Classes and Races for a Sword & Sorcery milieu

[rabindranath72]

Thanks for the insights!

Actually, all things considered, I had estimated the Thief to be at 1801 XPs at first level, 150001 for "asymptotic" progress. The soldier, 2101 XPs at 1st level, 250001 for "asymptotic" progress. In between, I make the XP rate "jump" of multiple of 500XPs (depending on level) when a new ability is gained.

I have changed the classes a bit: two weapon combat gives only a +1, and Mounted Combat has been folded into Light and Heavy Cavalry; does not seem right that ANY soldier can fight mounted.

[Zulgyan]

I would love to see the final work on this!

[rabindranath72]

Zulgyan wrote:
I would love to see the final work on this!

Stay tuned Working on the Nomad, Pirate and Sorcerer classes. Probably going to post them later this day.

[rabindranath72]

So, here are other two classes. Pending some significant feedback, they should be definitive.

Nomad (Constitution)

HD: d10

BtH: level-1

Weapon proficiency: Simple and martial; Can perform the Disarm maneuver

Armor proficiency: light, medium, shields

Class abilities: Track, Scale, Conceal, Move silently, Survival, Primal force, Primal might, Two weapon combat, Nomad charge, Mobility, Horsemanship.

Two weapon combat: nomads excel at fighting with two weapons. When using the two weapon fighting maneuver, their penalties are -2 with the primary hand and -5 with the off hand. The dexterity modifier to hit still applies.

Nomad Charge: A nomad of 4th level or higher gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls for any charge attack he makes. The bonus applies whether he makes the charge on foot or upon a mount of some kind. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and to +3 at 18th level.

Mobility: at 5th level the nomad gets a +2 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity. At 10th level the nomad never provokes attacks of opportunity, as long as he moves at least 10 feet during a combat round. At 15th level the nomad may move at his full speed and still make an attack (without requiring a charge). This ability does not apply if the nomad is mounted. This ability is affected by the character wearing armor not allowed.

At 20th level he can use the ability also when mounted, applying its benefits also to his mount.

Horsemanship (Dexterity): as Knight's Horsemanship, can be applied to a mount of choice (usually horse or camel).

EPP

1 0

2 2250

3 4500

4 10000

5 21000

6 42000

7 84000

8 170000

Pirate (Dexterity)

HD: d10

BtH: +1/2 levels (+0, +1, +1, +2, +2 etc.)

Weapon proficiency: Simple and martial; can perform the Disarm maneuver.

Armor proficiency: light

Class abilities: Climb, Move silently, Seamanship, Ferocious attack, Pirate code, To sail a road of blood and slaughter, Sneak attack, Combat sense, Mobility, Poison resistance, Navigation.

Seamanship: A 1st level pirate gains a +1 bonus to Dexterity checks and saves, as well as to AC, so long as he is aboard a ship or boat at sea. These bonuses increase by +1 every five levels thereafter.

Ferocious Attack: The pirates ferocity tends to overwhelm almost any opponent rapidly. On the first round of any combat, as long as he enters the fray with at least one ally, he may declare a ferocious attack. He gains a +1 bonus to his Initiative check and all melee attack and damage rolls that round. However, he is unable to defend himself very effectively during the ferocious attack and has a -1 penalty to his AC during the first round of combat. Furthermore, he may not make any Sneak attacks on the round in which he declares a Ferocious attack.

At 7th level the bonuses to Initiative, attack and damage rolls increase to +2 and the penalty to -2. Furthermore, the pirate gains an additional attack on the first round of combat.

At 13th level the bonuses increase to +3 and the penalty to -3. Furthermore, any opponent struck and damaged by the pirate during the first round of combat must make a Charisma saving throw or be stunned and unable to act for 1d4 rounds due to fear of the pirate. Note that if the pirate is also able to somehow perform a successful coup de grace on the first round of combat using his To Sail a Road of Blood and Slaughter class ability, any Charisma saving throws called for by the Ferocious Attack class ability have their CL increased by +2.

At 19th level the bonuses increase to +4 and the penalty to -4. In addition, if the pirate strikes any opponent during the first round of combat, any of that opponents allies who observe the ferocious attack must make Charisma saving throws or suffer a penalty

of -2 to attack rolls for 1d4 rounds.

Sneak attack: at 6th level, as Rogue's Sneak attack.

Furthermore, when sneak attacking with any bludgeoning weapon, the pirate can elect to deal increased subdual damage: only 1 point in 10 damage inflicted will be normal damage (usually it is 1 in 5).

Pirate Code: A 2nd level pirate may select one pirate code from the following: Barachan Smoke and Rockets, Black Coast Drums, Vilayet Sea Flags, or Zingaran Trumpets. Effectively, the knowledge of this code acts like an additional language, allowing for communication with other pirates who also know it at distances of up to several thousand feet, depending on weather, visibility conditions and the pirate's resources to produce the code.

To Sail a Road of Blood and Slaughter: A pirate of 2nd level or higher may perform a coup de grace as a free action up to once per round. This coup de grace never provokes an attack of opportunity, as the pirate is so used to dispatching helpless opponents that he can do so before an opponent can react.

Furthermore, he gains a +2 bonus to any Charisma checks to intimidate, which he may make for one round immediately following the performance of the coup de grace, if it was successful.

Combat sense: At 4th level, as Barbarian's Combat sense.

Mobility: at 5th level the pirate gets a +2 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity. At 10th level the pirate never provokes attacks of opportunity, as long as he moves at least 10 feet during a combat round. At 15th level the pirate may move at his full speed and still make an attack (without requiring a charge).

This ability is affected by the character wearing armor not allowed.

Poison Resistance: At 8th level, the pirate gains a +1 bonus on all saving throws against poisons, drugs and alcohol. His dissolute lifestyle has allowed him to build up an incredible tolerance to almost any poison or drug known to man.

At 14th level this bonus increases to +2 and at 20th level to +3. Furthermore, at 20th level he only suffers half effect (rounded down) from any poison or drug, even if he fails his

saving throw against it and no effect whatsoever if he succeeds at his saving throw. This also applies to penalties caused by the poison. For example, a hallucinogenic poison that would usually cause the victim to suffer a -4 penalty to all attack rolls will only cause the pirate to suffer a -2 penalty, even if he fails his saving throw.

Navigation: At 10th level the pirate automatically knows where he is at sea, even in

the deep sea out of sight of land. He has a detailed mental map of all the lands he has already visited and how to get there from where he is.

[Foxroe]

Very cool Rab!

My only suggestion would be that the Pirate's Ferocious Attack ability should only apply to situations when he/she is in the company of other Pirates, and not so much when they are on their own. YMMV.
-Fox

[rabindranath72]

Foxroe wrote:
Very cool Rab!

My only suggestion would be that the Pirate's Ferocious Attack ability should only apply to situations when he/she is in the company of other Pirates, and not so much when they are on their own. YMMV.
-Fox

Thanks!

Well, I had thought about that, but unless you have more than 1 Pirate in a group, it would be a useless ability. Not so fun, considering that it's one of the main abilities of the class.

[rabindranath72]

Hmmm OK, perhaps not if they are with other Pirates, but with other allies? Much as I did with formation combat for Soldiers. In the original rules, they got their bonus only by fighting with other soldiers, so I modified it to allow fighting with any other armored ally.

[Foxroe]

Doesn't necessarily mean that other players have to be Pirates. I was thinking Pirate hirelings/henchmen/crew. But as you said, this isn't always feasible, so it sort of makes the ability useless.

-Fox

[rabindranath72]

Herewith the Sorcerer. Originally, this class was the Scholar, but I do not see the point of a class which can cast spells, but chooses skills instead of spells.

So, I renamed and made it explicit that it is a Sorcerer.

Sorcerer (Intelligence)

All sorcerers concentrate in some way or another on knowledge, so Intelligence is a class Prime. They will also need Charisma, to deal with demons, summon servitors and perform rituals; and Wisdom, for sheer magical power. Some of the Eastern scholars will also benefit from a high Wisdom as well as Dexterity (and usually will multiclass as Monks).

HD: d6

BtH: +1/3 levels (0, +1, +1, +1, +2, +2, +2 etc.)

Weapons: simple

Armor: none

Abilities: Bonus languages, Background, Bonus spell, Decipher script, Knowledge is power, Literacy, Iron will, Power points, Advanced spell, Sorcery Style, Sacrifice, Adept.

Background: Every sorcerer must choose a background for himself at 1st level. The background indicates the manner in which he came by his knowledge.

A sorcerer may only ever begin the game with one background but at the Castle Keepers discretion he may gain an additional background or backgrounds during play. For example, an independent may call up a demon and make a pact with it, then

some time later be accepted as an acolyte by a sorcerous society.

Likewise, a lay priest or acolyte may elect to conduct a little independent research, just as though he were an independent himself but in most cases his religion or coven will at best frown upon such impertinence and at worst will put him to death if they catch him.

The choice of background should be made in conjunction with the Castle Keeper, who will inform the player of which options are available in his campaign.

Acolyte: Acolytes are members of a coven or sorcerous society, or are occasionally

apprenticed to a lone sorcerer. They are usually in thrall to their coven leaders, though they can gain a great deal of power this way. The drawback is that they rarely understand said power without their masters direct assistance.

An acolyte must always select a specifi c group to join, or a master to whom he may apprentice himself. An acolyte may only ever learn new sorcery styles or advanced spells (see below) known to his masters. Depending on his superiors and on the nature of the society, he may have a free choice between the various styles and spells they know, or his progress may be highly regimented so that his sorcery styles and spells are always assigned for him rather than chosen by him. Most sorcerous societies require a student to follow a strict curriculum of specific spells for the first ten levels but allow him to learn whatever he wills after that, so long as they can teach it to him or he can discover it for himself.

Sorcerers from civilised lands often take on apprentices. This is an accepted method of learning found from Stygia to Khitai, even if one cannot find a larger sorcerous society to join. Some of the more primitive regions such as Kush also have village sorcerers,

along with the more shamanic or witch-doctor style priests; these sorcerers, also known as Witchmen or Witch-Finders, are employed on a freelance basis to cast spells for clients and often take on apprentices to whom they can pass on their skills.

Independent: Independents are the most versatile variety of sorcerer, since they have no particular ties to any authority. However, they also have no one to teach them or to guide them through their sorcerous paths and so must work a good deal harder to gain access to any true secrets. Though at best their advancement can be highly flexible, at worst it is simply haphazard, with the independent sorcerer simply picking up a little knowledge here and there as he goes.

Every time an independent gains the New Sorcery Style or Advanced Spell class features, he must make a Intelligence save. The CL is 0 for New Sorcery Styles

or 5 for Advanced Spells. Success indicates that he may choose the style he will learn. If he fails, the Castle Keeper will select a style for him at random from among those he does not currently know but for which he meets the prerequisites. If his check result was less than 10, he does not gain a sorcery style at all but must study a further month to attempt again the check. See the New Sorcery Style and Advanced Spell class features.

Pact: A sorcerer who makes a pact with a demonic entity or other dark force to learn sorcery is in a very similar state to that of an acolyte to a sorcerers ring or coven, since he is often effectively in thrall to the source of his knowledge. He has a lot more

choice as to what he learns; however, the master has no human compunctions to prevent him from forcing the poor sorcerer to perform the direst of acts. Furthermore, he will begin the game at least somewhat corrupt, for no truly decent sorcerer makes

pacts with demons.

A sorcerer with a pact begins the game with a Corruption of 1. At 1st level, he must choose the New Sorcery Style: Summoning and the spell demonic pact. On gaining New Sorcery Styles or Advanced Spells, he may choose either to do his own researches, in which case he must make a Intelligence save as though he were an independent, or else risk further Corruption by calling up the entity with whom he has the pact once more. If he does the latter, he may freely choose which style or spell he learns, so long as it is one the entity knows but he must also make a Corruption check for dealing with the demon once more.

A sorcerer with a pact will start the game with the Demonic bonus language available. He must expend a language slot as usual to learn to speak it.

The Castle Keeper is always free to rule that player character sorcerers may not begin the game with a pact. This is particularly appropriate in short-term or one-off campaigns, where the natural disadvantage of the pact sorcerer (namely the Corruption

he gains, which will someday almost certainly doom him, one way or another) may have little impact on play. This background is better balanced for long-term campaigns,

offering immediate power at the cost of ones soul, or worse.

Lay Priest: sorcerers who choose the lay priest background are attached to a temple for purposes of study but with little or no religious authority.

If they wish, they can work their way up to the position of fully ordained priest, which brings with it a number of benefits and responsibilities.

Priests, whether they are lay priests or fully ordained, usually have access to some form or other of counter-sorcery with which to combat evil cults. The precise nature of each priest and which magical abilities (if any) are available to him will vary depending on both the deity he worships and his own honesty or lack of it.

Priests are treated as acolytes in that they must gain sorcery styles known to their religion. They do not usually need to learn their styles in a specific order but in most cases their religion will offer only a very limited selection of styles in the first place. Most higher-level priests have either conducted independent studies themselves in secret, or have even more secretly made a pact with a demon or joined a sorcerous society.

The shamans found in barbaric regions such as the Pictish Wilderness can usually be treated as lay priests, though each tribe or village usually has only two or three shamans at any one time. A shaman might have the power of an ordained Priest, but will not have had any official ordination and may have an apprentice or two.

A 4th level sorcerer with the lay priest background may choose to become an ordained priest. This will bring a number of social and political benefits, as well as some restrictions. Many of these benefi ts and restrictions are dependent on the religion. These benefits always include the right to command followers of the same religion,

allowing priests to gain bonuses to their Leadership scores. Furthermore, the priest gains a +1 bonus to Charisma checks when dealing with other characters who follow the same religious path as he does. In some regions, this can mean entire nations. This bonus is cumulative with the similar bonus from having the same Allegiance as the target, if applicable. Finally, the priest has certain duties at temple that fully occupy him for at least six months of every year; it is his choice as to when. In return for fulfi lling these duties, he gains an annual stipend of 10 sp/sorcerer level, as well as free room and board at the temple whenever he is working there.

Bonus languages: if the sorcerer has high enough intelligence, he may choose exotic and/or forgotten languages which are not available to him by his racial selection. Examples of forgotten languages are Demonic and Acheronian.

Decipher script (Intelligence): as Rogue

Knowledge is power (Intelligence): as Bard's Legend lore

Typical CLs:

CL Type of Knowledge

0 Common, known by at least a substantial minority of the local population.

5 Uncommon but available, known by only a few people in the area.

10 Obscure, known by few, hard to come by.

15 Extremely obscure, known by very few, possibly forgotten by most who once knew it, possibly known only by those who do not understand the significance of the knowledge.

Literacy: Regardless of their racial background, sorcerers are considered literate in all the languages they can speak.

Sorcery Style: At 1st level, 2nd level, 4th level and every four levels thereafter, the sorcerer gains a new sorcery style, along with the basic spell associated with it.. Note that the sorcerer may or may not be permitted to choose his new sorcery style himself, depending on his Background class feature.

Power Points: A 1st level sorcerer learns to access his own personal magical energy. This is referred to as Base Power Points, or Base PP. A beginning sorcerer has Base PP equal to 4 + Wisdom Modifier, to a minimum of one point.

Power points are used when casting spells and creating magical objects. They can be regained by rest or the use of various lotus concoctions, or temporarily increased by various means, most commonly by sacrificing one or more humans. For most characters, their power points can rise to a maximum of double their Base Power Points.

If for some reason a character already has Base Power Points when he becomes a sorcerer, usually by being a Dabbler, he does not gain new Base Power Points as above. Instead, he receives a one-time bonus of +2 to his already acquired Base Power Points.

At 2nd level and every four levels thereafter, the sorcerers Base Power Points increase by +1.

Maximum Power Points: As sorcerers become more experienced and knowledgeable, they become able to store far more magical power in their bodies, so long as it is available to them by means of sacrifice or some artefact or other. At 6th level, a sorcerers maximum Power Points rise to triple his Base Power Points, rather than double as is usual for most characters. At 13th level it rises again to quadruple his Base Power Points and at 20th level to quintuple his Base Power Points.

Advanced Spell: At 3rd level and every level thereafter, the sorcerer improves his knowledge of any one of the sorcery styles he already knows by gaining any one of the advanced spells listed under the style. As with the Sorcery Style class feature, the sorcerer may or may not be permitted to choose his advanced spell himself, depending on his Background class feature.

Note that when a sorcerer gains Advanced Spell and Sorcery Style simultaneously upon gaining a new level, he may choose to gain the Advanced Spell in the Sorcery Style just gained.

Bonus Spell: From 3rd level the sorcerer becomes eligible for a small number of

bonus advanced spells, depending on his Intelligence. His maximum possible number of bonus spells is equal to his Intelligence bonus, if any. However, he can gain only one bonus spell at 3rd level and an additional bonus spell every four levels thereafter, whatever his Intelligence.

Sacrifice: At 2nd level, if you kill a helpless character or creature in a ritualistic manner, you can gain Power Points from your victims death. For each full 4 hit points he had (before subtracting any he lost while you inflicted the death blow) you gain 1 PP, which may either be added to your own PP total or used immediately in another spell.

At 4th level, when you torture a victim to death in a ritualistic manner, if you take at least fifteen minutes to do so you gain 1 PP for every full 3 hp they had to start with. If you are able to spin the process out for an hour or more, you gain 1 PP for every full 2 hp they had at the start of the torture. The victim must be bound or otherwise helpless. If for some reason you need to know how much damage you have inflicted on them at some time part way through the process (for example, if the victim is rescued before you finish them off ), assume that you had to inflict a minimum of 1d3 hit points damage per five minutes, but could inflict as much as your standard melee attack damage every round if desired (this latter damage assumes that you either have a particularly tough opponent, or are choosing to kill them quickly because they are about to be rescued), or anything in between. If you kill them before the 15 minutes is up, you only gain 1 PP for every full 4 hp they had, just as with a standard ritual sacrifice. You only gain the PP when the victim dies, not during the torture. It is impossible to gain any power by torturing a victim for a little while, healing him and then torturing him some more.

At 6th level, you can take advantage of a chance to slay an opponent by sorcery or combat (melee or ranged) and gain magical energy from so doing, just as though you had ritually sacrificed him in a more formal manner, by simply dedicating his death to your dark gods or your own power. This modality may not be used together with torture on the same victim, except in the case of certain spells. It is simply not possible for most spells or weapons to cause sufficient pain to allow the benefits of torture to work when slaying a victim in a quick and businesslike manner, as in combat.

Iron Will: At 5th level, the sorcerer gains a +2 bonus to charisma saving throws.

Adept: At 12th level you have honed your mastery of a sorcery style to the utmost precision and speed. Choose a sorcery style in which you know at least three spells. Whenever you cast a spell from that sorcery style, the casting time is halved. An appropriate spell that would usually take one round to cast may be cast at CT 1. An appropriate spell that would usually take CT 1 to cast may be cast as a free action but you may still not cast more than one spell per round.

[quote]Code:

[Relaxo]

Note, missed pages 2 and 3 of this thread before posting the following:

This sounds cool.

I've been thinking in similar terms for a world setting I've been fleshing out, at first it was for a short story I'm (in theory) working on but I began to think of it in RPG terms too... no demi humans, so the different "races" or nationalities might have differences.

Re: your idea for knight above, maybe there could be some barbaric / primitive counter-point, like an goblin worg rider... (I know no goblins in Conan, but you get the drift) instead of civalry, they might be more savage. I confess a total lack of familiarity w/ Howard's original conan stories, but I was thinking something like this might work.

If there are Mongols... weren't they skilled horsemen? replace lance w/ bow and that's pretty close. The possibilites are (as always) titilating.

Can I beg you to post the fruits of your labor? it sounds really intreaging!

--> having caught up slightly, I must say at first glance, I really like the Nomad and Pirate classes!

[Foxroe]

Excellent Sorcerer, much better than the 3.x version (IMXHO)!

-Fox