Cat Burglar Prestige Class

Hit Die: d6

Requirements

To qualify as a cat burglar, the character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills:
Balance: 6 ranks
Escape Artist: 2 ranks
Jump: 8 ranks
Tumble: 4 ranks

Class Skills:

Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int, restricted skill), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex) , Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Innuendo (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha, restricted skill), Use Rope (Dex).

New use of skill: Swinging (jump skill).

Skill points at each level: 8 + Int modifier.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A cat burglar is proficient with the club, dagger, halfspear, heavy crossbow, javelin, light crossbow, quarterstaff, shortspear, shuriken, and whip. The cat burglar is not proficient with armor or shields.

Athletic Outfit: While empty-handed, barefoot, carrying no baggy clothes, no shield, no armor, no weapon with a size code not at least one size smaller than her own and no more than half of her light load encumbrance maximum, the cat burglar is really set to do athletics. Most cat burglars wear something akin to a monk's outfit (player's handbook, page 112). While thus equipped, she gets a +4 circumstance bonus to climb, jump, swim, and tumble.

Bypass Traps: A cat burglar can opt to try and move past a normally impassible trap with athletics rather than disarming it. Make a escape artist or tumble check (as appropriate for the type of trap) against the normal disarm difficulty. This takes but a move-equivalent action, but leaves the trap in place, as dangerous as before. You cannot move past a trap on an opening you cannot enter, but you can squeeze past a trap on a door (not on a lock) by opening it just slightly.

Trap Dodge: When attacked by a trap, the cat burglar always has her dexterity adjustment to armor class, as long as she can move out of the way. She is never surprised by traps.

Trap Lore: A cat burglar can find and disarm any type of trap, including magical traps, with the same chances as a rogue would have. She can also bypass traps if she beats the disable device DC by ten.

Trap Initiative: A cat burglar gets a bonus to her armor class and Reflex Saving throws of +2 per three levels, but only against attacks from traps.

Special Ability: At second level and every level thereafter, the cat burglar gains one special ability from the following list. You can choose any ability whose number is equal to or lower than your class level plus dexterity modifier (ignore a negative modifier in this case). These are all extraordinary abilities.

1. Balance Pole: A cat burglar can use a pole at least as long as she is tall to improve her balance. A long spear, quarterstaff, javelin or shortspear is appropriate for a medium-size cat burglar. A small cat burglar can also use a straight club or halfspear. With the aid of such a pole used in both hands, the cat burglar gets a +4 circumstance bonus to balance rolls. A collapsible balance pole that can be used with Athletic Outfit can be made for 25 gp and weights 4 lb., but will not work as a weapon.
2. Grapple Gun: The cat burglar can use a powerful crossbow (one at least as large in size code as those who are to climb over) to fasten a silk rope to a wall and then climb or tightrope walk across. The shot uses her attack bonus for the crossbow, and has a DC equal to the hardness of the wall plus one per ten feet of distance. The line will automatically bear a cat burglar with this ability; others who use the line risk dislodging it because they tug at it too much (balance or climb DC 15 to avoid).
3. Stilt Walking: The cat burglar can walk on stilts with a ground clearance in feet equal to her skill bonus in the balance skill. Guards have a hard time spotting people who are above them, so this might allow her to move in their line of vision with a successful hide roll at -10. It can also be used to safely pass dangerous areas like bogs or a field of caltrops.
4. Contortions: You can contort your body and dislocate your joints to get a +4 circumstance bonus on the escape artist skill.
5. Evasion: This is the same as the monk ability evasion, see the Player's Handbook, page 39.
6. Advanced Tumbling: The cat burglar can tumble further than the normal 20 ft. in a round. Add 10 ft. to maximum tumbling distance. This ability stacks with itself, and can be taken several times at higher levels. The cat burglar can take half her maximum tumbling distance of a fall with a successful tumbling roll rather than the standard 10 ft. You can never tumble further than you could have moved ordinarily, so you may have to do a double move to use high levels of this ability.
7. Memory Training: The cat burglar can perfectly recall anything she have seen or heard up to one week per level in the past. This is a powerful way to retrieve information without leaving any physical evidence, and is usually used to cache out a place for a heist.
8. Pole Vaulting: When using a balance pole as described above, a cat burglar can pole-vault. This doubles all jumping distances, and allows her to exceed normal maximum jumping distances. She must release the pole after jumping, but can have it attached to herself by a thin cord and pull it up afterwards. Pole-vaulting requires plenty of space.
9. Improved Swinging: You can swing twice as far as is normally possible, and you need not spend a standard action to fins a suitable line if one is available nearby.
10. Fleet Footed: The cat burglar gets a free partial action each round that can only be used for movement, including athletic variants of movement such as tumbling, jumping or stilt-walking. If you use this ability in the same round as a full-round action, you do not get to take a 5' step.
11. Improved Evasion: This is the same as the monk ability improved evasion, see the Player's Handbook, page 40. You must have evasion to pick this ability.
12. Stage Battle: The cat burglar can choose to take ten on balance, climb, jump, and tumbling skill rolls, even in stressful situations such as combat.