Dwarven thieves, half-orc paladins, dark elf striders; some adventurers become more than just an exemplar of their heritage. You’ve rebelled against your upbringing, taking on a profession that’s eschewed by your people or otherwise ignored. Or perhaps your GM wants to create a more diverse, cosmopolitan setting where such admixtures are possible. Enter the Iconoclast, who defies the expectation of their society and takes on a new, unconventional role.

Favored Class and Human Class

The class that is normally associated with your stock is called your stock’s ‘favored class’. The favored class is a social role that your stock naturally recognizes. If you are of any non-human stock you can adopt a human class instead, gaining the majority of skills and class features from that class but retaining your stock’s nature descriptors. If your stock has more than one class associated with it (e.g. the halfling burglar, thain, and journeyman cook) you must pick only one of these classes to be your favored class.

Alignment Restrictions

When adopting a human class, you must abide by any alignment restrictions that class has. For example, an elf barbarian must be non-lawful. You may ignore any alignment restriction of your stock’s favored class. You’ve left those allegiances behind.

Order of Might

You retain the Order of Might from your stock’s favored class.

Skills

Skills of the human class are taken as normal. Do not choose a special human skill. Pick one skill from your favored class that is not also given to your human class and give it a rating of 2. Pick a home town skill as normal. Choose social graces and specialties as normal.

Traits

You begin with your human class trait and your stock’s favored class trait. Do not take a home town trait.

Wises

Choose two wises, one from your stock’s favored class and one of your own choosing.

Nature

Record the nature descriptors and answer the nature questions from your stock’s favored class. As an iconoclast, your Nature and your Nature Cap are reduced by 1. Any nature question that would result in a change to your home trait instead changes your favored class trait to “Misfit”.

Misfit Trait: You no longer live your life according to the traditions of your people. As a misfit you are treated differently in your homeland and regarded as eccentric at best, and openly hostile at worst. However, your openness to other cultures allows you to fit in where others of your kind might not — in the teeming cities of mankind, aboard pirate vessels on the open sea, or in the trenches of war with mercenary companies.

Starting equipment

You have the starting equipment of your human class, or whatever approximations best suit your physical stature.

Level benefits

You begin play with your 1st level human class benefits. Beginning at third level you may choose to take a level benefit from your stock’s favored class. The chosen benefit may be from any level equal to or less than your level.

If at any time your favored class benefits outnumber your human class benefits, you abandon your human class and become a full fledged member of your favored class.

Other Special Abilities and Drawbacks

Other special abilities and drawbacks tied to stock are retained by the iconoclast, such as the goblin shaman’s light sensitivity or the dwarf adventurer’s proclivity for carrying the correct tools.

Art by Paul O'Connell