Commoner Prestige Class: The Village Idiot
Sir Bob
You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
be done? I beg to differ. ;)
***
VILLAGE IDIOT
In many a quaint little village, there lives an individual whose dubious
honor it is to provide entertainment and a convenient target for casual
abuse for his weary and downtrodden neighbours. Reknowned for his
simple-minded idiocity, this poor soul's apparent purpose in life is to be
mocked and ridiculed by everyone around him for the crime of being unusual.
Yet many village idiots do not appear upset by their plight; in fact, many
go about their lives in a sort of cheerful haze, offering their nonsensical
observations and accepting the random cruelty that is their lot with a
curious smile, as if deep down, they _know_ something that everyone else
does not. Most put this attitude down to mere stupidity, assuming that the
idiot is merely too dim to understand his plight; often, they are absolutely
right.
But sometimes, just sometimes, they're wrong.
Hit Die: d4.
REQUIREMENTS
Feats: Alertness.
Special: A character must be mentally incompetent to become a village idiot.
This may entail actual insanity, or simply extremely low intelligence.
CLASS SKILLS
The village idiot's class skills are Climb (Str), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis),
Perform (Cha), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The village idiot is not proficient with
weapons, armor, or shields.
Fools and Children (Su): It is said that the gods watch over fools and small
children, and the village idiot is living proof. At 1st level, once per day
the village idiot may re-roll one roll that he has just made, as the granted
power of the Luck cleric domain; the village idiot may use this ability one
additional time per day for every three class levels beyond the 1st.
Simple Speech (Sp): A village idiot may often be seen talking to animals,
trees, or even rocks, and behaving as if he has received answers in kind.
Many put this behaviour down to simple dementia; the truth is nothing short
of amazing. Once per day, a village idiot can speak to unspeaking things,
and somehow interpret a meaningful response; at 2nd level, this ability
duplicates Speak with Animals, as cast by a druid of the village idiot's
class level. At 5th level, the village idiot may choose to Speak with
Plants instead, and at 8th level he may invoke Stone Tell.
Words of Wisdom (Su): It is a favorite past-time in many villages to put
questions of serious import to the village idiot, and then mock the Idiot's
naive and foolish responses; however, few people realize that sometimes, a
village idiot's babble may yield up pearls of wisdom. Once per day, when
asked for advice in a mocking or sarcastic fashion, the village idiot can
produce a response that appears nonsensical, but is actually totally
accurate. At 3rd level, this ability duplicates the effects of Augury, as
cast by a cleric of the village idiot's class level; at 6th level, the
effect increases to duplicate Divination.
Simple Sight (Su): At 9th level, the village idiot's dementia grants him
unique insight into the true nature of the world. He functions as if
continously under the influence of True Seeing as cast by a druid of his
class level; if this ability is dispelled, it may be reestablished as a free
action.
Table 1: The Village Idiot
Base
Class Attack Fort Ref Will
Level Bonus Save Save Save Special
1st +0 +0 +0 +0 Fools and Children 1/day
2nd +1 +0 +0 +0 Simple Speech (Speak with Animals)
3rd +1 +1 +1 +1 Words of Wisdom (Augury)
4th +2 +1 +1 +1 Fools and Children 2/day
5th +2 +1 +1 +1 Simple Speech (Speak with Plants)
6th +3 +2 +2 +2 Words of Wisdom (Divination)
7th +3 +2 +2 +2 Fools and Children 3/day
8th +4 +2 +2 +2 Simple Speech (Stone Tell)
9th +4 +3 +3 +3 Simple Sight
10th +5 +3 +3 +3 Fools and Children 4/day
***
Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
- Sir Bob.
Talen
<sir...@penguinking.com> wrote:
>Before anyone asks: yes, this is the result of a particulary ridiculous bet.
>You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
>be done? I beg to differ. ;)
1. I love the flavour text.
2. In all seriousness, I know two players who would take this class,
_maybe_ three, and I'm one of the definites.
Love it.
--
Talen
http://hypercrescendo.net/talen/
"Devoutness doesn't have anything to do with, as I like to
call it, the Complete Fucking Idiot factor."
- Jim Stanfield
The Gurus love you
A'koss
news:3edeb026$1...@news3.accesscomm.ca...
> VILLAGE IDIOT
> Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
Two comments...
1) I will never, *ever* use it.
2) Great work, kudos!
Cheers!
A'koss.
--
The Rings of Concordance have moved!
http://members.shaw.ca/infinity
3) Hmm, on second thought this might have potential for a "mad oracle" type in
my Norse campaign... Hmm....
4) Okay you twisted my arm, consider it stolen!
Chris Camfield
princess plus everything else.
Chris
CARRIER LOST
> VILLAGE IDIOT
>
> Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
i love it.
--
/\_-\ dr...@visi.com (CARRIER LOST) <http://www.visi.com/~drow/>
<((_))> -----------------------------------------------------------------
\- \/ "Can't sleep clowns will eat me" -- Bart Simpson
Beau Yarbrough
> You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
> be done? I beg to differ. ;)
Been there, done that! :p
> Special: A character must be mentally incompetent to become a village idiot.
> This may entail actual insanity, or simply extremely low intelligence.
I'd clarify this -- how low is the INT? To avoid linking the prestige
class to a stat (always something that feels against the spirit of
prestige classes to me), I'd have a minimum negative stat modifier
when adding the INT and WIS modifiers together.
> The village idiot's class skills are Climb (Str), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis),
> Perform (Cha), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Nice touch none of these being INT skills.
> Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
I really like this class. I think it may be a TINY bit too powerful,
so I'd make it harder to qualify (and put in a caveat about ex-village
idiots, who lose access to the class abilities if they ever get too
smart) and possibly remove the upgrades to the divination ability.
Dan
real power, which is what it's like in real life....I suppose....but
yeah, it's friggin awsome, great jorb!!!!
Cheers
-Dan
R. Scott Rogers
> Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
Finally, a PrC that allows us to accurately model the Tick. The only
question is how many levels of Fighter or Barbarian he took before gaining
his Village Idiot levels.
Scott
--
R. Scott Rogers
scott at madforjam.com
"Orc Liver - the Paladin's foi gras"
http://www.madforjam.com/dnd/main.html
Sir Bob
news:52d8cd01.0306...@posting.google.com...
Not particularly, when you think about it - compare it to, say, ten levels
of a base spellcasting class like wizard or cleric. It's weaker than pretty
much any PC class (prestige or non-) on the books - that means it's an NPC
class. ;)
- Sir Bob.
Nockermensch
> You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
> be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
> ***
>
> VILLAGE IDIOT
<snip>
ROTFLMAO in a good sense. Great class!
--
@ @ Nockermensch, wondering the CR of such beast.
Hong Ooi
wrote:
>Before anyone asks: yes, this is the result of a particulary ridiculous bet.
>You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
>be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
>***
>
>VILLAGE IDIOT
[...]
By jove, I think I've found the partial avatar of Humility for my campaign.
--
Hong Ooi | "I'm so confused all the time"
ho...@zipworld.com.au | -- MC
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/dnd/ |
Sydney, Australia |
Anonymous Jack
>
> > Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
Brilliant! But... just a d4 HP? Village idiots, though easily
wounded, are notoriously difficult to kill.
They often live long enough to foil the bad guys. And killing or
injuring one should bring down some kind of curse...
And I would add "gather information" or whatever that skill is
officially called... village idiots are often in the right place at
the right time, and people aren't particularly careful what they say
around village idiots ("Who was that? Someone heard our plotting!"
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's the village idiot, he's completely
harmless.")
Hat's off, very clever fellow.
James Quick
alordo...@yahoo.com (Anonymous Jack) wrote:
> And I would add "gather information" or whatever that skill is
> officially called... village idiots are often in the right place at
> the right time, and people aren't particularly careful what they say
> around village idiots ("Who was that? Someone heard our plotting!"
> "Oh, don't worry about him. He's the village idiot, he's completely
> harmless.")
Excellent idea, but one thought:
Since Gather Info is an active-use skill (i.e. the character has to
try to gain some info) I would model this as a "bardic knowledge"-type
skill, but only allow it to apply to local news, events, gossip, etc.
Allow the character to make a roll to see if he ever heard of such a
plot, or some such.
--
James Quick [][][] jamesqu...@hotmail.com
"Who's your dungeon master *now*?"
Zath, the Spider God of Zamora
jh
Jack Rudd
>
We've found a PrC to model Burke! Hooray!
Jack Rudd
Justisaur
Sir Bob wrote:
>
> Before anyone asks: yes, this is the result of a particulary ridiculous bet.
> You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
> be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
> ***
>
> Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
>
> - Sir Bob.
This is the best use of a prestige class I've seen so far! Awsome.
The alertness prerequisite doesn't make sense to me though, reasoning?
Also I have to agree with R. Village Idiots tend to be exceptionally
hard to kill. You might want to work in there something like the
rogue's defensive roll ability.
And maybe a curse if attacked or killed (affecting wiz int dex or con)
- Justisaur -
check http://justisaur.tripod.com/well.htm for my encounter generator,
xp calculator, and other usefull documents.
Anonymous Jack
> alordo...@yahoo.com (Anonymous Jack) wrote:
> > And I would add "gather information" or whatever that skill is
> > officially called... village idiots are often in the right place at
> > the right time, and people aren't particularly careful what they say
> > around village idiots ("Who was that? Someone heard our plotting!"
> > "Oh, don't worry about him. He's the village idiot, he's completely
> > harmless.")
>
> Excellent idea, but one thought:
>
> Since Gather Info is an active-use skill (i.e. the character has to
> try to gain some info) I would model this as a "bardic knowledge"-type
> skill, but only allow it to apply to local news, events, gossip, etc.
> Allow the character to make a roll to see if he ever heard of such a
> plot, or some such.
Much better - I like. But I would still allow it to be a matter of
import if the plotting individuals happened to be in the village;
village idiots are often in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong
time. Purely a matter of chance (or intuition/divine guidance if you
will).
And it should be purely chance that the village idiot would remember
it, or even mention it. And the village idiot could certainly blurt
it out at the most inopportune moments, as well, for no reason at all.
:-)
Reginald Blue
> Before anyone asks: yes, this is the result of a particulary
> ridiculous bet. You thought a prestige class geared towards the
> Commoner NPC class couldn't be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
> ***
>
> VILLAGE IDIOT
I have to say that the thing that disturbs me the most about D20 is that, no
matter how stupid, insane, or bizarre you get, as long as you stay within
the rules, the result is playable, and in many cases useful.
This is the best example so far. Very very well done.
--
Reginald Blue
"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my
telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my
telephone."
- Bjarne Stroustrup (originator of C++) [quoted at the 2003
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces]
Mad'Doug
<sir...@penguinking.com> deemed themselves worthy to grace
rec.games.frp.dnd with his/her presence, and uttered.....:
<snip>
Brilliant! Well written and printing as a type.
--
Mad'Doug
"Any errors in fact, thought, spelling or grammar occured during transmission."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Please remove the apostrophe (') to email me
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse Lambert
>
> VILLAGE IDIOT
>
> In many a quaint little village, there lives an individual whose dubious
[etc, etc, etc]
wow even though this seems as though it's more of a joke than anything else,
I rather like it... hell I'm sticking it in storage and will probably
actually make use of it in my campaign, I'll probably attempt to use the
errr bard-like Idiotic Knowledge mentioned by anonymous jack in there
somewhere. I'll let you know how it goes if I ever get around to running my
campaign, and repost it with any tweaks I might make... :)
Sir Bob
bet.
> You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class
couldn't
> be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
> ***
>
> VILLAGE IDIOT
<snip>
Follow-up: Thanks for the comments, all. I've realized that there are many
archetypes that fall under the broad class of "village idiot" other than the
one I'm trying to represent; many of you have pointed out the invisible
observer, the strangely durable bumbler, the God-touched simpleton... but I
think I'm going to leave it largely as-is. If I gave this class bard-like
folk-knowledge *and* rogue-like accidental injury avoidance *and*
stereotypical peasant-hardiness *and* divine grace *and* mad insight
*and*... well, can you see where this is going? It would quickly turn into
an uber-class despite its lousy Hit Dice, BAB, and saves if I tried to
represent every conception of the village idiot that comes along.
Thanks again, folks. ;)
- Sir Bob.
HADSIL
I Love it!
Gerald Katz
I Love New York!
Justisaur
Aw. Just give him some more nasty negatives. Like say -1 Int per
level, or more. There's already a precident with the negative wisdom
from shadowmagic in FR :) Hey after awhile you could even give him
another prestige class if there are any druids around "Awakened Villiage
Idiot". :)
And maybe a special requirement that would be hard for players to take.
Um, something like "dropped on head as a baby"
> Thanks again, folks. ;)
>
> - Sir Bob.
phy
news:bd5b7d0e.03060...@posting.google.com:
> I absolutely love it. It's great because the village idiot has some
> real power, which is what it's like in real life....I suppose....but
> yeah, it's friggin awsome, great jorb!!!!
heh. You mispronounced jaerrrrrb. You're welcome.
-phy
Sir Bob
news:bbuejj$d3q$1...@blue.rahul.net...
> How about having a list of Village Idiot abilities and say that the VI can
> take one per level? That lets you add in other village idiot archetypical
> powers without being concerned about one VI getting the whole list.
<snip>
Heh - this is D&D, not d20 Modern. =P Besides, I was challenged to come up
with a prestige class following the precedent of existing prestige classes -
no fair modifying the system for my own nefarious ends. ;)
- Sir Bob.
First Prophet of Kaos
wrote:
>Before anyone asks: yes, this is the result of a particulary ridiculous bet.
>You thought a prestige class geared towards the Commoner NPC class couldn't
>be done? I beg to differ. ;)
>
>***
>
>VILLAGE IDIOT
Wot, you trying to import Hong into your game? :p
--
When in doubt, RTFM.
Fox Lee
>Comments? Criticisms? Bizarre flames? =P
Really, really cool. The only real compliant I have (though it's
hardly a complaint) is that I'd be tempted to change the name.
"Jester" springs to mind, since it seems they were often these sorts
of people. But the class rocks ^___^
Sir Bob
message news:9sa6evo1s9v60afms...@4ax.com...
Oh, I have something entirely different in mind for a "Jester" class.
Archetypally, the jester is the only one who can speak the bald,
unadulterated truth to the King without being sentenced to death for it -
many jesters were actually highly intelligent people who leveraged their
demeaning roles to gain immense influence over royal politics and "insider
knowledge" of the life of the court. I'm still toying with how to represent
that, but I'm sure I'll come up with something eventually. ;)
- Sir Bob.
Quentin Stephens
@news3.accesscomm.ca:
> VILLAGE IDIOT
>
<snip>
Mwahahahaha! Brilliant!
If I were to offer one suggestion for an improvement, it would be
that fellow villagers would come to his aid if truly threatened -
"he's OUR VI: hurt him and you deal with us."
lord zog
Just make them idiot-only feats available at the standard 3rd, 6th and 9th
levels or something
--
Jon
-----
We are the people our parents warned us about, and we're here to stay.
Bryan J. Maloney
I played at writing up an ueber-idiot class based on the rogue and the
cleric. The only catch was that one could not voluntarily enter that
class. One had to be quite bonkers to qualify.