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The Secret Origin of D&D'S Classes
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- Опубліковано 17 сер 2024
- Where, when, why, and by whom were some of D&D's most iconic classes created? Find out the secret origins of the Cleric, Paladin, Ranger, Illusionist, and Bard in my latest video!
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
4:17 The Cleric
11:15 The Paladin
15:40 The Ranger
18:20 The Illusionist
20:28 The Bard
21:30 Wrap-Up
22:13 Drinking & Listening
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A deep dive on each of these classes would be amazing.
Okay - I will add that to the list. Thanks!
@@daddyrolleda1I second this! I would love to see a deep dive into each of these classes, especially the monk.
@@maecenusx345 I will add it to the list. What more would you like to see me cover in a video like this that wasn't already included? Let me know!
@@daddyrolleda1I used to solely play rangers. I would be really interested in a deep dive on rangers!
I will add it to the (ever growing!) list!
1e Monks also got two hit dice at level 1, and if you played a Cavalier starting at level 0, you could have 3d4+1 at 1st level.
Great video, as always!
Dang it... I KNEW that about Monks and Cavaliers but just wasn't really paying attention. I will correct that oversight in my next video. Thanks for watching and finding those errors. I appreciate it!
Was it cavaliers that got to increase their ability scores with level as well? Something others needed a tome or a Wish for.
@@SusCalvinYes. That was pretty unbalanced, especially considering that their ability scores started high. The justification was that they trained often. Why couldn’t any character train like that?
@@philotomybaar I know newer D&D sometimes give you ability score increases across all classes at certain levels.
In older Mutant based on BRP you could buy up both skill levels and attributes with xp. Attributes just got probibitively expensive after a while.
I know some games that tool around with attribute modidification from age sometimes increase their equivalent of Wis or Int as you age. Never as much as the Dex you lose though.
shades of blue is an incredible record
I really dig it! This one is on gold and blue 180 gram vinyl and sounds really good.
Oh yeah --- do the deep dive into Character Classes and any other topics regarding how D&D becomes what we "think" it is today. While much of this info may be available in the wild, your presentation is superb. Keep doing these videos.
That's a great compliment! Thank you so much - I really appreciate your support!
I’ve played DnD since the late 80’s (2nd Ed. AD&D was my edition) and have always been fascinated by the variations and history of the game’s development. Thank you for these fun videos!
I really appreciate that - thank you so much! And thank you for watching and commenting!
Is no one going to remark on the irony that Gygax essentially stole the thief class?
A few folks have mentioned that, and some even suggested I should change my thumbnail and/or video title/description to lean into that, but I was trying not to get accused of "clickbait."
Thank you for watching and commenting! I hope you enjoyed it!
I made Priest, which are unarmored full casters. Friars, which are light armored skill monkey (like rogues or bards)half casters. Paladins, which are medium/heavy armored fighter half casters.
Friars have sub classes like the "zealot", which gives them barbarian-like rage mechanics.
Did it for my brother-in-law, who requested it for the 5e campaign he was running.
I continue to be so pleased with how well-researched your videos are. :-) Please keep them coming... and I would definitely like deep-dives in to the classes even further, but that is completely up to you.
I really appreciate you letting me know. Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're liking the videos, and it does look like I'll be doing a deeper dive into at least some of the classes, similar to my video on the Thief class. Thanks again!
This is an excellent recapitulation of where all those classes came from - lots of people and lots of inspiration. If you were curious why this or that is a certain way in D&D or, the fantasy genre in general, the answer is often because some imaginative guy in the 60s or 70s thought something up and it became "standard"
Such a great observation! At this point, too, I think a lot of the modern concept of "fantasy" even beyond gaming has come full circle and is now influenced by what some early D&D creators designed!
I like how it shows how one class grows out as subclass to full class
Wow wasnt expecting to see a madlib shoutout here of all places! Madvillainy is one of my all-time favorite albums! Ill certainly have to check out shades of blue!
I hope you like it when you get a chance to check it out. Thanks for watching, commenting, and subscribing!
Yes please do a deep dive on each class.
Also as a suggestion the NPC classes from Dragon Magazine, such as Sage & Archer
Ooh, that's a good idea, too! I loved the Archer (and Archer-Ranger)! Thanks!
Yet another awesome video of yours. I saw you did the Bard but would love for you to deep dive on each of these individually. Absolutely fascinating and I truly appreciate your work. 😊
I played 1st ed in its last few years and it always seemed a bit messy. That makes sense now, knowing how much it was really a bunch of overlapping home-brews that were then codified. It also makes me appreciate how much classes were tided up in 2nd edition.
Having said that, in making sense of classes (or 'callings' as I prefer to say) it always helps to give their idiosyncrasies some kind of in-world explanation. For instance, my Paladins are sort of military police for the nobility, who are prone to turn on the monarchy with claims of forgotten royal blood, and the paladins have both the military grunt to put them down and the divinational power to disprove their claims.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
That's a good way to summarize 1E, in that it was a bunch of overlapping rule systems from Blackmoor, Chainmail, OD&D, various homebrew articles and rulings, and Gary's own preferences as well as his desire to make the game different enough so he could claim it was not a revision of OD&D but rather an entirely new game.
I also prefer for my classes to have in-world explanations as to why they exist versus just looking at them as a mathematical packet of mechanics.
Wow! This video is such a treasure trove of historical knowledge.
Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun putting this one together, but it was a ton of work doing all the research for it! I really appreciate you watching and your support!
I really enjoy the what you are drinking and listening section
Thank you so much for letting me know! I appreciate it. Cheers!
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:(
However, I have created 6 different lvl 1 characters.
Anyway, my favorite character I created is: A Female Drow Feylost background Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen.
My second favorite is: A Male Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard (planning School of Necromancy).
My third favorite is: A Female Sun Elf Gate Warden background Druid (planning Circle of Spores).
My fourth favorite is: A Female Astral Elf Anthropologist background Paladin (planning Oath of Conquest).
My fifth favorite is: A Female Half-Sun Elf Half-Moon Elf Sage background Ranger (planning Drakewarden).
My sixth favorite is: A Female custom Race Half-Moon Elf Half-Frost Giant Planar Philosopher background Barbarian (planning Path of the Giant).
But it is always interesting seeing how the classes & game has changed over the years.
Those all sound like fun characters to play and/or use as NPCs!
I hope you are able to find a group to play with soon (if that's something you're looking for).
And, thank you for watching and commenting!
One effect of the "blunt weapons only" is that clerics can't use magic swords. In some tables it's a lot of magic swords. Later on, blunt weapons would start to deal less damage while a fighter could freely choose any weapon for a situation.
Some games today have broken down the "healing monpoly" of the cleric. Clerics have spells depending on their god which might or might not be healing. And any wizard can use healing spells. The relation to a divine power is more important.
Something I want to know is why the healing monopoly even existed. What stopped them from giving Heal Light Wounds to a wizard?
Yes! This is such a key point, and oddly enough, I mentioned it in my video on the Thief/Rogue class (it came up because I mentioned how the first Thieves were allowed to use any weapon *and* to wield magic swords, and how that was a class benefit that many people might not realize, and then I talked about why Clerics *couldn't* use swords and how a huge part of that was a mechanical balancing issue since they got to wear armor, use other weapons, and cast spells).
Thanks!
@@daddyrolleda1 What kept wizards from learning Heal Light Wounds?
Some modern games let wizards do that. I played wizards who could heal fools. It's still just as limited by spell slots.
For the most part, pre-3E healing was very minor, and meant more to save a life than keep the party going.
There wasn't really a set reason that a Wizard couldn't besides that it was a unique thing for Clerics. Clerics generally got very poor spell options, but were also meant to be frontline fighters, so could help mitigate poisons and diseases on the spot.
@@josephbeckett2330 That's how we have used healing spells. When the section has three healing spells among themselves at best, they are used when someone is about to go down. Someone with good armour and health who is right there at the front can also dap a healing spell right on themselves and the others in the line.
Retreating out with no healing spells left is better than retreating out with 2 hp left. When you take a beating and have to exfiltrate the patrol, the random encounters don't give you a break. We found that one good use of healing magic could be enough to make someone survive one more hit, or be mobile enough to move.
My friends tried to make a cleric class that cast spells with a skill/save instead of spell slots. If they didn't want to give them special spells they had to think about how they used spells. The playtest cleric could roll to cast spells as many times as they liked, but each time the skill failed the fumble chance increased. And on a fumble, you got cut out until the next rest, often with some humiliating side effect. Still pretty powerful. The side effects were survivable. Their clerics had a limited set of spells, we toyed with the idea of making separate lists for different gods. I might do that in the future. If you worship a fire god you get certain spells granted etc.
Esoteric Enterprises clerics roll an x-in-6 skill for spells. A starting cleric could have 2-3 in that skill. All failiure means the gods punish you. Clerics are powerful when they can dole out divine magic at any moment, but the demands of the gods just grow and grow. Now you have to sacrifice ketamine to the gods every week. A spell failiure could sometimes easily kill the PC. The gods are so threatening that players don't want to instantly solve stuff with spells. The gods also grant different spells, each cult of a god has 10 spells the god slowly doles out.
Another great video! I can’t wait for you to cover Druids, Monks, and Assassins. I always learn something new from your videos.
I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you so much! It means a lot to me to know that people are learning stuff from my videos. I've been making notes on Assassins, Monks, and Druids so I should hopefully be able to get to that one next week. Cheers!
Your insight into what Gary and his group were thinking during those early days is fascinating. Does that make me a D&D nerd cuz I am geeking out on this stuff?
I'm not *sure* if it means that, but if you are, welcome to the club! I'm really glad you're enjoying the videos. A new one should be coming out tomorrow if I can get it edited tonight!
Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting!
Hey friend, REALLLLY love your content. In regards to clerics not being able to use edged weapons, I heard a very interesting explanation in I THINK a Dragonlance book. I want to know if you ever heard this, or read this book. It was a long time ago... This cleric was going through trials, probably not even official yet. He was sparring with another cleric who asked - "have you mastered the sword?," being that he had mastered all the other weapons in their camp. Our hero tried sparring with the sword - and it didn't go so well. Either he cut his opponent where he didn't intend to, or himself - or some combination. The message for the initiate was - you CAN'T master the sword(/blade), because it is so free flowing that it has a life of it's own. The camp and older clerics explained to him, kind of monastically, that THIS was the reason clerics don't use edged weapons.
One of my favorite concepts in 1e (and I think to a lesser extent in 2e) was PCs gaining followers at higher levels, presumably to facilitate massive battles or stronghold management; I think that might make a good subject to do a deep dive on.
That's a great idea. Yes, the early games were focused on gaining "name level" at which point you could build a stronghold / temple / guildhouse / etc. and attract followers to defend and maintain it. Thanks!
I also would like to see one about fanatical followers and hirelings.
I've only had 2 characters in one campaign that got followers. And we only did it for the campaign because you were being given Land to rule.
You do eventually need a place to secure all that treasure you have.
They gave you different followers for your class. Fighters would get normal men-at-arms and mid-level fighters as officers by the company. Clerics gained the same but fewer, a smaller band of temple warriors. Rangers got, as mentioned here, a smaller number of tame monsters. Thieves got their own street gang/spy circle of apprentice thieves. I think wizards got nothing, except that you got to sit back and enjoy the raw power of high-level wizardry.
Don't know what weirdos like monks, paladins and illusionists got.
Ranger is also mentioned in Chainmail as a type of Hero.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
That is such a good catch, as it's kind of buried and only mentioned briefly, but you're totally right. I just kind of forgot about it, as I don't script these videos and record them "off-the-cuff" (as is probably pretty apparent) and I completely forgot to mention that.
Yes! Three Hearts and Three Lions!
I think I know a lot about dnd but then you blow my mind up with knowledge
This is such a nice compliment! Thank you so much. I really appreciate it - I think I might use your comment as some marketing to get more folks to watch my videos!
This is amazing! I love these sort of deep dives. Also, mentioning the Song of Roland- top marks! Seriously, though, these are fantastic and I need to do a binge through your other videos! :)
Thank you so much for this compliment! I truly appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy my other videos. Thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 will do! The weekend is just starting after all. Have a good one! 🤘🏼
@@simontemplar3359 Thanks, and same to you!
So good! Thank you'll
Thank you very much for watching and commenting! So glad you enjoyed it!
Another super interesting video. Love getting these details about the history of D&D.
Thank you so much! I've really appreciated your support, and it means a lot when you take time to leave a comment. Cheers!
Rangers are not the only class with two hit dice at first level in AD&D. Monks also have it.
Yeah, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind I was missing that. Cavaliers can also have multiple HD at 1st level. Thanks for catching that error - I will address it in my next video when I cover Druids, Assassins, and Monks.
Seeing how you enjoy tasting different drinks. I would like to recommend Frankenboltzzzz brewing.
Thank you for the recommendation! I will check them out and see if I can get their stuff here. Cheers!
Do a deep dive into Paladin, pls!
I will add it to the list of potential video topics!
One of my inspirations for Illusionists is an episode of Visionaries, wherein a sorcerous criminal, Bogavis, claims he is no real wizard, just an illusiinist. There is clearly more to him than merts the eye. The Illusionist spell list in OSE reflects this, going from "mere" illusions to working magic that causes reality to doubt itself.
That sounds great! I've not watched Visionaries before!
@@daddyrolleda1 One of the best written cartoon serise spawned by a toy line ever.
Gary seems to have an issue with not properly crediting people, especially in the ad&d Era. But it does go to show that this whole hobby has been about hacking and homebrewing since the start.
Yes, exactly! These guys were all sharing stuff, making mimeograph copies and handing them out at conventions and such, and it was all about swapping cool ideas. I do think Gary could've done a better job crediting folks who gave him ideas, but it seems it was common back then for stuff like that to happen.
@@daddyrolleda1 The local games written here didn't end in legal measures, but it is really hard to sort out who owns what, or what is part of which property today since so much was gentlemen's agreements between people who didn't expect things to scale up. Small details like who has copyright on a certain piece of art etc. It's a lot more work when someone wants to re-use or re-release any older material. Did this dude 30 years ago sell the art to a company, or license it to be specifically printed in a book.
It has occurred to me that Gygax was the STan lee of the TTRPG industry. That is to say "Someone who is credited, rightfully so, with a lot but really didn't share the spotlight as much as they should have."
I mean Gygax could have given credit after the fact, but he never did. And like Lee is considered the founder of a lot of superheroes he co-created, Gygax has had a lot of collaborators.
@@AngelusNielson The hobby was and still is made by actively participating hobbyists who make stuff up as they go.
The other early RPGs and wargames at the time are similar. If you have a fun scenario for Necromunda based on Predator and other action movies, you send it to Gang War. White Dwarf's old monster column has gained some fame in modern times by now.
They have no modern internet community, ideas are disseminated through magazines and conventions. Fanzines were still a hugely important network when the early internet came about.
@@SusCalvin And that means he couldn't have put "Additional ideas by X" on the pamphlet he printed? Come on.
Oh boy! I love these!
Glad to hear it! I hope this one doesn't disappoint!
I love the use of the real physical books. It’s a priceless library of artifacts!
I found Len's cloistered cleric and Kurtz's Deryni Michaelines at the same time...cool.
I liked that Cloistered Cleric article by Lakovka and it helped me with reimagining how to create non-adventuring PCs. However, I never did get around to reading the Deryni books. I should put those back on my list!
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great videos, I'm very interested in the Monk and "fixing" it to be more fun to play in 5e. My group and I would love to have an in-depth history of the class to reference for homebrew in the modern era.
Okay, I will add that to the list. The short version, however, is that after you take what I presented in this video, they show up again as a cleric variant called a "Mystic" in the BECMI version of Basic D&D (see my video on the "History of D&D Editions" if you need more background on that) and then in 3rd Edition they return as a "core" class that is the model for the version used in 5E today.
Throughout its history, it's often been described as "the weakest" and also "the strongest" class, which is kind of a fun way to look at it.
Absolutely love that Madlib album! One of my all time favorite hip-hop producers. His Yesterday's New Quintet stuff is also great. I credit him, and interestingly enough, The Doors for exposing me to great jazz music like Coltrane and Sun Ra.
You are speaking my language! I've learned that my "drinking and listening" section has become a bit polarizing, as many folks don't like it, but that's what I put it all the way at the end, so they can stop watching. Which is totally fine!
I'm a big jazz-head and I'd say about 70% of my vinyl collection is jazz, then about 10% soundtracks, 10% rock, and 10% Christmas (yeah, I love Christmas, but my Christmas ones are mostly jazz records like Satchmo, Ella, and God Rest Ye Merry Jazzmen which features stuff by Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, etc.), Chet Baker, and more).
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! Any time you want to talk jazz, let me know!
@daddyrolleda1 That's a shame it's not popular. Music is my other passion, and I'm always really curious as to what music is enjoyed by some of the non-music related content creators I watch on youtube. I especially love being surprised when I find out it's something really eccentric or something you wouldn't typically expect from a gamer.
I was a teenager in a local music shop waiting for a guitar lesson, and they would run the college radio station that played jazz music over the PA system. While listening, I noticed a melody I recognized from a Doors song called Universal Mind. I thought it was a jazz Doors cover, lol. I find out later it was John Coltrane's rendition of Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue, Live at the Birdland. And that led me down a Coltrane rabbit hole and eventually other artists he played with like Davis and McCoy Tyner. The Doors borrowed a lot from Coltrane. Robby Krieger's guitar solo on When The Music's Over is absolutely inspired by Coltrane's modal playing. Same with McGuinn's guitar playing on The Byrds' Eight Miles High.
@@noyjitat_ Love these insights into the Doors and Coltrane! That is great. I'm a Coltrane fan myself (Listening to "A Love Supreme" right now, as I often do on a Sunday morning).
And thanks - I'm glad you appreciate the idea. I was trying to add a bit more personality to my channel, as I'd heard from folks that it would be a good idea to do so.
I look forward to chatting about some of my future album picks! Cheers!
@daddyrolleda1 A Love Supreme is wonderfully quintessential Coltrane! I think my favorite album might be Coltrane's Sound. It's got one of my favorite Coltrane originals, Central Park West, and his rendition of Body and Soul is lovely. A very chill and relaxing album. I just love that era of his sound playing with McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones.
I also gotta shout out the Quasimoto song "Jazz Cats, pt. 1" Madlib's rapping cartoon character alter ego. It's a love letter to all of Madlib's favorite jazz musicians and how I discovered many of these artists as a teen.
Great talking music with you!
@@noyjitat_ "Coltrane's Sound" is indeed great! I've listened to it many times but I don't actually own it on vinyl! I need to fix that! "Central Park West" always reminds me of my old pre-pandemic trips to New York for work. I used to visit about 4-6 times a year from 2013 - 2019 and I almost always stayed on the UWS and would get up early to walk through Central Park for my morning exercise.
Cheers!
Another great video!!! I have so many thoughts on classes but here are a few...
1.) Classes should be based on abilities, not jobs. In this case, so long as multi-classing is allowed, the fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard can fulfill nearly all roles. Some notable exceptions would be the ranger and druid.
2.) I HATE barbarians as a class because I see that as a lifestyle/culture. For example, both Goldmoon (cleric) & Riverwind (ranger) are barbarians. I would prefer something like a fighter subclass (aka berserker) or just have feats that could replicate the rage ability.
3.) I don't understand why there would be a cleric and paladin. Holy crusaders could just be fighters w/ some cleric abilities or clerics specializing in martial combat over prayers.
4.) I don't like classes that are jobs. For example, an assassin could be any class; all that is required is a willingness to kill for money.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, and also for this detailed and insightful comment. This is the kind of discourse I love!
Your comment about how much classes can be distilled down into the core four but with roleplaying differences hits home for me. A few years ago, I began writing a series of articles on my blog on "D12 Subclasses" for B/X D&D (1981 Moldvay) which in truth are not really subclasses, but more like "kits" from the 2E era. My lists are based on environments or cultures (e.g., Wilderness, City, Naval, Sword & Planet, Criminal, etc.) and then swapping out just 1 or 2 class features for a different set of features. But you don't need an entirely new class. I like the elegance and simplicity of that.
As a kid, I *loved* new classes, and even as an adult, when I see someone create a new one, I'm always intrigued, but over time, as you said, I've often thought, "This is just a Fighter or Magic-User with XYZ... why is this a new class?"
That said... I did create some new B/X classes for a book I plan to Kickstart soon on Experts & Specialists (Alchemists, Demolionists, and Inventors). I tried to make them distinctive enough that they couldn't easily be emulated by an existing class.
Thanks again!
@@daddyrolleda1
I can't wait for your Kickstarter. Just on the basis of your great videos and insight I'm quite confident that it will be very interesting. I also ordered a shirt from your store; I love your martini glass logo.
@@NeoRaven78 Oh wow! Thank you so much! I like that logo, too! I paid a graphic designer friend for the design years ago back in 2011 when I started my blog and I've been using it ever since! Thank you for ordering a shirt - I really appreciate it!
Not that I don't agree with you, but to be honest, Riverwind is 100% barbarian as this class was initially written: hunting/survival skills + move silently/hiding + climbing + plus herbalism + defence based more on agility then armour + distrust of magic. Most of those features could be used to describe Riverwind. Original barbarian featured no rage mechanic, and their weapon of choice were spear, sword or bow rather then battleaxe.
I think barbarians should have been called berzerkers for exactly this reason.
I would love to see a monster hunter class based on Van Helsing from Hammer Dracula. Crossbows, hammers and stakes, exorcism, turn undead, etc. We certainly didn't get much of that with the AD&D cleric who mostly heal and provide protection spells. I guess the closest things to that concept are Pathfinder's Inquisitor class or the 5th edition Monster Slayer Ranger subclass.
While I'm not a big fan of classes or modern D&D (GURPS player here heh), I do respect OG D&D and get why they did what they did.
There's something to be said for "class-less" RPG systems. I'm a fan of Savage Worlds, which does not have classes, either. I own one GURPS supplement, for medieval Russia. I bought it to help me create a part of my campaign world!
Thanks for watching and commenting! I hope, despite you not being a fan of class-and-level systems, that you'll still enjoy some of my other D&D History videos. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 I've been binge watching your videos heh. Got a stomach bug that laid me out for two days and I watched a good chunk of your videos. I do love learning about the things that came together to shape RPG's as we know it. I very much reminds me of the early days of how video games would be devolved before they were multi-million dollar projects with small cities working on them.
Have you ever tried the Fantasy Trip? I've found it's a good way to get people used to GURPS but in a more controlled manner (GURPS level of indepthness is both it's greatest strengthen and greatest hurdle for new comers to over come).
Paladins in the latest edition don’t lack flavor or presence in-setting. Instead of requiring you to be Lawful (Good) and fighting chaos, instead you have an oath that defines you.
In the core book there are the standard big damn hero justice paladins, paladins who are about hunting down and killing evil using whatever means necessary, and paladins who uphold traditional elven ways. Very flavorful.
One of my favorite articles way back in the 80's in Dragon magazine was about seven new paladin variations ("for NPCs only" of course, as back in the day anything in Dragon not written by Gary was considered unofficial). The author gave each one a different name and one of the alignment types (chaotic evil Paladins were omitted, as there had already been an article about them, the "Anti-Paladin") and what their goals would be, etc. I thought it was a lot of fun, but each was still tied to a code and a faith.
I do miss Paladins having a requirement to be attached to a faith rather than an oath, but a lot of that is just flavor text. The class has changed a lot over the years and I know a lot of folks really like them in 5E.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Nice stuff. I'd love to see a deep dive into more of this, for sure. Looking forward to your opinion of the Assassin class, along with the Monk and Druid. By chance, did you ever watch any of my videos about my parents, and my dads art, as I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks - I appreciate it. I was going through your story but haven't gotten to the videos about your dad's art or about your parents. You've got way more content available so far than I do!
@@daddyrolleda1 well I've been on yt a lot longer than you, but you've been way more successful, so congratulations 🙂
Spells like Prismatic Spray appear in Jack Vance’s stories
Indeed! I mention that in my video on "Fire or Forget Magic": ua-cam.com/video/cB2-rIEL5kw/v-deo.htmlsi=AQo1K0hACO-prmKb
Thanks for watching and commenting!
This was excellent. It’s like RPG archaeology. 👏🎲
I really appreciate that! Thank you so much, and thank you for watching and commenting!
Well... that priest origin tale is a bit of a "just so" story that, like the number of eskimo words for snow, tends to grow in the telling. It's not actually the case that the priest was created to hunt vampires. Okay, so a few years back, Mike Mornard related a story he heard from William Crowley. Now neither one of these guys were Blackmoor players of any sort of regularity. Crowley was one of Barker's Tekumel players and Mornard apparently dropped in a couple Blackmoor games while he was at UofM. Anyway years later Crolwey told Mornard that he heard the priest in Blackmoor was a Vampire hunter. Now basically that much is true, but it is something the priest became, not how the priest started. The priest character actually goes all the way back to Brownstone, Jenkins old west game - again played by Carr. Carr's "village priest" in Blackimoor basically continued the role and started off as kind of a "naughty vicar" who got drunk on Superberry wine and misbehaved with the ladies. The role however expanded over time but really functioned initially as a healer with mace as remembered by Carr. Arneson wrote "the clerics were added to heal up players more quickly. The plague of undead, like sir Fang, gave clerics additional powers to help eliminate that threat" (ODD74 Forum Jun 10, 2008). Regarding Fang - Fant didn't become Fang until after Dave Fant quit playing due to work commitments and the character was basically abandoned. Jenkins was actually a secret vampire before then, so he never served Sir Fang and might actually have been the one who made Sir Fant into a vampire in the first place but that last is just sheer speculation on my part.
Thank you very much. I appreciate these additional insights. I did attempt to do a lot of searching regarding the origins of the cleric class; I've heard the vampire hunter origin going back to even when I was a kid, and it's the most often mentioned origin I've found throughout books and online sources so it seemed credible. It's near impossible to find anything about Jenkins' Brownstone game other than that it existed. I haven't been able to find any detailed information about the game itself (other than it being a Wild West Braunstein variant), the game play, the characters, etc. I only first heard of it via watching the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary and when I looked into it, most folks talk about it only to mention its name and the timing of when it was developed, but there's little else I could find. On your blog, I see mention of Brownstone in a timeline, but again, it's just mentioned by name.
While there have been quite a few books, blogs, and the documentary about the history of the RPG genre, finding details on the specifics of when particular mechanics, such as the origin of the Cleric class, is far less available, and what is available is mainly based on comments, without documentation, from various folks who were either there or who are remembering comments made by someone who was there. I've seen several times where Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz were disagreeing vehemently about the origins of certain game concepts, and they were both there at the time, so I tend to view some of those types of comments, without documentation, with a grain of salt.
I was attempting to put together all that I found from various sources into a plausible origin using the information I had. I'm happy to update and change it in a future video.
Thanks again. I really do appreciate you watching and taking the time to offer corrections and edits to things given your experience.
@@daddyrolleda1 Understood - believe me when I tell you that I get as frustrated with the gatekeeping on certain sources as anybody. For Brownstone there is no better source than the Corner of the Table and many of the most useful CoTT are available through ILL. :)
Thanks again. I would love to read "Corner of the Table Top" but the only things I can find online are images mostly related to "Secrets of Blackmoor" and the "Chance & Circumstances" blog. I've never done an interlibrary loan before, but searching for that didn't bring me any results.
@@daddyrolleda1 Biggest collection is at Bowling Green State University
@@danielboggs2013 Thank you so much - I really appreciate that. I'll look into the possibility of borrowing from there. Cheers.
Illusionists have always been my preference of spell caster it surprises me why they were the only one to get specialist spells.... (things did change I am aware of that), looking forwards to your comments about the Asssasin class.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it. I've been putting some notes together so I should have that Druid/Assassin/Monk video ready in the next week or two. Thanks again!
The original Illusionist is very OP
The Strategic Review version or the PHB version?
But yes, in general, they definitely could be especially if DMs don't give reasonable chances for victims to disbelieve. And the minimum DEX requirement meant a higher AC than a typical Magic-User.
As always, thank you for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 ST Review
nice Dragonlance drop.
Thanks! I was hoping there would be at least two of you who liked that reference, although I don't think Danno is much of a UA-cam viewer.
@@daddyrolleda1 he needs a direct poke to make sure he sees this!
@@DMTalesTTRPG I'll try. I mentioned to him in a comment that he'd like my next video, but I never heard back from him. After a while, tagging him every time I want to chat with him seems a bit... too much. Like I'm begging him to read my stuff or something!
@@daddyrolleda1 I understand
Weren’t Rangers listed as exceptional hero-types in Chainmail?
Yes! You are correct! It's buried in there and it's just a single line, but it says "Rangers are Hero-types with a +1 on attack dice."
That's a great catch. Thanks!
Cleric in early editions is kind of an earlier, more modular paladin.
Thing is if I consider my own projects and how difficult it is to deal with other developers (or wannabe developers) and their different ideas, I wonder what Gary'd do today, free from having to constantly think about things like "Do I piss off X person if I change this that they've made, do I need to credit Y for this idea, how do I ask Z for help with this without him completely changing it" etc.
What was the second Early Pulp character after Conan he mentioned which influenced Gary Gygax?
After Conan, I mentioned *Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser*, characters from Fritz Leiber's stories about Lankhmar. Gary Gygax mentions these stories frequently as inspirations for the game of D&D, such as in his list of Inspiration Fiction in Appendix N of the Dungeon Master's Guide. There are also deities of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories in the 1980 "Deities & Demigods" and later on TSR will publish a Lankhmar city setting compatible with Advanced D&D.
Bishop Odo using a mace was a personal coe, not a religious order one.
FWIW the actual real life Church has a prohibition against shedding blood, hence the torture and burnings during the Inquisition, for ex.
That makes sense, but it then assumes that the Cleric class is intended to only model a medieval era Christian-type church but in a fantasy game where elves, dwarves, and half-orcs can be clerics all worshipping different gods, to me at least, that argument breaks down. I really think it was Gary trying to retcon an in-game world explanation for what was mainly a game mechanics decision related to making sure clerics didn't have access to the most common magic weapons (swords) as a game-balance feature.
@@daddyrolleda1 Not really trying to make an argument about game mechanics so much as providing a reference for where such a concept might have originated. Maybe Gygax was not aware of it, but maybe he was and it gave him the idea.
@@mpotter9944 It totally makes sense - I suspect you're correct. From what I recall, I think Gygax was a Jehova's Witness so it's very possible he was aware of this restriction and just decided to apply it across the board.
In short, the reason early D&D suffered from class overload and poor planning was
because there was no plan.
Could you give details about the early Bard?
It was the only class, that wasn't a "class".
In my area, the first edition Bard was the most worthless class.
(Our campaigns never got further than 10th level.)
NOTE: Legend tells of a guy, who got to play a first edition Bard once for one hour.
(The campaign ended.)
A difference between name level rangers and fighters is that the fighter will attract huge armies. Rangers do not, they will have a few tame monsters and helpers instead. By comparison, fighters got men-at-arms by the company.
Clerics also got followers, but not as many as a fighter. I don't think wizards gained any followers at all. Thieves got a thief guild, some kind of street gang or spy circle with groups of levelled apprentice thieves.
Yes, exactly. Gaining followers, based on your character class, was a major part of early D&D and reaching "name level." I have chatted about those level-based followers in a few videos. Thanks!
@@daddyrolleda1 I know Birthright was going to be the big domain level game, right at the tail end of TSR.
In Birthright you are not tied to level. Your level 1-3 teenage baron can inherit the throne because divine bloodlines and all. The realm you and the other players rule is almost like a second character or semi-shared project. If your level 2 baron dies off, the next chump in the line of succession simply takes over.
In there, armies and followers are simply an extension of finances. You have your personal goon squad of bodyguards but the army of the realm is raised with huge amounts of gold. Gold is your only limit.
Holgier has a romance subplot, with an arguably non-human no less, that would seem very odd for the paladin class. Three Hearts is a great book.
Where can I find that Len Lakofka article about the areas of magic?
It's in the July 1975 issue of "Liaisons Dangereuses" (Lakofka's fanzine for the Diplomacy game). I think there are some places online that have scans of some of the articles.
@@daddyrolleda1 Thank
If I had a copy, I'd send you one, but I unfortunately do not.
@@daddyrolleda1 Its OK I found them online :) Just needed to know where to start looking :)
D&D does indeed have too many classes.
Assassin, cavalier, barbarian, any variant or nonvancian arcane casters
Even thiefs are questionable
I can definitely see that point-of-view. As a kid, I *loved* new classes, but over time, especially during the 3E era, I thought they started to get out of control.
I actually quite liked the 2E era Kits, where you could tack on a background/profession/whatever to an existing class and just make a few minor tweaks rather than creating a whole new class.
I've written a whole series on my blog of "D12 Subclasses" for B/X D&D (inspired by Dyson Logos' idea for OD&D) but they're not really subclasses - they're technically more like kits. You don't need a Mariner or a Pirate class. Just play a Fighter or Thief, and roleplay 90% of the differences, but maybe make 1 or 2 tweaks, like swapping the Fighter's heavy armor for increased ability to navigate a ship and call it good. But it relies on a flexible DM to allow outside the box thinking, and players who trust their DM to make fair rulings.
Thank you for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it!
@@daddyrolleda1I thought a little more about the kit part. In 0e and Holmes and BX, there are numerous man-types mentioned. Buccaneer, bandit, dervish. Would it be interesting to make some or all of these into kits?
@@Penfold497 That's exactly the kind of thing I've been doing.
If you want to check out my website, here's the label I used to tag all the articles (at the time I was calling them "subclasses"):
daddyrolleda1.blogspot.com/search/label/subclasses
I'm currently in the midst of writing each of these different genre of subclasses (except the Christmas ones, which were just a fun holiday-related thing) into a supplement book.
Bishop Carr? Sir Fang? . It's great to see that I'm not the only person who hates coming up with names for characters because they stink at it..
Oh, some of those early names were pretty... "unimaginative." Wait until you see my latest video on the Rogues Gallery book from the 1980. Many characters are simply named by rearranging either the first or last name of the player!
@@daddyrolleda1 All part of the charm though really. (I use online name generators nowadays.)
Thanks for the video.
"Gary's fantasy isnt Tolkien." I call bullshit. I know he said that often, but IMO, that was just stuff he said because Tolkien estate sued him. However, initially ODD had Hobbits (yes, they were hobbits before the law suit, then became "halflings"), elves, dwarves, orcs, dragons, balrogs (yes) and treants. Probably others Im not thinking of immediately.
He made wizards weak because Gandalf only seemed to have a light spell and was basically useless in combat.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Yes, my copy of Greyhawk (Supplement I) still has references to hobbits (although it also mentions halflings; it was just a poor editing job), balrogs, and ents, even though it was published post-Tolkien Estate settlement.
The LOTR books became super popular among science-fiction and fantasy readers and fans in the U.S. in the mid-1960's (although the first LOTR books were published here in 1954). Gygax was born in 1938 and grew up reading other earlier fantasy fiction (but certainly read Tolkien; he lists Tolkien in Appendix N).
From what I have read, he included Tolkien fantasy stuff not so much because he liked it, but rather because he was popular and he wanted to sell more games, but his fantasy preferences skewed closer to REH, CAS, HPL, and Fritz Lieber. My comment was more directed toward this - while Tolkien-style stuff exists in the game, Gary *preferred* the other more pulp style authors and liked playing characters modeled off of those stories.
@@daddyrolleda1 I know what he said, but like I said, I call bullshit. It's a case of watch what he does not what he says.
The transition from being essentially a fan driven and more casual low money type hobby to being a business was messy indeed.
Bishop Odo was the brother of William the Conqueror. His role in the church was political, not pious.
I don’t think we ever had a successful illusionist. They are so poor until very high level
I really like the idea of them, but I tend to agree they were a little on the weak side at early levels.
17:05 What a typically crappy way to write rules! "They receive no regular bonuses for advancement due to ability, but they automatically gain 4 experience points for every 3 earned." Which could be interpreted to mean that instead of earning 3 XP they earn 4 (+1/3 award), or that for every 3 earned there is an additional bonus of +4 XP (more than double XP accrual rate). Instead, the rule would be more clearly written as "Rangers all earn bonus XP equal to 1/3 the amount earned normally, and no other bonus from ability scores. For example, instead of 12 XP the Ranger earns 16."
Although, ideally they'd establish under whichever class comes first, that with high ability score you gain +1/10th XP, and so under Ranger they could just write "Rangers earn a +1/3rd XP bonus regardless of ability scores."
Editors, man! They make writers look good 😂
You're not wrong! The entire collection of Original D&D rules across the core rules and the supplements is written like this!
I still maintain some of most vaguely written rules related to the generation of ability scores in "Men and Magic" from the 3-book boxed set for OD&D. "... in order to..." - WHAT? Roll them in a specific order, or roll them "as a means to" determine them?
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
If you read Arneson's "First Fantasy Campaign," which is mostly just his work, it really makes you appreciate the editorial job Tim Kask must have done on "Blackmoor: Supplement II."
I have been DMing since AD&D in the 90s.
Now-a-days, I no longer use character classes.
Think about it. What is a class? It is a formal definition of skill specializations, actionable abilities, passive qualities, associated bonuses, and thematic connections; all deliniated and access gated by axcomplishments and character history (experience).
If this is the case, then what is to stop a person and an experienced DM from creating a custom class list and progression chart? Absolutely nothing.
As an added bonus, as the setting being played in grows, the various abilities and bonuses tend to have backgrounds birthed in the setting; consider the ranger's favored enemy ability: you create a ranger and just hope that the DM uses undead because you selected undead as an enemy... but in one of my games, a character having an ability tied to a specific opponent would be due to specific reason selected by choice to the players' percieved past difficulties, the setting's context, or lore as crafted or accentuated by the DM. No hope needed to avoid useless ability.
Plus, why have paladins when you could have "Templar", or a rogue when you could have "Mafiaesto"? Or whatever else y'all's insanity conjures.
5:22 it pains me that Gary and friends printed TSR Rules on a book, e.g., Tactical Studies Rules Rules 😂
They probably wrote that after they entered their PIN Number at an ATM.
gygax benefitted greatly from the ogl
I see clerics as holy warriors connected to their god. Their organization is outside the state and can therefore have an alignment not lawful.
Paladins I see more a holy knight serving a lawful good king. Paladins are bound to the state and are a reflection of the divine right as kings. A society needs a certain level of organization and needs to be good in order to have a Paladin.
In a chaotic Barbarian society you could have a cleric(most likely a druid) but you would not have a Paladin.
Paladin are in service to god and country. Clerics only serve god.
Paladins have more restrictions on behavior to reflect their social standing. Their reputation is important. Conversely a cleric may not care what the population thinks as long as their god is being served.
I also think ranger and paladin address the multi class options that Demi humans have. The classes are a combination of classes and are human only.
Also color spray is a Jack Vance spell.
Switzer has never claimed Gygax stole the theif class from him. Stop spreading bs.
I didn't claim that Gary Switzer ever said Gygax "stole" the Thief class.
I did do a pretty detailed interview with Darrold Wagoner, the person who actually created the Thief class and was part of Gary Switzer's game group with the Aero Hobbies crew. Darrold made it very clear to me that Gary Switzer had *never* told Darrold nor anyone else in the group that he was going to share the class over the phone with Gary Gygax, and they were all surprised when they saw the class in the Great Plains Games Players Newsletter and/or in the Greyhawk Supplement I. They were so upset, in fact, that Darrold told me the reason they wrote and published the Manual of Aurania was to begin publishing their work so it wouldn't be "stolen" again. You can learn more at this specific time stop on my video on the Thief: ua-cam.com/video/As1ibQLA0Ls/v-deo.html
Thank you for watching and commenting.
These are good, you talk way too fast (not criticism, just observation, because I like your stuff), and Gary put in the 1st edition DMG under creation of ability scores, that the ideal is that the player would get to create exactly what they wanted to play, despite lower rolls. Just FYI.
Also, just another FYI, you come across quite critical of Gary. Not that some of it isn't rightly deserved, but still. Just curious as to the why of it. Thnx for these videos and the history of such!
I really appreciate you watching and also taking the time to write a detailed comment. Thank you so much!
For some of my earlier videos, folks were suggesting that I needed to show "more excitement" (I took that to mean they thought I was boring) so I've tried to increase my speed of talking. Perhaps I took it too far. And yes, I forgot to mention in my video on ability scores about the variety of different methods in the 1E DMG for rolling ability scores that basically ensure that you can get the character you want. A definite change from OD&D!
I was a bit worried that I might be coming across as too critical of Gary. I'll try to fix that in my next video. I don't script these out but make notes/bullet points, and talk off the cuff. I recorded this one about three times before I got it right and in one of the versions I talked about how the earlier creators were all sharing stuff back-and-forth in a kind of "wild west" era of RPG design, so it was only natural that Gary was going to come across stuff that folks showed him, either at conventions or via articles in Dragon Magazine, etc. Gary was a much better business person than many of the other early creators in terms of understanding how to edit, revise, package and market stuff. That's a huge contribution to the hobby and can't be ignored. I do think he could've done a better job of acknowledging where some of the ideas came from, particularly with the Thief in "Greyhawk."
I am really glad to hear you like the videos and I look forward to chatting with you more about them in the future. Thanks again!
@daddyrolleda1 Cool! I appreciate the reply, and it sounds like that, in fact, you took no offense here at all, as none was intended at all. 👊🤓
Glad to hear all the above, and thank you so much for these. Your research for these is very evident and is obviously a labor of love! Really awesome! Looking forward to more!!
@@retrodmray No offense taken at all - I'm always looking to improve, and your comment was insightful rather than aggressive. I appreciate it!
The live by the sword quote is Jesus originally.
As for as the Crusaders orders go they weren’t really knights, they were warrior monks. So not really a priest by title, but closer than to a knight.
Thanks for all that info. I'm a fan of studying the Crusader orders and the Crusades in general and agree with you. They just had a lot more martial training than a typical priest/monk.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
That is true, that actually came about because of the Viking raids that kept happening to monasteries. Eventually they go fed up and some of them started training to fight back. Crusader orders history is great. Keep up the good work on the d&d video I’ve been enjoying them
@@Beastlango I appreciate that. Thank you!
They should get rid of the core classes and commit to a balanced small set of classes that covers the needs of the game. Fighter should not exist alongside Barbarian, Paladin and Ranger
In the game I currently run for my daughter and her friends, we're using just the standard B/X seven classes (Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic-User, and Thief) and it's working great!
What a great video. Thank you from immersive_dungeon_delving
Oh, you found me from Instagram! Fantastic! Thank you so much - glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 a pleasure and honor. You have dug deep in your history learning. I truly greatful that you are sharing this. I truly enjoyed the two videos on the origins of the classes. I cannot wait to watch more. 😊