One of my favorite supplements for AD&D 2nd edition was Sages & Specialists. This book provided several classes that weren’t as good as the players in most aspects but possessed skills that were necessary for most fantasy worlds to have that spark that shows that more than merely fighters and wizards roam the land. While looking over Johnn Four’s excellent GM Mastery NPC Essentials, he touches on the numerous rolls NPCs have to offer, but doesn’t go into any real mechanical detail on how to showcase those specialists in the game.
Skrimisher Publishing on the other hand, apparently from way off left field, makes a book that gets no press and no announcement and just shows up at my bookstore one day. A few inquiries latter, I have a copy of my own. I note on my review of NPC Essentials that one of the things I wanted was a Guildmaster Prestige Class and chuckle a bit as its one of the two PrCs offered here. I break out my old blue covered Sages & Specialists so I can see how 3rd edition handles what 2nd edition always had a hard time with: Experts.
In 3rd edition, an Expert is a little beyond a commoner. They have a wide variety of skills with which to customize the class in a variety of ways. The book Experts showcases the versatility in the class in a few ways. It breaks Experts down into five broad categories: Craftsmen (Armorer, Artificer, Blacksmith, etc…), Entertainers (Acrobat, Courtesan), Professional (Barrister, Engineer, Navigator, Physician), Scholar (Alchemist, Archaeologist, Sage, Scribe), and Tradesmen (Animal Trainer, Brewer, Exterminator, etc…). These five niches are introduced with a template that provides a list of general skills and abilities available to each type of Expert and then goes into further detail with each sub-class.
For example, under Professional, you look at Engineer and get background, what type of Engineers become adventurers and how often, what characteristics and alignment are common to them, what religions they tend to follow, and what backgrounds they hail from. The religion section sticks with the Greek Mythos and this is a good design choice since many have read, heard, or seen movies and television stories that take elements of the Greek Myths. In addition to the name of the god though, they also provide the domain or area of expertise. So when it mentions Athena, it also mentions Law and Wisdom. This makes slotting the mini-classes easy.
Many of the mini-classes boast special little abilities that they gain as they go up in levels. In our example of the Engineer, they gain specialties in different fields that is in essence, a Skill Focus feat for different areas of their work. Other classes can gain weapon, armor, or even some alchemical abilities depending on their realm of ‘expertise.’
In addition to the numerous Expert variants, the book also provides a slew of new skills that tend to fall into two board categories: Craft and Profession. The good thing about these skills is its not just a random listing with a brief one sentence definition, it provides the appropriate stat, retry, and special information when appropriate.
Lets say you like the Black Company and have wanted to make an NPC based on Croaker, the physician historian. You go through this book and decide that the Physician is a good place to start. Right off the bat you’ve got an Expert with skills tailored to heal. You’ve also got a page of medicinal compounds like Invigorating Draught, which provides a bonus to Con based on the Physician’s level, as well as Poison Antidotes. Each compound has the DC to craft, cost to make, cost to sell, time to make, and how it’s taken.
Not satisfied with this though, you decide that you’re Physician is going to have some ‘extra’ oomph. You take the new feat Use Magic, which allows you to give the Expert access to the skill Cast Spells. This way you’ve got someone who can cast some healing spells as well.
I know, some have already thought, “Well, there goes game balance.” But… for the use of a feat and putting ranks into the skill, what you get back isn’t impressive. At 25 ranks, you can cast 3 0, 2 1st, 2nd, 1 3rd, 1 4th, and 1 5th level spell. So that puts the character at something like, 22nd level Expert. So can it unbalance a game where an Expert who is Epic level can cast a 5th level spell? I’d hope not.
For those who need a little more than the Expert variants, there are two Prestige Classes: The Guild Master and the Militia Leader. Neither one would be very appealing to most players, but they fill important roles in a fantasy setting. The Guild Master is an overseer, a person who mid to high level characters may do dealing with. The Militia Leader is a member of the guard whose good enough to lead his men in battle. It’s not a soldier who works for an Empire, but rather a man whose position puts him ahead of his fellows on the frontier.
One of my favorite aspects of the skill listing though, isn’t the sheer variety. It’s the detail. When looking up Profession, Herbalist for example, you get almost a full page of suggested properties of herbs. Need to know what Arrowroot does or Jasmine? It’s in here. When looking up Craft, Armorsmithing, need to know what the DC is to add Armor Spikes and Adamantine to a small steel shield? It’s in there. Along with the time to create, repair, cost, and cost to repair.
In addition to providing the mechanics and examples needed to flesh out the Expert, there are new magical items that fit into the non-adventuring lifestyle of the Expert like Fireseal Wax. This wax is fire resistant and lasts for years. How about Incense of Identification? The user burns the incense and experiences a vision of what an item, mundane or magical can do. How about the strange Mini Mecha Golem? A foot tall iron golem powered by gears and pistons.
For those using Experts in a large city like Freeport where there are numerous Experts in alliance with Commoners, you’ll find the section on Guilds useful. It’s a bit short compared to the rest of the book, but it’s Experts, not Guilds. GMs reading this will love the different tables like regulations, guild presence, structure, common guilds, rare guilds, and local organizations. The GM can bust out some percentile dice and have several guilds up in no time with a few flicks of the wrist.
But how much does all this cost? The table, Costs for Expert Service answers this question with a breakdown that provides the Expert effective level, which can be higher or lower than actual level, and a base cost in silver pieces broken up by day, week month and year. There are modifiers to add to get your final results though as Experts may have to work overtime or be subject to hazardous duties and of course, the goods themselves often have costs that are separate from the service.
Not content to leave well enough alone, Experts does something I haven’t seen touched on in too many products. Experience Points for non-violent activities. You know, using your skills. It provides a table, the Expert Base XP, on which skill rank, level, XP per Month and XP per year is listed. So if you’re a 2nd level Physician with 5 ranks, you’d get 50 a month or 650 a year in XP. This system looks like it’d work great for campaign that have a lot of down time and want a base guideline on what NPC’s and perhaps even PCs are earning in terms of XP when they’re no adventuring. Those who work hard and fast, creating masterwork items, earn bonus experience points.
The only places where Experts is a little weak isn’t in it’s mechanics, it’s in the execution. The top and bottom margins creep up on the book putting all of the two-columned text straight in the middle. Makes for very quick, very easy on the eyes reading. Little too much margin taken up on the top and bottom though and the margins aren’t anything to note. The second flaw is the amount of clipart. In most cases, the clip art fits perfectly the subject and it doesn’t look gaudy or out of place, but it doesn’t rise to the top like some of the other products on store shelves might, causing it to be overlooked. This happens with the cover to a limited extent. There’s some pixilation which gives the cover a less than pristine example of what might be inside where almost none of the art suffers this effect.
In addition to providing a lot of raw mechanics, the book includes almost thirty pregenerated NPCs. That’s one for each sub-type of Expert in the book. Need an Alchemist? It’s in here. Need an Undertaker? You’re covered.
Experts fills a niche that many GMs may not even be aware existed. It builds upon the best strengths of the old Sages & Specialists and provides a lot of raw material that GMs can use to craft their own campaigns and form their own specialist. It expands and expounds on skills to provide more detailed examples of what exactly skills can do. It makes non-magical healing a little easier to achieve for those wanting a darker, more grittier game. It provides a way to gain experience points without being on the road 24-7. In short, it’s a book that despite some graphic problems, deserves to be on every serious GMs shelf.
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