Scheming Rogues

[grimslade]

I can make irrational statements even when having factual evidence in front of me. I am sure there will be poor reading comprehension, willful word twisting, and complete disregard or disbelief of written rules. The cost for making outlandish statements is low, so there is little incentive to be cautious or certain other than pride.

 

[fuindordm]

Just for fun, I thought I'd imagine what a rogue "scheme" or domain might look like:

Fortune's Favored

Most people court and curse luck in equal measure, but there are always a few souls who drift through life on the winds of chance. To the fortune's favored, toil is a dirty word. They may be gamblers or lovers, mercenaries or merchants, but they all have the same motto: take care of your luck, and it will take care of you. The price they pay is an uprooted existence, for Lady Luck is easily bored.

Skills: Diplomacy, Gamble, Perception, Sleight of Hand +2

Class abilities:

L1: You gain a "luck pool" with a number of points equal to your Cha modifier. This pool increases by 1 at your 4th rogue level, and 1 for every 4 rogue levels thereafter. You can use a luck point to reroll any skill check, before you know whether the check succeeded or not. You can also spend a luck point to make a serendipitous discovery, such as a useful tool, a valuable object that can pay living expenses, or an overlooked clue. The exact result of this discovery is at the DMs discretion. You regain a luck point any time you roll a natural 20 on a skill check.

L2: Gain +1 to all saving throws.

L4: You can spend a luck point to reroll an attack roll.

L6: Fortune's Challenge: You can refresh your luck pool completely by setting a difficult challenge for yourself and succeeding without spending any luck points. If your luck pool is empty, then the challenge should involve a handicap. Negotiate the terms of the challenge with your DM.

L8: You can spend a luck point to negate a critical hit or sneak attack on yourself.

L10: Fortune's Blessing: You can spend two luck points to allow all allies one reroll of a skill check or attack roll, provided it is made within the next round.

 

[fuindordm]

Of course, the idea above is just a sketch. In line with the idea that "themes" are feat packages and "backgrounds" are skill packages, what I'm proposing above would be to create a handful of rogue "schemes" that strongly flavor the class and generate nice little bundles of what were formerly called rogue talents.

They could, but probably shouldn't, overlap with backgrounds. A rogue "scheme" should open the door to new class abilities, not merely skills.

You wouldn't need very many to make the rogue a very interesting class. If you pick two, then six "schemes" gives you 15 flavors of rogue.

Some other schemes along these lines could be:

Street Fighter
You grew up fighting for your daily bread, and became quite good at it.
Skills: Balance, Intimidate, Knowledge: Local, Perform: +2
Talent ideas: trade sneak attack dice for special effects, defensive roll, heal or buff with a swig of alcohol...

Arcane Addict
You have just enough talent for magic to make your life miserable.
Skills: Decipher Script, Disable Device, Knowledge: Arcana, Use Magic Device
Talent ideas: open up UMD uses (or grant them if the skill isn't in the game); learn a very small number of spells as per the PF talents; arcane strike

Cat Burglar
You get as big a thrill breaking into the penthouse as you do out of stealing its jewels.
Skills: Acrobatics, Balance, Climb, Jump
Talent ideas: Like the T-A of old, open up new abilities such as pole vaulting and tightrope walking based on the acrobatics skill; ignore difficult terrain; lots of possibilities here imitating parkour racers and Jackie Chan.

Con Artist


Trap Smith


Vigilante

 

[The Shadow]

Very intriguing thoughts, fuindordm!

I wonder if this is how cleric domains work too - swapping out entire sets of class abilities? If so, can one imagine other classes having them too? What would wizard 'philosophies' look like, for example?

If schemes do in fact work similarly to this, it might be better for them to come in 6-level chunks, like themes. Basically they would *be* a variant of themes, but class-specific, and not excluding themes on the same character.

P.S. I can clearly picture this exchange now, from a rogue with one of your schemes:

Recalcitrant Player: "Why do rogues have to have schemes, anyway?!"

Vigilante Rogue: "Because I'm the Batman."

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

Intuitively, when I head that Rogues have Scheme, I just thought 'Social combat maneuver'.

Starting a vicious rumors, Conning a mark, Bolstering the party's reputation etc.