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Eyes of the Serpent

by Dave Chinnery and Glenn Butcher

This is a class suitable for spies. Members of this class may be spying in Alfheim prior to the shadow elf invasion, or as members of the second shadow.

Eyes of the Serpent
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Requirements
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Race: Shadow Elf
Alignment: Any
Move Silently: 8 ranks
Hide: 8 ranks
Search: 4 ranks
Bluff: 4 ranks
Feats: Alertness, Ironwill
Special: The character must be believed to be loyal to the king, and have little allegiances with the Church of Rafiel.

Class Stuff
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Hit Die: d6
Skills: Balance, Climb, Disable Device, Gather Information, Hide, Intuit Direction, Jump, Ledge-Hopping, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope + Bluff, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Forgery, Innuendo, Intimidate, Open Lock, Profession, Read Lips, Sense Motive
Skill points at each level: 8 + Int modifier
Weapon proficiency: crossbow (hand, or light), dagger (any), dart, longsword,
rapier, sap, shortbow (normal and composite), short sword
Armour proficiency: light
Shield proficiency: none

Level	Attack	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1	+0	+0	+2	+2	memorise
2	+1	+0	+3	+3	false aura, evasion (as rogue 2nd)
3	+2	+1	+3	+3	sublimate personality, uncanny dodge (as rogue 3rd)
4	+3	+1	+4	+4	pass without trace
5	+3	+1	+4	+4	sense danger, uncanny dodge (as rogue 5th)
6	+4	+2	+5	+5	change self
7	+5	+2	+5	+5	slippery mind (as rogue special)
8	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	hide in plain sight
9	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	non-detection, improved evasion (as rogue special)
10	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	change self improved

memorise: The ability to memorise a short passage or conversation word for word. Diagrams may also be memorised. The character must understand what is being discussed (e.g. without some herbalism skill, it would be difficult to memorise the nomenclature and discussion in a treatise on rare life-giving herbs).

false aura: Alignment can appear to change 1 step/2 levels in Eye of the Serpent prestige class. The steps are:

overwhelming law/good, strong law/good, moderate law/good, faint law/good, dim law/good, neutral with respect to the law/morally, dim chaos/evil, faint chaos/evil, moderate chaos/evil, strong chaos/evil, overwhelming chaos/evil

It is not possible to increase past moderate in any direction.

For example, consider a 10th level moderately evil, strongly chaotic character. He can appear faintly good (5 steps) and strongly chaotic, or moderately evil and dimly lawful (5 steps), or neutral morally (3 steps) and faint chaotic (2 steps).

This altered alignment will be apparent to spells attempting to detect alignment, rather than the true alignment. The character will still need to role-play the intended alignment.

sublimate personality: The character can take on the personality to go with a disguise. The ordinary personality and memories will disappear into the subconscious, until predetermined conditions occur (e.g. that night, attacked, found out, or contacted with the key phrase). Skills of the disguise personality must be from existing skills of the character (you can't suddenly use a craft you didn't have), and the same applies to knowledge and memories - often there will be strange gaps in the story, if it is quite different to the character's own experiences. +3 to disguise (the personality believes it is what it is and acts in accordance, there are no slips - only gaps in memory)

Spells such as detect lie and those that read memory will not see through to the real personality (i.e. if the surface personality thinks it is saying the truth, though the character knew it was a lie, then that will not be detected as a lie by Discern Lies).

change self: As per the 1st level spell. The effects last while desired (duration unlimited), but this can only be used once/week. This is detectable as the change self spell. +10 to disguise

pass without trace: As per the 1st level spell. This can be used as desired, but movement rate drops to 2/3 while the character is careful not to leave tracks nor scent.

change self improved: Similar to the 1st level spell, but it is physically real (like Alter Self, but can't change limbs, or add wings, etc...) and can no longer be detected by a Will save on interaction. +10 to disguise (not cumulative with the earlier ability obviously). The effects last while desired (duration unlimited), but this can only be used once/week.

hide in plain sight: As per the 1st level Shadowdancer ability.

sense danger: As per the high-level rogue proficiency.

non-detection: As per the 3rd level spell, with a DC of 15 + Eye of the Serpent level. The Eye of the Serpent can choose to have this in effect or not.