You can play an elf thief-mage in BX/BECMI now: still decoupling races and classes

My post on separating races and classes in B/X and BECMI lacked elves. Here they are:

Elf

• Maximum level: 10
• Experience modifier: +2000 XP for first level, keep proportions afterwards (so an elf thief-mage would level at 3200, 6400, etc).
• Hit dice: reduce 1 step (d8->d6->d4, where it stops, go to d3 hit dice if you really hate elvish thieves or mages)
• Infravision: 60 feet
• +2 to saving throws
• can cast spells like a mage of the same level, gaining access to them the same way (starting with a book). Spellcasting is allowed in armours or using shields if the class chosen allows to use them.
• Detect hidden or secret doors rolling 1 or 2 on 1d6 (for D6 Thieving: +1 to find secret doors)
• Languages: Common, Elvish, Orc, Hobgoblin, Gnoll.

Obviously the first elf rolled by a player turns out being an elf magic-user: that means two spellbooks, two spells at first level (one for being a MU, another for being an elf) plus an additional spell due to our high intelligence house rule.

You can play a dwarf cleric in BX/BECMI now: decoupling race and class

At my table we play something Mosleysh and personally I really enjoy the archetypal demihumans, but sometimes a player wants to play, say, a thief-mage.

My answer was “we’ll whip up a new class, as a hybrid of thief and mage”, then I slapped a tag on it saying “3200 XP to make level two”.

The thing bugged me a bit as a dirty solution. As I said I like the Mosley classes but the BECMI demihuman spellcaster rules I find a bit… lacking.

Anyway, the same weekend we came up with the 1d6 thieving skills system we also worked on separating race and class, while keeping full compatibility (except a couple of minor glitches and other things we changed on purpose). Here’s the modifiers for dwarves and halflings (already working for D6 thieving), elves are here:

Dwarf

• Maximum level: 12
• Experience modifier: +200 XP for first level, keep proportions afterwards.
• Can’t use long bows or two handed swords.
• Infravision: 60 feet
• +5 to saving throws
• Stonetelling: detect slanting passages, traps, shifting walls and new constructions rolling 1 or 2 on 1d6 (for D6 Thieving: +1 to find traps and secret doors)
• Languages: Common, Dwarvish, Gnomish, Kobold, Goblin.

Halfling

• Maximum level: 8
• Experience modifier: none
• Hit dice: reduce 1 step (d8->d6->d4, where it stops, go to d3 hit dice if you really hate halfling thieves or mages)
• Can’t use longbows or two handed swords (for BECMI, keep to small weapons).
• +1 to hit with missile weapons
• -2 to armor class when attacked by greater than man-sized creatures
• +1 to individual initiative
• +5 to saving throws
• Hiding: if quiet and still 90% outside,  1 or 2 on 1d6 inside (for D6 Thieving: +1 to hiding with an additional +4 if outside if keeping quiet and still)