Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Another alternative - have a Jester as a specialist hireling for castles and leave it at that. If for some insane reason a player wants to play a medieval standup comic, it sounds like something based on Etiquette and some sort of Perform skill really.

Elevating insults and chorus lines to the level of a character class - we've all done it, written them up and so on but only tiny numbers of player bother to play them usually and then - often not well.

Plus if any class can perform as a Jester using skills - or a Jongleur or Mummer for that matter - makes picking on a Jester a lot more risky - could be a Magic-User, Cleric or Fighter under the bells.

And burgerbabylon just posted the PERFECT image for this supplement:



viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3718&p=70791#p70791

teaman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:01 pm And burgerbabylon just posted the PERFECT image for this supplement:



viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3718&p=70791#p70791

Thanks teaman. The supplement seems to be long gone but the image is still out there for anyone who has a use for it.

It's in the Showcase page, not the main Downloads page.

Fixed the link to point to the Showcase location.

Solomoriah wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:02 am Fixed the link to point to the Showcase location.

Great, Solo. Thanks and hope you are doing well!

I love the concept of this class probably due to jesters being some of my favorite characters in literature/games.

I like Jesters along the historical line of children who were bought, forged and sold at high prices to courts. Such a character is taught acrobatics and magic to entertain. A Jester who then leaves the service of the court is well positioned to learn any magic, including offensive.
Always a tragic character and hence not a popular choice for a player.

I'm the original designer of this dubiously assembled class document. It is staggering to see a) how old it is, and b) that anyone posted about it in the year of our Lord 2022!

It was designed for one player in a campaign I refereed way back. She loved these twin jester henchmen from (and I might be misremembering at this point) Final Fantasy IX and wanted to play one. This class pitch was the first and only attempt at that. She enjoyed it tremendously, despite its numerous flaws. It did what the player wanted, and she wasn't concerned with how it compared to the other classes.

Yes, it's narrow in scope and yes, it's underpowered. Though we found it's spell list entirely suitable in play at the time. It does warrant tumbling, for certain. Also juggling and throwing weapons ought to be included. I, personally, wouldn't add thieve's cant, but would have a "carny" language that jesters share with other entertainers and performers.

The jester probably warrants a penalty to party surprise unless ambushing. Honestly, they're not a good adventuring choice. Making them on-par with the core classes seems as silly as the jesters themselves, so I didn't revisit them after the campaign concluded. The player did manage to keep her jester alive for the entire thing mind you.