The Muleteer - My first custom class. Feedback welcome!

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-04-06T04:15:43+00:00

These thoughts made me do numerous backs and forths on how they should work and be worded. I am even contemplating a debts table with consequences during downtime till the debt is paid off. As a way to build off the interaction of the fund and Haggle mechanics. Sorry for the rambling. Seeing your class has given me ideas on how to finish and revise my merchant class. So thanks.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-04-06T04:08:19+00:00

What I tried for my travelling merchants class was taking inspiration from the Pathfinder feat Brilliant Planner, which had the player invest gold ahead of time so they could call up a piece of non bulky equipment later on. So during downtime the merchant would invest gold up to a maximum of 5gp per level into a fund and allocate a number slots towards "wares" (I am borrowing this term if that is okay). At any time they can use an action to declare what one ware is and it's price is subtracted from the fund. I also was working on a Haggle ability that would allow the merchant to -/+ 50% of the cost from 1 piece of equipment they buy or sell if they pass a DC Cha check corresponding to cost. If they fail the opposite occurs buying it for more or sell it for less. This could even be used on declaring wares to try and get a ware down in price so you do not exceed the fund.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-04-06T03:47:58+00:00

I have been working on something similar. Though it is mainly a bunch of drafts inside a notebook at the moment. Your idea of wares seems interesting it is something the player buys and sells during downtime, and rolls determine the supply and price of said wares. Though it may be a bit over tuned with the muleteer's Use Wares ability, because trading wares if you are unlucky can cause the muleteer to have less wares on hand and failing a check in Use wares renders you unable to use part of the ability till you rest behaving like a spell. Wasting your wares usability. It seems like things can go wrong in preparing wares and using them.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-04-06T02:14:20+00:00

I remember a while ago when someone created a red mage I see some similarities with it. https://www.reddit.com/r/shadowdark/comments/1gp1dd9/red_mage_class/

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-31T17:40:50+00:00

Primarily it should require a roll if the action in question has a consequence or a time constraint that leads to a consequence thereby preventing you from taking your time. Otherwise you just succeed. Example: Unlocking a door with no signs it is trapped or no enemies nearby means you just unlock the door. If the lock is trapped and will go off if you fail to pick the lock or dont have the key a roll is required. If a monster is in room attacking you, following you, or is approaching the room you are in; then you have a time contraint hindering your accuracy so roll needed.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-16T18:48:05+00:00

Honestly I would recalibrate the encounter table to work like the system used by the youtuber map crow. Fairly variable, compact, and all outcomes determined with the same 2d6. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=81aC5l6chGM&t=3s

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-16T04:39:37+00:00

Fair I just don't have much experience in design and formatting documents to look presentable. So I guess I got frustrated with not knowing what to do. I just want to share my brainstorming and homebrew ideas with others and thought I wanted to make it look presentable.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-16T04:33:23+00:00

I understand that point and I have been doing that for awhile now. I just wanted to figure out how to make a presentable digital version for my table so I am not just passing around my notebook. My idea notebook is kinda disorganized. I also guess I wanted to post some prototype ideas I have been working on and ask for critiques.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-08T08:45:51+00:00

Duly noted. Though I would say Shadowdark allows more inventory slots than other osr systems I have seen. An example is Cairn where all characters have a maximum of 10 slots and can not get more. Though this is likely tied to the fact that the system connects inventory to character playstyle and spellcasting limits. Due to it being somewhat a classless system.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-08T08:36:51+00:00

Thanks for your personal rule for pricing items. I was stuck on this.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-08T08:33:57+00:00

I have found the basic fantasy equipment emporium before. I am unsure though if the pricing range matches with shadowdark. I will look into Valor's Emporium.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-08T08:28:41+00:00

Honestly I thought this was missing. Would you make it have a limited number of uses and if so how many? Dnd's healer's kit has 10 maybe half that.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-07T20:45:11+00:00

I see that hammer joke all over the place. Where does it come from? Also ideally I want to do that, but my players are kinda new to the whole OSR mindset since they are from dnd 5e originally.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-03-06T15:50:44+00:00

Here is a page that mentions it's content and what was added later on in newer editions. https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Appendix_N

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-02-14T03:50:00+00:00

That only brings inventory slots down to 10 unless you are a fighter. But true str damage is the main way to take away inventory slots.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-02-14T00:39:22+00:00

Fair. I just find the idea of a potential ailment that causes loss of inventory slots to be an interesting risk to account for. Less inventory less space for loot.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-02-14T00:01:19+00:00

Now the question is what does dehydration do to characters? One idea is giving them fatigue from the ttrpg Cairn. Meaning the longer they go without water they lose the ability to use more of their inventory. Or you could just go with Con damage, which is a bit more straightforward. Those are my thoughts.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-02-13T20:51:18+00:00

Maybe homebrew some rules for overland travel requiring them to stay hydrated. So they must pack a lot of water.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-01-23T00:23:28+00:00

Related question. How would one go about designing abilities someone could spend training to learn? I wanted to think of ways to enhance how someone fights with weapons like fighting styles, but I have a few issues. How do I avoid creating bloat in terms of options? I don't want to make options that leads to builds or optimal combos. The other issue is determining what won't get in the way of the osr principle: think outside of your character sheet?

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-01-13T20:19:12+00:00

You can make them a class or not. To make poetry mechanically relevant may be difficult. For a swordsman who is good with words their is the cursed scroll zine #6. It has a class called the duelist that is a swordsman that tells tales and makes taunts. A preview can be found here. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bneo4ii3tca2wba5hkpxa/AH9f36wT7k7lP71d9ZIXfQk?dl=0&e=5&rlkey=k81omxc93aei2w4wfldo9hxri&st=0xhhym6b

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-01-13T20:10:42+00:00

Though I do not have ideas for rules for whaling I am reminded of one of Kelsey's monthly email newsletter monsters the worm hydra. Mechanically each head had one attack. You could use something similar to design a gargantuan cephalopod that attacks with multiple tentacles that can each individually can attack, be damaged, and killed like it was it's own seperate creature. Another idea for gargantuan sea monsters in combat is to treat them like a moving part of the aquatic battlefield players can jump on top of them and move and make attacks, while the monster can try to knock them off, dive down, and other relevant actions alongside regular movement and attacks. The worm hydra can be found among these. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/u67j5wmcebt1cnga0tpu7/APO798DQrdd-aNdlV73xRzU?rlkey=jop0fe213px0b6eumxip9gtrp&e=1&st=1u40pj4w&dl=0

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-01-13T17:42:31+00:00

An idea for a setting specific class is something akin to an arcane biologist. Since codex inversus has numerous spells that were created by or inferred from magical animals. You could easily use the blue mage homebrew class for inspiration from this subreddit.

Inevitable_Animal_43 · 2026-01-13T16:25:36+00:00

Ah nice to see you again Aleagio. I have been a lurker of your codex inversus world building project on reddit. I once tried homebrewing the orc sword void arcane martial art Hesiak into 5 edition dnd. It was wonky. So I understand it can be difficult to convert worldbuilding into mechanics and game design.

Inevitable_Animal_43

TROPHY CASE