The Crusader (creating a new character class)

For the next campaign, Sean and I have been discussing terms for a new character class that fits the mold he wants to play. The 2e FR accessory Warriors and Priests of the Realms provides a write-up for a class called the "Crusader," which matches Sean's idea thematically (a combat-oriented missionary priest with ties to the goddess of magic) but comes with some mechanical baggage that we're struggling to get past. As a result, we turned to the 2e DMG (pp. 22-23) which describes a framework for creating a new character class from the ground up. Here's our current working model. Each trait listed below has a corresponding modifier; the modifiers are aggregated to determine the XP advancement table.

Crusader (work in progress)

• Must be human (modifier: 0)
• Priest combat values (0)
• Priest saving throw table (0)
• d8 hit dice (+1)
• All armor allowed (0)
• All weapons allowed (0)
• +2 hp per level beyond 9th (+1)
• Cast three spheres of priest spells (+6)
• Learn and cast one school of magic (+3)
• No ability to turn undead (0)
• Use magical items allowed to priests (+1)
• Must be good-aligned (-1)
• Has particular ethos that must be obeyed (-1)
• Cannot keep more treasure than can carry (-0.5)
• Cannot own more than 10 magical items (-0.5)

Modifier total: 9

Experience levels (mage and cleric listed for comparison):

Level	Crusader	Mage	Cleric
1	0	0	0
2	1,800	2,500	1,500
3	3,600	5,000	3,000
4	7,200	10,000	6,000
5	18,000	20,000	13,000
6	36,000	40,000	27,500
7	72,000	60,000	55,000
8	135,000	90,000	110,000
9	252,000	135,000	225,500

The crusader's XP advancement begins much more favorably than the mage and only slightly worse than the cleric, but over time requires greater totals at higher levels of play. I think this is fair and appropriate for a character with multiple types of spellcasting (for anyone concerned about balance with other classes).

One major facet of the class that we need to figure out is how wizard spellcasting should be implemented. The reason for the ability to cast a single school of wizard spells (Sean is choosing conjuration/summoning) is the character's devout ties to Mystra. As such, I think there are two main approaches to consider:

1. The crusader casts priest spells as a priest and wizard spells as a wizard. That is, the crusader's priest and wizard spell slots are independent (the character effectively gets both); bonus spells apply only to the priest spell slots; wizard spells must be learned through study as opposed to prayer; and armor cannot be worn when casting wizard spells (same as a wizard or bard). This treats the character as a multi-classed cleric/mage in terms of spellcasting.
2. The crusader casts all spells as a priest. That is, all spells are gained through prayer, using the character's single set of priest spell slots; the wizard spell school is treated as just another priest sphere; no spellbook is needed and no armor restrictions are applied.

I'm not sure that I have a preference, yet. Mechanically, there are trade-offs, mainly that option #1 gives the character more total spell slots, while option #2 removes the wizardly armor and spellbook restrictions. I think either approach can be justified in-game.

Creating a new class isn't something I've dabbled in before, and it's important that the end result is reasonably fair and balanced (at least, as balanced as anything in AD&D). Interested to hear anyone else's take; the class as constructed seems relatively strong and versatile at low levels, but suffers from a slower rate of advancement the longer the campaign goes on.