Swords & Wizardry: Class and ancestry combinations from Book of Options
Mythmere Games recently published Book of Options for Swords & Wizardry. The book, as you might have guessed from its name, includes a number of optional rules for extending your Swords & Wizardry game. Among other things it includes 12 new classes (barbarian, bard, chivalric knight, demon hunter, dwarven priest, elf blade, illusionist, necromancer, troubadour, warlock, wrath-chanter, and feycaster) and two new ancestries (gnomes and stygians).
With new Character Creation Challenge looming from around the corner (it's 2025 already?! where did 2024 go?!), one of the ideas I had is to create first level player characters for each class and ancestry combination, like I did earlier this year.
First step towards that is to map all the class and ancestry combinations in Book of Options:
| Class / Ancestry | Human | Dwarf | Elf | Half-elf | Halfling | Gnome | Stygian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | ✓ | ||||||
| Bard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | * | * |
| Chivalric Knight | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Demon Hunter | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Dwarven Priest | ✓ | ||||||
| Elf Blade | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Illusionist | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Necromancer | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Troubadour | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Warlock | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Wrath-Chanter | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Fighter | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Thief | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Fighter/Thief | ✓ | ||||||
| Fighter/Illusionist | ✓ | ||||||
| Illusionist/Thief | ✓ | ||||||
| Feycaster | ✓ | ||||||
| Assassin | ✓ | ||||||
| Cleric | ✓ | ||||||
| Magic-User | ✓ |
Asterisk on Gnome and Stygian Bard: under class description bard is described as allowed to any ancestry, but neither of the new ancestries lists Bard as allowed class. Matt Finch confirmed to me that allowing bard class to either of those new ancestries should be considered as optional rule. Gnome would have the same level limitation as dwarf, elf, and halfling, while stygian would have no level limitation, like human and half-elf.
First thing I notice is that there is a whopping 42 combinations (44 if we include optional bard extension)! That is more than twice as much from Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised, which has 19 combinations (20 if we include optional fighter-cleric dwarf):
| Class / Ancestry | Human | Dwarf | Elf | Half-elf | Halfling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin | ✓ | ||||
| Cleric | ✓ | ||||
| Druid | ✓ | ||||
| Fighter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Magic-User | ✓ | ||||
| Monk | ✓ | ||||
| Paladin | ✓ | ||||
| Ranger | ✓ | ||||
| Thief | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Fighter-Cleric | * | ||||
| Fighter-Thief | ✓ | ||||
| Fighter-Magic-User | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Fighter-Magic-User-Thief | ✓ | ||||
| Fighter-Magic-User-Cleric | ✓ |
Given that it took me several months to create 400 player characters (and their equipment packs), I think I'll have to chunk characters for Book of Options. I'll start with humans and work my way from there.
Since I already made all the tables, why not bring them together?
Below is a combined table of all class and ancestry combinations from Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised and Swords & Wizardry Book of Options:
| Class / Ancestry | Human | Dwarf | Elf | Half-elf | Halfling | Gnome | Stygian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Barbarian | ✓ | ||||||
| Bard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | * | * |
| Chivalric Knight | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Cleric | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Demon Hunter | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Druid | ✓ | ||||||
| Dwarven Priest | ✓ | ||||||
| Elf Blade | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Feycaster | ✓ | ||||||
| Fighter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Illusionist | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Magic-User | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Monk | ✓ | ||||||
| Necromancer | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Paladin | ✓ | ||||||
| Ranger | ✓ | ||||||
| Thief | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Troubadour | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Warlock | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Wrath-Chanter | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Fighter-Cleric | * | ||||||
| Fighter-Illusionist | ✓ | ||||||
| Fighter-Magic-User | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Fighter-Magic-User-Cleric | ✓ | ||||||
| Fighter-Magic-User-Thief | ✓ | ||||||
| Fighter-Thief | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Illusionist-Thief | ✓ |
As you can see, that is a massive 64—sixty-four—legal class and ancestry combinations. Throw that on a new player and see that cope with analysis paralysis. That's why it is so important that the Judge selects options most relevant to their game. But that is topic for another post.
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