Scavenger (Rogue Kit)[]
Scavengers combine a number of skills and abilities to create a unique humanoid character kit. They are expert hunters and searchers, able to locate salvageable items in all types of wilderness terrain. They are artists and craftsmen, able to fix up what they find (at least as far as surface details are concerned) to sell it at a profit. They are cunning and shrewd, crafty peddlers and traders who can usually get the best price for their wares — and perhaps a good bit more.
Player character scavengers have never lost their desire to poke around garbage and other discarded goods. Nothing thrills a humanoid scavenger more than to discover a bright treasure beneath a mound of junk. Often, an adventuring scavenger takes up with other adventurers to secure protection as the hunt for salvageable wares continues.
Requirements: None. Any humanoid rogue, regardless of race, can be a scavenger. Scavengers can be of any alignment or gender.
Role: Scavengers fill a role similar to that of their animal counterparts — they live off the remains of others. These remains can be figurative or literal, for scavengers look for salvageable goods among discarded waste and on the bodies of the dead.
Scavengers rarely operate as members of a humanoid tribe. More often, they are outcasts who turn to picking through the garbage of others to survive. Some even team up with other outcasts to create scavenger gangs, but this is rare. Most scavengers prefer to keep whatever treasures they find for themselves.
Scavengers often look like garbage pickers — they are dirty, dusty, grimy, and often have an unpleasant stench about them. Those just back from a scavenger hunt might also be surrounded by flies and other insects, though most other scavengers would hardly notice. Even when a scavenger tries to make himself presentable before approaching a village to hawk his wares, the telltale signs of dirt and stench linger gently about him, marking the scavenger for what he is.
While a scavenger will be proficient with the normal thieving skills, these are rarely used except in the pursuit of salvage. These humanoids do not believe in stealing as such (except when haggling for trade, see below), for they see garbage and the dead as prime treasure to be sought and salvaged. It is not stealing to take what has been discarded, lost, or forgotten. In fact, scavengers will often follow war parties to pick at the remains of battle the way vultures pick at bones.
For all his disheveled appearance, the scavenger is a shrewd tradesman. He repairs and cleans up the treasures he finds, turning worthless junk into desirable wares. When enough items have accumulated, it's time to go to a village or town to peddle the wares. Few can get the better of a scavenger in a trade — this is usually where they make most of their wealth. While they will sell items of true worth (if they do not want to keep them), more often scavengers sell junk disguised as treasure. They can clean and repair weapons and armor to make them look like new, but the first real use of these items will reveal them as well-polished garbage that breaks under the least bit of pressure.
Weapon Proficiencies: Members of this kit may select any weapons and equipment normally available to thieves.
Nonweapon Proficiencies:
- Bonus Proficiencies: Looting.
- Required proficiencies: Appraising.
- Recommended, General: Artistic ability, blacksmithing, carpentry, direction sense, fast-talking, leatherworking, pottery, riding (land based), seamstress/tailor, weaving.
- Recommended, Warrior: Survival (as appropriate), tracking, weaponsmithing.
- Recommended, Priest: None.
- Recommended, Wizard: None.
- Recommended, Rogue: Ancient history, forgery, gem cutting, local history.
- Forbidden: Reading/writing. Scavengers know the value of books and scrolls, but lack the ability to read or write. They can learn this proficiency during the course of a campaign.
Equipment: Scavengers can purchase and use any equipment and armor usable by thieves. In addition, they must spend onequarter of their starting funds on trade wares. The money represents all that was involved to turn salvaged items into trade goods.
Special Benefits: When meeting others in order to peddle salvaged wares, a scavenger receives a +2 reaction bonus.
Special Hindrances: In all other situations, a scavenger's appearance (and stench) grants him a -2 reaction penalty.
Wealth Options: Scavengers begin play with 2d6 x 5 gp.