Building Bhakashal - Classes - Slayers 

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OK, confession time.

When I was 12 years old I read the Hobbit, and then Lord of the Rings. These books are precious to me, some of my earliest fantasy fiction memories are of these stories. However, my love of the stories has turned me off “adaptations”. So I haven’t seen the movies, and I have never liked Tolkien influences in D&D. I don’t know exactly why this is the case, but TTRPG versions of LOTR are just uninteresting to me.

So I was never really comfortable with the 1e Ranger, a character that is modelled on LOTR. 

Second confession, I never really liked assassins in AD&D. I LOVED the mechanical bits, but they were always a pain in the ass at the table. In a game that ostensibly modeled heroic literature, the assassin was always a bad fit. Add to that the fact that many players wanted assassins so they could mess around with their party, do bad things, etc. 

So when I was building Bhakashal I mused on this for a while. I wanted a “hunter” class rather than a ranger class, as the idea of a “wilderness fighter” was a good one, and one that had built in archetypes in fantasy and mythology. 

Then, one foggy, rainy day, as I sat pondering how to work out a “wilderness fighter”, I had a moment of inspiration. Rangers in 1e are “giant slayers”, they get a bonus against “giant class” creatures, which are essentially humanoid monsters. This was always a strange facet of the character class to me, why giant class humanoids, why not GIANT creatures? AD&D is LOUSY with giant creatures, giant crabs, giant lizards, giant spiders, and the idea that there would be a class dedicated to fighting giant monsters was pitch perfect for a fantasy game. 

Then it hit me. Assassins are just “people slayers”, and clerics are, to a degree, “undead slayers”, so why not make the “ranger” into a “slayer”, and pick a class of opponents? And why not combine the assassin and the ranger/hunter into a generic class, the slayer?

Modeled on dragon slayers, vampire slayers, slayers of witches, demon slayers, etc, the slayer is a class that is dedicated to opposing a kind of foe, against this foe the slayer gets particular bonuses. The class is a combination of 1e AD&D assassin and ranger.

All NPC hunters in Bhakashal are 1st level slayers who do not advance in level. 

Statistics

- Ability Minimums: STR 12, INT 11, DEX 12 

- HD: d8

- Alignment: Any 

- Armor & Weapons: Leather armor, shield, any weapon 

- Weapon proficiency profile: as ranger

- At the DM’s discretion, the Slayer may be required to obtain or purchase a special weapon or weapons to slay the target creature.

 

Slayer Abilities

1 - Slayer's Foe

There are two categories of foes, specific and general. A specific foe might be vampires, generic foes might be any undead. 

Examples of related general/specific pairs:

Regular animals/giant animals-dinosaurs

Lizards/dragons

Undead/vampires

Hellenistic creatures (cyclops, siren, centaurs) etc./medusae

Minor demons-devils/major demons-devils

Lesser elementals/major elementals

Animals/Lycanthropes (e.g. wolves-bears-boars-tigers/werewolves, etc.)

2 - Damage Bonus: A slayer gains +1 to hit and +1 to damage for every level of experience against their specific foe, and +1 to hit and + 1 to damage every 3 levels against their general foes

3 - Slaying: When attacking creatures of the target type, the slayer makes regular to-hit and damage rolls. However, on successful attacks, if the slayer exceeds their natural “to hit” by 5 they have the option to try for a slay, an instant kill, using the assassination table. If this fails, they do half regular damage. Opponents of more HD than the slayer’s level get a saving throw versus death.

4 - Surprise: the Slayer has a 3 in 6 chance to surprise others and only a 1 in 6 chance of being surprised. 

5 - Tracking: Slayers track like PHB rangers, in wilderness, underground or urban environments, same odds. 

6 - Poison use: slayers may use poison against creatures of the target type. At the DM’s discretion the slayer may be required to use poison or other exotic materials (e.g. holy water) to slay the target class of creatures. 

7 - Disguise: Slayers get the disguise and spying abilities of the assassin 

8 - Languages: If the Slayer gets any extra languages because of high intelligence, one of those languages is that of the target creature; if the creature does not possess a language, the Slayer gains the ability to mimic its sounds or behaviors and communicate basic concepts (e.g. danger, food, etc.) 

9 - Hirelings - the slayer may not have any hirelings/henchmen until 4th level; at that time only lower-level slayers may be taken into service. Upon attaining 8th level, the character may also have non-slayer hirelings/henchmen. Upon attaining 12th level, they may employ hirelings/henchmen of any class. 

10 - Associations - The Slayer will be associated with a cult, priesthood, temple, organization, or community dedicated to fighting the target creatures.

11 - Advancement - Each organization dedicated to the extermination of a certain target foes has only one Master Slayer that runs the organization. In order to take that spot, the Slayer must both have the requisite number of experience points and defeat the organization’s Master Slayer in combat (a fight to the death is not necessary). 

12 - Followers - A Slayer who achieves Master Slayer status will attract a body of 7–28 lower-level Slayers. Use the follower table for assassins from the DMG (p. 17) to determine the composition of these followers. 

13 - Attacks/Proficiencies - regular melee and missile attacks on the spider/assassin combat matrix. Starting and new weapon proficiencies are also gained as an assassin. 

14 - Recognition -  A Slayer has a 10% chance per level of identifying a non-magically disguised primary foe and a 5% chance per level of identifying a magically disguised primary foe.

15 - Sage - a slayer is considered a sage with a special category in their primary foe and a major field in their general foes.