Nicholas Sceusa

Gameplay and Level Designer

nicksceusa@gmail.com

The Old Codger - 12/24/25

Back before the pandemic I had an idea for a custom Dungeons and Dragons class. What if there was a class specifically for a character of an elder age? Adventure games typical focus on being powerful, which usually means playing a character who is young (or reasonably so). When one thinks of the barbarian, it typically illicit an image of a hulking figure that could break you in half with their pinky. Not so much an elderly man with a cane.

Now there is something to be said for creating an older character, but making them a high level class such as a level 20 monk or wizard. Then you get to have a chuckle when you wipe the floor with any sassy or overconfident players. I have used this tactic in the past, but I wanted to lean into the idea more. What if older characters had a class with their own abilities? They would still be "strong" in the sense that they are effective, but would lack the physical qualities of their younger counterparts.

While the concept is a bit atypical for adventure games, I was fascinated with this idea. I kept it on the back burner for a long time. Unfortunately the pandemic had us all going bonkers in our apartments and my usual D&D routine was disrupted. I only recently dedicated my spare time to completing it. It took a a couple of months as I had I didn't always have the opportunity to do so; however, I got it done!

Not my artwork but it does paint a pretty good picture of what I envisioned. Just a big old grump!

The initial document looked a lot like this, but was more akin to a "scramble of notes".

The Core Ideas

Two core ideas drove the initial development of the class mechanics: stubbornness and the refusal to give up. This gave rise to an ability that allows the character to pull themselves back from the brink of death. Aptly named 'Old Stubborn Goat' it allows the character to recover to 1 Hit Point after falling unconscious. This doesn't make the character invincible as they have few Hit Points overall and the ability will increase in cost with each use. With that said, I love the idea of a character just too darn stubborn to go and frustrating evil characters with their persistence. Another ability inspired by the idea of the "stubborn old man" is the option to haggle with merchants and receiving alternative options pending Dungeon Master approval.

Other core abilities were derived from ideas around our perception and emotional manipulation. For example, "Frail Old Bird" is an ability that allows you to appear weaker then you actually are and stops enemies from targeting your directly in combat. It's an option I found interesting as it could potentially be used to move around the battlefield while looking for more strategic options. 'I'm disappointed' is a Reaction based attack that does physic damage or applies a debuff when a target fails an attack or ability check. This leans into the moment we have all felt when our grandparents gave us "the look" when they found us with our hand in the cookie jar.

Finally, one of my favorites is the "Barter with Death" ability. Should the character die under certain conditions, they have the opportunity to try and convince Death to come back another day. However, this ability becomes more difficult as the character levels up, thus it still provides some risk. I had fun pictured an old man arguing with Death about why it is not his time and Death rolling his eyes while becoming exasperated. Needless to say I had some fun thinking about this part of the development. The tricky part was implementation.

Implementation

The big aspect of the work was figuring out how to balance the abilities in term of cost and order. Early on in the development I decided that the character would use and spend their hit dice to power certain abilities. It was a way to represent using their willpower and pulling on old reserves of strength. I can't claim full credit for this idea as I originally heard it some time ago on a D&D podcast. Unfortunately I cannot remember the original developer, but the idea stuck with me and I decided to apply it on this design. It fit really well with the idea of an elder character taxing themselves and being unable to heal as rapidly.

After the majority of the ideas were developed in a word document, it was time to get spreadsheet specific. I looked at the data in a couple of different ways:

Ability Cost - What is the action and hit die cost for each ability? How often can they be used?
Order - When should characters obtain these abilities? Do some cost too much?
Level and Modifier - Will characters with varying levels of constitution modifiers have enough Hit Dice to enjoy playing the class?
Value - Used in conjunction with Level and Modifier. Only the abilities requiring Hit Dice were examined and laid out according to cost from 1 -5.

Ability Cost - A list of the initial abilities and their cost.

Order - looking at character level. Blue highlights represents gaining an ability score improvement or subclass feature.

Level And Modifier - Assumed players would have at least a +2 modifier. Included up to a +8 modifier after player gains the ability to override the typical max level for their constitution.

Value - A formula was also experimented with to try and determine how many hit dice I would need assuming certain conditions.

Looking at the data in different ways helped to identify key concerns in regards to ability use. While the abilities were tweaked a few more times, the order in which players obtain them was changed quite a few times during this process. Once that was completed, it was time to put it in the final format.

Final Form

The word document is great for quick updates, but not great to look at. I highly enjoy using the Affinity program. It is extremely easy to switch between editing modes, import text, and make changes on the fly. I used a template I bought from the Dungeon Masters Guild website to speed things and avoid creating a style guide from scratch. I also used a few free images provided by the site to help break up the text and make things more interesting to view. Then up on the website it went!

Overall, this was a challenging project. I had to bounce back and forth between the idea of a mechanic, the actual implementation / cost, and how to make it more interesting for the player. There is certainly some overlap with existing character classes, but I think I did a good job making the class stand on its own; particularly with the sub classes. Developing sub classes with unique mechanics took more time then expected.

One thing I would love to do is refine this after obtaining player feedback. Getting feedback from players is really important. As the writer of the class it is easy to find and update what I need. Can players understand the content and do they enjoy it? I shared it with a few friends beforehand and got some feedback, but seeing how it does on the world wide web will hopefully work out further kinks. One of the reasons I posted it up for free!

I'd also like to update the layout a bit. The template I had is a bit outdated but it did the trick for now. I'd also love to add in some more art. I'll see what the feedback looks like and will do a big update in the future. But for now - time for a celebratory break. This is my first official published work. While it likely has things to fix and change, I am proud of it!

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