Neanderthals as Custom Class
Recently, there was somewhat acrimonious debate on the Discord after I proposed that Neanderthals can be armed with advanced weaponry by a cunning PC. In this writeup, I will summarize my position, and additionally list why, despite these advantages, Neanderthals have not and likely will not take over the campaign setting.
The crux of my argument rests on the proposition that the Neanderthal monster entry in the MM represents a snapshot of a racial class at a given form of development. In support of this, I hold up the Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, and Halfling monster entries, which all are as such, as well as the Man, Bandit (thief), Man, Berserker (barbarian, Jutting, with Beserkergang proficency), and Man, Merchant (Venturer). The precedent for humanoid monsters being modeled with classes comes from AXIOMS 2, although some of that supplement has been deprecated with the Imperial Imprint.
Therefore, since Neaderthals advance as monstrous henchmen (2,500xp base cost for 2nd HD), we must build a custom class with 2,500xp cost, the listed abilities, and no abilities that ought to be listed in the monster entry but aren’t. The abilities that must be present at second level are:
- Caving 11+ (one proficency)
- Survival 11+ (one proficiency)
- d8 HD
- Attack throws that increment by 1 per level
- +1 damage to all melee and thrown attacks
- Proficency with at least Spear, Hand Axe, Bolas, and Club, and Hide armor.
- The ability to use weapons two-handed (as pictured in the image)
- Night Vision (equivalent to a proficency)
- Base load 7 stone, weight 22 stone.
- As men in other obvious respects (speed, etc.)
Additionally, I will add a requirement for the following ability:
Savage Resilience (not listed in the Berserker entry, despite Berserkers having it, and reasonable to assume the presence of)
Notably, while the description of the Neanderthals mentioned the existence of shamans and witch-doctors, there is no given frequency for Neanderthals to have cleric or mage abilities. I will treat this as having access to the Village Wisdom and Hedge Magic proficiencies. As no proficiency are specified for class, even a “first-level” (2HD) Neanderthal could pick these with their implicit free class and general proficiency. This parallels the monster entries for Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes. Note that if Caving and Survival are considered to fill these slots, the Neanderthal will need to make two less trade-offs, for net greater power (as it would be possible for the Neanderthals to drop them in favor of other options).
The class build is simple: HD 2, F 2, Neanderthal 1. Neanderthal 1 stacks with Fighter for purposes of attack throws. This gives 2,500xp, but we are missing several powers. The key is in the trade-offs. Night Vision, Caving, Survival, and Savage Resilience cost 1 power each.
Loadbearing would increase base load by a sufficient amount, but not weight. Sturdy, from AXIOMS 2, increases weight, and load limits for various speed reductions. However, it pays for the extra power by requiring heavier armor, that costs more and is custom-made. Discussion on the Discord with Archon states that it is no longer the intention for beastmen such as Orcs to need heavier, more expensive armor. This is also implied by the rules for special beastmen types, as Martial Shocktrooper beastmen do not decrease their speed, despite having AC 5. Therefore, we need a new custom drawback. I propose the following: no Neanderthal class may be proficient in bows (but may be proficient in crossbows). This matches archeological findings and goes a substantial way to explaining why Neanderthals are not the dominant species. This is less than a full custom power worth of drawback, so the new Robust racial power still costs 1 custom power. As with Orcs, their encumbrance thresholds are 7, 10, 14, and 28.
Thus, we need to scrounge up 5 custom powers. We can ditch straight off 2-Weapon Style and Weapon & Shield Style. They don’t seem to use these. Two more can be gained from trading down Heavy Armor to Light. For the fifth power, I create the following special disability: Low Dunbar Number, which reduces max henchmen by 1 and reduces Personal Authority by one. This also reduces leadership ability on the battlefield. This is effectively a reverse Leadership proficency. Piisami and Arbrethil suggested something like this in the context of a bonus to henchman loyalty, but I feel that Neanderthals shouldn’t be able to engender extra loyalty (they are working on more complicated rules for clan affiliation that would be applicable here, and I commend them).
Thus, we have our Neanderthals. One can clearly see that they would benefit greatly from being equipped with Light Armor and, say, Greataxes. However, between their social organization and penalties to mental capacity, this is currently beyond them. They aren’t stupid, however, and will adopt any weapons they can get with the zeal with which tribal warriors almost always adopt new weapons (note that the Ghost Dance, Boxer Rebellion, and Simba Revolt all occurred well after the initial adoption of new weapons).
Neanderthals begin at 2 HD. Thus, any Neanderthal henchman would need a total of 5,000 xp to level up. A hypothetical Neanderthal class with Thief skills would add the cost of level 3 Thief skills to the cost to level up, and gain the skills on completing their training. The same could potentially be done for Shamans and Mages. Note that Neanderthals will have very few of these, due to the high cost both making it harder to reach these levels and discouraging young Neanderthals from studying! The Judge may want to disallow Arcane 4 or even less, to represent their limited intellect. Players wishing to play as Neanderthals should be required to have 2,500 xp when creating the character (due perhaps to reserve xp), or to begin as a Neanderthal noncombatant (stripling) and level up through those rules.
However, while these weapons would make them a much fiercer force, they cannot necessarily replicate them. Nor can the Neanderthals replicate the social organizations that create them, nor can they provide mobile archers (except with crossbows, which, again, they lack the ability to replicate). They cannot ride horses (they are too heavy to comfortably fit Medium horses with weapons, armor, and saddle, plus I would give them a racial antipathy to horses in much the same way as dwarves have for camels; in compensation, give them a racial affinity for cave gorillas in the same way that dwarves have an affinity for bears). As such, humans have distinct advantages over Neanderthals, even before factoring in their vastly improved access to class levels.
Partnering Neanderthals offers a civilized race and Neanderthals opportunity for peaceful coexistence and benefit from the other’s strength, however, it is fraught with difficulties. In general, such multiracial partnerships should require an Oligarchy, unless the number of one of the races is truly tiny. This comes with many penalties. If no such representation is to be had, morale and loyalty of Neanderthals should suffer. Even if this is ignored, Neanderthals in this situation will inevitably outbreed dwarves, which will lead to competition over land and fallings-out. Partnership with humans will not, as they have the same breeding rate, but there will likely be less demand for Neanderthal barbarians than for Human agriculturalists. Given that Neanderthals and Humans can interbreed, in time, Neanderthal distinctiveness will in time be swallowed up by the more generalist humans.