Roofrunner

Roofrunner
Requirements | Statistics | Description

Skills:

Urban Lore: 8 ranks
Climb: 5 ranks
Balance: 5 ranks
Jump: 5 ranks
Move Silently: 5 ranks
Knowledge (home city): 10 ranks
Gather Information: 5 ranks

Alignment:

Any. The mental discipline required to keep track of so much information about the city and its structure appeals to those of lawful bent, while the freedom and mobility the class provides lure the chaotic.

Special:

The character must have lived in the same city for 80% of the past five years. This is the character’s home city and is the only city in which he can use his class abilities.

Hit Die:

1d6. (Reroll 1,2)

Class Skills

The roofrunner class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are:

Str: Climb, Jump, Swim
Dex: Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Move Silently, Open Lock, Tumble, Use Rope
Int: Disable Device, Search
Wis: Innuendo, Intuit Direction, Profession, Sense Motive, Urban Lore
Cha: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information

Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier

Roofrunner
Level	Base Attack	Def Bonus	Saves			Special
Level	Base Attack	Def Bonus	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1	+0	+0	+0	+2	+0	Roofrunning, neverlost
2	+1	+0	+0	+3	+0	Find the way 1/day, home turf +1
3	+2	+1	+1	+3	+1	Sense the city’s soul
4	+3	+1	+1	+4	+1	Home turf +2
5	+3	+1	+1	+4	+1	Safehouse
6	+4	+2	+2	+5	+2	Find the way 2/day, home turf +3
7	+5	+2	+2	+5	+2	Turn the tables
8	+6	+2	+2	+6	+2	Home turf +4
9	+6	+3	+3	+6	+3
10	+7	+3	+3	+7	+3	Find the way 3/day, home turf +5

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:

Roofrunners are proficient in light armor and with bucklers. They are proficient in crossbow (hand and light), dagger, dart, light mace, sap, and short sword. Medium-size roofrunners are also proficient in club, heavy mace, morningstar, quarterstaff, and rapier.

Roofrunning:

It is this ability that gives a roofrunner his name. He can move at full movement speed across the roofs of the city, leaping over alleys and crossing streets as if he could fly. He knows what will and will not hold his weight, where the streets narrow to allow an easy jump across, which tiles will be slick after a rainfall and which will not. This is an extra-ordinary ability. He cannot cross any gap of more than 10 feet without making a Jump check. However, his ability to move at full speed among the gables, spires, and slanting roofs of the city makes such checks easier.

Neverlost:

An Intuit Direction check (DC 10) while inside the home city will tell a roofrunner exactly where he is, even if he was knocked unconscious and carried through a maze of streets. As long as he can hear or smell the outside world, the roofrunner knows his exact location. This is an extraordinary ability.

Find the Way:

Cities can be likened to a living thing, which grows and changes over time. The roofrunner knows the city not just as it is now, but as it was. He knows where the old doorway was plastered over and where the cellar of a long-gone inn still exists beneath the street. Once per day, he can make a Knowledge (home city) check (DC 25), adding his levels of roofrunner to his Knowledge ranks. If it succeeds, he immediately finds a door, passage, or tunnel nearby, within 20 feet. This ability is used either to evade pursuit or to find a way into a well-guarded location. Of course, anyone who watches the roofrunner will know where he went, and this ability can’t create a magic portal into a bank vault at whim.

In the case of PC roofrunners, the DM should moderate use of this ability with common sense. For example, a roofrunner needs to get in to see a high-ranking official in the palace, but lacks the credentials and doesn’t feel like fighting or sneaking his way past the entire Royal Guard. He uses Find the Way, and the DM informs him he knows of a long-abandoned tunnel built during a siege a century ago that leads into the palace only one floor below the suite belonging to the official he needs to see. The DM never placed this tunnel on any map prior to the roofrunner using Find the Way, it was “lost” but has now been “found.” At higher levels, the roofrunner can use this power more times each day. This is an extraordinary ability.

Home Turf:

The roofrunner knows his ground, every loose cobblestone, every wall, every well-balanced brick. This translates to a circumstance bonus to Armor Class so long as the roofrunner is within his home city. He simply knows how to take advantage of the area around him to provide incidental defense. This ability cannot be used if the roofrunner has more than light encumbrance. This ability stacks with his defensive bonus. This is an extraordinary ability.

Sense the City’s Soul:

This ability reflects the roofrunner’s affinity with the city. He can “listen” to it, absorb snatches of conversation, note odd changes in routine, see that things are different from the norm, and thus, clue in to major events that are not public knowledge. Once a week, the roofrunner with this ability may make an Urban Lore check (DC 25), adding his roofrunner levels. If he succeeds, the DM will inform him of any significant events occurring in the city, even those that the roofrunner could not have learned of directly, the arrival of an envoy from a distant kingdom, the local baron covertly mobilizing for war, a major territorial fight brewing among the local thieves’ guilds, and so forth. The main advantage of this is that the roofrunner doesn’t call attention to himself by asking questions: He intuits the events from watching the city. Doing so gives him a +2 synergy bonus to any Gather Information checks he might want to perform to get more details. This is an extraordinary ability.

As another aspect of this ability, the roofrunner can predict the following day’s weather with 100% accuracy unless there is supernatural power involved. This accuracy drops 10% per additional day of the forecast.

Safehouse:

The character has found a forgotten room, formerly sealed alcove, or other secure area where he can rest in perfect safety. The character cannot be found (except by magic or another roofrunner) while he is there, and can sleep, prepare spells, store treasure, or recover from wounds without needing to keep a watch. The safehouse is usually a fairly small area, less than 100 square feet. If the roofrunner is a PC, the player and the DM should work together to decide on its exact location in the city.

Turn the Tables:

It the roofrunner is being pursued while in the streets, and can get out of sight of his pursuers for one round (ducking around a corner into an alley, running into a crowded inn, leaping over a wall while his pursuers need to use the gate, etc.), he can use his almost supernatural knowledge of the city to find some way to sneak around behind them, surprising them. A surprise round ensues, and, since the roofrunner will be behind his foes, he has ample opportunity to use sneak attacks, if he has any. This is an extraordinary ability.

Important: While a roofrunner can lead another person through the back alleys and lost doorways that only he knows, he cannot make maps or give directions. The roofrunner’s knowledge of the city is based on intuition and continual reevaluation of his surroundings; it cannot be shared easily with others.

Special Restriction:

A roofrunner is one with his city. He lives by knowing everything about it. Every time an old hole is sealed up or new construction is layered on old, he finds out quickly. If he is away from his city for more than one week, he cannot use any of his special class abilities for a number of days equal to ½ the time spent away, as he has to reacquaint himself with the city. If he is ever away from his home city for more than one week, six times in a single year, he can no longer gain levels as a roofrunner until at least one year has passed.

Class Description

It is wise for any rogue to know his territory well. For those who truly live in time to the heartbeat of the city, though, it is possible to become a roofrunner, a member of a rare breed who knows a single city so well that his abilities seem almost superhuman. A roofrunner, it is said, can vanish down a dead end, or appear inside a locked room, or cross a vast urban sprawl in a handful of minutes.

The roofrunner is an interesting class with some unique abilities, but the degree to which he is bound to a single city makes him an unusual choice for a PC, unless the campaign is centered almost entirely on his home city. The DM should carefully consider whether or not to permit a roofrunner PC, doing so means constraining the campaign or annoying a player.