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| Animaney, Totally Insaney |
Any class can be a Journalist. You can call this a Chronicler or put all your notes in a magical flying diary, Historian, whatever flavor you need. A Journalist does not come with any special requirements but if you elect to receive a Journalist's benefits you must perform the work of a Journalist, otherwise you cease to advance as normal in your main class until you rectify the situation.
Journalists change the normal rules of the game in three ways.
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE
Journalists gain +5% xp for keeping copious notes and sharing them with the group. They can gain an additional +5%xp for writing up a full session report in the style of an in depth profile, thrilling expose, or frontline correspondence, and sharing said article somewhere public like Reddit or Twitter. They can elect to instead donate this “bonus xp” to one other PC who features prominently in their report. Journalists “carousing” can elect to gain +1 to reaction rolls in a settlement instead of any xp bonus, better for gathering rumors, establishing contacts, and hiring retainers. No xp is awarded for the cost of distributing your literature; the solace that you’re speaking truth to power (and 5 silver a pop) are reward enough.
WHO'S GOT YOU?!
Any named character in an adventuring party may reroll a saving throw failed by a Journalist with their own values if they are within 10’ of the Journalist and the save would allow them to avoid a trap, hazard, or direct-damage spell effect. Said character acts swiftly and boldly to protect the Journalist, sometimes putting their own life in danger. The Journalist can benefit from this feature once a level for each named character in their party.
NOSE FOR NEWS
A Journalist begins with a special saving throw against Bull Shit. Whenever the DM has some NPC deliberately attempt to outright mislead the party or tell a flat out lie, the Journalist gets a saving throw rolled for them in secret by the DM. A Journalist’s DM should get used to throwing the occasional die just to throw players off the scent of when they’re being lied to, but you’re doing that anyway right? This Bull Save starts at 18 and improves by 1pt per level gained (17 at level 2, 16 at level 3, etc). Other players cannot reroll this save on a Journalist’s behalf as outlined above, although a fellow Journalist may get their own save.