As I mentioned before I started planing for a Swords and Wizardry campaign and am in the process of shifting everything over to Labyrinth Lord. I had come up with a lot of good ideas for house rules that have no place in the better defined world of LL. However, I'm still going to add a few touches, especially to the character classes.
I've long felt the vanilla character classes don't receive the respect they ought and are overshadowed by the more imaginative sub-classes. I'm going to spice things up a bit by making a minor addition to each class and put some restrictions on the popular and over powered sub-classes. Actual house rules will be written on another page of the blog, but here is the general outline...
Cleric
Gains the skill Oratory which can be use in any neutral setting where the Cleric can address a large audience. The effects can vary, but all face these restrictions. The audience must be able to hear the Cleric and not become distracted during the oration. Also they must be willing to listen to the Cleric so NPCs of diametrically opposed alignment are not affected. This skill has no effect on other player characters.
Sermonize: Player dissuades audience from following a course of action.
Preach: Player can advise the audience or encourage them to adopt a new idea.
Harangue: Player whips some audience members into a fighting rage.
Fighter
Has Defensive Fighting which represents the martial skills of the trained warrior. The Parry option is very badly written and has no effect for most players since it relies upon the Strength bonus for effect (I'm going to make it have a value of at least 1 regardless for all classes). When not attacking in a round the Fighter gains a -1 bonus to AC which stacks with the STR bonus expressed as a negative number. A Zone-of-Control exists around the Fighter which enemies may not pass; 5' radius with a normal weapon or 10' radius with a polearm or oversized weapon. A Ripost attack may be made at -2 against one attacking enemy for each normal attack the Fighter gets each round.
Magic-User
Generally has great power later in the game, but needs help early on so they will receive an item. An Apprentice Wand is given to the Magic-User which contains one 1st level spell from their spell book or Magic Missile. The wand has a maximum of 1d4+2 charges and may be recharged the normal way, by casting the spell into it. When recharging roll 1d20 and on a fumble the maximum number of charges is reduced by 1.
Thief
May use Combat Stealth to get behind an enemy. A player may opt to use the skill instead of attacking he/she may move around an opponent who is engaged in melee with another character. It does not result in a Backstab, but in a rear attack which is against the raw AC (no Dexterity or shield bonus).
Sub-Classes
As a whole they do not have individual restrictions, but as a group they have role play requirements in the form of Story Obsessions. Every so often the player will encounter a mundane situation that has special relevance to their sub-class. A special herb may exist in this region, or a desecrated shrine might need to be restored, or maybe a rare book is seen on a shelf. Whatever the specifics the player must succeed in gaining the item or finishing the activity. If they do not accomplish this in one week they will act as a character 1 level below their current experience until they do so.
Showing posts with label Cleric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleric. Show all posts
2011-11-16
Balancing Classes in Swords & Wizardry
I'm working on modified classes for my S&W campaign. One thing is for sure they need a little help, as written the classes in the Complete Handbook are perhaps authentic but also a bit thin and even contradictory. I am not a min/max stat head that thinks each class needs to be able to deal equal damage at all experience levels. I don't even mean power balance exactly... I mean balanced for fun.
I can tell you that a 1st level Magic-User is not that much fun to play, epically in a large party. Go ahead and cast your one spell, then watch the fighters beat on monsters for several hours until the party can be persuaded to sleep. Sure creative use of flaming oil and darts can make up for some of it. But you're always falling back on tactics anyone could use, but don't generally bother to because they can... I don't know... use a sword or a bow.
Once you get to 5th level it all changes. The DM tells the Magic-User, "You can now cast Fireball." Well, if you can find a scroll at any rate. With a decent number of 1st and 2nd level spells you are a much more survivable combatant with the ability to buff armor and damage. What does the DM tell the fighter in vanilla S&W? "You can... um... attack with a roll one better than last level." The fighter might ask if he can still chainsaw his way through minor monsters, but... well no, these are HOBgoblins and 1+1HD monsters so sorry.
Gamers may say that the Magic-User is supposed to hard to play in the begining and gets more fun later. While Fighters are great from the start and are a more equipment based class rather than skill or ability based. OK so who wants to play the not-fun class up front? Who wants to wait for whatever the DM feels like handing out later? I mean how easy is it to find a player willing to go Cleric? And at least on paper it's a viable early game power house with armor, spells and decent To Hit rolls.
Thieves are crazy too, I know the skills model isn't popular with everyone. Players like it because they can easily imagine using these actions. However, I'm not even sure I know how to DM these rules as written. One really bizzar effect is persistent bad armor class. Without the heavy Dexterity bonuses of later versions of the game a Thief is quite defenseless. Of course they are supposed to hide, but with scores like 30% at 5th level who would rely on that? It seems weird that a 1st level Thief with 13 Dex is is hit by the same roll as a 10th level Thief with 18 Dex.
I want to balance the player fun in the classes, between each other, as well as between low and high levels. Here are my basic requirements for re-designing the classes, which I'll be working on in future posts.
I can tell you that a 1st level Magic-User is not that much fun to play, epically in a large party. Go ahead and cast your one spell, then watch the fighters beat on monsters for several hours until the party can be persuaded to sleep. Sure creative use of flaming oil and darts can make up for some of it. But you're always falling back on tactics anyone could use, but don't generally bother to because they can... I don't know... use a sword or a bow.
Once you get to 5th level it all changes. The DM tells the Magic-User, "You can now cast Fireball." Well, if you can find a scroll at any rate. With a decent number of 1st and 2nd level spells you are a much more survivable combatant with the ability to buff armor and damage. What does the DM tell the fighter in vanilla S&W? "You can... um... attack with a roll one better than last level." The fighter might ask if he can still chainsaw his way through minor monsters, but... well no, these are HOBgoblins and 1+1HD monsters so sorry.
Gamers may say that the Magic-User is supposed to hard to play in the begining and gets more fun later. While Fighters are great from the start and are a more equipment based class rather than skill or ability based. OK so who wants to play the not-fun class up front? Who wants to wait for whatever the DM feels like handing out later? I mean how easy is it to find a player willing to go Cleric? And at least on paper it's a viable early game power house with armor, spells and decent To Hit rolls.
Thieves are crazy too, I know the skills model isn't popular with everyone. Players like it because they can easily imagine using these actions. However, I'm not even sure I know how to DM these rules as written. One really bizzar effect is persistent bad armor class. Without the heavy Dexterity bonuses of later versions of the game a Thief is quite defenseless. Of course they are supposed to hide, but with scores like 30% at 5th level who would rely on that? It seems weird that a 1st level Thief with 13 Dex is is hit by the same roll as a 10th level Thief with 18 Dex.
I want to balance the player fun in the classes, between each other, as well as between low and high levels. Here are my basic requirements for re-designing the classes, which I'll be working on in future posts.
- Fighter: More high level benefits, extra attacks are popular, maybe even perks or abilities based on weapons.
- Magic-User: Some low level benefits, giving the player something to do besides hiding, but not making them into psuedo-warlocks which always seemed like flashy archer replacements.
- Cleric: Anything to make them more fun, perhaps holy symbols with magical effects, or sermons and prayers, which might make them more like Bards.
- Thief: Re-configure the skills to make them more consistent and usable, though maybe fewer, and do something about the armor class.
- Sub-Classes: I haven't mentioned them yet, and I don't really like most of them, and they seem over-powered, especialy at high level, but I will do something with them.
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