Pathfinder 1E Ruin Explorer (PrC)

[JonathonWilder]

Don't call the PrC's knowledge ability Bardic Knowledge, as by having it as such it could cause some to believe this is mostly a PrC only for the Bard.


There are times abilities have overlapped and stacked while being called by a different name. I feel either Explorer's Lore or Explorer's Knowledge would fit better, and state that it stacks with similar abilities such as Bardic Knowledge.

Apart from that it seems good, interesting in many cases this PrC could be taken by 2nd level... which I feel is a good thing.
--------------

On everyone suggesting the Archaeologist perhaps you can looking it over... yet do so by looking at the Prestige Bard another put together: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222907

 

[Starfox]

Barring more input or sudden inspiration this looks like a final version. I do feel it could use some more high-tier abilities.

Ruin Explorer for Pathfinder

 

[Li Shenron]

I am going to be blunt and say that this is not a very good PrCl, for the following reasons:

- the concept is totally fine, but it hardly feels "prestigious"

- there are only really four small unique abilities i.e. the "exploration" abilities (maybe also Outsmart Traps is unique... somehow it sounds familiar tho)

- Search is almost never used in combat, which is the only time where really the type of action matters, therefore those "exploration" unique abilities are useless

My suggestion is to do either of these:

a) try to think about some other special abilities with traps that really add something unique to the class, and also try to think of something else than traps that could be related to the concept: when writing a PrCl you should really look forward to make it grant unique features

b) if you don't care much for or don't find ideas on unique features, just make a new base class instead, it will work better than a PrCl for merging Rogue and Bard (also there is no reason why someone wouldn't be a Ruin Explorer since level 1, unless it really had some prestigious features)

Also, a PrCl defines a progression therefore even unique features don't suit PrCl very well unless they are progressive, in which case it's much better to turn them into feats, and go with option b).

(edit > my comments apply to 3.5 version only, since I'm not familiar with PF)

 

[Clyde Lee Graham]

I think it would be better to make it into an Archtype.

It kind of already exists an a Bard Archetype... Archaeologist.