Thieves, black market traders, spies; these are all scoundrels, people who are involved in unsavory activities. Some are employed by patrons and work as mercenaries for upstanding citizens who don't want to get their hands dirty. Others are freelancers who only look out for themselves. Still others work for crime organizations and evildoers.
Scoundrels generally operate undercover or by dark of night. They receive a few background benefits related to their Scoundrel Path, suitable for their status as the dregs of society.
Scoundrel Benefits
Scoundrels have three unique benefits:
- Once per day, you may re-roll any Dexterity check and use the new result.
- You receive training in Stealth.
- You know Thieves' Cant: a special language of handsigns and gutteral words that only other Scoundrels understand.
Scoundrel Paths
Choose one of the following three Scoundrel paths.
Thief
Whether for survival or sport, thievery is in your blood. You make your living by taking things that others have. You are a burglar, pickpocket, or thief of some kind.
- You can use other creatures as cover for the purpose of making Stealth checks. See Using Skills for more information about Stealth checks.
- You are an expert at covering your tracks and hiding. If you take 15 minutes to cover tracks left by you or others in a small area (DM discretion), creatures take a -5 penalty to rolls made to follow your tracks. If you spend 30 minutes to camouflage a campsite or other hiding place, creatures take a -5 penalty to rolls made to find you.
Fence
You are a black market trader or fence of some kind. Perhaps you sell drugs, contraband, or work in the slave trade. Whether you have no morals or are doing it out of necessity, your work is highly illegal in Hellan.
- You gain a +5 bonus to rolls made to haggle with shopkeepers or buyers.
- You have three reliable and trustworthy contacts who work in the same network of criminals you do. These contacts are lackeys, mercenaries, spies, or traders -- all fellow scoundrels. They can can be trusted to aid you in your quests, but they may ask for favors in return. You know how to get messages to and from your contacts, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you. Work with the DM to determine who your contacts are.
Spy
Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very different context: as an espionage agent. You might have been an officially sanctioned agent of the crown, or perhaps you sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder.
- You gain the ability to forge documents and signatures. In order to forge a document, you must spend at least one hour studying the original, and one hour making a copy of it with the correct tools (usually parchment, wax, quill, and ink). Make a Dexterity check with a +5 bonus to create a forgery. Creatures can make Knowledge or Perception checks to determine the authenticity of a document.
- As a spy, you must wear many faces. You have trained in various dialects and languages to fit in amongst many different societies. You know 2 additional languages related to your character's backstory.