Little Sneak PrC [LEW]...

[Jack Haggerty]

This is a rough draft of a PrC for the Living ENWorld PbP D&D campaigns.

It is a racial PrC for halflings and other small races that focuses on the natural talents of the race... Stealth. It's loosely based on the Assassin and Shadow Dancer PrCs, with a few new abilities tossed in.

At any rate, here's the PrC as it is so far...

LITTLE SNEAK

Hit Die: d6.

Requirements
To qualify to become a halfling sneak, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Any Small-sized humanoid.
Feats: Stealthy.
Skills: Hide 8 ranks, Listen 4 ranks, Move Silently 8 ranks, Search 4 ranks, Spot 4 ranks.

Class Skills
The halfling sneak’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

[b]Table: The Little Sneak[/b]

[b]Level   BAB  Fort  Refl  Will  Special[/b]

 1st    +0    +0    +2    +0   Perpetual Stealth, Heightened Senses
 2nd    +1    +0    +3    +0   Sneak Attack +1d6 
 3rd    +2    +1    +3    +1   Furtive Run 
 4th    +3    +1    +4    +1   Sneak Attack +2d6
 5th    +3    +1    +4    +1   Trackless 
 6th    +4    +2    +5    +2   Sneak Attack +3d6
 7th    +5    +2    +5    +2   Hide in Plain Sight
 8th    +6    +2    +6    +2   Sneak Attack +4d6
 9th    +6    +3    +6    +3   Inconspicuous 
10th    +7    +3    +7    +3   Sneak Attack +5d6

Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the little sneak prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Little sneaks gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Perpetual Stealth (Ex): The arts of stealth are so ingrained in his way of life, that a little sneak constantly and consistantly moves stealthily without ever thinking about it. Little sneaks are considered to be Taking 10 on Hide and Move Silently checks at all times. He may choose to roll the skill checks normally if so desired.

Heightened Senses (Ex): In order to avoid detection, a little sneak must often get along without light sources. He develops keen senses to find his way even in the dark. At 1st level, little sneaks gain blindsight with a range of 10 feet, and blindsense with a range of 30 feet.

Sneak Attack: This is exactly like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage dealt increases by +1d6 every other level (3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th). If a little sneak gets a sneak attack bonus from another source the bonuses on damage stack.

Furtive Run (Ex): At 4th level, the little sneak learns to move swiftly while still remaining unseen and unheard. He may use the hide and move silently skills at no penalty while moving up to his normal movement rate. The penalty to hide or move silently while attacking, running or charging is reduced to -10.

Trackless (Ex): Little sneaks that can be easily tracked down rarely survive for long. Starting at 6th level, a little sneak leaves no trail when moving at his base movement rate or less, and cannot be tracked. He may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): For an expert little sneak, a blink of an eye is the only opportunity he needs to vanish. An 8th level little sneak can use the Hide skill even while being observed, as long as he is within 10' of any type of cover or concealment.

Inconspicuous (Ex): Masterful little sneaks have a knack of blending into any setting. A little sneak of 10th level or higher can use the Hide skill, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Looks excellent. I recommend that Stealthy and Skill Focus (Either Hide or Move Silently) be the prerequisite feats.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Looks excellent. I recommend that Stealthy and Skill Focus (Either Hide or Move Silently) be the prerequisite feats.

Thanks, Anab. Glad you like it.

I always hated requiring feats. Unless carefully selected, they so often seem arbitrary, and unless you are a fighter with the loads of bonus feats, a large amount of feat prereqs can severely limit variety amongst chracters of a single PrC. But anyway...

I like the idea of requiring one of several feats to take the class. But I think I'll keep it to one feat for the prereq. There are quite a few skills required, only halflings can take the class, and it'll appeal mostly to Rogues and Rangers, who won't have many bonus feats as low levels. Most characters will only have two feats available before they can take the PrC at 6th level.

Or am I thinking stupid?

Anybody have thoughts on the number of skill points per level? I figured either 4 or 6, but I'm not certain how much difference it would make.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I'd go with 4 - Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Listen. Anything else is gravy in this line of work, and makes the immense stealthy advantages of the class earned through a real sacrifice in terms of flexibility.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

I'd go with 4 - Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Listen. Anything else is gravy in this line of work, and makes the immense stealthy advantages of the class earned through a real sacrifice in terms of flexibility.

Good point. And with the Ranger and Rogue as target classes, any character taking this PrC will already have a base of extra skills with up to 8 ranks in them. Plus, I'd be very surprised if a character without an Intelligence bonus took this PrC.

Thanks for the help, by the way, Anab.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

I think it looks pretty cool- my one beef is with the perpetual stealth and furtive run abilities. The Ninja of the Crescent Moon PrC gets those at 10th and 5th level, respectively, and the Halfling Sneak gets them at 2nd and 4th, and Ninja has a lot more difficult prerequisites. On the other hand, they get lots of other stuff too. Something to think about, anyway.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

I think it looks pretty cool- my one beef is with the perpetual stealth and furtive run abilities. The Ninja of the Crescent Moon PrC gets those at 10th and 5th level, respectively, and the Halfling Sneak gets them at 2nd and 4th, and Ninja has a lot more difficult prerequisites. On the other hand, they get lots of other stuff too. Something to think about, anyway.

Yeah, one of my biggest worries was deciding at what levels to get which abilities... But then I noticed that Assassins get hide in Plain Sight at 8th level, but Shadow Dancers get it at 1st level. Uncanny Dogde and Evasion happens at all sorts of different levels, depending on the class or PRC. In the end, I decided it all depends on what the focus of the PrC is.

I went with what seemed like the most logical progression for a Stealth PrC. Starting with the most 'mundane' abilities, and progressing toward the more 'extraordinary'.

If you've got ideas for a better progression of class features, I'd be glad to hear it.

It's also worth noting that all of the class fetures are extraordinary, not supernatural. That means they cannot be dispelled, but I wanted the abilities to stem from talent and training, not mystical powers. Also, the restrictions to several of the abilities are very different than what you may be used to... Trackless, for example, which is a modified Trackless Step.

~~~

Looking at it, Hide in Plain Sight, as I had it, would be far too powerful in combination with Inconspicuous. It would essentially allow the Sneak to make a hide check anywhere at anytime. That's a bit much, I think. So, I added a qualifier to HiPS. Since it now seems a little less powerful than Inconspicuous, I swapped the levels for those two abilities.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

My gut feeling was that the progression was OK, but the Ninja gave me pause. But now that you point out the assasin/shadowdancer thing, I've got no objections.

 

[Thels]

I like it, except:

Requirements are too vague. Just require the 'Stealthy' feat. It's only 1 feat, so it's pretty doable. There's no need for A or B or C.

Races are rather limited. I see no reason as to why other classes can't be sneaky like that.

Question though: Can a player count it's levels in this PrC when determining if it can flank a creature with the Imporved Uncanny Dodge ability?

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Requirements are too vague. Just require the 'Stealthy' feat. It's only 1 feat, so it's pretty doable. There's no need for A or B or C.

I'm not exactly certain what you mean by 'vague', but here's my reasoning... I wanted a feat as a prerequisite, but do to the typical character taking the PrC, I only wnated one. Anyone taking one of the three suggested feats (Stealthy, Skill Focus (hide), Skill Focus (move silently)) proves that they are specializing in sneakiness, and therefore are good candidates for the prestige class. I'm fond of giving players options, and so made the prerequisite feat the player's choice of those three feats.

Now, looking at it practically, I'm 90% certain that any player heading for this PrC would pick Stealthy to fulfill the requirement. I don't really think anyone would pick either of the Skill Focuses.

That considered, it probably would make the requirements a little more clear to eliminate the choice that no one will ever take.

Races are rather limited. I see no reason as to why other classes can't be sneaky like that.

Right... Just like there is really no good reason that someone who isn't an elf or half-elf couldn't be an Arcane Archer. And there's no good reason that non-dwarfs can't be Defenders.

Theoretically, other races could feasibly take this PrC... But its meant to build upon the natural talents of halflings specifically.

Question though: Can a player count it's levels in this PrC when determining if it can flank a creature with the Imporved Uncanny Dodge ability?

Since the PrC doesn't grant any type of Uncanny Dodge ability, I'd tend to say no, they don't... But let me look at those rules a little more closely.