Beggar - Professional (Character Kit)

Class Information 	Class Information
Class Requirements 	Thief (no multiclassing)
Racial Requirements 	Half-elf (moon, wild), dwarf (shield), gnome (forest, rock), halfling
Ability Requirements 	Charisma 9, Dexterity 9
Prime Requisite 	Charisma, Dexterity
Aligments 	Any nonlawful
Social Rank 	Lower class
Hit Die Type 	d6
Attack as 	Rogue
Save as 	Rogue
Advance as 	Thief
Spell Ability? 	No
Exceptional Strength? 	No
Exceptional Constitution?	No
Starting Cash (x10 gp) 	3d4 gp (see below)
Proficiencies 	Proficiencies
Weapon Slots 	2
Initial Weapons 	Club, dagger, dart, knife, quarterstaff, sling
Additional WP Slot 	4
Additional Weapons 	Standard thief (see below)
Nonproficiency Penalty 	-3
Nonweapon Slots 	3
Additional NWP Slot 	4
Available Categories 	General, Rogue
Bonus Proficiencies 	Begging (CTH), disguise, information gathering (CTH), survival (urban)
Recommended Proficiencies	Alertness (CRH), appraising, endurance (CTH), fast-talking (CTH), forgery, gaming, musical instrument, observation (CTH), seamstress/tailor, singing, trailing (CTH)
Secondary Skills 	No skill applicable
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==Overview==
Demihuman beggars began their "careers" cursed by prejudice or misfortune. Some, however, earn extra money on the streets by selling information, running errands or messages, picking pockets, and serving as lookouts for other thieves. They are superb con artists, often able-bodied but capable of faking any sort of injury or affliction to play on the sympathies of passers-by. They twist their poverty into a minor source of wealth and power in the urban realms of mankind. A few beggars are spies for foreign demihuman powers. Demihuman beggars are seen in human-dominated cities from Waterdeep south to Calimshan, and in many cities around the Sea of Fallen Stars.
==Description==
A demihuman beggar has filthy hair, dirty skin, ragged clothing, a wooden bowl for alms, and possibly a battered musical instrument for playing to a crowd. The beggar might have bandages, appear to be maimed, or show symptoms of disease. He is an expert at faking injury and disease, but some of his disabilities could be quite real. Weapons are always disguised or hidden.
==Roleplaying==
Finding any advantage to being homeless, poor, and despised by society is quite a trick. A demihuman who is a professional beggar, however, desires this sort of life because of the anonymity and special contacts it provides which allow him to take advantage of the upper classes (and often, the humans) he hates. The professional beggar is a parasite. He works with many elements in a city's underworld, begging for coins and food while dealing in information with thieves, smugglers, thugs, spies, or assassins.
Sometimes a beggar leads a double life, sneaking out of a city to go adventuring with others and seek his fortune. Often, the beggar-adventurer quickly spends whatever riches he gains and returns to his old city, again a beggar—until he next goes out on a quest for wealth..
==Special Advantages==
A beggar gains an exceptional knowledge of the city in which he lives. He knows of passages through sewers and alleyways, abandoned rooms, and other escape routes and hiding places. If a beggar is being pursued but manages to elude his pursuers for only one round, he has an 8% chance per level of completely evading pursuit by seeming to vanish into thin air. He is not visible to any form of magical true seeing as he is hidden behind other objects and possibly moving farther away with every second. Unless extraordinary magic is used (DM's option), he cannot be found until he decides to come out again. The maximum chance to hide in this manner is 96%.
If a beggar must flee but cannot evade pursuers in this manner, he can attempt to make a Dexterity check on 1d100, subtracting his level from the roll to better his chances for success. Success means he outruns his pursuers in an incredible burst of speed.
Pickpocketing is so important a survival skill that the beggar gains a +15 bonus to his chances to use this talent. This skill is used to filch food from street vendors, palm coins found on the pavement, or perform minor sleight of hand tricks for passers-by.
When the disguise proficiency is used to mimic an injury or affliction but not to disguise his actual identity, the beggar gains a +2 bonus on the proficiency check.
The beggar's survival skill lies in urban areas. He is so good at this skill that he can successfully find food, shelter, and clothing for himself without making a proficiency check under normal city conditions. He raids garbage and sleeps in hidden spots, managing to stay alive with the barest necessities. During wartime, natural disasters, extreme heat or cold, major civil disorders, and so forth, a check must be made daily to thrive; if it is failed, the beggar is hungry, thirsty, or cold.
If the beggar normally appears to be carrying no weapon but has one or more concealed weapons on his person, he gains a +2 bonus to his first initiative roll if threatened or attacked. This happens as he pretends to cower or turn to flee, instead pulling out a weapon and confronting his attacker.
==Special Disadvantages==
The first disadvantage of being a demihuman beggar concerns the money initially gained (3d4 gp). More funds might come later from other helpful characters, but the beggar starts out at rock bottom.
Initial weapons are restricted to those that cost a small amount, are simple to make or find, and are easy to hide or conceal (for example, a quarterstaff or club can be used as a walking stick, splint, or blind-man's stick). Out of the normal thieves' weapons, this excludes short bows, swords, and hand crossbows. Lassos have little place in a city and are also excluded. At higher levels, a beggar can learn to use these excluded weapons—but if he is seen using them, word spreads rapidly and he draws great suspicion that he is an assassin, spy, or thief.
A beggar cannot have the reading/writing proficiency at 1st level, though this may be gained normally later on. No points can be allocated to his read languages thieving skill at 1st level, but these can be added later, too. Because opening locks and finding/removing traps involve specialized training, the beggar takes a -10 penalty on these abilities.
While the character is being generated, the player of a demihuman beggar must make a Constitution check on 1d20. Failure indicates the beggar has an actual affliction of a serious nature: a missing limb, a damaged sense, scars from a disease, a pronounced stutter, etc. The player must select the affliction, which should have an actual penalty in game terms (for example, reduced movement, loss of Charisma or other ability score, penalty to surprise or initiative checks, or penalty to rolls for saving throws, attacks, damage, proficiency checks, etc.).
Some of a beggar's proficiencies rely on his looks and perceived social station: begging, fast-talking, information gathering, and trailing. If a beggar dresses and looks better than a pauper, these proficiencies suffer a cumulative -1 penalty per week that the beggar seems "better off," to a maximum penalty of -8. This keeps the beggar from plowing his gains from adventuring in bettering his lifestyle in public. If the beggar returns to looking awful again, the penalty freezes and begins to improve by 1 point each week thereafter until normal proficiency checks can again be made.
Additionally, if at any time a beggar appears in any sort of armor in public, the above proficiency checks immediately drop by -8. He also draws all suspicion normally gained by using a banned weapon. No one treats him as a real beggar if both armor and weapons are displayed.
A demihuman beggar receives reactions of pity and disgust on a daily basis from all around him. This equals a +2 modification to rolled NPC reactions using Table 59 in the DMG, though a hostile reaction is not reached unless the beggar attacks or the NPC hates beggars anyway. Only other Rogues treat a beggar without a negative reaction.
Finally, a demihuman beggar who reaches 10th level gains as followers only other beggars, though the beggar in charge can certainly set up a thieves' guild in this manner. The demihuman beggar gains the ability to read magical or clerical scrolls at 10th level only if he has devoted a reading/writing proficiency to any language, and only if he has also raised his read language thief skill to 50% or more.