Homo Ferox (GLoG Class: Assassin)

 The man who everyone wants to kill will only die by mistake. Whoever wins the hate of their people must have cruel guards and impervious safeguards, else they would have been taken away from life long ago. Sometimes, the mistake that kills them is the presence of someone who could not have intentionally gotten into the right position, but finds themselves in it now. A man sits in a restaurant and decides to hide a bomb on the sixth floor instead of the first, and his mark survives. Another man sulks in a restaurant because his mark got away, and he looks up to see that same mark in a stopped car, and so he gets his second chance.

Part of an assassin GLoG class bandwagon. Yo.

-ASSASSIN-

Start with a fold-out knife, petard, highly illegal thief's rope (50'), discrete cap and coat, and one really big time-delay bomb. At each level, get +1 to-hit or DEX.

• A: Infamy, Luck
• B: Improvisation
• C: Patience
• D: Old News

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,

And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;

He knew human folly like the back of his hand,

And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;

When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,

And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

- Epitaph on a Tyrant, W. H. Auden

Infamy: By lucking into success precisely once, you have cut a clean line between your life before the kill and after. Authorities will hunt you, even if the leader you killed was their state's enemy. Such is life in this bitch age. Revolutionaries and creatures of the margins will assume you must be a high-level character, not to be trifled with lightly.

Luck: You have a pool of up to three Luck Points, which can be spent to reroll a failed attempt at moving quickly, sneaking, fast-talking, or searching; or to cause someone (of the DM's choice, usually a random civilian) to happen to be passing by; or to make it so an NPC recognizes you. You start with two Luck Points, because you spent one happening to be able to kill your famous mark. Recover a Luck Point every time the DM thinks you're screwed, or when you participate in the killing of a monstrous leader.

Improvisation: You have developed an instinct for sudden and shocking violence. Whenever you roll initiative, you can take an action, like attacking someone or running for it, before the combat starts. If that action is to attack someone unaware they're in danger, you automatically hit.

Patience: Spend a few days conferring with your contacts to establish where and when in the next couple weeks your target will come from their stronghold. Learn a bit about the guards and measures they will bring with them, and about their itinerary. There is a 2-in-6 chance that there are no trivial changes that threaten to scuttle your plan of attack.

Old News: The authorities you bested no longer hunt you; other authorities no longer fear you. This is just as you come into your own training the next generation of stupid daredevils. Your maximum number of Luck Points increases to six. They can be spent to aid an ally or protege you've prepped to do anything you can use them for; to tell if someone is hunting for you; or to reroll a save vs magic, explosions, and gunshot or stabbing-related wounds.

Darke Renegade (GLoG Class: Cool Rogue)

Feels like it's been a while since I've done a quick, uncomplicated GLoG class.

art by Dia Nak

Starts with: cool sword (d8, describe with at least three adjectives) that you don’t need a sheath for, spiked blackleather (as leather but +1 to sneaking, breaking grabs, and dark poses), 6 ninja stars (d6), goggles, pomade, metal bar

A: Dark Past, I Work Alone, choose +1 Modus Operandi

B: Ultraviolence, +1 random Modus Operandi

C: +2 random Modus Operandi

D: Omegaviolence, +1 random Modus Operandi

Dark Past

The vague yet malicious group that ruined your life is still out there, and you owe them a revengeance. The DM will designate certain results on all random encounter tables as being agents of that vague, malicious group. Such agents never get the drop on you, and you can always track them.

I Work Alone

When the party is about to undertake a dangerous mission from a place of relative safety, give a moody excuse for why you’re going to help them this time to get +1 to your initiative roll in your next encounter.

Ultraviolence

+4 to your first attack from the shadows. When catching a foe by surprise or when fighting creatures with 1 or less HD, after a successful hit you can attack them again and again until you miss.

Omegaviolence

May use Ultraviolence against any foe of fewer HD than you.

Modus Operandi

1. Nothing Personnel- each night, summon up to [level]x2 shadowy minions. They have 1 hp, have peasant stats except they use your attack bonus, and look like dark clones of you.

2. Bad Girls and Bad Boys- In every dungeon (broadly defined), the same hot adversary in blackleather can always be found aiding the dungeon’s master. They are opposed to you but will not allow you to die if they can help it. They have HD equal to your Darke Renegade level.

3. Motorcycle- Inexplicably, you acquire a loud metal steed. When riding by foes your cool sword gets a bonus to hit and damage equal to your darke renegade level. If you deliberately leap from it you take no damage from road rash.

4. I Walk in the Shadows- When standing in the shadows, you can teleport to another shadow you can see up to [level]x20 feet away. It makes a cool humming sound when you do.

5. Welcome to my Twisted Mind- +[level] to resist all mental effects inflicted by another creature, and if you succeed they must save or suffer the effects.

6. Without Goodbyes- You can “enter stealth” even if someone looks away just for a second.

7. Pact- Gain a magic die and two random, edgy spells. You can use magic items as though you were a nerd wizard.

8. Underworld Connections- There’s always [level] contacts you have in any given town that you can bully into selling black market goods or giving information about what’s going on.

9. Haunted- The ghosts of the life that was taken from you manifests in your shattered, cool psyche.The first time each session that you sleep, a ghost of a loved one gives you a guilt trip them warns you vaguely about [level] dangers the DM thinks might come up. If they do, you automatically win initiative if it’s a foe or get +3 to the saving throw or whatever.

10. Alter Ego- Sometimes, you’re not you— you’re a more normal-looking but still attractive and cool guy who is edgy. When in this disguise, no one can tell you’re the same person as long as you don’t carry weapons or armor, and you get +1 reaction with the sheeple who normally hate your guts.

Outdone in Ingenuity, Skill, Extent of Resources, and Fertility of Invention (💰)

"There is something of the devil in the thief's voice when he boasts, even if his message is nothing but the truth. There is something in the traitor that enflames the heart and lures the mind. Let no one say that the man is peculiarly strong in his passions. If he does not marry for love, he is apt to marry for property; if he is addicted to intoxicating drinks, he is apt to marry for pleasure.

Is it a question of education? 

Yes, education is a great help."
-Arnu, Patricove of Hepton

Thief

Start with a big burlap sack, shoes good for running, lockpicks, a longknife, a mask, a striped shirt (to avoid being spotted), and three random pieces of gear from the Catalog. These are in order of importance.

For every level of Thief attained, get +1 to running away.

• A: Efficient Ratio, Plunder
• B: Society

Efficient Ratio: You can always carry something if you have the inventory slots to carry it. You don't need to specifically get a bag or satchel or backpack beforehand.

Plunder: When you've got a big old sack or a carpet bag, it comes in useful to stow the swag. Get +[level] inventory slots. You can ransack a room before anyone happens upon you, automatically triggering any traps around.

Society:  You are now a "made man" in thief society. You are entitled to sanctuary and have learned thieves' cant. You know where to purchase poison, thief's rope, hits, and the like. You can bring disputes to your local anti-noble to be resolved. Before every adventure, you can get 2d2 loyal-yet-bumbling lackeys who are fearlessly loyal as long as they get their cut. You have nebulous responsibilities to Society now.

The Catalog
1. rocket, shoots 150' before exploding into flames crimson and adamant. Spooks spirits, pulps people, and blows doors off their hinges.
2. grappling hook and 40 feet of silk rope
3. earhorn. When set against a door, an eavesdropper tends to hear the juiciest secrets.
4. black iron crow, Also called a prybar, wrecking bar, or jemmy
5. smoke bombs (4-pak)
6. red-glass bulls-eye lantern (won't ruin nightsight!)
7. oil can. Scentless. Stops a rusted door from squeaking or causes pursuers to trip.
8. telescoping pole (goes out to eleven feet!)
9. climbing shuko and foot spikes (really works!)
10.  Hand of Glory. Light an unburnt digit to cast hold person. (Certified genuine hand!)
11. x-ray goggles. Penetrates two inches. Shows hollow spots in the wall and who has a skeleton.
12. disguise resembling a godparent

from Basileus, by Andrew

A Digression about Lockpicking
Some people don't know this, but learning how to pick locks is easy. With simple tools, some free time, and pointers from another novice you can pick up the skill super fast. Most locks at the tech level of your game are likely simple by modern standards. Many medieval lockpicks were glorified keyrings, since you didn't need precise teeth to seduce a lock. Therefore, you don't get special lockpicking abilities with this class, but it's understood that you can pick locks. Other people can with a ten minute lecture and a practice lock.

A Digression about Thief's Tools
Assembling a full pack of thief's tools is a wonderful goal for a fledgling adventurer of any class. Vital equipment includes a file, lockpicks, mirror, scissors, and pliers. Look also for a hook, pulley, rope, pry bar, hammer, spikes, saw, and lock oil. Since these tools are so various, you can understand why some designers would simply give out blanket "thief kits". Yet, each tool is handy for a variety of adventuring situations, and you're likely to forget you have a file if no one tells you. Collect tools! A handyman's closet is more useful than a jewelry box to an apprentice burglar.

A Digression about Thieves' Cant
This is a cryptic vocabulary. Some words a thiefing jargon, technical terms of differentiation that those of other professions would have no need for. Other words are for very common concepts like "man" or "woman." Canting would do a good job of obscuring the meaning of a sentence like "the apprentice pickpocket drinks the adulterer's alcohol" but a poor job of obscuring "where is the hollandaise sauce?" or "brevity is the soul of wit." The difference between common speech and thief's cant is not as significant as the difference between English and French, but every difference is made to intentionally exclude outsiders to Society. You can't cant every idea, but you can cant some ideas so well that a mark won't be able to tell that any innuendo is going on. Full conversations in cant are seldom desired.

A Digression about Robbery
Some people don't know this, but robbery is easy. (Don't rob people.) In the modern day, the standard method is to pass a bank teller a note telling them that you're robbing them. In the olden days, you would walk up a traveler, brandish a weapon, and tell them that you're robbing them. The risk is not so much that they'll resist you as much as that the authorities will try to capture you later. If a PC is robbing easy targets, treat it like carousing or rumor-mongering-- a down-time activity with a small chance of coming back to bite you. That said, the funds offered up at knifepoint probably really does pale compared to the wealth tied up in treasuries, fortresses, and dungeons, where the guards will actually try to stab anyone who brandishes a snicker-snee at them.

Gameplay Loop: The Catching-Harvest Campaign

Live fast ☞ scope out a mark ☞ burgle ☞ fence the goods ☞ repeat step one

The point, as ever, is to be stinking rich. The problem is that levels are not permanent-- the more extravagant your expenses were last month, the higher your level. You can maintain a level-one existence without risk just by sticking up passers-by, always moving so the law never catches up to you. But if you dream of a full meal and an emptied wineskin, you need to get your hands on real lucre. 

The early game consists of seducing the innkeeper's assistants to have them let you in at night, or sneaking by kept captains to free them of their pensions, maybe digging up the town's latest stiff for their jewels. The mid game involves collaboration, winning the friendship of landladies to get tips on where you can find wealthy travelers, bribing black monks to switch you with a dead body to have you smuggled into the earl's uncle's wake, forming a gang, and beefing with rival flocks. The late game involves clearing out dungeons for hideouts, knocking over the king's treasuries, and buying a modest barony in Zaldo.

This ambition is in danger of getting spoiled by something-- a war, a vampiric usurper, or the dying out of Society crime. The roads are better watched than they used to be. Getting your money at best is getting worse and worse.

T-H-I-E-F: the Spellthief Guild

An entry into Lexi's Thief Guild system for GLOG. This one is not intended to be specifically compatible with Vain the Sword, but could be brought up to speed with a modicum of effort. It is based on one of my favorite D&D 3.5 classes, the Spellthief, though I hope this class is more broadly useful.

Sabriel

Starting equipment: a handaxe, a bump key, cloth armor, fingerless gloves, a brass idol

Skills (2, d6): 1. ancient history, 2. acrobatics, 3. tattooistry, 4. hobnobbing, 5. vagrancy, 6. cold reading

Spellsnatching

✧:if you prepare for it on the previous turn, you can snatch a spell out of the air as it is being cast and immediately cast it yourself with the same MD roll, incurring any mishaps or dooms. If the MD used exceed your level, you must test intelligence or lose control of the spell.

✧✧:Now when you save against a spell or stab a wizard in the back, you may snatch a spell as above. Snatched spells can be held for up to 1 hour before use.

✧✧✧: You may render a magical item inert for one day to acquire a use of its power in the form of a spell. This will sometimes be straightforward, sometimes require adjudication.

Familiar

✧:You gain the services of a small, loyal animal. It understands simple one-word commands, optionally accompanied by a point.

✧✧: This familiar is now of humanoid-level intelligence and gains the ability to speak all languages you speak. 

✧✧✧: The familiar now regularly confers with magical experts among its own kind. Gain 1 MD, and learn two spells that would be known by a wizard of your familiar's type (e.g. charm vermin for owls, detect traps for mice, hypnotize for snakes)

Tavern Bravery

✧: When under the influence, gain immunity to fear and advantage on madness and carousing checks.

✧✧: Immediately before a job or delve, go to a public place to boast. If you do, test your charisma to get 2d4 random bravos and rowdies to assist you right now. If you fail your charisma test, you still get one. As time goes on, reason threatens to make them leave.

✧✧✧: As above, but double the number of bravos and rowdies you bring along. Also, once per job you may reroll any d20 roll as long as a bravo or rowdy is watching you.

Cheap Tricks

✧: you now have the ability to use scrolls and similar items as though a wizard of your level. You can almost always convince a layperson that a nonmagical item is magical, at least for a little while.

✧✧: With patter and distracting fetishes, you can ask questions that go unnoticed. Once per conversation, make an opposed charisma roll. If you succeed, they quickly answer a question without realizing it.

✧✧✧: Gain 1 MD that can only be used while gesticulating and waving baubles around. Also, you may learn spells from magic items as though they were scrolls.

Opportunistic Piety

✧: you may turn undead as a cleric, taking 1d4 rounds to try an eclectic mix of prayers and holy symbols.

✧✧: You may steal and cast whatever the cleric version of spells are in this version, just like spellsnatching ✧ for normal MD spells. Also, if any foe strikes you while you are taking no offensive action and begging them to stop, gain 1 hp.

✧✧✧: As above, but when you save against a cleric spell or stab a cleric in the back, you may snatch a spell as above.

Sandman

✧:When you touch a sleeping or unconscious person (or share a dream with them), you may steal a random spell, allowing you to cast it at any point in the next hour with +1 MD (minimum 1.)

✧✧:When you touch a sleeping or unconscious person (or share a dream with them), you may interrogate their unconscious selves, halfway between reading their minds and casting speak with dead. Ask one question per level you possess. 

✧✧✧: Your dreams are prophetic and strange. +1 MD and when you are physically attacked you may spend MD to add to your AC, losing spent MD as normal.

Reappropriation

THIEF (rogue, spy, burglar, assassin)

1	Deft 1d6, Greed
2	Skilful
3	Deft 2d6
4	Skilfull, Anticipate 1/day
5	Deft 3d6
6	Skilfull
7	Deft 4d6
8	Skilfull, Anticipate 2/day
9	Deft 5d6
10	Skilfull

Starting Skills: any one expertise, bolt, stealth, and one other

Deft: After making an attack roll against an unknowing or flatfooted opponent, or when making a skill test, you may add a d6 to your total. The number of d6s you may spend per day increases with every other level.

Greed: Every time you personally acquire more money than you’ve ever seen before, you may subtract one point from one of your primaries attributes to add one point to another primary attribute.

Skilfull: Every even level, a thief may either gain a new skill or select a specialty in a skill they already possess. A specialization confers a new ability related to that skill.

Table 4: skill specializations

Logistics: when you succeed a test, you may forgo staying under budget to pick two.	Stealth: spend a deftness die to let an ally use your result on the next shared stealth roll
Craft: when you succeed in appraisal, you know if the item was stolen.	Expertise: you can use the skill to babble. Among laypeople, you can apply an existing expertise skill to create convincing misinformation. This can be used as a sort of performance.
Acrobatics: If you succeed by 5+, you perform the stunt silently.	Rumor: New move: incept. You manipulate a group into starting a project. If you succeed by less than five, pick one. If you succeed by 5+, pick three. The project is under budget, effectively directed, meets its deadline, you get inside knowledge of the project, you’re sure no one witnessed your machinations, you are not mentioned in the project’s plans,
Nonverbals: you automatically detect when someone is using the nonverbal skill	Spellcraft: You can dismantle existing magical wards and effects as per the craft ability. You get a penalty to the roll equal to the level of the spell effect.
Implicature: when you succeed on a bargaining test, you may forgo dealing honestly to pick two.	Survivalism: You and a number of allies equal to your level leave no tracks.
Perform: you may pass on secret messages in your art, just like using nonverbal communication.	Bolt: If you succeed, pick two.
Diligence: you can use intelligence instead of wisdom to endure tedium and practice a trick. You can use charisma instead of wisdom to check in with allies	Library Science: you may pick “you find the most valuable works.”
Sleight: In the time it takes to make one test, you may conceal a number of items equal to your level.	Psychology: You may pick “the mark is quickly analyzed” when performing analysis.

Anticipate: Once per day, when in combat, a thief can make a specific prediction about what action a foe will take. If the foe takes that action on their next turn, it provokes an attack or other standard action from the thief, and the thief adds a d6 to the pool they can use that combat with the deft ability.