Making the Most of the OSE Advanced Fighter, part 2

So, the OSE fighter class is still not doing it for you, even after the optimizations in article one of this series? Well, let's keep looking for some more official inspirations and options published in the official 'zine publications, in this case, Carcass Crawler Issue One.

In this issue, we get the gargantuan player race (CC1, p21), and when used as a stand-alone character option, can level to 10th level as a fighter. This race can also wield two-handed weapons with one hand, using the OSE "attacking with two weapons" rule (OSEAFP, p236), for a -2 on the primary weapon and a -4 on the secondary, and two attacks a turn total.

Combine that with the high strength to-hit modifiers of the gargantuan, the high damage of two-handed weapons, weapon proficiencies (OSEAFP, p23), and you will have a beast of a half-giant character who is a literal wrecking machine in combat, even at level one. This is one of the most potent melee builds in the game, and you do not need to mod the game to have it with official rules sources.

There are other races here that make for some excellent fighter options, such as the goblin getting a +2 AC versus large creatures (CC1, p22), making them an excellent choice as a defensive "nut" versus dragons and other large beasties, especially in plate mail with a shield. The goblin can get to 8th level as a fighter, which is good given the scope of most campaigns.

The infravision and detection options of goblins are also convenient, along with a high CON-based resistance save modifier. With a CON of 15-17, they get a +4 to all saving throws versus poison, spells, and magic wands, rods, and staves (CC1, p22)! That is a crazy good saving throw modifier, one of the best in the game. Do not sleep on a goblin fighter; they can be lethal and highly survivable.

We have rules for black-power weapons in this issue, too, perfect for high-seas swashbuckler and pirate-themed games, along with early colonial horror gaming settings, like Lamentations of the Flame Princess. OSE has you covered if you want to use this system with Renaissance and Colonial-Era gaming.

We have something for any type of fighter, too, even our brute or any other fighter in the game! We get Combat Talents (CC1, p28), which give our fighters new abilities at level 1, 5, and 10! We can select cleave, which provides us with a Swords & Wizardry-style ability to strike a second opponent when one is defeated. There are leadership, defensive, two-weapon, and other options here that beef up our fighter and make them feel like other old-school games in the OSR genre.

We have some great thief options here, too, but I may make a series devoted to thieves and making the most of those. We're focusing on fighters in this series.

The fighter in OSE was one of the weakest points in the game, with the base class feeling so basic and lacking options and abilities. I was so wrong about this! Even in the core rulebook, there are optimization options that can make you stand out as the party's front-line warrior. With this 'zine, the options get even better, and what was once a simple class has new races to add to the mix, along with selectable talents to give our fighters that extra flair they need to stand out in a crowd ...or a party of adventurers.

Highly recommended, and this makes an optimized build from the core rulebooks even better, and it gives players some of that customizability we have in other games like 5E, back to the player. It lets them specialize and tweak their builds to their playstyle.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Pool-Based Improvement

We have a new optional rule for Dungeon Crawl Classics today, and I added this as a page to the blog to collect them together. This also works for MCC or any other game based on this system. Today, it is Pool-Based Improvement! Enjoy!

Pool-Based Improvement

Take 90, and subtract the total of all your ability scores from this value.

Example: If all our scores were 11, the math would look like this: 90 - 66 = 24.

Write this number on your character's ability score sheet as their improvement pool. If this number is below zero, ignore the rest of this rule; this means your ability scores are too high to benefit from this improvement, and you rolled fortunate!

Example: We would write 24 on our sheet as our improvement pool.

Now, divide this number by 8 and drop all fractions, do not round up!

Example: In the above case, this would be 24 / 8 = 3, with no fractions.

Write this number on your character sheet as your bonus value.

Example: We would write 3 on our sheet as our bonus value.

At levels 2 through 9, add the bonus value to your ability scores. You can add them all to one, or one to three, or two to one & one to another. Any combination works. Make sure to adjust your modifiers accordingly. These can be used to replenish permanent ability score decreases. Every time we level, subtract the bonus value from our pool.

Example: Every time our character levels, we would add 3 to our ability scores. We would also subtract 3 from our pool, so when our character reaches the second level, our pool would be 24 - 3 = 21. At level 3, we would add another 3 points to our ability scores, and our pool would drop to 21 - 3 = 18.

At level ten, add the remaining number in your pool to your ability scores.

Example: At level ten, we would have zero left in our pool (I did the math), so we would not add anything to our ability scores.

What does this do? This ensures all level ten characters have a minimum average score of 15 in every ability. No matter how horrible scores you roll at level one, you will slowly improve your ability scores to heroic values as you level. You do not need to set them all to 15, and this may allow some characters to go to values above 18, so you may want to put a cap on how high a score may go, such as 18.

Example: If you were the person who rolled all threes for all six ability scores, you would increase by 9 points per level from levels two through nine, and have no increase at level ten.

If you find the 15 average score at level 10 to be too high, you can adjust the 90 value to your liking, as  15 x 6 = 90. This is simple math, and the pool mechanic accounts for all remaining fractional points at level 10. For example, if you felt an average level 10 ability score of 13 was better, replace 90 with 13 x 6 = 78.

You will still suffer at low levels with terrible scores, but these will slowly improve to heroic levels. You can use this pool value as a suggested amount of points to reward as a GM each level, or just let the players freely add them. If you roll terribly at character creation, do not worry! This system will ensure you eventually become a hero as you adventure, building up your scores with each level.