Lorethief
The original Lorethief class was written by Ismaul, at the Wizards of the Coast boards. It can be found in its original form [here], but I have reproduced it here for ease of reference.
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | AC | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +0 | +0 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Fast Retreat, Loretheft, Obscure Lore, Secrets Sense, Trapfinding |
| 2 | +1 | +0 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Mock Danger |
| 3 | +2 | +1 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Anticipate +1, Low-Light Vision, Mindthieving |
| 4 | +3 | +1 | +4 | +4 | +0 | Hide Motives |
| 5 | +3 | +1 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Trackless Step |
| 6 | +4 | +2 | +5 | +5 | +1 | Entropic Warding |
| 7 | +5 | +2 | +5 | +5 | +1 | Anticipate +2, Darkvision |
| 8 | +6/+1 | +2 | +6 | +6 | +1 | Deceit |
| 9 | +6/+1 | +3 | +6 | +6 | +1 | Urban Camouflage |
| 10 | +7/+2 | +3 | +7 | +7 | +2 | Evasion, Pilfer Memory |
| 11 | +8/+3 | +3 | +7 | +7 | +2 | Anticipate +3 |
| 12 | +9/+4 | +4 | +8 | +8 | +2 | Chaos Mind |
| 13 | +9/+4 | +4 | +8 | +8 | +2 | A Thousand Faces |
| 14 | +10/+5 | +4 | +9 | +9 | +2 | Negate Force |
| 15 | +11/+6/+1 | +5 | +9 | +9 | +2 | Anticipate +4 |
| 16 | +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +10 | +10 | +3 | Hide in Plain Sight |
| 17 | +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +10 | +10 | +3 | Urban Shapes |
| 18 | +13/+8/+3 | +6 | +11 | +11 | +3 | Greater Entropic Warding |
| 19 | +14/+9/+4 | +6 | +11 | +11 | +3 | Anticipate +5 |
| 20 | +15/+10/+5 | +6 | +12 | +12 | +4 | Omniscient |
Lorethief
Lorethieves devote their life to gather hidden knowledge, and their usually chaotic and playful nature gives them a high predisposition for trickery. They are always curious, on the lookout for knowledge, thirsting for mysterious, hidden knowledge and secrets, be it people's secrets, conspiracies, ancient lore, arcana or religious. Lorethieves loves the thrill of clandestinity, of hearing things they shouldn't hear, knowing things unknown by most. But, an uncovered secret is no longer one, and becomes no more fun. That's the reason why they embark on adventures: they want more secrets.
Why do lorethieves want this hidden knowledge? The quest of knowledge is the reason itself. Sometimes a lorethief might side with a certain group, religous, political, or whatever, but the cause is rarely the most important, it's the secrets. Lorethieves use many ways to achieve their means, but it usually involes being someplace they souldn’t be. They might work their way in the intrigue of the courts, lying, manipulating, spying for the information, and then using it to blackmail, create confusion, scandals, or to deepen secrets for their personal amusement. Different lorethieves might research for old or forgotten magic or alchemy. Others might work in conjunction with thieves' groups or as spies. They use skill and innate magic, as sorcerers, to get in and out of places and to remain unseen. Their very nature grants them their aptitude for magic, and with time this relation develops into a mysterious energy that wards them from harm.
In Lorethieves are those with an interest in the Blue but with an inherent tie to Chaos, much like sorcerers have to Magic.
Game Rule Information
Lorethieves have the following game statistics.
Force Alignment: Blue/Chaos.
Force Resistances: TO 7 + level.
Abilities: Charisma determines which spells a lorethief can cast and how hard those spells are to resist, and benefit many of his skills. Intelligence is important for his lorethieving abilities and grants more uses per day, and is essential for most skills. Dexterity helps overcome the lack of armor and factors in the lorethief’s stealth.
Hit Die: d6.
Class Skills: The Lorethief’s Class skills are Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Knowledge (any), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Perform, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot and Use Magic Device.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int.
Alignment: Any non-lawful.
Starting Age: As a rogue.
Starting Gold: 4d4 x 10gp.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the lorethief.
Weapons and Armor Proficiency: Lorethieves are proficient with the club, dagger, dart, hand crossbow, light crossbow, quarterstaff, sap and sling, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a lorethief’s arcane gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
AC Bonus: Lorethieves may not be that great at hurting anybody, but others have a hard time hurting them, due to their deceiving nature. When unarmored and unencumbered, a lorethief adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his AC. In addition, a lorethief gains a +1 bonus at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five lorethief levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level). These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the lorethief is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.
Fast Retreat: In face of a dangerous situation, in which a lorethief is highly likely to find himself, he has little means of confronting the adversity, thus he runs. He gains the Run feat, and a 5 feet bonus to speed while wearing light or no armor and carrying no more than a light load.
Loretheft: A number of times per day equal to one-half the lorethief’s level + his Int modifier, a lorethief can use his abilities to steal knowledge. Starting a lorethieving effect is a standard action, and requires only thought to activate. Some lorethieving abilities require concentration, which means the lorethief must take a standard action each round to maintain the ability. If he fails at an attempt to use a lorethieving ability, it still counts against his daily limit. Anytime a lorethief wishes, he can spend a daily use of his lorethieving abilities to grant himself or an ally a +2 insight bonus to a skill check or lore check that involves hidden, obscure or unknown information. It works for most Gather Information and Knowledge checks, and sometimes for Sense Motive, Charisma or Intelligence-based skill checks.
Mindthieving (Su): A lorethief of 3rd level can use his lorethieving abilities to read other’s thoughts. He knows the surface thoughts of the mind of subjects within 60 feet that fail a Will save (DC 10 + half the lorethief’s level + Int bonus). The ability’s duration is up to one minute per level, and the lorethief must concentrate to maintain the effect. At 5th level, maintaining concentration while reading surface thoughts becomes a free action.
A lorethief can read a number of minds equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, he knows the surface thoughts of an additional mind (+1 at 5th level, +2 at 10th, +3 at 15th and +4 at 20th).
Creatures of animal intelligence have simple, instinctual thoughts that the lorethief can pick up. If he reads the thoughts of a creature with an Intelligence of 26 or higher (and at least 10 points higher than his own Intelligence score), he is stunned for 1 round and the effect ends. This ability does not let him pinpoint the location of an affected mind if he doesn’t have line of sight to the subject.
Each round, a lorethief can turn his attention to other subjects, or try again to read the minds of subjects that resisted beforehand. The ability can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
Pilfer Memory (Su): A lorethief of 10th level can reach into a subject’s memory to steal information. Once he is able to read one subject’s mind, he can concentrates on it to access all his memories and knowledge. Using this ability does not break the lorethief’s concentration on the mindreading effect, nor does it count against his daily limit on lorethieving abilities.
He can read memories and knowledge about one query per round, to the best of the subject’s knowledge. The subject is allowed a Will save for each query (mindthieving’s DC). If he succeeds, his mind does not allow access to this fragment of his memory; however, the lorethief can try to gain information about a new query or the same one in subsequent rounds.
A lorethief can probe a sleeping subject and automatically get information related to his query. If the subject then succeeds on a Will save, it wakes after providing the answer and thereafter its mind can resist being read by making Will saves as described above.
Once a lorethief accesses a fragment of the subject’s memory (by getting an “answer” to his query), he can chose to eliminate all memory of it in the subject’s mind, although by doing so he cannot negate charm, geas/quest, suggestion, or similar spells. The subject is granted a Will save to negate this effect.
A lorethief queries a subject telepathically, and the knowledge is imparted directly to his mind. He and the subject do not need to know the same language, though less intelligent creatures may yield up only appropriate visual images in answer to his queries.
Omniscient (Su): At 20th level, a lorethief can use mindthieving at will, and can suppress or resume reading minds as a free action. Pilfer memory now takes a daily use of his lorethieving ability, and lasts up to one minute per level, per use.
Obscure Lore: A lorethief picks up a lot of stray knowledge while wandering the land and peeking around in places he’s not allowed. The same as Bardic Knowledge.
Secrets Sense: Lorethieves pass their time searching for hidden things, places and knowledge, and are also on the lookout about any possible exit if they happen to be discovered. A lorethief senses develop. If he merely passes within 5 feet of concealed objects, doors or exits, he is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it.
Trapfinding: As the rogue class feature.
Mock Danger (Ex): The lorethief’s indifference to danger, even more, his seeking of risk, renders it much less potent. At 2nd level, he adds his Charisma bonus to saving throws. This ability can be used only if a lorethief is wearing light armor or no armor.
Anticipate: Starting at 3rd level, a lorethief develops a second sense together with his mindthieving abilities. He gets a very dim feeling of other’s general emotions, of latent courses of thought, of potential actions. By grasping this feeling and analysing it with his familiarity of mindthieving, he can try to predict an opponent’s actions. He gains an insight bonus against his opponent by making a check against a DC of 10 + the opponent’s HD. He adds his lorethief level to the check. Making this check is a free action, which a lorethief can try once per round. If the check is successful, he gains the listed insight bonus against that particular opponent for a round. If he fails the check, he loses his momentum, and may not try to gain insight during the following round.
He gains a +1 insight bonus to attack rolls against this particular opponent for this round. This bonus increases by 1 evey four levels thereafter (+2 at 5th, +3 at 9th, +4 at 13th, and +5 at 17th). He also gains half this bonus to spell DCs (+1 at at 5th, +2 at 13th).
He can only gain an insight bonus if he is within 30 feet of his opponent. Opponents that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effets cannot be anticipated, therefore the lorethief cannot gain the insight bonus against them.
Low-light Vision (Ex): Lorethieves have the habit of spying in lightly lit areas. With time, their magic comes to complement their sight. At 3rd level, a lorethief develops low-light vision. If the lorethief already has low-light vision from another source, his low-light vision improves, allowing him to see three times as far as a human in conditions of shadowy illumination. If the lorethief has low-light vision as one of his known spells, he may replace it by another one of the same level.
Hide Motives (Su): A lorethief accustomed to hear and say lies develops the capacity to hide is intentions to others. Starting at 4th level, he becomes shielded by a continuous undetectable alignment effect (as the spell), of a caster level equal to his lorethief’s level, and gains a +4 bonus on his saving throw against spells that penetrate the mind to discover information, such as detect thoughts. If the lorethief has undetectable alignment as one of his known spells, he may replace it by another one of the same level.
Trackless Step (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, a lorethief cannot be tracked in urban surroundings. He can chose to leave a trail if he wishes.
Entropic Warding (Su): Starting at 6th level, a lorethief’s chaotic nature and its relation with his magic grants him further protection. he becomes shielded by a continuous entropic shield effect (as the spell), of a caster level equal to his lorethief’s level. If the lorethief has entropic shield as one of his known spells, he may replace it by another one of the same level.
Darkvision (Ex): At 7th level, a lorethief develops darkvision to 60 feet. If the lorethief already has darkvision from another source, his darkvision improves, the range increasing by 30 feet. If the lorethief has darkvision as one of his known spells, he may replace it by another one of the same level.
Deceit (Su): At 8th level, the lorethief gains spell resistance 10 + lorethief’s level against spells that reveal falsehood, such as zone of truth and discern lies, even when spell resistance is not allowed (such as with discern lies).
Urban Camouflage (Ex): Beginning at 9th level, a lorethief can use the Hide skill in any sort of urban terrain (including dungeons and stone caves), even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment. He also gains a +4 bonus to Disguise in urban places.
Evasion: As the monk class feature.
Chaos Mind (Su): The lorethief’s chaotic attitude makes him hard to find by magical means and hard to affect by chaotic magic. At 12th level, he gains immunity to confusion and insanity spells and effects, and he is shielded by a continuous nondetection effect (as the spell), of a caster level equal to his lorethief’s level. If the lorethief has nondetection as one of his known spells, he may replace it by another one of the same level.
A Thousand Faces (Su): As the druid class feature.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): As the assassin class feature.
Negate Force (Su): A number of times per day equal to his Charisma bonus, a lorethief can activate his inner chaotic magic to supress Force-based effects. A lorethief can protect himself from harm, gaining the Force Resistance of his choice equal to 10 + his lorethief’s level + his Charisma bonus for one round. Using the ability this way is an immediate action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. It is a reactive action, and the lorethief is not required to be aware of the effect targeting him to use the ability.
He can also elect to activate his inner abilities to make other’s Force abilities fail or suppress current Force effects, as if casting greater dispel magic (choosing the Force to be dispelling); this ability counts as a Talent and Avao. Using this ability is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity. He still has to ready an action with this ability if he wishes to counterspell.
Urban Shapes (Su): At 17th level, the lorethief’s a thousand faces ability improves (all that applies to a thousand faces also applies to urban shapes, unless stated otherwise). The lorethief can now take the form of an object, mundane or precious looking. He is effectively disguised as an average object of the selected type. If he wishes, he may try to imitate the look of an existing object or pretend having magical proprieties (just like a disguise) and gets a +10 bonus on his Disguise check. He can’t assume an object form smaller than Fine or larger than his normal size category.
The lorethief gains the hardness of the object, keeps his hit points and saving throws, and is affected by attacks the way an object is. When someone tries to break him with sudden force rather than by dealing damage and succeeds with the Strength DC, the lorethief is allowed a Will save. If he succeeds, he takes damage equivalent to the break DC of the object, if he fails, he takes twice the damage. If the damage dealt exceeds 50 or half his base hit points, or if he is reduced to negative hit points, he automatically reverts back to his original form.
The lorethief retains his normal senses (including any racial ones, such as darkvision or scent) and can perceive his surroundings, meaning he can see, hear, smell and feel even if the new form does not have the required physical attribute. He can talk in this new form, even if this form is not capable of speech. In this case, he counts as being under a continuous ventriloquism effect. He has no means of locomotion.
Greater Entropic Warding (Su): Starting at 18th level, the lorethief’s 20% miss chance granted by entropic warding now applies to all attacks, melee or ranged.
Talents / Avaos
A lorethief uses abilities that are a mixture of talents and avaos. As such, a character with either UO or CO can resist them; a character with both gets two chances to resist a lorethief's abilities.
| Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - |
| 7 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 10 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - |
| 11 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | - | - |
| 12 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | - |
| 13 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | - | - |
| 14 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - |
| 15 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | - |
| 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| 17 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 18 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 19 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 20 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | (2) | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | (2) | - | - | - | - |
| 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - |
| 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - |
| 9 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - |
| 10 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - |
| 11 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | (2) | - | - |
| 12 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - |
| 13 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - | - |
| 14 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 15 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | - |
| 16 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | (2) |
| 17 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 18 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 19 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 20 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
Numbers in parentheses indicate that the lorethief only knows talents/avaos of that level provided he has a high enough Charisma score to have a bonus talent/avao at that level.
- 0 Level: dancing lights, daze, detect magic, flare, ghost sound, know direction, light, mage hand, mending, message, open/close, prestidigitation, read magic, touch of fatigue
- 1st Level: alarm, animate rope, camouflage [Div], charm person, comprehend languages, detect secret doors, disguise self, distort speech [Adv], distract assailant [Adv], entropic shield, erase, expeditious retreat, swift expeditious retreat [Adv], feather fall, friendly face [RoD], grease, hypnotism, identify, instant locksmith [Adv], instant search [Adv], lesser confusion, locate city [RoS], low-light vision [Arc], magic mouth, nystul’s magic aura, obscuring mist, obscure object, pass without trace, phantom threat [War], ray of enfeeblement, reduce person, sanctuary, silent image, sleep, undetectable alignment, ventriloquism
- 2nd Level: alter self, arcane lock, augury, blindness/deafness, blur, cat’s grace, curse of ill fortune [Div], darkness, darkvision, daze monster, detect thoughts, eagle’s splendor, enthrall, fly, swift fly [Adv], fog cloud, fox’s cunning, ghoul touch, glitterdust, hypnotic pattern, invisibility, swift invisibility [Adv], knock, leomund’s trap, locate object, mindless rage [Adv], minor image, mirror image, misdirection, nondetection, owl’s wisdom, phantasmal assailant [Arc], pyrotechnics, see invisibility, silence, spider climb, summon swarm, tasha’s hideous laughter, tongues, touch of idiocy, touch of madness [Div], wall of gloom [Arc], web, whispering wind
- 3rd Level: arcane sight, bestow curse, blink, charm monster, clairaudience/clairvoyance, confusion, daylight, deep slumber, dimension door, dispel magic, displacement, gaseous form, glibness, hold person, illusory script, invisibility sphere, major image, protection from energy, ray of exhaustion, remove curse, sculpt sound, secret page, sepia snake sigil, shadow binding [Arc], shrink item, slow, stinking cloud, suggestion
- 4th Level: arcane eye, break enchantment, chain of eyes [Div], contagion, detect scrying, discern lies, divination, false vision, fire trap, freedom of movement, lesser geas, lesser globe of invulnerability, hallucinatory terrain, illusory wall, greater invisibility, listening coin [Adv], locate creature, modify memory, passwall, persistent image, rainbow pattern, rusting grasp, scrying, shadow conjuration, solid fog, teleport, unluck [Arc], wrack [Div], zone of silence
- 5th Level: baleful polymorph, greater blink [Arc], greater dispel magic, dominate person, dream, feeblemind, find the path, hold monster, improvisation [Adv], legend lore, mind fog, mirage arcana, mislead, nightmare, probe thoughts [Div], programmed image, seeming, shadow evocation, shadow form [Adv], shadow walk, telekinesis, true seeing
- 6th Level: analyze dweomer, animate objects, greater bestow curse [Div], discern location, eyebite, geas/quest, globe of invulnerability, illusory pit [Arc], insanity, permanent image, phantasmal disorientation [Div], phase door, project image, reverse gravity, screen, greater scrying, spell turning, mass suggestion, greater teleport, veil
- 7th Level: mass charm monster, discern location, hindsight [Adv], maze, mind blank, moment of prescience, otto’s irresistible dance, polymorph any object, screen
