Character Creation

That is a pretty book! Eager to get started.

Ellagel's sheet is complete, I believe, except for background and a brief description. Background is simple and short: in her assessment, she's spent the last 160 years being underestimated by tutors and family, made to believe she is rather mediocre in all that is the calling of a proper elf. Tired of waiting for a moment to disabuse them of such notions, she has decided to set out to prove her family and community wrong, and what better way than to return one day hauling the riches and lore of the legendary Halls!

She has a grand total of 6 coppers to her name, which might explain her willingness to plunder the depths of the Halls of Arden Vul.

I don't think so. Whilst you've heard rumours of "beastmen", you don't really know what they are. And it's unlikely you'd have had an opportunity to learn the language of trolls.

I tome is chunky! I am ready to begin delving into Arden Vul.

That's a gorgeous book! Ready to begin as well.

Thrudmarr's backstory (I'll try not to get too silly with the 3 Intelligence): Thrudmarr, or "Thrud", was his Wiskinga village's loveable oaf. Orphaned young and raised by the village healer, he learned that helping feels good, even if he can't spell "helping". His motto? "Axe fixes everything!" - whether it's chopping wood, opening doors, or solving arguments. Now he's adventuring because someone told him to "go make a name for yourself", and he's determined to write "THRUDMARR" on everything he sees. Despite his limitations, Thrudmarr's strength and heart make him a loyal friend. Just don't ask him to count past five.

@Burbage - Quick Q on Languages Known actually: I took Wiskinga as my subculture, and with the super low Intelligence I know 0 extra languages. I wrote down Archontean on my sheet since it's the common language, but would I know that and Wiskinga?

Yes, OK, although given his intelligence Thrudmarr can only speak Archontean and Wiskin, he can't read or write them.

Makes sense. If allowed though, I imagined Thrudmarr can write his name in his native Wiskin, and he is likely to scrawl it on the handiest available surface whenever possible in order to "spread his name".

@Burbage , I was reviewing my character sheet and think I goofed a bit on Weapon Proficiencies. I just saw that missile weapons besides crossbows take 2 prof slots. I have 3 slots in battle axe, and I put the fourth in javelin. If javelin takes 2 slots though, I'll go ahead and swap that out for a spear if you don't mind.

To keep things as simple and clear as possible, I'm going to generally follow the OSRIC rules as written unless it is nonsensical to do so.

The rules on specialisation state: "Specialisation costs one proficiency "slot" for melee weapons and crossbows, and two "slots" for missile weapons other than crossbows". Although the weapons tables suggest a javelin can be used as either a melee weapon or a missile weapon, I will rule that to truly specialise in it, you need to be able to use it as a missile weapon. Therefore it requires two proficiency slots in order to specialise.

The same logic would apply to a spear (so that's not a solution to your problem).

To clarify ...

- It takes 1 proficiency slot to be proficient in any weapon, and not suffer a non-proficiency penalty.
- It takes 2 proficiency slots to be proficient and specialise in a melee weapon or crossbow.
- It takes 3 proficiency slots to be proficient and specialise in a missile weapon, or to be proficient and double specialise in a melee weapon.
- You may not double specialise in missile weapons.
- Only fighter classes may specialise.

I *think* (correct me if I am wrong) that weapon specialisation isn't something from AD&D 1E. I think it's an optional OSRIC rule to give fighters a few more options. I can't see anything in the OSRIC rules as written that restricts a fighter to specialising in just one weapon.

On other matters ...

Unless you can convince me how Grim plausibly came to learn trollish (it seems a bit of a stretch), I'm going to say no.

I also had a question about recovering missile weapon ammo. We'll deal with this on a case-by-case basis. If you fire a missile weapon in a relatively confined space you'll have a better chance of recovering its ammo than if you fire it outdoors (for example).