Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I was recently involved in an extremely fun online Pathfinder campaign going through the “Kingmaker” modules. While this sadly ended before its time I’ve been amped up since playing it because it allowed for a style of gameplay I’d not played in a long time: the hexcrawl.
For those who don’t know, the hexcrawl is a sandbox style campaign where the characters usually venture forth from a base of operations to explore a map hex by hex. Depending on the style of hexcrawl, the GM may have every hex planned out or the contents may be determined by a series of charts. A mixture of the two styles is the most common, with a few destinations locked in and a bunch of areas left up to fate. This lets both player and GM enjoy the suprises of exploration thought it does require a GM who is good on his feet to quickly incorporate chart results into a fun encounter.
I’ve always been enamored with this style of play because there are two things I really enjoy in my games and they are two things most games don’t really do well. I love meaningful exploration and discovery and that’s a key feature of hex crawls. I also enjoy how much fun it can be to build a setting through encounter tables. It’s the “show, don’t tell” way to give your players a living, breathing world to explore and loot.
So I want to run a hex crawl. First thing I need is a system. I went back and forth for a while before settling on B/X D&D. I’ve long been a fan of the simplicity and focus of the Moldvay rules and think they do a great job of what I want. The rules aren’t without their problems, but certainly nothing insurmountable. A little while back we played a short campaign using B/X and we had a good time. My biggest issue was that I felt like the classes could use a little sprucing up. Now I like how simple the classes are, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t tell me that playing a fighter isn’t kind of boring after a while.
So my goal is to keep the simplicity of the rules but make the classes a little more robust. I want to make each appealing and some classes need a little more extra pizzaz than others. My other goal is not to mess up the dice curve. 3E and it’s derivatives show just what happens when you start adding numerical bonus after numerical bonus. It kills the sweet-spot. To fit these criteria I decided to make each modification a class ability so character generation would be just as quick, ie every fighter is going to have these same abilities. Also, when it comes to bonuses I’m going to rely on using re-rolls and also the Advantage/Disadvantage system from D&D 5E.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
So here’s the part that hurts the game designer in me. B/X D&D is not about combat. It’s about *avoiding combat.* You main rewards come from getting loot, not killing things. It’s oft been said that getting into combat in B/X D&D is a fail condition in itself. So, it seems paradoxical that most of the changes I’m going to make the classes are combat related. While these changes do increase the survivability of a party, it’s only a small increase. The game will still be incredibly deadly but a lot of these abilities give the player an option to cancel out the occasional horrendous roll. Really, the bottom line is that I like what these changes add for my game and little else matters. I share them here for your consideration, to add to the volumes of house rules already available on the net.
Fighter: Gain the following abilities:
Grit: Once per encounter the fighter may completely ignore the effects of one attack he is hit by.
Cleave: When the fighter defeats a foe he may move up to five feet and make another attack. He may do this a maximum of once per attack. The fighter is still limited by his or her maximum movement.
Extra Attacks: Fighters gain additional attack actions at 4th, 8th, and 12th levels.
Cleric: Gain the following abilities:
Divine Power: A cleric does not need to pray for specific spells each day. When a cleric casts a spell he or she may choose from any of the spells they are able to cast.
Lay on Hands: Once per encounter a cleric may touch a friendly character and heal them 1d6 hp. This increases to 2d6 at 5th level , and 3d6 at 10th level.
Magic User: Gain the following abilities.
Modern Magic: A mage may prepare a number of spells per day equal to the number of spells he or she may cast per day. When casting a spell, the mage uses a spell slot to cast any of his prepared spells. Higher level spell slots may always be used to cast lower level spells but lower level spell slots may never be used to cast higher level spells. A mage chooses which spells to prepare from the spells he has copied into his spellbook.
Scholar: Every mage automatically knows the spell “Read Magic” and may cast it at any time without expending any spell slots.
Mage Staff: A mage may attune to any mage staff (counts as quarterstaff) that he or she spends 8 hours preparing. Once attuned, a mage may channel through the staff and make an Arcane Blast. Arcane Blast requires a normal ranged attack roll to hit and has the same range as a crossbow. It does d6 damage
Elves: Elves gain the following abilities:
Modern Magic: Same as a magic-user.
Elven Accuracy: Once per combat, an elf may reroll any attack and take the better result. At 5th level, this reroll automatically gains Advantage.
Nature Sense: After a party moves into a hex as a result of becoming lost, on a d6 roll of 1-4 an elf realizes the party is lost.
Dwarves: Dwarves gain the following abilities.
Dwarven Cleave: As the fighter’s Cleave ability except a dwarf may Cleave twice per turn at 5th level and three times a turn at 10th level.
Stout: After any combat a dwarf may choose to take a ten minute rest. If he or she does they regain 1d6 hp. If the dwarf drinks ale while resting they may add +1 for regular ale or a +2 for dwarven ale. This improves to +2 at 6th level and +3 at 9th level. This increases to 2d6 at 5th level and 3d6 at 10th level.
Brutal Combatant: Dwarves always score a critical hit on a natural roll of 19 or 20. Also, starting at 3rd level dwarves add +1 to every damage roll. This bonus increases to +2 at 6th level and +3 at 9th level. This bonus stacks with any magical bonuses.
Halflings: Halflings gain the following abilities
Lucky Charm: A Halfling gains 5 Luck Points at 1st level. He gains an additional Luck Point at 3rd level, 6th level, and 9th level. A halfling may spend a luck point on him or herself or on another party member to gain Advantage on a roll or to give an opponent Disadvantage in cases where the halfling player isn’t rolling. These points replenish after sleeping for 8 hours.
Sneak: A halfling may attempt to sneak. This always seems successful to the halfling. If successful, the halfling will surprise foes on a d6 roll of 1-4. Surprised foes will not detect the halfling until the halfling gives himself away. A halfling my not attempt to sneak in situations where the foe is aware of them unless a suitable distraction is created. A halfling moves at half speed while sneaking.
d20 roll of 1st: 14+, 3rd: 12+, 6th: 10+, 9th: 8+
There you go!
You may notice I left off the Thief (although you can get an idea of what I’ve done with some of his abilities by looking at the Halfling). This is because the Thief class has been completely rewritten because the RAW form is and has always been terrible. It’s just bad class design. I’m going to make it better and, most importantly, give the Thief a role in the party where he or she isn’t completely overshadowed by other classes. I’ll share that with you all next time.
Until then, enjoy! Also, I’d love to hear your favorite hacks to B/X. Share in the comments!