Aesthetic

D&D 3e (3.0/3.5) Rules

by Jeremy Forbing

The Aesthetic

The Aesthetic's life is devoted to knowledge and the acquisition of it. Whether he uses this knowledge to ply a trade, pursue science, or educate others, the Aesthetic excels at learning new things and is constantly improving his mind. Some Aesthetics simply pursue knowledge for its own sake.

The most famous Aesthetics on Krynn have always been those serving in the Palanthas library under the mysterious immortal called Astinus. After the disappearance of Astinus at the end of the Chaos War, his chief assistant, the Aesthetic Bertrem, has come into prominence as Ansalon's greatest historian. Now that Bertrem himself has passed away, it remains to be seen who will become the greatest of Krynn's chroniclers.
Hit Die: 1d6

Abilities

Intelligence is the Aesthetic's primary ability. As time goes on, however, the Aesthetic relies more and more on Wisdom, as he must acquire the common sense to use his knowledge well.

Class Skills

The Aesthetic's class skills are: Craft (any), Knowledge (any), +10 more skills to be selected by the player. Two of these skills may be skills exclusive to another class.
Skill points at first level: (8 + Int Modifier) x4
Skill points per level: 8 + Int Modifier
Hit Points: 1d6 per level

Class Features

All of the Following are class features of the Aesthetic.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Aesthetic is proficient with all simple weapons and one martial weapon (chosen at the time of character creation). He is proficient in Light armor and Shields. Note that wearing armor heavier than leather imposes a penalty to the skills Climb, Hide, Jump, and Move Silently. Swim checks also suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 lbs.

Bonus Feats: At 1^st, 7^th, 13^th, and 19^th level, the Aesthetic can pick one extra feat.

Skill Emphasis: At indicated levels (1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18), the Aesthetic receives the Skill Emphasis feat for free. He chooses 1 skill, to which he gains a +3 bonus for all checks. (Note that the Skill Emphasis feat replaces the Skill Focus feat in the Player's Handbook^TM, which only grants a bonus of +2). Multiple Skill Emphasis feats do notstack. Each time you receive this feat, it applies to a new skill.

Obscure Knowledge: An Aesthetic may make a special Obscure Knowledge check with a bonus equal to his level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. The Aesthetic may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random. The GM will determine the Difficulty Class of the check by referring to the table below.

Studied: At 2^nd level, the Aesthetic gains +2 competence bonus to all rolls for Intelligence related skills.

Adaptive Learning: At the indicated levels (4^th, 8^th, 12^th, 16^th and 20^th) an Aesthetic may designate a single cross-class skill as a class skill. This skill may be Exclusive to another class.

Skill Mastery:When the character gets this ability (7^th, 11^th, 14^th, and 17^th levels) he may choose a number of skills equal to his Int modifier. When making a skill check with one of these skills he may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent him from doing so. He becomes so certain in his skill he can use it reliably even under adverse conditions.

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