Fifth Fantasy Revised Classes

I fiddled with these ones a while ago but they never got typed up. Not playtested but I like them better.

Fighter

Paladin Journeyman

A Link type

Skills: Investigation, Sleight of Hand

Knack: Once per day, you can use an item without expending its uses, e.g. a potion remains undrunken, an arrow remains unshot. +1 use per day at every even level.

Weak Point: Once per fight, you can use a noncombat item to attack (anyone can do this but its especially good for you). For example, use a warming blanket to wrap an ice ghost, or throw a lantern at a monster. If it makes some amount of sense, it stuns the enemy for a round, in addition to whatever damage it might do. This might destroy the item. If it makes no sense, this ability isn't expended.

Ranger Cook

A Senshi type

Skills: Nature, Survival

Hearty Meal: When the party takes a rest and eats a meal prepared by the cook with fresh ingredients, they gain HP equal to the cook's level. If they would regain HD, they regain 1 extra.

Cookery: If the cook uses an edible elemental material to prepare a dish, their food gives one of these effects
- +2 to 1 stat (Fire -> STR, Ice -> CON, Storm -> AGI, Light -> PRE, Dark -> LOR)
- Resistance to damage of the opposing type (Fire -> Ice -> Storm -> Fire, Light -> Dark -> Light)

Rogue

Adept Bard

Leave the wizarding up to the wizards

Skills: Performance, Persuasion, History

Fame: When you would gain favor from a quest, you may spend a downtime action telling tales to gain double.

Rumor Mill: When you gather rumors as an action, you may spend 1 favor to do one of the following
- Learn 1d4 more rumors
- Learn if a rumor is True
- Spread one of your own rumors

New Rule: Favor

Favor is a measure of your standing in a town. It functions as a secondary currency to Guilders. When you forgo payment for a quest, or give gifts of magic items, you gain Favor in that town equal to the Guilder value. You receive a bonus to reaction rolls from townsfolk equal to your favor, up to a maximum of 6. By default you can only spend favor to receive hospitality, at a rate of one favor to four days. If you accrue negative favor (through overstaying your welcome or evil acts), there is a [negative favor] in 6 chance per week that you get run out of town (this is also checked whenver you enter town). Favor (and negative favor) for each town is halved at the Moonday, except for the town you are staying at for moonday.

Universal Subclasses

These can be taken by any class, and have unique names for the main class you take them with, given as Subclass (Fighter name, Rogue name, Mage name).

Beastmaster (Ranger, Tamer, Summoner)

Skills: Animal Handling, Insight

Friend to All: for Living creatures, you may cause them to reroll reaction and tatke the better result. A roll of 12 means they are friendly to you.

Heart Bond: With Any creature friendly to you, you may bond to it. You may only have one bond. It gets a bonus to HP and to your highest stat equal to your level (e.g. if you are level 3 and have AGI as your highest stat, it gains +3 to HP and AGI). It may take on an element you are proficient in, or an element of a material you give it. It will, generally, obey you. If it was summoned, the duration of the summoning is permanent.

Princeling (Knight, Marquise, Magister)

Skills: Persuasion, History

Noblesse: Choose one town as your domain. In your domain, you get +1 favor per quest, and you may gain favor for public works as though it were a gift. Favor does not decay for you at the summer moonday (since you are expected to be out adventuring), but is quartered at the winter moonday (because you should be at home).

De Jure: You may spend favor to attract merchants to your domain, and recruit townsfolk from it for adventures.

Acrobat (Dragoon, Assassin, Adept)

Skills: Acrobatics, Stealth

Leap: You may leap [10 + twice Level] Feet, vertically and horizontally (and both)

Evasion: While in light armor, double your AGI bonus for the purposes of AC.

Dirt Simple Domains (OSE?)

 

dunno the source, alas

Thinking (as usual?) about clerics. You know that I like gods with some personality. But there's certainly an aesthetic space for something a bit more one-note. Sometimes all that is relevant to a game is that such-and-such shrine is dedicated to the god of fire, or my cleric worships the sword-god, or this blade is holy to the god of frogs. The assumed cleric of an old school game (I'm using OSE as the example, cause its easy) is devoted to the god (possibly God) of light or law or life or something, or conversely to evil/chaos/death. They don't often have strictures, at least not by default, that would prevent them from, say, graverobbing. They're just supposed to, vaguely, advance the cause of good.

So, let's think similarly about the cleric of the god of frogs. They aren't bound that "thou shalt always be slimy" by the trickster frog Glorn. They worship simply the god of frogs, and will try to "advance the cause of frogs", whatever that entails, but in the same vague way that the fighter wants to avenge their parents. When you have a cleric like this, here is what you can do:

First, determine if the deity is lawful, neutral, or chaotic. You can pretty much just let the player pick, or use whatever alignment they are gonna be. This tells you if they are going to use the normal or reversed version of spells, of course.

Then, pick whichever spell on the cleric spell list is least fitting to the god, and replace that with the most fitting spell from the MU spell list of the same level (or illusionist/druid spell list, if you are using the full rules). This can be a bit tricky with only the MU spell list since they can be a little generic, but remember that being old-school doesn't mean we are banned from reflavoring things. For instance, for the god of frogs, I would replace Light with Shield (I would choose Sleep, but we all know Sleep is a bit overpowered)

When the cleric reaches higher levels of spells, repeat this process with the new level, taking into account any fun flavor your cleric mentioned about their god. Our frog god at second level will lose Bless and get Hypnotic Pattern. 

Finally, if you'd like, you can replace Turn Undead with a category of creature that the god would be opposed to. You could also Turn that category as well as undead, maybe increasing the effective HD of the turned creature. I think the god of frogs would be neutral on the subject of undead, but would rather loathe birds.

I don't pretend that this is a new idea or houserules, I just wanted to write about it. I might write up a short list of simple gods like this just for fun later on. I think if I were to add clerics to Fifth Fantasy, it would be in a similar vein.

Fifth Fantasy, Rules and Setting Introduction

(open for full size)

(Posted for GLoGtober 2024 prompt: Anime Inspired Content)

For a while, I've been working on a game I call Fifth Fantasy. It's part of my lifelong love affair with the generic. It is my personal belief that generic fantasy can be quite as good as gonzo fantasy when pursued with a genuine love. The system, if you can bear it, is a hack of Fifth Edition D&D, though I think it has become almost unrecognizable. My rationale for doing this is simple: I should like to be able to call my games "D&D games" and mean it.

It is vaguely inspired by Zelda, Ni no Kuni, and various JRPGs that I've never played. Being, of course, the last person on earth to make a Ghibli-Zelda Heartbreaker, I have no pretensions of it being the best. It is merely mine. I have placed an emphasis on crafting and downtime, which I think to be almost novel and almost playable. The ruleset is not yet complete: I have yet to finish writing all the spells, and I plan to overhaul the Fighter. But I have a desire to release it as it stands.

Click on that little gif to see it.

Setting Primer

Thousands of years ago, men were not like they are now. Their lives were long, and they knew secret arts of magic and the sword that let them reshape the world as they saw fit. We now call those men gods, although they are all but forgotten to us.

500 years ago, the Dark Lord set up his domain in the north, inflicting tyranny and curses for 300 years, before being brought low by his own people in alliance with the people of the east.

100 years ago, the wizard Destrian the Sudden conquered the lands to the south of the central mountain. He built great monuments in order to increase his power, but was eventually exploded by Forthwind the First, Oswald LaMarque, Desdemona the Sorceress, and Clover the Thief. A brief power struggle with Destrian's general, Redmaine, led to the establishment of the Forthwind Kingdom. At this time, also, the Shadow Wizard Council was organized in the north.

50 years ago, Forthwind the First died, and was succeeded by his son. The dragon of the Darkmarsh retreated to his lair. Trade was established with the Eastern Forest.

5 years ago, the storm dragon Akryus came to the central mountains, and began gorging himself on the lightning energy left by Destrian.

1 year ago, the storm dragon began to (excrete? build? spawn?) legions of storm elementals and thundarmors, which thereafter began to decimate the north of the kingdom, and provoking the dragon of the Darkmarsh to wakefulness.

Now, King Forthwind II has declared that whosoever kills the storm dragon shall possess half the kingdom.

 

Fifth fantasy takes place in a world where a year is 4 months long, and a month is 15 days long. A kingdom might consist of 4 towns, and a town might consist of 4 buildings. The world is suffused with the elements of magic: Fire, Ice, Storm, Light, and Dark. These elements permeate into the very stones and bones, and those who are skilled can turn these into powerful weapons and tools. But these elements may also create monsters that menace the land. Therefore, adventurers must go forth into the wild places to protect the people and bring back riches.

The Five Kingdoms

The centermost kingdom, the frontier of the Great Forest, the great kingdom of Adventure, the Forthwind kingdom! Rural and ruined, it is a place of opportunity for all. The king is wise, but rather busy, and the prince is foolish. Dungeons are more common here than elsewhere, built by the old stormlord. Cuisine is wild game and farmed wheat.

Minaterno, the city of the sea, is the cultured port of the world, the crossroads of all places! Ruled by 5 noble families, or, more accurately, by their feuds and intrigues. Rivalry is here considered a form of romance, and cunning is a form of virtue. They love noodles, and harvest wild rice from the darkmarsh, and have a lot of spice.

The Black Axis, called the city of slaves, where shadows grow long and secrets are thick. Despite its nickname, slavery has long been illegal, and they practice a form of representative government, headed by the Shadow Wizard Council. The abundance of Dark aligned materials left by their ancient lord still provides the basis of their economy, and they have the greatest school for mages in the world. Their food is somewhat bland: Mushrooms, Potatoes, Eel, and Whale.

The Eastern Forest is a place dominated by serenity and beauty. This domination is literal: some enchantment seems to lie on the whole domain, and it is hard to break. Decisiveness is valued: To break the peace when necessary, with swiftness and grace. There is a different tradition of mages there, sorted into colors: Red, Blue, Black, White. Their queen is secluded always. They are vegetarian, eating leeks and beans.

The Islands of the Crimson Demons is a place that is suffused with magic and exceedingly dangerous. The eponymous Crimson Demons are the ancient and capricious clan of sorcerer-pirates that have been the only ones to effectively stake a claim on any of the islands, and they have only cleared a small village, ruled by the Elder Demon. They trade often with Minaterno, but rove far and raid occasionally. Culturally, they are similar to Minaterno, but with a greater love of spectacle and less regard for tradition.