CHARACTER GENERATIONMany love to play characters with very high starting statistics. It may even be necessary for some, and so an explanation as to their realism might be in order. Of course, you may well ask yourself why high statistics are even necessary and therefore require such an explanation. The real reason always seemed obvious to me, but I suppose there is more than one reason, so I'll just make a few comments on them. First, players tend to naturally come up with these powerful characters. It always amazes me when they claim to have actually rolled up that character; "I really did!" they would offer, even before I commented on it, as if they already knew I wouldn't believe it. And why should I believe it? I myself have written computer programs to generate millions upon millions of characters, throwing out any characters whose statistics didn't include at least one score of eighteen AND whose statistics didn't total at least 80 (which is seventeen points above the average). I also used the many and varied methods of character generation given in the player's hand book or PHB. Sometimes I use 3 dice, sometimes 4 per statistic, throwing out the lowest dice for each score, and occasionally I use other ways. I have used all the methods given in the book for character generation at one time or another, and I have had a computer use all those methods to generate millions upon millions of characters. If one had actually taken the time necessary to roll the dice by hand, it could easily take one's entire lifetime to generate even one overly extraordinary character (depending on where you consider that to be). These results literally indicated such extraordinary characters would be rolled only once in several million attempts. Naturally, when the majority of new players claim their super character is a bona fide product of dice rolls, I can only think "bull!" Those in the know refer to this phenomenon as the "obligatory lie." "No, I really did roll "this one" up." Thus, many, if not most newer players, when left to their own devices to generate a character - and without someone looking over their shoulder - frequently come up with the "statistically improbable" as their first choice. *Sigh.* Still, that's relatively unimportant. What is important here is the clear indication that a typical player (especially a beginning or relatively new player) wants to play a very atypical character - something they can be proud of and really work with - something that won't die right away and bring all their work and time and investment in such a character to a fruitless conclusion. And why not? I'm all for playing characters on the higher side of normal. In fact, I even believe it is necessary. Besides, in the fullness of time, after a few campaigns are under their belt, the relatively new players will have learned a thing or two using such a character, and they may subsequently understand a more roleplaying philosophy (playing both strengths and weaknesses can be fun), or they may simply be ready for a greater challenge and try to succeed starting with less. If, on the other hand, characters with average statistics could make good adventuring PCs, the world should logically be filled with them. Everywhere you'd turn there would be another one. There simply aren't enough interesting things in the world to accommodate that many adventurers. (Unless you want a world where the primary monsters are other men and women, making a more political kind of game than a typical fantasy kind of game). As such, the PCs most players seem to want, and the PCs I want them to have, are one in the same, characters with unusually high starting statistics. Good thing we can justify them. [As an aside, I would also like to comment on the my hypothesis of a violent outlet for some of humanity's more aggressive tendencies. Certain individuals, with high statistics of course, naturally are leaders of men. Their superior bodies and minds breed superior ambition as well (that's not mine, that's Star Trek's, and I have no idea where they may have found it, but it seems a reasonable assumption). These men and women have a need for conflict; they have a need to test themselves. On an AD&D world, being an adventurer is a ready made, socially acceptable way to have an outlet for these tendencies found in people with high statistics. On Earth, however, with very little to fight in the way of monsters, war is virtually inevitable. We must fight, and the only readily apparent challenge is each other. Naturally, there are more interesting fights such as Man vs. Nature, Man vs. ignorance, etc., but they are frequently too subtle to see by most. The practical side of all this is that I believe war of man vs. man, although it still happens, doesn't happen as frequently in an AD&D world since humanity has more urgent things to fight and more readily apparent enemies as well.] Since players tend to want the atypical characters, and since I believe they should have them, I will never roll up another character on any of my worlds. When a new player wants to join the game, I help them create the character he or she wants. This at least helps me avoid listening to the obligatory lie of "I really rolled this one up. No, really!" So as I now do it, I usually give each new PC a seventeen or an eighteen in their prime requisite. Maybe a sixteen here and a fifteen there, depending on the requirements of their "target" character class, and finally round out the character with pretty average looking statistics in all their other scores. Unfortunately this tends to generate a lot of characters with lower charisma scores. Some would say this is a good thing since it would more closely reflect the actual charisma of the sort of person who plays AD&D, but I find the people who say these things to be unnecessarily cruel and frequently lacking in imagination anyway. However, sometimes I'm sorry to say even I feel this seems strangely appropriate, so what does that say about me? So by generating a character without dice, a player gets the PC they want as opposed to being saddled with a character class they feel obligated to play because of the way the dice fell. "Oh, I have an eighteen intelligence and a wisdom of 9 so I have to play a magic user instead of playing the cleric I really wanted to play." Ridiculous! Any DM who forces a particular class of character on a player is doing that player, the campaign, and themselves a great disservice. I will always feel better about giving the players what they want - at least within reason. Naturally, if the player wishes to play one of those classes with several hard to come by high statistics (like Rangers or Monks), then I may not even give them a single 18 but will instead give them something closer to the minimum statistics necessary for the required stats, and pretty average looking stats for the nonprime requisites. The reason for this is simply that even the minimum scores already have an obscenely high total, and giving them an 18 on top of that might automatically kick them into the Super Human classification which I will discuss in greater detail later on. Suffice it to say, letting them have free 18s would make them disproportionately powerful, and nobody wants that. HUMAN CHARACTER STATISTICSSince I just mentioned statistics, I'll briefly explore a few rules on my world concerning them. First, no statistic of any human may ever permanently be raised beyond 20. I simply don't believe the mortal human frame is capable of anything higher. Second, the effect of limited wishes and full power wishes on statistics is well documented in the biomagical journals. A limited wish will raise any statistic straight to 14. Then to 15 with another limited wish, then to 16 with another. After that, a limited wish will raise said statistic only by 10 %. Ten limited wishes will take a statistic from 16 to 17 - ten more to 18. A limited wish will not help beyond that point. A full power wish is essentially the same but with different numbers. Straight to 16 with one wish, to 17 with another, to 18 with another, 18 + 10% for the next ten, etc., finally to 19, and with ten more finally to 20, but not beyond 20 (ever). Other means such as books and tomes may raise a stat from 18 to 19 or 19 to 20 with a single use, but never beyond 20. However, certain items may raise a stat beyond 20 in an ephemeral way (that is, only as long as you use, are carrying, or wearing the item). Wishes still age the caster under 1st edition rules (so 3 years, though I actually have this as 3% of a typical life span for the race). The approximate cost is 60,000 GP to 80,000 GP for a limited wish (aging the caster 1 year or 1% of their life span) and 120,000 GP to 180,000 GP for a full power wish. (Even then, only if you can find an agreeable archmage to do it). In my economic system, 1 silver piece is about equivalent to one U.S. dollar. With 100 SP per 1 GP, a full power wish would cost an average of about $16,000,000. These things are by no means cheap or common. (Though it is true that standard AD&D does seem to have "wishes" as more common place, they also tend to be less powerful than my wishes, so I guess it all balances out in the end). My decimally based monetary system of coins is given below if you're interested. 0.01 MP = 0.1 PP = 1 GP = 10 EP = 100 SP = 1000 CP = $100 U.S. THE RULES OF SUPER HUMANISM
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However many SHPs you have, this is how they work. All character classes take 1 SHP with the following exceptions, each of which takes 2 SHPs:
Your DM may further restrict other classes or combination or even relax these if so desired. The bard, for example, may not be so bad in second edition and thus only require 1 SHP.
Every time you qualify as a member of a particular class, the appropriate number of points is subtracted from your SHP total. To change classes, you must:
Thus, in this fashion you can become dual class, triple class, quadruple class, or whatever, as long as you have the minimum stats and the SHPs available.
Under the old, 1st edition rules of dual class characters, once you switch classes you may not actively resort to using the abilities of the old class. If you do, you will gain no experience for the entire adventure. Once you exceed your old class in levels, you may actively use all your abilities without penalty. However, you may only gain experience in your new class, never again going up in experience points or levels of your previous class. These are the old rules.
As an aside, I would like to discuss how the DM should award experience. The DM may, and probably should, divide up total experience for an adventure by the total number of active levels in the party, and then award experience points on a per level basis. That is, if 6 party members have total active levels of 60 (about 10th level each), but you (the 7th party member) have recently started out as a 1st level character class while ignoring your previous high levels, the DM should divide the total experience points by 61, giving each character 10X this share and you only 1 X that share.
Here is a detailed example. You go adventuring with four other party members. The party includes a 5th level cleric, a 7th level magic user, an 8th level ranger, a 9th level monk, and you. You are a 7th level fighter, but just switch to magic user and are actively adventuring as a 1st level magic user. Thus, the total active levels are 5+7+8+9+1=30 active levels. The DM totals the experience points for tonight's adventure and finds it to be 45,000 experience points. He then divides this by 30 (active levels) to get 1,500 xp/active level. This would give each member 7,500, 10,500, 12,000, 13,500, and 1,500 experience points respectively. So you see, you only get 1,500 experience points. This avoids the problem of giving you over 6,300 experience points for doing very little while the other party members did a great deal. Thus, you don't shoot ahead by one, if not several levels every adventure, catching up in a very short order. Naturally, this reflects the fact that you are low level and still learning the basics. This will take time. Finally, multiclass characters (different from dual class or super human class) should have their levels averaged, and then add 1 for each class beyond the first. That is, for example, a multiclassed magic user/cleric who is currently a 4th level cleric and a 3rd level magic user, would be calculated as having ((4th+3rd)/2)+1 = 4.5 active levels. (This reflects both the true average of what the character did as well as a bonus level for subsequent classes which the character also brought to the party). Such experience points would then be evenly divided between each class for the multiclass individual. That is, 4.5 active levels go into the mix and he is awarded 4.5 times the experience points per active level, and half of this goes to each of his two classes.
If you linked in to see just the division of experience points, you may wish to Return To Home
Now, back to the rules of super humanism. Under these rules it is possible to permanently expend 1 SHP to acquire experience in your previous character class after your new class has exceeded your previous class in levels. If you do not have the SHP available, you may never gain experience points in your previous class again until you do have such a SHP. If you do, however, you may either acquire another class down the road, or instead, expend the SHP to gain experience points in your old classes again. (No matter how many character classes you acquire, only one such SHP is required to gain experience points in ALL previous classes). If you exercise this option, you must tell the DM which one of your classes you will be working on during the adventure. If you resort to using the abilities of any other classes, you will be awarded considerably less experience points for the adventure. Otherwise, you will gain your fair share of experience points for that character class, and zero experience points for the ones you weren't working on.
Under these rules, you choose one and only one class to work on every adventure. You may NEVER freely switch back and forth between classes during an adventure. If you do, it is felt that you are not learning how to deal with problems of a particular class since you continually fall back on the old, already learned methods of a different class. If you do this, the DM will award you only a fraction of the normal experience points (Perhaps even granting the unnecessarily harsh and unrealistic zero experience points standard 1st edition AD&D calls for, but normally and more realistically, between zero and 1/2 of the normal xp). Furthermore, this fraction of the normal experience points never receives the xp bonus from high prime requisite scores and is also then evenly divided amongst all your classes, or as the DM sees fit. This rule is harder than the normal dual class rule, but under it, you may gain experience points for previous classes. (Under the old rules, you never have to worry about which class will gain the experience points. As a new worry or consideration, the rule is naturally harder to play).
To continue, if the DM allows it, you may expend yet another SHP to ignore the restrictions in the above paragraph. This allows you to use any of your abilities at any time and gain full experience points. The DM must, however, keep track of your actions and the experience points awarded for them. For example, if you had three classes, the DM should divide your experience points by three, or divide your experience points by your total levels in all classes and award it to you in three separate groups on a class per level basis. Or, for example, the DM should give you magic user experience points for your magic user actions, fighter experience points for fighter actions, and clerical experience points for clerical actions and divide general xp evenly into all classes. This is very realistic, but probably too much of a pain for the DM, so any reasonable compromise is good.
Also, some slack should be cut for non-super humans who wish to become something like a ranger / cleric, which would take 3 SHPs under these rules but would be possible under the simple dual class rules given in the book. (That is, even though the character would only have 2 SHPs, they should be allowed to use 3 SHPs in such an instance. This is because of the new rule of rangers taking 2 SHP whereas they would only effectively take 1 SHP in the old rules, so it grandfathers in the old possibilities).
Now a word about hit dice. In my world a character's first hit dice is never rolled, but is instead awarded the maximum value. For example, a fighter starts with 10 HPs, a cleric with 8, a magic user with 4, and a thief with 6, constitution bonuses not withstanding. (If using old ranger rules, the first D8 is maxed, but the second is rolled. If using Player's Option: Skills and Powers rules and they pay for a higher dice, max the first one out as well). Every time a character rolls a hit dice, it is recorded on the character sheet. This is an on going record, and not just a total. That way, if the DM wished to know what you rolled for your fifth hit die, it would be on your character sheet. Now, if playing a dual class or similar character, when it would come time to roll a hit die for a new class, the player may decide to replace their previous hit die with the new one or keep their old roll. They must decide this before any new roll is made.
For example, a character was a 7th level thief before switching to cleric. He now qualifies as a second level cleric and may roll his second hit die. Since, from their records, we see that as a thief he rolled a 2 for his second level hit dice, he decides (before the roll) to replace that roll with a random D8. He already replaced the automatic 6 points of the thief class at first level with the automatic 8 points of the cleric class at first level. He now takes the opportunity to improve his roll again at 2nd level. If, however, he rolls a 1, he will have ended up hurting himself rather than helping. Of course, by then, it's too late and he's stuck with the poor results. Now, when he qualifies for 3rd level, he decides not to attempt to replace his previous roll of 6 with a random D8. (Probably a reflection of the wisdom of his new character class, ha ha).
Moreover, once a fighter, always a fighter. That is, a fighter is always awarded the fighter's constitution bonus (up to 4 points per dice) for all dice below the fighter's current fighter level, up to the ninth hit dice. Thus, if a 12th level magic user (with a constitution of 18) became a fighter, he would get 4 bonus hit points for each of his hit dice that were equal to or below his current fighter level. For example, if he were now a fifth level fighter, he would get total of a 20 HP bonus for his first 5 dice, but only a 2 HP bonus for his other dice until his fighter level went up again. Eventually, when called upon to simply add 3 hit points at tenth level, the character would be forced to keep the hit die of the old class, as hit die always supersede any straight additions, even if the straight 3 was higher than a roll of a 1 or a 2, he would have to keep the lower hit die, but this hit die would receive a constitution bonus of up to 2 points (since no hit dice beyond the 9th is a fighter hit dice). In any event, fighter constitution bonus never extends beyond the 9th hit die, so the 10th and 11th hit die will at best receive a bonus of 2 HPs for high constitution.
Conversely, if he were a fighter first and a magic user second, and he subsequently decided to replace a roll of a 1 with a random D4, that dice would still gain the full fighter constitution bonus even though it is a magic user's hit die. All of this reflects the fact that fighters have the training to make the most of their dice (or whatever), and this is why they get this bonus while others do not.
If a character should permanently lose statistic points (and therefore SHPs) they will not lose the experience points of additional classes, but will instead not be able to gain experience points except in the last class they had before using a SHP, nor be able to switch back and forth. They will, however, still be able to use their new abilities. If necessary, any new experience points will begin to accumulate in their previous class. If the statistics were ever restored, they could pick up where they left off and begin to gain experience points in their new class once more.
Now I realize many good roleplayer's first reaction to these rules may be to scoff at them and consider them the product of Munchkinism. Though a good DM must guard against the abuse of any rule a player is trying to mini max (minimum effort for maximum gain), simply because these rules can be abused is not a good reason to write them off. They are simply more realistic than the artificial systems in AD&D which (for god knows what reason) states it is impossible for a living being to learn some new skill (like increasing in xp. in one's old character class just because they switched some time in the past. This is the major reason why the rules of super humanism continue to be superior to even 2nd edition rules). Thus, if your abilities and statistics are exceptional, you should be able to do even more exceptional things. And if the DM wishes to avoid players abusing these rules, they should simply start by curtailing the runaway stat climbing of their player's characters in the first place (so they will never qualify to even use these rules) rather than squelch a more realistic approach to learning new things.
© September of 1998
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096