How about some alternate classes

[finarvyn]

For months I've heard how folks would be making up special classes as soon as they get ahold of the final rulebook. Well, you've got it!

Just curious if anyone has started the process, and if so what are you working on, or what have you come up with?

(Maybe just give a quick synopsis here. If it's long it probably should have its own thread. )

[Zdanman]

I've been thinking about making a barbarian style class, the typical mighty berserker of old, that does not have the proper martial training of a warrior but makes it up with might and fury.

Also a variant unarmored warrior, because in my world material for armor is very limited and only rich people/nobles have any possibility of having it.

[caveman]

Ask and ye shall receive. Here's the barbarian class I made the other day. It features lower deed dice than the warrior but a huge spike for getting crazy, with a big come down afterwards. No lucky weapon, and, as I use carousing rules, they are easily overdo it.

BARBARIAN
Savage interlopers from the harshest climes of the world, barbarians carve their way through the world by dint of pitiless fury and violent madness.
Hit Dice: d12
+d2 1d12/III 1d20
+d3 1d14/III 1d20
+d4 1d16/IV 1d20
+d5 1d16/IV 1d20 + d14
+d6 1d20/V 1d20 + d16
Berserker Fury: Deed Dice advance two places on the dice chain (d2=d4; d3=d6; d4=d8) The Deed Dice add to all attacks and subtract from AC.
Whenever a foe is slain, the berserker immediately makes a second attack against the nearest person, friend or foe.
If reduced to 0 HP, the Berserker may make an Will Saving Throw DC20, modified by Luck, to keep fighting as long as there are foes within his sight.
When battle ends, the berserker always takes CL/d6 in damage.
When berserking, Barbarians tear off anything heavier than light armor and will always throw away a shield they are using. They don’t like to be slowed down.
Threat range and saves as warrior.
Barbarians use all manner of weapons but prefer spears and axes.
Barbarians are natural climbers and skulkers and are at home in the Wilderness. They roll a d20 in all such situations.
Barbarians are unfamiliar with the trappings of civilization and thus easily fall victim to the perils of wealth. When Carousing, Barbarians roll twice and use the HIGHER roll.

[smathis]

Transylvanian Adventures will have 6 new classes -- modeling classic archetypes in tales of Gothic Horror and the Action/Adventure genre. 3 more are being moved to the Transylvanian Grimoire.

New classes abound!

[finarvyn]

Transylvanian Adventures will have 6 new classes -- modeling classic archetypes in tales of Gothic Horror and the Action/Adventure genre. 3 more are being moved to the Transylvanian Grimoire.

Is it too early to list the names of the classes, or is that still hush-hush?

Can't wait to get these Transylvanian books!

[smathis]

Transylvanian Adventures will have 6 new classes -- modeling classic archetypes in tales of Gothic Horror and the Action/Adventure genre. 3 more are being moved to the Transylvanian Grimoire.

Is it too early to list the names of the classes, or is that still hush-hush?

Can't wait to get these Transylvanian books!

They're listed here. One class has been added -- The Redeemable.

Names of the 6 in Transylvanian Adventures: Charger, Hunter, Polymath, Survivor, Valiant, Redeemable.
The 3 in The Transylvanian Grimoire: Exotic, Half-Breed, Theorist

Some more details on the TA/TG thread!

[ragboy]

For months I've heard how folks would be making up special classes as soon as they get ahold of the final rulebook. Well, you've got it!

Just curious if anyone has started the process, and if so what are you working on, or what have you come up with?

(Maybe just give a quick synopsis here. If it's long it probably should have its own thread. )

I'm adding an alchemist class -- based on the old Darklands video game. I made a conversion for C&C and it fits the dangerous nature of DCC perfectly. Need to play/DM the real game through a few levels before I start tinkering, though

I think, with the base classes, you can get to all the sub-classes (AD&D) with some creative thinking. May not even need to tweak -- I have players that will want Ranger, Bard and Monk, especially, but I think it's all there... a Ranger's just a warrior with nature skills. Monk's just a fighter with fists. etc.

[toadlike]

Ask and ye shall receive. Here's the barbarian class I made the other day. It features lower deed dice than the warrior but a huge spike for getting crazy, with a big come down afterwards. No lucky weapon, and, as I use carousing rules, they are easily overdo it.

BARBARIAN
Savage interlopers from the harshest climes of the world, barbarians carve their way through the world by dint of pitiless fury and violent madness.
Hit Dice: d12
+d2 1d12/III 1d20
+d3 1d14/III 1d20
+d4 1d16/IV 1d20
+d5 1d16/IV 1d20 + d14
+d6 1d20/V 1d20 + d16
Berserker Fury: Deed Dice advance two places on the dice chain (d2=d4; d3=d6; d4=d8) The Deed Dice add to all attacks and subtract from AC.
Whenever a foe is slain, the berserker immediately makes a second attack against the nearest person, friend or foe.
If reduced to 0 HP, the Berserker may make an Will Saving Throw DC20, modified by Luck, to keep fighting as long as there are foes within his sight.
When battle ends, the berserker always takes CL/d6 in damage.
When berserking, Barbarians tear off anything heavier than light armor and will always throw away a shield they are using. They don’t like to be slowed down.
Threat range and saves as warrior.
Barbarians use all manner of weapons but prefer spears and axes.
Barbarians are natural climbers and skulkers and are at home in the Wilderness. They roll a d20 in all such situations.
Barbarians are unfamiliar with the trappings of civilization and thus easily fall victim to the perils of wealth. When Carousing, Barbarians roll twice and use the HIGHER roll.

Thank you for sharing your version of the Barbarian!
I'm also going to give the barbarian a try once I'm done reading the entire book. I has this weird idea about using the Barbarian in Unearthed Arcana as inspiration and a starting point for my homebrewed barbarian.

[bat]

Bard and druid would be nice.

[SYKOJAK]

Bard and druid would be nice.

Would not a Druid just be a Cleric with a Nuetral Alignment and a focus on Nature?

[bat]

Bard and druid would be nice.

Would not a Druid just be a Cleric with a Nuetral Alignment and a focus on Nature?

Snap! I whined about this in another post and cleared it up. Ok, gnome and bard then.

[caveman]

I was thinking Druid is a neutral cleric with a couple of wizard spells(animal summoning, natch), but no metal armor...

[shadewest]

On the one hand, gnomes and bards are fan favorites. On the other, they are the most hated classic race and class respectively. I'm in the pro camp for both, myself. Usually, I can find a way for one of the DCC core classes to do what you want. I've got a home brewed gnome class, but it's a little out there. It's not ready for public consumption yet. Bards? I see what you mean. Neither wizard or cleric can really emulate a bard.

What do you want a bard to do?
What do you want him to look like doing it?
Do you care if it's appendix N appropriate?

[jmucchiello]

Someday I will write my Gnome "Illusionist" class. It would be non-patron magic. Oh and my gnomes are "tiny", less than 2 feet tall with long beards. Tend to wear floppy hats and hide in gardens.

Bards with "music" magic, also without patrons could be cool. I've always wanted to do a "dance"-master bard. You chain steps together to form spells. But it's too cumbersome for game play.

[GnomeBoy]

...I've always wanted to do a "dance"-master bard. You chain steps together to form spells. But it's too cumbersome for game play.

Puts me immediately in mind of 'bending' from The Last Airbender (the TV series, not the risible movie adaptation, mind you).

[jmucchiello]

Have not seen either bender of air but the dance idea has been kicking around in my head for 10 years or so. I'm sure there's a poorly written doc on my hard drive with the basics laid out in 3.0e terminology. Perhaps it would be less cumbersome without conforming to 3e....

[SYKOJAK]

Someday I will write my Gnome "Illusionist" class. It would be non-patron magic. Oh and my gnomes are "tiny", less than 2 feet tall with long beards. Tend to wear floppy hats and hide in gardens.

Bards with "music" magic, also without patrons could be cool. I've always wanted to do a "dance"-master bard. You chain steps together to form spells. But it's too cumbersome for game play.

You have some really good ideas there. I always thought that Bards were basically music magicians. (Think of the Pied Piper from Shreck IV: Ever After.) They can cast magic through thier chosen Instrument, (be it percussion, strings, voice, or what have you.) I would say give them some thief skills, (but not all of them.) Give them the Mighty Deeds of Arms, but no extra attack die. Then give them limited spell selection concerning thier musical talents. Bards have always been the "Jack of all Trades", but master of none.

[reverenddak]

Someday I will write my Gnome "Illusionist" class. It would be non-patron magic. Oh and my gnomes are "tiny", less than 2 feet tall with long beards. Tend to wear floppy hats and hide in gardens.

Bards with "music" magic, also without patrons could be cool. I've always wanted to do a "dance"-master bard. You chain steps together to form spells. But it's too cumbersome for game play.

+d2 for the 2-ft tall gnomes.

Would the character or player have to do the dance steps?

[SYKOJAK]

Someday I will write my Gnome "Illusionist" class. It would be non-patron magic. Oh and my gnomes are "tiny", less than 2 feet tall with long beards. Tend to wear floppy hats and hide in gardens.

Bards with "music" magic, also without patrons could be cool. I've always wanted to do a "dance"-master bard. You chain steps together to form spells. But it's too cumbersome for game play.

+d2 for the 2-ft tall gnomes.

Would the character or player have to do the dance steps?

I think that the player should have to do the dance steps. Then you can penalize his roll when he trips over his own feet.

[jmucchiello]

Would the character or player have to do the dance steps?

I generally don't ask the fighters to swing swords about my living room nor demand that wizards properly incant their spells while making the proper intricate finger and arm gestures and I don't think I've ever tossed a lock at the thief and asked him to pick it open, but perhaps I should start....

[reverenddak]

Would the character or player have to do the dance steps?

I generally don't ask the fighters to swing swords about my living room nor demand that wizards properly incant their spells while making the proper intricate finger and arm gestures and I don't think I've ever tossed a lock at the thief and asked him to pick it open, but perhaps I should start....

It'd sure be funny.

[Aplus]

To anyone looking to craft their own barbarian class, I highly recommend reading this post, as it is full of great ideas.

http://joeskythedungeonbrawler.wordpres ... barbarian/

(Possibly NSFW due to language)

[Alegur]

Higher level Gnome Illusionists should have access to some type of 'Travel' and 'temporary shelter' type spells

[Ravenheart87]

Since I still didn't start my campaign, I can tinker some more with ideas about how character generation's going to work. I was thinking a lot about seperating race and class, and adding some more of both.

Creating a new race is easy as a pie - just take the iconic abilities from the classes, change them a bit, remove those that feel more like class abilities and you're good to go. If you let the players choose races, and you feel some of them is a bit stronger than it should be, increase the XP needed to level up. If I go this way, I'm going to create an occupation chart for every race. You can also include sub-races in the charts, eg. dark elf cutthroat, high elf scribe, wood elf hunter. For new races, use your intuition, but generally tw or three bonuses and one penalty is good enough.

The major races I'm planning to use so far are:

• human
• dwarf
• elf
• halfling
• gnome
• orc
• insectoid
• lizardman
• android

Creating a new class is harder. Not because of game balance, since DCC RPG is a game, where cunning helps much more in survival, than balance. It's because of what I call "the spirit of DCC RPG". You could create one easily by mixing the abilities of the already existing ones, or by changing them slightly (eg. drop the initiative bonus and hit die of the Warrior, give him some cleric stuff and voilá, you've got a paladin), but where's the fun in that? The four core classes of DCC RPG are very different when it comes to gameplay elements, and they already cover a lot of ground. The plan is to make every class a bit more unique and different.

Classes I'm planning to use in my campaign:

• Warrior
• Thief
• Cleric
• Wizard
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Monk
• Bard

Here are some of the basic ideas:

Paladin: A holy (or unholy) warrior of one of the cosmic forces. Hit dice is d10, gets deeds, has better Fort, Ref, Will. The paladin fights better against the enemies of his faith and his mere presence makes their abilities weaker. Every level his god will send the paladin on a quest - if he completes it, he can advance to the next level (of course only if the he has the required XP too) and gain a boon. These quests and boons are random, like:

• Recover a long lost magic sword from the Lake of the Wailing Fey! You can keep the sword after the quest.
• Kill the disease demon in the Black Marsh! Your mere touch will heal diseases after you've won.
• A rogue beast of chaos roams the Red Waste, your masters want it alive! As a reward, they'll bind him to you so you can summon him with a command word every midnight.

Ranger: A warrior trained in unconventional warfare. Hit dice is d8, gets deeds, has better Fort, Ref. A ranger is good at sneaking and tracking the enemy. Every level the ranger gains a new training - bonus damage against a particular type of enemy, better initiative on some kind of terrain, the ability to use magic items, new languages, and so on. This training depends on what kind of plans the ranger company has for him.

Monk: The unarmored oriental martial artist. Hit dice is d6, gets deeds, has better Fort, Ref, Will. Still thinking about how to handle them. Their abilities are going to be based on alignment, and they're going to get a table just like thieves - the chaotic ones are going to be called ninjas, that's sure. I want to make them the masters of Mighty Deeds of Arms too.

More of them coming soon - I'm going to create a "beta" version of them in the following weeks - or months.

[Ravenheart87]

I worked a bit on the new classes in the office, and I changed my mind about the paladin and the ranger. The core book already recommends sending characters on quests to achieve special abilities. Making this necessary to advance is not only an annoying penalty for the class, but it also makes such characters steal the spotlight from the others. Also, I don't want to write up 10-20 abilities for a class that he may get - it results in unnecessary bloat, plus if a class has so many different abilities, then it's not a well defined archetype.

Thus I'll only use the iconic abilities for paladins, rangers and antipaladins - if you want something else, talk to your Judge. Antipaladin? Yes, I think the latter is different enough to deserve a class of it's own. My only problem is that I don't like the "antipaladin" name. How should I call a champion of chaos? Blackguard? Reaver? If you have a better idea, please share it with me.

I also have some notes for druids, psionic abilites, psionic combat, but it's too early to talk about them.