Race-as-Class: The Wose-man

The Wose-man

Requirements: Strength, Constitution & Dexterity 12+

Prime Requisite: Strength

Hit Dice: d10

Saw this image, felt inspired.
by Steven De Waele 

You are one of the hidden folk, one of the elusive wose-men who have lived in the mysterious and unpopulated forests of antiquity. Your kind avoids confrontation when it can be helped, but you know well how to defend yourself and your territory when a threat comes your way. Threats come your way more now than ever before; your woods are rife with wretched monsters, hordeling goblinoids, and destructive men whose ambitions outweigh their respect for the nature of the world.

Perhaps this is why you’ve taken up with some mannish thugs and vagabonds; though they are easily distracted by gold and vengeance they fight many of the same enemies you do. Their weapons and armor are of fine make, though they clatter about without any grace. They think you are simple, possibly scary. Simple is not bad, scary can be useful.

Wikipedia.

You stand tall, nearly nine feet but quite possibly ten. Your hands, your pelt, they smell of wild garlic, old dirt, and ancient meat. Your skin is black, brown, red; your pelt is matching; though with age it fades towards grey or is overcome with mossy green. Your eyes are like globes of blood and darkness, hiding an intelligence and capacity for tactics that would make clear that none should ever have trespassed in your domain.

Special Abilities

Arms & Armor: Wose-men have thick hair that feels like the matted mane of a horse, tough as leather and carrying an unpleasant smell when breathed in deeply. Wose-men go unarmored, but provided they are not shaved of their pelt, they have AC equivalent to leather. Wose-men can make use of shields, clubs, stones, spears, slings, and other primitive weapons.

Stench: A wose-man can once per day secrete its stench, causing all living creatures within 30 feet to make a Constitution save or become sickened for 1d6 rounds; suffering a -2 penalty to hit anything in the direction of the wose-man. Grappled victims during a secretion must Save vs Poison and suffer a penalty to any task for the next 24 hours. Wose-men can track any object or individual who has been slathered in its stench at a rate of 4-in-6, losing a 1-in-6 for every day passed since the original slathering.

Wose-might: The hands and feet of a wose-man are huge and brutal. If a wose-man grapples an enemy, their attacks deal 1d6+STR modifier in damage. If the wose-man has an enemy grappled for more than one round, they can easily toss them away, dealing 1d10+STR modifier in damage. Wose-men can also throw large items as a Hill Giant can, but they must pass a Strength save to first lift any great stone or fallen tree.

Hidden Men: Wose-men are masters of blending into the wilderness, hiding-in-plain sight at a rate of 4-in-6 while in woodland environments. Wose-men who hollar and hoot while hidden can make their sounds appear to originate from any direction they choose, as though by ventriloquism.

Born Forester: Wose-men can identify wild plants at a rate of 1-in-6, notice huntsmen traps at a rate of 2-in-6, and find a decent place to sleep at a rate of 2-in-6.

Definitely vibing some Stupid Rat Creatures

Drawbacks

Uncivilized: Being literal wild-men, the wose-men are not welcome in polite society. They are seen as primitive, savage, monstrous, and uncouth at the best of times. Wose-men suffer a -2 to all reaction rolls with civilized individuals, and they are utterly unable to find hirelings willing to serve them loyally unless they have been directly saved by the actions of the wose-man or they are wose-men themselves.

Fire’s Foe: Wose-men were never civilized and made properly mannish, as such fire is not their oldest and greatest ally. It seems to scorn them for their savagery. Wose-men struck by fire suffer an additional point of damage and have a 50% chance of catching fire (likely due to their oily stink which saturates their hair). Wose-men being threatened with fire suffer a -2 penalty to their morale.

Other Notable Things

Languages: Wose-men speak the complex language of Ormm, named for the guttural clearing of the throat they make before letting out a series of grunts, hollars, and ullulations; often punctuated with drumming upon trees. Animals can understand the rough concepts being spoken, but only other wose-men understand it entirely. Wose-men can understand intent behind a common mannish tongue, though they can only speak a few words of it at best.

An adventuring wose-man can speak a number of words in the common tongue equal to their Intelligence + Wisdom attributes. Have fun piecing together other character names via this situation.

Vision: Wose-men suffer sensitivity when exposed to direct sunlight outside of a forest, as they prefer the shadowy groves of woodland terrain. Wose-men can see adequately through fog and can see in moonlight as though they possessed a torch.

The Wose-man
Level	Breath Attacks	Poison or Death	Petrify or Paralyze	Wands	Spells or Spell-like Devices
1-3	13	10	8	12	13
4-6	10	8	6	8	10
7-9	7	6	4	6	8
10	5	4	2	4	6

The Wose-man
Level	Experience	Title	Hit Dice (d10)
1	0	the Skunk Ape	1
2	2,100	the Shaggy	2
3	4,250	the Savage	3
4	8,500	the Wose-man	4
5	17,500	the Tall Strider	5
6	35,000	the Wild Man of the Woods	6
7	70,000	the Long Strider of the Woods	7
8	140,000	the Lord of the Woods	8
9	275,000	the Greyman	9
10	450,000	the Greenman	+4 HP Only

I know one of my players, specifically my roomie, would play one of these. Because he's a filthy degenerate who loves to mock my fear for Bigfoot.

The Boy Adventurer!

This class is a thing because I've been binge-watching old cartoons while I work on 120 unique events for the travel roles in my last post, which need to be able to run in multiple ways so repeat events are interesting.’

The Boy Adventurer!

Saves as: Thief (Ceases Improvement after Level 3)

HD: d4

Prime Requisite: Charisma.

To Generate Skills: Roll 3d4+1 for each stat.

Progresses: As Mentor.

Armor & Weapons: Cloth and two weapons of Mentor (see below)

The Boy Adventurer is a child who looks into the wide world and thinks “I wanna be a real adventurer!” They have a heart of gold, the voice of an angel, and generally make whoever they want to learn from a big grumpier than one would expect. They are masters of disguise, mostly due to the apathy they bring out in those who might see through said disguises. They don’t get a good share of the treasure, they can barely use a weapon without instructions on a daily basis, and they’re often more trouble than they're worth.

Yeah, this is how this is going. 

Class Features

Youthful Exuberance - A Boy Adventurer is excited about every bit of treasure he can get his hands on, every weapon his Mentor will let him use and new people he meets. If the Boy Adventurer makes a Charisma save and says the name or title of an item or person he meets in a sing-songy voice, he gains a +1 to any rolls made related to that individual until the end of the day (except for damage). So a +1 to throw something, to be able to drop something before it bites him, to be able to get a little more out of a potion by licking the inside of the vial.

On a failure, the Boy Adventurer is overcome with shyness or notices something grotesque and possibly imaginary about what he’s dealing with and as such takes a -1 to whatever his next roll is due to this waste of youthful exuberance and over-excitement gone wrong.

For how it should be sing-songed see the following link:

Fast Friends - The Boy Adventurer cannot have any hirelings, but he is good with other henchmen. When the Boy Adventurer first meets a hireling, he may make a Charisma check to get on their good side and thus improve their Morale by 1. If this check fails, the Boy Adventurer may at any time bring them food or help them out and make this check again.

Mentor - One of the other party members is the Boy Adventurer’s mentor, whether that person wants it or not. The Boy Adventurer can use two of the weapons his mentor can use, though always clumsily (-1 to Hit/to Damage to a minimum of 1 Damage) unless the Mentor makes a Charisma roll at the start of each morning to make sure the Boy Adventurer knows what he’s doing.The Boy Adventurer advances in XP at a rate of 25% their Mentor’s rate.

Innocent Ragamuffin - The Boy Adventurer can throw on a disguise to appear like most things, regardless of how poor the disguise is at a 4-in-6 success rating. A failure makes it obvious that this is a boy in a disguise. If an enemy sees through the disguise they must make a Morale check to see if they really care that an orc guard is actually a kid wearing a potato sack tunic. Unless an NPC is truly Evil, they will respond more with confusion than they will violence. If a Boy Adventurer has killed anyone within the past 1d4 days, he cannot use this ability. He looks too creepy.

Young Ward - The Boy Adventurer can emulate thief skills or another non-magical class feature of their Mentor if they make an Intelligence check at the start of the day. These abilities work on a 2-in-6, as there’s always a chance that the kid will get it wrong.

Size Penalty - A Boy Adventurer cannot wield two-handed weapons comfortably, though if ordered by their Mentor they may do so at a -3 penalty to Hit.

Upon Reaching Level 8: The Boy Adventurer becomes a Real Adventurer. At the end of their next adventure, they may enter their Mentor’s class or become a Thief, either choice allowing the Boy Adventurer to enter as though they were a Level 3 member of that class. This now Real Adventurer may reroll his attributes with 3d6, replacing anything higher than their original attributes. They also lose all their previous class features, but keep a permanent +1 to Hit with the two weapons of their Mentor, and a +1 on Saves made against items held or consumed (if the response can be to throw them or spit them up).

Level	Title	Youthful Exuberance
1	Lil’kid	3
2	Lil’rascal	3
3	Lil’boy	3
4	Ragamuffin	5
5	Rascal	5
6	Boy Profiteer	5
7	Boy Adventurer	6
8	Real Adventurer	6 (until N/A)

This class is meant to represent the sort of Flapjack-esque youth a la Thurop Van Orman’s Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack which ran on the Cartoon Network back in the day. For ease of advancement, allow them to also gain Experience equal to a 25% of any treasure their Mentor sells when they get back to town so long as the Mentor approves of it or the Boy Adventurer makes a Charisma save.

Is this playing “in hard mode?” Yes, on some level. But that’s sort of the fun. A Boy Adventurer should consume 1/3rd the amount of rations of an adventuring adult, and they can also live on a diet of sugary sweets and bind most wounds with leaves and feel better in the morning. This is really a support class that is lighthearted in tone


Good night, Friend.

Be an angel.