Hacking Old School Hack: First of the New Classes

Okay, so now I'm moving on to the core of my hack of Old School Hack.  I still need a name for my hack.  New School Hack?  My School Hack?  No idea yet.  But anyway, my hack aims to include classes from the 3rd and 4th editions of D&D plus some ideas from Pathfinder and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  I've worked out what the six talents for each class will be, but I still have to write up the full details for each talent.  So here are the first three re-hacked classes: Fighter, Thief, and Cleric.

Classes

- Each class has a Classic Weapon; use of these is entirely voluntary but characters get +1 to hit when using the Classic Weapon of their class.  The weapons below are selected for an Egyptian/Arabian themed setting.
- The DM may allow some talents to be taken more than once and if so their effects stack

Fighter

Classic Weapon: scimitar

Weapon of Choice/constant: You've become adeptly familiar with a specific weapon of your choice, and you use it as a natural extension of your body. As long as you are wielding it, all your attack dice are Face Dice. If for whatever reason you take up a new weapon, a week of training will switch your Weapon of Choice to that one.

Armor of Scars/constant: Getting beat up as often as you do has its advantages. You're tougher than most, and can take more punishment because of it. You start off with seven hit points instead of the usual five. Plus you've usually got some old war stories and a don't-mess-with-me countenance that gives you a +2 on any Charm check when trying to talk someone out of violence.

Shield Bash/constant: If you are wielding either a Shield, you can attempt a special attack with it that also stuns an opponent, preventing them from using the Attack action this round or the next.

Parry/constant: If Defending or Protecting, and wielding a weapon or shield you may attempt an attack roll against one successful attack; if your attack roll exceeds the attacker's roll then you have parried the attack and it fails.

Exploit Weakness/focus: Practice in fighting means you have a trained eye for an Achilles’ Heel.  Every couple of fights you can carefully observe that a monster or an opponent has a weakness, and if you are able to successfully Focus on it, attacks you make against it that round get a +2 bonus to hit and do an extra point of damage.

Disarm/constant: You can attempt a special attack which causes the target to drop one specified weapon they are carrying.

Thief

Classic Weapon: dagger

Busy Hands/focus: A successful Cunning check against a same-arena opponent's Awareness allows you to remove and acquire any visible object that they are not actively holding, no matter what the situation is.  During combat this is usually noticed, regardless of success.

Quick Reaction/constant (immediate): Whenever you are surprised by something or someone, including traps, you get to add a +2 on the next die roll you make as long as it happens directly afterwards.

Manipulate Device/focus: With a bit of time and patience you can find, disable, or re-enable devices like locks and traps.  You get +2 to Cunning checks to attempt.  Also gives you knowledge of how to use special small tool kits which add +1 to the roll.

Climbing/always: You know a bunch of tricks about climbing different stuff and you've done it plenty of times.  You get a +2 to Daring checks for climbing and if you're next to someone climbing without this talent you can lend them an Awesome Point to spend if they start to fall.

Backstab/focus: By attacking an opponent from behind that who is currently unaware of you or distracted, you get a +2 to hit them and do an extra two points of damage.

Sneak/focus: You can attempt a focus action in combat to slip past opponents without being attacked;  you also get +2 to normal attempts to sneak around quietly and unseen outside of combat.

Cleric

Classic Weapon: mace

Prayer of the Hurt/focus-rested: This spell invokes your deity to close wounds and restore health and energy. By laying your hands on someone who is down to 2 hit points or less, which could be yourself, you bring them back up to 1 hit point less than full in a quick ritual that lights up the area around you.

Auras of Evil/constant: Above and beyond simple malevolence in someone's heart, some places, things and people in the world reek of true evil, whether they are touched by fell gods or by demonic taint. You can sense this kind of greater evil by merely taking a moment and focusing, and by taking the time to make an actual Awareness check you may be able to discern the source or nature of the evil if it is disguised.

Turn Undead/focus-rested: By invoking your god and displaying your holy symbol, you acquire a holy or unholy aura around you and those nearby. Any non-Minion undead must test their Daring against your Commitment (at a +2) to be able to attack anyone in your party, while Minions can't attack you at all. If you remain undamaged for three rounds of concentrating, you can disperse the aura outward, either destroying (holy) or controlling (unholy) any one undead or group of minions in the same arena.

Bless/focus-rested: By invoking your god you can provide a blessing to any one person who does not follow a deity opposed to yours.  That person may add +2 to any one roll they make during the next hour.

Light/focus: With a short prayer the cleric creates a ball of light which floats nearby and follows the cleric around.  It provides the same light as a torch or lantern and lasts an hour unless dismissed.

Shield of Faith/encounter-rested: The cleric uses the power of faith to summon an aura of holiness (or unholiness) providing protection of +1 to AC for the rest of the encounter.


Note that clerics will also have domain spells.  Each deity will have a unique set of domain spells which only their clerics (and maybe paladins and oracles) can access.  I haven't decided on how many domain spells a deity should have.  I'm thinking a minimum of six, just to mirror the six available for each class.  Six should be enough to characterize a deity's divine portfolio and personal quirks; more would give clerics more choices but make quite a bit more work over a good-sized set of deities for a game.  Maybe six per deity to start and then others later.  Wizards will use the six-spell grimoire concept from The World Between for Fictive Hack, providing a larger selection of spells than available for clerics.

Druids will also have six-spell sets (set term TBD, Seasons?) with nature and elemental themes, such as weather, earth, wind, plants, birds, water, fish, fire, reptiles, etc.  The tricky part will be keeping the druid sets distinct from the domains of nature/weather/animal domain deities.  Or I could maybe make druids the "clerics" of those types of deities.  Clerics would then be for non-nature type deities, such as those for war, healing, crafts, fate, secrets, wisdom, justice, etc.