Dragon

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Dragon 140

Among the many rule additions present-
ed in Unearthed Arcana  is a new method
for rolling up human player characters.
This new Method V on page 74 allows a
player to first choose a desired character
class and then roll from three to nine six-
sided dice to generate each of the seven
character abilities. This new character-
creation method could be expanded
beyond just the human characters of
traditional AD&D® games. Method V of
Unearthed Arcana could also be used for
creating single-classed demi-human char-
acters with little or no modifications to the
table. The same system could even be
applied to generate the many possible
multiclassed characters of the game, as
well as the new character classes
described in Oriental Adventures. The two
tables listed hereafter provide such an
expansion of Method V to include these
multiclassed and Oriental characters.

The table on page 74, although intended
for human PCs, could easily work with
single-classed demi-humans and half-orcs.
The dice rolls given in the table are
already adequate for generating such
characters, although the DM could rear-
range a few dice rolls here and there to
suit the needs or general characteristics of
certain races.

For example, elven and half-elven cava-
liers might instead roll nine dice for dex-
terity and only seven dice for constitution,
as these cavaliers would train to rely more
on agility and defensive speed in battle
rather than on physical endurance. Elven
and half-elven fighters might roll 8d6 for
dexterity and 7d6 for constitution for
much the same reason, and to help pro-
vide these fighters with a better chance to
attain the high dexterity scores needed to
become skilled archers.

Halfling fighters might roll only 7d6 for
strength and 9d6 for dexterity, since half-
ling warriors would strive to be agile and
evasive in combat above all else. Also,
halfling fighters usually favor the use of
missile weapons to defeat foes rather than
engage in the sweat and muscle of melee
combat.

As other possible examples, dwarven
and gnomish characters of the thief class
might be limited to rolling no more than
four dice for comeliness, and half-orcs of
any class should roll only three dice for
this attribute. The DM can easily make
other such changes in the table that are
deemed appropriate.

Now, on to multiclassed characters.
Table 1 below gives the dice rolls that may
be made for all the "legal" multiclassed
combinations listed in the Unearthed
Arcana  additions and corrections in
DRAGON® Magazine #103 (page 49). The
choices made on how many dice are to be
rolled for each ability of any character are
based on the prime requisites, ability
minimums, general racial characteristics,
and estimates of the relative importance of
the ability scores for each multiclasseded
combination. Often, dice roll choices are a
matter of personal opinion, especially
when trying to decide which prime requi-
site of a multiclassed character receives
the most dice. Other DMs may wish to
modify or rearrange these figures based
on their own opinions.

Where fighter/spell-caster multiclassed
characters are concerned, priority is given
to the intelligence, or wisdom score over
strength; having a high ability score in
these prime requisites helps multi-class
magic-users or clerics in the long-term
advancement of their spell-casting classes.
Furthermore, by limiting fighter multi-
classed characters to only seven or eight
dice for strength, the single-classed fight-
ers maintain a slight edge over those
multiclassed fighters in spite of their
broader range of capabilities.

Thief, assassin, and illusionist multi-
classed characters usually get nine dice for
dexterity, since a high dexterity score is
very important for the success of these
characters. A high dexterity also provides
a vital armor-class bonus that is beneficial
to any character in the game. The one
exception is the druid/thief, who rolls only
8d6 for dexterity, as 9d6 is reserved for
the charisma score with a 15 minimum.

Some multiclassed characters may have
difficulties in meeting all the ability-score
minimums if the multiclasseded combina-
tion has a number of abilities with high or
very high minimums. Ranger multiclassed
characters especially suffer from this
problem. A ranger multiclassed character
may often have to be satisfied with modi-
fying a low roll upward just to meet an
ability score minimum, because the ability
minimums or prime requisite of the other
class requires a high number of dice. As
examples, the druid/ranger has a high
charisma minimum to meet and the
ranger/magic-user has intelligence as a
class prime requisite. But regardless of
other ability-score needs, a ranger multi-
classed character still rolls 7d6 for
strength to give the character a decent
average strength score. Intelligence, wis-
dom, or constitution rolls may be reduced
for a ranger multiclassed character com-
pared to the single-classed ranger, but this
may sometimes give the single-classed
ranger an advantage over these powerful
multiclasseded combinations.

Overall, multiclassed characters are
often lacking in one or more important
ability scores because these characters
have special prime requisites or abilities
with high minimums that demand high
numbers of dice. This often places a
single-classed character at a slight advan-
tage over a comparable multiclassed char-
acter. Multiclassed fighters have fewer
dice for strength and constitution than
single-classed fighters. Multiclassed clerics
and magic-users may suffer dice reduc-
tions in strength, dexterity, or constitution
compared to single-classed spell-casters. In
addition, those characters with three
classes have fewer dice to roll in a range
of important abilities.

Table 2 gives the suggested dice rolls for
the new character classes of Oriental
Adventures. The dice rolls are arranged to
meet class minimums or are set in relative
order of importance for the character
class. Although some of the classes of
Oriental Adventures have close counter-
parts in the traditional AD&D® game,
these Oriental characters may have their
dice rolls ordered in a somewhat different
manner than the Occidental characters.

Bushi roll only three dice for comeliness
compared to four dice for Occidental
fighters, because bushi are often low-born
characters lacking in etiquette and cul-
ture, and because they usually have a
dishevelled appearance since their suits of
armor are often scavenged rather than
thoughtfully put together. Bushi roll 8d6
for dexterity and 7d6 for constitution
since so much reliance is placed on defen-
sive speed and agility in Oriental combat.

Samurai roll more dice for strength than
intelligence, even though the intelligence
minimum is higher. Great strength is ulti-
mately more important than genius for a
samurai to become a mighty warrior.
Rolling 8d6 for intelligence also gives
samurai a slightly lower average intelli-
gence compared to wu jen sorcerers,
which is only reasonable.

Samurai roll three dice for charisma an
four dice for comeliness, since samurai a
a cavalier subclass. The style, etiquette,
and courtly manner of the samurai enabl
them to make strong first impressions on
others, just as their chivalrous Western
counterparts.

Sohei roll 9d6 for strength and only 8d6
for wisdom because sohei are more war-
rior than priest. Rolling only 8d6 also gives
the sohei an average wisdom score less
than that of the holy shukenja class.

Wu jen sorcerers are, on the average,
slightly stronger than Western magic-
users, since their martial skills are notice-
ably better than those of Occidental
magic-users or illusionists. Because wu jen
live lives of isolation, they are less likely
than magic-users to develop skills of deal-
ing with other persons (as reflected in
their lower-than-average charisma scores).

Ninja are a special class in the game, and
are therefore treated separately. A ninja
character may be rolled up in one of two
ways. The DM could require that the
player must first choose the class that will
be the ninja?s cover ? bushi, sohei, wu jen,
or yakuza ? and then roll up a character
that also meets the ninja?s ability mini-
mums. But even with this character gener-
ation system, the player may have to roll
up a number of characters before he
finally finds a set of ability rolls that also
satisfies the ninja?s minimums.

If the DM so allows, a player may first
choose which ninja split-class he wants to
play, then use the dice rolls of the particu-
lar split-class given at the bottom of Table
2. The dice rolls for these split-classes are
arranged to best suit the ability minimums
of both the ninja and cover class. If a dice
roll is less than the character?s ability-
score minimum, the roll is adjusted
upward to meet the ability minimum just
as with any other character created using
Method V.

Ninja/bushi are quite strong on the aver-
age and have good intelligence, dexterity,
and charisma scores. Ninja/sohei, on the
average, also have good scores in these
abilities, but have wisdom scores that are
usually less than that of the common
sohei. Ninja/wu jen naturally have the
highest average intelligence scores of all
the ninja split-classes. Ninja/yakuza are
rolled up in the exact same way as ordi-
nary yakuza, because the ability mini-
mums of both characters are identical.

Oriental nonhumans pose a special prob-
lem with this character generation meth-
od, because they have some demanding
racial minimums to meet as well as class
minimums. The DM may handle this prob-
lem in any of several ways. The DM could
use the dice rolls in Table 2 to create non-
human characters, and simply adjust the
dice rolls upward to meet both racial and
class minimums. If the DM chooses to
adhere to the rules of Oriental
Adventures,  he might instead not allow
any character who hasn?t met the racial
minimums fairly, or might restrict the
character to being a human or a nonhu-
man of a different race.

The DM might opt to rearrange a few of
the dice rolls of Table 2 to improve the
chances for a nonhuman character to
meet the racial minimums fairly. Spirit folk
characters could roll a greater number of
dice for charisma to help achieve the 14
minimum, at the expense of other abilities.
Of course, the DM might simply decide
this system is unsuitable for creating Ori-
ental nonhuman characters.

The main reason for extending Method
V to include as many character classes and
races as possible is simply to save time. In
those campaigns where the DM grants the
players full freedom of choice of character
class and race, this system provides a
quick way to roll up a desired character
type. Instead of rolling the dice over and
over again until a suitable set of ability
scores is finally found, the player chooses
the character class first, rolls seven sets of
dice, adjusts for minimums, and the char-
acter is soon ready for play. This method
is especially useful where preparation
time is short, such as with quick pick-up
games, impromptu module adventures, or
when a new player joins the campaign.

Table 1
Multiclassed Characters

Class	Str	Int	Wis	Dex	Con	Cha	Com
Cleric/fighter	8	4	9	6	7	5	3
Cleric/ranger	7	6	9	5	8	4	3
Cleric/magic-user	5	9	8	7	6	4	3
Cleric/illusionist	4	8	7	9	6	5	3
Cleric/thief	6	4	8	9	7	5	3
Cleric/assassin	6	5	8	9	4	7	3
Druid/fighter	7	4	8	6	5	9	3
Druid/ranger	7	5	8	4	6	9	3
Druid/magic-user	4	8	7	6	5	9	3
Druid/thief	6	4	7	8	5	9	3
Fighter/magic-user	8	9	4	7	6	5	3
Fighter/illusionist	7	8	4	9	6	5	3
Fighter/thief	8	5	3	9	7	6	4
Fighter/assassin	8	6	4	9	7	5	3
Ranger/magic-user	7	9	6	5	8	4	3
Magic-user/thief	6	8	4	9	7	5	3
Magic-user/assassin	6	8	5	9	7	3	4
Illusionist/thief	5	8	4	9	7	6	3
Cleric/fighter/magic-user	7	9	8	6	5	4	3
Cleric/fighter/thief	7	4	8	9	6	5	3
Cleric/magic-user/thief	5	8	7	9	6	4	3
Fighter/magic-user/thief	7	8	4	9	6	5	3

Table 2
Oriental Adventures Characters

Class	Str	Int	Wis	Dex	Con	Cha	Com
Bushi	9	4	5	8	7	6	3
Kensai	7	5	8	9	6	4	3
Samurai	9	8	6	5	7	3	4
Shukenja	7	5	9	6	7	5	3
Sohei	9	4	8	6	7	5	3
Wu jen	5	9	7	8	6	4	3
Yakuza	6	7	3	8	5	9	4
Ninja/bushi	9	7	4	8	5	6	3
Ninja/sohei	9	8	5	7	4	6	3
Ninja/wu jen	5	9	4	8	6	7	3
Ninja/yakuza	6	7	3	8	5	9	4