The Wanderer, a (very) weird class for D&D B/X or OSE

Yes, sir. I am still alive (sort of…) and yes, I should update this blog more frequently. Unfortunately, besides being still incapable of keeping an organized schedule or goals, I have been over my head with a thousand other things. My life is indeed a mess and I wish I could hide in this tower’s fastness for an incarnation or two but, alas, there is no rest for the wicked. On the bright side, I have been running weekly games for two different tables, besides participating as a player in a third. So, (nerdy) life is good (while it lasts).

This (poorly and probably unplayable) attempt at a class is something that I have been cooking for some years. Basically, I wanted to a "Gandalf class". No, not a magic-user or a wizard. That is not how I see the Grey Wanderer. Mithrandir for me is someone who travels a lot, knows a lot of stuff (and people) and uses that knowledge to help his allies (and his plans). This is my “adventuring sage” class if you will. So, I wanted a class that attempted mechanically to do that… in an OSR game. Of course, such a class would have rules that are inherently too much “metagamic” for OSR, which I respectfully disagree with. But I am the kind of person who loves the narrative features of D&D 5E Backgrounds (which, of course, were removed from “5.5” or whatever the soulless mercenaries at WotC are launching this year), FATE’s Aspects, cooperative emergent world-building, and mechanics in general that let you get some table input into the narrative. After all, the plaque above this tower’s entrance says “Where Old and New School Meet”, no?

All references below are to the amazing OSE SRD, which can be found HERE.  

Fair Warning: Besides been heretical, unorthodoxy, and probably capable of corrupting traditional family values, this class also requires constantly moderation by the Referee. For me, that is part of “my job” as a referee and game narrator. If you don’t agree with that, then probably you won’t like this class and shouldn’t allow it at your games. In fact, if you prefer games where the Referee is more a impartial umpire who never interferes, then this class is probably not your game style (I love both impartial and narrative games, and I know when I’m running one or the other).

The fiction is King! (Or Queen!): the Wanderer is part of a game tradition that gives importance to the fiction, narrative sense, or verisimilitude of the game. Most tables actually follow this principle without noticing. It basically means – use your common sense (not the rules!). Therefore, no Wanderer ability can be used if breaks the table’s disbelief regarding their game. Each table, of course, will also have their own levels of acceptable verisimilitude and suspension of disbelief. In the end: have fun!

 

The Wanderer

Requirements None

Prime requisite  CHAR

Hit Dice 1d6

Maximum level 10

Armour None

Weapons Any

Languages Alignment, Common

 

The Wanderer attacks and saves as a Thief of the same level.

Lores: Some Wanderers know pieces of hard-earned knowledge and secrets. Others are gifted individuals who can easily inspire and unite others. Some have a touch of the Otherworld and do what other people would call “magic”. Each Wanderer is unique but all are marked by wanderlust and a desire to see the world (and thus to adventure)

A particular Wanderer’s baggage of special skills and tricks are represented by Lores. Each Wanderer starts with 2 Lores selected from the 1^st level list. When levelling up, they gain 1 new Lore.

Between adventures, if the Wanderer had the time to rest, they could decide to change one Lore from their repertoire.

Limits: unless otherwise written, activating a Lore doesn’t cost an action and you can only activate one Lore per round. You can only learn Lores of the same level or lower than your Wanderer level.

Complications: many of the Lores, once activated, invite the Referee (and/or the table) to add some complications. The idea of a complication is something to make the Wanderer’s life “interesting”. For example, if a Wanderer used a Lore to gain a monster’s friendship, then maybe they own that creature a favour. If they use to gain some new knowledge, they might be in debt to a sage. The Referee, as usual, has the last word. When in doubt, the Referee can “store” complications, using them later on to create an NPC, curse, of challenge suited to the Wanderer.

Hard Mode (Optional): some Referees don’t appreciate the idea of classes that have access to an open pool of powers and can change those powers freely. If you are one of those Referees, change the rule above in that a Wanderer can change their list of Lores only when they level up.

Knacks: a Wanderer starts with 2 Knacks, plus 1 additional per level. Knacks activate a particular Lore (and some Lores require more than 1 Knack to be activated). Knacks are just a fancy name for “spell slots” if you prefer (no, Lores and Knacks are not technically magical, although some might be… it is complicated). A Wanderer recovers all their Knacks after a full night of rest.

Limits: unless otherwise written each Lore costs 1 Knack to activate and you cannot spend more Knacks in one activation than your total Wanderer level.

Referee’s call and vetoes: the Referee can always veto a Lore’s activation. When that happens, it is usually good to explain why the Lore was vetoed. In those cases, the Knack is not spent (but the Wanderer player should also play nice and don’t try the same trick). Again, if this generates discussions and makes your game experience worse, DO NOT USE THIS CLASS. At my tables, these adjudications happen all the time and everyone is fine with that but YMMV.

Learning from their Mistakes (Optional): a Wanderer reduced to 1 hit point that survives the encounter recovers 1 Knack from their ordeal. This can happen only once per day.

 

List of Lores

 

1st LEVEL

A Particular Set of Skills: before attempting any dice rolling requested by the Referee for a mundane task, declare how you learned/mastered such task before. It must be something not unique to a particular OSR Class. No spellcasting, combat, thieving skills, trap detection etc. It can be stuff like setting a fire (even in the rain!), swimming, hunting for food for the party, navigating by the stars etc. If the Referee and the table accept it, you succeed automatically at it (if they don’t approve it, regain the Knack… and don’t push this topic again!). Once you use this Lore, that particular skill becomes a part of your character’s abilities. Because of that, you can’t activate this Lore again in the same game session, in-game week/month, or in the same adventure (as determined by the Referee).

Setting Limit (Optional): Referees that fear this Lore might be abused are free to set as a limit to one skill per Wanderer level. Another option is that this Lore must be activated (i.e., the Wanderer must pay 1 Knack each time). Wanderers are indeed versatile, but they are never trained enough to “permanently” learn a skill.

 

Helpful Advice: you can activate this Lore before another player rolls any dice. You must be at their character’s side and your advice must make a difference. If that applies and your friend fails his check, spend a Knack so that they can reroll it (you can only do this once for each check).

 

Know Thy Enemy: activate this Lore to have complete access to one type of monster's stats during this encounter (including total and current hit points). You must explain how you know that much about those creatures and probably incur some trouble or complication (as decided by the Referee). If your table has an “open monster stat policy” and the Referee doesn’t hide this information, ignore this Lore. This Lore works on common sense. While you might know stats and hit points (and perhaps even the spell list), the Referee doesn’t need to tell you exactly everything the enemies are carrying. However, if you must declare your actions before rolling initiative, the Referee is free to declare the monster’s actions to your Wanderer.

 

Loremaster: activate this Lore if you can inspect an item without interruption for one turn or 10 minutes. For each Knack spent you can identify one magic item, scroll, spell or you can list all the spells within one spellbook (but in this last case they are not identified and still need to be fully deciphered). You can use this Lore instead to translate one scroll, map, inscription or something similar. If merely reading something would trigger a trap or curse, you must immediately pay a second Knack. If you fail to that you trigger the trap or curse (including symbols and runes).

 

Masters of Tongues: activate this Lore to know one extra language during the game. Explain how you learned (and incur any complications as set by the Referee, particularly for exotic and strange idioms). You can activate this Lore only twice per Wanderer level. If you have chosen a language (either during character creation or with this Lore) but never used it in the game, you can change it using this Lore.

 

Well-Traveled: you always keep your ears open to rumours and travellers’ tricks. This Lore has two options.

In the first version, activate this Lore to instantly remember one rumour regarding the adventure or the place where you are. It must be something at least a bit useful. For example: if exploring the Caves of Chaos, you might have heard about different humanoids and in which direction they roughly lie (nothing certain, this is a rumour).

The second version comes in if the Referee has no rumour to share or if the Wanderer intends to help the party recover. Activating this second version of the Lore requires a safe spot and it takes one hour during which your Wanderer shares what they know about the adventure with the party. If those conditions are met, the Wanderer spends 1 Knack and each party member (except the Wanderer) can regain 1 Hit Dice in hit points (this represents mechanically that they are better prepared for the dangers ahead).

This Lore can only be activated once per day, week, or adventure (Referee’s call).

 

Sings & Omens: you know how to read signs and auguries left by the gods, the Fates, or maybe Balance itself. When you awake in the morning, spend 1 Knack and roll 1d20, noting the number rolled. During that day, before rolling any d20, you can instead substitute the result with the d20 rolled in the morning. If you spend 2 Knacks, you can instead substitute the d20 rolled by an ally. If you spend 3 Knacks, you can substitute the result rolled by an enemy (but they can roll a saving throw against spells to negate this). You can only use this Lore once per day.

 

To Arms!: after the initiative is rolled but before the first round starts, activate this Lore to go first (or for one ally to go first). If the Referee uses group initiative, this Lore can only be used once per day.

 

Travel Bag: at any point, activate this Lore to explain how you were carrying one common mundane item all along. This must make sense within the adventure. It could anything normally found in the region that you are travelling to or from someone you had contact with. It must also be something that you can afford (the Referee can ask you to pay it “retroactively”). You cannot have stolen the item. Examples are a sword, a rope, a handcuff etc. Instead of one common item, you can change it to one consumable item for each Wanderer level. Examples could be rations, water, or maybe oil. So, a 2^nd level Wanderer who activates his Lore, could have bought 2 extra rations or torches.

 

Treasure-Hunter: you are a professional burglar (thieves are, after all, lower-class individuals). After combat, you can activate this Lore and declare that you are searching for any extra treasure hidden close to the encounter area. The Referee will roll a new Treasure Roll to see if anything comes up. This Lore can only be activated once per encounter (and, as usual, the Referee can decide to veto the result or to roll and don’t use the result if will make the game worse).

 

Useful Superstition: as your action during any combat encounter, you can propose a source of superstition that you heard about the creature(s) your party is currently facing. If approved, activate this Lore to instantly trigger a Morale Check in the creatures. If the Morale Check works, now your proposed superstition is part of the campaign (and the Referee is encouraged to modulate it, and create complications or consequences around it). Usually, the safest way to modulate this is to restrict it to the local region (i.e., the orcs of the Crooked Mountains are afraid of gooses). You can only activate this Lore once per encounter, day, week, or adventure (Referee’s call).

If the Referees allow it, you can spend 3 Knacks to trigger a Morale check in creatures theoretically immune to it. For example, you can explain that you carry a particular holy symbol of St. Cudgel that can trigger Morale checks in the undead. Of course, the complications here are higher. St. Cudgel might appear in a vision and demand you donate all treasure to the closest temple to keep his favour (and avoid a curse maybe).

 

Words of Peace: you acquired enough knowledge of pidgins and weird customs to know how to get another intelligent creature’s attention quickly, even if just for a moment. You can activate this Lore before the first round of combat (even if you lost initiative) to cry a word or do something before your party and an intelligent monster (or group of hostile creatures) come to blows against each other. This instantly sets the monsters’ reaction to Uncertain and might give your party a chance to parley. This is not magic and does not work if you are ambushed. Also, monsters will not act stupidly.

 

2nd LEVEL

 

A Curse or Two…: activate this Lore when a monster succeeds at a save. Explain some small curse that you know and how you cast it against the poor critter. The monster must reroll their save. You can only activate this Lore once per save.

 

A Love of Maps: you always carry a bundle of old and weird maps (and you love collecting more). This bundle weighs and fills as much space as a spellbook. If you lose it, you can accumulate a new bundle between adventures (paying whatever costs the Referee proposes). If you have access to your maps, consult your minutes for approximately one minute and activate this Lore to ask the Referee if the party is lost. If they are indeed lost, you can pay a second Knack to safely guide them back from where they came from (no chances of getting lost on the way back). For each day you are guiding your party back you must pay 1 Knack when you start marching.

 

Folklore: activate this Lore to create one curious piece of information about a group that your party is currently meeting or is about to meet. You must have some idea of who you are dealing with (goblins, humans, barbarians etc.). If your piece of information is helpful, there is a 4-in-6 chance it is true (“These goblins love beer! If we offer them ours, we might get a chance to parley.”) If it is risky then it is automatically (“These goblins love beer, but it can drive them into a berserker rage when they drink too much.”). If it is too good to be true (“Goblins believe only gods drink beer and they will serve us”) then don’t bother rolling (and that is a terrible use of this Lore). You can only use this Lore once per encounter and never more than once per day, week, or adventure (Referee’s call).

 

Follow my lead: if you succeed at a save or ability check, and you can set an example or encourage your allies, activate this Lore. If approved, choose another character to succeed at the same attempt. You can pay more Knacks to help other allies.

 

Friends in Weird Places: you can activate this Lore when facing an intelligent enemy but before the first round of combat starts. Explain how that one of the enemies is actually an acquaintance of your Wanderer. If approved, the Referee will add a complication. At the bare least, you owe some money to said enemy (or a particular item in the adventure that is hard to find). You can only use this Lore once per encounter and never more than once per day, week, or adventure (Referee’s call).

 

Hedge Magic: this lore has two versions.

In the first version, activate it when you fail a save against some supernatural effect. Explain how your Wanderer uses some secret, talisman, or folk magic to protect you from a spell. If approved, reroll your save. If you succeed, you don’t suffer any partial effect (no half damage in a fireball for example). Keep a list of each secret, talisman, or folk magic which worked. Each hedge magic should be a complex gesture, word, or unique talisman or item. It should be effective against one specific spell or monster (the level of detail is set by the Referee, some are happy with “any fire spell”, others will prefer “only against fireballs”).

In the second version, you can activate this Lore when an ally fails a save. You must select one of your hedge magics that previously worked. Explain how, during the party’s last rest, you shared or “cast” one hedge magic from your list in that one ally. This must make sense. So, if one hedge magic was a talisman, that ally would have that talisman in their person when they rolled the save. If it is a secret magic word, then you must be close enough to say such a word and protect them. The result is the same, the chosen ally can reroll the save. If they succeed, they don’t suffer any ill effects.

The number of hedge magic “spells” you can keep is set by the Referee to avoid abuses. A good benchmark is one hedge magic “spell” by Wanderer level. Another option is to charge a price for each hedge magic, using scroll prices as a reference. Discuss this with the Wanderer player before they decide to acquire this Lore.

 

Inspiring Fellowship: if you can rest with an ally for at least one hour, maybe cooking something for them, singing, or just saying something about your travels, you can activate this Lore. The chosen ally recovers one spell or daily limited ability. For characters without limited abilities, such as Fighters and Thieves, you grant them 2 Advantages (they can roll any die twice and pick the best result, they must declare the use of the Advantage before rolling). Each ally can only benefit from this Lore once per day.

 

Sidekick: explain to the table how, between adventures (or after the last visit to town) you attracted a loyal retainer. This must be possible within the narrative. If approved, activate this Lore to immediately gain the service of one loyal retainer. Mechanically, this retainer’s power is equivalent to a normal human (level 0), but you can raise its level by paying one extra Knack (the limit is one level lower than your Wanderer or 0). As long as keep the spent Knacks “locked” on the retainer, they don’t need to make Loyalty checks. However, if you abuse your retainer, the Referee can increase the cost of this Lore by one Knack or more until your “reputation” improves. You can have as many level 0 retainers as you want but only one retainer level 1+. Retainers acquired through this Lore (i.e. sidekicks) don’t count against your maximum number of “normal” retainers.

 

Wanderer’s Luck: activate this Lore to turn one attack against you into a failure or to reroll an ability or skill check. You can also activate this Lore to reroll one saving throw against a non-supernatural threat (such as a trap).

 

Watchful Guide: this Lore has two different versions.

In the first version, you can activate this Lore to avoid the effects of one ambush (you are not surprised). You can pay extra Knack to affect additional allies.

In the second version, you can activate this Lore after the Referee rolls a random encounter. This last version costs 2 Knacks. If approved, the Referee will tell the party what creature was rolled on the random encounter (before that creature even shows up). With that information, the Wanderer (and the table) can decide to ask the Referee to reroll the random table. They won’t know the second result. This must be explained in the narrative. For example, the Referee rolls a random encounter. The Wanderer player activates this version and asks what creature was rolled. The Referee answers only the type of creatures (“troll” for instance). After some discussions, the table decides that they have enough oil to face trolls. Narratively, the Wanderer player could describe how their character found marks of troll claws in the stone marking this area is troll territory. If the table decided that they want the Referee to reroll, then they could use the same idea. However, in the second scenario, the Wanderer finds the troll marks and informs their allies, there trolls in those trails, follow them through these woods instead.

Each version of this Lore can only be activated once per day.

 

3rd LEVEL

 

Bane: this Lore has two versions.

In the first version, you use your next action to provide tactical advice that helps all allies that can hear you against one type of foe they are currently facing them. This is typically something like “their armour is weak at the back of their legs!”. For the rest of the encounter, all armed and unarmed attacks that can exploit that advice have Advantage on damage rolls (roll damage twice and pick the better). This costs 2 Knacks.

The second version affects just the next spell cast by an ally. The damage caused by that particular casting of the spell is rolled with Advantage. This costs 1 Knack.

 

Fly you fools!: activate this Lore and use your next action to rally your friends and help them escape danger. By spending 1 Knack, all your allies can use their next action (and only their next action) to withdraw from melee. If they do so, they don’t trigger free attacks from adversaries that they were engaged with. By spending 2 Knacks, you also gain the same benefit.

 

Magician: you acquired a bit of true spellcraft during your adventure by watching and learning from your friends. Activate this Lore to cast any 1^st level spell that another ally has cast on that same day (you must follow all the other normal rules for spellcasting). Instead of that, you can activate this Lore to cast one identified scroll (for example, one you identified with the Loremaster Lore).

 

Riddles and Secrets: you collect mysteries and secrets. Choose one item, place, or person and use one action to activate this Lore. You can ask one “yes” or “no” question to the Referee regarding the target. If you want to be completely sure about the Referee’s answer, you must spend 3 Knacks. Otherwise, spend just 1 Knack but there is a 2-in-6 that the answer is not completely true (the Referee should roll the d6 in secret). You can use this Lore once per target.

 

What Doesn’t Kill Me…: keep a list of all special attacks, poison, diseases and similar things that your Wanderer survived during the game. The next time you are affected by that specific thing, explain how you built some sort of immunity, resistance, or the capacity to shrug off most of the hazard. If approved, lose 1 permanent Knack. You are now immune to that attack. If that is not realistic, you suffer just your Wanderer level in damage from it (or just 1 point of damage, as decided by the Referee). You can build this sort of resistance to a number of effects equal to your Wanderer level.

Survival and Flexible (Optional): If this makes sense, between level-ups, you can lose immunity to one effect in other to “open” a slot to a new one during the game (you regain the lost Knack in this case).

 

4th LEVEL

 

Never Lose Hope...: if another character is killed (i.e. brought to 0 hit points) but his body is still somewhat intact and you can be safely reached and checked after the encounter, then there is a chance they might still be alive. If the Wanderer is the one to reach and check the body, activate this Lore. The chosen ally then rolls a saving throw against death. If they succeed, they have miraculously survived but are deeply wounded. They have just 1 hit point, move at half the normal rate, cannot carry heavy items, and cannot attack, cast spells, or use other class abilities for the next 24 hours. The Referee is welcome to give them some permanent scar and to reduce one Ability Score, such as Constitution, by 1. Lucky is fickle… no character can benefit from this Lore more than once.

 

Polymath: this Lore works a bit differently and was created with the idea of customizing (not optimizing) your Wanderer to make it more unique. When you first acquire it, you permanently lose one Knack, and select one class feature (from another class) or special ability. If the Referee allows it, that is now a permanent feature of your Wanderer. The use of this Lore should vary to better fit the style of each table (and campaign) but here are some general guidelines. Class features that could be selected are the cleric’s Turn Undead, the Fighter’s training with armour and shields, and the Thief’s Back-stab. If taken from another class (or maybe a monster) it must follow the same limitations, unless the Referee has another idea. If you want more versatile features (like Thief skills) or powerful abilities (such as spellcasting), then the Referee is welcome to create their approach or use any of the following:

Thief skills – the Wanderer can either choose to have two skills as a Thief of the same level or all Thief skills, but they are fixed at 1^st level

Arcane spellcasting – you have the same caster level as a Magic-User but can memorize only one spell per day from your grimoire, or you could work as a Magic-User with half your Wanderer when you select this but levelling up won’t change that

Divine spellcasting – the Referee could let the Wanderer have the same spellcasting powers as a cleric of half their Wanderer levels, except that the Wanderer can’t change their selection of memorized spells (maybe they can, but only when levelling up or by fulfilling a quest for a temple)

The above options try to give the Wanderer access to other features without “stealing the spotlight” from other classes. Instead of a class feature, Wanderers can also propose new special abilities (maybe from other OSR games), including new ones. Maybe the ability to talk with animals, smell treasure, shape change into one type of animal etc. (a good source of special abilities are the pregenerated characters from the OSR zine KNOCK!).

Every time you level up, you can decide to sacrifice another Knack to gain a second benefit from this Lore. For example, you can get the Elf class feature of using armour and casting arcane spells.

 

Sagely Knowledge: activate this Lore to add ONE detail or declaration to a local element of the campaign. The target can be one creature, location, local creature variant, or even local magic variant. It cannot retcon or contradict any previous fact of the game. If approved, the Referee will secretly roll a d6. There is a 4-in-6 chance that there is an added complication that you haven’t considered. If explicitly powerful, there is an unavoidable cost. This Lore should be used to enrich the game and generate new opportunities for the party to solve problems. If the Wanderer proposes a new detail with cool and interesting complications, the Referee can just use them.
Here are some examples:

“Music can soothe the rage of a lycanthrope” – suggested so a bard could play the flute and thus allow the party to befriend a werewolf. It is a cool detail, so the Referee rolls a normal 4-in-6 complication chance. If rolled, the complication is that the detail works but only if the music is played under a New Moon.

“This lake is sacred and can be used to cure energy drain once per year but you will own a favour to the lake’s nymph” – a powerful declaration but with a reasonable limitation and cost, so the Referee just approved the cost and decided that the character so healed must bring seven different magic items to the nymph as a cost.

“Red Forest sandalwood feeds on magic and my shield is made of that wood so I have a bonus on my saving throws against magic” – too powerful and without cost. The Referee does not even border to roll for complication and automatically inflicts a cost. They decide that the character can decide to destroy the shield to succeed in a saving throw versus spells but that the sandalwood taint the character’s aura for 7 days after using the shield, so they must also roll a saving throw even versus beneficial magic (such as healing). Obs.: the Referee could just have vetoed the Lore activation, but they decided to give a chance.

When this Lore is activated, the Wanderer must spend and “lock” one Knack. The Knack remains locked until one of these situations occurs (as defined by the Referee BEFORE the Wanderer spends the Knack): the Wanderer’s level up, the current adventure is concluded, or the current “campaign arc” is concluded.

 

Spare an Enemy: you must activate this Lore during the first round of combat and target one specific monster. If approved, you and your party are now fighting to subdue the target. This activation is cancelled if any party member uses a lethal attack – such as a disintegrate or a deadly poison (Referee’s call). If the party defeat the target, the Referee must then roll a new Monster Reaction check. Any result of 6+ places the monster under the Wanderer’s retinue as a special monster retainer. Loyalty rules apply as normal. The spent Knack remains “locked” while the monster is a retainer. The Wanderer can only keep one monster retainer.

 

5th LEVEL

 

Esoterica (Optional): the Wanderer has travelled far and wide and accumulated enough forbidden and unearthed arcana to metaphysically cheat reality. They can activate this Lore to break or change ONE rule of the game during one round or turn (whichever makes more sense). This change can incorporate a rule or power from ANOTHER RPG. The Wanderer must provide some weird explanation and cost for this astonishing event. Here the best premise is to follow the Rule of Cool. Each table will have its parameters for that. For example: a Wanderer tells the table that during their battle with a dragon, he found a scroll with a forbidden Word of Power from a long-dead god of magic. As soon as they read that scroll, that Word was burned into their mind (and the scroll vanished). He proposes that he chants the Word, freeing it from their mind. For the turn, no spellcaster needs to memorize spells. The cost is that the Wanderer will lose their voice, becoming mute. The Referee approves. Another example: the Wanderer found in the last loot three holy golden apples that were planted in the Seven Heavens ages ago. Whoever eats them gains supernal vitality. The idea is that the chosen targets can spend their Hit Dices in short rests between, as in D&D 5E. The Referee approves with the cost that the Wanderer is now considered to have committed a divine sin. No beneficial divine magic will affect them until they atone.

When this Lore is activated, the Wanderer must spend and “lock” 2 Knacks. The Knacks remains locked until one of these situations occurs (as defined by the Referee BEFORE the Wanderer spends the Knacks): the Wanderer’s level up, the current adventure is concluded, or the current “campaign arc” is

Too Weird For My Table: this Lore REALLY pushes it and should be embraced only by tables that love its metagame aspects (and FLAILSNAILS games in general).

Not FLAILSNAILS Enough: if this makes narrative sense, the Knacks are spent permanently and the new rule is now a permanent part of the game. If the new rule would benefit both PCs and NPCs, the Referee can reduce its cost to 1 permanent Knack.

 

Foresight: if the Wanderer can use their action and pay 3 Knacks to activate this Lore as a reaction to any consequence suffered by another party member. First, explain to the Referee how your Wanderer foresaw that particular chain of events and thus interrupted the chosen’s ally action (usually by screaming or somehow getting their attention). For example, the party’s fighter charges the beholder and is disintegrated. The Wanderer PC explains that they read about beholders during the party’s stop at the last city’s library. The Referee approves. As a result, the chosen action never happened and all its effects and spent resources are returned (lost hit points are returned, spells that were cast are still memorized… and dead characters are still alive). In the above example, the fighter’s charge against the beholder is interrupted and the fighter PC must choose a different action. If it makes sense, the other chain of events should still occur. For example, the beholder should still try to disintegrate the fighter PC. However, now that the fighter PC knows this, maybe they run for cover, resulting in the beholder giving up his attempt or disintegrating the cover itself. This Lore can be activated once per encounter.

 

Words of Awakening: the Wanderer collected enough arcane lore to awaken temporary magic properties in otherwise mundane objects. The Wanderer activates this Lore using their action and proposes some cost for it: it could drain part of their vitality, the use of exotic magical components (the Wanderer retroactively paid for them), some favour to a god/demon/wizard, etc. If approved, the Referee rolls on a magic item table of their choice (such as the ones from the OSE OSR). For example: a Wanderer picks up the fighter’s sword and sprinkles diamond dust that he bought in the last city, invoking words of power that he learned from a dwarf blacksmith they saved in the last adventure. They propose a cost of 500 gp. The Referee approves and rolls in the OSE’s Magic Weapons table, getting a 54 (“Mace +1”). The Referee decides that the sword is magically transformed into a dwarven Warhammer +1, an echo of the legendary Dwarven Forge-Hammer of Duzlin (the Referee just made that up). This remains in effect for one encounter, although the Wanderer can pay another Knack to extend the effect. If the chosen magic item is a one-use effect, there is no option to extend the effect.

The Invisible Blade, a Fighter Kit for AD&D 2nd

The Invisible Blade prestige class first showed up on the Dragon Magazine #303 and later was updated to the Complete Warrior sourcebook for D&D 3.5. However, my favourite version remained the one designed by the author - Kolja Raven-Liquette – on his website (which is no longer available, unfortunately). The entire idea of a warrior specialized with daggers or knives is an awesome concept that I always wanted to use in my D&D games.

Oh, the crazy days of 3.5... call it a guilty pleasure but I miss them.

Almost 2 years ago, my table decided to return to an AD&D 2nd RAW game. We started the adventure within the Forgotten Realms Revised Boxed Set – Beneath the Twisted Tower. We just finished that adventure last Sunday and the campaign so far has been a blast. While we started with the intent of playing RAW that didn’t last long (which I find completely natural in RPGs). However, we were very specific with some rules. In particular, we always rolled 3d6 in order. As a result, most characters didn’t have attribute bonuses to their PCs. One player in particular decided to create a half-elf fighter and, after some reading, decided that the best option for his character would be to specialize in daggers. After 3 levels of grueling dungeon-crawl, his dagger-throwing and dual-wielding fighter was doing considerable damage. By that time we started slowly incorporating rules form the Complete Fighter’s Handbook and Combat & Tactics and soon we realized that daggers have lost their mechanical potential (in part because we also used a variant Extraordinary Strength rule from the Dragonsfoot forum designed by the user Matthew-). While I love all the many rules and options of AD&D 2nd, I also must admit that the original system (just from the Core Books) is a lot more simple and deadly than I imagined. I loved it, particularly how bonus to attack, damage, and AC are all very rare if you roll straight 3d6 in order. It is a very different way of playing AD&D for me (because when we were younger we would always roll a bunch of uber-powerful PCs). I will keep AD&D 2nd in mind for more minimal and bonus-avert games in the future. It is in fact an interesting sweet spot: lots of options and, if properly approached, not much power-creep. Anyway, as usual, I am digressing...

The first campaign setting that I bought!

Both the player of the half-elf fighter and I loved the idea of the character using daggers. It was his signature weapon after all. So, I decided to adapt the idea (not the rules) of the Invisible Blade to an AD&D 2nd Fighter Kit. Here are the results after a few months of playtesting.

The Invisible Blade (Fighter Kit)

Seen as daredevils or maniacs, invisible blades are fighters that eschew heavy armor and shield, trusting only on their reflexes and sharp daggers (or knives, katars, dirks, stilettos, kukris etc.). They enjoy the thrill of combat, to live on the edge, daring the gods to bring about their doom. The fact that many invisible blades fight a smile on their faces doesn’t help their reputation.

As a Fighter Kit, Invisibles Blades use the same THAC0, Hit Dice, and experience table as a Fighter.

Requirements: Str 9, Dex 13, Char 13

Alignments: any non-Lawful

Allowed Armor: Only leather. They don’t use shields.

Allowed Weapons: Only small blades (either piercing or slashing ones).

Weapon Proficiency: Invisible Blades must specialize in a small blade of some kind.

Non-Weapon Proficiency: Invisibles Blades can buy any proficiency from the Warrior and Rogue groups.

Benefits: all the benefits below presume an Invisible Blade with the right weapon and armor combination.

1. Amazing Speed: -3 bonus to Initiative or one Speed Category faster (if using Combat & Tactics).

2. Snake Lunge: the first time that any intelligent humanoid enemy faces an Invisible Blade they are susceptible to a deadly and sudden lunge that often catches them by surprise. This only works once with each enemy and any other adversary who saw the movement or heard about it won’t fall for the trick. In game terms, the Invisible Blade provokes a surprise roll (roll a 1d10 and 1-3 is a surprise). If the lunge hits, treat the Invisible Blade as a backstabbing thief of the same level.

3. Flying Death: at the beginning of any combat encounter, before both sides engage in melee, a non-surprised Invisible Blade can throw a small blade if he was carrying one before the encounter started (this works similar to the official rule that allow archers with a knocked arrow to shoot before initiative).

4. Daring Die and Daring Points: Invisible Blades’ panache and sheer insanity in battle, as well as their amazing reflexes, are not represented by modifiers to Armor Class but by a pool of Daring Points. Daring Points work like Hit Points in that if an Invisible Blade is hit, they can decide to lose the former instead of the latter. Daring Die are like Hit Dice but generate only Daring Points. The idea is that, unlike AC, which is a static number, Daring goes down with combat. An Invisible Blade’s Daring Die (DD) is a 1d4 and they gain one per level. Therefore, for example, a 3^rd level Invisible Blade has 3d10 HD and 3d4 DD. Daring Points don’t work against surprise attacks or attacks that the Invisible Blade cannot perceive. They can’t be healed in any way. If an attack brings the Invisible Blade to 0 or lower hit points, they fall, no matter how many Daring Points they have. After combat, if an Invisible Blade can clean their blades and catch their breath (1 turn or 10 minutes), they can reroll their DD. If the amount is higher than their current total of Daring Points, then they can use the higher amount. Daring Points do not count as hit points for any purposes and an conflicts with the current rules will be adjudicated by the DM.

5. Make them Bleed!: any small bladed weapon in the hands of an Invisible Blade increases the die damage by one step. For example, daggers (usually 1d4 against medium targets) cause 1d6 points of the damage in the hands on one of those maniacs.

Disadvantages:

1. Invisible Blades are limited to leather armor and cannot use any type of shield, as detailed above. They can only use magical weapons for which they are specialized.

2. If their reputation is known, Invisible Blades suffer a -3 reaction penalty from Lawful authorities and in most civilized realms or cities (although they do fare well within areas dominated by Thieves Guilds).

3. Invisible Blades crave danger and risk. This trait should be roleplayed by Invisible Blades PCs and usually result in them targeting the biggest or stronger enemy in battle or attempting crazy stunts. DMs should reward extra XP for those attempts if successful (for example, perhaps granting +15% over the amount that the defeated enemy would concede). DMs whose desire a more rules-heavy limitation can use the following: while an Invisible Blade has at least 1 Daring Point, they must roll equal or below their lowest stat between Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. If they fail this check, they will refuse healing (i.e. if healed by forced with magic they must resist the spell with a saving throw).

Quick & Dirty versions for other d20s!

These are really “quick and dirty” as I haven’t pondered much about them, so be warned…

OD&D (the true and only one, from 74!) and clones: keep this as simple as possible. Limit the armor and weapons and just use Daring Die and Daring Points to make it different from a normal fighter. I am curious to see how this “ablative pool” of hit points interacts with the normal hit points (which are already heavily abstracted in OD&D).

OSE or B/X D&D or similar editions/clones: use the kit basically as written as a modified Fighter class. Ignore ability requirements and proficiency entries. Considering the most often those versions of D&D use a simpler initiative system, I would also remove Amazing Speed. Otherwise, it is worth a shot to see how this would play. It can be easily reskinned for a duelist or pirate (PCs who don’t use heavy armor). 

DCC RPG: one of my all-time favourite d20s. The Warrior and Thief are both already perfect takes on the Invisible Blade IMHO. However, if you must, try this hack: make a Warrior but restrict his armor to leather and his weapons to small blades, as per the kit. Reduce his hit dice to d8. Let him recover Luck as a Thief or Halfling. Now bump his Deed Dice by 1 dice step (i.e. it start as a d4 instead of d3, reaching d10+5 at 10^th level) and bump the weapon damage also by 1 step (i.e. daggers do 1d6). There is a catch here: the Deed Dice ONLY WORKS with small blade weapons. For the “ablative pool” of hit points (Daring Points) I will give you 2 options. Option 1: use Luck. An Invisible Blade can reduce any damage taken by their Luck. Easy to remember. Option 2 (my favourite but it requires playtesting): during the first round of combat roll only (if not surprise) roll Deed Dice as a free action and gains a number of temporary hit points equal to the result. During later rounds, each time you attempt a Mighty Deed of Arms, you can decide before or after the roll to add the Deed Die result to your pool of temporary hit points. If you do this, you can’t execute a different maneuver or otherwise add the Deed Die to your damage rolls. If those temporary hit points are spent, you have “run out of panache” for that battle and can’t use this trick anymore. After the last round of combat, your temporary hit points are gone.

Utility powers, level-less effects and the kitchen sink

WARNING: This is a 100% verified rambling post. I started talking about “utility” effects (that’s a 13th Age term I believe), went over "edition-neutral" abilities, my usual rants and… I guess I’m all over the place (Sanity 1/1d3). So, please enjoy the post but be warned.

Random thought of the day: through the Open Game License, and more recently the DIY and OSR, everyone is sharing their ideas about their (mostly) d20 Fantasy games and that is awesome, but I often get the impression that we’re missing a good chance of thinking outside the box. 

The thing is D&D created benchmarks for power and effects that are still taken as sacred cows in most d20s and these limits are in my opinion mostly arbitrary. In other words, they don’t affect game balance (13th Age addresses the issue quite well when it discusses utility spells for wizards).

Read this gem!

For example, why is Augury a 2nd level spell/effect? (i.e. you only get it at 3rd level) The information provided by Augury does not correlate to level at all. It is just a yes/no question for something happening in the immediate future. It is useful at 1st or 20th level. Another example would be Disguise Self or even Speak with the Dead. These effects are useful at every level (or potentially irrelevant, given the campaign). They are things that are hard to quantify with levels. OK, you can quantify/rank them among themselves (divinations, illusions… practically anything else, that is not a problem), but that is not the same thing as stating that they correlate to a certain level/tier/power.

The idea (I guess) is that we could label those effects as “level-less” effects play more loose with them, especially when creating new stuff (and variants). This is also (at least for me) a reminder that we can create new stuff outside of the traditional d20’s effect mold. An example: you may not like D&D 4E, but at least it killed the idea that teleport must always be a high level effect. Today, in 5E, we have teleporting elves at 1st level and it doesn’t break the game (although I know some DMs who hate it).

And they named them Eladrin in 4E... oh, the hate!

One of the reasons I love the Warlock class is that it kind of steps out of the traditional class template for D&D. It is a good source of ideas for creating new and different classes… and really, new classes should only exist if they do things mechanically different, otherwise just reskin, multiclass or (if you really must have something different in the rules) try a subclass or a feat.

There are some “level-less” abilities that are just ridiculous. Tongue of the Sun and the Moon from the Monk is the perfect example. Why in the Nine Hells does it take a 13th level Monk to do that?! Usually by that point language barriers are completely non-existent (i.e. irrelevant) in most campaigns. Tongue of the Sun and the Moon would be a lot more useful at middle (and lower) levels.

There are effects that are just hard to quantify “in game”, like all the flying stuff (levitate, fly etc.) and things like gaseous form. They are amazingly useful and allow you to bypass a challenge “for free” or completely irrelevant to adventure, but that is something dictated by the narrative, not the “innate power” of those effects (unless, of course your flight gives you a really fast Speed or a new attack form).

An amazing book to show how “level-less” stuff could work on d20 games (without going completely nuts like Lamentations of the Flame Princess) is Wonder & Wickedness. This OSR sourcebook creates a flavorful, simple and entire “level-less” spell system, without shying away from high level stuff like summoning and teleport. If I had more free time, I’d be tempted to change all DCC spells to a “level-less” system (after all, they are all based on rolling the result of spellcasting on a table, so basically you’re just modulating their effects). I’d probably separate spells by rarity instead of level if I did that.

Wonder & Wickedness

Now, the worst offender in 5E might be Timeless Body. It is usually given as a high level class feature. It is awesome as a dramatic trait but completely useless as a class power. I’m more biased here because I usually see classes as a set of “combat powers”, so anything outside of combat usually doesn’t have a “minimum level requirement” for me. To make things worse, we have the same class feature giving different things for different classes in 5E (check the Druid and the Monk). Timeless Body would be a lot better as a feat (actually as a boon/reward it would be perfect). Anyway, I don’t have anything better to do right now so here is a feat:

Timeless Body

You’re untouched by the ravages of mortality. This may be because of a divine blessing, magic, esoteric training or ancestry. You suffer none of the frailty of old age and can’t be aged magically. Also, choose one of the two options below:

- You do not need air, food or water.

- You can use a short rest to remove 1 level of exhaustion or transfer 1 level of exhaustion from someone else to you. You need a long rest to regain this ability***.

Define the source of your longevity. You might be an elf of an ancient bloodline, a warrior trained in mystic forms of mediation or a druid stepped in the Old Lore. You must also determine if you age at a slower rate or if you’re immortal. The last option is more interesting if bound by some condition or circumstance. For example, your druid might not age, but only while living in the Greatwood.

(With the Dungeon Master’s authorization, after completing a specific quest, you can use downtime to gain the other option.)

***Sidenote: Exhaustion is a weird thing in 5E. I think there is just one 5th level spell and one magic item - Potion of Vitality - that can recover Exhaustion. Sometimes it seems almost like an afterthought, not widely used but at the same time lethal and hard to recover. The Exhaustion chart is a brilliant mechanic that completely ignores level and hit points, which is something that I like. I wish it was more integrated into the game (the same holds for Hit Dice, which sounds a lot like Recoveries from 13th Age but doesn’t receive the same attention).

Since we’re talking about Timeless Body, I remember that when I started playing RPGs one of the most overrated abilities was longevity. To be an immortal elf or wizard was seen as so crazily awesome. The funny thing was that most of the time it was completely useless (that’s why it is usually so cheap to buy Ageless in GURPS). In my almost 30 years of gaming I remember longevity being important just ONCE: we were playing Dragonlance and (rather suddenly) the DM declared that, after an adventure, 20 years have passed. Everyone at the table was pissed off (except the elven players), and I think the half-ogre player even tore his character sheet at that moment and stopped playing. My point is: the problem there was not even the party’s lack of longevity, but an arbitrary decision by the DM, who should have told everyone that the campaign would have long time jumps between adventures.

Don't worry, 5E has no "old age" rule.

Still on longevity and immortality: so, it obvious I believe both are “level-less”. Time for an extreme example: in Brazil the most famous fantasy campaign setting is Tormenta and it has a god of prophecies and resurrection. Yes sir, a “deity of raise dead” (I can’t think of a more authentic “D&Dish” god and I love it). His name is Thyatis (I’m not sure if it is a homage to Mystara’s Thyatis or not, I hope so). So, Thyatis’ clerics can cast raise dead at 1st level and sincerely that is great! It solves A LOT of problems regarding lethality at low levels (particularly for AD&D 2nd, Tormenta’s original system), it keeps the game going and (most important) it is fun!

If you think that the above example is absurd then please let me introduce you to Thyatis' paladins: the dudes are immortal. Yeah, you kill one and she eventually will come back from the grave. Oddly, that doesn't generate any kind of balance problem at the table. Quite the contrary: Thyatis’ paladins are one of the coolest character classes in Tormenta and at the same time they don’t rule over the table’s dynamic while in play. They don’t come back from the dead right away and when they die they don’t get any XP for the game session in which they died. Now, the funny thing is that some players (dare to) complain that losing XP is too much. It is interesting, but XP is a lot more important than dying in D&D (oh boy, I miss the old energy drain rules), so in my opinion it balances quite nicely. And the fact that your PC will come back from the grave is pure badass. And no, Tormenta’s parties aren’t filled with Thyatis’ clerics and paladins.

Of course Thyatis is a phoenix!

Another example of an immortal class is from Castles & Crusades (C&C), from Troll Lord Games. The first book that I got from them was Codex of Erde, a flavorful Tolkien-like setting for D&D 3.0, published back in 2001, which also presented the first “races as class” for 3rd Edition - The High Elf (haters went crazy at the time). As I was telling, the Player’s Guideto Aihrde, a more recent sourcebook for C&C, has an Eldritch Goblin class called the Ieragon, which is immortal, only dying under specific circumstances. Each Ieragon has a unique knack or gift. It is a very flavorful class and the fact it can “raise dead itself” doesn’t seem to break any balance during play (I believe there is a 5E version of the class).

That cover!

Let me dig more crazy stuff.

Another area where I believe that “level-less” works nicely: weather. I’m not talking about raining lightning bolts upon your enemies, or destroying castles with tornados, but changing the weather (from a sunny day to rain for example). It is narratively powerful, definitely, but not game breaking (unless playing Dark Sun I guess). Most players love to have that kind of influence. I think Dungeon World’s druid has a move that does that (and I don’t understand why it is a high level move… especially in a Powered by the Apocalypse© game).

There is a Golden Age of Piracy sourcebook for D&D 3rd called Skulls & Bones. It has a lot of amazing subsystems, but I remember in particular a mystic sailor prestige class who could create small islands in the middle of the ocean. That is an awesome power, definitely not unbalanced and quite interesting in terms of narrative consequences.

The system was clunky (D&D 3.0) but full of good twists.

Another good source of weird and new powers is Legend of the Five Rings (1st Edition! Before “game balance” was an issue… 4E is so boring and I still have to read the last version). Take for example the (original) tattooed monk from the Way of the Dragon sourcebook. It would be an excellent starting point for a new class in 5E (maybe just reskinning the warlock would do it). For example: the Centipede Tattoo allows the monk to start running and reach anypoint in the same continent by the next mid-day. It is something different and potentially useful (but not abusive, because the monk can’t carry anyone with him). The power also has a drawback: the monk is considerably tired after running at such speed, which could be represented in 5E by 1d4+1 levels of Exhaustion. The power has so many conditions and limitations that it would work fine as a 1st level thing.

Probably unbalanced, but fun as hell!

Let’s keep digging: Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed, which was a huge influence for all d20 spellcasting systems that came later, including 5E, has a wizard’s class feature where your character can hear when someone else in the same plane speaks his name. That is an ability which should be available at 1st level because (if you stop to think about it is 100% controlled by the DM). Is it flavorful? For sure! But there is no excuse to wait for like 10 levels before getting that mojo (unless it gave you a distinct advantage, like allowing you to teleport to the side of the speaker, for example).

Still one of the best D&D variants.

Now, want a (crazy) source of ideas? Check the “D&D Next”, that was the name of 5E playtest, before fandom and commercial interest brought things back to a more common D&D experience (playtests are always the best spot to see different rules). See, for example, the initial idea for the Sorcerer. It was a class that used magic points (I believe the name was willpower), instead of slots. That is not the point, the interesting bit about the original Sorcerer was that it gained powers when his Willpower (i.e. Magic Points) started running low: for example, a Draconic Sorcerer would start manifesting claws and scales when its magic points were finishing. That is an original and cool idea both from a narrative and mechanic point.

I must also (morally and totally) suggest the Red Box Hack. I don’t have the slightest idea how it started, it is not a d20-based system. Red Box Hack is a free RPG with a splendid assortment of classes. Each class (except maybe the warrior) is a box of cool mechanics and they touch on a lot of topics described in this post. Read it, it is definitely worth of your time. Pay attention on how most classes do stuff completely different.

I started this post commenting (complaining?) about D&D traits and how they are compartmentalized in arbitrary limits and effects. I think I ended up quoting a lot of what I call “edition neutral” traits - that is, stuff that could work on any edition (and theoretically level) of D&D. To finish this rambling I’d like to share one last source of crazy powers, if you don't mind “narrative RPGs”: Spire. It is a very original take on fantasy stereotypes (drows, elves and gnolls in particular), with interesting rules (the Resistance System). However, Spire shines on its wild take on “classes”. There are good ideas worth mining there for any RPG. Take a look.

What a wonderful twist on D&D tropes.