Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
There are those who take the fight not only to those who stand in the face of their goals, but to the environment itself. Explorers are those rare few who are born adventurers; even as children, they blazed trails through the woods and could survive on their own. With age and experience, they continue on these quests to test their body and mind, pushing themselves to the limit with every encounter with death. When a problem arises, the never avoid it and forge ahead despite all odds. Some call it suicide, but they call it another day on the job. Tales of their epic journeys have gone on to romanticize this brave profession.
They are the explorers!
<hr>
Abilities: The most useful attributes to an explorer is Intelligence, for skills, Constitution, for stalwart fortitude, Dexterity, for death-defying reflexes, and Wisdom, for stubborn willpower. They are survivors, and focus on perfecting their defenses before going on the attack.
Races: Humans are by far the most daring of the races, and thus they are more prone to take on such a dangerous profession. Half-orcs also become explorers to prove their worth as rugged pioneers. Smaller races are also prone to becoming explorers for their agile nature and ability to reach small places easily. Elves generally stay away from this class, seeing such recklessness as wasteful.
Alignment: Explorers are usually chaotic in nature as they seek to follow their own path through life, wherever that may take them. A great deal of discipline also steers them to a lawful disposition.
<hr>
HD: d8
Skills: Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Heal, Jump, Know (architecture), Know (dungeoneering), Know (geography), Know (history), Know (local), Know (the planes), Open Lock, Ride, Search, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, and Use Rope. Skills Points: 6 + Int Modifier
Starting Gold: As fighter.
Level
Base Attack<br>Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1st
+0
+2
+2
+0
Bonus Feat; Trapfinding; Trapsense 1
2nd
+1
+3
+3
+0
Evasion; Unerring Direction
3rd
+2
+3
+3
+1
Bonus Feat
4th
+3
+4
+4
+1
Trap Sense 2; Uncanny Dodge
5th
+3
+4
+4
+1
Danger Skills; Darkvision 30 feet
6th
+4
+5
+5
+2
Improved Uncanny Dodge; Bonus Feat
7th
+5
+5
+5
+2
Trap Sense 3
8th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+2
In the Face of Death +2
9th
+6/+1
+6
+6
+3
Bonus Feat; Improved Evasion
10th
+7/+2
+7
+7
+3
Danger Skills; Trap Sense 4; Darkvision 60 feet
11th
+8/+3
+7
+7
+3
Impromptu Crafting
12th
+9/+4
+8
+8
+4
Bonus Feat
13th
+9/+4
+8
+8
+4
Trap Sense 5
14th
+10/+5
+9
+9
+4
Planar Trekker
15th
+11/+6/+1
+9
+9
+5
Danger Skills; Bonus Feat; Low-light Vision
16th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+5
Trap Sense 6; Master of Terrains
17th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+5
Lore of Exploration
18th
+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+6
Bonus Feat; In the Face of Death +4
19th
+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+6
Trap Sense 7
20th
+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+6
Danger Skills; Blindsight 30 feet
Class Features: Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: An explorer is skilled in the use of all martial weapons and simple weapons as well as one exotic weapon. He can wear light and medium armor, and all shields (barring tower shields).
Danger Skills: Whenever an explorer gains Danger Skills, he chooses one of his Explorer class skills; he may use them in even the most adverse conditions to take 10.
Trapfinding: An explorer is capable of finding traps with little difficult. He gains the trapfinding ability as a rogue.
Trapsense: The explorer gains the listed bonus to Reflex throws and AC bonuses when dealing with a trap. This bonus stacks with other such bonuses, such as with a barbarian.
Unerring Direction: An explorer always knows which way is north and can maintain his bearing in dungeons of his home plane. He also knows, in his gut, what time it is on the Material Plane at any instance, even if he is in another plane.
Bonus Feat: Every three levels, the explorer may choose one of the following feats to gain: Endurance, Diehard, Run, Track, Skill Focus (Any Explorer Class Skill), Combat Expertise, Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, or Improved Initiative. An explorer does not need to meet the prerequisites for any feat taken as a bonus feat.
Darkvision: At fifth level, an explorer gains darkvision out to 30 feet. At tenth level, he gains darkvision out to 60 feet.
In the Face of Death: When making an explorer class skill check that would lead to death or grave danger if failed, the explorer gains the listed bonus. An additional +1 bonus is applied to any skill he has Danger Skills with.
Impromptu Crafting: The explorer may create any item from the Adventuring Gear section worth less than or equal to twice his class level. He spends twice the cost of the item in raw materials and must spend at least one minute per 1 gp to create it (to a minimum of 1 minute). The object lasts, before breaking into worthless pieces, for half an hour or a full hour if he spends twice as long on it.
Planar Trekker: The explorer never becomes lost in extraplanar locales, and always has his bearing of which way is which (whether its north, south, east, west, up, down, or any other way). He gains the Aligned and Weightless planar traits of the Horizon Walker prestige class.
Low-light Vision: At level 15, the explorer gains low-light vision, seeing four times as far as a human in low-light conditions and sees as well as an elf when determining color.
Master of Terrains: The explorer may swim and climb at his base land speed. He must hold his breath while swimming, however. No creature gains any bonus against him due to their connection with the land, such as Earth Mastery.
Lore of Exploration (Su): When finding information on a specific dungeon or place of antiquity, the explorer automatically knows any information up to and including what a DC 30 bardic lore attempt could have found. This supernatural information only appears when he steps inside the area and leaves as soon as he exits.
Blindsight: On the twentieth level, an explorer gains blindsight out to 30 feet.
Well, just a few formatting issues, in each entry you ought to put, "At level X, an Explorer gains ability Y." That way you don't need to keep referring to the table to get the info. Also, you don't need to say "like a rogue" all the time. It's useless in your Evasion, especially considering you already said it stacks with Rogue's evasion.
Finally, do Explorers need to meet the prerequisites for their bonus feats, or are they really Bonus? If they are, I can't imagine anyone taking Endurance. Just skip right to Diehard.
__________________
"We have become like unto tiny refreshing GODS!"
--Popcorn
Quoteses, preciousssss...
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Viscount Einstrauss
Player: Heh, that was easy.
DM: You take 12 lethal damage.
Player: Huh? From what?
DM: Raw spite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NecroPaladin
'FEAR MY CUBESHOES! RAAAAAR!'
Proud owner of one Gold Star, as awarded by Count Chumleigh.
Member of the Metric System Fan Club.
Does walking onto a plane with a different time flow, and/or any other magical ways to affect time flow, throw off the ability to automatically know the time?
__________________
The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can--
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Meeting those who travel on the way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then, I cannot say.
--J.R.R. Tolkien
Last edited by Maldraugedhen : 04-12-2007 at 08:29 PM.
Umm, I'm not sure how messing with time should affect an explorer... Maybe they just know the exact time of the Material Plane, even if they happen to travel outside of it. This would help in timing one's travel through the planes...
That might be a bit much. Maybe something similar to Bardic Lore instead, as they'd have similar situations in how they amass knowledge--by doing.
__________________
The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can--
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Meeting those who travel on the way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then, I cannot say.
--J.R.R. Tolkien
Looks good. I would have thought 1D8 Hit Dice, though, and it could do with some fluff.
__________________ It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
I think the 1d10 hit dice is justified, look at the punishment that Indiana Jones could take.
__________________
At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of the trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise.
-Camus, An Absurd Reasoning
Well, presumably that was his high Constitution? I don't see why he should have a better Hit Die than a Warrior, Scout or Cleric.
__________________ It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
Well, presumably that was his high Constitution? I don't see why he should have a better Hit Die than a Warrior, Scout or Cleric.
Well, the Scout can deal a lot of damage (not as much as a rogue, maybe, but plenty more than this class), the Cleric can both deal a lot of damage and use spells to beef himself up, and as for the Warrior, A: This class doesn't have better hit points, it has equal, and B: The Warrior is an NPC class, and should not be compared to a PC class. But you probably meant Fighter. Or maybe Ranger, since it does have a d8 hit die. But in both cases, the other class is capable of considerably more damage than the explorer.
As for my input on the class:
Looks great to me! Very interesting and...fun-sounding!
I see one or two possible issues, though.
The class gets Improved Evasion one level faster than even the Monk. Is there another class that gains that faster than level 9? If not, I recommend switching Improved Evasion with In the Face of Death +2. Improved Evasion seems significantly better than a skill bonus, so it seems fair.
On that note, Evasion and Improved Evasion aren't listed under class features. A very minor quibble, though.
Danger Skills seems rather too good. Maybe it should be cut down to one skill every time it is gained, and then possibly increased in the frequncy in which it is acquired?
Yeah, I suppose so. I still don't like it having such a high Hit Die, but I suppose it's not unbalancing. I did mention the Warrior purposefully. I know it's not an Adventurer Class, but it is a valid analogue. The Explorer is a cross between a Rogue, Fighter and Ranger. It just seems odd, rather than unbalancing to give it a 1D10 Hit Die.
__________________ It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
He needs whip tricks of some sort. Whip proficiency, bonus to disarm and trip, etc. Maybe consider granting him the Whip Climber trick from Complete Scoundrel.
He needs whip tricks of some sort. Whip proficiency, bonus to disarm and trip, etc. Maybe consider granting him the Whip Climber trick from Complete Scoundrel.
Not whip tricks, but maybe he could choose a path (like a ranger) and a favored weapon to go with the path, or maybe just a favored weapon. Whip tricks just sounds too restrictive.
Eh, I really just designed this to be an explorer who has the skills to go where they want to go and seek out various points of interest. All the other classes seem geared to stealth, magic, or combat, but none are really just for peeking around or wandering the world. They combat the environment, as well as the occasional enemy they come across. He can combat the dungeon itself just fine, and works as a sort of scout, intel-gatherer, or just a treasure-hunter with elements from some of the other base classes.
You Rock.
Anyway, as awesome as this is it seems like something is missing... I can't quite place my finger on what though.
Just a thought: perhaps all good saves would be a good idea for this class. Indie could stay alive/healthy with the best of them in any situation. Or maybe In The Face Of Death should apply to saves aswell?
Now I want to make a PrC that specializes in improving the Impromptu Crafting ability...
Seems like you put everything into the class and freed up all the chars level feats. With PC's getting feats every three levels these guys will leave indie in the dust.
You Rock.
Anyway, as awesome as this is it seems like something is missing... I can't quite place my finger on what though.
Just a thought: perhaps all good saves would be a good idea for this class. Indie could stay alive/healthy with the best of them in any situation. Or maybe In The Face Of Death should apply to saves aswell?
Now I want to make a PrC that specializes in improving the Impromptu Crafting ability...
I was toying around with whether or not to have all good saves and I'm still not sure.
This is probably the only homebrew class I've ever seen that was actually balanced. You get promoted a grade for this. However, one thing I'd do is drop it to a d8 HD.
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Harrison Ford would be proud... [Base Class]
