Design Notes: Character Classes

One of the biggest departures that Dungeons Deep & Caverns Old makes from the standard OSR rule set, is how I've chosen to handle character classes.  Like the original D&D rules, DD & CO has just three broad architypes: Warrior, Sorcerer, and Thief.  While the original game used Fighter, Magic User, and Cleric, I've opted not to include the cleric class, because it is strictly an artefact of D&D that has no precedent in the sword & sorcery genre upon which my game is based.

I know that the thief class continues to be controversial within the OSR community.  The critics argue that the thief shouldn't be a class because anyone can steal, and having a character class dedicated to this profession neuters the ability of other classes to steal.  I've always found this argument unconvincing because, by the same rationale, any character can fight so why have a warrior or fighter class devoted to combat?  Obviously, having a warrior class doesn't mean that other characters can't fight, it just means that warriors are better at it than everyone else, and it's a good choice of class for players who like to engage in a lot of combat.  Likewise, the inclusion of a thief class doesn't limit other classes from stealing, thief class characters just do it better than everyone else.

These broad archetypes, Warrior, Sorcerer, and Thief function exactly as they would in any other OSR game: each class gains new hit dice each level, and its THAC0 improves at its level increases.  Where DD & CO characters differ from other OSR games is that the player has the ability to customize their character with the application of character templates.

Templates can be applied to any of the three archetypes to create a new character type with additional customized abilities.  A number of sample templates are described in the rules: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Monk, Priest, Ranger, Witch Hunter, etc.  Each template includes a number of skills and abilities which are added to the abilities of the base archetype, and become class abilities for that character.  The template has an experience modifier based on the number and potency of the skills and abilities, and this modifier is applied to the experience of the base class to determine how many experience points the character will require to level up going forward.  A template can be applied at any time during the character's career, not just during character creation.  Let's say a 3rd level warrior falls into the company of the legendary Wardens of the Northern Marches, and wishes to join their ranks and add a ranger template to his character.  He gains the skills and abilities granted by that template, which have an experience modifier of +200 XP.  Normally a 3rd level warrior would require 8,000 XP to gain 4th level (the class needs 2,000 XP to go from 1st to 2nd level, and that amount doubles with each level thereafter).  The +200 XP is added to the base experience amount of 2,000, so the character will now need 8,800 to gain 4th level.

Furthermore, templates are not usually restricted to a particular base archetype, so a Warrior, Sorcerer, or Thief could take the same template, although the abilities might vary to better suit the base class.  Take the Bard template for example.  A warrior character might become a battle skald, uttering war cries and chants to boost morale in battle.  A thief taking the bard template might be a typical roguish minstrel, whereas a sorcerer could become a spell-singer of Celtic tradition.  In each case the template may need to be modified slightly to suit the desires of the player.

So templates exist as an open-ended system for the player to collaborate with the game master to create any type of character they might wish to play.  There is no need to be restricted to the sample templates described in the rules.  Guidelines are given for how to apply XP modifiers to skills and abilities, which makes creating custom templates easy.  Game masters can use this system to create templates specifically for their campaign world.