Rituals (5e D&D )

A wizard did it

Concept: beyond a prescribed spell list, magic users (or anyone with the right books, ingredients and facility (likely a mix of Int, Wis and Cha, or just pure Cha)) can effect anything they want. The idea is to let the players and GM redefine the solution to an obstacle using magic, but at a steep cost and to add sub quests.

Rituals are broadly defined by effect. To cast down a foe, to find what is lost, to learn a true name, to learn a secret of an enemy.

Books and scrolls found in old and lost places may contain ritual instruction though wizards and the like may discover a ritual by spending as many days (or hours, if the effect is duplicative of a spell known and trivial to the caster) in contemplation.

Ritual foci are required for ritual's not confected by magic user contemplation, and then are still strongly desirable as they guarantee success. Foci tend to be macguffins, and confected rituals have pseudo foci kludged from pledges, the casters will and body.

There are three poles to consider.

1. Relative ease. The caster posits an outcome or desire. The GM considers the obstacles to obtaining the outcome naturally. Compare this difficulty to the magnitude of die sizes here and eyeball the die size. If mimicking an existing spell, use the spell's level to determine the size (sl6 is a d100,  a cantrip is d4, if greater than an sl6, add 55/additional spell level to the d100).

Divide the max die value by 2, rounding down.  This is the ritual's inertia (effectively, hp).

2. Similarity to spells. A caster with knowledge of spells or any spell - like ability may have advantage on all rolls. Dragonborn of a blue chroma may have advantage when calling thunder, aboleth and illithid and squids all gain advantage on ink, obscuring, psychic effects, etc.

3. Time and Power. Takes a day for its relative power (a d100 ritual takes seven days, a d4 one). To speed things up, add another half die to the inertia or another 2 pledges (reduces time by one step or d20 hours).

Resolution. Rituals are resolved narratively. Non casters can pledge blood (reduced to 1 ho for a day), treasure (1,000 gp, must be in jewel or statue or unworkable ore. All ancient or long lost. Hideous obelisk of Leng, reliance of the stars, etc. Coins stamped in infernal or lost mints also work), promises (enforcement of which the GM will extract in force at the worst/best time. Usually involves infernal or terrible agents.) Or  spell slots (all for the day) or an uncommon magic item (consumed or destroyed or exhausted, rarer items.counting as more pledges, but similarly depleted regardless if all pledges are necessary). 

The GM establishes the steps before casting, each step requires a contribution of the above and reduces the inertia by a die roll. Casters may also pledge as above. Pledges may be made in addition to the steps. At each step/pledge, roll a die and reduce the inertia by that much.

Steps may be opening portals or creating a jackdaw of rubbish and paper and bird bones or whispering into a bole in a frozen tree. There are as many steps as the GM wishes, usually as many as characters in the party less d4 (the point is to make things interesting). What constitutes a step is up to the GM, and the GM may, probably will, solicit suggestions from anyone casting or pledging.

Additional pledges can be made, and must be made if the ritual's inertia isn't overcome at the end of all the steps and after all the pledges are rolled or else the ritual fails.

Using a foci guarantees success in most cases though defeating inertia with rolls likely means you can keep the foci for reuse (like a catalyst).

Knowledge and Problem Solving (Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User) Ramble

meat fighter badass solves problems by looking tough, being tough and having a badass follower that looks like a hyena

In my head there is this Platonic ideal D&D wherein players control characters and the characters all go off and explore and have adventures in strange and dangerous places. There are obstacles and players use resources (what's on the character sheet) and skill (cleverness, co-ordination, knowledge of the game, etc) to overcome the obstacles. It is fun in the way that games that are about resolving challenges and exploration are fun. 

Character knowledge is one of those fun black boxes whereby player and referee get to peel back the protective flaps covering the games auditory pits and gently whisper questions into the game or at one another and then get something weird and interesting back. This character was a mucker of Nuln before donning the wizarding tunic they now wear. What might a mucker know about a particular sort of mud? The arid plains of Nuln are known for their mushrooms and nuts, does that mean the mucker knows a bit about what's good to eat in this forest?

The OD&D classes represent radically different approaches to character knowledge and problem solving. (this post here at 9 and 30 kingdoms is related to this)

Clerics, like Fighters, solve problems in a similar sort of sphere, both types of problems being of a decidedly fleshy nature. Magic-Users can, theoretically solve any type of problem at all but they can only solve so many in "an adventure" (which I take to mean in a single session, but later D&D refines to once-a-game-day-so-long-as-you're-getting-in-a-good-rest) and they have to figure out how to solve that problem in their weird wizardy way or they have to steal that knowledge from someone else.

Fighters exist as meat. Their plans are meaty, their actions take place in the usual meat space. They get ignored a lot when people talk about classes and games because they are generally so unproblematic/understandable. "Can my Fighter do this?" can nearly always be resolved with, "if you had the stats your Fighter has, do you think you could do it?"

Clerics are hopeful meat. They hope their god(s) pay attention and help out. It is generally a fun rule to treat the Cleric's spell list as mostly a description of the outer boundaries of what the god(s) are interested in doing for the Cleric this session. The Cleric prays over some of the Fighter's mangled meat body and hopes that things turn out well. Maybe the god is a Troll and the ruined limb heals itself over the next few minutes; maybe the god is an Ent and the replacement parts are some kind of muscle-wood hybrid because Ents don't totally "get" human parts; maybe the Cleric spent last night getting drunk (you know, carousing tables) and the Cleric's judgey white male god decides that while the Fighter is healed, the Fighter's wound is passive-aggressively transposed to the Cleric.

A Cleric doesn't necessarily know anything new or special about the game world unless it's revealed to them. It's like they have these giant monsters riding on their backs. The monsters help them sometimes and sometimes they don't and they impose rules on when they help and the general idea is that really, the real stuff is going on at monster-view level and the monsters are calling the shots and you're just a really advanced horse. 

The life of a Cleric is someone's nightmare about religion.

Magic-Users, on the other hand, know special stuff. Maybe what they know is monster-view stuff which is why it's always so non-linear and knowing it is a vertiginous experience and why Clerics and Magic-Users aren't supposed to get along. Rote Vance (and pretty much rote D&D) is super boring here in practice, but the fundamental theory is interesting. Magic-Users traditionally get their magic by (a) being a little magical themselves and (b) cramming magical, weird, non-linear magic (which might be a monster or something like an invisible monster, maybe made out of dark matter, maybe an angel or aether a la John Dee) into what is probably some special lobe of the brain. (b) nearly always involves reading and being able to cast a spell is usually stated as knowing the spell (and/or having it memorized with the distinction being: can you cast this spell at all [know]? versus can you cast this spell now? [memorized]) and, since the start of the hobby, Intelligence is the core stat for the Magic-User (in OD&D INT also influences how many languages a character may know and in Greyhawk, even the number of spells they may know). All of which is to say that Magic-Users are and always have been about having that certain special information that turns what was an obstacle into an obstacle no longer. (Note also that Clerics in Greyhawk don't get extra spells for high INT as, Gygax notes, clerical magic is "given).

The whole spell-hunt meta game for Magic-Users is similarly about seeking out the knowledge you might want in the future to solve some other kind of problem.

This is kind of related to other posts (esp stuff on Magic-Users and Clerics and Deities) but mostly to stuff I'm working on.

attribution: Pieter Hugo

Dark Souls D&D Guide (part 2? version 2?)

two former heroes of the continent who may train the party 

For Dark Souls D&D, as linked here. This goes into greater detail than the original post. Everything in the loot section subject to change.

CLASSES

Are Fighter, Cleric and Magic-User to start. You unlock your Class by finding, picking up and equipping an item imbued with the spirit and memories of a (fallen?) person of that Class (or are they your own memories?). Sample list of Class items here for the curious. In play, the list will be different.

Other Classes (see below list) may be taught by a hero still living somewhere on the lost continent. With the exception of Thieves, you'll need to both ask around and also seek out a rare and powerful class item once belonging to the hero-trainer. These rare items are likely locked away in deep and terrible places and/or wielded by the twisted former disciples of the trainer. Heroes are usually elves and their items usually of elvish masterwork.

The one exception to the above are Thieves. "Heroic" thieves are more plentiful than most of the other trainers and determination and inquisitiveness are likely enough to discover their location (no rare item necessary!). They will, however, want some kind of remuneration for their services.

Classes and Subclasses:

Thief (trained by _____________ or _______________ or ______________ or ______________) (locked)

Paladin (trained by _________ or _____________) (locked)

Assassin (trained by ______________) (locked)

Archer (trained by _________) (locked)

Witch (trained by _________ and _____________ or ____________ or _____________) (locked)

Journeymen-Exorcist (trained by ________________) (locked)

Necromancer (trained by ________________) (locked)

Some classes or trainers are likely mutually exclusive. If you choose to learn from one you'll likely make an enemy of the other (they may even treat you as "kill on sight").

"RACES" & HUMANITY

Are Human, Elf or "Halfling" to start. Elves are slimmer and shorter than humans with a slight point to the ear, and almond-shaped eyes. They are natives to the continent. "Halflings" are the poorest and least cared for humans among human society, treated as a caste apart, and many find their way to the lost continent. They show minor signs of in-breeding and major signs of early childhood malnutrition and a rough life. Most have few teeth.

As described earlier, CON is replaced by HUMANITY.

If, at any time, you have 13+ HUM, you may take a single racial ability from your race (roll to determine which). The ability is usable 1/session, until you've less than 13 HUM. If you've less than 13 HUM, the curse overwhelms your intrinsic nature and you've the Hollow Racial Ability.

Elves (d10) 1-3: Can read all alignment languages, 4-6: Split-move on foot, 7-8: Move Silently in Forests and Meadows (on a 14+), 9-10: Ignore the effects of a charm

Halflings (d10) 1-4: Hide in Shadows (a 14+), 5-6: +1 to a Surprise roll, 7-8: +1 to Attacks and Damage with ranged weapons, 9-10: Backstab from hiding (+2 attacks, Large Damage)

Hollow You need not food, drink or sleep.

Human (d10) 1-4: Re-roll a failed Save that would result in a loss of HUM (a successful Save affects only the loss of HUM, not other outcomes), 5-6: Roll for treasure as if one level higher, 7-8: May have +1 Henchmen, 9-10: Re-roll a failed Save v Death or Poison that would have killed you

There are three races of legend living out the remaining years of their now-cursed existence somewhere on the continent. Find, aid and thereby befriend them in order to play characters or recruit henchmen from their people. As with Class Trainers, befriending Children of one God will likely alienate you from others.

Child of Othin (Lightning Genasi?) abilities to be discovered (locked)

Child of the Coven (Chaos-Warped) abilities to be discovered (locked)

Child of the Abyss (Tiefling and/or Revenant) abilities to be discovered (locked)

There are at two other peoples living in secret of which you know nothing.

HENCHMEN

May be hired at level 2 should you be able to find one resting near a campfire and convince them to journey with you. They need not be paid, and take and earn half the XP the "controlling" character earns. Unless otherwise modified by the rules, no character may have more than one Henchmen. Beware too of the Henchmen who grows despondent, their face sallow and sagging, their eyes mistrustful, for Henchmen too may turn fully Hollow (you'll not know their starting or current HUM) and attack the group.

CAMPFIRES

are kindled by one of the Ash Maidens, tongueless priestess to an unknown deity, associated with the Sun (but not the missing Sun God Apollo). Resting by these fires heals as a full rest (re-roll HP using current HD and keep the larger number). By praying in front of the bonfire until you sleep you may wake up the next day at a different bonfire kindled by the same Ash Maiden so long as you've been there before. 

Incidentally, Flailsnails groups will likely start at whichever bonfire they have unlocked and then choosen at the start of a session..

praise be her name, Ixiander the New Dragon, First Witch

OTHER RESOURCES FOR PLAY

Flailsnails

At this point, I'd like people to start at 0-levels. Once more content is unlocked, higher-level characters will be welcome. I don't think this setting works if you introduce high levels for an early smash 'n grab (plus, I frankly feel myself a little underqualified to start running this at higher levels).

Monster stat blocks

You've no reason to want or need this know if you're interested in playing, but this is how I've been writing stat blocks and plan on running things. This is what that OD&D spreadsheet turns into after I adapt stuff for a setting/game. That said, this block gets referenced a few times below.

Hollow

(Guarding, Armed) or (Crazed) or (Non-Aggressive) Less Intelligent Humanoid

AC 9, 1-6 HP, Saves 17, Slowest, always attacks last; Guarding Hollow: hatchets, every 3^rd has a short sword or shield and every forth a bow with d4 arrows (every twelfth has a sword and bow, no shield); Loot 2, (Crazed 3, Guarding 4); unlike other monsters Hollow do not normally see in the dark

(Guarding) enemies patrol an area or stand watch, look for enemies, will chase and try to find fleeing opponents and usually get a bonus to Morale and are more likely to be aggressive after a reaction roll

(Crazed) enemies do not flee or break and may be very aggressive, not discriminating between friend and foe, similar to Berserkers (unless you get a friendly on the reaction roll, treat as aggressive)

(Non-Aggressive) do not attack and may not defend themselves (2 in 6 chance of the latter).

LOOT, TREASURE

XP, CURRENCY & TREASURE

There are a handful (less than five?) Hollow that collect trinkets, arms, armors, herbs, magic items and the like and will sell them. Once you discover them, you'll need to discover what they want in exchange. Ask around to discover their location.

Other cursed but-not-yet-Hollow non-player characters may have a choice item or two which they'd be willing to barter away.

Coin is worthless here.

XP is awarded by # HD of defeated creature and the relative value of an item (weapons and armor of good quality are valuable).

LOOT

The lack of a widely used currency complicates treasure tables. Furthermore, everything has fallen into disrepair and chests and the like are quite uncommon. Those that survive stash their treasure in secret places and watch their stores like spiders in a web.

NPCs and rooms or locations within room will have a Loot Value (LV). (see the Hollow stat block above)

Turning out a room or spot in a room or a corpse to look for loot takes a turn. Roll d10 and add your level. If you exceed the LV all you find is junk (which is still a thing and the GM will roll on that table for you) and on any subsequent searches in the same place you'll only ever find nothing or something useful. On each roll after the first, you also add 1. If your roll results in the LV or less than the LV, you get the corresponding loot from the loot table.

Looting corpses is functionally the same but the GM will add the characters HD to the roll rather than you adding your level.

Calculating Loot Value. 

For a corpse, LV=HD+1+#Specials (by the way, this is just the early Strategic Review, pre-Greyhawk method of calculating XP +100 and then /100).

For a Dungeon, LV =level of Dungeon +3

For treasure rooms in a Dungeon or Lairs, LV = level of Dungeon or Lair (Lairs are level 1 Dungeons if not otherwise determined by GM)+LV of "boss" to whom the treasure belongs.

(EX. See the Hollow Stat block above. Non-Aggressive Hollow have a LV of 2, Crazed Hollow have a LV of 3 and Guarding, Armed Hollow have a LV of 4. If a 2 HD "boss" Guarding, Armed Hollow (therefore, LV 5) were to have a treasure room on level 1 of a dungeon, that room's LV would be 9.)

WHY?

I want to dramatically re-orient the way looting works. The survival horror conventions of scarcity and limited inventory space control here. This thematic consideration, the lack of a merchant class in a largely depopulated area and the devaluation of all currency, makes some kind of alternative to GP necessary.

Also, I generally dislike reducing XP based on relative character and dungeon/creature level as per page 18 of Men & Magic as the higher level character already needs more XP to gain levels than the lower level character.  

Instead, where needing something useful can be a more operative concern, the LV system means to funnel higher level characters towards higher level locations and monsters as it is only there where they will find things useful to them (ie, in lower-level content, the likelihood of getting "junk" is much greater for the higher level character).

Also at play is the idea that looting a dungeon properly in many older D&D games is more a study in figuring out how to get the most cookies out of the cookie jar you can without getting your hand stuck and this mechanic is meant to re-inforce that (as you spend more time looking for loot, you risk wandering encounters and getting both better loot or nothing at all).

and along the far cliffs, a place of power and worship

attributions: Vania Zouravliov x3, _____ (help!), Anthony Scott Waters

Gnosis, Logos and Esoterica (Magic Users, "Mage Guilds" in Older D&D)

I've never been much of a fan of the default setting for OD&D. This is about what society looks like when the putative OD&D Magic-Users are separated from their generative cultural context. 

JUST SAY NO TO UNCLE GARY, WIZARD BRAINS, DUNGEON-SONG

This has my take on the mechanics of older D&D Magic-Users sans the influence of Gandalf/Tolkien. YMMV. Freed of being book-bound Merlins-in-training, Magic-Users live in self-sufficient communes, live as naturalists, religious hermits or wandering hawkers of strange artifacts, live as academics, researchers, artists, politicians, lunatics and brothers and sisters of religious orders. They are competent melee combatants, certainly not as dangerous as a Fighter but certainly more dangerous in a melee than the local 0-levels in the Town Watch. They can farm or manage farms, they can hunt, trap, tend gardens, teach, run an estate, advise the local ruler, rule.

For all this normalcy, there are plenty of stories of Magic-Users who simply dissapear, or bury themselves alive, or turn themselves to brain-dead crystal sculptures. Short of adventuring, casting mishaps and other occupational hazards, suicide by transmutation is the likliest end facing a Magic-User; many choose to leave behind their old life, body, memories and intelligence and live isntead as a mate or companion to their once-Familiar. The local villagers or townsfolk can no doubt point you to two crows, cats, robins, iguana or the like, one much more intelligent than the other, the Familiar having retained some uncanny cleverness.

Magic-User's minds are Dungeon-haunted and each new spell memorized crinkles and folds the Magic-User's brain. The more complex a spell, the more brain damage caused by its memorization; the Magic-User forgets the face of a parent, a childhood song, the name of a friend, has difficult walking, develops palsies, cannot speak without a slur, has a useless eye. Eventually, the Magic-User's cerebral cortex is swiss cheese, precisely plotting a three-dimensional map of the Dungeon whose song first touched the Magic-User's mind and opened it to chaos. 

Treasure hunters will pay enormous sums for information leading to the capture of the brain of a powerful Magic-User. They will pay even more for the brain itself

Dungeons are also virulent, so messing about with a Magic-User's brain can leave you Dungeon-touched yourself, longing for more and more ruined brains, a brain addict's desires becoming so particular and attenuated that only snorting a powdered Mummy or Demi-Lich brain will ease the compulsion. 

For some, exposure to wizard brains has made them Magic-Users in their own right; the worst brain addicts are all Magic-Users. A Magic-User that consumes the brain of another Magic-User immediately knows 1-3 spells that dead Magic-User had memorized.

Most Magic-User choose to live communally, among others of their kind who can monitor them for signs of decline, many dedicate their lives to protecting the works of the Children of the Sun, and to stamping out and uprooting Dungeons wherever they take root while others give themselves over entirely to obsessions and compulsions, chief among them the creation of their magnum opus, their spellbook. Really, a Magic-User will throw herself into anything that can distract her from the pull of Dungeon-Song that seems ever-present, waiting in the back of her mind like a fluttering corner of slowly peeling wallpaper.  

Communities of Magic-Users tend to all be touched by the same Dungeon-song and accordingly have similar interests.

Fear the Magic-User that whispers nonsense into sewer grates, the Magic-User who longs for nothing more than to put their ear to the dirt and bury their head, the Magic-User who disappears at odd hours with digging implements or who spends too much time with the Dungeon-born peoples.

BOOKS FOR THOSE LITERATE IN LANGUAGES WRITTEN IN TWENTY-SIX DIMENSIONS

Magic-Users "write" their "spellbooks" as variations of the same Dungeon-Song that first opened their mind to chaos. These are almost never words and formula in books and are sometimes called compositions, collages, zoos, assemblages, sculptures, gardens, poems, songs, menageries, collections or chapters. They may take any number of forms, may be entirely olfactory, may be written in a spectrum of light invisible to the human eye, or rely entirely on the use of some other stranger sense organ. These pieces take a lifetime or longer to complete, with many ancient Magic-Users collapsing at the foot of the spellbook they've spent decades to craft. A lich is often just a Magic-User whose devotion to their art has become so monomonaical that they cannot let it go, Magic-Users for whom their art can never be complete.

Spells are often collected, modified or invented not for their own sake but for the ultimate aesthetic they may help to affect in a Magic-User's spellbook and there are a multitude of examples of Magic-Users or communities of Magic-Users who have dedicated centuries to finding the perfect expression of a single spell of even the first complexity. These vanity spells are often (much, much) more complex and more intricate than they need be and their collection and use is often not profitable for a wandering Magic-User.

The Spell-Garden of the Uttermost Resplendent Magi of the Order of the Infinite Tusk, containing the spells Charm Person, Sleep, Wizard Lock, ESP, Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Confusion, Dimension Door, Wall of Fire, Wizard Eye, Cloudkill, Telekinesis, Pass-Wall, Contact Higher Plane, Hold Monster and Move Earth

LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS

Throughout the map, in cities, in towns, underneath cities & towns, in wizard's towers, caves and in remote hunting lodges or country estates are like-minded Magic-Users who study the blank spaces between hieroglyphic scripts, the worm-chewed holes in ancient historiographical tapestries, the infinite coils of mandala and the liminal void between each photon with lenses ground on demon hooves (barring that, a Tiefling hoof will do just fine). 

There is a hermit-wizard on X_____ Mountain who studies giant bees, lives in their hive, carries on an amorous relationship with their queen, sells rich, dark honey by the gallon in town. His treaties on giant insects are highly prized by natural scientist, though the pages often stick together.

There are three Magic-Users who run with the elk of the B_____ Forest. You can see them some nights in the distance, standing naked and backlit against the sky or moon, their antlers enormous, strangely gesticulating hands, softly rubbing velvety fingers in invocation of the primal spirit they are certain resides within each of their own chests. 

There is a small school in the town of G_______ where they keep the secrets of all portals and doors, including the first and last door.

Similar associations, institutions, gatherings and organizations populate and penetrate the landscape. Most are small, have no more than ten members, and are organized around a single, esoteric precept or highly idiosyncratic ideal followed to obsessive excess (becoming elk, speaking the language of grasses, growing pinecones from one's arms). The Society of the Limned Eye, the Sisterhood of Brother Thorn, the Schola Magma, the Cult of the Purple Tongue, the Miskatonic College of Tentacularium (complete with underwater carillon) .

S,M,V COMPONENTS

Wizarding organizations tend to know, practice, teach and perhaps even make available to a paying outsider a certain number of spells. They'll probably teach you any of their spells if you are willing to pay and show enough enthusiasm for their particular brand of magic (carousing tables!), but of those spells, only a certain number will be practical for adventuring purposes. Any spell taught in this manner will have a random component requirement. 

Smaller organizations usually only know about 1-2 spells from each of the first five complexities that are sufficiently portable and performable to be of worth to the adventuring Magic-User. They might know a ritual of sixth complexity (4 in 6 chance).

Larger Institutions can know as many as 4 portable spells from each of the first five complexities and will know as many as two rituals of the sixth.

roll	required component
1	must be shouted at top volume
2	requires dance (spend all casting time dancing)
3	requires the recitation of an aporia
4	must be sung (spend all casting time singing)
5	requires something to be broken during casting
6	requires expensive ingredients (10gp x complexity of spell), which are left burnt, twisted, tarnished, foul smelling and the sight of which will ever after cause inexplicable nausea
7	requires total darkness or daylight or moonlight
8	verbal component must instead be written
9	must be cast with eyes shut, makes aiming problematic
10	must be cast while causing damage (can be very minor) to one's own body
11	requires two of the above (re-roll twice)
12	requires participation from one other (roll once to determine requirement)

pictures:  Thomas Ott, unknown, Kris Kuksi

Fighter, Rogue, Magic User, Cleric

This is one of those things you post so that you can reference it later. Classes.

 FIGHTER

Pit fighters, soldiers, thugs, paladins, protagonists, warlords, leaders, champions.

Hit Points 6 hp at level one, +HD every subsequent level

Health Die(HD) d8 

Attack Die(AD) d8

Chance to Hit: +1 at levels 1,3,4,5,7,8,9,10
Starting Gear: Medium Armor, Three Weapons (Ranged and/or Melee) or Two Weapons (Ranged and/or Melee) and a Shield, Adventuring Gear, a little money.

Class Features

*Can use any weapon and armor without penalty.
*Knows how to make d3 things.
*Chance to Critically Hit increases by 1 at levels 3, 6 and 9
*When attacking, can do something spectacular after successfully hitting a target at the cost of rolling damage two AD smaller. Discuss this with your GM.
*You are harder to stun, knock unconscious, trip, disarm or overpower

 (pictures: can't determine attribution for the first, second is Prince Albert c1890)

ROGUE

Sneak thiefs, assassins, bon vivants, swashbucklers, ninjas, burglars, tricksters, magicians, experts and scouts.

Starting Health 5 hp at level one, +HD every subsequent level

Health Die(HD) d6 

Attack Die(AD) d6

Chance to Hit: +1 at levels 2,4,6,8,
Starting Gear: Light Armor, Two Weapons (Ranged and/or Melee), Adventuring Gear, a Rogue's Toolkit, a little money.

Class Features

*Can use any weapon and armor; wearing anything heavier than light armor, and not having both hands free makes Rogue Skills more difficult.
*Knows how to make d3+1 things.
*Can automatically critically hit an enemy when undetected
*Rogue Skills can be used once in a specific situation with a 2 in 6 chance of success; chance of success for all currently known Skills increases by 1 in 6 at levels 3, 6 and 10.
                          -At Level 1: Rogues can Know Secrets and two of the Optional Skills (Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Pick Pockets, Climb Sheer Surfaces, Hear Noises)
                          -At Level 2: Rogues gain facility in two more of the Optional Skills
                          -At Level 4: Rogues gain facility in the remaining Optional Skills and can use Know Secrets to Read Magic
                          -At Level 7: Rogues can use Know Secrets to operate Magical Devices without penalty

(pictures: Julian Callos, can't find attribution for second)

MAGIC USER

Wizard, punk priest, chaos catholic, mage, spell spitter, hexagrammarian,mathematician, occultist, lunatic.

Starting Health 4 hp at level one, +HD every subsequent level

Health Die(HD) d6 

Attack Die(AD) d6

Chance to Hit: +1 at levels 2,4,6,8

Starting Gear: Light Armor, One Weapon (Ranged and/or Melee), Adventuring Gear, a little money, whatever the Magic-User uses as a spell book.
Class Features

*Can use any weapon and armor; not having both hands free may make spell casting difficult
*Knows how to make d2 things.
*Can use magical devices without penalty.
*Can Cast Magic-User Spells of increasing complexity

(pictures: Denis Forkas, Korehiko Hino can't find attribution for second (help me out here, if you can))

CLERIC

Initiate, cultist, priest, templar, hermit, magi, seer, saint, fiend, transcendentalist, celestial.

Starting Health 5 hp at level one, +HD every subsequent level

Health Die(HD) d6 

Attack Die(AD) d6

Chance to Hit: +1 at levels 2,4,6,8

Starting Gear: Light Armor, Two Weapons (Ranged and/or Melee), Adventuring Gear, a little money, several holy implements.
Class Features

*Can use any weapon and armor without penalty.
*Knows how to make d2 things.
*Can use magical devices without penalty so long as the device only replicates spells from the Cleric's Spell list
*Gains Cleric Spontaneous Miracles
                          -At Level 3: Choose a single Cleric Spell of the first complexity. 1/day, the Cleric may take a specific action and have this spell occur as a result of that action. Choose the triggering action (should make some sense - Cure Minor Wounds affected by touching the wound, Purify Food and Water by dipping one's hand in the Water or rubbing rot and impurities away from ruined food or squeezing out the poison, etc). Choice of action and spell is permanent.
                          -At Level 6: Choose a single Cleric Spell of the first or second complexity. 1/day, the Cleric may take a specific action and have this spell occur as a result of that action. Choose the triggering action as described above. Choice of action and spell is permanent.
                          -At Level 9: Choose a single Cleric Spell of the first, second or third complexity. 1/day, the Cleric may take a specific action and have this spell occur as a result of that action. Choose the triggering action as described above. Choice of action and spell is permanent.

*Can Cast Cleric spells of increasing complexity

(pictures: Adrian Borda, Jake Badley can't find attribution for second (help me out here on this one too, if you can)) (much thanks to +Scott Martin for pointing me to two of the missing attributions)

Other Frontiers (Dungeons, Megadungeons and Monsters)

Dungeons and monsters are virulent and metastasizing. The below is from this conversation, which was spurred by this and this.

STAY VIGILANT, LOOK FOR THE EYES OF DWARVES

Abandoned buildings left unused for too long grow grow weedy, dusty, strange. The angles twist and the geometry buckles under the barometric pressure of anti-life. Among the dust and cobwebs, traps blossom. A brood of goblins rise out of the earth and shake clods of birth matter from their heads. Exotic, threatening beasts settle down and nest; below these lairs, trap doors lead to newly-formed but entirely ancient and archetypal stairs, dank tunnels with torch brackets that never held a torch. 

Sewers have to be regularly patrolled, newly-budded secret doors smashed and burned. Behind these doors may be shimmering teleporter mist, writhing, glistening gristle or simply mundane wall. The door is destroyed, what lays behind sealed away under rocks and incantations.

Dwarves have a sense for these things, when ancient edifice or natural cave is about to "turn," dwarves appear, clear the dungeon (or die trying), pull up the root and leave Delver's Eyes to mark where they've been. The lashes and pupil of a Delver's Eye indicate certain facts like, "No dungeon here in two years," or, "Goblin nest burned last winter solstice," or "this dungeon cleared by the Bronze Fork." If you know dwarven runes or if you can cast read languages, this is all apparent to you. Dwarves will teach the Eye to others that commit themselves to the cause of dungeon eradication.

Dwarf clans left too long alone in dark become fanatical Duergar, monomaniacal dungeon-clearers. Dwarves live a long time, but Duergar are seemingly immortal, though they grow increasingly old, decrepit and insane. Duergar may watch a dungeon "grow" or even "clear out" settlements to make room for a suitably large dungeon, just so they have something to do or because they believe only the "big ones" are suitable for their own capacities. Know them by their cruelty and their madness.

Some few dwarves may instead fall prey to the whispering of a dungeon far below, slowly becoming Derro. They may befriend the children of the dungeon, or they may keep to their own. Derro colonies often devote themselves to deep dungeon biological studies, creating machines of strange and enormous power, machines that run on the nightmares of an entire city and must be placed deep in the city's sewers or which must be fed all the works of an entire civilization to create an army of firmir-golems, all of whom are haunted by memories of the art they once were. Most of the Derro's creations are incredibly powerful and often quite beautiful. While the Duergar eschews the devotion to craftsmanship common to many dwarves, the Derro are possessed of finely refined aesthetic sensibilities. Know them by their black, paper-thin skin and enormous eye. 

When travelling through an abandoned place and you do not see the eyes of the dwarves or explorers that went before, beware or turn back. 

Maps sold to travelers are concerned less with relative distance than keeping accurate records of which Delver's Eyes the plot safest passage. Explorers will find their own maps valuable, especially if the maps provide relative safe passage to something useful or valuable.

DUNGEON PHYSIOLOGY

THE DAYLIGHT PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE OF THE SUN, THEM THAT SLEEP ABOVE US

This could be just humans, or whatever. Humans, like, work really well, because:

The impulse of the human being en masse is basically: multiply, civilize, colonize, dominate, cultivate, as if the impulse to expand, build and civilize is a design feature. As if human beings are something's solution to dungeons and monsters because: dungeons and monsters are virulent and metastasizing but they can't really grow in the presence of a human. 

THE PEOPLE OF THE SUN ARE TOXINS IN OUR BLOODSTREAM

The presence of a single Daylight Person causes dungeon growth to slow to a crawl if not stop completely. The dungeon is sluggish, confused when humans wander through it and it begins to wake monsters, set traps, and otherwise expel its guts to purge and frighten away the intruder (like a sea cucumber).

OTHER PEOPLE

Dungeon entrances serve as cloaca, both mouth and anus. Dungeons swallow adventurers and belch out orcs. They fart great clouds of goblins and excrete gnolls, ogres, giants and titans. Plenty of dungeons hide their true cloaca by budding off lures, like angler fish casting in the deep (Acererack's tomb has two lures, even).

What's the relationship between these people and the dungeon? It's not clear. They're a bit like an antigen, and they're a bit like a spore. Other People long-since separated from a dungeon will talk about other worlds and other places. Maybe they hail from subterranean civilizations lit by strange suns, maybe other planes, other planets. These New People that can remember their places of origin miss them keenly and are often morose. Few are capable of reproducing, even fewer are interested in reproduction. 

All are highly susceptible to the ambient environment. Orcs left too long in swamps grow moss, ooze poisons, goblins left in plague zones strain against a load of ominous buboes.Giants left in caverns deep are half dirt and half rock. Driven by a mostly stupid, half-god will, crawling, digging slowly through the deep like enormous worms. Their bodies serves as sieves, collecting ants, worms, centipedes and every other thing of the earth and passing it through its dirt until it emerges different, larger, vicious, mandibles dripping venom.

Giants sleeping atop mountains grow trees, put down mineral roots to lure miners, explode in volcanic fury or else elongate and dissipate into the ozone to flood crops and carrying swarms of strange, dancing insects whose touch causes outrageous violence.

Most giants with physical form are partly hollow, gestating dungeons, growing to accommodate the inner structure within.

A titan is a being of cosmological existence, is essentially a megadungon stretched between multiple planes of existence. Most sleep and grow and never wake; they are congenitally unable to survive waking existence very long as they are simply too large and impossible, their constituent, generative magics unable to sustain them upright for very long.

As a waking titan rises from the ground it shakes towns off its forehead and sweeps a city from its belly button. Most collapse at birth, moaning, crumbling, shedding wizard's towers and evil cleric's keeps, flinging dungeon seed hundreds of miles away in their death throes. A few make it to the standing position, their head and shoulders fully piercing the membrane separating space and planet, their head spewing dungeon seed far into the beyond and perhaps becoming a doorway for other, stranger people.

Other planes burble and pop in a titan's guts; their brains are a massive clutch of ab-reality (beware the places where wizard's tower gather in unnaturally close proximity for they likely plumb and quarry a titan's mind below) and they shed monsters constantly, like dead skin cells.

The Other People hear dungeons; they close their eyes and feel the thrum of the dungeon's blood. Its heartbeat is tremendous, throbbing under their skulls like a final migraine. An Other Person kicked into the depths of a dungeon will tumble, jamming hands to ears to stem the growing throb, becoming orc, gnoll, troll, ogre, giant even as brain and blood vacate their skulls and their bodies return to the dungeon's original matter: hatred, madness, cave mud and worms.

At nights, around fires, the Other People sing the songs of the dungeon, it's first incarnation (was not-stream bed), it's growth (oh cube, jelly belly), it's first kills (farmer-digs-too-deep), its mazes, its traps, its first lich. They sing of their new selves: atavism, cannibalism, an occult tumult into chaos, madness, the antidote to creation. 

Sometimes a new-born dungeon simply comes into being complete with traps and monsters. In these first moments of their new life, before the dungeon's song has truly taken hold, Orcs draw blasters and peer in confusion into the dark, all are confused, in pain, frustrated, frightened or else enrage. And then the dungeon's life becomes their own and they blink, and set about digging latrines. 

The archives of a lich-explorer contain reports of watching a dungeon-becoming, the sandy floor fusing into stone, the beholders unfurling from a few rotting pillbug corpses to swivel eyestalks in panic, the pit fiend bellowing far below.

The larger the creature, the harder it is to shed the dungeon's hold. Goblins independent of a dungeon are civilized in months. In generations, they no longer hear a dungeon. Orcs take longer. Ogres are never properly, fully civilized; their minds unable to totally adjust. Giants and titans are carry dungeons within themselves or are dungeons, never "away" from a dungeon.

THE CLEARED DUNGEON

Has to be civilized (turned into a hideout for characters, converted to a mine, used as a storage cellar for a keep) or systematically pulled down. Some municipalities, those far from the frontiers, retain sappers for the purpose, but most frontier settlements need help keeping the dungeon clear. Every room must be explored, cleared of treasure, traps and monsters, every secret door unlocked or else the dungeon will slowly reconstitute itself, perhaps where it was, or perhaps somewhere else. It will likely return meaner, with foreknowledge of the characters and their methods.

THE LOST AND THE DREAMING

Dungeons dream in forgotten places and long to be born. In the liminality of the taking form, the dungeon's dreams and fantasies blow like a hot breath from its hiding place and cause confusion and nightmares. Where abandoned sewer lines and city intermingle, usually in the poorest places, dungeon birth is foretold when the poor suffer from madness & mutation, plot riots and insurrection.

Dungeons also appear in uncivilized minds, in items of power too-long unused. Wizards have dungeon-bent minds, cultists, punk priests, chaos Catholics all find themselves compelled to live by nascent dungeons, total capitulation to the dungeon and it's reigning deities. Wizards summoning monsters are essentially just wizards peeling back the difference between this place and the cloaca that first ripped open their minds.

THE MEGADUNGEON, OTHER PLACES, OTHER HELLS

Effectively, every dungeon is somehow connected to every other dungeon by a network of ideas, deities and tunnels. Some dungeons are too small to grow fully navigable tunnels to other dungeons and transport between them requires acts of veneration and sacrifice to the governing malignant deities. Dungeons are also connected by certain conceits, the dream-contents of the dungeon made coherent: the sulfurous dungeon of precarious rock dancing in churning magma is connected by dream-song to the volcano dungeon which is likely connected to the hotter hells. 

The more potent and dungeon-minded traveler simply need to close their eyes and fill their minds with the entire song/spell/dream of a dungeon. The more broken and dungeon-bent the mind is, the easier such travel becomes.

Older, deeper dungeons bud misdirection- sublevels or full on symbiotic relations with stranger planes, alien planets and other hells.

pictures: Dali from Spellbound, Blake, Zumart and Blake Again