Tuesday, September 30, 2025

New Class: the Wild Man

It's not a novel observation to point out that, in BX D&D, a system which articulates a clear distinction between dungeon and wilderness adventures (the former described in Basic while the latter in Expert), there is no class that oriented toward wilderness adventuring the same way the thief, with their lock-picking, trap-finding, sneaking-and-hiding capabilities, is suited for dungeoneering. 

There are some wilderness-y classes in old school D&D: the ranger, which was born as a subclass of the fighter; the druid, a subclass of the cleric; and the Unearthed Arcana Barbarian for AD&D, which to my understanding was meant to be a solo-play super-class which meant it was sort of just a fighter with a bunch of extra abilities. 

BX is blissfully spared from class archetype inflation. In this game classes are not archetypes, but meta-archetypes; i.e. fighters are people who's main thing is fighting, whether they're a swashbuckler, a knight, or a viking, and so on. 

And so the wilderness class should stand on its own, not just be a "fighter/cleric, but..." 

Which leads me to:

The Wild Man



Wild Men (or Women, or Woodwose) are humans raised in the wilderness. It is not uncommon for Wild Men to have been reared by apes, wolves, bears, or other such creatures. 

Prime Requisite: Constitution

Restrictions: Wild Men use d8 to determine their hit points. They may advance to a maximum of 9th level. Wild Men may use leather armor and shields and can wield axes, clubs, swords, spears, daggers, slings, and bows. Wild men may not establish strongholds or recruit retainers from civilized lands. Wild men make saving throws as a fighter.

Special Abilities: 
  • Wild men have an 80% chance to climb steep surfaces as a thief and navigate difficult terrain without penalty by swinging from vines, leaping from branch to branch, scrambling over rough ground, and the like. At fourth level this ability extends to moving silently as a thief, but only in the wilderness. 
  • Wild men may jump a distance equal to half their combat movement vertically or horizontally from a standing position. 
  • When foraging, parties with a wild man always find at least one days-worth of food even if the foraging roll fails. 
  • A wild man may communicate nonverbally with animals, rolling reactions as for an NPC. If the animal’s reaction is at least “uncertain,” the wild man can attempt to tame the animal and have it join as a retainer by offering it food or other gifts. The wild man can never have more than his own hit-dice in animal retainers (stolen from Jeff of Swords & Schlock because it’s too good not to use). 
  • Wild men fight with reckless ferocity; before attacking, the wild man may declare they fight recklessly, gaining a +2 bonus to attack and damage but granting foes +2 to their attacks until the wild man's next turn. 

Level

Experience

Title

HD

THAC0

1

0

Tenderfoot

1d8

19 (+0)

2

2,250

Greenhorn

2d8

19 (+0)

3

4,500

Brute

3d8

19 (+0)

4

9,000

Rough

4d8

19 (+0)

5

18,000

Primal

5d8

17 (+2)

6

36,000

Predator

6d8

17 (+2)

7

72,000

Basajaun

7d8

17 (+2)

8

140,000

Apex

8d8

17 (+2)

9

270,000

Wodewose

9d8

14 (+5)





Discussion: 

The primary focus of the class is the movement abilities—having such open-ended methods to navigate the environment gives players a new relationship to verticality and space, which hopefully makes the class feel wholly different to play than the others. 

Communicating with and recruiting animals is also intended to provide new options for how players interact with wilderness locales, and also gives players the opportunity to mess around more with animals which everyone seems to love doing. 

My initial vision for this class was to give bonuses to things involved in wilderness travel, namely not getting lost, foraging and hunting, and tracking monsters to their lairs. Those abilities, in addition to being somewhat boring, are more focused on travel and less on actual adventuring in wilderness locales. But I wanted to throw the foraging ability in there because it seems odd that someone native to the wilderness would have trouble getting something to eat. 

The reckless attack ability is intended to be the wild man-version of a thief's backstab and also to prevent the wild man from being outclassed by the beefier cleric while not stepping on the fighter's toes of being the signature martial class. 

Why wild man and not barbarian? 

Barbarian is an admittedly better and more metal-sounding (so better) term, but it comes with a lot of baggage being a class that's like a figher-but-not-quite. The wild man can easily be considered a re-imagined barbarian, but it is explicitly more Tarzan than Conan. 

Wild men as an artistic motif were actually huge in medieval Europe, decorating all sorts of paintings, manuscripts, coats-of-arms, and  household objects. 

Here are a few words from The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism by Timothy Husband, which I found quite illuminating:

Primitive, irrational, and heretical, the wild man would seem to have been a pariah in a world obsessed with religious interpretation and order. Yet it is largely these very characteristics of medieval society that explain the wild man's invention and development ... The wild man likewise served to counterpoise the accepted standards of conduct of society in general. If the average man could not articulate what he meant by "civilized" in positive terms, he could readily do so in negative terms by pointing to the wild man. As the dialectical antithesis of all man should strive for, the wild man was the abstract concept of "noncivilization" rendered as a fearful physical reality.


Thursday, August 14, 2025

GREENEYED PIG MEN

I'm not an "orc guy" by any means (hobgoblins are more my speed) but for better or worse they're intrinsic to D&D fantasy. Similar to what I wrote about elementals in my last post, orcs are one of those aspects of the game that beg to be reimagined, as evidenced by how many hundreds (of thousands) of words have been devoted to reinterpreting orcs with more nuance to either explain their brutish tendencies or justify why they can be killed without guilt. I've mostly stayed away from this topic and from orcs in general (more for aesthetic reasons than anything else, as I've never settled on a "look" for orcs that feels right) but the other night I passed out reading Planet Algol and dreamed of  Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles softly punching me in the face while psychedelic noise rock played in the background. I woke up in a trashed hotel room and found this post fully written in a notepad document on my laptop ANYWAY HERE IT IS

GREENEYED PIG MEN


GREENEYED PIG MEN
# Appearing: 2d6 (dungeon)/1d6x10 (overworld)/30d10 (overworld lairs) 
Armor Class: 7 
Movement: 120'(40') 
Hit Dice:
Attacks: +0 weapon (1d8) 
Alignment: Chaotic 
Morale: 8 (6 without a leader) 
Saving throws: Fighter 1
Lair: 50%
  • Greeneyes: Can't see well in full daylight, -1 to hit.
  • Death comes cheap: slain allies do not cause a morale check.
  • Leaders: Dungeon groups are led by a 2 HD captain (hp 9, Att. +1 1d8). Overworld groups are led by a 4 HD PIG MAN CHIEF (hp 15, Att, +3 1d8+2). Lairs have their own leaders, detailed below.
  • War pigs: Fight other tribes on sight. Commands from their leader to stand down are only obeyed 50% of the time.
GREENEYED PIG MEN live to fight. Prolonged bouts of pacifism atrophy their muscles and cause their organs to fail. PIG MEN are practical and don't care for tough decisions; they instinctively seek out leaders who prove their might and ensure they can kill and raze as they please.

Lairs (1d20)

1-6. CAVE COMPLEX


Leader: 1:10 chance per 100 PIG MEN it’s a dragon, otherwise it’s a PIG MAN chief

Additional occupants: 10% chance per 50 pig men (checked independently): 

  • 1d6 ogres

  • 1d4 trolls

  • 1d4 ettins


7-11. WAR CAMP

Commander (1d8): 

1-4. PIG MAN chief 

5-6. Chaotic Fighter (7-9 HD)

7-8. Magic-user (11 HD)

Additional forces: roll twice +1 additional time for every 50 PIG MEN above 150

1. Team of 1d4 PIG MAN beast tamers w/ trained chimera, hydra, basilisk, or giant scorpion

2. 1d3 tiraphegs

3. 1d10 war-painted dire boars 

4. 3d8 0 HD human meatshields

5. 1 hill giant

6. 1d4 trolls

7. 1d6 ogres

8. 1d8 PIG MAN pterodactyl riders


12-14. SKULL FORTRESS

Dark Lord (1d8):

1-2. Chaotic fighter (9 HD)

3-4. Magic-user (8-11 HD)

5-6. Evil High Priest (11 HD) 

7-8. Abyssal Demon (Bael’rogh)

Additional forces: As War Camp


15-17. MULTI-TIERED PLATFORM VILLAGE complete with robust inter-platform zipline network

Leader: As War Camp 

Additional occupants: as Cave Complex


18-20. They’re just piled on top of one another in a GIANT PIT

Leader: PIG MAN chief 

Additional occupants: None, but the pit has a 1:10 chance per 100 pig men of being situated at the foot of... (1d12): 

1-2. a Dark Lord’s stronghold.

3-4. a dragon’s mountain.

5-6. a recently ransacked human settlement.

7-8. a matronly elder hag’s cottage.

9-10. a giant mind-controlling mushroom.

11. an unspeakably horrifying obsidian effigy.

12. a smoldering crater, radioactive meteorite still glowing.

Convoys

When PIG MEN are encountered in the overworld outside of their lair, there’s a 37% chance they are escorting a wagon train. The train will have 2d4 wagons, and will have 10 PIG MEN guarding each wagon in addition to the number of PIG MEN initially rolled for the encounter. 

Convoy leader (1d6)
1-2. Fighter (7-9 HD)
3-4. Magic-User (7-9 HD)
5. Cleric (7-9 HD)
6. PIG MAN chief or something else

Wagon contents (2d6 for each)
2-4. 1 large, cumbersome statue, tapestry, or other piece of art worth 2d6 x 100 sp
5-6. 2d6 x 100 sp worth of trade goods like spices, furs, rare lumber, etc.
7-8. 2d6 x 100 sp in coins
9. Weapons, armor, and ammunition
10. Materials required to construct a catapult or other siege engine
11. 2d4 potions and 2 scrolls 
12. 1 miscellaneous magic item

What are GREENEYED PIG MEN? (1dwhatever)

1. Vat-spawned soldiers created for a long-forgotten war.

2. The offspring of other pig men breeding with female swine.

3. Men subjected to a curse that befalls those who spill blood on holy ground.

4. No one can say for sure, but it has something to do with fungus.

5. Organisms that spontaneously generate in dungeonous environments.

6. Children of the great demon Idnach, mother of monsters. 

7-100. don’t worry about it.




Sample GREENEYED PIG MAN clans & names


CLANS
1. Razorbacks. Incredibly hairy. Experts at ambushes and guerilla combat. 2. Rotting Sun. Covered in sores and rashes. Accompanied by swarms of biting flies. 3. Thrashbangers. Thick goggles protect their eyes from the sun. Fight with makeshift grenades and explosives. 4. Black Feast. Wear spiked leather harnesses. Eat fallen foes and allies. 5. Toegrinders. Decorate their armor with skulls and bones. Ride into combat on lumbering battlewagons. 6. Greenskins. Rather unremarkable.

NAMES
1. Gurglesnort

2. Master Exploder

3. Trotenheim

4. Excrementus

5. Slugnutz

6. Krunt

7. Rashburn

8. Elfsqueeze

9. Scum Gutter

10. Gruesome

11. Skidmark

12. Oglebog

13. Throckmorton

14. Weasel Piss

15. Dunkhead

16. Jagwort

17. Weenus

18. Gigantic

19. Crusher Prime

20. Bloodgut


Thursday, July 31, 2025

The hills have arms (and they're beating your ass)

Elementals

Certain ideas are on their face kind of lame or frustratingly executed, but have a kernel of something resonant that keeps bringing you back. It's like the flaws are there to taunt you, challenging you to fix them. 

Old school D&D is like that. BX is a terrific game with enough tremendous flops and oversights that designing house rules and derivative systems has essentially become a hobby in and of itself.

D&D elementals also fall in this category. People have been providing new rules, alternative interpretations, and added texture for decades. Chris Hogan has a good writeup on why elementals are boring and what can be done about them, and it's from way back in the day when people started their posts with a Captain Planet reference (it's good though and you should read it. No one posts like that anymore). 

A lot of people go in the direction of adding layers nuance to elementals and changing the baseline assumptions. This post from Scrap Princess has been knocking around my brain for years, and even though I haven't found a use for it in my game it's a welcome addition to my mental ecosystem. "Gravity fire" is a good example of the kind of radical direction people take the elemental concept.

I like this approach a lot, but when you change elementals too much it requires a lot more buy-in from the players. The baseline concept for elementals is so easy to grasp it almost feels too straightforward, but hear me out: A wildfire is scary, but a sentient wildfire that's trying to kill you, specifically, is terrifying, exhilarating, and somewhat absurd—perfect for a D&D game. Living tornados and walking earthquakes might not be the most glamorous (certainly underserved by the official art) but damn it they can be fun too. They're like those OSR-style challenges we all go crazy for but with hit points. 

The problem is, nothing about this is reflected in the stats. We're led to believe elementals are living  flames/winds/water/earth but you can walk right up to one and whack it with a sword? And the only risk you run is being targeted by its one attack per round? Something's not right here.

This is just a side-note before I move on, but a point I've never seen mentioned before is the monster listing for elementals in both O and AD&D imply they are only the stats for conjured elementals (either by staff, spell, or device). The AD&D Monster Manual even goes so far as to specify more sophisticated elementals exist "than can be summoned." Over time, these "conjured elementals" became the standard all-purpose elemental, leading to the uncomfortable middle ground we have today where they're kind of mindless bag-of-hitpoint monsters but are also supposed to be the dominant lifeform on their respective plane, which supposedly all have their own cultures and civilizations.   

What D&D does well

Conjured elementals map neatly to things high-level characters will do, namely aerial adventures, seafaring adventures, domain-level stronghold sieges, and messing around with large quantities of fire.

When a magic-user conjures an elemental it requires their full concentration to maintain control. This implies elementals are like bound spirits held against their will, which is very on-theme. Elementals summoned by druids don't turn on their masters, probably because they asked nicely. 

Little details about how elementals’ size changes based on their power and how fire and earth elementals are obstructed by channels of water are nice and lend some tactical depth for keen parties to leverage. 

Treating elementals as extraplanar entities instead of constructs gives elementals an appropriately numinous quality, even if their statblocks don’t measure up. 

In AD&D, certain spells require the presence of an elemental or become stronger if an elemental is used in their casting. This is only true for earth and air elementals (distance distortion and move earth for earth, call lightning for air) but there’s a lot of potential for this to be expanded. Magic-users conjuring planar beings to aid their spellcasting is exceptionally evocative and I’ll most definitely steal that idea. 

This is how elementals work now

Elementals are formed when essence from the planetary lifestream is sequestered in base matter—in the D&D world, this means fire, water, earth, and air, instead of like atoms or whatever. 

Digression: There's no elemental plane of air/fire etc. There is only one elemental plane, and it surrounds and touches this one at all points. The elemental plane—wizards call it the Plane of Elemental Anima, capitalized—is where the world's living essence exists in tangible form. It's also the place where beings like animistic nature spirits, djinns, and all those weird elemental monsters from the Rules Cyclopedia like helions and the kryst reside. Barbarians call the elemental plane the "Godrealm," as that is where their many heathen deities originate. 

Conjured elementals, generally, should not be dealt with as typical monsters. Mundane weapons are useless, and magical weapons only deal minimal damage unless specifically designed to harm enchanted or extraplanar creatures. Damage to an elemental's corporeal form is just reconstituted from the surrounding element.

The most common way to defeat an elemental is by depriving it of its matter. Cut off a water elemental from its source, trap a wind elemental in a vacuum, uproot an earth elemental, deny a fire elemental access to fuel. 

Smart players would go after the commanding MU to break their concentration. You'd think most MUs have contingencies in place to prevent this from happening, but evil wizards have a habit of underestimating plucky adventurers.

The easiest way to handle an elemental is by commanding another to fight it or casting a spell of banishment. The problem is, this requires collaboration with powerful MUs and/or clerics, who are rare, expensive, and hard to get along with in equal measure. 

Elementals also have utility, believe it or not, outside of combat. Their life essence can be channeled to manipulate their native element. [design note: RAW conjured elementals exist indefinitely until slain or dismissed. I like the idea of using elementals for non-combat activities but if they last forever they would be too useful and unbalance the game. Exchanging hp for more capabilities is my compromise.]

Here are the stats to make conjured elementals more like the primordial forces of nature they ought to be: 

Air

Appearance ideas
8 HD:  Airborne debris flying like a starling murmuration
12 HD: A screaming, whirling disk of silvery cloud-stuff. Whizzes around recklessly.  
16 HD: A storm cloud serpent with thunderbolt wings 

AC 2/0/-2 Att. +7/+9/+11 blow (1d8/2d8/3d8) Mv. 360'(120') flying Saves: as HD Morale: 10 Alignment: Neutral
  • Must be conjured under the open sky.
  • Deals an extra 1d8 damage to flying foes. 
  • Creatures less than 2 HD in melee range must save vs. death each round or die from suffocation.
  • In place of doing damage, hit creatures up to ogre size can be flung 1d4x10' in any direction, taking fall damage as applicable. 
  • Dissipates if trapped indoors or in other enclosed spaces.
Additional powers
  • Thunderclap. Costs 2d8 hp. Releases a concussive burst that can be heard for miles; creatures within 50’ must save vs. breath or take 2d12 damage and be deafened and stunned (half movement and -4 to attack rolls) for 2d6 rounds, half damage on a success.
  • Tailwind. Costs 2d8 hp per hour. Allows sailboats and aerial vessels to move at 1.5x speed.

Earth 

Appearance ideas
8 HD: Upper body like a man, lower body like a giant earthen slug 
12 HD: A slouched ape figure with arms thick as tree trunks 
16 HD: A seismic wave-hill that drags itself on four giant pillar-like appendages 

AC 2/0/-2 Att. +7/+9/+11 blow (1d8/2d8/3d8) Mv. 60'(20') moves freely through unworked earth Saves: as HD Morale: 10 Alignment: Neutral
  • Must be conjured from raw dirt, stone, sand, or clay.
  • Deals an extra 1d8 damage to structures and foes on the ground.
  • In place of attacking, can create a tremor that causes everyone in 20' to fall over and save vs. paralysis or take 1d6 damage. 
  • Cannot cross a water barrier wider than their HD in feet.
  • Dissipates if uprooted from the earth. Explosives harm earth elementals, as does falling, which kills them outright. Large scale excavation equipment deals normal damage—a human with a shovel won't do anything, but a giant with a giant shovel is a different story.
Additional powers
  • Liquefaction. Costs 2d8 hp. The ground in a 30’ radius becomes quicksand.
  • Land formation. Costs 3d8. The elemental forms itself into a shape of whoever commands its choosing (wall, pillar, small hut, etc.). Total volume of earth available to manipulate is 400/600/800 cubic feet. The elemental is inert while shaped (yet still conscious), and must lose another 3d8 hp to return to its original form. MUs still need to maintain concentration while an elemental is shaped, or else it will slip from their control and revert to its original form. 

Fire

Jon Silent

AC 2/0/-2 Att. +7/+9/+11 blow (1d8/2d8/3d8) Mv. 120'(40') Saves: as HD Morale: 10 Alignment: Neutral

Appearance ideas
8 HD: Hundreds of small flaming figures dancing and leaping, their heads like tiny stars.
12 HD: A riotous vortex of fire unfurling like a rose.
16 HD: A plasma toroid hovering ominously above the ground.
  • Must be conjured from a roaring fire of at least man-height.
  • Automatically damages foes in melee range. Ignites flammable material.
  • Cannot cross a water barrier wider than their HD in feet.
  • Loses 2 hp each round it lacks access to fuel (dry firewood, oil, etc.).
Additional powers
  • Combust. Costs 2d8 hp. Deals an amount of damage equal to hp lost to every creature within 30’, save vs. spells for half. Any amount of additional hp may be spent to bolster the effect.
  • Primordial crucible. A fire elemental can be bound in order to reduce the time (but not the cost) of creating a magic item by 1 week per HD. There's a 10% chance each week the elemental escapes from it's binding and attacks it master, ruining the magic item in the process. The elemental dissipates once the magic item is created, and can be dismissed at any time—for example, an MU can decide that after shaving 8 weeks off a 6-month project they don't want to risk it any more, they can dismiss their elemental and work the remaining 4 months alone. 

    Water

    Appearance ideas
    8 HD: Wriggling mass of transparent worms
    12 HD: A broad ribbon of water, gently swaying
    16 HD: A roiling black water leviathan with glassy sheen, flecked by sparks of bioluminescence

    AC 2/0/-2 Att. +7/+9/+11 blow (1d8/2d8/3d8) Mv.  60’(20’) on land, instantaneously disperses and reconstitutes anywhere in a 180’ radius while in water. Saves: as HD Morale: 10 Alignment: Neutral
    • Must be conjured from a body of water no smaller than a pond or creek.
    • Deals an extra 1d8 damage to foes in water.
    • A water elemental can attempt to surround and submerge a foe by moving into the space it occupies. Save vs. paralysis or be restrained by the elemental and unable to breathe (losing consciousness in 2 rounds). On a successful save the creature is pushed back 10’. 
    • Dissipates if more than 60’ from its water source.
    Additional powers
      • Phase change. Costs 1d8 hp. Elemental becomes mist, ice, or turns back to water. It can freeze around submerged foes, trapping them and inflicting 1d6 damage as they get crushed by expanding ice.
      • Maelstrom. Costs 1d8 hp per round. Elemental creates a giant whirlpool that sucks boats and traps aquatic creatures. Potentially surfaces submerged treasure or awakens abyssopelagic sea monsters.





      Monday, June 30, 2025

      Characters deserve cool mounts

      Every once in a while you see something and think “I don’t care how or when but this is going in my game.” 

      That happened to me recently with the early concept art of the Final Fantasy chocobo:

      God AKA Yoshitaka Amano

      Running birds. Wizards call them gallopedes

      HD 5 AC 7 Att. +4 talon x 2 (1d6) or beak (2d6) Move 270' (90') Save 12 Morale 9 NA 1d6 (3d8)

      They can charge into combat like a warhorse and carry as much as a draft horse. Big enough to accommodate two riders. 

      Running birds aren't for sale in any town or settlement. Herds are only known to gather in hex 1512, the Gallopede Glade. There’s a 1:20 chance per visit the Brollothere is hanging out there too.

      From Yūkyū no Kaze Densetsu: Final Fantasy III Yori

      The glade is also home to Yulassetar, a mossy dwarf with an old gnarled pipe permanently fixed between his lips. He lives in a pleasant cottage with his pet dire ferret and welcomes friendly visitors. 

      He’ll tell the PCs, as they're sure to ask, the two steps to befriending a running bird:

      The first step to earn one's respect is to beat it in a race. It's not hard to initiate; running birds are highly social creatures and love contests of speed. Winning is a different story though, as a typical running bird can easily pace the swiftest riding horse.  

      The second step is to have it accept a gift of food. Yulassetar recommends caecilia steak slathered in killer bee honey.

      After both steps are completed the running bird will be your ally for life. It obeys simple commands, fends for itself, and like all creatures with common sense it avoids entering dungeons. If its mistreated or its owner dies, it'll return to the glade. 

      When running birds sleep they curl up into a perfect sphere. 


      From the first Legend of the Crystals OVA