River Rat

The world's twisting waterways create a pathway for trade between realms, with rivers and shorelines connecting goods to eager merchants in many cities. Wealth trickles up, not down, among the merchantbarons who own the wharfs. As gold moves from gilded hand to gilded hand, the low-born of harbor districts are fated to lives of poverty or crime. Those who dare to strive against the dockside thugs, robbers, and killers find their daily life a game of cat and mouse. But the crafty ones ensure that this is one game the mouse always wins.
    Such are the river rats, underworld survivors who thrive at the risks, excess, and thrills of a life that follows the world's waterways. Be it reveling in a quayside tavern or prowling among the reeds, a river rat exemplifies someone who rises in the face of threats rather than shrinks from them. When danger appears, the river rat smiles, cracks his or her knuckles, and asks, “Are you talking to me?”

    River Rat Starting Feature (1st level): You gain a +1 power bonus to Streetwise checks and Bluff checks. You also gain the river rat's gambit attack power.
    River Rat Level 5 Feature (5th level): Your power bonus to Streetwise checks and Bluff checks increases to +2. In addition, when you use river rat's gambit, if you miss with the attack, the power is not expended.
    River Rat Level 10 Feature (10th level): When you grant combat advantage to enemies, they do not gain the bonus to attack rolls against you.

River Rat's GambitRiver Rat Attack

You retaliate ferociously when wounded, risking your own skin in the process.

Encounter
Standard Action

Requirement: You must be bloodied.

Target: One creature

Effect: You use an at-will attack power against the target. If you hit, you deal the target 2d6 extra damage. If you miss, you take 1d6 damage.
Level 11: 3d6 extra damage; 2d6 damage if you miss.
Level 21: 4d6 extra damage; 3d6 damage if you miss.

River Rat TacticsRiver Rat Utility 2

When it counts, you know how to take advantage of any opening you find.

Daily ✦ Stance
Minor Action Personal

Effect: You assume the river rat tactics stance. Until the stance ends, you have combat advantage against any enemy that is adjacent to one or more of your allies.

River Rat QuackRiver Rat Utility 6

Because of your shifting body language and fast talk, your foe has difficulty reacting to your actions.

Encounter
Minor Action Close burst 5

Target: One creature that can see and hear you in the burst

Effect: Make a Bluff check to gain combat advantage against the target. If you succeed, you also provoke no opportunity attacks from the target until the end of your next turn.

River Rat CheekRiver Rat Utility 10

When the odds look bleak, you smile and double down on your trash talk.

Daily
Free Action Personal

Trigger: You are bloodied by an attack.

Effect: Until the end of the encounter, you gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses and a +1 power bonus to saving throws. Whenever an attack misses you or you succeed on a saving throw, you gain temporary hit points equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

Published in Dragon Magazine 430.