Talk:Gentleman Explorer (3.5e Class)

Ratings

	Circlehead favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	This might be one of the most entertainingly written and brilliant things I've found on here. Your mastery of humor and blending it into functional class features is just amazing. Bravo, and I sincerely hope to use it in a campaign someday. *Singletear*

	Tarkisflux favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	While this is generally more Victorian than I want in my D&D, it's hard to complain much here. The class is well polished and generally well balanced for its range. It's even fun to read. In short, it's a great (if somewhat anachronistic) piece.

	Aarnott favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	Fantastic! The class has a humorous read, but is very well balanced and looks like it would be fun to play. There are plenty of fluff features that flesh out the class. Great work!

	Foxwarrior likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	It's a very entertaining read backing a solid and unusual combat class.

	Jay Freedman favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	Fun to read and fun to explore. So few classes can offer such dedicated components, entertaining abilities, tested details, and straight-forward results amid a torrent of 'tea-induced' literary bamboozle'ments.

	Ghostwheel favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	Very flavorful, good damage, I like this article very much.

	Eiji-kun favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	The flavor! The mechanics! The flavor! Mmmm mmm!!! The flavor really does sell this, and I want to play one (and you inspire me to other things). Let's make this a favored article!

Comments

Some ability comments and clarification questions:

• Can someone interrupt Elephant Gun while it's still a 1-round action? The text refers to intense focus, and that sort of thing is often spoiled by taking damage during the action (unless concentrated away), but there's nothing in here about it.
• Fight Me Like A Man seems a bit weak for its level. Is there an interaction that I'm missing?
• The endure elements part of Pith and Vinegar seems a lot past its prime. Is there a reason it's so late?

The ToP adjustments seem solid btw. I'm rather flattered you put them in; thanks for that :-). - Tarkisflux ^Talk 22:48, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

As written, Elephant Gun cannot be interrupted — unless, of course, something like a disarm or newfound total cover actually prevents him from making the attack. I figure the AoO of a ranged attack combined with the time limitation are enough punishment. Those other two abilities are placed where they are solely because I needed an ability at each level to satisfy the maxim of "dead levels are bad." I wrote each ability individually before placing them in levels, so I'm certainly open to suggestions on how to rearrange them. --DanielDraco 23:37, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Fair enough on Elephant Gun, just wanted to be clear. As for the others, you could split the Endure Elements portion of Pith and Vinegar off and put it down somewhere if you wanted, and similarly put Fight Me Like a Man down somewhere else as well. The hole there could be filled with a 1/hour upgrade to Gentlemen Don't Ask Directions, since they may need to use it more than 1/day at that level. While they don't get a lot of travel powers (and ignore party contributions on that point), getting a special mount wouldn't be out of line and they could fly outside of their range without too much difficulty, particularly in games with any sort of bonus limitations.

And don't worry about extra ToP skills; you could probably even bring them up to 12 skills if you wanted. As a High balance non-caster, my first instinct would be to give them 6 or 8 points per level (depending on how many and what sort of combat and utility options they get) and 12 class skills. I should probably go rewrite that section to be more helpful outside of published classes since people are using it for homebrew and whatnot...- Tarkisflux ^Talk 00:57, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

I like the idea of upgrading Gentleman Don't Ask for Directions to 1/hour. Although I think I'll go further than that and upgrade it to continuous and give it a radius based on ranks instead of checks, which is probably quite a bit easier to track than a multitude of random-sized bubbles, and make the basic ability into find the path at will. --DanielDraco 03:43, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

I kind of get the other two ToP skill additions, but why Bluff and Creature Handling? Bluff doesn't seem to match with the class or fluff to me, and they don't need Creature Handling to train creatures when they're plenty good at killing them with Survival already. Mind explaining a bit? - Tarkisflux ^Talk 06:49, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Misleading and manipulating the impressionable locals that they find seems entirely in line with the notion of an explorer. And creature handling very much seems appropriate for a hunter -- horses, hounds, falcons, etc. --DanielDraco (talk) 21:54, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining, but I'm still not seeing why they'd train their own animal assistants instead of just buying them or why they'd bluff the natives instead of being tone deaf and blunt at them in a "clearly superior" sort of way. I may be projecting fluff though. Anyway, thanks for the response. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 05:23, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, much as I heavily seasoned this article with flavor, I don't want people to actually be locked into anything more specific than "explorer, hunter" and the capability to be the party face. Hunters often train hunting animals, explorers often deal with wild animals, and party faces should know how to lie. So yeah, it doesn't fit the specific archetype written in the fluff, but it does, I think, fit the more general role it's meant to cover. --DanielDraco (talk) 06:06, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Damage Output

Just noticing that fisticuffs extra damage ability seems a little overpowered, 2d6 per class level means a 10th level explorer could be doing more than 20d6 unarmed damage... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.114.240.180 (talk • contribs) at

That's with the only attack it works on for the turn, as it only works once per round and they have to move 10 feet before the bonus damage is added. It's not really that big of a deal in my eyes. - TG Cid (talk) 05:05, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, what Cid said. And actually, the damage output on Elephant Gun is higher, owing largely to the large attack bonus it gives. But both abilities, being limited to a single attack, are in line with H power. --DanielDraco (talk) 07:58, 26 January 2013 (UTC)