Old School Gaming

Bounty Hunter

/ danielwalldammit / Leave a comment

How would you make a Bounty Hunter in First Edition D&D?

Well, my old players and I had a pretty simple approach. It woks like this.

Run the character as a Multiclassed Ranger-Assassin. This of course violates the rule that an assassin has to be evil and a Ranger has to be good, but that’s okay. A Bounty Hunter has his own mindset.

As to alignment, the Ninja can be true Neutral or Lawful Evil.

We didn’t really think of this as one character combining two different skill sets. We thought of it as one skill set that simply tracked through the rules system as two different classes.

That’s it.

Ninja (D&D, First Edition)

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How do you make a ninja in first edition D&D?

Well, as I recall, Dragon Magazine published something to that effect a time or two, but my own friends and I found it preferred our own version cobbled together from conventional classes out of the Player’s Handbook. We just had to tweak a few core rules, but the essential concept was simple.

Run the character as a Multiclassed Monk-Assassin. This of course ignores either the rule saying that Monks have to be human or the rule that only other races can be multi-classed. I guess, you could ignore both, but you have to ignore at least one of them to do this. My preference is to say Ninjas have to be human, but that this specific combination is allowed.

We didn’t really think of this as one character combining two different skill sets. We thought of it as one skill set that simply tracked through the rules system as two different classes.

As to alignment, the Ninja can be true Neutral or Lawful Evil.

Any weapons appropriate to ninjas are automatically allowed.

That’s it.

Dragon Modifications for First Edition D&D

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Dragons in first edition D&D suck. The narrative blows them up big time, but they are easy as Hell to take down. I recall an episode of Dragon Magazine tried boosting their power by adding minor attacks such as wing beat and tail swipe, but the damage for these was miniscule. Even with these additions, Dragons in first edition never lived up to the hype. They were supposed to be bad-ass, but they always ended up being meh.

So, here is what we did…

Take the standard stat block for a Dragon from the Monster Manual as your starting point.

  • Start by doubling the hit dice of the dragon.
  • Double the dice rolled for damage on physical attacks (bite and claw).
  • Add a tail swipe against any opponent in the back of the dragon (anyone within a full 180 degree arc to its rear). The attack is rolled at any penalties normally applied for attacking enemies to the rear. Damage for the tail swipe is equal to that of a claw after the modification mentioned directly above.
  • Now treat the age of the dragon as a bonus to hit and damage on all physical attacks (bite, claw, and tail attack) as well as a bonus to armor class.
  • Double the penalties for called shots to a dragon for man-sized opponents and smaller. Dragons are simply too big to focus on specific body parts on a regular target.
  • Breath weapons work normally (but of course the damage is now set by the higher hit dice).
  • Now watch the PCs fall.
  • More importantly, watch the players treat dragons with the respect they deserve.