Found in seedy areas everywhere, charlatans are swindlers and con artists, thieves of the highest order. They specialize in double-cross, using graft, deception, and misdirection to part their victims from their hard-earned credits. Charlatans have the dangerous ability to convince others that handing over their credits is a good idea, even when every instinct screams that they should not.
Of all the rogues one is likely to meet, the charlatan is the most innocuous. A charlatan never holds a person at gun-point, demanding her victims empty out their pockets. A charlatan that fails to dupe a victim simply moves on to find easier prey. In fact, in some areas, charlatans are regarded as heroic, especially those who rip off folks who are just as corrupt as they are.
Individuals become charlatans not out of greed or want, but because their talents are well suited for espionage. Spies, infiltrators, and other intelligence agents can also double as charlatans to mask their true intentions while trying to learn information, acquire a precious object, or sabotage an enemy.
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a charlatan, a character must fulfill the following criteria.
- Minimum Level: 7th
- Trained Skills: Deception, Persuasion
- Talent: At least two talents from the Disgrace, Influence, or Lineage talent trees (Expert base class)
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Charlatans have the following game statistics.
HIT POINTS
At each level, charlatans gain 1d8 hit points + their Constitution modifier.
HERO POINTS
Charlatans gain a number of Hero Points equal to 6 + one-half their character level, rounded down, every time they gain a new level in this class.
| LEVEL | BASE ATTACK BONUS | CLASS FEATURES |
| 1st | +0 | Defense bonuses, talent |
| 2nd | +1 | Score |
| 3rd | +2 | Talent |
| 4th | +3 | Swindle |
| 5th | +3 | Talent |
| 6th | +4 | Swindle +1 |
| 7th | +5 | Talent |
| 8th | +6 | Swindle +2 |
| 9th | +6 | Talent |
| 10th | +7 | Swindle +5 |
CLASS FEATURES
The following are features of the charlatan prestige class.
DEFENSE BONUSES
At 1st level, you gain a +4 class bonus to your Will Defense and a +2 class bonus to your Reflex Defense.
TALENTS
At every odd-numbered level (1st, 3rd, 5th, and so on), you select a talent. The talent can be selected from the Trickery talent tree (presented below), the Disgrace or Provocateur talent trees (Expert base class), or the Fortune talent tree (Scoundrel base class). You must meet the prerequisites (if any) of the chosen talent. No talent can be selected more than once unless expressly indicated.
TRICKERY TALENT TREE
Charlatans are masters of misdirection, confusion, and trickery. They owe their success in double-cross to their uncanny knack for cultivating the existing beliefs of their marks and twisting them in subtle ways to their own benefit.
Cunning Distraction: When you successfully feint an opponent in combat, you can immediately move up to one-half your speed.
Damaging Deception: You know how to distract a target, exposing weak spots that your allies can exploit. As a standard action, you can make a Deception check against the Will Defense of any target within your line of sight that can see, hear, and understand you. If successful, the next attack made before the start of your next by one of your allies turn that hits your target deals an additional +2 dice of damage.
Prerequisite: Cunning Distraction.
Distracting Shout: Once per encounter, as a reaction to one of your allies being attacked, you can make a Deception check, replacing the defense scores of that ally with the result of your Deception check for the resolution of that attack. If any defense scores are higher than the Deception check result, your ally can use that defense score instead. If the attack still hits, this does not count as the one use per encounter of this talent.
Prerequisite: Cunning Distraction.
Improved Soft Cover: While you occupy a square adjacent to another creature, you can use a swift action to gain a +2 cover bonus to your Reflex Defense until the start of your next turn or until you are no longer adjacent to another creature, whichever comes first.
Prerequisite: Innocuous.
Innocuous: As a swift action, you can make a Deception check against a single enemy within 6 squares of you and in line of sight. If the check equals or exceeds the target’s Will Defense, the target takes a -5 penalty on all attacks made against you until the start of your next turn.
Treacherous: Whenever you are attacked in combat and adjacent to a creature other than your attacker, you can move 1 square as a reaction. The attack, intended for you, instead targets the adjacent creature, though if you move away from a creature that threatens you, it can make an attack of opportunity before the original attack is resolved.
Prerequisites: Improved Soft Cover, Innocuous.
SCORE
When you take the time to observe a potential victim, you gain useful clues and insights about his or her desires and motives. If you spend a full-round action watching a single target, until the end of the encounter you can reroll all Deception checks made against that target, taking the better result.
SWINDLE
You can take advantage of potential scores, using the information you learned to dupe them into believing you are on the up-and-up. You can substitute Deception checks made for Stealth checks made to pick a target’s pocket. A successful check does not mean that you pick the target’s pocket, but rather that you have convinced the target to give you the desired object of his own free will. Generally, a target realizes what he has done at the end of the encounter.
At 6th level, you gain a +1 bonus to these checks. This bonus increases to +2 at 8th level, and +5 at 10th level.