Silverhair Knight, Unchained

The faithful of Eilistraee are known throughout the Realms for their devotion to the arts of dancing and song, to the moonlit hunt, and to various graceful styles of sword fighting. Yet one aspect of the Dark Maiden’s faith that is often overlooked by outsiders is her stance against the unsaved drow of the Underdark. Whereas the worshipers of Lolth, Vhaeraun, and the other drow deities view the clergy of Eilistraee as bitter enemies and hated rivals, the faithful of the Dark Maiden are taught not to hate their deep-dwelling kin but to pity them and offer them mercy and sanctuary when they are encountered.

One sect of worshipers have taken this dogma a step further. These are the silverhair knights, selfless and merciful priests who seek out evil drow and use their sins against them in an attempt to show them the errors of their ways. Most silverhair knights fight these drow only with nonlethal attacks, offering them mercy even when none is sought. The most powerful silverhair knights are capable of pulling a drow’s sins from his body and absorbing them with her own strength of faith. This is a dangerous ritual, but its effects cannot be dismissed. The silverhair knights might just be the redemption of the drow race, if they can only withstand the terrible despair of the sins they release from their tortured hosts.

Silverhair knights, also known as “sin eaters,” train to aid in the conversion and subsequent protection of drow who have come to the surface of Faerûn. The silverhair knights are most active in regions where drow attempt to establish a foothold on the surface; at this point, most of the knights in this relatively new order are based in Cormanthor. Silverhair knights avoid killing drow if at all possible. Their theory is that if other drow see that silverhair knights do not advocate the slaughter of their enemies, they themselves can feel safer about abandoning the teachings of Lolth and her kin. Only when the death of a drow would directly result in saving the life of others is lethal force permitted, and even then, the silverhair knight must seek atonement for her dreadful deed.

Multiclass clerics with some levels of fighter, ranger, bard, or even barbarian have the greatest ease becoming silverhair knights. Although most silverhair knights are female drow or half-drow, any worshiper of Eilistraee that can meet the requirements, regardless of race or gender, is welcome to join the order. When a silverhair knight finds an encampment of drow, she is expected to observe the group from hiding for some time, learning their ways and personalities from afar, so that she can identify members of the group who might wish to convert. Eventually, she is expected to infiltrate the group, identify and approach possible converts, and organize their escape to a safe location.

Silverhair knights dwell in out-of-the-way areas and generally avoid cities or other large metropolitan areas unless they are guiding a reformed drow to some sanctuary within. NPC silverhair knights are thus most often encountered in the wilds, especially in areas with heavy drow activity.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Silverhair Knight, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

• Alignment: Chaotic good.
• Skills: Bluff 5 ranks, Diplomacy 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks.
• Feats: Persuasive, Weapon Focus (any sword).
• Spells: Ability to cast 2nd-level divine spells.
• Patron: Eilistraee.
• Special: A character who wishes to become a silverhair knight cannot have slain or caused the death of a drow of any alignment. If the character cannot meet this requirement, she must receive an atonement from a cleric of Eilistraee before being accepted into the order: payment for this atonement usually requires going on a quest for the church.

Class Skills

The silverhair knight’s class skills are Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Perform, Sense Motive, and Stealth.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Hit Die

d10

Advancement

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Silverhair Knights gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Awaken Sins (Su): A Silverhair Knight may cast awaken sin once per day as a supernatural ability. At third level, she may use this ability twice per day, and at fifth level she may do so three times a day.

Drow are particularly susceptible to this supernatural ability and suffer a -2 penalty on saving throws made to resist its effects.

Merciful Edge (Ex): Any sword wielded one handed by a Silverhair Knight, so long as she has one open hand, doesn’t suffer the -4 penalty for striking to subdue with a lethal weapon.

Aligned Class (Ex): Silverhair Knights come from many different backgrounds, and they show an eclectic range of diversity. At 2nd level, the Silverhair Knight must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class. She gains all the class features for this class, essentially adding every silverhair knight level beyond 1st to her aligned class to determine what class features she gains. She still retains the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks of the prestige class, but gains all other class features of her aligned class as well as those of the prestige class.

Blade of Compassion (Ex): When the Silverhair Knight is fighting one handed with her bastard sword and chooses to fight dealing nonlethal damage, she adds +1d6 nonlethal damage to the damage dealt. This counts as precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. If she is wielding a Merciful weapon, this damage bonus stacks with the damage bonus of the weapon, at level 4, this damage increases another +1d6.

Voice of Serenity (Su): At 3rd level, a Silverhair Knight’s voice takes on a strangely trustworthy and friendly lilt that soothes the suspicions and doubts of those with whom she interacts. She gains a +2 sacred bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks. Additionally, all enchantment spells she casts that have a verbal component gain a +1 sacred bonus to their save DC. If the Silverhair Knight possesses bardic performance or a similar ability, then her levels in Silverhair Knight now stack to determine the rounds of performance, and performances gained with her performance ability, as well as her effective bard level for their effects.

Consume Sins (Su): A 5th-level Silverhair Knight can perform a mysterious ritual to attempt to change the alignment of an evil fey, giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid to neutral. The Silverhair Knight must maintain unbroken physical contact with the target for a number of minutes equal to the target’s Hit Dice. The target must be conscious for the duration, but need not be willing; usually such a target is kept tightly bound for the duration, but a Silverhair Knight can disguise what she is doing by making a Bluff check (opposed by the target’s Sense Motive check). A new Bluff check must be made each minute. At the end of this duration, the target suffers 10d6 points of nonlethal damage as the full weight of sins on his conscience overwhelms him. Additionally, he must make a Will saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 the character’s level + the knight’s Charisma modifier) to resist having his alignment changed to neutral.

If the target makes the Will save to avoid alignment change, his alignment remains the same, but his sins overwhelm the caster and fill her with rage, sadness, and despair. The Silverhair Knight immediately gains a number of temporary negative levels equal to half of the target’s hit dice, plus the target’s CHA modifier. If the Silverhair Knight suffers more negative levels than her hit dice, then she dies.

Negative levels gained through a failed use of consume sins can be removed normally with a restoration spell, but doing so frees these “undigested” sins and grants the original target a +1 profane bonus per negated negative level to skill checks, attack rolls, and Will saves for the next 24 hours. Restoration of negative levels through Greater Restoration will avoid these ill effects.

If the target fails the Will save to avoid alignment change, the sins are absorbed by the Silverhair Knight’s soul and obliterated by her purity and devotion to Eilistraee. The target’s alignment immediately changes to neutral, and the Silverhair Knight gains a +4 sacred bonus to her Charisma and a +1 sacred bonus to her caster level when casting spells with the Good descriptor. These bonuses persist for a number of hours equal to half the target’s Hit Dice plus the target’s Charisma modifier.

A creature whose alignment is changed to neutral by this supernatural ability is free to make its own choices regarding future actions. Most creatures see the error of their evil ways and do not return to their evil patterns of behavior. Many switch alignments to match that of the Silverhair Knight out of gratitude for the service provided.

Consume sins is a mind-affecting supernatural ability and a fear effect. A Silverhair Knight may consume sins once per week. Drow are particularly susceptible to this ability and suffer a -2 penalty to saving throws made to resist alignment change. A single target can only be affected by an attempt to consume sins once per year.