The last thing you'll never see coming (3.5/PF Base Class)

[Chronologist]

The Prowler

Merging psionic potential and a knack for staying to the shadows, the prowler is often the last thing evil never sees coming. While not as inherently skilled or stealthy as Rogues, and without access to high-powered Psionic abilities, the prowler uses a combination of both to excel at assassination, tracking, and investigation.

Role: The prowler traditionally fills the role of the party rogue. Depending on which knacks she learns, she can lead more towards tracking, scouting, or killing unsuspecting enemies.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d8

Starting Wealth: 6d4 x 10 (average 150 gp)

Class Skills

The prowler’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diasble Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Stealth (Dex)

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Note: This is my first time making a table like thin on a forum. I apologize if it's sloppy.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Reflex Save|Will Save|Special|Power Points|Powers Known|Max Power Level
1|+0|+0|+2|+2|Empathic Blast +1d6/+0, Track, Knacks|1|1|1
2|+1|+0|+3|+3|Network (Medium), Knack|2|2|1
3|+2|+1|+3|+3|Empathic Blast +2d6/+1|4|3|1
4|+3|+1|+4|+4|Bonus Feat, Knack|6|4|2
5|+3|+1|+4|+4|Empathic Blast +3d6/+1|8|5|2
6|+4|+2|+5|+5|Network (Long), Knack|12|6|2
7|+5|+2|+5|+5|Empathic Blast +4d6/+2|15|7|3
8|+6|+2|+6|+6|Bonus Feat, Knack|20|8|3
9|+6|+3|+6|+6|Empathic Blast +5d6/+2|24|9|3
10|+7|+3|+7|+7|Network (Miles), Knack|28|10|4
11|+8|+3|+7|+7|Empathic Blast +6d6/+3|36|11|4
12|+9|+4|+8|+8|Bonus Feat, Knack|44|12|4
13|+9|+4|+8|+8|Empathic Blast +7d6/+3|52|13|5
14|+10|+4|+9|+9|Network (Any Range), Knack|60|14|5
15|+11|+5|+9|+9|Empathic Blast +8d6/+4|68|15|5
16|+12|+5|+10|+10|Bonus Feat, Knack|80|16|6
17|+12|+5|+10|+10|Empathic Blast +9d6/+4|92|17|6
18|+13|+6|+11|+11|Network (Interplanar), Knack|104|18|6
19|+14|+6|+11|+11|Empathic Blast +10d6/+0|116|19|6
20|+15|+6|+12|+12|Bonus Feat, Knack|128|20|6[/table]

Class Features

Weapon and Armor proficiency: Prowlers are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor. Armor does not impede their ability to manifest powers.

Powers: A prowler learns psionic powers much in the same way other psychics do. She can manifest her powers at will, so long as she has power points remaining. The DC of her powers, and bonus power points per day are determined by her Wisdom score.

Empathic Blast: A prowler can fire a blast of empathic energy that deals 1d6 damage on a successful ranged touch attack with range 30 feet. They need at least one hand free to use this ability. If the prowler has two hands free, they deal additional damage equal to their Wisdom modifier. At 3rd level and every odd-numbered level thereafter, they deal an additional 1d6 damage. At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, the prowler gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC when they move 10 feet or more in a given round. Mindless creatures are immune to a prowler's Empathic Blast.

Talents: A prowler starts the game with three Talents of their choice from their talent list. (Talents are like cantrips for psionic characters, they can be used by either spending a power point or expending your psionic focus).

Knacks: At 1st level a prowler selects two Knacks which they are allowed to choose. Knacks are always active unless the prowler suppresses them as a free action. At 2nd level and every even-numbered level thereafter, a prowler may learn two additional knacks.

Track: At 1st level a prowler gains the Track feat.

Network: At 2nd level, a prowler can establish a psychic link with her allies. Touch is required to start the link, which lasts until either party wants to leave the network. While within Medium range, all members of the network can speak telepathically and know each other’s hit points and general condition. At 6th level, the range becomes Long. At 10th level, the range becomes 1 mile per class level. At 14th level, the range is infinite while on the same plane. At 18th level, the network can extend across any and all planes.

Bonus Feats: A prowler gains a bonus psionic feat of their choice at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.

Prowlers learn powers from the Lurk class list from Complete Psionic.

Talents: Catfall, Create Ectoplasmic Object, Detect Psionics, Dimensional Pocket, Elfsight, Empathy, Know Direction and Location, My Light, Sense Link



List of Knacks (so far)

Steal Health: Whenever you strike an opponent with your Empathic Blast, you may spend a move action to heal ½ the damage you inflicted. You must be at least 4th level to select this Knack.

Personal Toolkit: You always have a set of useful tools for any situation. You gain a +2 competence bonus on Appraise, Craft, and Disable Device checks, +1 per two Prowler levels.

Mind Veil: You gain a piece of clothing that masks your intentions and reveals the intentions of others. You gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Perception, and Sense Motive checks, +1 per two Prowler levels.

Stealth Cloak: You gain a cloak that grants you a +2 competence bonus to Acrobatics, Climb, and Stealth checks, +1 per two Prowler levels.

Inertial Armor: You gain a +4 armor bonus to armor class that overlaps with both armor and shield bonuses to armor class, +1 AC per 2 prowler levels.

Fleet of Foot: You gain a +10 enhancement bonus to your normal land speed. For every 5 prowler levels, this increases by 5 feet.

Kinetic Blast (suggested by Story Time): A prowler may channel their Empathic Blast into pure force. They must declare that they are using this ability before they fire a their Empathic Blast. The blast becomes Force damage instead of Empathic damage, and all damage dice are reduced to d4. This allows the prowler to affect inanimate objects and mindless creatures with his blast. The prowler must be 8th level before selecting this Knack.


More knacks to be added soon.

All knacks function mostly like low-level powers with durations of at least 1 hour per level. The kind of things a normal psychic would toss on in the morning and forget about. In general, every 4 to 6 levels, prowlers should get access to knacks that replicate powers one level higher, so high-level Knacks should function like 4th level Psionic powers that are always active.

The prowler's Empathic Blast feature is intended to give the class a good way to deal damage without having to rely on sneak attacks. One of my gripes with rogues and psychic rogues is that sneak attacks are generally either useless or they inflict WAY too much damage each round. By giving more of a mobile eldritch-blasting feel, I think it makes the prowler more like a stealthy Alchemist than a rogue - which is the intention.

Please PEACH, any feedback or advice is welcome.

[Chronologist]

Any comments?

[Warpwolf16]

I quite like this for the role it plays, its like a vitalist but it doesn't play out as a healer but instead plays out similar to the lurk with a psionic/phrenic blast instead of a progressive sneak attack. Though on note of the list of powers being drawn from the Lurk list, do you think the powers mix well? The lurk was a class that functioned like a rogue/soulknife hybrid if I remember correctly.

[Chronologist]

Thanks, the Steal Health of the ability was drawn upon for the Steal Health Knack. I found that stealing all the damage you dealt with that ability was a little too much. Also note that in order to use Steal Health you can't move that turn, thus you don't get the AC bonus from Empathic Blast.

The Lurk was basically the Psionic answer to a rogue class. They could sneak attack, and their powers were primarily utility, some buffs, debuffs, and a few rare damage powers. They had 6th level manifesting and the same number of power points as a Psychic Warrior. The problem with the class was that it ran out of juice REALLY fast, and then became essentially useless for the rest of the day. A Psychic Warrior could always fight front-line, but a Lurk never could.

The prowler attempts to fix that problem with Empathic Blast and Knacks. The blast means always being able to contribute in combat, the Knacks grant moderate passive benefits that keep the prowler relevant when their juice runs out.

More knacks to be uploaded as soon as I can. Thanks for commenting. Do you have any suggestions?

[Chronologist]

146 page views. Any more comments? (yes this is a shameless bump. And the last. If there's no feedback for another day I'll drop the thread).

[Story Time]

If it's a shameless thread hike, why would it be the last? :smallamused:

I like the class, I think. I'm not...experienced enough to be handing out peaches, but I suppose that I could say, "Play-test." I think I'd like to play-test the class if Chronologist has time and interest. Probably not any-thing large. Maybe a few of the early levels?

:smallsmile:

[Chronologist]

Sure Story Time, I wouldn't mind if you play-tested it a bit.

I'm more into running the numbers than play-testing, but the math seems to indicate that it's about as strong as an Alchemist in Pathfinder (i.e. solid Tier 4). I'm aiming to make it a Tier 3 class around par with the Magus, essentially a Rogue/Psion gish with an attack that doesn't suck.

I'm most interested to see how it functions between levels 3 and 9. I'll be playtesting it in a real campaign at level 6 in a week or two, so more info then if the thread is still alive.

For all Knacks, any power that targets self with a duration of 10 minutes/level or more should qualify. Your prowler level should determine what level powers the Knack should be able to copy:

Prowler Level Power Level
1-5 1
6-10 2
11-15 3
16-20 4

The actual Prowler power list is mainly for short-duration buffs and target spells like Cloud Mind and Vigor.

Incidentally, the people at Dreamscarred Press have a class called the Cryptic with is fairly similar to my idea of the Prowler, but instead of Knacks they give the class the ability to make and disable traps better and to create psionic tattoos. Their class requires a lot of preparation to get going, tons of items to juggle, and spending down-time using item creation. The Prowler is more of a self-sufficient thief who has tricks up his sleeve no matter what situation he's in, he doesn't have to rely on his equipment to save him.

Thanks for checking it out Story Time. I'm always open to suggestions.

[Chronologist]

I'm not really familiar with using bold, I feel I might wreck the table. I'm just going to leave it as-is until I need to make some changes to the class itself.

I like self-sufficient classes too. It's also a pain to play a psychic character in a world like Greyhawk where the only other psionic things are Mind Flayers that would rather eat your brains than sell you items.

Plus, a thief without lockpicks can't escape from a prison cell. Now, if you can make ectoplasmic lockpicks... things start to get a little more interesting.

[Warpwolf16]

I've playtested the Cryptic by DSP a while back and it has nothing compared to the Prowler, the Cryptic reminds me of the factorum/rogue while the Prowler reminds me of something similar to a low power blaster of sorts that sneaks through shadows to get the jump on you.I'm not good at balancing by number crunching but I'm better at playtesting so I might add this to the list of alternate options for my playtest group.

Edit: Also as you refer to Greyhawk I understand, though with the fact 'aliens' have visited greyhawk in the past(Tale of the Comet) and is Blackmoor in the future for some, a GM can always place downed 'aliens' of psionic nature along with the flayers.

[Chronologist]

Thanks Warpedwolf16, playtesting the class would be great.

The Cryptic is a trapsmith and crafter, someone who plans twenty steps ahead and sets up elaborate gambits. It's much more suited for Villains and NPCs I think.

The Prowler is better at mobility and scouting. Upon reflection it's like a psionic Warlock, using stealth and a ranged attack to get the drop on enemies, then disabling them with class features, all the while using defensive class features so as not to die horribly from incoming fire.

I'll talk to my DM about incorporating a few psionic touches, but so far my Prowler took a feat that lets her steal souls from people who die within range of her Network, and I sell them to Devils for fun and profit. Hence needing class features that supply equipment, my character doesn't have any gear besides containers for souls.

Neutral Evil, by the way. More of a hired assassin and stealer of souls kind of evil than the baby-eating kind of evil.

[Yitzi]

There is no such thing as a creature that lacks a WIS score. If it has no WIS score, it's an object, not a creature.

[Chronologist]

That's a good point. I will change it so the ability affects any non-mindless creature.

Any other comments?

[Chronologist]

Sure, I could see a knack that turns an Empathic Blast into force damage. It would reduce the damage dice to 1d4, and would probably require 8th level (similar to the Alchemist's Force Bomb discovery).

Will add that now as I make the required text Bold.

I'm a bit swamped with work and filling the holes in my Bioshock: Deadly Waters game system. Feel free to check that out as well.

[TuggyNE]

On the whole, this looks like a pretty nice class, nothing sticks out as really stupid or weird, and I think it'd be fun to play.

You should probably add Ex/Su/Ps tags to all the ability descriptions, for clarity.


Empathic Blast: A prowler can fire a blast of empathic energy that deals 1d6 damage on a successful ranged touch attack with range 30 feet. They need at least one hand free to use this ability. If the prowler has two hands free, they deal additional damage equal to their Wisdom modifier. At 3rd level and every odd-numbered level thereafter, they deal an additional 1d6 damage. At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, the prowler gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC when they move 10 feet or more in a given round. Mindless creatures are immune to a prowler's Empathic Blast.

I assume Empathic Blast works on creatures immune to mind-affecting, but you may want to call that out specifically.

Also, separate out the dodge bonus to AC into a new class feature if you don't mind.


Knacks: At 1st level a prowler selects two Knacks which they are allowed to choose. Knacks are always active unless the prowler suppresses them as a free action. At 2nd level and every even-numbered level thereafter, a prowler may learn two additional knacks.

That's gonna be a lot. Also, why two every two levels, and not simply one every level?


Network: At 2nd level, a prowler can establish a psychic link with her allies. Touch is required to start the link, which lasts until either party wants to leave the network. While within Medium range, all members of the network can speak telepathically and know each other’s hit points and general condition. At 6th level, the range becomes Long. At 10th level, the range becomes 1 mile per class level. At 14th level, the range is infinite while on the same plane. At 18th level, the network can extend across any and all planes.

Exact hit points, or just status-style dead/dying/sorely wounded/injured/largely fine?
This is a very handy ability, and nicely psionic.


Inertial Armor: You gain a +4 armor bonus to armor class that overlaps with both armor and shield bonuses to armor class, +1 AC per 2 prowler levels.

I don't understand this. An armor bonus doesn't stack with armor, of course, but it should stack with shield bonuses. There's no way to make something that stacks with neither. Or did you mean it stacks with both?

[Just to Browse]

I think some undercooked copypasta has resulted in a +0 Dodge bonus to AC at 19th level...

[masterstalker2]

This class seems to me like a mix between the Rogue class and the Wilder class, and because of that it makes me think that the Prowler should use Charisma rather than Wisdom as their base stat for things like powers and empathic blast.

Also, they should have more skills of the rogue, like Craft (which all PF classes get), Diplomacy, Escape Artist, etc.

Also, the use of the same weapons as the Rogue would be good for this class, since they will already have a good DEX for stealth as the rogue of the party, it would make more sense to give them more to use it for (since most rogues take Weapon Finesse).

[Chronologist]

Inertial Armor grants a single bonus that does not stack with Shield bonuses, and it does not stack with Armor bonuses. Meaning, if you have a +2 armor bonus a +7 Inertial Armor bonus, and a +3 Shield bonus, you have a +7 total from the 3. If your armor and shield bonuses otherwise were +8, you'd have a +8 armor bonus. It's poorly worded, I know, and I might just make it an Armor bonus.

Knacks could be +1 per level, no problem.

The +0 to AC at 19th level will be fixed eventually. Sorry. It is meant to be +5.

Speaking telepathically is covered in the telepathy rules for normal D&D. Quickly though, yes, any member of the network can speak to any other member privately, or to everyone at once, or to any number of individuals at once, selectively.

The class is meant to use Wisdom since it's more about insight that force of personality. I would not be against changing it however.

The class has fewer skills because Knacks grant bonuses to certain kinds of skill checks, but do not overlap with ranks. THe idea is that the Prowler replaces skill training with psionic aptitude. Also, it prevents them from taking a bunch of skill Knacks and then branching out and being able to do everything.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Life catches up with you.

[Story Time]

...I like that it uses Wisdom. ...one of my favorite things about the class.

Thank you, Chronologist, for the clarification.

[masterstalker2]

Well, the meaning of empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient, which makes it seem to me that they would use Charisma rather than Wisdom. Though, you could have it in the rules for this class that they can select either Wisdom or Charisma for their base attribute for powers.

As a Rogue-like class, they should also have access to a few of the weapons of the rogue (like the rapier, bow and sword). The people playing the class will probably already have a high Dex since, being a rogue-like class, they need to be stealthy.

They should also get a few more of the skills of the rogue still, mostly Escape Artist, Appraise, Diplomacy, Craft (this one is because all classes get craft as a skill), Profession (since I'm pretty sure all classes also get this skill), and Swim. In my opinion, at least some of these should be added.

Also, for powers, I play PF and there is no Lurk class in Psionics Unleashed, and the class probably closest to Prowler is either Wilder or Psion (probably closer to Wilder though).

[masterstalker2]

Ummm, can I please have a reply to my previous comment?