Dungeons & Delvers Black Book: Tonka Menir as a 1st and 5th Level Fighter

I've recently discovered Dungeons and Delvers Black Book, which started life as a game based on DnD 4E, but at this point seems to have taken the better parts of 4E and merged them with older editions of DnD. It seems like the best of both worlds, old school sensibility with newer design options.

Here is a Fighter, Tonka Menhir, at 1st and 5th level. The core book goes to 5th level, an expansion product, Appendix D takes the classes to 10th level, and another forthcoming expansion, the Red Book, will take characters to 20th level and I believe have options for race-as-class.

Tonka Menhir 
1st Level Human Fighter for Dungeons and Delvers Black Book

SIZE Medium
SPEED 30'

STR +2 (It only uses modifiers)
CON +2
DEX -1
INT +0
WIS +0
CHA +1

WOUND 8
VITALITY 4 (Vitality heals much faster than Wounds)

MELEE ATTACK +3, War Pick 1d8+3 damage
RANGED ATTACK +0
AC 12/14 with Shield (Scale + Shield)
DR 3 (Armor has an AC bonus and Damage Resistance)

FORT SAVE +3
REFLEX SAVE -1/+0 with Shield
WILL SAVE +0

SKILLS
Athletics +3
History +1
Perception +1
Survival +1

TALENT (These are a combination of Feats and Spells)
Defender +1 to AC and REF Save when carrying a shield




Tonka Menhir 
5th Level Human Fighter

SIZE Medium
SPEED 30'

STR +2
CON +2
DEX -1
INT +0
WIS +0
CHA +1

WOUND 8
VITALITY 4

MELEE ATTACK +4, War Pick 1d8+4 damage
RANGED ATTACK +0
AC 14/16 with Shield (Chain and Plate + Shield)
DR 4

FORT SAVE +3
REFLEX SAVE -1/+0 with Shield
WILL SAVE +0

SKILLS
Athletics +4
History +1
Perception +3
Survival +2

TALENT
Defender +1 to AC and REF Save when carrying a shield
Sweeping Strike

Yet Another OSR Skill System

A thought has been bouncing around my skull for a bit and I'm curious if it's ever been brought up?

The idea was inspired by ADnD 2E's Saving Throw Priority system.

Essentially, if a task comes up, the DM assigns difficulty by having the player's roll against their best Saving Throw (lowest) or their worst Saving Throw (highest).

The DM could decide that if a task falls within a character's class or background, they use the lowest Saving Throw and if it falls outside those parameters, they use highest saving throw. Essentially, creating a Trained and Untrained target number.

E.G. A 1st level Cleric has Breath Attacks at 16, Poison or Death at 11, Petryify or Paralyze at 14, Wands at 12, and Spells or Spell-like Devices at 14. Their Trained Save would be 11 and their Untrained Save would be 16.

You could even abandon Thief Ability percentages in favor of this system.

Has anyone employed something similar to this or seen it written about?

Dungeon Mastering 101: Staying On Track

I have been a DM for close to 26 years (damn, I'm old) and for most of that time I've run my own adventures. It's only been in the last four years that I've been using published adventures.

What I'm going to talk about in this article is keeping the game moving. I'm going to be honest here, my players have reached level 8 in my Shadow of the Demon Lord game and I'm really having trouble doing that. It's not that I don't have any ideas, its that the ideas I have aren't always clicking for me, I'll go into a session with a roadmap, but I don't feel comfortable with it. This campaign is a bit different, because as a group we decided we wanted a break from world or multiverse-shattering threats. This is a more personal tale, about a village and it's inhabitants. I'm not sure if that is what is causing me problems or not.

I'm a very improvisation GM and I've been lucky that weird and strange turns within a game have often worked out later as said game evolves. Sadly, over the last month or two, that's not really been the case. I'm filled with uncertainty on how to proceed, in fact, endgame scenarios and even antagonists have been shifting as the game unfolds. I'm uncertain what's going on, I can't tell if I'm grown accustomed to running published adventures and that is why I'm floundering or if maybe it's a bit of burnout. 

I do know one issue is a consequence that I'm uncertain to introduce. Have you ever had a situation in-game that you are afraid to introduce? That, I think, is part of my problem. I want this to be a character-driven game, and my gut tells me to beat these character up pretty bad, but is that always the right direction? 

I'm curious if I'm alone in this struggle? Any advice or tips on how to pull through it?

Untold Adventures: Manthrax

Manthrax for Untold Adventures
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: Tentacles (3 attacks)
Special: 5th level Spellcaster

HDE: 7
Manthrax is a talented and reckless spellcaster who, though warned, plumbed the very depths of the Darkhold, an ancient book of spells and dark knowledge. In pursuit of greater and greater power, Manthrax's mind and body were deeply warped by the dark powers within that blighted tome. Currently, he has a tower on the banks of Mirror Lake, where he continues to plumb the abyss for darker and darker knowledge.

OSR: The Luck and Expertise of Thieves

I've spent the day doing two things, rereading the excellent BX Essentials PDFs from Necrotic Gnome Press and contemplating the Thief class.

I've read over numerous excellent blogposts on different solutions, while also contemplating my expectations of the class.

The base percentage chance of Thief Abilities really strike me as pretty low at low levels.

I've been contemplating two different solutions.

Solution 1 is to take a page out of HackMaster 5th Edition and introduce Luck points. Each Luck point could be spent to adjust a Saving Throw by -1, increase their AC against a single attack by -1, or if using Thief Abilities adjust an Ability roll by -5% and may be spent AFTER the roll.

E.G. Robairt the Masque has a Pick Pockets of 25%, but rolls a 35, he decides to spend 2 Luck Points to lower the roll to 25 and succeed.

A 1st level thief has 2 Luck points per day at level 1 and gains 1 Luck point per day at each level.

Solution 2 takes a page out of the GUMSHOE system. You would drop the percentage chance of each Thief Ability. The Thief would have a pool of Expertise per day. When a situation arose the Thief could choose to spend Expertise to Hide in Shadow, Hear Noise, Pick Pockets, etc. If the situation was difficult enough, the DM could even require Expertise expenditures of 2+.

E.G. Monica Renquist is trying to Hide in Shadows from several orcs coming through a passage towards her. The DM sets the Expertise at 2, which she spends and the orcs don't notice her as they pass by.

A 1st level Thief has 2 Expertise per day at level 1 and gains 1 Expertise per day at each odd level.

Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated.

Creature Crucible: Tyranoid

Tyranoid for Labyrinth Lord
AL C, MV 25', AC 6, HD 2, #AT 1 [weapon], THAC0 18, 
DG 1d6+1, SV 1 fighter, ML 10, infravision out to 120', XP 10

Tyranoids are aggressive hunter who live beneath the earth, they follow a chieftain, the strongest among them.

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Creature Crucible: It, the Living Colossus

It, the Living Colossus for Labyrinth Lord
AL C, MV 50', AC 0, HD 11, #AT 2 [fist], THAC0 12, 
DG 2d6+2, SV 11 fighter, ML 12, XP 850

It, also known as the Living Colossus, is the 30 foot tall master work of Capricia Alaguunt, a powerful and talented mage-priestess of Hades. She spent the latter part of her life creating the "ultimate golem" as a gift for Hades. She was shocked when he called her shade down to him just as she completed her work.

(If you like this post and others like it and have an extra $1 a month, please consider becoming a Patron of Cross Planes on Patreon.)