Gypsey

Description:

The gypsies are a mysterious people who live by a rigid code of personal honor and laws. Because their values often differ from those of the communities that they visit, however, many people regard gypsies as a wild and lawless breed. In truth, however, all such characters must be either lawful or neutral. No matter how much the villagers of the Isles might like to think so, no chaotic gypsies exist. Also, no player character gypsies can be of an evil alignment. Of course, this doesn't mean that all gypsies are virtous and kind. In fact, the ranks of the gypsies are evenly divided between good, neutral, and evil. Thus, while they may adhere to their own standards of honor, their values and morality differ greatly from tribe to tribe.

All gypsey player characters are members of gypsey tribes. for one reason or another, however, they have left their tribe behind to explore and adventure for a time. This is not an uncommon action among the young men and women of Ravenloft's gypsey tribes. During his travels, a young gypsey may well encounter tribes other than his own. Depending upon his alignment and the values of the other tribe, this may or may not present a problem. It is impossible for a gypsey to hide his alignment from another tribe without the use of magical spells. If the adventurer encounters a tribe whose alignment exactly matches his own, he is welcomed as a friend. He is given whatever aid and comfort it is within the means of that tribe to provide. should the tribes alignment deviate only slightly from that of the character (lawful neutral and lawful good, for example), the adventurer is welcomed and treated as a guest. He receives no special consideration but is given food, a place to sleep,and the like. If the adventurer and the tribe do not have similar alignments, he is turned away. Depending on his response to this treatment, violence may erupt. Nothing prohibits one tribe of gypsies from making war on another.

Ability Requirements:

Constitution 13
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 13
Charisma 15
Prime Requisites: Dexterity, Charisma
Races Allowed: Half-elf, Human

In order to be a gypsey, a character must have Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores of at least 13. In addition, his Charisma score must also be at least 15. If a gypsey has Dexterity and Charisma scores of 16 or better, he receives a 10% bonus to nay experience points he earns. The former requirements reflect the fact that the gypsey has traveled far and wide. He must be strong enough to survive the rigours of traveling and should have gathered a great deal of knowledge and common sense in his journeys. The latter requirement indicates the aura of mystery and awe that surrounds these people. Sadly, while this makes them stand out from the common folk of the Isles, it also brands them as outsiders - and citizens of the Isles seldom trust outsiders.

The Gypsey is built sightly different from other classes. They have 30 Points to start off with which can be spent on any thing connnected with the character's background. They also have the following characteristics:-

Arms and Armor

Gypsies have a somewhat limited choice of weapons and armor compared to other rogues. No doubt this is partially responsible for their tendency to avoid direct confrontation in favour of stealth and trickery. Gypsies cannot wear any form of metal armor. Even the delicate and supple chainmail wrought by elf smiths is probited to them. In addition, they can never make use of any form of shield. Gypsies can employ only one-handed melee weapons, although they are free to employ bows, crossbows, and other two-handed missile weapons.

Spells and Magical Items

The gypsies of the Isles have access to a fair selection of magical items and can cast a good many spells. They can also use any magical item normally availiable to members of the thief class. In addition, they have free access to all magical items that emulate divination spells, such as a crystall ball, even when those are intended for characters of another class. Higher level gypsies do not gain the ability to use priest and wizard scrolls as thieves do. However, those that have a divination purpose, like a scroll with detect magic on it, are always useable by them. As they advance in levels, gypsy characters can use a limited number of wizard spells. They do not keep spell books like normal wizards do, although they do need to go through similar steps to learn their spells. In addition, they need not choose their spells ahead of time. Only those spells that fall into the schools of lesser and greater divination are aviliable to the gypsey.

Knife Fighting

The traditional weapon of the gypsey is the knife or dagger. In fact, no other class (with the possible exception of the fighter) is as skillful in the use of these weapons as the gypsey. For that reason, a gypsey can specialize in the use of the knife ust as if he were a fighter. this specialization requires the normal allocation of proficiency slots and applies to both melee combat and the throwing of knives as well. This specialization is a limited form of the fighter's ability, however. While the character does receive the normal +1 attack bonus and +2 damage bonus, he does not gain any extra attacks with the knife.

Gypsey Lore

This ability is similar to that of the bard and the arcanist, who know a little bit about everything. Because of the travelling life of a gypsey, whether he is on his own or in the company of his clan, these characters accumulate a wealth of knowledge about the various lands of the Isles. When a gypsey character is presented with an object, meets a person, explores a place, or is otherwise confronted with something about which he may have knowledge, the Dungeon Master should roll percentile dice. The chance that a character will know something about a given topic is 5% per level. Thus, a 12th-level gypsey has a 60% chance to know a little bit about a given lord or magical object. The extent of the character's knowledge should be determined by the Dungeon Master, but should generally be brief. For example, when a gypsey character first encounters an unfamiliar plant, the Dungeon Master may decide to give the player a chance of recognizing it. If the roll succeeds, the gypsey might be told something like, "Those are blood-roses; I'd keep my distance."

Sinister Perceptions

Because the gypsies are not looked upon with favour by most of the Isles folk, they suffer a marked disadvantage in earning their trust. Whenever a gypsey is called upon to make an encounter reaction check (see the Dungeon Master guide), his result is automatically shifted one place toward hostile. Thus, a gypsey never receives a result of "friendly" when dealing with a nongypsey. Note that this applies only when dealing with nongypsies. the rules presented earlier in this section can be used to adjudicate encounters between members of various gypsey tribes.