Wizard Slayer

“The Wizard Slayer” – For whatever reason, most, when they think of the barbarian, associate a hatred of magic to this dauntless warrior. Perhaps the reason for this stereotype originates from the obvious dichotomy between the two classes. Where the wizard is frail and relies upon external energies to compensate for his lack of martial abilities, the barbarian is fierce, strong and depends upon his Strength to overcome his foes. Clearly, the division of these two classes suggests there could be an innate rivalry between the polar opposites.

The Quintessential Barbarian
Author Robert Schwalb
Series Quintessential Series
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2003

In some cases, the rift is so great one or both become enemies out of more than misunderstanding. This hatred comes from the misconception that arcane energies are a violation of the natural order. In some cases, the hatred stems from the depredations of arcane users upon the simple lives of uncivilised communities. Regardless, out of the discord arises the wizard slayer, a hater of all things magical.

Wizard slayers do not hate divine or even psionics energies or those wielding them. They despise wizards and their meddling ways. sorcerers, as well, are not exempt from the wizard slayer’s ire. Any who wield arcane magic are foes to the wizard slayer. They denounce their efforts and products. They will never use items created from those hands. They will never accept arcane spells, even in life and death situations. They are the epitome of intolerance and are one of the greatest threats to all wizards extant.

Hit Die: d12

Requirements

To qualify to become a wizard slayer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +8
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks
Feats: Toughness
Special: Rage 3/day

Class Skills

The wizard slayer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Strength), Concentration (Constitution), Jump (Strength), Knowledge (Arcana) (Intelligence), Ride(Dexterity), Spellcraft (Intelligence) and Swim (Strength).

Skill points at each level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Wizard Slayer
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1	+1	+1	+1	+1	Sense Magic, Anti-Magic Knack, Limitation
2	+2	+1	+1	+1	Breach Magic Defenses
3	+3	+2	+2	+2	Diminish Duration
4	+4	+2	+2	+2	Wizard Bane
5	+5	+2	+2	+2	Deflect Spells

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the wizard slayer prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The wizard slayer gains no new proficiency in arms or armour. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket and Tumble.

Sense Magic (Sp): At will, wizard slayers can sense magic as per the Detect Magic spell. The wizard slayer attunes to any corruption or disruption in the natural order when spell-casters gather arcane energies for their spells. At 3rd level, the wizard slayer can detect constructs and magical beasts for what they are. At 5th level, the wizard slayer can sense when spell-like abilities are used.

Anti-Magic Knack (Ex): The wizard slayer is inherently resistant to arcane magical energies. At 1st level, the wizard slayer gains a +2 innate bonus to all saves against spells and spell-like abilities. Wizard slayers have little to fear from spell-casters.

Limitation (Su): Being a slayer of wizards comes with unusual side effects. Their indiscriminate hatred retards their ability to make use of magic items. Any magic item coming into the hands of a wizard slayer has its powers suppressed. This suppression extends to divine and psionic items. Potions become coloured (and usually bad-tasting) fluids, magic swords become simply masterwork and wondrous items become oddities. Even artefacts seem to resist granting their power to these walking dead-magic zones. Not even a wish spell can restore a wizard slayer’s ability to wield these items.

Breach Magical Defences (Ex): Wizard slayers learn to penetrate the defences of weapon-resistant foes. Thus, wizard slayers can affect opponents with damage reduction as if they were wielding a magic weapon. Their effective ‘plus’ equals their level in wizard slayer -1. Therefore, a 4th level wizard slayer can affect creatures having a damage reduction of +3 or less.

Diminish Duration (Su): Wizard slayers have an uncanny ability to unravel spells cast by arcane users. By concentrating for a full round they may diminish the duration of spells having a duration of more than instantaneous. This ability does not work against spells having a duration of Concentration or permanent. To succeed, the wizard slayer must pass a Concentration check against the DC of the spell cast. Success indicates the spell has its duration halved. Multiple uses of this ability continue to halve the remaining duration until it has one increment remaining. Increments include rounds, minutes, hours or days. For example, Grat the wizard slayer faces an evil wizard under the effects of an ethereal jaunt spell. He yearns to kill this wicked foe, so he concentrates on the spell to reduce its duration. The wizard is under the effect of the spell for 13 rounds and the spell has an effective DC of 20. He must spend a full-round action to concentrate on the spell. He rolls his Concentration check and succeeds with a 24. The spell’s remaining duration reduces to 6 (where in this case it would otherwise be 12 rounds). If Grat continues to focus for another round and succeeds, the remaining 5 rounds drop to a mere 3 rounds. He may continue until the spell duration reaches one increment.

Wizard Bane (Ex): The wizard slayer hates wizards so much his blows against them inflict greater damage. He may add his wizard slayer class levels to damage rolls against wizards.

Deflect Spells (Su): At 5th level, the wizard slayer gains the ability to deflect incoming spells cast by an arcane spell-user. To do so, the wizard slayer must declare a readied action to deflect any arcane spell. Whenever the target of a spell, he may make an attack roll against the DC of the spell. If successful, he ‘deflects’ the spell harmlessly away. If he rolls a critical hit against the DC of the spell, he may rebound the spell back toward the caster who is fully affected by the spell. Spells deflectable are spells specifically targeting the wizard slayer.