Fictive Adjustments to Base Classes

fictivefantasies

Here are the adjusted base classes. I revisioned them a bit to fit in with the Fictive way of doing Old School Hack. If you'd like to ask questions or share thoughts on my changes, I'm interested. Here you go!

http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fighter-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/thief-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dwarf-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/elf-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/goblin-template-update.pdf
(The Magic User/Wizard and the Cleric were previously adjusted. You can find that in "Fictive's Talents and Templates" for the Wizard and Cleric, also "Fictive's Portable Pantheon".)

These are all posted on my Old School Hack Resources page, here:

http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-resources/

Lots of other stuff there, you are welcome to check it out if you haven't seen it.

Anyway, I've played quite a bit of Old School Hack, and designed a lot of templates for it, so I wanted to bring the original inspirations in line with my later work. I wanted inherent abilities so tasty that players would be tempted to multi-class. I wanted to adjust the level of disassociated mechanics in some of the talents, and make some of the book keeping a bit easier in some cases.

Since Kirin is taking a look at all the base system right now, this seemed the time to offer my suggestions!

OFTHEHILLPEOPLE

There seems to be a lot of "Add +X to hit" in these changes. I spied in a forum topic that Kirin was trying to keep the attack rolls fairly un-modified. Is that still true?

fictivefantasies

Yes, I imagine it is still true. Still, I find a "+2 to hit or +1 Wound" as a standard advantage is a useful convention. This still does not go down the path of "higher level=higher attack bonus=need higher AC" that is the main arms race to avoid, in my opinion.

It is still a talent that has to be activated (though with improvements some of them can be constantly available.) I don't think it raises the overall expectation that higher level characters will hit better in all cases, and it gives player characters an advantage they will love to play.

fictivefantasies

Plus, to keep it in perspective, here are some bonuses to hit from the original classes as Kirin did them.

* Fighter, Charge, +2 to hit. Also, Exploit Weakness gets +2 to hit.
* Thief, Backstab, +2 to hit AND +2 damage.
* Elf, Perfect Accuracy, +2 to hit.

I don't feel I've stretched the bounds. In fact, I've reduced bonuses to hit in some case, like with the Dwarf battle oath.

fictivefantasies

I gave the base classes a little more attention in "Fictive Hack" so that's cool if you want to see it.

One of my favorite changes was to drop "Exploit Weakness" from the fighter and substitute this baby:

Fight Dirty. Constant. Any time you roll a 1 on the Face Die, you have pulled a dirty trick on your target. Maybe you hit them somewhere sensitive besides the face, or threw sand in the eyes, etc. Add +2 to hit or inflict +1 Wound, decide after rolling. (You may choose not to use this talent if in a “fair fight” because it violates whatever code applies.)

Now, that's fun; a 20% chance of a critical instead of 10%. But when you combine it with "Weapon of Choice" that talent states you can use "Fight Dirty" on one result and "In the Face" on another, but not more than one of either. Still, you get an awesome roll (you get up to 4d10 and keep the top 2, with a light weapon and shield, in Fictive Hack) with a 10 and a 1 you can really trash the foe by intermixing great skill and fighting dirty. =)

Just an example. Check it out.

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