The RiddleMaster

Introduction | Table of Contents | Class Sample

They sat around the simple table, each silently preparing in his or her own way. Kelvyn’s hands moved constantly, squeezing the edge of the wooden table or feeling along the grain as if he could discern the history of the table through touch alone. The son of a tinker, he learned how to take things apart at an early age. By the time he was four, he understood the workings of a spring wound clock. In his travels with his father he encountered devices both mundane and magical. By disassembling the latter he gained his own understanding of the arcane arts. He took things apart not to fix them, or to learn how to build them, but simply from an insatiable curiosity to understand how they work.

Kor Ana sa-Rama stared out the high tower window at the stars. In her mind she formed pictures by connecting the stars. She would not be satisfied until she could construct a cohesive picture that included every star within her field of vision. She was most comfortable when staring at the night sky. During her many journeys she had discerned much about the patterns of the heavens, how the movements of the stars corresponded to happenings around her, how the mysteries of the world could sometimes best be understood by looking away from the world.

Sanserry Sanrio prepared by looking at the ancient tapestries hanging on the walls, each one depicting a life or death struggle. She glossed over the scenes depicted, instead studying the feel of the contests. Each fight was unique; each opponent was a new challenge. Since finishing her training as a Sphinx Lord, Sanserry had not failed any test, nor lost any battle; she was always ready for the next fight.

Across from Sanserry, Talister the Fool spent these moments studying his adversaries. He looked from Kelvyn to Kor Ana sa-Rama, to Sanserry. Sometimes his glances were fleeting, bouncing off of one person to the next, sometimes he stared intently. As he watched an opponent, he would cock his head as if listening, or squint, or raise his eyebrows, his face always in motion. Talister could learn a tremendous amount from watching people, and he delighted in amazing people with details he had deduced about them. In his role as the Court Jester for King Saradon, he spent much of his time watching the supplicants to the court, treating each one as a puzzle to be solved.

Standing near the windows the Master observed the four. They had all progressed well these last few years. But only the most talented of the four would be allowed to enter the next circle of the Masters. The rest would need to find their own destinies. When she judged the time to be correct she announced:

“Let the Riddle Quest begin.”

How To Use This Book

The RiddleMaster is a role-playing sourcebook for use with the d20 game system. This book requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons® Players Handbook, Third Edition or v3.5, published by Wizards of the Coast®. The RiddleMaster is a new base character class for players to explore. This book contains all the information needed to play a RiddleMaster, five new Prestige Classes, new Skills, Feats, Special Abilities and Spells for RiddleMasters.

There are also 13 riddles and riddle rooms which you can find either within the text of the interludes or collected at the end of this book. These can be used to enhance your own adventures.

Introduction | Table of Contents | Class Sample

Introduction		3
The RiddleMaster		4
Interlude 1 -The Riddle Quest		9
Prestige Classes		10
	Arcanologist	10
	Jester	11
	Master of the Balance	13
	PuzzleMaker	16
	Sphinx Lord	19
Interlude 2 - Kelvyn		21
Skills and Feats		27
	Skills	27
	Feats	29
Interlude 3 - Kor Ana sa-Rama		31
Spells		35
	Available RiddleMaster Spells	35
	New Spells	36
Interlude 4 - Talister the Fool		40
Riddles and Riddle Contests		51
Interlude 5 -Sanserry Sanrio		53
Playing The RiddleMaster		55
Riddles		57
Riddle Explanations		59
Riddle Rooms		61
RiddleMaster Spell Tracking Sheet		68

Introduction | Table of Contents | Class Sample

The RiddleMaster

They delight in solving riddles and puzzles, figuring out how things work and unraveling mysteries. Many prefer solitary research, often living in remote towers, studying topics that are incomprehensible to most people. However there are some RiddleMasters who do choose to interact with others and to take a more active role in their research. Any adventuring party that manages to convince a RiddleMaster to join them will consider themselves quite fortunate.

Adventures: RiddleMasters adventure to see amazing places and monsters, to solve difficult puzzles, to find and examine intricate treasures and traps. They have only mild interest in treasure for its monetary value, instead they are fascinated with cleverly crafted items. The RiddleMaster seeks such items, not to use, but to take apart and study, even if doing so renders them worthless.

Characteristics: The RiddleMaster learns her skills not by being taught, but by figuring things out for herself. She understands how to tap into magical energies, and has more skills than most. She also has the unique ability to Advise others to raise their chances of success based on her own knowledge. She prefers to stay out of melee, though her skills with range weapons ensure she is helpful in a fight.

Alignment: The RiddleMaster is driven by the joy of solving puzzles and acquiring knowledge. So, though they can be any alignment, most tend toward Neutral or Chaotic Neutral. Good RiddleMasters will often find themselves involved in politics, seeking to use their problem solving skills to avert conflicts and disaster in the world. Chaotic Evil RiddleMasters delight in sowing discontent, revolution and war just to see what will happen.

Religion: The RiddleMaster takes pleasure in intellectually solving problems, and in general has little interest in religion. For those RiddleMasters who do go down a religious path, Evil RiddleMasters will often associate with gods of deceit, treachery or secrets, while Good RiddleMasters will generally follow gods of knowledge or discovery.

Background: RiddleMasters often come from exotic cultures away from mainstream society. In a city environment, someone with the skills of a RiddleMaster would likely have been groomed as a Sorcerer or Wizard, found himself serving a Bard, or perhaps ended up scraping by as a Rogue. But, without any training or experienced masters to apprentice to, the RiddleMaster instead uses his natural talents to figure things out for himself.

Races: RiddleMasters can be of any race, though a Half-Orc RiddleMaster is a rarity. Humans take up RiddleMastering because of their love of figuring things out for themselves. Elves and Half-Elves enjoy the abstract mental challenge of riddling. Dwarves and Gnomes like taking things apart, figuring out how they work, and also creating intricate puzzle boxes and other items. Halflings have a long social tradition with riddles and see RiddleMastery as a calling that is completely independent of size.

Other Classes: RiddleMasters get along well with most other classes with the exception of Clerics and Paladins, since RiddleMasters have little patience for strong moral agendas. Fortunately the RiddleMaster’s knowledge of the body and healing allow a party to adventure with a RiddleMaster in place of a Cleric. Rogues are especially fond of working with RiddleMasters as the RiddleMaster has less interest in pure monetary treasure than most. A RiddleMaster will stay with a party only as long as the adventures are satisfying her thirst for knowledge and intellectual challenge. Some adventurers may find the RiddleMaster to be arrogant, disliking her constant advice, even if it often proves to be helpful.

GAME RULE INFORMATION

RiddleMasters have the following game statistics.

Abilities: The key abilities for a RiddleMaster are Intelligence and Dexterity. Intelligence determines how powerful a spell a RiddleMaster can cast, how many spells he can cast, and how hard those spells are to resist. To cast a spell, a RiddleMaster must have an Intelligence score of 10 + the spell’s level. In addition, a RiddleMaster gets bonus spells based on Intelligence. The Difficulty Class of a saving throw against a RiddleMaster’s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the RiddleMaster’s Intelligence modifier. High Dexterity is helpful for RiddleMasters who typically wear little armor, and who primarily rely on range weapons in combat.

Alignment: Usually Neutral or Chaotic Neutral, but may be of any alignment.

Hit Die: d6

Class Skills

The RiddleMaster’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Empathy (Cha), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Psychology (Wis), Riddling (Int), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis).

Skill points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
At Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the RiddleMaster.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The RiddleMaster prefers to remain inconspicuous, and so uses smaller weapons. He is proficient in all Tiny and Small simple weapons (both melee and ranged), and at 1st level gets a bonus feat of one Exotic Weapon Proficiency for a Tiny or Small exotic weapon (melee or ranged). This represents the RiddleMaster’s upbringing in an exotic culture. He can wear Padded or Leather armor with no risk of Arcane Spell Failure. The RiddleMaster is not proficient with Shields.

Advise: Skill: At 2nd level the RiddleMaster gains the ability to give advice to another character using a skill. If the RiddleMaster has no ranks in the skill he can add +1 to a character’s roll. If the RiddleMaster has ranks, he adds half of his rank (round up) to the character’s roll. Note that this is in place of using Cooperation. The RiddleMaster can offer skill advice once per day per level. This may not be used during combat. To use Advise: Skill the RiddleMaster must have at least 4 ranks of the Riddling skill.

Range Bonus: The RiddleMaster prefers ranged weapons to melee, and is much more effective fighting at range. At 3rd level she receives +1 to range attacks. At 5th level this increases to +2, and so on as listed in Table 2-1. Note that this bonus applies toward multiple attacks, so at 7th level the RiddleMaster has a +3 melee attack or +6/+1 range.