I need help with a PrC

[Jasper]

I'm making a Newsboy class for the Paridon Gaz but I stuck with a bit of writers block. I have the basic nuts and bolts of the class but I'm stuck with discription of the class/flavor text and I need an idea for the last ability they get at level five.

Here is what I have so far:

Requirements

To qualify for a Newsboy (NwB) a character must fulfill the following criteria.

Alignment: Any neutral alignment

Skills: Gather Information 6 ranks, Knowledge (local) 6 ranks, Bluff 4 ranks

Special: The PC must prove himself to the other Newsboys by completing an initiation. The exact form of this initiation is up to the DM.

Class skills: The Newsboys class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Gather information (Cha), Spot (Wis), Speak Language, Slight of hand (Dex), Sense motive (Wis), Diplomacy (Cha).


Class Level BaB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +0 +0 +0 +2 Breaking news, Newsboy legion
2 +1 +1 +1 +3 Word on the street
3 +1 +1 +1 +3 Scandal sheet
4 +2 +2 +2 +4 Attention grabber
5 +2 +2 +2 +4 Extra Extra!

Class features- (Note: A Newsboy must have lived in a town of over 1000 people for over one month for these abilities to work)

Breaking news (EX) A Newsboy always has one ear open for local news. All gather information checks now take half of the normal time to complete.

Legion of Newsboys (EX) The Newsboys are a tight nit group and as such are able to call upon each other in times of need. One a week a Newsboy may call upon another
Newsboy for favor (A small 25g or less loan, a place to stay, emergency weapons, information, protection etc; )

Word on the street(EX) A Newsboy is always in touch with what is gong on in his chosen town. The Newsboys gains a (4+Newsboy level) bonus to all Gather information checks.

Scandal sheet (EX) A Newsboy knows how to find the dirt on anyone living in his city. With a successful Gather information check at DC 20 the newsboy is able to find out a single potentially scandalous bit of information about any one person. If the Newsboy releases this information with in earshot of the target he or she must make a Will save at DC 10+ Newsboy’s level or suffer the effects of a taunt spell for 2d6 rounds.

Attention grabber (EX) The Newsboys are known for getting the attention of potential customers. When in battle the newsboys may use a mixture of slanderous news, personal insults, loud noise and pure showmanship to distract a potential enemy. All hostile creatures of 9 inelegance or higher who can see and hear the Newsboy must make Will save at DC 10+Newsboy level or become distracted and suffer a –2 to all attack and damage rolls for 1d6+2 rounds.

Extra Extra! (EX) ???


I'm completely stumped as to what I should make Extra Extra....

Can anyone help?

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Perhaps the facination ability?

Any person distracted by the attention grabber ability can be held in thrall while the paperboy relates some sort of bizarre tale.
This could be something as simple as a scandelous story, or in combat something more practical such as "what we'll bribe you with if you stop trying to kill us."

[William Blackmoor]

Hm, maybe it's just me, but I've got children in front of my inner eyes when I hear newsboy. Are these meant ot be the boys who try to sell newspapers or are these the "boys" who are the "freelance-reporters" for the yellowpress/newsbill? I can't really picture a "kid hero PrC" you know. And it's not like Paridon is overflowing with halflings to take the kids place.
If this PrC is intended to be used by heros, your flavor text should make clear that Paridon's newsboys can/should'be be "a little" older than 5-12 years.
If it's intended to be a reporter you might want to look up the MotRD classes concerning reporters for inspiration.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

How about "Newshound"? That sounds like journalist-slang, which might have been the point of calling them "newsboys" instead of "reporters", but it's not age (or gender) specific. Or if you're really going in for the grungy, celebrity-bashing tabloid-style brand of journalism, "Muckraker" would be even better.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Good points, but you do realize, there's probably not much difference between the two.
Newsboys cover a wide range of the city, as is necessary for them to sell papers. I wouldn't imagine that any of them would pass up the oppertunity to snitch on something they saw. A carriage accident or a man with a lady not his wife.
I imagine they also have the oppertunity to gather a lot of information by chatting up the people they meet on the street.

Perhaps the only difference between the paper boys and the reporters is abilitiy. If you can find enough stories to write about, you make enough to live off of. Otherwise, your out on the street moving print.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If somebody's got enough levels to qualify for this (or any) PrC, they're probably far beyond the "paperboy" stage of their careers, IMO. The job of selling papers on the streets really is one that's suited for kids (=commoners) who work for pennies, not veterans with that many skill-ranks under their belts: such cheapo newspapers probably can't afford to spend more than a pittance on distribution, after all, and any begger on the street can hand out papers ("Bugrit! Millennium hand and shrimp!" ).

OTOH, I could picture a feat that ordinary paperboys could choose, that would let these kids mooch some help off their buddies in a pinch a la the "Legion of Newsboys" class ability you've proposed. For that matter, if you give it a more generic title, it'd be perfect for street-gang members and similar Us-Against-The-World cadres of common folk, as well.

[Pamela]

Better yet, why make it a prestige class at all? Why not have it as a beginning NPC class- or perhaps some variant of the rogue? None of the feats here are particularly overpowering- they're just wonderful for character-building as far as I can see. Instead of PrC requirements, just make up a list of skills that would be heavily borrowing from the rogue's.

[Undead Cabbage]

Cool class Jasper, very fitting to the realm

Think maybe this could be a society for the Newsbill? Ala, the heads for the paper have specifically trained several individuals into becoming expert information gatherers.

I'd also require some ranks in knowledge (nobility + royalty): a newspaper has always got to get the goods on those nobles.

Heck, I'd even give the class the hide and move silently skills: sometimes in order to get a good story, you've gotta be a snoop.

Think maybe a newsboy would be able to just disappear into a crowd? Sort of like Hide in Plain Sight for rangers, only in this case a crowd of over 30 people?

I like Roti's term 'Muckraker': it has a certain ring to it.

[Jasper]

Hmm....Im not sure what to do now. I realy like Llanas idea of a straight NPC class (they are sorely lacking a NPC rouge class) but I don't think I have enough special abilities to fill 20 levels worth. Even if I spead out all the abilities to every other level I would still need five more abilities.

As for leaving it as a PrC I was realy thinking of it as a mostly NPC class. At best its something to put into the past of a Pariodonite native ("Yea I pounded the street for the Daily Grind, made some good friends too. But I moved on to a better paying life as a dock worker. I still see the old crew everynow and then")

I do think I will change around a few things- New requirements: Gather Information 4 ranks, Knowledge (local) 4 ranks, Knowledge (Nobility) 2 ranks,Bluff 2 ranks.

Move silently and Hide as class skills.

3rd level gains Blend in with the crowd: Newsboy gains +10 to hide when in a group of 30 or more people.

Extra Extra! is now Expose: When a newsboy begins to look into the background of a person nothing is safe from thier prying eyes. Once a Newsboy selects a target for expose he must follow this person around for one solid week. After that week the Newsboy must make a Gather information check at DC 20+1/2 level of target. If sucsessfull the Newsboys finds out any two of the following: Tragets class and level, Tragets highest ability score, The ranks of any two skills, The targets homeland/domain of birth, Targets age and race, Target socal standing or any unusial items the Target might possess.

[Pamela]

You should probably also include Diplomacy- always useful when dealing with customers...

[Undead Cabbage]

Another thing you might do is give it a variant of the Bardic Knowledge ability. This would be the Newsboy's personal grab-bag of stories that he has about the town her works in.

The Class might alo be able to heighten or lower the OR of someone, as per the Lamp Lighter Class in the third Gazeteer. When I picture this class, I kind of see Dodger from Oliver. It could get the PCs to 'know the ropes' around the city, and get them easily into inner circles. Likewise, if they make enemies with one, they could be on the recieving end of a lot of humiliation, even hatred.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Extra Extra! is now Expose: When a newsboy begins to look into the background of a person nothing is safe from thier prying eyes. Once a Newsboy selects a target for expose he must follow this person around for one solid week. After that week the Newsboy must make a Gather information check at DC 20+1/2 level of target. If sucsessfull the Newsboys finds out any two of the following: Tragets class and level, Tragets highest ability score, The ranks of any two skills, The targets homeland/domain of birth, Targets age and race, Target socal standing or any unusial items the Target might possess.

Given that this is a Paridonian class, you'll surely want to define specific penalties to the check if the target is actually a doppleganger or other monster in disguise. Can't have the Newsbill outing the domain's real secrets, after all, or the dopps would've put them out of business ages ago....

[Ronia Sun]

It seems as though this Newsboy class is neither reporter nor paper-seller. It reminds me, in fact, of the newsboy predecessor, the running patterer. These were fellows--children or adults--who would memorize the basics of the latest, biggest story and convert it into a rhyme or song or some such performance and would run from street corner to street corner reciting it. The running patterer existed even into the Victorian era, focusing on the most scandalous stories to spread about town...

Cool class. It's one that would work well in MotrD as well.