Gambler [3.5e Base Class]

[YouLostMe]

I know Bozwevial already made one, but I've got players that have trouble keeping track of wizard spells and I can't quite trust them with a maneuver wheel of fortune. This class is meant to be self-contained (no subsystem references) with a high skill floor, and should increase in complexity as the character advances in level to help circumvent option paralysis at low levels.

HD: d4
Skills: The gambler's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).
Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence modifier, x4 at first level.
You're probably going to want full ranks in Profession (Gambler) and Bluff.

Table: The Gambler

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Ante Dice	Lucky Break Points
1	+0	+0	+2	+0	Gambling Basics, Lucky Break	--	3
2	+1	+0	+3	+0	Mystic Fortune 1/day, Skill Focus	--	6
3	+1	+1	+3	+1	Improved Feint, Up the Ante	1d6	9
4	+2	+1	+4	+1	Gambler's Eye	2d6	12
5	+2	+1	+4	+1	Gambler's Hunch, Sharpened Wit	3d6	15
6	+3	+2	+5	+2	Mystic Fortune 2/day	4d6	18
7	+3	+2	+5	+2	Dirty Fighting	5d6	21
8	+4	+2	+6	+2	Never a Bad Hand	6d6	24
9	+4	+3	+6	+3	The House Always Wins	7d6	27
10	+5	+3	+7	+3	At a Glance	8d6	30
11	+5	+3	+7	+3	Mystic Fortune 3/day, Stacked Deck	9d6	33
12	+6/+1	+4	+8	+4		10d6	36
13	+6/+1	+4	+8	+4	Killer Flourish	11d6	39
14	+7/+2	+4	+9	+4		12d6	42
15	+7/+2	+5	+9	+5	Magic Trick, Quickstep	13d6	45
16	+8/+3	+5	+10	+5	Mystic Fortune, 4/day	14d6	48
17	+8/+3	+5	+10	+5	Faster than the Eye, Destiny	15d6	51
18	+9/+4	+6	+11	+6		16d6	54
19	+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Fool the Universe	17d6	57
20	+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Twist of Fate	18d6	60

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The gambler is proficient with simple weapons and light armor, but not shields.

Gambling Basics: Before assigning skill points from his first level, the gambler puts 1 rank each in Profession (Gambler) and Bluff. These do not count against the skill points he spends otherwise.

Lucky Break (Su): Gamblers are born lucky. The gambler gains a pool of temporary hit points called Lucky Break Points. These points act just like temporary hit points and are lost first when the gambler takes damage. Lucky Break Points reset to their maximum value after the gambler rests for 8 hours.

The gambler's maximum Lucky Break Points are equal to the sum of the points granted by his class level (see Table: The Gambler above) and his Charisma modifier. Whenever the gambler would gain healing or temporary hit points from a source, he instead increases his Lucky Break Points by the same amount if there is room. Any difference in healing or temporary HP after that is then applied normally.

Mystic Fortune (Su): The level 2 gambler's skill with dice and cards go beyond those of normal men. Once per day, he can reactively perform one of the following actions. Profession (Gambler) checks made with this ability do not benefit from competence bonuses, and must be made before the original roll would be. The gambler gains an additional daily use of Mystic Fortune at levels 6, 11, and 16. He can refresh a single daily use of this ability if any creature in his line of sight with the same or greater number of hit dice as him rolls a natural 1 or a natural 20 (on a d20, you little munchkin) as part of a swift, move, standard, or full-round action. For this reason, gamblers tend to carry around dice or other games that they play in order to keep their luck going.

• Replace an initiative check with a Profession (Gambler) check.
• Replace a saving throw with a Profession (Gambler) check.
• Use cheat as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his ranks in Bluff.
  
• (Level 4 minimum) Replace a roll defending against a combat maneuver with a Profession (Gambler) check.
• (Level 6 minimum) Replace his armor class with a Profession (Gambler) check against one attack. This replaces his flat-footed and touch AC as well, but any other penalties to AC (such as from being shaken, or his Up the Ante class feature) still apply.
• (Level 8 minimum) Replace his spell resistance (even if he does not have any) with a Profession (Gambler) check against one spell.
• (Level 10 minimum) Enter a surprise round that he did not get to participate in. If there is no surprise round, he instead participates in it alone but is only allowed a move action.
• (Level 12 minimum) Reduce a single instance of damage (of any type, from any source) by the result of a Profession (Gambler) check.
• (Level 13 minimum) Receive the benefit of a single spell cast by a High Risk target within your line of sight. You can only benefit from a single spell at a time this way.
• (Level 14 minimum) Remove one condition or effect currently affecting him. The gambler must be at least slightly aware to use this ability, thus he cannot use it when dead or unconscious but he can use it when confused or frightened.
  
• (Level 16 minimum) Gain a 50% miss chance against one attack that originates from more than 5 feet away from the gambler.
• (Level 18 minimum) Allow himself and any allies within line of sight to enter a surprise round that they did not get to participate in. If there is no surprise round, they instead participate alone but are only allowed a move action.

Skill Focus: At level 2, the gambler gains Skill Focus (Profession (Gambler)) as a bonus feat.

Improved Feint: At level 3, the gambler gains Improved Feint as a bonus feat.

Up the Ante (Ex):  Life without risk is boring. The level 3 gambler can add a little risk to their life as a swift action, selecting any number of targets within line of sight and declaring them to be High Risk for 1 round. Whenever a gambler attacks a target he declares to be High Risk, he deals bonus damage damage equal to 1d6 + his Charisma modifier. However, the gambler's AC is considered 4 lower while he is being attacked by a High Risk target. This damage increases by 1d6 at each gambler level after 3rd (see Table: The Gambler).

Gambler's Eye (Ex): At level 4, the gambler learns to use his profession in other ways. The gambler can replace his Sense Motive, Appraise, and Search checks with Profession (Gambler) checks. If he has at least 5 ranks in any of these skills normally, he gets a +2 synergy bonus on his check.

Gambler's Hunch (Sp): Sometimes you just know something's going to go down. level 5 gambler can use omen of peril at will, with a caster level equal to his ranks in Profession (Gambler).

Sharpened Wit (Ex): A 5th-level gambler gets even better at stabbing people with his charm. He can add his Charisma modifier to attack rolls against targets he declares to be High Risk.

Dirty Fighting (Ex): At level 7, when a gambler successfully feints against a target, he can make a free attack against them as part of the same action. He cannot use this against a target whose BAB or Sense Motive ranks are greater than his ranks in Bluff.

In addition, the gambler reduces penalties for feinting against nonhumanoids and creature of animal intelligence by 4 (minimum penalty of 0). If it would normally be impossible to feint against a creature, the gambler can do it at a -8 penalty.

Never a Bad Hand (Su): The 8th-level gambler learns to leverage his skills everywhere, no matter what he does. When making an attribute or skill check, he can replace the relevant ability score being used with his ranks in bluff (calculate the modifier from bluff ranks accordingly).

The House Always Wins (Ex): The level 9 gambler knows how to put the pressure on someone if they get too close. The gambler's reach is treated at 5 feet larger against High Risk targets.

At a Glance (Su): At level 10, the gambler is no fool. When observing a creature or object casually, he can identify creature type, alignment characteristics, and magic aura as though he had been studying the creature or object for three rounds with an appropriate detect spell. This does not grant other capabilities of the detect spells, such as sensing the number of creatures of a given type or the auras of things that the gambler cannot normally see.

Stacked Deck (Ex): Everything seems to go the gambler's way when the chips are down. When making an attack roll, the gambler can roll twice and take the higher result.

Killer Flourish (Ex): When feinting, the gambler can take a longer action than normal (Free -> Swift -> Move -> Standard -> 1 round -> x2 rounds after) in order to feint against all enemies within his reach.

In addition, the gambler does not take a penalty for feinting against a nonhumanoid creature or a creature of animal intelligence, and only takes a -4 penalty when feinting when it would normally be impossible.

Magic Trick (Su): The gambler can bluff everything, even magic items. He can substitute spellcraft and use magic device checks with a bluff check, and may make these checks even if untrained.

Quickstep (Ex): The gambler may make an addition 5 foot step each turn as a free action.

Faster than the Eye (Ex): The gambler's ability to trick other creatures  is almost unconscious. He may feint as a swift action.

Destiny (Sp): As a swift action, the gambler can benefit from greater arcane sight and true seeing for 1 round.

Fool the Universe (Sp): At all times, the gambler benefits from greater invisibility with a caster level equal to his hit dice.

Twist of Fate (Su): When a gambler is about to die, he gets to make one more chance to make a gamble. He can add his Profession (Gambler) and Bluff modifiers together to make a check against DC 100. If he succeeds, he avoids the effect that would kill him and is instead transported d% miles away in a random direction.

[YouLostMe]

OK, class should be complete. I'm not big on fluff so maybe I'll add that later.

[RobbyPants]

This class is a very odd sort of glass cannon. Until you start getting Ante Dice, it really doesn't have anything going for it.

At level 1, you are basically a wizard with no spells (but with a good Reflex instead of Will), and in exchange, you get two free skill points and an odd sort of Toughness. It either needs a better chassis to stand on its own (3/4 BAB and d8 HD) or it needs some other ability at level 1.

At level 2, you effectively get Toughness again, Skill Focus, and a one/day effect that could definitely be handy, but it's once per day.

Once you hit level 3, the class seems to start opening up. The Ante Dice seem to scream Two Weapon Fighting to me since there's no limit to the number of attacks that can be made with it per round on any target. Not that this is bad; I think it's probably necessary to keep the damage output up enough. Of course, if you don't kill your target, they get to hit you back easier with the AC penalty, and you have a poor BAB, so you're not really good at hitting anyway. Luckily, the difference between 1/2 and 3/4 BAB at this level is only one point. At level 5, it looks like you add +Cha to hit with this ability, so you will close the gap.

I'm not really sure what the point of Lucky Break points is. I get that you effectively gain 3 temp HP per level (making your d4 average out to a d10), but they don't work like normal HP. They wont' heal when you get healed, and they only replenish after a rest or if you get a spell that grants you temp HP (which are typically less effective point for point than healing spells). Also, any time you'd normally gain temp HP, you don't, and you instead get Lucky Break points. This seems in almost all ways to be a hindrance rather than a benefit. Also, the bookkeeping would be more annoying. If they replenished more quickly, they'd be more useful. For example: you probably wouldn't hurt a thing if you allowed the Gambler to make a Profession (Gambling) check to restore an amount of Lucky Break points equal to the result as a standard, or even move action.

The other abilities seem relatively handy, although I'm not seeing a lot of "high level" stuff on there. I don't see a really good way to deal with flying creatures, let alone the ability to fly or do similar things.

Never a Bad Hand could probably be ridiculously powerful in the right circumstances, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. You're basically adding +11 to an ability check, and this bonus will increase by +1 every level. It breaks the RNG about as soon as you get it.

I'm confused as to what Faster Than the Eye does. From what I can tell, you spend a swift action to feint, which means you could full attack them, plus get one extra attack as a free action, and the guy is denied his Dex bonus to AC; however, the only time this class is doing level-appropriate damage is when he's using Up the Ante, which also requires a full-round action. Your Cha modifier will likely be higher than the Dex mod of the guy you're hitting, so you'll probably hit more often using UtA compared to FTtE, and you'll also do way more damage. You might need to add some damage dice to Dirty Fighting to make it and FTtE useful.


I think the idea is good, but you'll want to refine a few things here and there to polish it off.

[YouLostMe]

There are a few big things I think you missed, which means I need to make them a lot clearer in the class. I actually designed this class to be a tank with meaningful abilities and some real gating.

At level 1, life is cheap and having opposable thumbs is a useful class feature. I tried to model it sort of after the lvl1 ranger -- similar HP (7 + ConMod + ChaMod), similar skills, but with the consistent features of 2 free skill ranks and 3 + ChaMod HP recharging each day instead of condition features like favored enemy, track, and wild empathy. I just noticed that the class has IntMod instead of ChaMod, and I will change that.

The level 2 effect has a bit at the end that says it recharges anytime a creature of your HD or greater rolls a nat1/nat20 on a standard/move/swift action, so you can recharge it out of combat and it might crop up more than once in each combat. The idea was that you blow it every fight for +5 Init in the hopes that you will be able to get it back mid-combat (so the play pattern is gambling, just like the name). I've moved it to the front.

The Ante Dice are pretty good for TWF, but I wanted to scale them such that you don't need TWF to deal good damage. The damage (and hit bonus) is there to encourage the Gambler to designate enemies at High Risk and beat them up, while the AC penalty is there to encourage enemies to attack the Gambler. This way the tanking doesn't seem artificial like a PHB II knight's challenge.

My goal with Lucky Break Points is to gate the Gambler's defenses so that attrition meaningfully alters playstyle. Where the sorcerer loses most of his potency when he's out of spells and the warblade can punch dudes the same way in every fight, the gambler's tank/cannon status changes as he goes through multiple fights. Without short rests, he loses his advantage in action economy and one-shot defenses. Without long rests, he loses his residual tanking power. But no matter what, he can always use his the high-risk, high-reward playstyle offered by Up The Ante. I totally forgot about healing spells, though... I have fixed the Lucky Break Points so the healer won't get frustrated.

High-level abilities come from his spell copying (lvl13 Mystic Fortune), UMD abuse (lvl15 Magic Trick), and consistent divination abilities (lvl4 Gambler's Hunch, lvl10 At a Glance, lvl17 Destiny) plus decent access to epic skills (lvl8 Never A Bad Hand). I wanted to make the class more reactionary outside of combat, so his tricks shine when his buddies are wizards and are just kind of cool when he is paired up with fighters. If you don't think those abilities are good enough, I can look for something to add, but I'd rather avoid stuff like flight.

Never A Bad Hand uses bluff ranks for attribute, not modifier. So the highest modifier you can get is from rank 23 (+7). At the level you get it, you have rank 11 (+0) so it just replaces negative ability scores.

Faster Than The Eye is basically never useful on its own, but it works with Killer Flourish to let your AoE feint (and AoE attack!) as a move action. The synergy isn't explicit, so should I write that in? As a side note, this class is designed basically to never full attack -- you'll get way more from feinting with every move. Even standard+move feint gives you two attacks at your highest bonus. My biggest worry about this class is the amount of time a turn takes IRL, since you roll and check possible attacks for every feint.