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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9436203" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Q34ec5O.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Houri is your archetypical seductress, using a combination of magic and social skills to attain power. Like the Demonist they are a class that’s supernatural yet doesn’t use Vancian casting, opting for percentile skills to represent their more magical abilities. They have the Hit Die, THAC0, and saves of a Magic-User, but their Experience progression is that of an Assassin. Their requirement specifies a minimum Charisma, but it doesn’t give a value. For weapons and armor they can only use a dagger and nothing else, with the text noting that “this makes them very vulnerable in combat.” For spells they can use Illusionist scrolls and arcane magic items, provided they don’t have any direct damage effects.The houri can Hide in Shadows like an Assassin, but their two major magical skills are a Mesmerizing Sway and a Kiss. The Sway is a dance that can target a single human or demihuman (higher levels let them affect more creature types), causing them to be entranced and focus on the dance should they fail a save vs spells, and possibly paralyzed if they fail badly enough. As for the Kiss, the houri can only do use it on a target that’s willing, charmed, paralyzed, or mesmerized, and they can choose from a variety of effects such as dealing or healing damage and putting the target to sleep. At 9th level they can perform more powerful Major kisses such as cursing a target to only ever provoke hostile results on a reaction table, bringing the dead back to life, or driving a target insane.The Sway and Kiss start out relatively low percentage-wise, at 30% and 25% respectively, with the Sway reaching 50% at 5th level and the Kiss progressing faster in comparison where it ends up with 65% at 5th level. Failed rolls cannot be attempted against the same target for the day, and a creature can only be affected by any kind of kiss once per day.Thoughts: In addition to being weak physically, the Houri is very much a one-note class. While the dance and kiss are effectively unlimited in use provided they find enough targets, as they require two die rolls to pull off effectively (successful percentile and failed save), are single-target, and can’t affect all creature types, Houris are very much geared towards combat-light urban intrigue adventures without too many monsters. They’d fare particularly poorly in the dungeon. Conceptually, the archetype can just as easily be filled in by a Bard, whose Enchantment is multi-target, or a Magic-User, who gets Charm Person and a bevy of other spell choices.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3ZlL5uw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Jester is a variant Acrobat, an entertainer whose role is to topple social conventions and expose the flaws of others. Their abilities lend them well to adventuring, for they have a knack for getting under other people’s skin and undermining their discipline. Jesters have the same Hit Die, THAC0, and Experience growth as the Acrobat, albeit their saving throws use a unique progression unlike any of the core classes. Their strongest saves are Death/Poison and Paralysis/Petrify, with Breath Weapon being their worst. The Jester can use leather and shields for armor, but their weapon selection is limited to mostly bludgeoning weapons (club, sling, staff), and daggers and swords for blades. They begin play knowing a randomly-determined language, and can include rare languages as a possible option.For unique features, Jesters are a bit of a jack-of-all-trades in that their abilities don’t have any strong role in terms of adventuring archetypes. They get +1 to individual initiative against intelligent enemies because their mannerisms frequently take people by surprise, their penchant for verbal jabs causes foes to receive a -1 penalty on morale checks, they’re immune to insanity effects, can throw their voice up to 40 feet away and disguise it as another’s, enemies don’t get a bonus to hit when they retreat from melee, and they can read and cast arcane scrolls with a 10% chance of failure at 10th level.Jesters can Climb and Pick Pockets, but they have a unique skill known as Juggling which gives them a chance to throw back missile weapons/projectiles. Additionally, the Jester can use Pick Pockets to hide small blades up their sleeves which if concealed can gain a +4 bonus to hit and triple damage when thrown at an enemy. This can only be used via Two-Weapon Fighting however, as it counts as an off-hand attack. If the morale/initiative/two-weapon optional rules aren’t in use, they get the Thief’s Back-Stab ability instead.Thoughts: The Jester is very much a “team player” and trickery-based character. Their morale penalties on foes is useful all-around, and their ventriloquism can be a useful distraction. Their Juggling has a low rating at 1st level (15%) but in gaining 5% per level it becomes frequent enough that it’s likely to trigger during gameplay. While it’s a pretty low result, the hidden blade attack can be very satisfying when it’s pulled off.The downside is that the Jester’s various class features make liberal use of optional rules. The bonus to initiative is only for individual initiative, and the hidden blade requires the two-weapon fighting rule to be in play.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/A2aaD1J.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Red Wizard isn’t your Faerûnian ritual caster, but rather a magic-user dedicated first and foremost to fire spells. They are pretty much a Magic-User in everything save their Chaotic-only alignment restriction and unique spell list. They can cast up to 6th level spells, and have 8 possible spells per spell level to possibly learn. Naturally they have classic standbys such as Produce Flame, Read Magic, Fireball, Heat Metal, and Conjure Elemental (fire only), but they get a good helping of new spells too like Burning Hands (1st level, cone-shaped AoE dealing 1 fire damage per level), Flaming Sphere (2nd level, create and control a fiery sphere that burns and alights anything it touches or rolls over), Searing Smog (4th level, create smog that blocks vision and deals damage to those inside), Flame Door (5th level, caster or chosen creature harmlessly enters fire and appears in another fire the caster has seen before), and Enslave Lesser Efreet (6th level, can only cast once per 3 years, bind a lesser efreet to your service).As you can imagine, the Red Wizard is very much an offensive caster first and foremost. They do have some non-offensive utility magic, but the core Magic-User and other classes such as Cleric have them beat out in this regard.Thoughts: There’s not too much to say about the Red Wizard in being a straightforward blaster caster. I do appreciate that many of its spells don’t just do straight damage and can be useful for altering the battlefield and hindering enemies in other ways. But much like a Knight being at their best in mounted combat, the Red Wizard is rather one-note in that they pretty much play only one way and there’s not much variance between them.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/xl3izuA.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Witch is the final class of this book, representing spellcasters who combine traditional arcane magic with petitioning nigh-forgotten deities to tap into folkloric style spells. Like the Red Wizard they are pretty much a Magic-User in terms of core features like Hit Dice, saves, etc, with the exception that they can only learn up to 5th level spells and not 6th level. The spells they get are a subtler kind, specializing in divination, curses, enchantments, and rituals that take time to prepare, making them less flashy and “in the moment” than other casters.In terms of unique features, a witch can identify any plant they come across, and at 3rd level learn to brew a special potion once per week, choosing from a list of four general effects (sleep, poison, truth serum, charm). At 7th level they can make an ointment that lets the user fly, but the person affected must be naked when applied and during its duration in order to benefit. I feel that this is a reference to something, but I don’t know what. They can also summon a small animal to serve as their familiar. The animal is more resilient than its regular species, having better AC and hit points, and uses the witch’s saves. It can telepathically communicate with the witch, grant them a bonus 1st level spell from any class each day at dusk, and grants +1 to the witch’s saves when they’re within 120 feet of each other. The familiar vanishes if they’re more than one mile apart or it dies, and a familiar can be replaced one year later.For spells, the witch class has its own spell list, going up to 5th level with 12 spells per spell level to potentially learn. Like other casting classes in this book it draws from existing spells like Auditory Illusion, ESP, Invisibility, Cause Disease, and Hallucinatory Terrain. But it also has some new spells like Imaginary Errand (1st level, can effect multiple HD of targets like Sleep but makes those affected believe they must do a minor task of importance), Bottomless Bag (2nd level, gives extradimensional space to a normal bag making it capable of storing much larger and heavier loads), Sanctuary (2nd level, target who fails the save cannot attack the caster, so long as the caster doesn’t take any offensive actions against any enemy), Mystic Rope (3rd level, conjures a magical rope that can be commanded to entangle creatures), Veil of Abandonment (4th level, illusion makes an area look ancient and abandoned and inanimate objects in the area become invisible), and Evil Eye (5th level, for 5 rounds caster can choose from a small list of debuff spells such as Curse and Hold Person at whoever they look at).There’s a small list of themed spells of colored candles, with names like Black Candle, Blue Candle, etc. They all have a similar effect in that the caster lights a colored candle and the affected targets must remain within the radius of light emitted for at least 1 turn. Afterwards the spell takes effect. For instance, Black Candle inflicts an extra-strength Curse, Yellow Candle accelerates natural healing to be 1 hit point per turn spent in the light, Blue Candle grants protection against attacks from creatures of another alignment, and Red Candle charms the target and is stronger in that they can even obey commands that are harmful to them and contrary to their alignmentThoughts: The Witch is a very cool class, and many of their spells and abilities are in keeping with the themes while also being broadly useful. Familiars make for good scouts but aren’t easy to replace, meaning that the witch is incentivized to care for its welfare rather than being treated like a disposable conjured minion or raised undead. The free potion once a week is also useful, being infrequent enough to not apply during a typical dungeon crawl but can be a nice treat to stockpile during downtime. Their spell selection is broad and has a lot of options, but in keeping with the folkloric themes there are still some areas that other spellcasters do better. Witches don’t really have any damaging spells, and those that do are more indirect like with summoned creatures making attacks. Their sole hit point healing spell is Yellow Candle, which isn’t bad to have but a Cleric and Paladin do a better job of patching up wounds right then and there.Thoughts So Far: I like all of the final four classes save the Houri, in that they have flavorful and useful abilities that should be appealing to most gaming groups. Unlike some of the more evil-feeling classes earlier in this book, I can see myself approving the Jester, Red Wizard, and Witch for more typical campaigns as well.Final Thoughts: Oh My Lost Darklords gives a good value for its price. 13 new classes is a lot to choose from, and they vary enough in theme and function that there should be something for at least everyone flipping through its pages. Most of the classes don’t feel too easily exploitable or useless barring some edge classes like Dark Mage and Houri. There are several parts of the book that could use some ironing out editing-wise, like the inconsistent weapon proficiencies for the Cultist or unclear Charisma requirement for the Houri. For those wanting more anti-heroic/dark magic options for their OSR games, Oh My Lost Darklords is well worth checking out!</blockquote>

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