D&D 1E AD&D 1e Alternate Classes

[airwalkrr]

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.

 

[T. Foster]

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]

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. Foster]

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

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...

 

[Celebrim]

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).

 

[airwalkrr]

Interesting notes. But it seems as if there was not, in fact, another rulebook with published classes.

 

[Rhun]

Interesting notes. But it seems as if there was not, in fact, another rulebook with published classes.

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.

 

[airwalkrr]

Neither of which I wish to incorporate into my Greyhawk campaign.

 

[Tewligan]

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).

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. Foster]

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...