The Wanderer

[GrayDeath]

Preface:

This is a setting specific Class for our upcoming/long planned 3.P Homebrew, but it can per concept be used just about anywhere.
What it is not is intended as a High Power Class. I am aiming for a solid, very versatile "Does almost everything OK to well" T3. Any Feedback helping me achieve this goal is VERY appreciated.
Feedback ala "A Druid/Wizard can do it better" or "Jack of all Trades are always less powerful than X" is not (as true as these statements may be ^^)-
This class is meant to be used in 3.x/3.P Games. For only using 3.5 sources, adapt the allowed Schools and Class Skills, Reduce Skillpts/Level by 2 and remove Favoured Terrain from the Table.





The Wanderer


Wanderers are often solitary men and women wandering the World (or plane(s)) in search for enlightenment, peace and quiet, or new experience. They value independance and the ability to overcome challenges by themselves, even if they understand that they will need help at times.

Their Abilities center around resistances/immunities, speed and being able to do almost anything", up to a certain level that is. THey do not truly excel anywhere.

Almost all Races without strong ties to their home become wanderers, although the most numerous are Humans, half Elves, half Orcs and Planetouched.
Dwarven Wanderers are almost unheard of, unless their Kingdom was destroyed/they are Exiles.

Their natural Curiosity makes Wanderers willing to travel with just about anybody, although the Wanderer who travels longer than a few weeks with a Paladin or similarly stiff and driven" Character is rare.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+2	+2	+2	Wanderers Speed,
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+3	SLA 1
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Improved Initiative, Friend of a Friend
4th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Wanderers Resistance, Wanderers Speed 2
5th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Favoured Terrain 1, SLA
6th	+4	+5	+5	+5	Wanderers Knowledge,
7th	+5	+5	+5	+5	Wanderers Speed 3, Wanderers Toughness 1
8th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Wanderers Resistance 2, SLA
9th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Instinctual Counterspelling, Favoured Terrain 2
10th	+7/+2	+7	+7	+7	Wanderers Companion, Wanderers Speed 4
11th	+8/+3	+7	+7	+7	Wanderers Passage, SLA, Wanderers Memory
12th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+8	Wanderers Endurance, Wanderers Resistance 3
13th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+8	Know it all, Wanderes Speed 5, Favoured Terrain 3
14th	+10/+5	+9	+9	+9	Seen it all, SLA, Wanderers Eye
15th	+11/+6/+1	+9	+9	+9	Planar Wanderer, Wanderers Toughness 2
16th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+10	Wanderers Speed 6, Wanderers Resistance 4
17th	+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+10	Been there, Done That, Favoured Terrain 4, SLA
18th	+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+11	A Wanderers Life
19th	+14/+9/+4	11	+11	+11	Wanderers Glory, Wanderers Speed 7
20th	+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+12	Ultimate Wanderer, Wanderers Resistance 5, Favoured Terrain 5, SLA

Hitdie: D8.

Alignment: Any, but overall Wanderers tend towards Chaos over Law and Neutrality over Good/Evil.

Skillpts/Level: 8+int Mod

Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Dungerneering, Geography, Local, Nature, Planes), Perception, Profession, Stealth, Survival, Swim.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Wanderers are proficient with all Simple Weapons, the Machete, the Sword Cane and the Longbow.
They are proficient with Light Armor, but not with Shields of any kind.





Initiating: A Wanderer dabbles in many things, even at martial Initating.
At Level 1 a Wanderer gains 3 Maneuvers and one Stance known from the following Schools: Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Mithral Current, Solar Wind.

He gains another Maneuver known at Levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18. He may exchange a maneuver known for one of higher Level at Levels 6, 11, 16 and 19. Prerequisites must still be fulfilled.
He gains an additional Stance known at Levels 5, 13 and 20.
Wanderers begin the game with 2 readied Maneuvers, gaining an additional one at Levels 5, 10, and 17.

A Wanderer uses the Warders Table for maximum Maneuver Level, but can never learn Level 8 and 9 Maneuvers.

He recovers all spent maneuvers by moving his full base speed and doing nothing else in a round.

Attention: In case Initiating is not allowed in your game, instead grant the Wanderer an additional SLA (see SLA Rules) at Levels 3, 7, 10, 13 and 19 and allow the SLA`s gained at Level 19 and 20 to pick from the Bard or Wizard List. THis should leave him at a similar Power Level overall.


Class Abilities:

Unless noted otherwise, a Wanderers Special Abilities are considered EX.


Wanderers Speed. Starting at Level 1, a Wanderer is faster on his feet than other classes. Add +10ft to the base Land speed. Add another 10ft at Levels 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19.

SLA`s: Starting at Level 2, a Wanderer gains a small amouint of Magical Talent. He may choose a single Level 1 Spell from the following Lists: Bard; Paladin, Ranger. he can use this Spell once per day until reaching Level 15, and twice from there onwards.
He gains a second Level 1 Spell at Level 5, a Spell of up to level 2 at Levels 8 and 11, up to level 3 at Level 14 and 17, and up to Level 4 at Level 20.
A Wanderers SLA`s do not need material components, but must either have a verbal or a somatic component (Wanderers Choice).

Friend of a FriendA Wanderer knows many people, almost assuredly someone you know as well. When making a diplomacy check when dealing with a person the first time, if you have evidence that you are at least friendly with someone who they are at least friendly with, you treat their starting relationship with you as one stage better, to a maximum of friendly.


Wanderers Resistance: A Wanderer experiences any surroundings and their threats on his travels. Beginning at 4th level, he gains 10pts Elemental Resistance against an Energy Type of his choice and becomes immune to one Envirometnal hazard of his choice (the same that he gained Elemental Resistance against, so heat for Fire, Cold for...Cold, Smoke for Acid and Suffocation For Electricity, there is no Equivalent for Sonic) Add another 10pts/Enviroment at Levels 8, 12, 16 and 20pts Resistance but no new Enviromental hazard at Level 20.
Except for the one granted at Level 20, which may be applied to an energy Type the Wanderer already has a resistance to, the Effects can only be applied to each Element/Enviroment once, but stack with Elemental Resistances gained via other means (Spells, Racial abilities, Magic items etc).


Wanderers Knowledge: Wanderers see many thing on their travels. Starting at Level 6, add ½ of your Levels in Wanderer to Knowledge Checks made to determine either where you are or identify Creatures.


Instinctual Counterspelling: Their many travels, and travelling companions, allow Wanderers to use their magical Talent to counterspell. Starting at 9th level, a Wanderer may spend one use of any of their SLA`s to counterspell a Spell of the same or lower Level that they identified. [Su]


Wanderers Toughness: A Wanderers Life is often a harsh one. At Level 7 they gain +10hp and DR 3/-.


Wanderers Companion: At tenth Level gain an Animal Companion of your choice (Requirement: Companion Movement Speed of 60ft or more). You count as a Druid of your level for its Advancement/Level (meaning it starts at level 10).

Wanderers Memory A Wanderer picks up much knowledge in his travels. At 9th level, when making a knowledge (local), knowledge(geography), or knowledge(history) check relevant to an area he has visited, he gains a bonus equal to the number of significant locations (towns, cool ruins, interesting buildings etc.) he has visited in that area, to a maximum of his Wanderer level plus his Intelligence bonus. If you make a Gather Information check in a town, you gain a bonus equal to the number of months in which you have visited its area within the past year.

Wanderers Passage: Starting at 11th level, a Wanderers steps are lighter than a feather. They can no longer be tracked by nonmagical means, and any attempt to magically track them has a chance of 33% to simply fail. That failure chance increases to 50% at Level 15 and 75% at Level 20.


Wanderers Constitution: A Wanderer can keep on going long after others succumb. Starting at Level 12, a Wanderer becomes immune to fatigue or exhaustion caused by exertion, and ignores these conditions caused by other effects (like Spells) on a roll of 11+ on a D20. Starting at Level 16, this chance also applies to any and all Attribute Damage to physical Attributes (Be they caused by Poison, DIseases, magic or other means).


Know it all: Wanderers are Kings regarding Word of Mouth. Starting at level 13, a Wanderer ma take 12 on any knowledge and Survival Rolls. Always.


Wanderers Eye: Experience with almost any surroundings make a Wanderers Sight improve to supernatuural Levels. Starting at Level 14, a Wanderer gains Darkvision 60ft and superior Low Light Vision. If he already has Darkvision, increase its range by 60ft. In addition Cover granted by fog and similar effects of any kind, as well as cover granted by natural terrain can be ignored on a D20 roll of 11 or higher

Seen it all: A Wanderer is very likely to have seen your cunning trick long before you even learned it. Starting at Level 14, a Wanderer can no longer be flatfooted or flanked by any means, unless they are unable to act at all (say by being unconscious for example, or completely immobilized). This includes Rogues of +4 ECL and magical means!


Planar Wanderer: A Wanderer must not always walk. Starting at level 15, you gain Planeshift as a Sepellike Ability once per day. At Level 20 you may use it a second time/day. [Su]


Wanderers Toughness 2: An experienced Wanderer is a tough foe indeed. At Level 15 they gain +10 HP, Fast Healing 2 and +7pts DR/-. These bonuses stack with Wanderers Toughness 1 for a total of 20 Bonus HP, DR 10/- and Fast Healing 2.


Been there, Done that: A Wanderer of level 17 gains 2 floating feats that he may rearrange after a simple medition of 15 minutes following 8 hours of Rest. He still has to fulfill all prerequisites as normal.


Wanderers Life: A Wanderer of this level has mastered his body far beyond mortal ken. He no longer suffers aging penalties, and preexisting Age penalties are reduced by up to 2pts. Also his life expectancy triples.
Any effect aging him unnaturally is ignored on a 11+ on a D20.


Wanderers Reputation: At this level, the Wanderer is known across many planes of the Multiverse. People simply know of him, just about everywhere. He may add half his Level in Wanderer to any Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Knowledge (Local) Rolls.


Ultimate Wanderer: You have achieved Perfection in Wandering. At Level 20, a Wanderer is always considered to be on his home plane, if this is advantageous to him. Any natural hazards of a place he is in, he can ignore if there exists an indegenious Species that can ignore them (for example: he is on the plane of Fire, Fire Elementals ignore FIre damage/enviromental Effects, and so does he).
If ithere is no such being, he instead reduces their effects by 50% (round up). In addition he gains the ability to change his creature type and subtype to the dominant one on the plane he is on at the moment. This change requires 5 minutes of concentration, and does not give him any other abilites or bonuses of the Creature. It however does allow him to allocate his floating feats to ones only available to creatures of said types.

[Goaty14]

SLA`s: Starting at Level 2, a Wanderer gains a small amount of Magical Talent. He may choose a single Level 1 Spell from the following Lists: Bard; Paladin, Ranger. he can use this Spell once per day until reaching Level 15, and twice from there onwards.
He gains a second Level 1 Spell at Level 5, a Spell of up to level ((2, this was missing)) at Levels 8 and 11, up to level 3 at Level 14 and 17, and up to Level 4 at Level 20.

Missing 2nd level spells there, bolded.

Wanderers Companion: At tenth Level gain an Animal Companion of your choice (Requirement: Companion Movement Speed of 60ft or more). You count as a Druid for its Advancement/Level.

So the animal companion is as class level = druid level or class level = druid level-10? Just to clarify.

Seen it all: A Wanderer is very likely to have seen your cunning trick long before you even learned it. Starting at Level 14, a Wanderer can no longer be flatfooted or flanked by any means, unless they are unable to act at all (say by being unconscious for example).

Not even by a rogue with an ECL 4 higher?

This class is missing Ex/Su/Sp descriptors for class abilities too.

[GrayDeath]

I knew I forgot something. EX/SU clarified.

The 2 at Second level spells inserted.

As for the questions: yep, not even Rogues of +4ecl. Unless he is completely immobilized/Unconscious.

And you count as Druid of your level. Entered into the description.


Thanks for pointing out the typos/Unclear sections!

[aimlessPolymath]

Oh hey!

So, surprise!
I have an old Bard feature that I think would be perfect for this class!

Finger on the Pulse of the Realm(Ex)
A bard picks up much knowledge in his travels. At 7th level, when making a knowledge (local), knowledge(geography), or knowledge(history) check relevant to an area he has visited, he gains a bonus equal to the number of significant locations (towns, cool ruins, interesting buildings etc.) he has visited in that area, to a maximum of his bard level plus his Intelligence bonus. If you make a Gather Information check in a town, you gain a bonus equal to the number of months in which you have visited it in the past year.


One issue I often have with wanderer-type classes is that while they're often pretty good at wandering around, they don't really have much in the way of payoff for doing so. This is meant to do that.
Might get rather silly with Know It All, which might imply swapping one out for another?

Two others:
Read the Room (Ex)
At second level a bard has an instinctive sense for imminent danger. They are aware if anyone within 30 ft that they are aware of currently intends to initiate combat within three rounds. A Bluff check opposed by the bard’s Sense Motive defeats this ability.


Friend of a Friend (Ex)
When making a diplomacy check to deal with a person, if you have evidence that you are at least friendly with someone who they are at least friendly with, you treat their relationship with you as one stage better, to a maximum of friendly.

Overall, I think I very much like this as a martial bard-type class.

Wanderers Toughness 2: An experienced Wanderer is a tough foe indeed. At Level 16, they gain +10 HP, Fast Healing 2 and +7pts DR/-. These bonuses stack with Wanderers Toughness 1 for a total of 20 Bonus HP, DR 10/- and Fast Healing 2.

You accidentally a word at the end there.

Hm.
The health bonus from Wanderer's Toughness X isn't very noticable; I'd suggest a minor save bonus instead.
Having all good saves feels a little bit strong.

Been There, Done That is extraordinarily strong.

While none of them feel out of place, really, having all good saves feels a bit much to me.

Wanderers Resistance: A Wanderer experiences any surroundings and their threats on his travels. Beginning at 4th level, he gains 10pts Resistance against an Element of his choice and becomes immune to one Environmental hazard of his choice (the same that he gained Elemental Resistance against) Add another 10pts/Environment at Levels 8, 12, 16 and 20pts at Level 20. Except for the one granted at Level 20, which may be applied to an element the Wanderer already has a resistance to, the Effects can only be applied to each Element/Environment once, but stack with Elemental Resistances gained via other means (Spells, Racial abilities, Magic items etc).

You have some typos here. More generally, what do you mean by environmental hazard? Do you mean energy type when you say Element?
If so, what environmental hazards correspond to different energy types?

[GrayDeath]

@Elements: yep, energy types and the associated environmental hazards.
So heat for fire, cold for ice, and so on.

I seem to Remember there bein ones for acid and electricity at least, but I am not at home atm, so I can't check.

Typos will be fixed.

The first and the last of your feats indeed seem to be a perfect fit for the Wanderer. Let's see of I can get them in somewhere.


As for all High saves: yes, it is strong. However the class builds on surviving its travels, and does not have real Power anywhere, so I don't think it is too strong.
That's also the reason wanderers toughness gets a relatively minor HP boost, to not be op.

Been there, done that: OK, let's say I agree. How would you modify it to keep the flavour, keep it useful, but reduce potential OP Ness?

As always, thank you for the feedback.

[aimlessPolymath]

Alright, associating environmental dangers works OK, although heat & cold will come up the most.

On Been There, Done That:
The flavor involved is a little hard to identify, but if I were to give it a description, it would be "The Wanderer has traveled far, and has learned nearly everything there is to know- as long as he takes the time to remember it". Other features that would fit this description are:
-The ability to change out his known spells, even just the 1st level ones- a good 1st level pick is unlikely to still be good. Note that it can do this to a limited extent (specific spells, anyway) already through certain feats.
-One or two maneuvers known from any school; it seems that a class which is about wide breadth of knowledge should be able to do this; note that it can get this already through Martial Study, which is one of several silly things it can do already.
-A floating pool of skill points, which can be allocated as desired. Note that it can do this already through the Open Minded feat.
-A continuous foresight effect, or other sensory ability.
-The ability to emulate a different class's 1st level nonfeat, nonspellcasting features. This one is the strongest of the bunch, but honestly, it can nearly do this already for many classes through feats. Seriously! Shape Soulmeld, Bind Vestige, Martial Study, Dragonmark feats, etc. If done, I would cut the uses down to 1/day, though, to limit abuse.

[GrayDeath]

Interesting Suggestions.

Ill give them a think over the rest of the yerar (^^). Still, I like the Wanderer (given his Movement Focus combatwise) not being subject to Sneak Attack/FLatfootedness unless he`s immobile as well, even if its strong, it IS a late Level Ability....


Decisions, Decisions....

[aimlessPolymath]

Er, I'm addressing the floating feats, not the immunity.

[GrayDeath]

I am too tired, if I missread that. Ugh.....


Would the Floating Feats work, if he only got 2 and the meditaion needed a full rest? WHat do you think?

[aimlessPolymath]

That's somewhat more reasonable, especially requiring 1/day. It still does some silly things, just not as silly.

[GrayDeath]

Some SIlliness is a good thing. Too much of it, as you ponted out correctly, is not.

Chalk if off to me being far too tired yesterday (not getting to sleep because of shoulder pain does that ...) that I didn`t immedeately spot that.

Corrected. Class finished (well, amybe there will be an Archetype later on, but otherwise it does exactly what it is supposed to do...).

THanks again. There willb e more material (at least 4 more classes) in the new year.

[GrayDeath]

Bumped for the upcoming game.

[aimlessPolymath]

The individual features look fine; none of them are out of line.
The class can do everything reasonably well.

My only concern is that the class may do too much- there are so many features that it becomes overpowered, with a constant stream of reasonably strong features combining to make this into 2-3 classes stitched together.
Evaluating this requires a level-by-level analysis, a cross-check for duplicate features, and that sort of thing. (incidentally, a table for maneuvers available makes that easier)
Look at level 6, for example.
You get:
-New maneuver known
-Maneuver exchanged
-Two different features improving Knowledge checks.

It's probably reasonably balanced, but there's some duplication- two different features that do the same thing. You would want to prune away one of them.
You get another one at level 13, and another boost at level 20 (which has 4 features- probably one or two too many), plus Favored Terrain.
Are all of these necessary, given that they do the same thing, and cumulatively generate ridiculous Knowledge checks?
On top of 8+Int skill points?
That's more Survival than a ranger, and more Knowledge than a wizard. Something's got to go.

I'm not going to go through everything like this, but I think you need to look at how many redundant features this gets, and how many you're passing out overall- at some point, you start running into problems with tracking what your character can do, and this already asks for the player to track maneuvers and SLAs.
You don't need to give a whole new class feature every level- a few good ones is usually enough.

[GrayDeath]

Hmmm, might be true.

I`ll give it a check and might remove some redundancies. But its not hard getting more knowledges than a wizard, given their 2+ Int Mod Skillpts and the fact they need Spellcraft and (if 3.5) Concentration amxxed...^^

[GrayDeath]

Redid some ability placements.

I think the amount of special stuff fits the concept well enough as is (and tracking SLA`s and Maneuvers is not even in the same ballpark as tracking a Wizards spells, especially given a Wanderer only gets less than 10 of each).

THis way it works well enough. me thinks.

[InkisRatticus]

I keeping thinking colorless planeswalker from mtg.

[GrayDeath]

HMmm, aside from getting their Planeshift "too late", not a bad interpretation. :)