Character Class: Nymph

Nymph

Nymphs are semi-divine beings linked to natural places – forest glades, underwater grottos, lakes, mountain pastures, and so on. They are always female and take the form of beautiful human women. There are numerous types, or subraces, of nymph. Some are the dedicated handmaidens (and often lovers) of the gods, or their courtiers and attendants. Others are linked to the natural world and are the most likely types to be encountered by mortals. These nymphs are the ones who may become adventurers.

Adventuring nymphs are those who have not yet bound themselves to natural location. As such they can be called free nymphs. They are able to roam the world just like mortals, and they grow old and need to eat and drink just like mortals do. When they have satisfied their wanderlust, nymphs bind themselves to a particular natural feature – dryads to a tree or glade, naiads to a stream or lake, auloniads to a mountain pasture or vale, and oceanids to an ocean grotto or beach. Once they become bound nymphs, nymphs become ageless, and require no sustenance – they will endure so long as the natural feature to which they bound is preserved.

Nymphs are exclusively female, but can reproduce with males of any species, or even gods. Any sons they bear will be of the same species as their father, and any daughters they bear will be nymphs.

If a player wishes to play a nymph, they should also choose which subrace of nymph they wish to play – dryad, naiad, auloniad, or oceanid. Each has slightly different abilities as indicated below.

Prime Requisite

Wisdom and Charisma

Requirements

Wisdom 8 or higher, and Charisma 12 or higher.

Restrictions

Nymphs cannot wear armour nor bear shields. Nymphs can use daggers, spears, javelins, staffs, blowguns, nets, slings, and whips as weapons. Nymphs can use any magical items permitted to clerics (except weapons), and any magical weapon of a type they can use.

Advancement

Nymphs are powerful creatures and advance more slowly than other character classes.

Level	XP	Hit Dice	Level 1 Spells/day
1	0	1d8	0
2	3000	2d8	0
3	6000	No increase	0
4	12000	3d8	1
5	24000	No increase	2

Note that a “typical nymph” encountered as a monster may not be the equivalent of a level 1 nymph character. For example, a typical dryad is equivalent to a level 3 nymph character (levels 1 and 2 representing younger dryads).

Saving Throws

Note your saving throws on your character sheet as per your character level:

Save	Level 1-4	Level 5
Death	11	9
Wands	12	10
Paralysis	14	12
Breath	16	14
Spells	15	13

Attack Table

Note what your character needs to roll on 1d20 to hit each Armour Class on your character sheet. This roll is modified by Strength for melee attacks and Dexterity for ranged attacks.

Lvl	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0	-1	-2	-3
1	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20	20
2	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
3	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
4	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
5	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20

Special Abilities

Home Environment

In terrain similar to their home environment, nymphs never suffer ill-effects from bad weather or exposure. The terrain which is sufficiently similar to a nymph’s home environment for these purposes is determined by her subrace:

• Dryads: Woods, Jungle
• Auloniads: Grassland, Mountains, Hills
• Naiads: River, Swamp
• Oceanids: Ocean

Natural Armour

Dryads and auloniads have natural armour, their flesh as resistant to blows as the wood of the natural features they protect. They have an Armour Class of 7 prior to any Dexterity modifier.

Water Breathing

Naiads and oceanids can breathe underwater. Naiads can use this ability in fresh water, and oceanids can use this in saltwater.

Purify Water

Naiads can purify fresh water at will. This takes one turn for the equivalent of 6 water skins of water, thus it may take many turns for a naiad to purify a large body of water.

Discern Direction

When on land, Oceanids can always discern the direction of the shortest path to the ocean, and they also intrinsically know which sea or ocean is the nearest. When at sea, Oceanids can always discern true north, as well as the direction of the nearest landmass, and can thus be extremely helpful for navigators.

Charm

At level 2, a nymph gains the ability to charm. Treat this ability as the magic-user spell charm person. A free nymph can use this ability 3 times per day. A bound nymph can use this power once per round, and victims make their saving throw vs spells at -2.

Spell Casting

At level 4, nymphs gain the ability to cast cleric and druid spells, except those which affect good or evil. The level 1 spells a nymph gains the ability to cast are as follows (* indicates a reversible spell): cure light wounds*, detect magic, light*, purify food and water, remove fear*, resist cold, animal messenger, detect animals and plants, divine weather, find dangers, and faerie fire.

Shape Change

At level 5, nymphs nominate a natural form appropriate to their subrace: a dryad or auloniad would pick a plant which might be found in a forest or vale respectively, a naiad would pick a pond, spring, or similar, and an oceanid would pick a rock pool or coral. The player should nominate a specific natural form along these lines – no animal form is permitted. The natural form should be vaguely the same size as the nymph (although there are no restrictions on shape).

The nymph can change into her nominated natural form (and back again) once per day – the transformation takes one round in each direction. When she transforms, the nymph regains 1d4 hit points/level, up to a maximum of half the damage she has sustained (thus, she cannot fully heal herself by shape changing). The nymph cannot cast spells, attack, or take any other action in this natural form, except change back to her humanoid form. The nymph can still be attacked in this natural form, and can be hurt as usual. can hold this natural form for 1 turn/level.

Bind Soul

A nymph may choose to bind her soul to a natural feature of an appropriate type for her subrace. Once her soul is bound, the nymph becomes almost immortal, in that she ceases to age and requires no food or drink to survive so long as the natural feature to which she has bound her soul endures. She cannot move more than 240 feet away from the feature to which she has bound her soul for more than one turn, or she will die. If the natural feature to which she has bound her soul is destroyed or dies, the nymph will also die.

Languages

Nymphs can speak their alignment language, Common, the local human dialect, and Nymph.

Movement, Size, and Encumbrance

A nymph is the same size as a human woman, and can move as far and carry as much as  normal human characters.

New Spells

First Level Druid Spells

Animal Messenger

Range: 10’
Duration: 1 day per caster level
Reversible: False

This spell summons a tiny animal (bird, mouse, or insect) to the caster and compels it to act as a messenger for the caster. Once the summoned animal appears, the caster tells the animal the message. The caster then tells the animal who the recipient is, describes them in terms sufficient for the animal to identify them, and describes their general location accurate to one square mile. The animal must then travel to the recipient and deliver the message within the duration of the spell, or it will forget the caster’s instructions. If, after delivering the message, the animal still has sufficient time remaining within the spell’s duration, it can take a response to the caster. Note that while affected by this spell, the animal will be able to speak to the recipient of its message, but only for the purposes of reciting the message.

Detect Animals and Plants

Range: Caster
Duration: 6 turns
Reversible: False

This spells allows the caster to know the direction of an animal or plant of a type named by the caster so long as that animal or plant is within 120’ of the caster. The caster does not need to know the specific name of the actual animal or plant being identified, just the type of animal/plant. If there are no examples of the type named within 120’ then the caster discovers as much through the spell. This spell cannot be used to detect the location of intelligent creatures.

Divine Weather

Range: Caster
Duration: 12 hours
Reversible: False

This spell allows the caster to know the accurate weather of the area around them (to a radius of 1 mile per caster level) for the next 12 hours.

Faerie Fire

Range:  60’
Duration: 1 round/level
Reversible: False

A pale glow surrounds and outlines the subjects, making them hypervisible. Outlined subjects shed light that makes them visible in darkness. The spell may outline up to one human-sized creature per every 5 caster levels. The Faerie Fire does not cause any harm to the objects or creatures thus outlined. However, their greater visibility grants attackers a +2 bonus to hit them while the spell is in effect.

Find Dangers

Range: 5’ per caster level
Duration: One hour
Reversible: False

This spell reveals hazards to the caster. Once casting the spell, the caster concentrates on a single item or area (1 foot by 1 foot) for one round and immediately knows whether the item or anything (including creatures) in the area is dangerous. The caster will also know the degree of danger (e.g. immediately or potentially dangerous). Large items/areas can take multiple rounds to search for dangers using this spell.

Character Class: Faun

Fauns

Fauns generally have the upper-body of a human, and the lower-body of a goat (although some, generally called satyrs, may be more human-like, exhibiting only minimal goat-like characteristics). They inhabit wild places, and are fickle, chaotic creatures. Fauns are exclusively male, although they can breed with nymphs and humans. Human women who fall pregnant to fauns give birth to fauns. Nymphs who fall pregnant to fauns have an even chance to give birth to a faun or a nymph.

Prime Requisite

Dexterity

Requirements

Dexterity 8 or higher. A faun cannot have an Intelligence greater than 15, nor a Strength greater than 16. If the player rolls an Intelligence or Strength higher than these maximums, then they may trade them for points in other attributes as usual. A faun must be male, and cannot be of Lawful alignment.

Restrictions

A faun can use any weapon or armour made for their body type (remember that some fauns are more human-like than others). They can use any magic item not restricted to magic-users, and they can use any musical instrument (including magical ones restricted to other classes). Likewise, fauns can consume any magical food or drink and benefit from it, even if it is normally restricted only to other classes.

Advancement

Fauns advance quickly compared to other races.

Level	XP	Hit Dice
1	0	1d4
2	1000	2d4
3	2000	3d4
4	4000	4d4
5	8000	5d4

Note that a “typical faun” encountered as a monster is the equivalent of a level 1 faun character.

Saving Throws

Note your saving throws on your character sheet as per your character level:

Save	Level 1-4	Level 5
Death	13	11
Wands	14	12
Paralysis	13	11
Breath	16	14
Spells	15	13

Attack Table

Note what your character needs to roll on 1d20 to hit each Armour Class on your character sheet. This roll is modified by Strength for melee attacks and Dexterity for ranged attacks.

Lvl	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0	-1	-2	-3
1	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20	20
2	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20	20
3	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
4	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
5	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20

Special Abilities

Natural Armour

Fauns have natural armour, giving them a natural Armour Class of 8 when unarmoured. They can wear armour made of their body type, but only benefit from the armour if its Armour Class exceeds the faun’s natural Armour Class.

Amplify Emotions

At level 5, a faun gains the ability to amplify the emotions of another character using a musical instrument. This takes a full round, during which time the faun can do nothing else but play his instrument. The target must be able to hear the faun play in order to be affected, and is permitted a saving throw versus spells to resist the effect. The faun must declare which emotion/impulse/primal urge he is trying to amplify in the target (e.g. anger, love, hunger, fear, lust, etc). The target’s saving throw is modified by the faun’s level, with a cumulative -1 for each round the faun has been playing his instrument (including the first). For example, against a level 5 faun, the target gets a +4 to their saving throw on the first round, +3 on the second round, +2 on the third round, +1 on the fourth round, no modifier on the fifth round, -1 on the sixth round, and so on. If the faun is attacked, his playing is interrupted and he must start again from the first round. If the faun plays long enough (6 rounds or more), his music may even backfire and affect him! The faun himself must make the same saving throws as the target or be affected by his own music.

If the target (or the faun) fails their saving throw, then they become completely dominated by the emotion in question. The exact effects of this must be adjudicated by the referee depending on the target’s emotional state and the emotion/urge the faun was trying to trigger. If the target is a little angry with one of their allies, for example, then the faun’s music may make them so angry that they actually attack their ally. If the target harbours romantic feelings for another character, then the faun’s music may cause the target to forget all other tasks but the pursuit of their beloved, whom the target will indeed love with an all-consuming intensity even if the prior romantic feelings were mild. Once affected, the target remains consumed by the triggered impulse until they have acted upon it. Once again, the referee’s careful judgement will be required.

Languages

Fauns can speak their alignment language, the local human dialect, and Nymph.

Movement, Size, and Encumbrance

A faun is about the same size as a man, perhaps a little shorter due to his goat legs. A faun can move faster than a human but can carry less.

Weight Carried (coins)	Speed (feet/turn)
Up to 300	150
301-600	120
601-900	90
901-1200	60
1201-1500	30
1501-1800	15
1801+	0

Character Class: Centaur

I want to add some creatures from Greek mythology to my Basic D&D game as playable classes to replace the Northern European mythology-based demihuman races of dwarf, elf, and halfling. There is a great BECMI supplement, PC1 Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, which is useful for this purpose, but I always found the system for “monsters as PCs” from this era to be a bit confusing. Effectively, I think there was a decision made that the monsters which appeared in the monster listings in the rulebooks were supposed to be the “Normal Man” equivalent for their monstrous races. Character levels would therefore follow the “Normal Man” level. To balance powerful monsters (e.g. a centaur) with other low level PCs, this system also added a “pre-Normal Man equivalent” level. This makes sense from a design consistency perspective, but I’m not sure it does much but add complexity in play – you start with negative experience points, have to get to 0 to become a “Normal Monster”, then you have to earn thousands more to get to level 1. It just seemed inelegant to me, so I redesigned some of these monsters as conventional character classes. Here is the first one of these: the Centaur.

Centaur

Centaurs have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. They resemble a horse up to where the horse’s neck should be, at which point their human torso begins. They are formidable and wild warriors, found on the fringes of civilisation.

Prime Requisite

Strength

Requirements

Strength 9 or higher.

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on the weapons a centaur can use. A centaur can wear barding, and armour made for a creature of their size. A centaur does not gain any benefit from armour whose Armour Class is not better than their natural Armour Class of 7. A centaur can use any magic item which can be used by a fighter.

Advancement

Centaurs are powerful creatures and advance more slowly than other character classes.

Level	XP	Hit Dice	Hoof Damage	Natural AC
1	0	2d8	1d2	8
2	4000	3d8	1d4	8
3	8000	4d8	1d6	7
4	16000	5d8	1d6	7
5	32000	6d8	1d6	7

Note that a “typical centaur” encountered as a monster is the equivalent of a level 3 centaur character – levels 1 and 2 represent young centaurs.

Saving Throws

Note your saving throws on your character sheet as per your character level:

Save	Level 1-2	Level 3-5
Death	12	10
Wands	13	11
Paralysis	14	12
Breath	15	13
Spells	16	14

Attack Table

Note what your character needs to roll on 1d20 to hit each Armour Class on your character sheet. This roll is modified by Strength for melee attacks and Dexterity for ranged attacks.

Lvl	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0	-1	-2	-3
1	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
2	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
3	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
4	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
5	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17

Special Abilities

Attacks

Each round, a centaur can make 2 hoof attacks and 1 attack with their weapon. They can make hoof attacks with their rear hooves against an enemy behind them, or with their front hooves against an enemy in front. If equipped with a lance, they can make a lance charge (as per the usual rules) which does double damage, but they cannot attack with their hooves on the same round as they make a lance charge.

Natural Armour

Centaurs have natural armour, which is reflected by the natural Armour Class shown in the advancement table. They can wear human armour made for the upper body and horse barding (or a special suit of armour combining both), but only benefit from the armour if its Armour Class exceeds the centaur’s natural Armour Class.

Horse Whispering

Centaurs can speak to horses, donkeys, and similar equine animals.

Languages

Centaurs can speak their alignment language, Centaur, the local human dialect, and Nymph.

Movement, Size, and Encumbrance

A centaur is a large creature, only slightly smaller than a horse and rider together. A centaur can move considerably faster than a human (assuming they have the space to move around, as they do above ground or in dungeons with high ceilings), and can carry more too.

Weight Carried (coins)	Speed (feet/turn)
Up to 1000	180
1001-2000	150
2001-3000	120
3001-4000	90
4001-6000	60
6001-7500	30
7501-8000	15
8001+	0