Dark Souls rpg OSR (2) – Classes and 'The Chosen Undead' class

In my last post, I discussed the basics of what makes Dark Souls: Souls, Humanity and Death. Now, I'll talk about another fundamental aspect necessary for the game - the classes. I will also talk about a new class for OSR: 'The Chosen undead.

Considering all the basic and specialized classes of OSR (Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Thief, Paladin, Druid, Ranger etc), I believe all of them can be used without much changing. However, the GM must adapt them to the Dark Souls lore, although much of Dark Souls is still a mistery. Most of the game passes only in a small area of the world, and that leaves a lot of space for the GM to create new things - so, adapting the classes lore should not be a problem and the GM should not be afraid of inventing.

However, there is a very important and specific Dark Souls 'class': The Chosen Undead, the character that the players of the electronic game plays. Although it is possible to choose amongst many different 'jobs' at the start of character creation, those are, in the end, not very much different from one another - all depends on how you are going to level up your character and what equipment you will use. So, basically, there is only one 'class' in Dark Souls, and I would like to propose an adaptation of it to tabletop rpg:

First things to say is that class would be very special and with particular rules, escaping from the OSR normal pattern. All its characteristics would come from attributes improvements and from its level system. Different from other classes, the Chosen Undead would follow the Dark Souls table of progression, which you can see in this link. Every time the Chosen Undead collects enough souls to level up, it may go to the nearest sacred bonfire and spend the necessary souls. With each level, The Chosen Undead gains +1 improvement to add to an attribute (it is interesting that the player notes the main basic value of an attribute and the improved one in sepparate). Different from all other player characters, The Chosen Undead receives a +1 modifier for every 2 points of improvement beyond 10 - similar to d20 system. So, Strength 23 would give +6 modiffier, for example. The maximum you may have at one improved attribute is 50 (a +20 modiffier).

It is important to note, however, that the Improved attributes are not 'absolutes' in the fictional world. What I mean is that, if you have a giant with Strength 19 agains a Chosen Undead with 38 Improved Strength, but only 14 natural strength, the Giant will be stronger. The Chosen Undead is only able to compare against creatures of relative size - so, a warrior with 17 Stength against a Chosen Undead with 19 improved strength, the Chosen Undead would be stronger. 

Besides the different level progression and attributes, the Chosen Undead does not have Hit Dice. Instead, they have HP equal to their improved Constitution value, and receive +1 hp every 10 levels. So, a Chosen Undead level 94 and with 38 Con would have 47 hit points. If it is needed to know how many HD would the Chosen Undead have, divide its level by 20 (divide by 10, then divide by 2). So, a level 380 Chosen Undead would be equivalent to a 16 HD creature.

In resume:

Chosen Undead

HD: None.  Hps = Constitution +1 / 10 levels; equivalent HD equal to level/ 20.

Attack bonus: None, although with Strength improvement it can go as high as +20 in melee attacks and with Dexterity improvement it can go as +20 in ranged attacks.
Weapons and Armor: Any.

Saving Throws: Começam em 20+, e usam os modificadores dos atributos. They start at a 20+ saving throws, but all its saving throws are modified by attributes. I will talk more of that in the next post.

XP progression: Equal to Dark Souls I, being able to reach very high levels (500, 600th etc).

I hope you folks liked it. Next post will be about Mechanics: Saving Throws and Combat Maneuvres, where I will try explainning how to emulate Dark Souls mechanically in a tabletop rpg.

Until then,
Valete!

Image: I did not make it; I only added a little bit of text.

If you liked this post, you may help me improve by sharing it in your social networks. Also, if you are curious, give it alook at my others works and consider becoming my patreon.