stuntman's stuff

Watched the latest episode of CR (no spoilers, don’t worry) and remembered to finally put this thing down on paper, lest I forget again until the next time Sprinkle is in jeopardy. It still feels a little powerful for rare, but bumping it to very rare feels like a bit too far. Suggestions?

GM Binder: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MCRzPiVM4teR_Ck-rze Art by Nuria Keller: https://twitter.com/nuriakeller/status/1098486115663794176

GM Binder: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-Ln6tg_DetmwTRZ49GNY PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TJBtFde6dyRPQxhiNL7sqBktyBVS4p9j/view?usp=sharing

Well, finally got this thing in a state that feels okay to share. 13 character archetypes (and more if you count the different specialties of the Expert), along with a common item price list and animal references. Does anything seem unclear? Poorly designed? What’s something you’d like to see that isn’t there?

The classic snake-oil seller, this was definitely one of the more difficult archetypes to balance against. They have great utility in social situations and can quickly gain the party allies in a new town, but they will definitely need protection and aid when the bullets start flying. Still, I imagine there is a great deal of amazing roleplaying potential with the shenanigans the swindler might stumble into.

While not really a combat class, the gambler provides an alternative take on the classic wild west vagabond. With quick wit and a quick shot, this archetype works well both in a group and by themselves. However, without the serious damage potential of the other combat classes, extended firefights might not end in the gambler’s favor, so don’t bet the farm on your chances of taking out all the bad guys by yourself.

Our second wisdom-based class, the preacher is a staple of western fiction. Whether you opt to make them the gunslinging variety or just a simple holy priest, the main juice of this archetype is to provide support and aid to their teammates.

Like the detective, the trapper is somewhat in between the combative and non-combative archetypes. They sacrifice the focused damage potential of the sniper or the prizefighter, but instead gained specialized skills for tracking, hunting, and, of course, trapping. They can still opt to gain the additional attack to match the other combat classes with their firearms, but with the stealth bonuses from Part of the Brush, just the one shot might be enough.

Yes, the intelligence stat actually gets 3 archetypes, despite everyone else only getting two. I couldn’t find a way to fit both the expert and doctor into the same class, since they ended up doing completely different things, so I just made them each their own archetype. While an argument could be made for combing the detective and the expert into one class, I felt that they were so different from each other thematically that it would be a disservice to both if they shared a statblock. The expert represents much more the out of place academic in the story, the character who finds themselves in the middle of dangerous situations they’re completely unprepared for, but whose specialized knowledge ends up saving the day. And the option to learn a weapon proficiency is still always there for anyone who wants a touch of firepower to go with their brainpower.

Healer classes are tricky if you’re going for a non-magical or realistic setting. On one hand, yes, hit points don’t exactly represent your literal health, so just hand-waving any medical treatment as hit point recovery is a non-issue. On the other hand, most people still conceptualize the total sum of HP as a character’s actual health and wellness metric, so taking someone from the brink of death to fighting fit in the span of 30 seconds can definitely break the immersion of the narrative. I hope I hit a good balance here, where a doctor is still able to provide limited healing in the heat of battle, but is unable to perform outright miracles round after round.

As we move into the less combat-focused Wild West archetypes, you may find they have way more and better skills than their counterparts. This is intentional, as the idea is that I want to keep all the classes feeling somewhat balanced against each other. While a detective is never going to outperform a pistolier in a shootout, they offer much better options for tracking down the right guy to have a shootout with, or to avoid a shootout altogether.

Coming up with archetypes for the Constitution stat was surprisingly difficult, but for one of them I eventually settled on the idea of just a rugged frontier pioneer. Kind of between a combat class and a support class, the idea for this one is to tank damage and consistently provide help to other team members, either with damage of their own or with the Helping Hands ability.

Hopping back on the wagon! My image editing capabilities are pretty limited at the moment, but from here on out we’ve got the full statblock and advancement options for these Wild West archetypes.

Our third wild west archetype, the Pistolier. This is your quintessential gunslinger, the lonely wandering shootist without a name, always chasing bounties for a few dollars more. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out what this one’s dump stat would be, since in fiction they’re often portrayed as being pretty good at everything. Seeing as they’re often the heroes (or arch-villains) of the story, it’s not that surprising. In the end, however, I decided that running and gunning in the frontier territories really isn’t a very logical way to earn a living or keep breathing, so Intelligence it was. For folks like Mr. Paladin, I think another archetype might fit better, which we’ll touch on when we get there.

Our second archetype for my wild west take on 5th Evolution by Limitless Adventures! I’ve settled on doing two archetypes for each primary ability, and perhaps more if I can think of them. To be honest, I’m still trying to come up with a second one for Constitution, so if you have any ideas, do let me know!

Here’s a first look at something I’m working on, and expect to see more of them over the next few weeks. I have a soft spot for westerns and cowboys, so I’ve decided to make a set of my own character archetypes for a wild west/frontier themed game I hope to run someday. I’ve taken a big page out from Limitless Adventures and their 5th Evolution system, so definitely check their stuff out if this kinda thing interests you at all.

Starting things off, we have the humble Farmhand. I wanted to stay gender-neutral for all of the archetypes, and went back and forth between Farmhand and Ranchhand for quite a while before deciding that “farm” felt more versatile and broadly applied. Regardless, this is your classic cattle rustler and drifting laborer. While they may not be the quickest or the sharpest of the bunch, they get things done when things need doing, and in that old fashioned country style.

Here are some submission grappling maneuvers I came up with to fit D&D 5e’s combat mechanics. I think they’re powerful under the right circumstances, but not so powerful as to completely imbalance the game in their favor. Still, I felt like locking it behind two feats allows it to be introduced at an appropriate level for most player characters. Feel free to add it to your own games whenever you wish, of course, you do you!

Also included are three levels of NPCs that specialize in the mechanic, making them dangerous 1-on-1 duelists for players of the appropriate level, but a little underwhelming if they’re just by themselves against the whole party.

Art by Yang Tao, Ronald Segovia, and Seong-hun Cho