D&D General 2nd edition player handbook class examples.

[Shades of Eternity]

I kinda like the idea of will scarlet being a bard (blade) because I was raised on Robin of sherwood.

but Robin Hood as a ranger was pretty much a no brainer until 5e where I started getting pushback

still trying to figure out the right species for Reynard the Fox. Kitsune rogue?

 

[Remathilis]

2e even had the Historical Reference Sourcebook. I own several of them.

9322 HR1 Vikings Campaign
9323 HR2 Charlemagne's Paladins
9376 HR3 Celts Campaign
9370 HR4 A Mighty Fortress Campaign
9425 HR5 The Glory of Rome Campaign
9408 HR6 Age of Heroes
9469 HR7 The Crusades

The irony of course was that several of those books were more interested in being historical guidebooks than RPG books, let alone D&D supplements. To the point several only let you play fighters and thieves. They were novel for their time, but I'd much rather have Mythic Odysseys of Theros than Age of Heroes.

 

[Zardnaar]

The irony of course was that several of those books were more interested in being historical guidebooks than RPG books, let alone D&D supplements. To the point several only let you play fighters and thieves. They were novel for their time, but I'd much rather have Mythic Odysseys of Theros than Age of Heroes.

Different time. They gave options of Fighter and thies usually 3 levels you could pick. No magic was 1 iirc.

 

[Remathilis]

Different time. They gave options of Fighter and thies usually 3 levels you could pick. No magic was 1 iirc.

Even highest magic options was leagues below the lowest AD&D levels iirc. Fidelity to the source, but my personal taste would be to either play a D&D game flavored with the historical/mythical elements or play a system designed with that low magic assumption built it. I was never a fan of kit bashing AD&D into shapes it was never intended to be in.

 

[Remathilis]

Moving back to topic, I re-looked at the list and really, the list wasn't all the inspiring. It's hard to argue Hercules and Alexander the Great are modeled by the fighter, and even as a young nerdy history/mythology buff, I will say most of the list was lost on me. Even now, the "thief" list is doesn't inspire me towards playing a loveable rogue.

 

[Zardnaar]

Moving back to topic, I re-looked at the list and really, the list wasn't all the inspiring. It's hard to argue Hercules and Alexander the Great are modeled by the fighter, and even as a young nerdy history/mythology buff, I will say most of the list was lost on me. Even now, the "thief" list is doesn't inspire me towards playing a loveable rogue.

I'm not pure on it. Si.ple explanation they probably tried to tie various tropes from history and myths to D&D classes.

Robin Hood could be a scout(3.5), fighter, ranger, rogue or some combination.

 

[Voadam]

Even highest magic options was leagues below the lowest AD&D levels iirc. Fidelity to the source, but my personal taste would be to either play a D&D game flavored with the historical/mythical elements or play a system designed with that low magic assumption built it. I was never a fan of kit bashing AD&D into shapes it was never intended to be in.

This varied significantly by book, the vikings one is fairly full on D&D with some class exceptions (no mages but five specialist wizard classes allowed and a new runecaster class plus rune magic for everyone, no paladins but a new berserker class allowed, no clerics or druids but all the Norse specialty priests from Legends & Lore). I remember the Roman one being magic restrictive, it allowed wizards but no sixth level wizard spells or above and fairly curated available spell lists.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The irony of course was that several of those books were more interested in being historical guidebooks than RPG books, let alone D&D supplements. To the point several only let you play fighters and thieves. They were novel for their time, but I'd much rather have Mythic Odysseys of Theros than Age of Heroes.

That's what I loved about them. Gameifying history. That series was my jam!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Even highest magic options was leagues below the lowest AD&D levels iirc. Fidelity to the source, but my personal taste would be to either play a D&D game flavored with the historical/mythical elements or play a system designed with that low magic assumption built it. I was never a fan of kit bashing AD&D into shapes it was never intended to be in.

If you're running the history series, I think you are building that assumption in.

 

[James Gasik]

Okay, fair enough. What would you consider to be good examples of higher level characters from literature?

Doc Savage. Tarzan. John Carter. Sherlock Holmes. Fantomas. Conan. Fafhrd. The Grey Mouser. Elric. Corum. Cohen. Sparhawk. Belgarath.