The Crusader

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Behold, the Crusader!

This is my version of the Paladin, its a bit of an admixture of the 1e AD&D Paladin and Companion Set Paladin. The reason I am calling them Crusaders and not Paladins, because the Paladins were pseudo-historical/legendary figures, whereas the dnd paladin is really just a generic fighter dedicated to a cause or church, and not really like the historical legendary figures (basically the same reason I am against the usage of druid and bard as dnd classes).

So onto the abilities, most of the names for the abilities I just took from either 3rd edition or 5th just for flavor.

Divine Grace is just taken straight from AD&D with no changes, and Divine Sense is also from the Companion set

Lay on Hands I had to modify a bit to fit with my wound system(another post there). I kept the 2hp number, but instead of that piling up to a total hp per day to be spread as the paladin sees fit, its 2 hp able to be applied to each individual wound. so the crusader kinda becomes a sort of combat medic. This is especially useful as clerical spells(miracles) are rituals that take a minimum of 10 minutes in my games. and I just rolled the cure disease ability into a more advanced form of lay on hands, though maybe i should make that switch at 12th level.

Turn undead I used the companion set version of 1/3 level, I think that fits better than the AD&D version. I also transferred the above average wisdom requirement that applied to spells in the companion set.

Relating to the above, I didn't include the ability for the crusader to cast spells even though both AD&D(at 9th level) and the Companion Set(equivalent to 1/3 cleric level) have some degree of spellcasting for the paladin. I feel like with lay on hands and cure disease and divine sense and aura of courage, these are all spell like abilities, and the reason for the crusader(paladin) to have these above and beyond what a cleric could do is to make up for their lack of ability to cast spells. These special abilities replicate spells, and to have both is basically "double-dipping" in abilities; if a crusader/paladin can cast cure light wounds, why would they have lay on hands? if they can cast cure disease, why have  class ability that allows them to do that? if they can cast remove fear why have it be a constant class ability? etc. etc. Essentially a Crusader can do all these things that mimic clerical spells/miracles precisely because they cannot perform the spells. In the fiction of the world it can be justified by saying the church has not ordained them with the authority to perform its rituals, yet through their dedication and faith are blessed by their patron. Whatever the justification, the result in gameplay is the same: a fighter who mimics some clerical abilities while staying within the fighting-man niche.

Divine Health, ie immunity to disease, I decided to bump up to name level(9th), partly because I felt enough abilities had been assigned to the 4th level tier, and partly because I felt complete immunity to disease was a fairly OP and made for a good capstone ability.

Aura of Courage with immunity to fear comes from 3e and 5e, and was bumped to level 9 for the same reasons as stated above for Divine Health. and then the full constant Protection From Evil effect from 1e seemed also a bit OP, so i bumped it to a more advance version of this ability, still not sure about the Level 24 point though, maybe 12 or 20 or something.

Smite Evil, totally stole from 3e, definitely preferred this version over the one in 5e. Only change I made was to make it apply to all evil creatures all the time, but cant be used against anyone else; this is less helpful than you might think if you been following along and remember my definition of Evil. This ability still allows the Crusader to have a significant advantage when facing such creatures though, so I feel it fits well.

And the Holy Charger. Essentially unchanged from 1e, just reworked small details. the whole only summon once every 10 years I replace with having to actually train the horse from a colt and form a bond(could take 2 to 5 years, I think, have to look up horse maturity). keep the basic stats, and applies to the type of horse the the Crusader is training to be his warhorse: Rouncey, Courser, or Destrier(my rules regarding horses is another post...). And the Lancer Fighting style I already developed takes care of special bonuses for horseback riding.

So that's the Crusader. I have plans for the Avenger next, and maybe the Warlord(a ruler and/or conqueror of a Domain). The Avenger from the Companion Set is basically just a paladin dedicated to an evil church with the same abilities, well I find that a bit boring, if I wanted to do that, it would just be the Crusader Class with different fluff. I've already got ideas to make it interesting, a devil dog instead of holy charger, fearful presence instead of aura of courage, sowing enmity/chaos instead of lay on hands (I think just a direct cause wounds is a bit too plain and not that useful if they have a weapon), I'm also going to take a look at JB's Comes Chaos supplement, and maybe incorporate corruption as part of the Avenger. I'll see what I can come up with . . .

The Fighter WIP

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I've been lax on posting my work on this blog, mostly focused on running my weekly game. At this point I rarely make new rules, just mostly rewriting and formatting. One change I have made is to make the choice of a specialization to follow occur earlier at 4th level instead of name level. It doesn't make a huge difference because in practical terms the pattern I'm following is give out one ability specific to the specialization at 4th(such as use spell scrolls for thieves) and everything else at name or higher. The reasons for doing this are varied, but it boils down to giving players choice. Back during the 5e playtest, D&D Next, one of the things I always liked about the rules presented was the whole idea of waiting to choose a subclass until 3rd level, now the published rules were less consistent on when this happened for specific classes, but the idea of starting with something basic and then building complexity as you level was always appealing to me. We already have this to some degree in Classic D&D with the proto-prestige classes of the Companion Set, and so for a while I was happy to leave it at that for a while. In building more of these specialist classes for my players, I've found a solution is to let the classes specialize earlier  to keeping them from branching out too far to the point where they need to to be their own class altogether before they are tied down to a single archetype. This way I can keep the low level classes relatively few in number and broad in scope, mid and high tier characters can be more specialized. I'm making the break at level 4 because that point is already built into Classic D&D with the Basic and Expert Sets, so we can have have Basic classes that go from level 1-3, and Expert classes that go from level 4-36. 

So with that, I've kinda been focusing on rewriting the Basic classes to fit this new model. My plan is to have a small booklet for each class(the fighter book, the cleric book, the rogue book, etc) presenting the Basic Class and all the Expert Classes available at level 4. I've just finished redoing the basic fighter, and the first fighter expert class, The Hero. The Hero is your default weapon master fighter (I was going to use the name Man-At-Arms until just this last week I remembered the level title for a 4th level fighter is Hero and liked it better as the example of the standard fighter progression), next I need to do the crusader(the paladin), the avenger, the ranger , the berserker, and I have a few other ideas. but meanwhile here is what I got so far:

For info on the ability requisites read this post.  For weapon specialization and weapon mastery, I will have to make a separate post, but essentially I took the To Hit bonuses from weapon mastery and and separated them it into a separate ability called weapon specialization(somewhat inspired by AD&D). All classes get weapon specialization at different levels, and only fighters have access to weapon mastery. Its a topic for another time. 

 The special abilities of the Hero are pretty much all taken from the Fighter Combat Options in the Companion set with a few tweaks. 

Cleave is a combination of the Smash ability and the ability of the fighter in OD&D to make multiple attacks against mooks, I've found this to be a good balance in play without giving out completely unlimited attacks. 

Defend is just a renaming of Parry, and I turned into a deflect ability instead of an AC bonus for the same reason I made that exact same change to the weapon mastery charts; basically I want AC to be mostly an aspect of armor, and if the weapon is doing the defending I want the gameplay to reflect that. 

Disarm is pretty much unchanged

Multiple Attacks is also pretty much unchanged. For a while I was having multiple attacks by both PCs and monsters only apply to separate targets, if you had 2 attacks you couldn't attack the same person twice. I was doing this to represent the abstractedness of combat in dnd, but it really ended up being a complication that wasn't worth it in gameplay, so I've gone back to the old method in the last few months.

Fighting Styles is something I came up with to give more options in weapon mastery, for those that might want to not just specialize in a single weapon. I first floated the idea in May of 2023. And its seen some playtesting in my game(not every style though) but I've been a bit unsure of if I wanted to make it available to every PC or just fighters. With this redesign of the Fighter I am satisfied with making it exclusive to the Hero Expert Class, though I may give certain styles as a bonus ability to other Expert Classes(like Swashbuckler rogue class will have Dirty Fighting). Fighting Styles allows different flavors of fighter without having to create a whole new subclass/Expert Class. Want to play a mounted warrior? Play a Hero with the Lancer Fighting Style, no need to make a million Horse related Feats or non-sensical magical overpowered abilities(looking at you, Cavalier). I'm still thinking of adding a Marksman fighting style for archers(though I do like the idea of the Hero being more melee focused, maybe leave the archery to the Ranger), and am still open for other options if they occur to me, but think I've covered good variety

And as a teaser, this is the description I've written for the Crusader: "A Fighter may join a Crusading Order out of piety, or as a way to atone for a past life of sin. No matter the reason for their devotion, a Crusader acts as the earthly power that spreads the message of The Church."

The Prophet: An Advanced Cleric Class

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One of my new players is bringing in his 12th level Cleric PC from another game, and I gave him the option of picking one of my advanced classes(basically a prestige class for Classic D&D, another example is the Hermit) for his PC; he chose prophet which just so happens to be one the classes I hadn't fleshed out, so I had to come up with some rules. Usually I like to see what others have done and just adjust it to fit as an advance class instead of starting at level 1 (such as a fighter going for the advanced class of ranger of paladin), but I couldn't really find anything I liked that anyone had done. There were a couple of Seer or other type of diviner classes in dragon magazine, and there was also some priest of the gods of prophecy in the complete priest handbook for 2e. But it was all pretty vague and unsatisfactory to me, so I had to start pretty much from scratch. I did take some broad brushstroke ideas from those, but had to come up with the actual mechanics myself. I debated adding a divination spell list, like the hermit has the old druid spell list, but most of the AD&D divination spells are pretty poorly written in my opinion and not actually very useful, so I didn't include those either. Now granted what I came up with need to be playtested and all, but I hope it will work like I want.

Prophet

A Prophet is Cleric blessed(or cursed) with a vision of The Creator, or a Saint, and may often receive  direct communication with the Divine. Many prophets found a new cult or religious order and may often be ostracized by the mainstream church.

Requirements

·         Name Level(8^th) Cleric

·         13 CHA

·         Must learn commune as first 5^th level miracle at level 8

Restrictions

·         For every family member or friendly contact known before reaching level 8/becoming a Prophet, roll 1d6. Unless a 1 is rolled the Prophet becomes estranged with these people (shunned, unwelcome, etc).

·         When 10% of a settlements populace have become disciples the leaders of the settlement may drive out the prophet. Roll 1d100, compare to Prophets Level + CHA score, if roll higher then banished from region, if lower, tolerated. If roll 100 the mob will rise up and try to kill the prophet. This check must be made again when 50% of the populace become disciples. If the check fails, a conflict(civil war) ignites among the disciples and the nonbelievers, if the check succeeds the settlement peacefully transitions to follow the ways of the Prophet. When banished from a settlement, the distance the prophet is banished depends on the size of the settlement, if the prophet ever returns near the settlement in this distance they risk being mobbed. The banishment distance is as follows: Thorp, small village, or hamlet = 1 league/3miles(1 hour walk), large village or small town = 2 leagues/6 miles, large town or small city =12 miles, large city = 24 miles, metropolis = 72 miles

Special abilities

·         The Vision – Upon reaching Name Level the Cleric receives a vision of the Creator or one of his messengers(an angel or a saint). The message of the vision is left up to the DM and player to decide; it may be just a manifestation of the creator, ie a message of his ‘realness’; or it could be a message to reinforce a teaching which the church already espouses; or it could be a message that the church(or some other organization) has gone astray and needs to be corrected; or it could be to spread the knowledge of and teaching of a particular saint.

·         Disciples – When traveling to new places, may spend downtime preaching Vision which can lead to followers of the vision called disciples. The potential number of disciples gained depends on the Prophet’s level and the size of the population settlement. At the end of each week of downtime, the Prophet must make a CHA check to see if any disciples are gained, a failure means no disciples. These Disciples generally do not follow the prophet from place to place, but continue to live their normal lives with a new fervor of belief in the Prophet. The Prophet may gain devoted followers through the normal methods of leveling up.

Settlement	8-14th Level Prophet	15-25th level	26-36th level
Thorp	0-1(1d2-1)	1	1-2(1d2)
Small Village/Hamlet	1	1-2(1d2)	1-6(1d6)
Large Village	1-5(1d5)	1-10(1d10)	5-30(5d6)
Small Town	1-10(1d10)	2-20(2d10)	5-50(5d10)
Large Town/Small City	5-50(1d10x5)	10-100(1d10x10)	25-250(1d10x25)
Large City	10-120(1d12x10)	25-250(1d10x25)	50-600(5d12x10)
Metropolis	25-500(1d20x25)	50-1000(1d20x50)	500-5000(5d10x100)

Prophesy Prophets retain the ability they gained as a Cleric to turn undead, but do not advance any further on the Turn Undead chart. Instead they may coerce superstitious crowds to do their bidding through a dramatic impromptu prophesying. This uses the same chart as Turn Undead; They advance along this chart by HD and their Prophet level (Count an 8^th level Prophet as 1^st level on the chart, 9^th level as 2^nd, and so on; a 11th level Prophet is treated as 3^rd level and so needs a roll of 7 to coerce people of 3HD). In this chart replace any 'T' with a 'E' for Enthrall, and 'D'  with ‘I’ for Influence. Apply the Prophets’ CHA bonus to this roll and to the roll for how many HD are affected.

• An Enthralled audience must give the prophet their undivided attention for a full Combat round, the Prophet may maintain their attention each round if he continues to make a prophecy check each round, gaining the attention of a larger audience each round (roll 2d6 for how many HD affected each round). The Prophet must make the check for the person with the highest HD in the audience. If the Prophesying fails, there’s is a 50% chance they will be ignored, and a 50% chance they will be jeered at and attacked by a mob if they do not leave voluntarily.
• For a prophet to exert Influence over a crowd they must be able to understand the language he is prophesying in (not strictly necessary for Enthrall) and the individuals in the crowd may save against Enchantment to avoid the Prophets’ Influence. If the result is a ‘D+’ then there is no saving throw allowed. A crowd Influenced by a prophet must obey a command he issues, this must be fairly straightforward command with a single actionable step. This command cannot lead to self-harm in any way. And if the command is not completed in a number of hours equal to the level of the Prophet plus their charisma then the Influence of the Prophet no longer affects the individuals.

·         Interpreting Visions, Dreams, Signs and Portents Prophets often have dreams or visions from their patron. These visions and signs are often incomprehensible at first and take a great deal of meditation and divine guidance to interpret. Each day a Prophet may enter into a trance lasting 1d6 hour. During this trance one piece of desired information may be discovered. Such as time (past/present/future), location, person, etc. The success of a trance is a % roll, they must get under their WIS score + Level to gain any intelligible information.

Delvers and Denizens: Experience Adjustments

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It occurred to me the other day that I've written up and been using rules that I haven't talked about here. My ideas around these posts is to catalog my thought process and the context behind my rules, as I'm writing the rules strictly as a technical or reference manual with the assumption that anyone using them already know how to play the game. I've been thinking of eventually collecting these posts in a sort of designer's notes sort of document or book to go along with the actual rule books.

On to today's topic, I have modified how the adjustment applied to a PCs experience is calculated. the idea behind it was spurred on by this post by JB. Essentially instead of lowering the values of one ability score to raise the score a PC prime requisite as outline in BX, use those other scores to give a bonus to the XP gained based based ont eh prime requisite.

I've cleaned it up into a chart in my rules, each class has a 1st(prime) requisite, a 2nd(secondary) requisite, and a 3rd(tertiary) requisite, and they each give a different bonus or penalty as follows:

Ability Score |	Prime Adjustment |	Secondary Adjustment |	Tertiary Adjustment
3-5	-20%	-10%	-5%
6-8	-10%	-5%	-3%
9-12	+0%	+0%	+0%
13-15	+5%	+3%	+1%
16-18	+10%	+5%	+3%

the percentages are based on the original number in BX/BECMI, just extrapolated out to all 3 values. For the original 3 classes, followed by the thief in greyhawk, each requisite and its ranking was laid out inthe text, and for other classes such as elves and gnomes I base it on the prime req and required ability scoresin BX, and what if feel fits for the class. Below are the vaious reqs for each class as they are in their class descriptions:

Class |	Prime Ability |	Secondary Ability |	Tertiary Ability
Fighter	Strength	Intelligence	Wisdom
Magic-User	Intelligence	Wisdom	Dexterity
Ceric	Wisdom	Intelligence	Strength
Rogue	Dexterity	Wisdom	Intelligence
Sylvan Elf	Intelligence	Strength	Wisdom
Water Elf	Strength	Intelligence	Wisdom
Mountain Gnome	Strength	Dexterity	Wisdom
Garden Gnome	Dexterity	Strength	Wisdom
Forest Gnome	Dexterity	Intelligence	Wisdom

Using this means that each PC will have a customized xp adjustment and that more than one stat is important for each class. A fighter without a high stregth can make up for it with a high intelligence. It's not a huge change to the game, but I like how it shows the benefit of a well rounded character. This also takes away the choice of fiddling with your ability rolls; you just get what you roll and that's that.

Delvers and Denizens: Index

So I realized I've written up more rules that I haven't posted here. Also it's a bit hard to keep track of what I have and haven't posted about, so I'm going to use this to index everything and provide a link in each post back to here. You can think of these post as my design development/commentary. The ideas I post about on the blog are often tweaked and refined though playtesting over the years.

Core Rules and Ideas

Design Goals

The Little People

Training

Languages

Movement

Fatigue

Rolling for Abilities

Alignment

Experience Adjustments

Basic Classes

Gnomes

Elves

Rogues

Fighters

Merchant

Expert Classes

Crusader

Hermit

Hero

Prophet

Magic

Vancian Magic

Vancian Magic-User chart 

Cleric Magic

Cleric magic using the Turn Undead table

Fae spell lists

Monsters

Dust Bunny

Equipment

Armour List

Weapon vs Armour adjustments

Delvers and Denizens: Gnomes

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I reskin halflings and dwarves as different varieties of gnomes for reasons discussed here. Halflings are garden gnomes, dwarves are mountain gnomes, and regular old dnd gnomes are forest(also sometimes called hill) gnomes. I really haven't altered any of these classes all that much. Lets go through the minor details in my version of these classes: 

I didn't mention it when going over the elves, but I gave each demihuman class the same weapon mastery as fighters, which for my version of weapon mastery gives one new mastery at every level; with their level caps I see nonreason to restrict their fighting ability, demihuman adventurers are basically all fighters anyway. 

I also gave all gnomes what I'm calling the "Burrower" ability, which is just the old dwarven ability to detect underground construction; all gnomes get this because every type of gnome makes their homes underground, though their typical profession and lifestyle may differ they all live in burrowers underground. 

All gnomes also receive the same hearing bonus as elves, as they have always been depicted with pointy ears. I just felt that was more in line with any fiction depicting halflings, gnomes, or dwarves, they always have more acute senses than humans.

Garden Gnomes:  other than what is outlined above, they are the same as in the original BX rules. One thing to note is their lack of night vision(which I use instead of infravision for humanoids). This means they are diurnal like humans and work during the day, all other gnomes have night vision and thus are nocturnal, and so less encountered by men. Of all the gnomes, garden gnomes are the ones most often seen by the day-dwelling men of the surface.

Mountain Gnomes: I gave them the same bonus to ac as garden gnomes, because they may not be quite as small, they are still short and most of this sub species wont measure up to even the shortest men. I also gave them the Cleave fighter ability because of all the demihumans dwarves were always portrayed as the most ferocious and fighting-focused.

Forest Gnomes: I use the version presented in the OSE Advanced Genre rules almost verbatim. As with elves, gnomes get an inborn magic called fae sorcery with a modified spell list 

Delvers and Denizens: Elves

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I include 2 basic versions of the elf in my games, the Sylvan Elf and the Water Elf. The Sylvan Elf is the version introduced in the Basic rules and lives in the forest and is reclusive, while the Water Elf is from the gazetteer to Minrothad being seafarers and traders and much more common in human cities. The Sylvan Elf has several ethnicities; the wood, the grey, the high, the wild, the green. There are a few changes to the sylvan elf:

• I expanded the immunity to ghoul paralysis to any undead special effect such as the mesmerizing gaze of a vampire, and mummy rot. This gives elves and inherent advantage over undead
• I also expanded their secret door detection to the general ability to search for room traps, I see these as basically the same thing
• I codified the fact that elves are supposed to have good hearing, giving them a 2/6 to hear noise and a 1/6(as opposed to humans 2/6) chance to be surprised
• I switched out infravision for night vision, ala eyes like a cat. This also means elves are nocturnal. I've done this for most demi-humans, I do keep infravision for creatures that actually live completely underground.
• and I switched up how elves cast spells, I call it Fae Sorcery. This is a natural inborn ability that elves just learn to do like walking; they do not have study books and memorize spells like humans to cast them. In reality, much of human magic is an attempt to recreate the magic of the fae. Basically elves and other fae descended creatures can cast spells at will but gain fatigue in doing so and gain spells they know by meditating when they level up. I also require that when casting a spell each elf has a unique "twitch" that triggers the spell, such as wiggling the nose or the ears, snapping the fingers, clicking their tongue, blinking or winking, etc. Elves have access to a spell list first shown here

Water Elves, as sylvan elves with a the addition of:

•  Direction Sense which allows them to know the cardinal directions if outside, this ability is important to any seaman and serves to separate the cultures of the two types of elves
• and Navigation Sense allowing the elf to know the cardinal direction of a place they have been to before. This is paired with direction to give the Water Elves a reputation as skilled navigators.
• their spell list is also modified to reflect their watery environment based on the Minrothad gazetteer. 

Delvers and Denizens: Rogues

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In Delvers and Denizens I have opted to use the modern name for this class, Rogue, as opposed to Thief, because one of the advanced classes associated will be the Master Thief. So Rogue is a more general term that encompasses many activities, while thief would be a specialization of the rogue class; some of the other advanced classes would be Assassin, Spy, Swashbuckler, etc.

Again, as the fighter, this is essentially the same as in the core rules(using the progression in BX and OSE as opposed to BECMI or the RC), with a few clarifications on the Rogue skills:

For Climb Sheer Surfaces a 30% penalty is applied if partially encumbered, and a 60% penalty for encumbered. this references my encumbrance rules which I'll discuss at some point, but could also be used with most encumbrance systems. The basic rationale is that its hard to rock climb while carrying a lot of stuff(think of the scene in princess bride when andre the giant is slower than the man in black).

Hide in Shadows requires the rogue to be in cover, whether that is deep shadows, hiding behind a tree, or rock, or furniture. the thief must actually be hidden, they cant just disappear while standing in plain sight. of course this means that if there is no cover available, they can't hide. This stipulation will also apply to the hiding ability of other classes(garden gnomes aka halflings).

Move Silently requires that the rogue be unencumbered, it's hard to be silent while carrying a lot of stuff. This is why most rogues wear light or no armor. In general Delvers and Denizens is less proscriptive than the original rules; outright bans are replaced by disincentives. 

Pick Pockets allows for more than just picking someone's pocket, it covers any general case of sleight of hand or legerdemain. 

For Hear Noise I've rolled searching for room traps(as opposed to treasure traps, as explained in OSE) and secret doors into the same category. These are all things any PC can do, the Rogue is just better and gradually improves as they gain levels.

Traps includes the setting of treasure traps and not just detecting and disarming. I also allow this roll to be repeated ad infinitum, so essentially the player is rolling to see how long it takes to detect or remove a trap, not if it is possible. However each reroll entails a 2/6 chance of setting off the trap, so there is some danger involved.

I also allow Open Locks to be repeated, so that the roll is a test of how much time it takes to pick the lock. Any roll of 100 always results in failure, jamming the lock with a broken pick, breaking the locking mechanism etc. The standard % roll is to pick the lock in a single round, but if the rogue wants to be sure of success (and has the time) they may take a full turn(10 minutes) to pick the lock and automatically succeed as long as they don't roll 100. Of course the chances of success both in a round or a turn can be adjusted based on the quality of the lock.

For Backstab I added the clarification the victim must be humanoid in form as the rogue would be trained to know the best places to kill a human, and not some non-human beast.

I exchanged the ability to Read Languages with the Encryption ability. I think it fits with the rogue theme better, it still allows the rogue to 'read languages' simply hidden ones instead of spoken languages. Basically this allows the deciphering of encrypted material or the rogue can do the encryption themselves. This ability includes forgeries, coded messages, special inks, etc.

I got rid of the Scroll Use ability of rogues because I don't think it fits with the theme of other mundane abilities a rogue has access to. Also, based on my revising of Vancian Casting, anyone can memorize a grimoire and cast a spell, with a certain degree of risk involved. I thought about replacing this ability with something else, but haven't been able to think of anything appropriate and that mirrors the ability like encryption does for read languages.

Delvers and Denizens: Fighters

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My version of the fighter is essentially the same as that presented in B/X or BECMI. Though I have made a few minor changes. 

I use a modified version of Weapon Mastery, which I've rolled into level training, so there is no longer a need to train for weapons separate from leveling up. Along with this, I've beefed up the fighters weapon training so that they get 1 new weapon mastery level at each level. though I have limited them to a skill cap based on level to stop them from just being grandmaster at early levels.

The other changes I've made are to the fighter combat options:

Cleave - available at 4th level this replaces the old 'smash' maneuver, lose initiative and must wield 2 handed weapon, apply -5 to hit in exchange for adding Strength score to damage, if kill foe then can attack another foe

Parry - the only change I made was to make this available at 4th level

Disarm - kept this at 9th level and just changed the save. Instead of making a DEX check, the victim of the disarm simply makes a Save vs Wands. so the fighter rolls to hit, the foe makes a saving throw vs wands adjusted by the DEX mod of the fighter(the save should already be adjusted by the victim's dex)

Multiple Attacks - made this available at 9th level, lets the fighter attack up to 2 opponents(and eventually 3 at 12th or maybe 15th level) at once, but not 2 attacks on the same opponent. I make this distinction to represent how I envision the abstraction of combat, the 2 sides are making multiple moves each round, and the to hit roll represents if any damage was caused from any of those multiple strikes; the attack roll doesn't represent a single sword swing, it represents whether a significant wound was caused. 

Dual Wielding - available at 4th level, I've changed how this works a number of times, because I couldn't come up with something I was satisfied with while adhering to the design principles of Classic D&D. I wasn't quite happy with my most recent iteration, so decided to look The Riddle of Steel RPG, which gave me the inspiration to tweak it to something that I'm finally happy with. 

So first the fighter must be weilding medium sized or shorter weapons; unarmed attacks with the fists or feet and shields can also be used as offhand weapons. Then the fighter must make a choice of how they want to use the offhand weapon. There are 3 basic maneuvers. 1) is the double attack where they simply attack with both weapons, this calls for separate attack rolls and damage rolls, but each roll to hit is done with Disadvantage. 2) is the Bind where the offhand weapon is used to control the weapon of the Foe. A normal attack roll is made with the offhand weapon, and if a hit is made any damage rolled is applied as a penalty to the Foe's AC for 1 round. 3) the last option is to use the offhand purely defensively to simply Deflect(or block if a shield) an incoming attack using the standard weapon mastery maneuver. 4) the fighter could use the weapon to perform a special maneuver if they have weapon mastery in the offhand weapon

Delvers and Denizens: Training

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I require PCs to train between levels. This is the current iteration of my training rules:

Levelling Up

-PC must have required XP and train 1-6 months

-Each month roll 1d6 + Prime Req mod, result >= 6 PC gains abilities of next level in class

-Train no longer than 6 months

-must be trained by Name Level NPC

-cost 1/10 to 1/2 XP in sp

I played around with different training periods and costs when I started requiring training back when I was running a game for the tabletop club in college. The 1-6 month period comes from the description for PC Mystics in the Master Set. Its a happy medium where training doesn't take forever, but it does take significant time. This results in a minimum of 3 to 18 years required to reach 36th level just from training, not counting time spent adventuring and other downtime activities. Originally I thought about using the AD&D training rules, but after analyzing them I found them to be both ridiculously exorbitant and too prone to DM fiat, so I looked at other systems and ideas and built my version from the ground up. 

Coupled with these rules is the idea that what separates a level 1 character from a normal human or non-leveled or 0 level, whichever term you prefer, is if they have been trained. They can't gain xp in a class without first being trained in that class. 

Right now for the adventuring guild training for levels 1-3 are offered free, after which the cost is 1/4 xp. Though this does require signing a contract essentially indenturing the character to the guild(up to level 9), part of which is they must use the training facilities of the guild, and not some other organization or individual.

Delvers and Denizens: Languages

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 I'm a little surprise I haven't posted the language rules I've been using for awhile now.

Here is what I have written up at the moment:

Ethnic Tongues

-Characters may be fluent in one or more languages

-Determined by birthplace and Ethnicity

-Reaction rolls get a -1 if speaking a regional dialect

-Reaction rolls get a -2 if speaking a related tongue

-Reaction rolls get a -3 if speaking a foreign tongue

The Common Tongue

-A pidgin language also known as Trade Common

-All PCs with INT 6+ know this language(2 learning points)

-Treat as if speaking a foreign dialect when speaking with humans who do not know trade common

Language List

1. Ethnic Human*

2. Gobgob(goblin)

3. -Hobos** 

4. -Bugbear

5. -Kobold

6. Orcish

7. Elder

8. -Elfin

9. -Faerie

10. -Draconic

11. Gnomish

12.   -Denwarf’s Tongue

13. -Hinnic

14. Giantish

15. -Ogre

16. Ghebbelin

17. -Gnoll

18. -Hutaakan

19. -Lupin

20. Lizardman

*this list doesn't include all the human dialects, as the ones I use are specific to Mystara, and so I won't be putting them in the final rulebook.

**each dialect is indented(in case that wasn't obvious)

Learning Languages

-INT score = # of points to spend on learned languages

-familiar(1, weekly) = -2 reaction

-basic(2, monthly) = -1 reaction

-fluent(3, yearly) = no penalty

-may learn through study(only to basic) or daily practice

-make INT check at stated time intervals to learn language

How it works in play: I let the players tell me what they are trying to communicate, and then the dice basically tell me if there is miscommunication. For NPCs speaking adifferent language I might say that the characters don't understand every word but then tell them the gist of what the npcs are saying; the amount of info I give is based on  the degree of separation between languages(dialect, same family or not etc.) I don't ask for the players to describe their gestures or anything like that, I simply let the conversation go as normal, but then the reaction dice tell if their was miscommunication resulting in a violent confrontation or some other hostile reaction.

as far as the learning rules go I just finalized them now; I've experimented with a few haphazard rules for language learning, but never been satisfied. I quite like these ones, we'll have to see how it pans out in play

Delvers and Denizens: Design Goals

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So I wrote a rough draft of this post in early 2019 and I've finally gone back and revised it; my views are still well reflected in what I wrote then. I've held back on posting it because I wanted to also post links to my UGS rulesets I mention in the post, but the files were disorganized and lost their formatting because the originals were saved with word perfect, and they got all jumbled up when I opened them in Microsoft Word. So instead of going back to the oldest files, I just converted the newest complete version(which was in Word) to PDF and maybe eventually I'll release older versions of the game. Without further ado, here are my opinions on RPG design in general . . . 

I designed an RPG in my senior year of high school; there have been 6 major versions or "editions." The impetus for this new game came about because I was constantly making new rules for D&D to incorporate things from newer editions of the game or to 'fix' problems I found in D&D, so I figured if D&D was so broken and I was making all these rules anyway, I might as well write my own game. The original ur-document of this new game was derivative of BECMI D&D with influences from 2nd and 3rd edition and and Alternity mostly. During the design process I researched practically every rpg I could get my hands on(digitally anyway, it was a lot harder to find pdfs for out of print games back then, sometimes I would resort to descriptions of a game system instead of reading a book). I quickly switched away from a D20 system to a D6 dice pool skill based system with rules I liked cherry picked from various other game systems; I called this game UGS(Universal Gaming System). I completed the 1st version by the end of 2010. Over the years I continued to develop the game and there were 5 complete versions or 'editions.' I changed the name a few times because I thought UGS sounded too similar to GURPS. While I was in university in 2017 I was working on a 6th version, revamping the skills, when I decided to abandon this game, not because the mechanics or system are bad but because I've come to the realization that I never designed the game I simply compiled it. I didn't have any overarching design goals other it being a game I wanted to and could play in any setting (which I've come to realize can be done with DND or a variety of other games).

To actually design an RPG there has to be goals and a plan to reach those goals. The game should be created with a purpose in mind and everything should tie back to that purpose. I made the mistake with UGS of just wanting a game where it could be adapted to any setting. I created a universal mechanic and then made everything mechanically sound, but without any real purpose of what I wanted out of the game. There was no actual plan or design goals beyond having the mechanics work together.

I learned a lot from creating UGS. I did a lot of research into the mechanics of other RPGs, about combat and weapons and real life professions, trades, and skills. I also came to the realization that this is not the game I want to be playing. It has many pieces of what I want from a game, but because it was never designed it doesn't fit my vision of the perfect RPG system. I've come to an understanding that in designing an RPG it's critical to set clearly defined goals and to make specific plans on how to execute those goals. A perfect example of a game which was not designed vs one that was:  the Original D&D from 74 vs AD&D1e.

The next RPG I want to design is an OSR D&Dish game that could be called a fantasy heartbreaker or maybe a retroclone. Though it's not really a clone of anything; I'm not trying to emulate any specific version of the game, maybe BECMI a little, but only because that's the version I'm most familiar with. Details about my design goals follow.

So this OSR game I'll be working on has the working title of Delvers and Denizens. My main goal is to create a game that is compatible with most versions of D&D or retroclones and for the game to still 'feel' like D&D. It will of course have my personal touch to create the game I want to run. Most of all I want to maintain compatibility, if something is no longer easily convertible to or from D&D then I've gone too far. I also want to avoid any universal mechanics. There will be discreet systems for each possible task/resolution, similar to TSR D&D as opposed to WOTC D&D.

Some specific systems/smaller goals I have: use a class system with a corresponding subclass/profession type associated with each class; name level titles are a character's prefession; include a wound system that is complementary to HP, but doesn't replace it;  create a new system for divine magic while being compatible with the old spell lists; refine vancian magic to be more vancian(ie in line with the fiction vance wrote); and also make non human magic(elves) inherent and not based on spells; nonhuman peoples will be designed different than humans in significant ways, and any adventurers of these species will be abnormal; create a social interaction system that is just as detailed as combat but still encourages freeform role-playing. And above all I want it to be a game that runs well at the table, my experience with OSE has shown just how much layout is important to an RPG.

Some things I want to include in the book: 

basic rules
solo training adventure for new players
training adventure for dm
gm book-how to run, how to make rules, how to make setting
setting book-special rules and fluff

Other possible expansions:

Dwellings and Dens(about city and wilderness games)

Domains and ???? (about domain management and warfare)

???? (superhero book based on the goldbox Immortals rules set)

You may notice most of the houserules I've developed here on this blog recently have been in line with my design goals of Delvers and Denizens, I've just held off on announcing the title. Over the course of the next few weeks/months I will be posting my houserules which I haven't previously talked about on this blog that I have been using that will form the backbone of this system.

You can find version 5.2 of UGS here, if you're interested in perusing it.

The Merchant Class

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This is presented as a non-adventuring class; what that means is the character has no fighting ability more than a normal man and is generally treated as an npc class, though the standard multiclassing rules apply and a PC could choose to spend time advancing in this class. My sources of inspiration come from gaz 11, Dragon #62 Magic for Merchants on pg 56-60, Dragon 136 Taking Care of Business on pg 22-26 and the trader subclass from Darksun. This is a completely mundane non-spellcasting class, any spells I liked have been converted into class abilities. The class follows my format of base class with advanced specializations (Banker, Dealer, Smuggler, Merchant Prince) once name level is reached in the vein of the Companion Set.

The Merchant

Becoming a Merchant - the character must convince a of name level to take the character as an apprentice. This may involve becoming a member of a Merchant Guild; most guilds require a character to be sponsored by a current guild member and the payment of guild dues of 1,000 sp per year but may charge as high as 2,000 sp per year.  A merchant character must still undergo training as normal between levels(1-6 months).

Fighting Ability - as normal man; 1d6 HD(no more than the normal man); no weapon training

Prime Requisite - Charisma (5% XP bonus if 13-15, 10% if 16+; 10% penalty if 8-6, 20% if 5-3)

Secondary Requisite - Wisdom (3% XP bonus if 13-15, 5% if 16+; 5% penalty if 8-6, 10% if 5-3)

Tertiary Requisite - Intelligence (1% XP bonus if 13-15, 3% if 16+; 3% penalty if 8-6, 5% if 5-3)

XP - 1 point of experience is gained for every Silver Piece earned as profit (based on the silver standard, if using the gold standard, 1xp=1gp).

Languages - Trade Common

Level    XP            Appraisal        Haggle

1        0                   1d100 x2           -                

2        5000             1d100                -       

3        10,000          1d100 -5            -           

4        20,000          1d100 -10        +1

5        40,000          1d100 -15        +1

6        80,000          1d100 -20        +1

7        150,000        1d100 -25        +1

8        300,000        1d100 -30        +2

9        750,000        1d100 -35        +2

10      1,500,000     1d100 -40        +2

11      3,000,000     1d100 -45        +2

12      6,000,000     1d100 -50        +3

Appraisal - This ability can be used to quickly estimate the value of a pile of coins, a single item, or the contents of a container. When appraising an item % dice are rolled, and the final value (including any bonuses or penalties) gives a range of what the merchant believes the value of the item to be. If the merchant specializes in the class of item to be appraised they gain a -20 bonus. The DM may also apply bonuses or penalties as the situation requires. If the appraisal total is less than 50% then the presence of any enchantments will be discernible, but not their effects.

        For example, Billarsh the 6th level merchant is trying to determine the value of an ornate vase an adventurer is trying to sell him. he rolls % and gets a 81, add his level bonus(-20) and a small penalty applied by the dm for the dirty condition of the vase(+5) and he gets a total of 67%. The vase DM has determined the value of the vase at 35 sp, so Billarsh knows the vase is worth between  23 and 59 sp. Billarsh wants to buy the vase at a low value and sell it at a high value, so he offers the adventures 15 sp and after haggling they agree on 20; he later is able to sell it to a gullible noble for 50 sp, so he earns 30 sp in profit form that transaction and thus 30 xp.

Alarm - A merchant has the ability to set an alarm over a specified area (a door, a camp, a wagon) that will alert him of the presence of any creature by creating a loud noise. This requires the use of assorted objects necessary for the rigging of the alarm ( a bell, string, buckets, etc). Upon reaching 4th level a merchant can rig the alarm to be a repeating and not disabled after the first activation(a bell over a shop door).

Haggle - anyone can attempt to haggle, but merchants are trained in this art. Haggling is done using the standard reaction chart rolling a 2d6. There are 3 phases, the approach, the offer, and the counteroffer. The approach determines the attitude of each character toward each other and the result of any subsequent dealings, this may be determined by the DM or rolled for, and also may be modified by the initial price set for an item(if above or below appraisal value). Once an initial price is set, the PC makes an offer and may add any bonuses due to level or CHA to a 2d6 roll, the other party either accepts or refuses the offer. If they continue negotiating the PC must makes another counteroffer and roll again. this is the last roll which determines refusal, acceptance, or if the merchant settles for a price in the middle.

Approach                    Offer                                            Counter

2          Hostile, refuse to negotiate

3-5      Unfriendly        2-8    Refuse to negotiate

                                     9-12  Continue Negotiations    2-5    Refuse to negotiate

                                                                                      6-8    Settle

                                                                                      9-12  Accept offer

6-8      Indifferent        2-5    Refuse to negotiate

                                    6-8    Continue Negotiations    2-5    Refuse to negotiate

                                                                                      6-8    Settle

                                                                                      9-12  Accept offer

                                    9-12  Accept offer

9-11    Receptive        2-5    Continue Negotiations     2-5    Refuse to negotiate

                                                                                      6-8    Settle

                                                                                      9-12  Accept offer

                                   6-12  Accept offer

12       Friendly, accept offer

Movement Rates for Old School Essentials

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So due to the absurd movement rates provided in classic D&D I'm finally putting forth my own take at revising it for realistic game use. I have done this before for D&D back in high school but I don't particularly like the rates I came up with then, and I also came up with standard rates for my own rpg system based on statistics of real world athletes, but this is for D&D which is an abstract system and I want something that plugs into the D&D rules already there.

I think everyone agrees that moving 120 feet every ten minutes is ridiculously slow if we assume the PCs are actually moving, that is 0.14 miles per hour. Sheesh! Someone didn't do some basic math. So I think we need a basic walking speed that is different. The base encounter speed of 40 feet per round is 2.7 miles an hour which is reasonable for the average person, so lets use that. the other huge problem is the given speed for running during a pursuit in the wilderness (40x3x3(because yards instead of feet) which is 360 ft per round, which can be maintained for 5 minutes! That is 24.5 miles per hours, which is humanly impossible. Usain Bolt reaches an average of like 21 or 22 miles per hour in the 100 meter dash(its been a while since I look up the stats), and he can definitely not do that for 5 minutes. So the running speed needs to be paired down. After talking to my brother, who ran cross country and track in high school and college, and doing some math I came up with different rates of speed for the unencumbered man.

Searching: 120 feet per turn. Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 hour.

This is the speed at which PCs explore dungeons at a cautious rate, looking for traps, secret doors, listening at doors, mapping, etc. When traveling at this rate a roll to find secret doors and traps is automatically made, and the players do not have to specify that they are searching. This could be interpreted as moving in a straight line down a hall or searching 12 10'x10' squares.

Walking: 40 feet per round (800 yards per turn, 2.7 miles per hour). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 hour.

This is your standard walking rate, both indoors and outdoors. This is the rate used for overland movement, and the players can decide when they want to rest.

Hustling: 80 feet per round (1600 yards or 0.91 miles per turn). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 turn.

This is the standard combat encounter speed.

Running: 120 feet per round (2400 yards or 1.36 miles per turn). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 20 rounds (3 after 1 turn)

This is your running speed during a pursuit. It can only be sustained for a few minutes. 

Sprinting: 200 feet per round. Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 round.

This the fastest a PC can go, they are bolting for their life their life here. This is also the speed used during a charge in combat.

The above speeds are for the unencumbered human and elf. Gnomes haves speeds of 30/60/90/150. Each Encumbering Item decreases speed by 10/20/30/50.

Fae Spell Lists

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So after making new set of houserules for OSE I decided I wanted to make the elf spell list different from the magic user and more nature oriented. I took some druid spells and some of the spells in gaz 5. I also decided to update the gnome(from the advanced fantasy genre rules, this would be the forest gnome in my campaign) spell list on similar principles.

Elf Spells

Level 1

1. Detect Magic
2. Detect Danger
3. Enchant Missile(as magic missile but on missiles already in hand)
4. Faerie Lights
5. Fellowship
6. Light
7. Longstride
8. Precipitation
9. Shield
10. Sleep
11. Ventriloquism
12. Faerie Fire
13. Locate plant or animal
14. Predict Weather
15. Watcher

Level 2

1. Continual Light
2. Detect Invisible
3. Entangle
4. ESP
5. Heat Metal
6. Invisibility
7. Levitate
8. Locate Object
9. Mirror Image
10. Obscure
11. Phantasmal Force
12. Produce Fire
13. Silence(single target)
14. Warp Wood
15. Web

Level 3

1. Call Lightning
2. Clairvoyance
3. Cure Disease
4. Cure Light Wounds
5. Dispel Magic
6. Fireball
7. Fly
8. Haste
9. Hold(Person or Animal)
10. Infravision
11. Invisibility 10' radius
12. Protection from normal missiles
13. Protection from Poison
14. Speak with Animals
15. Water Breathing

Level 4

1. Charm Monster
2. Confusion
3. Control Temp 10' radius
4. Enchant Weapon
5. Fear
6. Growth of Nature
7. Hallucinatory Terrain
8. Ice Storm/Wall
9. Plant Door
10. Protection from Lightning
11. Remove Curse
12. Speak with Plants
13. Summon Animals
14. Transform(may massmorph, polymorph self, or polymorph others)
15. Wall of Fire

Level 5

1. Anti-Plant Shell
2. Cloudkill
3. Commune with Nature
4. Conjure Elemental
5. Control Winds
6. Dissolve(Transmute Rock to Mud)
7. Feeblemind
8. Hold Monster
9. Insect Plague
10. Neutralize Poison
11. Pass Plant
12. Telekinesis
13. Teleport
14. Wall of Stone
15. Wall of Thorns

Forest Gnome Spells

Level 1

1. Animal Friendship
2. Auditory Illusion
3. Chromatic Orb
4. Color Spray
5. Detect Danger
6. Detect Illusion
7. Entangle
8. Faerie Fire
9. Faerie Lights
10. Glamour
11. Hypnotism
12. Light
13. Phantasmal Force
14. Spook
15. Wall of Fog

Level 2

1. Barkskin
2. Blindness/Deafness
3. Blur
4. Detect Magic
5. False Aura
6. Fascinate
7. Hypnotic Pattern
8. Improved Phantasmal Force
9. Invisibility
10. Magic Mouth
11. Mirror Image
12. Produce Fire
13. Quasimorph
14. Warp Wood
15. Whispering Wind

Level 3

1. Blacklight
2. Dispel Illusion
3. Fear
4. Growth of Nature
5. Hallucinatory Terrain
6. Hold Animal
7. Invisibility 10' radius
8. Nondetection
9. Paralysation
10. Phantom Steed
11. Rope Trick
12. Spectral Force
13. Suggestion
14. Treeshape
15. Wraithfrom

Level 4

1. Charm(Monster, person , or animal)
2. Confusion
3. Dispel Magic
4. Emotion
5. Illusory Stamina
6. Improved Invisibility
7. Massmorph
8. Minor Creation
9. Phantasmal Killer
10. Polymorph(other or self)
11. Rainbow Pattern
12. Shadow Monsters
13. Solid Fog
14. Summon Animals
15. Veil of Abandonment

Religion of the Cleric Addendum: The Druid as Hermit

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Spurred on by this post by Timothy Brannan I've decided to present the Druid as an Advanced (or prestige) Class of the Cleric. This is is the first of many such Advanced Classes I plan on adapting to be compatible with Old School Essential and B/X. Basically I am going to use OSE as my base game with some of the subsystems, like a revised weapon mastery, from BECMI tacked on and also a system implementing Advanced Classes for characters who reach name level.

First off, I really dislike the habit of D&D taking specific cultural roles and tacking them on to the game in haphazard way that completely ignores who that group of people were historically. An historical druid was nothing like the Christian Priest after which the D&D cleric is based, and therefore should not use the same rules or have a similar role in the game. Both the druid and the bard were part of a religious caste within their societies, but they were not priests in the modern sense of the word. This is the major reason I cut druids out of my game for a long time.

However, after going through all the clerical spells/prayers and analyzing how they would affect the theology and religion of the D&D cleric, I can see implementing the Druid as presented in the Companion set. The Church and God of the D&D cleric has much greater ties to the natural world than real world Christianity, resulting in this Cleric who goes off to study nature seeming to be more plausible. If I only had the option of using the AD&D druid I would still ban them from my games (at least until I had developed new rules/systems to represent a historical druid and bard). But in the companion set, the Druid is an experienced cleric who shuns civilization and the hierarchical system of the Church and finds enlightenment in nature. This doesn't describe a druid, this describes the type of hermit presented in tales of King Arthur and other romantic tales. This Hermit is still a good christian, but lives away from civilization, often guarding a shrine; they come closer to God by getting closer to the work of His hands, the natural world. So, without further ado, here is the Hermit as an Advanced Class:

Hermit

A Cleric reaching Name (9th) Level may choose to become a Hermit. A Hermit is a Cleric who chooses to study nature in order to have a closer relationship with God. They shun 'civilization' and the organized Church. The Hermit's way of life is devoted to a balance with nature and all living things. They believe that God can be found in all living things, and that civilization is a corruption of God's purposes; God intended that mankind should live in harmony with the natural world. Hermits view themselves as caretakers of a given territory, be it a woodland, a shrine, a single meadow, a lake or fountain. Hermits will act to punish the desecration or damage to these territories.

A Cleric choosing to follow the path of Hermit becomes a 1st Level Hermit upon reaching 10th Level as a Cleric. They continue to advance in experience, to hit bonuses, and saving throws as a Cleric. e.g. A 4th level Hermit would have a THAC0 of 12,  Save vs Death with a 3, ave vs Wands with a 5, Save vs Paralysis with a 7, Save vs Breath with an 8, Save vs Spells with a 7, and require 700,000 xp to become a 5th level Hermit.

Restrictions:

• A Hermit must live at least 3 miles (an hour's walk) from any human settlement.
• A Hermit may not use metal armor of any type, nor use metal weapons or tools. Hermit items and equipment are all made of things that were once alive (leather, wood, bone, etc.). "Dead" things that have never been alive are repulsive to the Hermit; the character will simply won't want to use or touch them. However, the character may still use such items if conditions require it, and won't object if others use "dead" things.

Special Abilities:

• Energy Resistance Hermits gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against the effects of natural lightning or fire (not a Dragon's Breath)
• Identification Hermits can identify all plants and animals of the same Biome that the Hermit makes their home. and will also know the location of all sources of fresh water within a week's journey from their home.
• Path-Finding Hermits cannot get lost within a week's journey of their home, and halve the chance of getting lost elsewhere.
• Pass without Trace At 3rd level, a Hermit gains the ability to pass through natural environments without leaving any tracks. The character is also able to move through overgrown areas at normal speed and without impediment.
• Sylvan Languages At 3rd level, a Hermit learns to speak a language used by Sylvan or Fey creatures. An Additional language may be learned each level thereafter.
• Charm Immunity Hermits of 7th level and above are immune to the charms of Fey and Sylvan creatures.
• Shape Change At 7th level, a Hermit gains the power to change into the form of a reptile, bird, and mammal (once per day each). The animal may be of any size up to twice the bulk of the Hermit's normal form. Equipment and clothing is not absorbed into the animal form. The Hermit assumes all the characteristics, except mental, of the animal while transformed, including Hit Points, Attacks and Damage, Movement Rate, etc. If injured while transformed the Hermit will retain the Injuries in animal form, and vice versa. If killed while in animal form, the Hermit will revert back to their original form.
• Coerce Animal Hermits retain the ability they gained as a Cleric to turn undead, but do not advance any further on the Turn Undead chart. Instead they may coerce animals. This uses the same chart as Turn Undead; They advance along this chart by animal HD and their Hermit level (a 10th level Cleric/1st level Druid needs a roll of 7 to coerce animals of 1HD). In this chart replace any 'T' with a 'C' for Coerce, and any 'D' with a 'B' for Befriend. A successful coercion has the same effects as the AD&D 1st level Cleric 'Command' Spell, except that it only applies to animals, and lasts for 1 Turn (10 Minutes). Befriend has the same effects as the AD&D 1st level Druid spell 'Animal Friendship'.
• Prayers (spellcasting) Hermits retain their Clerical ability to perform miracles through prayer (cast spells), yet they do not gain any further ability in this area. Instead they begin to advance in the ability to say new prayers (spells) using the same clerical spell chart applied to their new Hermit level. Thus, a 1st level Hermit/10th level Cleric could say 3 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 2 5th level clerical prayers, and no hermit prayers; a 5th level Hermit/14th level Cleric would be able to say 3 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 2 5th level clerical prayers, and 2 1st level, and 2 2nd level Hermit Prayers.

Prayer List

1st Level Prayers

1. Faerie Fire
2. Locate
3. Predict Weather
4. Detect Danger
5. Entangle
6. Invisibility to Animals

2nd Level Prayers

1. Obscure
2. Produce Fire
3. Warp Wood
4. Heat Metal
5. Barkskin
6. Slow Poison

3rd Level Prayers

1. Call Lightning
2. Hold Animal
3. Water Breathing
4. Protection from Poison
5. Growth of Plants
6. Tree Shape

4th Level Prayers

1. Control Temperature 10' radius
2. Plant Door
3. Protection from Lightning
4. Summon Animals
5. Hallucinatory Forest
6. Hold Plant

5th Level Prayers

1. Anti-Plant Shell
2. Control Winds
3. Pass Plant
4. Dissolve
5. Commune with Nature
6. Protection from Plants and Animals

6th Level Prayers

1. Anti-Animal Shell
2. Transport through Plants
3. Summon Weather
4. Turn Wood
5. Wall of Thorns/
6. Create Normal Animal

7th  Level Prayers

1. Creeping Doom
2. Metal to Wood
3. Weather Control
4. Summon Elemental
5. Animate Rock
6. Survival

Tinkering with Vancian Magic-Users

Go to the Delvers and Denizens Index

I was thinking about how I could modify the rules for vancian spellcasting I outlined here more to my liking.

Here's an idea, the number of spell points, let's call it mental facility, still uses the D&D spells/level chart, but is limited by the magic-user's intelligence. So, a magic-user with 10 INT would be limited to the 1st level spell column, an 11 INT would add the 1st and 2nd level spell columns together, a 12 INT would combine the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd columns together, and so on. so intelligence would play a role in what level of spell could be cast, but it is not limiting it directly. Here's a chart:

	Mental Facility
Level	10 INT	11 INT	12 INT	13 INT	14 INT	15 INT	16 INT	17 INT	18 INT
1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
3	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
4	2	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
5	2	6	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
6	2	6	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
7	3	7	13	17	17	17	17	17	17
8	3	9	15	23	23	23	23	23	23
9	3	9	18	26	31	31	31	31	31
10	3	9	18	30	40	40	40	40	40
11	4	10	19	31	41	47	47	47	47
12	4	12	24	36	46	52	52	52	52
13	4	12	24	36	46	58	58	58	58
14	4	12	24	40	55	67	67	67	67
15	5	13	25	41	56	68	75	75	75
16	5	15	30	46	61	73	87	87	87
17	6	16	31	47	67	85	99	99	99
18	6	16	31	47	67	85	99	107	107
19	6	16	31	51	71	89	103	119	119
20	6	16	31	51	71	95	116	132	132
21	6	16	31	51	71	95	116	132	141
22	6	18	33	53	78	102	123	139	157
23	6	18	36	60	85	109	130	154	172
24	7	21	39	63	88	118	146	170	188
25	7	21	39	63	88	118	146	178	205
26	7	21	42	66	96	126	161	193	220
27	7	21	42	66	96	126	161	201	237
28	8	24	45	69	99	135	177	217	253
29	8	24	45	73	108	144	186	226	271
30	8	24	48	76	111	153	195	243	288
31	8	24	48	76	111	153	202	150	304
32	9	25	49	81	121	163	212	268	322
33	9	27	54	86	126	174	223	279	342
34	9	27	54	90	130	178	234	298	361
35	9	27	54	90	135	189	245	309	381
36	9	27	54	90	135	189	252	324	405

To prepare a spell beyond their Mental Facility the magic-user must make an ability check versus Intelligence with a penalty equal to the spell level.

Still not sure what to do for miscasting spells, I'd like to get rid of adding extra dice rolling. On the other hand maybe it fits, as my modification of Clerical casting also requires dice rolling. Maybe I should only require a check for miscasting when the spell is interrupted or when casting a spell of a higher level than the magic-user's level? Hmmm . . .

Ok, I think I got it; a magic-user only needs to roll to see if they miscast up to certain levels. this is based on the spell/level chart and when a new spell level is given. So they no longer check for miscasting 1st level spells when reaching their 3rd caster level. 2nd level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 5th level. 3rd level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 7th level. 4th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 9th level. 5th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 11th level. 6th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 15th level. 7th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 18th level. 8th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 21st level. 9th level spells are automatically cast upon attaining 26th level (beginning of the Master Set and quest for Immortaility).

Also instead of chances to Miscast based on percentile, I think it would be easier to us a Saving Throw vs Spells. The penalties would remain basically the same, 1 point per spell level, 2 points per AC granted by armor or shield, and each Intelligence score modifier point (+1 to +3) would give a bonus. The spell backfires instead of fizzling out if the roll lands on the Saving Throw number. Also, if a spell is interrupted it is automatically miscast, at which point a failure to Save vs Spells results in the spell backfiring.

Now I'm satisfied with the system, and I think I will use it. I feel it represents the fiction well, while still retaining the simplicity and essence of the D&D ruleset.