Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rookbird 05-16-07, 08:34 PM	There are a few colorful characters out there who rely on their reputation, who are famous for the tricks they always keep up their sleeves. No two are alike but they all share the same reliance on their few skills to keep them alive, and employed. These people are Mercenaries. THE MERCENARY The Mercenary base class is for heroes who will come to be associated with the weapons they carry and the skills they excel at. They lack the extensive proficiencies of the fighter and the versatility of the rogue's skills, but for the few things they do, they are the best. When a hero takes a level in the Mercenary class they chose the proficiencies and skills that they will gain further abilities as they progress through the class. This makes every Mercenary unique. Most mercenaries make their appearances as personal as their abilities so they are easily recognized as who they are. Some are famous for their good deeds, others their vile acts, and many for their amoral willingness to take any job, but all are famous for something and rely on this reputation to get work and further their goals (whether that be something as simple as money or as complex as uniting the Elven race). ALIGNMENT: Any. HIT DIE: d8 CLASS SKILLS: Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Profession, Swim SKILL POINTS: 6 + Int modifier WEAPON & ARMOR PROF.: All simple and martial weapons, light armor, no shields Lvl BAB FORT REFL WILL Special 1 +1 +2 +2 +0 Personal Touch 1 2 +2 +3 +3 +0 Improvised Weapons 3 +3 +3 +3 +1 Sneak Attack +1d6 4 +4 +4 +4 +1 Personal Touch 2 5 +5 +4 +4 +1 Bonus Feat/Ability, Bonus Trick 6 +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 7 +7/+2 +5 +5 +2 Sneak Attack +2d6 8 +8/+3 +6 +6 +2 Personal Touch 3 9 +9/+4 +6 +6 +3 Bonus Feat/Ability, Bonus Trick 10 +10/+5 +7 +7 +3 11 +11/+6/+1 +7 +7 +3 Sneak Attack +3d6 12 +12/+7/+2 +8 +8 +4 Personal Touch 4 13 +13/+8/+3 +8 +8 +4 Bonus Feat/Ability, Complete Scoundrel 14 +14/+9/+4 +9 +9 +4 15 +15/+10/+5 +9 +9 +5 Sneak Attack +4d6 16 +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +10 +6 Personal Touch 5 17 +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +10 +5 Bonus Feat/Ability 18 +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +11 +6 19 +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +11 +6 Sneak Attack +5d6 20 +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +12 +6 Personal Touch 6 CLASS FEATURES Personal Touch 1 At first level the Mercenary chooses a number of weapons equal to 1 + Int Modifier (minimum 1). If he was not already proficient in these weapons, he is now. Note: You may also choose a type of shield (buckler, heavy, or light) instead of a weapon and gain the benefit of the feat "Shield Proficiency." The Mercenary also chooses a number of skills equal to 4 + Int Modifier (minimum 4). These skills are added to the class skill list for this level and all future levels of Mercenary. Improvised Weapons Proficiency The Mercenary suffers no attack penalty for using improvised weapons. Note: As a new supplemental rule, the GM should consider causing all improvised weapons to break or otherwise become unusable on a natural roll of a 1. Sneak Attack This ability functions exactly like the rogue class feature of the same name, including stacking. Personal Touch 2 At 4th level the Mercenary gains the benefit of the Weapon Focus feat for all weapons chosen with the Personal Touch 1 class feature. If he chose a type of shield he gains the benefit of the feat Shield Specialization (from Player's Handbook II). At this level the Mercenary also chooses one of his Personal Touch weapons and gains the benefit of the feat Weapon Specialization for that weapon. If he choses a type of shield he gains Improved Shield Bash, as per the feat. The Mercenary gains a +1 competence bonus on all skills chosen with Personal Touch 1. Bonus Feat/Ability At 5th level, and again at 9th, 13th, and 17th the Mercenary chooses any feat he qualifies for or one of the following abilities: Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge*, Improved Evasion*, Sneak Attack +1d6** *The "Improved" abilities can only be chosen if the Mercenary already has the starting abilities (through this class or any other) **Sneak attack can be chosen more than once and stacks with other instances of the same ability Bonus Trick At 5th level, and again at 9th the Mercenary chooses a bonus skill trick (from Complete Scoundrel) for which he meets the prerequisites. These bonus tricks don't count toward his maximum number of skill stricks available. Personal Touch 3 At 8th level the Mercenary gains a +2 to Attack and Damage with all weapons chosen with Personal Touch 1. If he chose shield he gains the benefit of the feat Shield Ward (PHBII). He also gains Greater Weapon Focus with the weapon that he chose to receive Weapon Specialization with Personal Touch 2. If this was a shield he instead gains Agile Shield Fighter (PHBII) instead. At 8th level, the Mercenary gains Skill Mastery, as per the rogue class feature, with the skills chosen with Personal Touch 1. Personal Touch 4 At 12th level the Mercenary gains Improved Critical with all weapons chosen with Personal Touch. He also gains Greater Weapon Specialization with the weapon he chose to receive Greater Weapon Focus with Personal Touch 3. Also, when using an Action Point (Eberron Campaign Setting) to increase the result of a skill check for a skill chosen with Personal Touch 1, the Mercenary increases the die size by one category (e.g. d6 >> d8). Complete Scoundrel At 13th level the Mercenary chooses Cool Head, Freerunner, Sure Hand, or Sweet Talker (all in Complete Scoundrel) as a bonus feat. Personal Touch 5 At 16th level the Mercenary gains the benefit of one of three feats, Crushing Strike, Driving Attack, or Slashing Flurry (PHBII), depending on the damage type of his weapon that he chose to recieve Greater Weapon Specialization with Personal Touch 4. Note: If the weapon has more than one damage type, the Mercenary can choose which feat he gain, based on the damage types. If he has been chosing the shield route, he gains Shield Sling (PHBII). The bonus on skills from Personal Touch 2 increases from +1 to +3. Personal Touch 6 At level 20 the Mercenary gains Weapon Supremacy for the weapon that he chose to recieve Greater Weapon Specialization with Personal Touch 4. ******************************* Okay, so this class is far from complete but this is as far as I managed on my own before I knew it would have to be put up here for critique. Right now, if you've read it all you'll notice that I ran out of ideas for skill benefits at Personal Touch 5 and 6. Also, as of right now the Mercenary can't really choose a ranged weapon as their main "personal" weapon, because the higher benefits of Personal Touch apply only to melee. I plan to fix that, but first I wanted input to see if I'm even on the right track. Help wanted, please.
Tempest Stormwind 05-16-07, 09:20 PM	Please explain to me why, in a game with the Fighter, the Rogue, and a great multiclassing system, you need a new base class for a mercenary. Especially when none of the abilities unique to this class are beyond what you could get with feats (in fact, most *are* feats, just using a weapon group (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/weaponGroupFeats.htm) system). This is, in essentially every way, a fighter/rogue with appropriate feats, but pre-built and packaged into a single class.
windscar18 05-16-07, 09:30 PM	Maybe because he wanted a fighter/rogue type of class that had full base attack bonus?
Gwenfloor 05-16-07, 09:35 PM	I think that unless you have a dumb mercenary, you will have to put some of your skill points into cross-class skills. I recommend more class skills.
KillFrenzy 05-16-07, 09:48 PM	scouts,fighters,rogues and assassins these are great examples of classes that can be mercenaries you sir fail the see the point that the vast majority of adventurers are mercs of some kind a character class for a mercenary seems abit unnessecary
Rookbird 05-17-07, 01:23 AM	Well, alright, seems like the major response is negative, so maybe I'll scrap the idea entirely. But in my defense, a Fighter/Rogue multi-class character is not a great mix. I had a Fighter 4/Rogue 4 character that inspired me to attempt a new base class like the Mercenary (name and flavor aside, since that seemed to get a lot of flack). Evasion is lost in medium or heavy armor, two proficiencies that are a major part of what the Fighter brings to the multi-classer. And Trap-Finding was a complete waste, as I had no ranks in Search or Disable Device. The lower BAB was not as much of an issue. I was hoping I'd get something more appropriate as a Prestige Class, but they were all too limiting in their scope (which is kind of the problem with Prestige Classes if you don't find one that fits). So with the Mercenary most likely getting the trashcan see if you can help me with this: If I were to make a multi-class character using class variants instead of a new base class, what would be some appropriate trade-offs for a Fighter who doesn't have medium and heavy armor proficiencies, and a Rogue who doesn't have any Trap-Finding or Trap Sense (and a much smaller skill list, dropping Search, Disable Device, Hide, Move Silently, among others)?
Tempest Stormwind 05-17-07, 01:26 AM	Look at the rogue or fighter variants in Unearthed Arcana.
ericSHINRA 05-17-07, 01:27 AM	I agree with Tempest and add that unless this class is supposed to be campaign specific(and if so it should have more variety) I fail to understand why it exists. It's just like... Hmm, I want to play a minstrel, I know! I'll make a whole new class when I could just play a Bard with Perform(Sing). ;) Look at the rogue or fighter variants in Unearthed Arcana. I do like the Rogue Variant(w/ Fighter Bonus Feats and no Sneak Attack) and several players have used it in my campaigns. For multiclass Fighter/Rogue types, Daring Outlaw(C. Scoundrel) lets your Fighter and Rogue levels stack for Fighter Bonus Feats and Sneak Attack at around 6th level I think.
Tempest Stormwind 05-17-07, 01:40 AM	Interesting side note: By combining the variants (especially that one, or the sneak attack fighter) with weapon group rules (linked above), you can almost perfectly replicate this class in spirit. Rogue with fighter bonus feats, no sneak attack, but better weapon proficiency sit well with you?
Rookbird 05-17-07, 02:53 AM	Daring Outlaw(C. Scoundrel) lets your Fighter and Rogue levels stack for Fighter Bonus Feats and Sneak Attack at around 6th level I think.Oh, I wish, that would be almost just what I was looking for, but the two "Daring *" feats in the C.Scoundrel are for stacking Swashbuckler and Fighter or Swashbuckler and Rogue. Swashbuckler doesn't fit my character at all, so it's a no-go.
Rookbird 05-17-07, 03:40 AM	I looked at the variants in Unearthed Arcana and found a lot that I liked, but nothing that fit perfectly. Maybe I should have started with this, but here is the character/class I'm actually trying to make: A pirate who fights dirty but not necessarily with anything other than brute force, meaning the Weapon Finesse emphasis of the Swashbuckler is out. I'm not shooting for a pirate captain, so the Dread Pirate and his crew don't fit. A straight Fighter isn't the worst choice, but he doesn't get enough skill points to effectively cross-class into Balance, Spot and Tumble and his armor proficiencies doesn't at all fit a life at sea. Not to mention that I'm picturing someone with Uncanny Dodge at the least, and maybe even Sneak Attack progression. The Rogue is just a mess of unnecessary abilities, starting with Trap-Finding and Trap Sense and going into his huge skill list, but he has the dirty fighting down and despite appearances can benefit from a high Strength score and a big sword (albeit after taking Martial Weapon Proficiency as a feat). The Thug variant in Unearthed Arcana is okay, and I might end up with that, though he still lacks anything like Uncanny Dodge and Sneak Attack. The Rogue variant is still stuck with a huge skill list and trap abilities (which are just not playing into the pirate's life, seriously). The Sneak-Attacking Fighter variant crossed with Thug might also work, if I multi-classed into actual Fighter levels for some needed feats. After thinking it over, what I thought made the most sense was a Barbarian, and I felt stupid for ignoring it all along. True he gains trap sense, but that's easier to accept than trap-finding. I would want to replace his Rage, however. The variants in UA weren't really pirate-ish, though. How would the balance be if I replaced all Rage related abilities with Fighter bonus feats?
Rookbird 05-17-07, 04:10 AM	Hate to triple post, but I tried to work this variant out, let me know what you think: Barbarian variant: Hit Die: d10 Loses: trap sense, rage, greater rage, indomitable will, tireless rage, mighty rage, Ride, Survival Gains: Balance, Gather Information, Sense Motive, Spot +1 Skill Point per level, Fighter bonus feats (at levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19)