Avenger

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The Avenger is a Dungeons & Dragons class found in both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, but which is a very different beast depending on edition.

AD&D Avenger

The Avenger of AD&D is one of four "setting appropriate" classes added to the game in "Domains of Dread", the PC & DM's expansion book for Ravenloft, alongside its contemporaries the Arcanist, the Anchorite and the Gypsy.

Unfortunately, it suffered the curse that bedeviled Ravenloft player-focused content of AD&D (indeed, some would say of any D&D edition) and was utterly crap.

Requiring Strength 15, Dexterity 14 and Constitution 15 to qualify for, the Avenger was DoD's thematic replacement for the Paladin; a warrior fixated upon a single nemesis figure, both individually and in general. Essentially, they're AD&D Fighters with the following tweaks:

• Cannot be Lawful aligned.
• Cannot specialize in Ranged Weapons.
• Do not establish Holdings.
• Do not attract followers.
• +5 hit points when fighting an enemy that "reminds them of their nemesis" in close combat.
• +10 hit points when fighting their nemesis in close combat.
• Can intuit which direction to go in order to pursue their nemesis by making a successful Wisdom check.

Oh, and the icing on the cake? This shitty Fighter variant is using the Paladin's experience table. As in, one of the slowest-growing classes of AD&D.

Needless to say, few people remember this class very fondly.

4e Avenger

A Tiefling Dread Imperator, an Avenger who seeks to reunite the splinted faiths of old Bael Turath.

Avengers are a class introduced in Player's Handbook 2 of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Since Paladins can no longer fall, Avengers are the answer to renegades and heretics. Assassins for their clergy, Avengers hunt down enemies of their god and kill them with great prejudice. They do this by swearing an Oath of Enmity upon their target, which basically means they hate the person to death. This comes in three flavors. The first makes your attacks stronger if the enemy tries to run away. The second makes your attacks stronger if the enemies allies try attacking you to save their buddy you just swore to kill. The third makes your attacks stronger if you have allies attacking the same enemy. Also, if you have no other enemies adjacent to you, you can roll two attack rolls and pick the better one, making for delicious crit-fishing.

However, Avengers are considered to be one of the weaker classes, mainly because their big key power, the Oath, doesn't work if you have more than one enemy adjacent to you. Additionally, the DM can easily make the first two oaths useless by not having the enemy you're targeting run away, and not having other enemies attack you while you're smiting.

An avenger works best when used as an aide to a defender or the other strikers. This is because they have a great deal of abilities that allow for moving the enemies where the avenger or his buddies need them, but is less powerful on the direct damage front. Use them as a support and to remove any enemies that are attacking the party rangers.

Absorbed into the Paladin class in 5e, as the Oath of Vengeance paladin, and his "roll 2d20 and keep one" shtick now forms the core of the "advantage" system..