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3 Ways to Expand Character Selection

My last article talked about the merits of Basic Dungeons & Dragons’ “Single Class/Single Race” design, and how this captures the essence of Tolkien’s Fellowship from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy – by emphasizing the characters themselves without dependence on race/class combinations.

Having a party that consists of a fighter, a magic-user, a dwarf, and a halfling is all well and good if you’re looking to recreate the archetypes of traditional fantasy, but you might be ready to try something new.  Thankfully, because of its simplified structure, Basic Dungeons & Dragons is easy to customize.

Here are three ways to break from tradition:

Start with Simple Adjustments

A minor tweak to the core classes expands the number of choices available to players.  For example, you can create a version of fighters featuring a +1 bonus to strength, but scale back the type of armor they can wear to either chain mail or leather.  You might try generating a magic user with more than 4 hit points, possibly with a 1d6 hit die, and the ability to wield a long sword in battle, but make the caster level that of a magic user two levels lower.  In other words, this variant character cannot cast a spell until reaching 3^rd level.

(Make certain if you’re providing a bonus, such as a +1 to strength, you’re also taking something away.  This process keeps characters balanced.)

Here is a more detailed example:

Stalker – based on the Thief class

• Add +30% to both Move Silently and Hide in Shadows ability
• Add “Tracking” ability – on a successful roll, a stalker can find and follow tracks left by a specific animal, monster, or humanoid
• Keep Climb Walls ability as is
• Remove all other abilities, including Backstab

This creates a new special ability table, which looks like this:

You might feel that a 1^st level thief moving silently half the time is too powerful, but keep in mind that the thief’s greatest strength – the ability to backstab an opponent and deal twice the damage – has been removed, so you’re going to want your character to be hiding (and as quiet as possible) whenever a fight breaks out.

Does this make the character too weak?  A 1^st level stalker can track enemies as well as a thief can pick pockets, and that could be a very handy talent to have, depending on the campaign.  I created the stalker solely for this article, but I envision the class as a bounty-hunter type: someone trained to find criminals and bring them back – alive.  For that reason, abilities like removing traps and backstabbing didn’t make a lot of sense.

If I were to flesh the class out further, I would introduce the Hear Noise ability at a higher level, and other special abilities as well – like translating the rules for subduing dragons (from the Mentzer Basic Dungeon Master’s Book) into a class ability that could be used against any opponent.

Draw Inspiration from Published Materials

Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, by John Nephew © 1989 TSR/WotC. All Rights Reserved.

The “Creature Crucible” series of supplements introduced treants, harpies, sea giants, and lycanthropes as playable classes, utilizing a “negative experience” mechanic to balance extraordinary abilities against the standard classes (as an example, treants begin play -48,000 XP below 1^st level).  Adapting this approach to character design is easier than it sounds, although I recommend keeping things simple – modify existing experience tables, rather than writing up brand new ones.

First, define your class and list the abilities it possesses, then decide how those abilities work:

Duergar (Grey Dwarf)

• All abilities as dwarf class
• Add “Enlarge” ability – once per day, can turn into a giant.  Restores half total hit points.  Increases strength to 18, and adds an additional +2 to damage rolls.  Character is considered a large creature until this power ends.  Player can take no other action during the round this ability is activated, or in the round when this ability ceases.  Lasts three rounds.

Enlarge is a powerful ability, so I’m going to require the duergar reach 4^th level before gaining this talent.  I’m also going to modify the dwarven experience table by changing 3^rd level to 1^st level, which will make the actual dwarven 1^st and 2^nd levels into negative levels, like so:

This means that a 3^rd level duergar is the equivalent of a 4^th level dwarf, and will gain its powerful enlarge ability around the same time that a standard dwarf would be approaching 5^th level.

One other ruling I want to make in regards to this character is that the duergar will not gain new hit point rolls for the negative levels; for the purposes of the duergar at least, hit dice are only rolled when advancing above 1^st level.

Build from Scratch

In his article “Building the Perfect Class”, game designer Erin Smale (http://www.welshpiper.com) analyzes the whole level advancement structure of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, reverse engineering the classes into smaller components.  Want a thief that rolls d12 for hit points?  That’s an additional 400 experience points.  How about a dwarven cleric?  No problem.  This system generates any conceivable character, from monastic warriors to hobgoblin shamans, and ensures each new class is balanced with the traditional class options.

No matter what method you use, the most important thing is to have fun — after all, that’s what role playing is all about.

How do you approach class design?  What methods or resources have you used to create new classes for Basic D&D?  Share some of your successes – and failures – with us, and you might be featured in a future article!

The Secret DM™ is just an average guy, trying to navigate the complexities of a successful career, a happy marriage, and raising a daughter…all while secretly rescuing damsels from fire-breathing dragons.  Visit him at www.thesecretdm.com or find him on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/secretdm), or contact him at: thesecretdm@gmail.com.  Happy Adventuring!

The Fairy, or Fay as some know them, are a strange woodland race akin to the Elves. They share many of the physical aspects of the Elves such as sharply elegant features, lithe forms and pointed ears, but their sizes range from 1-2 feet in height. They also have iridescent wings on their backs for flight and antennae emerging from their foreheads, with one above each eye. They are fair of complexion, though their hair and wings may be of any of the colors of the rainbow, and those Fairy with bright colors take inordinate pride in their appearance.

Fairy society is divided into two camps, the Seelie and Unseelie courts. These courts exist in pocket dimensions that have access to the Prime Material Plane but are not part of it. Fairies owing fealty to the Seelie court are mostly Lawful in alignment, while those choosing to be part of the Unseelie court are usually Chaotic. There are Neutral Fairies in each court, but they are few as the gnossis of the courts tend to draw most Fay to either Law or Chaos. A very small number of Fairy wander the Prime Material Plane, seeking new experiences and comrades in the world.

Prime Requisites: Intelligence, Dexterity

Initial Languages: Common, elvish, gnomish, insect, bird, pixie, fairy

Racial Bonuses:
* Fly at 180’ per turn
* a +2 bonus to hit in flying combat (both combatants flying)
* -4 to AC when fighting M or L creatures (not applicable for area effect attacks)
* Surprised only on a 1 in 8
* Turn invisible once/day, increasing to twice at 3rd level, three times at 6th, and four at 9th.
* Shapechange to any non-fantastic creature of equal mass once per day, increasing to twice at 3rd level, three times at 6th, and four at 9th
* Use the Elf table for combat and saving throws

Restrictions:
* Cannot have a strength greater than 9
* Due to their small size, shields cannot be used by fairies
* Fairies cannot carry more than 800 gp in encumbrance allowance, though fairy sized gear will weigh 1/3rd its normal weight.
* Fairies must pay 2 times the listed cost for replacement gear (not at character generation) due to their small size requiring custom fittings.
• Can only attain the 10th level of experience.
• Fairy weapons do ½ damage as normally listed for weapons in the D&D rulebook (i.e. a sword 1d8 would do 1d4 damage, a dagger 1d4 would do 1d2 damage, etc.)
• Fairys cannot wear armor greater than chain mail.

4-sided
Dice for
Experience Accumulated Level Spells
Points Level Hit Points Title 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 1 + 1 Mossfern 2 – - – - – -
4,200 2 2 + 2 Wildwood/Wildflower 3 – - – - -
8,400 3 3 + 3 Brightleaf/Brightflower 3 1 – - – -
16,800 4 4 + 4 Brightwood/Starflower 3 2 – - – -
33,600 5 5 + 5 Oakenroot/Rowanroot 3 2 1 – - -
67,200 6 6 + 6 Oakleaf/Rowanleaf 3 2 2 – - -
138,400 7 7 + 7 Oakenwood/Rowanwood 4 2 2 1 – -
276,800 8 8 + 8 Oakenheart/Rowanheart 4 3 2 2 1 -
553,600 9 9 + 9 Fairy Lord/Lady 4 4 3 2 2 -
1,107,200 10 10 + 10 Master/Mistress of the Fay 4 4 3 3 2 1