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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Variant 1st Ed/LL/AEC Class: White Wizard


Inspired by a recent foray into the much-famed City of the Black Toga in a play-by-post campaign, I have been itching to introduce some of the ideas found in the old second edition Lankhmar supplement into my own LL/Advanced Edition Companion tabletop campaign.

One addition I was toying with is allowing for my own version of Newhonian white wizards as a playable class in the campaign.

As always any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!

White Wizard
Requirements: INT 12, WIS 12
Prime Requisite: WIS
Hit Dice: 1d4
Maximum Level: None

White wizards are practitioners of a benign, defensive, and naturalistic magic school.

White wizards are much akin to their magic user cousins. They save as magic users and must keep spell books and memorize spells in the same manner. White wizards are only allowed to use simple weapons such as staffs, daggers, and darts as weapons and are not allowed to wear any armor.

White wizards differ from magic users in that they are only allowed to cast spells from the cleric and druid spell lists. (Their magic is arcane in nature and not divine in origin however.) Because of their rigorous studies, their spell progression is quicker than that of clerics and druids.

White wizards must be good in alignment (or Lawful in a three-alignment system).

White Wizard Level Progression
Experience Level... Hit Dice (1d4)
0... 1... 1
2,501... 2... 2
5,001... 3... 3
10,001... 4... 4
20,001... 5... 5
40,001... 6... 6
80,001... 7... 7
160,001... 8... 8
310,001... 9... 9
460,001... 10... +1 hp only *
610,001... 11... +2 hp only *
760,001... 12... +3 hp only *
910,001... 13... +4 hp only *
1,060,001... 14... +5 hp only *
1,210,001... 15... +6 hp only *
1,360,001... 16... +7 hp only *
1,510,001... 17... +8 hp only *
1,660,001... 18... +9 hp only *
1,810,001... 19... +10 hp only *
1,960,001... 20... +11 hp only *


White Wizard Spell Progression
Spell Level
Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1... 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
2... 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
3... 3 2 0 0 0 0 0
4... 3 2 1 0 0 0 0
5... 3 3 2 0 0 0 0
6... 4 3 2 1 0 0 0
7... 4 3 3 2 0 0 0
8... 4 4 3 2 1 0 0
9... 5 4 3 3 2 0 0
10... 5 4 4 3 2 1 0
11... 5 5 4 3 3 2 0
12... 6 5 4 4 3 2 0
13... 6 5 5 4 3 3 0
14... 7 6 5 4 4 3 1
15... 7 6 5 5 4 3 2
16... 8 7 6 5 4 4 2
17... 8 7 6 5 5 4 3
18... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
19... 9 8 7 6 5 5 3
20... 9 8 7 6 5 5 4

4 comments:

  1. Cool stuff Chris. I haven't had a chance to play much 2e but one of the concepts I like from what I know about it is the 'schools' of magic. Also some of this concept I have read of in the Dragolance setting with the Black, Red & white robed Wizards. This seems like a good attempt at this concept while still keeping it old school. For all Wizards to be generic types that just go around relying on sleep spells gets stale. - Scott M

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  2. Don't like the idea of mages casting cleric spells. I think your system will work ruleswise, but wheres the sence in playing a white mage isntead of a real cleric with double amount of hitpoints, armor up to platemail and real weapons? A few more spells of questionable power seems to be a poor return of investment...

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  3. If using this I would use them in place of either druids and/or clerics. They would make great priests and mystics. Change cleric into a holy warrior (maybe reduce spells a bit) or drop clerics and only have "priests" aka white wizards and paladins.

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  4. @ Scott, truth be told--outside of Baldur's Gate--I completely missed second edition myself. It's needlessly over-elaborate system isn't my cup of tea, but there is something appealing to it's sheer sweep in character class/kit choices. In general LL's AEC approach has a great appeal to me--keeping a simple, elegant B/X "Basic" D&D under the hood with the crunch bolted on the hood.

    @Norman
    Norm has the right of it, the Lankhmar D&D supplement nixed clerics and druids as a class. Clearly the White Wizard (which has an inkling of a basis in the first collection of Leiber's stories) is designed as the healing magic PC substitute. For some reason a consistent thing in my campaigns is players almost never play clerics for some reason (perhaps I associate too much with the unwashed godless types).

    @Cyric
    Thanks this exactly the kind of constructive criticism that is useful. I had toyed with the notion of jacking down the experience progression levels to the cleric's to give a little more incentive to play this class. Your remarks confirm that I probably should give a little more umpth to the class to sweeten the deal.

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