Dungeon in a Cave

I was just poking around in the D&D folder on my computer and found a map I had completely forgotten about.  I created this five years ago for no particular reason besides messing around with mapping in Photoshop. It doesn't look like I finished putting doors everywhere I wanted doors, and I definitely never keyed this or had any real back story in mind when I was creating it.  The entrance is a stair coming down from a above and there is only one exit on the map, a stair heading down farther below.

I remember that I drew the cave layer first and then drew a dungeon inside the caves. This definitely led to some interesting and organic dungeon design.  The dungeon walls are relatively thin, just over 1' thick according to the scale.  I was picturing stone and mortar construction for the dungeon.  The way it is laid out, if you never detect a secret door you would never see the natural cave system and would assume the entire dungeon was a constructed space (instead of a construction in a natural space).   There are numerous secret doors (red rectangles according to my key, I honestly have no idea why I wasn't using the tried and true "S" for secret doors) which give access to the caves outside the dungeon.   Most of the larger caves have high vaulted ceilings, with 10-20' or more of space above the roof of the dungeon to the ceiling of the cave.  Many sections of caverns that appear to be completely blocked off by the dungeon construction could be accessed from outside the dungeon rooms by climbing up onto the roof of the dungeon and dropping down into the "blocked off" section of caves (e.g. the caves at the very top left of the map) Click this link to see the full size image

D&D 5e New Class - Old School Fighter

I want to take a stab at something I feel is lacking in 5e.  I love the design decision to allow completely different mechanics from class to class, but despite all the options there really isn't a completely basic fighter for those people who really just want to play an old school fighter. In the older editions of D&D if you chose the fighter class your character build choices were extremely simple (determine ability scores, HP, weapons and armor).  Your special powers were pretty much limited to having more HP and being better at attacking than other classes.  All you had to know how to do was get in a fight and roll d20s.  This is my stab at a similar "old school" Fighter class for 5e that is balanced for play alongside other 5e classes.

Why do I feel 5e has not provided such a character option?  Even the basic fighter class features will raise some old school players' hackles.  Second Wind is the first example - every fighter has a "limited well of stamina" that restores 1d10+fighter level HP.  Second wind can be used once between rests.  Next, fighting style - at 1st level every fighter also has to choose a fighting style.  There are six options here, ranging from Archery (+2 to ranged attacks) to Protection (Tank anyone? 5e allows one "reaction" per round, and Protection allows the fighter to impose disadvantage on any creature that attacks a target within five feet of the fighter as a reaction provided the fighter is wielding a shield).  At second level, all fighters gain a new ability called action surge - once between rests the fighter can take an extra action. At 9th level fighters can reroll a missed save (once between long rests at 9th level, twice at 13th and three times at 17th level). And of course one feature of all 5e classes is regular ability score increases.  In the case of the fighter, seven times total, between 4th and 19th level, one ability score is raised by 2 or two ability scores are raised by 1.  No ability score can be raised above 20 in this fashion.  And that just covers the basic class features.

Every 5e fighter has to choose a martial archetype at third level. The closest 5e comes to an old school fighter is the "Champion" martial archetype fighter. The champion archetype scores critical hits on a 19-20, at 7th level grants 1/2 proficiency bonus to any STR, DEX or CON check that does not already use the fighter's proficiency bonus, at 10th level chooses a second fighting style from the first level list, at 15th level crits on 18-20, and at 18th level a 4e-ism creeps in.  In 4e any creature is bloodied when it is reduced to half it's original HP or less.  The 18th level class feature of the champion archetype  allows the fighter to regenerate 5+CON mod HP per round while bloodied but not dead.  (to be clear 5e does not name this condition, but it is the bloodied condition from 4e)

So that doesn't sound very old school, right?  The other two martial archetypes are even less so.  The "Battle Master" martial archetype gets special dice called superiority dice which are used to perform special combat maneuvers (there are 16 different combat maneuvers to choose from here!).  The "Eldritch Knight" martial archetype casts spells (from the schools of abjuration and evocation only).  Need I say more?  

New Class:

 Old School 5e Fighter

 (all design decisions explained below)

 Hit Dice: 1d12 per fighter level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + CON mod*

Hit Points at Higher Level: 1d12 (or 7) + CON mod per level after 1st **

Proficiencies: All armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, Strength and Constitution Saving Throws (at 11th level add 1/2 proficiency bonus to DEX, INT, WIS and CHA Saving Throws as well)***

Skills:  Athletics and all other Strength based skill checks****

Old School 5e Fighter progression chart*****

Level	Proficiency Bonus******	AC Bonus*******	Damage Bonus********	Number of Attacks*********
1	+2	+1	-	1
2	+2	+1	-	1
3	+2	+1	+1	1
4	+3	+1	+2	1
5	+4	+1	+2	2
6	+4	+1	+3	2
7	+4	+1	+3	2
8	+4	+2	+4	2
9	+5	+2	+4	2
10	+5	+2	+5	2
11	+6	+2	+5	3
12	+6	+2	+5	3
13	+7	+2	+5	3
14	+7	+2	+5	3
15	+8	+2	+6	3
16	+8	+2	+6	3
17	+8	+2	+6	3
18	+9	+3	+6	3
19	+9	+3	+6	3
20	+9	+3	+6	4

[I had to make some hard decisions (e.g. including baked in AC and damage bonuses) but my main criterion was simplicity of mechanics in play.  A level based bonus to damage or AC is definitely not old school, but in play the bonus is just recorded on the character sheet and no further action is needed.  The player does not need to learn a new mechanic.  I tried to balance each point of variance from the standard 5e fighter as detailed below.]

* +5 starting HP to balance out the 1d10 HP restored by Second Wind

** d12 for HP: Average increase of +1 HP per level to balance out the + fighter level HP restored by Second Wind

*** +1/2 Proficiency Bonus to DEX/INT/WIS/CHA saves at level 11 is intended to balance out two things: the Indomitable 5e fighter class feature (at 9th level reroll any failed save, usable once between rests, twice between rests at 13th level and three times between rests at 17th level); and one set of ability score increases in a non-STR/DEX/CON stat (level 19 increase) not accounted for in the AC, Damage and Proficiency bonus increases detailed below.  

**** Without houseruling out Skills altogether, I felt giving proficiency on all STR based skills was the closest to Old School I could get.  At lower levels this might outweigh the second skill choice of a regular 5e fighter, but at 7th level the Champion archetype fighter gets 1/2 proficiency bonus on any STR, DEX or CON check which probably outweighs the full proficiency bonus on just STR skills up through 10th level.  Close enough for me.  

***** Please note there are no ability score increases for this class.  What you start out with is what you end up with as far as ability scores if you play an Old School 5e Fighter.  I have attempted to bake in equivalent bonuses to the class progression chart to account for the ability score increases of the standard 5e fighter (as detailed below).

******Proficiency Bonus: Increased +3 over 20 levels compared to standard 5e fighter to roughly balance out stat increases (assuming standard array fighter at 1st level [STR15 CON14 DEX13 INT12 WIS10 CHA8]) - Standard 5e fighter's STR mod and CON mod would both go from +2 to +5 with STR increased to 20 max (by level 8) and CON increased to 20 max (by level 16), and I pretty much ignored the level 19 ability score increases (which would not directly impact combat anyway as STR and CON are maxed out and DEX at +2 mod after level 8 ability score increase is the highest mod allowed by medium armor anyway) 

******* AC Bonus:  +1 At 1st level to balance out the Fighting Style (rough equivalent to Defense fighting style which grants +1 bonus to AC while wearing armor); +1 at level 8 to account for DEX bonus increase from standard 5e fighter stat increases;  +1 at level 18 to balance out Champion archetype fighter's regeneration while bloodied ability.

******** Damage Bonus to all attacks:  +1 at 3rd level is intended as a rough balance to the critical on 19-20 of the Champion archetype fighter; +1 at 4th, 6th and 8th level balances out STR mod increases from regular fighter's stat increases; +1 at 10th level is intended as a rough balance to the second fighting style selection (roughly balanced with dueling, which grants +2 to damage while wielding only one weapon); at 15th level +1 to balance out crit on 18-20

********* Number of Attacks is unchanged from base 5e Fighter