Secret Police and Spies?

[Trouvere]

Especially fancy dress balls, in which everyone will be wearing masks.

All sorts of nasty things happen at masked balls. People in masks cannot be trusted.

 

[Samloyal23]

I'd suggest two or more branches of this organization: one for intelligence gathering, the other for enforcement and assassination.

Nobody has mentioned the spymaster yet- it's a pretty good choice for the intelligence gathering side of things.

And there's always the good ol' assassin for the other side.

Good idea. Enforcers and assassins are easy to come by, a good spy is harder to find. That said, I think re-fitting a ninja for the local culture makes a better hit man/saboteur than the standard assassin prestige class.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Good idea. Enforcers and assassins are easy to come by, a good spy is harder to find. That said, I think re-fitting a ninja for the local culture makes a better hit man/saboteur than the standard assassin prestige class.

Specialisation is a good thing in this case. Is the spymaster online somewhere?

 

[Greenfield]

The spell doesn't say the simulacrum gets the full memories of the original.

Simulacrum creates an illusory duplicate of any creature. The duplicate creature is partially real and formed from ice or snow.It appears to be the same as the original, but it has only one-half of the real creature’s levels or Hit Dice (and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD).

The duplicate gets half their skills, including "knowledge" skills. And it's clearly intended to be able to fill in for the original. That requires the ability to not only look like them, but to walk, talk and act like them. Arguing that they can't is like arguing that a Mount spell summons a horse that can't run. It doesn't explicitly say it can run, but that's part of being a horse.

It does not read like the spell lets the caster adjust the HD. "it has only one-half of the real creature’s levels or Hit Dice" not it has up to only one-half of the real creature’s levels or Hit Dice.

This is one of those spells whose wording got changed going from the PHB to the SRD. I'll look in my PHB next time I'm home, and may have more to add at that time. (I might also have to eat some crow...)

 

[Samloyal23]

Specialisation is a good thing in this case. Is the spymaster online somewhere?

The Spymaster.

Pretty interesting class, though it seems somehow lacking...

 

[shadyizok]

For prestige classes you could look into the (refluffed) nightsong enforcer/ nightsong infiltrator from complete adventure or the dread fang of lolth/ eye of lolth from Drow of the Underdark. Both are themed to be two separate vocations within a single covert organisation.

If your looking at baseclasses, I'dd keep it simple and either go with rogues/ninjas and fighters or make them all clerics of some deity of secrets and investigation.

As to the workings of your organisation: a tactic the gestappo used to great effect was intimidation into spying for them. They would uncover a secret about several persons within a village or community, true or not, and then intimidate these persons to spy on others and report to them, often making them spy on other 'spies' aswell. Eventually people became so scared and paranoid they voluntarily reported anything and everything to the gestappo themselves out of fear of being fingered by somebody else.
This general sense of mistrust in the people and allknowingness of the covert organisation you are creating could be a great backdrop for a campaign in a country under the force of a dictator.

 

[Samloyal23]

For prestige classes you could look into the (refluffed) nightsong enforcer/ nightsong infiltrator from complete adventure or the dread fang of lolth/ eye of lolth from Drow of the Underdark. Both are themed to be two separate vocations within a single covert organisation.

If your looking at baseclasses, I'dd keep it simple and either go with rogues/ninjas and fighters or make them all clerics of some deity of secrets and investigation.

As to the workings of your organisation: a tactic the gestappo used to great effect was intimidation into spying for them. They would uncover a secret about several persons within a village or community, true or not, and then intimidate these persons to spy on others and report to them, often making them spy on other 'spies' aswell. Eventually people became so scared and paranoid they voluntarily reported anything and everything to the gestappo themselves out of fear of being fingered by somebody else.
This general sense of mistrust in the people and allknowingness of the covert organisation you are creating could be a great backdrop for a campaign in a country under the force of a dictator.

That could mean gaining a synergy bonus to Gather Information based on ranks in Intimidate...

 

[jasper]

How about fighters, thieves, or warriors with simple feat/skill/bouses swaps for what the mission is.
For example swap backstab out with non lealth bunt attack. That way they blend in and you just need a one strike out/add on the character sheet.
example
Jasper the warrior does know what end of sword to use. But man I had too many drinks at Piratecats bar and go rowdy. Next thing I know Jasper is polishing his sap and toss me into the horse trouch outside.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Are there any classes that are good at going unnoticed and eavesdropping? What about investigational skills? Anything out there get an enhancement for gathering information or interrogating prisoners?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Specialist Diviners.