B/X(ish) Class - The Fungal Artisans, Part 1

A new race-class for my hack of B/X. For those unfamiliar, in “Basic/Expert” D&D and the other Starter Sets of the late 70s and early 80s, there was no distinction between race and class; Clerics and Thieves were humans, whilst Elves were...uh...Elves, and similarly for Dwarves and Halflings. The demihuman race-classes had a bunch of funky gimmicks that set them aside from the human adventuring classes. There are arguments for and against, for sure, but I like relative rules simplicity, love class specialization/character niches a lot, and also approve of customizability within classes, so race-classes fit well with me. 

The class description below includes a few rules mentions relevant to my B/X hack which you can, I'm sure, easily translate – for instance, Saves are modelled after Against The Wicked City/3^rd Edition, with Fortitude, Reflex, and Will Saving Throws, affected by Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom respectively. The number given in the table is what they must equal or beat on a d20 to pass the given Saving Throw. Similarly, Fungal Artisans are usually better at foraging than other characters, who generically have a 1 in 3 chance of finding food for the day if they travel at 2/3 speed.

The Fungal Artisans are an Ancestry in my nascent Borderlands setting – an in-between zone, between our world and the true Land of Faery. Think Stardust, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Elidor, Neverwhere, Narnia, and the two Labryinths – Jim Henson's and Pan's.

Here is their one-paragraph summary:

“The Artisans are in fact only one group within a wider race of technicoloured mushroom-people, but outsiders name the whole Ancestry for them. They are usually nomads, seeking sustenance from decay as they travel. Sometimes these bands go wild and seek to create new dead matter from whatever is nearby. The Artisans make startling art out of dead matter, transforming it into bizarre, innovative sculptures and paintings - their most skilled members can even create animate constructs.”

Myconids, by Hector Ortiz

A player choosing to play a Fungal Artisan may either choose to play as a member of the Artisan caste itself, or as one of the forager-warrior caste. Twoclass features are shared by both castes:

Fungal Feeding: Fungal Artisans consume decayed organic matter for sustenance – rotten wood and meat, for instance. Few other Ancestries have the tolerance or digestive tract to handle the ordinary food of these mushroom-men. Such matter can usually easily be bought as a Rations-equivalent in settlements at 50% of the ordinary price. Whilst foraging in any suitable environment, the Fungal Artisan increases their chance of finding sustenance for the day by 1 in 3 – so in a normal environment, they have a 2 in 3 chance of finding sustenance when travelling slowly enough to forage.

Telepathic Spores: Fungal Artisans cannot speak, but rather communicate via telepathy. Any Fungal Artisan can always communicate telepathically with any other Fungal Artisan within 100-feet. They may also use telepathic spores to allow them to communicate telepathically with up to 6 other individuals at any one time. This telepathy similarly has a 100-foot range. If they are connected to six non-Artisan people already and want to connect to a new person (via infecting them with benign spores!), they must drop their connection to one of the pre-existing telepathic partners. Any new telepathic partner must be within 30-feet for the spores to be effective. Anyone seeded with such spores is seeded permanently, or until the connection is dropped by the Artisan, or if Cure Disease is used upon them.

Artisan Caste

The Artisan-caste class table is as follows (they are capped at 10^th level):

Level	XP	HP	FORT Save	REF Save	WILL Save	Inspiration Points Per Day
1	0	1d6	12	16	13	2
2	1750	2d6	12	16	13	3
3	1500	3d6	12	16	13	4
4	7500	4d6	12	16	13	5
5	14000	5d6	10	14	11	6
6	28000	6d6	10	14	11	7
7	56000	7d6	10	14	11	8
8	112000	8d6	10	14	11	9
9	224000	9d6	8	12	9	10
10	336000	9d6+2	8	12	9	11

To Hit Bonus: +1 to Melee or Missile Attacks.

Mycological Artforms

Artisans utilise their Inspiration Points to convert dead matter into art – a form of material transmutation beyond the dreams of alchemists. They also complete these great works in speeds beyond even the most efficient human craftsmen.

At 1^st Level, choose an Artform from the list below at Tier 1. At each subsequent level, choose either to advance an existing Artform up one Tier, or, if there is a teacher available (either another Fungal Artisan, or a supremely skilled artist of another Ancestry), gain a new Artform.

The five Artforms are:

Sculpture: Beginning with the creation of lifelike statues and the like, this Artform can progress to the creation of semi-sentient constructs. It can also be used for the creation of relatively simple tools and weapons.

Painting: This Artform is used both for fine art painting, but also for disguises and armour.

Architecture: More than a form of Sculpture, this Artform enables – with time, effort, and materiel – the creation of buildings, with masters able to create natural features and even wonderworks such as floating palaces.

Moving Pictures: A relatively new Artform, this allows the Artisan to depict moving but insubstantial images – perhaps via some stylized form like sand painting, or perhaps in a very realistic fashion. Advancement in this allows the Artisan to make the pictures more complex and interactive.

Chemistry: With practice, this Artform progresses from relatively simple functions such as the purification of water or the slow change of a wooden door into sludge all the way up to the creation of healing reagents and dark poisons.

Each of these Artforms has multiple Tiers, which require the expenditure of different amounts of Inspiration Points (more IPs for higher tiers)

Forager-Warrior Caste

The Forager-Warrior is capped at 10^th Level.

Level	XP	HP	FORT Save	REF Save	WILL Save
1	0	1d8	14	15	14
2	2000	2d8	14	15	14
3	4000	3d8	14	15	14
4	8000	4d8	11	13	13
5	16000	5d8	11	13	13
6	32000	6d8	11	13	13
7	64000	7d8	9	9	11
8	128000	8d8	9	9	11
9	256000	9d8	9	9	11
10	384000	9d8+3	7	7	9

To Hit Bonus: +2 to Melee Attacks, +1 to Missile Attacks.

Psychotropic Spores: Once per day per level, the Forager-Warrior may target a non-fungal, non-undead creature within 20-feet. That target must make a Fortitude Save or be affected as per the spell Sleep (though strictly the target is conscious but catatonic). At 7^th Level, the Forager-Warrior may, once per day instead of using a Sleep spore, instead force its target to make a Will Save or be affected as per the spell Confusion.

Next Time: Detailed rules for Artforms.