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A variant paladin who is a lawful evil villain bent on dominating those weaker than she.

Class Features

All starting gold, skill points, class skills, hit dice, and class features all retained from base class, Paladin, unless noted.

Aura of Evil (Ex): The power of a paladin of tyranny's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his paladin of tyranny level, just as with the aura of a cleric of an evil deity.

Detect Good (Sp): At will, a paladin of tyranny can use detect good, as the spell.

Smite Good (Su): Once per day, a paladin of tyranny may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack. This ability is otherwise identical to the standard paladin's ability to smite evil, including increased daily uses as the paladin of tyranny gains class levels.

Deadly Touch (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin of tyranny can cause wounds with a successful touch attack. Each day she can deal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her paladin level × her Charisma bonus. An opponent subjected to this attack can make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 paladin level + paladin's Cha modifier) to halve the damage dealt.

Alternatively, a paladin of tyranny can use any or all of this power to cure damage to undead creatures, just as an inflict wounds spell does. This power otherwise functions identically to the paladin's lay on hands ability.

Aura of Despair (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin of tyranny radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of him to take a —2 penalty on all saving throws. This ability otherwise functions identically to the paladin's aura of courage class feature.

Rebuke Undead (Su): A paladin of tyranny rebukes undead rather than turning undead.

Cause Disease (Sp): A paladin of tyranny can inflict disease with his touch (as the contagion spell) a number of times per week that a standard paladin of her level would normally be able to remove disease.

Spellcasting: Replace the paladin's spell list with the following spell list: 1st—bane, corrupt weapon, create water, curse water, detect poison, detect undead, divine favor, doom, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, protection from chaos, protection from good, read magic, resistance, virtue; 2nd—bull's strength, cure light wounds, darkness, delay poison, eagle's splendor, hold person, inflict moderate wounds, owl's wisdom, resist energy, undetectable alignment; 3rd—bestow curse, cure moderate wounds, deeper darkness, discern lies, dispel magic, greater magic weapon, heal mount, prayer, inflict serious wounds, magic circle against chaos/good; 4th—break enchantment, cure serious wounds, dispel chaos, dispel good, dominate person, inflict critical wounds, unholy sword (as holy sword but channels unholy power and emits a Magic Circle Against Good).

Code of Conduct: A paladin of tyranny must be of lawful evil alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a good act. Additionally, a paladin of tyranny's code requires that he respect authority figures as long as they have the strength to rule over the weak, act with discipline (not engaging in random slaughter, keeping firm control over those beneath his station, and so forth), help only those who help him maintain or improve his status, and punish those who challenge authority (unless, of course, such challengers prove more worthy to hold that authority).

Associates: While he may adventure with characters of any evil or neutral alignment, a paladin of tyranny will never knowingly associate with good characters unless it serves his needs, nor will he continue an association with someone who consistently offends his moral code. A paladin of tyranny may accept henchmen and followers of any alignment, but may only accept cohorts who are lawful evil.

Advancement