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Thursday, February 9, 2017

D&D BX (1981): Additional Demi-Human Class Options

Tinkering on my break times today with alternative demi-human classes for BX...

Dwarven Cleric
   - Max. level 12, min. CON 9. Prime req. WIS.
   - Infravision, stonecraft, languages and saves as dwarves.
   - Armor, weapons, turning, spells as clerics.
   - XP/HD as per table below.

Elven Thief* 
   - Max. level 12, min. INT 9. Prime reqs. INT & DEX (13 both = 5%, 16 INT + 13 DEX = 10%).
   - Infravision, spot secret doors, ghoul immune, languages, spells and saves as elves.
   - Armor, weapons, thievery, backstab as thieves.
   - XP/HD as per table below.

Halfling Thief
   - Max. level 12, min. DEX 9, min. CON 9. Prime req. DEX.
   - Missile bonus, AC bonus vs. large, hard to spot and saves as halflings.
   - Armor, weapons, thievery, backstab as thieves.
   - XP/HD as per table below.


I made sure that the dwarven cleric, elven thief, and halfling thief all had level cut-offs preventing them from getting attack rolls or hit points that exceeded those of their by-the-book fighter counterparts. Otherwise I tried to make sure the max levels of these new classes were not horribly far from those of the by-the-book fighter types either. Dwarves rise to an equally high level as clerics or fighters (level 12 -- and roughly the same XP). Elves rise slightly higher as a spellcasting thief than as a by-the-book spellcasting fighter (level 12 vs. level 10 -- but again roughly the same XP). Halflings are substantially more proficient as thieves than as by-the-book fighters (max. level 12 vs. max. level 8 -- and a significant XP difference) but it seemed reasonable to me that halflings would be rather better thieves than fighters given their size and natural stealth.

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*I don't bother calling the elven thief a "magic-user/thief" since I assume that elves are magical by nature; I typically don't call the by-the-book elf a "fighter/magic-user" either.

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