World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game

The World of Warcraft RPG was released in 2005 by Sword & Sorcery and is the 2nd edition of the Warcraft RPG, which uses the revised third edition of the D&D ruleset, thanks to the Open Gaming License.

Ruleset

Of course it was simply a means to cash in on the rising popularity of World of Warcraft, but the roleplaying game itself managed to get a few things right which managed to distance itself from the core D&D ruleset.

They binned level adjustments, all races are the same power level so no player gets left behind because they have to earn more experience to get to the same level as everyone else, because they took an extra imaginary level at character creation. Instead what we get is optional racial classes which give your character statistic improvements, as well as extraordinary abilities not always found anywhere else. The usefulness of multi-classing into your racial class is subjective depending on what your primary class is or should be. For example the Undead "Forsaken" racial class adds nothing in particular if you are a spellcaster, but works better if you are a fighter.

Perhaps more significantly, it introduced the concept of "Archetypes" before Pathfinder arrived on the scene and showed us how the same classes could be built in different ways. Though these "archetypes" only really applied to spellcasting classes, so the Arcanist could take the Mage, Necromancer or Warlock paths and give him different class abilities. The system was also elegant enough that multiclassing across archetypes is possible, and counts as a sort of half-and-half arrangement. You get the class features appropriate to the levels of both your archetypes, but you combine spellcasting levels to a single total, so you don't compromise your ability to get to 9th level spells by taking ten levels of mage and necromancer for example.

They also introduced the "Affiliation" system of Alliance vs Horde, which does a couple of things to the ruleset. From a GM's perspective it maintains a standard level of Fluff that the players will be familiar with if they have ever played one of the video games. From a player's perspective, it restricts their access to options available to the opposite faction since nearly all of the races belong to one faction exclusively and many prestige classes actually require membership in a particular faction, so it means that the group should make the decision to play Alliance or Horde (or unaligned) from the outset and not whine about not being able to play their Human Paladin in a party containing Forsaken Necromancers and Orc Barbarians.

Races

To make things easier to the unfamiliar, statistic adjustments will be referred to by their D&D names such as Dexterity and Constitution, rather than Agility and Stamina. But for all intents and purposes they remain the same thing.

Alliance

• Human - Got to start somewhere, and it might as well be with humans. They have the same bonus feat and extra skill points as normal for D&D, but they also get racial bonuses on certain interactions, crafting checks and against fear. They also don't like Orcs, and so get racial bonuses when fighting them too, but the feeling is mutual. No racial class for them.
• Ironforge Dwarf - It's a Dorf, what more can you expect? They have the same CON/CHA adjustments, the same slower speed, resistance to poison and come with Stonecunning, craft and appraise bonuses, so yes... Dorf. They do however get a racial class which beefs up their strength score, gives them the ability to turn to stone once per day and good bonuses against magic and when fighting Giants (which aren't too common in a Warcraft setting)
• High Elf - Lets get a couple of things out of the way, when they made this RPG, the Burning Crusade expansion hadn't come out yet, so no-one knew where Kael'thas took the Blood Elves or how they got back. So they're not in the game short of a Web Enhancement that you can't get any more. So we get High Elves who are nearly extinct because of the whole Sunwell thing. Unlike D&D Elves, they have bonuses to INT rather than DEX since they are such good Arcanists, however they are addicted to magic so they need to spend more time preparing each morning unless they have access to a moonwell. Their racial class gives is like its own spellcasting class, giving access to 0-level spells and improves the primary arcane caster level too. If your GM allows you could also play these guys in Horde as Blood Elves, since they are practically the same thing.
• Night Elf - Sexy ninja-druid wood elves. Not too much to look at on their own. They make for good divine casters, but only have some shitty nature and survival skill bonuses. Their racial class is impressive though, giving them insane stealth bonuses when they don't move, DEX increases, exotic weapon proficiencies and Cold/Fire resistances that scale with character level.
• Half Elf - Kinda like a human, they get an extra feat at 1st level, and a range of interaction and magical racial skill bonuses. They can also take a unique feat that give them some 0-level spells if they wanted to. There are rules for playing variants: Half Blood Elves are practically the same thing, but with access to warlock spells, while Half Night Elves get a different set of skill bonuses and access to a more limited form of shadowmeld rather than the ability to cast 0-level spells.
• Gnome - Unlike core D&D, these midgets have a nack for technology rather than illusion, and make for better general craftsmen than dwarves do and come with a +1 bonus to all saves because they are lucky. They start the game with an extra technology feat. No racial class for them.

Horde

• Orc - Make for good warriors of any type. They get the ability to Rage like a barbarian, bonuses on STR and racial skill bonuses on handling wolves and intimidate checks. They also hate humans and get bonuses against them. They only got their racial class in the Horde Player's Guide because they were meant to be counterparts to humans. This racial class gives them steady STR/CON increases, lets them rage more and and can give them a temporary boost to any stat of their choice once per day.
• Tauren - Two-legged Cows. They're kind of like the counterparts to Night Elves; there's not much there in the stat block other than a few racial skill bonuses and the natural weapon that is their horns. Their racial class makes their charge more effective when they use their heads, and give them some STR/WIS increases, one thing that should be strongly pointed out is that similar to High Elves, the Tauren racial class stacks with Divine spellcasting levels. So can generally be a good option if you want to mix fighting ability with divine buff.
• Jungle Troll - They have good healing, but not quite like core D&D trolls, but we'll get to that. They suffer INT/CHA penalties, but gain DEX increases and have a range of mobility and survival skill bonuses and are good with thrown weapons. Their racial class also stacks with Divine spellcasting levels and properly grants them steadily improving Fast Healing, CON bonuses and has a good BAB progression which is actually quire rare for a racial class.
• Forsaken - Undead-type, coming with all the immunities that go with it. Meaning it can be a pain in the arse for the GM to figure out how to challenge you. That does come with it's own set of problems for you though, since you cannot heal naturally, you don't get a CON score, you have to deal with the positive/negative energy switch issue and you are specifically not affected by Raise Dead or Reincarnate, and it takes a spell stronger than Resurrection to bring you back to "unlife" (because being Undead is an affliction in WoW, rather than a living/dead state). If you expect to be a front line warrior the racial class should be maxed out immediately since it increases your STR score by +3, your Natural AC by +3 and has the unique bonus of increasing the hit die you gain at each level by its next size; so D6 becomes D8, D10 become D12. Those who already get D12 get plus two hit points instead, which is why you want to take the racial class as soon as possible since the benefits scale up later.
• Half-Ogre - Badass Half breeds of Orc and Ogre. Their racial characteristics are fairly basic. But they do get to count themselves as one size larger in situations where it may be beneficial for them to do so, which can be significant. Their racial class is cool though, granting them +2 to STR, CON and WIS and increasing their base size to large, which due to their racial ability they can count themselves as huge if they feel like it. The Half-Ogre class also stacks with Divine spellcasting levels which is cool, since nothing about Half-Ogres really hinders divine abilities.

Neutral or Other

• Goblin - Are like Gnomes, but with the CHA bonus traded for a Diplomacy skill increase. They also have a list of Craft bonuses rather than being generally "good at all craft" and they also get the Technological Feat. When it's all said and done, they might as well be practically the same thing as a Gnome, but at least anyone can play a Goblin
• Half-Orc - They are nothing like humans and almost nothing like Orcs, they get CON bonuses instead of STR and the penalty is to WIS instead of INT. Instead of Raging like a barbarian, they can get a temporary STR boost and instead of their hatred of humans/orcs (which would be redundant, being half human/orc) they get resistances to fear.
• Forest Troll - Identical in every way to Jungle Trolls in the Horde, which is a bit lazy on the part of the game developer, but at least it allows players to play Trolls in Alliance parties.
• Furbolg - Intelligent Bears. They get a modifier to nearly every stat so optimal characters really should focus on divine spellcasting or be straight up punchy warriors. They have natural weapons, +2 natural armor to AC and some survival/nature skill bonuses. Their racial class makes their natural claw weapons even better, further improves their natural AZ and increases their size and strength similarly to the Half-Ogre, as well as providing the Divine bonus. One cool cosmetic note is that each level in Furbolg also increases the character's height by 10% and their weight by 20%.
• Wildhammer Dwarf - Neutral because nobody asked them to join a side when the wars started, it also means that any party can play a dwarf and these ones are probably better than the Ironforge Dwarves in terms of combat optimisation. Instead of the darkvision, stonecunning and crafting related bonuses, they get improvements on riding and handling animal checks cause they ride GRIFFONS, they also love hammers and get huge bonuses against fear. Their racial class gives them bonuses against Trolls (which are thankfully more common since they are a PC race) and they huge bonuses on the charge due to their reckless nature.
• Dark Iron Dwarf - Evil dwarves who serve the Fire Elemental Ragnaros. , they are practically identical to Ironforge Dwarves but they have shit stat modifiers, getting +1 to DEX and -2 to CHA for some reason. They kind of need their racial class to get anywhere which gives them +1 DEX and +2 CON as well as some resistance to fire, and a stacking caster level ability, but specifically only with Fire spells.
• Dragonspawn - Like Dragon Centaurs (or Dragon Ogres if you are familiar with Warhammer), they start off at large size and have a subtype depending on their heritage. They have shit stat modifiers though, only getting a measly +1 to STR and -2 to CHA (which can plummet further downwards with certain draconic heritages) so generally speaking they are not a very good race to play as. Their racial class stacks with Arcane levels for spellcasting, and does something to address the stat problem, by providing them with +3 STR and +2 CON, as well as some naturally armor and all of the armor proficiencies.
• Murloc - Ugly merfolk that take damage from being out of water for too long. Their racial class is a virtual smorgasbord of weapon proficiencies, swim and land speed increases, stealth improvements, natural AC bonuses, Darkvision boosts, as well as having good BAB progression, and it stacks with divine. So if you're a Murloc, just take the f**king racial class already.
• Naga - One of those races where Males and Females have real statistical differences, but nothing as simple as -4 STR here, instead males get +2 STR and -2 INT/CHA, while Females get the exact opposite. Both can swim and both get +1 AC. Their racial class has quite a lot in it to go into great detail here, but consists of a mutation that you may choose at each level to customise yourself with. There is a list of share upgrades, but the genders also get their own unique ones; Females can gain extra arms, or improved arcane ability. Males can grow larger
• Pandaren - Awesome kung-fu pandas. They have a good statline and get +1 natural AC, as well as gaining the Dodge feat at character creation. Their racial class stacks with Divine, and give them good saves on everything. As well as Combat Expertise and the ability to add their WIS bonus to their AC as if they were Monks.
• Quillboar - A pretty good race if you want to be a fighter/barbarian. They get +2 to STR/CON but -3 to INT/CHA. They also have natural spike attacks, +1 AC bonus, the Scent ability and they pack hunting which makes them better if one of their allies drops dead. Their racial class stacks divine, gives a good BAB progression, and improves their pack hunting, gives them flanking bonuses and increases their STR/CON but +1 each. If someone were to get the Leadership feat, then Quillboar make perfect followers.
• Satyr - Demon assholes that are pretty similar to Night Elves in that they are sort of Ninja-Druid wannabees, except this time with claws and the outsider subtype. Their racial class gives them Shadowmeld (just like Night Elves) and the ability to backstab like a rogue.
• Tuskar - Eskimo walrus people, that exemplify the concept of "frozen north", getting fishing bonuses, proficiency with nets, resistance to cold and the like. Their racial class is pretty much the same continued, but with more armor and increase STR.

Classes

The WoW:RPG doesn't use the same set of classes as 3rd Edition D&D, though some of the same classes appear. In some cases (like with the Barbarian or Rogue) they are nearly identical, though in others (such as the Paladin or Druid) they are completely unrecognisable.

• Arcanist - Your Wizard-analogue, gets a 9th-level spell progression and casts from a spell book, gets scribe scroll and metamagic/creation feats every now and then. The real meat is in the archetype-path that you choose.
  • Mage - Gets a familiar and the ability to summon an elemental whose size is dependent upon your level. Generally they make for good Evocation casters and damage dealers, because at later levels they get a free spell slot for each spell-level that can be used for Fire/Cold spells which are automatically cast with the Maximize Spell feat on it. They are also gain +1 caster level checks with these spell.
  • Necromancer - Guess what? they're good at Necromancy. From level one, they get the ability to make something they touch drop down dead with no save. This does scale with level, but it's still no guarantee of it working. They also become completely immune to Death spells and effects, and get the ability to Animate Dead and eventually Create Undead as supernatural abilities rather than as spells
  • Warlock - Demonic casters who make good Conjurers, with the ability to bolster and extend the duration of summoned creatures. They also get an Outsider companion who follows them around, and who isn't chosen from a list, they can just pick one as long as it's not above a certain HD total.
• Barbarian - Identical to the D&D class.
• Healer - You Cleric-analogue, gets to turn/rebuke and get spontaneous conversion of spells like a cleric does but the target of turning and the actual spells they can convert depend on your path, they also get domains depending on the path they take, although the domains unlock themselves as the character levels up rather than being granted at the start and don't provide an extra spell slot just for domain spells. They can also Brew Potion regardless of the path they take.
  • Druid - Gains an animal companion, can pass without trace, can wild shape just like a Druid does. They turn/rebuke plants and animals and get summon nature's ally spontaneously which probably isn't that great at later levels, but would be useful as the group starts out. They can also Plane Shift themselves and other to the Emerald Dream. Eventually they become Immortal, because that's cool.
  • Priest - Turns/Rebukes Undead and gets spontaneous Cure or Inflict spells depending on their alignment. Their domains are heavily dependent on the religion they worship, but at least they get the choice, rather than having it fixed for them. Their class abilities are a combination of shielding buffs and smiting powers, which makes them good to have in a group, especially against undead or outsiders.
  • Shaman - They can both Turn and Rebuke Elementals though they have to choose the elemental type of one then get the opposite of the other, but like Priests they get spontaneous Cure or Inflict. Their class abilities are quite varied, with the ability to use minor divinations, imbue their weapons with flame or frost, polymorph themselves into spirit wolves, dispel transmutations and eventually cast a spontaneous resurrection spell.
• Hunter - A kind of bizarre Ranger analogue, but far more similar to the MMO idea, rather than the two-swords fighting and nature survivalist concepts that 3E provide us. They get a hunter's companion at 5th level and can eventually tame magical companions as well. Their whole class shtick is about "Aspects" which are like stances which provide them with passive bonuses to things, like giving them Evasion or improved land speed. They also get "Stings" which is basically the ability to apply poison to ranged attacks with out actually having poison items or worrying about them hurting themselves.
• Paladin- NOT like the D&D paladin, while they are beholden to a code of conduct, it requires them to maintain a Good Alignment (not Lawful Good) Yes they get divine spellcasting and they eventually get the ability to turn undead and lay on hands, their main ability is buffing their allies with Auras.
• Rogue - Just like the core ruleset.
• Scout - The nature aspects of the Ranger given their own class and magnified, or you could compare it to a Druid with no spellcasting ability. They get a lot of tracking and mobility bonuses, including Uncanny Dodge and Evasion and have the ability to manufacture healing poultices out of roots, berries and animal dung.
• Tinker - an all-new class specifically about technology, which is a distinct thing in the Warcraft setting, you could probably compare them to Pathfinders's Alchemist Class in terms of feel and role. At their early levels, they make great pack mules and are good for scavenging knick-knacks of value from otherwise broken shit. They are great at throwing bombs, they get flat energy resistance against all energy types, and they can cobble together technological items in rapid time. They are not very good combat characters however, but give them cool items and they will probably munchkin the fuck out of the setting.
• Warrior - See Fighter, it's the same thing with a different name.