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D&D 1E AD&D 1e Alternate Classes

airwalkrr

airwalkrr

Adventurer
So other than the PH and Unearthed Arcana, did 1e ever introduce any other classes before 2e was released? Dragon magazine counts for the purposes of this conversation. And anything from B/X/OD&D etc. doesn't count. I'm mainly concerned with AD&D.
 

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T

T. Foster

First Post
Dragon magazine had a ton of alternate classes for 1E AD&D. Most of the best of them were collected in the various "Best of Dragon" volumes: vol. 2 included the berserker, pre-OA versions of the samurai and ninja, and the infamous anti-paladin; vol. 3 included alternate versions of the monk and bard that a lot of folks prefer to the PH versions and the archer class that was popular for awhile but was sort of rendered obsolete by the weapon specialization rules in UA; vol. 4 included a bunch, among them the duelist, bounty hunter, bandit, death master, jester, and cloistered cleric (i.e. cleric who doesn't fight).

From later issues (the "Best of" collections only went up to about issue 100), some that stand out in my memory include a set of alternate paladins (one for each alignment), the elven cavalier (variant of the UA cavalier class), barbarian shaman, and beast master (a horribly unbalanced uber-class that one of my frends always used to insist on playing).
 

Contrarian

Contrarian

First Post
Here's a little-known one: Gygax actually published one AD&D character class after leaving TSR -- the Hunter. It's a fighter subclass that specializes in fighting animals and monsters instead of people and humanoids -- basically a hunter-gatherer character class. (Some of its special abilities overlap with the barbarian's and the ranger's -- hunter might be a good class for people who think the 1E barbarian is too over the top.)

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3589
 

T

T. Foster

First Post
Contrarian said:
Here's a little-known one: Gygax actually published one AD&D character class after leaving TSR -- the Hunter. It's a fighter subclass that specializes in fighting animals and monsters instead of people and humanoids -- basically a hunter-gatherer character class. (Some of its special abilities overlap with the barbarian's and the ranger's -- hunter might be a good class for people who think the 1E barbarian is too over the top.)

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3589
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Heh, you'd think I'd have remembered about that class, since I'm the one who first dug it up and posted about it at dragonsfoot... :eek:
 

Celebrim

Celebrim

Legend
In addition to the ones that T. Foster mentions, I also remember a 'Mariner' (fighter subclass specialized in seafaring, with a thief like table of oceanic skills), and a 'Corsair' (the same, but a paladin variant).
 


Rhun

Rhun

First Post
airwalkrr said:
Interesting notes. But it seems as if there was not, in fact, another rulebook with published classes.
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The only other 1E AD&D rulebook I can think of that had published classes in it besides Oriental Adventures was the Dragonlance Adventures book.
 


Tewligan

Tewligan

First Post
T. Foster said:
Dragon magazine had a ton of alternate classes for 1E AD&D. Most of the best of them were collected in the various "Best of Dragon" volumes: vol. 2 included the berserker, pre-OA versions of the samurai and ninja, and the infamous anti-paladin; vol. 3 included alternate versions of the monk and bard that a lot of folks prefer to the PH versions and the archer class that was popular for awhile but was sort of rendered obsolete by the weapon specialization rules in UA; vol. 4 included a bunch, among them the duelist, bounty hunter, bandit, death master, jester, and cloistered cleric (i.e. cleric who doesn't fight).

From later issues (the "Best of" collections only went up to about issue 100), some that stand out in my memory include a set of alternate paladins (one for each alignment), the elven cavalier (variant of the UA cavalier class), barbarian shaman, and beast master (a horribly unbalanced uber-class that one of my frends always used to insist on playing).
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However, except for the alternate monk and bard, I'm almost positive that all of those Dragon classes you mentioned were specifically given as NPC classes, NOT playtested or balanced to be used as PCs. No wonder your friend always insisted on taking the beast master - I remember that one being crazy powerful! NPC-only classes are an idea that I'm pretty sure would go over like a lead balloon today, but I always thought they were a pretty keen idea.
 

T

T. Foster

First Post
You are absolutely correct -- most/all of those classes in Dragon were specifically indicated for use as NPCs only. Didn't stop use from using them for PCs in our games, though...
 

Celebrim

Celebrim

Legend
T. Foster said:
You are absolutely correct -- most/all of those classes in Dragon were specifically indicated for use as NPCs only. Didn't stop use from using them for PCs in our games, though...
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Hmmm... generous of someone.

Well, if we are listing unbalanced NPC classes, add the Witch to that list. IIRC, didn't the Witch have a 'no save and die' spell, 'Bones to Jello' or something?

Really, only a few of those are over the top - Beast Master being near the top.

I don't remember Archer, Duelist, Elven Cavalier, etc. being overpowered, unless you considered the UA classes overpowered to begin with.

A few of the NPC classes I remember being as slightly underpowered. Seems like I remember a Merchant and an Alchemist class. And of course, 2nd edition came out with a book of classes for ever trade - including things like Cook.
 

T

T. Foster

First Post
Well, in our defense we were 11-12 years old at the time. We learned the lesson of the beast master the hard way and that class was pretty quickly banned from PC use (not that it didn't stop that one guy from always trying to bring it back), but we did have a duelist, an elven cavalier, an alternate-bard, and maybe one or two other Dragon-classes as fairly long-term PCs, lasting pretty much all the way until we switched over to 2E, so none of those, at least, were obvious game-breakers.
 

Thanael

Thanael

First Post
There's also a Dragon article about Gypsies where it is mentioned that Gypsy nobility are variant (1E) bards, gaining thief levels first, and then fighter levels. The bard abilities are changed a little too. Great article.
 

grodog

grodog

Adventurer
In addition to the ones Trent mentioned, I've liked and used (again, both as NPCs and allowed as PCs at various times): Timelords (Lew Pulsipher in Dragon 65; Lew also published the Detective class in WD, which we experimented with a little), Witches (various versions from TD3 [and in BoD1], 42, and 114), Dreamers (John Nephew in 132), and Ed Greenwood's Incantatrix from Dragon 90.

In general, though, I agree that the ones collected in Best of Dragon were the standard variants that we employed.
 

smootrk

smootrk

First Post
There was a good Bandit class (npc I think), and the Witch class was very nice as well. My favorites were the Paladin variants... specifically the Paramander/Paramandyr neutral ones. One was a warrior to defend balance, and the other was more of an neutral terror, fighting to actively restore balance by cutting down whichever side seemed more powerful.

There was a really obscure reference in a Celtic oriented adventure for an Evil Ranger type... the Hunter, which I used as DM immediately.
 

diaglo

diaglo

Adventurer
duh jock.

iirc it was in the same issue of Dragon as another class... maybe it was the cavalier.

diaglo "i forget and thus qualify for the class" Ooi
 

HellHound

HellHound

ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo
diaglo said:
duh jock.

iirc it was in the same issue of Dragon as another class... maybe it was the cavalier.

diaglo "i forget and thus qualify for the class" Ooi
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I think Duh Jock was in with a version of the Jester.

It was an april issue.

I ran a Jock to level 8 in one campaign. Even had a Hockey Stick of Holy Terror.
 

diaglo

diaglo

Adventurer
HellHound said:
I think Duh Jock was in with a version of the Jester.

It was an april issue.

I ran a Jock to level 8 in one campaign. Even had a Hockey Stick of Holy Terror.
Click to expand...

that's the one.
 



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