GuyBoy
Hero
I was reading Grognardia earlier and it reviewed White Dwarf 8, from the days when WD was, essentially, a D&D plus bits magazine, and it mentioned the Man Beast class which brought back some memories.
I was 15 and had been playing for a couple of years by 1978, and we’d not long read Jekyll and Hyde in school, so this class ticked all sorts of boxes, and was the first real play (that I can remember anyway) at a class that tended towards evil and was certainly bestial in nature, but can possibly be seen as the grandfather of Eberron’s shifters.
The class assumed a previous deal with an out-of-game wizard who had created a ring that shifted the player into a wild lycanthrope-style beast, who gained claw and bite attacks, which improved by level, a tail slap that came later, as well as improving AC and various other abilities.
It was a kind of vicious, hairy monk that smelt bad!
I remember a friend playing one in a slightly dubious adventuring party for a whole campaign, as well as a few appearances in one-off games, but I guess it was a bit limited on the roleplay satisfaction quotient.
Must have been relatively popular because Grenadier produced a miniature based on the Allie Fiore artwork. A tiny bit of Hyde-influenced history of our wonderful game:
I was 15 and had been playing for a couple of years by 1978, and we’d not long read Jekyll and Hyde in school, so this class ticked all sorts of boxes, and was the first real play (that I can remember anyway) at a class that tended towards evil and was certainly bestial in nature, but can possibly be seen as the grandfather of Eberron’s shifters.
The class assumed a previous deal with an out-of-game wizard who had created a ring that shifted the player into a wild lycanthrope-style beast, who gained claw and bite attacks, which improved by level, a tail slap that came later, as well as improving AC and various other abilities.
It was a kind of vicious, hairy monk that smelt bad!
I remember a friend playing one in a slightly dubious adventuring party for a whole campaign, as well as a few appearances in one-off games, but I guess it was a bit limited on the roleplay satisfaction quotient.
Must have been relatively popular because Grenadier produced a miniature based on the Allie Fiore artwork. A tiny bit of Hyde-influenced history of our wonderful game:
