Horror classes

[Stormtrooper666]

Hey

I'm looking for any class ideas that might fit a horror setting. Anything from previous dnd editions, homebrew ideas, or a twist on current classes you'd find in pathfinder, dnd, etc

[animorte]

Undead Warlock would be my first thought. I would also look at Phantom Rogue, Secrets Bard, Death or Grave Cleric, Long Death Monk.

I've also enjoyed the plague feel of Spores Druid/Swarmkeeper Ranger.

You could look into stuff like the fear and hallucinatory terrain spells.

Edit: All of this is from 5e D&D btw.

[RedWarlock]

So 3.5 had Heroes of Horror, which even beyond the past-edition material, probably has a ton of good advice for running a horror game.

The specific classes they added, The Archivist, and the Dread Necromancer, are very distinctive.

The Archivist is Wizard-as-Cleric, using the same book mechanics, and then rather than turn undead they had "dark knowledge" that helped their allies. Definitely a more cynical take on magic.

The Dread Necromancer was an attempt to have a Lich Necromancer encoded as a base class, using the mechanics already established for Warmage and Beguiler. It does the job VERY well, in my opinion.

[Mastikator]

Conquest paladin, shadow sorcerer and aberrant mind sorcerer all have potential to be horror themed.

The blood hunter is kinda horror themed.

The battle smith's steel defender could be reflavored as a Frankenstein's monster type construct.

Flavor is free.

[Vahnavoi]

Uh... Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic-User.

You think it isn't horrifying wading in mud and blood, watching your comrades die left and right? Keeping a watch through the night, knowing enemies might be skulking just out of sight, ready to kill you before you can even react?

You think it isn't horrifying, being so poor you're forced to take what isn't yours, knowing it is against the laws of men and gods both? Trying to sleep at night, knowing that if anyone knew what you've done, you'd lose your hand or your head?

You think it isn't horrifying, hearing voices in your head, telling you what to do and say? Knowing for certain there is an absolute standard by which souls are judged and having to toe the line every day of your life, lest literal Hand of God punish you for your transgressions?

You think it isn't horrifying, knowing that some idiot speaking the wrong words at the wrong time could throw open the gates of Hell and bring forth the end of the world? That there are infinite layers with infinitely many beings of pure malevolence outside the thin veneer of what we call "physical reality"?

Even the most basic form of D&D draws inspiration from all forms of horror, from gothic to religious to cosmic. You don't need special classes for horror. You just need to entertain what's happening in the game seriously for ten minutes.

Or, you can have every player character be bitten by a vampire. That works too.

[Ulsan Krow]

I would have to throw my hat in the ring and say there's no experience as horrifying as playing Four Elements Monk

[Psyren]

Secrets Bard

Which Bard is that? Did you mean Spirits or Whispers?

@OP: Fluff is free, just about any subclass or prestige class can be given a horror twist. Your Creation Bard could be channeling poltergeists into items and conjuring objects from the realm of the dead for instance. Or your Moon Druid's wildshape forms could be covered in moss or decay. Or your Berserker Barbarian could be possessed by a bloodthirsty demon and barely clinging to his sanity. Or your Divine Soul Sorcerer is the avatar of an evil god of hunger that demands constant sacrifice. It'd probably be faster to list the subclasses that can't be given a horror twist than the ones that can.

[gbaji]

Are we talking about classes to play as heroes/victims in a horror based campaign? Any classes will work there, since the horror comes from the environment they are operating in. I'd actually suggest that playing "normal" classes subjected to horrific situations that they maybe aren't normally equipped to deal with, might actually enhance the "horror" aspect of the game. I'm just imagining the poor paladin going on a classic "rescue the kidnapped child", only to discover after the rescue that the child is a greater horror than what kidnapped it. Sure. The kidnappers were going to sacrifice the child to their evil deity, but the child is some serious Chucky level craziness as well.

Good times!

If the horror is coming from them in some way (or they are specific classes resulting from living in a horror based world), then that's a totally different story. I can't speak very well to classes that are horror based, so... I'll stick to horrorfying the normal ones.

[animorte]

Which Bard is that? Did you mean Spirits or Whispers?

Haha oops. Spirits, yes. But secrets sounds pretty neat!

[LecternOfJasper]

Back to some forum classics: The Xenotheurgy system by Realms of Chaos has a lot of oddness to dig through. It's mostly bizarre ravings from minds touched by the Far Realm, but that definitely counts as horror (or at least makes for a very tragic figure in a non-horror oriented game).

Link (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?122103-Xenotheurgy-Far-Realms-magic-system)

Also, I've made a 5e update of the Xenotheurgist that should be a bit more consolidated/workable. I'm still making tweaks on the Google Doc, and need more subclass ideas.

Link (Shameless Plug Edition) (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?640744-The-Xenotheurgist-5e-Grod-s-Law-Does-Not-Know-What-Hit-It-)