Further Hacking

 Okay, let's do the rest of this challenge.

Thief

Lucky: You have an edge in matters of pure chance.

Talents

Pocket: Whenever you touch another person you can try to lift something from one of their pockets or other storage.  

Stab: Your attacks against unaware or distracted opponents cause significantly more harm than normal.

Misdirect: You have an edge when trying to lure somebody into just the right position.

Daggers: You always have some more daggers hidden away.

Reflexes: You always have an edge in the split second after something surprises you. 

Elf

Sensitive: Your senses aren't limited by the human range. They span a wider area and can hone in on things invisible to most .

Talents

Focus: If you have at least a minute to focus and prepare then you never miss your target. 

Primal: You speak a little of the language of beasts and trees. 

Light Step: You leave no trail on nature and it makes journeys easier for you in return.

Wisp: You have a companion wisp that floats and glows to your command.  

Elemental: With a little exertion you can imbue an attack with elemental energy. 

Dwarf

Stable: You can never be moved against your will and are immune to all poisons and toxins.

Talents

Bonds: You can find a bond with any other dwarfs you meet. 

Shieldbearer: You have an edge when using a shield to control the battlefield.

Carousing: You have mastered feasting, drinking, storytelling, and silly games. 

Oath: When you swear an oath you get an edge on all actions helping it come to pass, but never have an edge on actions unrelated to it. An Oath can only be abandoned through a lengthy and shameful ritual.

Tunneller: While underground you always know your position relative to the surface and other underground locations that you have visited. 

Goblin

Creeper: You can see in the dark and communicate a little with most monstrous beings. 

Talents

Gorger: You can eat pretty much anything and regurgitate it later, and your teeth are effective weapons in their own right.

Shady: You're effectively invisible while cowering in the shadows, perfectly still. 

Sneaky: If you're on the move you can always decide to get knocked down rather than taking actual harm from an attack. This doesn't work if you're already knocked down.

Pest: When you act purely to impede somebody else then they can't get an Edge until they deal with you.

Pitiful: You are so truly wretched that most sapient beings will feel at least some sympathy for you.

 

Hacking

This Bastionland Editorial was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site a week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

-----------------------------

So this week's blogpost sure was a load of nonsense. As it's apparently backwards-week, I'll put the actual gaming material in the editorial instead.

As the blogpost alludes, I've been feeling the call of the primordial again. As a change from the one-page classes that I've previously worked on, I wanted to try a more easily digestible set of player options, first taking inspiration from the wonderfully designed classes of Old School Hack (first brought to my attention by Reynaldo here).

The below are pretty direct adaptations of the Original 3, aiming to strip away anything overtly mechanical to suit our Primordial needs.

New characters get the listed abilities plus a single talent. After a significant quest all characters gain an additional talent.

Fighter

Steely: You have the edge when fighting untrained combatants.

Talents

Scars: You’ve seen enough action to have an edge when trying to talk somebody out of, or into, violence.

Specialist: You’re particularly attuned to a single, specific weapon.

Lancer: Your charging attacks have devastating effects.

Brawn: You’re used to carrying heavy gear and throwing your weight into things.

Exploit: After engaging in combat with an opponent you’re able to notice a particular weakness or opportunity.

Magic-User

Veil: You can see the mark of magical effects and can leave your own, visible to those you choose.

Talents

Chronicle: With a few minutes of work you can find or recall a single important fact about any given subject.

Lullaby: Your voice can soothe the hostile and put the unwary to sleep.

Puppeteer: You can animate a few small objects, say enough that you could grasp and hold.

Portalism: You can speak to doors. They generally cooperate and reply.

Curse: You can lash out with a harmful effect or damaging bolt, but you always suffer something in return.

Cleric

Blessed: When you wear a representation of your faith you are offered some protection against its enemies.

Talents

Merciful: With a short ritual you can ease somebody’s pain and provide temporary invigoration.

Inquisitor: You can sense nearby enemies of your faith.

Wrath: You can imbue a weapon with divine wrath, but suffer a physical wound in the process.

Banishment: Your holy symbol repels enemies of your faith, and can destroy them when weakened.

Preacher: You’re very good at impassioned speeches and turning people to your point of view.

Primordial Warlock

Another Primordial Class. This time voted for by those of you on my Patreon, who are clearly accustomed to throwing in their allegiance with unsavoury entities.

When I get around to the Wizard I want there to be a big focus on spellbooks that you can actually print off and fold. Like a bunch of miniature version of Wonder and & Wickedness.

So for the Warlock I wanted to focus more on your relationship to your Patron, drawing a bit on the whole Chaos Gifts angle of the Warhammer. You can watch me going through the first half of the process over on last night's Bastionland Broadcast.

Playbook - Warlock

In a moment of desperation or ambition, you pledged yourself to a demonic force in return for unnatural power. 

From your past life you have a simple weapon and a tool of your former trade.

Fiendish Patron

Choose two titles for your Patron. These dictate their rules. Breaking them invokes your Patron’s wrath. 

• The Beast - Never show mercy.

• The Deceiver - Deny the existence of the Deceiver.

• The Fallen - Always respect a holy site. 

• The Conqueror - Never pass up an opportunity to show your superiority.

The remaining two are the rivals to your Patron. You can earn your Patron’s favour by carrying out a deed that majorly acts against one of their rivals’ rules. 

Eldritch Gifts

Choose two gifts from your Patron. You can swap them at any time by engaging in a ceremony of pleading or sacrifice to your Patron. 

Imp Familiar: A small, troublesome imp serves your every word, but ultimately serves your Patron. They can fly clumsily and start small fires.

Hellblade: A longsword that burns in the chaos of combat. Spooks animals and weak-willed people. When you kill another being with this blade your body is reinvigorated.

Book of Shadows: A grimoire of minor curses and incantations. 

Inferno: You can conjure bolts, blasts, and walls of fire, but cannot control the blaze once burning. 

Fiendish Resilience: When you receive this gift, choose one of the following to be immune to: Fire, Cold, Poison, Mundane Missiles, Arthropods.

Many Faced Mask: You can alter your appearance to any other humanoid you have met at will, but the illusion is only visual. 

Shadowform: You are invisible in dim light while stationary. 

The Cold Chains: Your touch infuses any chain with dark energy, its touch causing pain and feebleness to any spirits or otherworldly beings. 

Rituals

The Sculpture of the Flesh

• A living subject is placed in the centre of a circle of fresh corpse ash.

• The warlock and five others perform a chant lasting around six minutes. 

• The subject is twisted into a lesser physical form until the Warlock releases them or dies.

The Congress of the Crawlers

• The Warlock performs a loud, physically strenuous ritual lasting an hour.

• Insects and worms are summoned to share their knowledge of this place. 

• They speak in a tongue that only the Warlock understands. Their memory is poor but they know the land well. 

The Twisting of the Word

• The name of a recently deceased being must be written in their blood surrounded by infernal sigils.

• The name is infused with sinister power. 

• The next time it is spoken by the Warlock, all who hear it are compelled to kneel in submission until their mind can break free.

The Counsel of the Universal

• You must present a worthy sacrifice of one of your Patron’s enemies.

• At least twelve others must chant in exaltation of your Patron. 

• A greater servant of your Patron appears for barely a moment, answering one question with a single answer. They know all. 

The Eye of the Clouded Water

• Two cups are filled with water from the same impure source. Sewers or swamps work well.

• Both cups are placed in separate locations. The water must remain within, and an eye must be gouged at a point between the two. 

• The Warlock drinks from one cup and is able to view the area around the other cup as if they were there.

Primordial Trickster

More work on this Primordial thing. This time thinking about a combination of Thief and a little bit of Illusionist.

It's hard to show this in a blogpost format, but when I get these ready for printing I definitely want there to be blank spaces left in some of these sections, encouraging the players to add as they discover more about the world and their character.

Playbook - Trickster

Gear - At any time you can produce one of the following from your person. If you have had your possessions removed, then you know where to get a makeshift replacement nearby.

• Dagger

• Rope or Wire

• Hood and Mask

• Any tool that fits in a pocket

Alter-Egos - Choose 2 and name them. You have a good disguise and any papers required.

___________ the Guard: An upholder of the law. 

___________ the Servant: A loyal worker to a powerful employer.

___________ the Wretch: A pathetic nobody. 

___________ the Merchant: A wealthy business owner.

___________ the Traveller: A respected visitor from a neighbouring land.

Contacts - The remaining entries above are real people that you know and owe you a favour. 

Secrets - These apply to your own city, but after a day of immersion in a new settlement you pick up the local equivalents.

Thieves’ Cant: A code of slang used in criminal communication. Speaking in this dialect opens certain doors and lends you some credibility in unsavoury circles.

The Underground: Both literal and figurative. A network of organised criminals, often hiding secrets in the cellars and sewers of the city. 

Backdoors: Every building has a secondary entrance that few people know about, and a more secret way that’s risky even for experts.

Tricks - Nothing fancy, just old-fashioned ploys that can be taught to anybody pretty quickly.

Confidence: Speak in such a way and people will believe what you say, as long as they don’t get too long to think about it, or have disproving evidence staring them in the face. 

Stab: Every piece of armour has a weak point that a blade can slip through, easy to find if you can study it closely. 

Release: There’s a trick to every lock, knot, or binding method that lets you release it. Sometimes it just takes a little time. 

Shadowplay - Techniques that require an intimate understanding of misdirection and deception. 

Tranquillity: In dim light you can effectively become invisible and silent. Any sort of bright light dispels this effect. 

Distraction: You can make somebody look over their shoulder for a moment, or even compel them to take a few steps away to investigate. 

Transpose: You can reliably swap the positions of any pocket-sized items unseen, as long as they are in the same room as you for a few minutes. 

Illusions - For now you have only scratched the surface of this arcane art. 

Figment: You can trick somebody’s senses or memory for just a moment when you address them by name. For example, if they turn around expecting to see a fire then they see it, and even feel the heat. The illusion only lasts a moment, but the victim immediately acts as if it is real.

Haze: Requires an hour-long ritual, which gives you a hazy appearance for the rest of that night. Even if you’re caught red-handed, witnesses are never able to fully recall details about your identity, or even exactly what you were doing. 

Apparition: Through careful mixing of oils and powders, available in any criminal underground, you can manifest an illusory image that acts in a convincing manner for a few moments. Larger or longer-lasting apparitions require more concentrated reagents, which come with a heavy cost.

The Twelve Failed Careers of Oddmas

Did you enjoy all of the weird stuff and silly references in Electric Bastionland's Failed Careers?

Feeling festive?

The Twelve Failed Careers of Oddmas is now on sale!

(also on DrivethruRPG but Itch takes a smaller cut)

Twelve more Failed Careers for your seasonal Electric Bastionland game, focusing on the council-endorsed winter conglomerated-festival of Oddmas. A 30 page PDF. 

Featuring (in reverse order):

12: Drumbelleer

11: Primal Piper

10: Lady/Lad-a-Loopin

9: Layman Duncer

8: Malady Milker

7: Sworn Swimmer

6: Goose Allayer

5: Gold Ring Grappler

4: Coalie Bird

3: Fancy Poulterer

2: Turtle Devotee

and

1: Apprentice to a Paired Tree

Odd Classes and Orders

This week,  I played a Dinosaur Cleric in +Arnold K.'s game. Why it's taken this long for someone to use the idea of extinct dinosaurs eating their way up the timeline is beyond me.

The class hooked me onto the character straight away. As an advocate of classless play, this surprised me.

It worked because it was more evocative than the classic D&D classes, but not at all fiddly or front-loaded. You worship the dinosaur god and hate mammals. You get dino-gear and three spells.

I tried to put little character hooks into the Starter Packages of Into the Odd, but I'd like see what happens if I take it a little further.

I don't want classes that tell you what you can do. I want something that adds spice to both your character, and the world around them.

A Fighter is anyone with a sword, but a Worldkiller wants to fight the planet itself.
A Thief is anyone that steals, but an Under-Kin is one with the Underground.
A Magic-User is anyone that's managed to get hold of an Arcanum and some robes, but an Arcphager eats Arcana to gain permanent benefits.

There will never be a pseudo-class in Into the Odd for someone that's simply better at fighting, sneaking, or using Arcana.

And these aren't Classes. They're Orders that any character can join.

Brand new members take the Pledge in italics, and are given the Order's Paraphernalia to show their allegiance. Breaking the Pledge requires atonement, or in more serious cases, expulsion.

Each time the character returns from an Expedition, if they can explain what they have achieved or learned in relation to the Order's philosophy, they are taught a new Secret.

When a characters knows all of the secrets, the Order begins them on the path towards their Destiny, which requires a lengthy pilgrimage or ritual. Refusing this is considered the ultimate heresy against an Order.  

Starting characters can roll d10 to start as an Order brand new member.

1: Populads - We're all insignificant together. 



Paraphernalia: Dark grey clothes and skin-paint.
Secrets
Faceless: Nobody can describe you, or recognise you from even moments ago.
Selfless: When it suits you, you do not count as a living being.
Shadowless: You leave no mark on the world around you. Things just fall back into a natural place and nobody will know you were here.
Destiny: Become invisible to all except those who share this destiny.

2: Horrorists - Present a horrible visage to keep the real terrors at bay. 



Paraphernalia: Horrible masks and hairy suits.
Secrets
Shock: Anyone you surprise must pass a WIL Save or blurt out a secret. If they don't have any secrets, their imagination creates one.
Disgust: Anyone watching you eat must pass a WIL Save or vomit.
Fear: Anyone that locks eyes with you must pass a WIL Save or reveal something they fear.
Destiny: Transform into a true monster and lose all humanity.

3: Arcphagers - For all I eat, I must bring equal to Big-Eater. 



Paraphernalia: Smart red dress robes, black circle painted around mouth.
Secrets
Material Ingestion: Eat a pure piece of an otherwise inedible material and have a bodypart of your choice turn to that substance.
Arcane Ingestion: Eat an Arcanum. If you pass a WIL Save you can control its power at will, if you fail it's always on.
Self Ingestion: Eat a portion of your own flesh to re-live any memory of your life.
Destiny: Eat a star, and never eat again.

4: Time-Enforcers - The great pendulum is all that keeps order in the world. 



Paraphernalia: Blue uniforms and ceremonial pendulum-baton (d6).
Secrets
History Adjustment: Meditate for an hour to adjust one trivial fact about history.
Possibility Sever: Once a day, announce a specific outcome of the current situation. That cannot happen.
Union of Presents: Once a day, summon an alternate version of any object or being. It stays for a minute, and varies slightly from the original, but is not bound to serve without reason.
Destiny: Go into hibernation until the end of time.

5: Fly Heralds - Prepare the consumption by the cosmic swarm. 



Paraphernalia: Compound-eye goggles and proboscis mask. Ceremonial fly wings for special occasions.
Secrets
Congregation: All insects in your sight gather on a point of your choice.
Feast: All insects in your sight begin to feed at a frenzied rate.
Metamorphosis: If you sleep in a cocoon with a corpse, you awaken in their body in the morning, and your old body is melted into goo.
Destiny: Be the first meal for the cosmic swarm.

6: Carcass-Sons - Pay no heed to flesh, do no harm to mind. 



Paraphernalia: Loose sack clothes.
Secrets
Shed Flesh: Your wounds do not visually heal, and you feel no pain from external damage. This has no mechanical effect on damage and healing.
Project Mind: If you sit still you can transfer your being into an held inanimate object. It remains inanimate but you control it up to the degree that an automatic version would behave (pull triggers, push buttons).
Banish Meat: Once per day you can repel a meaty being, or object forcefully away from you and prevent it approaching unless it passes a WIL Save.  
Destiny: Become a brain in a jar.

7: Under-Kin - The Underground is truth.



Paraphernalia: Black smart clothes.Pouch of gravel from the deepest cave you've visited.
Secrets
Drop of Faith: As long as you're falling into darkness, the landing will never harm you.
Tunnelgaze: When you look into a dark tunnel you see right the way to the end of the tunnel.
Cave Call: Once per day you can ask the darkness a question, and it answers as best it can.
Destiny: Move permanently to the Underground, except during Solar Eclipses.

8: Worldkillers - A new world must be born from the destruction of this one.



Paraphernalia: Broad white hats or armour, with bold red stripes.
Secrets
Un-Bloom: Touch an object or being to immediately halt its growth and development.,Unwilling intelligent beings get a WIL Save. The target does not progress to any state more advanced than its current one, but will decay as expected.
Catastrophe Haste: If a natural disaster or mishap (anything from a bad storm upwards) is approaching, you can cause it to happen immediately. This also applies to rituals that would harm the planet.
Wreck Earth: Once per day, you create a sinkhole d20 meters wide.

Destiny: Break off a part of the world and launch it into space. 

9: Fictioneers - If it's written, it is real. 



Paraphernalia: Multi-coloured robes, big empty book.
Secrets
Creation: If you write a description of a made-up thing, person, or place, the next person you tell about it believes it's real.
Fictive Jaunt: When you dream, you go into a made-up place you created, and bring back a single object that could exist in reality. When you next go to sleep, it vanishes.
Exposition: If you write a plausible explanation for something, and burn the paper, it becomes reality, but always finds a way to bite you.
Destiny: Leave reality to live within your fiction.

10: Unpairers - Nothing is more unnatural than a gathering of two. 


Paraphernalia: Single-colour one-piece boiler suit. Paired body parts have one covered with black cloth, but removal is encouraged.
Secrets
Separation: Make two paired objects repel each other with great force. When used on the paired body parts of a being, this causes d8 damage.
Fission: Two paired objects fuse into one. If they are unwilling, they get a WIL Save to resist.
Summation: Use once per day. A third object is created from two paired objects. It has some properties of each original object.
Destiny: Split apart a binary star system when they line up right.

What about Invokers, Samurai and Illusionists?

We're into the bottom of the class-barrel now! But who am I to tell fans of these classes they aren't welcome. Bring them on!

The Ancient Word

- Do not suffer disrespect of any Gods, alive or dead.

- Attempt to bring subjects of all Gods together as equals.

- Smite those that wish to make Gods of themselves.

Symbol – Marble Staff: Striking an object with this staff while unleashing an ancient word of power causes 1d6 damage and ignores armour.

Terrible Ritual: You are able to below a word of power that causes anything below human intelligence to flee immediately.

Wrathful Ritual: With a power word you are able to command, but not create, lightning, water and fire as you wish. If thrown at an enemy these will cause 1d6+WIL Bonus damage.

The Swordmasters

- Obey the instructions of senior Swordmasters.

- Keep your sword and armour clean of blood after battle.

- Do not use ranged weapons or magic of any sort.

Symbol – Master Sword and Armour: This two-handed sword (1d6+2) and ornate, masked armour (Armour 2) are both required to benefit from Rituals.

Duellist Ritual: As long as you are engaging a single opponent with no help from your allies you may add your STR Score to Damage.

War Ritual: When you kill an opponent in melee your allies add your WIL Bonus to all Damage rolls until your next turn.

The Dreampainter

- Never refuse to paint out a story.

- Do not use your illusions to harm the innocent.

- If confronted directly, give the truth.

Symbol – Brush Pendent: You can conjure impressive illusions that last until touched. 

Artist's Ritual: Your illusions include sound, smell and thermal effects.

Veiling Ritual: You make objects invisible until they are touched. 

You want a Psion in Into the Dungeon?

Fine! Here's your Psion!

Roll a Disciple character and choose the following Creed.

The Third Eye
- Spend an hour each morning in meditation.
- Do not allow your Crystal to come to harm.
- Do not knowingly allow your mind to be tainted by magic or false gods.
Symbol - Mind Crystal: This shard of crystal floats at your will and can be used to make ranged attacks for 1d6 + WIL Bonus damage. Doing so causes you 1 point of damage.
Projection Ritual: You may cause yourself 1 point of damage to do any of the following for a single turn: Move an object remotely, project a message to another, share senses with another or read another's surface thoughts.
Autohypnosis Ritual: Whenever you take Critical Damage or Ability Score Loss you may ignore it with a WIL Save vs the amount of damage caused.

Other Classes in Into the Dungeon

Well, I guess this is a thing now.

But what if you want to play one of the classes outside of the core four? Let's see who we have here.

Paladin: Discipleof the Silver Avenger with Order Background.
Ranger: Rogue or Warrior with Wilderness Background.
Barbarian: Warrior with Savage Background.
Druid: Disciple of the Spirit Mother.
Assassin: High DEX Warrior or Disciple of a (yet unwritten) murder deity with Order (Assassin's Guild) Background.
Bard: Disciple of The Masked Trickster or Rogue with Musician Profession and Academic (Folklore) Background.
Monk: Disciple of The Closed Circle.
Illusionist: Mystic with an Illusion-themed Tome.
Warlock: Disciple of The Forgotten Watcher.
Warlord: I'm stumped on this one. A Disciple of a (yet unwritten) war deity might fill this role but it isn't quite the same as the 4e Warlord.
Shaman: The way I see this class and the Druid they're somewhat interchangeable, so Disciple of the Spirit Mother. 
Psion: Psssh.

As you can see, I'm banking on Deities and Spellbooks providing a lot of variety. I can see another page in the doc being dedicated to Deities very soon.

Special mention:
Elf: Class of choice with Magical Background.
Dwarf: Warrior, Rogue or Disciple with Subterranean Background.
Halfling: Rogue with Humble Background.

Classes in Into the OD&D - Rogue

So I have Clerics that have a very focused set of powers, Wizards with a huge spellbook and magical impliment, Fighters that kill real good and control the battlefield. What's left for Thieves/Rogues?

They always were the forth wheel of D&D classes. You feel like it should be there but do you really need it?

Firstly I'm taking the lesser of two evils and calling the class Rogue to remove the criminal focus. I'm looking at them as the underdog class. The common man that doesn't fancy fighting prowess, magical education or divine blessing.

Anyone with a good DEX score can try and sneak and backstabbing is open to everyone. Same for pickpocketing, lockpicking and climbing walls. The Rogue doesn't have any special abilities that are locked out to the other classes. Instead the Rogue can learn from his allies, as something of an everyman.

More than any other class the Rogue will rely on the player making use of whatever they can to gain an advantage or just survive.


Rogue

Rogues lack the training and divine blessing of other characters, but are natural survivors and quick learners. They can cheat death as long as they think quickly and can learn a little from each of their allies. 

Second Chance: When the Rogue fails a Save they may attempt a second Save if the player can think of another way to avoid harm. The Referee should be generous in allowing a second save but one of the Ability Scores used in the Save must be different to the first.
Dabbler: Under the guidance of another character a Rogue can achieve certain abilities usually associated with that class. They may only choose one ability to focus on each day and by the next morning any benefits are lost. Examples include:
A Wizard can teach them to use a specific Arcanum as if they were a Wizard for the rest of the day or lead them through casting a spell, holding it if they wish.
A Cleric can lead them in prayer, letting them benefit as if they cast the Prayer themselves, or granting them use of the deity's Holy Symbol for the rest of the day. Breaking the deity's Code renders these abilities useless just as with a Cleric.
A Fighter can teach a Rogue a single Technique to use as many times as they wish or train them to apply their STR Bonus to damage with a single weapon.

The Referee will allow other classes to teach the Rogue a similar limited version of their own ability for the rest of the day. 

Classes for Into the OD&D - Fighter

When drafting these classes I approached them with the question "What do I want players to be thinking about when they play this class?".

I wanted the Cleric player to be remembering the laws of his diety and how best to use the small variety of blessings bestowed on him.

I wanted the Wizard player to be buried in a spellbook looking for something to help the current situation. 

I wanted the Fighter to be thinking about how to use the battlefield to his advantage and have faith in his sword and armour as he wades into combat. 

Fighter

Fighters are at their best in a combat situation. They hit the hardest, can take the most punishment and control the battlefield with combat techniques.

Training: Fighters add their STR Bonus to damage rolls with a weapon.

Toughness: Fighters add 1 to their Armour score, even when unarmoured.

Techniques: When a Fighter makes an attack they may add a Technique to it. The attack is carried out as normal and the opponent must make a Save to avoid an additional effect described by the player. Examples include being pushed, tripped, disarmed, grappled for their next turn etc. A Technique cannot cause extra damage on its own but it may make use of an environmental hazard that would cause extra damage to the target. The Referee should be generous in allowing the player to think of interesting and imaginative Techniques for their attacks.

Classes for Into the OD&D - Wizard

Vancian magic gives a certain flavour to the wizard that I like but find incredibly fiddly in implementation. I wanted to keep the preparation and memorisation part of a wizard whilst bringing the spell book to the fore and lessening their impact as a combat caster. Here's the proof-of-concept draft as it stands.

Wizard

Wizards study the science of magic. They read the Mystic language that let instructs them in the precise rituals of casting spells. 

Mystic: Only wizards can read Mystic, a script found on scrolls, spell tomes and magical artifacts. Mystic is also spoken as a secret language of wizards and used in casting spells. Understanding of this ancient script lets them defer some meaning from nearly any language they read.

Spells: Found in Tomes and Scrolls. A Spell requires ten minutes per Spell Level of uninterrupted calm and attention to cast, as well as requiring a precise, detailed process. As such, Spells are generally unable to be cast in a combat situation. After casting a Spell ongoing effects last until the Wizard casts another Spell.Cantrips: These simple spells may be memorized upon reading and cast immediately at will. Focus: Every Wizard carries a Focus, typically an orb, wand or staff. Upon casting a Spell the Wizard may also Hold the spell in their Focus. They may now cast it immediately, at will, as often as they wish. Only one Spell can be held in a Focus at once.
Spellburn: Casting a Spell is a draining process and causes the Wizard damage equal to the Spell's Level. At 0HP Critical Damage may be avoided by a WIL Save vs 10.
Starting Equipment: A Wizard starts with a Tome containing all Cantrips and First Level Spells and a Focus of their choice.

Converting Spells
Spells can be converted from any wizard spell list:
- Ignore material components.
- Durations last until the Wizard casts another Spell.
- Saving throws are made vs the caster's WIL Score.
- Caster Level is the character's WIL Bonus.
- Target's HD is their STR Bonus.  

Classes for Into the OD&D - Cleric

Two majors change separating Into the Odd from D&D are its lack of classes and magic being entirely item-based rather than learning spells.

But what if I like the rest of Into the Odd but want a more traditional game with clerics and wizards? Easy!

Scrap everything from the game referencing Arcana and grab your D&D spell list of choice. Everything else stays the same but now after rolling your Ability Scores you choose a class. Today I've hammered out a proof-of-concept draft for how I'd handle Clerics in Into the OD&D.

Vancian Magic is something I'll talk more about in the Wizard post. For clerics I felt it has always been a much worse fit and I didn't like how it linked arcane magic with the blessings of a diety. With that in mind I'm severing all links between the Cleric and the D&D magic system. So here's a cleric from scratch.

Clerics

A cleric serves the code of a deity and receives blessings in return. Firstly, they can call upon a prayer each morning, providing an effect that lasts all day. Secondly, they carry a holy symbol that becomes imbued with some of the deity's power. 

Deity: The cleric chooses a diety to serve. This will determine what prayers they can make, the holy symbol they carry and the code they must live by to remain blessed.
Prayer: Each morning the cleric may choose a single prayer to make. This will bestow a particular effect on themselves, an ally or a group of allies. The effects wear off the next morning, when the next prayer is made.
Code: A diety's code details the rules a cleric must live by to remain blessed. If a Cleric breaks any of the rules dictated by their code they must atone as detailed in their code. Until they do this they are not considered blessed and any effects of prayers or holy symbols are immediately lost.
Holy Symbol: A cleric's symbol bestows certain powers on the cleric as long as they remain blessed.


Sample Deities

Pelor - The Sun God
Holy Symbol - Golden Sun: Touching a target will immediately restore one Ability Score to its full score and cure any disease by the next morning. No target can be healed more than once per day.
Prayers
Sun's Blessing: Anyone that joins you in this prayer will see their crops thrive, water source run clean and any ailments heal by the next morning.
Righteous Light: Your holy symbol repels undead creatures, who will do whatever possible to move away from it when brandished. If touched by the symbol undead suffer 1d6 damage plus your WIL Bonus.
Code
- At least one act of charity each day.
- Do not give up on a good cause.
- Give aid to the sick.
Atonement: Spend a day tending to the sick or needy without help from Pelor.

St Cuthbert - The Holy Avenger
Holy Symbol - Mace: Add your WIL Bonus to damage when you attack unholy creatures such as undead, devils or demons.
Prayers
Shielding Hand: Allies that follow the code of St Cuthbert add your WIL Bonus to HP until the next morning.
Smiting Weapon: You can turn any attack against a non-believer into a Smite for an extra 1d6 damage. If this does not kill the target you cannot Smite again.
Code
- Obey the law wherever you are.
- Protect the faithful.
- Smite the unholy.
Atonement: Destroy an unholy creature with your mace alone.