Specialty
Trickster/Con Artist.
Qualifications
Standard ability scores.
Charlatans live off the fat of the land, bending
all the rules and hopping through loopholes in
the law. It is completely against the personality of the Charlatan to be lawful. Charlatans
are limited to NG, N, NE, or CN alignments.
Gnomes may become Charlatans.
Introduction
My real name is Tiel, but
most of the fools who fall into my traps call
me Tori. I know exactly how to get what I
want from others. Especially those who are
overconfident, weak, or emotional.
People often believe what they want to believe, and I take advantage of this. I know
how to swindle these simple-minded fools and
make them feel good about it.
I have many disguises with which to cloak
my activities. My favorite is that of a cleric of
Tyr. Of course, none of my ruses has ever
been uncovered, and it's a good thing. There's
a saying: "There are two types of Charlatans — those who are good and those who are
dead."
I usually don't stay in one place for very
long; it's not safe. By the time the poor fool
I've tricked has figured out what happened,
I'm long gone.
Once, I agreed to watch over the castle of a
good 'friend," the rapacious Sir John of Canters, while he went off on a quest. I sold the
castle and made off with all the loot before he
returned. For now, I am performing sleight-of-hand tricks for mere pocket coins until I
meet another "friend." Perhaps tomorrow I
will be a powerful mage or a war hero.
I thrive in cities and towns where victims
are plentiful and easy to manipulate. Lately, I
have been considering the possibility of pos-
ing as a thief. Why? So I can accompany a
party of adventures in a quest and collect my
"share" of the treasure.
Description
Charlatans are masters at manipulating people. Using their high Intelligence and understanding of human nature,
Charlatans prey upon the foolish, overconfident, and greedy people around them.
Charlatans often seem bold and boisterous,
but they always maintain self-control. The
profession of swindling others and making
them feel good about it is an age-old practice
and none are better at it than Charlatans.
The Charlatan's profession has its downside, too. When a Charlatan's facade is
pierced, he is in grave danger, for no one likes
to be conned. Then the Charlatan's quick feet
may serve him better than his quick wit.
Role
Charlatans are wanderers. They go
from town to town, switching from one identity to another, always a step ahead of the last
person they swindled. In large cities, Charlatans may be able to live out most of their lives
moving from one quarter to the next. When
times are tough and no great con comes to
mind, Charlatans sometimes perform sleight-of-hand tricks just to get by. Charlatans also
have a knack for acquiring jobs that allow
them to bluff their way through each day.
Charlatans can sometimes be found masquerading as priests, healers, sages, diplomats,
powerful mages, and retired heroes.
As player characters, Charlatans are most
useful in town-based campaigns or when traveling across inhabited country. Their talents
often support the entire party with food, shelter, and minor luxuries. Unfortunately, many
of their talents have little use when exploring
ruins or wilderness areas. However, they often pose as wizards, warriors, thieves, and
sometimes even priests. As NPCs, Charlatans
really come into their own.
Weapon Proficiencies
Charlatans must
take dagger, short sword, or long sword as
one of their initial weapon proficiencies, as
these weapons are used in so many roles that
they shouldn't be passed over. At least every
second weapon proficiency gained must be
one of these three until they are all selected.
A Charlatan selects the rest of his weapons
to fill the needs of various roles. For example,
if Charlatan decides to masquerade as a powerful warrior, he arms himself with a heavy
combat weapon (a two-handed sword, polearm, long bow, or a battle axe) and spends a
proficiency slot learning it. This way he can
appear to be a skilled and tough fighter. The
Charlatan always uses his proficient weapon
in dire situations. If an encounter is less
threatening, the Charlatan uses one of the other weapons so as to appear to be a well-rounded fighter (the -3 non-proficiency penalty is
easier to hide when attacking monsters with
poor Armor Classes).
Nonweapon Proficiencies
Bonuses
Acting, Disguise, Forgery, Gaming
Suggested
Appraising, Astrology, Healing, Herbalism,
Juggling, Reading Lips, Religion, Rope Use,
Singing, Ventriloquism
Armor/Equipment
A Charlatan is allowed
to wear any type of armor if a role requires it.
Thus, a Charlatan masquerading as a paladin
can wear plate mail and carry a shield. But a
Charlatan is a finesse character; heavy, bulky
armor goes against the grain of his personality. No Charlatan will maintain a role that requires him to wear non-bard armor for more
than a few weeks.
Special Benefits
Charm
Charlatans are aware of their
unique charm and flair. They have learned to
use this gift to sway the reactions of others.
However, such charm must be carefully tailored to a specific audience. Charlatans can
affect only a small group of people, no larger
in number than their current level.
To be charmed, a group must be in average
to high spirits. (You can't charm a merchant
who's just been robbed.) The Charlatan must
mingle among the intended group and chat for
at least 1d10 rounds. After this time, those in
the group roll a saving throw vs. paralyzation
with a penalty of -1 per three levels of the
Charlatan. Those who succeed are unimpressed with the Charlatan and may even find
him to be an irritation. If they succeed on a
natural 20, they see through the Charlatan's
facade.
Those who fail have been caught up in the
Charlatan's tales and find him to be a most remarkable person. The effects of the charm are
identical to the wizard spell of the same name.
However, it is not magical in any way, and
future saving throws are not made based on
Intelligence and time. Rather, every time the
Charlatan stresses the relationship — by calling for a favor, or requesting delicate information — the paralyzation saving throw is
rerolled. The DM can give bonuses or penalties depending on how much stress the request
puts on the relationship.
Masquerade
The ability of masquerading
requires much study, time, and effort on the
part of the Charlatan. This enables a Charlatan to appear to have a specific skill. This is
not a disguise, as the proficiency of that name.
Rather, it is the ability to appear proficient at
the chosen skill. The character picks up the
language ('buzz words'), professional mannerisms, and general techniques to help him in his
endeavor.
Unlike the
True Bard, the Charlatan only
appears to be a jack-of-all trades. He does not
study skills to use them, but for the sake of
conning others into believing he has them.
The use of this ability is resolved by the DM
in much the same manner as an illusion spell.
If the performance is not overly suspicious
and the characters watching have no reason to
disbelieve the bard's ability, then the attempt
appears genuine. Otherwise, a saving throw
vs. paralyzation is rolled with a -1 penalty
per three levels of the Charlatan. Those who
succeed realize that the Charlatan is a fraud.
A Charlatan can use his masquerade ability
to fake any non-weapon proficiency or secondary skill. Furthermore, if the Charlatan rolls a
successful Intelligence check with a -10 penalty, he actually functions as if he really knows
the skill or proficiency (for this one check only). Thus, a Charlatan can actually succeed just
enough to keep skeptics satisfied.
For example, if Tiel is masquerading as a
cleric, she can claim to know the
Healing proficiency even though she doesn't really have
it. Unless those she heals are suspicious, they
will believe that the attempts are genuine (if
they are suspicious, roll as described two paragraphs prior to this one). First Tiel's player
rolls an Intelligence check with a -10 penalty.
If that roll succeeds, she next rolls a healing
proficiency check. If this check also succeeds,
the patient is healed of 1d3 points of damage.
If the Intelligence check fails, everyone watching rolls a saving throw vs. paralyzation (with
a -1 penalty per three levels of the Charlatan)
to notice that the Charlatan is a fraud. If the
Intelligence check succeeds but the healing
check fails, the patient and onlookers notice
only that a valid attempt was made but it just
didn't help.
Each time Tiel masquerades as a healer, an
Intelligence check is rolled with a -10 penalty.
If the check succeeds, a successful healing proficiency check will actually heal 1d3 points of
damage.
Detect Fakery
Because Charlatans are so
skilled at faking their personalities, lying, and
concealing their feelings and reactions, they
can see right through false personae and verbal trickery when others attempt them. As the
old saying goes, "You can't con a con man."
Any time a Charlatan player requests it, he
can try to determine if someone is lying, operating under false pretenses (including a masquerade), or swindling him. A Charisma
check is rolled. Success means the Charlatan
realizes the deception.
Furthermore, a Charisma check with a -10
penalty enables the Charlatan to determine a
person's alignment. This requires that the
Charlatan speak with and observe the individual for 1d10 rounds.
Swindling
Major cons, such as duping a
king into believing that you are a highly respected sage, drawing him into your inner
confidence, and then relieving him of the
crown jewels, should be done only through
role-playing. However, Charlatans hone such
skills by constantly performing minor swindles and tricks. These are far too numerous
and insignificant to role-play every time.
Swindling covers this aspect of a Charlatan's
skill repertoire.
By performing various cons, sleight-of-hand, and other deceptions, a Charlatan is often able to walk away from a merchant with
far more than a fair deal. The same is true of
any common outlay of coins, such as buying
meals at a tavern, paying for a room at an inn,
and purchasing ordinary items. In instances
like these, the Charlatan makes a pick pockets
roll. If successful, the cost of the item is reduced to the percentage rolled; this is what the
Charlatan pays. If the roll fails by more than
the Charlatan's Charisma, the con is seen
through. Swindle rolls above 95 are always
detected by the victim.
For example, Tiel tries to swindle a barkeeper for a 10-gp glass of imported wine (Tiel
has only six gold coins left). Tiel's pick pockets roll is a 53 and she has a Charisma of 16.
She rolls a 25 and swindles her way into paying only two gold and one electrum for the
wine (25% of the original cost). If she had
rolled a 54-69 the barkeeper would have noticed the error and politely requested the remainder of the money. On a 70 or above the
barkeeper would not only have noticed the error, but he would have realized that Tiel tried
to swindle him (with unpleasant consequences
for Tiel).
Swindling rolls should not be used for
amounts in excess of 10 gp per level of the
Charlatan. Such grand swindles require full
role-playing.
Special Hindrances
None.
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