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[Pathfinder] Prestige Archetype: Thought Thief (Arcane Trickster)

From Pathfinder Player Companion: Chronicle of Legends.

Prestige archetypes

These archetypes replace specific abilities of the prestige class much in the same way that archetypes do for standard classes. Each prestige archetype has unique requirements that replace the prestige class’s standard requirements. You must meet these requirements before you can take the first level of the prestige class with the associated prestige archetype.

Thought Thief (Arcane Trickster)

A thought thief will happily rip ideas from their victim’s head and their gold from their purse.

Requirements: To qualify to become a thought thief, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Alignment: Any nonlawful.

Skills: Disable Device 4 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 4 ranks.

Spells: Ability to cast mage hand and at least one psychic spell of 2nd level or higher.

Special: Sneak attack +2d6.

This alters requirements.

Mental Assault (Su): At 3rd level, once per day as a standard action, a thought thief can pinpoint a target’s trauma and exploit weakness with a deluge of psychic power. This is a melee touch attack that deals damage equal to her sneak attack damage and grants the thought thief control of the target as dominate person for a number of rounds equal to her thought thief level. A successful Will save (DC = 10 + the thought thief’s level + her Charisma modifier) negates the dominate effect. A thought thief can only use this ability against a target that is susceptible to her sneak attack, such as a target she is flanking. This attack has no effect on creatures without an intelligence score. At 7th level, a thought thief can use this ability twice per day.

This replaces impromptu sneak attack.

Unseen Compulsion: At 5th level a thought thief can hide the effects of any spell she casts with the mind-affecting and compulsion spell descriptors. Creatures that observe her casting such a spell can attempt a Sense Motive check to notice the spell (DC = 15 + the thought thief’s ranks in Bluff + the thought thief’s Charisma modifier). Creatures that fail their check are unaware of any effects of the thought thief’s spell.

This replaces tricky spells.

[Source: Paizo blog. Art: Notion Thief - MTG by ClintCearley]

mostlysignssomeportents

Beyond lockpicking: learn about the class-breaks for doors, locks, hinges and other physical security measures

Deviant Ollam is runs a physical security penetration testing company called The Core Group; in a flat-out amazing, riveting presentation from the 2017 Wild West Hackin’ Fest, Ollam – a master lockpicker – describes how lockpicking is a last resort for the desperate, while the wily and knowledgeable gain access by attacking doors and locks with tools that quickly and undetectably open them.

Ollam’s techniques are just laugh-out-loud fantastic to watch: from removing the pins in hinges and lifting doors away from their high-security locks to sliding cheap tools between doors or under them to turn thumb-levers, bypass latches, and turn handles. My favorite were the easy-exit sensors that can be tricked into opening a pair of doors by blowing vape smoke (or squirting water, or releasing a balloon) through the crack down their middle.

But more than anything, Ollam’s lecture reminds me of the ground truth that anyone who learns lockpicking comes to: physical security is a predatory scam in which shoddy products are passed off onto naive consumers who have no idea how unfit for purpose they are.

When locksport began, locksmiths were outraged that their long-held “secret” ways of bypassing, tricking and confounding locks had entered the public domain – they accused the information security community of putting the public at risk by publishing the weaknesses in their products (infosec geeks also get accused of this every time they point out the weaknesses in digital products, of course).

But the reality is that “bad guys” know about (and exploit) these vulnerabilities already. The only people in the dark about them are the suckers who buy them and rely on them.

So when Ollam reveals that thousands of American cop cars, fleet cars, and taxis can all be unlocked and started using a shared key that you can literally buy for a few bucks at Home Depot, or that most elevators can be bypassed with a similarly widely available key, or that most file cabinets and other small locks can be opened with a third key, or that most digital entry systems can be bypassed in seconds with a paperclip (or another common physical key), he’s doing important (and hilarious!) work.

He’s such an engaging speaker and the subject matter is nothing short of fantastic. There are a hundred heist novels in this talk alone. It’s definitely my must-watch for the week.

https://boingboing.net/2019/06/14/fools-paradise-lost.html

pileofknives

Ollam fucking rules

we-are-dread-commando

@we-are-rogue

fuckyeahgoodomens

US Christian group condemns Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s story as ‘making satanism appear normal’

More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.

The six-part series was released last month, starring David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale, who collaborate to prevent the coming of the antichrist and an imminent apocalypse. Pratchett’s last request to Gaiman before he died was that he adapt the novel they wrote together; Gaiman wrote the screenplay andworked as showrunner on the BBC/Amazon co-production, which the Radio Times called “a devilishly funny love letter to the book”.

But Christians marshalled by the Return to Order campaign, an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation, disagree. More than 20,000 supporters have signed a petition in which they say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”. God, they complain, is “voiced by a woman” – Frances McDormand – the antichrist is a “normal kid” and, most importantly, “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”. They are calling on Netflix to cancel the show.

Gaiman responded to the petition on Twitter, writing: “I love that they are going to write to Netflix to try and get #GoodOmens cancelled. Says it all really. This is so beautiful … Promise me you won’t tell them?”

The publisher and science fiction critic Cheryl Morgan tweeted: “Miraculously God has already done it. Don’t tell them She put it on Amazon instead.”

Return to Order is based on the writings of the author John Horvat II. It “calls upon Americans to put principles into actions by working toward what is called an organic Christian society”. Another of its petitions in April called on Walmart to “stop selling Satanic products” following a 2018 protest against a “blasphemous ice cream chain called Sweet Jesus”.

we-are-rogue

Obvious jokes aside, this is such high praise: “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has [sic] for the devil”.

Pratchett would be so amused, and so PROUD.

peashooter85

Alexander the Great and the Pirate

According to ancient legend there was once a notorious pirate named Diomedes who had been captured and brought before Alexander the Great for sentencing. Because of the pirate’s many criminal deeds, everyone expected that Alexander would sentence the pirate to death. Before he passed judgment, however, Alexander decided to interview the pirate. “What could possibly give you the right to sail the seas, killing and taking by force things that do not belong to you?” Alexander asked the pirate.

Diomedes boldly replied with some questions of his own. “O Great King,” he said, “what could possibly give you the right to travel the whole world, killing and taking by force things that do not belong to you?”

Alexander stared at the man in amazement, and Diomedes went on speaking. “Because I only have one boat” he said, “I am called a pirate. You, however, have an entire fleet and an army, so they call you Great King. If you ask me who is the greater criminal, I cannot say. I do know, however, that if I had such things at my disposal, I would be a Great King too.”

Alexander was so impressed by this reply that instead of punishing the pirate, he let him go, praising him for his boldness and insight.

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2013/07/greek-legend-alexander-pirates.html

seriousfic

writterings

whenever a young kid joins our staff at work im just like huh. guess im a father now.

writterings

these kids will be like “can you drive me home? i don’t have gas money but-” and im already pullin out my keys and am like. sweetheart, you are a child. i am not charging a child gas money.

writterings

i literally almost lunged across the counter to throw hands with some old hag who yelled at and insulted one of our 16 y/o girls but instead i threw her sandwich at her and told her to never fucking come back

writterings

old dudes will flirt with our young girls too and i’ll be like ay man this is a truck stop, normal customer service rules dont apply here. i can and will call the cops on you.

writterings

im the only manager that actively tells them to steal food because these are teenagers and they are HUNGRY

longscarydream

lifehack: when you see a Take One candy bowl in a restaurant, wait until noones looking and shovel candy into your pockets. god may judge you but his sins outnumber your own

we-are-rogue

Viking Assassine by Nadine Steiner

@we-are-viking

the-memedaddy

we-are-rogue

So you’re a jack of all trades, EMBRACE IT, IT’S AWESOME.

kadrey-deactivated20181203

SCOUTING MERIT BADGES FOR COOL SHIT LIKE PRANK-CALLS, GRAVE-ROBBING AND ARSON!

See more here:

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/scouting_merit_badges_for_cool_shit_like_prank-calls_grave-robbing_and_arso

prokopetz

When you’re creating a D&D party where the members have history with each other, it can often be tricky to make sure that everyone is sufficiently connected that there are no odd members out. One approach that I’ve had good luck with – and this is admittedly borrowed in large part from various Apocalypse Engine games, so I’m not claiming originality here! – is to add a formal connections phase once everybody has finished basic chargen. It works like this:

1. Each character’s background comes with a list of connection prompts, generally around half a dozen. This could be a generic list, or – if you’re a GM with a lot of time on your hands – a setting or campaign specific list could be prepared for each background. Each prompt consists of a fill-in-the-blank statement and a follow-up question.

2. Going around the table, or in some other pre-determined order if you’re not playing face to face, each player picks a prompt that interests them from their background’s list, and calls for volunteers.

3. Any other player may volunteer to write their character’s name in that prompt’s blank. Volunteering if you’ve already filled in a blank for one of the current player’s other prompts is discouraged but not forbidden. If multiple players are interested, the player who’s written their name in the fewest blanks so far has first dibs; if there’s a tie, talk it out or flip a coin.

4. Working together, the player who picked the prompt and the player who filled in the blank brainstorm an answer to the follow-up question. This should be brief, no more than a sentence or two; if you want to collaborate on a longer answer, great, but leave it for after the game and keep the session moving. The rest of the group is both allowed and encouraged to offer suggestions!

5. Continue until everyone has written their name in at least once. At the end, each player should have at least one but no more than three blanks filled in.

It usually works better if you (the GM) homebrew your prompts in order to make sure they have the right tone for your campaign, but generic ones will do in a pinch. Here’s an example I’ve used in the past for the “Criminal” background from the Player’s Handbook:

Criminal

You and _____ worked together on a job that ended in disaster. What went wrong?

_____ was falsely accused of a crime that you committed. How were they implicated?

You know something about _____’s past that they’d kill to keep secret. Where did you learn it?

You and _____ once shared a prison cell. What were you in for?

One of your past misdeeds targeted _____, but they don’t (yet) know it was you. What did they lose?

You still owe _____ a favor for providing you with an alibi. Who did they lie to on your behalf?

wintersoldierfell

We all know Crowley doesn’t actually shred the plants, right? Like he takes them into the other room and makes Big Scary Noises, sure, to scare the remaining plants. But you just know that he actually takes the bad plants and sets them Outside, pats them on the head, and says “You rebelled. You are now Fallen. Congratulations” and sometimes he decorates them with old pairs of sunglasses and tiny leather jackets intended for French bulldogs. Like I’m sorry but if you don’t think those plants are 100% a form of projection and coping about his issues with Heaven then you haven’t met Anthony Janthony Crowley

jmtorres

tbh crowley secretly taking his “bad” plants and just replanting them outside or somewhere is such an old and pervasive headcanon in this fandom i was a little surprised it wasn’t in the book when i reread it.

we-are-rogue

I love this.

Normally, I’m not at all a fan of whitewashing characters who are interesting precisely because they’re grey (not that I’d EVER bug anyone about their headcanons, different strokes for different folks, knock yourselves out!), BUT this here is 100% in character, and makes perfect sense in the story, and then enriches the story some more, and therefore I love it.

we-are-rogue

““You were bluffing, then. She was never in danger.” Kaz shrugged, unwilling to give her an answer. Inej was always trying to wring little bits of decency from him. “When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.””

— Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

hilarioushumorfromouterspace

cfluffiness

Someone in facebook also posted this too

xmagnet-o

Omg

halcyonjester

Mediglyphics

klubbhead

This shit’s infuriating

pseudonymsobriquet

Oh, this is a type of shorthand!

There are 3 main types, but from my research, this looks to be American Gregg Shorthand.

As you can see, there are set symbols for every letter.

Let’s break one of the words down:

Using the Gregg Alphabet as reference, we can see most of the letters in “atrophied” are present. But why no “o” vowel, and why is “ph” written as “f”?

Simple. In shorthand, you cut out all vowels in a word when writing it down, with the exception of words that BEGIN or END with a vowel (hence the “a” at the start being present), or like in the “i” in “atrophied”, to make it more readable when the sound could be harder to distinguish if it isn’t written. In “atrophied” if the the “i” isn’t written, it could be hard to tell if the writer meant a “fud”, “fad”, “fod” or “fid” sound, for example.

Also, since Shorthand is a phonetic writing system, you are encouraged to write down the phonetic sounds of words rather than the actual letter blends - in this case, write an “f” instead of a “ph”.

So in actuality, these aren’t just meaningless scribbles - it’s Gregg Shorthand, a writing system developed to take down notes more quickly than when written out in full, which is very useful in a medical or journalistic environment.

Some people can even write over 100 words in a minute! And, it’s been in use since John Robert Gregg invented it in 1888! Wow! So old!

Isn’t language amazing~?

we-are-dread-commando

@we-are-rogue

we-are-rogue

[D&D 5e Homebrew] Roguish Archetype: Street Brawler

“What this is, is a recent attempt to whip up an unarmed rogue. I always liked the idea and wanted to try (again) to see if I could do it.

This particular variety is partly based on the French martial art, Savate. It is a hard, striking style of boxing that employs kicks and slaps. Closed fists were considered deadly weapons, after all, so the French sailors who created it wanted to avoid getting a more severe penalty for fighting. It also employs dirty fighting, because sailors. I also added another French peculiarity, specifically Parkour, as a fun exploration ability in the class.

Here is the link to the subclass on Homebrewery: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BybtG-ot1S“

– by user Ninjadeadbeard at GitP Forums.

we-are-rogue

Rogues in Fantasy Literature Masterpost, Mk II

This list pertains only to books where rogues take centre stage (not simply those that include roguish characters somewhere), and only in the narrow sense of the fantasy genre (so no magical realism, folklore and mythology, and things like that). Hence, it’s a very short list. But I’m sure it would be longer, if only I hadn’t missed things. So if anyone can help expand it, please message me. :) Thanks to @bottle-of-dave, @fewmetsndust, @sosungalittleclodofclay, @the-great-kaspy, @darksp3ctre, @queenchristinaofsweden, @tomdowler, @leo195, @part-time-adventurer, several anonymous contributors, and to the good folks of the ASOIAF forum at westeros.org for helping me expand this list. I’m still taking suggestions, feel free to contribute at any time. :)

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

G.R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (ed.), Rogues (anthology)

Scott Lynch, the Gentlemen Bastards series

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Red Seas Under Red Skies

The Republic of Thieves

Terry Pratchett, the Moist von Lipwig novels from Discworld

Going Postal

Making Money

Raising Steam

Fritz Leiber, the Lankhmar / Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories

Swords and Deviltry

Swords Against Death

Swords in the Mist

Swords Against Wizardry

The Swords of Lankhmar

Swords and Ice Magic

The Knight and Knave of Swords

Jack Vance, the Cugel the Clever stories from the Dying Earth series

The Eyes of the Overworld

Cugel’s Saga

Robin Hobb, the Farseer Trilogy (and perhaps the entire Realm of the Elderlings series?)

Assassin’s Apprentice

Royal Assassin

Assassin’s Quest

Leigh Bardugo, the Ketterdam series

Six of Crows

Crooked Kingdom

Derek Landy, Skulduggery Pleasant

Ari Marmell, the Widdershins Adventures series

Thief’s Covenant

False Covenant

Lost Covenant

Covenant’s End

Raymond E. Feist, Jimmy the Hand

Gerald Brom, The Child Thief

Rob J. Hayes, It Takes A Thief… series

It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise (a.k.a. The Northern Sunrise)

It Takes a Thief to Start a Fire

Brent Weeks, the Night Angel trilogy

The Way of Shadows

Shadow’s Edge

Beyond the Shadows

Steven Brust, the Vlad Tatlos series

Jhereg

Yendi

Teckla

Taltos

Phoenix

Athyra

Orca

Dragon

Issola

Dzur

Jhegaala

Iorich

Tiassa

Hawk

Michael J. Sullivan, The Riyria Revelations series

Theft of Swords

Rise of Empire

Heir of Novron

Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen’s Thief series

Thief!

The Thief

The Queen of Attolia

The King of Attolia

A Conspiracy of Kings

Thick as Thieves

Jon Sprunk, the Shadow Saga trilogy

Shadow’s Son

Shadow’s Lure

Shadow’s Master

Rachel Aaron, The Legend of Eli Monpress series

The Spirit Thief

The Spirit Rebellion

The Spirit Eater

The Spirit War

Spirit’s End

Jesse Bullington, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

Douglas Hulick, the Tales of the Kin series

Among Thieves

Sworn in Steel

Courtney Schaefer, The Shattered Sigil series

The Whitefire Crossing

The Tainted City

The Labyrinth of Flame

Chris Wooding, The Tales of the Ketty Jay series

Retribution Falls

The Black Lung Captain

The Iron Jackal

The Age of Skulls

Paul Kemp, the Erevis Cale trilogy set in Forgotten Realms

Twilight Falling

Dawn of Night

Midnight’s Mask

Mary Kirchoff, Kendermore, from Dragonlance Preludes

J. M. Martin (ed.), Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues (anthology)

Lynn Flewelling, the Nightrunner series

Luck in the shadows

Stalking darkness

Traitor’s moon

Shadows return

The white road

Casket of souls

Shards of time

Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns, from The Broken Empire trilogy

R. A. Salvatore, The Sellswords trilogy (Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle), set in Forgotten Realms

Servant of the Shard

Promise of the Witch King

Road of the Patriarch

Neil McGarry & Daniel Ravipinto, The Grey City series

The Duchess of the Shallows

The Fall of Ventaris

The Ruling Mask

Juliet E. McKenna, The Tales of Einarinn series

The Thief’s Gamble

The Swordsman’s Oath

The Gambler’s Fortune

The Warrior’s Bond

The Assassin’s Edge

David Eddings & Leigh Eddings, The Redemption of Althalus

V.E. Schwab, the Shades of Magic series

A Darker Side of Magic

A Gathering of Shadows

A Conjuring of Light

Sarah J. Maas, the Throne of Glass series

Throne of Glass

Crown of Midnight

Heir of Fire

Queen of Shadows

Empire of Storms

Tower of Dawn

+ The Assassin’s Blade

Patrick Weekes, the Rogues of the Republic series

The Palace Job

The Prophecy Con

The Paladin Caper

Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire, first book of the Mistborn series

Richard Baker, The City of Ravens, set in Forgotten Realms

Seth Skorkowsky, the Tales of the Black Raven series

Mountain of Daggers

Sea of Quills

Eoin Colfer, the Artemis Fowl series

Artemis Fowl

The Arctic Incident

The Eternity Code

The Opal Deception

The Lost Colony

The Time Paradox

The Atlantis Complex

The Last Guardian

Ian Andrews, The Pearls That Were His Eyes

we-are-rogue

Choose Your Class Enamel Pins by lissinatorr | Etsy

forged-in-paper

Hey everyone, I’m gearing up for a new campaign and that means I need to refine some of the stuff I’ll be using in it, in this case the new weapons/armor I added a while back. So, while this may be a refined retread, I’ve also added new weapons, properties, and mechanics so I’d consider this new and changed enough to get its own post. Some of this is tried and tested and some of it was made up on the fly with little forethought to how it might be unbalanced, but that’s what play testing is for, right?

As always, questions and comments are welcome. I’d love to hear your thoughts! (Content PDF) (Patreon)

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