AD&D Unearthed: The Ultimist Class

Today we open up Polyhedron Magazine #23 (1985) and take a look at a class Gary Gygax himself introduced... the Ultimist. Called the “nadir of new classes,” this hybrid cleric-magic-user-fighter was designed to embody the powers of the lower planes. I’ll cover what the class can do, how it plays, and whether it belongs at your table.

#ADnD #Ultimist #Polyhedron

Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Hey, welcome back to the podcast, the Evil Dungeon
Masters AD and D Universe Podcast.
I am your host, Evil Dungeon Master Vince, and it is time for
another podcast. Ask the DM theevildm.com is my
e-mail address. theevildm.com ismy website.
You can support me by going to patreon.com, Theevildm if you

(00:40):
want to throw a few bucks there,tip, whatever, it doesn't
matter. You can go to youtube.com,
theevildm if you want to follow me on YouTube or listen to this
podcast on YouTube as well. Now that we've gotten that out
of the way, let's talk a little bit about ADD 1 E Today I was
looking through some Polyhedron magazines.

(01:02):
I have, like I said, I've had a collection of those and I was
looking through and I like looking at different things that
they discussed here that never really, I don't even know if
this saw the light of the day ornot.
It may have I I don't really keep up with a lot of stuff, but
this is a class that was by GaryGuy Gax and Gary liked to tinker

(01:26):
with and make classes all the time for AD and D and a lot of
them were, well, I want to say junk or not great.
Some of them did just didn't work and they were just NPC like
classes because they were just way too powerful or maybe they
were just way too weak and neverreally were meant for players.

(01:48):
A lot of times he'll say they'renot meant for players, they're
NPCS. But polyhedron #23 from 1985,
Gary had a class in here that I,I saw, and I don't recall ever
seeing this or hearing anything really about it.

(02:08):
And I may have, and whatever it is called, Ultimates.
Ultimates, kind of a little bit of a tongue like Ultimate
Altimists. So Gary goes on to say the
various new classes I propose a year or so ago are OK, but my

(02:29):
players in my campaign have really taken to the newest sort
of adventurer which develop out of my deep devotion to the
powers of the lower plains. I call them ultimists or fighter
wizard priests. So he gave us a combination
class here of a fighter, a wizard, and a priest all rolled

(02:50):
into one. Here is how the class developed
and the stats so you can add them to your campaign.
So he's telling you it worked for his group.
His group really enjoyed it. So your group will probably
enjoy it as well. So it gives a little history.
Aeons ago the mightiest of Tri class characters, Paul.

(03:13):
I don't know how to say this. As Palafar Lofo determined to
create a band of invincible ponds to spread his power
through the entire world. Thus the ever dark order of
ultimate enforcers was created. High in the accessible mountains
of Ramadan, a fortress like monastery was constructed to

(03:34):
house and train the new order ofsuper adventurers.
And at this point it is a super adventurer.
When we get into this, and you'll see why.
By the scores came the vilest and most powerful of those who
sought freedom through abuse andoppression.
There, in the totally hidden recesses of the monastery's

(03:55):
fastness, they bred like rabbitsand thus developed a new sub
race of virtual overmen. From this forsaken wilderness,
thousands of leagues from anywhere, came the fighting
Wizard priest, ready to do battle with anyone or anything
certain of victory. That was his little background

(04:17):
history that he gave us. So creating an Ultimus
character, because of the resistance to the concept of
rolling more than 46 and selecting the best three as
expressed by enthusiasts when I prepared the Barbarian class,
use the standard system of generation stats for the

(04:40):
Ultimus. But as these are super powerful
beings, adjust the results as follows.
So if you roll your strings from11 to 18, you look at this chart
and you modify your strings based on the chart.

(05:01):
So if you open 11 it becomes a 15 A12A16A13A17-A141850 all the
way up to 18 when you roll AD 6 which you can get 18/00 for 1/2
to three you get 19425. Twenty one and six you get a 22

(05:24):
strings. Intelligence add +4 to the die
roll. No intelligence under 16 being
possible. So you get a minimum of 16
regardless of what you roll. OK Wisdom do the same thing as
intelligence so another 16 minimum.

(05:46):
So you can get anywhere from what 22 to a 1616 to 22 Pretty
much Dexterity similar chart except when he goes to let's see
here difference is OK, so 13 is becomes a 15, a 14 becomes a 16,

(06:09):
a 15 becomes 17161817191820 double.
All reaction is attacking and defensive adjustments.
Constitution same as strength. Look at the chart.
Double all hit points adjusted as if a fighter.
Charisma same as strength. Comeliness for males and 2D4 no

(06:36):
score under 18 possible but for females and 3D four no score
under 20 possible. Hit dice Ultimus being a cleric
monk blend, use only D6, but in addition to Constitution
adjustments, they gain one hit point per die for each level of

(06:56):
experience. So a first level Ultimus has an
additional hit points of plus one per hit die, a second
ultimate has +2, and etcetera etcetera.
There is no limit to the number of level points that could be
gained. Ultimus characters attack as
fighters in melee combat becausethey are a superior race and

(07:18):
always gain plus one to hit. So he's going back and forth
here by calling this a class anda race at some point, all right.
Ultimus works simultaneously in clerical magic use and monk
professions. However, they gain levels as
followed, and this is probably the easiest level chart to level

(07:44):
up that I've probably seen for any character.
Level two 1001. That's probably less than the
thief of them thinking offhand. Yeah, and there's a whole chart
here that goes up to level 14 and tells you how to do more.

(08:04):
To get to level 14, you only need 55,000 and one experience
points. That gives you an idea of how
the chart looks. Starting equipment In addition
to the equipment normally obtained through purchase,
Ultimus begin with 1 to 4000 gold pieces, rolling 1D4.

(08:25):
The order furnishes each of his fledglings with spell books
listing all known spells. A bag of holding 15,000 gold
capacity. A special Sword of Life stealing
explained below. Each is also granted the Cloak
of Displacement, a Ring of Protection plus three Boots of
Speed, Ring of Feather Fall, anda Wand of his or her choice, but

(08:49):
as these are only on loan from the Order, they really don't
count. Spell points.
Points memorizing spells is tedious and the selection
requires reasoning and intelligence applied to the
game. They are obviously not part of
the Ultimus class. Instead, a simple spell point

(09:13):
system is substituted. For each level obtained, the
ultimus gives 100 spell points. Each point is synonymously with
a spell level. Therefore, a level first ultimus
can cast 101st level spells per day or 52nd level spells.

(09:37):
Spell points regenerate daily, providing the character rests
with at least one hour. Spell points are used for
clerical magic user illusionist spells as at twice the normal
level cause for illusionist. They can also be used at a rate
of 1 for one to recharge the sword of life stealing, provided
that they that the only activityof the ultimus engaged in for

(09:59):
that day. Casting spells above level
normal for the ultimus has a risk.
However, the chance of the spellof failure is based on the easy
formula which follows. Level spell minus level of
ultimus equals percent chance failure of the spell, which is
even not that big of a deal if you think about it.

(10:21):
If he's first level and he cast a fifth level spell, that's a 4%
chance of failure. Monk Abilities Ultimus Monk
abilities are as shown in the Player's Handbook.
However, they gain the followingadditional powers with Open Hand

(10:42):
combat. 4th level treat right hand as a sort of sharpness. 8th
level treat right hand as a vorpal blade.
My God. Thieving abilities Note that the
Ultimus does not require thievestools for opening locks, as long
as their fingernails are carefully shaped for use of a
lock. Picks.

(11:03):
I'm just going to let that sink in for a minute.
Multiple functions. Ultimus are using 2 weapons at
the same time, where armor and cast spells are performed as a
monk. Or fight with a weapon in one
hand and use monks open handed attacks in the other.

(11:23):
These are of course only the bones of his existing and
interesting new class. Next issue we'll tell you about
looks like about how Pelfarlomardominates all the patheons of
deities and more about his minions of ever dark order of

(11:44):
the ultimate enforcers. So if you want to follow up with
the God of these creatures, the God of creatures, God of these
class, or whatever you want to call it, race ultimate fighters.
I don't know what it is but wow after reading all that these
things would definitely be not allowed by campaign.

(12:06):
I mean this would be maybe a really good big bad that the
party would have to face off against, but I'd have to not
scale him too high because basedon everything he has he would
wipe out probably a party. I mean, he's pretty deadly,
especially when you get the evenlower levels is pretty deadly.

(12:30):
The ability to cast any spell byusing the frigging point system
that he has, he has a great amount of chance to just cast
anything at whatever level. And the percent chance is really
small. I mean, even if it's a eighth
level spell and I made him firstlevel, there's a 7% chance that

(12:51):
it fails. So hands as Vorpal blades at 8th
level or hand of short of sharpness at 4th level.
You know, he's he's pretty bad ass.
And I'm really kind of surprisedat this character class at that.

(13:14):
I guess Gary's characters reallyenjoyed it at the table as far
as maybe they all played this class and they were running
around just killing everything in the campaign.
I honestly don't know, but it issomething I found that I figured
I'd share with y'all here on thepodcast because it's part of the
AD and D universe and you know, Gary wrote this in 85 S.

(13:38):
They shared it in Polyhedron Magazine, which was a lot of
good stuff have been shared in Polyhedron magazine and never
saw the light of day. I consider this some interesting
stuff here. Tell me what you think about
this class. I'll include this page of from
Polyhedron Magazine as a screenshot of my website when I
write up the blog post for this to share it around so you guys

(14:00):
could see what it looks like with the guy jumping through the
air and full played armor it looks like and kicking the orc I
guess or goblin or whatever the heck it is in the face.
It also looks like you threw in me.
AI guess it looks like a Chinesestar or something into his

(14:21):
forehead. It's it's the pictures.
Hysterical. I I he also just.
Oh, I see. And he also used his hand of
sharpness to chop through some other people.
Yeah. OK, so anyway, tell me what you
think of this class. How would you use it at your
campaign? I'm interested to know.

(14:43):
Don't forget to check out all myother things. patreon.com/evil
Dan, if you're gonna throw a fewbucks there, that'd be great.
Other than that, keep it original.
Keep it old school. Goodnight.
God bless everybody.