The Gunslinger (A Swords and Wizardry/Old School Class)

So the players in my Swords and Wizardry campaign just got their hands on a gun. Plus, the game is FLAILSNAILS friendly, so I know it's only a matter of time before someone's Pathfinder gunslinger wants to come party. So I reckon it's time for me to make a gunslinger class. Fighters could be used, but come on, the Western genre is so much fun.

I tried making a gunslinger class before, but nothing really worked until I read Rolang's Creeping Doom's take on the Illusionist as a LotFP specialist and I was like, hey, that could work.

(Act like this...

Prime Attribute: Dexterity 13+
Hit Dice: 1d8 per level
Armor: Leather, no shields
Weapons: Any
Saving Throw: As thief
Experience: As fighter
Attacks: As cleric

Tricks: A gunslinger's main schtick is tricks. Tricks work like LotFP's specialist's skills--they work on a d6 roll, and the gunslinger has a chance to increase the odds of a trick as they level.

At first level, the gunslinger has two points to assign to tricks. These points can either be put into the same trick, giving it a 2-in-6 chance of success, or two separate tricks, each with a 1-in-6 chance. Every level after the first, the gunslinger gets an additional two points to spread among old or new tricks. If a six is rolled when using a trick, it backfires--either the gun malfunctions or the opposite of the intended action occurs. If a trick has six points in it and a six is rolled, roll another d6--it only fails if the second one comes up a six.

There's no set list of tricks--the player makes them up as they level. Anything a good ol' Western-style gunman can do can become a trick:

• Disarming an opponent with a well-placed shot
• Creating a cloud of smoke for cover
• Rigging some extra gunpowder into a bomb
• Firing shots to spook animals or mobs (forcing a morale check)
• Reflexively drawing when suprised 

If the DM is cool with it, tricks could be non-combat things as well: falling safely from high distances, cheating at games of chance, or knocking out opponents with beer bottles and stools. The only stipulation is that tricks can't directly cause damage in combat--that's what attacking is for--they apply penalties or create opportunities. So if one of the gunslinger's tricks is a shooting opponents in the leg, it'll half the opponent's movement speed instead of doing HP damage.  

Example: Sam is a first level gunslinger. I put her first two points into separate tricks: spooking animals and raising a posse. Each now succeed with a roll of a 1 on a d6. Sam gets jumped by some bugbear banditos. The first round she tries to spook their horses into running off. I roll a three, so the attempt is unsuccessful. Bummer. They smack Sam around with their clubs. Next round, she tries to spook them again. I roll a one--it's a success! The horses check morale, fail, then flee, taking the bugbears with them.

Later that day, Sam tries to use her other trick to gather a posse to hunt down the bugbears. I roll a six. Uh-oh, that's a backfire. The posse thinks Sam is a little too eager to hunt down the bugbears--maybe she's the one who's been stealing all the cattle! Now Sam's the one getting chased out of town!

...while looking like this.)

  
Guns
Here's my quick rule for using guns in a retroclone campaign. Guns work like heavy crossbows--same damage, same rate of fire. But, they're like, super deadly. Their damage dice is exploding, so if the max number is rolled, roll it again and total them. If a one is rolled on an attack the gun misfires--either dealing damage to the attacker or causing them to lose a round as they're covering in a smoke cloud choking (50% of either). They should be expensive, but not overly so--maybe double or triple the cost of a heavy crossbow.
 

The Aurumancer (A Swords and Wizardry/Old School Class)

While some look to draw their powers from gods or eldritch energies, the banking mages of Alt-St. Fran's pledged themselves to a higher power: wealth. What better way to distance yourself from the riff-raff than to kill them with your pocket book?

Prime Attribute: Intelligence 13+
Hit Dice: 1d6 per level
Armor: Cloth
Weapons: clubs, daggers, staves, and crossbows
Saving Throw: As magic user
Experience: As cleric
Attacks: As magic user with weapons, as fighter with Molten Gold

Molten Gold: The aurumancer can transmute golden coinage or treasure into streams of molten gold to attack enemies. Using this ability requires sacrificing 10 gp (or its equivalent in treasure), has a range of 30 ft, and deals 1d6 damage. For each level the aurumancer has above first, he or she can sacrifice an additional 10 gp to add +1 to the damage. Gold used in this manner is ruined by the attempt.

Like this, but, you know, out of a dude's hand.

  Armor of Wealth: For every 100 gp worth of jewelry an aurumancer wears his or her magics become more tangible, increasing their AC +1 (up to +6).

Mr. T is basically walking around in full plate at this point.

Aurumancer's Eye: At second level, the aurumancer can replace one of their eyes with a magicked golden ball in a ritual that costs 100 gp. This allows them to know anyone's wealth relative to theirs (poorer than me, richer than me, about the same) just by looking at them or a thing they handled within the last week.

Consume Wealth: At fifth level, the aurumancer gains the ability to consume rare and sought-for magic items to boost their personal power. Consuming a one-use magic item (such as a scroll or potion) grants +1d6 to one of their stats or hp for one hour. Consuming a permanent magic item instead gives them a permanent +1 (up to max). Consuming a magic item is an hour-long ritual with much wine drinking, pursing of lips, mustache-twitching, and harumphing.

Palace: At ninth level the aurumancer can create a palace of obnoxious wealth for themselves. This palace will  attract a host of guards, merchants and rich, cutthroat nobles loyal to the aurumancer (or at least, loyal to the aurumancer's bank account).

A Wooded and Noble Class Pt. 2: The E6 Gaelic Witch

Continuing the series on the classes of my E6 psuedo-Gaelic campaign. Read more about it here.

Gaelic Witch
The witch is the worker of magics that are subtle, deceitful, and weird. A blindness/deafness cast by a saint might blind the target with a bright, searing shaft of light from the sky, or deafen them with fanfare of angelic trumpets. The same spell cast by a witch, however, might blind someone by turning their eyelids into long, droopy flesh-curtains, or deafen someone with the constant whispers of the dead.

A witch gets her powers from a Hellcrown. All the Hellcrowns (one for each witch patron) are malignant, fickle, and abstruse. To enter into a pact with a Hellcrown, a witch must either be an active and devout worshiper of her Hellcrown, or make a deal with one (which means repaying the debt at some point. And Hellcrowns take debts very seriously.) Each night the witch's familiar disappears and travels to the witch's patron Hellcrown; in the morning, the familiar returns with spells for the witch. A displeased Hellcrown will never refuse to give a witch spells for the day, but would gleefully twist the spells into warped versions with undesirable consequences.

Custom Witchery
These changes to the witch are mostly non-mechanical. To make up for it, have some witch spells--one of each level.

Door Speak
School divination
Level witch 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components Verbal
Range personal
Target touch
Duration 1 min./level
Door speak allows you to speak with doors. You can use this ability to persuade, trick, or bully doors into doing things for you (such as unlocking or locking, slamming in someone’s face, or sharing information about what’s on the other side). When you do so, roll your Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate (whichever is appropriate) plus your witch level against the Disable Device DC of the door (unlocked doors have a DC of 10, unlocked but stuck doors have a DC of 15). 

A door’s personality may effect what you can get from it. Newly constructed doors may be flighty, while a door in an ancient tomb is likely to be stubborn. Illusionary doors are often deceitful, and trapdoors are likely to pompous or submissive (depending on their physical relation to you).

Hair-Trust-Bond

School abjuration

Level witch 2

Casting Time 10 minutes

Components Verbal, Somatic, Focus (two bracelets of hair)

Range touch

Duration 1 week/level

Saving Throw Will (see text); Spell Resistance no

You take a length of hair from two willing target creatures, and weave them into two bracelets. After the spell is cast, you give each target one of the bracelets. If a target wearing one of the bracelets attempts to do harm (physical, mental, or social; directly or indirectly) to the other, they must make a Will save. If they succeed on the Will save, they are unable to complete the harmful action. If they fail the Will save, the harm that the action would have caused instead happens to the doer of the action. For example, if one of the targets attempted to stab the other and succeeded on their save, they would move to stab them, but be unable to follow through with the blow. If they failed the save, they would instead stab themself.

 

Only the wearer of a hair-trust-bond bracelet can remove it. If another tries, it immediately regrows on the wearer’s wrist. Removing a bracelet allows the target without a bracelet to be harmed by the other target, but not vice versa.

Dance of the Dead

School necromancy

Level witch 3

Casting Time 10 minutes

Components Verbal, Somatic, Material (a fiddle worth 500 gp and a communion wafer soaked in blood)

Range touch

Target dead creature touched

Duration instantaneous

Dance of the dead brings a semblance of life back to a dead body. During the casting of this spell, you play the fiddle and dance about the body of the deceased. At the completion of the spell, you jump over the body three times; after the third jump, the creature returns to life.

A creature raised with this spell is only a shell of its old self. Each of its mental scores are dropped to 2. It cannot speak. The creature acts upon base instincts (hunger, thirst, lust) and simplified versions of its old habits in life (a hero-warrior might attempt to fight anything that moves, while a drunk might down any liquid in sight).

A Wooded and Noble Class Pt. 1: The E6 Gaelic Barbarian

About two months ago I started a new weekly Pathfinder gaming group to accommodate some players with a more casual nature than my regular group. I had been inspired by a recent trip to Ireland, so I set about making a campaign set in my interpretation of a mythical version of the island. Interpretation is pretty key here--I didn't want any of the players--particularly me--to have to feel like they needed a degree in Celtic folklore to play. I'm also a sucker for E6, low-magic games, so I threw that into the mix. One of the first things on my prep list was to edit the class list. Some classes (monk, wizard, alchemist, etc.) didn't quite fit into the lore, while others (like the beloved barbarian) presented the chance to reinforce the setting via redesigned mechanics.

My final class list ended up being: barbarian, druid, fighter, knight (a cavalier in all but name), ranger, rogue, saint (a redesigned cleric), and witch. Most of the classes were redesigned in some manner. After two months of play time, I feel confident enough in the classes to share my changes. So may I present: the Gaelic barbarian.

Gaelic Barbarian
I already knew what I wanted to do with this class before I even had the campaign in mind. In my mind, Conan isn't the iconic fantasy barbarian, the hero Cú Chulainn of the Ulster Cycle is. Part of this stems from my lack of knowledge of Conan (Robert E. who?) and my love of Cú from the Táin Bó Cúailnge. However, I'm also of the opinion that turning into a twisted, deformed monster on the battlefield is hands down way cooler than getting really ticked. 

Warp-Spasm
With the Hound of Ulster as our poster boy, the rage class ability could become nothing but his iconic warp-spasm. It functions in all ways as the rage ability, but in addition to the bonuses from raging, also applies a -4 penalty to Charisma while in the rage. The barbarian is becoming a nasty monstrosity, and in doing so becomes ugly (one of Cú's eyes hung by only the nerve and his joints flipped around, after all) and loses some of her sense of self.

This change is relatively minor. After all, the barbarian can't really use any Charisma-based skills while raging anyways. It does make her more vulnerable to Charisma damage and drain, but in E6 Pathfinder, those effects are few and far between. Where this saw major impact was in rage powers, which became warp powers (creative name, I know).

I focused on reskinning rage powers that could be represented by a physical deformity, and that weren't stupidly powerful (superstition and greater beast totem, I'm looking at you). I also tried to combine or enhance some of the weaker ones, in an attempt to make them all tempting choices.



Bandy-Legged (Su) The barbarian's legs become long and bowed. The barbarian can move up to double her normal speed as an immediate action but she can only use this ability when an adjacent foe uses a withdraw action to move away from her. She must end her movement adjacent to the enemy that used the withdraw action. The barbarian provokes attacks of opportunity as normal during this movement. This power can be used once per warp-spasm.


Beast Leg (Su) One of the barbarian's legs grows to Large size. The barbarian gains a 10-foot enhancement bonus to her speed. This increase is always active while the barbarian is raging. This power can be selected up to three times. Its effects stack. The second time it is taken, the barbarian's other leg increases in size. After taking it a third time, the barbarian grows another massive leg while in a spasm.

Bestial Senses (Su) The barbarian's eyes become animalistic and she gains a long snout, giving her the low-light visions and scent abilities.

Bull-Built (Su)  The barbarian's muscles bulge and seem to squirm of their own accord. The barbarian can add her barbarian level on one Strength check or combat maneuver check, or to her combat maneuver defense. This power is used as an immediate action and can be used once per spasm.

Talons (Su) The barbarian's hands grow long talons and she gains two claw attacks. These attacks are considered primary attacks and are made at the barbarian's full base attack bonus. The claws deal 1d6 points of slashing damage plus the barbarian's Strength modifier.

Horrific Appearance (Su) The barbarian's form is particularly monstrous. She ignores the penalty to Charisma from being in a spasm when making an Intimidate skill check and instead treats it as a bonus.

Maw (Su) The barbarian's jaw grows large and distended, giving her a bite attack. If used as part of a full-attack action, the bite attack is made at the barbarian's full base attack bonus -5. If the bite hits, it deals 1d4 points of damage plus half the barbarian's Strength modifier. A barbarian can make a bite attack as part of the action to maintain or break free from a grapple. This attack is resolved before the grapple check is made. If the bite attack hits, and grapple checks made by the barbarian against the target this round are at a +2 bonus.

Natural Armor (Su) The barbarian grows scales or a thick coat of fur. She gains a +1 natural armor bonus. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the barbarian has attained. 

Warp Climber (Su) The barbarian's arms lengthen so that her hands rest below her knees. The barbarian gains a climb speed of 20 ft. and a bonus on Climb checks equal to her level.

Warp Swimmer (Su) The barbarian grows fins. She gains a swim speed of 20 ft. and a bonus on Swim checks equal to her level.


Chariot Chump
I never understood why barbarians get trap sense. Rogues, I can see. Barbarians? Is that a Conan thing? (Robert E. huh?) I always think of the scene from Your Highness where they befriend the gigantic barbarian, only to have him impaled in a trap not minutes later.

That spike is going right through his abdomen; no trap sense here!

Anyways, I needed an ability to remove to make room for Cú and other mythic Irish heroes' love of chariots. So trap sense got the boot, and chariot champion came in. Chariot champion gives the barbarian her own beloved charioteer, and some bonuses to fighting on a chariot. Like (why?) trap sense, it scales 6th level.


Chariot Champion (Ex) At 3rd level, a barbarian can attract the service of a loyal charioteer. The character is generally an NPC with total NPC class levels one lower than the barbarian. This charioteer is equipped with equipment appropriate for his level and is of the same alignment as the barbarian. The charioteer gains Skilled Driver as a bonus feat.

Because of the bond with her charioteer, the barbarian gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to her AC when fighting from a chariot piloted by her charioteer. At sixth level, this bonus increases to +2.

Should the charioteer die, the barbarian must spend a week in mourning before finding a replacement. The barbarian then loses her bonus to attack rolls and AC from this ability until she gains a new level, or has spent a month fighting alongside the new charioteer.

Why No Gáe Bulg?
The Celts Campaign Sourcebook for AD&D  presented the Gáe Bulg not as a weapon, but a technique that could be learned by any character. I thought about including it as a capstone ability for my barbarians, I really did. Were I not designing for E6, I would have. Ultimately, I decided that it would be better served as a mythic weapon, that then requires special training (probably involving a quest) in order to be able to use. I mean, you do have to throw the thing from the fork of your fucking toes. 

.........

 I've put the E6 Cú-inspired barbarian up here, in case you want the whole thing in it's ready-to-play format.

Old School DIY Class Round-up

I'm currently running one Swords and Wizardry game with a group of five veteran players, and about to start another with a less experienced group. Although I was initially enamored with S&W's spartan class choices (as opposed to some more of the bloated new school fantasy RPGs), I was awed by the fun presented by classes published on old school gaming blogs, and as such, have added them to my game (I've also thrown in two of my own so I can direct my players here during character creation). Check them out for all their original glory.

Click for that old-time gravy flavor*

The Alice 
The Alternate MU
The Alternate Fighter 
The Aurumancer 
The Barbarian 
The Battle Princess
The Beastmaster 
The Blue Mage
The Dandy
The Dreamland Octopus (mixed with this flavor)
The Gunslinger
The Merchant Prince
The Muscle Wizard
The Olympian
The Quixote
The Warlord
The Witch


*Actual flavor may vary