Avenger for Old-School Essentials

    In OSE there are two 'cavalier' type classes, paladin and knight. The knight lacks magic abilities or alignment restrictions, while the paladin has divine powers and must be law-aligned. An arcane or chaotic cavalier felt like an obvious addition, so I decided to make a homebrew class that fulfilled both roles. I named the class after the avenger subclass from BECMI as that's always been my favorite version of the anti-paladin. I tried to evoke 'black knight' type characters while avoiding typical tropes of anti-paladin type classes. I felt the ability to select a nemesis could lead to interesting rivalries. As always, I appreciate any feedback.

Kenshi for OSE

    After making versions of monk and ninja for OSE, I felt like doing a class inspired by Oriental Adventures' kensai, as I liked the idea of an unarmored swordsman. After a little research, I decided kensai would work better as a high-level title, so I changed the name to kenshi, which means swordsman. I felt like the class could also work pretty well in western fantasy settings in addition to the intended eastern setting. Feedback is always appreciated.

Items from the D&D Cartoon for OSE

    The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon is a piece of early D&D media that I've always been fascinated by. I am too young to have seen its original release, but I have fond memories of watching its re-runs. By modern standards, the show is filled with juvenile humor, flat characters, and lackluster action, but it was the perfect series for a D&D-obsessed kid like myself. After watching some episodes out of nostalgia, I thought it could be fun to write a set of magic items inspired by those from the show. It could be entertaining to slowly drop them into a campaign and see if anyone catches onto their origin. They're intended for OSE but should work for just as well for any B/X-based system.

The High Mage's Hat of Many Spells

Long ago, a magician wandered the world with his companions, performing the heroic deeds. Though the wizard has long ago gone to another plane, he left his old, worn, green hat behind. The hat may appear to be mundane, but it was actually a major source of the wizard's power. Though its magic is immense, it is also untameable and should only be used in the direst of situations. 

Usage: This item can be used in two ways:

• Create Item: The wielder pulls a random item from the hat. Roll 1d10. If the results are 9 or lower then the wielder pulls out a mundane item of the referee's choice. If the roll is a 10, then the wielder pulls out a randomly generated magic item. This ability can only be used once per day.
• Cast Spell: The hat is capable of casting random magic-user spells. The wielder rolls 1d6 to determine the level of the spell and then 1d12 to determine which spell of that level. Should the spell require a specific target, the caster must roll 1d12 + their wisdom magic save modifier on the following chart to determine who the spell effects:

#	Target
1-4	Targets wielder
5-7	Targets wielder’s allies
8-10	Targets wielder’s enemies
11,12	Wielder chooses the target

The Thief's Cloak

A powerful cloak of invisibility formerly owned by a renowned master of stealth. She used its enchantment to sneak through a variety of great dangers. Some say it even allowed her to slip past the great dragon Tiamat unnoticed.

• Invisibility: Allows the wearer to be completely invisible, even if they make an attack or cast a spell.

The Barbarian's Thunder-Club, +2

This club once belonged to a youthful warrior, though he rarely got a chance to properly use it as a weapon. Instead, he primarily made use of its shockwave ability, which allows the wielder to create a cone-shaped shockwave by slamming the club on the ground in front of them.

• Area: The cone is 60' long and 30' wide at the far end
• Creatures caught in cone: Suffer 2d6 damage and must succeed a save versus breath attacks to avoid being knocked prone.
• Objects caught in cone: Fall to the ground if they are below 15 lbs and are not properly secured

The Ranger's Bow, +2

Belonged to a great archer who led his companions on a quest across multiple realms. His powerful bow lacks a string, as one is formed of energy whenever it is used. 

• Infinite Arrows: The bow shoots bolts of energy that are instantly replenished, so there is no need to buy new arrows.

The Cavelier's Shield, +3

Belonged to a wandering warrior who used it to defend both himself and his friends. Normally functioning as a +3 shield, it can be used to form a powerful force-field.

• Force-Field: All attacks towards the wielder and any allies standing within 5' behind him instantly miss. Can be performed once per day.
• Duration: Lasts for a number of rounds equal to the wielder's level
• Concentration: Should the wielder attack or move, the force-field is broken

The Acrobat's Extending Staff, +2

The primary weapon and tool of a great gymnast. Though it may seem mundane in comparison to the other items, it can be just as helpful in a bind. It can be used for a variety of purposes, working as anything from a vaulting pole to a toothpick.

• Extending: The staff can grow as large or small as the the wielder wants, as long as they can still wield it at that size. 

Ninja for Old-School Essentials

    After writing up that version of Monk a few weeks ago I felt like it could be fun to try converting another eastern fantasy class to OSE. I decided to go with ninja, as it's a fairly popular archetype. It came out as a mixture of acrobat and assassin with a bit of monk sprinkled in for flavor. It also features some Oriental Adventures inspiration when it comes to some of the class restrictions. Any feedback is appreciated.

Update: Changed the XP values for better balance.

Oaths for Divine Casters

    Most OSR games, in particular retro-clones, have a tendency to limit clerics and other divine casters from acquiring high-level spells. This is usually because they're based on either AD&D, in which divine spells only went to level 7, or B/X, in which all spellcasters are capped off at 6th level spells. I thought it would be interesting to come up with a way to allow divine casters to gain spells beyond that limit through interactions with the campaign world.

    I think the best way for divine spellcasters specifically would be for them to make some kind of deal with their diety. Similar to magic-users patrons in games like DCC, the cleric could call upon whichever god they serve and take on an oath in exchange for more extraordinary powers. These oaths could be anything from an oath of poverty to a promise to complete a divine quest. Should the cleric break this oath they should at the very least lose access to their higher level spellcasting and may incur other punishments from their diety. This can lead to interesting campaign hooks while also giving your high-level clerics a more direct relationship with their diety.

    The exact powers the cleric receives are determined by the referee. It is probably easiest to give them a single spell slot per oath and use a spell list from a version of the game with higher-level divine casters. But it could also be interesting to make their new spells into class abilities like turn undead or have the PC make oaths for knowledge of spells rather than for spell slots. Either way, the reward for an oath should generally be an equal reward to the severity of the oath. A character who swears to never lie to a non-chaotic creature should not receive the same reward as a character who swears an oath of eternal silence. The cleric and god should negotiate as to what the cleric receives in exchange for their oath, but keep in mind that the diety holds all the cards.

    Though this is mainly meant for clerics, oaths could also be interesting for paladins and druids. Paladins' high combat ability is balanced by their fairly limited spellcasting, so allowing them to make an oath for more power could lead to an immensely powerful character. Because of this, their oaths should be especially restrictive. Druids typically aren't depicted as having patron deities, but they might make deals with animistic spirits or some sort of fey council. the oaths of druids and paladins should be different in nature from those of clerics, and clerics should have different oaths depending on what sort of god they worship. A god of torture will require different oaths from their followers than a god of kindness.

    Oaths can also be used in other situations. A non-divine caster may take one up out of religious devotion, or in exchange for some sort of divine intervention. An enforced oath of poverty or silence might also make a good punishment for a misbehaving cleric. A fighter might take on an oath in exchange for a magic weapon, losing that weapon if they break their vow. There are plenty of potentially entertaining ways to build off oaths as a concept.

    The following is a d12 table of potential oaths. They are of varying severity in order to show how wide a gap there can be in the limitations of an oath. One can imagine a god of fishermen giving their cleric a 7th level spell after they take on an oath of poverty, or a god of chaos granting their servant level 9 spells so that they can fulfill their crusade oath, leading an army to destroy all lawful settlements they encounter. I tried to keep the descriptions fairly vague so that the referee can determine the specifics of the oath.

#	Oath	Description
1	Poverty	Oathtaker must give up a percentage of their income to a church or charity
2	Abstinence	Oathtaker must abstain from a worldly pleasure of the referees choice
3	Penance	Oathtaker must work to undo whatever the referee deems to be their greatest character flaw
4	Combat	Oathtaker must immediately enter combat with any enemies of their deity that they encounter
5	Simplicity	Oathtaker must cast aside any fine goods they may own or use
6	Sincerity	Oathtaker may not intentionally tell a lie to a character of the same alignment
7	Honesty	Oathtaker may never lie
8	Favored Weapon	Oathtaker may only use the favored weapon of their diety
9	Quest	Oathtaker must complete a mission of the deity's choice before receiving their new ability
10	Silence	Oathtaker must never speak
11	Crusade	Oathtaker must undertake an ongoing campaign against the enemies of their deity
12	Charity	Oathtaker must form and lead an organization for the betterment of society at large

Switching Classes

Intro

    A player switching the class of a long-running character can make for an interesting moment in your campaign. Why would the character suddenly change their entire skillset? For the player, it is usually because they got bored of playing their old class, or they're creating a complex build. In-game, it can create an interesting narrative moment. It can be interesting to consider what would motivate a character to make such a drastic change, and mechanically it can lead to some interesting subsystems.

    The typical way for a character to gain a new class in OSR games is through dual classing. This system works fine when switching between very different classes, like a thief to a magic-user, or a magic-user to a cleric, but it's a bit awkward when switching between classes of the same type, largely because it starts the character over at first level. A fighter who dual classes to become a paladin or ranger will have to relearn the same fighting skills they already know from being a baseline fighter. This always seemed a bit awkward to me, especially regarding paladins. 

    Paladins become fighters when they break their oaths and regain them if they perform some sort of redemptive quest for their diety. This means that the only real difference between a fighter and a paladin is the approval of their god. So shouldn't a fighter who fits the requirements be able to become a paladin of equivalent power by completing a similar redemptive quest? I think that there should be a system of switching between classes of the same archetype for this sort of situation. The following is my attempt to write one.

Class Switching Rules

    All old school D&D classes fit vaguely into one of four archetypes relating to the core classes, often referred to as warriors, priests, mages, and rogues. Members of these archetypes are variants of fighters, clerics, magic-users, and thieves respectively. As an example, here are the classes from Advanced Fantasy OSE split into the different class archetypes:

Warrior: Barbarian, Fighter, Knight, Paladin, Ranger

Priest: Cleric, Druid, Bard

Mage: Illusionist, Magic-User

Rogue: Acrobat, Assassin, Thief

    Within this system of swapping classes, each PC is able to switch between classes of the same archetype as long as they perform some sort of task; the exact details of which vary depending on the class. A fighter becoming a paladin might need to prove themselves with a holy quest, while a thief hoping to become an acrobat would have to find a master to teach them. The character does not maintain their previous level but does have the same amount of experience. That means a newly minted paladin may be a lower level than they were as a fighter. Should race-as-class be used, demi-humans are not able to switch between classes.

    Some classes do not quite fit into the typical class types. Monks for example primarily function as warriors, are priests within the game world, and usually have thieves skills like a rogue. In those cases, I would allow the player to switch classes to the core class of any of those types, fighter, cleric, or thief, but none of the subclasses like ranger, druid, or assassin. The referee may also consider them too different from any other class for the skills to transfer over and use dual classing instead.

    This rule of class switching would work well for players who have grown bored with their original class but don't want to retire their character. Many first-time players start as fighters or thieves while learning the rules of the game, but want something more complex once they have gotten used to the system. Class switching would allow them to branch out while staying in their comfort zone and not having to start over from the beginning. It can also be used in dramatic points in your campaign. A fighter may perform a heroic task for a diety and receive paladin powers as a response, or train with a master hunter and become a ranger. Such things can easily lead to interesting campaigns.

Conclusion

   This is just a general house rule. I tried to format it in a way that makes sense. I think I mostly succeeded in this, though I fear it rambles on a bit. I was inspired a bit by how BECMI deals with paladins and druids, by allowing 9th level characters to choose them as subclasses. I like the BECMI system a lot, though I get that a lot of players like being able to start as their preferred class. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, I'd be happy to read them.

A Case for Lawful (and/or Good) Assassins

    I find that the assassin class often gets a bad rap, and this is largely due to their alignment limitation. The requirement for members of the class to be evil is meant to limit its somewhat overpowered assassination ability. Paladins and rangers also had to deal with alignment restrictions, but most D&D adventures revolve around good parties, so they felt less out of place. Assassins on the other hand were often the fish out of the water, not fitting into most parties. In this way, the limit worked at its intended purpose, as the assassin was rarely played for these reasons

    I started thinking about the assassin's alignment limitation recently upon reading the Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome from Necrotic Gnome. The version of assassin presented in this book is limited from being lawful, a fairly big limit considering that OSE, like most B/X derived games, only includes the Law-Chaos alignment axis. This limit is in many ways the logical adaptation of the one from AD&D, as lawful and chaotic are largely synonymous with good and evil in how they are defined by OSE, but it struck me as odd because I felt that an assassin could definitely be lawful in nature.

    The Morag Tong from Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind comes to mind. They are a group of assassins who are officially sanctioned and endorsed by the government of Morrowind. Should the proper paperwork be produced one could hire a member of the group to kill anyone they want. This is largely allowed in order to regulate the violence between the ruling houses of the region and to stop them from entering into open conflict with each other. This serves to maintain order and prevent the established society of Morrowind from collapsing into chaos. In this way, the Morag Tong is a lawful organization. They follow the law and work to uphold society and order, and which fits snuggly into the definition of lawful.

    One could also argue that the Morag Tong, or an organization like it, is morally good. If we take good to mean working for the benefit of others then the Morag Tong could certainly count. They are preventing the mass bloodshed that would surely take place if the factions of Morrowind went to war. But one could also argue that murder is not a valid means to an end, or that the people of Morrowind would be better off if the ruling houses wiped each other out. These arguments are certainly valid and come from the problem of using terms as abstract and subjective as 'good' and 'evil'. My point is merely to say that an organization of legal assassins could be considered good. Therefore, despite how sacrilegious it might seem, one could argue the existence of lawful good assassins.

    Now, this is a very specific edge case and obviously most hitmen would be considered evil or chaotic by any metric. The same Elder Scrolls series that spawned the Morag Tong also features the Dark Brotherhood, an assassins' guild that is definitely chaotic evil in nature. But it is worth considering these edge cases when discussing all-encompassing rules like alignment restrictions. I would propose that assassin's potential alignment should be limited by whatever assassin's guild they are affiliated with. A member of a lawful assassins' guild like the Morag Tong would have to be lawful, while a member of a chaotic evil guild like the Dark brotherhood would have to be chaotic and/or evil. This would limit the alignment of an assassin without excluding lawful guilds like the Morag Tong. One could also maintain a different alignment as an independent assassin, but it could result in conflict with guilds.

Thanks for reading all of this, I'd be interested in reading other people's takes in the comments. I think this could lead to an interesting discussion of the alignment system, the assassin class, and their place in D&D.