Tony Misfeldt
11-15-2007, 06:45 PM
I am looking for both players and DMs to join a long term D&D campaign set in The Forgotten Realms. The reason I need both DMs and players is we will be using a Rotating DM System. This means everybody will have a character, including the DM who will play his character as an NPC henchman. That means his character will receive 50% XP for adventur completion, combat, spell casting, thieving skills, etc, but none for role playing, problem solving, etc. When the DM tires of DMing, he switches with one of the players. His character becomes a PC earning full XP and the new DM's character becomes an NPC henchman earning 50% XP. Thus we all maintain the same characters, with the same gaming system and continue playing in the same campaign setting. The following are some other details that you must also keep in mind...
PLAYERS: Players should be Art Whores (aka ROLE players), not Munchkins (aka ROLL players, power gamers, metagamers, etc). The majority of XP handed out will be earned through ROLE playing, thus Art Whores will likely have the most fun. I'm not saying that you won't be allowed to play a blood thirsty barbarian who thinks every problem can be solved with the business end of a battleaxe (Hell, I'll be playing one myself), but I would suggest you play him with some personality. If all he's gonna do is stand quietly by until he can bury his axe in someone's skull, you might as well put a hockey mask on him and call him Jason. Trust me, you'll have a lot more fun if you give your character a personality.
D&D SYSTEM: We will be playing using 2nd Edition with the optional rules introduced in the books Skills & Powers, Combat & Tactics, and Spells & Magic. Not all of the rules will be used, but we will be using Character Points instead of Proficiency Slots, the new rules for Critical Hits, and Magic Points. I refer to this system as D&D Version 2.5.
EXPERIENCE: We will begin play at levels above first. Exactly how much higher than first depends on what class is being played. All characters will start play with exactly enough XP to reach their current level. All single classed warriors, priests, and rogues will start play at 3rd level. All single classed wizards and sorcerers will start play at 4th level. All multiclassed demihumans will start play at 2nd level in each of their respective classes. The majority of XP earned through adventuring will be by adventure completion, role playing, problem solving, and using class abilities (thief skills, spells, etc). I personally will not be giving out the XP values listed in the Monstrous Mannual for slaying monsters (what some players so charmingly refer to as "Kill Points"). If other DMs wish to dispence Kill Points that's their decision, but I would advise against it. It's been my experience that, if given the choice, most players will try to earn Kill Points rather than ROLE play for XP.
CHARACTER POINTS (ChP): Everyone will start with the base number of ChP for his class, plus an additional 5 ChP per level above 1st (10ChP for most classes, 15ChP for wizards, 5ChP for multiclassed demihumans). Additional Chp can be achieved through selecting minor disadvantages. Once the character is in play ChP must be earned. You gain 3 to 5 Chp per level earned (the extra 2 are a reward for good ROLE playing). You can also trade treasure for ChP. This is done only once per level. 1/3 of your treasure equals 1ChP. This includes magic items and equipment bought with found treasure, not just liquid assets.
MAGIC & SPELLS: There are some new rules to inform you of in regards to spell casters. First, the material component rule is strictly adhered to. This means that if your character doesn't have the necessary spell components, or if you don't specifically say that he's using them (including what they are and what he's doing with them), then the spell doesn't work. Second, I use a verbal component rule. This means you must speak the verbal component of any spell your character casts in order for it to take effect. If you didn't say it, you didn't do it. You can use any verbal components you like. Say the name of the spell backwards (ELISSIM CIGAM!), an anagram of the spells name (GESSAC IMLIMI!), borrow from Harry Potter (ADVRA KADAVRE!), or Sesame Street (ABRE PEANUTBUTTER SANDWITCHES!), or just make something up (a ryming couplet is always a popular choice). Whatever you choose remember, if you don't say it, you didn't do it. Third, if the spell has somatic components you must at least describe what those components are (bonus XP and ChP are given to those who actually pantomime the somatic gestures). For example, if your wizard is casting burning hands you might say something like "I put my thumbs together and spread my fingers (physically demonstrating this) and I say 'SDNAH GNINRUB!'" and then roll for damage. The last rule to remember for spell casters is the Magic Point rule. Magic Points are sort of like damage points for armour, they determine how many spells a spell caster can cast. All spell casters, whether they're wizards, clerics, sorcerers, or whatever, get a number of Magic Points equal to his Hit Points (thus a wizard with 14 hp also has 14 mp). Every time a wizard or cleric casts a spell, he uses up some of his magic points. The more powerful the spell cast, the greater the mp cost. The mp cost of any given spell is equal to the level the spell caster has to be to be able to cast it (1mp=1st level, 3mp=2nd level, 5mp=3rd level, etc). As long as the spell caster's number of mp is above 0, there's no ill effects. When his mp drops to 0 or less he begins to feel fatigued. Fatigue has the following effects: the spell caster must successfully roll against his WIS score to be able to cast any spells while fatigued; the spell caster's movement rate, all attack rolls, proficiency checks, and saving throws suffer a -3 penalty; and all attacks against the spell caster recieve a +3 bonus to hit. If his mp drops to -50% or lower, he goes from being fatigued to being exhausted. Exhausted spell casters suffer the following penalties: All ability scores are reduced to 50%; movement rate is reduced to 50%; all proficiency checks, saving throws, and attack rolls suffer a -6 penalty; all attacks against the spell caster gain a +6 bonus; the spell caster must successfully roll against his modified WIS score to successfully cast spells; he must constantly rest while traveling (once every turn/10 minutes) and can move no faster than a slow walk. If the spell caster's mp ever drops to -100% or lower, in addition to all the penalties listed above for exhaustion, for every successfully cast spell he must roll a Saving Throw vs Death. If he fails his save, he dies of exhaustion. Spell casters recover 8 mp per day with a good nights rest. Fatigued or exhausted spell casters must have a full days rest to recover their lost magic points. This means they can't do anything more strenuous than light travel. Any fighting or heavy work negates any rest they may have gotten that day. And one quick note on priest's healing spells: we will be using the 3rd Edition Cure Wounds spells (Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, etc). They're more powerful and more numerous, plus they're also lower level and thus more readily available.
RACES: Any of the standard PC races can be chosen. Humans, elves, half-elves, halflings, gnomes and dwarves are all possible. While you cannot customize racial abilities to gain extra ChP, as in the book Skills & Powers, you may use the optional racial abilities listed in The Complete Book Of Dwarves, The Complete Book Of Elves, and The Complete Book Of Gnomes & Halflings. You are also free to choose races from The Complete Book Of Humanoids. However, there must be a good narrative to go with such a character. Character back stories might be recomended for the standard races, but for any of the humanoid races, it's required. Why did your centaur leave his forrest home? Why did your wemic leave his jungle, or your thri-kreen leave his desert oasis? These questions must be answered before such a character will be allowed. And if it's required for a typically good aligned humanoid, it's essential for a typically evil humanoid. Was your kobold adopted and raised by halflings? Did your hobgoblin put on a Helm Of Opposite Alignment? Was your ogre the victim of a wild mage's Wild Magic surge? Did your orc draw a Balance card from a Deck Of Many Things? Was your ogre mage from an alternate reality where orcs and ogres are the heroic types and humans, elves, and dwarves are the villains? Without this information, such PCs will not be allowed. You can even choose a race not included in The Complete Book Of Humanoids, if you like. Alu-fiend mages, dopplganger rogues, verbeeg barbarians are just a few possibilities. But good backstories aren't just essential for these characters, they're critical.
ALIGNMENT: Absolutely no evil PCs allowed, whatsoever! Only good or neutral PCs will even be considered. Chaotic Neutral is an allowable alignment, as long as it's not used as a means to try to sneak an evil PC into the group under the DM's radar. Constantly committing evil acts and then saying "I'm Chaotic Neutral, it was my whim" will quickly earn your character an intensional alignment change. Once that happens, he becomes an NPC and you have to roll up a new character (sort of like when a PC becomes a vampire or some other evil form of undead).
ABILITY SCORES: Stats will be determined by rolling 4d6, rerolling all 1s, dropping the lowest die, and arranging to taste. If you have a specific idea for your character design (a very strong barbarian who's not too bright, for example), you can further customize your stats by trading 2 for 1 (lowering one stat by 2 to raise another by 1). We will be using the 6 basic stats from The Players Handbook (STR; DEX; CON; INT; WIS; and CHA), not the 12 sub-ability scores from Skills & Powers. We will also be using the alternate Comeliness (COM) stat from the 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana to determine a character's physical beauty. COM is adjusted by race and CHA.
CLASSES: I've adapted some classes from D&D 3.X to 2nd Ed terms for those of you who might be tempted to join but not so sure if you want to leave your precious 3rd Edition rules behind. The classes are essentially the same as in the 2nd Edition Players Handbook, except where described below (there's no customizing classes for extra ChP). The available classes are as follows...
BARBARIAN: The barbarian class is essentially the barbarian fighter from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook. The only difference is he gets the same weapon restrictions as the Barbarian Kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook. The Beast Rider, Berserker, and Savage Kits from that book are all now considered kits for the barbarian class. Any player who wishes to customize his barbarian may choose one of those kits, or any from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook. The Runecaster Kit from The Viking Campaign Source Guide is also a usable barbarian kit.
BARD: The bard class is exactly the same as it is in The Players Handbook. Any players who wish to customize their bard may do so by choosing a kit from The Complete Bard's Handbook. The only exception to this is the Skald, who gets his own entry here as a seperate PC class.
CLERIC: The cleric class is exactly the same as it is in The PLayer's Handbook. Any players who wish to customize their clerics may do so by choosing a religion specific cleric kit from the book Warriors & Priests Of The Realms. As we're going to be playing almost exclusively in The Forgotten Realms, these kits make more sense than those in The Complete Priest's Handbook. Also, many of the classes listed here will make those kits unnecessary.
CRUSADER: This class is listed in the Forgotten Realms book Faiths & Avatars. It's such a specialized class that there are no kits for it, as such it gets played as described in F&A. Not all faiths have crusaders, so your choice of deity will decide whether or not this is a viable class.
DRUID: The druid class is exactly the same as it is written in The Player's Handbook, with the following exceptions. First, druids may be of any partially neutral, non-evil alignment (as opposed to only true neutral). Second, there are many nature deities in The Forgotten Realms who count druids as thier specialty priests (Chauntea, Sylvanus, Eldath, Shialia, etc) and give their druids special abilities and access to spells different from those listed in The Players Handbook. Thus, you can customize your druid somewhat by your choice of nature deity. And finally, if you wish to further customize your druid, you can choose a kit from The Complete Druid's Handbook.
FIGHTER: The fighter class is exactly the same as it is written in The Player's Handbook. If you wish to customize your fighter, you may choose a fighter kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook. The only kits not available to this class are the barbarian, beast rider, berserker, and savage.
HOLY CRUSADER: This is the Crusader class listed in Warriors & Priests Of The Realms. After the publication of Faiths & Avatars, it was renamed the holy crusader. Again, this is a very specialized class and therefor has no kits. It is also not available to every faith in The Forgotten Realms. However, it is still a playable PC class and is otherwise unchanged from its published form.
MONK: This is not the monk kit from The Complete Priest's Handbook, nor from Faiths & Avatars, but rather the 3rd Edition PC class rewritten in 2nd Edition terms. As this is such a specialized class, there are no kits for it. Therefor it is played as written.
MYSTIC: This is the class listed in the book Faiths & Avatars. It is a very specialized class, therefor it has no kits and is played as written. At lower levels they're pretty weak, but they do get some cool abilities when they get get up to higher levels (the trick is getting them to live that long).
PALADIN: The paladin class is exactly as written in The Player's Handbook. That means no demihuman paladins! If you want to customize your paladin, you can choose a kit from The Complete Paladin's Handbook. Some kits from The Complete Fighter's Handbook also make good paladins, especially the cavalier, noble warrior, swashbuckler, and samurai.
PRIEST: These are the specialty priests listed in Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities. Because they are already specialists, they have no kits. Therefore they are played as written in the above texts.
PSIONICIST: The psionicist class is exactly as written in The Complete Book Of Psionics. As it is such a specialized class, there are no psionicist kits.
SHAMAN: The shaman class is a combination of the classes listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook, and Faiths & Avatars. The shaman gets access to the Spheres Of Influence listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook, as well as the hit dice, fast movement rate, climbing, leaping & springing abilities also listed in that book. He also gets the Spirit Guide and the Totem Powers listed in Faiths & Avatars. If you want to customize your shaman even more you can choose any of the shaman kits from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook.
SKALD: This is the bard kit rewritten as a seperate class from the barbarian culture. He has all the abilities listed under this kit in The Complete Bard's Handbook, plus the shaman's climbing, leaping, and back detection abilities, and the faster movement rate that all barbarian classes have. He also has d8 hit dice instead of the civilized bard's d6.
SORCERER: This is the sorcerer class from 3rd Edition D&D rewritten as a 2nd Edition PC class. He has the same hit dice, spell advancement, armour restrictions, and weapon proficiency lists as in 3E. He gets a wizard's THAC0, a rogue's ChP to spend on weapon proficiencies, and a wizard's ChP to spend on nonweapon proficiencies. He also gets bonus spells for high charisma scores (using the cleric/priest table for bonus spells due to high wisdom).
THIEF: The thief class is exactly as written in The Player's Handbook. If you want to customize your thief, you can choose any of the kits from The Complete Thief's Handbook.
WITCHDOCTOR: This class is a sorcerer who was born and raised in a barbarian culture. The witchdoctor class replaces the arctic wizard and savage wizard kits from The Complete Wizard's Handbook. He gets the same leaping, climbing, and running abilities as the shaman and skald. He gets d6 hit dice instead of the usual d4. Other than that he is exactly the same as the sorcerer. Same armour restrictions, weapon restrictions, number of character points to spend on weapon and nonweapon proficiencies, spell level advancement, number of spells per day, etc. The only other difference is that the witchdoctor gets no bonus spells for high charisma.
WIZARD: The wizard class is exactly the same as it is in The Player's Handbook. You can either customize your wizard by choosing to make him a specialist wizard (Conjurer, Transmuter, Evoker, Wild Mage, etc), or you can choose one of the kits from The Complete Wizard's Handbook (except for the arctic wizard and savage wizard kits, which have been replaced with the witchdoctor class). Wizards with high INT scores get bonus spells as clerics/priests with high WIS scores.
DATE, PLACE & TIME: The games will take place at my apartment in East Vancouver, BC on Sunday nights. We'll hopefully start playing in the late afternoon (around 4:00 pm), or possibly early evening (around 7:00 pm), depending on my work schedule. I need players and DMs who can commit to gaming at least every other weekend. Well, that's about all the information I can think of to give you. Please, either email me through this website or post on this thread and hopefully we can look forward to gaming together for a long time.
PLAYERS: Players should be Art Whores (aka ROLE players), not Munchkins (aka ROLL players, power gamers, metagamers, etc). The majority of XP handed out will be earned through ROLE playing, thus Art Whores will likely have the most fun. I'm not saying that you won't be allowed to play a blood thirsty barbarian who thinks every problem can be solved with the business end of a battleaxe (Hell, I'll be playing one myself), but I would suggest you play him with some personality. If all he's gonna do is stand quietly by until he can bury his axe in someone's skull, you might as well put a hockey mask on him and call him Jason. Trust me, you'll have a lot more fun if you give your character a personality.
D&D SYSTEM: We will be playing using 2nd Edition with the optional rules introduced in the books Skills & Powers, Combat & Tactics, and Spells & Magic. Not all of the rules will be used, but we will be using Character Points instead of Proficiency Slots, the new rules for Critical Hits, and Magic Points. I refer to this system as D&D Version 2.5.
EXPERIENCE: We will begin play at levels above first. Exactly how much higher than first depends on what class is being played. All characters will start play with exactly enough XP to reach their current level. All single classed warriors, priests, and rogues will start play at 3rd level. All single classed wizards and sorcerers will start play at 4th level. All multiclassed demihumans will start play at 2nd level in each of their respective classes. The majority of XP earned through adventuring will be by adventure completion, role playing, problem solving, and using class abilities (thief skills, spells, etc). I personally will not be giving out the XP values listed in the Monstrous Mannual for slaying monsters (what some players so charmingly refer to as "Kill Points"). If other DMs wish to dispence Kill Points that's their decision, but I would advise against it. It's been my experience that, if given the choice, most players will try to earn Kill Points rather than ROLE play for XP.
CHARACTER POINTS (ChP): Everyone will start with the base number of ChP for his class, plus an additional 5 ChP per level above 1st (10ChP for most classes, 15ChP for wizards, 5ChP for multiclassed demihumans). Additional Chp can be achieved through selecting minor disadvantages. Once the character is in play ChP must be earned. You gain 3 to 5 Chp per level earned (the extra 2 are a reward for good ROLE playing). You can also trade treasure for ChP. This is done only once per level. 1/3 of your treasure equals 1ChP. This includes magic items and equipment bought with found treasure, not just liquid assets.
MAGIC & SPELLS: There are some new rules to inform you of in regards to spell casters. First, the material component rule is strictly adhered to. This means that if your character doesn't have the necessary spell components, or if you don't specifically say that he's using them (including what they are and what he's doing with them), then the spell doesn't work. Second, I use a verbal component rule. This means you must speak the verbal component of any spell your character casts in order for it to take effect. If you didn't say it, you didn't do it. You can use any verbal components you like. Say the name of the spell backwards (ELISSIM CIGAM!), an anagram of the spells name (GESSAC IMLIMI!), borrow from Harry Potter (ADVRA KADAVRE!), or Sesame Street (ABRE PEANUTBUTTER SANDWITCHES!), or just make something up (a ryming couplet is always a popular choice). Whatever you choose remember, if you don't say it, you didn't do it. Third, if the spell has somatic components you must at least describe what those components are (bonus XP and ChP are given to those who actually pantomime the somatic gestures). For example, if your wizard is casting burning hands you might say something like "I put my thumbs together and spread my fingers (physically demonstrating this) and I say 'SDNAH GNINRUB!'" and then roll for damage. The last rule to remember for spell casters is the Magic Point rule. Magic Points are sort of like damage points for armour, they determine how many spells a spell caster can cast. All spell casters, whether they're wizards, clerics, sorcerers, or whatever, get a number of Magic Points equal to his Hit Points (thus a wizard with 14 hp also has 14 mp). Every time a wizard or cleric casts a spell, he uses up some of his magic points. The more powerful the spell cast, the greater the mp cost. The mp cost of any given spell is equal to the level the spell caster has to be to be able to cast it (1mp=1st level, 3mp=2nd level, 5mp=3rd level, etc). As long as the spell caster's number of mp is above 0, there's no ill effects. When his mp drops to 0 or less he begins to feel fatigued. Fatigue has the following effects: the spell caster must successfully roll against his WIS score to be able to cast any spells while fatigued; the spell caster's movement rate, all attack rolls, proficiency checks, and saving throws suffer a -3 penalty; and all attacks against the spell caster recieve a +3 bonus to hit. If his mp drops to -50% or lower, he goes from being fatigued to being exhausted. Exhausted spell casters suffer the following penalties: All ability scores are reduced to 50%; movement rate is reduced to 50%; all proficiency checks, saving throws, and attack rolls suffer a -6 penalty; all attacks against the spell caster gain a +6 bonus; the spell caster must successfully roll against his modified WIS score to successfully cast spells; he must constantly rest while traveling (once every turn/10 minutes) and can move no faster than a slow walk. If the spell caster's mp ever drops to -100% or lower, in addition to all the penalties listed above for exhaustion, for every successfully cast spell he must roll a Saving Throw vs Death. If he fails his save, he dies of exhaustion. Spell casters recover 8 mp per day with a good nights rest. Fatigued or exhausted spell casters must have a full days rest to recover their lost magic points. This means they can't do anything more strenuous than light travel. Any fighting or heavy work negates any rest they may have gotten that day. And one quick note on priest's healing spells: we will be using the 3rd Edition Cure Wounds spells (Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, etc). They're more powerful and more numerous, plus they're also lower level and thus more readily available.
RACES: Any of the standard PC races can be chosen. Humans, elves, half-elves, halflings, gnomes and dwarves are all possible. While you cannot customize racial abilities to gain extra ChP, as in the book Skills & Powers, you may use the optional racial abilities listed in The Complete Book Of Dwarves, The Complete Book Of Elves, and The Complete Book Of Gnomes & Halflings. You are also free to choose races from The Complete Book Of Humanoids. However, there must be a good narrative to go with such a character. Character back stories might be recomended for the standard races, but for any of the humanoid races, it's required. Why did your centaur leave his forrest home? Why did your wemic leave his jungle, or your thri-kreen leave his desert oasis? These questions must be answered before such a character will be allowed. And if it's required for a typically good aligned humanoid, it's essential for a typically evil humanoid. Was your kobold adopted and raised by halflings? Did your hobgoblin put on a Helm Of Opposite Alignment? Was your ogre the victim of a wild mage's Wild Magic surge? Did your orc draw a Balance card from a Deck Of Many Things? Was your ogre mage from an alternate reality where orcs and ogres are the heroic types and humans, elves, and dwarves are the villains? Without this information, such PCs will not be allowed. You can even choose a race not included in The Complete Book Of Humanoids, if you like. Alu-fiend mages, dopplganger rogues, verbeeg barbarians are just a few possibilities. But good backstories aren't just essential for these characters, they're critical.
ALIGNMENT: Absolutely no evil PCs allowed, whatsoever! Only good or neutral PCs will even be considered. Chaotic Neutral is an allowable alignment, as long as it's not used as a means to try to sneak an evil PC into the group under the DM's radar. Constantly committing evil acts and then saying "I'm Chaotic Neutral, it was my whim" will quickly earn your character an intensional alignment change. Once that happens, he becomes an NPC and you have to roll up a new character (sort of like when a PC becomes a vampire or some other evil form of undead).
ABILITY SCORES: Stats will be determined by rolling 4d6, rerolling all 1s, dropping the lowest die, and arranging to taste. If you have a specific idea for your character design (a very strong barbarian who's not too bright, for example), you can further customize your stats by trading 2 for 1 (lowering one stat by 2 to raise another by 1). We will be using the 6 basic stats from The Players Handbook (STR; DEX; CON; INT; WIS; and CHA), not the 12 sub-ability scores from Skills & Powers. We will also be using the alternate Comeliness (COM) stat from the 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana to determine a character's physical beauty. COM is adjusted by race and CHA.
CLASSES: I've adapted some classes from D&D 3.X to 2nd Ed terms for those of you who might be tempted to join but not so sure if you want to leave your precious 3rd Edition rules behind. The classes are essentially the same as in the 2nd Edition Players Handbook, except where described below (there's no customizing classes for extra ChP). The available classes are as follows...
BARBARIAN: The barbarian class is essentially the barbarian fighter from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook. The only difference is he gets the same weapon restrictions as the Barbarian Kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook. The Beast Rider, Berserker, and Savage Kits from that book are all now considered kits for the barbarian class. Any player who wishes to customize his barbarian may choose one of those kits, or any from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook. The Runecaster Kit from The Viking Campaign Source Guide is also a usable barbarian kit.
BARD: The bard class is exactly the same as it is in The Players Handbook. Any players who wish to customize their bard may do so by choosing a kit from The Complete Bard's Handbook. The only exception to this is the Skald, who gets his own entry here as a seperate PC class.
CLERIC: The cleric class is exactly the same as it is in The PLayer's Handbook. Any players who wish to customize their clerics may do so by choosing a religion specific cleric kit from the book Warriors & Priests Of The Realms. As we're going to be playing almost exclusively in The Forgotten Realms, these kits make more sense than those in The Complete Priest's Handbook. Also, many of the classes listed here will make those kits unnecessary.
CRUSADER: This class is listed in the Forgotten Realms book Faiths & Avatars. It's such a specialized class that there are no kits for it, as such it gets played as described in F&A. Not all faiths have crusaders, so your choice of deity will decide whether or not this is a viable class.
DRUID: The druid class is exactly the same as it is written in The Player's Handbook, with the following exceptions. First, druids may be of any partially neutral, non-evil alignment (as opposed to only true neutral). Second, there are many nature deities in The Forgotten Realms who count druids as thier specialty priests (Chauntea, Sylvanus, Eldath, Shialia, etc) and give their druids special abilities and access to spells different from those listed in The Players Handbook. Thus, you can customize your druid somewhat by your choice of nature deity. And finally, if you wish to further customize your druid, you can choose a kit from The Complete Druid's Handbook.
FIGHTER: The fighter class is exactly the same as it is written in The Player's Handbook. If you wish to customize your fighter, you may choose a fighter kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook. The only kits not available to this class are the barbarian, beast rider, berserker, and savage.
HOLY CRUSADER: This is the Crusader class listed in Warriors & Priests Of The Realms. After the publication of Faiths & Avatars, it was renamed the holy crusader. Again, this is a very specialized class and therefor has no kits. It is also not available to every faith in The Forgotten Realms. However, it is still a playable PC class and is otherwise unchanged from its published form.
MONK: This is not the monk kit from The Complete Priest's Handbook, nor from Faiths & Avatars, but rather the 3rd Edition PC class rewritten in 2nd Edition terms. As this is such a specialized class, there are no kits for it. Therefor it is played as written.
MYSTIC: This is the class listed in the book Faiths & Avatars. It is a very specialized class, therefor it has no kits and is played as written. At lower levels they're pretty weak, but they do get some cool abilities when they get get up to higher levels (the trick is getting them to live that long).
PALADIN: The paladin class is exactly as written in The Player's Handbook. That means no demihuman paladins! If you want to customize your paladin, you can choose a kit from The Complete Paladin's Handbook. Some kits from The Complete Fighter's Handbook also make good paladins, especially the cavalier, noble warrior, swashbuckler, and samurai.
PRIEST: These are the specialty priests listed in Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities. Because they are already specialists, they have no kits. Therefore they are played as written in the above texts.
PSIONICIST: The psionicist class is exactly as written in The Complete Book Of Psionics. As it is such a specialized class, there are no psionicist kits.
SHAMAN: The shaman class is a combination of the classes listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook, and Faiths & Avatars. The shaman gets access to the Spheres Of Influence listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook, as well as the hit dice, fast movement rate, climbing, leaping & springing abilities also listed in that book. He also gets the Spirit Guide and the Totem Powers listed in Faiths & Avatars. If you want to customize your shaman even more you can choose any of the shaman kits from The Complete Barbarian's Handbook.
SKALD: This is the bard kit rewritten as a seperate class from the barbarian culture. He has all the abilities listed under this kit in The Complete Bard's Handbook, plus the shaman's climbing, leaping, and back detection abilities, and the faster movement rate that all barbarian classes have. He also has d8 hit dice instead of the civilized bard's d6.
SORCERER: This is the sorcerer class from 3rd Edition D&D rewritten as a 2nd Edition PC class. He has the same hit dice, spell advancement, armour restrictions, and weapon proficiency lists as in 3E. He gets a wizard's THAC0, a rogue's ChP to spend on weapon proficiencies, and a wizard's ChP to spend on nonweapon proficiencies. He also gets bonus spells for high charisma scores (using the cleric/priest table for bonus spells due to high wisdom).
THIEF: The thief class is exactly as written in The Player's Handbook. If you want to customize your thief, you can choose any of the kits from The Complete Thief's Handbook.
WITCHDOCTOR: This class is a sorcerer who was born and raised in a barbarian culture. The witchdoctor class replaces the arctic wizard and savage wizard kits from The Complete Wizard's Handbook. He gets the same leaping, climbing, and running abilities as the shaman and skald. He gets d6 hit dice instead of the usual d4. Other than that he is exactly the same as the sorcerer. Same armour restrictions, weapon restrictions, number of character points to spend on weapon and nonweapon proficiencies, spell level advancement, number of spells per day, etc. The only other difference is that the witchdoctor gets no bonus spells for high charisma.
WIZARD: The wizard class is exactly the same as it is in The Player's Handbook. You can either customize your wizard by choosing to make him a specialist wizard (Conjurer, Transmuter, Evoker, Wild Mage, etc), or you can choose one of the kits from The Complete Wizard's Handbook (except for the arctic wizard and savage wizard kits, which have been replaced with the witchdoctor class). Wizards with high INT scores get bonus spells as clerics/priests with high WIS scores.
DATE, PLACE & TIME: The games will take place at my apartment in East Vancouver, BC on Sunday nights. We'll hopefully start playing in the late afternoon (around 4:00 pm), or possibly early evening (around 7:00 pm), depending on my work schedule. I need players and DMs who can commit to gaming at least every other weekend. Well, that's about all the information I can think of to give you. Please, either email me through this website or post on this thread and hopefully we can look forward to gaming together for a long time.