Saturday, November 18, 2017

Expanded Ability Scores for the Holmes Ref

EXPANDED ABILITY SCORES (OPTIONAL) 

For all characters:

Strength 
15 or more: +1 to hit, damage and open doors
7 to 14: no bonus
6 or less: -1 to hit, damage and open doors

From Gygax's OD&D House Rules, compiled here; also in line with the bonuses for NPCs mentioned in the Holmes Basic version of Keep in the Borderlands (e.g. the imprisoned Hero in the Caves of Chaos gets a +2 to hit and damage due to level and 18 strength). Also not far off from that used in Warlock, which Holmes used prior to editing the Basic rules. In Warlock Str 16+ gives a +1 to hit, and Str 13-17 gives +1 damage, 18 +2 damage.

Intelligence
11 or more: one extra language per point over 10
10 or less: no extra languages

From the rules as written

Wisdom
15 or more: +1 to saving throws versus mental attacks (charm, fear, illusion, hold, etc)
7 to 14: no bonus
6 or less: -1 to saving throws versus mental attacks (charm, fear, illusion, hold etc)

Extrapolated based on the otherwise unexplained Wisdom Adj on the 1977 OD&D character sheet and the later AD&D PHB. Uses the same range as Gygax's house rules, where 15+ gains a bonus.

Constitution
18: add 3 to each hit die
17: add 2 to each hit die
15 to 16: add 1 to each hit die
7 to 14: no bonus
6 or less: subtract one from each hit die but never less than 1

From the rules as written

Dexterity 
13 or more:  fire any missile at +1
9 to 12: no bonus
8 or less: fire any missile at -1

From the rules as written

Charisma
18: up to 12 followers, +4 reaction rolls
16 to 17: up to 7 followers, +2 reaction rolls
13 to 15: up to 5 followers, +1 reaction rolls
10 to 12: up to 5 followers
7 to 9: up to 3 followers
5-6: up to 2 followers, -1 reaction rolls
3-4: up to 1 follower, -2 reaction rolls

In the Holmes Basic rulebook, page 5, Holmes writes "A character of charisma below 13 can not hire more than 5 followers, and their loyalty will be luke-warm at best — that is, if the fighting gets hot there is a good probability they will run away. On the other hand, someone with a charisma of 18 can win over a large number of followers (men or monsters) who will probably stand by him to the death." 

This is a reference to the charisma table in OD&D Vol 1, page 11. There is a slight discrepancy as in the OD&D table a score of 10-12 gets 4 followers, not 5.

Things get a little complicated after this. The OD&D Charisma table also has bonuses for loyalty for the these followers, which modifies a loyalty score on page 13, which in turn modifies morale, which is not explained very clearly. Holmes didn't include the rules for loyalty scores or morale, perhaps due to their complexity. 

However, the text explaining the reaction table on page 12 of OD&D Vol 1, states that the roll is "adjust[ed] for charisma", which seems to indicate that the same charisma modifiers are also used with this table. Holmes included a reference to this in Basic on page 11, where the text explaining the reaction table there sasy "The DM should make adjustments if the party spokesman has high charisma or offers other special inducements". Hence for our expanded table here, I've converted the loyalty bonuses to reaction adjustments. Moldvay treated this similarly in his version of Basic.

7 comments:

  1. I like these rules, although I would add a plus 2 for 17-18 Strength and Dexterity.

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  2. Love it! Like Chris, i might give a +2 in Str and Dex for 17-18 but overall I really like it. Keep up the good work! Blessings

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  3. Its interesting to compare this with GG's house rules for OD&D. For example, with 13+ STR Gary gives a +1 to damage but not to hit. And he gives class-specific bonuses, like a 14+ DEX gives Thieves a +1 (-1?) to AC, and +1 to move silently... and no additional negatives!

    http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html

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    1. I actually used the info on that Cyclopeatron page as inspiration here; it's linked above in the notes for Strength. The common number throughout is actually "> 14"; i.e. 15+. Gary actually wrote "15 or over" in his notes on the Troll Lord forums in 2007.

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    2. Ah yes, I missed that! What do you think about the class-specific adjustments?

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    3. Here's the direct link to the rules that Gary posted on the Troll Lord forums in 2007:
      "Gary's OD&D House Rules"

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    4. Thanks. Did you notice that he wrote +1 to AC instead of -1 to AC for DEX and the thief? Typo? Or did GG use *gasp* ascending AC in his game!?

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