Judicator (D&D class)

This class is a version of the blackguard character class adapted to fit drow society. It is intended for use in a drow campaign. See design note below for details.

A mortal imbued with fiendish cruelty, the drow judicator is a dark knight and Champion of Lolth. Consort of demons and demonic arachnids, the drow judicator is hated and feared by all.

The meaning of "judicator" is "someone who acts as a judge". The Judicator is judge, jury and executioner, but such terms hold little meaning for the drow. All they know is that the judicator is the vengeance of the Goddess.

Juicators are usually assigned to a temple. A strong judicator can be a power in her own right, and the presence of a high level judicator is enough to make even a high priestess wary. The judicator is one of the few ways males can be granted divine power by Lolth.

This class is available to all who worship Lolth.

The judicator

Alignment: Any evil.

Hit Die: d10

              Saves                                                    Spells
Lvl  BAB  Fort  Ref  Will   Special                                    1 2 3 4
---  ---  ---------------   ------------------------------------       -------
 1    +1   +2   +0    +0    Smite 1/day, aura of evil, Lolth's meat
 2    +2   +3   +0    +0    Dark blessing, lay on hands
 3    +3   +3   +1    +1    Aura of despair, poison immunity
 4                          Command spiders
 5                          Smite 2/day, spider servant
 6                          War strike  
 7
 8
 9
10                          Smite 3/day
11
12                          Spider's grace
13
14
15                          Smite 4/day
16
17
18                          Judgement
19
20                          Smite 5/day

Class skills

The drow judicator’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (any) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.

Skill Points at each level': 2 + Int modifier.

Class features

All of the following are class features of the judicator class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Drow judicators are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with all types of shields except tower shields.

Aura of Evil (Ex): The power of a judicator’s aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to her class level plus his cleric level, if any.

Dark Blessing (Su): A judicator applies her Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus on all saving throws.

Aura of Despair (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, the judicator radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of her to take a -2 penalty on all saving throws.

Smite Enemy (Su): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite an enemy with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per judicator level. At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the judicator may smite evil one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

This ability works against any target. If the target (in the opinion of the DM) is a true servant of the Goddess, the ability fails but is used.

Command Spiders (Su): Lolth, can grant her judicators the ability to command spiders. When a drow judicator reaches 4th level, she gains the ability to compel spiders in the same way that an evil cleric can rebuke or command undead (see the Player’s Handbook). The drow judicator can attempt to command spiders a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier. She is treated as a cleric of a level equal to his drow judicator level for the purpose of turning checks and turning damage.

Spider’s Grace (Sp): At 8th level, a drow judicator gains the ability to take on attributes of a spider for up to 10 minutes once per day. While this ability is active, the character can climb on surfaces as if subjected to a spider climb spell, and he receives a +4 insight bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. He also gains a bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage and is poisonous. The bite is a secondary natural weapon that can be used once per round at the drow judicator’s highest base attack bonus, with the standard –5 penalty for a secondary attack. The Fortitude save DC for the poison is 18 + the drow judicator’s Con modifier, and it deals 1d6 points of Strength damage for both its initial and its secondary damage.

War Strike (Su): War is the ulimate expression of the judicator's power. Beginning at 6th level, she can attempt a war strike with a smite attack. If she hits, she deals 2d6 points of Constitution damage in addition to her regular damage. The target may attempt a Fortitude save (DC 10 + judicator level + drow judicator’s Cha modifier) to halve the Constitution damage. This ability is usable once per target.

Judgment (Su): At 18th level, a drow judicator gains the ability to judge all creatures within 100 feet of him that he can see. Those he finds wanting are immediately targeted with a horrid wilting effect (caster level equalt to her character level; save DC 18 + drow judicator’s Wis modifier). The drow judicator can base her decision on any parameters he chooses. This ability is usable once per day as a standard action.

Spider Servant: At 5th level, a drow judicator can call for a spider servant. See the Spider Servant section for details.

Spell list

Some spells added from Drow and Spider domains, as well as a few paladin spells.

Judicators choose their spells from the following list:

1st Level: bless, cause fear, cloak of dark power, corrupt weapon, cure light wounds, divine favor, doom, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, read magic, restoration (lesser), spider climb, summon monster I*.

2nd Level: bull’s strength, cure moderate wounds, clairaudience/clairvoyance, darkness, death knell, eagle’s splendor, inflict moderate wounds, owl's wisom, shatter, summon monster II, summon swarm, undetectable alignment.

3rd Level: contagion, cure serious wounds, dispell magic, deeper darkness, inflict serious wounds, protection from energy, summon monster III, zone of truth.

4th Level: break enchantment, cure critical wounds, discern lies, freedom of movement, giantvermin, inflict critical wounds, magic weapon (greater), mark of justice, poison, prayer, spiderform, summon monster IV, unholy sword.

Summon monster

The judicator can only summon spiders. There are no suitable spiders for summon monster III, but 1d4+1 spiders from summon monster II can be summoned.

Corrupt Weapon

Blackguards have access to a special spell, corrupt weapon, which is the opposing counterpart of the paladin spell bless weapon. Instead of improving a weapon’s effectiveness against evil foes corrupt weapon makes a weapon more effective against good foes.

Spider Servant

At 5th level or above, a drow judicator can call a spiderlike monster to serve him. He may choose to call an 8 HD Large fiendish monstrous spider, a fiendish sword spider, a myrlochar, or a phase spider. (See the Monster Manual or Monsters of Faerûn for these creatures’ statistics.) He can use this spider servant as a guardian or a mount, at his discretion. The spider servant gains HD and special abilities based on the drow judicator’s class level, as given on Table 3–5. The drow judicator may have only one spider servant at a time. Should his servant die, he may call for another after 24 hours. The new spider servant has all the accumulated abilities due a servant of the character’s current drow judicator level.

Drow Judicator Level: The character’s level in the drow judicator prestige class.

Bonus HD: These are extra Hit Dice appropriate to the creature’s type (vermin for a Large monstrous spider or sword spider, outsider for a myrlochar, or magical beast for a phase spider). Each bonus Hit Die gains a Constitution modifier and improves the creature’s base attack and base save bonuses, as normal.

Natural Armor Adj.: The number noted here is an improvement to the servant’s existing natural armor bonus. It represents the preternatural toughness of a drow judicator’s servant.

Str Adj.: Add this figure to the servant’s Strength score.

Int Adj.: Add this figure to the servant’s Intelligence score.

Improved Evasion (Ex): When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a servant takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails.

Share Saving Throws: For each of its saving throws, the servant uses its own base save bonus or the drow judicator’s, whichever is higher. The servant applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the drow judicator might have (such as from magic items or feats).

Share Spells: At the drow judicator’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts upon himself also affect his spider servant. The servant must be within 5 feet of him at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the spider servant if the latter moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the creature again even if it returns to the drow judicator before the duration expires. Additionally, the drow judicator may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his spider servant (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself. The drow judicator and his servant can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the servant’s type.

Speak with Drow Judicator: The drow judicator and his servant can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.

Blood Bond: The spider servant gains a +2 bonus on all attack rolls, checks, and saves if it witnesses the drow judicator threatened or harmed. This bonus lasts as long as the threat is immediate and apparent.

Spell Resistance: The spider servant’s spell resistance equals the drow judicator’s class level + 15. To affect the servant with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the servant’s spell resistance.

Design notes

This class is the Drow Judicator redone as a character class rather than a prestige class. We imagine the Judicator to be a champion of Lolth and bringer of her vengeance. Just like a paladin or blackguard can be choosen before birth to serve a higher purpose, so can the judicator.

This sort of tweaked core class is obviously may not be suitable for any campaign, but we believe this class is more focused than a cleric/judicator. Rather than standing in the shadow of a higher level cleric, the judicator can be a power in her own right.

The core judicator has a smaller spell selection that a wizard/judicator or cleric/judicator, and is focused on martial and inquisitorial skills. It is based on the blackguard (anf the paladin to a lesser extent), but several special abilities have been replaced.

Lay on hands: Useful and class needs some ability that scales with level (like the blackguard's sneak attack).