Classes and Kits

Classes, professions and kits by Chris Sakkas for Dungeon World.

Kits: Kits are expansions to existing classes. They add new options or offer alternative abilities, but aren't classes in their own right.

Profession: Every character may have a profession as well as a class. They may choose moves from their profession list instead of their class list if they wish.

New Terminology

Starting Moves: The moves you gain at first level from your class.
Racial Moves: The moves you gain at first level from your race.
Heroic Moves: The moves you can choose from at second level or higher.
Epic Moves: The moves you can choose from at sixth level or higher. A move with an Epic tag can only be selected at sixth or higher level.
▲: Merely decorative.
◐: '7+'.
●: '10+'.

Open Game Content: The entire text of these classes, professions and kits is Open Game Content under the Open Game License (follow this link for the Section 15).

Anchorite (Class)1

Hit Points: d8.
Look: As Cleric.
Bond: As Cleric.

Alignment

  • Good: When you suffer for righteousness, mark XP.
  • Neutral: When you bring balance to opposing forces, mark XP.

Starting Moves

Unarmed Fighting: Choose a melee weapon. When you make an unarmed attack, it functions as if it were that weapon.

Chi Powers: Each morning, you gain Chi points equal to your level. If your Chi points are ever completely depleted, you fall unconscious.

Racial Move

Human: When you Spout Lore, you may also ask: ‘Is it a servant of Good or Evil?’ When you Discern Realities, you may also ask: ‘Have Good or Evil been at work here?’

Additional Moves

Candle Punch: A flick of your fingers extinguishes a candle 10 feet away. Your unarmed attack gains the Ranged tag.

Expanded Style: When you make an unarmed attack, choose any melee weapon. Your unarmed attack functions as that weapon.

Mettle: When you Defy Danger, roll +Con.

Taboo: You have a code of conduct you must obey. Add to Carouse: ‘You violate your oath and must atone’ and to Adventure Hook: ‘You hear of or from your old master’.

Internal Focus: As the Paladin move Lay on Hands, but the only target is yourself. Add: ‘You are cured of a poison.’ When you are exposed to Fear, you always successfully Defy Danger.

Dodge Spell: When you are targeted by a spell, you may always choose to Defy Danger. When you are the target of a spell, add a 10+ option to Defy Danger: ‘The spell does not affect you.’

Undying: When you die, roll +Wis. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10+, choose 2.

  • a new star glows in the sky
  • you linger as a ghost
  • you find peace
  • a baby is born with your soul
  • you reincarnate into the animal of your choice

Ghosts: Add to Discern Realities: ‘What incorporeal entities are here?’ and ‘What stops them from achieving their final rest?’

Canon: You can cast Cleric spells by spending 1 Chi point per level of the spell. Roll Cast a Spell (+Wis) when you do so, with a -2 penalty.

Broad Style: Choose a Wizard spell. You can cast it by spending 1 Chi point per level of the spell. Roll Cast a Spell (+Int) when you do so.

Convert Energy: When healed of 2 or more damage, you may choose to gain 1 Chi point instead.

Chi Spells

Spend Chi points equal to the level of the spell to manifest its effects.

Level 1

Ignore Fall: You take no damage from a fall.

Feign Death: You appear to be dead for all intents and purposes for a period of your choice, set before your ‘death’.

Assess Threat: Add the following options to any move: ‘Ask a question from Spout Lore’. The question must be about a person or monster.

Fear: Gain the Fear power for one use.

Breathless: You do not need to breath for the rest of the day.

Inner Light: You illuminate a room as if you were bearing a torch. This lasts for the rest of the day, even if you wish to quash it sooner.

Message: A creature of your choice hears your 10-word message. Though whispered, it can be heard at the source, at the destination and in between by those who know how to listen.

Deafening Blow: If you do damage, the target is deafened for the fight.

Know Life: Roll +Wis. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10+, choose 3.

  • You know the location of all creatures in eyesight.
  • You know the physical conditions of all creatures in eyesight.
  • You know which creature in range is most endangered.

Level 3

Chi Shield: +1 Armor for the rest of the fight.

Hidden Light: As Inner Light, except only you and those you name can see by it.

Share Life: Subtract any number of your hit points and add them to a willing creature you touch, or vice versa.

Orison: Choose a level 1 Cleric spell. Cast that spell.

Expedient: You act first next round.

Spider: You can climb any surface, no matter how sheer or slippery.

Share: Choose a Chi spell. It applies to all nearby allies.

Tongue of the Sun: You can speak to animals and plants.

Heavy Strike: You do +2 damage on your next attack.

Worldspirit: Roll +Wis instead of the proper stat for any move of your choice.

Without Hindrance: For the rest of the fight, ignore any handicap or hindrance you have – including poison, blindness and wounds.

Mask: You adopt the appearance of any person you can name.

Level 5

Feather Step: You can walk on any substance as if you were near weightless. This includes water, falling snow or sharp spikes.

Healing Wind: All nearby allies and one distant ally of your choice heal 2 damage.

Cantrip: Choose a level 1 Wizard spell. Cast that spell.

Animal Form: You take the shape of an animal until daybreak.

Tongue of the Moon: You can speak to stones, to the sky, and to anything else with a soul or spirit.

Chi Armour: +2 Armour for the rest of the fight.

Aristeian (Paladin Kit)2

"You are not going to die. Not now. I don ’t care how much you want to. We ’re too close to victory. Listen, do you hear that? That’s the sound of your men shouting your name. They’re proud of you, proud enough to die with your name on their lips. So, get up, one last time. For me."

The life of a warrior can sometimes tarnish the soul, when death follows death and too many comrades have taken the journey to the sunless lands. Some of those who undergo this deep melancholy of the spirit resolve to turn to the healer’s path, in order that they might keep more good and just souls from being lost. An aristeian (from the Goddess Aristeia, patron of victory in dire circumstances) is a specialist in the arts of healing in a battlefield environment. They are called to service by the same divine powers who speak into the hearts of paladins and give them their vocation. The aristeian is simultaneously a competent warrior and a champion of life, keeping his comrades alive.

Rather than remaining in the service of one liege lord or order (though some do) aristeians prefer to take to the road as humble wanderers, giving assistance to the forces of law and good wherever they encounter them. As well as patching their allies’ bodies together they do their best to heal their hearts as well, having a talent for lifting comrades’ spirits even in the darkest of circumstances.

Add these options to the paladin class.

Racial Move

This is a new choice for your racial move.

Human (Aura of Hope)

When you or an ally Defy Danger, add 2 to your result.

Additional Moves

Add these options to the Paladin class.

Purge Wrongness: When you Lay on Hands, you may also choose: “The target loses an ailment, handicap, spell or curse for the duration of the fight”.

Wellness: When you Lay on Hands, you heal 1 damage.

Aura of Life: While you live, your nearby allies cannot die – they can at most be maimed, knocked unconscious or placed in a coma.

Advanced Moves

Add these options to the levels 6-10 of the Paladin class.

Raise Dead: When you try to raise a dead person, roll +Wis. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10+, the target returns from the dead.

  • The target’s soul remains at large though the body lives.
  • The target does not wish to return.
  • The target returns, but traumatised.
  • The target has lose his or her memories.
  • The soul returns to the wrong body.

Returning Soul: When you die, roll Raise Dead automatically (even if you don’t have that move).

Cleaner (Thief Kit)3

‘Dear, oh dear: This is what happens when you send a boy to do a man’s job.’

Many rogues commit acts that are against the law, whether this be the civil law of their place of abode or the moral law of good over evil. This is an unfortunate but inescapable fact of life. In doing so, they sometimes leave behind traces of their illicit activities. By working with these clues, the forces of law and order can bring the rogues to account for their actions, both by using the clues deductively to find out who was responsible and presenting them later on as evidence to prove the guilt of the accused party. More rogues are caught out by their little mistakes than by their brazen acts of lawlessness. So, when you are out on the job, how do you make sure nobody will finger you for it? When you are the head of a rogues’ guild and some of your operatives screw up, how do you minimise the potential for damage?

Enter the cleaner. He is the one who cleans up after the other rogues, whether this is because the mission was by nature a messy one or because they left a botched job in their wake. The cleaner has many duties. Evidence needs to be removed, traps need to be reset and once in a while (for those who are not troubled by conscience) witnesses need to be silenced.

Additional Moves

Add these options to the Thief class.

Reset Trap: When you use Trap Expert you may also choose: “You know how to reset it”.

Expanded Skills: You may also use your Thief Skills to:

  • Remove Traces: Remove any trace of someone’s passage or activities through a room
  • Disguise Object: Modify one object to look like another. Add the option, “Every so often, it flickers”.
  • Only Sleeping: Make a corpse appear as if it were sleeping. Add the option, “It still smells or drips”.
  • Mister Fixit: Mend broken objects.
  • Rapid Decay: Make an object seem much older than it is.

Erase Memories: When you Parley you may also choose: “They find themselves doubting their memories”.

Noble Assassin (Thief Kit)4

'While you bleed to death I shall read to you from the poetic works of Ovis, that your transition might be the more pleasant. On behalf of the Guild of Cisternum, I would also like to thank you for your participation in what we hope has been an interesting and educational assassination experience.'

Deep in the stone warrens of Cisternurn, the titanic walled city like a truncated mountain referred to as the Eternal City by its countless thousands of inhabitants, there is an exclusive educational establishment. This is discreetly hidden by an ornate faqade, so that it seems to be nothing but another manor house set into the inner walls, as is the custom in that place. Within, it is expensively but tastefully furnished, staffed by the most able specialists its sponsors have been able to locate and has a reputation for quality that has been carefully maintained for more than two centuries. This is the Assassin's Guild of Cisternum. Under the stern eye of Baroness Vaila, the present headmistress of the Guild, the raw youth of the aristocracy are transformed into trained dancers, socialites, conversationalists, anatomists and aesthetes. Oh, and killers, of course.

Only the sons and daughters of noble houses are accepted for training. They alone have the necessary refinement of spirit and intellectual rigour to cope with the demands of the instruction course. The hoi palloi are left to their own grubby ways. There are other institutions for the likes of them. The training is long and hard, taking up to ten years for a full diploma. Young women are accepted as readily as men, though they are accommodated separately. Social intercourse is a distraction from work.

Additional Moves

Add these options to the Thief class.

Rapid Nonchalant Walk: When you use Thief Skills you always get the “It only take a moment to do” option for free on a 7+.

Silence is Golden: When you Pull a Stunt you may also choose: “You do it without anyone noticing”.

Concealed Blade: You always have or can fashion a dagger. It never takes you any time or draw or find this weapon.

Poison Identification: When you Spout Lore you may also choose: “What are the details of this poison?” When you Discern Realities you may also choose: “Can I smell, taste or even see a trace of poison?”

Death Attack: When you Hack & Slash you may also choose: “Size up an opponent” and “Kill an opponent you have sized up”.

Blindsight: Add to Discern Realities: “Is there an invisible or hidden creature or thing in this room?” Also, you are never surprised.

Zealot (Cleric Kit)5

The Zealot is an expansion for the Cleric class.

Substitution

You lose the Turn/Command Undead move. You gain:

Turn and Command Heretics: When you use divine power against a sentient nonbeliever, roll +Wis. You may either distribute 1d6 damage per level or give a command to any creature whose level is less than your result.

This move is also available as an additional move for normal Clerics.

Additional Moves

Inquisitor: Add to Spout Lore: ‘Which religion does it follow?’ and to Discern Realities: ‘Which faith controls this area?’

Demonslayer: Add to Hack & Slash: ‘Send an outsider of your level or lower to its home plane.’

Whirling Dervish: Roll +Wis instead of +Str to Hack & Slash.

Iron Mind: When targeted by mind controlling or affecting powers, you may choose to transfer your mind over to the stewardship of your deity who ignores all such effects. Roll +Cha and pick 1 for 7-9 or 2 for 10+:

  • The control only lasts a short time
  • Your deity’s control is not interrupted by demonic interference
  • Your deity does not aggressively pursue his or her agenda
  • Your deity may exercise some of his or her powers while in your body

Dauntless: If you are affected by Fear, you must attack the closest enemy if one is in sight. Otherwise, you are affected normally by fear.

Dispel Magic: Roll +Con. Choose 1 on 7-9. On a 10+, the spell is dispelled.

  • The spell operates at half strength
  • The spell is sustained but its caster loses a spell slot/spell of equal or higher level
  • The spell is twisted in some way
  • The spell affects its caster as well, if not intended to, or you as well, if not intended to.

Damnation: When you kill a creature, its soul is lost forever. You cannot switch off this power.

Oathkeeper (Fighter Kit)6

‘May the mountains crumble away and the seas dry to dust before I prove false to my word!’

When a barbarian tribe requires a person, object or place to be protected above all else, one member will sometimes take a sacred oath to defend them to the last drop of blood in his body. Following this, he is expected to sacrifice his own life if need be to keep his charge safe. This ritual of obligation, sacred to the tribes as far back as they can remember, awakens certain ancestral powers.

Uncanny Zeal: When fighting to protect that which you love, you do not fall unconscious when reduced to negative HP. You still die when your HP falls low enough.

Empathic Link: Add to discern realities: ‘Is that which I love endangered or harmed?’

Loyal Shield: When in sight of that which you love, you gain +1 Armour – as does that which you love.

Diehard: You don’t die until reduced to negative your total HP.

Ancestral Possession: Choose a druid animal from. You can take that form once a day.

Mystic Protection * Epic: That which you love cannot be harmed or damaged until you are dead, helpless or unconscious.

Blood for Blood: Inflict any amount of damage on yourself. That which you love heals the same amount.

Blade Artist (Fighter Kit)7

"So, I told him to cheer up and I'd replace his drink if it was that important to him. He said he didn't see what there was to smile about and went for his axe. Well, I took offence at that, so my sweet lady carved a big happy grin right across his throat. She was back inside my jerkin before anyone saw what I’d done. The first they knew was when his head peeled back at the neck. By then I was away."

Close cousins to the knifemasters, the blade artists seek to cultivate a spiritual understanding and bond with a single bladed weapon by contrast to the knifemaster’s showy and purely technical arts. Blade masters disdain swords, axes and missile weapons, choosing instead to develop their prowess with the dagger to the very peak of efficiency. Every blade is cherished as if it were a dear human companion. Blades are always named and to damage or steal one (while such is possible) is asking to be fished out of the nearest river with your arteries neatly opened.

Quick Attack: When you attack a surprised enemy, you may choose a free option from the pull a stunt list when you roll 7+ on hack and slash.

Rapid Throw: You always take ‘Divide damage’ on a 7+ on hack and slash and you can reach anything within throwing distance.

Signature Blade: You can only attune to one blade at a time. That blade can never be lost or stolen; it always returns to your side within a minute. You can no longer fight with any other weapon of the same type.

Sentient Blade: You can awake the consciousness within your weapon.

Archon (Paladin Kit)8

'The fault here lies less with these common people, who merely acted as their base appetites directed, than with those who should by rights have restrained them from the start and taught them their proper course. You, Burgomaster, and these cowering cronies that you dare to dignify with the title of town elders, are the ones responsible. You shall now be sentenced accordingly!’

In much the same way that a paladin is a knightly character motivated by benevolence, charity and respect for the law, an archon is a servant of the law alone in a much less merciful or forgiving aspect. He is an itinerant judge and executioner in one person, serving the abstract concept of justice (whether as a lawful neutral deity or as a philosophical ideal) and extending its dominion wherever he travels. He does not necessarily uphold the laws of the land, as mortal lawmakers are only mortal and as such are prone to error and unjust lawmaking. He serves Eternal Law.

Archons are unsettling characters to be around. Although their influence almost always benefits a community in the general sense, nobody particularly wants to be addressed by a visiting archon or questioned by him. Very few people have no guilt hiding somewhere in their heart; the archon himself knows this as much as anyone.

Alignment

Lawful Good

When you deliver a lawful, just outcome, mark XP.

Lawful Neutral

When you deliver a lawful outcome that balances two powers, mark XP.

Lawful Evil

When you deliver a lawful outcome that delivers suffering, mark XP.

Races

Detect Chaos * Human: When you spout lore you may also ask: ‘Is it chaotic?’ When you discern realities, you may also ask: ‘What here is chaotic?’

Heroic Talents

Associate of Chaos: When you spend a lot of time around chaotic creatures, roll +WIS. 7+: Choose 1. 10+: Choose 3.

  • You are swayed and behave chaotically yourself.
  • You become frustrated and polluted and must spend time apart.
  • You become convinced that the chaotic creature must be redeemed.

Factotum (Profession)

A factotum is a jack-of-all trades.

Arcane Caster: You gain the Prepare Spells and Cast a Spell Wizard moves. Your effective Wizard level is half your total level. You gain a spellbook with 2 spells in it, and a further one for every two levels you have or gain. (This replaces the Bard move of the same name)

Divine Caster: You gain the Dutiful Prayer and Cast a Spell Cleric moves. Count your Cleric level as half your total level. (This replaces the Ranger’s Natural Spells and the Bard move of the same name)

Multiclass Dabbler: Gain one starting move from the class of your choice.

Multiclass Initiate (Epic): Get one heroic move from the class of your choice.

Noble (Profession)

Heroes of Fantasy.

Gossip: When you carouse, you can Hold instead of choosing straight away.

Taunt: When you make a stand, you may use CHA instead of CON.

Ally: When you roll adventure hook, you may also choose: ‘You gain the aid of a man or woman’, ‘You are introduced to one of the influential’ and ‘You are invited to a social function’.

Etiquette: Even on a 6- on parley, you Hold 1.

Family Ties: Add to parley: ‘A family member joins you on a hijinx’ and ‘A relative cares for you’.

Refuge: You have a safe place. To reach it, you never need to roll undertake a perilous journey.

Savoir-Faire: You may pull a stunt with CHA.

Smear Others: Roll +CHA. ◐: Choose 1. ●: Choose 3.

  • They don’t suspect it was you.
  • They don’t have an alibi or evidence to disprove it.
  • The relevant authorities are investigating.

Lead by Example: Add to hack and slash: ‘Gain +2 forward for your next order hirelings or titled roll.’

Do You Know Who I Am?: Add to make a stand: ‘No enemy attacks you this round’.

Absolute Power * Epic: Always gain ‘No enemy attacks you this round’ on a 7+ for hack and slash.

Rank Hath its Privileges ▲ Slow: When you pull rank, roll +CHA.
◐: Choose 1. ●: Choose 3.

  • You don’t attract the notice of the local lord.
  • You don’t leave bitterness and resentment behind.
  • You are given a gift of goods or information.

Titled: When you issue a command or order, roll +CHA.
◐: Choose 1. ●: Choose 2.

  • The ally takes +2 forward.
  • The ally uses the stat of their choice for the next move they make.

Wealth: When you buy an item using your family’s wealth, roll +WIS.
◐: Choose 1. ●: No problems.

  • Your family cuts off your account.
  • Your flagrancy attracts attention.
  • You are cornered by muggers.