02/15/2024

We continue today with the official Shadowdark classes from Cursed Scroll #2 – Red Sands.

The Desert Rider Class

“Howling barbarians thundering across the sand on wild horses, elven spies wielding curved blades atop silvery camels, or bandits wrapped in colorful silks racing on sleek, desert stallions.”

Desert Riders get a selection of some of the simpler weapons, including new weapons in this zine, and they get to use leather armor and shields.

Desert Riders get two features: Charge and Mount. Charge allows the Desert Rider to deal double damage if they move at least near range before the attack. It is limited to several times a day it can be used.

Mount allows the Desert Rider to have a common horse or camel. The mount is reliable and never spooks. The Desert Rider and the mount both get an AC bonus equal to 1/2 level (rounded down) and the mount has additional levels equal to this same number.

Overall Take: The Desert Rider fits into the Red Sands campaign setting of The Djurum, but other than that, seems very limited. The Charge feature is good but the Mount will see little use in the dungeon crawling that Shadowdark seems to be built around.

The Pit Fighter Class

“Blood-soaked warriors circling each other in a roaring arena, scarred desert bandits dueling for the right to lead their gang, or brash tavern brawlers who never turn down a challenge.”

Pit Fighters get access to all weapons, Leather Armor, and Shields.

Pit Fighters get 4 Features, the most seen so far in the classes reviewed.

The Flourish feature allows the Pit Fighter to regain hit points when hitting an enemy with a melee attack. This feature is limited to a certain number of times a day.

The Implacable Feature allows Advantage on Constitution checks to resist injury, poison, or endure extreme environments.

The Last Stand feature allows the Pit Fighter to get up from dying with 1 hit point on a Natureal d20 roll of 18-20.

The Relentless feature allows the Pit Fighter to make a DC 18 COnstitution check when reduced to 0 HP. On a pass, the Pit Fighter stays at 1 HP. This feature is limited to a few times a day.

Overall Take: The features of the Pit Fighter class seem to fit The Djurum campaign, but might be a little overpowered compared to the other Core Classes. Three of the features (Flourish, Last Stand, and Relentless) give the Pit Fighter hit points back or keep him fighting where others would have fallen. This would be great for a solo game or a game where there was a focus on pit fighting (not always to the death). In a game with other players, it makes the Pit Fighter depend less on other players and more like an edgelord.

The Ras-Godai Class

“Black-clad assassins who train from childhood inside a hidden desert monastery. They gain their sorcerous powers from a legendary black lotus flower that was given to them by a demon.”

The Ras-Godai get a unique selection of equipment (Blowgun, bolas, dagger, razor chain, scimitar, shuriken, and spear) and can wear only leather armor (no shield).

All Ras-Godai learn the Diabolic language because they eat from the Black Lotus plant that was given to them by a demon to gain their power.

The Ras-Godai have three Features: Assassinate, Smoke Step, and Black Lotus.

Assassinate allows the Ras-Godai to roll double damage if they attack a surprised target.

Smoke Step allows the Ras-Godai to teleport to a Near location a few times a day.

The Black Lotus feature allows the Ras-Godai to roll on a d12 table to see what power is granted by the ingestion of the demon’s Black Lotus flower. Some of the powers include walking on walls, increased HP or Armor Class, and walking on water!

Overall Take: While the Ras-Godai fit the desert theme of The Djurum campaign as the archetypical silent desert assassins, they are a poor substitute for the Thief. The Thief gets BackStab which scales with the Thief as they level. The Thief has Advantage of stealth rolls so they are more likely to gain the Backstab while an enemy is usually only surprised once a combat for Assassinate. The Smoke Step is cool for teleporting around obstacles but is limited in the number of uses a day. The Black Lotus powers are nice but don’t raise the class up enough to warrant it over the Thief class.

Keep on gaming!