[3.5e NPC PrC] Messenger (PEACH)

[Welknair]

Messenger

"Letter for you, sir."

-Elissa, Messenger

There's always all sorts of messages that need sending and transporting. That job falls to the Messenger. It's often not a very safe job and almost never fun. But it puts bread on the table. Or the rock.

Becoming a Messenger
Messengers are often brought up in a family of peasants or servants. Enjoying travel is an absolute must, as they do it a lot. Most Messengers begin their careers bringing messages around a castle and slowly work their way up to larger jobs.

Entry Requirements
Skills: Ride 1, Profession (Messenger) 6, Survival 1

Skill Points at each level: 6 + Intelligence Modifier
Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Geography), Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Survival, Swim, Tumble

Hit Dice: d6

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+0	+2	+0	+0	Fast Movement
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+0	Don't Kill the Messenger
3rd	+1	+3	+1	+1	Random Encounter Immunity
4th	+2	+4	+1	+1	AAAAAHHHH
5th	+2	+4	+1	+1	Neither Wind, nor Snow, nor Hail

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Messengers are proficient with all simple weapons and light armor.

Fast Movement: Messengers are fleet of foot. A Messenger’s land speed is faster than the norm for his race by +10 feet. This bonus is also conferred on any mount which the Messenger directs (No sticking a Messenger on your dragon to make it go faster).

Don't Kill the Messenger: Sometimes a Messenger must deliver unwanted news. People have a tendency to get mad when they receive this news. It's usually a good idea to make oneself scarce after delivering such a piece of information. After delivering a message, a Messenger may immediately make a Hide check to evade the notice of everyone around them. They get a bonus to this check equal to their Messenger level.

Random Encounter Immunity: You're exempt from Random Encounters. When going from Point A to Point B, things have a tendency to be uneventful. No random Displacer Beasts in the middle of the road, no wandering Ogres. This does not stop people and creatures that have legitimate reasons for causing a problem, such as highwaymen.

AAAAAHHHH: When a Messenger encounters a problem their course of action is clear: RUN. Usually accompanied with a scream. And for some reason their frantic flailing actually allows them to dodge attacks. Messengers gain a +5 Dodge Bonus to AC as long as they do not fight back and take immediate steps to extricate themselves from the situation.

Neither Wind, nor Snow, nor Hail: The mail will get through. It has to. If a Messenger can't get it through, no one will. A Messenger of this level ignores environmental penalties to movement speed, such as that from snow, brambles, and other rough terrain. In addition, delays can never more than double the expected delivery time of a parcel. Never. The Messenger will always find a way.


I have way too many of these...

[Garryl]

Please go on. The NPrCs are kinda fun.

The Messenger should probably have Swim and Balance (for getting around), Tumble (running past highwaymen and angry messenger-killers), Knowledge (at least Local and Geography to know how to get from point A to point B), and Profession (it is a prerequisite, after all) as class skills.

[Welknair]

Please go on. The NPrCs are kinda fun.

The Messenger should probably have Swim and Balance (for getting around), Tumble (running past highwaymen and angry messenger-killers), Knowledge (at least Local and Geography to know how to get from point A to point B), and Profession (it is a prerequisite, after all) as class skills.

Why thank you! I have a couple more to post. I'm actually halfway through the Dealer of Goods right now...

Added those and bumped it up to 4+Int.

[Seerow]

Please go on. The NPrCs are kinda fun.

The Messenger should probably have Swim and Balance (for getting around), Tumble (running past highwaymen and angry messenger-killers), Knowledge (at least Local and Geography to know how to get from point A to point B), and Profession (it is a prerequisite, after all) as class skills.

I'd agree and also say to add Hide and Move silently, for similar reasons to tumble, and instead of dimension door after delivering a message, the ability to hide in plain sight along with a bonus to hide after delivering (less randomly supernatural while fitting the same purpose).

I'd also bump the skill points up to 6 points per level, on par with the Expert.

[Welknair]

I'd agree and also say to add Hide and Move silently, for similar reasons to tumble, and instead of dimension door after delivering a message, the ability to hide in plain sight along with a bonus to hide after delivering (less randomly supernatural while fitting the same purpose).

I'd also bump the skill points up to 6 points per level, on par with the Expert.

Woops, forgot Tumble. And yeah, those make sense as well. The 6 is really necessary now, given all the Class Skills it now has... Hopefully the new Don't Kill is more satisfactory. I'm considering whether or not I should leave it as circumstantial or whether I should outright say that they have Hide in Plain Sight.

Edit: Oh, and if you guys haven't already seen it, this was my first NPC PrC that I make a month or so ago.

[Thugorp]

Again, I really like this class and will be adding it to the Pr.C.s which players are allowed take in the Farmers in the Dell campagin(always open to new players).

A couple of quick comments though, first I would actually nock skill points down to 4+int. there is no reason why a messenger needs to be extreamly skilled they are just delivering meesages... they do need to be very good at a few things, like survival, hide, knowlage geography, knowlage royalty(actaully they only need a very few skill points in this one), and should be very good Riders so a moderate amount of skill in that... tumble they MIGHT, know a bit of... but if they did I doubt they would need so many skills in hide... swim and climb are skills that should probably be calss skills(as they are) but should only need a few points each(after a certain number and you have more than a messenger would really have and move into cercus performer territory[an intresting N.P.C. idea in its self]) so all told It think that is about seven skills but I think if the messenger has 14 or so int he can more than cover all of these basses with only 4+int. :-)

finally my last question is this, the prereques. say that the Messenger can never have any abilities from any other class... but what about other N.P.C. classes/Pr.Cs??? shouldn't an expert be able to become a messenger... or a guard?, or a mad-hat-trickster?

[Morph Bark]

Sounds a lot like my Postman PrC for NPCs.

Looking good. Why don't they get a good Ref save though?

[Welknair]

Again, I really like this class and will be adding it to the Pr.C.s which players are allowed take in the Farmers in the Dell campagin(always open to new players).

A couple of quick comments though, first I would actually nock skill points down to 4+int. there is no reason why a messenger needs to be extreamly skilled they are just delivering meesages... they do need to be very good at a few things, like survival, hide, knowlage geography, knowlage royalty(actaully they only need a very few skill points in this one), and should be very good Riders so a moderate amount of skill in that... tumble they MIGHT, know a bit of... but if they did I doubt they would need so many skills in hide... swim and climb are skills that should probably be calss skills(as they are) but should only need a few points each(after a certain number and you have more than a messenger would really have and move into cercus performer territory[an intresting N.P.C. idea in its self]) so all told It think that is about seven skills but I think if the messenger has 14 or so int he can more than cover all of these basses with only 4+int. :-)

finally my last question is this, the prereques. say that the Messenger can never have any abilities from any other class... but what about other N.P.C. classes/Pr.Cs??? shouldn't an expert be able to become a messenger... or a guard?, or a mad-hat-trickster?

Changed the skill points. Experts have no class features...

Edit: Just took a look at your game. Well, given what it looks like you want to do, it might be a good idea to entirely disregard that requirement. It was meant to prevent typical D&D PCs from taking them. You aren't running a typical D&D campaign.

Sounds a lot like my Postman PrC for NPCs.

Looking good. Why don't they get a good Ref save though?

I considered it, but then decided that though comical and somewhat important, dodging Fireballs is not part of their job description, whereas the ability to hike for long periods of time is.

[Seerow]

Changed the skill points. Experts have no class features...

I have to disagree with this reasoning. Warriors also have no class features, but your Guard prestige class has the same BAB and HD as the Warrior.

The messenger I see as the NPC Prestige version of the Scout/Rogue/Ranger classes, which requires every bit as many skill point as a expert.

I also don't agree with the person who said more than a few ranks in climb/swim being more of a circus performer than a messenger. That argument can be made for Jump and Tumble, but I would expect the messenger to have ranks in Hide, Move Silently, Knowledge (Nobility), Knowledge (Geography), Survival, Ride, Swim, and Climb. That's 8 skills, not even considering a few ranks in Tumble and Jump, or Profession (Messenger) [a requirement for the class], or Diplomacy (useful when relaying bad news in a way that doesn't force you to hide), or Gather Information (for when you need to deliver a discreet message to someone who is harder to find).

The class shouldn't have enough points to max out all of these skills, but 6 points is pretty much needed to have a couple maxed with the rest being raised to lesser levels.

[Welknair]

I have to disagree with this reasoning. Warriors also have no class features, but your Guard prestige class has the same BAB and HD as the Warrior.

The messenger I see as the NPC Prestige version of the Scout/Rogue/Ranger classes, which requires every bit as many skill point as a expert.

I also don't agree with the person who said more than a few ranks in climb/swim being more of a circus performer than a messenger. That argument can be made for Jump and Tumble, but I would expect the messenger to have ranks in Hide, Move Silently, Knowledge (Nobility), Knowledge (Geography), Survival, Ride, Swim, and Climb. That's 8 skills, not even considering a few ranks in Tumble and Jump, or Profession (Messenger) [a requirement for the class], or Diplomacy (useful when relaying bad news in a way that doesn't force you to hide), or Gather Information (for when you need to deliver a discreet message to someone who is harder to find).

The class shouldn't have enough points to max out all of these skills, but 6 points is pretty much needed to have a couple maxed with the rest being raised to lesser levels.

Gah! Okay, I'm going to change it back to 6 and leave it at that.


I'm also considering removing the "No other Class Features" requirement from all of these except for the PC-Proof ones. Because really.

Though these are made for NPCs, I can see how they could occasionally be desirable by PCs and they aren't really unbalanced... And it'd allow an individual to have both ranks in Bartender and Badass at the same time. That'd just be... Badass. Yep, I think I'm going to eliminate that requirement.

[Thugorp]

:-) Might I also suggest putting in the weapon and armor proficiency sections?

I suggest this because... It is a required part of every class description.(I bet you thought I was going to ramble for a parograph or so didn't you? :-p )

p.s.: I absolutly love the picture. ... maybe they should get handle animal?

[Welknair]

:-) Might I also suggest putting in the weapon and armor proficiency sections?

I suggest this because... It is a required part of every class description.(I bet you thought I was going to ramble for a parograph or so didn't you? :-p )

p.s.: I absolutly love the picture. ... maybe they should get handle animal?

Hmm. I guess I should add those.

And take a look. It does.

[Thugorp]

And take a look. It does.

Oh well good then. :-)