Dreg Knight (3.5e Class)

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Grytt Hyggyr, a Human Dreg Knight.

Dreg Knight

Dreg knights are a disgusting type of creature, whose body is nothing but rot, infection, pestulence, poison, and pus, who bonds themself to the putridness in this world, who allows it to spread into their bodies, infecting them with poison, decay, and death, and who become immune to these very things in the process. Dreg knights are terrible creatures, who spread rot, plague, and decay wherever they go, destroying life with their very presence, and who can make even the most resolute creatures in this world weep from the suffering that they bring them.

Making a Dreg Knight

A dreg knight is a front line combatant before anything else, one who can take any form of attack, no matter how brutal or potent, with disturbing ease, and who can reduce even a paragon of health to a disgusting corpse on the ground with but a touch. They are warriors justly known as 'knights' who can stand before endless tides of enemies, take a thousand blows, and not even stagger for a moment. A dreg knight is a unsettling enemy upon the warground, for they radiate an almost palpable aura of death.

Abilities: Constitution is the single most important ability score to a dreg knight, since around it hinges the dreg knights hit points, and his effectiveness in battle. The Second most important ability score to a dreg knight is Strength, so that he can endanger those around him, not only from poison, but from his sheer battle prowess. Next in order of importance is Dexterity, so that the dreg knight can increase his AC and make himself more difficult to hit upon the battlefield. Lastly, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma all are of very little importance to a dreg knight. Though, Wisdom could be favored to improved upon this classes Will save, and both Intelligence and Charisma could help a dreg knight to have some skill-based capability.

Races: Any.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 6d4×10 gp (150 gp).

Starting Age: Complex, as wizard.

Table: The Dreg Knight

Hit Die: d12

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Toxin Damage
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Immunity, Toxin	1d4
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Putrid Toughness 1	1d4
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Mettle, Numb +1	1d4
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Putrid Toughness 2	1d4
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Unnatural Body	1d6
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Improved Mettle, Numb +2, Putrid Toughness 3	1d6
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	Augment Toxin	1d6
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Putrid Toughness 4, Virulence	1d6
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Numb +3	1d8
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Improved Unnatural Body, Putrid Toughness 5	1d8
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Indestructible	1d8
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Numb +4, Putrid Toughness 6	1d8
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Augment Toxin	2d6
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Putrid Toughness 7	2d6
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Greater Unnatural Body, Numb +5	2d6
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Putrid Toughness 8, Virulence	2d6
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Unbreakable	2d8
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Numb +6, Putrid Toughness 9	2d8
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Augment Toxin	2d8
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Mighty Unnatural Body, Putrid Toughness 10	2d8
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con, Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the dreg knight.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A dreg knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).

Immunity: A dreg knight is a terrible creation, whose internal anatomy is butchered, with vital organs kept isolated and healthy while venom and sludge pool and collect within every other part of their body, a racing immune system keeping their flesh just strong enough to keep them alive. A dreg knight is immune to magical and non-magical poison and disease.

Toxin (Ex): The body of a dreg knight is a terrible creation, for it leaks virulent acids from every pore, and is coverred in sores that run with the most toxic poisons know to exist. At first level, a dreg knight selects an ability score, and his body begins producing a contact poison that deals both primary and secondary damage to the selected ability score as shown on Table: The Dreg Knight. This poison offers a Fortitude save with a DC equal to (10 + half the dreg knight's HD + the dreg knight's Con mod) to negate it's effects. This poison leaks out of every pore of the dreg knight's body, running across his armor and over his weapons, making them all the more deadly. Any of the dreg knights natural weapons, his unarmed strike, and any weapon that he has held for at least one round, delivers this poison. If a creature is in a grapple with the dreg knight, then it must save against the poison at the beginning of the Dreg Knights turn, every round. This poison however, is very short lived and cannot exist long after it has been made, making it so that the dreg knight cannot bottle this poison for the use of others, and making it so that only the first attack made during any given round can deliver this poison.

Putrid Toughness: As a dreg knight's body steadily grows more and more repungent and vile, his fortitude slowly becomes more and more unsettling, to the point that they seem to be able to take any form of punishment. At second level, a dreg knight gains 1 bonus hit points per HD they posess. This increases to 2 bonus hit points per HD at fourth level, then to 3 bonus hit points per HD at sixth level, and continues in this pattern onward.

Mettle (Ex): At third level, a dreg knights body grows numb enough to resist magical and unusual attacks with unnatural fortitude and resilience. If he makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as a spell with a saving throw entry of Will half or Fortitude partial), they instead completely negate the effect. An unconscious or sleeping dreg knight does not gain the benefit of mettle.

Numb: As a dreg knight's body slowly becomes more and more putrid and clogged with rot, he becomes able to shrug off pain and injury with little effort. At third level, a dreg knight gains a +1 resistance bonus to his Fortitude save and a +1 enhancement bonus to his natural armor (treat a character that has no natural armor as merely having +0 natural armor). This resistance bonus to the dreg knight's Fortitude save and enhancement bonus to his natural armor increases by an additional +1 every three levels after third (6^th, 9^th, 12^th, etc.).

Unnatural Body (Ex): Eventually, a dreg knight's body degrades to a point that they seem able to shake aside even the move devastating of blows. At fifth level, a dreg knight gains fortification 25%. This means that when a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the dreg knight, there is a 25% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Improved Mettle (Ex): At sixth level, a dreg knight's body has grown so numb, so dense, that it seems nothing can harm it. Every time the dreg knight fails a Will or Fortitude save against an effect that has a reduced effect on a successful save, he instead takes the reduced effect as if he had made that save.

Augment Toxin: Eventually, the venom that flows through the dreg knights veins putrifies to the point that it can turn a creature into rot in multiple ways. At seventh level, a dreg knight selects an ability score other than the ability score he selected at first level. Now, whenever a creature fails a save against the poison the dreg knights body produces, it suffers damage (as shown on Table: The Dreg Knight) to both this ability score and the ability score the dreg knight selected at first level. The dreg knight selects an additional ability score for his poison to deal damage to every 6 levels after 7^th (13^th, 19^th, etc.), he cannot choose the same ability score twice. This additional ability score damage applies to only the primary damage of this poison, not its secondary damage.

Virulence: As a dreg knight grows, the fluids that flow through his body combine and become magnificently virulent. Being caustic enough to eat into the soul, volatile enough to dissolve stone and bone alike, and acidic enough make even rot break down. At eighth level, a dreg knight selects a single ability score that his poison deals damage to. His poison now bypasses all forms of immunity to ability score damage in regards to that ability score. The dreg knights poison is still not capable of dealing ability score damage to a creature that does not have the ability score in question. The dreg knight selects another ability score that his poison deals damage to at sixteenth level, and every eight levels thereafter.

Improved Unnatural Body (Ex): As a dreg knight grows, his body eventually degrades even further, to the point that even the most terrible of blows seem to be mere annoyances to the dreg knight. At tenth level, a dreg knight gains fortification 50%. This means that when a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the dreg knight, there is a 50% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Indestructible: A dreg knight is someone who can withstand a thousand attacks, feel the impact of a meteorite and barely flinch, and who can stand before the darkest of curses, and simply laugh. At eleventh level, a dreg knight cannot be killed, except via reducing his hit points to −10, via reducing his effective level below 1^st through to negative levels, or via reducing his Constitution score to 0 via magical effects.

Greater Unnatural Body (Ex): Eventually a dreg knights body will degrade ot a point that he seems hardly able to comprehend harm that befalls him, regardless of how terrible it may be. At fifteenth level, a dreg knight gains fortification 75%. This means that when a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the dreg knight, there is a 75% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Unbreakable (Ex): Dreg knight's eventually become so much a part of the disgusting fluids and virulent pockets of rot that rest within their body, that they lose the ability to feel pain altogether. At seventeenth level, a dreg knight gains immunity to nonlethal damage, with only one exception: if a dreg knight has regeneration of any kind, then he still takes nonlethal damage that would normally be lethal damage if it weren't for the regeneration.

Mighty Unnatural Body (Ex): As a dreg knight approaches the peak of his power, and becomes a paradigm of decay, rot, and destruction, his very flesh degrades to a point that it is indiscernable from that of a corpse. At fifteenth level, a dreg knight gains fortification 100%. This means that when a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the dreg knight, the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Epic Dreg Knight

Table: The Epic Dreg Knight

Hit Die: d12

Level	Special	Toxin Damage
21st	Numb +7	2d10
22nd	Putrid Toughness 11	2d10
23rd	Bonus Feat	2d10
24th	Numb +8, Putrid Toughness 12, Virulence	2d10
25th	Augment Toxin	3d8
26th	Bonus Feat, Putrid Toughness 13	3d8
27th	Numb +9	3d8
28th	Putrid Toughness 14	3d8
29th	Bonus Feat	3d10
30th	Decay, Numb +10, Putrid Toughness 15	3d10
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Numb: The dreg knights resistance bonus to his Fortitude save and enhancement bonus to his natural armor that he gains from the numb class feature increases by an additional +1 every three level after eighteenth (21^nd, 24^th, 27^th, etc.).

Putrid Toughness: The dreg knight gains an additional hit point per HD they posess every two levels after twentieth (22^nd, 24^th, 26^th, etc.).

Virulence: The dreg knight selects an additional ability score for damage from his toxin to bypass immunity to every eight levels after sixteenth (24^th, 32^nd, etc.).

Augment Toxin: The dreg knight selects and additional ability score for his toxin to deal it's primary damage to every six levels after nineteenth (25^th, 31^st, etc.).

Decay (Ex): As a dreg knight truly begins to reach mastery of rot, decay, fungus, and poison, he begins to radiate an aura of decay and putrefaction. At thirtieth level, a dreg knight gains an aura of decay, that makes all creatures within 20 feet of him sickened until they leave this area, there is no save against this effect. The dreg knight also loses the need to eat, as his biology grows further and further away from it's original, and gains a +8 inherent bonus to his Constitution.

Bonus Feats : The epic dreg knight gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic dreg knight bonus feats) every three levels after 20th.

Epic Dreg Knight Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Energy Resistance, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Improved Combat Reflexes, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Spellcasting Harrier, Superior Initiative, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy.

Duergar Dreg Knight Starting Package

Armor: Splint Mail.

Weapons: Greatclub.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
Bluff	4	Cha	—
Diplomacy	4	Cha	—
Intimidate	4	Cha	—
Listen	4	Wis	—
Sense Motive	4	Wis	—
Spot	4	Wis	—

Feat: Stand Still.

Gear: Backpack, bedroll, caltrops (x2 bags), flint and steel, Common Lamp, oil (x2 pints), tent, trail rations (x2 days worth), waterskin, winter blanket.

Gold: 1 gp.

Campaign Information

Playing a Dreg Knight

Religion: An individual dreg knight could follow any religion under the sun. They could worship anything from deities of justice and vengence, to the very idea of death and destruction being the way of the universe. Most of the time, a dreg knights behavior will directly mirror their abilities, though, this is not always true. For, in certaint cases, a dreg knight could veiw their abilities as a curse, and seek to pray for them to be removed.

Other Classes: Dreg knights are putrid entities through and through, but, rot and decay is just another part of nature. This fact tends to lend a dreg knight to getting along well with druids and rangers that share an alignment with them. Of course, a dreg knight is also a embodiments of death and decay, and this generally leads to less than warm relations with clerics and paladins. Of course, it could be that a dreg knight seeks to actually remove the toxins within themselves, and could befriend more holy characters in this way.

Combat: In battle, a dreg knight can be found most often, at the front lines, where he spreads his corruption, driving men mad with toxins, and absorbing the hellfire of the enemy. A dreg knight could, of course, be a lurker, sliding back behind the enemy lines, in the darkness, and murdering key individuals from back there. A dreg knight can seem to be an almost insurmountable foe at times, and can stand before the mightiest of foes, laughing.

Advancement: Should a dreg knight choose to not continue taking levels in dreg knight, they have many hundred paths of advancement open to them. For example, a dreg knight who finds himself spreading this rot to all corners of the world, may seek to take levels in horizon walker. Or, a dreg knight who lurks in the shadows may seek to take levels in shadowdancer, in order to fade into the darkness ever more. Further still, a dreg knight who has been charged with the protection of another may take a one or two level dip into unworthy or impediment.

Dreg Knights in the World

“	I do not want to change the world. I just want to leave it colder.	”
—Dirk Morton, Human Dreg Knight

Dreg knights usually find themselves in the role of the indestructable wall and the immortal gaurdian upon the battelfield. They also can find themselves in the roles of assassins, picking off particular foes with their toxic abilities, or the wild card, who can make even the strongest foe fall to their knees. Due to thes facts, a dreg knight can be found upon the battlefield, and anywhere upon the battlefield, from the front lines, to deep into the enemies ranks. Though, rarely, a dreg knight might not wish to be a warrior, and may simple wander the world, spreading rot wherever they go.

Daily Life: Dreg knights usually tend to spend their day to day life either travelling, as to spread the corruption and decay that riddles their body as far as possible, or resting and waiting, letting their venom flood out into the world around them fully and completely. Some dreg knights are gaurdians who watch over the darkest marshes, and deal with threats to this place from within and without every day. Some dreg knights are even simple psychopaths, who just seek to make bodies die and burst in swarms of maggots and floods of pus.

Notables: Woryos Asatia, Male Kobold Dreg Knight: turned an entire forest into nothing but virulent sludge over a 24 hour peroid, by simply sitting down and meditating.

Jon Hammerheart, Male Dwarf Dreg Knight: famed for fighting off a clutch of Great Wyrm Dreg Dragons single-handedly.

Ilea Bleak, Female Unbodied Dreg Knight: known as "the city killer", went between large cities in the night, poisoning all inhabitants in their sleep, for 154 years.

Organizations: It is exceedingly rare for a dreg knight to join an organization simply because of the putridness of their bodies. Though, such a situation does occasionally arrise. In these situations, a dreg knight may be inclined to join an organization that seeks to subvert civilization, or to join a cult that seeks to brew the most virulent toxin ever to be imagined. Though, past their toxicity, a dreg knight can be persuaded to go into any organization, should they have reason to do so.

NPC Reactions: Dreg knights are particularly easy to spot, seeing as their bodies reek of pestulence and decay. Of course, it isn't uncommon for a dreg knight to cover their appearance with shawls and robes, making them more difficult to spot on the whim. Though, should a person actually realize a person is a dreg knight, they can react with anything from shock and aversion, to fear and awe.

Dreg Knight Lore

Characters with ranks in knowledge (nature) can research dreg knights to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (Nature)

DC	Result
5	Dreg knights are putrid entities who ooze venom from every pore.
10	A dreg knights is someone who seems nearly impossible to kill upon the battlefield.
15	Dreg knights are tied with rot, the darker side of nature.
20	Characters who get this result can know the name and location of a specific dreg knight and any item related to them.

Dreg Knights in the Game

Dreg knights can be found easily in places where rot abounds and the very soil is soaked in venom, and in places where their rot has not yet spread, as they seek to push it out farther, and infect the world with it. In fact, the only places where it might be difficult to find a dreg knight, are places where there is nothing, such as deserts, or upon the slopes of moutnians. For, while it may not seem like it, dreg knights are actually tied with nature, just the more negative parts of it.

Adaptation: Dreg knights can, strangely, fit any personality archetype with little effort. Dreg knights could be the obvious, and simple cruel and evil characters who seek to kill. Though, they could also be wild chidlren who beleive that decay is the final fate of everything, and to fight this fact is an affront to nature, fitting into the role of the druid quite easily. It could even be that a dreg kinght is just that: a knight, and is only soaked with putrid toxin so that he can reduce evil doers to degrading soil and fertilizer with little effort.

Sample NPC: Rodrip was once an ordinary child, growing up and working hard on a farm that was nestled in a fertile valley in the mountains. He grew up without much contact from other aroghins, or from any other living being in general. This, unfortunately, led him to becoming more reclusive of a person. Though, he always listened to his grandfather speak of the mountain, and the stories as to why the Evilom family lived in this valley, and why the valley was so fertile. Though, he never actually beleived them, as his dad would always come in and say, "There will be time enough for that later, we have work to be doing." So, Rodrip grew, isolated in the hills, until, one day, when he was 22, he was working, he noticed a sheep had broken away from the flock, and was heading on up the mountainside. Naturally, he followed, attempting to bring it back after his father had taken charge of the other sheep. He had been up on the mountain many times before while chasing stray sheep, but, that day, while he chased that sheep, he passed many things he had never seen before, and was winding down a path he had not known existed. Eventually, this path led out to a small cave, and, as Rodrip spotted it, he noticed the sheep going inside, which he found rather odd, but he didn't think about it for more than a second before he followed it in. Once he was inside though, he saw the sheep, laying down on something that looked like an altar set into the stone. Rodrip moved forward slowly then, reaching out and touching the body of the sheep before he realized it had apparently died. Though, as he stood there, he felt something: a cold trembling sensation that spread up his arm, filling him up with it's icy touch. Before he knew what was going on though, the flesh on his arm was dying, and soon his entire body was rotting before his eyes. He stumbled pain as pain flooded his mind, and ran from that tiny cave as his body trailed his decay behind it, falling to his knees before he even got 100 feet away from the place. Rodrip technically died there, kneeling on the moutainside, but there had been something that had been in that altar, something his grandfather had spoken of, something that gave him the ability to go on, given that he do something for it. That night Rodrip killed his family, leaving the buildings, the sheep, the entire farm behind, as it all rapid turned into extremely rich, fertile soil, and today he walks amongst others, spreading fertility wherever he goes.

EL 12:

Rodrip Evilom

CR 12

	Male Aroghin Dreg Knight 12
	N Medium Humanoid (Aroghin)
Init/Senses	+7/Listen +16, Spot +16
Languages	Common, Abyssal
AC	26, touch 13, flat-footed 23 (+9 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural)
hp	252 (12 HD)
Resist	Improved Mettle
Fort/Ref/Will	+20/+7/+9
Speed	30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee	+5 Adamantine Speed Scythe +24/+24/+19/+14 (2d4+15/19-20/×4)
Space/Reach	5 ft./5 ft.
Base Atk/Grp	+12/+16
Abilities	Str 25, Dex 16, Con 27, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12
SQ	Anger Mastery, Cursed Bloodline, Immunity, Improved Unnatural Body, Indestructible, Numb +4, Putrid Toughness 6, Slow Healing, Toxin (1d8 Dex & Wis/1d8 Dex, DC 24), Virulence (Dex), Wounded Soul
Feats	Diehard, Endurance, Improved Critical (Scythe), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Scythe)
Skills	Climb +22, Intimidate +18, Jump +22, Listen +16, Spot +16
Possessions	+5 Adamantine Speed Scythe, +4 Mithral Breastplate, Amulet of Health +6, Belt of Giant Strength +6

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