Do you use any Variant classes in your game?

[scalydemon]

Hello, just curious what, if any variant classes people are using in their current games?

[Deleted]

I use a thief variant called the scout in lieu of the thief class as a standard selection.

I use various classes upon request but don't list those in my house rules document.

[rjkuntz]

All of mine are variant, as they are World-Specific.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

We created a Minotaur/Beast man class/race variant to accommodate my son's love for his GW figures. We're using primarily Delving Deeper for game play. My intentionally vague definition is in that sub-board.

[geoffrey]

Dec 7, 2012 9:46:21 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

I use various classes upon request but don't list those in my house rules document.

That's what I do. Basically, if a player wants to play an X, he's allowed to play an X. It's the player's responsibility to bring and/or make the rules for it, though. So if he wanted to play a kensai, he'd have to bring the AD&D Oriental Adventures book.

[Deleted]

Dec 7, 2012 10:31:35 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

Dec 7, 2012 9:46:21 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

I use various classes upon request but don't list those in my house rules document.

That's what I do. Basically, if a player wants to play an X, he's allowed to play an X. It's the player's responsibility to bring and/or make the rules for it, though. So if he wanted to play a kensai, he'd have to bring the AD&D Oriental Adventures book.

Same here, Geoff. The player does the legwork and I, as ref, get to review the proposed class before signing off on it.

[Deleted]

One of the last campaigns I DM'd had the addition of Archer, Bounty Hunter & Scout classes. The players seemed to like them and so I'd offer them again as options.

[Falconer]

The 11 canonical classes of the Players Handbook (or White Box+Supplements+Best of Dragon #1).

Anything from Best of Dragon #2 (especially the Berserker/Werebear).

The Alchemist from Dragon #2.

A Pyromancer (Pyrologist) class adapted from Liaisons Dangereuses and Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

A Dwarf Craftsman class adapted from Liaisons Dangereuses and Dragon #3.

A Thief class adapted from Warlock.

Any new (non-redundant) class from Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

[snorri]

current casting includes a druid (more or less RC variant), a fighter, an elf (moldvay build) and a centaur. i would probably have refused the centaur, if the player wasn't 7 year old

[Koren n'Rhys]

Sure. Running a B/X campaign, but I've worked up (to varying degrees):

-Orc race-as-class: inspired by the Stan Nicholls books
-Bard: still in flux as I figure out just what he should be

One player is running an Acrobat from B/X Blackrazor's "Compete B/X Adventurer"
I've used a Sidhe from Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, too. I'll make an OGL version eventually.

Beyond that, quite a campaign-specific tweaks to existing classes.

[Deleted]

Each campaign is different. For my current campaign I use the variant classes in Robert Conley's Majestic Wilderlands supplement. In past Grayhawk campaigns I've used the sub-classes from the three supplements and the ranger, Bard, and Illusionist from Strategic Review.

[Mr. Darke]

I have several variants I use. I never felt the game was about BtB play but was more of a framework for what you can do in your own game.

[verhaden]

Fighter
Magic-User
Cleric

or

Fighter
Magic-User
Thief

or

Fighter
Magic-User
(Dual/Class option)

Don't really care for classes beyond that.

[Vile Traveller]

I am kind of looking at a variation on the [Holmes] elven multi-classing system at the moment. I am tempted to treat elves as inherently magical. They will have a spell list taken from both the clerical and magic-user magic books. Elves then take fighter or thief as a class, but also get spell progression alongside it (at a slower rate than a pure magic-user). To even things out, because I'm not a fan of just boosting XP requirements), I will probably tweak the elven thief and fighter classes to be less effective than standard.

Basically, I see elves treating magic as part of their overall capability, so they don't need to be quite as good in a purely physical sense.

This is going to take some time to work out, obviously.

[makofan]

I have used the Illusionist from Strategic Review, and created both a Goblin fighter and a Thief class with Cleric-type mechanisms, just in OD&D. I have used tons of made-up classes in other versions also

[blackbarn]

Haven't used any variants in our OD&D game, but it's been discussed, and I've nothing against them should someone want to try it. My players mostly like to be fighting-men though.

[benoist]

Yes. Using an hydro/cryomancer homemade variant in my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea game, and I retrofitted the 3rd ed D&D sorcerer into the same campaign, on player demand.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

We've now added a were-tiger to our Delving Deeper/3LBB campaign yesterday due to an extended combat session. Our human thief is now infected. Not sure yet how we'll handle forthcoming game play, but it should prove interesting. Especially since that thief had just stolen a +2 vs Lycanthropes Silver dagger a couple sessions previous to that.

[Ghul]

Dec 10, 2012 12:08:34 GMT -6 benoist said:

Yes. Using an hydro/cryomancer homemade variant in my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea game, and I retrofitted the 3rd ed D&D sorcerer into the same campaign, on player demand.

Well, I suppose if we are thinking in terms of 0e, Holmes, and 1e, we could maybe look at all the AS&SH classes/subclasses as variations; i.e., as seen through the Hyperborea campaign lens.

[Chainsaw]

No, but I would if someone wanted. In fact, I'd be agreeable to whole new classes (or races) if the player drafted up a reasonable proposal.

[Ghul]

RJK + Gronan -- How often did players bitd use monsters as PCs?

[rjkuntz]

Dec 10, 2012 18:30:47 GMT -6 Ghul said:

RJK + Gronan -- How often did players bitd use monsters as PCs?

I played the first monster PC in the reboot of the Castle, 2nd.

Nedlog a very young, shape changing golden dragon. I was trying to still adventure PT but it never could've worked out with me co-Dming as well so I retired him after the first adventure.

Othlinden, Eric Shook's PC, while adventuring in Kalibruhn had his biological make-up changed through the introduction of some primordial/supernatural serpent gene/magic and started to develop some ophidian characteristics.

I let PCs know that they could choose to play monsters and that we'd work out the details, but none really opted for it.

[Deleted]

Dec 10, 2012 19:53:47 GMT -6 rjkuntz said:

Nedlog a very young, shape changing golden dragon.

Don't tell me ... his full name of Enam fo'Nedlog, wasn't it? ;D

[rjkuntz]

@ C. D'B: Name of 'Golden'? Yep! . Just as the last part of your online name is probably a cypher for "Two Beers" ? ....

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

I use 2 in my AD&D game: 1) A redone Ranger I call the Strider, and 2) a Fighter/Thief hybrid call the Fortune Hunter, modeled on Indiana Jones.

[grodog]

Yep: I've DM'd as PCs various classes from Dragon BITD, including Bandits (Dragon 63), Ninja (Dragons 16 and 30), Timelords (Dragon 65, which I expanded extensively), Anti-Paladins (Dragon 39), Witches (Dragon 3, 42, 114), Archers (Dragon 45), Incantatrixes (Dragon 90), Hunter/Huntsman (from the NIPI "Realms of Adventure" newsletter/Dragon 102), Beastmaster (Dragon 119), Jesters (MoZ1, Dragon 60), Detectives (White Dwarf), and probably others I've since forgotten.

I've expanded existing classes: Paladins using variations on the variant paladins from Dragon 108, and I've used multiple versions of Monks (EW, PHB, Dragon 53) and Bards (PHB, Dragon 56) to represent different orders or schools or traditions, and have mixed up clerical powers with some regularity (using the Greyhawk gods clerical powers as templates), and Witches, too (Dragons 3 and 114). I also rejected the UA barbarian and used Gary's original version from Dragon 63 (with additional notes from later issues).

I've also created new classes/sub-classes for Necromancers, Phantsmyrs, and Shadow Masters.

Of these, I most enjoyed DMing (as NPCs or for players running them): Bandits, Timelords, Anti-Paladins and variant paladins, Witches, variant Bards, and my own classes. The bandits were a fun take on the Robin Hood rogue crossed with a light-weight ranger. Timelords were just a blast, and I plugged them into my sense of how the planes should work so that they weren't limited to just temporal powers but also spatial and planar ones. The rest are simply classics, fun to play with