ALOT Left Undone: The Barber Petty-Class for OSR Games

 

BARBER

 

The Barber is something of an oddity - to modern eyes at least - in that, in addition to cutting hair and beards and providing a nexus for neighbourhood gossip, they also practice basic surgery and dentistry, although they seldom serve the higher orders (who prefer the services of the Physicker, for reasons that make very little sense). 

Barbers are, of course, hardly effective combatants, but they are physically deft, competent in social settings, adept at sniffing out rumours and possessing a surprising amount of political, commercial  - and criminal - knowledge. Their healing skills are limited, and sometimes do more harm than good, but are better than nothing in a pinch.

Attack Table: 0-level Human

Hit Dice: d4

Saving Throw: Level 1-3 (all 20, except Spells 19); Level 4-5 (all 19, except Spells 17, Polymorph 18); Level 6 (all 19, except Spells 17, Polymorph 17)

Armour/Shield Permitted: none

Weapons Permitted: club, dagger, dart, short sword, sling

Weapon Proficiencies: 2 + 1 per 3 levels

Non-Proficiency Penalty: -3

Base Skills: Charm 2, Common Knowledge 1, Craft (Barber) 3, Gossip 2, Heal 1, Jest 1, Local Knowledge 3, Numeracy 1.

Free Elective Skills (choose 4 skills amongst which you may distribute 6 Competency Levels): Blather, Bluff, Brewing (1), Etiquette, Evaluate, Fence, Gamble, Gossip, Haggle, Heal (3), Herb Lore (1), Jest, Read/Write, Numeracy, Potion Lore (1), Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Story Telling, Surgery (1), Wit. 

 

Barber Level Advancement
	Base Experience			Hit Dice
Level	Points Required			(d4)	Abilities
1		0		1	In the Know 10%, Chirurgery 30%
2		500		2	Keeper of Secrets I
3		1250		3	Chirurgery 40%
4		2250		4	In the Know 15%
5		3500		5	Chirurgery 55%, Keeper of Secrets II
6		5000		6	In the Know 20%, Chirurgeon's Lore

 

In the Know: The Barber hears many things, and quickly becomes capable of connecting seemingly disparate facts to deduce unexpected relationships between them. As their knowledge of the political or social context of this data increases, so to does their chance of successfully connecting these previously unrelated facts. At 1st level, their base chance is equivalent to 10 plus a number derived from the Maximum Henchmen column of the Charisma table, but based upon both the Barber's CHA and INT scores (e.g. Hollanby Tourge, is a 1st level Barber with CHA 12 and INT 8. His CHA gives him 5 Maximum Henchmen, whilst his low INT gives him an equivalent number of 3. Hollanby's chance of success in this ability is 10 + 5 + 3=18%).

Chirurgery: This score reflects the Barber's base ability in their side gig as folk surgeons. In addition to standard healing practices - first aid and folk cures - they utilise surgical techniques to (hopefully) cure most agues and maladies. This includes bloodletting, amputation, the lancing of boils and cauterisation of wounds. However, it is a chancy thing, as the Barber's knowledge of such procedures is, quite literally, painfully incomplete. Their base chance of success at first level is equivalent to 30 plus (or minus) modifiers for their INT, DEX and WIS scores (all derived from the Reaction Adjustment column of the Charisma table). Thus, Hollanby Tourge, our previous exemplar, has an INT of 8, WIS of 7 and a DEX of 14. Cross-referencing the Charisma table, we see that Hollanby's good DEX score grants him +5, whilst his 8 INT and 7 WIS give results of -5 and -10 respectively. Although Hollanby is good with his surgeon's tools, he doesn't have a good eye and his memory of the correct procedures has more than a few gaps, giving him a 20% chance (!) at first level. Folk will probably only call on Hollanby's services in desperate straits.

Chirurgery, when it fails, can be catastrophic: patients may bleed to death, lose a limb unnecessarily or be left with permanent damage to one or more abilities. Hollanby bungles an attempt to drain fluid from a consumptive's lungs, leaving them with a loss of 3 CON, and a permanent -5 to Saving Throws against poison and death.

Keeper of Secrets: Sooner or later, a Barber comes into possession of a piece of information that, were it to become generally known, could have potentially explosive consequences. The Barber rolls on each column of the following table, to find the nature of the secret and the range of potential consequences (e.g., Hollanby - now level 2, rolls the following numbers: 7, 26 and 16. His rumour, obtained from a barkeep, tells him that an engineer of high repute is a double agent. Fleshing out these rather bare but juicy bones, the GM decides that this engineer contributed to the design and building of a great fortress on the border of an enemy nation - actually his employers - and left sections of the walls particularly vulnerable to siege engines or sappers.)

Chirurgeon's Lore: having reached the apex of their profession, 6th level Barbers may select one of the following secret lores.

Vitalist: the Barber has achieved a minor but useful understanding of the spiritual life force that pervades all things. Once per week, they may - by using massage, dietary, ritual and hypnotic techniques - provide one suffering from a disease (including magical maladies) with the opportunity to make a Saving Throw to shake off the disease. The Barber must make a successful Chirurgery roll each day of the treatment (3d4 days) treatment to effect this change. This does not repair any damage previously resulting from the infection, but each day there is a successful treatment check, the disease does not advance. If two treatment checks in succession are failed, the Barber has lost their chance to cure the disease and may not attempt to do so again. A Vitalist may oversee the simultaneous treatment of 1d3 + 6 patients at any one time, but apply a -5% penalty per patient for every patient after the first.

Humouralist: the Barber is a considerably skilled practitioner of humoural medicine. Using dietary, exercise and meditative techniques, they can make a Chirurgery check to help a patient afflicted with some form of mental illness return to what passes for normal 'sanity' by rebalancing the six humours. It takes at least 2d4 months to effect a cure, with a successful check required each week. If a weekly check fails, the Barber must roll 1d8 and consult the following list: 

1: serious failure, causing tremendous mental anguish and possible injury (depending on the nature of the illness), and no more cures can be attempted; 

2-5: major setback, start again; 

6-7: minor setback, add 1d4 weeks to the treatment; 

8: a close shave (you're a Barber, after all). If you successfully roll equal or less than your WIS score (on a d20), you lose the week and must repeat that week's treatment. If you fail, treat as a minor setback. 

The Humouralist can provide treatment for 1d3 patients at the same time, but must distribute their Chirurgery score between all cases (e.g., a Barber with a score of 62% in Chirurgery might allocate 34% to one particularly difficult case, 20% to another and 8% to what seems to be a hopeless case.)