Monster Jars

With a prompt from one Chris Wilson from the OSR Discord server - "Monster Jars".

Here, have a class. It assumes silver standard.

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A likely Jarrymonsterer | Original | Artist

You have studied the art of uniting monsters and jars, in multiple forms and kinds. You harness the powers and abilities of monsters this way.

Class: Jarrymonsterer

Your HD, to-hit, saves, equipment restrictions, and XP track are as magic-user.

Your Jars: in order to perform your jarring abilities, you need jars treated in advance. Any glass jar may be treated and is measured in doses. At most, a jar you treat may contain up to 3 doses and needs to be appropriately large, but each dose in a single jar costs more to treat: a single dose jar costs 50sp to treat, a 2-dose jar costs 150sp to treat, and a 3-dose jar costs 300sp to treat. Treating jars takes an entire day, though you may treat multiple jars at a time. A treated jar takes up a single equipment slot.
When all doses in a jar are expended, it remains treated, but will require cleaning before new doses may be put in. This takes 10 minutes per dose the jar can contain and all doses must be cleaned before reuse.
Treated jars are hard to break. Treat as reinforced wood for breakage rules.
You may carry as many jars at one time you have levels in Jarrymonsterer.

Salvaging Jars: at any time, you may spend a day with a jar to salvage it for materials and costs. Salvaging this way gives you materials to be used in treatment and rituals on other jars. When you salvage a jar, you lose the jar itself as well.

Exotic Jars: if you have jars made to order, or find particularly special ones, they may be exotic jars. Exotic jars have several advantages over regular glass jars, depending on their features:

• if it is made from an exotic glass or glass-like material, it becomes as hard as steel to break when treated.
• if its glass is stained with art, it may contain an extra dose at no cost (single dose becomes 2-dose and so on).
• if its lid is etched or inscribed with art, pickles from pickling and monstrous jars are done a single sunrise quicker, while a monster-in-a-jar may be recalled without pinning it down, from a 10' distance.

Additionally, you might find Ancient Monster Jars, treated with long lost techniques. These jars are unbreakable, are not lost when salvaging or if not fed as monstrous jars or jar monsters on time, come in all 3 sizes, and have both art features even if they are plain and possibly not even made out of glass. You can tell them apart from other jars without error.

Jarring Ethics: you can jar nearly anything. The line is drawn at a certain degree of humanoidness. Any humanoid you can safely say is a civilized kind of humanoid, goblins and orcs and kobolds included, for instance, cannot be jarred. Consult your GM for some exceptions, like mind flayers.

Monster Food: each dose contained in a jar also counts as a ration when you eat it, but you do not necessarily need to eat a ration to consume a dose. In addition, roll with advantage when saving against effects of ingested hazards, like poisons, since your stomach has become hardy.

Monster Pickles: the simplest method of jarring monster is monster pickles. Pickling requires a freshly dead monster, a means to scoop out its innards, and 10 minutes of work per jar you want to fill. A monster can provide a number of doses equal to its HD. Monster pickles must rest in their jar for 1 full day before they are usable. If strict day time is not kept, assume 2 sunrises need to pass before the pickles are ready.
Monster pickles provide a monster's ability or trait for a duration equal to your level in Jarrymonsterer per dose. This ability or trait is chosen when scooping out the innards of the monster. Consult your GM what is available and how it works.
If a jar containing monster pickles is broken, you have one round to eat the spilled doses before they lose all potency.

Monstrous Jar: you can treat a jar into a monstrous jar with an hour-long ritual and an unconscious monster. This ritual costs 100sp in materials per HD the monster has. When the ritual is finished, your jar is now part monster.
A monstrous jar requires a single ration per day to live. It needs to be fed after the sun rises and no later than noon. It will complain until it gets fed. It will die and melt away, along with the jar, if not fed in time.
In its jar stomach, a monstrous jar can hold a number of rations equal to the number of doses it can hold. These doses are treated as pickles, including the time it takes for pickling to finish. You now essentially have a self-refilling pickle jar.
A monstrous jar can't be broken, but it can be killed or punctured into non-usability. It has 1 HP per HD the monster had and an AC like platemail. Any saves you make against area of effect spells apply to the jar as well.

An example Monstrous Jar | Original

Monster-in-a-Jar: a particularly complex technique allows you to squeeze and entire monster into a jar. This requires an unconscious or willing monster and a 3-hour long ritual. You may put a monster with HD equal to or less than the number of doses the jar can contain and each jar may only contain a single monster this way. The ritual costs 200sp per HD the monster has.
Monsters jarred this way are not automatically tamed, merely forced into a small space. They may be released at any time and rejarring them does not require the ritual be performed again, as long as no more than a day has passed since release and you are able to pin it down for a single round while the jar's mouth is firmly placed against the monster.
If the jar breaks, the monster inside it is immediately expelled out and has to be rejarred with a new ritual.

Jar Monster: the most complex monster jarring technique, the jar monster acts as a companion to the Jarrymonsterer. You may only have a single jar monster at a time. Creating your jar monster requires a monstrous jar as a base, a day-long ritual, and 300sp per HD the monstrous jar has. The monstrous jar is consumed in this process. In its place, you get a practically identical jar, but it is now a type of combination between a monstrous jar and a monster-in-a-jar.
Your jar monster begins with the ability the monstrous jar used as its base has, and can expand into this monster on command and is obedient to you. Additionally, this jar can accept as many doses from other jars as the monstrous jar could contain as additional abilities when expanded. These abilities last 10 minutes times your level in Jarrymonsterer, and the timer runs from the moment it first expands with doses inside it, even if it reverts back to jar form.
The jar monster needs to be fed like a monstrous jar, as well, although it can last an entire day extra if fed double rations at the next feeding time.
The jar monster has normal HP for its HD, based on its HD as a monstrous jar. Other rules apply the same. It has AC equal to its regular monster base when expanded, and as monstrous jar when in jar form.