01/25/2024

As part of the Stretch Goals for the Shadowdark Kickstarter, Keldey Dionne created two additional classes for Shadowdark that we created during a live stream on YouTube. You can find the videos if you want to see the classes being created.

We’ll start with those official Aracne Libray supplement classes: The Bard and the Ranger.

The Bard is an interesting class.

Bards have a decent selection of simple weapons to use and can wear leather or chainmail plus use a shield. While not the best front-line fighters, they should be able to provide some support to protect the less-armored Wizard and Thief.

Bards are not full spellcasters in the fact they don’t have any known spells. Bards can use wands and scrolls (Magical Dabbler Ability) and they use Charisma as their spellcasting ability (like 5E).

Bards get a lot of languages to start so they definitely look like they are supposed to be the “face” of the party. They get Advantage to rolls for oration, performing arts, lore, and diplomacy.

The main class feature is Presence. The Bard can Inspire allies or Fascinate targets using their Charisma. Once they fail a check, they lose that ability until they get a rest.

Overall Take: The Bards make an option for characters that go beyond simply going into a dungeon and killing everything there. Giving us a class that focuses on interacting with NPCs opens up the 2nd pillar of roleplaying: Social Interactions.

The next class is the Ranger:

The Ranger is good with swords and bows, can wear leather or chainmail, and is good at navigation, tracking, bushcraft, stealth, and wild animals.

Unlike 5E, the Ranger has no magical spells but they do get the ability to do Herbalism. The Ranger can take time to prepare herbal remedies. There is a list of different remedies and the DCs to create them. These are not good enough to overshadow another class but a good addition to the party to help fill some roles. You can imagine a Ranger character creating a mixture of leaves and plants to draw the poison out of a wound (DC 14 Restorative Remedy).

Something else that the Ranger opens up is the Exploration of the Wilderness. Getting to and from the dungeon should be more than a few words. There are random tables in the Shadowdark core rulebook for different environments and the Ranger class adds a character that links those to the party.

Overall Take: The Ranger gives off the Aragorn from Lord of the Rings vibe. You have a class that can operate alone in the wilderness and thrive. They can handle threats (or avoid them) and care for themselves. These characters add more sandbox campaigns where part of the fun is exploring the region around your starting location to find the lairs and dungeons where treasure awaits.

Keep on gaming!