Tags
character class, forgotten gems, house rules, rules supplement, swords & wizardry, white box heroes, whitebox
White Box Heroes by Salvatore Macri was one of the very first supplements to be released for Swords & Wizardry White Box, way back in 2009. It provides all the standard AD&D classes and races, plus a few original classes in a nice, concise format.
Here are the classes and races detailed in White Box Heroes:
- Thief
- Paladin
- Assassin
- Monk
- Druid
- Ranger
- Bard
- Illusionist
- Northern Godi
- Jester
- Tunnel-fighter
- Summoner
- Gnomes
- Half-orcs
Everything is of course d6-based and the base hit bonus (BHB) is noted in all of the class advancement tables, as it was in the 1st printing of Swords & Wizardry White Box. The standard classes offer no surprises – everything there is pretty well-known, still it’s nice to have these options available for players that want them. There are a few spots where house-rule options are given, which is very much in the style of the White Box rules. Examples of this are the Halfling Thief-variant class (a Fighter/Thief Halfling), and the expanded foe list for Rangers.
The classes listed as original (Tunnel Fighter and Summoner) are quite interesting. A Tunnel Fighter is a Dwarf who “specializes in combat within the tight confines of the tunnels, caverns, and dungeons”. The Summoner is, as you can guess, a magic-user who specializes in summoning demons and other monsters. The Northern Godi is not marked as an original class, but I have never seen it elsewhere. It is a Norse-themed sub-class of cleric that trades undead turning ability for runic magic.
I find White Box Heroes an excellent resource and still use it to this day. It’s my first choice when a player asks for alternate classes, and everything works fully with White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. You can download a copy of White Box Heroes in PDF format, or if you want a print copy, the author still sells POD copies of White Box Heroes at Lulu.
Smoldering Wizard 
This was the first supplement I picked up for Whitebox and I really enjoyed it. I am also a big an of Whitebox Expanded Lore and Whitebox Omnibus. Thanks for the review of this gem.
No problem! After the new WB class supplements came out a few years ago it fell by the wayside, but it is still my favorite.
Thanks for reminding me of this.
You’re welcome!
Hey Doug,
This is an awesome supplement that has flown completely under my radar. What are your thoughts of the characters presented in this book (both standard and alternate) compared to the base game FMAG and the Omnibus. My first thought is the thief in this version appears weaker in his thief skills compared to the one in FMAG.
I prefer the FMAG thief just because it is simpler (and may have better skills overall), but I like the White Box Heroes variants of the other classes over those in the Omnibus.
What are your thoughts on the thief’s backstab compared to FMAG? White Box heroes gives the thief a +4 to hit instead of a +2 allows the backstab mulitplier to increase in later levels. I don’t have much experience with OD&D but is this increase balanced? Lastly how do you recommend calculating backstab especially with a 1d6-1 weapon? Would it be 2d6-1 or roll 1d6, multiply it by 2, and then had the penalty? Thanks again for answering all my questions Doug. I hope it isn’t bothersome. Thanks again!
Doug, disregard my last comment…lol. I just realized I asked you this same question 2 years ago. I simply forgot. :)
Though I do like the FMAG thief skills I read an article from Knockspell magazine where there was an idea about using the thief saving throw for his skill rolls along with a +3 bonus. That has the thief starting with a 50% chance with an improvement at every level. I think that’s pretty neat.
That is a pretty decent system. The FMAG thief has about a 33% chance of success at 1st-3rd level, then at 4th level (which comes quick at only 5k XP needed) it gets bumped up to about 50%. I think if I were to redesign it I would use a 2d6 range and give a smaller increase at each level, rather than a big one every few levels. But the discontinuous gains are very much in the style of OD&D, if you prefer that.
The Godi looks like it is based on the options from the Northlands/Viking “Gazetter” supplement for D&D Basic (Red Box).
Thanks for pointing that out – you are correct! I looked in my PDF of that Gazetter (GAZ27) and I see the Godi under “Clerics of the Northern Realms”.