Before diving into the priest kits, I forgot an important part of the Warrior kits. Namely, that with specialization in the bow, you have an effective Archer kit. Not only does he gets +1 to hit, +2 to damage with a bow, he gains the point blank range allowing him to use the bow in melee range combat. Barring the use of metal armor is up to the GM.

When it comes to priest kits in 2e, you have to talk about spheres. All the priest spells are divided into 18 spheres. Unlike a Wizard, it isn't feasible to specialize in one sphere, so the Priest's Handbook talked about combat ability and spheres working as a balancing factor. Essentially, a priest with good weapons has weaker magic, a priest with weaker weapons has good magic. Ultimately, I think this is a good way to work it out.

Now for the confusing bit. Sphere is not an OGL term. In an earlier post, I talked about how the priests would be differentiated by domain. In order to comply with the OGL, I feel like I need to use the OGL terms domain instead. This creates a bit of a disconnect as OGL domains add bonus spells instead of acting like schools of priestly magic. I apologize for that. Maybe I am too concerned about the OGL in this instance, but I'd rather err on the side of caution.

So how do the priest kits work?

Clerics are redefined to have the same weapons choices, but access to only five domains (new usage, not OGL usage). Three domains can access levels 1 to 7. Two domains can access only spells level 1 to 3. There is one domain that all priests can access, the General domain. It is available to all priests from level 1 to level 7. Outside of this domain, the player has his/her choice of the other four.

It is not too different from an OGL cleric in one sense. The OGL cleric chooses two domains within the domains controlled by the specific deity the cleric serves. The difference is the number of spells held in common by all clerics. Instead of over a hundred, there are only a handful. The trick is going to be to make most or all of the available options valid choices for a PC.

I've heard of cloistered clerics - they do not "do combat" so they have more powerful spellcasting abilities. One advantage of the system I am proposing is that a cloistered cleric becomes a kit of the Priest class. Since the weapons and armor a cloistered cleric would have are awful at best, they would have access to 13 domains, The General domain plus six from levels 1 to 7 and six from levels 1 to 3.

The other advantage is that a battle priest, one trained by the religious order for combat, will have good weapon choices (swords, metal armors, etc) plus some spellcasting ability. at first level. What is the difference between a battle priest and a paladin? In terms of mechanics, a paladin has warrior abilities, including weapon specialization. A battle priest would have priest abilities and restrictions. Specifically, a battle priest would have access to the General domain plus one other for spells between level 1 and 7. He/She could also access one other domain for spells between level 1 and 3. Limited magic, but at a Priest's spell progression table.

It's tempting to provide alternate powers to Turn Undead that has been a staple of the cleric since the beginning. I believe that should reside at the level of a class (like Cleric or Druid) instead of a kit (battle priest, cloistered cleric). Maybe a different type of priest would have the power to incite fear instead of Turn Undead.  Depending on your campaign, there could be a type of anti-wizard priest with an immunity to certain types (or schools) of wizard spells. Along those lines, I almost always have an anti-psionic priest class that has certain immunities to psionics/mind-altering spells instead of the turn undead power. As fun as these ideas are, it is still a separate class, not a kit.

Will the priest kits require a generic pantheon? Maybe it will - the srd has one. At this point, I think I will have names of deities and domains, but I'm hoping to come up with something somehow that will not require a pantheon.

Next up, the wizard kits.

One of the issues with kits was the special ability and hindrance that went with each one. The base class had no explicitly stated hindrances, yet the "flavor" version of the base class had a boon and a bane that somehow balanced out.

One example of this was the swashbuckler kit. The three special bonus were an AC bonus (because he's so hard to hit!), Rogue non-weapon proficiencies at half price, and a +2 adjustment to the reaction roll in some situations. To balance this out was a hindrance that stated that the swashbuckler was a trouble magnet.

The purpose behind the first two bonuses was to force a swashbuckler PC to take unpopular, but genre-correct weapons and non-weapon proficiencies. I understand the rationale, but forcing a character to take weapons feels like the wrong way to go about it.

I would recommend simply that a swashbuckler keeps the weapon specialization (just like any other warrior) but is required to take the tumbling non-weapon proficiency. Then I'd recommend the seafaring, blind fighting and tightrope walking non-weapon proficiencies.

Disguise, forgery and the like sound more like a thief. Instead of creating a kit with a fighter that wants to be a thief-acrobat, I'd create a buccaneer kit for Rogues that provide the appropriate weapons (black powder pistol, sabre, rapier, etc) and the non-weapon proficiencies for being a rope-walking cheat. Specifically, include the gaming, disguise, and forgery non-weapon proficiencies for the buccaneer while including pick pockets, read languages, etc. With the extra non-weapon proficiencies that Rogues get in my retroclone, the buccaneer will have everything he/she needs to sail the seven seas and charm his/her way through settled lands and territories.

The point is that both the swashbuckler kit and the buccaneer kits do not provide special abilities and can be created using the rules of the base class.

Let's take another example, the priest-monk kit.

Making the monk a subset of the priest is interesting. However, I would think that a wizard kit that featured a weapon proficiency in martial arts would be more interesting. Make the somatic components of spells a type of maneuver and there's a lot of interesting stuff you can do without bending the rules.

Honestly, though, I'd make the monk a different class - they would have the martial arts weapon proficiency, but I'd also give them a special ability that provides level-based bonuses to AC. Having a new special ability necessitates the creation of another class, otherwise the balance issues come back with a vengeance.

So what will kits look like? There will be five or six kits of each of the four main classes. The kits may provide a bonus non-wepaon proficiency, but otherwise must follow the rules of creating a character in the man dlass.

Warrior:

cavalier
swashbuckler
wilderness warrior (for all types of terrain, including urban)

More later as time warrants.