Gnome Professor

Specialty: Lecturer.

Qualifications: The standard qualifications for Intelligence and Charisma are switched for gnome Professors (i.e., they must have a minimum Intelligence of 15 and Charisma of 13). Prime Requisites also change to Intelligence and Charisma. Only gnomes can become Professors, and they can advance up to 15th level.

Description: Professors are an odd sort; other races have a hard time deciding whether these strange gnomes are geniuses or fools. Half of their speeches and inventions seem revolutionary. The rest of their speeches sound like endless babbling, and most their inventions are death traps that injure more gnomes than they help.

Professors are eccentric gnomes who love to tinker with things: chemicals, gears, pulleys, magic, and so on. For a Professor, gaining knowledge for its own sake is wasteful. Only when it is being used to develop "things of consequence" is knowledge worthwhile. Professors often say, "If the textbooks don't make sense, throw 'em away and approach the problem experimentally."

Above all, Professors feel that they have an obligation to educate the ignorant and provide them with mechanical wonders to help elevate their standard of living.

Role: Professors are held in high regard within gnome society. Every gnome loves to sit in on one of their frequent lectures or to have a Professor over for tea. Yet, when Professors get that odd glint in their eyes and start experimenting, even their brethren know to run for their little lives.

Adventuring Professors are often intense and fanatically greedy for knowledge. Those who are dangerous threats to other gnomes are actively encouraged to go out and help "educate" the other races. But there are certain Professors who truly possess some small spark of genius within them. These Professors often realize the potential knowledge and practical experience that adventuring can provide, and they set out to explore the world.

Secondary Skills: Professors can have any secondary skill.

Weapon Proficiencies: Professors are very eccentric and love complex devices with multiple moving parts. This personality trait is evident in the type of weapons they select. Professors can become proficient in the following weapons: arquebus, blowgun, bow, crossbow, harpoon, mancatcher, scourge, sling, staff sling, and whip.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Bonuses: Ancient History, Languages (ancient), Languages (modern), Reading/Writing. Suggested: Agriculture, Animal Lore, Appraising, Astrology, Brewing, Cooking, Direction Sense, Engineering, Etiquette, Fire-Building, Gem Cutting, Heraldry, Herbalism, Local History, Musical Instrument, Navigation, Religion, Rope Use, Spellcraft, Weather Sense, Whistling/Humming.

Armor/Equipment: Professors are not overly concerned about the practicality of wearing good armor. They tend to wear something comfortable unless they are experimenting with armor functionality.

Professors wear only leather, studded leather, or padded armor on a regular basis. However, each month, a Professor can experiment with one type of armor (even shields) for up to 1d10 days. When experimenting and wearing other armor, the Professor suffers a +1 Armor Class penalty and loses all Dexterity defense adjustments.

Special Benefits:

Legend Lore: This ability is exactly like the True Bard's ability of the same name.

Profess: All Professors give frequent speeches to anyone who will listen. Although this can be entertaining and occasionally educational, such lectures have little direct impact upon play. However, if a Professor is able to examine a situation and evaluate it, he sometimes comes up with a great plan. The act of revealing such a plan is known as "professing."

When a Professor examines a given situation for 1d10 rounds, he is able to determine several good plans to deal with the situation. If the Professor communicates (professes) this information to his comrades, and they heed the information, certain benefits result.

After professing a course of action, the Professor player is able to hand out a number of bonuses equal to the Professor's level. These bonuses can be applied to any die roll (prior to the roll) that the Professor designates, as long as the affected individual is following the Professor's suggested course of action. (If the roll is being made on percentage dice, the bonus is 5%, otherwise a +1 bonus results).

As an example, imagine that an adventuring party has spied through a keyhole into a room. The gnome Professor, Nowtal, asks if he can have a look. After examining the orc-infested room for six rounds (a 6 was rolled on the 1d10), Nowtal comes up with a plan. The player then role-plays his character, informing the other players of the plan: "Torcan, you slip around to the side door and jump into the room in an attempt to startle the orcs, then Larcon Heavy-Hand can charge the main door in hopes of breaking it down for a surprise rear attack. During the commotion, Lefty will slip over to that chest and attempt to make away with any interesting contents."

As the party proceeds with the plan, Nowtal's player hands out a +1 bonus on Torcan's attempt to surprise the orcs. He also boosts Larcon's bend bars attempt (to increase his chance to break down the bolted door by 5%). Since Nowtal is only 3rd level, he has only one more bonus to hand out. He could use it to improve Larcon or Torcan's attack roll, increase damage, etc. Instead he gives it to the thief, Lefty. However, Lefty's player has decided to backstab an orc instead of dashing over to the chest. Thus, the DM rules that Lefty isn't following the Professor's plan and Nowtal's player will have to use his last bonus somewhere else. Just then, an orc shaman casts a fireball from a necklace of missiles and the last bonus is used to help Larcon with his saving throw.

Note that these bonuses last only for one die roll. These single bonuses cannot be combined into a +2 (10%) or better bonus.

Mechanically Inclined: Of all known devices, Professors love those with multiple moving parts more than any other.

Since Professors are mechanically inclined, they can find and remove traps. The chance to succeed at this progresses just as the "find/remove traps" skill on Table 19: Thief Average Ability Table, in the DMG. Since Professors approach traps from a purely mechanical standpoint, they receive no racial, Dexterity, or armor adjustments to this roll.

This same percentage chance can be used to help solve other mechanical problems-much like having a "mechanical proficiency." For example, if the party comes upon a futuristic device, such as steam-driven bellows, the Professor can examine it in an attempt to understand how it works. If the roll succeeds, the DM should inform the player that his character understands the device. Through role-playing, the player can then tell the rest of the party how to operate it.

Invention: A Professor's most useful ability, and his most dangerous, is that of invention. Professors love to invent odd gadgets, such as sword hilts with screw-on blades that can be used as short, long, broad, bastard, or two-handed swords. Another invention might be a wagon pulled by draft horses located in the center of the wagon. This protects the animals from attack and allows the teamster to feed them as they walk.

A Professor's chance to succeed with an invention is based upon his "mechanical proficiency" (see previous paragraphs). From that base chance, the DM must assess the difficulty of an invention and apply a modifier (usually in the range of -25% to +25%). If the proper tools, raw materials, and time are available, a successful roll indicates that the invention works. If the roll is below the Professor's level, the invention is a great success. However, if the roll fails, the invention either has some major flaw or is a total flop. If the failed roll is a 95% or higher, the failure results in an injury, as determined by the Dungeon Master. A roll of 100 indicates that a fatality results unless the victim rolls a successful saving throw vs. paralyzation.

Special Hindrances: Unlike typical bards, gnomes are not eligible to learn and cast spells from any school of magic. Instead, they are restricted to the spell selection available to illusionists. This is further explained in the "Illusion" note found earlier in the "Demi-Bard" section.

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