"...for everything herein is fantastic, and the best way is to decide how you would like it to be, and then make it just that way!" Gary Gygax - The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.
Work on the Retro-Golem continues. I have the first draft of the Player's Handbook/Character Creation Houserules doc, done. It's pretty much turning into a heavily houseruled S&W. If Matt Finch's wonderful game, had an incestuous affair with the vast, dark pool, which is the sum and total of all the D&D lore I've absorbed... well, that pretty much sums up what I'm doing. God knows, I've absorbed a LOT of new D&D lore, over the past year. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers, for playing a huge part, there!
I dropped several things, I was considering adding in. I don't want to stray from the sublime simplicity of the game, any more than necessary, for accomplishing my goal. Aside from adding some of the additional classes you guys have been creating and posting, the main changes are revised Experience Point Advancement and revised Combat To Hit Progression. I'm using the Combat Progression from AD&D, with some minor modification to the Cleric and MU rolls. My reasoning for that can be
found here, though the chart I posted there has been modified. I've also tweaked HD.
Because of personal events, which I've mentioned before, I had to put off resuming regular gaming for so long, that I've had a year to plan, ruminate, brain-storm and generally fart around, about all of this. The above quote from Mr. Gygax, pretty much sums up my current feelings about the game and why I ended up on my present course. It's not that I'm adverse to houseruling AD&D, or slaughtering a few sacred cows, even. But, if you kill enough of those beefy fellows, then you're no longer practicing the same religion. Or, more appropriately, within the same Denomination.
Allright, I certainly had other motives, as well. The desire to conduct an in-depth study of the game, its history, mechanics and associated ideas, has been a driving force in my doings, of late.
Oh, yeah, the Ranger. So, since I'm running the Grey Box, I wanted the basic AD&D classes and Races, for the most part. I've left Gnomes out, though if someone wanted to play one, I'd be ok with it. Maybe I was just being lazy, but I decided to make them NPC's.
As to classes, I'm not porting in the Assassin. While I kind of like the general idea, I never liked Mr. Gygax's execution, there. Besides, anyone can kill for pay and I'm fine with leaving it at that. I'm not worrying about the Illusionist, either. I know there's a
Whitebox S&W Illusionist, already out there. Not sure about a Core Rules version. Maybe I'm being lazy again, but I just don't dig the Illusionist enough to go about converting it. Of course, I've never played one or DM'ed anyone else playing one, either. If I'm really missing out on something here, let me know! The idea of the Illusionist sounds cool and all. I like the AD&D Illusionist spell list.
The Monk is another story entirely and I might just roll up my sleeves and see if I can make one I'm happy with. Or, not.
Oh yeah! The Ranger. So, I decided to use
James Maliszewski's S&W Paladin (conforming it to my xp and combat modifications.) I think it's a great take on the class all in all. I never liked the Paladin Spell Progression thing. It feels tacked on, too much, and too late. The Dispel Evil power, found in the original Greyhawk Supplement, if I recall correctly, is a sound replacement. And I think they have enough going for them, without bringing Turning Undead into the mix.
Ah, but while looking through all this I also came across
his Ranger. As well as
this post on the concept of the Ranger. Here's a quote from
Mr. Maliszewski's post:
"The impression I get from reading Fischer's original class -- and it's entirely an impression, since there's no expository text beyond game mechanics -- is that rangers are humans (and only humans, since this is OD&D) who learn the ways of the Wild in order to defend civilization against it. Like Tolkien's Dúnedain of the North, rangers are civilized men who forsake the comforts and safety of civilization in order to protect those they leave behind. To borrow a phrase, rangers exist in the Wild but they are not of it."
I always associated them with Druids and felt kind of uncomfortable with the alignment issues. To give another quick quote from
Mr. Maliszewski's article:
"...from my perspective, rangers and druids would most likely be foes, or at least often at loggerheads."
All in all, I like this POV a lot.
Mr. Maliszewski's Ranger Class, dumps the spells altogether and it's an approach I'm comfortable with. But, it does, in my mind create another complication. Here's snippet from Mr. Maliszewski's Ranger:
"Code of Conduct: A ranger must be of Lawful (Good) alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a Chaotic (Evil) act, becoming an ordinary fighter forever after."
Given that this version of the Ranger is all about Wilderness skills, there's just no reason for the above. The only class feature, which could reasonably tie-in here, is the Special Followers thing. The Good Aligned magical and Fae creatures, would disassociate themselves from the now evil Ranger. But, there's no logical reason for the character to lose his tracking, damage bonus against humanoids, etc. Granted, you could make those based on some sort of divine favor, or whatever. But, that doesn't sit well, with me at all, at all.
So, here's my attempt to fix that, by giving the Ranger a little bit of magic back, while staying at least partly within the concept of the class, mentioned above:
Touched by the Wild: Through their close association with the wild places of the world, Rangers become attuned and aligned with certain Natural Forces, which are well-disposed towards man (or, at least have a vested interest in mankind.) At third level, the Ranger may choose one 1st level Magic-user Spell, which he may cast as a Spell-like Ability, 1/day. At sixth level, he may choose a second 1st level Spell. At ninth level, he may choose a 2nd level Magic-user Spell. At twelfth, he gains another 2nd level Spell. Finally, at fifteenth level, he may likewise choose a single 3rd level Magic-user Spell. The Ranger does not need to memorize these Spells and all of them may be cast 1/day.
And my revision of the Code of Conduct:
Code of Conduct: A Ranger must be of Good alignment and will lose their ability to attract Special Followers, any Spell-like Abilities gained as well as all Experience Point Bonuses, if they ever change their alignment to anything other than some form of Good.
I kind of like the idea of the Ranger being slowly seduced, by the forces of Nature he's trafficking with. And eventually, becoming more and more cut-off from civilization.
Of course, an Evil Ranger, or rather an NPC class I might call a Dark Hunter, becoming attuned to the more sinister powers of the wild, is also a possibility and one which fits an idea I have about current events near the Dalelands, quite nicely.
