02/08/2024

I was going to hold out until I got to a basic review of the Shadowdark book, but I decided to take a look at the core classes in the rulebook now when I am looking at some of the supplements. This way, I have the core classes reviewed and it makes it easier to compare against.

The Fighter Class

“Blood-soaked gladiators in dented armor, acrobatic duelists with darting swords, or far-eyed elven archers who carve their legends with steel and grit.”

As expected, Fighters get access to all of the weapons and armor in the game. Fighters can use a shield as well.

The Fighter has 3 class features: Hauler, Weapon Mastery, and Grit. Hauler allows the Fighter to add their Constitution, if positive, to their gear slot. This allows Fighters to carry more items. Weapon Mastery allows the Fighter to choose a type of weapon and they gain +1 to attack and damage with that weapon type. Grit allows the Fighter to choose Strength or Dexterity. The Fighter gains Advantage on checks to overcome opposing forces.

Overall Take: The Fighter is the fighting machine. They can be a heavy armored warrior wading into the fray or a nimble archer that peppers enemies from range with bows and arrows. When combat happens, the Fighter will shine.

The Priest Class

“Crusading templars, prophetic shamans, or mad-eyed zealots who wield the power of their
gods to cleanse the unholy.”

The Priest class gets a limited selection of weapons (piercing and slashing weapons are included). Priests can wear any armor and use a shield. The Priest gains a bonus language (Celestial, Diabolic, or Primordial; depends on the God I guess).

The Priest needs to select a god to serve that matches the chosen alignment of the Priest. There are some gods provided in the Shadowdark book or you can create your own Pantheon for a separate campaign setting.

The features of the Priest class are Turn Undead (A spell that doesn’t count towards the number of known spells) and Spellcasting.

Priests get 2 Teir 1 spells at Level 1 and gain more as they progress. They use the standard Spellcasting rules: To successfully cast a spell, you need to roll a Spellcasting check using your spellcasting ability modifier against a DC of 10+ Spell Tier. If you fail, you can’t cast that spell again until you rest. If you critically fail (Roll a Natural 1), the Priest has to complete a Penance to their god and rest before they can cast the spell again.

Overall Take: The Priest is another combatant on the front lines. Not quite as good as the Fighter, but the Priest brings some spells to the battle. The Priest should have the CURE WOUNDS spell to help keep the party going. Unlike 5E, the Priest might be able to cast the spell once or fifty times, depending on how the Priest rolls. Below shows how the spell scales as the Priest gains levels:

Cure Wounds Healing Die
Character Level	d6 to Roll (1 + 1/2 level [rounded down])
1	1
2	2
3	2
4	3
5	3
6	4
7	4
8	5
9	5
10	6

The Thief Class

“Rooftop assassins, grinning con artists, or cloaked cat burglars who can pluck a gem from the claws of a sleeping demon and sell it for twice its worth.”

The Thief has a limited set of weapons and can use leather armor (and mithral chainmail).

The Thief gains Advantage on checks for the following checks:

• Climbing
• Sneaking and hiding
• Applying disguises
• Finding and disabling traps
• Delicate tasks such as picking pockets and opening locks

The main feature of the Thief is Backstab (similar to the sneak attack in 5E). The number of weapon die to roll are shown in the table below:

Backstab Die
Character Level	Weapon Die to Roll (1 + 1/2 level [rounded down])
1	1
2	2
3	2
4	3
5	3
6	4
7	4
8	5
9	5
10	6

The Thief can add more dice to Backstab by rolling on the Talent table when they level up.

Overall Take: The thief isn’t your go-to guy in a fight. Sure, they can use crossbows and short bows are fire arrows into the enemy but the thief shines when exploring. They should be in the front looking for traps to disarm and scouting ahead to get the drop on the enemy.

The Wizard Class

“Rune-tattooed adepts, bespectacled magi, and flame-conjuring witches who dare to
manipulate the fell forces of magic.”

The wizards are a very small set of allowed weapons (Dagger and Staff) and cannot use armor or a shield. They have very few hit points.

Wizards, presumably through their studies, gain 2 additional common languages and 2 rare languages.

The main feature of the Wizard is Spellcasting. Wizards start with 3 spells and they gain known more spells as they level up. They can gain additional spells by rolling on the Talent table or by studying a spell scroll, requiring a DC 15 Intelligence Check. If they succeed, the Wizard learns the spell and it doesn’t count towards known spells. Either way, the spell scroll is spent.

Overall Take: I like the Wizard and how spellcasting happens in Shadowdark. While squishy in physical combat, Wizards bring that extra POP to combat. Learning spells from scrolls is a great idea and makes the reward of scrolls a great motivator for Wizard characters. Not knowing exactly how many times you will be able to get a spell off before a failure occurs adds tension to the game. Wizards might not cast spells early in the game because they don’t want to lose them before they get to the “Boss Monster” of the dungeon.

Keep on gaming!