Classic Six: The Game Inside OD&D

Most of the time, when I start a D&D campaign, I do so with the explicit intent of replicating the feel of a video game. The power curve of D&D, which takes characters from 1st level fragile stickmen to 20th/36th/30th level (depending on the particular edition) invulnerable deities is a presumed feature of the game. Like Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda or any other game with a fairly pronounced advancement mechanic, we expect that the monsters which challenge a 1st level party will pose no such challenge to a high level party. In D&D, we can reasonably expect that eventually, characters become powerful enough to teleport around the world with impunity, raise their fallen comrades from the dead, craft mountain-obliterating artifacts, or murder the emperor and take his crown because they had a slow day and felt like doing something interesting. Most of the time, we expect D&D to be a power trip.

But I really, really dig this "Epic Six" idea, because it's just what the doctor ordered for a different style of gameplay, one that better mimics movies and fantasy novels. It instantly transforms the game and all its underlying assumptions to one of less wahoo, more grit; and it's such a dirt-simple concept that I wonder why it isn't commoner. "High level D&D gameplay doesn't do a very good job of reflecting other fantasy media." "Okay, then limit the game to levels one through six, and voila, problem solved." How brilliant and elegant is that?

But it's not quite that simple. I don't play d20 anymore, whereas the default Epic Six rules rely quite a bit on feats for "epic" advancement. This poses a problem for someone trying to use, say, OD&D. I need a separate set of rules. And, hey, what the heck... here they are.

Classic Six

All rules are as per OD&D—whichever revision you prefer to play, but the newer the better, since these rules necessarily incorporate some material from the Gazetteers/Rules Cyclopedia—except where noted here.

Level Advancement: Characters belonging to the core human classes (fighter, mage, cleric, and thief) can only advance to the 6th level of experience. A 6th level character is considered to have reached "name" level. Dwarves and monks are limited to 5th level, while halflings and elves are limited to 4th level.

Hit Dice, Attacks, and Saves: Hit dice and saving throws work as normal for OD&D, except that they are limited to a character's maximum level (4th, 5th, or 6th). Attack rolls improve slightly faster than normal, as given on the tables below.

General Skills: Characters have skills, as described on pg. 81 of the Rules Cyclopedia. (General Skills lend themselves well to a low-powered game; Weapon Mastery decidedly does not.) All characters begin the game with (4 + Int mod) skill slots, with an additional skill slot earned at 5th level. The benefit of knowing a skill is delineated as follows: a character who is trained in a skill can attempt a skill check by rolling 1d20 vs. the related ability score, whereas attempting to use a skill untrained requires rolling 1d20 vs. one-half the related ability score.

Fighters, clerics, and mages are essentially unchanged from the original game, apart from the slightly altered attack progressions.

Thieves undergo some changes for the sake of game balance. Their hit dice switch from four-sided to six-sided, and the table of thieving skills is eliminated. Instead, thieves receive bonus General Skill slots over and above those normally awarded to characters: four bonus slots at 1st level and one additional slot at 3rd level, to be filled with whatever skills the player might prefer. Thus, in total, the thief begins the game with (8 + Int mod) skill slots and earns one new slot at each of the 3rd and 5th experience levels.

Monks also require some explanation. They get eight-sided hit dice (instead of six-sided dice) to make up for their stricter level limit. A 1st level monk starts with two bonus skills (Acrobatics and Stealth, pp. 83 & 85 of the Rules Cyclopedia). A 2nd level monk has half the normal chance to be surprised. A 3rd level monk's fists strike like silver weapons. A 4th level monk can heal himself of 8 HP per day (10 HP after reaching 5th level). A 5th level monk attacks twice per round unarmed and his fists strike as +1 magical weapons.

As per the ordinary rules of the game, dwarves and halflings advance as fighters only. Halflings are limited to 4th level (Hero), while dwarves can attain 5th level (Swashbuckler). A halfling that reaches 17,600 XP does, however, gain the additional skill slot that other characters earn for reaching 5th level (although no other benefits are gained). Elves advance simultaneously as both fighters and mages, rolling six-sided hit dice each level, until 4th level (Hero/Magician). An elf that reaches 32,000 XP does not level up, but does gain an additional skill slot.

Epic Advancement: Although characters' power reaches a plateau at 6th level, characters can still advance through the acquisition of more skills and the potential of improving their hit points. At every 15,000 XP after surpassing their maximum, whatever that may be, characters earn a new skill slot. Also at this point, a character may re-roll all of his hit dice at once and keep the new total if it's better. This second procedure may repeat at every 15,000 XP earned until such time as a character rolls the maximum possible HP total for his hit dice (which, prior to Constitution adjustments, will be 48 for fighters, 40 for dwarves and monks, 36 for clerics and thieves, 24 for mages, elves, and halflings).

Monsters and Items The most balanced selection of monsters and items for a game of this level range appears in the 1991/1994 reprint of the Basic Set, variously titled "New Easy-to-Master D&D Game" or "Classic D&D Game". At higher levels and during "epic" advancement, monsters and items from the Expert Set can supplement.

Someone is probably typing right now that "OD&D" is commonly understood to mean the 1974 edition, which is non-trivially different from what you're talking about here - "RCD&D" or "BECMI D&D". In case I'm faster on the draw, well, you heard it here first!

My OD&D game starts at third level, following the house rules Gygax posted here and elsewhere that he used in his own games circa 2005. I personally find that more enjoyable than starting at 1st, where stick figures are too fragile IMO - in a year of reasonably regular B/E D&D (1981) play I've never had a character make it past 2nd level before dying. So while I like this idea, for me the six levels would be 3rd - 9th.

Tav_Behemoth said:

Someone is probably typing right now that "OD&D" is commonly understood to mean the 1974 edition, which is non-trivially different from what you're talking about here - "RCD&D" or "BECMI D&D". In case I'm faster on the draw, well, you heard it here first!

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I dispute your "non", sir! The triviality of the differences between revisions is a matter of opinion.

But, yes, in all seriousness I'm talking about post-1981 OD&D here. (For the most part, that is. No reason these ideas couldn't be used with the 1974 game or Holmes Basic.)

re: The fragility of low-level characters, I would much rather simply house-rule that 0 hp != immediate death.

One of the great benefits of an "E6" campaign is that it keeps the higher-end world-breaking sort of magic out of the hands of the PCs (which would be out of line in a game where the characters are supposed to be world-breaking heroes, but it's precisely what's needed for a low-powered game). So my goals wouldn't be well served by shifting the level range upward. YMMV.

I find it much easier to just say that when a PC falls to 0 hp, that character is no longer capable of defending himself. The next blow that lands will do something nasty, in accordance with the situation. The player could be disarmed, restrained, stunned, knocked out, grievously wounded, maimed, or maybe outright killed. Whatever makes sense at the time.

First thoughts:

I think it was probably a good move to limit clerics to only 3rd-level spells (whereas normally they would get 4th at the same time). I also appreciate that you have changed the to-hit table, whereas otherwise everyone would have ended in the same bracket. Effectively, you move the fighter up one bracket and keep the m-u back. To give only the fighter its normal boost, at 4th, might be another idea. The lowering of cleric final XP by 1000 is fairly minor, but another 5000 to the m-u is pretty striking.

The cleric is still pretty smashing. Be sure not to mess too much with the ratio of 25 to 1 in frequency of magic weapons fighters can wield versus those permitted clerics.

By standard multi-classing, the elf's XP requirements should be 2nd: 4,500; 3rd:9,000; 4th: 18,000; 5th: 28,000. "Close enough", I guess, but why the difference? You give elves about an 11% discount (less for 5th), but levy a 10% tariff on the little people.

If you're trying to balance them against level-limited humans, then one might consider that the original limits were scaled to humans getting up to 12th -14th level (or maybe higher, although Gygax and Kuntz apparently had levels beyond that in mind mainly for NPC villains). Setting aside the flattening of XP requirements and considering only levels, one might cut the original limits in half (to D 3, E 2/4, H 2). It's just an idea, more than anything to suggest that -- like the original designer -- one should consider the effects one desires in the present context.

For instance, I am pretty sure the idea in so sharply limiting halflings was to reflect the nature of The Hobbit in Tolkien's tale. With humans capped at 6th, the halfling is probably still "gimped" enough to be the least desirable type -- but it's more of a two-third-ling. I wonder whether that might be more just irritating and petty from the players' point of view.

Actually, the m-u might be the least desirable type. Better saves and one more spell? Granted, it's a 3rd (top) level spell, that doesn't seem like much reason to lay in another 14,000 XP over what it would have taken to reach 5th level as an elf. All along, the elf has on average more h.p., and arms and armor superior even if not enchanted -- plus a fighter's ability to use magic swords.

Without the 6th-level limit, a human m-u could hope someday truly to excel at magic -- attaining 9th level (and a 5th level spell) before an elf advancing at the same rate would reach 8th.

The AD&D rule that elves cannot be resurrected might be worth implementing, if you want to have human m-us. Another idea might be to limit elves to 4th in spell-casting as well. Oh, and you could roll back the m-u's 6th-level XP to 35,000.

I played a lot with Holmes Basic, which went up only to 3rd. So, you weren't even getting into those fireballs and lightning bolts (which I find more jarring than, e.g., the polymorph spells and others from levels 4-6) except via magic items.

Everybody's basic saves and hit chances stayed the same. A fighter with +3 per hit die for constitution, and maximum rolls on the dice, could have 33 h.p. -- between a troll's average (30) and a hill giant's (36). Sticking with d6 for monsters, the hill giant would average only 28 (max. 48).

Let fighters go to 4 hit dice, and a +3 bonus with just average rolls yields 30 points.

In any case, it was likely to be The Hill Giant. There was no need for herds or tribes of such mighty monsters (although they might exist in realms far from the fields of mortal men).

The same held for magic items. They tended to be one of a kind. Scrolls were more common, as Holmes allowed even 1st-level characters to make them. They could also invent new spells.

Also, magic often was not usable more than a few times. A wand of fireballs might do only 3 dice of damage, and only 3 or 4 times. A certain magic bridle might tame the Pegasus-equivalent, but one must seek some other means to harness the Hippogriff. A weapon might get a hefty bonus versus an individual monster, both being of the legendary status that would accrue to the monster's slayer.

Basically, it was less than usual about repeating a walk through the familiar progression of levels and accumulation of "standard" magical powers. Everything was more specific to the places and events of the campaign, the particular biographies of the heroes.

So I assume all the classic "Thief" skills (PP, OL, FT, RT, MS, HS, HN, CW, RL, Backstab) are all proficiencies now? Does that mean fighters and monks (for example) can take them?

Another way to slice the Thief class is to make the base numbers higher and level each up by 10% per level. For example, start a thief at 30% PP, and add +10% per level (to a max of 80%).

PP 30 + 10/level (80 max)
OL 25 + 15/level (85 max)
FT 25 + 10/level (75 max)
RT 20 + 10/level (70 max)
MS 15 + 15/level (75 max)
HS 25 + 15 level (85 max)
CW 50 + 10/level (90 max)
HN 15 + 15/level (75 max)
RL 0 + 18/level (90 max)

Adding boosts for dex (5% per +1 of dex bonus) would round out the numbers.

Ariosto said:

The AD&D rule that elves cannot be resurrected might be worth implementing, if you want to have human m-us. Another idea might be to limit elves to 4th in spell-casting as well. Oh, and you could roll back the m-u's 6th-level XP to 35,000.

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As I was reading your response, A-man, I noticed a grave mistake on my part. Somehow, I got it into my addled brain that in the rules I'm modifying, elves had a higher level limit than dwarves. But that simply wasn't the case, now, was it? It was halflings 8th, elves 10th, dwarves 12th, and I was thinking that elves and dwarves were the other way around. Silly me. So the best option would indeed be to limit elves to 4th level altogether, which drastically simplifies things.

Remathilis said:

So I assume all the classic "Thief" skills (PP, OL, FT, RT, MS, HS, HN, CW, RL, Backstab) are all proficiencies now? Does that mean fighters and monks (for example) can take them?

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The RC skill list already includes things like "Stealth" and what-not, which makes thieving abilities fairly redundant. One could easily build a traditional thief or something close to it using just the skill system, adapting or adding new skills where needed.

I would personally keep Backstab as a class ability usable by thieves with the Stealth skill, but there's no reason it couldn't also be made into a skill that anyone might take.

I'm intrigued. . .

Jack Daniel said:

It was halflings 8th, elves 10th, dwarves 12th

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I guess you're talking about the later (1981+) versions that went off at a tangent. In Moldvay/Cook/Marsh, the Elf in particular is "super", and humans are limited to 14th level. The Mentzer version is sort of curious, with demihumans continuing to get "attack ranks" as humans go all the way to 36th (abilities, thief functions especially, getting "stretched thin" to cover 2-3 times as many levels of advancement).

In OD&D and AD&D, it was halflings F 4th, elves MU 4th/F 8th, dwarves F 6th.

With exceptional ability scores, halflings of the right stock might attain 6th, elves could reach 7th/11th, and dwarves could get to 9th.

Unearthed Arcana increased potential yet more. A Gray Elf somehow gaining strength 20 and intelligence 22 could go all the way to 11th/18th.

I like the concept. I am going to have to take a closer look at the numbers before I give a better opinion. I am not a fan of high level play so this might work for me.