class variant: wilderness rogue

Rae ArdGaoth · Feb 18, 2008

Trouvere said:
It might make a difference for races other than human, halfling and half-elf, which would have to take into account multiclassing penalties. What would your options be to build a roguish elf at home in the wilds, if you didn't want to play a dumb-as-a-stump Wood Elf (which changes favored class from Wiz to Rgr)?

It seems to me that if you don't want to be a human, halfling, half-elf, or wood elf ranger/rogue, then perhaps the ranger/rogue combo is not for you. A half-orc ranger/rogue would be odd, as would be a dwarven ranger/rogue. Maybe a moon elf is not so strange, but as they're meant to multi-class into Wiz, I maintain my argument that a rgr/rog is not the most ideal class progression for that character. And as for wood elves being dumb as a stump, the rgr/rog gets plenty of skill points to compensate, and a wood elf just won't find those knowledge skills to be as useful, that's all.

I'd be willing to sacrifice some min/max for a character concept.

orsal · Feb 18, 2008

I'm not so worried about rules bloat with the UA variant classes -- they're pretty well known, and (mostly, including this one) close enough to core classes not to be too confusing. So, since it seems to be agreed that the extra options for special abilities are not unbalanced, I vote Yes to the Wilderness Rogue.

SlagMortar · Feb 18, 2008

One consideration with adding skills is that it may potentially allow earlier entry to a PrC. For example, this variant rogue could go straight into horizon walker due to knowledge (geography) at level 5, where a standard rogue could not. I don't think this case is actually a problem, but it is something people will need to keep in mind when creating PrCs. Knowledge skills seem to be a common choice for skill prereqs for PrCs.

orsal · Feb 18, 2008

SlagMortar said:
One consideration with adding skills is that it may potentially allow earlier entry to a PrC. For example, this variant rogue could go straight into horizon walker due to knowledge (geography) at level 5, where a standard rogue could not.

Although a standard ranger could.

Scott DeWar · Feb 20, 2008

orsal said:
Although a standard ranger could.

it seems that there are quite a few prestige classes that can be reached in the level 5-7 range....would the ability to reach horizon walker at level 5 ranger or wilderness rogue be a bad thing?

SlagMortar · Feb 20, 2008

Orsal said:
Although a standard ranger could.

Right.

Orsal said:
it seems that there are quite a few prestige classes that can be reached in the level 5-7 range....would the ability to reach horizon walker at level 5 ranger or wilderness rogue be a bad thing?

I don't think Horizon Walker is a problem. In fact, I don't know of any PrC's that are a problem. My point is that skills are sometimes used to ensure that a character taking a PrC has a certain class and that adding those skills to new classes has the potential to disrupt the PrC's balance. I do not know of any that the wilderness rogue will create a problem for, but I thought I would point it out in case someone else could think of one.

There are probably not any PrCs that assume a level of ranger and become overpowered with a level of wilderness rogue instead, because ranger is a good class. I think it is always worth considering if there are such PrCs, though, when making changes to the skill lists of a class.