A Lesser Bard Class

[The following also comes from my City of Greyhawk campaign in the early '90s. This bard was meant to correct problems I perceived in the 2nd ed. AD&D bard class and the "lesser" part compares it to the 1st ed. AD&D bard, which was retained as the "greater" bard.]
Lesser Bards

of the two types of bards, lesser bards are the ones most people hear about and see. Some people do not make a distinction between the common bard and the great bards of legend, much to the lesser bard's advantage.

The lesser bard travels about, performing for his living. While traveling, the bard starts to pick up the skills of adventurers. The bard becomes a jack-of-all-trades, knowing a little from various classes without mastering any one in particular.

Humans, elves, and half-elves can be lesser bards. A lesser bard must have at least the following scores: a 9 in Strength, an 11 Intelligence, a 10 Wisdom, a 12 Dexterity, and a 13 Charisma. They may be of any alignment. A lesser gains a 10% bonus to experience points earned if Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma are all 15 or higher.

The lesser bard can cast spells. Although they can begin casting as early as 1st level, they begin with no spellbook of their own and must find or borrow scrolls or spellbooks. A lesser bard can learn to cast any spell from any spell list, including cleric and druid spells. All spells cast by a lesser bard are less effective than those cast by normal spellcasters. Like a druid using oak leaves, spell range, duration, and area of effect are halved. Saving throws made versus these spells are at +2.

Lesser bards may use thieving skills as if a thief of the same level. However, a lesser bard may only have five skills initially. He may choose any five from the thieves' skill table. Additional skills are gained at the same rate as thieves.

Lastly, the lesser bard has certain abilities of his own. A lesser bard above 1st level has a percent chance of knowing a legend related to any particular person, place, or thing. This skill can only be used once on any subject. Also, the bard's poetic ability raises the morale of associated creatures by 10% and inspire a ferocity in attack that bestows a +1 bonus to hit. This skill requires 2 rounds to implement, and then lasts for one turn. The bard may engage in combat while reciting, but may not sing or cast spells with verbal components. Lastly, a bard's singing and playing negates other song effects, such as harpies use. A bard can also, by singing, sooth a shrieker into not shrieking.

Lesser Bards Table I.:
-------------------Experience--# of Hit
Experience Points--Level-------Dice (d6)--Level Title
0-2,000------------1-----------1----------Rhymer
2,001-4,000--------2-----------2----------Poet
4,001-8,000--------3-----------3----------Lyricist
8,001-17,000-------4-----------4----------Singer
17,001-30,000------5-----------5----------Performer
30,001-55,000------6-----------6----------Joungleur
55,001-95,000------7-----------7----------Troubador
95,001-175,000-----8-----------8----------Minstrel
175,001-325,000----9-----------9----------Lorist
325,001-500,000----10----------10---------Bard
500,001-660,000----11----------11---------Bard (11th level)
660,001-880,000----12----------12---------Bard (12th level)

Lesser Bards Table II.:
Experience---Know Legend---Number of Spells
Level--------Percentage----1-2-3-4-5-6--------College
1------------0%------------1------------------Fochulan
2------------3%------------2------------------Fochulan
3------------5%------------3------------------Fochulan
4------------6%------------3-1----------------Fochulan
5------------7%------------3-2----------------MacFuirmidh
6------------8%------------3-3----------------MacFuirmidh
7------------10%-----------3-3-1--------------MacFuirmidh
8------------13%-----------3-3-2--------------MacFuirmidh
9------------16%-----------3-3-3--------------Doss
10-----------19%-----------4-3-3-1------------Doss
11-----------21%-----------4-3-3-2------------Doss
12-----------23%-----------4-4-3-3------------Canaith
13-----------25%-----------5-4-3-3-1----------Canaith
14-----------28%-----------5-5-4-3-2----------Canaith
15-----------31%-----------5-5-4-3-3-1--------Cli
16-----------34%-----------5-5-5-4-3-2--------Cli

Note on Bard Colleges: Aside from role-playing, level of college is a useful reference for determining rarity of training facilities and access to peers. The higher the college, the fewer there are of them.

The Thief Class Revisited

[This is from the house rules I wrote for my 1st ed. AD&D City of Greyhawk campaign, back around 1989.]
To allow more variety in the thief class, the thieves' skills have been expanded upon to include the following: tightrope walking, pole vaulting, high jumping, broad jumping, tumbling, falling, street fighting, street smart, forgery, and disguise. The 1st level thief still starts out with 7 skills, but chooses which 7 they will be; thus allowing for custom-made thief kits.

Thief Function Table--Expansion (Plus Racial Modifiers)

Level ---- Read ------ Tightrope - Pole ----- High
of Thief - Languages - Walking --- Vaulting - Jumping
1 -------- 05% ------- 50% ------- 6 1/2' --- 2 3/4'
2 -------- 10% ------- 55% ------- 7' ------- 3'
3 -------- 15% ------- 60% ------- 7' 1/2' -- 3 1/4'
4 -------- 20% ------- 65% ------- 8' ------- 3 1/2'
5 -------- 25% ------- 70% ------- 8 1/2' --- 3 3/4'
6 -------- 30% ------- 75% ------- 9' ------- 4'

Level ---- Broad ---- Tumbling --- Falling -- Street --- Street
of Thief - Jumping --------------- ---------- Fighting - Smart
1 -------- 6 1/2' --- 05% -------- 20%/10' -- 1% ------- 05%
2 -------- 7' ------- 10% -------- 50%/10' -- 2% ------- 10%
3 -------- 7 1/2' --- 15% -------- 90%/10' -- 3% ------- 15%
4 -------- 8' ------- 20% -------- 30%/20' -- 4% ------- 20%
5 -------- 8 1/2' --- 25% -------- 70%/20' -- 5% ------- 25%
6 -------- 9' ------- 31% -------- 10%/30' -- 6% ------- 30%
7 -------- 9 1/4' --- 37% -------- 30%/30' -- 7% ------- 35%
8 -------- 9 1/2' --- 43% -------- 60%/30' -- 8% ------- 40%
9 -------- 9 3/4' --- 49% -------- 100%/30' - 9% ------- 45%
10 ------- 10' ------ 55% -------- 40%/40' -- 10% ------ 50%
11 ------- 10 1/4' -- 61% -------- 90%/40' -- 11% ------ 55%
12 ------- 10 1/2' -- 67% -------- 30%/50' -- 12% ------ 60%

Level ---- Forgery - Disguise
of Thief
1 -------- 30% ----- 15%
2 -------- 35% ----- 20%
3 -------- 40% ----- 25%
4 -------- 45% ----- 30%
5 -------- 51% ----- 36%
6 -------- 57% ----- 42%

Race of - Tightrope - Pole ----- High ---- Broad
Thief --- Walking --- Vaulting - Jumping - Jumping
Dwarf --- -10% ------ -2' ------ -2' ----- -2'
Elf ----- +5% ------- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Gnome --- -5% ------- -2' ------ -2' ----- -2'
Half-elf no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Half-orc no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Halfling +10% ------ -1' ------ -1' ----- -1'
Hobgoblin no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.

[-The tumbling skill is a percent chance to make one attack that would otherwise have hit miss, limited to one hit per round.
-The falling skill is a percent chance to fall up to that far without taking any damage.
- The street fighting skill is a bonus to chance of knockout in unarmed combat.
- The street smart skill (which was very popular in the urban campaign) is a chance of evading a rolled wandering city encounter before it happens.]

Guest-Starring Gene Ha!

As a nice postscript to the run of Journey into College I've shared, I'm going to break my rule of only featuring my own work and share the only new JoC work to be done in recent years. At a comic book workshop a few months ago, I had the opportunity of showing professional artist Gene Ha my last JoC strip and he honored me by sketching Judge Chamblin in marker. Ha is a remarkable artist, I think more so in thick marker than with his regular tools, as it keeps his art cleaner and free of spidery lines. I told him he was channeling Gil Kane in this sketch, but he complemented me by saying he was actually channeling me!

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 13

[From May 11, 1993 -- the end! Yes, JoC ended on a cliffhanger 16 years ago, 6 days before my 22nd birthday, and I never worked on it since. I don't think I ever had worked out how the courtroom scene would play out, but I did have ambitious plans for after that, including a "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" sequel, inspired by Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency. Again, thanks to Megan for wanting to add color to all my old strips.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 12

[From the April 13, 1993 Aurora Borealis. I can't tell you why this installment was labeled as no. 13 when, by my current count, it's no. 12. I was either off then or I'm missing another one now. Colors by Megan.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 11

[From the Feb. 5, 1993 Aurora Borealis. Colors by Megan.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 10

[From the Aurora Borealis, Oct. 30, 1992. Colors by Megan.]