Making the Switch

Adding spells, magical items, or the critical hit rules to an existing campaign is fairly easy, but a DM may have trouble with some other material in this book. In particular, existing spellcasters may wish to take advantage of new class abilities or optional specializations that werenÆt available when the character was first created. There are several ways to handle this. First, thereÆs no reason that a DM couldnÆt allow a player to ôre-designö his character, incorporating the abilities he thinks his character should have had all along. If a PC cleric comes from a savage tribe and portrays himself as a barbarian, itÆs perfectly reasonable to allow him to rebuild his character as a shaman (see Chapter 2 ) and continue play. If the player is altering his character without any good rationale or explanation for why heÆs making the change, the DM can require the character to pay a penalty of 10% to 50% of his experience point total, depending on the DMÆs assessment of the scope of the alterations.

There are a couple of things a player should not be able to do by redesigning his character. A character shouldnÆt change specializations without a very good justification, so a necromancer shouldnÆt be rebuilt as an enchanter or wild mage, and a specialty priest of Lathander shouldnÆt become a priest of Helm. A characterÆs basic ability scores, equipment, proficiencies, hit points, and general personality shouldnÆt change. If a player was playing a barbarian cleric correctly, he was probably choosing skills and weapons appropriate for a shamanùand if he wasnÆt selecting these skills, the reasoning behind the switch becomes much more suspect. Finally, a character shouldnÆt actually change classes or become dual-classed or multi-classed.

The Spell Point System: The most drastic change to the AD&D game lies in the new spell point system described in Chapter 6 . Try running a brief ôtrial adventureö using the rules before incorporating them into your campaign. The spell point rules provide spellcasters with a lot more flexibility than the standard magic system without increasing their raw combat or spell power, but if PCs are allowed to make use of spell points, NPCs and monsters should be able to as well.

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