Monday, May 29, 2017

LotFP Class Houserules

So very soon I will be getting some Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures (Blood in the Chocolate and Tower of the Stargazer), and I've been thinking of making my own historical horror fantasy adventures in the vein of LotFP. As part of this, I've come up with my original house rules for the four classes which I would allow in such a game (the Fighter, Specialist, Magic-User, and Cleric), which I will detail in this post and in a following post. Also it is Very Long so I am gonna put it under a cut.



A Note on Non-Class House Rules
In addition to changing how the classes function, I've changed a couple of the other rules. This includes expanding the list of skills which a Specialist can train in, and changing how attacking works. Rather than rolling against AC, characters now have a "dodge" saving throw which effectively takes the place of the Breath Weapons save. This goes up with level, and is rolled against when characters are attacked. If the attack hits, then whatever armor the characters are wearing subtracts damage from the attack. Dodge is modified by the DEX score of the character, just as all other saves are modified by abilities as well (CON for Poison, STR for Paralysis, DEX for Dodge, WIS for Device, and INT for Magic). Also saves are now roll-under rather than roll-over simply because I prefer that, it makes having higher numbers for saves on your sheet better, and it makes attacking with the system I detailed above easier. The last major change I've added is the addition of "weapon slots" (might come up with a better name) outside of the encumbrance slots that all characters have. These are a small number of slots (4 for most characters) which they can allocate weaponry to, effectively being those weapons which they have easy access to, whether in a sheath or some other easily accessed place. Small weapons (such as daggers and pistols) take up 1 slot, medium weapons (such as most swords and rifles) take up 2 slots, and large weapons (such as halberds/polearms and large guns) take up 3 slots. Weapons that a character is carrying that are not allocated to weapon slots cannot be easily accessed during frantic combat, but the character can switch them out during an exploration turn.

The Fighter
Fighters are skilled and strong combatants, whether from vitriolic anger, sadistic pleasure at killing things, or just past experience with confrontation. Fighters are anything from the armored soldiers of some distant noble to the bruised and burly brawlers drunkenly punching in the dingy streets. Knights and cossacks, landsknecht and barbarians, samurai and ghazi, all those who have killed at another's command, who are skilled in the arts and sciences of combat and death, are fighters.

Fighters are able to allocate 6 slots' worth of weapons, and thus are able to have 2 heavy weapons at their disposal. In addition to that, they begin the game with the best combat capabilities and hit dice, making them hard-hitting and able to withstand blows that would fell their compatriots. In addition, fighters are the most adept at performing the sorts of feats of arms that warriors are so fond of performing, adding their attack bonus (including the DEX bonus added to it for attacking) to a roll of d20 to attempt such acts, succeeding on a roll of 18 or higher. All other character types can only add 1 (plus DEX modifier if positive) to such a roll, even if they have an increasing attack bonus.

Level   XP       HP   AB   POIS   PARA   DODGE   DEV   MAG

  1. 0            1d8   +2      6         10          8               5          6
  2. 2,000     2d8   +3      6         11          9               5          6
  3. 4,000     3d8   +4      7         12          9               5          6
  4. 8,000     4d8   +5      7         13          10             6          7
  5. 16,000   5d8   +6      8         14          10             6          7
  6. 32,000   6d8   +7      8         15          11             6          7
  7. 64,000   7d8   +8      9         16          11             7          8
  8. 128,000 8d8   +9      9         17          12             8          8
  9. 256,000 9d8   +10    10       18          13             8          9

The Specialist
Specialists are adventurers, dungeoneers and explorers of all sorts, trained in a wide array of skills. Specialist characters adventure for their own motivation, whether that be greed, gluttony, or simply a hunger for excitement. Specialists are a wide range of characters, from thieves and grave robbers sneaking into secret locales to acquire dark wealth, to archaeologists and scholars delving into dungeons for knowledge and artifacts for their scientific collections.

Specialists are mainly defined by their use of the skill system, allocating "skill points" to these d6-based skills and abilities. As in normal LotFP, all characters have access to these skills, but only Specialists (and certain characters with high ability modifiers) can have more than a 1 in 6 chance of success in these skills. In addition, specialists can train themselves in sneak attacks, increasing the damage multiplier for damage when the attack is done in secret. Sneak attacks normally deal maximum damage with no modifier, but specialists can increase the multiplier to 2x and above. Specialists are also able to reload firearms in half as much time as all other character classes. The skills which a specialist can train themself in are as follows:

Arcana, Bushcraft, Climb, Dungeoneering, Languages, Medicine, Search, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Tinker

All skills not described below function the same as in the rules.

Arcana is the skill for the use of magical items, as well as for the knowledge of the forbidden histories and sciences of sorcery. It is modified by INT, with any INT score above 15 adding +1. All characters must roll this skill to use magic items except for Magic-Users, who are assumed to always be able to use such items.
Climb is modified by DEX with any score above 15 adding +1.
Dungeoneering is both the skill of noticing the architecture and craft of a dungeon, as well as creatures and locales in dungeons.
Languages functions the same as in the normal rules, but it is also used to decipher the ancient languages that sorcerers use to write their spellbooks and scrolls, with a -2 penalty to the skill. Magic-users can simply cast Comprehend Languages rather than having to use this skill, if they have the ability to. It is also modified by INT, with any score above 15 adding +1.
Medicine is a skill that can be used to heal people, but with the chance of hurting them even more if the skill fails. If you succeed the roll, heal 1d6 hit points of damage for each point below the maximum number you could have rolled and succeeded. If there is a 1 in 6 chance of success and you roll a 1, then heal 1d6 hp. If there is a 3 in 6 chance and you roll the same number, heal 3d6 hp. However, if you fail, do the same but in reverse, and subtract the hp rather than adding it. If you roll a 6 and you have only a 1 in 6 chance of success, subtract 5d6 hp.
Sleight of Hand and Stealth are both modified by DEX, with any score above 15 adding +1.

Level   XP       HP   SP   POIS   PARA   DODGE   DEV   MAG
  1. 0            1d6  5        4          5           10              9         4
  2. 1,750     2d6  +2      4          5           11              10       4
  3. 3,500     3d6  +2      5          6           12              10       5
  4. 7,000     4d6  +2      5          6           13              11       5
  5. 14,000   5d6  +2      6          7           14              12       6
  6. 28,000   6d6  +2      6          7           15              12       6
  7. 56,000   7d6  +2      7          8           16              13       7
  8. 112,000 8d6  +2      7          9           17              14       8
  9. 224,000 9d6  +2      8          9           18              14       9

2 comments:

  1. I really like your "weapon slot" idea. I think it would encourage players to carry more non-combat gear into the dungeons, since they don't have to worry as much about their weaponry encumbering them, and it might make combat more interesting and tactical because switching weapons in the heat of battle wouldn't be quite so discouraged. As a Fighter, it could be fun to do clever maneuvers like starting a fight with a spear because you anticipate receiving a charge, and then switch to a greatsword after the enemy closes in so that you can dish out extra damage. Maybe you could add additional advantages and disadvantages to different types of weapons to encourage flexibility in combat, assuming you can keep things fairly simplistic so as not to bog the pace of the game down. Also, I like that the Fighter gets something new to distinguish them in combat (more weapon slots).

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    1. Oh why thank you for liking this and sharing it! I definitely would have differentiation of weapons, might just use some of the default stuff from LotFP but probably will make my own house rules regarding it. Also I just realized I forgot to put the special combat capabilities of the fighter in here woops. But yeah thank you so much, I really like your blog and this means a lot to me!

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