The fighting magic-user is my human variant of the B/X elf class. A fighting magic-user divides attention between martial and arcane pursuits, hence the slower (elf) level progression.
Level remains limited to 10. If you want to be able to prepare the most powerful spells (sixth level), you must play a dedicated magic-user. “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). Fighting magic-users may still cast sixth level spells from scrolls.
Fighting magic-users lack the following elf abilities:
- Infravision
- Increased chance to discover secret doors
- Immunity to ghoul paralysis
The fighting magic-user is, however, able to wear any mundane metal armor, unlike faerie creatures (such as elves), which are pained by iron and steel.
Unlike the standard magic-user, the fighting magic-user has no chance of spell failure when wearing armor.
What about weapons and HD? Are they the same as an Elf? If so, I don’t know if losing the Elven abilities is enough to compensate for the addition of Platemail… Let us know how this works out, assuming you haven’t been using it already for an extended period of time.
TB
HD are the same (d6), and by my house rules any class may use any weapon (damage is by hit die).
http://untimately.blogspot.com/2011/12/damage-by-hit-die.html
The fighting magic-user as written is slightly weaker than the elf due to the missing racial abilities, but the demi-human classes are not available by default to players under these rules. The fighting magic-user replaces the elf in terms of PC classes (though there are elves in the setting, just not for PCs). The main idea is to have a fighter/mage option with different flavor than the cleric (which is also available to PCs).
Basically, in terms of game mechanics, I think the seven B/X classes are pretty much ideal (both in terms of the number of choices and in terms of the diversity of abilities), I just want to center the campaign around humans (and thus make true demi-humans more alien). This is what the PC class selection looks like in the end:
– Cleric
– Fighter
– Magic-user
– Thief
– Scientor (based on the dwarf class)
– Fighting magic-user (based on the elf class)
– Scout (based on the halfling class)
I have a one page house rules document that is almost done, and I plan on posting it when it is ready.