Tragon's Behests

Image by mrsiraphol on freepik.com In AD&D 1E, the monk is a subclass of the thief.  It is extremely difficult to qualify as a monk.  Characters must have a minimum strength, wisdom, and dexterity of 15 each along with a constitution of at least 11.  Even though TSR eventually came out with the book Oriental Adventures and the modules attached with it, I think this character was always meant to emulate Shaolin monks from all those kung fu movies that were out around the time this game was being developed. Let's start with some information on the monk character class.  First it can get to a maximum of 17th level.  It uses 4-sided die for hit points, although it starts with 2 four-sided die for hit points at first level.  Monks attack and make saving throws on the thief table.  They must be of lawful alignment although it can be good, neutral, or evil.  They may not use armor and are restricted to using one of the following weapons: bo sticks, c...

Image by freepik.com   Here's a list of some of my favorite sword and sorcery book series and their authors: Lord of the Rings (and all the books published after his death) by J.R.R. Tolkien Conan by Robert Howard (L. Srague De Camp and Lin Carter help) Thieve's World series by many authors (Robert Asprin edited) The Eternal Champion books (Elric, Corum, etc.) by Michael Moorcock Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber Horseclans series by Robert Adams Original Darwath trilogy by Barbara Hambly Prince of Nothing trilogy by Scott Bakker Malazan Book of the Fallen (all ten books) by Steven Erikson All of these series (and more) have been hugely influential for sword and sorcery role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.  Not only that, but some of them (Prince of Nothing and Malazan) were influenced by role playing games.  Things drawn from each of them show up in the AD&D campaigns that I run.  I also draw from them for characters when I play the gam...

 Image by inksyndromeartwork on Freepik Dwarves are a rugged, ferocious, hard driving race in 1E AD&D.  I enjoy using them as NPCs in my campaigns, have a couple of dwarven cities/fortresses for adventures, and think they have a lot of potential as a player character. Male dwarves are between 44 and 54 inches tall and between 134 and 174 pounds.  Female dwarves are between 42 and 50 inches tall and between 104 and 140 pounds.  Dwarves start a campaign at between 45 and 290 years old depending upon their class (clerics are oldest).  In 1E AD&D there are some slight differences between dwarves and mountain dwarves.  Mountain dwarves live longer, so that's why the information that I'm about to present about age categories has ranges.  Dwarves are mature at 51 or 61, middle ages at 151 or 176, old at 251 or 276, and venerable at 351 or 401.  Dwarves can live to be 450 or 525 years old. Dwarves have a number of advantages.  These include a...