DESCRIPTION

A cutthroat lawyer is a master of loopholes, doublespeak, intimidation, and litigation. She prides herself on doing whatever it takes—within the law—to win her case. Though this means she won't use illusions to falsify evidence or enchantments to alter a witness's memories or coerce a judge or juror to change a vote, it leaves her many opportunities to enhance her own ability to persuade and investigate. Given enough gold and access to the right potions, she destroys the opposition's arguments, eradicates the witnesses' credibility, discovers conflicts of interest in judges and jurors, digs up obscure laws that invalidate the charges of which her client is accused, suggests plausible conspiracies or mistaken identities, points fingers at other possible suspects, bogs down trial proceedings, and offers plea bargains to a trivially smaller sentence in order to get trials over with.

She loves the intellectual and magical challenge of defeating her opponent within the bounds of the law, much as a paladin enjoys a victory without resorting to dishonorable tactics. She thrives on the attention and her ability to manipulate others to see things as she wants them to. If she worked as a prosecutor, her conviction record would be nearly perfect, but because she loves a good profit, she prefers aggressive litigation and defending the accused. Any magic she uses to achieve a win is added to her bill, and her favorite clients are rich adventurers because they have the deepest pockets.

The lawyer does have standards, and will not defend those accused of crimes against children. Likewise, she prefers clients who are not actually guilty, or are guilty of crimes against property rather than against people.

The lawyer has a network of contacts, observers, and expert witnesses ready to follow people, investigate crime scenes, badger city guards for information, testify in trials, and otherwise make themselves useful for her profession. She usually has the assistance of one or more less skilled lawyers (use the successful merchant stat block, expert 7) hoping to gain some prestige by association, and payrolls two or three investigator wizards (human diviner 4) at any one time. All of these agents are people she believes she can trust not to violate any laws in the pursuit of information, for one slip-up can invalidate her entire case and—worst of all—embarrass her professionally. An agent who shows a lack of discretion or discipline in this matter is cut off and disavowed; depending on the infraction, she might bring her litigious powers to bear against that person, in which case it is usually best for the target to flee the city, change his or her name, and attempt a new life somewhere else.