Reverse Centaur: Another Dumb Hill Cantons Class

The Revoca Canton party (the junior varsity team of the campaign) have found a solid, if dim-witted group of allies out in the mythic woods in a tribe of Reverse Centaurs. Rescuing the horseheaded humanoids a couple weeks back from the ravages of a two-headed giant (admittedly one that the party themselves released into the world) allowed them in time-honored campaign tradition to “unlock” a new dumb Hill Cantons class. Big thanks to Gus L for co-writing the class. 

On the Making of Horselings

Long ago in the Land of Ostpahr dwelt Kůň and Otokar, brothers two. Fair of head and long in leg the two so loved horses as to eschew the company of their own wives. All morn and to the eve, the brothers mounted and rode their corral of mares. They mounted and rode them in the tall green waves of the steppe grass and mounted and rode them on swelling ridges high. Mounted...why does thou giggle so? In that day they were sedulous and attentive and use to the practice of daily equestrian drill...

One day in the summer high First Pavol, a trader of horseflesh, came to them with a comely named Hrebec. Shining and black the steed stood tall in shoulder and wide in breadth, his eyes were as two flashing rubies and his mane tassels of purest gold. 

Said the humble horse merchant: “Great and mighty lords of the pastures, king of kings Svat the Four-Faced called on me in my slumber and spoke to me saying that I will have his divine favor if I make a free gift of that I hold most dear. This horse I hold most dear, more to me than my own wife, who helpeth me not in the mounting. I give him unto thee.”

The brothers praised Pavol for his piety and each other for their good fortune and made ready to mount Hrebec. But neither could allow the other to be the first to ride the horse. Both Kůň and Otokar drew ire. Hard words came forth from their mouths and the two drew forth their long blades. With mighty twinned swings they were both cleaved in two. 

Their life spilling from them on the rocky soil, great and likable Radhost took pity on the dying brothers and working deftly split Hrebec. With skillful hands the god bound the torso and head of Kůň to the body of the horse and Hrebec's stately head to the body of Otokar and the two were made whole and wholly other.

And so it was that the two ancient races, the centaurs and reverse centaurs, came to live in the world of Zem...

Reverse Centaur

Requirements: STR 13, INT 11 or less

Prime Requisite: STR

Hit Dice: 1d10

Maximum Level: 9

Proudly sporting the heads of horse-kind on their chiseled wide-shouldered otherwise human bodies, stand the proud, strong (though somewhat thick) children of Otokar, the Reverse Centaur.

Reverse Centaurs can carry on their strong backs an abnormally large amount of gear, gaining +3 STR in carrying weight (up to 19) in systems that use STR for encumbrance. Reverse Centaurs move at 120' round unless they are at heavy encumbrances. Reverse centaurs possess an innate “horse sense” allowing them to move vegetation finding trails and hidden paths and will always safely find way home after flight with no memory of escape route.

RCs are sadly also prone to severe panics and must roll 3d6 (or more if circumstance warrant) vs. INT to avoid fleeing if an ally dies, take half hp in damage, or of exposed to lightning to avoid stampeding in sheer terror. They make another check after one turn of flight to return to adventure or will wander to camp/home.

Reverse Centaurs fight and save as fighters of the same level. Their cumbersome tops and proneness to an affliction they call “saddle sore” leads them to only be able to wear leather armor. They can use all weapons other than lassos, a weapon profoundly and irrationally hated by the creatures.

Reverse Centaur Level Progression

Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d10)
0	1	1
2,300	2	2
4,600	3	3
9,200	4	4
18,400	5	5
36,800	6	6
73,600	7	7
147,200	8	8
294,400	9	9

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A Revised Thief Class for B/X or LL

I should know better than to tamper with the core classes. By no means are they platonic ideals but the unbalanced, moldy old D&D classes seem to somehow balance in the mix of a party. And pragmatic me notices that they work more often than not. 

But...

I don't really like the pitifulness of the B/X version of the Thief. There's just something about that d4 hit die and being not all that much better at things thievish at lower levels than your party mates, that doesn't line up with the rose-tints of my AD&D memory with its ballsier thieves.

Anywho here's a not particularly earth-shattering (but perhaps sweet spot hitting) revision of the class that synthesizes elements of the first and second edition AD&D thief with the d6 skill elegance of Lamentations's Specialist. As always eager to hear from fellow gear-heads about if you'd think this works or not.

Comparison to B/X or LL Thief

• Moves to the 16 percent jumps of a d6, which produces a bit less skill at first level. Climb Walls take a bigger hit to put it in accord with starting second ed levels.
• Gains skill in larger jumps per level. A second level B/X Thief gains roughly 20 percent scattered across skills, this thief bumps up 32 percent with the two +1 d6 modifiers.
• Trades in the incremental across-board bumps of the B/X Thief for the focused choice of the second edition Thief.
• Gets the d6 hit die of AD&D.
• Collapses Hide in Shadows with Move Quietly into Stealth
• Starts reading MU scrolls at less of a chance of success but a level earlier.

Thief

Requirements: None

Prime Req: DEX

Hit Dice: d6

Maximum Level: None

You know what this class is about. Read Leiber. 

The Thief can not be in favor of the combination of order and weal as an alignment. She/he also knows Thieves Cant, an argot of the local language. 

The Thief can wear leather or padded armor and use any weapon (but not a shield). When attacking while hidden by Stealth behind or on the flank of a creature, the Thief may backstab at +4 to hit and double damage. At 11^thlevel the Thief can backstab at triple damage.

All Thief skill rolls are made on a d6. A skill check is successful if it is at or lower than the skill roll. At each new level past first, the thief can distribute points to a skill as they choose. A skill may be not go higher than 6. The GM should decrease or increase the chance of success for easier or more difficult tasks. Skill descriptions are the same as btb with the exception of Stealth which covers both Hide in Shadows and Move Silently.

At level 9, the Thief becomes name level and gains name level things. At level 9 they can also begin to use Magic User scrolls.

Base Thief Skills

Climb Walls: 4

Pick Pockets: 1

Find/Remove Traps: 1

Locks: 1

Hear Noise: 2

Stealth: 1

Read Languages: 0

Read Scrolls (at Level 9): 3

Exp	Level	Hit Dice (1d6)	Bonus Skill Levels
0	1	1	0
1250	2	2	2
2500	3	3	2
5000	4	4	2
10000	5	5	2
20000	6	6	2
40000	7	7	2
80000	8	8	2
160000	9	9	2
280000	10	10	2
400000	11	+1 hp	1
520000	12	+2 hp	1
640000	13	+3 hp	1
760000	14	+4 hp	1
880000	15	+5 hp	1
1000000	16	+6 hp	1
1120000	17	+7 hp	1
1240000	18	+8 hp	1
1360000	19	+9 hp	1
1480000	20	+10 hp	1

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The War-Bear: Yet Another B/X or LL Class

But first the news...

Once again the eastern borderlands of the Overkingdom will be filled with the sight of shaggy, dejected columns of soldier-bears lumbering back to the hollow-seeming duties of garrison life. For Yambor, the great biennial pilgrimage of those furry myrmidons to the Slumbering Ursine Dunes, is over. But some younger cubs and war bears resist the melancholy by striking out on the road of vagrant adventuring scumbaggery.

Popping of up seemingly everywhere that a party may need a hired paw is one bear in particular, Preved!, who makes the same offer “for 40 shiny golds and two fish I run with you tonight.” 

 Preved!, 2nd-level Soldier Bear, Hitpoints 12, AC:6. Uses Bohemian Ear Spoon (d10+1). Has an uncomfortable tendency to pop in at an intimate moments of the humans around him shouting his name.

War Bear

Requirements: STR 13, CON 14

Prime Requisite: CON

Hit Dice: 1d10

Maximum Level: 8

The Nurian Soldier-Bear stands alongside the Ostrovan pikeman, Kozak horse-archer and Northland atlatl-man as some of the most renowned examples of soldiery in the world of Zem. Lesser known are the wayward bears who strike out on their own in the world in search of quantitatively measured experience, the proud bearers of the appellation, War Bear.

War Bears can wear no armor other than a helmet and instead have a base armor class (a DEX bonus can be added). Magical devices can be used but must be able to fit around the large-sized limbs of the War Bear.

Though outside the comforting phalanx of soldier life, the War Bear retains the deep, obsessional love of polearms, including the traditional +1 to hit and damage when employing it. Indeed a War Bear who has been parted from the sight of such a weapon for longer than a day will sicken with dejection and beyond a constant audible and dramatic sighing will lose a hit point until he grasps it yet again. In a weaponless pinch they can strike twice a round with their paws for 1d4 damage each. 

At level 6, the War Bear can invent and name a polearm of his own design at a cost of 500 gold suns and two weeks of intense concentration, such a weapon will be +2 to hit and damage only in his own paws and can even strike those creatures only harmable by magic weapons. At level 8, the War Bear has reached such fame that he can automatically attract a warband of 50 soldier-bears on the creation of a comfy underground den complex of no less than 2000 square feet (and two latrines).

War Bears save as Dwarves and fight as Fighters of the same level.

Soldier-Bear Level Progression

Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d8)	Armor Class
0	1	1+2	6
2,300	2	2+2	6
4,600	3	3+2	5
9,200	4	4+2	4
18,400	5	5+2	4
36,800	6	6+2	4
73,600	7	7+2	3
147,200	8	8+2	3

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The Amazon Class

For Barbarella the one and only amazon of my heart.

Amazon

Requirements: STR 11 (Western), DEX 11 (Eastern)

Prime Requisite: STR or DEX

Hit Dice: 1d8

Maximum Level: 12

Zem, the turtle-borne world of the Hill Cantons, bears not one but two great nations of what are ham-fistedly called “Amazons” by the weak of imagination. 

Both tribes claim a common founding (and likely apocryphal) figure the great Queen Dwar Kin and a similar martial and matriarchal bent to their cultural ethos, and despite their differences in psycho-geography and language, they exhibit a rather remarkably consistent culture.

Those of Oiorpata, that distant and exotic isle near the resting point of the Sun Lord's daily ride, are a fine, strong-boned, if verbally assertive race noted for their love of high-crested, baroque helmets, polished armor, and knitting circles. World famous is their biennial Ebon Festival of the Pearls, a soiree that marks both the climax of the black pearl harvest from the swamp-polyps and the victory of that muscle-bounded race of maidens against the invading forces of the Overkingdom in the Twicefold Battle of Vague Suggestiveness, now some 112 years ago. It is said that the high-point of the festivities is the public bathing and drinking by their much-feared, rubenesque queen of the blood of 12 male lovers.

The amazons styled as the Bila-Urkithians are a semi-nomadic race who ride the eastern reaches of the Sea of Grass. The “White” Urkithians favor wildly-stripped, baggy trousers in defiance of their more patriarchical neighbors, the Pantless Barbarians, gaily-colored tassels, and phyrgian hats or helmets. Though thinner-boned then their western sisters, they are of a durable and fierce nature, particularly hating all forms of the romanticized Amazonomachy so beloved by Overkingdom court painters. They are ruled by a council of elected Hetwimmin who meet annually to organize a massive, and mostly peaceful demonstrative march through the Hill Cantons.

Western Amazons by way of their life-long training and aesthetic choice are masters (mistresses?) thrown or hurled weapons, most notably the pilum (a heavy javelin delivering d6+1 damage), lasso or atlatl, gaining a +1 to hit and an incredible extra 30 feet of range with such weapons. They also deal +1 in damage in melee when striking with a spear.

Eastern Amazons gain a +1 to hit when on horseback and a +1 to hit with their beloved composite bows or darts. They also receive a +1 to hit with the gracefully-styled hand-axes they prefer.

Amazons as a willful race save as Dwarves.

They so despise those weak-willed men who encase themselves in gothic-plated cocoons of steel that they may only wear armor of chain (or half-plate) and under.

Amazon Level Progression
Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d8)
0	1	1
2,101	2	2
4,201	3	3
8,401	4	4
16,801	5	5
33,601	6	6
70,001	7	7
140,001	8	8
280,001	9	9
400,001	10	+3 hp only *
540,001	11	+6 hp only *
660,001	12	+9 hp only *
*Hit point modifiers from constitution are ignored

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