Nethack

[zyborg]

Anyone tried to make some of the NetHack classes into D&D classes? I was thinking about the archaeologist class specifically. If not... I'll try to learn the rules better, and once I'm a 'master' (relative to how I am now), I'll try to make some.

[Zeofar]

Archaeologists are properly fluffed rogues or experts. Barbarians are fighters. Cavemen are fighters, monks, or barbarians. Healers are cloistered clerics or experts, maybe. Knights are knights or fighters. Monks are monks or cloistered clerics. Rangers are rangers or fighters. Rogues are rogues. Samurai are fighters, knights, or samurai. Tourists could be anything, but especially commoners with a wondrous item. Valkyrie are fighters or knights. Wizards are wizards.

Now, you could make classes that get exactly the abilities as the classes, but they're really already covered in D&D and/or existing homebrew without the need to specifically create them. If you're thinking more of "spiritual" versions of the classes (an archeologist that actually gets archaeological abilities), yeah, most of them exist.

[Milskidasith]

Wizards feel more like Warlocks or Sorcerers to me.

[zyborg]

Er... sorry about this thread, then. Now, what were you talking about, 'an archeologist that actually gets archaeological abilities'? How does that work? Some kind of rogue/Wizard or something?

[Zeofar]

Er... sorry about this thread, then. Now, what were you talking about, 'an archeologist that actually gets archaeological abilities'? How does that work? Some kind of rogue/Wizard or something?

Artificer would be closer, but you could throw in some Rogue with that to get something closer to Nethack archaeologists. Just searching for "archaeologist" here turns up this prestige class. You could expand it to a base class pretty easily, if you preferred being one from the beginning. I'll admit, there isn't a lot for archaeologists specifically, so that would probably be the most worthwhile if you want to get class abilities that relate to being a "heroic archaeologist." Being a real-world one is pretty simple though, with ranks in appraise and the appropriate knowledges. All of the others have a whole, whole lot though. Nethack classes pretty much just cover a whole bunch of character archetypes, so you'll see most of those reflected in D&D somewhere.

Wizards feel more like Warlocks or Sorcerers to me.

I would have said that, but they use spellbooks, so that was really the deciding factor for me there.

[DracoDei]

Sounds like Alternate Class Features might be the way to go if the feel of the pre-existing stuff isn't close enough for you. I don't know enough about Nethack to comment more than that.

[Zeofar]

Sounds like Alternate Class Features might be the way to go if the feel of the pre-existing stuff isn't close enough for you.

I'll second this. I can't direct you to any specific ones at the moment, though.

Also, you could make a decent Archaeologist out of almost every class with the right feats, the most important probably being Education or Able Learner.