Outlandish Adventure Productions presents:
The Justiciar, an Intelligence-based half-caster class of magical law and order! Justiciars serve the Arcane Court, an independent, nation-neutral justice system that can be implemented into any campaign setting. Justiciars cultivate a small reservoir of quickly recharging arcane energy they use to cast their spells and summon a Binding Cell, which can be used to trap foes, protect allies, or simply put an obstacle on the battlefield to control the flow of combat. Justiciars go through years of rigorous mental and physical conditioning before being allowed to join the Court, so they have encyclopedic knowledge about magical law and the creatures over which they have jurisdiction. Once a justicar joins the Court, he must prove himself in order to be selected to join one of the Court's Justiciar Divisions, which are based on the branches of the US Justice System!
Justiciar Divisions
The Division of Defense. Your duties include respresenting the accused in trials, but you can also be hired to act as an escort, bodyguard, and protector. Your focus in combat is protecting your allies, so you train to block attacks and learn spells you can use to heal and restore.
The Division of Enforcement. Your duties include the tracking and subdual of wanted criminals, and investigating crime scense for evidence of wrongdoing, but you can also be hired to locate missing persons and objects. Your focus in combat is bringing down each target one at a time, so you learn spells that make you better at finding and targeting individual creatures.
The Division of Execution. Your duties include the merciful execution of convicted creatures deemed incapable of reformation, but you can also be hired to slay magical entities plaguing settlements. Your focus in combat is making each strike deadly, so you learn spells that enhance your attacks and make your targets easier to strike.
The Division of Prosecution. Your duties include compiling evidence against accused creatures and prosecuting them to the full extent of the law, but you can also be hired by local governments to mediate disputes and explore unknown areas. Your focus in combat is to be a mobile defensive duelist that, like you use words in the court, constantly counters your opponents' moves, so you learn spells that increase your mobility and ability to survive, as well as spells that are useful in mediating disputes.
The Division of Reformation. Your duties include overseeing the correction and reformation of convicted creatures, which you do by magically linking them to you to show them a better example, but you can also be hired to capture and transport problematic individuals. Your focus in combat is working in tandem with your captured companions, teaching them how to be law-abiding and upstanding citizens by example and through service, so you learn spells that summon more creatures to fight alongside you. (Also, if you ever wanted to play Pokemon in D&D, this is probably the closest you're ever going to get.)
And there's an additional division, as well as six new Justiciar-exclusive spells, in Outlandish Justice!
We hope you enjoy the Justiciar as much as we and our players do! We'd love to hear your feedback, so please send us any questions or comments you have. Also, if you perceive any balance issues, please let us know and we will address them as quickly as we can.
Update History
11/27/2017 v2.5 This is a collection of updates aimed at balancing Pact-Style half-casting, as well as some quality of life updates:
- Changed the Spell Slot progression to ending at 3rd-level spells, but added a 4th-level tier to Judicial Arcanum, and added increased flexibility to the feature. Also, changed the number of Spells Known to compensate.
- Changed the Close Quarters Shooter fighting style to Close Quarters Shooting, which is much more balanced overall.
- Changed all of the Judiciary Division 3rd-level features to allow you to use any spell slot for their effect, giving slightly better synergy when multiclassing with other spellcasting classes.
- Made minor changes to the Division of Reformation's Capturing table to reflect the new spell slot progression.
8/7/2017 v2.0.2 - Another very small change correcting a typo that caused incorrect spell slot level progression
8/5/2017 v2.0.1 - A very small change to the spell list, removing a spell that we forgot to delete when we added 5th-level spells to the Divisions' Expanded Spell Lists
8/3/2017 v2.0 - Some fundamental early-level changes, as well as some feature name changes:
- The most fundamental change is switching the positions of the Binding Cell and Fighting Style features. To compensate for this change, Binding Cell was nerfed slightly by adding an additional way for enemies to cause the cell to drop - breaking your concentration (though you can still concentrate on spells normally while you have an active cell).
- Also due to the above change, the scaling for the number of cells you can create each day has been changed to match the number of rages a barbarian gets per day, and the number of spell slots you have per rest was delayed slightly as a result (the fourth spell slot was removed entirely)
- The previous Judicial Education (now called Applied Study) was moved to 6th level, and replaced with a new Judicial Education feature that is more based around roleplay than combat applications.
- The class now has proficiency with heavy armor, and chain mail was added to the equipment section.
- A single 5th-level spell was added to each Division's Expanded Spell List to allow flavorful options for Judicial Arcanum.
- Each Divisions now grants the same number of features at each level.
- Division of Execution was reworked at 3rd and 5th level to be more in balance with the other Divisions.
7/19/2017 v1.2
- Changed name of the Spellcasting feature to Court Magic, and clarified how it operated when multiclassing with other spellcasters, specifically Warlock
- Nerfed Binding Cell's area of effect at early levels, but added feature to restore original dimensions at 11th level and beyond
- Slightly tweaked the scaling of when new spell slots are gained, delaying the fourth and final spell slot until 20th level. Nothing has changed about the scaling of the spell slot levels
5/17/2017 v1.1 - Large number of changes:
- Made the uses of Binding Cell scale off of justiciar class level instead of Intelligence modifier to prevent multiclassing abuse, and also made the feature more usable at early levels
- Altered the way Spell Slot and Spell Slot Level progression operates to bring casting potential in line with other half-casters
- Added new feature called Judicial Arcanum that allows the casting of 5th-level spells in a more limited form
- Replaced Visitation Privileges feature (which is now unnecessary with the changes to Binding Cell) with new feature called Prohibitive Cell, which makes it even more difficult for spellcasters to escape your cell
- Renamed Improved Binding Cell feature to Expedited Cell, and removed a newly unnecessary clause
- Fundamentally changed the Judge's Cell capstone feature in response to the new Cell use scaling
- Due to new Spell Slot and Spell Level scaling, reformatted aspects of the Division of Reformation
5/15/2017 v1.0 - Original Justiciar class uploaded.
And if you like the Justiciar, you might enjoy OAP's other products:
This is the Outlandish Adventure Productions philosophy: Despite our move to a paid model, we remain committed to our ideology that everyone who wants to play our products, regardless of financial means, should be able to do so. To that effect, if you'd like to play any of our products, you can message BossLeiser through OAP's Subreddit, contact us on Twitter or Facebook, or email RossLeiser@gmail.com to get a Printer Friendly copy at no cost to you. This copy won't include any of the art assets, but it will contain everything you need to utilize the product in your games. We look forward to hearing from you!
