I felt the need for the Expert class as well for Conan (I use the Conan rules for the Judge's Guild Wilderlands setting). I decided to "beef up" the Expert so that they excelled in a setting suitable to thier skills. I used the Cultural Characteristics of the Noble class as a model for an Expert's skill progression.
Note: In the Wilderlands a character is illiterate unless they have a feat or class ability that dictates otherwise, but the class is still fairly generic.
The Expert
Adventures: The Wilderlands are a populated by many people who must know a little about a lot of things to get by. The expert operates as a specialist, craftsman, or professional. The skilled smith, the alchemist, the ships captain, siege engineer, crafty merchant, and even skilled courtesan are all examples of experts.
Characteristics: The expert is the master of his area of knowledge. This class reflects that specialty and combines it with the bonuses in the area of dealing with patrons, customers and subordinates. Experts are a great resource of most communities and hosts of experts can be found with mercenaries in various armies in the Wilderlands acting as siege engineers, camp followers etc, although there are the rare experts who practice their art for their own benefit and travel the length of the Wilderlands to hone their skills.
Religion: Experts worship the gods accepted by their cultures in general, preferring those of crafts and trade or of their profession.
Backgrounds: Experts may come from just about anywhere, depending on their specialization. Most experts come from major metropolitan areas where they can practice their trade in relative safety and have a steady supply of patrons.
Game Rule Information
Abilities: The expert may of any race or sex, as all cultures value those who would specialize in a profession.
The abilities needed by most experts are Wisdom and Intelligence for learning important skills and learning how the profession works. However some professions (courtesan, athlete, as well as others) require more demanding physical characteristics such as Charisma, Constitution and Strength.
This class is not meant to be played to high levels and is capped at 10 levels. A character who has ten levels of expert can still multiclass.
Hit Die: d6
Class Skills
The expert can choose any ten skills to be class skills, of which at least one must be a Profession.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6+Int Modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6+Int Modifier
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the expert:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Experts are proficient with all Simple weapons and with light armor but no shields.
Expert Specialization: At 1st level the expert may select an expert path from the following list: Alchemist, Athlete, Concubine/Courtesan, Merchant, Sailor, Siege Engineer, and Smith. These common paths have a strong base of training opportunities to the right person and this ability provides a wealth of enrichment in related skills, represented by a steady increase in a Competence bonus for them as the table at the end of this section. An expert who chooses to not follow one of these common paths may select a bonus feat instead.
Literacy: At 1st level the expert attains the Literacy feat as a bonus feat. Even the hearth-focused smith or meanest harlot is expected to be able to follow written orders if a sack of silver comes with it. If the character already has the Literacy feat there is no additional gain.
Bonus Feat: The expert gains a feat from the following list: Skill Focus, Diligent, Persuasive, Knowledgeable, Experienced Merchant, Superior Weaponsmith, Superior Armourer, Negotiator, Navigation, Master of the Waves, Sea’s Breath, Unfurled Sails, Up the Rigging, Viper’s Speed, and Water Snake. The expert must meet any prerequisites.
Leadership: At 6th level the expert gains the Leadership feat for free, as his skills attract others in his chosen profession to learn from him. All followers will be experts in the same or related fields (GM’s discretion). If the character already has the Leadership feat he still gains the additional expert followers, but no new cohort.
The Expert
Level BAB DB PB MA Fort Ref Save Will Save Special
1 +0 +0 +0 +0 +0 +0 +2 Expert Specialization +1, Literacy
2 +1 +0 +0 +0 +0 +0 +3 Bonus Feat
3 +2 +0 +0 +0 +1 +1 +3 Expert Specialization +2
4 +3 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +4 Bonus Feat
5 +3 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +4 Expert Specialization +3
6 +4 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +5 Leadership
7 +5 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +5 Bonus Feat
8 +6/+1 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +6 Expert Specialization +4
9 +6/+1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +6 Bonus Feat
10 +7/+2 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +7 Expert Specialization +5
Expert Specialization
Alchemist
+1 Competence Bonus to Craft (herbalism) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Craft (alchemy) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (herbalist) checks
Athlete
+1 Competence Bonus to Jump checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Balance checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Swim checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Grapple checks
Concubine/Courtesan
+1 Competence Bonus to Perform (dance) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Perform (sexual techniques) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (courtesan) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Sense Motive checks
Merchant
+1 Competence Bonus to Appraise checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Fast Talk checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Sense Motive checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (merchant) checks
Sailor
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (sailor) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Swim checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Balance checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Climb checks
Siege Engineer
+1 Competence Bonus to Knowledge (warfare)
+1 Competence Bonus to Knowledge (architecture and engineering)
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (carpenter) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (siege engineer) checks
Smith
+1 Competence Bonus to Craft (weaponsmith) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Craft (armoursmith) checks
+1 Competence Bonus to Profession (blacksmith) checks
