Acrobat - Festival (Character Kit)

## Overview

Faerûn has traveling circuses, annual and regional festivals, and trade fairs that showcase the talents of athletic performers eager to show off their agility for the cheers and coins of the crowds. These performers are called festival acrobats, since they are in great demand during the annual festivals of Midwinter, Greengrass, Midsummer, and Higharvestide (and Shieldmeet every four years).

Some festival acrobats have a hidden life as thieves or adventurers, and between festivals they strike out alone or with others to get rich quickly. These acrobats might be hired for special missions requiring their athletic skills; if the assignment aids their people, the acrobats are all the more enthusiastic.

Demihuman acrobats are found throughout Faerûn, except in hostile areas like Thay or Hillsfar. Most got their start in human-dominated cities, working for wayfaring circuses that traveled yearly circuits of various kingdoms. The acrobatic life attracts athletic characters from all over.

## Description

Acrobats tend to be graceful, fairly strong, and in good physical condition. For their festival acts, they dress in brightly colored, tight-fitting clothing. At other times, they prefer stylish, comfortable clothes, avoiding capes, robes, etc., which might trip them up. On adventures, they wear dull or dark clothing (though it may still look stylish). Acrobats do not like to encumber themselves and so travel light.

## Roleplaying

Most demihumans like the acrobatic life because it makes them enormously popular, especially with humans. Some acrobatic thieves also like their work because it lets them take covert revenge on the upstart humans taking over the Realms.

Acrobats as a whole are proud of their bodies and skills, and so tend to be vain and prone to show off, which is understandable. They relish challenges and feel a thrill when facing danger, a special high that they seem to live for.

## Special Advantages

Demihuman acrobats gain a +1 bonus with juggling, jumping, tightrope walking, and tumbling. This bonus increases to +2 if the acrobat is unarmored. Acrobats gain other special bonuses with these proficiencies.

* An acrobat using the juggling proficiency adds his level to his attack roll when attempting to catch a hurled weapon without harm to himself. Missile or hurled weapons too large to catch are instead deflected when using this proficiency.
* An acrobat using the jumping proficiency doubles his level for all jumping calculations. He can use poles up to 20 feet longer than himself, and he can make vaults with a 15-foot run, not dropping the pole if a second proficiency check is made.
* An acrobat who is tightrope walking has only half-normal penalties (drop all fractions; for example, -5 for one-inch surfaces, -2 for two- to six-inch surfaces, and a -2 attack roll penalty). The use of a balancing pole grants a +4 bonus to the check.
* An acrobat using the tumbling proficiency gains the +4 Armor Class bonus during any round in which initiative is won, even if the acrobat attacks later that same round. No proficiency check is required to reduce falling damage, but a successful check doubles the falling distances involved in damage calculations. The spear and quarterstaff can be used for vaulting and can also be hurled as missiles. (A thrown quarterstaff inflicts 1-3 points of damage when its blunt end hits a victim.) Warhammers, hand axes, javelins, spears, and harpoons are sometimes used in juggling acts along with knives and daggers, and the acrobat can use these as weapons, usually hurling them. An acrobat can hurl twice as many weapons like hand axes, darts, daggers, javelins, and warhammers as normally allowed in a melee round.

Normally, the act of dodging is assumed by adding Dexterity bonuses to Armor Class. However, acrobats can dodge attacks that normally bypass consideration of Armor Class. A saving throw vs. paralyzation, with Dexterity and magical bonuses, allows the acrobat to escape all damage from the attack. However, the dodge replaces all other saving throws against that attack; if the dodge fails, normal damage from the attack is immediately taken. Dodging is not used against missiles, hurled weapons, spells targeting a single individual (the acrobat), or spells having no physical effect to dodge (for example, hold person). Applicable attacks include falling, being hit by an object dropped from above, area-effect spells that can be dodged (for example, fireball, lightning bolt, web), and breath weapons.

An acrobat can earn a few coins by performing in public, the exact amount to be determined by the DM.

## Special Disadvantages

Festival acrobats gain no ability to backstab opponents, and they do not gain followers or read magical writings at 10th level.

When wearing armor better than studded leather, they also suffer a cumulative -1 penalty to tumbling, tightrope walking, and jumping proficiency checks per point of Armor Class over 7. Bonuses to Armor Class from Dexterity or magical devices do not engender this penalty; only the wearing of bulky armor (mundane or magical) does.

Festival acrobats insist on traveling light to best use their talents, never carrying more than would slow their movement rate from its normal level (using weight limits from Table 1 in the PHB). If optional rules for encumbrance (PHB, chapter 6) are used, an acrobat should always travel with light encumbrance at most. He refuses to wear armor heavier than leather, and he will not carry heavy or cumbersome objects unless caught in a life-or-death emergency in which he must flee or die. Even then, he returns to his old ways the moment temporary safety is reached.