Has anyone gotten around to putting together a Viking base class yet? I’m considering it…
Has anyone gotten around to putting together a Viking base class yet? I’m considering it…
Has anyone gotten around to putting together a Viking base class yet? I’m considering it…
What should it do?
And do you know Sagas of the Icelanders?
What would differentiate a Viking from another class? I can see a Viking, depending on how it’s portrayed, as a Fighter, Barbarian, Cleric (Cleric of Odin? Hell yeah!), Ranger, Paladin (quests!), Bard (skald!), or Thief. Not Wizard so much.
Why? Viking Necromancer!
Can’t get more metal than that!
I was thinking of an augmented fighter. Maybe specializing in fast weapon swaps and gaining momentum the more they kill/bleed. Like the slayer and fighter mixed.
I would make a compendium class, perhaps based on the Dragonslayer (because the Blood stat works really well conceptually, I think)
Personally I see a Viking as a background choice. Vikings are essentially a human culture rather than a class, in other words. The traditional concept of the mythological/legendary Viking as a violent brute on the field of battle is best represented by the Barbarian, but as others mention the actual culture easily supports Clerics and Paladins (Norse myth is rich), Fighters and there were certainly Thieves among them.
I guess my ultimate point is that a Viking class, to me, wouldn’t make sense, since Vikings were ultimately a culture composed of all manner of “classes” so to speak.
A good starting point wolud be to take the Pirate from Pirate World, and work on a Viking background, I guess.
If a class makes sense to your group and campaign, you should take the fighter, barbarian and/or Thief as starting points, and make out moves that reflect the Vikingness of the class. I see the viking as a big, evil, very tough and superstitious sea predator.
So:
When you take damage…
When you growl curses in a harsh tongue…
When you fight on a ship…
And so on…
It could go either way, either as a background or a CC, depending if you consider a Viking to be a heritage or an honor that is earned. Usually I suggest against trying to make new classes that bump into another classes niche. A re-skin of the existing class works just as well. Likewise, a CC shouldn’t be so desirable or close to an existing base class that every member of that class would want it, so a Viking shouldn’t be a Barbarian+.
What I ended up doing was taking the homebrewed Gladiator baseclass and changing some things about it to reflect what I wanted from the character. With GM approval, this worked out rather well.