D&D 1E Which NEW class from a Dragon Magazine did you play or allow ?

[atanakar]

During the AD&D era New classes introduced in the Dragon Magazine were NPC classes. They were not meant to be used by players but sometimes a DM would allow it.

I remember playing the Jester Class, «A comical, clever, charismatic new NPC» according to the article in Dragon Magazine #60 (April 1982. pages 45-49). Fun to play in town. Didn't last long once we descended in the dungeon. If no one understand you, you can't really taunt them.

 

[Celebrim]

There were a few. The ones I remember:

Duelist
Mariner
Corsair
Elven Cavalier

I know Merchant, Scribe, Sentinel, and Huntsman showed up as NPCs, but I don't remember anyone ever playing one.

 

[Umbran]

In our games back in teh day we had...
A duelist
A bounty Hunter
A variant monk.

There were probably a couple of others.

 

[Salamandyr]

I am convinced the term "NPC class" was a way to disclaim responsibility if such a class wrecked your game. It decreased pressure on DM's to allow players to use them compared to what would have happened if they had been introduced as new PC classes. After all, there's not much point giving XP progressions for classes reserved for NPC's.

I've run games with the old D&D single class bard variant, the archer, the duellist, the brigand, and I'd probably consider most of the other ones with slight modification.

 

[the Jester]

I remember playing or dming the variant monk and bard from Best of Dragon Vol... 2? Maybe 3? I also saw pc death masters, bandits, archers, and jocks. Oh, and ninjae. Probably a couple of others, too- as well as some of the UA classes that appeared in Dragon before being put into the book.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot! And the hopeless character! Yes, we actually had one of those for a session or two.

 

[Don Durito]

Berserker

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I think it was some sort of Battle Dancer; similar to a Monk, but with more dancing.

 

[ccs]

80s-early 90s: Beserkers, Sages, Witches, Anti-Paladins, Jesters, Ninja, Samurai, some sort of Monk, . That's the ones I remember without digging out various issues. But I'm sure there were more.
Somewhere about 93/94 I stopped picking up Dragon, so nothing from those years +.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Piao Shih, because someone wanted to play a Ranger type in our OA game.

 

[Thakazum]

I ran a Swords & Wizardry campaign not too long ago where I allowed the original alchemist, berserker, illusionist and healer from early Strategic Review/Dragon. The berserker was fun (although it really complicated things in S&W). Healer was actually pretty powerful