Re: [DL] New Core Class: The Shootist d20?

["cnc80@shaw.ca" <cnc80@shaw.ca>]

Kevin L Stoner wrote:

>Just so you know, The shootist spells were covered in d20 
>Texas Rangers. And after speaking with Mr. McGlothlin 
>personally on the issue, I have to agree that the shootist 
>should be treated as a huckster specializing in guns. The 
>class you designed is really really powerful. I would at very 
>least tone it down a bit. They are powerful and not so 
>common, thus reflecting the experience load a dual class puts 
>on them. And it gives them the ability to focus more on magic 
>or blastin. For instance in my deadlands game the Shootist is 
>a 4th level Huckster and a 6th level Gunslinger. Thus he has 
>very small magic with very high to-hit bonuses. So having 
>personally field tested the shootist, I prefer it that way.
>
>Sincerely,
>Kevin Stoner
>
>
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>


I think I need to explain why I created this Core Class.


Spoilers I guess (not sure if I need one though).
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    I picked up Lonestar as one of the few split stack books, written in 
the deadlands tradition.


    When I read the Shootist, I liked what I saw.  However, I felt the 
translation between the two game systems wasn't quite right.  So after a 
bit of humming and hawing, I tried to take a few things to best fit my 
vision of the shootist.

    In the original system, a Shootist was shown by taking a arcane 
background (Shootist), rather then taking a huckster and gun skills.  I 
wanted to show how this distinctive nature of the shootist in instead of 
simply slapping down a few levels of huckster. 

    Additionally, I wanted the overall feel to be considerably different 
then the huckster.  Part of the reason for a new backlash table was to 
reflect both the perils of gunplay, which should be different then 
slinging the cards.  I also had wanted to reflect the nature of magic in 
Deadlands, namely that the even when you get magic from the Manitous, it 
is usually has a price.  Finally, I wanted it to reflect the man who 
created this arcane art, in the tradition of the fetish, another common 
theme in deadlands.   
    I thought long and hard about whether to make it a Prestige Class or 
a Core Class.  I finally picked Core class mainly to reflect that "Doc 
Holiday" was truely a remarkable individual who mix Funplay and the 
huckster art.  After he was "contacted" by One-Eye, I would assume that 
the Texas rangers would be very concerned about keeping these secrets to 
themselves.  When they find individuals that have the right "Talent" and 
patriotism, they would be retrained in seclusion and come out to a new 
life.  It would be taking the Texas Ranger training, one step further, 
making it pretty much exclusive.

   
    I tried to make it fairly under control.  This is part of the 
reason, that they are neither as good a gunslinger or as good a 
spellcaster as a huckster.  They would be required to make choices with 
their less skill points, best reflect the three main skills of the 
shootist: Gunplay, Hexslinging and Bluff.

    Without these three skills, a shootist is siginificantly weakened.

    Your probably right about it being overpowered, so how about a few 
more limitations to the class.  How about the following:

    1. Require the Shootist to never multiclass.  This would assist in 
making sure that once the character's takes the role of a Shootist he 
can never look back.  As for the Doc, that can be easily explained by 
the fact that their ain't nobody like the old Doc and he's the exception.

    2.  Increase the level of spells not on the list:  I originally made 
it so that any spell would need to be one level higher for the purposes 
of casting.  Would 3 or 4 be much more suitable?

Any other ideas would be most helpful.