Ever been a peasant in a dungeon and wondered how it is you suddenly developed magical powers or sword-training? Me too. Here are some miniclasses to represent the other side of the feeling:
THE RASCAL
Not every malcontent and ne’er-do-well arrives at the mystery of cipher through skill. Sometimes, a callow youth is just nasty enough to say - “There’s a tendency for me to get away with it.”
+1 Cipher per Template, as per the Rogue.
A - Opportunist
B - Improbable Survival
When you take Rascal A, you scrounge up a case of Unusual Tools.
Opportunist
When you’re attacking from a position of advantage (height, hitting someone ankle deep in mud, ambush) get +[level] to hit and +1d6 damage.
Improbable Survival
You have a new cipher skill: Staying Alive. This allows you to use your Cipher score for things like rolls to clear fatal wounds, saves against getting bits cut off or parts paralysed, &c.
THE PROFESSIONAL
Back in civilization, you had a job, and you did it well. You were respected, liked, and generally thought of as sensible, dependable, and… it’s all gone a bit to fuck, hasn’t it?
+1 SKLL per Template.
A - Specialisation, Cool Head
B - Task at Hand
Specialisation
Gain two additional skills linked to your Profession - these can be linked quite tangentially - a surgeon might get Sewing and Saw Handling, for example, and a musician might get Good Hearing and Poetry.
Cool Head
A professional doesn’t panic - you get +2 to Saves vs. Fear, and if you rolled an initiative below 10, move to 11.
Task at Hand
When you successfully use one of your Skills, the feeling of satisfaction is so significant that you can choose one of the following:
Heal 1d6 missing HP.
Clear 1 Fatigue.
Replenish 1 point of a resource from another class (ex., Rage, Hector Points, MD).
THE BURL
Every village has a giant (relatively speaking). That’s you! Strong like an ox! Popular, also like an ox!
+1 HP per Template.
A - Heft & Haul, +1 MOVE
B - Like In Songs of Old, +1 HRTS
Heft & Haul
You gain +2 Inventory Slots and do +2 damage with melee weapons.
Like in Songs of Old
You gain +1 Inventory Slot.
You can perform Feats of Strength (per Rotless).
THE COWARD
The basic stance of the mythological peasant is running the fuck away. You slip easily into this role.
+1 INIT per Template.
A - Hit the Bricks, You Rat!
B - Surprise Action
Hit the Bricks
As a full turn, you can run away. When you do this, you are immune to harm for the round. You can keep running away each turn, but you can’t do anything while you do.
You Rat!
When an attack hits you, another player may choose to have it hit their PC instead. In fiction, this is your character hiding behind theirs.
Surprise Action
If you attack an enemy after having run away or had an attack redirected away from you, do so as if you were sneak attacking as a Rogue with 3 Cipher. This only works once per enemy.
THE BRAVE
The other, rarer stance of the mythological peasant is running the fuck towards. You slip easily into this role.
+1 INIT per Template.
A - Rustic Charge
B - What a Mad Bastard
Rustic Charge
As a full turn, you can charge. When you do so, you plough headlong into combat, selecting a target and attacking twice at +[templates] to hit and damage. The headlong nature of the charge means your AC is reduced to unarmoured until the beginning of your next turn. You can’t charge without room to run up, and the maniac scream is mandatory.
What a Mad Bastard
When you fight unarmoured, you add +[level] to hit and damage.
THE LUCKY ONE
Sometimes, very occasionally, there exists a person for whom everything just seems to go right.
+1 SAVE per Template.
A - Karmic Surplus
B - Favoured
Karmic Surplus
Your xharisma, if lower than 13, becomes 13, unlocking your race’s special ability.
When you roll a 7 on a Reaction Roll, the DM ought to roll an extra d4, and add it to the result.
If there’s a horrible thing doing horrible things to random members of the party, you are always targeted last. This includes attacks in combat.
Favoured
The DM offers you an obliquely phrased choice between a pair of supernatural powers present in the world or the dungeon. You pick, and a “gift” is given to you - your high karma has attracted attention. Possibly, probably, the gift is not unambiguously good for you.
Possibly, from here, you can continue into Godchild-proper.
THE GOSSIP
Nosy, nosy - every village has someone who, in another time and place, would have made for an excellent Inquisitive, but, through no fault of their own, has been relegated to a life of piecing together family drama from third-hand sources.
Well, until now, anyway.
+1 SNEK per Template.
A - Nosy Parker
B - Relationship Chart
Nosy Parker
If you consider two clues for a full minute, you have a revelation about how they are (or aren't) connected. Every time you do this you have a cumulative 1-in-6 chance of coming down with a splitting migraine, preventing you from doing anything useful until you get a full night's rest.
If an NPC states something you know is a conscious lie, you may mark them as a liar. If you find out an embarrassing or private personal detail about an NPC, you can mark them as vulnerable.
You may sneak attack people who are marked even if you otherwise couldn't (and you otherwise couldn’t, with a cipher score of 0, so it’s just a normal attack keyed off your highest stat bonus, dealing 1d8 damage also plus your highest stat bonus.)
Relationship Chart
When you meet an NPC (not necessarily for the first time), you may intuit (semi-supernaturally, in a sort of sixth-sense sort of way) what their relation, if any, to anyone you have marked is.
THE REVOLTER
Revolutionary is a little too high-minded, but, back in the day, you could always stir people up to run someone out of town or go get someone away up in them there hills.
A - Revolting, Mob Thought
B - Ochlocracy, +1 point of Rage.
Revolting
Oppressors and tyrants will fail to completely punish you - exile instead of death, beatings instead of dismemberment, lashes instead of imprisonment.
Mob Thought
Each person in your party gives you (alone) +1 to saves vs. fear, darkness, charm, insanity and magic.
Ochlocracy
When your side starts combat, you get to take a turn before initiative is rolled.
