Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Pondering thngs...

So, first off, no podcast this week.  (Unless I can corral some of my various gaming circles together that is.)

Second, been thinking of a few things for my own heartbreaker D&D game.  One thing that I have come to is about magic-users.  Wizards.  Mages.  Twinkle fingers.  Clerics.  Druids, illusionists and Priests, oh my!

Sorry if this is a random list of thoughts, to tired to go back and go through this again.  (What is new?)

The idea that I have for this game is to encompass as much of the Old School games as possible.  The idea is you could play a 1E magic-user, a 2E specialist,  a OD&D elf or a 1E illusionist and be able to play all together in some semblance of a game together.  (I am sure that some of you are thinking this sounds much like the first rumblings of D&D Next.  It does, I will admit.)

The big question was, well, how are you going to get everything to work?  The answer is, I'm not.  There are going to be thing that don't work.  Yet, I also have a big problem with gamer ADD as well as a bit of ADD when it comes to writing as well.

One thing I stumbled upon, while looking for my Arms and Equipment guide for a 2E game I am playing on Mondays, was the Necromancer handbook.  This was an amazing splatbook, in my opinion.  It made me realize that there might be room for a straight out necromancer from the very beginning, instead of building them up as you would with other specialists.  The necromancer is very different.  He can;t be played by just anyone.  Their spell selection is smaller and more focused, yes I know that is for all of the 2E specialists.  Yet, the necromancer is special and unique.  He is one who dabbles with the forces of life and death, light and dark.  That is not something to be taken lightly.

What about the illusionist?  Or the druid?  My design goal is to use spells from the 1E handbook for these two specialists.

What about specialty priests?  Well, I had an interesting thought about that.  In OD&D, a cleric didn't cast a spell at first lvl.  What if a specialty priest can cast at first level?  But, it is only those who have high wisdom.  (I think I might have to fudge the numbers a little to make it more OD&D-like for those things.)  Also that is a priest, someone who can cast at first lvl.  A cleric is someone who is more martial in status.

Anyway, just a few random thoughts for today.  Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, I agree the Complete Necromancer book is quite good, even adjusting for the 2E padding (it even includes a mini campaign).

    It might be interesting to parcel out spells between these classes so that there is not much overlap. That would make the various classes feel more special, since they all wouldn't be able to cast magic missile (or whatever). 2E had those giant multi-volume spell compendiums, so if you have access to those, they might be useful.

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  2. I have access to them and that is a very good idea. Thank you.

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