I don't usually do this...

The prospect of moving back to America for more than a few months has me all manner of excited. And not least among the reasons is getting to actually roleplay again. 'Participating' in the blogospheric 'community' is all right, but it's just not enough. I've tried getting into PbP and virtual tabletop games, but Korea's time zone is somewhat prohibitive.

In the past few weeks I've been getting everything lined up for the big international move: apartment, car, game group, tai chi class, didgeridoo lessons, job, cell phone. And though I'm sure I'll be spoiled for choice in metropolitan Texas, long privation has prepared me to take whatever I can get. So I've been thinking what I would play if the only thing available was D&D.

And I've been having some really good ideas.

I've been thinking (in 3.x terms) of running an LG rogue up to 5th level and then going paladin the rest of the way. The story here is that as a kid his life was saved by a paladin. Or that he tried to steal from a paladin, but the paladin was too competent to steal from, to merciful to kill him, and too generous to let him go away hungry. Either way, it's a life-changing experience, and the young rogue spends the first few years of his career as a sidekick to a paladin, or working for a paladin order, solving problems they don't have the skills and stealth for, and later becoming a paladin himself and being the specialist that other paladins call in when they need a rogue's help but don't want to be constantly watching their backs.

Then I started to figure that any organization as prevalent as the paladins would have had that effect on a lot of people, and that they'd have to have lots of such specialists on call. So if paladins are essentially fighters with some clerical properties, their counterpart would be some kind of rogue/wizard hybrid or lawful variant bard. Some of these people would be aspiring paladins who want a well-rounded foundation before they commit to a very demanding class (like doctors who major in art history as an undergrad), and others would pursue this path all the way to level 20 and live out their adventuring career as technicians, experts, and specialists working alongside the paladins.

Though my D&D is a bit rusty, I've already sketched out the bones of this class: LG, NG, or LN, proficient in simple weapons and at least one martial weapon of choice, light armor (maybe medium, too) and shields, bard-like attack, HP, save, and spell progression (though a different spell list), a rogue-like list of class skills, and bardic special abilities replaced with rogue-like and paladin-complementing abilities or metamagic bonus feats. Maybe like the 3.5 ranger has to choose a specialized rogue-like or wizard-like ability path after a certain level.

And there it is. I'm so excited about playing again I'm creating hombrew classes for a game system I don't even like.