A few weeks ago I purchased the the elf, dwarf & halfling classes by funhaver on drivethru. I love the old school feel of the latter two but their Elf, while being a fighting magic user is not my cup of tea. It seems as though they tried to make a class that emulates the B/X or BECMI elf, yet they left out the vancian magic, thus making it less old school. Feeling inspired I’m beginning my own Elf class more directly based on the BECMI Elf, but before I go and reinvent the wheel, has anyone already written a class like this (essentially a fighter-wizard)? Admittedly, I can get that effect by playing an elven fighter and using the multi class dabbler move at level two to take the wizard’s spellcasting move, I’m just looking for something a bit different.
A few weeks ago I purchased the the elf, dwarf & halfling classes by funhaver on drivethru.
A few weeks ago I purchased the the elf, dwarf & halfling classes by funhaver on drivethru.
Huh. I loved the elf class. But apparently for some of the reasons you were disappointed by it.
Jeremy Strandberg g yeah, I prefer my DW classes to more closely emulate old-school D&D, not using vancian magic just killed the class for me.
The primary goal was actually to emulate the origin of the Elf in Tolkien, rather than its appearance in BECMI. Of course, the BECMI one was also an attempt at the Tolkien emulation thing, using the mechanical framework of D&D – that’s vancian magic! Rather than trying to recreate the classes directly, I tried to recreate the inspiration for those classes and work along the same lines. In my case, I had the mechanical framework of Dungeon World, and to really emphasize how different the Elf is from human notions of magic (an important thematic point), I made their magic operate differently. This also has the ancillary effect of not taking away the wizard’s spotlight during a game, since one of the core principles of playbooks is that each one is unique in a given game and shouldn’t be just poached from or recreated into something slightly different to get around that limitation – it should be possible to have an elf and a wizard in the same party without both using the same effects, in other words.
It would be very simple to replace the Elf base magic move with something like the wizard’s spell moves (replace it with Spellbook and Cast A Spell, perhaps) and of course anyone can do that. I’d advise carefully trimming or adjusting the spell list in this case if theme is important; several of the effects from The Elf are adjusted spells from the base DW spell lists already, if you take a careful look! I would advise against giving them Ritual or any of the other magic moves beyond a modified Spellbook and Cast A Spell move, however.
(And of course coming up with new advances for the spell-moves later in the Elf, but I’m sure new spellcasting ideas will crop up just fine!)
The product page on DTRPG states:
“The Elf is a new class for use with Dungeon World, perfect for players who like their Dungeon World with an old-school feel.”
The elf I got does not feel old school to me. Mechanically rolling for hold and spending it one for one on various effects that emulate wizard spells is similar to a Vancian spell caster. However, that mechanic and effects like the wizard’s are not what defines a Vancian caster, to me that requires a spellbook, preparation and spell slots. Further, you don’t give it any fighting verisimilitude, which to me makes it further from the BECMI Elf. It almost feels very Druidic and not at all fighter/magic-user. I can understand protecting other class’ niches, but your Dwarf has the same damage and hp of a fighter and can access two fighter moves through multi class moves. Your halfling can use his The little folk move to threaten a thief’s thieving niche.
I like your halfling and dwarf. I would allow someone at my table to play your elf. I just want something more old school for when I play, and was hoping to find one before I make one myself
I’m sorry. That probably comes across as meaner than I intended. I just dislike that class, I mean no offense.
I don’t think “old-school feel” has to mean “literally the exact same mechanics”. If you read the Elf, you will find the Elf’s ability to detect secrets, the elf’s proficiency with swords, the elf affinity for archery and the elven ability at magic are all in the class. I creatively interpreted them into a different game system, and emphasized them as the kind of warrior they are always described as being: Deadly and proficient archers, masters of swords (Precise longswords are quite deadly when archery fails!), equipped with extremely high quality weapons and armour and able to maneuver in ways humans find impossible (Elven Dexterity is a very interesting move for describing positioning in a fight). And if anything, I’m sometimes told the Elf is overpowered in combat!
I did the same with all three, though with the dwarf and halfling it may seem less obvious. They feel old school, but they are very different indeed in terms of what they can do and how they differ from their counterpart classes in the Fighter and Thief.
I hope you find my suggestions useful for changing the spell mechanics.
Andri Erlingsson I never meant to start a nerdfight over this. I enjoy the dwarf and halfling they feel like the racial character classes of old. I just wanted something different than what you created for the elf.
I don’t have a PC with net access at the moment so it’s difficult to type out on my phone however my idea for elven spellcasting uses the wizard move but: only allows the elf to prep spells equal to level (instead of level plus one) includes only two spells plus cantrips in the spellbook at first level, treats true seeing as a fifth level spell and makes fifth the maximum spell level castable by elves. I will likely have only two subraces, high and shadow (dark). As to the fighting side, I haven’t decided.