Banor – Classes of the Ginnungagap
Since I’ve written a races redux, why not a current look at the classes redux? This relies a lot on Xanathar’s Guide / Unearthed Arcana stuff since it made sense to include a few things in the setting that wouldn’t appear elsewhere. Here’s what I have so far –
Berserkr – Barbarian
Pretty straightforward this – how could they not appear in the setting? I’m still not entirely sold on the totem warrior flavour of the class, but the Ancestral Guardian and Storm Herald flavours in Xanathar’s make perfect sense and the Zealot too, to a lesser degree.
Bundinnr – Warlock
There are some great Warlock Patrons that work well for the setting, not least the Ghost in the Machine from Unearthed Arcana. The Raven Queen Patron also fits OK, maybe with a couple of tweaks to the additional spells to make it more about knowledge than fighting the undead.
Hamaskr – Druid
You would think, given the Viking history of worship out in nature, I would have at least looked at this. As far as I can tell, I translated this then completely forgot to work on it. My 77-page document on GMBinder appears to completely miss the druid class out anyway. I’ll have to fix that.
Hermathr – Fighter
Literally the translation of Soldier, not a lot to work on really. Adding in rules for firearms adds a couple of fighting styles – one for sidearms and one for long arms – and flavours for the class include guns specialists, mechanised-armour wielders and maybe heavy weapons work, though I’m not as happy with the last one.
I’m in the middle of debating between adding a Paladin class into the setting, or reskinning the Eldritch Knight as a holy warrior instead.
Galdrar – Sorcerer
I’ve looked at Favoured Soul and Shadow Magic and the elemental Sea, Storm and Stone sorcerous origins from various supplements, they’d probably all fit for different kinds of sorcerer (maybe for different races of sorcerer). I like the randomisation of Wild Magic and the Draconic bloodline, but I don’t know if they fit the setting per se.
Kunnáttanr – Engineer
I wanted to work in a more technical class without just relying on an Artificer Wizard, and before anyone says anything yes I know that translation is terrible – it’s something about know-how.
Still needs a lot of work to bring it up to standard.
Prestr – Cleric
Priests are easy enough. Add in a few of the extra domains (Forge, Arcane, maybe Grave) and more of the gods get covered. With most of the Aesir as War gods and the Vanir as Fertility, there’s a lot of overlap and stuff that can go on, but generally speaking it all works so far.
Skald – Bard
Still a bit unsure of this one. I’ve added a skill called ‘Skald’ to cover various knowledges, so having a class of the same name is a bit odd. But the niche for a buffing class still exists. Maybe I can make a version similar to the Warlord from 4e and make it more martial instead.
Skógarvörthr – Ranger
I think this translated as something like ‘forest protector’ when I was trying to write it. I’ve not done a lot of work with it yet. Potentially a lot of crossover with the Druid.
Skuggr – Rogue
I think this translated to ‘shade’ or ‘shadow’. It felt right to go with it but in the setting, it’s more like a shady operative than an all-out rogue. I wanted to put the Pilot class rules in here, I’m still working out how to do it. That teaches me for staying strictly fantasy with the classes! So far, they have a Maneuver Pool like the Battle Master flavour of Fighter.
Arcane trickster has some access to technomagic, there’s room for spies, assassins, what the Star Wars games labelled as the Scoundrel, and so on. Still very much a work in progress.
Töfrar – Wizard
And we’re happily back to less shaky ground. I wasn;t too happy with the different schools as presented, but most of the alternates fit pretty well – even the Bladesinger. So between War Wizards, Lore Masters, Theurges and Technomages, I think the Wizard class is still working well.
Any and all feedback very much appreciated here – otherwise I might never get this show off the ground!
jot jot ïota 