The Quester is my version of a generic adventurer, one whose abilities are related to the things they encounter while on adventures, and the studies they pursue in their downtime.
The class works roughly as follows – the character begins about equivalent to a Normal Person in your ruleset of choice, or whatever is suitable for someone who is able to go on dangerous adventures, but has yet to really acquire experience.
As an example in something like Swords & Wizardry:
| Hit Dice (d6) | Thac0 [To Hit] | Saving Throw |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 [+0] | 15 |
I’m not a big stickler for numbers nor do I really think they ever really make sense in many rulesets, so I think its more important you select a baseline and stick to it. So if you decide to use old school saves, pick a class or row in the monster table for saves and use that for this class.
Questers have no limitations on arms or armor.
Quester Advancement works a little different from other classes. Instead of utilizing XP-for-gold they instead complete a number of objectives to level up. These goals are usually player-created, sometimes personal to the character and sometimes shared among the group. The referee has final say on what is a suitable quest for advancement, and whether or not the character has fulfilled the pursuit of accomplishing their quest.
Quests are also declared long before a session. They act on a player-level as a way to communicate table interests in specific goals, and to focus the referee’s prep. I usually rule that a character can have 1 group quest and 1 personal quest active at any time, but if you feel you can juggle more threads go ahead.
Questers need to complete a number of quests equal to their next level to reach the next. Upon doing so the Quester returns home and enters into a downtime phase – reflecting on their adventure, pursuing mentoring, following projects, etc.
For the player this means that they assemble actions the character has performed while adventuring onto an Advancement Table, and the player either selects one ability from this table, or randomizes two (which can result in one entry being selected twice, if appropriate).
Ability Triggers
| Action | Advancement Table Entry |
|---|---|
| Entered into deadly combat and remained conscious until its end. | +1 HD |
| Struck a foe with a weapon, melee or ranged. | -1 Thac0 [+1 To-Hit] |
| Studied closely the workings of a trap, witness the use of a malicious enchantment or binding, observed the specifics of a mystical creature’s gaze attacks, or noticed the tells predicting a beast’s breath weapon. | +1 SV (or move your saves up by one level) |
| Fell prey to a dangerous trap, the effects of a wand, a spell, the unnatural pains of a creature’s special abilities. | +2 to saving throws made vs. the specific kind of save |
| Survived a duel with a fearsome foe (up to ref’s designation, but I usually reserve this for character’s personal enemy, big-bads, or creatures whose HD is at least double the level of the character). | +1 Attack when doing no other action in a round |
| Attacked by more than 2 melee combatants in a single round. | +1 AC when taking a parry action in a round (or whatever equivalent in your ruleset) |
| Retrieved a manual or the specialized equipment related to a specialized technique or skill. | +1 to the relevant skill* |
| Bravely led hirelings into the fray, and succeeded in not losing a single one. | +1 to Morale checks for hirelings |
| Thoroughly dissected a bizarre creature, taking time to understand its strange anatomy. | +1 damage when striking creatures of this type |
| Ingesting monster parts prepared by a mystic, ignoring their warnings, and succeeding at your saving throw (ref determines consequences). | Gain a daily use a limited version of the monster’s powers, negotiating with the ref its specifics and any negatives of activating it |
| Retrieving a magical grimoire, tablet of power, necromantic codex, or any other wizardly instruction manual | If the character has not learned magic yet, gain 3 Spell Dice and 1 spell (I treat spells as level-less). Otherwise +1 Spell Dice. |
| Studied a scroll, tome, odd runes, or other depictions of the alien beings known as “spells” | +1 spell |
| Returning an alchemists station, a rune-carvers workbench, an orrery and telescope, or some other large lore-based work station to your laboratory/tower/cave. | The ability to learn crafting recipes related to the associated lore, negotiating with the ref the details |
Add, hack, and discard results from this table to your preference. Write custom ones specific to a single quest, dungeon, or creature. Don’t be afraid to ask your players for additions, as well.
Skills
I have one entry above that allows the characters to gain skills, and have sometimes added multiple entries to a player’s advancement table for different skills. I am not here to tell you how you should run skills in your game, or if they are even mechanical things. I trust you to handle it. Whether this is a narrative conceit of “ok now your character knows how to ride horses in combat” without checks, or a “ok thief, your thievery went up by +1, so now you can sneak on 3-of-6”, or some other system.
Spell Dice
For this class I have used Necropraxis’ excellent Spell Dice, but you could hack this to use original D&D magic-user levels (you may just get people casting high level spells early), GLOG Magic Dice, or some other system. I have just found the Spell Dice system to work with this form of advancement.
Note I always impose some sort of restriction to casting in armor. I’ve done this by increasing the range of “burn out” on the above spell dice system, +1 for each category of armor (so unarmored casters lose dice on 1-2, light armor loses dice on 1-3, chain on 1-4, and plate on 1-5).
What about Clerics?
If you noticed the table doesn’t really have “Clericy” entries like turning undead. If you do enjoy Clerics you could add entries for exorcisms, boons to healings or blessings, etc. But for all my runs with this system or earlier versions of it I have played in a setting that lacks Clerics, which is why their equivalent entries are missing.
Thoughts
Depending on the availability of these triggers for characters, this may result in a significantly lower or higher magic game than you anticipate, so be mindful of what you add into your game.
The benefit I have found from using such a system is that you can use the foundation of the original fantasy game, while getting a lot of the benefits of “you get better at what you do (or are interested in)” that comes with sometimes-heavier ruleset.
You also get the benefit of players actively seeking out things in the world, searching for rumors, and overall getting invested in your setting. And since they are always explicitly telling you their goals, you can direct your prep towards relevant topics.
I should note I have only ran this class is insolation, so I have yet to mix it with the traditional classes in the original game. Since they use a different advancement system I don’t think they would mix, but who knows. Anyway, let me know your throughs.
Thank you!
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