Tragon's Behests

One of the thief subclasses is a character class in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1E that did not make it to 5E.  It's an interesting class that has a lot of potential during a campaign both as a player character and as an NPC. Who can be in this class?  Everyone but halflings.  Like humans, half orcs can be unlimited in their level.  Gnomes can reach level 8, dwarves 9, elves 10, and half-elves 11.  Regardless of race, this sub class need a minimum strength of 12, a minimum intelligence of 11, and a minimum dexterity of 12.  They do not get a bonus on experience points as a result of higher ability scores. Let's talk about the strengths of the class: They use the six-sided die for hit points.   They get thief abilities (including backstab), save as a thief, and fight using the thief table in the DMG.  Unlike thieves they can use shields and can use any kind of weapon.   Unlike thieves they start with three weapon proficiencies and ...

From freepik.com Advanced Dungeons and Dragons has religion.  The game has clerics, druids, paladins, and monks as character classes, this makes religion a part of the game.  As I say more than once here, this presents an opportunity for tremendous world building and richness to your campaign. Religion as opposites AD&D is a fantasy game and it draws heavily from sword and sorcery fiction.  This fiction had evil supernatural beings and evil deities (the god Set from Conan, for example).  This gives you the license to create some very black and white pantheons.  For example, deities of light/good/good deeds/etc. for your lawful good paladins contrasted with the opposite. This also gives you the ability to create gray areas as conflict in the campaign.  For example, in some of my lands Death is an evil cult that needs to be stamped out.  In others it's not treated that way and members of that religion take care of after death rites for their populati...

From freepik.com When I was younger and played AD&D, one character race I never thought about was the halfling.  The halfling is essentially J.R. Tolkein's hobbit renamed to keep TSR from being sued.  As we'll talk about, the class is physically small, does not have a great deal of variety in terms of character classes, and they cannot be terribly strong.  However, they have some interesting advantages and with intelligent play they can really be a game changer. Let's start with an overview of what halflings are like.  The Player's Handbook for 1E AD&D calls them "little humans" thus the name.  According to the Dungeon Master's Guide, halflings and their physical features: They get a +1 to their dexterity and a -1 to their strength. They start out at somewhere between 23 years old and 48 years old depending on their class and the dice roll (pure fighters are younger than pure thieves). Middle age starts at 69, old age starts at 102, and venerable a...

From freepik.com  In 1E AD&D, the illusionist is one of those overlooked character classes.  I mean, they can't heal anybody, don't raise the dead, cannot summon horrid monsters, don't have fireball, and all they do is trick people/monsters into experiencing what isn't really there.  How much fun is that to play?  Turns out, this is one of those classes with really overpowered spells! Illusionists need an intelligence of 15 and a dexterity of 16.  Like magic users they use a 4 sided die for hit points.  Like magic users they don't wear armor and are very restricted in terms of the weapons that they can use.  They are also very restricted in terms of magic items; scrolls that contain spells usable by illusionists, all rings, only a handful of rods/wands/staves, misc. magic items usable by every class, artifacts that are not proscribed, and magic daggers. Now, the illusionist spells are interesting, let's talk about some low level ones in 1E: Change ...