Maginomicon
2013-11-23, 11:55 PM
Okay, so after some deeper digging I decided to unban the Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) (why I originally banned it is irrelevant), partially because of the two Augment list ACFs available to Lurks (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a).
Now, assume that I house-rule that both Lurk ACFs make you lose autohypnosis and escape artist as class skills but...
the True Thief Lurk gains search and disable device as class skills, and
the Tracker Lurk gains (pick one set) survival and track (as a bonus feat) or gather information and urban tracking (as a bonus feat).
(The lurk is intelligence-based and IMO there isn't a suitable loss available to replace the gain, so no, I'm not changing the skill points per level. It's non-negotiable.)
(The lost class skills however are negotiable, but should be on-par for importance with the bonuses granted.)
With these minor changes, how does the True Thief Lurk stand up against the Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm) and Psychic Rogue? I'm specifically looking for significant situations where the True Thief Lurk is significantly better off than the Psychic Rogue.
To me, these changes make the Standard Lurk a niche combatant, the True Thief Lurk a niche trapfinder, and the Tracker Lurk a niche tracker. Does that sound right? This probably doesn't affect their tiers much, but if you feel it would then say so.
Other Lurk articles out there (such as the Lurk Handbook) seem to ignore these ACFs, which is a shame. Personally, I feel that these specialization ACFs give a lot of flavor to the Lurk class where originally there was very little flavor apart from "assassin as base class lol". You could, for example, have a "Lurks Guild" where each specialization is valued in its own way in the guild and sends teams of varying-specialty lurks on missions.
Also, let's ignore Thought Bottle + Psychic Chiurgery cheese please, for the sake of sanity. :smallannoyed:
Now, assume that I house-rule that both Lurk ACFs make you lose autohypnosis and escape artist as class skills but...
the True Thief Lurk gains search and disable device as class skills, and
the Tracker Lurk gains (pick one set) survival and track (as a bonus feat) or gather information and urban tracking (as a bonus feat).
(The lurk is intelligence-based and IMO there isn't a suitable loss available to replace the gain, so no, I'm not changing the skill points per level. It's non-negotiable.)
(The lost class skills however are negotiable, but should be on-par for importance with the bonuses granted.)
With these minor changes, how does the True Thief Lurk stand up against the Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm) and Psychic Rogue? I'm specifically looking for significant situations where the True Thief Lurk is significantly better off than the Psychic Rogue.
To me, these changes make the Standard Lurk a niche combatant, the True Thief Lurk a niche trapfinder, and the Tracker Lurk a niche tracker. Does that sound right? This probably doesn't affect their tiers much, but if you feel it would then say so.
Other Lurk articles out there (such as the Lurk Handbook) seem to ignore these ACFs, which is a shame. Personally, I feel that these specialization ACFs give a lot of flavor to the Lurk class where originally there was very little flavor apart from "assassin as base class lol". You could, for example, have a "Lurks Guild" where each specialization is valued in its own way in the guild and sends teams of varying-specialty lurks on missions.
Also, let's ignore Thought Bottle + Psychic Chiurgery cheese please, for the sake of sanity. :smallannoyed: