Review and Commentary On The Pay What You Want OSR PC Class -PC5 - The OSR Tomb Robber From Jeremy Reaban

Someplace between one am and the morning I just rolled in and I'm thinking about a sort of neglected class, the tomb robber. The often talked about but seldom seen class has been lurking around the bounds of pulp magazines for years and years. These wonderful little adventurers break into tombs and crypts making off with all manner of relics, artifacts, and what not. The OSR Tomb Robber From Jeremy Reaban is a three page 'pay what you want' affair that covers all of the basics of this class in spades. 

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Right out of the gate this pdf's byline got me thinking of certain films of the Eighties, see if you can tell why from the introduction:
While most adventurers are tomb robbers at some point in their career, some make a specialty of it. Part scholar, part fighter, part thief, they specialize in looting ancient tombs and dungeons.
Trust me, this mix of old school Indiana Jones, Alan Quarterman, and the sneak thieves ages past are right in here with the pulp sensibilities of this pdf. All of usual suspect races can become a tomb robber, Dwarf, Gnome, Human, & Half-Orc. This class is a compromise between fighter, thief, and a specialist of sorts. They have has a lore ability similar to a Bard, giving them a chance to know legends as well as potentially identify a magic item. The focus here is on the PC and this product contains tables for running the tomb robber in OD&D, First Edition AD&D, Basic and Expert D&D, and The Basic D&D  Encyclopedia  style games and the retroclones of these games. 
Does this class do what it sets out to do? I think so, there are several options on the table to play a pulptastic tomb robber in the OSR of your dreams.


Here the PC has everything that a thief can do and a bit more besides and that's fine. I can see this class getting a ton of table top or adventure screen time. There is a ton of useful bits in the three pages this pdf covers, this includes everything from gun running a pulp adventure to picking the locks from a local temple to  the tomb puzzles as well as guardians. This class can deal it out with the best of em.

The OSR Tomb Robber From Jeremy Reaban is concise, balanced, and covers all of the basic ins and outs of the class. I can see using this for everything from pulp adventures. This is just what the doctored ordered if your interested in mixing your D&D with everything from OD&D to more modern games as well. The essence of the class is perfectly suited to any number of retro adventures where the skill and wit of the tomb robber is needed.

Everything in the tomb robber is done for any number of  OSR platforms from OD&D to OSIRC  this class covers all of the bases and leaves enough room for the DM and players to get plenty of mileage and room for  customization .
In point of fact I can see this class being adapted into other OSR or retroclone settings. This class can double for the cautious and yet deadly xeno archaeologist and despoiler of tombs on alien worlds . The tomb robber makes an excellent addition to any old school adventure party.  The tomb robber is incredibly useful in the post apocalyptic wastelands where several of this PC's skills can add so much to a party. Given the relics and artifacts of the ancients this really is a no brainer to add in this class into your mutant spawned party of murder hobos and adventurers. Jeremy Reaban does a fine job squeezing everything into three pages of pretty much retro adventure hero into a decent class of tomb robber goodness. My recommendation is to pick this one up.