Opossum (BX Class)

I remembered Grant Howitt's Trashkin existed partway through writing this. I've tried to make sure content in this is useable in that game, and vice versa.

OPOSSUM

You had a good life. Rustled through some garbage, raised a litter of thirteen hissing young, the humans mostly left you alone. At the ripe old age of two, you were ready to die.

But something happened. Maybe it was that weird-coloured tick you ate. Maybe it was the goo seeping from the walls of your burrow. Whatever cause it, you began to change.

Now with two opposable thumbs and the intellect of the humans you once feared, you set out to plunder the undisturbed trash of long-forgotten tombs.

Hit Die: d6
Save as: Dwarf/Halfling
Attack as: Magic-User
XP progression: Magic-User
(see end of post for the level progression table)

Combat. Opossums are unable to wear any kind of armour, but may use a shield. They may use any weapon appropriate to a creature of their tiny size. As a guideline, they must wield any melee weapon with a 1d6 damage die in two hands, and cannot wield melee weapons with a larger damage die. They can wield all missile weapons except for longbows.

Bin Wizardry. An opossum can cast spells. See the BIN WIZARDRY rules below.

Play Possum. If a monster/NPC attack takes an opossum below half their full HP, this ability triggers automatically. The opossum becomes comatose for 1d6 x 10 minutes, and secretes fluids that make them noxious and unpalatable to eat, except to a carrion-eater. A save vs. paralysis avoids this effect, if desired.

Prehensile Tail. Opossums can carry (but not wield) objects in their tail, or use them to aid climbing. They can climb sheer surfaces as well as a thief of their level.

Reaching 9th Level. When a opossum attains level 9, they can establish a stronghold, usually in a run-down, abandoned manor, keep, or shrine. Other opossums will venture to this promised land, hoard their treasures within, and fortify it against intruders with makeshift traps. 1d6 of these opossums will be other uplifted ones, who will serve graciously as long as the Trashlord strings them along with promises of sharing their hard-won magical secrets.

BIN WIZARDRY

A opossum starts with two random spells from the OPOSSUM SPELL TABLE. They don't learn new spells through level-up. They learn them via mishap results of 6 & 8, or by reverse-engineering another opossum's talismans.

Spells that affect a creature may be resisted with a save vs. spells, or other appropriate saving throw.

Each spell an opossum knows is bound in its own talisman. Roll on the TALISMAN FORM TABLE to determine its appearance. To cast a spell, an opossum needs that talisman on them, and a hand free (or holding the talisman if appropriate), but does not need to speak.

A opossum can cast each spell they know as often as they like until that spell misfires. Each time they cast a spell, roll a d20, trying to get equal-or-below their Intelligence score. A opossum casting a magic-user spell (i.e. one learned via a misfire result of 8) has a penalty to this roll equal to the spell's level.

Failure causes a misfire, meaning:

• the spell doesn't go off
• roll on the MISFIRE TABLE below
• the talisman for casting that spell is broken until the opossum can repair it in a safe haven.

LEARNING NEW SPELLS

Misfire results of 6 and 8 cause a opossum to cast an unknown spell instead. Thereafter, the opossum can construct a talisman for that spell in a safe haven.

TALISMAN FORM (1d12)

1. gaudy bangle
2. misshapen medallion
3. fascinator/tiny hat
4. wizard hat/top hat
5. monocle (no lens)
6. tiny ring of power
7. special belt buckle
8. bag of glitter
9. knobbly stick
10. cool crystal
11. lucky bone
12. crown cut from tin sheet, inlaid with coloured glass beads. Improve NPC reaction results by 1 step when dealing with other opossums

MISFIRE TABLE (2d6)

Note that results of 6 & 8 are the main ways an opossum learns new spells. If you want to use a different misfire table, consider tweaking it to keep a roughly 30% chance of this happening.

2d6	Misfire
2.	1d6 animals within 60 ft are UPLIFTED, much as you were.
3.	The touch of your paws ignites flammable objects.
4.	Spell affects all creatures within 60 ft, or conjures 10 times as many seagulls, 10 times as much mucus, etc.
5.	Your fur turns a random colour of the rainbow (1d8, ROYGBIV order, an 8 means roll twice more). If shorn, grows back as its original colour.
6.	Accidentally cast an opossum spell you don't know, determined randomly.
7.	Prefix an O to one or more of your character's names. It is not silent.
8.	Accidentally cast a true magic-user spell. Determine spell level by rolling 2d6 and using the lower die, then determine a random spell from that spell level's list.
9.	A nonmagical item on your person breaks and becomes useless.
10.	Magnetically attract all nearby trash and debris, some of it forms surprisingly functional armour. Roll 1d6 to determine your new AC, which lasts for 1 hour (6 turns). e.g. in a descending system with unarmoured AC 9, roll 1d6 + 2. In an ascending system with unarmored AC 10, roll 1d6+10. Make ability score adjustments as normal for your system.
11.	Cycle denominations of all coins on your person. Roll a die. If odd, do this in an increasing direction i.e. CP -> SP -> EP -> GP -> PP -> CP. If even, do this in a decreasing direction.
12.	Portals to THE PLANE OF TRASH open, dumping 4d6 cubic feet of assorted trash (poisonous if set aflame) plus one of the following (equal chance of each): 1d6 RUSTED LUNKERS who hunger for fresh metal, a wise and docile FATBERG, or the PLASTIC PRINCE, who loves nothing more than a devil's bargain.

OPOSSUM SPELLS (1d12)

1. BIG EYEBALL. conjure 2-ft-diameter glass eye. Shatters after 1 hour. It cannot move of its own accord, but rolls quite nicely. You see through it until it breaks.

2. BOUNCY BOI. Used in response to an attack that hits with kinetic force, e.g. a sword, a rolling boulder trap, but not poison darts or dragon breath. Take no damage, instead bounce around like a bouncyball. 2 in 6 chance of landing somewhere inconvenient.

3. CARCASS TRIVIA. For 1 hour any corpse or remains you touch will stir to life and tell you one thing it knows. They will not stir again, even on a different casting of this spell.

4. CONJURE SEAGULLS. Swarm of seagulls appears within 60 ft for 10 minutes. Distracting and utterly fearless. Surrounded creatures cannot cast spells. Will mob for food. You have no control over them.

5. DELIGHTFUL SMELL. Detect presence and direction of any edible material within 60 ft. You cannot tell materials apart, they all smell delicious. This includes most monsters.

6. EXCAVATE. For 10 minutes, can telekinetically excavate or tunnel through soil or other loose, packable material, at a rate of one 5-foot cube per minute. Excavation lasts 1d6 weeks before collapsing.

7. MUCUS. Stick two things together, requires 2d6 total points of Str to pull apart, or pounds of force equal to 50 x that number. Can also plug leaks, prevent evaporation, etc.

8. NEW TEETH. Creature touched grows a new set of teeth over 20 minutes. All old ones fall out over this time; quite painful.

9. RENDER EDIBLE. Transmute 10 pounds of material into a substance rather like raw potato. Worth 2 days' rations, 4 if cooked.

10. SCRËM. 60 ft range, creature affected must shout their next sentence. Lasts indefinitely until sentence is uttered. Generally audible to 300 ft. The creature can use this sentence to scrëmolocate, thus mapping all open passageways & terrain features within 120 ft, but not enclosed rooms or secret doors.

11. SO DUSTY. 10 ft square area within 60 ft is covered with a thick layer of dust. Each breathing creature passing through area has a 2 in 6 chance of a horrible fit of sneezing.

12. STILTWALK. Touched creature's legs grow by 15 ft. Gives enormous stride, increasing combat movement rate by 15 ft. Creature is ungainly, has disadvantage on rolls requiring nimbleness. Exploration movement rate is thus unaffected.

NOTES ON LEVEL PROGRESSION

The following table is based on B/X values.

To-Hit lists two numbers, the first is THAC0, the second, [bracketed] value is for ascending systems, using the magic-user attack bonuses in Swords & Wizardry.

A unified save, also taken from S&W, is provided. If (and only if) this is used, a opossum receives +4 to saves vs disease and poison (and not the +4 vs magic that the dwarf and halfling receive).

A Google Sheet version of the following table can be found here

Opossum Level Progression

Level	Title	XP	Hit Dice	To-Hit	Climb Sheer Surfaces	Saving Throws
						Unified	Death	Wands	Paralysis	Breath	Spells
1st	Waif	0	1d6	19 [+0]	87%	14	8	9	10	13	12
2nd	Scrounger	2,500	2d6	19 [+0]	88%	13	8	9	10	13	12
3rd	Degenerate	5,000	3d6	19 [+0]	89%	12	8	9	10	13	12
4th	Mudlark	10,000	4d6	19 [+0]	90%	11	6	7	8	10	10
5th	Guttersnipe	20,000	5d6	19 [+1]	91%	10	6	7	8	10	10
6th	Tatterdemalion	40,000	6d6	17 [+1]	92%	9	6	7	8	10	10
7th	Trickster	80,000	7d6	17 [+2]	93%	8	4	5	6	7	8
8th	Mountebank	150,000	8d6	17 [+2]	94%	7	4	5	6	7	8
9th	Trashlord	300,000	9d6	17 [+3]	95%	6	4	5	6	7	8
10th	-	450,000	9d6+1†	17 [+3]	96%	5	2	3	4	4	6

^†Hit point modifiers from CON no longer apply