Anti-Classes

F Schoonover ... Nothing to do with the post, just awesome

Those who have delved into the OBBs will recall that the early game had not only clerics, but also anti-clerics. The anti-clerics were, of course, just chaotic clerics who cast the reverse of some of the traditional cleric spells.

Today I started wondering … what about other anti-classes. The cleric's opposite is based on an opposing alignment. The anti-classes buzzing around in my head, though, are focused on opposing the overall class functions of the other classes to act as an in-game counter to the PC's.

Anti-Fighters (Harrier): A fighter fights, so an anti-fighter … doesn’t fight? Not much room for a class there. One possibility would be a character that calms tensions and ends fights, but that has more of a magical feel to it, and, frankly, removing combat from the game doesn't improve the game experience.  To keep our anti-fighter non-magical and to make it fun and interesting, we could instead make the anti-fighter a specialist at countering the tactics and abilities of traditional fighters. When they engage a fighter in combat they slowly improve against that fighter in particular, increasing their AC against them and perhaps forcing the fighter to pass some sort of test or saving through to disengage with them without suffering a free back attack, as many rules allow against combatants that turn and run from a fight. The point of the anti-fighter is to tie up fighters and keep them from doing damage, making them especially potent when accompanied by a large body of 0-level or 1 HD monsters.

Anti-Magic-User (Witch Hunter): This one seems simple. Anti-magic-users cancel out the magical abilities of magic-users. I’m thinking you would use something like the turn undead chart for counter-spelling. In fact, maybe you could extend the concept. Where a cleric destroys or takes control of lesser undead, the anti-magic-user could turn the spell back on the spell caster or block the spell caster from preparing/memorizing the same spell again for a number of days equal to the anti-magic-user's level. The anti-magic-user should probably have improved saves vs. magic and maybe be able to sniff magic out. Another cool ability would be the ability to drain scrolls, perhaps using that energy to heighten their own magical defenses. Since these dudes wouldn’t have much in the way of fun, active (rather than re-active) abilities, we could ramp up their combat abilities a bit, allowing them to attack as thieves and use the same armor and weapons as thieves.

Anti-Thief (Thief-Taker): The first thing that springs to mind is the classic thief-taker. Where the thing has a set of skills that makes them good at stealing, the anti-thief would have a different set of skills meant to counter them – hide/set traps (find/remove traps), penetrate shadows (hide in shadows), hear footfalls (move silently), silent signals (hear noises), note pilfering (pick pockets) and, well, I can’t think of anything to counter climb walls (nor do I think I need to). I suppose they would also be able to save vs. backstabs, or perhaps their heightened ability to hear the thief creeping up behind them would render back-stabs unlikely. Since their abilities are also focused on defense, one might heighten their combat abilities, perhaps allowing them to attack as a fighter rather than thief, though restricting them to the same equipment as thieves.

So, what do you think? Probably not great as player characters, but they could be interesting as NPCs designed to frustrate the players and force them to switch up their tactics.

I'm picturing a scene where a party busts into an ogre mage's throne room and finds the ogre mage accompanied by a smattering of goblins (let me at 'em, thinks the party fighters) and four human beings, an anti-cleric, harrier, witch hunter and thief-taker. The party thief attempts to slink into the shadows, but the thief-taker's eyes follow him unerringly, shouting out his position for the benefit of his comrades in the room. One of the party fighters engages the gibbering goblins, but the other finds himself countered by the harrier, who matches him stroke for stroke. The party magic-user raises his hands to cast magic missile, but finds the spell not only fizzle, but the very knowledge that such a spell exists stricken from his mind! The anti-cleric does his best to match the cleric spell for spell as well.

Kinda like this, only more D&D ... image found HERE