Sewer Rat (goblin rogue prestige)
This one was FUN to do. Went quickly too! Thanks, Lonestarnorth for the feedback.
Sewer Rat
The water slowed to a trickle out of the old sewer pipe, and then stopped altogether. Soon after a fist punched out the last of the accumulated debris around the opening. And like a worm emerging from a cocoon, an arm soon followed the hand, and the muck covered appendage groped and slapped around the outer wall where the pipe protruded. The hand found a suitable leverage point, and pushed, and soon the top of a head came into view – nearly scraping the inner walls of the pipe clean as it passed, so tight was the fit. Once the head fully emerged, it let out a huge gasp and sputter.
“NOT! – “
The hand and arm pushed again and a shoulder soon followed the head out of the pipe. Then the other shoulder, and arm, and now the sludge covered creature took a few extra moments to rotate himself to face up.
“-unlike…”
Both arms now pushed, and the creature had his whole upper body out of the pipe.
” – escaping mother’s womb!”
Two slime soaked eyes looked down, and saw only a 5 foot drop to the muddy ground below. He wiggled the rest of the way out and fell into a shallow puddle. He stood quickly, looked around to be sure no one was about, then reached down and untied a small rope from
his ankle. He held up the “acquired” orb and gave a huge grin, his white teeth brilliant against his mud soaked face.
“Gads, what a memory!”
_________________________________
DESCRIPTION
The City is a dangerous place – especially for small folk. Especially for small sized folk who aren’t welcomed by the inhabitants of the city in the first place. You need someplace safe; someplace where no one would even want to try looking for you. And if you have the stomach for it, the sewers and drains can give you that protection. Those who embrace the role of sewer rat will give up social status (and a dry bed) but can find both total city access, and the perfect refuge from all prying eyes and nosy followers. Because the sewers connect to every part of the city, from the palace to the slums, and it is the one route the guards aren’t going to stop you from taking as you ply your “trade” from one edge to the other.
REQUIREMENTS
Small sized
Chaotic aligned
Feats: Stealthy or Urban Stealth
Endurance
Skills: Survival 8 ranks
Hide 8 ranks
Move Silently 8 ranks
SKILLS
Appraise (int), Balance (dex), Bluff (cha), climb (str), Craft (int), disable device (int), disguise (cha), Escape Artist (dex), Hide (dex), Gather Info (cha), Intimidate (cha), Jump (str), Knowledge Dungeoneering (int), Knowledge Local (int), Listen (wis), Move Silently (dex), Open Lock (dex), Profession (cha), Search (int), Slight of Hand (dex), Spot (wis), Survival (wis), Swim (str), Tumble (dex), Use Rope( dex)
CLASS FEATURES
Pass without Trace. At first level, the sewer rat has committed to life in the unlit underbelly of the city. The crumbling pipes and slimy passageways are as familiar to him as the tree branches are to those cursed elves. As a result, he is adept at traveling through these tunnels as nimbly as a shadow. Once a day for up to one hour, he can pass through city terrain leaving no trail, as per the first level Ranger spell.
Know Direction. The dark tunnels and pipes are the sewer rat’s home. By 2nd level he can stop and reorient himself once a day if he ever does get lost. Works the same as the 0 level Druid spell Know Direction. At 5th level he may perform this twice a day. At 8th level, 3 times a day.
Sneak Attack Bonus. At 2nd level, the sewer rat may add 1d6 to whatever sneak attack damage he is already able to do. If the sewer rat does not have the sneak attack ability yet, then he now has 1d6. At 5th and 8th level, he gains an additional 1d6 to sneak attack damage.
Tunnel Rat. At third level, the Sewer Rat gains the “Tunnel Rat” feat, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites for the feat. When squeezing, each space counts as 1 square of movement and you only suffer a –2 penalty on attack rolls. Normally, each space squeezed through costs 2 squares of movement and the penalty is –4.
Self Sufficient. The time the sewer rat has spent out on the streets (and under them) is teaching him to better adapt. At fourth level he gains a +1 bonus to all heal and survival skill checks. At level 7, the bonus increases to +2/ At level 10, it increases to +3.
Strong Stomach. Living in the sewers, you lose certain social graces. You also learn to take what you can and not worry about niceties like aroma. Receive a +4 bonus on saving throws vs. extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like effects that cause Nausea
or any other scent-based effect.
Tunnel Fighting. After so many months or years living in tight spaces, the sewer rat has adapted his fighting technique to take full advantage of the limited space. You do not take a penalty on your attack rolls or to your AC when squeezing into or through a tight space.
edit -added the table html.
| level |
BAB
|
Fort
|
Ref
|
Will
|
Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
0
|
+2
|
+2
|
+0
|
Pass without Trace (in City) 1/day |
| 2 |
1
|
+3
|
+3
|
+0
|
Know Direction 1/day, Sneak Attack +1d6 |
| 3 |
2
|
+3
|
+3
|
+1
|
Feat: Tunnel Rat |
| 4 |
3
|
+4
|
+4
|
+1
|
Bonus: +1 to Heal and Survival checks |
| 5 |
3
|
+4
|
+4
|
+1
|
Know Direction 2/day, Sneak Attack +2d6 |
| 6 |
4
|
+5
|
+5
|
+2
|
Feat: Strong Stomach |
| 7 |
5
|
+5
|
+5
|
+2
|
Bonus: +2 to Heal and Survival checks |
| 8 |
6
|
+6
|
+6
|
+2
|
Know Direction 3/day, Sneak Attack +3d6 |
| 9 |
6
|
+6
|
+6
|
+3
|
Feat: Tunnel Fighting |
| 10 |
7
|
+7
|
+7
|
+3
|
Bonus: +3 to Heal and Survival Checks |
It took me a while to see this, because I forgot to take my RSS feeds and bookmarks with me. I’d just like to mention that I’m enjoying the series.
More specific thoughts: while I really like the idea of the class, when it comes to mechanics, it doesn’t offer that much. For example, a rogue looking to take this class wouldn’t qualify until level 10 since survival’s not a class skill (except for the wilderness rogue), and if they take all 10 levels, they’re giving up 2d6-ish of sneak attacks and most of their rogue special abilities for some very situational abilities. As a rogue, I’d probably just take the feats directly if I was looking to take my character in this direction, because stuff like Pass Without Trace and Know Direction can be made up for with Use Magic Device.
A ranger qualifies for this more easily, and maybe that’s the idea, since they get Endurance automatically and Survival is a class skill. However, like you mention, Pass Without Trace is already a ranger spell if they want to cast it so bad, and it’ll work outside of a city, too. As for Know Direction – wouldn’t a compass work, even in a sewer? The sneak attack die are nice, but you could take 5 levels of rogue for more benefit.
It seems like the Sewer Rat needs more of an identity.
The SRD on “squeezing”:
To squeeze through or into a space less than half your space’s width, you must use the Escape Artist skill. You can’t attack while using Escape Artist to squeeze through or into a narrow space, you take a –4 penalty to AC, and you lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
I’d suggest abilities that boost Escape Artist and give the sewer rat more ability to get into and out of places other people can’t or aren’t supposed to. Maybe he’s considered a size category smaller for squeezing? He shouldn’t fit – but he does!
Making Pass Without Trace (Cities) permanent wouldn’t be too much of a buff, I think, but the ability to intentionally leave false, misleading tracks would be even better.
I get Know Direction – the sewer rat just knows which way is north, even without a frame of reference, because he’s simply spent that much time in the sewer. More interesting would be the ability to associate himself with a particular sewer after spending some period of time there. Ship’s Mage, for instance, lets you bind yourself to a new ship after living aboard it or something for a week or two, I believe. When he’s currently got a sewer to call his home, he could get better not only at trying to find his way around, but maybe gain special sewer-related abilities. Maybe like something derived from a troglodyte’s stench? (Requiescat in pace, chief)
@Theo
oh, you WOULD bring up the trogs!… WHAAAH!
I completely slipped and didn’t see Survival wasn’t a skill. we could lower that to 5 easily.
The class “Dungeon Delver” has the ability “Reduce” at 5th level – he becomes one size category smaller. You could exchange tunnel rat or tunnel fighting for that, I suppose, since you get bonuses for going thru spaces of someone 2 categories larger than you, don’t you? (or is that a seperate ability on its own?) As for the giving up of Rogue special abilities – sewer rat is getting basically 4 new feats plus 2 spells. That seemed a reasonable trade to me. You’re right, tho – it didn’t add as much as I thought (or feared).
I did weaken the Pass without Trace ability a bit. The spell allows one hour per level; I made it one hour total. Giving the full ten hours by the end of the class might be a reasonable compromise? Trudging through the sewers for 10 hours, and STILL not leaving a scent trail? That’s got to be some serious mojo!
Some abilities I thought about and didn’t include were:
Blindfight
Filth Eater feat (+4 bonus on Saves vs Disease or Ingested poisons. Even if save is failed, the ability damage is reduced by 1 point (minimum 1))
Delay Poison spell
Spider Climb spell
Summon Swarm spell
Anyway, thanks for reading.