John, what are you wearing for armor? I might be able to carry it on my horse.

Just saw it was banded.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Sat 12 Dec 2020.

If John can "roll" his armour up, Wist will be happy to carry some of it...does that work?

I find that descriptions of Banded Mail vary but from the book its weight is somewhere between chain mail and scale mail, so if its similar to either chain mail or scale mail then it can easily be rolled up and packed into a bag.

If it speeds up the journey John will take off his armour and rely upon his bow in battle whilst on the road. Saving his armour and sword for when they reach the watch tower.

So John's shopping list is now expanding to a horse and also for lighter armour for travelling and hunting.

DM: Druids can cast 2 spells at 1st level, magic-users can cast 1.

Should elves follow magic-users or druids for spell progression? I assume the former.

I don't see a Druid chart to compare to but the Elves entry has them using the same chart as the magic user for spell progression.

DM's house rule, elves cast Druid spells from the Advanced version of Labyrinth Lord.

Hopefully those are less effective than magic user spells, as elves are already a bit over the top of any other class.

Definitely less offensive:

1. Animal Companion
   
2. Detect Magic
   
3. Detect Snares and Pits
   
4. Divine Weather
   
5. Entangle
   
6. Faerie Fire
   
7. Invisibility, Animal
   
8. Locate Creature
   
9. Pass without Trace
   
10. Purify Water
    
11. Shillelagh
    
12. Speak with Animals

You think so? For flexibility, there is a heavy price to pay!

           Level 2   Level 3  Level 4
Cleric      1,565     3,125    6,251
Dwarf       2,187     4,375
Elf         4,065
Fighter     2,035     2,035    4,065
Halfling    2,035     4,065
MU          2,501     5,001
Thief       1,251     2,501    5,001

The good thing, is we are all on the same team! So, I will do my utmost to have my over-the-top elf contribute in an over-the-top manner! ;-)

I believe the Elf is balanced by the XP costs, having 2 Prime Requisites for XP bonuses, and the level limit of 10 (level limit is interesting at technically at level 10 the Elf has the abilities of a 10th level Fighter and a 10th level Magic user!). The change to Druid spells is thematically good (I prefer the druidic Bard too) but actually lessens the Elf class so getting 2 Druid spells is a good balance.

If this is a short campaign then Wist will be a boon to the party, if we play for a long time (and it will have to a long time) then we may begin seeing the rest of us out growing him.

Wist Use the druid chart from advanced.

Level 1st 2nd 3rd
 1     2   0   0
 2     2   1   0
 3     3   2   1
 4     3   2   2
 5     4   3   2

I read a blog that house ruled elves to the druid spells and I liked the idea enough to steal it.

I also house ruled the MU and cleric to get bonus spells from advanced that elves don't.

I once downloaded a pdf called "perfect class" it broke down the XP cost of each class ability and assigned it an XP value and then allowed you to build hybrid classes, by stacking them up.  https://breeyark.org/files/perfect_class.pdf

Interestingly it matched up very well for everything except the MU who get shafted by every published game XP chart.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:48, Tue 15 Dec 2020.

MUs never got 'balanced XP' until 3E, and they still stole the show at higher levels.

5E has done a good job, they let wizards get their big spells but the number of spells and the damage output is not exponential as it was in the old school games. The downside is that almost every class has an option to use magic which makes the wizard less stand out.

As to elves using druid magic, I think thematically it is a good idea. And in these old 'race as class' games it does tone down the likelihood of "cast fireball then cleave with 2-handed sword"!

I only asked about the progression, because I was looking at the spell list and noticed it. Having 2 spells a day will be handy.

DM: did Linis explain to Wist what the green berries were good for?
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:26, Wed 16 Dec 2020.

Frankly I never even looked to see if there was an XP chart for leveling, let alone more than one for different classes, as almost no RPOL game has ever changed the level of the characters and surely not more than once or twice.  And using XP to do so rather than just adjusting the level between chapters is almost unheard of in any game played in the last decade.

Breeyark.org is a great site! I have used some of their Keep on the borderlands material.

That document is way too dense for a quick read, I will look it over during Xmas vacay! It looks on the surface to be a Basic version of what happened to 2E with the Player/DM Options books, class becomes secondary to buying skills.

Kadira your experience with levels in RPOL matches mine. The only game I played in, where the PCs moved up based completely on XP was a fun-house megadungeon for 1E.

Variable XP charts are second nature to me, as I started playing D&D a long time ago. It wasn't until 3E that a common XP chart for all classes became a thing.

Well, the AD&D game I run here uses the XP charts, although I award small XP awards every 6 months that have nothing to do with treasure XP or monster XP as a reward to my veterans. From starting at 1st level, the highest (and longest-played) PCs are now 8th and 7th level.

XP charts exist in many of the games I've played in the past and present. Whether you're playing on Rpol or face to face levelling in old school game is a rare achievement, which in its way reinforces the use of XP charts as its those classes with low XP charts like Thief and Cleric which then excel. I would cite this as one of the reason why Cleric is a much more powerful class than an Elf.

I've been playing in an old school Barrowmaze game for the last two years and only two of us having surviving characters from the beginning, over the years there's been many different players and an endless number of characters as we play open table. The two surviving characters are level 4, a very respectable level to reach and I'm actually seriously considering retiring my character Moonwhisper the Barrowmage and sage of the Blackened Forest!

Leveling in PbP has always been difficult.  Other than Nemrac (I'm one of the 7s), I don't any game I've played has stuck around long enough to gain levels, certainly not BTB.  I will award a lot more XP than book value, and it should only take 2 to 3 adventures (since they are smaller) to see second level.  There will also be bonus awards for making me enjoy running the game :)

I've never played any edition other that Basic and 1e, so I have no practical experience in anything newer.  My brother tried to get me to run a 4e game for his group of friends (even offering good scotch & cash) but I didn't think I could handle it.  His 1st level wizard had almost 30 HP...?

Hey guys, my father-in-law suddenly passed away over the holidays. I hope to be back sometime next week, if possible.

My condolences to you and your family, Kerwich. Take all the time you need.

Sad to hear your loss. My thoughts with you and your family.

Thanks for that. I'm back and set to play.  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

Glad to have you back.

We are doing really well. Fortune is with us. Let's hope the dice rolls continue to roll in our favour.

Kerwich, Upstairs with the boys or downstairs with the lady?

Downstairs to keep our magic-user safe.

I'm glad that hauling John's armour all the way has proven to be worth it. To the glory of rat killing. John is going to need to embellish this story somewhat to make it more heroic ;-)