Not to say I can improve upon the classic awesomeness, But I have a booklet style character sheet i have been using for Tobias, and So I thought I would post it for the group. Print Page 1&2 and 3&4 double sided, and then fold in half.
(Pages 3&4 has extra stuff like the MU spell list I added for quick reference when playing Tobias. Non-Magic Users can just use pages 1&2.)
That is super awesome! Some notes:
1) Should the stats maybe say their descriptors in the right box, or the line connecting it: e.g. "7- feeble, 13+ mighty" for Strength?
2) I have been encouraging people who have e.g. 2 hit dice in their mental category to roll them all at once when they're hit, both for speed and because counting how many points came from each dice is an unnecessarily fiddly part of some people's understanding of how this works. However, your sheet's box for each HD in that category is probably the simplest way of reminding someone that they have 2 mental HD and only 1 spiritual and physical, for example.
3) It would be cool to add a spell sheet for clerics, esp. since all of these might be available to each cleric.
1) The way I was doing it, was writing the descriptors on the dotted line, and filling in the circles as a visual indicator of how they rank. (there are some tiny gray numbers below the circles) And then boxes on the right are for writing in any specific advantages that come from that stat, like +10% to XP. But it is a little obtuse. hm.
2) I kind of made a grid so people could sketch it out anyway they wanted. I think I asked this before, but is the number of hit dice you receive one per level, or based on the chart for you level/class in the LBBs? (i.e. Tobias is a 6th Level M-U, so should he have 6 Hit Dice or 3+1?)
3) Yep, I haven't done one up, since I haven't run a cleric yet. Is there a handy list of the Cleric spells online?
We started playing with one HD per level. The fact that Maldoor has still died twice indicates that this is probably not abusive to the fighters, although I am open to house rules that would give them some relative oomph in combat - maybe three lucky numbers per plus on their saves?
I like that for fighters, though it's a primarily defensive rule. A possibility for enhancing the offensive side to fighters is allow damage dice to explode on 6s or perhaps a riposte option, where a fighter gets a free attack against the attacker which missed due to the fighter's successful lucky number roll. A maybe an option to parry? I was just looking at the difference in the progression scheme for fighters vs. m-u's and clerics; any little perk along the way to make fighters fight better mechanically would be a plus, I think.
Cool. I'll look at some ways to tweak the layout to make it clearer how the dice pools work.
Fighting-men do seem to have the rule where if they slay an enemy, they get a free attack on another enemy. Last night Ookla had a round where he was knocking down dwarven borg like they were dominos.
Fighters: two attacks at 4th or 5th level. No mook or hit die ratio or cleave rule, no extra bonuses to hit or damage. Anyone might say, "Can I use my attack to kinda try to push him over the balcony or something?" Fighters have two attacks that they might use that way. Playing a fighter is about being continually relevant during combats, but probably not being a game changer. This fix helps maintain the strategic relevance and still leaves the dramatic blammo to the glass cannon mages. With uniform hit dice and weapon damage, fighters need something like this at mid-levels to stay relevant. At high levels, they'd better have a pretty great sword too.
Adrian's solution is probably the most elegant so far. Fighters aren't the glamour class, but they are the backbone of combat. Extra attacks seem to be a great way to reflect that.
fact that Maldoor has still died twice indicates that this is probably not abusive to the fighters
Actually, I think it indicates I should not have inserted Maldoor into combat. Shame on me!
open to house rules that would give them some relative oomph in combat
I don't want to push back on this too much: I would love to see more awesomeness at the table. But we have this already, in the form of choice of 3rd and 4th level special ability. Most fighters seem to choose abilities complimentary with combat and fighting - think John Fighter's Voice of Command, or Jari's defensive abilities.
Set aside sense of ludos and player's skill. There are four mechanical things which distinguish fighters in the mid-levels. AC, to-hit tables, saves, and hit points. We have removed the hit points. (Arguably in OD&D access to magic swords is as important, but lets ignore that).
- AC: without armor, it is hard to survive more than a round or two of combat with a HD 4+ monster. Reviewing the combat where Maldoor was slain by a hill giant, I realized the giant would hit AC:9 automatically. All she had to do was target a caster and she would hit. By contrast someone in plate & shield would require at least an 11 to hit. Magic armor helps further and is much more available than protection for Magic-Users (as it should be!). An ogre needs a 9 to hit an invisible M-U, and a 12 to hit a fighter in plate and shield.
- To-hit: at 7th level, Ookla, John Fighter, Jari, etc. need an unadjusted 12 to strike AC 2. A magic-user needs a 15, and will not improve on that until they are level 11. The fighter may have a magic sword, and the M-U never will. Of course, the M-U should not be trying to hit at all…
- Saves: at 7th level a fighter's saves range from 8 (for poison) to 12 (spells). The 7th level magic user ranges from 11 (for poison) to 14 (dragon breath). This allows the fighter more mitigation of damage or outright death.
Fighters are intended to be able to avoid and absorb damage from a growing total of hit poits while dishing out more physical hits as they level, relative to other classes. We have diminished the hit point advantage they have, relative to other classes.
OD&D does not seem to focus much on relative power of the classes. Fighters at low levels hack back and forth while the M-U can decide a combat with a sleep spell. At mid-levels, M-Us are a lot less effective as they face creatures that are higher in HD (e.g., hill giant has a 12 sv. vs. magic, an 11th level wizard needs an 8…) while the fighter can go toe-to-toe. At the highest levels M-Us have access to spells with no save, and are arguably on top again.
A simple way to bring the white box game back in line with the rules-as-written OD&D - if that is even a goal - would be to give them a +1 to every hit die rolled, or every other hit die rolled when damage is taken. That has the advantage of addressing the original change to relative hit points.
I always felt bad for the Warrior-types in Tavis's game, that they didn't have access to "normal" Hit Dice. On the other hand, in the year or so I played with the group, we were seldom in danger of dying, except on major battles far outside of what we should have been able to handle, so maybe using d10's or d8's for Hit Dice is one of those benefits that wouldn't make much difference in the normal run.