Resurrecting the Blood Crow.

I'd like to resurrect this topic, if no one minds. (There's an old post by Blackthornes suggesting the idea, but my 'reply' button seems to be broken at the moment.)

I like the concept, actually (just not the suggested mechanics for the class). It works well for someone who likes a 'low fantasy' or 'dark fantasy' feel to a campaign. Examples of ignoble character concepts in popular fantasy fiction: Elric of Melnibone (actually pacted with a demon, invaded and razed the city of his birth, among other things), almost anything from Glen Cook's Black Company series. The idea of a Blood Crow also conjures up a sort of Mad Max "living on the edge" mentality, too.

Heck, one of the characters in a game on this website is a professional assassin.

I'm a little tired to do the full flowery writeup right now, but here are a few things that come to mind:

Blood crows may be of any race, but tieflings are very, very common. Partly because it may be hard for the average tiefer to find a better job, but also because the infernal taint many of them have causes them to gravitate to the Lower Planes. Some become Blood War mercenaries, but not all are cut out for such 'glorious' work. You'd be VERY unlikely to find an aasimar with this job, as celestial-bloods tend to get dead-booked, tortured, or enslaved in short order on these planes.

Some blood crows are, in fact, ex-Blood War mercenaries who have fallen upon hard times. (A bad injury, political infighting, drunkenness/addictions, the list goes on.) Some of these become leadership figures among these scavengers.

May be encountered almost anywhere the Blood War is, but pretty common from Acheron to Pandemonium, and the lower half of the Outlands.

No real solid organization or network. Some are loners or pairs. Others have formed small, vicious gangs (actually called 'murders,' after the name for a group of crows). There's power in numbers, so a blood crow found alone is probably either a powerful cutter, habitual loner, or especially desperate.

VERY valuable as an information source, to interested parties -- in the same way that street people are in cities. A blood crow who's been around for long has an extraordinary knowledge of boltholes and comparatively safe places on the Lower Planes, and their information is among the most up-to-date available. (i.e., on Gehenna, 'This tunnel is fine. That tunnel has got at least three fiends calling it kip. Don't go down that one.')

A good source of up-to-the-minute information on the Blood War in general. They mostly don't have a high-level understanding of what's going on (though some of the ex-mercenaries among them may be able to draw conclusions), but they could tell someone that a fiend of such and such a description was found among the dead, that the tanar'ri clearly won the battle at such and such a place, that a group of mortal mercenaries with particular heraldry was captured and led toward a specific portal. That weapons of celestial make were all over the place on a particular battlefield. The fiendish castes associated with espionage (nycaloths, for example) won't hesitate to use them as an information source. Some fiends may simply beat or torture it out of them, but others find they get better results by just paying them. And blood crows are usually cheap.

Know rather a lot about the Blood War arms trade (in the 'micro', not the 'macro' sense). Such and such a weapon is obviously celestial-forged, this other one was made by a famous tanar'ri weaponsmith, this other one by a group of evil human wizards, those pikes over there are trash, etc.

May be of any alignment, but a strong tendency toward neutral or (especially) evil alignment. (Good cutters usually have better things to do than scavenge Blood War battlefields for a living.)

The main way they survive on the Lower Planes is by hiding and drawing as little attention to themselves as possible. Many won't hesitate to cut deals with the 'locals' to protect themselves(sure, I'll let you know about everyone who goes through this portal, if you don't kill and eat me). They are generally seen as a very 'lowly' caste -- even for mortals -- to such an extent that fiends won't routinely force them into Blood War combat unless they're desperate. (Too shifty and useless to be good for much of anything, see.) Much more likely to set captive blood crows to ditch digging and similar hard, dirty work. While they are, as a whole, extremely good at avoiding unnecessary trouble with the fiends, blood crows can be and are abused or killed frequently.

Pretty much every one of them has some kind of 'fence' contact for scavenged goods -- experienced crows have several. They may also have numerous contacts among fiends, adventurers, mercenaries, and almost anybody who has a stake in the Blood War.

They tend to dress in the most nondescript clothing they can find, tailored to wherever they are. They will have some means of dealing with local conditions (very heavy clothing on the icy lower planes, for a start). Many wear some sort of face concealment -- a half-mask covering the lower half of the face is popular. This serves three purposes. First, it provides some small protection against sulfurous fumes and the constant stench of thousands of dead and wounded fiends. Second, the nature of their job is such that they might have to kill a badly wounded or nearly dead fiend to get at a piece of swag after a battle. At least some of those fiends might re-form later on their native planes, and the less likely the piked-off fiend is to remember his face, the better. Finally, it provides the crows themselves a sense of anonymity, which in turn gives at least some of them a sense of restored dignity.

Game mechanics (very rough ideas here):

The general idea is that most of these hail from a Rogue class background, but it should also be possible to take this class without having ridiculously high levels in cross-class skills.

Required skills: X ranks in Sneak, Hide, Search, Appraise, Knowledge: the Planes. Must own at least one magical weapon (may not actually be a +x sword -- can be anything, such as a rod or staff, that is capable of really injuring fiends). Must have had some contact with a Blood War engagement, either during or after. (In other words, they may have seen a Blood War battle, fought in said battle at some point, or may have arrived shortly after a battle.)

Bonus to Appraise checks on any Blood War-related item.
Bonus to Knowledge checks concerning the Lower Planes, especially if related to the Blood War, practical knowledge of a a fiend type's usual defenses and abilities, etc.
Generally aware of normal environmental conditions pretty much anywhere on the Lower Planes.
Strong bonus to saving throws against nonmagical disease. Small bonus to saving throws against magical disease. These people may literally have to wade through rivers of blood to get at Blood War swag.
Minimum Constitution score of 12 (see above).
May perform a coup de grace against a helpless opponent as a standard action, rather than a full-round action. (I think this is called the Deathblow feat in one of the rulebooks.) You know these cutters kill off the badly wounded all the time.
Has a high chance of knowing of any nearby bolthole/hiding place/place of relative safety on the Lower Planes (DM's discretion, or could be done as a die roll).
Penalty to Diplomacy checks in most 'high-society' situations. (They're an 'untouchable' caste. Not someone you'd invite to a Lady's Ward dinner.)

These might work as PCs in some campaigns (especially dark-themed, 'low fantasy,' and/or Lower Planar campaigns), but are also invaluable!!! as NPC guides on the Lower Planes. You can't completely trust them, of course, but whom can you really trust in places like Gehenna and the Abyss?

Thoughts?