However none of these three sorts of sages is actually the one that's best known to D&D players. Instead sages appear as a 'special case' of hirelings, with dozens of possible sorts of knowledge and extensive rules for using it.

Instead the sage reappeared under the specialist header as a hireling, but with more extensive rules than were found in OD&D.īy the time that TSR published the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) they'd largely removed the 'specialist' term - though a few remnant references remain. The rumor mill says that Arneson meant him to be a character class. The sage returned in Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975). These specialists received just a paragraph each and were strictly utilitarian. The idea of specialists in D&D dated back to the publication of the originalOD&D (1974), which listed ten sorts of people that could be hired by PCs: alchemists, armorers, assassins, animal trainers, engineers, sages, seamen, ship captains, smiths, and spies. Forbeck says that developer Keith Strohm, when he much later became a manager for D&D 3e (2000-2007), promised Forbeck that he'd never ask another writer to author something like Sages & Specialists. Much later, Matt Forbeck said that his brief for the book was essentially to 'esign ten character classes no one would ever play.' It followed in a long tradition of sages and specialists that had been with D&D from the beginning, but expanding the topic to book-length still was challenging. However, where The Complete Book of Necromancers featured just two new classes, for deathly wizards and priests, Sages & Specialists instead detailed ten(!). Sometimes, they were classes that were less appropriate for players, but more often, they were just 'unofficial'. This concept of NPC-only character classes was quite old, dating back to the ninja in The Dragon #16 (July 1978). The previous dungeon master book, DMGR7: The Complete Book of Necromancers (1995), broke new ground for the series by focusing on NPC classes.

It doesn't actually have the 'DMGR' module code on the cover, but it's widely accepted as 'DMGR8'. Like the previous books in the 'DMGR' series, Sages & Specialists is a blue leatherette book for the dungeon master.

It was published in July 1996.Ĭontinuing the DMGRs.

Add depth to your campaign with these unique and three-dimensional NPCs.ĭMGR8: Sages & Specialists (1996) is the eighth book in the Dungeon Master Guide Rules Supplement series for AD&D 2e. In addition, this book contains a host of new rules that directly affect the lives of PCs everywhere. Inside Sages & Specialists you'll find ten new NPC specialist classes-from apothecary to seer, from engineer to scribe-each with his own special talents and insights. In a age of legends, even the greatest heroes need technical advisors. In the dangerous, fast-paced world of adventuring, knowledge means survival.

Adnd 2e all classes