?Take him, my slaves! Drag his soul back to your dark masters!?

?Argyll Te?Shea, servant of Pelor and malconvoker

The standard concept of the perpetual war between good and evil is clich?d to some: a black-and-white vision of reality, suitable only for religious sermonizing. A few who understand the complexity of the battles that rage throughout the planes have taken up a dangerous path, entering into powerful pacts with the foulest abominations of the Lower Planes to turn evil against evil. These daring summoners are malconvokers, and they bargain with their lives.

BECOMING A MALCONVOKER

The vast majority of malconvokers are sorcerers and wizards (typically conjurers) who focus on summoning creatures. A few clerics find the class interesting, but most have difficulty accepting the idea of using evil creatures to accomplish good acts.

PLAYING A MALCONVOKER

You have always honed your conjuration magic beyond that of your other spells, even flirting with the idea of summoning powerful fiends to do your bidding, but you never actually carried through with such a disreputable act. At least, not until that book appeared. Many malconvokers?too many for pure coincidence?were set upon their path by a seemingly serendipitous event: the appearance of a thin folio bound in black scales entitled the Vital Pact.

This thesis, written in Celestial, discusses the limited ranks and resources of the extraplanar forces of good as opposed to the endless armies of the Lower Planes. It calls for vague new allies from realms only hinted at but also posits that, for the armies of light to survive, evil must be made to combat itself. Such a philosophical treatise would normally inspire few, were it not for the last page. Each copy of the work bears a name?a truename?handwritten in red ink along with notations to aid in summoning a specific fiend. (See the Tome of Magic supplement for more about truename magic. ) With the essay?s radical ideas fresh in the reader?s mind, often echoing similar personal thoughts, the temptation to investigate the darker side of conjuration is usually too strong to resist.

None can say who penned the Vital Pact, how the work mysteriously enters the possession of certain spellcasters, and where the unique closing notations come from. Even the fiends first summoned using the text seem wholly ignorant of its contents or how they became involved. Although many malconvokers accept the Vital Pact as a boon from some hidden patron or celestial power, some scholars fear a more sinister underlying motive.

Whatever the truth, you have been chosen. Someone or something wanted you to receive a copy of the Vital Pact and take up the challenge it proposes, even if you never actually hold the book in your hands. Whether you willingly accept this mandate or seek to discover its source, you cannot deny the effectiveness of its teachings and the good you could put them to.

As you grow in power, your involvement in the planar battle between good and evil also increases. You might begin seeking out places where fiendish influence has leaked into the world, seeking to scour such taints from your home plane. Alternatively, you might travel to other planes, seeking out celestial forces or infiltrating oft-contested infernal battlegrounds such as Acheron, Pazunia on the Abyss?s Plain of Infinite Portals, and Hell?s first layer, Avernus.

Combat

As a malconvoker, you rarely fight alone. The versatility of the summon monster spells allows you to conjure many allies, whether you are a solitary traveler or part of a group. With enough such spells and your fiendish legion class feature, you can become the general of a small infernal army. Your other powers, although sometimes risky, also ensure that the creatures you summon stay longer and are more powerful than those summoned by your enemies.

Advancement

You come to understand the ways of fiends, honing your words to offer the proper mix of compliments, threats, and promises to whet their infernal desires. As you grow in power, so do the beings you deal with, increasing the forces you can bring to bear but also the risks in bargaining with such corrupt abominations.

Tricking powerful fiends is much more difficult than manipulating lowly minions. Thus, you should max out your Bluff skill to get the most out of your deceptive bargaining; increasing your Charisma score is also important for planar binding negotiations. Put ranks into Knowledge (the planes) to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the creatures you summon, so you can choose the best allies for a given situation. Feats that aid your summoning are also helpful, such as Cloudy Conjuration (Complete Mage) or Complete Divine?s Rapid Spell (which reduces the casting time of your summon monster spells to a standard action).

Resources

While advancing as a malconvoker, you continue to strengthen your spellcasting ability, though if you are a divine caster affiliated with a church, your peers might have reservations about your methods. Nevertheless, you might be able to discover and contact other malconvokers (by succeeding on a reasonably difficult Knowledge [arcana] check). These peers welcome the rare fellows they encounter and might be convinced to share their research and even magic items related to summoning. At the very least, together you can plumb the often cryptic passages of the Vital Pact to gain further insights into your art.

MALCONVOKERS IN THE WORLD

?I have dwelt in darkness for eighty thousand years, seen the deaths of gods, and feasted on the souls of worlds. I would not be tricked by a mortal wizard.?

?Cvol Visok, nalfeshnee dupe

The malconvoker prestige class gives non-evil player characters a chance to use some of the most powerful creatures in the game?and the most dangerous. Malconvokers run terrible risks in attempting to turn pure evil to the service of good. Moreover, they might alienate righteous allies in exchange for tenuous pacts with fiendish servants. The Vital Pact, that peculiar text that indoctrinates so many malconvokers, also sets up a dark mystery with possible celestial or infernal ties.

Organization

Nearly all malconvokers have studied the Vital Pact, whether or not they possess a copy of the book. Some are fanatics devoted to its radical call to arms, others are researchers hoping to reveal its shadowed origins, and still others are conjurers who seek more versatility in their spellcasting. This shared knowledge puts malconvokers into a strange sort of group, if not an especially organized one. No obvious thread links those who come across that strange text, beyond their affinity for summoning magic.

Malconvokers quietly share their knowledge of extraplanar beings, methods of deceiving those they summon, and, in rare circumstances, the truenames of potent or easily duped fiends. They secretly correspond with one another through mundane letters or spells to protect their own identities and those of their peers, understanding that people in powerful positions abhor their methods. A malconvoker or his agent often leaves a letter in a wellused cache, where another can check for correspondence without drawing attention. Favored spots include statues in crowded public places, especially those with angelic or religious themes.

Every malconvoker risks having his true identity revealed to a fiend he once tricked into his service, which might then track him down and exact horrific retribution. For most, this dreadful prospect never becomes reality. But when the unthinkable happens, malconvokers can turn only to their peers for help. Some see it as their duty to aid a colleague, but many shun such an individual, terrified of being exposed to the same fate.

NPC Reactions

Malconvokers elicit strong opinions. Authorities within lawful- or good-aligned religions see them as self-deluded demonologists. These critics hold that summoning fundamentally wicked creatures into the world is evil regardless of the end. True, a malconvoker cheats these beings to serve good aims, but two wrongs still don?t make a right. Thus, malconvokers have been expelled from religious orders and, in extreme cases, executed as heretics. Followers of other religions, though, welcome malconvokers, primarily those who revere trickster gods and other less lawful deities. They savor the delicious irony of turning demons loose against a cult of demon-worshipers.

Most ordinary folk cannot distinguish malconvokers from other spellcasters and treat them according to their apparent station. Summoning fiends in a public area, however, is likely to produce a hostile reaction. Most people don?t care why a spellcaster can so adeptly command demons and devils, only that he does.

MALCONVOKER LORE

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can research malconvokers to learn more about them. When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Malconvokers are conjurers who summon demons, devils, and other fiends and trick them into aiding the cause of good.

DC 15: Malconvokers are feared by many, despite their good intentions. The creatures they summon are often more powerful than other summoned monsters of their kind.

DC 20: Many malconvokers begin summoning fiends at the suggestion of a strange book called the Vital Pact.

DC 30: Characters who achieve this level of success can learn important details about specific malconvokers in your campaign, including a notable individual, the area in which he operates, and how to contact him.

Contacting a malconvoker depends on his social status and how greatly he fears oppression or pursuit. Correspondence might take place through letters left at prearranged drop points.

MALCONVOKERS IN THE GAME

Malconvokers can fill a number of roles in your campaign. They might be reckless summoners who call on forces they don?t fully understand, their judgment clouded by their zeal to combat evil. Particularly power-hungry individuals might wage personal wars against fiends and their influences. More thoughtful, conflicted malconvokers believe in the necessity of sacrificing innocence to gain powerful allies.

Malconvokers make challenging player characters. On the one hand, they can aid their colleagues with their command over terrible creatures. Their research into the truenames of useful or powerful fiends, and their deep knowledge of planar matters, also make them helpful to their comrades. On the other hand, clerics, druids, and paladins often oppose a malconvoker?s methods, fearful of not only the dark creatures he controls but also his intentions. Such fear might also mean a malconvoker and his associates are pursued by members of demon-hunting religions or fearful locals.

Adaptation

The origin and purpose of the Vital Pact are deliberately left open so that you can create a background appropriate to your campaign. Depending on your taste, the mysterious text can be benevolent, subtly corruptive, or even nonexistent.

If your campaign doesn?t focus on cultic tomes and monstrosities of the Lower Planes, you can easily adapt the malconvoker to fulfill more obviously benevolent roles. Change the summoned creatures from evil-aligned to good-aligned to have him command a celestial strike force as powerful as fiends. Doing so also removes the moral and intraparty conflicts members of this class might otherwise face. Alternatively, a malconvoker can summon a different kind of creature in the fight against evil. Such powerful beings can still be dangerous to deal with.