Ability Score Generation Method, Humans, & Ability Minimums

 After ranting and raving for ...the past five posts... I figured it was about time I actually put forward some ideas rather than criticizing others.

Starting with an ability score generation method:  I have heard the sentiment of the ideal character being one with low, medium, and high stats, not just one of the three.  I myself, agreeing with this sentiment, have devised the following:

 

 Start with six scores: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

Add 1d6 to each, Roll 1d6 to assign:

1: Str, 2: Dex, 3: Con, 4: Int, 5: Wis, 6: Cha

Reroll or roll different dice as the ‘open’ stats are filled.

 (So, starting with [12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2], you would add 1d6 [14, 11, 14, 8, 8, 3], roll 1d6[1 being Str, 2 being Dex, 3 being Con...] to determine the placement of the first number [I rolled a 4, so Int becomes a 14] rolling 1d5 [1d6-reroll-6] to determine the placement of the second number [with the order now being Str, Dex, Con, Wis, Cha; I rolled a 3 so Con is now an 11] roll 1d4 for the third number, 1d3 for the fourth, 1d2 for #5 and #6 goes in the last open slot.)

This is by no means a simple method, and I usually use 3d6 down the line, but the advantages are that it generates two high scores, two medium, and two low scores, as well, it generates scores from 3-18 like normally, and the average is still 10.5.

 

Humans:

I am always disappointed when I read a OSR/Oldschool RPG where humans get some special feature.  The ONE advantage of humans is that they are simple, easy to understand.  I especially despise 3.5e for this (Not oldschool I know but...), where the simplest character, a human fighter, gets THREE feats at first level, annoying.

Normal humans, in my game, have no special features, though there are Substratum, as I call them, which gain certain limited abilities.  In a setting containing Paladins, the existence of Aurea in the general populace is entirely possible.  Vincula have become the 'cold northerners' who go viking (its a verb, look it up).  Natura are modeled off of the genasi from 5e, though with a name that can actually be pronounced.  Tieflings are cringe-inducing, and, even if such did exist, they would probably be burned at the state for conniving with devils, and any villagers conducting such would be entirely justified- as such, they are not included, nor any model of them are included.

 

 The D4 is included for random generation, not necessarily for use with any and every human.

 

 Class list & Ability Minimums:

 I took the names of the Explorer and Venturer classes from ACKSII and used them for two of the archetypes here, if I think of a better name for the Venturer archetype in the future, I'll probably replace it.

 

Interestingly, the Warden class comes from 4e not from ACKSII (found in the explorer's level titles), and the Shaman was a class I wrote up before ACKSII as well.  The Warlock, in name, comes from 5e, though its class features are entirely different.

The Berserker and Swashbuckler are classes which I wrote up, the berserker being based off of the barbarian, though with a mechanic for gathering trophies from felled foes (especially powerful foes), and the Swashbuckler is based on Elan from OOTS (Order of the Stick, stick-figure webcomic), though in practice, it is very similar to the thief acrobat from older editions of D&D, though not intentionally.

 Now for a digression into the origin of the Factotum:

There are three points I draw from in putting forward the Factotum as a class:

The first comes from dandwiki, specifically the 5e homebrew section, specifically classes.  Despite being a... cesspool of creative bankruptcy, or creative ingenuity, depending on how you look at it, there are some gems to be found.  I could not be bothered in searching through 1500+ entries for those gems, but, one day, I found I didn't have to, somebody from the website had sent a few of the class entries to the top of the page, indicated them as approximately the same quality as published classes.  Does this mean that those classes are good? Eh, but good enough for consideration.  And so, the Nomad class was the first time I had considered adding a new category of class to the game, though at the time I was running 5e and didn't think much of the idea.

The second was with the Factotum class from BREAK! which presented a much more interesting set of ideas than, I imagine, dandwiki ever could.  And, despite being of an arguably more narrow use in terms of setting material, presents a more varied range of playstyles.  Unfortunately, BREAK!! is of such a different kind of game content that I couldn't really use any ideas from the class.

The third, and most recent, comes from ACKSII, with the Venturer class being almost exactly what I was looking for, though at the time I did not know that I was looking for it, as it were.

 After all this, I decided on adding the Factotum class, taking name not from BREAK!!! but from the Venturer template titles from ACKSII!!!!.

 The Factotum Level-Up table:

 

(Scouting is only available to the Ranger and here, and Weapon & Armor Upkeep is only available to the Fighter and here.)

First level features:

Hauling: The factotum’s Weight Allowance and Maximum Pressure are doubled.

Trade Leverage: When exchanging coins, the tax is reduced by 1%/level of the factotum, to a minimum of 1% (min 0% at 9^th level).  As well, the cost of goods and services over 100gp are reduced by 1%/level.

 ...That's all.

 Though, I should mention that General Skills refers not to the same entry in ACKSII!!!!!, but rather the following:

 

 No problem cannot be solved with a good table.

Be seeing you.