Vicious Opportunist

With the knowledge of how, and when, to strike at his enemies at the most opportune time, the vicious opportunist is able to quickly and gleefully take down opponents.

This archetype does less damage on average than sneak attacks (+2 damage per 2 levels vs an average of 3.5 damage per 2 levels!), but can come up more often. It also has the benefit of allowing for a ninja/rogue who focuses on ranged weapons to get some extra damage in more often! Note that just replacing sneak attack with Opportunities Aplenty will work well. The abilities that replace Ninja Tricks/Rogue Talents are meant to further emphasize the teamwork aspect that this product strives for, and are not necessary if you simply desire something that has the flavor of sneak attack, but with a different execution.

Opportunities Aplenty (Ex)

At 1st level, a vicious opportunist can take advantage of the suffering of others, whether from her own hands, or from the hands, or magic, of her allies. Whenever he is flanking a creature, attacking a creature with a detrimental condition (see below to determine what a detrimental condition is) affecting it, or a creature that is denied their Dexterity bonus to AC he gains a +2 circumstance bonus to damage rolls against that creature. At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter the bonus to damage rolls increases by +2. If the vicious opportunist is not flanking, the creature must have a detrimental condition before the attack for the vicious opportunist to gain this bonus.

For the purposes of this ability, a detrimental condition is any condition other than: energy drained, incorporeal, and invisible.

This ability replaces sneak attack. Abilities that trigger off of sneak attack instead activate off of this ability.

For abilities that use the number of dice of a sneak attack to determine effects, the effective number of dice is equal to the bonus damage from this ability, divided by 2. For example, if a 5th level vicious opportunist has the Bleeding Attack rogue talent, whenever she attacks a creature with a detrimental condition, she gains a +6 circumstance to damage rolls. In addition, she does three points of bleed damage from the Bleeding Attack talent.

Direct Allies (Ex)

At 4th level, the vicious opportunist learns how to accurately instruct his allies how to strike when their enemies are most vulnerable.

As a standard action, the vicious opportunist may designate one enemy within 100 feet as her target.

Until the beginning of her next turn, all allies attacking Vicious Opportunist the target gain half the vicious opportunist’s Opportunities Aplenty bonus on their next damage roll.

The allies must be flanking the target, the target must be suffering from a detrimental condition, or the target must be denied their Dexterity bonus to AC. This bonus damage does not stack with other damage from the Opportunities Aplenty ability.

This ability replaces the ninja trick or rogue talent gained at 4th level.

Designer’s Note

This archetype is for both ninjas and rogues.

In the case of ninjas, ninja tricks are replaced.

In the case of rogues, rogue talents are replaced.

New Rogue Talents/Ninja Tricks

Clarifications and Alternate Rules for Opportunities Aplenty

There are some effects in the game that mimic the effects of conditions, such as an archon’s aura of menace or using chill touch against an undead creature, but aren’t themselves conditions. In cases such as these, the GM decides whether or not the rogue will receive the extra damage from Opportunities Aplenty.

In some cases, it may not make sense for the rogue to get the extra damage from Opportunities Aplenty. In these cases, it is up to the GM to decide whether the rogue will deal extra damage. For example, if a rogue fires three arrows at a prone medium-sized creature 60 feet away, even if he hits, the GM may rule that he does not gain the extra damage, due to the target being far away and prone. While the rogue would normally gain the extra damage at this distance, the prone target presents too small a target to aim at.

If a condition ends before you are able to hit a target, such as breaking a creature’s Fascination by drawing a weapon, you do not get the extra damage.

Opportunities Aplenty can be adapted to be used by any class or archetype that gains Sneak Attack. In these cases, increase the damage at the same levels where the class or archetype would increase the sneak attack damage dice. For example, a ninja or a Sandman bard could use this ability. Even a rogue could just use Opportunities Aplenty, without the other abilities presented in the vicious opportunist.

The rogue talents presented above are without a doubt more powerful than the average rogue talent. It is the authors’ opinion that rogues are in need of a boost in their combat abilities, and we hope these rogue talents help in a way that does not marginalize other members of the party.

While the description of the ability hints at a meanstreak by the user of the ability, the player is encouraged to describe the ability however he likes.

Finally, when you first gain Opportunities Aplenty, instead of an extra 2 damage per every 2 levels, you can instead choose to roll 1d4 per two levels when the conditions of the ability are satisfied. Unlike the damage from the normal Opportunities Aplenty, this is precision based damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Secrets of Adventuring © 2013, Steven D. Russell; Authors: Steven D. Russell, Jonathan McAnulty, Will McCardell, Benjamin Rombeaut, and David Mallon.

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