Hey, it's Friday the 13th! I don't know that I've ever posted anything on here related to that most ominous of preludes to the weekend (other than pointing out a product or two that became available on the special day), so I figured I'd correct that now.
And with my mind on constructing a fantasy heartbreaker, it seemed like it'd be fun to see if I could put together a really simple Slasher class that fits the "trimmed-down 5e" vibe I'm working with. So...here we go...! I'm sure this has been done plenty of times over...and probably even somewhere that has been linked from this very blog, especially when you consider friend-of-MM and prolific game content creator Pun Isaac's penchant for slasher flicks, as well as the excellent horror material put out by his friends at Bloat Games.
But...I mean, that's not stopping me from making a fantasy RPG...so why would that stop me here?
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Image from Wikipedia |
The Slasher
Hit Die: d12Proficiencies
Armor: None...you don't need it.
Weapons: Knives, machetes, chainsaws, hooks, gloves with metal claws...really, anything with a blade, a point, or a portion capable of bludgeoning someone. And all improvised weapons, too. (Not guns, though.)
Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
Skills: Deception, Intimidation
What are your character’s interests and hobbies? What have they done with their life up until this point? Choose one additional Skill and one Talent or Weapon proficiency to represent these.
Equipment
Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).
Unkillable
Beginning at 1st level, whenever damage would reduce your hit points to 0 or below, your HP instead become 1, and you lose one round of action. At the beginning of the next round, you gain 1d6 HP.
A Slasher always regains 1 HP per 10 minutes of in-game time until their maximum HP is reached.
Or, y'know, if you don't feel like dealing with all the bookkeeping, you could probably just ignore hit points altogether...just make sure you occasionally take a story-appropriate round to regroup so those kids can get away...
Getting the Hang of It
Getting the Hang of It
At 2nd level, you choose one specific type of weapon to be associated with your infamy. You get +1 to all attack and damage rolls using this weapon.
Two Beheadings Are Better Than One
Beginning at 3rd level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, as long as the attacks are each directed at a different
Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.
They Had It Coming
At 5th level, you gain the ability to quickly assess any group of people and determine who among them would please a hypothetical audience the most by dying. (This is determined by the DM; if there's no way of knowing which one of those folks is actually an arrogant MFer who makes fun of old people and probably tortures animals, determine this randomly.) If you subsequently kill that character, you may immediately take another round of action.
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Have a great weekend, all! Stay safe out there!
Related side note that this is the only place it'll probably ever make sense to share on here...where I live in Jersey, I'm near this state park and obviously think about a certain character every time I pass it or a sign for it...
Glorious! Or should that be gore-ious? Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteI did my own tribute to the 80s slasher in The Curious Conundrum of the Conflagrated Condottiero, but it didn't occur to me to do it as a player class. Love it.
Re the state park (and please tell me there's a Crystal Lake in there): I get it. Every time I watched Saved By the Bell as a kid, I chuckled when I saw Lark Voorhies' name in the credits.
I mean, I probably shouldn't have known who Jason Voorhees was at that age, but that's on my parents.
Ha! That's a kind thing to say. I would even say it's...FRIGHTfully kind! Ha! (Okay, I literally turned your comment over in my head for like an hour while doing Saturday morning chores, trying to come up with a suitable pun for a reply. And that's the best I came up with. Sorry man...)
DeleteI've now realized that I don't even know the name of the lake (maybe there's more than one...?) at Voorhees State Park. (I also didn't know there was a Lake Voorhies attached to Saved By the Bell. :) I am reminded, however, of this lake with a "beach" that we used to go to when I was a kid in south Georgia. I think it might have even been an artificial lake, just made for bumpkins like us to come and have some fun in the sand and sun, and it was called Crystal Lake...and it almost certainly was opened after multiple Friday the 13th films, so potentially someone knew what they were doing...!
Thanks for noting that on CCCC...I'll take a look! I definitely dig seeing takes on slasher tropes in a traditional RPG framework (like Pun's Slashers & Victims creations)!
Elegant and brilliant! Love the additional local detail as well. All of this makes me (almost) want to play some 5e ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton man! And I'd like to think that the way I'm trimming 5e down for the Monstrous Heartbreaker might even tempt you to give it a try. (Of course...I know there have already been multiple efforts to OSR-ify 5e, and almost certainly with more thought, effort, and experience than I'm bringing to the table. So I guess if you haven't been persuaded yet, it may...understandably, mind you...just not be your style...)
DeletePS. a power idea for such characters, that I picked up from a V&V supplement, is a limited teleportation-like ability but only when out of sight... to explain the killer suddenly popping up in unexpected places.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I love that! (Which V&V supplement btw? Is there actually a slasher-themed adventure? I realize teleportation has many possible reasons for showing up in a supers supplement, of course... ;)
DeleteI briefly juggled the idea of some sort of "sudden appearance" feature in my mind but quickly moved on when I didn't hit on anything as elegantly satisfying as that ability as you describe it. That's definitely worth adding (or switching) to this class...thank you!
It's applied to a character called MANSLAUGHTER, who appears in Most Wanted, Volume 3 (one of FGU's "book of villains").
DeleteTurns out I slightly misremembered his "mutant power". It actually states that if he removes himself from the view of pursuers they have no chance of finding him. Essentially meaning he can disappear. Although I have to admit I like my "addition" to that ability ;-)
Thanks! And yeah...your addition is what makes the mechanic interesting. That actually makes me feel better about stealing it...at least it'll just be from a friend and not a published source...!😅
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