“The best defense is to never let an enemy see your true self.”

—Laughing Cedric, mountebank

Mountebanks are frauds and con artists, capable of slipping into new identities as others change clothing. While they can fit in just about anywhere they go, they are also adept at getting out of tight situations.

BECOMING A MOUNTEBANK

Bards are the most likely to branch into the mountebank prestige class. Their versatile skill selection enables them to meet the class’s Knowledge and Spellcraft requirements and to develop other skills. In addition, the bard’s spellcasting ability enhances the mountebank’s class features.

Rogues, sorcerers, and spellthieves sometimes become mountebanks to improve their battlefield mobility or to enhance existing talents of deception. Spellthief plus mountebank makes an excellent class combination for characters who fight creatures that use spell-like abilities.

PLAYING A MOUNTEBANK

Shrewd and quick-witted, you construct numerous false identities to keep your enemies off balance and do whatever it takes to complete your mission. With your ability to assume a flawless disguise and to slip away if the situation sours, you are nearly impossible to pin down. You are confident, irreverent, even insolent.

Combat

You’re certainly no front-line fighter, but you have the potential to deal considerable damage against enemies who never see it coming. Your work best with teammates, maneuvering to get flanks and help bring down opponents with your sneak attacks. Use your sideslip ability to pop around the battlefield, slipping in and out to distract opponents while the real heavy hitters in your group mop them up.

Advancement

You were born to become a mountebank. Prior to entering the prestige class, you were probably a ne’er-do-well, a daring rogue and adventurer. The mountebank’s deceit and elusiveness let you express yourself fully in the only way you know.

Now you have at least one alternate identity to maintain cover and to put distance between who you really are and how you want others to perceive you. An alter ego is especially useful for brokering secret deals with unsavory types, letting you keep “your” hands clean.

As you advance in the class, continue to max out your ranks in Bluff, and invest skill points in Disguise and Sleight of Hand. Ambush feats (page 71) and many feats in the Complete Adventurer supplement make the most of your sneak attacks. Improved Feint is an excellent choice with your expertise in Bluff, and Combat Reflexes lets you take advantage of your battlefield repositioning to land unexpected attacks. Deft Strike and Expert Tactician, both from Complete Adventurer, are good choices. If you play up the infiltrator aspect of this class, consider magic (or psionic) items that help you cloak your true intentions, such as an amulet of proof against detection and location.

Resources

Under your various identities, you could belong to several organizations, taking advantage of the benefits derived from each. You might even join opposing groups, selling information from one side to the other, whether for noble or selfish ends. At heart, though, you are a loner. You exploit an organization only for as long as it offers you some benefit, then abandon it when it ceases to be useful.

MOUNTEBANKS IN THE WORLD

“It’s all smiles and pleasantries until a knife ends up in your back.”

—Cralbus, high priest of Dispater

A mountebank’s chaotic tendencies and ability to mask his appearance enables him to infiltrate cults and other secretive organizations, to learn more about them and ultimately find their weak points. Those who serve the cause of good are invaluable in the fight against evil. On the other hand, wicked mountebanks use their deceptive abilities to spread discord and suffering.

Organization

Mountebanks are not attached to any particular organization. Many operate in several, often contradictory groups, working to bring them down from inside. Good mountebanks infiltrate cults devoted to devils and demons, while evil ones slip inside good-aligned religious organizations, working to dissolve the clergy from within.

NPC Reactions

Since mountebanks develop multiple personalities to move freely within communities, reactions to a given individual depend on the nature of the persona he assumes. Those within an infiltrated group see him as an ally and colleague, and react positively as long as he maintains his cover. If the mountebank’s true nature is revealed, he finds less than a warm welcome. People do not like to be deceived, and NPCs who discover they have been fooled by a mountebank are unfriendly or hostile. Indeed, an evil or overzealous organization might kill the unmasked infiltrator.

MOUNTEBANK LORE

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) can research mountebanks to learn more about them. When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Mountebanks are con artists and varlets, a thoroughly untrustworthy lot.

DC 15: What separates a mountebank from a common charlatan is his ability to switch personas. A mountebank can have several alter egos.

DC 20: Mountebanks are hard to capture. Not only do they avoid being connected to anything, they also have a knack for slipping out of impossible situations.

Player characters trying to locate a mountebank must succeed on a DC 20 Gather Information check to locate someone who can set up a meeting. It’s entirely possible that the contact is the mountebank himself, though he might never reveal his true identity.

MOUNTEBANKS IN THE GAME

Mountebanks can easily fit into an ongoing campaign, since they can pass for anyone—even established NPCs. A long-standing ally could secretly be a mountebank who works against his own or another organization, using the PCs as a source of information. Alternatively, a character whom the PCs regard as a villain might be in fact a double agent who has infiltrated an evil organization.

The mountebank prestige class is a great non-evil alternative to the assassin. It is particularly attractive to players who like versatility and adaptability. In game terms, the prestige class offers a mechanical advantage when interacting with NPCs. In roleplaying terms, the class’s toolkit is tailor-made for fighting insidious evil. In a campaign that centers on foiling a dastardly plot, the mountebank gives rogues specialized abilities to fight hidden masterminds.

If a campaign includes a mountebank PC, the DM should provide opportunities for him to use his alter ego ability. Perhaps someone he crossed in the past has learned of his true identity, forcing him to spend more and more time in his alternate personas. Challenge the PCs with dangerous plots requiring subterfuge and deception; mountebanks can come up with plans that can get the party in the door without resorting to hack-and-slash combat.

Adaptation

The mountebank class has the strongest appeal to rogues and similar characters with social expertise, but it offers little to spellcasting characters. To make this class appeal to intrigue-loving spellcasters, remove its sneak attack class feature. Instead, the character gains one level of an existing spellcasting class at each level that ordinarily grants sneak attack damage. In this way, he can load up on more enchantment, illusion, and transformation magic to enhance the class’s misdirection talents.