Dreadmaster of Bane Inquisitor Archetype

Dreadmasters are the ultimate tyrants. They seek to rule absolutely (next to, of course, Bane himself), preferably through terror and domination. They instill the fear of Bane in all, but especially in those who do not give at least lip service to his supremacy as a deity.

Before the Time of Troubles, Bane’s specialty priests only comprised about 10% of the clergy of the church, and they mostly held lower rank stations; many of them operated outside the rigid church hierarchy, and were mainly adventurers and hermits seeking to create their own power base to eventually destroy the others. This came to fruition by standing firm in their loyalty to Bane even after his apparent death. Since the Black Hand’s resurrection and reascension to the domain of tyranny and hatred, he has moved harshly amidst his once-followers to purge those who turned to Cyric and would not repent, and most of those that had remained loyal were Bane’s specialty priests. Dreadmasters have quickly surged to a majority of the priesthood — comprising at least two-thirds, with the remainder being shared amongst other clergy. To be dubbed Dreadmaster is to claim what these servants feel is the true position of favor in Bane’s unholy regime.

Dreadmasters tend to accumulate followers and build organizations – like churches or societies, or political bodies such as kingdoms, nations, or city-states – over which they can rule with an iron fist. They want to know everything that is going on, overseeing every detail with what they see as ruthless precision and others see as an obsessive need to control. They love to accumulate items that enhance their personal presence to better cow others, their physical strength to better beat the weak into submission, or their wisdom or mental faculties to better plot the doom of their enemies. Dreadmasters always have many enemies (whether real or imagined).

Patron Deity and Alignment: A dreadmaster must be Lawful Evil, and have Bane as his patron.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A dreadmaster is proficient in all simple weapons; he is profient in all kinds of armor, and all shields including tower shield. This alters the inquisitor’s profieiencies.

Domain: A dreadmaster must choose a domain, rather than an inquisition, and further he must choose either the Fear, Hatred or Tyranny subdomain. He gains not only the abilities of the domain chosen, but also the domain spells up to 6th level as bonus spells known. The domain spells up to 6th level — like those of a cleric — are considered to be on the dreadmaster’s spell list for the purpose of spell trigger and completion items. Domain spells of 7th level or higher are not considered part of the dreadmaster’s spell list for any purpose. This replaces inquisition and monster lore.

Dominating Aura (Su): At 2nd level, enemies within 20 feet of a dreadmaster suffer a -4 morale penalty on saving throws against fear effects. The radius of this aura increases by 10 feet at 6th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. This replaces track.

Dread Servant: At 6th level the dreadmaster gains the service of a profane servant gifted him by the Black Hand. This functions similarly to the Paladin’s Divine Bond or the Antipalain’s Fiendish Boon; the types of possible servants that can be gained from this boon are listed in the table below, and available at the speficied levels. Once per day, as a full-round action, the dreadmaster may magically call his servant to his side. The servant will act with loyalty equal to that of one of the dreadmaster’s cohorts according to his Leadership score. The servant immediately appears adjacent to the dreadmaster, and remains for up to 10 minutes per level of the dreadmaster, unless it is ordered to enter combat, at which time the servant will dismiss in a number of rounds equal to the dreadmaster’s level; the dreadmaster can actively dismiss the servant before this duration as a standard action. If the servant dies, it is 30 days before the dreadmaster can call another servant.

This ability is the equivalent of a summon monster spell of a level equal to one-half the dreadmaster’s level (maximum 9th level). He can use this ability once per day at 6th level, and one additional time per day every 6 levels thereafter, for a total of three times per day at 18th level. This replaces the 6th, 12th, and 18th level Teamwork Feats.

Enhanced Leadership (Ex): At 8th level, the dreadmaster gains the Leadership feat, and receives a +2 bonus to his Leadership score. This increases to +4 at 12th level and +6 at 16th level. (He still cannot attract a cohort of greater than his character level.) At 17th level, a dreadmaster does not suffer the -2 cumulative Leadership penalty for causing the death of a cohort for up to one cohort for every four class levels, and he does not suffer the normal general -2 Leadership penalty for cruelty. The dreadmaster does not gain second judgment until 16th level. This replaces third judgment and slayer, and alters second judgment.