ROGUE - ADVENTURER Description: An Adventurer is a jack-of-all-trades type of character, a free spirit who lives for the joy of discovery and the thrill of danger. Adventurers love to investigate mysteries and explore crumbling ruins, looking for secrets of the past and treasures of the present. They are cautious when the situation demands it, but the rely more than a bit on luck and intuition to get the job done. Adventurers enjoy travels through the wilderness and interacting with people in cities, but it is crumbling ruins, forgotten civilizations, and treacherous dungeons that they love best, as they seem to provide the best chances for finding the treasures that are their meat and drink. They are often suspicious of others and can be very secretive (not wanting to let on what they know for fear that somebody else will get there first), but they make friends easily and are generally welcome in any adventuring party for their special skills. Adventurers tend to be fairly hardy as well as lucky and can handle themselves in a fight, though they are not particularly skilled or eager to engage in combat. Requirements: Adventurers use eight-sided hit dice and Rogue THAC0 and saving throws. They begin play with 3 weapon and 3 non-weapon proficiencies and gain weapon and non-weapon proficiency slots every three levels. Adventurers can be of any race except for half-ogres and of any alignment, though they are most often neutral or chaotic rather than lawful, as many treasure-hunting Adventurers are not too particular about acquiring ancient treasures by any means they find expedient, regardless of local laws, customs, or prior ownership (or, for that matter, current ownership). An Adventurer must have scores of at least 9 in Charisma and 11 in Dexterity and Intelligence. Weapon Proficiencies: An Adventurer can use any weapon with a speed factor of 5 or lower, plus the lasso, net, and whip. They may also use the blowgun, bolas, composite shortbow, dart, light crossbow, shortbow, and sling. Adventurers can wear any form of armor up to and including studded leather, though armor other than leather may reduce some of their Rogue abilities. Adventurers may use a small shield or buckler, but never a large or body shield. Thief Abilities and Modifiers: Appraisal, Climb Walls, Detect Magic, Find/Remove Traps, Hide in Shadows, Move Silently At 5th level, an Adventurer's mechanical skills and knowledge improve to the point that they gain the Open Locks skill. At the same time (5th level), their familiarity with ancient languages enables them to gain the Read Languages ability. An Adventurer gains 30 discretionary points at 1st level and 20 points at each level thereafter; no more than half of the points gained at any level can be placed into a single skill. Special Benefits: Adventurers are well-rounded generalists with a nose for treasure and an intuition for danger, seeming to seek out trouble (or have it seek them out) but managing most of the time to keep one step ahead of the game. They have the following class abilities: Archaeology: An Adventurer's skill in exploring and sifting through ruins and dungeons and similar structures is unmatched. Through study and personal experience, Adventurers have become familiar with the architecture of cities, temples, and tombs of ancient times and common methods of construction and excavation used. After examining a ruined building for at least one turn, an Adventurer can attempt to discern the approximate original size, layout, and purpose of the place, as well as the approximate age of the site or any items found therein (allowing them to detect new construction or the presence of items that 'should not be there'). The chance of success is equal to the Adventurer's Intelligence score plus 5% per level of experience. A failed check provides the Adventurer with misleading information, with the degree of failure reflecting the degree of inaccuracy in his or her knowledge. Example: An Adventurer who makes a successful Archaeology roll might discern that a particular ruined building was formerly a temple and should have four subterranean levels with a sanctuary located in the center of the second level at the end of a southern staircase. A check failed by a moderate degree (up to 25%) would give information that is generally correct, but off in terms of number, degree, or amount (e.g., that the above temple complex had only two levels, or that there should be no obvious access to the lower level). A check failed by 26-50% might reveal that the site is a religious building but might misplace the era when it was built or cause the Adventurer to think the building was a monastery or religious academy of some sort. A massive failure (51% or more) will result in completely false information being revealed. Regardless of the Adventurer's level, his or her knowledge of Archaeology can never allow more than a 95% chance of success. Penalties may apply to checks against this ability when evaluating the ruins of alien cultures (e.g., a lizard man city, or an aquatic temple of locathah) or other very obscure civilizations. Danger Sense: Adventurers have a sort of sixth sense that warns them of danger and helps them to avoid it. This is partly due to their well-honed ability to read people and their intentions, partly to a developed intuition about signs of danger, and partly just to blind luck. Anytime an Adventurer is about to set off a trap or be ambushed by another creature, they are entitled to an unmodified save vs. paralyzation. If this save is made, the Adventurer notices something amiss at the last moment or feels a sudden warning 'tingle' that just cannot be ignored, allowing him or her to step back without setting off the trap or to roll normal initiative against a creature that would normally have surprised him or her and take a normal action during the surprise phase. This makes Adventurers very hard to take by surprise, especially at high levels. In addition to the above, an Adventurer's Danger Sense makes him or her much more sensitive to observation and scrutiny. Hence, they gain a +4 (+20%) bonus to any rolls to detect observation, scrying, mind-reading, or other forms of examination, and in fact they receive a +2 bonus to resist magical or psionic divinations. Dungeoneering: Adventurers are skilled at exploring not only ancient and crumbling ruins but also caves, tunnels, mines, and buried dungeons of all types. As a result, an Adventurer has a base 20% chance, +5% per level of experience, to be able to detect a grade or slope in a passage, determine depth or direction of travel underground, sliding/shifting walls and rooms, and stonework traps (including deadfalls and pits). For demihumans who already possess such abilities, they retain their normal chance, +5% per level of experience. An Adventurer's Dungeoneering skill also enables him or her to deduce the shortest or most direct probable path toward the exit of any subterranean cave, cavern, dungeon, or labyrinth, though at only half the normal chance of success (rounding up). This ability is of no assistance when faced with magical confusion or misdirection effects and it requires decent light (or infravision) to get a sense for the architecture or geology of the area being explored. Note that these abilities are not automatic and require one round of concentration for each attempt or each piece of information being sought. Evasion: In combat situations, Adventurers have a high degree of intuition about where and when an enemy is going to strike and how to dodge or otherwise avoid the blow or attack or at least minimize its effect somehow through dint of cleverness, agility, and sheer blind luck. An Adventurer can use this ability once per day for every level of experience, though not more often than once per round in any event, and it can have one of the following effects: - Bonus of -5 to the Adventurer's initiative roll - Bonus of +3 to saving throw vs. any form of attack - Partial avoidance of any attack that can be dodged, halving damage inflicted (e.g., a sword blow, crossbow bolt, or dragon breath might be dodged, but magic missiles or attacks that do not inflict points of physical damage (e.g., charm person, disintegrate, flesh to stone) cannot be reduced in effect in this way). Note that an Adventurer must know an attack is coming in order to use Evasion; if attacked from surprise, this ability cannot be used. However, it can be used against attacks from invisible creatures or other dangers that the Adventurer cannot see, as long as he or she is not surprised. This ability cannot be used if the Adventurer is held, stunned, asleep, slowed, paralyzed, entangled, or otherwise prevented from quick reaction to perceived threats. Legends & Lore: Adventurers learn a little bit of everything in their studies and travels. An Adventurer's well-rounded education in the 'school of hard knocks' allows him or her to learn NWPs from all proficiency lists without penalty. In addition, an Adventurer has a 5% per level chance to know a little something about virtually any topic. This ability rarely gives specific information about magical items and the like, but it can provide bits and pieces of historical or cultural information about people, places, and objects (e.g., the cultural taboos of certain barbarian tribes, the style of swords manufactured in a particular nation, the race or nation that built a certain ruined city), particularly if the person, place, or thing being examined has some legendary significance or is famous in some way. Because of their familiarity with a wide variety of cultures, traditions, taboos, customs, and the like, Adventurers gain a +2 reaction bonus with intelligent humanoid NPCs (and other sentient races, at the DM's option). As a side benefit of this ability, each time an Adventurer advances a level he or she can attempt to roll this percentage as a chance that he or she finds a treasure map (or possibly one or more clues or rumors) that gives information about some place or item of legend. Even if such a map or information is found, it is up to the Adventurer to decide whether or not to follow up on the information discovered therein. At 10th level and above, Adventurers have learned enough scraps of arcane lore and languages that they gain the ability to use magical scrolls of all types, though they have a 15% chance of failure (often resulting in a reversed or harmful effect visited upon the Adventurer or those nearby). Special Hindrances: None. Bonus Proficiencies: Cartography, Local History, Reading/Writing Preferred Proficiencies: Ancient History, Direction Sense, Languages (Ancient), Languages (Modern), Lightning Reflexes, Luck, any Rogue proficiencies ***DISCLAIMER*** As with all postings by me of classes or races, it should be noted that portions of the information contained herein were inspired by or derived from information in published works of TSR, Inc., and may contain references to those works, quotations or passages of text (especially in the area of 'Character Description', where applicable sections from TSR works were often carried over more or less intact into my campaign world), or particular powers or abilities invented by TSR staff writers. No relationship with TSR, Inc., is to be implied by this use, nor is any attempt being made to solicit profit or remuneration of any kind. I have read the TSR Online Policy document, and have tried to accommodate the stipulations contained therein. In instances where I have lifted an essentially complete class or race without significant alteration, I have not included these in my postings but instead have inserted a reference to the appropriate D&D sourcebook for those curious in including it in their campaign. Only variations that include a significant component of original work, alteration, or reformulation (including the compositing elements from various TSR sources into new combinations) of have been included in this set of postings. Jason Eric Nelson < tjaden@u.washington.edu >