Judicator (D&D class)
- 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.
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". Thus, the Judicator is both judge, jury and executioner. To the drow, he is simply the vengeance of the Goddess.
Juicators are usually assigned to a temple. A strong judicator can be a power in his 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.
The judicator learns to channel negative energy to smite the enemies of the Goddess and to put fear into their hearts. As he proves himself, he learns to emulate many abilities of the spider and even command them in battle.
Class information
Alignment: Any evil.
Hit Die: d10
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).
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.
| Character Level |
Base Attack Bonus |
Fort Save |
Ref Save |
Will Save |
Special | Spells per day | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| 1 | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Smite 1/day, aura of evil, Rebuke undead | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Dark blessing, spider step, spider bite | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Aura of despair, spider grace | - | - | - | - |
| 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/day | 1 | - | - | - |
| 7 | +7 | +5 | +2 | +2 | 1 | - | - | - | |
| 8 | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | |
| 9 | +9 | +6 | +3 | +3 | War strike 2/day | 1 | 0 | - | - |
| 10 | +10 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Smite 3/day | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| 11 | +11 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Venom immunity | 1 | 1 | 0 | - |
| 12 | +12 | +8 | +4 | +4 | War strike 3/day | 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, War strike 4/day | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | +16 | +10 | +5 | +5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 17 | +17 | +10 | +5 | +5 | Judgement | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | +18 | +11 | +6 | +6 | War strike 5/day | 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
All of the following are class features of the judicator class.
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)
The judicator radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of her to take a -2 penalty on all saving throws.
Smite (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.
Command Spiders (Ex)
The judicator is a servant of Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders. As her favored servant, the judicator is able to command or rebuke spiders. This is identical to the cleric ability ability, but only works on spiders.
Spider Step (Ex)
The Spider Champion takes on the wall-walking ability of a spider and gains a climbing movement rate of 20 ft. A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a Climb check to climb any wall or slope with a DC of more than 0, but it always can choose to take 10 even if rushed or threatened while climbing. The creature climbs at the given speed while climbing. If it chooses an accelerated climb it moves at double the given climb speed (or its base land speed, whichever is lower) and makes a single Climb check at a -5 penalty. Creatures cannot run while climbing. A creature retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) while climbing, and opponents get no special bonus on their attacks against a climbing creature.
Spider Bite (Sp)
The spider champion 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 spider champion’s highest base attack bonus, with the standard –5 penalty for a secondary attack. The Fortitude save DC for the poison is 18 + the spider champion’s Con modifier, and it deals 1d6 points of Strength damage for both its initial and its secondary damage.
Spider Grace (Sp)
The Spider Champion takes on the elusive attributes of a spider. The character receives a +4 insight bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
War Strike (Ex)
The champion can attempt a crippling strike with a normal melee attack. This must be stated before the attack is made. If he hits and inflicts any damage, he deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage in addition to his regular damage. The target may attempt a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ champion level + champion’s Cha modifier) to halve the Constitution damage. War Strike can be used once per day, plus once per day per three class levels after level 6 (twice at level 9, thrice at 12, and so on).
Judgment (Su)
At 18th level, a drow judicator gains the ability to judge all creatures within 100 feet of her that he can see. Those he finds wanting are immediately targeted with a horrid wilting effect (at his caster level; save DC 18 + drow judicator’s Wis modifier). The drow judicator can base his decision on any parameters he chooses. This ability is usable once per day as a standard action.
Spider Servant (Sp)
At 5th level, a drow judicator can call for a spider servant. See the Spider Servant section for details.
Venom Immunity (Su)
The judicator gains immunity to poisons of all kinds.
Spells
Judicators choose their spells from the following list:
1st level - cause fear, cloak of dark power, cure light wounds, curse water, detect magic, detect poison, detect undead, divine favor, doom, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, misdirection, read magic, speak with vermin*, spider climb, summon monster I*.
2nd level - bull's strength, clairaudience/clairvoyance, cure moderate wounds, darkness, death knell, desecrate, eagle's splendor, hold person, resist energy, shatter, owl's wisdom, summon monster II*, summon swarm (*), undetectable alignment.
3rd level - bestow curse, contagion, cure moderate wounds, deeper darkness, dispel magic, inflict moderate wounds, magic weapon, greater, neutralize poison, phantom steed*, prayer, protection from elements, suggestion, summon monster III*, summon swarm.
4th level - break enchantment, cure serious wounds, freedom of movement, discern lies, giant vermin, inflict serious wounds, mark of justice, poison, restoration, spiderform (u), summon monster IV*.
See notes below for spells marked (*). Spells marked (u) can be found in the Underdark sourcebook.
Phantom steed
The phantom steed has a vermin shape.
Speak with vermin
As speak with animals, but only works on 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.
Spider servant
- This should be changed to use the default rules for companion critters.
This ability is identical to the standard champion companion ability, but the champion can only summon spiders. Instead of a single spider, the champion can summon a swarm (1 per 2 levels) of tiny monstrous spiders. Regardless of the champion's level, these spiders only gain the first tier abilities. The empathic link mean that they make excellent guards and spies.
The Epic Champion
At epic levels, the champion continues to gain smite and war strike uses. The spider companion improves as a normal paladin mount.
Design notes
The judicator has been changed from a power hungry schemer to a true servant of a divine power (in this case Lolth). Much like a paladin or blackguard can be chosen 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.
Spells: Some added from Drow and Spider domains. Note that spiderform has changed to 4th level for this class. Some alignment-specific spells (such as protection from good) have been removed. The champion cares not for good or evil, only the will of the Goddess. If if he did, his opponents would probably be evil.
The lower spells from the Drow and Spider domains have been added. Spiderform has been changed to a 4th level spell for Judicators. This seems quite appropriate for an avenging champion. Since the judictor is not concerend with good or evil, spells like corrupt weapon, unholy sword, dispel good, detect good, protection from good, magic circle against good,
Aura of despair: This is a standard blackguard ability. It works well with the image of the champion as a grim avenger of the Goddess. All drow know the champion is willing to sacrifice them for the Goddess given the slightest reason.
Spider Servant: Changed to allow the champion to summon a group of spiders.