Ruin Explorer (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

A ruin explorer is a man or woman of learning, an adventurous scholar who dreams of retrieving priceless artifacts from lost vaults, restoring pieces of our common history to the light of day. Such priceless treasures are to be found, studied and understood. Their critics see them as glorified burglars, who work trapped tombs and vaults and seek to rob people of their most valuable and well-protected property.

Class Information

This is a prestige class archetype.

Prestige Class: ruin explorer.

Build Classes: Rogue.

Role: As a ruin explorer, your deal with ancient traps and magical legacies. Curses and traps are your bread and butter. Your main abilities are in dealing with the dangers found in ruins; traps, curses, cave-ins and eternally vigilant guardians. Your specialty is traps; both magical, man-made, and in the form of natural hazards.

Alignment: Any. The ruin explorers of the world form a loose fraternity, keeping tabs on each other's exploits through the rumor mill. Ruin explorers tend to take an important role in any guilds or fraternities they become a part of, since they are studious and more organized than most other adventurers. Sometimes, they can completely change the goal of such an organization, from simple looting to the collection and categorization of knowledge. Such a guild can then train new generations of ruin explorers.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills

The ruin explorer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (any) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The ruin explorer has all the rogue's class features, except as follows.

This is a work in progress.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Ruin explorers are proficient with all simple weapons and with the light pick, heavy pick, hand crossbow, and whip. The ruin explorer gains no proficiency with armor or shields.

Bardic Knowledge

Like a bard, a ruin explorer adds half his class level (minimum 1) to all Knowledge skill checks and may make all Knowledge skill checks untrained.

This ability stacks with similar abilities from other classes.

Decipher Script

When using the Linguistics skill to understand archaic or foreign writing, add your level as a ruin explorer to the check.

Trapfinding

Like rogues, ruin explorers adds ½ her level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks (minimum +1). A ruin explorer can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps. A ruin explorer who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more with a Disable Device check can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with her party) without disarming it. This stacks with similar abilities from other classes.

Outsmart Traps

When successfully disabling a trap, you can opt to bypass it (with your party) and leave it in place.

Trap Exploration

As a standard action, you can search for traps in each square you enter and each adjacent square just as you are about to move into it. This allows you to make a standard move and still search for traps in a 15 ft. wide path.

Trap Sense

A ruin explorer gains an intuitive sense that alerts her to danger from traps, giving you a bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. These bonuses increase with level and stack with similar abilities gained from other classes.

Uncanny Dodge

A ruin explorer can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A ruin explorer with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against her.

If a ruin explorer already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead. He can no longer be flanked. This defense denies another rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does. If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.

Hands-on Research

When you fail a Knowledge or Linguistics check, you can try again as a standard action. You can only use hands-on research in relation to issues immediately at hand, such as deciphering text you can read right now or remembering specific knowledge about a creature you can presently see.

Trick Exploration (Ex)

As Trap Exploration, but you can now sense mechanical and magical phenomena that are not strictly traps, such as hidden compartments, teleport portals, magic wells, rotating chambers, secret doors, sliding walls and so on. The ruin explorer also applies his trapfinding bonus to skill rolls to discern tricks. If no Perception roll would normally be allowed for subtle effects, the difficulty of this roll is 25 + spell level or 25 + half the challenge level. If there is no challenge level given, the DC is 25.

Evasion (Ex)

A ruin explorer can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the ruin explorer is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless rogue does not gain the benefit of evasion.

If the ruin explorer already has the evasion ability from another source, he instead gains Improved Evasion. This works like evasion, except that while the ruin explorer still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, he now takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless ruin explorer does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Master Finder

As Trapfinding, but applies to all uses of the Perception skill.

Dazing Insight (Ex)

Whenever you make a Know or Linguistics roll, you can choose to replace the result of the roll with a die roll of 20 after the roll. If you do so, you are dazed until the beginning of your next turn. You can take no actions, but suffer no penalty to AC. You are unable to make attacks of opportunity or immediate actions.

Master Explorer

You can now use trap exploration and trick exploration as free actions. This allows you to take other actions or to take double moves, and still search for traps and tricks in a 15 ft. wide path.

Table: Ruin Explorer

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Bogstep, sneak attack +1d6
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Evasion, quick appraise
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+1	Sneak attack +2d6, sodden stealth +1
4th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Deep breath, uncanny dodge
5th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Sneak attack +3d6
6th	+4	+2	+5	+2	Drink for free, sodden stealth +2
7th	+5	+2	+5	+2	Sneak attack +4d6
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+2	Navigate storm, improved uncanny dodge
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+3	Sneak attack +5d6, sodden stealth +3
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+3	Grapple ship
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+3	Sneak attack +6d6
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Shipmind , sodden stealth +4
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Sneak attack +7d6
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+4	Fogcraft
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+5	Sneak attack +8d6, sodden stealth +5
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Maelstrom ally
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Sneak attack +9d6
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+6	Into the maelstrom, sodden stealth +6
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Sneak attack +10d6
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Greater fogcraft, master shot

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

These abilities of the rogue are lost or modified in this archetype: