Jackal (3.5e Class)

Author: Elohim (talk) Date Created: 3/11/17 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity, Spelling, Bottom Fluff

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Arcane thief of spells, spell caster. 20 1 Poor Poor Poor Good

"Special Prepared Spellcasting" is not in the list (Prepared Arcane Spellcasting, Spontaneous Arcane Spellcasting, Prepared Divine Spellcasting, Spontaneous Divine Spellcasting, Arcane Spellcasting, Divine Spellcasting, Prepared Spellcasting, Spontaneous Spellcasting, Alternate Magic, Psionics, ...) of allowed values for the "Class Ability" property.

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The Jackal

The jackal is a spell thief. She reaches into the minds of wizards, and other arcane casters that memorize their spells, and takes the spells she wants. She is hated and feared by other casters, and so must be very circumspect in her actions.

NOTE: This is an updated variant of the Jackal wizard kit found in The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook for 2e.

Making a Jackal

Alignment: Any except LG.

Starting Age: Complex.

Table: The Jackal

Hit Die: d4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day
		Fort	Ref	Will		0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Spell Theft, Bountiful Pouch	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3		4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3		4	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4		5	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Movements of the Zephyr	5	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Bonus Feat	6	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5		6	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6		7	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6		7	5	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Burgle the Divine	8	6	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7		8	6	5	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Bonus Feat	9	7	6	5	4	3	2	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8		9	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Minor Wizardry	*	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	Voice of Silence	*	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10		*	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10		*	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Bonus Feat	*	9	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		*	9	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Burgle the Divine	*	9	9	9	8	7	6	5	4	3
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Hide (Dex).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the jackal.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Jackals are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a jackal’s movements, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Bonus Languages: A jackal may substitute any elemental language for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.

Spell Theft: At 1st level, a jackal gains the ability to steal spells from the minds of other arcane casters, and must do so as she is otherwise unable to memorize spells. A jackal casts arcane spells which are drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list and may use known metamagic feats spontaneously as a sorcerer.

To steal a spell, the jackal must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a jackal’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the jackal’s Intelligence modifier. The target caster must be within close range and line of sight, at 5th level range improves to medium, and at 15th level it improves to long.

Jackals are thieves by nature, they don't steal spells from books or take the scrolls of other wizards. Instead, they have the ability to actually reach into another wizard's mind and take spells they want. The jackal may view the memorized spells of a target within range, seeing all spells of levels she is able to cast. Likewise they can see the known spells of spontaneous arcane casters, and take their spell slots, filling them from the jackal's choice of the known spells.

To activate this ability, the jackal must roll her Intelligence -1 or less on 1d20. If the level of the target is higher than the level of the jackal, that difference is added as a penalty to the roll. Once activated, she may siphon the spells she wants from her victim, up to twice her intelligence modifier, minimum 1, in spell levels per round. A spell that is of a level greater than she can take in a single round is taken at the end of a number of rounds wherein her siphon capacity equal or exceed the spell's level. Thus a jackal able to siphon 4 spell levels per round would require 2 full rounds to steal a 5th level spell. Any remaining siphon capacity in a round may be use to steal, or start stealing, more spells. The jackal must maintain concentration while using spell theft, or it fails; any spell not fully channeled before such failure is lost to both the jackal and the target caster. Once stolen, the spells remain memorized until expended.

Like other spell casters, a jackal can hold in memory only a certain number of spells of each spell level at a time. Her base spell allotment is given on Table: The Jackal. She receives no bonus spells for a high ability score, but may recharge spell slots at any time thru her spell theft ability, requiring no rest period.

Spell theft is far from foolproof. There is a chance that the caster being stolen from will realize what is going on. To become aware of a jackal's thievery, a caster must make a successful opposed intelligence check. The victim gets one chance to detect the theft during the first round of siphoning, and again every 10, minus his intelligence modifier, rounds thereafter. As an example, a wizard with an intelligence of 16 (+3), having failed the opposed intelligence check in the first round would gain another check every 7 (10-3) rounds.

Once the wizard is aware of the jackal's thieving, he may attempt to overload the jackal, or stop her outright with a WILL save. A successful will save roll ends the current spell theft channeling, and grants the target caster an automatic WILL save at +6 against further attempts for the rest of the encounter. Overloading is done by channeling the magical energies contained in the caster's memorized spells, or unused slots, toward the jackal in an attempt to surpass the jackal's limit of stolen spell levels. The wizard must state how many spells, up to twice his casting modifier, he is going to unleash and which spell(s) those are going to be. The total spell levels released by the wizard are compared to the maximum able to be siphoned by the jackal in a round. Should the released spell levels exceed the capacity of the jackal she must make an unmodified intelligence check, penalized by the difference, or become overloaded.

Becoming overloaded immediately breaks the connection between the jackal and her target, and she is unable to use her spell theft ability until having rested for at least 8 hours. Furthermore, she must make an opposed caster level check or become feebleminded for one week for each spell level used to overload her, success resulting the loss of all spells in memory.

Bountiful Pouch: A jackal does not require material components for the casting of her stolen spells, unless that component is integral to the spell, such as a gem for magic jar.

Movements of the Zephyr: At 5th level, a jackal gains the effect of the still spell feat; this is automatic and does not add to spell level or casting time. Movements of the zephyr does not apply the the highest level of spell the jackal may cast, such as 5th level spells for a 9th level jackal; she may also choose to use somatic components at her pleasure. This ability removes any armor check penalty for casting spells when available and used.

Bonus Feat: At 6th, 12th, and 18th level, a jackal gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, she can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or Spell Mastery. The spell mastery feat is allows a jackal to alter any stolen spell to one of equal level mastered with the feat. The jackal must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.

Burgle the Divine: Upon attaining 10th level the jackal learns to steal divine spells from priests and other divine casters. The jackal is limited to spells castable by a cleric of 1/2 her jackal level, rounded down. Thus a jackal of 10th level could steal and cast divine spells of no greater than 3rd level. Stolen divine spells fill up the jackal's arcane spell slots as if they were arcane spells of an equal level.

At 20th level the jackal has become a consummate thief, she may now steal divine spells castable by a cleric her jackal level.

Minor Wizardry: At 14th level, the jackal has become so accustomed to the influx of magical energy she is able to constantly steal traces of energy from the environment itself, this allows her to cast cantrips at will.

Voice of Silence: At 15th level, a jackal gains the effect of the silent spell feat; this is automatic and does not add to spell level or casting time. Voice of silence does not apply the the highest level of spell the jackal may cast, such as 8th level spells for a 15th level jackal; she may also choose to use verbal components at her pleasure.

Epic Jackals

Table: The Epic Jackal

Hit Die: d4

Level	Special
21st	Greatness, Reap Item
22nd	—
23rd	Wizardry
24th	—
25th	—
26th	Wizardry
27th	—
28th	—
29th	Wizardry
30th	—
2 + Int modifier skill points per level.

The jackal is unable to create, use or steal epic spells.

Greatness: The epic jackal gains the ability to heighten any spell she casts by up to 1/3 her jackal level. This is an at will ability that does not increase casting time. Furthermore, effect by level caps (such as damage dice) are removed from her spells.

Reap Item: The epic jackal gains the ability to use spell theft on certain magical items. Any scroll, spell trigger or spell storing item, may have their spells stolen by the jackal. She must be touching the item and make an intelligence check to initiate a connection with the item. Success indicates that she may then drain it of spells, or charges, gaining the spells in her memory. Unlike siphoning from a caster's mind, however, she may not take any spell of greater level than she may siphon in a single round (intelligence modifier x2). Failure on the intelligence check means the item is beyond her ability until she gains a level, at which time she may try again. Critical failure causes the device to explode, dealing 1d6 damage to her for each spell level or charge of the item.

Wizardry: The epic jackal gains two bonus spell slots of each spell level every three levels after 20th.

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