"Missing" race / class combos

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"Missing" race / class combos
« on: August 09, 2012, 10:29:15 PM »
I'm working on a DW PBP based on the Hellfrost setting, and one of the things in that setting is that any race can be a cleric, paladin or whatever. Because of this, I've been working on some racial Moves for combos not included in the DW rules. I've tried to keep these Moves as similar as possible to existing ones so as not to be too overpowered or underpowered, and these are what I've come up with so far. I'd be grateful if you could give feedback and comment on them (and please feel free to be brutally honest). I'm also happy to explain my choices or answer any questions you might have as to why I've offered particular ones.

Here they are:

Bard:
Dwarf (Years of Study - choose a second area of expertise for Bardic Lore for free)
Halfling (Merchant Contacts - when making a Supply roll, add +1 to the roll and take 10% off the cost)

Cleric:
Elf (Spirit of the Woods – no matter which god you worship, the forest still claims your soul. Choose a druid spell – you can cast it as if it was a cleric spell)
Halfling (Informal Church – Often on the road, Halflings call any place their church. Sanctuary is a rote spell for you)

Fighter: None

Paladin:
Elf (Elven Blade – your main weapon gets an additional +1 piercing when you are on a quest)
Dwarf (Dwarven Oath – When on a quest, you can choose to get an extra boon in exchange for an extra vow)
Halfling (Where did you come from? - When you defend, gain a +1 to your roll if you use your small size as an advantage)

Ranger:
Dwarf (Cavern Crawler: +1 to Hunt and Track and Discern Realities in the Great Underworld - natural caverns, not dungeons)
Halfling (Well-Travelled - When you enter a new location, ask the GM for one fact about a civilised centre (city, fort, steading etc) in that area.

Thief:
Dwarf (Feigned Dwarven Oath - A dwarf’s word is sacrosanct and you take advantage of this – one lie you tell each day will be completely believed.)
Elf (Sneaky Elf: +1 to defy danger when sneaking or hiding)

Wizard:
Dwarf (Runic Circle: Alarm spell as rote)
Halfling (Application of Psychology: parley with int not cha – sizing up your opponents, knowing how to approach them from study of psychology)

Druid:
Dwarf (At Home Underground: Take the Great Underworld (natural caverns, not dungeons) as a land type in addition to your choice from that list.)


Thanks!

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2012, 09:01:29 AM »
Those are excellent!  I may, in fact, use them as "suggestions" for my Eberron conversion, if you wouldn't mind.

While I understand the intention with the limited race selection and definitely am going to play that way for my first few DW scenarios, I know that both myself and some of my players like playing the oddball combos and it takes little from the game to cater to those impulses.  Halfling Barbarian?  Dwarf Wizard?  Warforged Druid?  YES PLEASE!

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2012, 01:01:01 PM »
Yeah, these are really nice. I love how they sort of have a theme along each race.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2012, 02:04:28 PM »
Sure, they're released into the wild now, so use them as your playthings.

If you have any suggestions for changes etc, let me know!

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2012, 09:28:45 PM »
Very nice!  As I've said, all you really need to remember is;

a) What does this say about ALL elves / dwarves / etc.
b) How does it let them cheat or bend the rules
c) What extra options might it give them

Flavour to taste.  One way you can really leverage this stuff is by making racial moves more like alignments - let people change them as they go or let them "level up" with advanced versions like class moves!

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2012, 10:18:17 PM »
Thanks skinny, that's really good advice.

My next job is to create some factional Moves - each character will belong to one of the factions in the setting (Hammerhand Huscarls, The Reliquary, Wood Wardens etc), in effect giving them an extra free Move at Character generation and offering them yet more fiction to help round out their characters, and allow me to ask them more questions (why did you join the Iron Guild mercenaries? What caused you to give up everything and become a Hearth Knight? Why did you refuse to join the Convocation?) based on which they pick. These will be more like standard Moves, and some are going to be pretty easy (eg choose 1 Ranger Move). Some will be class-dependent, others race-dependent, some open to anyone. It means I have to create more Moves though, and so this advice will really help.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2012, 01:09:16 PM »
Creating moves = creating setting.  It's actually really fun.  I love tweaking stuff and seeing where it leads the game.  The other way you might want to go with factions is creating a handful of compendium classes; one for each guild or power group, with three or four moves as options once you've joined that group.  They can represent obvious stuff like magic powers granted by the patron of the group or more subtle stuff like reach or influence.  "When you spread word that you're a member of the Hearth Knights roll+CHA" and the like.  Stuff that can let you leverage your membership in appropriate circles.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2012, 03:36:39 PM »
I thought of doing compendium classes, but my problem then is that to make each faction worthwhile, I'd have to make each one a compendium class; I have around 2 dozen factions though that exist in Hellfrost as well as another couple of dozen reiigions each with their own separate cleric and paladin Moves, so that would be a large job, creating that many Moves (especially since I'd like to make them as unique as possible). I do have a while before I intend to run the game though, so it may be an option. I was considering an initial Move (all characters start involved with one faction or other), a level 2-5 Move, and a level 6-10 Move. Some would be fairly easy (Roadwardens and maybe Hearth Knights might get the Paladin I am the Law Move), but I don't want to tread too heavily on the toes of existing classes - if I pick and choose the best bits from a particular class to add to one of the other classes, I'm in danger of shortchanging the original class. 

I most certainly DO want to include social benefits / penalties of certain groups though - the hearth knights are almost always well-respected; Guild Thieves have considerable contacts compared to non-guild thieves, Heahwisards are part of the nobility of the Magocracy, and so there are social and political benefits to being one of their number, etc.

These are the factions I'm playing with at any rate:

Bladedancers - Elven guards who use acrobatic Moves coupled with the use of twin swords (Elven Fighter prereq).
Halfling Bludgeoners - the 'secret police' of the Halfling caravans, keeping an eye on trouble within the camp, but mostly concerned with the protection of the caravan and it's inhabitants, and highly skilled with the sling (Halfling fighter prereq).
Convocationist - Elementalist wizard from any race, part of a guild if you like, and focusing on particular elements (any race wizard).
Old Order Druid - non-human only, using the new Druid class. Worshipping primal forces rather than deities (non-human druid).
Grey Legionary - The last refuge of those with nothing left to lose, hoping to end their lives by accomplishing something worthwhile. (Fighters of any race)
Guild Thief - offering training, safe houses, fences etc (any race, Thief)
Heahwisard - Anari (human) wizard, part of the nobility of the Magocracy, their magic is focused on, dependent on and magnified by their wizard staffs (human wizard).
Hearth Knight - Sworn to keep the Hearthlands safe from the denizens of the Hellfrost, respected by the people (fighter of any race).
Huscarl - Saxe (Human) warriors trained to fight together, watching each others' backs and protect the Saxa steadings (Human fighter). 
Hammerhand Huscarl - Dwarven warriors sworn to take back the lost Dwarven cities from the Orcs, no matter the cost (Dwarf fighter).
Iron Guild Mercenary - Hired by the Iron Guild merchant company to protect their wagons and merchants; often act as bodyguards (any race, fighter, possibly ranger).
Knight Hrafn - Commanders for hire, inspiring the men under them by their leadership and knowledge of strategy and tactics (any race, fighter, maybe bard).
Anari Legionary - Anari (Human) warriors who are disciplined in combat, trained in several weapons and equipped with good quality gear (Human fighter).
Lorekeeper - wanderers who carry scrolls from place to place, offering copies to every library they find in return for access to their own scrolls and books, and memorizing as much as they can in order to pass on their own knowledge (Any race, bard).
Reliquary - A group that researches, locates and appropriates relics and magical artifacts - for what reason, no-one is entirely sure - and especially trained in their retrieval from lost crypts etc (any race, thief or bard).
Roadwarden - The nearest thing to the police out in the countryside, keeping the roads clear of internal threats (the hearth knights watch the borders for external threats, and the White Rangers spy on the enemy in their own realm). Respected, police powers (any Ranger).
Rune Mage - Dwarven wizards, specializing in the application of runes and crafting rather than quick spells (Dwarf Wizard).
Watchers of the Black Gate - guardians of the Black Gate - the entrance through which demons seek to enter the world. In addition to guarding the physical location of the Gate, they travel around in search of demonic malfeasance (Any race, bard or fighter).
White Rangers - They spy on the enemy in their own realm, tracking through the northern icy wastes, aiding anyone from the hearthlands who find themselves in difficulty in this region, watching for movement from the enemy's forces, ad slaying whatever Hellfrost beasts they can find (any race Ranger).
Wood Wardens - Elven forest guardians, who commune with animals and plants to protect the borders of the woods and keep their people safe inside the forests, misdirect or deal with intruders (Elf, ranger or druid).
Skalds - Travelling entertainers welcome throughout the lands, able to affect the reputations of lords and paupers alike through their songs and stories, keeping the history of their people alive, passing messages from place to place (any race, bard).
Priest - worshipping one of the 24 major gods (or one of the myriad lesser gods), and with Moves based on the focus of their god's area of authority (any race, cleric).
Paladin - militant warriors who specialize in the physical protection of their religion's priests and lay followers, harnessing the power of their gods to do so (any race, Paladin).

If anyone wants to suggest Moves that would fit in with any of these groups, you'll be making my life much easier!

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2012, 06:41:50 PM »
Out of curiosity wouldn't this and the previous thread for "new" races be good for merging? I mean I can't find it at the moment but I've got some modron stats I think people would dig and this is much more active.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2012, 09:17:02 PM »
I'd rather keep it separate, if you don't mind, since I'm working on stuff for Hellfrost, and you're working on stuff for Eberron (I think?), so while there might be some overlap, some other stuff really wouldn't fit. If there's anything here that you can use, though, cut and paste it to the other thread to. :)

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2012, 09:54:13 PM »
Yeah fair enough. Cheers though, this is a good thread.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2012, 04:21:14 PM »
I've been doing some more work on compendium classes which fit the factions and professions of Hellfrost, and working on getting the others done, probably when I return from vacation. I've done a series of posts to my blog (http://antinomiantendencies.posterous.com/ if you want to check them out so far. I may do some tweaks here and there, so any feedback is always welcome.

You can see the DW specific posts linked on the right side of the page for ease of use.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #12 on: September 11, 2012, 12:50:06 PM »
Posterous is being crap, so I've moved my blog to http://antinomiantendencies.blogspot.ca instead. I've also updated it with a whole shitload of stuff for Priests and Paladins of the various religions to be found in Hellfrost.

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #13 on: September 11, 2012, 09:29:37 PM »
Nice! Lots of neat stuff both in here and in the blog, keep it coming :)

Re: "Missing" race / class combos
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2012, 03:51:59 PM »
Thanks! I added more stuff today, and went back to the Convocationist Elementalist to add spell lists for Air, Earth, Fire and Water, with some new spells there like with the Paladin and Priest entry. Only a few more factions and professions to do now, then I'll add a bit of history, geography and some house rules etc.