A rogue (or other class that meets the following prerequisites) may specialize in one particular type of crime, much like a wizard might specialize in a school of magic. Such criminal specialization requires four mandatory skills and prohibits two other skills (the specialist can never put ranks into these skills, but he may still use them untrained). In addition, as long as the specialist takes an appropriate Skill Focus feat he also gains a unique special ability at the listed level, which he can use only if he maintains a maximum number of ranks in the listed skills (even if he multiclasses). Any class with all six of the listed skills as class skills qualifies and allows a member of that class to become a specialist in the listed field.
As your childhood ended, the faces of those you implored for alms grew harder, causing you to learn how to feign injuries and infirmities, anything to stoke a charitable impulse. You have learned how to use those skills to protect yourself.
Level: 1st.
Prerequisites: Bluff, Disguise, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Skill Focus (Disguise).
Forbidden Skills: Disable Device and Open Lock.
Playing Possum (Ex): You may attempt to gain a temporary edge in combat by shamming a debilitating injury, such as blindness or a missing limb. This requires 1 minute of advance preparation, a disguise kit, and a Disguise check. The next intelligent foe you encounter must succeed at an opposed Spot check or else he is flat-footed against your first attack. Your first attack in the combat must be made against this foe. If you encounter multiple foes, they all get a chance to see through your disguise, but you only gain the benefit of this ability on the first attack you make.
In your life you have developed a talent for remaining in the background while your targets committed their indiscretions. You can leap quickly into the foreground when you need to, taking your victims by surprise and using the threat of their secrets to cow them into obeying your forcefully delivered commands.
Level: 3rd.
Prerequisites: Decipher Script, Gather Information, Intimidate, Search, Skill Focus (Intimidate).
Forbidden Skills: Disable Device and Open Lock.
Vilify (Ex): You can attempt to uncover some secret humiliation of a particular foe by carefully sifting through rumor and idle speculation. You must spend at least 8 hours chasing gossip in an area your target has frequented within the last month followed by a Gather Information check (DC 10 + target’s CR). If you succeed at this Gather Information check you may, at any time in the following month, make an Intimidate check against your target as a full-round action. At any time in the next hour, as long as you are not in combat, you may issue a command (as the spell) at your target as a standard action. The save DC of your command effect equals the result of your Intimidate check. This is a language-dependant, mind-affecting ability.
If your Gather Information check fails you must wait at least six months before trying again against that particular target. If your target simply has no humiliating indiscretions in her past (as determined by the DM) you cannot use this ability against that target.
You learned to look for every defect in an item and never hesitate to use even the most infinitesimal flaw as grounds to lower your price. These skills proved equally useful when dealing with any kind of object, valuable or not.
Level: 6th.
Prerequisites: Appraise, Bluff, Forgery, Sense Motive, Skill Focus (Appraise).
Forbidden Skills: Climb and Tumble.
Fracture (Ex): Your trained eye can identify and exploit the subtle, hidden defects of objects. After your first successful attack against a construct or object, you may make an Appraise check (DC 15 for an object or DC 15 + creature’s CR for a construct). For every point by which you succeed at this check you can ignore one point of hardness or one point of DR for all later attacks against that construct or object. You can only use this ability with melee attacks.
You possess a singular enthusiasm for breaking legs — or heads — upon command, but you also learned to apply your intellect, to let rumor guide you to your targets and to find the kernels of truth within their pleas and evasions.
Level: 6th.
Prerequisites: Bluff, Gather Information, Intimidate, Sense Motive, Skill Focus (Intimidate).
Forbidden Skills: Decipher Script and Use Magic Device.
Browbeat (Ex): You can, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack against an opponent. If you hit and deal damage, you can immediately follow it with an Intimidate check (DC 15 + target’s CR). If you succeed in this check your foe becomes shaken until the end of your next turn. For each round you continue to attack the same target, you gain a cumulative +1 bonus on your Intimidate checks. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.
Displaying a fiendish ingenuity for knots and bindings, you drifted into criminal gangs that made their living by snatching people and holding them for ransom.
Level: 1st.
Prerequisites: Climb, Disguise, Move Silently, Use Rope, Skill Focus (Use Rope).
Forbidden Skills: Diplomacy and Tumble.
Hobble (Ex): You can attempt to restrict or bind any foe you manage to catch unawares. Whenever you face a flat-footed opponent no more than one size category larger than you, you may attempt a melee touch attack as a full-round action. You must have a length of rope at least 20 feet long in hand when you make this touch attack. If you succeed, you can wrap your target’s arms and legs in rope. Make a Use Rope check with a -4 penalty. Your target moves at half his normal speed and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity scores until he escapes your knots, requiring a full-round action and an Escape Artist check (DC equals your Use Rope check).
While others spent their time housebreaking or shaking down tourists, you found a comfortable niche by merely offering advanced warning of approaching danger. Your keen senses made you a welcome addition to any criminal enterprise.
Level: 3rd.
Prerequisites: Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Skill Focus (Spot).
Forbidden Skills: Appraise and Disable Device.
Perceive (Su): As a full-round action, you can gain one of the following effects until your next turn: blindsense, low-light vision, scent or tremorsense. You cannot gain an effect you already possess. This ability requires you to concentrate the entire time. If you are attacked or otherwise distracted, you must succeed at a DC 20 Concentration check or lose the effect.
Through trial and error (and more than one night in jail), you mastered the art of taking what you needed from passersby — the fatter and wealthier the better. As you grew older, you learned the hard way that not all wealthy folk flaunted their jewels unarmed. After several lengthy stays at the local temples, you learned to identify (and disarm) those who carried protection.
Level: 6th.
Prerequisites: Hide, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Skill Focus (Sleight of Hand).
Forbidden Skills: Disable Device and Sense Motive.
Snatch Weapon (Ex): You can attempt to strip a creature of a sheathed weapon by making a Sleight of Hand check (DC 20 + target’s CR) as a full-round action. Your target must be flat-footed to you. You can snatch a light weapon (based on your size, not your target’s) without penalty, a one-handed weapon with a -4 penalty, and a two-handed weapon with a -8 penalty. You cannot snatch a weapon too large for you to wield. If you succeed in this check, you gain possession of the weapon. You must have enough free hands available when you attempt the snatch to wield the weapon properly (i.e., you must have at least one free hand when attempting to snatch a light or one-handed weapon and two free hands when attempting to snatch a two-handed weapon).
When you use this ability, your Sleight of Hand check is opposed by the Spot checks of those nearby. The success of observers (including your victim) doesn’t prevent you from performing the snatch, just from doing it unnoticed.
Source: Dragon Magazine #352 (Page 75)