Hacking 2e: The Specialist Wizard Kits

His chain-diamond is merely to
distract you from his tufted shoes.

The Illusionist debuted in the same rush of mid-70s fan-made hacks that would eventually constitute the majority of AD&D’s core classes. For more on the paleolithic Illusionist, see Jon Peterson. The Specialist Wizard is a natural evolution of that original class; Illusionists begot the organization of magic into ‘schools’, which in turn suggested practitioners of those schools.

Instead of listing each school’s specialist, 2e provides the rules needed to build your own, along with an example Illusionist. This was the smartest way to handle this, as none of these specialists have any defining features that the others don’t, aside from the chosen school and some requirements. I’d prefer to make each specialist its own kit; as will be seen, I go for a hybrid approach.

Hacking 2e: The Wizard

How much time do you think
he spends on that beard?

In each group of classes, the primary class reflects its “mega-class”. Fighters are Warriors without the bells, Clerics are Priests with Turn Undead, etc. No more is this true than the Mage, which brings nothing to the table that the group didn’t already provide: it’s a Wizard given another new title (yes, the Magic-User got renamed twice), in order to differentiate it from a more focused spellcaster. (It’s also one of my primary motivations for doing away with the group system; if there is no practical difference between your main class and its container group, why keep the group?) So, even though they’re known as a Mage in 2e, I’ll constantly refer to them as a Wizard.

Normally at this point, I’d direct you to an overly in-depth History of the Class article set for more information on the changes that this class has gone through over 50+ years. Alas, he didn’t write one for the Wizard, so you’re on your own.

The challenge with this entry is that the Wizard class is not much more than its spells, and I haven’t reached the point where I’m ready to manufacture a hacked magic system. Let’s see if I can get through this without accidentally creating one.

Hacking 2e: The Ranger Kit

The Ranger is the only class not provided
with bad art, so you get the Dúnedain.

From its humble beginnings of “what if Strider was a playable class” to the current generation’s dual-wielding, magic-slinging beastmaster, the Ranger has been through some changes over time. If you wish to dive into those changes, Stoddard is still your resource. 2e’s Ranger is the middle of this great shift, introducing new (and now iconic) powers while retaining old ideas. In Dragon #121, Zeb warned that the class would “mutate.” He wasn’t kidding.

Let’s dig into each feature and see what can be broken.

Hacking 2e: The Paladin Kit – Part 2

In Part 1, I retained the alignment focus of the Paladin, along with the Saving Throw bonus and disease immunity. I converted Detect Evil into a spell grant, and buffed Lay on Hands to cover both hp regen and disease curing while also improving over time. This time, I’ll look at the kit’s auras, its Cleric-adjacent features, the war horse, and some detail on the Paladin’s asceticism.

Hacking 2e: The Paladin Kit – Part 1

Nice greaves.

Described by 2e as the “noble and heroic warrior, the symbol of all that is right and true in the world,” the game has high expectations for the Paladin. They are a pillar of goodness and law based solely on roleplay and vibes, requiring adherence to a Lawful Good code in order to retain their powers, lest they fall to a shameful state of specializationless fighterdom. For the history, I will continue to direct you to Stoddard’s History of the Classes: The Paladin Class.

This is the first attempt to rebuild the non-core classes as kits. In this case: a Fighter kit. That means a removal of Weapon Specialization and the addition of the myriad features that come part and parcel with the Paladin.

And boy, what a collection of features. Try as I might, I could not eat the whole meal, so I’ve got another split entry.

Hacking 2e: The Fighter

That's right, I'll be using the revised
PHB artwork for this series. Despair!

The Fighter (né Fighting-Man) has been here since Chainmail, and has survived every edition. If there was a default character class in D&D, this is it. Due to its simplicity of design and straightforward mechanics, it is commonly derided as too simple and, ultimately, boring. Most editions would take a stab at trying to make the Fighter more interesting, and 2e was no exception, though its solution was to copy Unearthed Arcana and just make the class hit better and harder and more often. If your goal is to keep the Fighter as the easy-to-run martial choice, this gets the job done.

However, this is not a history lesson. If you want an absurd amount of detail about the Fighter’s travel through the editions (and beyond), you can’t do better than Brandes Stoddard’s fourteen part history of the class.

While you’re at it, I always recommend Matt Colville’s The History of D&D, One Fighter at a Time. It’s a good mix of general history and Fighter-specific detail. He made it as far as 3rd Edition.

Let’s dissect the Fighter, see what works, and what might need some adjustment.

Hacking 2e: Class

Class is the beating heart of D&D. You could ditch almost everything from the game – many editions have, in one form or another – but as long as you have distinct classes which differentiate themselves through unique powers and abilities, you still have the essence. Without them, you’re playing something else.

Admittedly, this is why I’ve spent the better part of a year finding anything else to write about: it’s a big slice of work, and an important one for the purposes of this hack, so I’ve put off making a mess of it. However, playtesting is fast approaching, so it’s time to crack this open.

Alignment Across the Editions

Stepping away from the hack for a moment, I’ve been thinking about alignment.

Alignment was there from the start. As such, it has been an ever-present feature of the varied editions, right up there with Ability Scores and Classes. There is a 50+ year argument regarding the place and functionality of this quantified moral compass. These arguments can get weirdly ontological.

To get a better grasp of this most contentious of systems, let’s break down how alignment has been used in D&D and how it has changed throughout the editions.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 7 (Coda)

Surprise. The write-up on alignment is taking a bit longer than I anticipated, life is being life, and I really like the idea of having 7 parts (a la Rod) over just 6. So, consider this a coda to the preceding series.

The rules laid out in the prior post detail a division of use: passive and active. Active is boilerplate and unsurprising; if a skill would come into play, and the task has a chance of failure for one so trained, then an Ability check occurs without penalty or restriction. Passive is seemingly simpler, in that it gives the character auto-success features, but I think it’s the more interesting function of these skills. Whereas active use may be more exciting and even dramatic, the passive use guarantees a more open and reactive world, while cementing a given character’s identity.

Let me explain through two other games.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 6 (Final Skill List)

I’ve spent the past 5 weeks looking at all of 2e’s varied skill systems, mostly focusing on the Nonweapon Proficiencies. I have tried to rein in overpowered skills, boost weak ones, and cut the fat wherever possible. This has resulted in a list of five Rogue-only skills, three universal skills, an optional background skill system, and ten optional NWP-derived ability skills. These are in addition to skills provided by demihumans and by specific classes.

I’ve already reviewed the demihuman skills, though the following rules will require that I adjust those skills. The Rogue skills and class skills are a matter for another post. Today, I shall hammer out universal, background, and ability skills.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 5 (Roguish Skills and Survival)

Last time, I threw most of the reviewed Nonweapon Proficiencies over the side of the ship. For this final review of the NWPs, we’ll look at Thief-adjacent NWPs and the Survival skills.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 4 (Feats and Riding)

Last entry, I pared down a few more Nonweapon Proficiencies into Animal Handling, Performance, Direction Sense, and Healing. I only got halfway through the list of feat-like NWPs, so let’s finish those off first.

My numbering has gone sideways due to this split. Part of this is Part 2 of Part 3, and starts at 3.6. Forgive me.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 3 (Animals, Art, and Feats)

The last post established the background feature – allowing the Secondary Skills system to directly interface with Nonweapon Proficiencies – and tossing all the other ‘career’ NWPs. I also took skills related to knowledge, scrapped language/literacy NWPs, condensed the list, and bundled it under a general Knowledge skill. I pulled Religion out of the pile to remain a separate skill.

Let’s move on to the animal stuff.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 2 (Background and Knowledge)

Last time I opined about the varied skills systems in AD&D 2e and discussed how to bundle them into a single system. The takeaway was that every check outside of Ability Checks and Saving Throws could be considered a Skill Check, broken up into universal skills, class/demihuman skills, and selectable skills. The latter will be my focus for this post, as I work to modify the Nonweapon Proficiencies to function properly in this hack.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 1

Skills are often paraded as a dividing line between old-school play and the modern implementation of D&D. 2nd Edition sits on this line, providing an optional system of skills that encompass everything from trade skills and areas of study to proto-3e feats. These skills were titled ‘Nonweapon Proficiencies’, as they were the non-weapon version of the weapon proficiencies, though the only conclusion I can make as to why they weren’t just called ‘skills’ is likely because a) they didn’t want a skill system even thought they made one anyway, and b) they didn’t want to conflate it with the skill system they already had in the Thief class.

Well, let’s ruin that completely by smashing them into one system.