Adventurer (3.5e Class)

True Adventurer

Every child has dreamed about leaving their home; the wish to see far away places, adventuring on epic quests for noblemen and kings and wandering the vast world in search of knowledge, treasure, fame, glory or a multitude of additional wants and desires. The majority of individuals choose to set aside these dreams and start to learn the trades of their families or whoever they are apprenticed under, the safe and familiar path through life. For a few individuals, however, the calling for far away adventures and heroic feats remain strong; this gives the adventurer conviction to grasp their dreams and journey into a strange new world and life. Men and women seize the chance to leave a great legacy in immortality through songs and tales that retell heroic deeds. Though the adventurer dreams of larger than life adventures they tend to cautiously approach their undertakings, since the hasty adventurer is often a dead one.

Making a True Adventurer

The adventurer is best described as a man on the move; he rarely enjoys remaining one place for long and is always looking around for his next big undertaking. Through his adventures and experiences he will gather large amounts of knowledge and seems eternally lucky, able to avoid things better than most other individuals. Adventurers also develop the ability to spontaneously cast spells, however their abilities will never reach the level of true spell casters: these spells are more of a reflex than a honed talent. However with his large amount of skills, his limited spell casting abilities and his abilities the adventurer is often welcomed into adventuring parties.

Abilities: Charisma is the key ability for this class as it grants him better spellcasting abilities and will provide for more spells that can be used on a day. Also Dexterity is important for an adventurer because wearing medium or heavy armor will impose arcane spell failure.

Races: Any race can be an adventurer; wanderlust dreamers can come from anywhere. Curious races tend to have more adventurers overall but it is possible for an advnenturer to be spawned from any race in existence.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 3d4 x 10 gp.

Starting Age: Moderate.

Table: The Adventurer

Hit Die: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day
		Fort	Ref	Will		0	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Novice, Trapfinding	2	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Uncanny Dodge	3	0	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+1	Adventurer's Fortune, Tricks of the Trade	3	1	—	—	—
4th	+3	+1	+4	+1		3	2	0	—	—
5th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Improved Uncanny Dodge, Tricks of the Trade	3	3	1	—	—
6th	+4	+2	+5	+2	Evasion	3	3	2	—	—
7th	+5	+2	+5	+2	Tricks of the Trade	3	3	2	0	—
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+2		3	3	3	1	—
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+3	Tricks of the Trade	3	3	3	2	—
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+3	Fearless	3	3	3	2	0
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+3	Tricks of the Trade	3	3	3	3	1
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Improved Evasion	3	3	3	3	2
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Tricks of the Trade	3	3	3	3	2
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+4		4	3	3	3	3
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+5	Tricks of the Trade	4	4	3	3	3
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5		4	4	4	3	3
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Tricks of the Trade	4	4	4	4	3
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+6		4	4	4	4	4
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Tricks of the Trade	4	4	4	4	4
20th	+15+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	True Adventurer	4	4	4	4	4
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha), Use Rope (Dex).

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Adventurers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with Light armor and shields (excluding tower shields).

Spells: The adventurer casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the sorcerer/wizard list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, an adventurer must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an adventurer ’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the adventurer’s Charisma modifier.

Adventurer can cast spells in Light armor without arcane spell failure chance.

Like other spellcasters, an adventurer can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given in the character advancement table. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score. When the spell table indicates that the Adventurer gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Charisma score for that spell level.

The adventurers selection of spells is extremely limited. An adventurer begins play knowing five 0-level spells of your choice. At most new adventurer levels, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Adventurer Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells an adventurer knows is not affected by his Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Adventurer Spells Known are fixed.)

Upon reaching 5th level, and at every adventurer level after that an adventurer can choose to exchange one current spell with a spell he has previously learned. In effect, the adventurer “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. An adventurer may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

As noted above, an adventurer need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

The adventurers spell caster level is equal to one half of his adventurer level with a minimum caster level of 1.

Table: Adventurer Spells Known

Level	Spells Known
	0	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th
1st	5	—	—	—
2nd	5	2^1	—	—	—
3rd	6	3	—	—	—
4th	6	3	2^1	—	—
5th	6	3	3	—	—
6th	6	4	3	—	—
7th	7	4	4	2^1	—
8th	7	4	4	3	—
9th	7	5	4	3	—
10th	7	5	5	4	2^1
11th	8	5	5	4	3
12th	8	5	5	4	3
13th	8	6	5	4	4
14th	8	6	5	5	4
15th	8	6	5	5	4
16th	8	6	6	5	4
17th	8	6	6	5	4
18th	8	6	6	5	4
19th	8	6	6	5	5
20th	8	6	6	5	5
Provided the adventurer has a high enough Charisma score to have a bonus spell of this level.

Novice (Ex): As the adventurer is an untrained individual he is prone to experiment with actions instead of sticking to whatever has worked in the past. Occasionally this will work in his favor, and luck plays a great part throughout his adventuring career. Once per day per every two adventurer levels and adventurer may reroll any die that he has just rolled. The adventurer must take the results of the second roll even if they are worse than the original roll. This ability can only be used once per round.

Trapfinding (Ex): The Adventurer (similar to the Rogue) can use the Search skill to locate traps when the task has a Difficulty Class higher than 20.

Tricks of the Trade (Ex): While the adventurer is likely to change his method whenever a situation arises, he does find that the constant changes allow him to combine more methods when attempting to accomplish his goals. At 3rd level and every other level thereafter, a novice may select an ability from the following list.

Bonus Feat: The adventurer gains a bonus feat, but is still required to meet all prerequisites. This ability cannot be taken more than three times.

Skill Bonus: Upon gaining this trick the adventurer choose one skill, she gain a +4 competence bonus on the skill chosen. This trick can be selected multiple times, however the effects do not stack with a previous choice of this TotT and instead applies to a new skill of choice.

Skill Mastery: The adventurer becomes so certain in the use of certain skills that she can use them reliably even under adverse conditions.

Upon gaining this ability, she selects a skill. When making a skill check with one of these skills, she may take 10 even if under stress or if distractions would normally prevent her from doing so. An adventurer may gain this tricks multiple times, selecting additional skills for it to apply to each time.

Trap Sense (Ex): A adventurer gains a +1 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. This trick can be taken multiple time and it effect stack.

Sneak Attack(Ex): If an adventurer can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage.

The adventurer’s attack deals extra damage any time her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the adventurer flanks her target. This extra damage is 1d6 when first taken, and it increases by 1d6 every time this skill is taken. Cannot be taken more than four times.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 2nd level, an adventurer retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If an adventurer already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

Adventurer's Fortune (Su): The adventurers luck seems to provide him nearly divine protection. At 3rd level an adventurer may add her Charisma bonus as a luck bonus to all her saving throw.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 5th level and higher, an adventurer can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the adventurer by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has adventurer levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.

Evasion (Ex): At 6th level and higher, an Adventurer can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the Adventurer is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless adventurer does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fearless (Ex): Due to his nature the adventurer finds that his curiosity overcomes even the most dreadful of situations. The adventurer upon reaching level 10 receives a bonus equal to his Charisma modifier against any fear affect that he is the target of.

Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the Adventurer still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Adventurer does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

True Adventurer (Ex): The adventurer has learned from his experiments as a novice and they are now more likely to work in his favor. He has also learned much from his mistakes and can use that against his enemies. A level 20 adventurer replaces his novice ability with the ability to reroll any die that he has just rolled, or force an opponent to reroll any attack, or opposing check made against the adventurer once per day per every two adventurer levels. The adventurer may take what ever roll he pleases, while any opponent must take the second roll. This ability can only be used once per round and once per enemy for that encounter.

Ex-Adventurers

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Epic Adventurer

Table: The Epic Adventurer

Hit Die: d6

Level	Special
21st	Improved Tricks of the Trade
22nd	-
23rd	-
24th	Improved Tricks of the Trade
25th	-
26th	-
27th	Improved Tricks of the Trade
28th
29th	-
30th	Improved Tricks of the Trade
6 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Improved Tricks of the Trade: (TotT)

Bonus Feat: The adventurer gains a bonus feat, but is still required to meet all prerequisites. This ability cannot be taken more than twice.

Enhanced Skill Bonus (Ex): Upon gaining this trick the adventurer choose one skill already improved by TotT, she gain a +8 competence bonus on the skill chosen. This overwrites the bonus from the non epic TotT.

Skill Mastery (Ex): The adventurer becomes so certain in the use of certain skills that she can use them reliably even under adverse conditions.

Upon gaining this ability, she selects a skill. When making a skill check with one of these skills, she may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent her from doing so. An adventurer may gain this tricks multiple times, selecting additional skills for it to apply to each time.

Danger Sense (Ex): An adventurer gains a +1 dodge bonus against attacks, and maintains this bonus even if caught flatfooted. This trick can be taken multiple times and its effect stacks. Prerequisite for this TotT is Trap Sense (2).

Improved Evasion(Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the adventurer still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless adventurer does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Bonus Feats: The epic Adventurer gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic bonus feats) every four levels after 20th. The Adventurer does not have a specific list of bonus feats because his nature does not make him inherently inclined towards any specific pursuits.

Human Adventurer Starting Package

Weapons: Longsword (1d6, crit 19–20/×2, 2 lb., one-handed, slashing).
Light crossbow (1d6, crit 19–20/×2, range inc. 80 ft., 2 lb., piercing).

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 6 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
Appraise	4	Int	—
Balance	4	Dex	-1
Climb	4	Str	-1
Escape Artist	4	Dex	-1
Jump	4	Str	-1
Swim	4	Str	-2

Feat: If Dexterity is 13 or higher, Dodge; if Dexterity is 12 or lower, Improved Initiative instead.

Bonus Feats: Combat Casting (for Human race bonus feat).

Gear: Studded leather (+3 AC, armor check penalty –1, arcane spell failure chance 15%, speed 30 ft., 10 lb.), Backpack with waterskin, one day’s trail rations, bedroll, sack, flint and steel, three torches, case of 10 crossbow bolts, spell component pouch.

Gold:5d4

Playing a Adventurer

Religion: An Adventurer can come from any walk of life or race and many will have individual gods that they worship. The most common gods that are worshiped are ones dealing with travel and luck, as any adventurer will realize he will need both on his journeys.

Other Classes: Adventurers are bold and have no reason to fear any one group in particular. Also due to the extensive abilities they pick up over their lives the adventurer will find a warm welcome with most adventuring parties. Adventurers often find they have a lot in common with Wizards, Sorcerers and Bards.

Combat: The adventurer is versatile and able to fulfill a variety of roles within any group as they have access to magic that can enhance the abilities of other players. Alternatively the adventurer can use magic to enhance themselves, temporarily becoming mighty warriors or efficient assassins. An adventurer defined comes across as a jack-of-all trades, though he is unlikely to become a master of any single calling.

Advancement: Adventurers may wish to specialize within their core ability sets and may gear abilities to fulfill certain within the group. With a little effort they can qualify for many different prestige classes without hurting their ability to maintain a wide array of skills. There is no "best" choice when it comes to advancement but versatility exists for whatever direction the player wishes to take.

Adventurers in the World

“	"Sir, are you sure? It is called temple of devouring evil for a reason!" "And your point would be?..."	”
—Alistair (conversation with his companion), Human Adventurer

Adventurers are common around the world giving up the life they are born to in exchange for excitement, adventure, and a chance to affect the course of history. Every realm has hidden places waiting to be uncovered by an individual with a little skill and a lot of luck.

Daily Life: Breaking camp then travel. The exact location of travel is not necessarily the important part as an adventurer will be spending as much time looking for something new as actually exploring it. If the adventurer is part of a larger group he tends to take things a little slower since his companions don't always move at the same pace that consumes the individual

Notables: Alistair the Bold, Human adventurer last seen investigating the temple of devouring evil

B'svrit Hrogvren, Gnomish adventurer

Vander the Lost, Half-elven adventurer

Jormun Darkblade, Koboldic adventurer currently recruiting explorers to map beyond the known world

Organizations: Adventurers do not find organization to be useful for their purposes. For the majority of the time they aren't anywhere near where an organization would be able to help them, and even if they are in the area they are more likely to be looking around for things than attending functions. Occasionally an adventurer will join another guild (most often rogues) for mutual protection, but this would be based upon the benefits they perceive out weighing any detriments (is somewhere to hide your reclaimed gold more beneficial than paying the monthly fees for example.)

NPC Reactions: Most Adventurers are able to secure for themselves at least a modest income and some renown for their various deeds. NPCs are likely to react based upon hearsay of his exploits rather than through direct interaction. While this can be very beneficial in certain settings (the town is grateful you slew the giants) it can be detrimental in others (those bandits are certain you have money since you killed the giants.)

Adventurer Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (History) or Knowledge (Local) can research Adventurers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (History) or Knowledge (Local)

DC	Result
10	Adventurers are versatile individuals and are able to demonstrate many abilities like a rogue
15	Adventurers have the ability to cast spells in addition to their other abilities
20	Adventurers have spellcasting ability and can use arcane magic with a limited repertoire

Adventurer in the Game

Adventurers are versatile and useful additions to a party; they can function as a rogue with semi limited combat skills, a low powered caster or support caster at later levels, or with the proper abilities they can become closer to a fighter/rogue mix. While they don't have the ability to fulfill every role they are able to fill or support many different skill sets making them useful to almost any party.

There are a variety of areas that an Adventurer can fit into campaigns as a NPC. It is possible that he simply retired after finally attaining his goal (fame, fortune) or that he was disabled in his last quest. In any case a retired adventurer would be a good source of information as out of habit they would keep their eyes and ears open for information. Alternatively the adventurer could be encountered while the party is looking for the same treasure trove which could easily make them adviseries. Overall the adventurer could be fitted into many scenarios with minimal effort, as even the old man by the fire might be a former adventurer willing to spin tales for anyone who is willing to listen.

Adaptation: Adapting this class to a game is relatively simple. The adventurer has a built in want to go exploring and adventuring unlike other classes. Finding additional classes to aid them in their exploration would be highly recommended as it would give them a higher survival chance. While adventurers would be thrilled to go at it alone, the lone adventurer is often a dead one. Think about it how many stories began "me on my own' compared to "with his merry band".

Sample Encounter: Old Alvrez an adventurer of some renown has gone a bit mad recently. His current favorite game is trying to lure travels searching for the ruins of Ah'miz to their death has recently caused a stir in the community. This and the fact that the ruins are rumored to have a treasure trove is more than enough motivation to get you moving in that direction. If you can bring him back alive there is also a 1,000 gold bounty on his head.

EL 11:

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