no time for guessing, follow my plan instead (class: explorer)
I've spoken on this blog before about Rangers. Today we take another approach, one that's been floating around my conversations like a weird vapor, which it's time now to condense into a liquid and then freeze into a popsicle. Today, we make a ranger class... with "spells."
EXPLORER
+1 HP and inventory slot per template
A: Spotfinding, +1 SD, +1 Spot Slot, +2 Spots (1-6), Tall Tales
B: +1 SD, +1 Spot Slot, +1 Spot (1-8), Mastery
C: +1 SD, +1 Spot Slot, +1 Spot (1-10), Friendly Spot
D: +1 SD, +1 Spot Slot, Choose 4 Spots
Roll a Favored Terrain:
1: woods, 2: mountain, 3: fungus zone, 4: jungle, 5: sea, 6: choose!
Spotfinding - It's like Magic Dice, except for the differences I'm about to explain. Firstly, you can only cast spells find spots while you're travelling or exploring. These are places you either have been before or know how to detect based on various ephemeral clues that other people usually don't notice. When you visit a spot, if you're using a map, mark the spot on the map. Except when noted otherwise, it doesn't go away when you leave. (In brief: Invest as many or as few of your SD as you wish, choose a Spot you know, roll your invested SD. Add up the numbers rolled, check the Spot description to see what happens. If any of the SD come up 4+, set them aside and you can't use them anymore.)
+1 SD - Your set-aside Spot Dice (SD) return to you when you spend a few days in a town or city. If you roll doubles, roll on a random encounter table. Triples, you get lost.
+1 Spot Slot - You fill Spot Slots with Spots, just like you fill Inventory Slots with Inventory. You can only Find the types of Spots that you have in Slots. (At first level, you will know two Spots, but you will only be able to Find one, because you only have one Spot Slot.) You can change which Spots are in your Slots every time you get a good night's rest.
+2 Spots (1-6) - Whenever you get a new Spot, roll on a table you build yourself by combining your Favored Terrain half-table with the Spots half-table! Whoa! (Find the half-tables at the end of the class.)
Tall Tales - I think you can just use deus ex parabola's table, linked above. It ain't broke, so why fix it? I guess you could tune it to not be about soldiering, but you could also not, and that's what I'm doing.
Mastery - I would've called this Guide, and you can if you want. In brief, you have 2 Mastery points and you can spend one to bump an ally's roll up by 1. You get them back after you have a good night's sleep.
Friendly Spot - Choose one of your Spots. You always encounter a friend there. It doesn't have to be the same friend each time. I'd be surprised if it is.
FAVORED TERRAIN HALF-TABLES:
WOODS
- Hunting Blind: Camoflauged, hides [sum] creatures from all normal animals and from intelligent creatures on a [dice]-in-4 chance, even if they know what they're looking for. You can get surprise by attacking from here, and it gives cover against ranged attacks. Write those numbers down on the map.
- Abandoned Cabin: Beds for everyone. Choose when you find it: there's [sum] uses of a particular medicine here, OR there's a secret room somewhere in the house.
- Fairy Circle: [Sum] changes can be applied distributed among anyone who agrees or isn't paying attention. You choose what changes, but one random change always happens to you. Example changes: sex, height (within normal bounds), species (dwarf-to-elf, cow-to-minotaur, parrot-to-crow, etc), favorite food/drink/color, material of a held object (fairy gold is more brittle than glass). If all the changes are used up, the circle disappears and a fairy is released into the world.
MOUNTAIN
- Yeti Cave: Nothing will dare come in here except yetis. 4+, the yetis aren't home.
- Dwarf Trading Post: You'll find [sum] non-food items of your choice from a mundane equipment table, and [dice] dwarf-specific items that might be magical. (Examples: Big drill, block and tackle system, headlamp hard hat, unreasonably strong booze, canary in a cage, heatproof gloves.) If you don't leave money to pay for them (and magic items to pay for the dwarf-specific items), expect to get cursed or hunted by dwarves. The items refresh weekly as long as nobody's watching.
- Climber's Cache: [sum] combination of rations and blankets, your choice. Also, a flare or magical equivalent. Anything you hide here won't be found by anyone you don't tell about it. It's big enough to hide a body.
FUNGUS ZONE
- Mushroomtop Pool: Safe drinking water. Resting here gives [sum] bonus HP. Write that number down in case you return. A random monster is sleeping here.
- Shared Hallucination: Everyone enters a fake version of the real world. Mark it on the map. Treat the hallucination like a mostly-reliable simulation: you can see what'd happen if you open that mysterious bottle you've been carrying, or what lies over that ridge, and if you die, instead you just wake up. It lasts [sum] hours, and a creature can only experience it once in a month.
- Subfloor Hideaway: Like a trapdoor into a basement, but anywhere. 4+, there aren't spiders in there. 8+, there are, but they're friendly and somehow understand language.
JUNGLE
- Shrine: Whatever local god would be the most amenable to your goals. It might be an evil god. [dice] tributes have been left here, which are usually rations or treasure items worth around 10gp. Expect to be cursed if you take any, and blessed if you leave any.
- Hive: Usually bees or hornets. They might be really big or have other weird quirks based on where you are. Normal ones can deal [sum] damage to anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the swarm.
- Watering Hole: Safe drinking water. [Sum] non-hostile animals or monsters will be here. Hostile monsters will attack them first.
SEA
- Phantom Islet: The only other intelligent creatures who can find this place are those on the brink of death. When you leave, it vanishes -- it's still here, but you can't find it unless you Find it again (or you're on the brink of death yourself).
- Shipwreck: [Sum] treasure objects, usually worth around 10gp, can be found here, but they're deep underwater. 10+, there's a magic item in there. You can find no more than 3 magic items this way in your life, unless blessed by the god of pirates.
- Mermaid Trading Post: You'll find [sum] items of your choice from a mundane equipment table, but they've been underwater for at least a week. There's also [dice] mermaid-specific items which might be magical. (Examples: bouyant armor, charmed monster, underwater torch, saltwater taffy, artifact of historical significance.) If you don't leave money to pay for them (and magic items to pay for the mermaid items), expect to be cursed or hunted by mermaids. The items refresh weekly as long as nobody's watching.
SPOTS HALF-TABLE:
- Emotionally Significant Place: Add [sum] to your next [dice] attacks, skills, or saves that somehow connect back to the story you tell about this spot. (Examples: The place I lost someone, the place my mother told me about, the place I learned an important lesson.) If you revisit here, add that [sum] to your next [one] thing instead. Write the [sum] down.
- Inspiring Vantage: First time anyone visits here, they succeed on the next save they make this journey. [Dice] times, someone can experience it again. Write that down.
- Strategic Vantage: You can't get lost on routes you plan from here, up to [sum] days away. You can see [dice] places you're looking for from here, if they're within that [sum] days' travel. Write those numbers and places down.
- Ruined Watchpost: No shelter from the elements, but there's cover from ranged attacks and [sum] usable spears. It has [dice] floors.
- Blessed Ground: Monsters up to [sum] HD are afraid of it. The first [dice] evil things that come into the area are either purified or burned for 5d6 holy damage. Write those numbers down.
- Shortcut: Cut the travel time in half between here and a place up to [sum] days away. Choose: It only goes one way, OR you might as well tell all of China you're coming.
- Oasis: Food and water abundant enough to fill all your party's inventory slots each time you pass through. [Sum] times per season.
Design notes: I'm certain the numbers on this are all wrong. I took them straight from Skerples's Many Rats On Sticks Wizard without any consideration for the fact that they can't be used in combat.
I don't know what this class is supposed to do in combat. It's really more of a proof of concept than a functional class I think? There's really no reason it needs to use the whole Magic Dice system, either, but I figured if I was going to use the "spell slots" idea then I might as well pilfer the GLoG's most iconic system as well. Maybe if you stripped it down to static effects and removed the dice you could fit in more stuff that would make the class more complete in some way? It might also relieve you of the fact that it makes no sense at all for a character to decide whether he's about to find a watchpost with 1d6 spears or one with 2d6 spears. If that bothers you then I hope you do write it up and I hope you share it with me because I'd like to see it.