Knights & Knaves Alehouse

O.K., here's the rules:

1. Must be PHB legal.
2. No standard character classes (i.e., no human fighters)
3. 6 members of all roughly the same experience point totals
4. Must work as a party

My example:

Psionic (Expansion, Invisibility, and Telekinesis)Dwarf Assassin (7th)
Gnome Illusionist (5th)/Thief (7th)
Human Monk (6th)
Half-Orc Fighter (6th)/Assassin (6th)
Dual-classed Human Thief (3rd)/Cleric (6th)
Dual-classed Human Fighter (2nd)/Magic User (6th)

The group probably runs towards the Lawful Evil in alignment. Maybe a bit light in the fighting prowess.

Any particular context?

TheRedPriest wrote:Any particular context?

Imagine you're running a 1e game at a con and you want to give out a bunch of pc types the players have probably never played before.

Not to derail your thread, but I'm now going to add a psionic pre-gen PC to my NTRPG CON 1e game thanks to this post.

That's a fan-fucking-tastic idea! I haven't DM'd a 1e psionic character since the early 80s! I just need to figure out how to handle a quick psionic combat without boring the rest of the players to tears.

How about having one of the characters as a lycanthrope (i.e. wear bear ranger, wear rat thief, etc.)?

northrundicandus wrote:Not to derail your thread, but I'm now going to add a psionic pre-gen PC to my NTRPG CON 1e game thanks to this post.

That's a fan-fucking-tastic idea! I haven't DM'd a 1e psionic character since the early 80s! I just need to figure out how to handle a quick psionic combat without boring the rest of the players to tears.

Awesome!!!!

Terrex wrote:How about having one of the characters as a lycanthrope (i.e. wear bear ranger, wear rat thief, etc.)?

There are rules for it in the DMG. Do it!!!

Also, how about a halfling fighter with extraordinarily powerful psionic abilities.

- Gnome Assassin
- M/U reincarnated as an Ogre Mage
- Human Bard schizoid (see "Insanity", DMG pg. 83)
- An intelligent flame tongue, currently dominating an elven fighter
- Wereshark Cleric

- Wheggi

Just throw open the bowels of OD&D, Arduin, and EPT, ra, and hit 'em with crap they've never heard of: grab NPC classes from Dragon like the duelist, incantatrix, berserker, witch, psionicist, jester, variant bard/ranger/monk/illusionist, a Wizard with a Difference (Ward's article in TD17 or so), etc.!

I have always been partial to the gnome illusionist / assassin, but not sure if you would call that standard.

So, RA when you say PHB legal, like grodog says, can we use Dragon classes? I cam come up with some wicked stuff, then.

I like the lycanthrope angle.

Since the party is evil, how about a former paladin that fell from grace, lost his powers, and is now forever a fighter? Although that might be more of a RP angle than game rules angle which I think is what you are looking for.

You could invent a new class, say something akin to an anti-ranger (required to be evil) with same stats and abilities (maybe a ranger turned evil by some cursed ring?), travelling alchemist (with an assortment of potions with him along with his pet quasite, looking for something to complete a potion perhaps). A Monk-Assassin (for the deadly karate chop seen on countless 70s TV shows), a Half Elf cleric-MU (for some reason don't see many of these in our games), a vampire wizard (though normally I'd never allow this as a PC, as a "one shot" convention thing it might be cool). You cold even do some MM PCs (shaman lizardman, beserker, etc.) Its hard to stay 1E feel and go too far outside the box.

Here's a possible unconventional evil party:

1. Figher Polymorphed as a Peryton (or other roughly man-sized flying creature) (PHB/MM)
2. Wererat Assassin (PHB/MM)
3. Human M-U w/ a homonculus (PHB/MM)
4. Lawful Evil Monk (PHB)
5. Half-Orc Cleric/Thief (PHB)
6. Thief turned Shade (PHB/MM II)

I tried to stay w/in confines of PHB/DMG/MM, but did use MMII for the shade PC.

We've had odd characters like this probably on something like a 1/50 frequency over the years. The memorable ones are the fighter who got reincarnated as a brown bear, etc. I think I can recall two guys with psionics. Actually, we didn't have much trouble with the rules as psionic v. psionic combat was very rare. I vaguely remember these PCs adding flavor and generally being accepted by the other players. We experimented a few times with MM PCs like a couple of centaurs, a thri-kreen, a kenku, maybe a lizard men but something always felt wrong most of the time. Of course, we also experimented with the UA classes and races. I recently removed that option from my games permanently, though.

In S1, my fighter (who just got smoked by the demi-lich) had his soul released into the body of the 4-armed gargoyle. Went promply insane, and was only saved from being hunted down by the local townsfolk by the party cleric, who "domesticated" my character. After a few sessions of "Mongo but pawn in game of life" type play I let the charcacter go. But I will agree that the occasional monster character can be fun.

- Wheggi

rogatny wrote:O.K., here's the rules:

1. Must be PHB legal.
2. No standard character classes (i.e., no human fighters)
3. 6 members of all roughly the same experience point totals
4. Must work as a party

Sticking to those rules, and borrowing ideas others had, how about:

The Second Chance, an adventuring group of nuetral adventurers & swords/spells for hire. All members died while on a quest to regain lost spell books for the Magus Rary after he had a disasterous escapade, though the last, dying survivour did manage to complete the job. The Grateful Magi reincarnated them all, with some odd results. Many became essentially freaks, but after some period of adjustment, they stuck together as an adventuring group, albiet an unorthodox one. While made up of self interested beings, and mainly always was, they have a well earned reputation for getting the job done, something that has become more important since their "second chance" at life, about 1 year ago.

The group's former leader, and current second in command is Oakley, formerly a half elf from the Gamboge Forest, now an Ogre. L9 Druid XP 100,000 AL:N STR 18 INT 9 WIS 16 DEX 8 CON 19 CHR 8 (15) WP: Club, Spear, Footman's Mace Languages: Common, Elf, Gnoll, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Orc, Gnome, Halfling, Druidic, Green Dragon, Hill Giant, Centaur, Manticore, Sprite, Lizard Man, Treant; Age: 1, 54 as a half elf, body is a young adult

Oakley retains his wisdom, faith in Obad Hai and other Druidic Powers. Indeed, in some ways he is more powerful than ever, in this giant, grotesque form. His inheirant size alows him to change form into animals of far greater size than any other druid can. Is still advancing as a druid, though XP earned is halved, and it is nigh certain he will be barred from Druidic leadership (L12+). He no longer leads the group, both because of concerns over getting the group killed, and also because his new form makes being the "face" of the group very difficult. He has settled into a second in command, advisorly role , quite well, and is well adjusted to his new life.

The current leader of the group, and one of the members that had the easiest go of reincarnation, is Cameron Spellsong, fomerly a half elven bard hailing from the Gnarley Forest. He was reincarnated as an Elf, and regards this as something of a blessing, particularily considering the fate of others in his troupe.
Elf Thief L6 XP 27,500 (also retains L6 Fighter and L7 Bard Abilities) AL:CN (though tending to N of late) STR 12 INT 12 WIS 16 D 17 C10 CH 18 Age 1; as half elf 60, young adult body. Languages : Common, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Gnoll, Orc, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Thieves Cant, Druidic, Storm Giant, Black Dragon, Suloise WP: Spear, Staff, Javelin, Scimitar, Bastard Sword, Longsword, Short Sword, Dagger

Since I have a PC bank thread going on Dragons Foot I expect I'll post a full write up of the whole band, some of which are far less well adjusted, and make a link, but for now the basics of the rest are as follows:

Gnoll Fighter L2 (Formerly Human Monk L7) LN,STR 17 INT 10 WIS 17 DEX 16 CON 11 CHR 4(8)
Human Illusionist L7 (formerly gnome Ftr L5 as well) N(g) STR 9 INT 15 WIS 7 DEX 18 CON 15 CHR 7
Goblin Thief L7 (formerly dwarf fighter 6 as well) LN STR 16 INT 10 WIS 7 DEX 18 CON 16 CHR 4 (8)
Kobold Thief L7 (formerly elf MU L6 as well) CN STR 10 INT 15 WIS 6 DEX 17 CON 15 CHR 7 (13)

About as odd a group as one could get, simply rolling on the MU reincarnation charts at random for a group...very much a stealthy band, though with some combat & spell prowess. No doubt specialising in "recovery" jobs of all sorts, but also very strong for wilderness adventures

Not so long ago I had a player of a dual class Illusionist (former Thief) get reincarnated as an Elf. I ruled his illusionist abilities frozen & let him resume his Thief class; it made for a rather unique, and fun, character.