Editing Companion Set

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The '''Companion Set''', or '''Companion Rules''', are the high-level rules in the [[Tom Moldvay]] spinoff of the original Not-[[AD&D|Advanced]] [[Basic_Dungeons_%26_Dragons|D&D]] rules. They kick in where the Expert rules taper off, 15th level by the charts but read-ahead parties might consider 9th in parts. [[Frank Mentzer]], after a thorough [[retcon]] of Basic and Expert, put this out around 1983ish.

The player-characters and their enemies got some new weapons, like the bastard sword that can be used onehanded or twohanded to kill Kenny. Also the blackjack / sap for the [[Thief]] (mostly) to knock out an unhelmeted sentry; and the bola, to trip up foes from a distance.

Also brought to the table are proto-[[Prestige classes]], basically. Your Lawful Fighter can be a [[Paladin]], your Chaotic Fighter a sort of anti-paladin named an Avenger, Neutral [[Cleric]] a [[Druid]], etc.

Also also here: some way for the [[Elf]] and other demihumans to keep progressing along with the humans - the Attack Rank. These are [[What|alphabet-levels]], for fighting-ability only, in lieu of numeric-levels. And the demihumans each get a MacGuffin artifact to form the core of their lairs: Tree of Life, Forge of Power, and (for [[halflings|the wee folk]]) the [[What|Crucible of Blackflame]]. Again... not every idea here is perfect.

The targeted levels overlap high-end AD&D's, so the core content presents 1970s-era mainstays to 1980s-era players. Those fifth-and sixth-tier Moldvay spells which Mentzer had suppressed, are, herein, ''restored'': Contact Higher Plane, Feeblemind, Telekinesis, Control Weather, Reincarnation. At 15th level come the seventh and eighth level tiers, where [[mage]]s really start to kick some ass: Power Words, bitchez.

This Set goes like the Basic, against Expert; it has its own DM book. There - finally - the party will meet the [[Ghost]] and the [[Beholder]]. (Tho' not yet the [[Lich]]. Nor any [[demon]]s despite the teasing of [[Plane]]s.) Also here are some high-ish difficulty monsters mooted out and about in the Expert line, mostly from [[Desert Nomad series|X5]].

We do have to hit the editors for klutzing up the alphabetic order of the monsters however, including - laughably - [[X2: Castle Amber|X2]]'s [[gremlin]]. And the undead here are overstuffed: we didn't ask for a Phantom / Haunt division of six (6) all-incorporeal undead, and then the box offered three ''more'' Spirit-level undead interacting (with no explanation) with corporeal matter (does it animate this matter?). The AD&D crew gave up trying to read Mentzer's mind so you won't be seeing much of it in future editions. (Unless the third-edition [[bhut]] is a Spirit-in-disguise...)

The DMs' book includes two "mini adventures" that are little more than single-combat setpieces. One is a tournament featuring a knight named Sir Guy de Gax; the other, a pit-fighting arena that forbids spellcasting. Recommend inviting [[dohohoho|Statler and Waldorf]] to both.

At 15th level on up, really 9th on up, the PCs should be considering doing a [[Conan]] and ruling domains of their own, delegating other - lowlevel - adventurers to do grunt work like goblin hunting. There are some brilliant ideas in the Companion DM section on what PCs can do in the meantime; most salient, that domain-ruling mechanic (better keep that Confidence Level high, folks!) and also the [[WAAAGH]] Machine, sort of a "Take Two" for old [[Chainmail]]. Although the 'Machine was somewhat Strategic for tactical tabletop gamers' tastes, so [[BATTLESYSTEM]] would serve that latter niche.

Beyond 25th level, PCs would be moving on from Mature to (what we're going to call) [[Epic Levels|Epic]], so the Master's rules kick in after that.

We don't know why, but the Players book is where to find the map of continent Brun. This has rectangles around the places we've been: X1: the [[Isle of Dread]], [[X4-5-10: Desert Nomads series|X4 and X5 from the Desert Nomads (so far) duology]], [[X6: Quagmire!]], and - sneakpeek - [[CM1: Test of the Warlords]]. [[X9: Savage Coast]] and [[X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord]] didn't exist yet. Let's all pretend X11 still doesn't.

The modules in this system began CM-. Some of them are good, although [[CM1: Test of the Warlords|it all starts out]] as a bare showcase for the system.

Overall, the Companion Rules were [[awesome]], or at least formed a serious competitor for high-level AD&D. Their Set both scaled better than AD&D 1e ''and'' provided some large-scale heroics for parties beyond just bashing skulls.

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