From: jek@duke.cs.duke.edu (James E. Kittock) Date: 18 Jun 92 18:00:44 GMT Subject: Re: Alternate character classes Thief Variant: the Intriguist This subclass of thief has abilities shying away from robbery and killing and aiming more towards dealing with people. However, while gaining skills suited to a politician, it retains many of the skills useful for subterfuge. This subclass is well suited to many lines of work: investigation, spying, courtier, emissary, etc. There are no formal schools for Intriguists, as the quest for daily survival and general success in life are sufficient education for these characters. Intriguists may be of any race and alignment and have the following abilities requirements: Dex 9, Int 12, Chr 13. They may use weapons as per thieves, with the addition of fencing and other "noble" weapons (will vary from culture to culture). Often, they will carry other weapons as part of a disguise, but will suffer the same non-proficiency penalty a thief would. They are not trained in the use of armor, and when fighting in armor will suffer a penalty of -1 to their THAC0 per unit of AC improved by the armor. Of course, they may wear armor for purposes of disguise. Intruigists fight, save, and gain HP as thieves. The changes to the thief class for Intriguists are as follows: I. Abilities lost: a. Backstab b. Pick Pockets skill c. Find/remove traps skill d. Armor use (see above) II. Abilities gained: a. Access to Priestly and Wizardly proficiencies without extra slot cost b. Fencing and other noble weapons (see above) c. Manipulate skill d. Psychology skill e. Spot Hidden skill f. Memorize skill (all new skills described below) III. Other changes a. Weapon and nonweapon proficiencies as follows Initial # Levels Weapon 2 5 Nonweapon 3 3 b. Keeping with the Thief numbers of 7.5% per skill for first level and 3.75% per skill for each level above first, Intriguists receive 75% at first level and 35% per level above first to distribute among their skills. c. Base skill percentages and modifications are as follows: (modifications for Dex as per Thieves) Intelligence Charisma Race Skill Base 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 18 El Gn Ha Dw HE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open Locks 5 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Move Silently 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Hide in Shadows 5 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Detect Noise 15 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Climb Walls 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Read Languages 10 5 10 15 20 25 -- -- -- -- -- as thieves Manipulate* 20 -- -- -- -- -- 5 10 15 20 25 -15 -5 -15 -15 -5 Psychology 15 5 5 10 10 15 -- 5 5 10 10 -- -- -- -- -- Spot Hidden 30 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 20 5 10 5 5 Memorize 10 -- -- 5 10 20 -- -- -- -- -- -- 10 -- 10 -- *racial modifiers apply only to members of other races Descriptions of New Skills. Manipulate: Using this skill, the Intriguist can manipulate the thoughts and emotions of a given target. Some possible forms of manipulation include: amuse, appease, befriend, calm, confuse, convince, frighten, intimidate, and irritate. Note that these manipulations can be effected against only one person per level per use. A separate roll is required for each affected person, however. DM discretion is required as to degree and duration of effect. Since this is not magic, Elves' and Half-Elves' resistance to Charm-type spells does not apply. However, an Intriguist is -10% on this ability with regards to a member of a different race. Psychology: This skill lies somewhere between Empathy and ESP. It allows the Intriguist to assess the motives for the actions of a person and may hint at what the person is thinking, but will not give literal thoughts. It is usually obvious to the Intriguist what a person's general emotional state is. A roll is required if the person is somehow attempting to hide hir emotions. The skill may also be to assess situations of the "why did this happen?" type, if sufficient information is available. To use the skill directly on a person, the Intriguist must have some form of contact with them, whether verbal, visual, telepathic, etc. Any Intriguist is -10% on this ability with regards to a member of a different race. Spot Hidden: This skill reflects the Intriguists practice at noticing things that are out of place or in some way unusual. It will work on concealed or secret doors if there is some external evidence of such, no matter how slight (a book less dusty than the others around it, a loose torch sconce, etc). This skill will similarly only find traps that have some at least slightly visible component (the point of a needle inside a lock, a differently-colored paving stone, etc). Further, this skill applies to situations such as a person out of place in a crowd, a marked card in a deck of cards, etc. The Intriguist may specifically search for things using this skill, but as long as the Intriguist is capable of using it (i.e. can see and is mentally functional), it is considered to be "always on" and the DM should roll for the character to see if something out of place was spotted. Memorize: This skill allows the Intriguist to make a "photographic memory" of an object, document, place, etc. Non-visual memories are at -10%. If the roll is greater than the amount needed, this reflects the approximate percentage of information that was lost in that memory. Thus, if Lane the Intriguist has a 30% chance to memorize the Seal of the House of Erwin, and he rolls a 70%, he has missed about 70% - 30% = 40% of the important details.