Lacking Natural Simplicity

BX Options: Class Builder by Erin D. Smale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a way to customize existing classes or create new classes for B/X D&D style games, especially Old-School Essentials, this book is a wonderful resource. It breaks the original classes down into their fundamental parts and provides a simple system for building those parts into new or customized classes. It presents the breakdown for each of the original classes, then provides a list of class variants, customized versions of the original class, as well as sub-classes, heavily redesigned classes. For instance, for the Cleric, the class variants are: Cleric (Dead God), Cleric (God of Death), Cleric (God of Knowledge), Cleric (God of Life), Cleric (God of Nature), and Cleric (God of War); and the sub-classes are Crusader and Shaman. Class variants and sub-classes are presented for Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic-User, and Thief. It also provides a version of Thief skills using the d6, other d6 skills that can be used in creating classes, some additional armour, weapons, and ammunition, an optional table for spell failure in appropriate circumstances (for example, when non-casters read a spell scroll), a table of special abilities gained by classes that have animal companions, differing depending on the animal in question, and options for characters to gain at high levels, beyond the limits of their level progression tables.

I'll definitely be using this in my next B/X-style game!

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