Jackal Lord

Jackal lords are mysterious creatures that serve dark and sinister gods. They are notorious for undermining legitimate organizations, governments, and religious groups and replacing them with their own puppets. They are masters of subterfuge, terrorism, blackmail and bribery.

Vain and gluttonous, jackal lords surround themselves with rich furnishings, slaves, and the finest foods. They crave to possess what others have and are cruel in the extreme toward those that displease them.

A jackal lord is an attractive if sinister-looking creature, resembling a slender and wiry humanoid with the black head of a jackal. Jackal lords commonly wear fine clothing, armor, and jewelry, styling themselves as regal beings that deserve worship.

Preferring to work in the shadows, jackal lords use intimidation, bribes, and boons to gather followers to worship their gods and do their bidding. Most start out in isolated and backwater communities, where they can flaunt their power with impunity, sponsoring bandits and highwaymen to finance their organization. Some jackal lords set up bases in large cities, where they either pose as respected elders and businessmen of the community or live underground and pull strings through a maze of fronts.

Jackal lords speak Common and Infernal. They can also converse with any sort of canine, including jackals, dogs, and wolves.

Combat

Most jackal lords are cowards, and prefer to have their minions and jackals do the fighting for them. They will typically summon a large pack of jackals to protect them in case an opponent gets too close.

A jackal lord will use its alternate form ability either to attack or to blend in with a pack ofjackals and slip away from danger. Barring that, jackal lords use their scimitars, teeth, and claws to eliminate and opponent.

Jackal lords reserve their curse of the jackal ability for only the most powerful opponents or those they want to make an example of. Because they can dominate jackals, they usually try to dominate an opponent after it has been transformed.

Alternate Form (Su): As a standard action, a jackal lord can assume the form of a large jackal (use the statistics for the wolf). See Alternate Form.

Curse of the Jackal (Su): Once per day, a jackal lord can make a gaze attack against a single opponent within 30 feet. If the target fails a Will save (DC 20), it is transformed into a jackal (use the statistics for the dog) as if affected by baleful polymorph. A jackal lord can reverse this effect by gazing upon an individual that was cursed by itself or by some other jackal lord, but doing so counts as its use of the ability for that day. Otherwise, only a limited wish, miracle, or wish can restore the victim.

Dominate Animal (Su): Jackal lords can use dominate animal (canines only) at will as if they were 16th-level clerics.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will⁠—​cat’s grace, disguise self, detect magic, detect good, suggestion; 3/day⁠—​shadow walk. Caster level 15th; save DC 13 + spell level.

Spells: A jackal lord can cast divine spells as an 8th-level cleric (6/6/5/5/4; save DC 14 + spell level), from the cleric list and from the Animal and Evil domains.

A typical spell list: 0⁠—​cure minor wounds (3), guidance, resistance, virtue; 1st⁠—​bless, calm animals*, cure light wounds, lesser confusion, obscuring mist, shield of faith; 2nd⁠—​bull’s strength, hold animal*, hold person, spiritual weapon; 3rd⁠—​blindness/deafness, invisibility purge, magic vestment, magic circle against good*; 4th⁠—​spell immunity, summon monster IV, unholy blight*.

• Domain spell. Domains: Animal (speak with animals 1/day), Evil (cast evil spells at +1 caster level).

Summon Jackals (Sp): Three times per day, a jackal lord can summon up to 8 HD of jackals (use the statistics for the dog).

Jackal Lord Society

There is a fierce and wicked rivalry between jackal lords; each considers the others to be the biggest threats to its existence. Many of a jackal lord’s Machiavellian schemes are designed to bring down a rival lord and absorb its territory.

On extremely rare occasions, two or more jackal lords will reconcile their differences and work together for a common goal. Usually this goal involves establishing a powerful temple dedicated to their deity or banding together for an attack on a good-aligned group. These coalitions rarely last for longer than necessary, breaking down into backstabbing and betrayal as soon as the task is complete.

Jackal Lord Characters

Jackal lords’ favored class is cleric. Levels of cleric add to a jackal lord’s ability to cast spells, so a 5th-level cleric jackal lord casts spells as a 13th-level cleric. Many jackal lords multiclass as rogue/clerics.

Jackal Lords and Deities and Demigods

If you are using Deities and Demigods, jackal lords worship Anubis, representing a more sinister aspect of that god. Jackal lord clerics have access to the Law, Magic, and Repose domains. Alternatively, jackal lords could be worshipers of Set, in which case, their alignment is chaotic evil. Jackal lord clerics that worship Set have access to the Darkness, Evil, and Strength domains.

Source: Fiend Folio, page 105. Changes applied as per the D&D^® v.3.5 Accessory Update. Under Spells, moved the calm animals spell to the 1st level spell list where it belongs.