The Survivalist

[RelentlessImp]

Alright. A friend of mine wants a core Thief/Rogue-type class, so I made this for her, though it most likely needs a bit of tweaking.

Without any further ado, I give you... The Survivalist.

Class Name: Survivalist
Descriptor: The Survivalist is just what its name suggest; a person whom, either through apathy or bad luck, only lives from day to day, hand-to-mouth, doing what they must so they can continue living. Not many are capable of this, and those whom do often receive sympathy, which many Survivalists find offensive to their sensibilities. The survivalist is not a competent melee fighter, but often possesses skills that are outside the range of the more affluent of the world.
Alignment: Any non-lawful.
HD: d6
BAB: Medium (3/4ths)
Skills: (8+INT bonus, x4 at first level)
Fort: Good
Will: Poor
Ref: Good

Proficiencies: The Survivalist is proficient with all simple weapons, as well as the Rapier, Sap and Kukri, as well as light armor.

Class Skills: Appraise (Int), Balance(Dex), Bluff(Cha), Climb(Str), Craft (Tools) (Int), Craft (Trap) (Int), Craft (any)* (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature)+ (Int), Knowledge (Local)+ (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (any)* (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), Use Rope (Dex)

*If the Survivalist takes the Craft skills for something other than tools or traps, it must also have a Profession that matches that. A survivalist only cares about living from day to day, and as such only gain as much knowledge as is needed.
+The Survivalist may have one or the other of Knowledge (Local) or Knowledge (Nature), whichever fits their background better. After choosing one, the opposing becomes a Cross-Class Skill rather than a Class Skill.

Survivalist
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+0|Trapfinding, Danger Sense, Sneak Attack 1d6, Self-Sufficient

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+0|Endurance

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+1|

4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+1|Diehard, Home Advantage

5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+1|Sneak Attack 2d6

6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+2|

7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+2|Evasion, Resilience

8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+2|Uncanny Dodge, Home Advantage, Damage Reduction 1/-

9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+3|Sneak Attack 3d6

10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+7|
+3| Improved Evasion

11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+7|
+3|Damage Reduction 2/-

12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+4|Home Advantage

13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+4|Sneak Attack 4d6, Improved Uncanny Dodge

14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+4|Improved Resilience, Damage Reduction 3/-.

15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+9|
+5|

16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+5|Home Advantage

17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+5|Sneak Attack 5d6, Damage Reduction 4/-.

18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+6|Master Resilience

19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+6|

20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+6|Master of Survival, Damage Reduction 5/-.
[/table]

Class Features:
Trapfinding: Much like a Rogue, a Survivalist may detect and disable traps with a DC higher than 20.

Sneak Attack: Starting at 1st level, and every 4 levels after, the Survivalist gains 1d6 cumulative sneak attack damage. This damage is cumulative with Sneak Attack granted from other classes.

Self-Sufficient: The Survivalist gains the Self-Sufficient feat for free at level 1.

Danger Sense: A survivalist is suspicious of anything and everything that looks even the slightest bit out of place. Due to this cynical attitude, the survivalist gains a +4 insight bonus to all Search checks when actively searching for traps. If no traps are found, the Survivalist is still left with a great sense of danger, gaining a +4 insight bonus to Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +4 insight bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. The Survivalist must make a successful Spot check (DC: DM's discretion) to notice something amiss to activate this ability.

Home Advantage: Like a Ranger's favored environment ability. At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the Survivalist may choose one location that they know well to gain bonuses in. The Survivalist keeps on living because he or she knows the workings of where they frequent. This grants a +4 circumstance bonus to all Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Gather Information, Knowledge (Local) or Knowledge (Nature), Hide, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive checks inside their Home Advantage area.

This bonus improves by +1 for every four levels.

If Knowledge (Local) was selected as class skill, the first Home Advantage must be the Survivalist's home city. Afterwards, the Survivalist may choose from the following:
Any city in which they must frequented (once a week, at least) for 1d4 months (rolled when the feat is chosen).

If Knowledge (Nature) was chosen, the first Home Advantage will be the area the Survivalist spent the first part of his or her life in. The subsequent can be chosen from the following:
An area that the Survivalist must explore and study for 1d4 months (rolled when chosen) in order to gain the appropriate understanding.

Uncanny Dodge: As the feat. Automatically received at level 8.
Improved Uncanny Dodge: As the feat. Automatically received at level 13.

Endurance: As the feat. Automatically received at level 2.
Diehard: As the feat. Automatically received at level 4.

Evasion: As the feat. Automatically received at level 7.
Improved Evasion: As the feat. Automatically received at level 10.

Damage Reduction 1/-: The Survivalist has been physically harmed so much that he gains a numbness to low levels of pain, granting a 1/- damage reduction. This increases by 1/- at levels 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th.

Resilience: The Survivalist has survived a great deal. This resolves itself as a permanant 5/- damage reduction to all elemental effects, even those magical in nature.
Improved Resilience: As Resilience, but the damage reduction increases to 10+half class level/-.
Master Resilience: As Improved Resilience, but damage reduction increases to 10+class level/-.

Master of Survival: The Survivalist has lived and survived things that would have broken those without such a great will to survive. This allows the Survivalist the knowledge of how to prepare his body for coming harm, both physically and mentally. All save rolls are granted a +2 insight bonus, and the Survivalist gains Spell Resistance equal to 8+class level.

Edit: Overhauled the class.

[Fax Celestis]

+The Survivalist may have one or the other of Knowledge (Urban) or Knowledge (Wild), whichever fits their background better. After choosing one, the opposing becomes a Cross-Class Skill rather than a Class Skill. Those aren't knowledges. I'd suggest using the skill list for the Wilderness Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogueVariantWilderness Rogue).


Sneak Attack: Starting at 1st level, and every 4 levels after, the Survivalist gains 1d6 cumulative sneak attack damage. This sneak attack does _not_ stack with any other class abilities.

...why not? Sneak Attack always stacks with Sneak Attack, regardless of where it's gained from.


Danger Sense: A survivalist is suspicious of anything and everything that looks even the slightest bit out of place. Due to this cynical attitude, the survivalist gains a +2 bonus to all Search checks when actively searching for traps. If no traps are found, the Survivalist is still left with a great sense of danger, gaining a +1 Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. These bonuses rise to +2 when the Survivalist reaches level 7, +3 at 10, +4 at 14, and +5 at 20.

Neat. Also see: the Danger Sense (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dangerSense.htm) psionic power.


Evasion: As the feat. The Survivalist automatically gains this at level 4.
Improved Evasion: As the feat. The Survivalist automatically gains this at level 10.

Uncanny Dodge: As the Rogue ability, gained at level 6.
Improved Uncanny Dodge: As the Rogue ability, gained at level 12. Do I stack levels for determining the purposes of what kind of evasion or uncanny dodge I have, or how strong they are?

It does look a bit underpowered. Perhaps a limited "survivalist" spell list would do the trick.

[RelentlessImp]

...why not? Sneak Attack always stacks with Sneak Attack, regardless of where it's gained from.


Hm... well, I wanted to do something a little different with this class, is all. I think I avoided the "2 level dip" with the level spacing, so I think I may change it to stack.



Neat. Also see: the Danger Sense (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dangerSense.htm) psionic power.

Hmm. That would make more sense than a modified Trap Sense ability. I'll change it and make it a permanant Ex ability. (Though I haven't really classified what types of abilities they are; bad homebrewer!)



Do I stack levels for determining the purposes of what kind of evasion or uncanny dodge I have, or how strong they are?

Yes.



It does look a bit underpowered. Perhaps a limited "survivalist" spell list would do the trick.
Hm. That could help it a little, I'll see what I can do.

Edited out: Nevermind. Just changed the KNowledges to appropriate ones.

[Fax Celestis]

Okay, now that I see the table, I notice a problem: you have a lot of dead levels.

Realistically, dead levels are unavoidable, but they should still be avoided. I'm going to make a few recommendations here: take what you will and leave what you don't want.

1. Endurance to 2nd level, Uncanny Dodge to 4th, Evasion to 7th, Die Hard to 8th, Improved Uncanny Dodge to 10th, Improved Evasion to 13th. Dead Levels at levels that are even multiples of three are only pseudodead levels, since you get a feat.

2. Permanent endure elements at 7th.

3. Favored Environments (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#favoredEnemyVariantFavore dEnvironment) at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th.

4. Spell Resistance equal to 10 + HD at 18th

5. Some sort of capstone at 20.

6. DR 1/- at 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th.

Table'd look like this:
Survivalist Progression
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Trapfinding, Danger Sense, Sneak Attack 1d6, Self-Sufficient
2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Endurance
3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|
4th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Uncanny Dodge, Favored Environment
5th|+3|+4|+4|+1|Sneak Attack 2d6
6th|+4|+5|+5|+2|
7th|+5|+5|+5|+2|Evasion, Permanent Endure Elements
8th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+2|Diehard, Favored Environment, DR 1/-
9th|+6/+1|+6|+6|+3|Sneak Attack 3d6
10th|+7/+2|+7|+7|+3|Improved Uncanny Dodge
11th|+8/+3|+7|+7|+3|DR 2/-
12th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|Favored Environment
13th|+9/+4|+8|+8|+4|Sneak Attack 4d6, Improved Evasion
14th|+10/+5|+9|+9|+4|DR 3/-
15th|+11/+6/+1|+9|+9|+5|
16th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Favored Environment
17th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+10|+5|Sneak Attack 5d6, DR 4/-
18th|+13/+8/+3|+11|+11|+6|Spell Resistance
19th|+14/+9/+4|+11|+11|+6|
20th|+15/+10/+5|+12|+12|+6|Favored Environment, DR 5/-
[/table]

[RelentlessImp]

Class overhauled.

[Human Paragon 3]

Why don't you take out the -4 disguise penalty? The survivalist's preternatural knowledge of his surroundings would likely improve his disugise abillity by allowing him to draw upon extra facts and details that lend him a certain authenticity. This should at least cancel out the -4 for being well known. Also, it's just lame to give a character a - to a skill as a class feature. To me, it seems that the survivalist would be apt to rely on his abillity to disguise himself day to day.

[RelentlessImp]

Why don't you take out the -4 disguise penalty? The survivalist's preternatural knowledge of his surroundings would likely improve his disugise abillity by allowing him to draw upon extra facts and details that lend him a certain authenticity. This should at least cancel out the -4 for being well known. Also, it's just lame to give a character a - to a skill as a class feature. To me, it seems that the survivalist would be apt to rely on his abillity to disguise himself day to day.

Meh. I thought it'd kick in some balance to the +4 over the Ranger's +2, but since it doesn't increase/4 levels, I suppose that in itself balances it. Yeah. I was uneasy putting that in, anyways.

Edit: Okay, so I did make it increase for every 4 levels. *slams head into desk* I need coffee. Still, removed the -4.

[EvilElitest]

seems kinda boring, not very good for a group and only good for a single if you are very ood at avoiding combat, might be better for a NPC henchman
from,
EE