Judicator (D&D class)
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 a male can be granted divine power by Lolth.
- This class is a version of the blackguard character class adapted to fit drow society. It will only work in a drow campaign! See design note below for details.
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.
| Lvl | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Smite 1/day, aura of evil, spider empathy | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Dark blessing, lay on hands | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Aura of despair, Lolth's Meat | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Command spiders | 0 | - | - | - |
| 5 | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Smite 2/day, spider servant | 0 | - | - | - |
| 6 | +6 | +5 | +2 | +2 | War strike | 1 | - | - | - |
| 7 | +7 | +5 | +2 | +2 | 1 | - | - | - | |
| 8 | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 | Spider's grace 1/day | 1 | 0 | - | - |
| 9 | +9 | +6 | +3 | +3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | |
| 10 | +10 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Smite 3/day | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| 11 | +11 | +7 | +3 | +3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | |
| 12 | +12 | +8 | +4 | +4 | Poison immunity | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
| 13 | +13 | +8 | +4 | +4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | |
| 14 | +14 | +9 | +4 | +4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 15 | +15 | +9 | +5 | +5 | Smite 4/day | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | +16 | +10 | +5 | +5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 17 | +17 | +10 | +5 | +5 | Judgement 1/day | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | +18 | +11 | +6 | +6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| 19 | +19 | +11 | +6 | +6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 20 | +20 | +12 | +6 | +6 | Smite 5/day | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Class features
Alignment: Any evil.
Hit Die: d10 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 including 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 her 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.
Lay on hands (Su): Once per day, the judicator can use this supernatural ability to cure herself or her spider servant of damage equal to his Charisma bonus × her level.
Lolth's Meat: The judicator has learned the pleasure of killing for her Goddess and gains the feat Lolth's Meat.
Smite Enemy (Su): Once per day, a judicator 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 use smite enemy 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 still used. This ability channels negative energy and is equivalent to smite good for rule purposes and feat acquisition.
Spider Empathy (Ex): The judicator is a servant of Lolth, and is able to befriend spiders. This ability is similar to the ranger ability Wild Empathy but only works on spiders.
A judicator can improve the attitude of a spider. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The judicator rolls 1d20 and adds her judicator level and her Charisma modifier to determine the spider empathy check result. The typical domestic spider has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild spiders are usually unfriendly.
To use spider empathy, the judicator and the spider must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
The judicator can also use this ability to influence a magical or fiendish spiders with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a -4 penalty on the check.
Command Spiders (Su): Lolth grants 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). Unlike Spider Empathy, this ability works on intelligent spiders.
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 her 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 she receives a +4 insight bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. She 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 + half judicator level + the 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 her that she can see. Those she finds wanting are immediately targeted with a horrid wilting effect (at her caster level; save DC 18 + drow judicator’s Wis modifier). The drow judicator can base her decision on any parameters she 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.
Posion Immunity (Su): The judicator gains immunity to poisons of all kinds.
Spell list
Judicators choose their spells from the following list:
1st Level: cause fear, cloak of dark power (u), corrupt weapon (*), cure light wounds, curse water, detect poison, divine favor, doom, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, misdirection, protection from good, read magic, speak with animals*, summon monster I (*)
2nd Level: bull's strength, cure moderate wounds, darkness, death knell, eagle's splendor, hold person, inflict moderate wounds, resist energy, shatter, owl's wisdom, shatter, summon monster II (*), summon swarm, undetectable alignment
3rd level: bestow curse, contagion, cure serious wounds, deeper darkness, dispel magic, inflict serious wounds, magic circle against good, magic weapon (greater), prayer, protection from elements, summon monster III (*)
4th level: break enchantment, cure critical wounds, discern lies, dispel good, freedom of movement, giant vermin, inflict critical wounds, mark of justice, poison, summon monster IV (*), unholy sword (*)
See notes below for spells marked (*). Spells marked (u) can be found in the Underdark sourcebook.
Speak with animals
The judicator speak with spiders but not with animals. Technichally, this would be speak with vermin. Actually, I'm not sure any spell will let you speak with non-intelligent vermin. Still, it fits the concept.
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
Judicators and 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.
Unholy weapon
This is the evil equivalent of holy sword.
Spider servant
Judicator Bonus Armor Str Int
Level HD Adj. Adj. Adj. Special
5-7 +2 +2 +2 - Improved evasion, share spells, share saving throws,
share spells
8-10 +4 +4 +4 +2 Speak with judicator
11-14 +6 +6 +6 +4 Blood bond
15-20 +8 +8 +8 +6 Spell resistance
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.
Behind the scenes
The judicator has been changed from a power hungry scheme to a true servant of a divine power (in this case Lolth). Much like a paladin or blackguard can be choosen before birth to serve a higher purpose, so can the judicator.
The class is based on the blackguard (and the paladin to a lesser extent), but several special abilities have been replaced. This sort of tweaked character class is not suitable for all campaigns. For one thing, this character class is only available to certain races (drow and possibly driders). While this is a valid point, one can just as easily imagine a class like the samurai being limited to a certain race or culture.
The character class version of the Judicator works better than the prestige class version (typically a cleric/judicator or wizard/judicator). Rather than standing in the shadow of a higher level cleric, the judicator can be a power in her own right. This lets the judicator focus on martial skills and divine vengeance aided by a small spell selection.
One important difference between the blackguard and the judicator is that the judicator can use her smite against any target. The judicator is probably slightly more powerful that the blackguard, perhaps due to the fact that the blackguard's Sneak Attack is difficult to quantify. A blackguard with a pair of trained wardogs should be able to use his sneak attack quite often.
Lay on hands: This is useful and the class needs some ability that scales with level (like the blackguard's sneak attack). Note that the more limited blackguard version of lay on hands is used.
Spells: Some added from Drow and Spider domains, as well as a few paladin spells.
Aura of despair: This is a standard blackguard ability. It works very well with the imgae of the judicator as a grim avenger of the Goddess. The drow know the judicator is willing to sacrifice them for the Goddess given the slightest reason. This works nicely with Lolth's Meat.
Spider Servant: The one thing missing is the ability to summon a swarm of smaller spiders (perhaps a fiendish spider hivemind?) instead of a single spider servant. These would make great spies. Sigh...