LotFP Hybrid Classes Expanded 2: Shamans and Sages

Go to part 1. We continue on the track started by Jackson Malloy's post about hybrid classes at Sword and Scoundrel. This is a separate post because it's a bit more out there than the first, and is hungrily eyeing a couple sacred cows.

Malloy's system starts with the axiom that Clerics and Magic-Users cannot be combined. This seems reasonable. After all, they are of opposite alignments, and have their own niches; traditionally, wizards have not been granted the ability to heal as a check to their power (as well as for thematic reasons).

But... what would happen if we broke those rules? Apparently, James Raggi's recent playtest of the next version of LotFP also combined Clerics and Magic-Users into one class, or at least gave Cleric spells to the Magic-User. What if we went further with the hybrid classes and included a Cleric-MU-hybrid - or even a tri-class-hybrid, a Cleric-MU-Specialist?

With our XP formula from part 1, it would take the Cleric-MU - let's call it a Shaman - 3,000 XP to reach second level, and the Cleric-MU-Specialist - let's call it a Sage - 3,700 XP. For spellcasting, they are half a Cleric, and half a Magic-User, but separately, so their caster level is halved, and they know spells as a caster of half their level. But when combining two casters, it makes more sense to combine the spell slots into one pool, so that they start with spell slots at lvl 1, but perhaps still have to divide their prepared spells between the two lists. For some reason, I'm attracted to the idea of forcing the Shaman to strike a balance between Cleric and Magic-User spells. (That might be just due to the Goblin Shaman class in Warhammer Online, who had a charge-up meter that empowered their their healing magic when they cast damage spells, and vice versa.)

The Shaman has a d6 hit die. But our Sage is clearly a scholarly type, so let's lower its hit die to d4 and limit their skill selection to non-movement skills. In return, we'll reduce its XP costs to 3,000, since the only thing it now has over the Shaman is knowing a bit more about secret doors and languages.

Shaman

Hit die: d6
Saves: as Cleric
Base XP: 3,000.

You have spell slots equal to a Magic-User of your level. You can cast both Magic-User and Cleric spells, and you are considered a caster of half your character level (minimum of 1). However, when you prepare spells, half of the spells for each level must be Cleric spells, and the other half Magic-User spells. If you have an odd number of spell slots for a given level, you can choose whether to prepare a Magic-User or Cleric spell in the last slot. For example, if you have three 1st-level spell slots, you can prepare one Cleric and two Magic-User spells of 1st level, or two and one.

You can not cast spells if you are more than Heavily encumbered. Like an Elf, you must have one hand free (or clutching a magical focus) to cast spells.

Sage

Hit die: d4
Saves: as Magic-User
Base XP: 3,000.

You have spell slots equal to a Magic-User of your level. You can cast both magic-user and Cleric spells, and you are considered a caster of half your character level (minimum of 1).

You can not cast spells if you are more than Lightly encumbered. Like a Magic-User, you must have both hands free (or clutching a magical focus) to cast spells.

Additionally, you have two skill points at 1st level, and gain one more skill point each time you level up. These skill points cannot be used for movement-based skills (Climb, Sleight of Hand, Sneak Attack, Stealth, Tinker), but only mental ones (Architecture, Bushcraft, Languages, Search, and any other ones you may have in your game such as Medicine or Arcana).

Learning Spells

In LotFP, Magic-Users learn one random spell of a level of their choice on level-up, and can add spells from scrolls and spellbooks they find. They start with Read Magic and three random spells. Clerics learn all Cleric spells automatically. So, how do we reconcile this for our hybrids? Here is a fine opportunity to add some flavour and differentiate these classes. If you wanted to introduce new mechanics or subsystems, this would be an appropriate place, since it's not something that has to be referenced in every session.

For example, the Shaman might not use a spellbook, instead starting with two random spells from each spell list, learn one spell from each spell list on level-up (of a level of the player's choice), and be unable to transcribe spells. You could add a mechanic for the Shaman to influence the choice of spells learned, or a mini-game - as long as it's something that is quick to resolve since it is only engaging a single player!

The Sage should use a spellbook, of course. They could start with Read Magic, one random Magic-User spell (or Identify) and two random Cleric spells. They would learn one random spell on level up from a spell list and level of their choice, and in addition be able to transcribe Cleric spells (from scrolls) as well as Magic-User spells into their spellbook.

This results in two classes that have more versatility than either of the core casters, through being able to either learn or transcribe a greater number or spells, while casting them at a lower power, in addition to the increased XP costs.

If you decide to use hybrid classes at your table, you may not want to include every one, what with so many redundant spellcasters. Decide based on the flavour you're going for. The Shaman and Sage step on some toes, so you might want to pick only one of them, depending on whether the written or spoken word is more improtant in your setting. Personally, I might only include the Ranger, Paladin, Sage and possibly Assassin for my current medieval setting. For a "Nordic barbarians" vibe, I'd go with the Ranger and Shaman instead. What do you think?