Lucky One (3.5e Class)

Lucky One
Lucky Ones aren't particularly good at anything. It's just that the universe likes to help them out.

Making a Lucky One
Lucky Ones come in handy whenever a natural 20 can pull them out of a tight place. Their situation-changing abilities help too. In a battlefield situation, their presence has a controlling influence, and they are quite difficult to harm.

Abilities: Lucky Ones are NAD (No Ability Dependent). They have high enough hit die size and skill points that they can get by just fine with 8's for Intelligence and Constitution, and their ability to achieve more than the average number of natural 20's reduces the need for attack and save boosting ability scores. Lucky One class abilities do not depend on any ability score.

Races: Goblins, Halflings, and Humans are likely to be Lucky Ones, since those races are likely to have many members who don't achieve a great deal of competence.

Alignment: Any nonlawful. Although you can act just like a Lawful character, your luck is more than can be accepted by the Lawfulness essence of the universe.

Starting Gold: 2d4&times;10 gp (50 gp).

Starting Age: Simple.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Lucky One.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Lucky Ones are proficient with simple throwing weapons.

This changes what "natural" value has been rolled, allowing him to avoid natural 1's by changing them to natural 2's or get a natural 20 when he rolls a natural 17, and so on. The total amount he may change all die rolls in this way is equal to his class level. This supply of Luck Bonus replenishes at the beginning of the Lucky One's turn.

His player can use the following abilities if he has an available Lucky Break of the requisite magnitude. Activating a Lucky Break is not an action, since nobody is doing it. Save DCs of Lucky Breaks are equal to 10 plus the Lucky One's character level, but a character who successfully saves against a Lucky Break becomes immune to Lucky Breaks that offer a save for one round. Range of Breaks is unlimited, although DC's and checks you make are reduced by 10 if the target is more than 200 feet (+20 feet per character level) away.


 * : The following Lucky Breaks cost Minor Breaks to activate.


 * Trip: Activate this during a character's move action. That character falls prone unless they pass a Reflex save. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Minor Break for 10 minutes.


 * Fumble: Activate this during a character's action that uses an item they're holding. That character drops the item unless they pass a Reflex save. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Minor Break for 10 minutes.


 * : The following Lucky Breaks cost Major Breaks to activate.


 * Allies: Activate this at the end of the Lucky One's turn. Friendly people with an encounter level equal to the Lucky One's class level arrive on the scene in 1d4 rounds. You do not specify which people. The Lucky One does share experience with them. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for one day.


 * Food Poisoning: Activate this at the beginning of a character's turn. That character must make a Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Strength and Wisdom damage. If they fail their save, they must make a Will save or be nauseated for the rest of the turn. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for one day.


 * False Floor of Escape: Activate this while the Lucky One is moving. Some time during the move, the floor falls out from under him and he are deposited safely in some region under the previous area he was in. For at least 100 feet in every direction, there are no traps or enemies. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for one hour.


 * Total Miss: Activate this when something would affect the Lucky One. It doesn't. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for 10 minutes.


 * Embarassing Disarmorment: Activate this at the end of a character's turn. One item of your choice worn by that character falls off of them unless that character passes a Reflex save. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for 10 minutes.


 * Structural Instability: Activate this at the end of a character's action. Make a Strength check to break any object, using the Lucky One's class level as the Strength modifier. Since you, not the Lucky One, are making the check, the Lucky One's Luck Bonus cannot apply. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Major Break for 10 minutes.


 * : The following Lucky Breaks cost Fortuitous Breaks to activate.


 * Heart Attack: Activate this at the beginning of a character's turn. That character must make a Fortitude save or take 1 point of Constitution damage and get a -5' penalty to speed and a -1 penalty to attack rolls and skill checks for the rest of the turn. If the character fails the Fortitude save, they must make additional Fortitude saves until they succeed, taking additional Constitution damage and penalties to attributes. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Fortuitous Break for one day.


 * Conveniently Placed Transportation: Activate this at the end of the Lucky One's turn. Within the next 1d4 rounds, he will be within one round's move distance of an escape route, be it an unlocked cell door, a portal to another plane, or his trusty pet griffin. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Fortuitous Break for one day.


 * Favorable Weather: Activate this at the end of the Lucky One's turn. At the beginning of his next turn, painful things start coming from the sky or ceiling, dealing fire, electrical, cold, bludgeoning, slashing, and/or piercing damage as appropriate for the situation. This weather exists for 2d6 rounds and extends to a 1d4 mile radius from his current position. All characters who end their turn in this weather take 1d6 points of damage per character level, with half damage if they succeed on a Reflex save. He and his allies get a +10 bonus to this save. Using this Break costs the Lucky One a Fortuitous Break for one day.

 (Su): At 2nd level or higher if a Lucky One makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. A helpless Lucky One continues to gain the benefit of evasion.

Perhaps he was told some particular amazingly tidbit of knowledge the day before, or the guards forgot to lock the vault door, or the enemy he's trying to use Diplomacy on turns out to be a double agent, etcetera. Whenever the Lucky One rolls a natural 20 on a skill check, he may choose to claim it as a "Skill Success". If he does, he adds twice his class level to the skill check (In a low-numbers variant on the skill rules such as Tome of Prowess, he adds half his class level instead. The Lucky One can't claim more than one "Skill Success" per day per three class levels.

 (Su): At 8th level or higher if a Lucky One makes a successful saving throw against something that allows a partial effect on a successful save, he is completely unaffected instead. A helpless Lucky One continues to gain the benefit of evasion.

Ex-Lucky One
The Lucky One cannot become Lawful while half or more of his character levels are Lucky One class levels. The Lucky One cannot gain levels in Lucky One while Lawful.

Playing a Lucky One
Religion: Lucky Ones tend to worship average religions, because unlike most adventurers, they don't get their abilities from ambitious activity, nor are their abilities controllable enough (by them) for them to become ambitious by having them.

Other Classes: Lucky Ones often treat members of other classes like an NPC would treat members of other classes.

Combat: Lucky Ones primarily occupy the roles of Battlefield Control and Tank.

Advancement: Any class that benefits from being able to avoid very low rolls and achieve a profusion of natural 20's is a good class to consider. A Crit-fishing Fighter or a wordcasting class such as the Wordmaster, Word Wizard, or Wordsman would probably be worth looking into.

Lucky Ones in the World
"Why is this all happening to me?"

Lucky Ones are generally a force of change, buoyed on by the force of history to achieve great change in the sociopolitical paradigms.

Daily Life: Lucky Ones tend to spend a lot of time running away, as a general rule.

Notables: Rincewind, Mat Cauthon.

Organizations: Lucky Ones tend not to assemble, since they're usually unaware that they are a "they" at all.

NPC Reactions: BBEGNPCs are often flustered by the unexpected actions of clueless schmucks that foil their evil plans. Ordinary NPCs get along quite well with them in times of peace.

Lucky One Lore
Characters with ranks in Gather Information can research Lucky Ones to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Lucky Ones in the Game
Adaptation: If you wish to reflavor this class, keep in mind that it does not use the action economy, so spellcasting is right out as a flavor. Psionics might work though.