Demi humans

[cbarchuk]

I totally forgot about continuing to equally distribute the XP. Man, demi humans were not good in OD&D. Did many people play demi humans in 0D&D?

[Solomoriah]

Gary claimed nobody did in his game; I'm prone to believe it, at least at first, because there are definite issues with them in the original three books that result in major changes in the later supplements.

[Tazer_The_Yoot]

It's worth looking into how Mentzer handled this in his BECMI rules line. I'm mobile right now and don't have access to my RC but in a nutshell they continue to progress albeit in a different way from humans, an alphabetical list rather than numerical, and the staggered xp method aforementioned was a component of this iirc

[Dimirag]

In Rules Cyclopedia Demihumans stops earning levels at some point, but they continue acquiring XP and improving their attack skill at even a faster rate: They increase as fighters first, 2pts every 3 levels and then, when entering on the letter code, they improve on a 1pt per level.

Which gives me an idea, maybe Demihumans can improve on one class area, like spells for a MU, thieving skills for a thief, and so on... Priest could improve spells on one level and turning undead on the other level...

[Tazer_The_Yoot]

I haven't sat down and read my RC in depth in a while now, but I remember it including some good lore and mechanics for Demi-Human specific Artifacts as well. IMHO one of the interesting contrasts between old school and new school is how individual characters evolve and grow differently through acquiring unique gear in Old School. Any powers or distinguishing traits aren't class-based but are a badge of the adventures the character has been through. So a Dwarf character who gains the legendary + 3 Throwing Hammer and the armor set that goes with it would be unique, as would an alternate Dwarf who gained something like the legendary Plate Mail of the Runesmith that gave him access to a number of spells in combat (I just made that one up but you get the idea. That's the spirit.)

In this regard, you can keep the Demi-Humans useful even if they stop levelling. Simply give them access to race-specific gear that's more powerful than the norm. Sure, the Human Fighter has 20 hit dice, but he can't fly or shoot lasers, can he?

[Solomoriah]

What really makes characters unique in the old school is adventures like In Search of the Unknown or Castle Amber, where there are "specials" that change a character permanently. For example, the ghostly banquet in Castle Amber, where, if your character participates and manages to survive, he or she may end up with things like never needing to eat.