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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2011038" data-attributes="member: 24255">Power Classes VIII: ExplorerEdited by Daniel Bishop and Paul Tucker (no author listed)Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 110816 half-sized pages, $2.95The 8th in Mongoose's "Power Class" line of booklets, this one takes the concept of the explorer - think Indiana Jones - and turns it into a 20-level character class.It's pretty obvious where the cover (by Nathan Webb and Scott Clark) got its inspiration from: take Lara Croft (from the Tomb Raider games), give her a weightlifter's muscle tone, crank her cup size down a notch or two, and replace her pistols with hand crossbows, and there you go!  Nathan also provides the two interior black-and-white pieces, a male elf (or half-elf) reading a map and pointing ahead on page 6 and  male human holding a torch on page 16.  Both pieces are about average.The explorer class presented here has d8 Hit Dice, 4 skill points per level, a cleric's Base Attack Bonus, and gains snippets of class abilities from other classes: the Barbarian's fast movement, the Druid and Ranger's woodland stride, plus bonus languages and some interesting bits like being able to take two cross-class skills and make them class skills and gaining an immunity to all diseases (the rationale being that the explorer's built up an immunity after having been exposed to diseases from all over the world).  It's an interesting and varied skill-set, but as diverse as it is it seems like there isn't much combat-related stuff in there, and anyone who's seen an Indiana Jones, Alan Quartermain, or Lara Croft movie knows that explorers end up having to fight for their lives all the time!I like the flexibility that's built into the class: not only the "cross-class to class skills" switchover mentioned above, but the fact that each explorer, over the course of 20 levels, gains 4 bonus languages and skill mastery (ability to "take 10" under any conditions) on a number of skills means that each explorer is more of an individual, standing out from others of his kind.  I always like it when the character is given choices when he advances in level; it gives the character a chance to be unique.One of the explorer's class abilities, Pathfinder, is a little confusing to me, however.  Why is it more difficult for an explorer to Intuit Direction when accompanied by a larger party?  (Every five people traveling with the explorer cause a -1 modifier to the explorer's Intuit Direction check when finding the quickest way to get through unexplored territory.)  The rules laid down even mention that this applies to ocean travel, but this makes even less sense: I can kind of posit a "weakest link" theory of traveling through a jungle, where the more people you have with you the odds are that somebody's going to slow you down, but on a ship everybody travels at the exact same speed over the ocean and having more people with you (manning the rigging, turning the sails, doing whatever it is that sailors do to make the ship go faster) would seem to be a bonus, not a hindrance.After the class write-up (I was somewhat disappointed not to have seen an "Explorer Starting Packages" section), there are some "New Uses for Old Skills" (a feature very common in Mongoose's "Collector Series" of books) and 17 new feats.  Oddly enough, some of these feats are poor choices for explorers: why would an explorer take disease resistance or greater disease resistance when at 8th level he gains the Iron Constitution class ability, making him immune to all diseases?  (I think I'd rule that any explorer who had taken disease resistance or greater disease resistance before 8th level could swap them out for a new feat or feats upon reaching 8th level - in which case I suppose they make some sense being on the list of new feats, I suppose.)One final quibble, having nothing really to do with the explorer class at all (as it's found early on in the booklet, in the description of explorer races): "The most significant exceptions are the merfolk and the locathah, both of whom produce noteworthy explorers of both the undersea and surface worlds."  Maybe it's just me, but I don't see merfolk doing much in the way of exploring the surface world - you know, what with the having no legs and all.Power Classes VIII: Explorer is an interesting attempt at building a generic explorer class.  It has a bunch of little things throw together that aid an explorer overall, but seems like it's lacking some really important "explorer bits" - like combat abilities and detecting/disarming traps (again, think back to Indiana Jones: apparently he must have picked up some rogue levels somewhere).  Actually, I suppose the best well-rounded explorer of all would have to multiclass a little to pick up the necessities not found in this class.</blockquote>

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