Blood Elven Blood Knight (Paladin Variant)

The Order of the Silver Hand dates back only a handful of years, yet the Order remained strong despite the collapse due to Prince Arthas' treachery. Priests collect young warriors, wishing to be the ultimate champions of good, and invest them with the powers of Light, given to them by their faith's devotion and practices. Paladins are both born and created. However, what happens when one turns from the Light? A paladin's faith is what holds the powers within his body. Without his faith, he has nothing to use to hold onto the Light itself, and looses his greatness.

Blood elves are a special case. Ever since the fall of Quel'thalas, blood elves experienced a crisis of faith, and through this crisis, lost the chains to hold onto holy power. However, with the rise of the Scourge to the west and Zul'aman to the east, blood elves needed champions and true power. While a very small few blood elves remain with enough faith to hold onto their powers, most needed something else.

Thus, by combining elven magics with their innate ability to drain magic, blood knights were created. Formed by transfering the powers of the holy Naaru into willing recipients, blood knights are paladins only in power. They fight for Quel'thalas, and the blood elven race, testing their new-found powers at every opportunity. However, many blood knights find their powers fleeting, the chains weaker than those faith wrought, and occasionally this power may flee the false paladin. However, without the blood knights, Quel'thalas would fall again, and most turn an ethical and moral eye away from this theft, for the sake of remaining alive.

Blood Knight Alterations

A blood knight may be of any alignment, though most favour Lawful. Furthermore, the blood knight does not gain the Aura of Good, Detect Undead, Lay on Hands, or Code of Conduct class features. Instead, she gains the following class features, at the indicated levels:

1st-level — Detect Magic (Sp): At 1st level, a blood knight may use detect magic as a spell-like ability at will.

1st-level — Strange Aura (Ex): This ability functions as the Aura of Good class feature, but works differently if the blood knight is not good. A non-good blood knight’s aura still shows as a Good aura when viewed by a detect good spell, but a DC 15 Spot check discovers the aura is tainted and hollow, as if it was fake. As this may lead to the discovery of the blood knight’s power source, most blood knights are forced to intimidate or even slay suspicious allies, simply to retain their powers and keep from being branded a traitor.

1st-level — Spell Shackles (Ex): Unlike other paladins, blood knights are loyal to Silvermoon City first and foremost; most because of choice, but a few because of force. They care little for morality, as the race has gone far beyond codes of ethics in their pursuit for power. The priests who invest new blood elves know of the corrupting influence of power, however, and installed several safeguards. If a blood knight committing a sin against the Sin’dorei, including allying oneself with an enemy or giving Silvermoon’s secrets away, she looses all blood knight class features and must atone before a blood elven priest. As this involves re-bonding the blood knight to her powers, and the fact that loosing her powers means she’s a traitor, it will take some serious gift of gab to convince them to not simply execute the traitor instead.

1st-level — Weak Bonds (Ex): The spells that bond the Light's power to a blood knight are unstable at best, and a blood knight may occasionally find his powers fleeing him at any time. Whenever a blood knight uses a paladin class ability restricted to a number of times per day (Holy Strike and Auras, for example), the power has a 10% chance of failing. Likewise, all paladin spells have a 10% spell chance failure. If the power or spell fails, the use for that day or spell slot is still expended.

4th-level — Replenish Energy: At 4th level, once per day the blood knight may attempt to siphon mana from other divine sources to replenish her own. The blood knight makes a ranged touch attack that provokes an attack of opportunity against a Healer or Paladin (or other beings who wield divine magic, such as the Naaru) target up to 30 feet away. Success drains 1 spell slot level per caster level per round, restoring a like amount of spell slots to the blood knight. The target may make a Will saving throw each round to resist this effect; the DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 the blood knight’s class level + her Charisma bonus. This effect may be sustained until either the blood knight dismisses the effect or the target succeeds on her Will save.