Wednesday, March 25, 2015

First Level Pre-gen Party

Screenshot of 1st Level Pre-Gens. Click pic for a larger view

Above is a new Holmes Ref sheet, a pre-generated party of seven 1st level characters, including Fighter, Cleric, M-U, Thief, Dwarf Fighter, Elf MU/Fighter and Hobbit Thief. For reference, the sheet also includes To-Hit and Saving Throw tables for 1st levelers.

I used two rules from OD&D. The Strength-based To-Hit bonus for Fighters, and Thief rules for Hobbits (mentioned by Holmes, but not further explained). Both rules are from Supplement I, Greyhawk, which means that the party is also compatible with OD&D plus Greyhawk. 

Since there is only one type of each character, rather than rolling random stats, I used the 'standard array' from 5th edition D&D: 15 14 13 12 10 8. This means no character has more than a +1 for any stat-based modifier. So the Strength bonus for the Fighters is just a +1 to hit for Str 13-15.

Equipment is based on 110 gp for each character, similar to my earlier Equipment Packs. The MU spent 100 gp on a 1st level scroll per the Holmes rules, but the Elf bought Chain Mail and couldn't afford a scroll.

Hit points are based on the average for each class, plus any Con bonus.

The only additional info that needs to be added is a name (perhaps using the Holmesian Random Name Generator in the upper right corner of this blog), and alignment. I left out languages due to lack of space; most TSR-era pre-gens don't include this.

For more variety in the human characters, simply add a Background.

Use this sheet in a variety of ways:
-Convention games, one-shots or quick-starts with new players.
-Give each player an entire sheet, and have them pick a character or two. Or have them pick three or four characters and run the game as a Funnel ala DCC.
-Or cut up one or more sheets and give out one character to each player.
-For DMs, use this sheet for NPCs: rival party, henchmen, rescued prisoners, etc.
-Use as a reference for typical Equipment for character creation or NPCs.

Update 3/26: Corrected the sheet to include a +10% XP for the MU. The screenshot still shows the original version but the download link goes to the corrected version.


  1. Very nice! Aren't you missing XP bonuses for MU and Elves?

    1. The missing XP for the MU was an oversight, which is now corrected. Thank you! Elves (unlike dwarves/hobbits) aren't mentioned in the section on adjusting ability scores in Holmes, so by my reading they don't have a prime requisite/XP bonus.

  2. These are great. I'm a fan of all your Holmes Ref material, and have most of it printed and in a binder for use at the table.