Record of Lodoss War d20 (a non-tangential discussion)

[Dark Jezter]

I would stat out the Lodoss War cast much as Psion did, and give them the following alignments...

Parn: LG
Deedlit: NG
Ghim: LG
Etoh: NG
Slayne: LG
Woodchuck: CG
Kashue: LG
Fahn: LG
Karla: LN (Karla believes in a strict balance between good and evil, and will aid one if the other is getting too strong)
Pirotess: LE
Ashram: LE
Beld: NE
Wagnard: CE

And, some of the characters who aren't part of the main cast...

Ashram: I'd stat Ashram as a fighter 11. I considered making him a blackguard, but since we never see him use any Blackguard-like abilites, I just decided on a fighter.

Pirotess: Pirotess would be a dark elf Fighter 5/Sorcerer 6. As mentioned in above posts, dark elves are mostly similar to light elves, and are not D&D drow.

Kashue: The famous mercenary-king who united the desert kingdoms under his sword would probably be a fighter 13 or so.

Fahn: Fighter 16.

Beld: Fighter 16 (Beld and Fahn were very evenly-matched).

Wagnard: Wagnard would be a Conjurer 17.

Shiris: Fighter 8, with special feat Armor Proficency (Mrs. Claus Outfit).

Orson: Fighter 9, he would also have a berserker template that would cause him to enter uncontrollable rages in combat.

 

[MDSnowman]

Continuing on to the 2nd Story arc from the Chronicles of the Heroic Knight TV Series...

Spark: Lawful Good Fighter
Little Neese: Neutral Good Cleric of Marfa (not sure how to stat out her nearly pacficistic tendencies, maybe a prestige class from The Book of Exalted Deeds)
Garrack: Lawful Neutral Fighter (perhaps a couple of Rogue levels to represent his less than noble "real" job)
Ryna: Chaotic Good Rogue
Greevus: Dwarven, Lawful Good Cleric of Myrii (perhaps a canidate for the Warpriest PrC)
Leaf: Half-Elf, Chaotic Good Shaman
Aldonova: Lawful Good Wizard
Marr: Grass Runner, Chaotic Neutral Bard

Also Parn's holy Sword strikes me more as a Bastard Sword than a long sword... and if anyone deserves a prestige class it's Ashram, maybe the Dark Knight Legendary Class ... of course I still need that book so perhaps someone can tell me what it's like.

 

[MDSnowman]

Also you'll find if you buy Chronicles of the Heroic Knight Boxed set DVDs (the only way to buy the series on DVD IIRC) it comes with an interactive CD ROM and booklet fleshing out what little we know for sure about the setting of Record of Lodoss war... including the distinction between Common and Mirror Forest Elves, other gods (like Ganeed the god of thieves)

 

[Remathilis]

Hmm...

OAV Versions...

Parn: Human Fighter LG
Slayne: Human Wizard/Loremaster NG
Etoh: Human Cleric LG
Deedlit: Elf Ranger/Sorcerer NG
Ghim: Dwarf Fighter, LG
Woodchuck: Human Rogue CG
Shiris Human Fighter/Rogue, CG
Orsen Human Fighter/Barbarian, CN

Asharam: Human Fighter/Blackguard, LE
Pirotess: Dark Elf Fighter/Sorcerer, NE

Karla: Human Wizard/Archmage N (true neutral is the balance).

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

2. As for the Shamanistic Magic of people like Deedlit and Leaf I'm going to say that the Shaman Core Class from Green Ronin fits the bill perfectly, also I think Shaman should be made the favored class of all Wood, and High Elves.

I'd agree. I haven't seen that core class(I bought the mongoose shaman book), but from what I've seen that would hit it pretty close.

The Dark Elves in Lodoss seem loaded down with spare invisiblity spells, so I suggest that sorcerer be the Favored Class for Dark Elves, though I could see a lot of Rogue/Sorcerer/Shadow Dancers among them.

I'd say the ones that are mainly seen are Assasins...although I'd bet there are Shadow Dancers among 'em.

5. Wizards and their Staves. I also think the arcane focus rules from The Quintessential Wizard would also work well as all the major wizards in the series, Slayn, Cecil, Wagnard, and the like all wielded staves and used them in their spellcasting.

I haven't seen the rule, but I've figuring it is sort of like the Magister from Arcana Unearthed, which would also fit pretty well.

 

[MDSnowman]

I'd agree. I haven't seen that core class(I bought the mongoose shaman book), but from what I've seen that would hit it pretty close.

I haven't seen Mongoose's Shaman, but odds are they aren't too disimilar, I'd rule that any Shaman in Lodoss would be required to take 2 Elemental Domains and wouldn't be allowed to take the other two, their other domains are for them to choose.

I'd say the ones that are mainly seen are Assasins...although I'd bet there are Shadow Dancers among 'em.

You've got a point, but I like having them as an excuse to have Sorcerer's still in the campaign world. It makes the average Dark Elf more magical-themed. Though I think Pirotess would make a great test subject for a Fighter/Rogue/Sorcerer/Shadow Dancer.

I haven't seen the rule, but I've figuring it is sort of like the Magister from Arcana Unearthed, which would also fit pretty well.

Arcane Nexuses are nifty items that Wizards can use to channel their magical energy and perform several tricks, like enhancing meta-magic spells, any item could really serve as an Arcane Nexus, but the bigger the item is the more tricks that can be encoded on it... hence why big things like staves are so popular.

 

[Psion]

Good call on Staves from Quint Wizard.

 

[The Sigil]

Good call on Staves from Quint Wizard.

Staves ("Arcane Nexuses") were IMO, the best part of that book by several longbow shots. In fact, I would've liked to see MORE development of the concept.

The rest of the book was hit-and-miss for me, but that section was definitely a critical hit with the improved critical feat.

--The Sigil

 

[MDSnowman]

I had an idea for Monks in the World of Record of Lodoss War

Warriors from far of the world, Crysania, a land ruled by the beast gods. In that land some mortals have harnessed the powers of these powerful spirits and have begun to mimic their attack styles focusing their own spirits and gaining a measure of the energy that the beast gods are made of.

I might allow them to multi-class as Shamans and Rangers as well.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

That entire thread and nobody once mentioned that Record of the Lodoss War (ROLW) got its start as a novelization of events from an AD&D campaign. It was novelized, converted to manga, and the people behind it did try publishing an AD&D book for their campaign, but were shot down by TSR. The ROLW game did eventually appear, a rather haphazard system embedded into one of the novels. After the first ROLW anime series was done, a rumor floated around about TSR realizing its mistake and trying to go back and license ROLW, but were shot down. I don't know if this is true or not. But there you have it; Record of the Lodoss Wars seems so suitable for a D&D campaign because it actually started out as a D&D campaign.

Incidentally, along with the original OAV series, the TV series, and the Crystania movie, There have been three mangas translated to english by CPM, all of which show events quite differently from the various animes.