The Privateer
The Privateer is the quintessential adventurer in the traditional sense. Like famous explorers of other dimensions: Marco Polo, Francis Drake, and Ponce de Leon; Aeres too has its share of men willing to dare the unknown for the promise of riches, glory, excitement, or simply because they can. These individuals are the ultimate skill based professionals among a Caste that is itself the most skill based. This means that the Privateer more than any other class relies upon their wit, wisdom, and wiles to help them not only survive but succeed!
Players opting to become a Privateer will be those interested in running an entrepreneur but of the kind that requires great risk for great reward. Their focus will usually be on how they might gain from a particular adventure, as they are most certainly the closest thing to a professional adventurer in the game but they also bring many useful social and practical skills to any party. They have skills in money management, mercantile operations, information gathering, and several other helpful abilities. It can certainly be said with very little contradiction that you will rarely find Privateers slaying dragons. Just as certain will be the likelihood that the man behind the whole expedition, and the one getting the lion’s share of the treasure will be! Intelligence is the primary attribute for Privateers with Charisma and Constitution as close seconds.
Class Abilities:
Level | Title | Attribute | Class Ability Table |
1 – 4 | Trader | Int: 12
Con: 10 Cha: 12 |
Language: Gain the proficiency of a language of the player’s choice and one language for every two levels afterward to twice the maximum permitted by his Intelligence. The language chosen must be one that the Privateer can reasonably learn. It might be very difficult for the Privateer to locate someone fluent in Thri-kreen or Slaad, though maybe not impossible. |
5 – 8 | Explorer | Int: 13
Con: 11 Cha: 13 |
Adaptability: Choose a non-weapon proficiency of another player that you have observed and gain that as a bonus Non-Weapon Proficiency. This excludes all Lore and Manufacture skills. |
9 –12 | Financier | Int: 14
Cha: 14 |
Speculation: The player may take whatever wealth is at his/her disposal and “invest” it. The character then receives a one time gain equaling that amount multiplied by every point of Wisdom above 10. Wisdom scores of 10-12 are double, 13 triple, 14 quadruple, etc. |
13 – | Privateer | Int: 15
|
Exploration: Expeditions are the very lifeblood of privateering! Once a year the Privateer may mount an Expedition which will result in all the costs (including provision of transport, even a ship) of the endeavor being shared by “investors”, although the Privateer may opt to do this himself. The Game Master will confer with the Privateer to provide him a suitably spectacular Expedition that promises much gain! |
Special Advantages:
Aptitude:
— All non-weapon proficiencies cost 1/2 of standard when the Privateer opts to spend experience to learn one. Those chosen to fill a free slot still cost the same. At the start of his career the three “free” slots chosen by the Privateer may come from any of the Secondary Skill tables.
Experience:
–The Privateer may choose one Career Skill as a bonus at the start of his career.
Non-Weapon Proficiencies:
The Privateer wastes not a chance to gain any skills or knowledge that might benefit him and as a man who has worked in the marketplace as well he has had the chance to learn much.
-Education 2
-Haggling
-Numismatics
-Cartography
-Drive Cart
-Blather
-Information Gathering
-Foraging (Rural or Urban)
Privateer Skills:
The Privateer is as much a professional explorer as anything else and as such tends to be skilled at reading and speaking various languages and in bypassing impediments to his exploration. He starts with a base skill in four categories and is given 20 points to distribute initially and 15 points per level afterwards. No skill may exceed 95% including Racial and Dexterity modifiers. Read Languages, Find Traps, and Open Locks all work just as the Thief Skill of the same name. Linguistics is the ability to communicate with people even if you do not know their language. If the Privateer spends a week with the language in question then he can automatically communicate with reasonable skill and this includes non-verbal languages as well.
Read Languages | Linguistics | Find Traps | Open Locks |
15% | 30% | 15% | 10% |
Privateer Skills Table:
Becoming a Privateer:
The life of a Privateer is not something one studies formally. It usually begins with a person working in some other profession (See Career Skills allowance under Special Advantages), and then deciding to make their fortune by striking out on their own seeking treasure or trade routes or new opportunities of all sorts. So it is that more so than any other class, the Privateer is truly the self-made man. There are no particular requirements for Privateer except they must have a minimum of 12 Intelligence, 12 Charisma, and 10 Constitution.
Advancing as a Privateer:
Privateers are self-made and self-training for the most part. They must either show consistent use of thief’s skills on the Privateer Skills Table or find another Rogue Caste class to train them. All other skills gained by the Privateer must be taught either by a skilled individual or learned in hours of personal study. Either way the method is essentially a byproduct of circumstances and ability to pay. Other than that the Privateer advances by the mettle of his will and the shrewdness of his gambles. Aside from this, life experience is their teacher and that is the way they like it.
Experience Table: |
||
Experience | Level | Hit Dice (d6) |
0 | 1 | 1 |
1750 | 2 | 2 |
3500 | 3 | 3 |
7500 | 4 | 4 |
14,500 | 5 | 5 |
29,000 | 6 | 6 |
55,000 | 7 | 7 |
110,000 | 8 | 8 |
175,000 | 9 | 9 |
210,000 | 10 | 10 |
275,000 | 11 | 11 |
325,000 | 12 | 12 |
450,000 | 13 | 13 |