So I have gone back and forth on posting this character for the longest time. This is the infamous Lalibo from my home game built as a Red Mage custom class. More on the custom class later and why I held out posting anything for both the character and the class. But here he is, the Red Mage I referenced in three or four previous posts: Grim, Billy & Killy the Dwarves, and Alex’s Solo Dungeon.

Nothing really special to see on the front other than some class abilities. He has Hear Noise as a Thief of equivalent level, he has a bonus +1 to attack and damage with a normal sword (ed. the custom class rules state to use the normal sword if the rapier is not in the game and in B/X it isn’t), and a bonus +1 to Initiative.

On the back side is where we see Lalibo’s magical ability. As a Red Mage, he has access to healing and boom-boom spells. And he likes collecting Fire Beetle Eyes. Oh, and he’s 8 xp short of gaining a level! That’s some old school hate right there.

So I bet you want to see the class write up. I shall reveal it in time, but there are a couple of things to get out of the way, because some of this might be problematic.

First, I always try to find art that visually represents what I see a creation as, inspiration if you will. I didn’t actually put the pixel art from either the NES game or GBA Dawn of Souls into the following write-up but instead found an awesome piece on Deviant Art. This was about a thousand years ago, but I failed to record whose art it was, and I wasn’t about to try to track it and its creator down to ask if I could use it. So I covered it up with an AI-generated piece that I still think is pretty cool.

So for my first tangent, I do not want to get into a deep discussion about the use of AI, with the exception that I want to state clearly that have never used AI generation in the production of any of my written words. Period. But for art? Yes. Because my art is crap. Since my stuff is free and has a very limited reach, I don’t feel particularly bad. Trust that if I were ever to charge for anything I create, or if my work had a much greater reach, I’d pay a fiver or something to a human being to create something I couldn’t. But for my home game, I shamelessly use other people’s (ed. art) work and put it in MY documents for MY use. But now that I am sharing this work with you, I won’t use any other human’s direct work without approval. Quite frankly, if it got a thousand views, I might pay the fiver even though this blog is not monetized.

Let’s take a look at the write-up and continue the discussion afterwards.

After that read, what do you think? Does it match the Red Mage/Wizard from the first Final Fantasy? I am not happy with the class as it is. I have a total of three different versions, and I’m not really happy with any of them. So lets dive deep on this one.

First off, yes, I totally copied the trade dress from Moldvay/Cook/Marsh’s B/X Dungeons and Dragons. That’s what I do, and it shows how early I had worked on this class. This is a scan of the sheet that I have in my binder to go with Lalibo. But when I looked for the pdf of it, I don’t even have it on the computer anymore. Sometime in late 2021, I shifted the tables over to Futura to create a B/X and AD&D hybrid. That’s how old this jam is. how time passes. So enough about the style, let’s get into the substance.

I really like the spell list. I think it captures the spells that the Red Mage can cast in either version of the first Final Fantasy games ported over into B/X D&D. Just like in either game, the character must balance which spells they are going to focus on based on the needs of the party. No Cleric? Fine, Red Mage can memorize cure light wounds. No Magic-User, fine, Red Mage can memorize sleep or magic missile. I think I nailed the spell list.

And for combat, the the Red Mage uses the Fighter Attack and Saving Throw charts. But they are limited to one-handed weapons and medium or lighter armour, and no shields–gotta keep the spell casting hand free. Nailed it!

So as the party increases in level, the Red Mage can fill in for, but not quite replace any of the three main classes that it takes its abilities from. So far so good right?

Well, that’s where I feel it went a bit downhill. See I always saw the Red Mage as a bit of a swashbuckler. That’s how I view the Red Mage in every Final Fantasy I game I play. I think I conveyed that with the class’s level titles. They can fight, wear light armour, and cast a versatile though limited list of spells.

I also wanted the class to generally play with a consistent (ed. and maybe even flamboyant) style, so I gave it a bonus with using one-handed swords, and required them to always wear that pimp hat. Truthfully, one of my favourite archetypes is the pirate. So what’s the difference between a pirate who starts a fight with the big boss with a pistol shot, and then closes with a sword and the Red Mage who starts with a magic missile and closes with a sword?

And don’t get me started on Dante from Devil May Cry as an inspiration. If you know, you know. That’s when I added the Thieves’ Hear Noise ability and also the Initiative bonus.

Also for this early version, I made the Prime Requisite Dexterity. Quite frankly, it should be Intelligence if based on the the Red Mage from Final Fantasy or Charisma if more a flamboyant swashbuckler. I think part of it was getting at least just a hint of all four base classes in this one character. I like what I came up with, but by this time, I feel the class was a bit muddied.

Now Lalibo works great for my home game, because whomever is playing is often short on manpower. Having the Jack-of-all-trades character is super beneficial, but I’m not sure it has the same solid space that perhaps a Bard might have. So, I tried creating different versions, but here I am with the first–I am not entirely satisfied.

But I guess what matters is that you’d never know it, because Alex loves it when Lalibo shows up at the tavern, especially with Billy & Killy. During an adventure, Lalibo always has about one moment to shine and be the hero, but really, only one. Even though it might seem otherwise, he doesn’t always take the spotlight. He just always seems to have the answer when needed. Many a stories have been told about Lalibo, if only in my head. ;P

Clicky on the next picture to learn more about the Character Creation Challenge.

So I am moving this one up in the queue because I’m really excited to share this with everyone. Now this character breaks all the rules, but I love it for how adaptable this game can be. Serena started life all the way back in the early days of 3e. I was enamored with the ability for a character to choose their class at every level rise and built this character accordingly.

And the back side. Nothing really special to see here.

Now here is where it gets a little deeper. Back in those days, I spent a lot of time working on creating logical and coherent personalities. I would use any and in some cases every tool I had. And I made a worksheet. The first bit is from Gygax’s DMG, the second part from TSR’s The Complete Book of Villains, and finally the last part fits the 7-Sentence NPC structure from Cline’s article in Dragon Magazine #184 from 1992 (I think). More after the picture.

From these final seven sentences, I really have everything I need to roleplay this character.

But no, I’m not done yet. Now I’ve been homebrewing for decades and when the 2e DMG came out and gave rules for building custom classes, well that was all the invitation I ever needed. But when the 2e Complete Handbook for Thieves came out and introduced me to Lone Wolf Thieves that used those rules, well I jumped on that like a 2-bit…

So here we are in 2026 and I’ve been playing B/X for the past 15 years or so. Serena originally started off as a thief, but slowly gained the ability to use a list of spells at a slower rate than other magic-users. And with the B/X Class Options book I’ve mentioned before, I could now build a class that matched fairly well with my original idea and wouldn’t step on the toes of any other character. And this final page for Serena gives me the framework to fit her non-standard growth. I guess I could have pushed the spells back one level to simulate the later arrival of spells, but oh well.

Thanks for stopping by. Maybe one of these days I’ll post a stupid, bog standard character.