core races, halflings and gnomes are the least likely to embrace the path of tyranny. Although exceptions do exist, the fundamental outlooks of these diminutive peoples differ so wildly from others that it seems they, as a whole, are impervious to the advances of evil.

Other Classes
Unholy warriors categorize others into three distinct groupings.

The most obvious group is prey. This category includes the weak, clerics dedicated to good, druids, rangers, paladins and holy warriors, and generally anyone else standing in their way. Unholy warriors happily adventure with their enemies, but always with concealed intentions.

The next category is slaves. Anyone weaker than the unholy warrior is a potential servant, as long as the maggot is useful. Rogues, bards, and barbarians make good pets for the unholy warrior - provided they are unquestionably obedient.

The last category is rivals. In a way, rivals are the closest thing unholy warriors have to allies. Evil clerics, evil druids and rangers, assassins, necromancers, and blackguards all vie for the same powers. Unholy warriors prefer to work with a limited number of rivals, for treachery is common. However, members of these classes offer the highest synergy of goals, thereby proving to be most useful.

Multi-Class Holy Warriors
Dedication to the forces of absolute evil requires constant vigilance and dedication. Unholy warriors suffer the same restrictions as holy warriors concerning multiclass opportunities. Marked deviation from the cause of evil, such as branching into other standard classes, calls their devotion into question. It is a sign of weakness. As a result, the powers withdraw their favors and the unholy warrior's servants and slaves usually rebel.

Prestige classes are the one exception to the no multiclassing rule; they are a means to specialize one's character, individuating her from others of her class. An obvious choice for many unholy warriors is the blackguard, which unholy warriors can achieve by 10th level. Other prestige classes, detailed below, are specialized and designed to enhance and underscore the reaches of the unholy warrior's evil.

Ex-Unholy Warriors: Unholy warriors who knowingly perform a good act, such as exhibiting a virtue associated with one of the forbidden seven, abandon the path of the unholy warrior. Unless they atone, they become ex-unholy warriors. Characters voluntarily changing their alignments are also stripped of their powers. Ex-unholy warriors lose all class abilities and access to spells, and may never gain further levels in the unholy warrior class.