The Skirmisher

OK, all you fans of dodging rogues. The Lord taketh away, but also The Lord giveth back. You can have your agile dodgers alongside your non-confrontational thieves. It’s just a matter of using the build-a-class rules. Happy birthday!

Skirmisher

Concept: A more directly-confrontational class that focuses on dodging, quick movement

Alignment: Any.

XP/HD: Fighter XP, Thief HD

Weaponry and Armor: Armor as Fighter, but special abilities may only be used in Light Armor or No Armor. Can use any one-handed melee weapon or missile weapon, but no pole arms.

Abilities: In Light or No Armor, can use Thief stealth and movement abilities (Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Climb.) Can also use Climb for crossing tightropes or other slender paths at full normal speed. If Dexterity is higher than natural speed, use that as the character’s unencumbered or lightly encumbered speed. Can dodge one attack per level, even if the attacker is faster (only take damage if damage roll is higher than a 1d6 roll; you can roll the die once per round and let it apply to all attacks dodged, to keep this simple.)

Instead of the Thief backstab/surprise attack ability, the Skirmisher gets a chance (5+ on 1d6) to distract one opponent with a trick immediately before an attack; if successful, do extra damage, as for a Thief’s backstab. This requires either a verbal trick (must know victim’s language) or a physical trick using some object (sand in eyes, spilling coins or marbles, kicking table or chair towards opponent, etc.)

Like Fighters, Skirmishers can attack multiple normal or weaker opponents each round, 1 HD worth per level. Only one of these opponents can be tricked in any given round.