Five Levels, make a FRPG Hard-Boiled Detective

I'm making a character for Eberron and I want to create an adventure worthy hard-boiled detective and I want to discover as many ways to do this as possible.

I'm talking Jack Nicholson from Chinatown, Nick Nolte from Mulholland Falls and 48 hours, the various versions of Mike Hammer, Humphrey Bogart, and Race Williams. Heck, even Batman, the world's greatest detective belongs on this list.

And, of course, the infamous Garret from Glen Cook's incredible novels.

Maybe with a little bit of the Thin Man, Rick from Casablanca, and Inspector Fred Abberline from From Hell for, respectively, the humor and love, criminality and sentimentality, and the addiction and nobility.

But most basicly the brunt brutal urbanity, the capacity in a fight, the strong mind, the basic charisma, the horrible sense of the underlying grim reality, and the ability to move between the realms of light and dark with great ease even if it is at a terrible price.

Now it is for Eberron so use that in any idea, but also keep in mind that Eberron is the place you are supposed to be able to use all of your products with so you want to throw in some AU or UA or even Dragonstar then do it and I will bless you for it.

I want everything I talked about above, but only with the addition of the fantastic that is the joy of our medium.

Can it be done, can we create crazy Kalashtar Psionic Warriors with Cloaks of the Bat and exotic weapon proficiency baterang to patrol the bridges of Sharn?

Is DnD's pulp setting pulp enough for Half-Orc monks to wear trench coats and beat the truth out of some mook?

One caveat, use savage species with care, the Mind-Flayer might be great at intimidating folks, but can you really picture him with gumshoes and a dingy office?

If you need stats, use these:

str 14
dex 12
con 14
int 16
wis 12
cha 16

If you want to just use the numbers and switch the rest of them around at will feel free.

I have also developed one useful feat. Some of you may remember the profession feats from Swashbuckling Adventures. In it, for a price of 4 or more ranks in a profession, such as sailor, you picked up a series of related skills as class skills no matter your actual class, such as balance, climb, swim, and use rope.

So here's a relevant one:

Feat: [Profession] Gumshoe

Prerequisite: Profession (Investigator) 4 ranks

Benefit: Gain Bluff, Gather Information, Search, and Sense Motive as class skills no matter if they are or are not class skills for the class your current level is in. You may replace Bluff with Intimidate, but that is a permanent replacement.

Human, Ranger with the Urban Ranger variant from UA. Take FE for the various common humanoid races. Pick up ranks in Sense Motive, either taking a class that has it on their skill list, or by taking a feat that lets you pick it up (versatile from OA comes to mind). Stat-wise, pay attention to your Wis (for your keen senses, intuition, and never-say-die willpower) and your Con (because lets face it, most gumshoes get the snot kicked out of them on a regular basis).

Human Rogue 5 or Ranger 5 with Favored Enemy: Human +4
Skills: One or more ranks in every skill.
stats: as high as possible in all six stats (charisma, intelligence, and wisdom are more important than str, dex, and con).

(Insert Name Here). Human Ranger/4, Rogue/1.

Strength: 12/+1
Dexterity: 14/+2
Constitution: 16/+3
Intelligence: 14/+2
Wisdom: 17/+3
Charisma: 12/+1

Feats: 3 (pick to taste) + (Two Weapon Fighting or Rapid Shot), Urban Tracking, Endurance. Suggested: Investigate (Ebberon)

Abilities: Wild Empathy (d20+3), Animal Companion (as a Druid/2, max size medium. Current animal companion: riding dog.), Favored Enemy: Human +2, Sneak Attack +1d6, Trapfinding.

Skills (80pts, max ranks: 8c/4cc): Search +8(+10), Spot +8(+11), Listen +8(+11), Sense Motive +8(+11), Gather Information +8(+11), Knowledge: Local +8(+10) - 32 pts remaining, distribute to taste.

Note: the character qualifies for the Master Inquisitive PrC, and I reccomend progressing in it for character levels 6-10.

You might actually find a level or 2 of Expert to be helpful -- pick out 10 class skills and go to town with those skill points!

EricNoah said:

You might actually find a level or 2 of Expert to be helpful -- pick out 10 class skills and go to town with those skill points!

Click to expand...

You may as well take levels of Rogue. There are few skills that the Rogue lacks that are needed for Hard Boiled Detectiving.

Human Paladin2/Rogue3

Feats: Investigate, Urban Tracking, and a combat feat - probably TWF would be best for this character.

Skills: Max out Sense Motive, Search, Gather Information, and Knowledge (Local). Diplomacy is probably a better bet than Bluff, since paladins don't tend to lie too often. And then play him like Batman - he has a cause, and sticks to it, with a strong moral code. Some stealth and maybe some breaking and entering skills wouldn't be bad.

I played a similar character recently (Batman-based paladin/rogue, though someone else in the party played the actual investigator). Had a great time with him, though I played him kind of like a swashbuckler.

Or you could go straight human Diviner5. It's amazing how much stuff you can find out that way, particularly if your DM is willing to allow 3rd party divination stuff. Mongoose did a pretty decent book on Divination in their magic series, as I recall. That would be an interesting character for a detective-based game.

No one every considers the poor psion.

There's no better detective/inquisitive in 3.5e than a clairsentient psion. If anyone on the Eberron design team had even a scrap of interest or familiarity with psionics, they wouldn't have wasted the space on the prestige class.

Take a level of rogue to give yourself some combat utility. A level of fighter could also be hand here, since manifesting psionic powers is not affected by wearing armor. Spend the other four levels on psion. Take the following powers as a start:

1st: Empathy, Telempathic Projection, Disable, Precognition, Inertial Armor (or Force Screen)
2nd: Object Reading, Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions, Cloud Mind, Psionic Tongues

The two key powers are Object Reading and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions. It can speed up murder investigations, since any object used to attack someone will pick up the user's "impression". The second is also handy for murder investigations, but any emotionally charged events, like a heated argument, also leave their mark. Motives become easier to discern. Couple these two powers with the fact that many psionic powers can be manifested with no display with a Concentration check means that the psionic investigator can use his powers in situations that an arcane caster can't without attracting too much attention.

Human Rog/Ftr
28 points
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 10

Max ranks: Intimidate, Sense Motive, Spot, Listen, Gather Information and Search. Put a few ranks into open locks and enough into Disable Device to be competent. You'll want some diplomacy but not too much. You're the hard boiled detective and you beat information out of perps--you don't make friends with them.

Alternatively, play a ranger rogue and talk your DM into letting you take "low-life scum" as your favored enemy.

Either way, be sure to call your weapon "negotiator" or "justice" or something like that.