Barriers to Entry

As I mentioned in my previous post, I certainly want to tweak the rules and classes from Lamentations of the Flame Princess to suit my humans-only Swords & Sorcery vision for a sandbox campaign.

The problem with doing this is that it presents a barrier to entry for new players, which may already be hesitant to join an old-school indie game with a new dungeon master.

So why do this? Why make a challenging situation even more difficult for myself? I've wrestled with this and turned it over again and again in my mind, and spent too many hours revising and revisiting my rule mods.

In the end, though, my desire to run a gritty Swords & Sorcery sandbox game that feels more like Nehwon than Forgotten Realms is overwhelming, and I will press forward.

The most significant aspects of D&D (whether old-school, new-school, or LotFP) that just don't fit with my vision include the Cleric class, the super-hero spells, Vancian magic, and demi-humans.

I took great inspiration from Akratic Wizardry House rules, the Mongoose publishing's Conan RPG, and also the Zenobia RPG (which you may never have heard of!)

Some of my decisions will seem trivial and minor (e.g. swapping demi-human classes), while others are dramatic and controversial (e.g. changing magic system). Oh well. If I document them well and present them well, hopefully it won't be too much of a barrier.

At a high-level, here are my changes:

Barbarian
Based on the Dwarf class with the following changes and additions:

• Advance in the Climb skill instead of Architecture.
• Base score in Bushcraft skill is 2 in 6 instead of 1 in 6.
• When using the Press attack option, gain +4 to hit instead of +2.

Why advance the Climb skill instead of the Bushcraft skill? Aren't barbarians more like wilderness warriors? Yes and no. Conan is my model for the barbarian, and he was renowned for his incredible climbing skills. In addition, the Bushcraft skill is the domain of the Ranger.

I did throw the Barbarian a bone by giving him a slightly improved Bushcraft skill, though, and also some sort of a "ferocious attack" with an enhanced Press.

Ranger
Based on the Halfling class with the following changes and additions:

• Bonus to Armor Class when not surprised only works when unencumbered or lightly encumbered.
• Instead of weapon restrictions, a Ranger gains only 80% of XP rewards from treasure.

The ranger is clearly the wilderness hunter, more of a tracker and survivalist than the foe-hunting, dual-weapon-wielding monster-slayer. This is where the non-advancing attack bonus really helps define the character.

To guide the AC bonus when not surprised, I restrict the ability to lightly encumbered rangers only, but I still had to replace the Halfling's weapon restrictions. How? Rangers are transients, traveling fast and light and not overly bound by materialism.

Scholar
Based primarily on the Magic-user class with the following changes and additions:

• Use the Cleric's hit point advancement, but Magic-user advancement for every other aspect, such as experience points, saving throws, and spellcasting restriction (unencumbered or lightly encumbered)
• Scholarly Disciplines have a starting score of 0. Scholars begins with 4 points to spend and gain +1 point per level. It costs 2 points to learn a new discipline, which unlocks the secrets that allow the Scholar to learn and use powers and spells from that discipline.
• Learning a new discipline confers knowledge of the basic power related to that discipline. In addition, the Scholar learns the defensive blast associated with his first discipline. The disciplines include: Alchemy, Counterspells, Divination, Hypnotism, Naturalism, Philosophy, Prestidigitation

Unless I'm running a truly medieval setting with a strong centralized neo-Catholic church organization, I just don't like the Cleric. Even more, I am not comfortable with having all clergy and priests being considered 1st-level spell-wielding Clerics. Perhaps this is why in the Original Edition D&D the Cleric didn't get spells until 2nd level?

I wanted to capture the Hyborian Age and Nehwon style cults and temples. Evil priests and cultists are often the bread and butter of Swords & Sorcery, and I don't see a place for the witch-hunting templar-style Cleric.

I shamelessly pulled the magic system from Conan RPG, but I didn't want to introduce fuzzy "magic points", so I'm using hit points for spell casting. Harsh, but juicy. I have excluded the Conan RPG disciplines of Curses, Necromancy and Summoning, which should only be available to antagonists. And I've added the domains of Alchemy (mostly spending XPs for creating potions and powders) and Philosophy which is lifted from the Zenobia RPG and includes powers such as Measurement, Celestial Beacon, Detect Lie, and Reveal Secrets.

Warrior-Monk
Based on the Elf class with the following changes and additions:

• Cannot use spells when more than lightly encumbered (as a Scholar)
• Warrior-monk Disciplines are similar to Scholarly Disciplines, except that the selections are fewer: Counterspells, Divination, Mysticism, Naturalism

The bridge from fighter/magic-user style Elf to a fighter/powers style Warrior-monk is easy and natural. The only significant problem I see is why would I allow Oriental Adventures into my game? Far-off lands are a wonderful exotic flare, and I'll reevaluate if too many players pick this class (which I doubt will happen).

The Warrior-monk has access to a smaller set of disciplines than the Scholar, but has one unique discipline - Mysticism - which is his real focus area.