Adventurer class concept

[Matrota]

I had an idea recently when thinking about KonoSuba. In the anime, the main character is an adventurer, a class that is generally considered weak since it's not particularly good at any one thing. It's major strength however, is that it allows the adventurer to learn skills from any other class, even if they may not use the skill to its full potential.

My thought is this. The adventurer is a base class. Hit die is d8, two poor saves and one good save, 3/4 BaB. Every third level and at first level, the adventurer may learn any other class' class skill, so long as he meets the requirements to use it. For the purpose of skills that have save DCs, an adventurer's DC is 10+adventurer level. If the adventurer learns spells from a class feature, he casts those spells as a character of the spellcasting class three levels lower.

An adventurer may only learn class features of their appropriate level or lower at the time. For example, a 6th level adventurer may not learn a monk's empty body class feature, as that is a class feature gained at 19th level. However, a 6th level adventurer may learn a rogue's evasion class feature, as that is a second level Rogue class feature.

What do you all think?

[aimlessPolymath]

Quick thoughts:
-Definitely Tier 1 or Tier 2. But I think you knew that.
-DC is overscaled- should be 10 + 1/2 adventurer's level + stat, or possibly as original class except substituting Adventurer for whatever it was.
-Three levels lost of spellcasting is a lot, but not enough- you want four or more, and no less (and ideally an even number), because a) that will bar an Adventurer from ever casting 9th level spells (the epitome of magic), and b) that leads to an integer number of spell levels lost (i.e. when a wizard would know nth level spells, an adventurer will know n-xth level spells). That's if I understand this right.
-This could break a lot of stuff due to combos- particularly the ability to cherry-pick the best/most relevant abilities from every class. I suppose that's the point, though. :P
-One great thing that this does well is emulating multiclass combos! That one PrC which lets you advance arcane and divine casting is blown out of the water by this, in a good way.

Big problem:
-I suspect casting classes will be borrowed from more than others, as they benefit the most (relatively speaking) from the chassis increase, and cost the least to buy- you would need one feature to get most of the benefit of the class, while you need lots of features to emulate other classes. This is totally aside from the issue of "casting is just better"- you can become a caster more easily than other classes. In fact, you can gain a huge amount of value from doing something like grabbing caster/psionics/meldshaper/maneuver user/whatever. You can be a master combatant just off meldshaper/maneuver user, for only two slots. This is a problem.

Edit: I'm pretty sure by "class skill", you mean class feature, right?
Double edit: How would you handle scaling features like Sneak Attack? Does it progress normally?
Triple Edit: Dug through my bookmarks a bit. Something similar-ish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?169353-The-Polymath-Anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-too-Base-Class-PEACH)has been done before. Not entirely similar, but somewhat. (It goes without saying that it's at minimum Tier 2, held back only by adaptability)

[Shark Uppercut]

Well first, check out the Factotum from Dungeonscape. They were literally designed to emulate any class in a pinch.
They can access Sor/Wiz spells as a Sorcerer of 2-3 levels lower than themselves, but can only cast a few spells per day, with no duplicates.
They have a worse turn undead that can also be used to heal.
Their 'capstone' at 19 lets them grab Extraordinary abilities from any other class for a minute.

I would tweak the Factotum's numbers and chassis, so they can grab psionics, maneuvers, etc and cutting other class features.

[WhiteBread]

Hey, similar to what you thought I tried myself at a very basic adventurer class that could learn by watching others. So far I didn't finish the class past 13th level. I also didn't spellcheck much so far, so be warned! If you are interested you can take a look.



Adventurer
Base:

„True skill is when luck becomes a habit!“
- Catchphrase often used by Adventurers
Adventurer is a pretty broad term considering that anyone can be one. The ones mentioned in this chapter are the most basic form of adventurers. Former commoners, nobles and experts compromise the largest part of this class. Most of these Adventurer lack in innate talent for magic, proper training in swordmanship or a genuine bond to nature and therefore are commonly seen as unfit for adventure. However their will, motivation and luck propel them to greater heights and often let them surpass their lacking self. Adventurer bring many skills from their former everyday lives and everything they know about fighting and magic is learned by catching glimpses of actual adventurers in action. Obviously their understanding of magical skills and martial fighting styles is seriously lacking and they needed to improvise. With time Adventurers managed to create the most diversive and most unique style by creatively mixing and matching from many different classes and constantly improving their physical and mental strength. Despite their lack of raw power Adventurers still bring a lot of different gimmicks and a good amount of luck to the table.



Statblock:
Medium BAB
All three good saves
Skillpoints 8+Int
d8(d6)
Known Skills:
Choose ten + Int class skills (excluding craft, see below),
Gain Craft(any) x Int Modifier additionally
6d10 x 10 gold
Simple Weapon Profiency( or 1 weapon of choice ), Light Armor Proficiency and Shields (excluding tower shields)


Abilities:
Blessed by Fortuna:
Adventurers start their journey with an 'Adventurer Seal' and a new stat named 'Luck'.

The Adventurer Seal can be any kind of item that the Adventurer had at the beginning of his journey. It can be broken or stolen but will reappear seconds later back in the player's hand undamaged and perfectly fine. The seal can't be larger than the player's fist and can't be a magic item. The item also can't be enchanted any further and can't be a weapon either (However the player can still use the item as an improvised weapon with all penalities). The seal has a very faint magical aura but is unaffected by dispel magic or antimagic spells. The adventurer derives his power from this very item by infusing it with his own experience and memories. Throughout his career the Adventurer can choose to use his experience points and skill points to qualify for new abilities. He does so by carving, writing or manipulating the surface of the item in any other form. While doing so he can choose the amount of experience points and skill points he wants to invest. Abilities shown below explain how much is needed in order to improve them.

The new Luck stat is an Adventurer only stat. The stat itself is calculated at the start of the Adventurer's career by adding +6 to the lowest stat. For example the adventurer has 8 points in his lowest stat. By adding +6 the Luck stat will be 14 with a modifier of +2. After the initial calculation it will progress like any other stat. Adventurer can choose to invest their gained stat points from higher levels or untyped bonuses to be added to their Luck stat instead. The Luck stat of another class that takes levels in Adventurer is still calculated with their base stats from level 1. Luck has several uses for an Adventurer.
1. At the start of every new day an Adventurer can choose where his luck manifests. He can choose to add his Luck Modifier to his AC, his saves, his health points per hit dice, his attack and damage rolls or to all skill checks except craft.
2. An Adventurer's craft skills always profit from a positive Luck Modifier. Moreover a Craft check of 1 doesn't automatically result in critical failure. However a 20 now counts as critical success resulting in the best possible outcome and has a 5% chance to add special properties or making a mundane item into a masterwork item without any additional costs.
3. The Adventurer can reroll a dice for 'Luck Modifier – 2( minimum 1)' times per day before the DM decides if it is a failure or success. The Adventurer has to take the second throw even if the result is lower than the previous one. The thrown dice has to be a saving throw, skill check, attack or damage roll.
4. A Luck stat can't be drained or damaged and doesn't loose points if the lowest base stat gets drained or damaged.
5. An Adventurer gains bonus fighter feats or bonus 'luck' feats for each increase in his Luck M odifier. This only works with permanent modifiers. Long duration modifier don't count for this.


Cantrip Mage(Sp):
1st level Adventurers start picking up basics about magic by watching Wizards, Clerics, Warlocks and many other mages throughout their career . They try to imitate gestures, words and rituals to cast useful spells but by mixing up basics of many different types of magic, they created their very own type of casting. Adventurer gain '1 + Luck Modifier' Cantrip Slots and spells cast from them are considered „undefined“ spells which is a result of the intertwinging of arcane, divine, psionic and other sources of power. Therefore spells cast from a Cantrip Slot spell qualify as arcane, divine, psionic or any other form of magic for purposes of Dispel checks, feats and others. A base Cantrip Slot can hold any kind of 0th level cantrip, orision or similar. An adventurer can get new cantrips known (he starts with 0) by seeing them cast once and investing experience points into his Adventurer Seal. Learning a new 0th spell costs 50xp but once known Cantrip Slots can be reslotted at the start of a new day with any other spell known for free. This also works if the Adventurer has seen a more powerful version cast of the same spell. For example if the Adventurer sees a 'Medium Cure Wounds' being cast he can add 'Minor Cure Wounds' to his spells known list. He casts all Cantrip Slot spells with an effective caster level of his class level – 4 ( minimum 1) and incurs normal Arcane Spell Failure chance. Cantrip Slots can be improved in several ways:
1. By investing 100xp, 2 skill points and 1 day of training an Adventurer can make one of his Cantrip Slots recharge at the start of every new round. He can improve each of his Cantrip Slots in this way.
2. Investing 2 skill points into a Cantrip Slot reduces the Arcane Spell Failure Chance to 0 for spells cast from it.
3. An Adventurer can increase the amount of Cantrip Slots with feats like 'Improved Spell Capacity' or items like the Ring of Wizardry. If the feat or item would allow for a higher Spell Slot he instead increases his amount of 0th level Cantrip Slots. All granted slots work like a normal 0th Cantrip Slot and don't act differently as for example the 'Extra Invocation' or 'Precocious Apprentice' feat would suggest.
4. Increasing the Luck stat modifier grants new Cantrip Slots.
5. By investing 1000xp, 2 skill points and 1 day of training an Adventurer can improve 1 Cantrip Slot to an 'Improved Cantrip Slot'. This slot works like described above except that it can be slotted with 1st level spells, 1st level powers, least invocations. 1st level soul binding, etc. The Adventurer still has to see the specific spell or similar being cast and still has to invest 50xp to include them into his spell known repertoire. An Improved Cantrip Slot can have unlimited usage as well (see 1.). But can't be improved any further until epic levels. An Adventurer also can use this Improved Cantrip Slot for spells improved by metamagic.

Cantrip Slots can only be improved in these ways. Using feats like 'Versatile Spellcaster' that would increase the Cantrip Slot level past 1st level slots have no effect.

Prepared(Ex):
At 3rd Level an Adventurer already knows the hassles of every day dungeoneering. An Adventurer is considered to always have a 10' pole, 1 handfull of caltrops, 1x chalk, 1x small mirror, 1 handfull of marbles, 1x knife, 1x 50' rope, 1x crowbar, and 2 other mundane items of his choice worth no more than 3gold. An Adventurer refreshes these items daily. He doesn't need to expend any gold for these items as he crafts them himself with materials he finds on his way. He doesn't expend any time to craft these as they are made in his spare time. These items are considered to have no weight for an Adventurer except extremely unhandy and big items.

Fully Prepared(Ex):
At 6th level an Adventurer is even more prepared. His bonus items increase by 6 and can now cost up to 10g each. He also knows how to perfectly stash them away and can carry 100 lb more in all weight categories.

Natural(Ex):
At 8th level an Adventurer that came this far has experienced a lot of fighting styles from other adventurers and adepted many basics into his own style.
The Adventurer gains the Martial Study and Adeptive Style feats. The Martial Study feat can be taken on top of three Martial Study feats. If the Adventurer already has levels in a Martial Adept Class he can trade Adeptive Style for a fighter bonus feat instead. From this point on Adventurer Level count as ¾ initiator levels instead of ½ for calculating any possible Maneuver Known.

Dungeon 1x1(Su):
At 10th level an Adventurer realizes that not all enemies should be fought and some of these enemies can't even be seen. The continiuous efforts of the Adventurer to survive grant him new abilities. Investing 2 skill points improves the bonus to the next tier. The Adventurer starts with the first tier.
1. Trapfinding(ex): Adventurers can use the Search skill to locate traps when the task has a Difficulty Class higher than 20. Finding a nonmagical trap has a DC of at least 20, or higher if it is well hidden.
2. Trapfinding improves and Adventurers can now also find magical traps. Finding a magic trap has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it.
3. Trapfinding improves even further. An Adventurer can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magic traps. A magic trap generally has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it. An Adventurer who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more with a Disable Deveice check can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with her party) without disarming it.
4. The Adventurer gains a bonus of +5 on dex based checks inside dungeons, buildings, etc.
5. When you hide, creatures with blindsense, blindsight, scent, or tremorsense must make a Listen check or a Spot check (whichever DC is higher) to notice you, just as sighted creatures would make Spot checks to detect you. You cannot hide in plain sight unless you have that ability as a class feature.
6. You can hide from all kinds of detection abilities. Including Mindsight and Touchsight. Enemies must make a Listen check or a Spot check (whichever DC is higher) to notice you, just as sighted creatures would make Spot checks to detect you. You still cannot hide in plain sight unless you have that ability as a class feature. In addition, you can flank creatures that have the all-around vision special quality.

Selfsustaining(Su):
At 13th level an Adventurer learns to improvise inside hostile environment. This ability can be improved by investing 1000xp and 4 skill points per tier. The Adventurer starts with the 1st tier.
1. Before the start of a new journey the Adventurer infuses his crafting tools magically. For example a blacksmith could infuse a miniature anvil to create heat sufficient for blacksmithing. He can now use all craft skills anywhere without penalities for improvised tools.
2. The Adventurer gains the Item Creation(ex) ability with following changes. The effective caster level of the Adventurer is his class level for all purposes of requirements but the caster level used by magic items is always 1. Furthermore an Adventurer can't recreate any spells, powers and so on, above 6th level.
3. Costs of Potions and Scrolls created with Item Creation(Ex) are halved and can be created within 1 day.
4. The Adventurer can use his Spellcraft check to cast Identify as the spell without spellcosts for 'Luck stat modifier times per day'. The DC to simulate a successful Identify spell is 15 + caster level of the item. If the item is cursed the DC increases by 5.

[Morphic tide]

Well, I'd be compiling it as a set of options, rather than as blank checks for scaling features. It's not that massively time consuming, so long as you keep it generalized. And bother to research Tier lists, so that you can compile casters by tier for their casting. Or even just list off abilities by tier altogether, and have the scaling value be based on the tier. You'd have to have the tiers count up for mechanical simplicity, but it's a good streamlining. Or a mix.

For example, First-Rate Casting would be the t1 and t2 classes, the ones who's casting alone secures t1 or t2 status, and have a specified casting progression of one-third Adventurer level with two picks maximum, or one-quarter Adventurer level with three maximum picks. This locks them out of 9th level spells, and makes it clear.

Second-Rate Casting would be stuff like Warcaster or Dread Necromancer, where the casting alone is able to get you to t3, able to mess with the game notably on it's own. These would probably be best defined as stuff like 4/9 per pick, to avoid full progression while letting it be able to work notably from first level.

Third-Rate Casting would be stuff like Bard casting or other classes where the casting is a large part of the function, but the class's other features are what gets them up to the point of Warcaster and Dread Necromancer. In this case, full progression from one pick is the way to go.

Fourth-Rate casting is for Duskblade, Paladin and Ranger casting, which is, on it's own, not enough to be worth bringing up as a serious part of a character. These get better-than-full progression, perhaps one-and-one-half progression to bring them to about the casting progression of the Third-Rate casters. Part of it is to make up for the fact it's very bad casting and part of it is to make up for the fact that the progression stops part way through.

The same pattern holds for most abilities with scaling. Figure out the value of them, and work out what scaling works.