Mages and Heroes

As often happens with this blog, I intended to post this in late September, then had to put it off because of school.

I'm really pleased with this two-line combat matrix. I had a couple other ideas for how I might use it with od&d.

Mages

Mortals and Monsters vocabulary can also be adapted to spells, as follows:

• Charm Person only applies to Mortals. Charm Monster effects both Mortals and Monsters. Same logic applies to Hold Person and Hold Monster.
• Protection from Evil provides its defensive bonuses against Monsters but not Mortals.
• Hold Portal prevents the passage of Mortals, but not Monsters. Wizard Lock blocks both.
• Sleep ignores hit dice and effects 2d8 (or 2d6, whatever your preference) Mortals or 1 Monster.
• Monsters can cross a Wall of Fire (taking damage), but Mortals can't.

Heroes

One could add a Heroes tier between Mortals and Monsters, equivalent to Hero in od&d, and representing Fighters of level 4+, Clerics of level 5+, Magic Users level 6+. This would detract a bit from the minimalism in the table, but I think its in line with how od&d treats heroic figures. I also like how this curbs the power of higher-level PCs, since they don't get further bonuses at higher tiers (unless they can find a way to become Monstrous...) This is maybe how I would use this table if I played it with od&d instead of Holmes Basic.

For the purposes of spell effects, Heroes are considered to be Mortals, but save at +2.

Updated Table adding a Heroic Tier:

Armour Class	9 None	8 Shield	7 Leather	6 L+S	5 Chain	4 C+S	3 Plate	2 P+S
Mortals	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Heroes	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Monsters	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13