1e Thief-Acrobat

[manikus]

So for those of you familiar with the Thief-Acrobat, I've got a couple of questions. Do you think all races can be Thief-Acrobats? Unearthed Arcana states they start off as a thief until they reach level 6...this implies that as long as the character can meet the ability requirements, they can be any race, and they do give racial adjustments (for jumping) for all races...it just seems odd to me to have a dwarf or half-orc Thief-Acrobat. What do you do when you DM something like this? Also, how should DC handle the notion that this is a split class - it's identical to thief until level 6. Should we try for something that allows PCs to change class at the 5 to 6 cusp for thieves? Or should we have a separate class from the beginning, that just does the same thing as a thief until level 6? (I'm leaning towards the second option, personally. It seems easier.)

[Uatu]

I never really had a use for thief-acrobats (they seemed kind of useless), so I don't remember, but it seems that they would be a sort of human-only class perhaps, if it requires a sort of special case of dual-classing (which only humans can do)... (Then again, half-elves were allowed to be bards in 1e (strangely), so...)

In my opinion, I think that having the ability to dual-class into a special class at higher levels would be best and quite useful (don't say "prestige class" )... Besides the thief-acrobat, we have the bard, and also many Dragonlance classes like the various Solamnic knights (Order of the Sword, Order of the Rose) and the White Robes/Red Robes/Black Robes (Wizards of High Sorcery); there are even some Forgotten Realms classes (2e) that allow dual-classing for anyone (even demi-humans) (i.e. the various dukar classes of the undersea).

I would guess that dual-classing is probably hard-coded as a human thing for now in DC, but we could work with that, too... (Just ignore demihuman dual-classing until the day when that becomes possible.)

[manikus]

It does actually say in the book that any race can be a thief-acrobat. I just have a hard time imagining a dwarf tight-rope walking and doing cartwheels to avoid spear thrusts.

It's not a dual class option, really. It's specialization, so it's really a change class if certain prerequisites have been met. I think for the purposes of the current state of the engine, we will need to have it be a separate class from the beginning.

[Uatu]

Hmm - I guess that having it as a separate class would work just fine! (I don't think we will have many acrobatic, tight-rope walking dwarves wearing black tights, though!)

[manikus]

I just keep picturing a troupe of dwarves trying to do a trapeze act - each time they jump for the bar, they miss by a foot or so b/c they are too short.

[SilentThief]

The idea of an acrobatic dwarf seems silly, unless you think like they do, and mebbe attack like they do. Yeah, humans do all that fancy stuff with tighrope walking, but imagine a tumbling dwarf rolling into some burly fighters legs to knock him down (and landing on his feet as the fighter lands on his face). Perhaps the idea of pole-vaulting would get a chuckle, too; but if the same dwarf rolled into a group of people with a staff in his hands he could knock them all down.

I was thinking of these sort of things when looking at the Korobokuru far east dwarves Oriental Adventurers class.

ST

[manikus]

There is a pole vaulting table for dwarves (and the other classes as well).

[Uatu]

Hmm - maybe they could come up with some acrobatic act that has something to do with beards?

As for Korobokuru (should be Korobokkuru or more correctly Korpokkur (the word is actually Ainu, not Japanese)), I can't find much sources on these creatures in mythology, but methinks AD&D tried too hard to merge them with Western dwarves - seems to me that they were just a reclusive small people (perhaps quite civilized) of a vague sort, but I have to look into this more...

In terms of size, they might have been far smaller than a typical dwarf (or even halfling)...

[manikus]

I honestly never thought of them as eastern dwarves. I thought of them as more akin size to halflings and gnomes.

Were you referring to the famous "beard whip" and "beard grab" moves of the reknowned dwarf acrobat Allister Tumbledown?

[Uatu]

It never helped that there weren't any pictures! I pictured them as grubby, black-haired dwarves...

Actually, doing flips with a long beard might be quite difficult (should there be a beard penalty?). I don't think I have ever seen a long-bearded acrobat... Perhaps grabbing the beard's end while flipping would help...