Sapper (Apath)

	Unofficial rules compendium
	Contents 1 Class Features 1.1 Class Skills; 1.2 Weapon and Armor Proficiency; 1.3 Sapping; 1.4 Pavise; 1.5 Improved Pavise; ; 2 Table: Sapper; 3 Summary of Changed Class Abilities;
	Contents 1 Class Features 1.1 Class Skills; 1.2 Weapon and Armor Proficiency; 1.3 Sapping; 1.4 Pavise; 1.5 Improved Pavise; ; 2 Table: Sapper; 3 Summary of Changed Class Abilities;

A sapper is not a dextrous sneak, but a solid warrior specializing in destruction - of both fortifications and blindsided opponents.

Class Features

This archetype has all normal class abilities, except as noted.

Class Skills

Add Knowledge (Engineering) (Int) to the sappers' list of class skills.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Sappers are proficient with all simple weapons, plus the earth breaker, heavy pick, light hammer, light pick, and pickaxe. They are proficient with light armor, medium armor, and with shields (including tower shields).

Sapping

At 2nd level, a sapper can inflict great harm on objects. When striking an unattended object, or when sundering an item of an opponent that is flat-footed or denied the use of their Dexterity bonus to armor class, the sapper can inflict sneak attack damage to that object. The sapper must be in sneak attack range (normally 30 ft. but see the pavise ability below) to use this with a ranged attack.

A sapper can use Knowledge (Engineering) in place of Disable Device and Perception when opening locks or finding and disabling traps or secret doors. Knowledge (Engineering) gains the benefit from Trapfinding in these cases.

This also increases the digging/tunnel building speed of a sapper; each dice of sneak attack the sapper has increases the digging speed of the sapper by 50%. With 1d6 sneak attack, the sapper digs at 150% speed, and 2d6 sneak attack he digs at 200% speed and so on.

Sapping replaces evasion. A sapper cannot select improved evasion as an advanced rogue talent unless he first gains evasion from some other source.

Pavise

At 4th level, a standard action, you can position a tower shield. This has the same benefits as using a tower shield to grant cover, but the shield continues to provide cover until you move, and you do not need to use a hand to hold it. You still suffer the attack penalty and armor penalty. Picking up the the tower shield again is a move action. Instead of taking a 5 ft. step in a round, you can hide behind the pavise using Stealth to hide from those it provides cover against. You still take armor penalties for the tower shield as normal, so you better be at a decent distance from any enemies.

It might seem far-fetched to hide behind something as obvious as a tower shield, but opponents cannot anticipate the sappers shots when he is firing from his cover. Of course, they can still target the tower shield itself, and moving out of the covered arc of the tower shield negates the cover that allowed hiding in the first place. Also, because of armor check penalties to Stealth, you better be some distance away for this to work.

At the same time, the range of the sappers sneak attack increases to 10 ft per sapper level when firing a firearm or crossbow. When under cover (including when behind a tower shield) this increased sneak attack range is doubled to 20 ft. per level.

This replaces uncanny dodge.

Improved Pavise

From the 8th level, positioning or picking up a pavise is now a swift action. This replaces improved uncanny dodge.

Table: Sapper

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Rogue talent, sapping
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+1	Sneak attack +2d6, trap sense +1
4th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Pavise, rogue talent
5th	+3	+1	+4	+1	Sneak attack +3d6
6th	+4	+2	+5	+2	Rogue talent, trap sense +2
7th	+5	+2	+5	+2	Sneak attack +4d6
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+2	Improved pavise, rogue talent
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+3	Sneak attack +5d6, trap sense +3
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+3	Advanced talents, rogue talent
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+3	Sneak attack +6d6
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Rogue talent, trap sense +4
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+4	Sneak attack +7d6
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+4	Rogue talent
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+5	Sneak attack +8d6, trap sense +5
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Rogue talent
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5	Sneak attack +9d6
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+6	Rogue talent, trap sense +6
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Sneak attack +10d6
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Master strike, rogue talent

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

Class Skills
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Evasion
Uncanny Dodge
Improved Uncanny Dodge